Disclaimer: I still don't own the characters and, sadly, am making no money from them.

Scars from the Past

Chapter 7

"I don't understand why we're taking him back." Wally complained as he climbed into the black van.

"It's not for you to understand. He wants the boy to go back home."

"We go through all the trouble to take him and we're just going to give him back? What was the point?"

Ellen stared out of the side window. She was just as confused and irritated as Wally, but she wasn't about to let him see that. They were working for someone else, someone with an agenda he wasn't willing to share. It was clear to her now that the point of the exercise was simply to hurt John, but she didn't understand the whole game and that bothered her. He recruited her based on her skills and her reputation. She'd had a run-in with John years before, but it was so insignificant to her that she barely remembered it until she was reminded.

It was his suggestion to enlist Wally. She didn't know the history at the time, but after a little research and some conversations with Wally, she understood the choice. There were many people that John Winchester didn't like, but Wally was near the top of the list. She knew about their first meeting – Wally had, indeed, been a maintenance man at the park, but he didn't see the young Dean wander away from the swing while his father's attention was diverted. Dean saw Wally playing with a puppy near the wooden building that housed the bathrooms. Being a normal six year old, he was curious about the dog and wanted to play as well. He knew better than to go anywhere without asking his father's permission, but he could still see John and that's all the further his young logic needed to go. Of course, he hadn't counted on Wally grabbing him and carrying him behind the building.

Ellen didn't know what Wally had in mind for Dean that day. She didn't want to know. As black and cold as her heart was, there were things that even she found unacceptable. She didn't like Wally much either, but it wasn't her choice. He had a plan and she had signed on to perform whatever duties were assigned. She didn't have any particular problem with John. She did believe him to be a Boy Scout, always working to help innocent people and trying to destroy every evil thing he could, but she had no real reason for wanting to hurt him. At first, she agreed to help him because it seemed an interesting way to pass some time. Now she wasn't sure she would be allowed to stop, even if she wanted to. She would never admit it, not even to herself, but she might have made a mistake getting involved with him.

It was after midnight when the black van pulled up in front of the church where Jim officiated. Ellen wondered what John and the preacher had been doing since her phone call. Obviously they would be trying to find Dean, but she knew their search would be fruitless. Once they'd taken him from the sidewalk outside the library, they headed east for fifty miles on the highway and another fifteen miles on a gravel road through a heavily wooded area. He gave them directions to the deserted cabin; Ellen wasn't even entirely sure what town is would be considered a part of because there was nothing close by.

"We are to leave him outside the back door. I'll call John in ten minutes to let him know where to find the boy. I'll be in touch with your payment." Ellen said before she opened the van door. They had discussed this before, but she wanted to make sure he understood. She looked at him. "You only have about ten minutes. If John is nearby when he gets my phone call --"

Wally nodded, his eyes glistening.

Ellen turned and walked away.

Wally drove to the delivery entrance behind the church. He managed to carry the unconscious Dean to the door, then returned to the van to search his leather bag.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"He can't just have disappeared." John grumbled. He and Caleb had exhausted nearly every possibility and there was still no sign of Dean. In addition to going over every piece of information they had, Caleb called some of his contacts who had psychic abilities. So far none of them had come up with anything new, but there was still a chance.

"He didn't." Caleb said. "We'll find him."

"It's been hours, Caleb. He's been in Ellen's clutches for hours." John paced angrily. "And with Wally's stuff gone from his apartment, I can only assume that he's working with her. Fucking Wally of all people! I never should have brought Dean here when I knew I'd be seeing that freak. I should never have trusted him; should never have believed him."

"John –"

"Don't try to placate me, Caleb. There's nothing you can say that's going to help right now."

They turned as Jim walked into the room.

"Sam is fine." he announced. "He was suspicious about me calling, but he's fine."

John sighed and rubbed his face. "That's something."

"Did you call the sheriff?" Jim asked.

"Yeah." John said, leaning against the fireplace mantle. "No one saw anything. In a small town where everyone knows everyone's business, no one saw anything. There are no clues, nothing to go on. The mechanic still has his car – that's the only evidence he was even in that damn town."

Jim and Caleb exchanged a look. They'd both seen John angry before. They'd both seen him at the end of his rope. But they had never seen him quite this way. From the outside it might have looked like the only thing John cared about was vengeance against whatever had killed his wife, but his best friends knew there was more to him than that. They knew that, despite outward appearances, nothing meant more to him than his children. They didn't agree with the way he raised them – there was too much military discipline and not enough compassion – but neither one doubted his love for the boys.

Over the years they had tried to convince him to act more like a father than a drill sergeant, but John was stubborn. He insisted that the boys had to be tough; they had to be well trained to protect themselves from the evil that was attracted to them. It wasn't just that they knew about the paranormal, John was convinced that whatever came to their house the night that Mary died left a mark that other creatures could find, or maybe, that mark was already there and that's how it found them originally. Either way, he had to make sure his boys were ready to defend themselves.

"I'm tired of standing around talking." John said, pounding his hands against the mantel. "I'm going back to Ellen's. Maybe we missed something."

As he was headed toward the door, John's cell phone rang. He grabbed it. "Hello?"

"Hello, John."

"Unless you're going to tell me where my son is, we have nothing to talk about."

"Fancy that." Ellen purred. "I called to tell you where your son is."

John was taken aback. "What?"

"He's at the church. The delivery entrance in the back."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because we're done with him." Ellen hung up.

John felt as if he'd been kicked in the stomach. He closed his phone, racing toward the door.

"John!" Caleb called after him.

"Dean's at the church." he yelled.

Caleb and Jim looked at each other, then chased after John. The church was only a few blocks away from the house and John ran the entire distance without even thinking about it. He saw the nondescript van pulling out of the alley, but he was more concerned with getting to the delivery entrance. He stopped short when he saw his son. He saw Dean lying on the ground, curled into a ball. He wasn't wearing a shirt and his jeans were torn.

Jim caught up to him and gently touched John's arm. After only a moment of hesitation, John moved forward. He slowly knelt down next to his son, reaching out with a shaky hand to feel for a pulse. He'd seen blood before, lots of it. But not on one of his children. Of course they'd gotten hurt, but John had never thought…

"Dean." he whispered to his unconscious son, finding a weak pulse. "Dean –"

Jim knelt beside his friend. "Is he --?"

"He's alive." John reached for his cell phone. Jim saw him struggling with the buttons and took the phone from him. After calling for an ambulance, he turned his attention back to the Winchesters. John was normally very good in a crisis; he kept his head and did all the right things, but he was frozen. Jim examined Dean as best he could.

As a siren could be heard in the distance, Caleb made his way to the delivery entrance.

"The van that was pulling out of the alley –" he stopped, taking in the scene before him. "Oh no."

"The van?" John prompted, his voice sounding far away even to himself.

"Yeah." Caleb joined his friends. "Wally was driving it."

"Wally." John repeated.

The ambulance was there a few minutes later.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Wally parked the van outside a busy store. He grabbed the leather case from the passenger seat and reached behind the driver seat for Dean's shirt. He stuffed it into the bag and made his way to the car he'd parked in the lot the previous day. He wanted to be as far away from John Winchester as he could get.

OOOOOOOOOOO

John paced in the hospital waiting room, Jim watching him closely. His anger was just below the surface; the concern for his son winning out at the moment. Caleb was out recruiting help and looking for Wally. A doctor came from the examination room what seemed like hours later. He explained that while Dean suffered from many injuries, none of them were life-threatening. He would be cleaned up and admitted to a room for observation, but would probably be released the next day. In addition to burns, cuts, and bruises from what he guessed was handcuffs, the doctor told John about punctures all over Dean's body and a broken finger on his left hand. John was relieved to hear that Dean had regained consciousness.

"I'm going to spend time with my son tonight." he said to Jim. "Tomorrow I'm going to kill Wally."

"John –"

John held up a hand.

Jim sighed. "Go see your son."

TBC