"We're going to Windom, Minnesota." Mercy stated as she burst into the room and started frantically packing away the few belongings they had in the motel room.
Sam and Dean shared a look and looked between each other and their agitated sister. A war of wills sparked between them as they tried to get the other to step into the range of fire. It took a few seconds of Sam's puppy-dog face before Dean mentally cursed himself and plucked up the courage.
"Is there a hunt there? Or did Dad call?"
"I'll tell you when we get there. But I swear to god the next time I see that good-for-nothing father of ours I'm going to sock him right in the jaw."
Mercy shoved the last of Sam's stuff into his duffel, no doubt he was going to bitch at her later for it, and shot out the door with her brothers hot on her tail.
Without giving them a second to complain, she through the bags into the trunk and rushed into the driver's seat. This was a silent warning to the boys that this was urgent and they needed to shut up and listen to her without complaint.
She rarely even sat in the front of the car, never mind driving it. See, Mercy had what some would call road rage, although the Winchester's thought that it didn't really encompass exactly how bad she was. She found driving tedious and snapped at anyone and everyone else on the road whilst progressively getting more and more distracted from driving. Her driving was terrifying and had no respect for the Impala which pushed John and Dean to forbid her from ever driving again.
Not that she was complaining; concentrating on the road made her head hurt.
"Are you going to tell us why we're heading to Windom, of all places?" Dean spoke up from the passenger seat. It was the first sound to be heard in the car since they had started the journey over an hour before.
Mercy had calmed down a while ago, but they really didn't want to tempt fate. They hadn't seen her that panicked since Sam ran away all those years ago.
"I've already said I'll tell you when we get there."
And that was that.
"Hi, sorry for disturbing you, you wouldn't happen to know a Kate and Adam Milligan?" Mercy asked the woman who had answered the door.
Sam and Dean frowned in confusion at the names from behind their sister on the front porch. They didn't understand why Mercy had dragged them this random house on a fairly nice street. It looked like a happy normal home, which confused the boys. Why would they be there unless there was a job or they were meeting a fellow Hunter?
"I'm Kate, um, can I help you three?"
Mercy gave a small smile to cover the grimace, "Do you know a John Winchester?"
"Yes, but he hasn't been here in months. What's it to you?" Kate crossed her arms, a classic sign of unease in the presence of a threat.
"I know your relationship with him, or rather the lack of it. And I know the connection between Adam and John." Mercy twitched her hands in a "shoo" gesture, too small for the woman to see. It was a subtle message to the brothers to back up and not to get involved no matter what happened next.
"How do you know all this? Who are you?" Kate's voice took on a slightly higher pitch, scared of the group of strangers that seemed to know almost too much.
"My name is Mercy Winchester, John Winchester's daughter, and this is Sam and Dean, my younger brothers."
The woman gasped and brought her hands to her face to cover her mouth. She looked between the three of them, trying to spot the parts of John Winchester they had each inherited.
"My god, what, um, um, just give me a minute?" She took a few deep breaths to sort through her thoughts, calming down. "I'm guessing you're here to see Adam?"
"Only if that's okay with you, I know this is a bit of a shock, I didn't even know about all of this until this morning and I still haven't told these two. I thought it would be best for us all to meet before secrets come to light."
Having enough, Sam grabbed his sister by the shoulder and squeezed hard.
"What secret? Mercy, we know this is a bit of a shock, I didn't even know about all of this until this morning and I still haven't told these two. I thought it would be best for us all to meet before secrets come to light."
Having enough, Sam grabbed his sister by the shoulder and squeezed hard.
"What secret? Mercy, what are you keeping from us?!" He growled. Dean simply nodded in support, equally pissed but holding it back better than the youngest.
"After we talk to Adam," She simply dismissed.
Dean shook his head sharply, "No, you will tell us what the hell is going on, now!"
Mercy had to take a step back from her brothers; the expressions on both of their faces were enough to make her wince. She had been so wrapped up in her own mind, planning how to sort all of it out in a way that would cause the least violent explosion that she didn't think about how Sam and Dean would be feeling.
"Would you like to come in and sort this in the warm?" Kate interrupted, looking vaguely uncomfortable.
Transferring the conversation to the living room did nothing to relieve the tension rolling off the Winchesters, but it did give them a comfy place to sit.
Mercy nodded in thanks as she took the glass of water from their host. It was uncomfortable enough without her thinking they were a threat to her son, she did not want this to go downhill.
"Where's Adam now?" She inquired, hoping that he wouldn't have to be there for the blow out.
"Um, he's at school at the moment. But he should be home in about an hour."
"Mercy," Dean growled out. A threat that if she didn't get to the point soon, he was going to start throwing punches, Sam didn't look too far behind him either.
"Adam is Kate's son and our half-brother." There, fast and to the point. Like a Band-Aid, but left a longer period of silence of shock.
"What?" Sam stuttered out. The words were hard to force out as he went over the information given to him.
"I found the missing parts of Dad's journal under the back seats in the Impala. I'm not sure if Dad intended me to find it, but I didn't think I was fair on any of us to keep it a secret."
That was when the boys lost all senses of politeness and started shouting.
An hour went by and they had finally blown off the steam.
Surprisingly, or perhaps it wasn't, it was Kate that had put all three of them in place. Her mild mannerisms were gone to be replaced with the stoic nurse and mother. She scolded each of them in turn and left their faces blushing to the point that none of them could speak; except Dean of course.
"I can see why Dad likes you."
None of them could fault the woman for giving the proudest tired smile any of them had ever seen with a dusting of red scattered across her face. Though before the conversation could continue, the front door was shut with a slam and the sight of a blonde haired teenager walked into the room.
"Mum, who are they?"
Before Kate could reply Mercy called out, "Adam?"
The confused and scared look from the fifteen year old shocked Mercy out of her reprieve, she had been so caught up in the fact that she had another brother and that he was right in front of her that she hadn't though what he would think about three random adults somehow knowing his name.
Although she didn't feel too bad when she noticed that the other two Winchesters hadn't been able to get themselves out of the same state.
Kate caught onto the awkward atmosphere and gestured for Adam to sit next to her with a smile.
"Hun, there's something we need to tell you." A quick glance at Mercy was all it took for Kate to realise that it would probably be best for them to tell him, rather than her.
"Look Adam, this is going to be a bit of a shock, and you're probably not going to believe us at first. But you need to listen and understand that all of us in the room right now only found out about this this morning. Your mother wasn't intentionally hiding it from you and we weren't purposely staying away from you. Do you understand?"
Dean sighed in frustration, "Mercy, he's not going to understand and stalling like this is just gonna make this harder."
Sam glared, "Dude, seriously? She's doing her best, it's not like you could do better."
Mercy sighed and rubbed her face in frustration. She could feel the hate and betrayal radiate from Dean and she honestly couldn't blame him. Their father had kept the fact that they had more family from them and it almost felt like he betrayed their mum as well. He was the one that kept going after the stupid thing that had killed her in her name, yet he went away and had another kid with a woman they didn't even know existed.
Adam spoke up, "Seriously, will someone tell me what the hell is going on?!"
"You're our brother. Congratulations you've got three older siblings." Dean snapped out bluntly and stormed his way out the front door.
Sam and Mercy glanced at each other and an understanding was shared. They gave a tired nod and Sam followed his older brother, hoping to calm him down or at least knock some sense into his head. Mercy turned her focus back onto her youngest brother, who looked vaguely sick and was probably still going over the news.
"So your- oh my god- what the hell is my life?" the blonde placed his head in his hands.
Mercy felt extremely uncomfortable with the situation. She didn't really know what to do. Sure, she had been confident that meeting him would've been the best idea but now, she hadn't a clue.
She kept talking to Adam for almost an hour, answering any and all questions he had about them. Soon they became mostly comfortable in each other's presence and funny stories were shared between the two. Kate managed to slip out of the room without either of them noticing. But the oppressive thoughts on the missing Winchesters were holding the two of them back.
"No way,"
"I swear to you, it's all true. Sam wouldn't forgive Dean for weeks after that, apparently Sam thought Dean should've known better."
The chuckles died down after a few seconds.
"Wait, how old is you?"
"I-I'm thirty."
"Woah, you're old." Without even thinking, Mercy grabbed the teen and put him in a head lock on the floor.
"Who are you callin' old, you runt?" She attacked the poor boys head with her hand and made a complete mess of his hair.
All of a sudden the two of them froze. It had felt so natural to act like that at the time, but now it was just awkward. Neither was sure how they were supposed to proceed from there.
They were snapped from their reprieve when the sound of a camera caught their attention. They twisted impossibly fast to catch a guilty looking Kate try to hide a small camera behind her back. With that the tension in the room drained away and the three occupants couldn't stop laughing until their sides hurt and faces felt stretched.