A/N: I have to confess this might be my personal favorite chapter of this story...

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Part Two: A Life in Passing

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Scene Five

~On the road, July 11th, 2007~

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It had started out with an accident.

Seriously.

Alec thought himself to be completely innocent since he had had no intention of consciously annoying the older Winchester – this time. And it wasn't as if Dean had never been annoyed with Alec before, so his transgenic mirror image didn't understand what was so different this time around.

Okay, so he had used up all the hot water in the shower, but who could blame him? It was a luxury that he had never gotten to properly enjoy back home; certainly not at Manticore, and while there had been a boiler in Alec's Seattle digs, it was busted up more times than not. His new quarters in Terminal City didn't even bear thinking about as far as a decent shower was concerned. And while they tried to make do, running hot water just wasn't a very high priority at the moment.

Maybe he should have told Dean to wait for fresh water to heat up though.

But no, not Alec's fault that they had to share a room again because the motel of the day didn't have enough vacancies. Not Alec's fault that it only had a cheap-ass on-demand water heater either. And it certainly was not Alec's fault that Dean didn't test the water temperature before stepping into the spray.

What had followed had been three days of complete insanity. Never knowing what to expect next and when to expect it. Always trying to stay one step ahead.

All the same, Alec was now forced to wear a very, very embarrassing and hideous 'Hello Kitty'-t-shirt, because all his other shirts had miraculously disappeared and Sam (the traitor!) refused to lend Alec any of his because he wanted to stay neutral, (big fat liar). Alec now also sported a rash in places he'd rather not think about (figures; Manticore never considered extending their immunizations to itching powder) and, to top it all off, Alec's hair was now a vibrant eye-assaulting red. How Dean had managed to slip the dye past his exceptional nose and eyes he'd never understand.

To be fair, though, Dean had spent a very uncomfortable evening... not leaving the bathroom (Alec was careful to read the instructions beforehand; he didn't want to overdo it with the Castor oil, after all), was now the proud possessor of a collection of baby pink socks, and their last motel clerk had had a giggling fit every time Dean had tried to flirt with her (not that people actually needed a lot of convincing to believe he had hot, kinky, gay sex with Sam, the way the two of them lived out of each other's pockets).

According to some unspoken rules (which Sam had been kind enough to explain before settling back to enjoy the show) it was Dean's turn again. It was already well past noon, however, and no retaliation had been attempted. To say Alec was nervous was... well, actually quite accurate. Dean had proven himself to be a formidable opponent.

He started when something soft landed in his lap. Looking down, he saw a plain green plastic sack with an unidentifiable gray lump squished into it.

"Come on, open it!" Dean encouraged him, meeting Alec's eyes in the rear view mirror. "It's a gift."

"A gift?" Alec repeated sceptically.

"Yeah, you know," Dean waved one hand elaborately, the other one staying firmly on the wheel, "a gift. Like, 'Happy Birthday' or something. What, you've never gotten a gift before?"

Alec hadn't, in fact.

Well. There were those self-made boxer shorts Normal had given him for his last show fight as Monty Cora. It wasn't that Alec didn't appreciate the gesture; he did a great deal, despite Max's mocking, but therein lay the problem. Alec rather liked to avoid being reminded of that whole disastrous episode because that kick had hurt. The little vixen never did play fair. And then there was the birthday cake Normal had baked for him that day when everything had gone so spectacularly south. There was a pattern there that Alec wasn't sure what to make of.

Intrigued despite himself, Alec ignored Dean's question and carefully picked at the knot. Had to be a trap, for sure. Of some kind. Still, it looked innocent enough.

The gray lump turned out to be a stuffed cat, and he examined it for a few seconds, but there was nothing more to it. No booby trap that Alec could detect. Could it really be just a gift? Dean did like to take allusions to his feline heritage a bit far.

But no. No way. Not while this strange war between them was still going strong.

"What is it?" he asked in confusion, squeezing the scratchy thing a little and holding it up to his eyes. He registered Dean's intent, expectant look into the rear view mirror at the same time the scent reached his olfactory system.

"Oh," he made, an absent-minded smile stealing onto his lips. "Oh. That smells kinda nice."

It did. Alec couldn't help but take another sniff, rubbing his nose across the plushy material. And then his tongue dipped out to lick the fur, and the smell only intensified. He got hair into his mouth, but at the moment he didn't care.

"Awesome!" he heard Dean exclaim, but like the hair in his mouth, he didn't care. He did feel like rubbing against the car door and chewing on a stuffed limb to set that delicious smell free.

"Dude, give me my phone, I need a picture!"

"Dean!" Sam obviously tried to sound reproachful, but the laughter beneath the words ruined the effect. "Did you just drug him?"

There was a little mechanical noise that Alec had no desire to place at the moment. The world had developed a pretty, pretty shine, colors sparkled and he felt like he was floating on clouds.

"I wasn't sure if it would work," Dean confessed to his brother. "Some cats aren't affected at all."

The words somehow made it through the haze that had settled over Alec's mind and, even more bizarre and astounding, some part of him made the connection. Catnip. He vaguely recalled his handlers being worried about that when they had cleared him for solo missions. It had never been a problem before today.

He would so get Dean for this.

Right now, though, he felt too good to bother.

"Is he purring?"

"Huh. Didn't know he could do that."

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to be continued...