What Should Have Never Been Pt 4
Author: Linda Atkinson
Fandom: Supernatural
Rating: FRT
Characters: Sam, Dean, John, OCs
Warnings: Completely AU after What Is and What Should Never Be, some rough language, violence, angst, Drug-use, abuse, Evil Sam(maybe).
Summary: Dean is so shaken by events in What Is and What Should Have Been that he makes a deal with the cross-roads demon to change the past so that his father doesn't become a hunter and ends up in an alternate world where things are radically different, except that he alone can remember the original time-line.
The hospital was quiet. Dean glanced down the hall watching the four figures at the nurse's station. Sam and Roger were arguing with a sheriff's deputy and the head nurse was trying to shush them all. Dean could hear Roger's strident angry voice above all the others and it made Dean wince.
"I told you, Sam. John is dangerous, at least to himself. This is the second time he's tried to commit suicide. He needs to be back in the institution right away."
Sam balked, looking over at the deputy then tugging on his uncle's arm. Dean could see a hint of concern in Sam's face and knew it was not for their father. Sam was seriously shaken by John's revelation that he knew that Roger had raided his separate property for money from their mother's life insurance. From the way Sam was hedging getting the cops involved Dean knew that it must be true. He suspected that Sam had been part of the deal as well.
Finally the older man calmed down enough to let the deputy leave. Sam paced the floor in front of the nurse's station and Dean could hear his brother and uncle talking in low tones.
"Dean knows, at least he heard about mom's life insurance. If he goes to the courts, they'll put us both in jail. We have to be really careful," Sam said. Roger shook his hand off.
"I have all the statements from the bank account in my briefcase in my car. I'll destroy them. Unless John can actually get the judge to subpoena the records from the bank, and I doubt that he can, it'll be okay."
With a smile Dean slipped down the hall to the fire exit. He took the seven flights of stairs down to the parking structure and began looking for the car that he had seen his aunt and uncle in when they arrived at the house the other day. The dark blue Lincoln was parked in visitors parking just beside the elevator. With a grin he slipped into the shadows. It took Dean less time to break into the car than it would most people to find their keys and unlock the door.
Quickly Dean eased the briefcase out of the back seat and walked quickly away. The parking structure was dark and quiet and he was willing to bet that even with security cameras it would be hard to identify him. Added to that Dean didn't particularly care if his uncle knew he'd taken the briefcase. It wasn't likely he'd report it to the police considering it contained evidence he had committed a crime.
The Impala was parked on the street on the opposite side of the building. Walking calmly Dean strolled down the ramp and around the corner. It took him longer than he was happy with to hike the three blocks around the building, but Dean didn't want to take a chance on running into Sam and Roger.
He unlocked the car and slid the briefcase under the front seat. With a grin he pocketed his keys and used the street level entrance to go back into the hospital. Sam and Roger were both still outside the door to his father's room when he hopped off the elevator and strolled down the hall.
Sam sneered at him when Dean came to rest by the door to the room and asked,
"How's Dad?'
With a glare his younger brother made some kind of disjointed motion that Dean interpreted as an angry gesture toward their father's bed and huffed out a breath.
"How do you think? He tried to kill himself. The deputies won't prosecute though because of some stupid shit about the angle of the cuts. Apparently Palo Alto's finest think the cuts are defensive wounds. Like dad would have anyone at the house he would need to defend himself against."
Dean lifted an eyebrow at their uncle.
"Oh I don't know. I can think of a few people."
Roger flushed.
"Surely you don't believe that bullshit of John's about your mother's life insurance? You must know that all the assets that your father had at the time of the incident were placed in the estate that I manage for him."
"Is that so?" Dean smirked. "But if it wasn't, there would be some kind of separate account in dad's name, huh?"
Roger grinned "But you won't find any evidence of that. I mean there would be bank account statements and interest statements things like that. There aren't any of those things lying around."
"You're sure of that, huh?" Dean said his eyes glinting.
Roger stuttered to a halt, turning to Sam. Both men looked uneasy. And that made Dean ecstatic.
Clearing his throat Roger turned to Sam.
"I'm going to file papers with the court in the morning to have John committed to Clearview again."
Sam nodded but Dean just smiled broadly.
"I think you'll change your mind about that Uncle Roger. Just wait and see."
Turning, Dean slipped into John's room. His father was lying still on the bed, but even in the dim light Dean could see that he wasn't asleep. For a man who was supposedly so distraught that he tried to kill himself John looked incredibly serene. With a grin Dean leaned down squeezing his father's hand.
"How you doing, Dad?"
John nodded his eyes dropping closed for a moment.
"Okay. I didn't loose that much blood. She was in too much of a hurry and missed the arteries on both arms." Sighing John smiled up at his older son. "I want to thank you, though."
"For what? Almost getting you killed. I should have been more careful…"
"No," John hissed. "I felt more like a man today than I have in twenty-three years. You gave that to me, and for better or worse whatever happens from here on out I'll have that."
"Nothing is gonna happen," Dean interrupted.
John shushed him with a raised hand.
"Dean you know that Roger will have me committed again. He can't let anyone find out about him taking that money. Although God knows that no one would believe me anyway."
"Sure they would. Bank accounts have records, statements and stuff. The account that the court had set up for you for Roger to oversee has records."
Nodding John sighed and said softly, "But Roger will destroy them all, and you know that."
"No he won't. I got them out of his car. I have all the records."
Laughing John patted his son's arm. "You broke into his car? God, Dean I'm proud of you. Did you slash his tires while you were at it?"
"I wouldn't do that, I'm not that vindictive. Besides he was parked too close to the elevator and I didn't have time."
Sitting down on the edge of the bed Dean took a deep breath.
"We have to do something about Sara. If she is a demon, and I think that's likely, we need to get rid of her. The only problem that I can see is that, since Sara is her mother, Annie is also part demon. And that means…"
Frowning John shook his head.
"Sara is not Annie's mother, Dean. Annie's mother was a girl that Sam was dating. Her name was Jessica. She was killed in a fire at their apartment about a week after Annie was born. Sam got himself and the baby out but he couldn't save Jess. Sara was one of the grief counselors at the hospital where they took the baby. Sammy married her three weeks after Jess died."
Dean snorted.
"I guess that Sammy wasn't much for mourning, was he?"
"Dean, Sam was young and he had a baby to provide for…" John said quietly.
Dean held up a hand.
"Please. You never stopped mourning Mom, and you weren't that much older than Sammy when she died. On top of that you had two little kids to provide for."
"Oh yeah, look how well that turned out. I ended up committed to a mental institution and my kids were taken away. I failed you, Dean, you and Sammy both."
"It wasn't your fault. You got committed for telling the truth, because nobody wanted to hear it. Where I came from you made it Dad. You raised me and Sammy on your own and we made it okay. Maybe not great, but we survived."
John's expression didn't change.
"I wanted so much more for you and your brother than just surviving, Dean."
"Hey, you did then too, but life ain't all puppy dogs and rainbows. It's a tough world we lived in, and we saved a hell of a lot of people. Killed a lot of evil things too."
Dean grinned leaning down hugging John's neck as much as he could and not disturb all the wires and tubes they had coming out of his body. John offered his son a grin in return.
He patted Dean's shoulder.
"I'm sure that I was proud of you, Dean. Proud of the man that you are."
Flinching Dean leaned away, face going pale.
"Don't say that, Dad. God, please don't say it like that. Okay?"
John looked confused, and Dean just shrugged.
"Are you doing okay? I wanted to get you out of here, but I think its better that you stay tonight. I don't trust that little bitch to not try and get you again. I'm going back to the house. See you tomorrow."
John nodded patting Dean's hand. "Be careful Sam and Roger are really bent out of shape about all this and I don't trust them at all."
Dean walked into the house, it was almost two in the morning and the lights were dimmed. He could hear the sounds of Sara moving about in the nursery and Sam's voice in the hall. They were arguing about something and Dean would bet dollars to donuts it had to do with his father. Sara's voice was strident and angry and Dean could hear the snuffling whimpers the baby was making just under the thin thread of conversation between her parents.
Dean wondered if Sara was human at all or if she was the demon's true form. Then he began to wonder why she had married Sam. The whispered revelations that his father had hissed in his ear in the hospital before the man had condemned himself to hell rang in Dean's ears. Was Sam evil? Is that why the demon had killed his girlfriend Jessica to take her place or did this demon have a tie to the yellow-eyed bastard that had taken Dean and Sam's mother. Even in this twisted reality John had clung to that idea, that the demon had destroyed his family. Somehow things that had happened in Dean's original time-line had bled over into this alternate reality. As if the Winchesters could never have a life without monsters, a world not tainted by death and the undead.
Sam growled something at the girl and pushed past his brother storming out to the living room. Dean cast a sideways glance at Sara as she rocked the baby in her arms. She sneered at him no longer concerned with preserving her identity as a human and that worried Dean. Sara had missed her chance with John, missed the opportunity to shut him up permanently and Dean wondered what she would do now.
Carefully she walked into the nursery laying the baby in her crib. The little girl wriggled briefly before her eyes dropped closed and Dean watched silently as Sara pulled the door almost closed before disappearing into the bedroom she shared with his brother. With a final glare Dean strolled into his father's bedroom, looking at the photo album still perched on the edge of the bed.
Sitting down Dean picked up the book. He vaguely remembered the horse seat at the barber shop, remembered going for ice cream with Dad afterwards. That must have been just before Sammy was born. John was smiling, looking so proud and for a brief moment Dean felt a stab of self loathing as the image of John's bruised and battered face slammed into his mind. How could he have fallen so low as to abuse a supposedly mentally ill man? He sat the book aside scrubbing his hands over his face, not him. He wasn't the one, not truly.
Tiredly Dean lay back but knew he couldn't sleep. His father's blood was still clinging to the wall, dried in long streams down the satiny painted surface. He felt sick to his stomach, but he didn't rise. Dean didn't want to look at the dark stains on the carpet. His Dad was safe for tonight, at least, still in the safety of his hospital bed.
He must have fallen asleep because Dean came awake with a start. Something was wrong, he could feel it. Shaking his head Dean rose, confused at first as to where he was then he caught the faint trace of his father's scent on the pillows and realized that he'd fallen asleep in John's room. Pushing himself off the bed Dean staggered into the hall.
There was a bright, warm light transfusing the corridor, and it seemed to be coming from the nursery. With a frown Dean walked down the hall and pushed the door open. With a startled shout he jumped back as flames leapt out at him. The interior of the room was thick with smoke, and Dean gagged. Desperately he tugged a blanket off the dresser and wrapped it around his nose and mouth before plunging into the room. Quickly he ran to the crib pulling back the covers but the bed was empty.
Something warm and wet spattered against Dean's face and he glanced up. Sara's body was pinned to the ceiling, abdomen cut open raining blood down onto him. Dean jumped back running for the door.
He skidded to a halt outside of Sam's bedroom shouldering the door open, but the bed was untouched, the room just beginning to grow cloudy with smoke seeping in from the other room. Quickly Dean did a brief walk through checking the bathroom and beside the bed near the wall before abandoning the bedroom and racing for the living room.
Sam was there carrying Annie in him arms. Dean felt his entire body relax when he saw his brother at the door. With a smile he tugged on the younger man's arm. Sam jerked forward pulling his sleeve free of his brother's fingers and whirled. His face was blank, cold and Dean gasped even before Sam's eyes went coal black. With a sneer Sam jerked his head and Dean found himself spinning through the air. He thudded against the wall with a groan and slid to the floor. Moaning Dean tried to raise his head, but the world tilted sharply and he found himself floating down to darkness.
Dave Mitchell was driving the hook and ladder truck when the call came in. A house fire on Alabaster Lane. He hit the sirens and pulled onto the freeway. It took him all of fifteen minutes to make the run, the big truck lurching to a halt in the driveway. Dave could see another engine from the station already on the scene and an ambulance. He hoped the paramedics wouldn't be needed. But that hope died when he saw two men carrying a body out of the house.
They dumped the guy on the lawn and pulled over an oxygen tank. The guy started moving right away so he must not have pulled in too much smoke, and that made Dave feel a whole lot better.
Dean sat huddled on the hood of the Impala thinking how his life had just come full circle, death and fire in the beginning and end. He wondered just what the Winchester clan had done in the far distant past that had pissed off God so much that they just couldn't catch a break. The fire fighters had been at it for almost two hours, the house had a lot of combustible material in it and the fire just wouldn't die down.
He felt sick, briefly, when they managed to pull Sara's remains out of the nursery, the black vinyl body bag compressed far too much to hold an entire human body. But still if there was that much left of her, then the poor girl who died in that fire was possessed. Dean wondered if the demon had left her body and jumped to Sam or was his brother turning of his own accord? He had taken the baby and Dean remembered the harsh words whispered so urgently against his ear in the hospital after the accident a whole other life time ago.
Was Annie like Sam some kind of psychic wunderkind? Did the demon want Sammy and gave him the baby as an offering or did it need them both? He'd have to talk to his father. Dean flinched John wasn't nearly ready for the hunt yet, but he hadn't been the first time around either. Now tempered by years of passivity and abuse maybe his father would go into this a little less obsessed.
They would take this slow, go into it right. And they had an advantage; Dean knew where all the bastards were, without them being forewarned about John Winchester. His father had made a name killing the petty every day evil that plagued humanity. This time they were going into the big leagues right off the bat. And they'd start in Jericho just like he and Sammy had; only this time that yellow-eyed son of a bitch wouldn't know what was coming.
Right now Dean needed to get to the hospital, needed desperately to see that his father was okay. He didn't think that Sam would go there, but Dean wasn't going to take a chance.
The corridor was silent, empty when Dean got back to the hospital. The paramedics had wanted to transport him by ambulance in case he was suffering from smoke inhalation, but he waved them off. They had a mess on their hands as it was and really didn't make an issue of it. Especially when Dean had gotten into the car and pulled out of the driveway.
Dean snuck past the nurse's station and slipped quietly into his father's room. John was asleep in the bed. The steady beep of the monitor reading his heart rate soothed Dean considerably. Sammy must have just opted for leaving outright. Tracking him was going to be difficult since Dean didn't want other hunters getting wind of the fact that he was possessed and going after him.
He heard footsteps in the hall and ducked into the bathroom pulling the door almost closed. The nurse pushed a cart into the room loaded down with tiny plastic cups of medication, and clear plastic bags of fluid for the IV drips. She gently shook his father awake and cheerfully slapped a blood pressure cuff on his arm.
"Hold still Mr. Winchester, I just need to get your vitals, and then we'll change the bag on your IV, so you can get good night's sleep."
John frowned growling at her,
"I was doing just fine until you came in. How the hell do you expect me to get a good night's sleep when you come in every couple of hours and wake me up?"
She made little tsking noises at him, not at all disturbed by his grouchy demeanor. The nurse noted his vital signs on his chart and pushed a cup at him.
"The doctor wants you on something beside the Seroqeul. You'll need to take it on a regular schedule."
His father accepted the cup and tossed the pills back. Dean flinched, it had been hell watching his father go through withdrawal from the other meds; hopefully these wouldn't be so bad. But as soon as the nurse turned her back to change the IV bag John spit the pills back into his hand tucking them under the pillow. Dean smiled, way to go, Dad.
As soon as the nurse was gone Dean crept into the room. John watched him slide into a chair, and sat up. The soot and smoke clinging to his son frightened him.
"Dean, what's wrong?"
"Sara's dead. The demon decided she wasn't useful anymore or maybe because she failed. Anyway she died just like Mom. The fire was pretty much out when I left, so the house isn't all that damaged."
John nodded as if that didn't really matter to him.
"Sammy and the baby?"
Dean's chest heaved with his sudden indrawn breath.
"Gone, Sammy took the baby and left."
"Why?"
"Dad, his eyes went black. Either he's possessed or he turned, but the demon got to him."
Throwing the blankets back John tried to sit up, with a frown he said, "Then get me out of this crap. We have to get on the road looking for him."
"No wait. If you leave tonight before the police look into this Uncle Roger will try to pin it on you, say you set the fire. If you're in the hospital then they can't blame you.
Just stay put tonight, or maybe the next couple of days. You aren't ready yet anyway. I need to get some weapons together and we need to get you up to speed. We'll find him. Find them both, but you've got to trust me on this one."
John smiled, "I do Dean. I know you know this all better than I do, but I remember so many things. And I can still fight and handle a gun. Just help me out a little, I'll get it."
The door to the Roadhouse swung open and two men walked in. Ellen Harvelle looked up over the bar and amended that to the two men stalked in, like the predators they were. She knew them if not by sight then by reputation. The Winchesters, father and son, new hunters who had been making a name for themselves the past six months. She cast a lingering glace first the older and then the younger. They were trouble alright, trouble with a capital T. But damn weren't they easy on the eyes.
Her husband banged in from the back, slamming the door to the rear yard behind him with a grunt, also casting a glance over at the two newcomers. He sighed, he'd have to keep an eye on Joanne while they were sniffing around. One look at both men and he knew his daughter would have no problem bedding father or son. Then getting a good clear look at Jo's face as she slid frosty mugs of beer onto the bar he sighed, changing that to father and son, and wasn't that a bitch. Quietly he offered a silent pray of thanks when the Winchester men abandoned the bar in favor of a table, not that it would stop his daughter but it would, at least, slow her down.
The hunting community was tight-knit and closed-mouthed, but even then stories of the Winchesters had been circulating widely. The two men hunted with the precision of a wolf pack, and were just as about as relentless. They had burst onto the scene in Jericho, California, taking out a woman in white, and spread outward from there. Bill knew that they had wiped out a nest of vampires in Manning, Colorado because Daniel Elkins had called him, singing their praises as a pair of stone cold bastards who knew their shit.
The next he'd heard, they had killed a Wendigo and then some Shadow Demons in Chicago. They seemed to be searching for something. Bill was wary of getting involved; hunters with a vendetta also came with a short expiry date.
He watched as his daughter strutted up to the table father and son occupied shooting both men a toothy grin. The million dollar smile that John Winchester dropped on his little girl had her backbone melting, and Bill growled in irritation.
"Jo, take their order and move on we got other customers waiting."
She shot him a look and Bill winced.
"Daddy I'm working here."
"Working it is more likely," Bill huffed under his breath.
The son, Dean, smirked in Bill's direction. Damn it all if that didn't get Jo's attention too. Bill gave up and walked over to the table offering both men a tight smile that was rife with threat. John shot the other man an appraising glance and grinned, shrugging as if he knew what was going on.
"My son and I are not looking for trouble, just a good hot meal and maybe a little information."
Bill offered his own shrug in return. "I got the first, don't know about the second. We'll see what we can do."
The elder Winchester nodded taking a swig out of the mug, and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
"I need some information on demons, thought you might be able to steer me on the path of someone who knew about them."
Bill flinched.
"Demons, hell of thing to be hunting. Vampires, spirits, even werewolves, they're penny ante crap next to demons. Damn things are near impossible to kill; best you might be able to do is exorcise the thing back to hell. Why you looking?"
At first Bill thought that the other man might not answer then John shrugged.
"A demon killed my wife, and they took my son and granddaughter. I want them back."
Well, Bill could understand that. He glanced at Ellen behind the bar and over at Jo who was still drooling over the Winchesters. He sighed; it might get them out of the place faster anyway.
"Bobby Singer, Durham, South Dakota. If anybody knows about demons its Bobby. You give him a call. He'll set you up."
TBC