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.

A/N: There is one more chapter after this one. I'm not sure I'll have the chance to go through it and post tomorrow so I thought I'd get this one up. I don't want two days to go by without an update and I hope you don't either, LOL!

I appreciate the feedback; keep it coming!

Father and Son

Chapter 8

"John, what are you doing back here already?" Caleb asked when John walked into the room.

He put his hand on Dean's head. "Don't worry, Dean. I'm going to take care of this. Just hold on, Son."

He motioned for Caleb to follow him as he walked back out to the hallway.

"I read your journal and it reminded me of something. I can't believe I didn't think of this, but when Dean was 12, I took him with me to purify a house. It was supposed to be simple, but I'm finally starting to wonder if there is such a thing. The house was about fifteen miles from where we were living at the time and was rumored to be haunted. I thought it would be good training for Dean."

"What happened?"

"The house was owned by someone from out of state. It was a rental; maintained by a property management company. They couldn't keep a renter more than a few months and when I found out about it, no one was living in it. When we got there, I could see someone was using it."

"I don't understand."

"It was clear someone had been there recently. I found discarded food containers and a sleeping bag. At first I thought it was a vagrant, but I made sure no one was home before we started the ritual. It started to get pretty violent all of a sudden, so I took Dean back to the car - I was worried if I didn't finish what we'd started, something bad would happen. The purification ended up being an exorcism."

Caleb waited for John to continue.

"I didn't find out until later that the person using the house was a lawyer who was suspected of being a pedophile and serial killer – he used it to store files of information on the children he was stalking and would eventually kidnap and kill in the basement. If I'd known about him, I never would have taken Dean."

"Of course not." Caleb agreed.

"Turns out he was possessed by a demon, but I didn't know that then. I found out later, after more research." John's expression changed as he remembered the events of that night. "Dean came back inside without me knowing. It wanted him, Caleb, and it almost had him. He was pinned against the wall, just like I found him a couple days ago."

John sighed heavily. "I didn't know what else to do, so I continued the ritual. Dean fell to the floor and I grabbed him. I just grabbed him and ran. I took him to Jim's and he was fine the next day. He didn't remember a thing. Jim took care of the boys while I went back to the house to finish the job. I looked through the files - I found one on Dean."

"What?"

"It wanted Dean then and it wants him now."

"How can this possibly be the same thing, John? Spirits that accept sacrifices for crop success don't generally possess lawyers and make them kill children."

"The Borders were killing kids, Caleb. Every single death was a boy under the age of 12. Look at your own research."

"In case you've forgotten, John, Dean is 21."

"I haven't forgotten." John muttered. "But there are just too many similarities between the two cases; I could have written everything in your journal because the same information is in mine."

"Damn." Caleb groaned. "Why does it want Dean?"

"I don't know. I'm not even sure what demon it is, but I want to kill it. Tonight."

"How are you going to kill it if you don't know what it is?"

"You know as well as I do that there are spells, traps – I don't care what I have to do. I'm not having this thing come after my son again."

Caleb nodded. "I'll help you."

"No. I need you to stay with Dean."

"John, Dean is safe here. You're going to need help; you can't do this alone."

"Yes, I can." John's expression softened. "I don't want to take any chances. I know you can protect him if it comes to that."

"Let me make a phone call – get someone else in here. This can wait until tomorrow."

"No, it can't. What if Dean's condition is somehow connected to this thing? If I kill it, Dean might come out of the coma."

"And maybe it's just a normal, every day kind of coma."

"Maybe it isn't."

Caleb thought about it, then nodded. "All right. I don't like it, but I'll do what you want."

"Thank you." John said softly.

Caleb put a hand on John's shoulder. "I'll take care of Dean. You take care of yourself."

XXXXXXXXXX

John drove back to his motel room and gathered the supplies he thought he might need. He was aware of many ways to defeat a demon, even without knowing exactly which demon he was dealing with. He considered the various options while driving from the hospital, and decided an exorcism would work best.

With a permanent marker, he drew specific symbols on the outside walls of the house. The symbols would allow the demon inside the house if it wasn't already there, but would trap it inside so he could exorcise it. Next, he placed small bags of herbs in strategic locations throughout the house. When all the preparations had been made, John pulled a book from his duffle bag and started to read the proper incantation. There was more than one that would work, but he chose one he'd practically memorized in case things got violent or he somehow lost his hold on the book.

Generally an exorcism was best performed with more than one person in the room, but John honestly believed that Dean's condition was somehow related to the demon. He wasn't altogether sure his son would be safe in the hospital alone, but he knew that Caleb would do whatever was necessary to protect him.

John didn't think about it often, but Caleb and Jim were his best friends and both of them would give their lives for his children. They would also give up their lives for him if necessary, and he felt the same way about them. They had been so much help since he'd plunged into this paranormal life, both with his education and with his training, and in a strange way, they were all part of a family.

He paused briefly when the energy in the room changed. He looked around and even though he saw nothing, he knew the demon was with him. He quickly went back to reading and the room went dark. He moved closer to one of the candles he'd placed around the room; although he didn't really need the light. The temperature dropped and a fierce wind blew through the room, the remaining glass in the windows being shattered inward. John held up an arm to protect his face but continued to read without benefit of the candles.

As he started the incantation again, the book was ripped from his hands and thrown across the room. The wind increased and John felt himself losing his footing. He couldn't stop himself from being pushed into a wall. He wondered if this was how Dean felt before he was pinned and lost consciousness. He didn't try to fight physically, but kept repeating the words that would put an end to the demon.

He felt claws rip into his flesh, but still he saw nothing. Even when he started to bleed, he saw nothing. He gritted his teeth and struggled to get away from the wall, the words still flowing from his mouth.

The pain of the claws was becoming unbearable, but still John fought. There were noises all around him; he heard voices whispering and others yelling. He heard crashes in distant rooms. There were flashes of light and more than once, John thought he saw another person in the room.

Finally all was quiet, but he didn't feel like the house was empty. Free of whatever had been holding him, John grabbed the book and duffle bag, then ran out of the house. He doused as much of the outside in gasoline as he could then, standing near the back door, he lit a match and set the house on fire. He watched it burn for a moment before tossing lit matches onto other parts of the house. He stood next to his car, watching the flames.

He caught a glimpse of a dark figure in one of the upstairs windows and felt like they were making eye contact.

"You haven't won." he heard inside his head. "I'm not the only one."

John shuddered uncharacteristically. Once he was certain the house would completely burn, he got behind the wheel of his car and drove away. In his motel room, he called Caleb's cell phone.

"John." Caleb answered the phone.

"How's Dean?"

"How soon can you be here?"

John didn't hesitate. "I'm on my way."

XXXXXXXXXX

Caleb saw John as he walked into the ICU and met him outside Dean's room.

"What's going on?" John asked, frantically.

"He had a seizure right before you called, but he's stable again. The doctor wouldn't tell me anything, but he said he'd come to talk to you when you got back."

"Find him. I'll be in Dean's room."

TBC