Raising Winchesters

Chapter 36

(Recap) Without another word, John opened the door, holding it open for Sam to go out first. He nearly ran into the boy when he suddenly stopped, though.

"Daddy? Who's that?" Sam asked, motioning to someone in the yard. John turned to look and nearly dropped Dean when he realized that Nora Doherty was standing less than thirty feet away from them.

John grabbed Sam by the t-shirt and jerked him backwards. Sam stumbled, eventually ending up on his backside behind his dad, but John didn't even notice. All of his attention was on the woman standing in front of him and on the fact that she hadn't taken her eyes off of Dean. Dean hadn't taken his eyes off of her, either.

John could feel his son's body trembling in his arms and that suddenly spurred him into action. Without a word, he turned his body slightly and locked eyes with Bobby. The older hunter didn't need words to understand what John wanted and a mere second later, he was stepping forward and taking Dean out of the man's arms. Dean tried to hang onto his dad, but he didn't have the strength to put up much of a fight.

Once Dean was safely ensconced in Bobby's arms and both boys were back inside the house, John turned fully back to face Nora. "What are you doing here?" he finally asked.

"Oh, John. Must we really play this game? You know why I'm here. You have something of mine and I have a job to finish." Nora moved forward, but stopped when John pulled out his gun and aimed it at her. "We both know that gun is useless against me, John. You'll just be wasting a bullet."

"His gun may be useless, but I can guarantee you mine's not."

John turned his head slightly to see that Bobby had rejoined him on the porch, his gun aimed directly at the witch standing in front of them. He didn't know what his friend was up to, but he trusted him with his life and the lives of his sons.

"Come now, Mr. Singer. Your bullets don't pose a danger to me, either." Nora seemed pretty sure of herself.

"Are you sure?" Bobby asked the woman as he held the gun steady. "Because I recently came across some research that suggested otherwise. We could take some time to discuss it or, if you'd rather, I could just shoot you right now and see what happens."

John spared a look at his friend, wondering if he'd finally gone around the bend. As far as he knew, there wasn't a bullet that could kill a witch. But Bobby's aim never faltered and Nora didn't look quite as confident as she had just moments before.

"I see your boy looks a little under the weather, John. Whatever could be wrong with him?"

"You know damn good and well what's wrong with him, Nora," John practically growled. "But don't worry…. We've got it all figured out."

"You think so? What if you're wrong? You're really willing to risk your son's life?"

"Dean will be just fine. Especially now that you're here."

"Oh, so you've already figured out that our life forces are tied together. The longer Dean spends away from me, the weaker he's going to get. I'm actually surprised to see him still conscious, to be honest. He must be made of stronger stuff than I imagined."

"He's just a kid, Nora. A kid who's never done anything wrong in his life. He doesn't deserve any of this." John really didn't know why he was talking to the witch when every bone is his body screamed at him to kill her.

"He's your kid, John. And you've done plenty of wrong in your life. What the boy deserves is a better father."

"Well, he's stuck with me," John answered. "And I'm going to do whatever I can to protect my boy."

"And you're going to find out that sometimes what you can do isn't enough, John. That's the lesson I learned all those years ago. Thanks to you."

John looked back at the house, making sure that his boys were truly safe behind him. When he turned to look back at the woman standing before him, his face held a sense of sadness. "Nora, you know I didn't mean to hurt your son. I didn't know there was anyone else inside the house. If I knew, I would've tried to help." From where he stood, he thought he saw the faintest glimmer of tears in her eyes.

Nora's eyes shifted back over to Bobby for a few seconds, her eyes resting on the shotgun he was pointing at her. It wasn't long, though, before her attention was resting solely on the man she hated most in the world. "What did I ever do to you, Winchester? Why were you so bent on getting rid of me?"

"It wasn't you I was after," John explained. "My research led me to your husband that day. Not you."

"What research? Why were you after my husband?"

John looked at her in surprise. She acted like she had no idea of why John was on their trail all those years ago. The slightest inkling of doubt started to fill him. "Your husband murdered two people, Nora. Every piece of evidence I found led me straight to him. And when I confronted him, he didn't take it too well."

Now it was Nora's turn to look surprised. "James never murdered anyone. He wouldn't….."

"He did," John answered simply.

Nora continued to look stunned by the revelation. With both Bobby and John watching her every move, they saw the exact second everything came together in her mind. "Those missing people," she said softly. "You thought that was him? James?"

John simply nodded at her.

"But he was with me when they went missing. We had gone up to see my parents and we were there for two weeks." She was desperately trying to make sense of everything.

"There were credit card receipts that placed him within two miles of where both victims were found on the same day they went missing. Those receipts showed items that matched certain items found at the scene. The only reason the police didn't correlate the two was because they didn't know that these innocent looking items were items used in ritualistic sacrifices by your people. Your husband killed those two people. And there were probably a lot more already gone. He had to be stopped."

By the way her shoulders sagged and head hung down, John could tell that his words were taking a toll on the witch. He had no idea how the confrontation was going to turn out, though. Nora hadn't moved a muscle as she tried to wrap her mind around his words. Eventually, she straightened back up and looked back at him.

"My husband may have deserved to die, but my son didn't. You killed him!" She took a step towards John, but was quickly stopped by Titus, who had stepped out on the porch without saying anything.

"Stop, Nora," Titus said forcefully. "This has to stop. You killing the Winchester boy isn't going to fix anything."

"I don't care," Nora spat. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, remember? And now? A son for a son."

"I can't let you do that." Titus took a few steps to the left, stopping directly in front of the open door. "I won't let you near him."

Nora looked at her friend closely, noticing how pale and sweaty he looked. She suddenly realized that he wasn't wearing the amulet around his neck. "Where is it? Where's the amulet, Titus?"

"I gave it to the boy."

"What? Why would you do that?! You know what happens if you don't wear it, Titus."

"I do. And I chose to give it to him. He's just a child, Nora."

John and Bobby both could hear an uneasy edge to the man's voice and when they turned to look at him, they saw an unnatural silver glow to his eyes. Both men took a step backward at the sight.

After that, everything seemed to happen at once.

Nora seemed undeterred by Titus' comment and moved her attention back to John. John's attention was still on Titus, though, leaving him entirely vulnerable to the witch's attack. He turned back just in time to see Nora leaping up the stairs at him, her hands outstretched and strange words tumbling out of her mouth. A mere second later, John found himself flying through the air, finally landing in a crumpled heap right under the kitchen window. Bobby immediately followed when Nora's attention turned to him.

Nora continued to advance towards them, her words building in intensity as the air around them crackled, as if a large lightning strike was about to hit the earth. John could feel the static in the air, causing his hair to stand on end.

And as if things weren't bad enough with the two of them laid out on the porch, unable to move or speak due to some supernatural force, John heard the unmistakable sound of Dean's voice drawing closer. Before he could say or do anything, the front door opened and Dean stumbled out onto the porch. Jim's voice could be heard over the crackling of the air, calling out to Dean to get back inside the house. But Dean wasn't listening.

John and Bobby both watched in horror as several more things happened at once. Dean threw himself at Nora, yelling at her to leave them all alone. He wasn't strong enough to do much, but the witch did stumble back a few steps from the impact of his small body. In that small amount of time, Titus leapt forward and grabbed Dean by the waist, throwing the boy behind him just as Nora sent some sort of spell towards him. The spell hit Titus in the chest, causing him to fall down hard onto his knees.

Bobby and John watched as the color leeched from his face. His eyes had widened and it was obvious that the spell was stealing his breath away. With the man currently side-lined and no longer a threat, Nora turned her attention back to John, unbeknownst to her what a mistake that was.

Because Dean had found the gun that Bobby had been holding.

With John and Bobby looking on, Dean picked up the gun and pointed it at Nora. She still had no idea what was happening, her attention mostly on John at the moment. With the first step she took towards him, though, Dean stopped her.

"Stop! Get away from them!"

Nora turned around at the sound of Dean's voice, taking in the sight of the frail child, who was obviously barely able to hold the gun up. She could see that his hands were shaking terribly and that there was a fine sheen of sweat covering his face.

"Put the gun down, Dean. We all know that's not going to do anything to me."

Dean looked quickly over to his dad and uncle and then his attention moved back to Nora.

"Dean, put the gun down. This is just between me and your dad now. No one else needs to get hurt."

"Stay away from my dad," Dean yelled weakly. "I'll shoot you. I will!" He chanced another look over to his dad, taking in the small nod of his head. When his attention turned back to Nora, he noticed she had stepped closer to him. "Stay back!"

Nora- whose attempts to keep John and Bobby at bay were growing weaker- decided that enough was enough. Time was running out and she needed to finish her business and get the hell out of there. Without a word, she stepped towards Dean, intent on grabbing the gun out of his hands.

She only took three full steps before Dean fired the gun.

Author's note: Apologies to you all for taking so long in getting this chapter out. I had a little bit of a writer's block, trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B. Anyway, this is a little shorter than usual, but I wanted to get something out there for you all.

Thanks so much for sticking with this story. I truly hope you're still enjoying it. I also hope that you all survived the series finale without too much heartache. I know my heart is still broken, but I'm actually okay with the overall ending. Painful though it was, the ending was beautiful.

Thanks so much for reading and reviewing. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter/story. And please stay safe out there. Take care of yourselves and your loved ones.