Jack was exhausted.
One brother was in jail awaiting word on whether they were going to put a needle in his arm and kill him for crimes he had never committed. The other was God only knew where awaiting the death of his soul. And right then, Jack didn't care. Because Jack's world had disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Kaylie had been his first girlfriend. Back at a tender age when most boys thought girls had cooties. He had given her a ring and asked her to marry him at the age of 10. Of course that ring had come out of a gumball machine and had cost him 5 dollars worth of quarters to get the one that he thought she would like. The pair had been inseperable ever since.
Until now.
Until she had disappeared in the middle of a crowded court house.
"I should have gone with her. But no. I had to sit there and worry about whether or not I was going to throw up all over my shoes. God I am such a loser. " Jack said running his hands through his dark hair. He had looked everywhere. From the moment of her disappearance until the wee hours of the morning he had searched every place he could think of because to sit still and wait would be bring madness. But now he was exhausted and had no clue where to turn.
Ben was out looking for leads in the demon community, figuring that was their best bet, since it happened at Dean's trial and that was a hot bed for wierd to say the least. The sun rose in the east as it did every morning but Jack didn't find the peace in it that Sam did. All he found were question marks and uncertainty. About Kaylie, about Dean...
Ben was in a bar drinking whisky straight. He'd asked the bartender, who knew nothing. And he shook his head. This was not good. As if the trial wasn't bad enough, now Kaylie was missing. And he liked Kaylie a lot more than he liked Dean. He remembered, when Jack was nine, and they first moved to Corpus Christi, Jack and Kaylie were in the same class. Sitting right next to each other because Hsiao and Ingham were not separated by anyone else in the school district. Somewhere along the line, Jack broke his pencil, and Kaylie gave her his. From that moment on, a pig tailed blonde girl child was underfoot. And if he couldn't find Jack, he called the Inghams and asked them to send him on home if they could.
"Ben, how do you ask a girl out?" He'd said when he was ten. Ben tried to explain, and somehow Jack got a marriage proposal out of it. "Abby, I could really use some help here." Ben whispered under his breath. Abby never answered, she'd been dead for nearly twenty years, but every once in a while, he liked to pretend that she could. He remembered how lost he'd been when Abby had died. If he could have died himself, he would have been actively suicidal. But he couldn't, so he wasn't. Jack, on the other hand...
"Thanks for the drink." He said to his friend, draining the glass and sliding somewhere else.
Jack paced the living room floor trying not to hyperventilate. He wasn't used to this sort of thing. Ben had kept his world trauma free for the most part. No kidnappings, death threats or home invasions happened the entire time he was in Ben's custody. So he was ill equipped to handle the situation. He was even less equipped to handle the glowing letters that appeared in the air before him.
It was two street names. An intersection in down town Corpus Christi. Followed by answer the phone when you get there. Pay phone. A dying out custom with the advent of cell phones. And an easy landmark to get to. Jack didn't even think about it. He was out the door in seconds flat, and headed to the intersection driving Sophie like a sports car all the way. He didn't know how long the phone had been ringing when he got there but he grabbed it up breathlessly. "I'm here."
"Took you long enough." A man said. "And here I thought you just might be concerned about your girlfriend's whereabouts. Guess I figured wrong. Means she's disposable. I hate complications, you know."
"You touch one hair on her head and I will flay you alive." He said, and meant it in that moment, sounding almost ferocious. "What do you want? Where's Kaylie?" This wasn't happening. God this wasn't happening.
"She's fine. For the moment." He said. "John Hsiao." He laughed. "Never thought you'd pop back up, we thought you were dead. Son of Magdalena Hsiao, daughter of Teneke Hsiao I gather? What a find. Nearly as good as a Morningway."
"What are you going on about? How do you know my mother? Who is this?" Jack's head was spinning. "Never mind that... let her go. Then you can tell me what the hell you want with me and what a Morningway is."
"Who. Who a Morningway is." He corrected. "And why would I do that, when it's the only leverage I have? I'm hanging up now. See if you can figure out where we are. Of course, I have a short attention span, and so much more on my plate. And you would hate for me to forget about her, wouldn't you?"
"Wait! How am I supposed to figure out where you are. Just tell me where you are and I will be there. Don't hurt her... please. What ever it is you have against my mom... how ever she hurt you or... who ever... it has nothing to do with Kaylie."
"Doesn't it? You brought her into this." The voice said. "Everyone you touch in a way. Scary isn't it? So what would you be willing to do for her? How far will you go to make sure she's not hurt? I told you she was leverage. Shouldn't have left her unattended like that."
"What do you want?" He asked. "I have nothing to do with my mother's family. I don't know anything about them. They disowned my mother before I was born." This was some how all his fault. Kaylie had been kidnapped and put through God only knew what because of who his family was, and not the Winchester side of it either. It made no sense, no sense at all. "I won't call the police, I swear, just tell me where you are and I will come to you."
"Such a good, obedient boy." The man said. "It's good that the police aren't involved. It would be hard to explain it to them, wouldn't it? I'm hanging up now. I'll call the library information desk at 8 pm, right before it closes. If I have to wait any longer than five seconds, I'm hanging up there. And you don't want me to hang up. Good bye." Click.
Jack's mouth was dry, and his heart couldn't make up its mind if it was going to sink to his stomach or choke him to death. Either way it ached. Why was that voice so familiar? He had to talk to Ben. There had to be some way to track down the son of a bitch. He had to find Kaylie. He had to... there was no question of if... there was only the question of how... and it was a very big question. He went back to his car and got behind the wheel, but sat there staring at the steering wheel trying to process it all. He took out his cell phone and dialed Ben's number.
"Tell me you found her." Ben said. "Because I can tell you that no demon has her. The demon community, man, when they do an abduction, they can't keep their mouth shut."
"The kidnapper called." Jack said, sounding shell shocked. He explained the entire conversation to Ben, hoping that Ben can make sense of it because he knew his mother, maybe he had a clue about who would want to come after him or those close to him based on his last name.
Ben growled. "Okay, okay. Stay calm. Get to the library and wait for the call." Because dammit, they had to play along. "I'll string her parents along for a while." Her mother was overprotective. Her father too, in that normal father of a girl type of way, but her mother was borderline unbearable most of the time. He rubbed at his face. "I'll...I'll see what I can find out. Just...just play along right now." Not answering any of Jack's questions. Because that would open up a whole can of worms on its own.
"Right." Jack said snapping out of it and starting the car. "Ben... I've never been this scared in my life." Which was saying something. Jack's early childhood was full of things to invoke terror in small boys. He drove toward the library, feeling a tingly sort of numb.
"Good." Ben said. "Take the call, call me right after, and I'll dig into the occult community." Which was never that open to demons, surprisingly. But he'd try.
Jack parked the car at the library and hurried inside. He paced near the information desk checking his watch every few seconds. Please god let her be alright. Why is this happening? None of it makes sense. He wished his brother were free right then, having absolute confidence Dean would know what to do, even though he was sure that it would be exactly what Ben was doing, telling him to take the call and be calm. Jack didn't know how much calm he might have left.
The phone rang and the librarian answered it. "Who? Uh...hold on." She said. "Is there a Jack here?" She called out in a hushed stage whisper, looking completely put out that there were personal calls to a patron being called to her information desk. The phone was out of her hand without so much as a hello from a young dark haired man. "Three...four..." The voice, the one that had been taunting Jack with every communication, was counting as Jack took the phone.
"I'm here." Jack said quickly into the phone. He knew the man was doing this deliberately. Torturing him as surely as any knife could. He was trying to wear him down. Jack knew it. He just didn't know how to counter it.
"Very good!" The man said. "You're very good at following directions. I like that. Write this down. Go to Yahoo! mail. Account name KaylieJane. No spaces. Password rescue. There will be one message, download the attachment. Print out the picture and meditate on it. I'm deleting that account in an hour." Then he hung up.
Jack rushed to the nearest internet ready computer and did as instructed. He had the picture in hand as he was ushered out of the library. He knew there was something in the picture that he was supposed to see, but all he could see right then was Kaylie. She looked alright, please let her be sleeping and not dead, please. He sat down in his car and called Ben once more, telling him what had transpired.
"All right." Ben said, frustrated on his own. The occult community was, as expected, less than eager to talk to him. "Head home, I'll meet you there, we'll see what this picture tells us." And cursed all things Winchester in his head. Because if it wasn't for that nice little brotherly reunion, Jack would have remained off the radar until the day he died.
"Right." Jack echoed. "Home." He hung up, and drove back to the house. He walked into the house, but it didn't feel the same. He didn't feel the same. Nothing seemed real anymore. Out of habit, he turned the TV on to Court TV. He knew they would get the call when the jury came back with its verdict but he wanted it on anyway. It was that touch of normal... strangely enough a connection to his brother even though he wasn't there. As he settled onto the sofa and pulled the picture out to look at it, really look at it, he wondered if Sam were watching as well or if he even knew that Dean's life was on the line. Or if it mattered to him.
He looked over the picture, staring at Kaylie as she lay helpless. Unbound, but helpless none the less as she slept (please let it be sleep. If there is such a thing as God, please let it be sleep) what had she gone through before she slept? Did she know she was in danger? Was she frightened? (God knew he was.) Had she been hurt? He couldn't see any signs of injury but there was so many ways to hide that. He could do it with a few minutes on a computer. "I'm so sorry, Kaylie. God, I am so sorry."
Ben flared into the room and sat down next to Jack. He looked at the picture, but knew better than to try and take it from her. "She looks fine." He said. "Hold to that. Exactly like she did in the courthouse. Both shoes." A small detail, but her having both sandals told him there wasn't much struggle. That could be good or bad, but he preferred Jack to be positive. "Okay, there's something you're supposed to see in this picture. Besides Kaylie."
Jack nodded and searched the details of the picture. "I don't know what I am supposed to be seeing." He said and began to name off the details of what was in the room. "I don't know what I am supposed to be seeing. It's like some sort of demented Where's Waldo." He stared at it, trying to focus on the whole not the details, because the details were so mundane it was giving him a headache.
Ben cocked his head and looked at it. "Maybe it's one of those weird 3D pictures, where you have to stare and unfocus your eyes and something pops out at you." He hated those, he remembered when they were all the rage and all over the place. Really, he hated them because he could never do them. Never once could he see the tropical fish in all the series of patterns.
"He did say to meditate on it." Jack said as he set the picture on the table and stared at it. "Meditation takes relaxation though and I don't know that relaxation is humanly possible right now." Reluctantly he turned off the television. All they were doing was talking about the freak witnesses the prosecution had called. Going on about the missing FBI imposter. He began the deep breathing exercises that he had been taught in his tai chi classes. Figured that was the only way to even begin to be able to meditate He closed his eyes and tried to find his center then opened them again, trying to relax his eyes and not focus on any one thing in the picture.
Ben stared at it as well, but not surprisingly it was just one big blur as he unfocused his eyes. He figured like everything else in his body, his eyes were even different than a human's. But this picture was for Jack anyway. He hoped the internet computer at the library had a decent printer and they weren't missing something.
Jack breathed and focused on the picture as a whole. Trying so hard to not stare at Kaylie, helpless and in who knows what kind of condition. Which would just make him have to start over. But finally he didn't even see Kaylie, as she blurred into the peripheral of the picture nearly. In eerie writing along the background, was another address. Barely seen, but there. In the same writing as the address that had appeared before him when this whole goose chase had started.
Jack repeated the address over and over, committing it to memory as he fished for something to write it down on he didn't know if it would disappear if he looked away from it. "Do you see it?" He asked Ben, as he looked at the eerie script scrawled across the page. He wrote it down. "Okay... on my way there." He told Ben as he was on his feet and headed for the door.
"Of course I don't see it." Ben said, crankily. The one time it would have paid to be human he supposed. "Wait, you don't think you're going alone, do you?" He said as he got up quickly himself.
He was grateful for Ben coming with him. He didn't know what he would do with out his foster father. "I'm glad you're coming. I don't know what to do. This is... I don't even understand what this is all about."
"Of course I'm coming." Ben said as he took the keys, figuring he was the better driver at this point. He would have come for every step, because this was Jack, and it was Kaylie, but he'd been off chasing dead end leads of his own. "It's about your mother's family I think. You know, that whole line of mystics. Whacked out bunch. They disowned Maggie when she was outed as a demon, figured they wouldn't take kindly to me, so I cut off contact. Good or bad, right thing or way wrong move, that's what I did. But now, big publicized trial..."
"And they have spotted me... are they evil?" Jack asked, concerned that anyone that indulged in kidnapping was seriously evil. "And it was the right thing. I wouldn't have wanted to grow up anywhere else."
"Jack, don't ask a demon if people who believe all demons should be wiped off the face of the earth are evil." Ben said as he pulled out of the driveway. "I kinda don't have the objectivity to answer that. I don't know, I guess like everyone else, they've got their moments. This might be one of their moments. If they're the ones behind this, they won't hurt her. Because hurting her means not getting you. Getting you where they want you."
"Why? If they didn't want Mom, why the hell would they want me?" He didn't understand. "And I'm about as mystical as a pet rock. Not like I am even useful or anything. Just kinda normal. Average guy inspite of my parents and being raised by a demon... I'm just... a guy. Nothing special."
"Say that again and I'm going to smack the shit out of you." Ben said. "I don't have time for ordinary, average or nothing special and I've obviously made plenty of time for you. Got that?" He said as he shook his head. "I don't know. Guess we'll find out."
"I didn't mean it that way." Jack said. "Just meant... I don't see what would make them want to come after me... not exactly Gandalf... more like one of the hobbits...I can't believe I just used that analogy." He said as they hurried to the address on the picture. "But you know what I mean. "
"If you want to continue on with that analogy, look how special indeed the hobbits turned out to be." Ben said, shaking his head. Jack didn't remember it, neither did Sam or Dean, but he'd had a Tolkien conversation with every son John had now. Weird, how genetics played out. "I don't know what he wants. I never had any contact with them myself." He pulled up in front of an old decrepit warehouse. "You sure this is the address?"
Jack laughed a little. "I'm the hobbit with Boromir and Faromir as brothers." He said shaking his head and looked at the photo again. "Yeah this is the place." He said as he got out of his car and slowly walked up to the warehouse. "Why does this give me the cold horrors?"
"Because it's not just a warehouse. It's a front." Ben said, feeling things on the edge of, well, his demonic side. Which picked up things humans, not even hunters, could. He didn't like this at all. They walked toward the warehouse, and Jack passed through the front door. Ben did not. Resting his hand against open air, flat and pressed, as if there was something there. "You wanted proof you didn't inherit anything from your mother, like demon and all that shit, here it is." He said, frowning. There wasn't brick or salt or anything physical there. It just wasn't letting him through.
Jack turned around. "What the hell?" He said. "What could keep you out?" He asked as he looked around the door, trying to see what it could be. This was getting crazier all the time. Crazy mystic relatives that don't like demons but think it's okay to kidnap innocent girls. "Guess my dad's family is looking better by the minute, huh?"
Ben had to laugh. "You've got a brother who might end up on death row, and another that's...whatever he is." Ben said. "I wouldn't go that far yet. It's happened before. Different magicks can do that. I'm fine. I'll keep the car running."
"At least they haven't been kidnapping innocent girls." Jack pointed out as he turned to go and explore the warehouse. "Hello?" He called out. "Anyone here?" He asked as he walked through the cavernous room.
"Innocent is always a matter of perception." The voice Jack was familiar with said as he crossed the room into a shaft of light pouring in through a window. Hendrickson. "It's hard to not be quick to judge isn't it? Innocent. I have yet to meet a completely innocent person."
"You!" He exclaimed. "Kaylie has never done anything to deserve to be kidnapped. I've never done anything to warrant this ... so my idea of innocent, subjective as it may be.. is the accurate one. Where is she and what do you want with me? I'm not going to help you hurt Dean."
"Watch your words, Mr Hsiao." Hendrickson said. "You wouldn't want to corner yourself, now would you? You wouldn't want to sacrifice Miss Ingham, who you say is completely innocent of everything, for your brother, who by any account, carefully straddles that nice gray area between guilty and innocent, would you?"
Jacks eyes narrowed. "What. Do. You. Want?" He asked firmly. "And where is Kaylie?" God, this was insane. He wasn't going to let either of them be harmed. Not by this bastard.
"Kaylie is sleeping." Hendrickson said. "And I haven't decided. It was just too good an opportunity to pass up. I have a knack for being in the right place at the right time. But you didn't answer my question. What would you do?"
"I don't know." He answered honestly. He wanted to say anything, offer him anything to get Kaylie back unharmed, but he had the feeling that would be a half step away from making a deal with the devil and Kaylie wouldn't want him to go that route. "How do you know my mother's family?"
"I work for them." Hendrickson said. "They're an old, old family. Dwindling, but old. We would love to thank your mother for not giving you your father's last name, but, well, she's been taken care of, hasn't she? By that thing that raised you? If they could have found you, they would have given you a real family."
"I have a real family. I'm not interested in the people that abandoned my mother and me. The only reason my name isn't Winchester is he was no different than them. Wanted nothing to do with us. It's a bit late to show up with an interest. So tell them thanks but no thanks and bring Kaylie out so we can go now." No one called Ben a thing. Ben was his father. And if it weren't for the fact that he had Kaylie he would have probably decked him.
"You had an uncle." Hendrickson said, ignoring Jack's diatribe. "Unfortunately, he died without leaving any sons. That's important in Chinese culture, as I'm sure you know, as now there is no one to light the ancestral flame. Except for you. And no one else to carry on that long, and distinguished line, except for you. They didn't know about you when your mother told them about herself. Had they, things might have turned out differently."
"Yeah, they would have taken me away from her when I was born. Why did you kidnap Kaylie instead of just talking to me? Because of what you were doing to my brother? Since that doesn't exactly endear you to me."
"Because people listen more when they're under duress. They try harder to understand." Hendrickson said. "Believe me, I have better things to do than babysit your girlfriend. Her time will come, I suppose, nothing to do with me though. You wouldn't have listened if I tried to talk to you before. You wouldn't have listened to anyone in your family."
"What do they want? I'm not really Chinese, you know. I don't follow tiier customs or beliefs, I don't have any mystical abilities. I'm not theirs anymore. I wasn't from the moment they abandoned my mother. I'm listening but so far I haven't heard a lot from you that will change that. If they want to talk to me, fine, they can show up and we can sit in my living room or over dinner at a restaurant and talk about if there is any way to get past this, but kidnapping my girlfriend... on top of how they treated my mother.. not looking good for family bonding."
"Drastic measures are often necessary to ensure attention. Otherwise you would have hung up the phone. If the demon who lives with you even gave you the phone in the first place." Hendrickson pointed out. "Everyone in your life is defenseless. One brother sits in a jail cell...with no protection. The other is a danger to himself. Your girlfriend, well, she likes to wander off I guess you could say. Now what are you going to do about it?"
"You want me to talk to them... fine I will talk to them, but let her go. You could have taken me instead, you son of a bitch. You like fear. You like tormenting people. Otherwise there were at least a dozen different ways you could have gone about this. Now where is she?"
"You have to find her. Or you're not worth my time." Hendrickson said. "Of course, you have to find your way out of here first. So much anger, you should really watch that temper of yours you know."
"You still haven't told me what you want other than my attention." Jack said as he started to walk around the warehouse, looking at everything with a wary eye. No wonder his mother fell to evil so easy. He had thought it was because of saving him, but he was begining to think it was because she came from a evil family to begin with.
"There's a war coming. As I'm sure that brother of yours told you." Hendrickson said, in a bored tone as he watched Jack. "It's not just that stereotypical good versus evil. It will be a war about power, who gets to stand when it's over. We'd like to make sure it's us."
"And they think having me around is going to make a difference in that? Why? I don't have any special abilities. I'm pretty average." He said not bothering with the obvious exits. Something just told him that there wasnt a way out there and it would just look foolish for him to try.
"Are you ordinary? That would be a shame. You're the only male Hsiao left...your grandfather is dead, your uncle is dead...until you have sons that is." Hendrickson said. "You had better not be ordinary. Or you won't get out of here." He said and walked out of the shaft of light, now unseen.
"Son of a bitch." He said and forced himself to take a few deep breaths. If his mother's parents thought this was the way to win him over to their side, they were sadly mistaken. Jack's name was Hsiao, but he was a Winchester to the bone. Temper, protective streak and thirst for vengeance.
But right now he had to focus. He had to find his way out. "Think, Jack, think." He said. then shifted into a tai chi stance. He needed to find his center, needed to open up as he had to look at the photograph. He went through the moves until he felt the tension fade and his mind relax into a more receptive state, then he started looking around once more.
In that receptive state, he could nearly see the barriers surrounding the room. Like lattice work, some parts open, some not. Some wider than others. Some seemingly opening to closed walls. Jack followed his way through the lattice work, making his way through the open spaces, even examining the places that opened up to the closed walls until he found his way out.
Ben was waiting in the car, chain smoking, for Jack. This was all going to hell in that proverbial handbasket. Kaylie's mother was going to kill them. He shook his head as he drummed along the steering wheel with his fingertips, not liking all the twists and turns of the day. He liked predictability, which was why he was living as a normal human in Corpus Christi. Why his business ran like clockwork. Even his house did! This wasn't fitting into his well established pattern, and he swore he was about to break out in hives because of it.
Jack made it back to the car. No closer to finding Kaylie than when he had arrived. "They want me." He said, his jaw twitching. "Sorry son of a bitch works for my mother's family. It's fucking Hendrickson."
"What?" Ben said and swore under his breath. He wasn't going to blame Dean for this, he wasn't going ot blame Dean for this. He repeated that over and over until finally it sounded like a mantra. But Hendrickson would never have found Jack if Dean hadn't been on trial, and if Dean hadn't found Jack first. "Okay, so we're in mystic territory. Might have to call in a few demons for that one. I've got a few that owe me some favors."
Jack explained the conversation and what he had done in order to get out of that warehouse. "He says I have to find where she is. God, Ben... he thinks I am some sort of wizard or something. I'm not sure the man isn't the craziest one out of the whole psycho lot."
Ben refrained from telling Jack that he was probably right. That Hendrickson probably was the craziest one in the bunch. "Okay, so we're back to square one." He said as he drove back. "So we'll go home, and we'll lay everything out that we have. See what we can piece together."
Jack nodded. He was drained. He had spent weeks worried about Dean while he awaited trial in prison. The jury was still out, so it was still possible that his brother could be sentenced to death, and now this nightmare with Kaylie. Anything new added to his plate and Jack was going to freak. Completely wig out in front of God and everyone. He wasn't sure he could deal with it all at once.
Ben drove back to the house and laid the picture out. And wrote down everything he could remember that Jack told him. And he had a good memory. "Okay, this is what I've got. Add your stuff in there, and we'll see where we stand." Because Jack had to do something. Since the task at hand was to figure everything out himself, this seemed like a good place to start. If nothing else, Jack would feel like he was doing something as Ben answered the phone.
"Oh, hey, Theresa." He said, Kaylie's mom. "Yeah, Kaylie's off getting some take out for us. Yeah, I know. I'll have her call, but you know how kids are." He said. He'd already paid off Kaylie's boss to tell the Inghams nothing.
Jack wrote down everything he had seen at the warehouse and looked over the list time and again. "He's trying to wake things up in me I think... and I don't want it to wake up." He thought in that moment he could actually get where Sam was coming from. "You know it sucks being blessed with understanding." He said.
"I've been there a time or two." Ben said with a nod as he looked over the list again. He'd never taken a side one way or another in Sam's decision to leave everything and everyone behind. Because he knew how it felt to feel you were a danger to everything and everyone you held dear. But he also knew what it felt like to be left behind, when someone you loved went somewhere that you couldn't follow.
"Well, you got out of the warehouse. That's one thing they were looking for. Now they're waiting for you to find your girlfriend. It's like a treasure hunt or something."
"Yeah. But I have always hated scavenger hunts." He picked up the list and started looking over it again. "Okay... everything so far has been about opening up that... whatever it is inside me.. that I am going to lock up and throw away the key to when this is all done." If for no other reason than spite. They kidnapped Kaylie. As far as he was concerned their ancestral fires could go out. He wasn't going to forgive and forget his one. "Guess I should meditate again before trying to figure this out."
"It might help. Liquor might help too." Ben offered. One never knew, and he'd exploit whatever avenue he could right now to help Jack. He tore up the paper, so that each detail was separate and just started arranging them. Hendrickson hadn't given Jack anything else to go on, which meant everything Jack needed, he already had. Somehow.
"Whether it helps my abilities, I don't know... but it sure as hell will help my nerves." He said as he got up to get a glass of scotch. "No messages on the machine right? No calls I missed?" Wouldn't do to miss the reading of the verdict. Dean didn't know there was anything wrong and Jack wanted it to stay that way. He wouldn't put it past his brother to attempt an escape if he knew.
"No, the jury's still out." Ben said as he helped himself to some alcohol himself. "Okay, so go ahead and meditate or whatever you're going to do. I'm going to go make food." He didn't need to eat, but he liked to. As opposed to Jack, who did need to eat whether he liked it or not.
Jack groaned at the thought of food, and downed half of the scotch as he tried to let himself back into that receptive state of mind. Looking over everything again and again until his head ached.
Ben stopped at the doorway and watched. Not interrupting. Jack was looking over everything again and again, and rearranging the strips of paper Ben had made. Without touching them. He didn't even realize he was doing it it seemed. So when Jack finally sat back with a frustrated sigh, Ben put a sandwich in his hand.
"Eat it. Because you passing out from hunger is hardly heroic when you find her. You're supposed to carry the girl out, not the other way around." He said, as he looked at the newly organized strips. "Good job." He said as he wrote down the first letter of each strip on a pad of paper.
"What?" Jack asked, coming out of a sort of trance like state when the sandwich hit his hand. "What did you figure out?" He asked looking over at what Ben was writing.
"I told you you weren't ordinary." Ben said with a chuckle. "Okay, might be an anagram." He said, handing the pad to Jack. "First letter of first line from the strips. Which you moved around by the way. Play with it a bit."
"We are definately finding a way to turn this off once this is all over and done with. I like being ordinary." He said as he looked at the letters, focusing on them, for now trying to open himself up to this mystical world as much as possible. If that was what was going to find Kaylie, then that was what he was going to do. There was time to find a way to reverse the whole process later. "We'll see what we can do." Ben said as he ate. Because if he ate, he hoped Jack would follow by example, even unconsciously. And he was gratified when some of the sandwich found its way into Jack's mouth.
Finally, after a long while, Jack wrote down a word that aligned with a location in town. "Oh you gotta be kidding me." Ben said and sat back. It was the construction site for the sports bar Ben was opening. The ground was broken, and a few walls were up.
"And we are off again. But I don't think we will find her there." Jack said as he headed for the door. "Too easy. This guy is playing some serious fucking game with me. Probably just another clue." "You're probably right, but we've got no choice but to follow the schizophrenic road." Ben said as he grabbed his keys. They drove to the groundbreaking site, the construction workers had left for the day, and he grabbed a flashlight. "Okay, well, at least I get to do a site check."
Jack was glad to have Ben with him this time as he started to walk around the site, opening himself up to God only knew what. He hated this. Hated his mother's family for doing this. Bad enough they sent their pit bull after his brother, but to go after his girlfriend, that was beyond low, and far more evil than he wanted to think about.
There was nothing to open himself up to, for a representative from the family was there in the flesh. Sitting on a folding chair deep within the center of the structure. "Hello, John." She said, her voice soft, but firm as it carried through. Her face was the ageless face that many Chinese got when they aged, eyes edged with wisdom, black hair pulled back into simple twist as she looked at John. She glared at Ben, and the air seemed to electrify for a moment before it calmed back down. "My name is Mei. I am your mother's aunt."
"I prefer Jack. Can't say it's nice to meet you. Not real fond of kidnappers. Where is Kaylie?" He asked bluntly. He wasn't in the mood for this. He knew the woman would have killed Ben right then if she had the power to do it. Had probably just tried with whatever that was that charged the air. No, it didn't help his mood or bring on warm and fuzzy feelings at all.
Ben snorted and chuckled at Mei's attempt as he lit a cigarette. If he were that easy to kill, he would have been dead long ago. Mei pointedly ignored him. "We do regret the distress this has caused you. Your girlfriend is unharmed, she won't remember a thing when she is released. Of that I promise, she's spent the time in a slumber." Mei said, her accented voice echoing through the room. "I suppose you look more like your father."
"I do. You abandoned my mother. You kidnapped my girlfriend and you attempted some spell, presumably to kill my foster father. Do you have anything good, or pleasant, to say to me that is going to make that suddenly not matter to me anymore? Cause if not, you can just bring Kaylie here, wake her up and get the hell out of my life."
"So much anger." Mei said, shaking her head. "Your girlfriend has not been harmed. She's resting. No harm will come to her, we try to keep innocents out of our line of fire. She must indeed be a special girl for you to feel so strongly about. It had been bandied about that perhaps it was just a teenage infatuation, but I suppose not. And that's good. It is. But Hendrickson put this into play, he was after another and stumbled upon you. He overstepped his bounds, he will be punished. Though we are glad to have finally found you."
"Fine. He's going to be punished. Great. Give me Kaylie back and then try knocking on my front door, maybe a phone call or a post card... I don't care but this isn't going to happen anymore. I am not a hound for you to leash. And that's what this is. Kaylie's abduction, the implication that Dean will be hurt if I don't heel. "
"If we had called, would you have answered?" She said, getting out of the chair and standing in front of him. She stood barely five feet tall, a bit shorter than Kaylie, and looked up at him. "We had no clue on your existance because of your...guardian. He made sure of that."
"For good reason." Ben added, watching the scene carefully. "Must suck for you people, think you're so high and mighty and you can't even best one lowly demon."
"If you had loved my mother enough to find out what she really was instead of tossing her to the wolves... tossing us to the wolves... maybe she would still be here, and maybe... just maybe I would have cared if you had called. You don't want me. You want a replacement part. "
"Come with me to Hong Kong." She said, dismissing and ignoring Ben. "We'll release Miss Inghams, and you can finally meet your family."
"Like hell." Ben growled. "He's got a family."
"He's got a criminal, a demon, and who knows what the other one really is." Mei said. "Those are people he knows. Not family. His family is in Hong Kong waiting for him."
"News flash, kidnapping is a crime." He told her pointedly. "Even for blue blooded freaks of nature. So back off my family and release Kaylie. My family wants to meet me, they can meet me on my terms. You don't get to walk into my life and disrupt it after you abandoned us. I don't want to be like you. I don't want to have some sort of power that makes people think they can use and abuse people however they want. You don't release her... or you hurt her... there will be no chance in hell of me ever even considering meeting with the rest of you people. I am not going to be bullied by you or anyone else. Then there is the fact that if I go with you... I'm going to be the one kept prisoner. Don't think I can't read your kind a mile away. "
"My kind?" Mei asked, amused. "You are so young. Far too young to even think that you know half of what you don't know. My kind is your kind. We're not going away. You are a Hsiao, you were born a Hsiao and you will die a Hsiao. As will your children. This unrelenting stand is so American."
"Yeah well, welcome to America." He said. "And to set the record straight, my last name is the only thing Hsiao about me. I'm a Winchester. I'm not your kind. I don't care what abilities your pit bull is trying to awaken in me. I'm not a kidnapper, not someone who will reject my children, not someone who uses innocent people to try and bend anothers will. Let. Her. Go. "
"Try to awaken? You found this place, didn't you? Found the warehouse, and the way out of the warehouse, correct? Oh, Jack, there is so much for you to learn." Mei said.
"Lady, I'd let the girl go before he decides to show you just how American he is." Ben said.
"I was not talking to you." She said to Ben, but didn't look at him. "You've done your job, he was raised healthy and alive. For that we thank you. You may go now."
"That isn't your choice." Jack said, starting to think maybe he had to go with her. He couldn't let Kaylie stay in some magically induced coma for the rest of her life. But he would be giving himself over into slavery to save her, and that scared him. "Why won't you just do this like a human being ? Treat me like a human being not some dog you let someone else train for you. Why is it impossible for you to try honey instead of vinegar? All of this screams at me that you are evil. Horribly evil. And I don't mean that in the slang sense. "
"We are not evil. We are your family. And blood has always been thicker than everything else in the world." Mei said. "We have your attention. We plan to keep it. When we call, you will talk to us." She said and walked away into a shadow. Seemingly disappearing, until they heard a car drive away. She had slipped out.
"For fuck's sake." Ben said, running a hand through his hair. "Come on, let's go home. See what else we can figure out."
Jack was shell shocked. "She says they aren't evil, yet they are doing this." He shook his head. "This is what my mother grew up with?" He turned and walked back to the car on auto pilot. "Blood isn't that thick." He grumbled. "Not on its own."
"Actually blood isn't thick at all. I hate that analogy. It's only thick when it hits the air and starts to coagulate." Ben said, just filling space. "Cut it with some snapps, and it's actually good. Forget I said that, that was a long time ago." He said with a chuckle as Jack's cell phone rang. "Better answer that, we're dancing to their tune right now, whether we like it or not."
"Remind me to shoot the piper." He said and opened his phone "Hello?" He said, expecting it to be Hendrickson or his aunt. Not really wanting to speak to either of them again. He didn't trust himself not to say something out of line. He had been pushing that line to this point, and had nearly crossed it.
"Jack?" Kaylie said, relief and panic clear in her voice. "Jack, I don't know what happened. One minute I was waiting for the vending machine, the next minute I'm still at the vending machine except it's dark and everyone's gone. And the place is locked up tight, and I don't know what happened!"
"Kaylie?" He said his tone nearly matching hers. "Ben pull over... she is back at the vending machine and locked in. Can you go get her?" He ran a hand through his dark hair. "Are you alright? You aren't hurt are you?"
"No, no I'm fine. I just don't know what happened." Kaylie said.
Ben had pulled over and left in his own way. The next thing Jack heard was "Ben!" then Kaylie and Ben appeared outside the car. Kaylie was holding the soda she had bought, she had come...aware...still holding the money for the soda, which was how she got the quarters to call Jack.
Jack was out of the car in an instant, pulling Kaylie to him tightly. "Thank god you're alright." He breathed. "I thought for sure he had hurt you." He kissed her hair, closing his eyes very nearly falling over as the tension left his body.
Kaylie clung to Jack, she was completely confused. "It was two o'clock, then it was night. I don't understand." She said. She was wearing the same sun dress and thin cardigan sweater she had been in the courthouse. Even her perfume was still fresh.
He explained everything that had happened since she had left them in the court house. "I am so sorry." He said, still not letting go of her. As though she could disappear again if he let go.
"Can we cover all this at the house?" Ben said. It was a little too cool out for his liking. "Come on, Jack, let's get her back so she can call her parents." Better than standing out in the middle of a construction site.
Kaylie was trying to understand, but she had two days missing out of her life. How does someone understand that? But she nodded at Ben's suggestion. "Come on." She said. The backseat was perfect, she could continue to hold onto Jack as she tried to make sense of it.
Jack was in a daze the entire ride back to the house, but he never once let go of her. "I was certain I had lost you." He said, even if that loss was going to be his being trapped in Hong Kong in order to free her. At least now he was only trapped into taking their phone calls. They still weren't going to like what he had to say in response but he would take the calls.
"I didn't even know I was gone." Kaylie said softly. For her, it was as if no time had passed. But when they got back to Ben's, the phone was ringing. "You know that's for you." Ben said to Jack. "Come on, Kaylie, let's get you some thing to eat."
Jack sighed heavily and went to answer the phone. "Hello?" He asked, hoping for a wrong number but knowing he wasn't going to get that lucky. Mei's voice carried over the line. "She is returned to you, safe and sound. It is a lovely match, I'm sure. We've kept our end of the deal, do you not agree?"
"Yes." Jack said. "And I am listening...so I am keeping mine." He wasn't going to let them play this into a power position. A nice cold war maybe but not a real power position.
"That's good." Mei said. "See, we can behave like normal, civilized humans. Amazing, isn't it? You have gifts, Jack. As much as you try to bury them and deny them. As they come out, we can teach you how to use them. We can guide you, if you will let us."
"You are going to have to earn my trust first." He told her honestly. "And I have no idea how hard that's going to be. It's not like I can tell you which hoops to jump through because that's... me setting demands not you proving you can be trusted. This whole kidnapping thing has been one giant step backwards."
"She wasn't hurt. She had a nice rest, she looked so tired when she came." Mei said smoothly. "It does not have to be this way. But you're making it so. You are the last one to carry on the line, until you have children. Do you want us to approach your children?"
"Hmm... no remorse... for kidnapping an innocent woman. No regret for abandoning my mother when she needed her family, and now you threaten my as yet unborn children. Nice... beginning to think my mother's evil ways didn't come from the demon that possessed my grandfather. " He said. "Look... I'm not making you do anything. I'm wanting to get to know you when I am not angry or under duress and we can take it from there. Making threats... isn't going to work. Because you know what...anything happens to anyone else... well who knows what I might do in a moment of guilt ridden angst. Could end the line entirely."
"I was not threatening you or your children." Mei said placatingly. "I was merely stating the fact that when things start happening they will have questions that we can answer. That's all. But getting to know each other on a fresh foot is a good idea."
"Good. Right now things are a little crazy for me... so ahm... Sunday... we could meet for dinner on Sunday. " He thought it would be sane enough. He hoped.
"That would be nice. Perhaps your grandfather would join us." Mei said. "Where shall we meet?" Preferably not the demon's house.
He named a restaurant that he knew in town. One that was nice, crowded yet allowing for private conversation. "If my brother is released, I will be bringing him with me." He figured Ben would have another way of keeping tabs on the situation. But he didn't trust them yet and he wasn't going to meet with them alone.
"Your...brother," she nearly tripped over the word, "knows nothing. Not what you are, where you came from, or Hendrickson. Perhaps it should stay that way? Look how his father reacted to your mother over what he didn't understand."
Jack actually laughed at that. "Yeah.. pretty much the same way you people did. My father knew about her ... what ever you want to call it... witchcraft, abilities... what ever. What he freaked about was the fact that she was a nephilim..." He said. "Hypocritical much? It's either Dean or Ben... take your pick."
"I"m sure your brother will be a charming dinner companion. He looks so well behaved on television." Mei said with a sigh. "Then we will see you on Sunday."
"I will see you then... 6pm." He said and then hung up. "Here's hoping Dean is actually available for Sunday dinner and not sunning himself on a beach with no extradition." He muttered heading toward the dining room and his real family.
++++++
Dean barely slept. The jury had been out for two days, and even Regan was starting to look anxious. Well, anxious for her, at any rate. He'd catch snatches here and there, and he was being kept on the death row. Not because he was waiting execution (he hoped) but because it was quiet, and had maximum security. After all, he just might be a mad psycho killer. But he had his own cell. And talked a few of the guards into playing poker for M&Ms to pass the time.
But it was on one of his snatches of sleep that the end of his cot was kicked. Which was strange. No one came into his cell, again because he might be a mad psycho killer trained by a mad psycho militant survivalist. When he opened his eyes, he sat up quickly and pushed his back against the wall, legs bent incase he had to kick. "What are you doing here?" He asked Hendrickson.
"Came to pay you one last visit. We never did get to finish that interview. Don't think I will be needing to wait for your lawyer anymore." He said then spoke a word, to ensure no sounds escaped the cell.
Dean got up and looked around. "I don't have anything to say to you. Other than you need to get a life." He said, keeping as much space between him and Hendrickson as possible. "You don't want a mark on me, looks really bad. Because you know my lawyer will make sure it's shown off. Police brutality and all."
"I'm not a cop. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a wanted man." He said stepping closer, slamming Dean into the wall of his cell. "And no matter what your lawyer tries to convince the jury of, we both know the truth. You are nothing but a monster in men's clothing."
Dean punched Hendrickson and got off the wall. "Bullshit. You think you know so much about me. You don't know shit." He said. "I'd go if I were you. Would hate for me to go all psycho on you."
"Actually, I would like for you to do just that. It's in your blood after all. Would just prove my point that you are less than nothing. " He said returning the blow.
"Even the youngest brother will be leaving you soon. His real family has found him and he won't need you much longer. Where will that leave you, Winchester? With nothing, and no one."
Dean gave him a long look and wiped the blood off his lip. Then he laid back down on the cot. "Go ahead, Hendrickson. You just made my night. You wouldn't be in here if the jury was going to sentence me to death. So I get to walk out of here a free man, and then I'll find you." He said as he crossed his ankles and laced his fingers behind his head. "You can show yourself out. I'm not playing your game."
"Who says I'm waiting for the jury to make up it's mind?" He said darkly and started toward the bed, with every intention of killing Dean Winchester. Then suddenly faded completely from view.
"Winchester... get a move on." The guard said. "Jury is in."
Dean exhaled. "Got it." He said as his suit was carefully pushed through the bars. He dressed, managing to button his shirt with shaking hands. Twelve people he didn't know were going to say today if he lived or died. So instead he concentrated on the pain in his face and how he was going to pay back Hendrickson for that. He wasn't sure Hendrickson was human. He hoped not. Because if he wasn't, Dean could utterly destroy him.
"Ready." He said, banging on the door and sticking his hands out the slot to be cuffed. He knew the procedure.
The jury was in.