She meets him in a bar on a Thursday morning of all places and times. Claire is sitting at the bar by herself when she looks up to see a guy around her age walk in. There's something so painfully familiar about him but, she knows he's definitely a stranger. A stranger that she clocks immediately as a hunter. But again, she doesn't know him which is strange when she considers the fact that she knows all the Hunters. There's less of them now of course, with Jack being God and bringing harmony to the world there are less monsters and therefore, less Hunters.
Knocking back the rest of her drink, Claire gets up and approaches the stranger and she does her best to ignore the voice in her head that's screaming that she must know him from somewhere or someplace.
She sits down on the barstool next to him, which catches Garth's attention. Garth and his wife, Bess were Ex Hunters and Werewolves who now owned the bar and like Jody and Donna looked out for the ones who were still in the life as it was called.
"Claire, This is Ben and he's looking for his father" Garth introduced as he tipped his head to indicate the stranger.
"Let me guess, He went on a hunt and hasn't been home in a few days?" Claire asked with a teasing lit as she turned his attention to Ben.
"Actually I don't know, I'm looking for him so I can meet him…kind of" Ben said as he reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out a worn out photograph.
Claire took the photo with careful hands, freezing when she stared into the face of the long dead Dean Winchester. She looked back up at Ben and then glanced over at Garth.
"Oh no, just because I became the defacto eldest daughter does not mean this is my responsibility" Claire argued, speaking mostly to Garth as she pushed the picture back towards Ben.
"Alright, okay fine" Claire grumbled as she took a new drink from Garth.
"Dean, your father is dead, has been for what…three years?" Claire asked, looking back to check with Garth.
Claire closed her eyes for a moment and wrapped her hands around the cool glass of her drink. She should have known, how could she not have when now it was so obvious. Of course this kid was a Winchester, and Dean Winchester's to make matters worse. Really, this occurrence should have been more of a when and not an if.
"God, he would hate this" Claire mentioned with a laugh as she took a sip of her drink.
"He would?" Ben asked as he stared into his own drink.
"Dean didn't even want kids that weren't his to be hunters so, yeah I highly doubt he'd want his actual kids to be them" Claire told him as she swirled the ice in her glass, watching as the liquor sloshed against the sides.
"There's more of me…of us?" Ben tries to clarify with a frown.
"I'm not your sister, you have one though and a little brother even though he's not really your brother. Claire told him as she took out her phone and pulled up a few pictures.
"That's your little sister Emma and your adopted little brother Jack" Claire explained, letting him scroll through the pictures on her phone.
"Jack is God, Emma is just trying to keep her shit together for five minutes" She added, taking a sip of her drink.
"So, he screwed them up too?" Ben asked as he tipped the glass back to look at the dregs.
"Jack loves Dean but, he's like five so what does he know and Emma…well, I think she's too high most of the time to care about what he would think" Claire told him with a shrug.
They move over to one of tables, the palace is empty besides them anyway. More drinks are shared which eventually coaxed Claire into divulging her origin story. About her parents and Castiel, how she came to know the Winchesters. She tells him about Jody and Donna.
"And then there's Alex, She's a nurse, Patience is still in school and Kaia is my girlfriend, we're getting married in the summer" Claire explained, showing off the plain silver band she was wearing on her finger.
"So, what happened to my father, how did he die?" Ben asked eventually.
"I don't know the whole story, didn't even know he was dead until months after the fact" Claire muttered under her breath as she dragged a fry through a puddle of salt.
"Accident on a Vamp hunt, fell back on a rusty nail and allegedly there was nothing to be done" Claire informed with a scoff and roll of her eyes.
"You don't think that's what happened?" Ben asked wryly.
"Look, I've got a family and they would never just leave me to die, you figure it the hell out" Claire said firmly.
"Sam didn't save Dean because he didn't want to, he wanted an out and always has so his brother had to pay the price" She added, shaking her head.
Ben frowned in thought as he picked at the label on his beer bottle. He'd been looking for his father ever since the onslaught of memories started. It had been flashes at first, little things that were strewn about and disconnected. The blinding headaches and stronger memories had started about a year and a half ago.
Two years of this had led him here, sitting in a bar across from a girl who knew more about his life and origins than he did. A year of looking had brought him to a long cold and dead trail. He hadn't know what he'd expected to find or what he even wanted and wished for.
They hadn't left things on good terms, his memories had told him that much. His mother had almost died and then Dean had their memories erased and disappeared. He'd left them with gaping holes and what Ben now knew to be fake memories.
"So, what about your parents?" Ben asked once he got sick of stewing in his own thoughts.
"My parents...They would be disgusted with me" Claire told him with a bitter laugh.
"Having and being engaged to my girlfriend would not be a…welcome thing" She explained with careful words.
"And even if they did accept that, they'd never accept that she is uh…not white" Claire added with a scoff.
Twisting her ring around her finger, Claire thinks of the ironic way her life has turned out. How her parents would have lectured and probably sent her away if they ever knew she liked women. Now, here she was a few months away from marrying Kaia and of all people to officiate the ceremony they had God. Her father believed same sex relationships to be sin incarnate only to die while possessed by a Queer angel of lord.
"Deconstructing your faith is less difficult when you realize it's all bullshit written by men on a power trip and in reality, God is a five year old who thinks you're the greatest thing since nougat" Claire said as she took the their empties and went to get them another round.
Upon her return, she sets a beer down in front of Ben and then takes the pad of paper and pen she stole from Garth. Claire is quick in her work as she scribbles down an address, tears off the paper and hands it to him.
"Go there, you'll find something that I think your Dad would want you to have" She tells him, skillfully taking his phone and punching hers and a few other's numbers.
"Mine, Your sister's and Jody's for you know…well, if you ever go missing on a hunt and haven't been home in a few days" Claire said with a shrug as she stood up.
"And maybe, if you're in Minnesota around July you come and crash a Hunter wedding" She suggested with as much nonchalance as she could muster.
SIX MONTHS LATER
Six months after meeting Claire finds Ben behind the wheel of a car he hadn't seen in over a decade. It finds him with a little sister in the passenger seat and sometimes, if he's bored a little brother in the back.
When he had showed up at the address Claire had given him, Sam Winchester didn't seem the least bit surprised and to Ben's oddly placed sadness gave the Impala up easily.
Becoming the older brother to siblings you never asked for is difficult but, it was obvious that they needed someone. Jack was just a kid with the literal weight of the world on his shoulders. Emma is bright but, doesn't know how to deal with humanity after years in purgatory and gets high to deal with the trauma.
He tries to take care of her. Before, after and during the drug binges. Sometimes she's fine, can stay clean for weeks but eventually he sees the pills again or the needles. Emma can't cope and Ben can't blame her. He doesn't think any of them are really coping, they're all just getting by and barely hanging on.
He keeps in touch with Claire and a few of the other hunters their age she's introduced him too. Well, one and she's retired now. Retired and going to college because in her own words "She promised somebody she would".
Ben is still surprised by how his life turned out, even now months after he's got used to the "new normal". He loves his siblings and his car.
And sometimes when it gets really quiet and still if he turns his gaze fast enough Ben could swear to anyone listening that he can see his father sitting in the passenger seat next to him.
