Chapter 7

Caleb bought himself an older model car with a deep trunk. He spent a few weeks making gun deals and building out the trunk. It was heavy, he had to reinforce the frame and put in extra shocks to handle the weight. He got drunk every night with the lights off. It was just all darkness. He read all day. Sent books and information to John but wouldn't call the man. Too mad at him because Claire had disappeared. He'd checked Kansas City, looked all over Lawrence. She'd left her clothes behind. He stared at them in his laundry baskets. He had her favorite dress.

John and Dean pulled up. Caleb greeted them easily enough. He caught the look from John that he didn't want to talk. Caleb let it be. He let them in and made sure he'd put away Claire's things when he had a minute. He sat to dinner with those guys and they went into the night on some kind of small beast. Then John sent Dean on without them. Caleb was sitting with his bottle when John slumped down on the other side of the table. "Fuckin' kid, if I could hit 50 without being a grandfather, I'll be surprised. He can't keep it in his pants to save his life."

Caleb snorted at that. "Thought he was in love."

"Was. Then he went and blabbed to the bitch about what we do… solved itself."

"I just talked to him… like a week ago."

"And she dumped him. Dropped him like a bad habit and went on with her life. He's been moping and fucking anything with tits ever since. Some of 'em just as bad as that waitress back in Tampa." John took a long swallow from his bottle. "I got the truck detailed last week. I'm good to set a while."

"Yeah. Sure."

John cleared his throat and thumped the table. "My truck?"

"Right." Caleb nodded. "I got all the stuff. We can build that out while Dean is chasing his tail looking for chupacabra."

John chuckled. "He might find something. Kid's been burning my butt looking for his own hunts and since that damned Pixie, I won't let him do it."

"Yeah." Caleb took a drink. "You gonna pay for your build out?"

"Yeah." John nodded.

"Inflation. It's double what I last quoted."

"You're a thief."

"I'm the best."

"Yeah. Okay."

"You gonna pay for those guns?"

"I already paid you for those guns."

They stared off for a long minute before Caleb gave up. "Alright. I'll get started in the morning. Just pull it into the shed tonight."

Caleb paced all night. Then he went outside and started working on the truck. All the phones in the house sent to silent. He had all the prep work done by the time John wandered out. They set the big pieces in place and then went out to get breakfast. Caleb kept his eyes on the road. They got grease and coffee down at a truck stop outside of town so Caleb wouldn't run into anyone he knew.

After that, they went back to work on the truck, setting gears and testing hydraulics. Then John started talking. "You took Claire on a hunt?" Caleb looked up. "Why in the hell would you take her on a hunt like that?"

"She took me." Caleb bit out. "It was about her kid. We had to do it. Her kid was on a hit list. I don't know who is pulling the strings but they didn't want anyone in that kid's line alive for whatever is going on with you and your kids."

"You were there, right?" John's forehead had deep creases, his eyes on something not in the room.

"Yeah. I was there. I'm just afraid that it knows about Claire. It seemed to like her."

"What are you talking about?"

"It seemed to think that the Stephens line was too soft but after it got a load of Claire, it wished it hadn't taken out her kid. It liked her." Caleb met his eyes. "It did. I didn't want to do it in front of her but I had to… make sure."

"Thanks for that." John nodded. They worked in silence for a bit. "Talked to Jim about that information you got."

"You tell him what Missouri said about that demon we had?"

"Demon, I thought it was a spirit."

"She didn't want Claire to know how heavy it was." Caleb nodded to John how serious it was.

John stopped. "She had that whole conversation without mentioning the demon. Was Claire there for that?"

"She was there." Caleb nodded. "Missouri was reading her while you talked, trying to get the things Claire didn't know to speak about."

"That fucking…" John cut himself off. He could already feel the spoon descending on his head. "Anyway, been busy being scared shitless of what it means about my Sammy."

"I think Missouri was right. I think there's more to this than we thought. The fact that you know nothing about yours and your wife's bloodlines… that's worrying. It feels like…"

"A perfect storm of destruction?"

"Maybe."

"You know… I never gave my old man a second thought. I was so young when he left. All I remember is this stupid music box that I smashed when I realized he wasn't coming back. Mom wasn't nobody from nowhere. Mary's folks… they were so secretive and I remember that Mary hated being at home but that she loved her folks."

"Kind of like Sammy." Caleb joked.

"Well, he is the worst of the both of us." John laughed. "That's what kids are."

"What's that?"

"Any kid in the world… the worst of both its parents."

"How so?"

"Sam? Bullheaded like his mother, ornery like his father." John grunted as they popped that last bit into place so Caleb could start fine-tuning the hydros. "Dean? That kid. He got a lot of the best of us. Looks like his mom, charisma like his old man… Impatient like his old man, cooks like his mother."

Caleb laughed. "Seriously?"

"Kid could murder with spaghetti. Raise those kids out of cans out of necessity. His mother… I wish I'd had a dog. Choked down too many burnt meals. Loved that woman but… man, oh man. Indigestion at 22. Floored me." John stepped back to watch Caleb work. "Loves like her. Just… wholly. Fully. Immediately. Come to think of it… he might have got that libido from his mother, too. She… Jesus. Thank God for birth control or else we'd've had a baseball team by the time I was 30."

"You don't talk much, John. Why so chatty about the old days all of a sudden?"

"Jim and I have been walking back through everything, looking for something. I'm hoping to remember something… anything that I wouldn't have known to look for at the time."

Caleb fell silent as his thoughts on the demon and John's special lists ran around in his head. "You say your wife was fertile?"

"Couple of false starts before Dean." John nodded, hands in his pockets. "One of them put her in a state. Women… anyway. Could've had more if we'd had a mind to it."

"That Stephens' woman pumped out three kids. I didn't find any grandkids aside from the one." Caleb looked to John. "How many kids did those families on your list have?"

"Usually two. At the least. Hardly any only children." John mused. "Goes back to that theory of Jim's. Biblical symmetry."

"You believe in that stuff?"

"Nah. No such thing as God. No such thing as the Devil. No Angels."

"But demons."

"Monsters need names."

After Caleb put all his tools away and they were waiting for the primer to dry, Caleb checked his messages. Nothing he was concerned about. Nothing to draw his attention. It was late into a poker game with a couple of hunter fellows that Caleb called over that John got the call. John needed assistance to put it on speakerphone but it was worth it. "Dean, that you son?"

"You son of a bitch! No such creature. I got the local village idiot calling me a retard!"

"Well, now you'll just have to haul ass back." John yelled over the laughter.

"What? Fuck you guys."

John put the phone back in his pocket and then killed the next seven hands. When all the buddies were gone and John was at the bottom of the bottle and Caleb was half in the next bottle, they were sitting on the porch and Caleb had the beginning of the fifth pack of cigarettes in his hands. Caleb couldn't hold it in, anymore. "You're kind of a dick."

"Right back at you." John tipped the bottle back into his mouth.

"Why? Why are you such an asshole?"

"Why'd you stop being an asshole?" John asked right back. "Look, son."

"You're not my father." Caleb cut him off.

"It's a term of endearment, kid. What happened to your folks, anyway?"

"Car wreck when I was 17." Caleb kneaded his temple with his fist. Could you get a hangover while you were still drinking?

"Fair enough. So… you fucked my ex. She ran off on you. It's what she does…"

"I didn't run her off." Caleb jabbed his finger at him.

"Whatever. She runs away, she comes back, she runs away, she comes back."

"What are you doing? Who are you even talking about? Did you even know her?" Caleb burst out. "You sent your kid on a snipe hunt. You ran your other one off. You had a woman who loved you and you let her go without a fight. What is wrong with you?"

"If I had known you were going to lay your filthy hands on her, I wouldn't have let her go."

"Me? Filthy hands. Do you know what you did to her? Do you?" Caleb sucked in a lungful of smoke and almost choked exhaling it.

"Why are we talking about fucking Claire? Crazy ex-girlfriend Claire. We should be trying to figure out if she's fucking Bobby now."

"You're such a fucking dick."

"Grow up, Caleb. She ran off on you. That's an answer to a question you probably didn't ask."

"How in the hell do you manage to ruin other people's relationships? Huh? I'm curious. I tried to ask her what was so fucking wonderful about your dick but she couldn't give me a straight answer. And you know what? I no longer care. Maybe you got some Clydesdale in you. Maybe you have the roadmap to the G-spot. Maybe your spunk is more addictive than cocaine. I don't give a shit. You and Claire are over." Caleb stood up and almost fell over. "We were just starting and you, you son of a bitch… your life just bleeds out everywhere into everyone else's and you don't give a shit who's destroyed in the process."

"What in the hell are you talking about?" John watched him.

"I'm just saying that maybe you should have let her go that first time." Caleb didn't even know what he was saying anymore. How long had it been since she left? Too long. Just too fucking long.

"How many times has she been out here?"

"Enough times."

"She took you with her on that hunt…"

"The hunt came up when we were paying respects to her kid. First time she'd been able to get all the way to his grave."

"Huh." John grunted.

"Go… meet up with Dean. I'll get the truck finished and leave it here for you."

"Caleb…"

"Just… I need space." Caleb wandered out to the shed without even a flashlight. He finished the first coat before returning to the house. He found it empty and most of the mess in the kitchen cleaned. He tried to get some stuff down around the house but he was restless.

Caleb ran into Alan at the grocery store when he was restocking. He turned tail and ran. He went hunting for anything he could get his hands on. Just hunt after hunt for weeks. He was getting trashed in a bar outside of Pacoima when he saw her. She was at the entrance with a folder. She was talking and laughing and then she was inside the bar, waving at whoever through the window. When she saw him, she looked ready to run. She sat next to him at the bar. "You following me?"

"I got a hunt in town." He shook his head. "Werewolf."

"It's dead. I got it last night." She told him. "I just saw Dean Winchester outside. Sent him off to do a poltergeist for me."

"John with him?"

"Not that I could tell." She shook her head. She waved to the waitress who was wandering around with a plate of nachos. The plate landed in front of Claire. She picked at it for a minute. "Sorry, I didn't check in."

"You're free to go wherever you want."

"You know what I mean."

"I don't."

"I was gonna come back. I did and you were gone."

"I've been hunting." He shrugged and swallowed down half his beer. "You want a drink?"

"No." She shook her head. She grunted and put down the chip she was about to put in her mouth. Hand went to her belly and her face went a bit green.

"You okay?"

"Fine." She kept her eyes on her plate but grabbed his hand and placed it on her stomach.

Caleb stared at her for a long moment until he felt the swift kick under his hand. "What the fuck?"

"I was going to tell you but I wanted to do it in person." She looked at him. "A fucking poltergeist told me."

"It's mine?"

"Yeah." She nodded. "Near as I can tell… it was that week we spent naked."

Caleb vision started to fade in and out. "I…"

"I know… I kind of freaked when I found out." She tried once more to eat. "This kid likes nachos."

"What?" Caleb sighed. "We'll have to fix that. That kid needs a steak."

"Ugh. No. It hates steak and that makes me sad." She watched his face carefully. "You ok?"

"No… but…" He met her eyes. "You really went to see me?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Why?" She stared at him, her eyes filled with water. "I wanted you to know… I wanted… to see if you wanted to meet this child. I wanted to be near you. I miss you."

Caleb kissed her mouth, gently. "I missed you, too."

"Take me home?"

"You want to call my place home?"

"Yes. I do… but after I finish these nachos. Kid is hungry tonight."

So Caleb went home and opened the house up. She met him there a day later and fell into his bed to sleep for two days. When she woke, she ate everything in sight and sat with her belly out whenever she could. All of her clothes still fit but she liked to touch her belly and he liked to have it available for touching when he walked past. It took a couple of weeks to come to terms with their new life. No more drinking for Claire. No more partying for Caleb. Late at night, they read that baby book together. Caleb started cleaning out one of the rooms to use as a nursery.

Claire did the shopping and most of it was crap. Caleb had to go back for things, often. She wanted to train and he didn't want her near any danger. She hustled, he kept watch. They slept together and often after exhausting themselves. Caleb tried not to hunt much but it didn't keep him from studying. Or people from calling. He closed himself up in the basement to take those calls. Then he decided it was all too close to home and rented out a basement apartment in town to make deals and stash the heftier of his hunting volumes. They got into a fight about that.

"I'm pregnant. Not infirmed." She hit a box full of books. "I'm a hunter, too."

"I just…" He looked around his house. "It invites things. I'm only moving the things that would put us in danger. It's not about you. It's about our kid."

"So… shouldn't I have a say?"

"Yeah… I just… Just the heavy stuff." He picked up the box and loaded it in the trunk. He was unloading it at the apartment when his cell phone rang. He answered without looking. "Claire, I'm not going to fight with you about this. It's done. I'll be home in like an hour."

"Trouble on the homefront?"

"John." Caleb sat. "Hey."

"Jim and I were talking. I wanted your opinion."

"What about?"

"It's… the children. You think it's… Jim says… I don't know anymore."

Caleb got the box inside and leaned on a wall while he thought about it. "Okay. Say… something was done. What?"

"There was blood on the blanket. Don't know whose. Let's say it was the demon. He fed my boy his blood. To do what?"

"I'm still thinking army, man."

"But, if they're eliminating competition… is it really an army?"

Caleb took some measurements and scribbled some numbers while it kicked the idea over for the hundredth time. "Okay… so like… nearly everyone can get into the army, you just gotta enlist. They find out you have special skills and you get promoted, right?"

"It's the way it worked for me."

"When I was in school, the JROTC kids would enlist and they would become like… officers. I hear that West Point guys get even higher than that."

"Yeah. Commissioned officers."

"Okay. So, say these kids, they got some of the demon juice. They're special but how special?"

"Don't know. I mean… Sam's smart but so was his mother. And he's athletic but so am I and you've seen Dean go at it."

"Well…" Caleb thought about Claire and her son. "Claire was an airman, her son's father was in the Navy. That's some good stuff, just naturally. Maybe if the bloodline is right and the genetics… you know… Laila Ali wins boxing matches. You know that training is a big part of it but talent came from her old man." The wheels just started going. "So if you saw the daughter of Mohammed Ali just sitting around making babies… sure why not… but if you knew she had the gift her father had… you'd want her to use it."

"So, if I were a demon and I gave all these children my blood. Then I saw that one of my… special kids was sitting around eating potato chips and playing video games… instead of going out and fighting in a war… maybe…"

"Maybe."

"I might regret eliminating that uselessness if I had known they'd breed up with a soldier, a hunter."

"Right."

"What I don't get is that some of these kids…. No fires. Enough of them did that… I found a lot of 'em. Not all."

"You get any of the stories?" Caleb sat down.

"A couple. Whichever parent survived was asleep or working late when the fire started. Kids just barely got out alive."

"You think there were any where the kids didn't make it either?"

"I'm starting to think that maybe there were… like… it was the first test."

"First test?"

"Yeah. Jim and I are going to get deep… I have some theories and you've helped me along." John breathed for a moment. "So, she came back to you?"

"Yeah, she did."

"Well, enjoy it while it lasts."

"Shut up, John." Caleb rubbed at his scalp. "Look… um… just stay away. She did come back. And she's pregnant. And I'm going to keep her safe."

"Wait, what?" Caleb could almost hear John's teeth grinding together.

"You didn't want her. I did. She's gonna have my kid and I don't want that son of a bitch that you're hunting anywhere near her. I'm getting a new place set up for hunting and guns. Don't come back out to the house."

"Caleb."

"I'm not saying I won't help. You know I will. I just… I got a family to look after, now."

"I hear you. Congratulations, Caleb. You take care of her."

"If she lets me."

"Well, she's like that."

"I guess."

"Caleb… I'm gonna figure this out. I'll call you if I really need something but… don't be afraid to raise that kid right. If Claire is sticking around, don't be afraid to love her. She's a good woman, she'll do you right."

"Yeah. I know." Caleb sighed. "Hey… I'll leave some stuff here for you. I'll text you the address."

"I appreciate it."

TBC