Left Behind

Chapter Five: Family

The weeks passed by slowly for John and Mary. Days filled with an eerie silence, both in the house and from the two people living inside. John spent all his free time searching with the local police, following leads and walking the streets, trying to find anything or anyone who knew something about his lost son. Mary would have jumped at the chance to go and search for Dean, but the doctor had put her on bed rest. Her stress levels were too high and she had started to eat less. She didn't want to bring harm to her unborn child, not at all. But she couldn't help the feeling of despair and sadness that made her loose her hunger and trigger emotional lashes. John had left that morning for work after a yelling match with his wife. Mary doing the yelling. She had accused him of not trying hard enough to search for Dean and that he should quit his job to look for him. He left then, holding his retort and fustration inside him and left for work. Their family was falling apart and John was hoping that once the child was born, the pieces would start to be put back together. But there would always be a massive piece of the puzzle missong as long as Dean was apart from them.

Mary huffed from her spot on the bed, her back being supported by pillows along the headboard. She was regretting how she treated John that morning, but she was slowly losing it. She was alone in the house for most of the days, that is if one of her neighbours didn't stop by to see how she was doing. The silence grated on her nerves. She tried the radio, but the first song that played was Hey Jude, and she had burst into tears and turned it off. The television gave her some hope, but the soaps on the television had her rolling her eyes in boredom. She moved her eyes away from the book she was reading and rested them on her enlarged stomach.

"Two more weeks to go." She whispered to her belly, gently rubbing it. The baby was still though, as he had been for the past month. Her baby was a lively one, always pushing up against her ribs and pushing against hands that would rest on her stomach. She was alarmed a few days after Dean disappeared; her unborn child had also seemed to have departed. A quick trip to the doctors had her realizing her baby was fine; he was just missing his older brother. The doctor said the baby was being affected by her stress and emotional outbursts, but she was sure the baby was feeling the loss the rest of his family members were.

She went back to her book and grabbed for some carrot sticks on the bedside table but halted her movement as a slight discomfort travelled through her body. She breathed deeply as the pain slowly went away and she went for her snacks again. Having gone through childbirth once already, she had an idea of the signs. She was in labour. The pains had begun after John had left and were still minutes apart. She would wait until John returned and they would go to the hospital together. She glanced at the clock, seeing John had another hour before he came home. She turned back to her book, smiling slightly, for she couldn't wait to meet her new child.

Dean sat by one of the five windows in the spacious apartment, staring out the window to the people bustling on the streets below. He usually would sit here for a few hours each day, hopping his parents would come here and find him and take him home. He sniffed and saw a plate with a grilled cheese sandwich slide in front of him. He looked up to see the face of Desi smiling at him.

"Here's your lunch, your favourite from what I heard from Blake." Her smile didn't falter when she got no response from Dean. He had his days when he would smile, cuddle up to her at night and chatter with then. Other days though, he was withdrawn, silent, and broody. She understood, they all had days when they just wanted to be alone.

"Tell me if you want anything else to eat, alright?" Desi stroked his hair and left Dean to himself. She walked to Blake and sat beside him at the small table.

"It's going to take time, Des. It took us months to get adjusted to our new homes."

"Yeah but we were older than him and we had each other. He's alone."

Blake looked over to Dean sadly knowing she was right. During Dean's silent days he stayed away from Dean, giving him space but at night Dean would creep into his bed and lay beside him, silently asking for reassurance. Dean always slept beside Blake showing them that he trusted Blake. Dean went to Desi for comfort and solace. And with Trevor, during Dean's brighter days, you could find Trevor playing with Dean, making him giggle and laugh as they played with random toys such as cars, toy soldiers and blocks. Dean wasn't alone anymore.

"Not anymore he's not. We're his family now. Trevor acts like a four year old boy most of the time anyways."

"You got that right." They shared a smile between two close friends. Desi went back to finishing the last sandwiches and Blake went to fix a radio they had found so Dean could listen to some music. Blake looked up though when Trevor burst through the door, panting, his face flushed. He had a wrinkled paper clutched in his right hand and he walked to Blake and showed him the article.

"Dean is in the paper." Blake tore the paper from Trevor and looked at it himself, eyes wide. And there it was. A picture of Dean and his parents, happily sitting by a tree for the family photo. The title 'Missing Boy', was splayed on top of the photo.

"What!" Desi raced towards them and looked over Blake's shoulder.

"He wasn't abandoned dude." Trevor whispered. Silence struck the group as they all took in the information. Dean had a family, one who was looking for him.

"How did we miss this?" Blake found his voice and gestured to the paper.

"We have been staying low for awhile and we don't regularly go and look at the stock market figures."

Trevor uttered a silent 'owww' as Desi hit him on the shoulder.

"So, he does have a family." She took the paper from Blake and begun to read it herself.

"John and Mary Winchester are looking for their missing son, Dean. He was last seen April 8 at the Kansas City train station wearing a blue t-shirt and matching bottoms with Snoopy on it. Dean is four years old with blond hair and green eyes. He was also holding a stuffed animal. If you have any information, please call the police."

"Wow what have I done?" Blake leaned back against the chair, disgusted with him. He tore a family apart. He took a small boy from his parents.

"Blake you couldn't have known. I mean the signs were there all pointing to abandonment." Trevor tried to console.

"But still, I let my own problems, what I wanted to cloud my judgement."

"What do you mean?"

"I saw Dean as my little brother. A little brother that I had lost years ago, and all I wanted was my brother back and with Dean I did. Uggg I'm such an idiot."

"Hey, no more of that talk. It was a misunderstanding, Blake. You did what you thought was right. We can make it up by getting Dean back to his family."

"Shit, we're going to be arrested!" Trevor blurted out, coming to the realization that the police in the paper were looking for suspects. This would be them.

"What?" Desi turned and looked at her boyfriend. His hands were on his head, grasping at his hair.

"We kidnapped a kid! Can't you see that's a crime?" She just rolled her eyes.

"Enough. It was a misunderstanding. We can get Dean back without outing ourselves." Desi walked to Dean and shook him awake from his slumber, his sleepy eyes opening. He sat up and Desi showed him the paper.

"Dean, do you recognize these people."

And with that, the first real smile from Dean, lit up the boys face and it shone so bright, Desi couldn't help but be affected and smile too.

"That my mommy and daddy." He whispered, his fingers trailing over the picture of his parents. "I want my mommy and daddy." And he said this looking straight at Blake, trusting in him again to get him back to his parents.

Swallowing back his own pain, he brought Dean into a hug. "You got it."

John rubbed a hand tiredly over his face as he walked up the steps to his home where his wife awaited him inside. He stopped at the door, almost afraid to go in and face his wife and he laughed at himself, the big strong marine, afraid of his hormonal wife. A yell of his name though had him crashing through the door and racing up the steps.

"John!" He entered their bedroom and was shocked to his wife in obvious pain as she sat on the edge of her bed, clutching her stomach.

"You turned your cell phone off." She gritted out as John reached her side.

"I turned it off when I got in my car to head home. Mar, are you in labour?"

"Does it look like I'm in labour?" She said sarcastically and groaned as another contraction hit. "It's going too fast."

"Too fast?" John grasped her hand a cringed as she instantly cut off the blood circulation to his hand.

"I was in labour for twelve hours before we had Dean, this is less than six."

"Shhh, its okay, Come on, let's get you to the car." John slung his wife's arm over his shoulder and carefully lifted her from the bed and they slowly made their way down the stairs and into the car. He went to turn back to the house for the overnight bag for Mary, but was stopped as she grabbed onto his shirt.

"Turn. Your. Phone. On." John could just nod his head as the tone in her voice left him terrified of his wife. He switched on his phone and turned quickly to grab the bag, and in record time, was on the road to the hospital, his wife panting in pain beside him. The wheels screeched to a stop at the emergency doors and John yelled out for assistance. In no time at all it seemed, Mary was taken away in a wheelchair and John was left standing in a waiting room with the bag hanging loosely from his left arm. He sat numbly on the chair provided and stared blankly ahead in shock. Fifteen minutes later, a nurse ushered him from the waiting room towards the maternal ward. He was met by the doctor in front of the room and they shook hands, introducing themselves.

The doctor then led John into the room and saw that Mary was in the bed looking slightly uncomfortable. He eyed her confused and she answered.

"An epidural." He nodded in understanding, relief flooding him knowing the pain had lessened for her.

"Alright Mary, let's see how this young one is doing." After a while he spoke again. "Well, it seems you should be ready to go in half an hour or so. You're nearly fully dilated."

"But it's gone so quickly, the labour I mean."

"The first child usually takes longer than the second. It's common." She sighed in relief knowing everything was going just fine. She grasped John's hand and got him to turn to her face.

"We are going to meet him or her soon, John." She smiled at him, though her eyes held sadness.

"I know sweetheart." They were excited for the arrival of their child but also they were also sad knowing that their other child wasn't with them. This was supposed to be a happy occasion.

Their moment was cut short thought, when John's cell phone rang. The nurse in the room instantly told him to take it outside but he just walked out of the room to answer the call. Mary grew nervous when John walked back in a few minutes later.

"John, everything alright?"

"That was the police." She sucked in a deep breath, hoping it was good news.

"They found Dean."

Sorry for the long wait! Hope you enjoy the chapter! Please read and review!