It Only Takes a Second
Chapter 9
Disclaimer: See chapter 1

"No," Mac looked at Jim, an expression of disbelief on his face, "He's a boy Jim, he's a boy that has been through more than most adults can deal with, hell there are times he can barely deal with what has happened to him in the past." Mac was trying to control his voice, still not believing that there was a motive behind what Jim had suggested after Caleb started to show an interest in the Brotherhood. "Jim you haven't been the one that has to wake that boy up when he is so lost in a nightmare that he physically fights me before he is even awake. You're not the one that has to watch the guilt eat away at him when he has a vision that can't be changed. You can't ask me to do this to him, I can't." Mac had just assumed the training with John was to help Caleb and Dean stay close since it was Caleb that helped bring Dean back from completely withdrawing into himself after his mother's death. "You can't expect him to understand and decide what he will do in the future, especially something like this," Mac walked toward his son, taking in the pale features. When he had adopted Caleb, Mac made a deal with himself that he wouldn't let anything bad happen to his son, the boy had been through enough, now his dear friend, the man that had lead him to Caleb to start with was asking him to accept that his son would be placed into the perilous position of the Knight within the Brotherhood.

Mac watched the rise and fall of his Son's chest as the boy slept, his mind playing over the last two years since Caleb had come into his life, Caleb was his life and he wasn't about to put him in harms way. There were already whispers within the Brotherhood about what Daniel had claimed from the beginning. About Caleb being something other than human, Mac had tried to shield his son from that, but comments here and there by other hunters had filtered through back to the Doctor and to his Son, which added more fear and doubt that the boy carried, that there was something evil about him, that he was somehow cursed. "If that is why you have John training him, then it ends now, I won't allow him to do this." Mac turned and looked at Jim.

"Your son's a natural hunter Mac." Jim and Mac both looked toward the doorway that led to Dean and Sammy's room. John looked exhausted, the fear and worry from the day of searching for his youngest clear on his face, but now he was standing there, pulled into the conversation by the muffled, tense tone of his friend's voice.

"Don't…" Mac held a hand up toward John, "Did you know about this? Did you know he was training with you for a reason other than to keep him and Dean close?"

John glanced back in the room that held his own son's, blowing out a deep-breath he took a step into Caleb's room, "I had my suspicions…Daniel trained me, he told me he was training me as his replacement, then when he relinquished the position of Knight and Jim pulled me in closer, introducing me to you and Caleb, I started to see similarities in what I was being asked to do in comparison to what Daniel did with me." John looked at Jim, "I didn't know the full extent, but like I said, I had my suspicions."

Mac stepped closer to John, "And you think I should let this continue, allow this to be forced upon him?"

"Why are you asking me, I'm just beginning to understand this whole Knight thing. You know my background, this sure as hell isn't the life I would have picked if given the choice, but sometimes that choice is taken from us and we are thrown down a road we wouldn't wish on our worst enemy." John could feel anger rising inside him, "Do you think I wanted to watch my wife burned alive on the ceiling of Sammy's nursery? Do you think this is what I had planned out when my boys were born? Some days I wish I would have died in that fire, that maybe it would have been better if all of us did, but we didn't and I have to deal with that and go on, trying to protect my boys from things I never would have dreamed existed. I look at my boy's everyday and realize they are the only reason I haven't put a bullet through my head to stop the pain and hurt I feel every single day. But if what I'm doing now, if what Jim has offered me helps protect my boys and puts me that much closer to killing the son of a bitch that took my wife, then this is what I'm going to do. Now whether you want Caleb to train with me or not, that is your choice. I can only tell you that he is a natural at everything that I have shown him, and if what Jim's says could happen, happens then I will do my damnedest to make sure your son is ready, just as I want my boys ready to face whatever comes at them in this life we've been dropped into." Without another word, John turned and headed back toward his son's room.

Jim watched an array of emotions cross Mac's face, slowly he stepped toward him. "I'm sorry, I had planned on talking to you when emotions weren't running so high, but we all know how best laid plans hardly every work. We can discuss this more once Sammy is awake…" Jim placed his hand on Mac's shoulder, "believe it or not this is not my choice, I can only help prepare the next generation, I can't choose which role they will or will not play, that is left to a power even greater than the Brotherhood." Silently Jim headed toward the door, but Mac's voice stopped him.

"When are you going to tell John?" It was very rare for Jim to be surprised by anything, but Mac knew he had surprised the older man on how quickly he had picked up on his subtle wording. "The connection that Caleb has with the boys, it's not unlike the connection of traditional Triads."

"How?" Jim was genuinely shocked.

"I am the Scholar, am I not? I have read through the Journal's, about the link the members of the Triad have to one another…" Mac walked up to Jim, still upset by what had been revealed, "you, yourself, said that Caleb's connection to the boys was getting stronger for a reason, when are you going to tell John that there is another reason he was chosen to be the Knight, that he is to train the next Knight? When are you going to tell him that his son's are the rest of the next Triad?"

Jim sat in his library, staring at the fire in the fireplace. The Pastor had wanted to talk to Mac for a while, but the time had never been right, now with the incident with Sammy, things became clear to the Guardian. He had worried since the day Julian had informed him of his position, that he would not be able to live up to what being the leader of the Brotherhood entailed. Jim had been sure all those years ago that Julian had been mistaken in making him Guardian, but once in the role and once Jim had started being visited by the Lady, it became clear to the older man that he had been prepared for this calling long before meeting his mentor.

As a boy Jim loved the water, could always be found near, in or on the water. His parents lived in the northern part of the country; they had a pond as well as a river that ran along their property. Jim could recall many times as a child being scolded by his parents for 'wasting time' near the water when he had choirs to tend to. When he had gone off to war, he felt his soul darken, not only because of what he had been trained to do, but he had lost that peacefulness he could always lose himself in when he was around water, water sources in the jungle were more of a threat than a comfort.

Once returning from the hell the war had been he found love with Emma and comfort from the farm they bought together, which included a large pond. Many hours he would spend at its edge; sometimes with his wife at his side, sometimes on bright sunny days when he had time between taking care of the place and studying to become a Pastor. Other times it would be to find peace from the horrific nightmares the war had left him with. After his wife's death he would stand on the dock and scream at God. It was on one of those nights that he had his first encounter with who he would later discover was the Lady. She had come in the form of his beloved Emma, trying to give him encouragement in his sorrow. It was only after he had talked with his Senior Pastor that he was introduced to Julian Smith, Guardian of the Brotherhood.

Over the years of training with Julian, Jim had been visited many times by the Lady. One of the final times was when the inscription had been burned into his ring, the one that confirmed what Julian had been saying about who Jim would become. It was over the years since the torch had been passed to him that he understood how selections were made, they were not the choice of the Guardian, but of a greater power. It was what had allowed Jim to find Mac when a Scholar was needed. It was that power that helped him understand that his choice of Elkins for Knight had been wrong and led him to John. Once Caleb came on the scene it was those powers that started to reveal what Jim had not wanted to see, what the boys father doesn't want to accept, that Caleb was on the path of the Knight. But still Jim didn't want to believe that a boy so young would already be destined to such a position, that was until he met the Winchester children.

It was literally the moment John Winchester walked into Jim's home with his two small children that the Pastor felt what he was sure Caleb would refer to as 'a disturbance in the force'. The very night of their arrival Jim was visited by the Lady in a dream, from that day he watched the boys, even though Sammy was only a baby he was able to pick up on how the child reacted, how he watched and seemed to take everything around him in. Then Dean started following him around, especially to the pond. Sometimes Jim would pretend he didn't know the boy was shadowing him, other times, even before the traumatized four-year old started talking again; Jim would take the boy with him to the pond. The older man noticed a peace come over the boy when he was near the water, that was when he had started researching previous Triads.

It was finally the connection that Mac had told him that Caleb seemed to have with the Winchester children that everything started to fall into place and tonight confirmed it all. Caleb's sense that Sammy was in danger, his overwhelming need to find the boy and his use of the 'string' connection with Dean to find his way back through darkened woods. The signs were clear, the future Triad was all but confirmed.

Jim stood and left the room, heading through the kitchen he grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair where he had tossed it hours ago. It was nearly three in the morning, but Jim needed answers, he needed help, he needed peace in his soul that only came from the water. Mac's reaction had not been as he had hoped; he could only image how John's would be when the time came.

A/N: Okay first I want to say, this is my theory on how Jim came to understand that Caleb, Dean and Sam would be the next Triad. I know in Ridley's and Tidia's stories there is a second set of boys that are 'in the running' so to speak, as being potential Triad contenders, but we all know it was our boys that were destined. My theory has no connection to any of Ridley's or Tidia's stories, I don't know how, when or where things come to Jim in their timeline of stories and I hope they don't mind me throwing my idea out there. These last two chapters just started to flow out of me during the course of this story, but as I reread them I thought 'Why Not' and decided to leave them. Please forgive me if I seem way off base with this, as I said it came to me and seemed right for the moment.--Montez