Two Months Later
Apprehension.
Fear.
Anxiety.
Dread.
Anger.
Caleb was pretty sure he was feeling the entire rainbow of negative human emotion as he prepared himself for the next few days. Somehow, much to his amazement, it had been two months since he had been granted a miraculous release by a merciful judge. But now he was having to face the music again: he had only been free until his sentencing hearing in the kidnapping charge that a cruel jury had convicted him on. Even though he thought he was prepared to face whatever sentence awaited him for that, he wasn't.
Even though he and Bobby had a rock solid plan in motion should he be sentenced to do hard time in prison, it would still be hard to reconcile himself to the fact that he and Bobby would have to go against every single principle they had raised the boys on in order to do that. However, Caleb knew they could not be kept apart now. With the demon making unpredictable moves every time they turned around, it was too risky to play games now.
Run.
Make a life for themselves in backwoods cabins and seedy motel rooms. It was the kind of life they had tried their hardest to shield the boys from, but now recognized they didn't have a choice but to do. They could go to the safe house, but it wouldn't be a permanent home base for them, not when the authorities could search it at any time and find him there.
Scrubbing a hand over his face, he sighed deeply as he moved quietly around his bedroom. It had been a long, sleepless night of tossing and turning as he tried to block out any and all thoughts related to the sentencing, and what could possibly happen to him. Dawn was trying her hardest to secure probation for him instead of more time, but he wasn't holding his breath. The way the courts worked, especially against him, he was convinced that the state would gun for the judge to impose the harshest sentence of life.
Squeezing the last of the tiredness away from his sore eyes, he looked out the window at the barely awake sun, as it shone weakly from behind the cover of the trees. Obviously it was feeling the need to be lazy that morning, too, as he threw on some clean clothes to start the day with. Pausing in his closet, his fingers grazed the tip of the gun that he kept there. Normally, in the house, he did not feel the need to arm himself. On the other hand, recent events made him reconsider. Stuffing the weapon in the back of his jeans, he hoped the boys would not notice it.
When he caught a glimpse of the shining snow outside, he knew it would be a good distraction for the boys. Especially Sam, who loved to build snowmen and slide down the hills they had behind their house. It was one bonus of living out in the country, of living rural. Their property was big, and it had just about everything the boys needed to be happy. A shooting range waited for them in the woods, and hills provided the boys with hours of fun to run and roll, and slide in the winter. He hated the idea of ripping them from their small slice of paradise.
"Hey," Dean said, as he met Caleb out in the hallway.
"Hey, dude."
Even though Dean was trying to be brave, not allowing the thought of what could happen to his beloved guardian affect him, Caleb could still see times when it hit him. He saw it from the way he would often withdraw, become quieter as he tried to process, in his own way, what was happening to their family. It was an impossible situation that had been made easier by the miraculous reprieve Caleb had been granted when he had been given bail, but the window of time they had was closing in on them.
In the next few days he would be facing sentencing for a crime he hadn't even done: either a judge would take mercy on him and allow him to keep his freedom with probation, or he would be doomed to spend a lifetime behind bars. Or a lifetime of running.
Either option was horrifying, especially to Caleb, who vowed he would never raise the boys like so many other hunters raised their kids. It was exactly the kind of life that went against everything that they had done for the boys, the kind of normal existence that directly contradicted the harshness of the hunting world that so many other kids had to endure.
"Sleep well?" Dean prompted, with a subtle raise of his eyebrow as he and Caleb walked down the stairs together.
"It was alright," Caleb answered with a shrug, as they walked into the darkened kitchen.
"Awesome."
"What about you?" Caleb asked, as he started the morning cup of coffee that had become absolutely essential for him to survive on, especially during the last several months.
"It was alright," Dean admitted, as he scrubbed a hand over his face, trying to rid himself of the last dregs of exhaustion that usually plagued him in the mornings.
"Where's your brother?" Caleb asked, as he passed over a cup to Dean.
"Still sleeping. And I checked. Don't worry."
With how unpredictable and precarious the YED's movements had been, the guys' paranoia over making sure both boys were protected, had gone into overdrive. While before, they had been allowed to enjoy some freedom in their once secure hometown, no longer was that the case. The security measures while understandable to Dean, who was used to some of this from when John had been alive, and more recently when YED had taken a sudden, renewed interest in their family, was hard for Sam to understand, who wasn't allowed to have the kind of freedom that he had once been able to have.
"Good watching out."
"He slept with me last night."
"Another nightmare?"
Ever since YED had paid Sam another visit, his first in several months, Sam had taken up the habit of sleeping with either his brother or Caleb. They didn't mind it, not if it made him feel safer in a world that had become so dark and scary for him.
"I guess, yeah."
"Is he still sleeping?" Caleb asked, as he casually leaned against the counter.
"Yeah, he was when I left."
"Was it secure?"
"Yeah."
In addition to securing their home against unwanted demonic attacks, Bobby had also taught the boys, especially Dean, how to properly guard their rooms and make sure they were safe. Salt lines would only do half the job when it came to the more powerful foe they faced.
"Good," Caleb said, feeling himself relax a little as he enjoyed the last remains of his coffee drink.
"So what's going on?" Dean asked, perhaps sensing how tense his guardian was that morning, and not entirely knowing why, either.
"My sentencing is coming up in a few days."
"It is?"
Had it really been two months already? They had been incredibly lucky to have been gifted with the return of Caleb by a sympathetic judge who had granted bail, but in the back of his mind, Dean had known that it could only last for so long before the other shoe dropped.
"Yeah."
"Are you okay?" Dean asked quietly.
"Yeah. I've been better, but I'm okay."
It had been incomparable to have been allowed the chance to reconnect with the boys, but now he had to face the music in court again, and while he was trying his hardest to prepare himself for that, he wasn't altogether sure that he was ready, either.
"Good."
"Bobby and I, we talked about what would happen if it ever came to me being sentenced, right?"
"Yeah," Dean said, shrugging.
From what he had been told by Caleb, he and Bobby had discussed what would happen if he ever got sentenced to do prison, and that had included them running as far from Minnesota as humanly possible.
"Well, we need to talk to Sam about it, too."
"I know."
If anyone would have the toughest time understanding their plan, it would be Sam. For nearly his entire life, he had lived a sheltered, carefree existence in Minnesota that was far removed from the trials and horrors that lived inside other hunter's kids lives.
"Want to do it now?" Dean asked, as he heard Sam moving around upstairs, no doubt having just awoken from a somewhat peaceful night's rest.
"Sure."
It wasn't often that the guys held family meetings, only when a serious event happened, or they needed to touch base with the kids about something. Like now, as Sam settled himself between Caleb and Dean, lazily kicking his feet back against the couch as he waited for them to start talking. It made Caleb's heart bleed for the boy. He was getting more involved with cases, and had even found some of his own, but that was much different than living his life in constant motion.
"Okay," Caleb began, as he started the talk. "In the next two days or so, I'm going to have to go to my sentencing."
Dean nodded as he bit down on his thumbnail. He tended to avoid thinking about that dreaded hearing as much as he possibly could, but he understood why they needed to talk about it now.
"Has it been two months?" Sam asked.
"Yeah," Caleb said, smiling slightly. "Shocking, I know."
"Yeah, no kidding."
Sam had gone through the same confusion and anger that his older brother had gone through, and had been overjoyed to finally have him back again, but the time had gone by so quickly.
"So, what we wanted to do," Bobby explained, speaking for the first time, "is to update you boys on what we were planning on doing if his hearing goes south."
"What we were thinking, all of us," Caleb said, looking over at Dean and Bobby and then at Sam, "is that if I ended up having to go back to jail, we would stage a prison break-out and then we would go somewhere."
Dean nodded. "I think we should go."
"I know," Caleb said, "but there are other things to consider."
What if the demon found them?
What if the FBI still managed to find them?
There was no doubt in Caleb's mind that it would happen eventually where the other shoe would drop and he would be caught, but in his mind it would be worth if it he went down fighting for the people and the kids that he loved with his whole heart.
"Like what?" Sam asked, tilting his head to the side in confusion.
"Like the safety of you kids, and how we made a promise to not raise you like that."
"Well," Dean said, as he curled up on the recliner. "Things have changed since you made that deal."
"I know," Caleb said, "which is why we wanted to know what you guys thought."
"Well," Dean said, as he glanced over at them from the comfort of the chair. "You already know what I think."
It would be hard to run, but at least they would still have their family intact, and they wouldn't be faced with losing yet another precious member of their group.
Caleb nodded. "Sam, what do you think?"
Sam shrugged, as he scooted himself close to Caleb. "I don't want to lose you again, and that's what would happen if you went to jail, right?"
Caleb nodded hesitantly. "Right. The maximum I could get is life."
"We've already lost a lot," Sam finally decided, after a silent moment of contemplation.
"I know, I'm just worried about integrating you into that kind of life-"
Dean sighed, as he finally sat up straighter to face his guardian. "Let me ask you something, okay?"
"Fine," Caleb said with a shrug. "What?"
"Do you love us?"
"Do you even have to ask me that?"
Dean nodded. "Do you treat us like we're your own flesh and blood?"
"Yes."
"And do you punish us when we do wrong?"
"Yeah."
"And forgive us for those same mistakes?"
"Yeah."
Dean sighed, swiping away a few stray tears. "And do we have each other's backs no matter what?"
"Of course."
"Then we do it," Dean said. "Then we go. We can't lose another member of this family, Caleb. We can't let some loser cops break apart this family."
"How are you so confident about all this?" Caleb asked with a weak smile.
"Because I'm me."
