Raising Winchesters

Chapter 16

John really had no idea what he was hunting and that scared him. He had caught a few glimpses of the creature and it wasn't anything he'd ever seen before. He even took the time to discuss what he knew with Bobby and Jim, but neither of them had any insight, either. He had been able to track it for a while, but he kept losing the trail, making him think that maybe the creature was able to climb trees and actually jump from tree to tree.

After almost a full day and night of tracking, he was exhausted and eager to get back to the cabin to check on his boys. He felt bad about leaving them behind, especially since Dean was sick, but he really didn't feel like he had a choice. Whatever the creature was, it needed to be hunted and killed.

He was just about ready to turn around and head back to his sons when he heard it. The unusually still and quiet night was suddenly disrupted by the sound of a loud gunshot coming from the direction of the cabin. For a few seconds, John was so surprised by the sound that he didn't move, or even breathe, at all. Once the initial shock wore off, though, his breathing returned in hurried gasps and his heart pounded painfully in his chest.

He hadn't seen any signs of any other hunters in the area and there weren't any other cabins within ten miles of where they were. That only meant one thing- Dean had fired his gun at something.

John took off running as fast as he could, all other thought pushed aside for the moment. His one and only objective was to get back to Sam and Dean, to protect them from whatever evil thing claimed these particular woods as its home.

As he ran, he once again cursed himself for being stupid enough to leave his boys alone. Sam and Dean were the most important things in the world to him, yet he pushed them aside time and time again. He was ashamed to admit that his obsession to kill every supernatural creature that walked the earth trumped his desire to protect his own blood.

Dean didn't know what to do. The only thing he knew he had to do was protect Sammy, but he didn't know how to do that. They were trapped inside the Impala while a creature he had never seen before paced around them.

Dean kept his eyes on the creature as long as he could and he was really starting to get freaked out. The creature was one of the scariest things he had ever seen and it acted strangely. As it paced around and around the car, it stopped every time it passed by the window where Dean was sitting. He would watch as the thing came to a complete stop, before turning and staring directly at him. He also noticed that with every complete circle around the car, it moved closer and closer, until finally Dean was sure he could reach out and touch it if he rolled his window down.

Eventually, the creature stopped pacing and sat directly outside Dean's window, staring at him. By this time, Sam was completely freaked out and was hugging Dean tightly, his little face buried in Dean's side. Dean wanted to cry right along with Sam, but he knew he couldn't give in to the fear he was feeling.

Fear made you freeze. Fear made you miss things. It weakened and crippled you. And it sabotaged you. These were things that his dad had drilled into his head during training, things that Dean tried hard to remember. Uncle Bobby said that fear could be a good thing. That it could sharpen your mind as long as you didn't let it control you. John agreed with that to a degree, but he was much more likely to see fear as detrimental and dangerous.

But Dean was pretty sure that even his dad would be a little scared by the creature that was sitting outside of the car. It was just so freaky.

It was beginning to really unnerve him how the creature was just sitting there, staring right at him, hardly moving at all. He could see its chest moving a little with each breath it took and he could make out the slight ruffling of its fur with every small gust of wind. But that was it. Other than that, the creature was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes never blinking or leaving Dean's face.

Dean held onto Sam tightly and took several deep breaths. He knew he still had a few bullets left in his gun, but he was pretty sure his hands were shaking too much to actually hit a target. He would do his best, though.

He had no idea how much time had passed, but he could tell that the night was growing darker. He could see a little bit of moonlight showing through the dark clouds that littered the sky, but nothing more than that and he couldn't help but think how everything was so much scarier at night.

Sam repositioned himself against Dean's side and he could feel the trembling that wracked the small body. Dean's head was throbbing and he felt like he might throw up. And wouldn't that be just great?! Throwing up in the Impala was definitely not a good idea. Dean repositioned himself, too, trying to find a position that was more comfortable with the way Sam was leaning against him.

He had just found a semi-comfortable position when he saw the creature suddenly stand up out of the corner of his eye. Dean's eyes immediately jerked to the window and he was surprised to see the creature's snout pressed up against it. Before he could react in any way, the thing bared its teeth at him and then started howling loudly.

Dean and Sam both let out a terrified scream. The howling was loud and chilling in its intensity, and the creature didn't seem like it was likely to stop any time soon. With the howling of the creature, the pounding of his head, and the terrified crying of his little brother, Dean suddenly found himself leaning over and emptying the meager contents of his stomach all over the floorboard of the Impala.

Once he was done, he took several deep breaths and turned his attention back to the creature, who was still wildly howling.

"It's okay, Sammy. It can't get in here, okay? We're safe inside the Impala."

Just as Dean finished that sentence, the creature suddenly stopped howling, stood up on its hind legs, and started kicking out at the window. Dean quickly shoved Sam across the seat and up against the other door before bringing the gun up to point at the creature. He wasn't sure how long the glass would last, but he was prepared to do whatever he had to do to watch out for Sammy. Whatever he had to do…

John figured he was about a quarter of a mile away from the cabin when he heard the howling. He could feel the goosebumps erupting all over his skin at the eerie sound, but he didn't let that stop him. Kicking it into an even higher gear, he pushed himself to run faster than he'd ever ran before, the whole time praying that his boys were locked up safe and sound inside the cabin.

What he saw when he finally made it into the cabin clearing shocked him immensely.

Fortunately, the clouds had moved just enough to let a little of the moonlight shine through and John immediately found the dark shape of something on the ground just a few feet away from the cabin. Once he registered that he was seeing the body of one of the creatures, his eyes shot over to the Impala where the other creature was alternating between staring into the back seat of the car and throwing itself against the window.

Another immense shock shot through him at the sight of Dean's pale face looking through the window. What in the hell was the boy doing outside of the cabin?! John felt his knees weaken even more when he saw that Dean wasn't alone. He could barely make out the shape of Sam's small body practically melding into Dean's.

His complete shock at the sight before he left him standing stock still, chest heaving with painful breaths, and heart pounding so hard that it felt like it was going to jump out of his chest. He had no idea how long he stood there- maybe seconds, maybe minutes- but it wasn't until he heard the sound of glass shattering that he came to his senses.

In what seemed like both slow motion and fast forward at the same time, John watched as the creature started hurtling itself through the now open window of the car. He fluidly pulled his gun up as he ran forward, hesitating to pull the trigger only because he needed to get a better sense of whether his boys were out of the line of fire. When he was finally able to determine that they were, he pulled the trigger, surprised at the intensity and loudness of the shot echoing in the night.

He had been a mere thirty feet away from the creature when he fired, hitting it right below its right shoulder. He was surprised when the creature fell to the ground, unmoving and obviously dead. One shot to the shoulder had killed the thing?

It wasn't until he was right upon the thing that he realized that another bullet had taken out most of the top of its head, obviously killing it instantly. His mind scrambled to make sense of what he was seeing, since he knew that he had only fired one round. And then his mind scrambled to come to terms with the fact that it was his eleven year old son that had fired the killing shot.

Dean's head was spinning and he felt like he might throw up again, but he didn't take his eyes off of the window. He lost count of how many times the creature had hit the window and also of how many times he told Sam that everything was going to be okay. It was almost like a pattern, actually- the creature's body slamming against the window, followed directly by his weak "It'll be okay, Sammy," followed by the creature's body slamming against the window. Over and over again until he saw the first crack form on the window. Suddenly, Dean couldn't muster up the strength or courage to lie to his little brother anymore. Suddenly, he knew that it was only a matter of a few seconds before the creature was going to break through the glass and join them in the back seat of the Impala. Only a few seconds before he would have to do anything and everything he could to protect Sam.

Dean thought he saw something moving out of the corner of his eye and he prayed with everything he had that it was his dad. A small part of him figured that it was probably another creature, though, since the infamous Dean Winchester luck never really harbored anything good.

Before he could figure out what else was out there, though, the glass suddenly shattered and the body of the creature was crashing through the window. Dean was already holding the gun up and without a second of hesitation, he pulled the trigger. The sound was so loud and he suddenly found that his ears were ringing almost painfully. He could hear Sam's muffled crying and he could also hear something moving around outside the car. Did he miss the shot? Was the creature still out there?

Besides the fact that his head was pounding so hard that he thought it might explode, his chest was also hurting. It took him a few seconds to realize that it was probably because Sam was holding onto him so fiercely from behind, his arms squeezing like a vise, making it hard for Dean to breathe.

Eventually, Dean was able to pry Sam's arms off of him and he quickly turned to look at his brother. When he was confident that Sam was okay, Dean moved toward the window, gun held up in front of him just in case the creature tried to jump back through the window. He had just barely made it halfway across the seat when his dad's face suddenly appeared in the window.

"Dean! Sam! Are you okay?" the man asked as he opened the door and scrambled into the seat, completely disregarding the shattered glass that covered the car.

"Dad!" Dean jumped forward, throwing himself into the man's chest without a second thought. He couldn't stop the tears that were suddenly cascading down his face or the tremors that were coursing through his body, but he really didn't care. He was pretty sure that he had hadn't ever been so scared in his life.

Sam threw himself into John's arms, too, and Dean moved over to make way for his brother. With John holding both of them tightly, the three of them sat like that for a long time. Eventually, John pushed both boys away, eager to look them over and make sure they were okay. Both boys had tear-stained faces and Dean's face was a sickly combination of deathly pale and fever-flushed. Both boys were trembling, which John barely noticed due to his own trembling.

"Hey, it's okay," he finally had the strength to say. "It's over."

Neither boy said anything. They both just sat there, clinging on to each other, while each keeping at least one hand on their father. John could tell that Dean was trying to pull himself together, but he was failing miserably.

"Hey," he tried again. "It's all over, okay? What do you say we get back inside where it's at least a little warmer?"

When neither boy moved, John decided he needed to take the matter in hand. Moving himself backwards out of the car, he gave the boys a command. "Stay right there. Don't move."

Both Sam and Dean had a look of panic on their faces, but John didn't hesitate. Stepping out of the car, he quickly closed the door and moved around to the other side. He pulled on the handle of the back door, but had to wait for Dean to unlock it before he could open it. Once it was open, he motioned for Sam to get out. Sam scooted over to the door, but he couldn't seem to make himself climb out. John leaned down and picked Sam up, quickly settling him against his hip.

Next, he motioned to Dean. Dean wished that his dad would carry him, too, but he didn't want to look weak in front of the man. He scooted over and tried to stand up, but his legs were too shaky. John, who had reached his hand out for Dean to take, suddenly grabbed him by the arm, holding him up so he wouldn't fall. With one fluid motion, he leaned down, picked Dean up, and settled him against his other hip.

"It's okay, Dean. I've got you."

Dean didn't fight it. Instead, he just buried his face into his father's shoulder and let his body sag against the man. He didn't have the energy left for anything at all.

Almost an hour later, Dean and Sam were settled on the bed they had been sharing with their dad. John decided they could forego their baths for one night and after trying to get them to eat something, he insisted that they go to bed.

It didn't take long for Sam to fall asleep, but he kept waking up every few minutes, looking around wildly and only settling back down when his eyes found Dean laying in the bed next to him. Eventually, he fell into a much more peaceful slumber.

Dean, on the other hand, couldn't settle his mind long enough to fall asleep. He felt worse than he'd ever felt before, with his pounding headache, sore throat, stuffy nose, and queasy stomach. And every time he closed his eyes, the memory of the creature charging through the window flooded his mind. He knew he was being weak and that his father was probably ashamed of him for letting his fear control him at the moment, but he couldn't help it.

After almost an hour of watching Dean stare up at the ceiling- obviously doing everything he could to stay awake- John had had enough.

"Dean, you need to go to sleep, son."

"I-I'm not tired," Dean said, his words interrupted by a huge yawn.

"Dean, it's almost midnight and you've had an extremely stressful night."

"I'm okay, Dad. Honest."

"I know you are, son. But that doesn't change the fact that you're exhausted and sick. You need to rest."

"I don't want to go to sleep."

"I know you don't, but it's what you need."

Dean rolled over onto his side, facing his brother, but he couldn't close his eyes. Every time he closed them, he remembered the sound of Sam crying in the back seat of the Impala. He remembered the way Sam clung to him. He remembered the sound the creature made when it pounded against the side of the car and the sound the glass made when it shattered and landed on the leather of the seat. But most of all, he remembered the sound of the gunshot in the air and the ringing in his ears that had lasted for almost a full hour.

"Dean, close your eyes, son."

Dean closed his eyes and tried to focus on the sounds of Sam's gentle breathing next to him. The night had been a complete nightmare, but it was over and Sam was safe and sound right next to him. His dad was safe and sound. Everything should be alright, but Dean couldn't help but think that nothing would ever be alright in his world.

Author's note: Sorry for the late update. Life has been conspiring against me again, lol. Maybe not as much as it conspires against Sam and Dean, but still….

I had a lot of fun writing this chapter and I hope the action scenes work out for you all like they did in my mind. Writing action can be a bit of a challenge for me, but I think this chapter works.

Oh, and I quickly wanted to reply to a guest reviewer of chapter 14. I agree with you, Katy, that John should have been more observant of the fact that Dean was so sick and that it's not realistic to think that a parent would punish a child in such a way when they're sick. But, John isn't a normal parent and he is desperate in his attempts to teach Dean how to be a hunter and how to protect himself and his brother. That desperation and John's stubbornness leads him to do things a normal parent wouldn't. And I guess I don't see it as John beating Dean, because to me that implies a much harsher and more abusive event. You're right in the fact that he shouldn't have dealt with Dean in such a way, but John does a lot of things he shouldn't. I just wanted to share my thoughts on the topic and why I wrote it the way I did.

Thank you all for reading and reviewing. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter/story.