Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Winchester men, nor do I own Supernatural. I just dabble in the arts with the men.

Hunted

John Winchester is hunted by more then just demons.

Chapter Nine

John slept soundly for the first time in almost a month. He was as safe as possible at Bobby's place because one thing his friend knew was how to protect against demons. The first night he slept for nearly thirteen hours. Each night thereafter he averaged a full eight hours of sleep.

When he wasn't sleeping he stayed very busy. In the past three days they found evidence of five additional attacks by the master demon back in eighty three. They also found possible attacks back in sixty one. Of those attacks two of the children survived. One they were unable to locate, but the other Max Miller was living in Saginaw Michigan with his father Jim. That would be John's next stop when he left Bobby's place later that week.

Together he and Bobby worked on John's truck replacing the worn belts, hoses and filters. They flushed the radiator, changed the oil, spark plugs and wires. When they were done the motor practically purred with the pleasure of the treatment it had received.

They found a laptop that would suit his needs and John learned how to use it to do the few things he needed to accomplish on it. He also replaced his broken cell phone with a newer model. He learned you could use a cell phone to send messages to other phones. Bobby taught him how to send text messages and how to block his number from showing up on other peoples phones.

Bobby also showed him how to change the voice message for his phone. He immediately changed the generic message. Now when anyone called his phone if he didn't answer it would say, "This is John Winchester I can't be reached. If this is an emergency call my son Dean. 866-907-3235. He can help."

Five days after John arrived at Bobby's he was ready to leave. He was in considerably better shape then when he arrived. Having gotten some much needed sleep in a safe haven and just being able to talk to someone about what had been happening did wonders for John's piece of mind. Shaking Bobby's hand John told him, "Thanks for everything."

"No problem, you just take care of yourself John," Bobby replied, "Those boys of yours still need you, we all do, so don't go getting yourself killed."

"You just remember your promise. They can't know I was here, not yet."

"I know, but I'm still not sure I agree with it. Those boys are a lot tougher then you think John. Don't sell them short. They could help you."

"No, I can't take the chance of loosing either of them. I think that's part of what this thing wants. It wants me to watch them die. I can't do that, I can't watch it kill them."

"Just don't push them too far John, if you do, you might loose them anyway."

"I know, but at least they'd be alive." John replied, "Listen Bobby, you and the others, can you check up on them from time to time. Just make sure they're okay."

"Don't worry between all of us we'll keep an eye on them for you."

Without looking back John got in his truck and headed for Michigan to speak with Jim Miller. Saginaw was only about eleven hundred miles away. John figured he could be there in about two days if he pushed it.

He made it as far as Sherburn Minnesota the first day and stopped at the only motel in the small town. He found a little mom and pop diner and grabbed a bite to eat. Then decided to look for a place to hustle a few games of pool and build his cash supply back up. However, the town had a population of just over a thousand people and it showed in the lack of viable options for the success of that plan.

The only place that even had a pool table was the American Legion Hall and he just didn't like the idea of hustling the patronsthere. It did have a bar though so John decided to stop by and enjoya few drinks and a couple of friendly games before turning in for the night.

He shot a few games with a kindly old man who spent the entiretime telling John about his five year old grandson's antics. He was racking the third game when a sheriff's deputy entered and looked around then strode purposefully to the back corner of the room shaking his head and cussing a blue streak under his breath.

"Uh, oh," the old man shooting pool with John said. "That's not good."

John looked at him and asked, "Why?"

"That's Billy Ray. If their looking for him they need a tracker and he doesn't look like he's in any shape to do it."

John watched the deputy as he spoke heatedly with the man in the corner then attempted to pull him to his feet. Billy Ray was definitely not in any condition to walk let alone track anything anywhere.

"Steve," the deputy said to the bartender, "Get Billy some coffee. I need him sober as fast as possible."

"Sure Dave," replied the bartender, "What's up?"

"Little Tommy Wilson's gone missing out at the lake and it's getting dark. We need to find him as soon as possible."

"Dave, he's been drinking since around noon. It's the anniversary of his wife's death so I just let him have at it today. I'm not sure how quick he's gonna sober up."

"Shit!"

"Excuse me officer," John said, "I might be able to help."

The officer looked at John giving him a once over and apparently decided that he liked what he saw he walked up to John and said, "You can track?"

"Yes, sir," he replied sticking out his hand, "I'm John Winchester and I'd like to help if I can."

"Well, you can't do any worse then Billy is right now, so I'll tell you what. I'll let you have a go at it while Steve tries to sober him up some."

"Yes sir." John said. "But I'm just passing through so I don't know the area. How about I ride with you to where he disappeared from and you can tell me what you know?"

"That works," the deputy said then turned to the bartender and told him, "You get him sober Steve we may still need him."

"Count on it," the bartender said.

John followed the deputy out to his car which turned out to be a Rodeo not a car. Once they were on the way to the lake John said, "Why don't you tell me what you know so far?"

The deputy nodded and said, "We got the call about two hours ago. Martha Wilson, the boy's mother, called. The family had been spent the day out at the lake and they were getting ready to pack things in when the noticed Tommy was missing."

"How old is the boy?" John asked.

"Six."

"When was the last time they saw him."

The deputy shook his head, "No one seems to recall. The Wilson's have eleven children. This is the second time this boy has gone missing this year. I swear the silly child has no sense of direction."

"Eleven?"

"Yeah, Martha had three sets of twins and a set of quadruplets. Tommy's twin died at birth or they'd have an even dozen. I don't know how they do it."

John laughed, "I have two, and they were enough of a handfull. I woke up one morning and my oldest boy Dean, was gone. He was twelve and I was frantic until I found him sitting on a bench down at the park with some girl he'd met the night before. Turns out she was going to run away and he was trying to talk her out of it. It scared the hell out of me though."

"I bet it did," the officer said. "Well, I have several other officers and a few volunteers out there right now. Hopefully by the time we get therethey'll have a general idea of what direction he went."

"How big an area are we talking about?"

"The lake park is about fifty square miles, but I'm sure the boy couldn't have gone very far."

"No," John told him, "the average foot speed for a six year old child is less then three miles an hour so if we can find out when he went missing it could narrow down the search area for you."

The deputy looked at John for a second surprise registering on his face. "You do know your stuff don't you?"

"I try. How certain are you that the boy just wandered off and wasn't taken?"

"Anything is possible at this point, but like I said he's gone missing like this before."

When they arrived at the lake John knew immediately which woman was the boys' mother. She sat at a table surrounded by small children ranging in age from toddlers to teens. She was speaking with a female deputy nodding her head and gesturing with her arms off to the left side of the park. John looked in that direction, then in the other direction.

"What do you know about the boy?" John asked as the deputy parked the car and started to get out, "Is he quiet, into books and coloring, or does he play outside a lot, maybe play cow boys and Indians or other adventure games?"

"That boy is a reckless wonder. He is forever driving his family crazy with his wild ideas and crazy schemes. I think he spends too much time alone, but in a way I understand. He's the odd one in the family."

After hearing that if he had to hazard a guess John would say the child went to the right, not the left, but it seemed that most of the searching was being done in the direction the woman was pointing. The terrain to the left was mostly flat and tame. It didn't seem to hold much adventure for a child, but the terrain to the right was hilly and had more trees.

"Why don't you go check in with your people, I'm just going to take a look around." John told him.

"You might need this," the deputy replied giving John his Maglight. "It's going to be getting dark soon."

"Thanks," John said taking the light and putting it in his jacket pocket.

John made into the woods to the right and made his way down to the lake, then followed the shoreline a few hundred yards further to the right. From there he turned away from the lake and began walking slowly away studying the ground as he moved. He saw where several people had crossed the area he was searching, but they were all adults, not children. He continued walking away from the lake and was rewarded when he found the faint tracks of a small child crossing his path.

He turned and followed the tracks. It wasn't much of a trail at first, a few blades of grass bent over, a twig or stone turned over, but it was enough for John to follow. Eventually the trail got easier to follow as the child obviously grew tired. A few miles from the car the child had started to drag his feet occasionally making John's job even easier.

Forty five minutes after he arrived at the lake park John found the boy at the bottom of a ravine he'd fallen into. The boy was unconscious but alive when John climbed down to him. There was dried blood on his forehead where he had struck it on a large stone at the bottom and his left forearm was broken. After carefully splinting the child's arm John wrapped him in his own jacket and hugging the child to his chest he carefully carried him back to where he had left the deputy.

John recalled carrying Dean the same way one time when he had been injured while learning to follow a compass and map. Dean though, had been conscious the entire trip back to the car and had not allowed one gasp of pain to escape his lips. At first John though his son was just trying to be tough, but later he discovered that it was anger that caused his son's silence. Dean was mad at his father for carrying him like a child and not letting him walk back to camp.

When John arrived at the staging area with little Tommy his mother broke into hysterics until John assured her that the boy was alive. It helped greatly that he chose that moment to stir and open his eyes.

After the child was taken away in an ambulance with the rest of his family following in their van the deputy gave John a ride back to his truck. "I know you've already heard this several times tonight, but thank you." He said to John. "I don't know if we'd have found him in time if you hadn't helped us out."

"I was glad to help." John said.

"Well, if there's ever anything I can do for you just give me a call."

With the windows and doors to his motel room salted John slept well again that night. He didn't want to stick around and answer anymore questions any of the townspeople might have so he was on the road again before first light.

A/N I know this was a longer chapter then I've been posting and I'm sorry it took so long to get it up. This chapter I felt John needed to do something more normal then his usual hunts and this just kind of wrote itself. I hope you like it and I promise to put more encounters with the demon and his boys into future chapters.