Disclaimer: The Winchesters belong to Eric Kripke and I will be forever grateful to him for sharing them with us. I hope he doesn't mind me borrowing them from time to time; I promise to return them as I found them.

And I know the rule. If I break them, I buy them.

Father and Son

Chapter 6

John woke up first. He took a shower, expecting Dean to be awake when he was done, but Dean was still sound asleep. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, watching his son. He remembered countless nights after Mary died that he would do the same thing; there were times when he stayed awake all night just watching his older boy sleep.

He worried about Dean after Mary died. He had been such a happy, playful child before the fire but he didn't talk for months after that night. He woke, screaming, from nightmares and the only time he seemed remotely content was when he was with Sam. John remembered many a night when he would find Dean had climbed into Sam's crib and fallen asleep with his arm protectively around the baby.

What have I done, he wondered.

He pushed himself from the wall a few minutes later and, after leaving a note for Dean, he left the room to get food and to call Caleb.

XXXXXXXXXX

"How did it go last night?" Caleb asked.

"Fine. We salted and burned the bones so the Borders are taken care of. It was almost dawn when we were done so we didn't go back to the house. We'll take care of that today."

"That doesn't sound like you, putting something off."

"We'd been at hit for hours."

Caleb paused, hearing something in his friend's voice. "What else?"

"Nothing. We'll do the purification ritual today. What have you come up with about the other half of the problem?"

"Nothing useable. They could have been making the sacrifices to anything. We just don't have enough specific information to know for sure. We might just have to let that go unless we can somehow get something out of the guys you ran into last night."

"I don't think they'd be too interested in talking."

"You're probably right, but I'm not sure what other option we have."

John sighed. He hated to leave things unfinished.

"But without Border, they can't do much."

"Except kill more people."

"As soon as they see those graves, they'll know they don't have any chance of getting Border back."

"You just want to take the chance that they'll give up?"

"I don't know what else to do, John." Caleb said. "At least not without some more information."

"Maybe I can persuade them to talk."

"You? Just you? What about Dean?"

"I, we. Whatever."

Caleb was unconvinced. "Dean okay?"

"Yeah."

"What about you?"

"What do you mean?"

"With Sammy being gone."

"I'll see if I can find out who was in that group last night and try to get some information out of them"

Caleb knew their conversation was over.

XXXXXXXXXX

Dean woke up to housekeeping knocking on the door. He asked for more towels, but told the maid they didn't need to have the room cleaned. He found John's note on the table, then went into the bathroom. He heard the television on in the room when he was finished with his shower and knew John was back. He almost wished there was a back way out of the bathroom so he could escape undetected. He'd thought some more about getting away when this job was done. He wanted to go to California to see Sam; to apologize for the silence that Sam would have taken as anger. Sam must believe that Dean had sided with John and that wasn't necessarily the case.

"Hey, Dad." Dean said as he came out of the bathroom. "Where'd you go?"

"Out for food. Did you see the note?"

"Yeah." Dean rummaged through his bag looking for something to wear.

"Are you hungry?"

"Don't we need to get to the Border house?"

"Not until you've eaten."

Dean sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. "I'm old enough to make some decisions for myself."

"I know you are." John said, pressing the mute button on the television remote control. "But I'm worried about you."

Dean stopped in mid-movement. It had been years since his father said he was worried about him. He knew it happened; he could see it in John's eyes sometimes. It was just surprisingly nice to hear the words sometimes.

"Dean."

He turned to face his father. John wasn't sure what his expression said.

"I know you're angry with me. And I guess I don't really blame you. But you're still my son and I want to work through this."

Dean blinked back unexpected tears and turned back to his duffel bag.

"I know." he said quietly. He nearly jumped a moment later when he felt John's hand on his back.

TBC