Skirmish
Chapter 6
Disclaimer: See chapter 1
A/N: This was going to be the last chapter, but the story decided it wasn't quite finished. I'm powerless to resist. Thanks to Kelli for the beta and to everyone who has spent their time reading and leaving feedback; all is appreciated.
oooOOOooo
Sweet child of innocence
Living in the present tense
Father Time will take his toll
Rack your body and steal your soul
What became of all the years
Are you drowning in your tears
Who will catch you when you fall
Who will hear you when you call
Kansas, Child of Innocence (originally on the 1975 album, Masque)
oooOOOooo
Sam saw his father's expression when John joined him at the table.
"What's wrong?"
"Aidan is on his way here and I have to go to Gretchen's house."
"Why?" he was scared.
"Something happened and I need to be there."
"Dad –"
"Aidan is going to stay with you –"
"Tell me what happened!"
"The old woman is possessed," John said quietly, his hand on Sam's wrist. "Caleb says he doesn't know how it happened because they took all the precautions."
"Why do you have to go?"
"The thing possessing her wants to see me. You'll be okay with Aidan."
Sam felt cold; he didn't know what to say.
"I'm going to take care of this, son, and your brother will get better."
The boy nodded. "Go now, then. I'll wait here for Aidan."
John looked at him. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'll be all right."
"He's about ten minutes out and he knows to find you here."
"Yes, sir."
John squeezed Sam's wrist as he stood.
"Dad?"
"Yeah?"
"Be careful."
John smiled at him. "I will."
oooOOOooo
Caleb rushed out of the house when he heard the Impala's engine. John was just getting out of the car when he saw his friend.
"What the hell is going on?" John demanded.
"The old woman's eyes have turned gold; I've never seen a demon do that. Normally they're jet black."
"Must be one powerful demon to get through the defenses."
"Unless it was already here."
John looked at him. "Aidan didn't look?"
"Of course he did," Caleb sounded a little offended. "But it could have already been in the old woman."
"Doesn't matter now. Where is it?"
"Back bedroom. It's chosen to stay in there for whatever reason. It's not talking to any of us since asking for you – and saying that if we tried to get rid of it, that Dean wouldn't recover."
John gritted his teeth and barely nodded a greeting to the other hunters he passed on his way to the bedroom. Joshua was still in there, keeping an eye on the demon.
"Hey, John."
"Josh."
The possessed woman turned from the window and smiled at John; gold eyes almost glowing.
"Well! John Winchester. We meet again."
"Again?"
Its smile broadened. "I was at your house in Lawrence."
Caleb and Joshua quickly restrained John before he could move.
"You son of a bitch!" John bellowed as he struggled against his friends' hands. "You killed my wife?"
"Well, yes, I'm afraid I had to."
"Why?"
The Gretchen-thing shrugged. "She tried to stop me."
John stopped struggling. "Stop you from doing what? What do you want with my boy?"
"Which one?" the demon looked genuinely confused.
"The one you've put in the hospital!"
"Oh," Gretchen waved away the question. "Him. Nothing. He'll be fine."
John felt sick. "What do you want with Sammy, then?"
"Sammy. Now he is of great interest to me," the demon said and began to pace. "He's got a future ahead of him, that boy."
"What are you talking about?"
"He's going to be mine, John. He was meant to be mine and I'll have him. That's what that visit to your house was all about, after all. And if your pretty wife hadn't disturbed me, she would still be alive today," the demon mused. "It's interesting how many times the mothers of my children wake up when I'm there. It's like they can sense me or something."
'What the fuck do you mean? Your children? Sam is my son."
"Language, John! In some respects, yes, Sam is your son."
John tried to charge the demon again, but his friends held him back.
"Pay heed to these men, John. They're keeping you from doing something stupid."
"How did you get in here?" John demanded.
"Ha! Do you think your little precautions are going to work on me?" The possessed woman smiled. "Oh, that's right. You've never encountered anything like me before, have you? All those lesser demons you've banished back to hell don't have an ounce of the power I do! Now, I'm sure you want to know why I wanted to see you."
John glared silently.
"I thought it was time for a face-to-face meeting and I merely wanted to let you know that I'm around. It's not time for the next move yet, but I'm watching. I can do what I want, when I want. I made your older boy sick and I can do it again. Any time I want. I could have done it without this old crow's help, but what would be the fun in that?"
"Is that what this is about? Fun?"
"Oh, no. It's very serious business. But you know what they say about all work and no play. And, really, Gretchen has done some quite creative things in her time. I think I'll take her with me and put her to work where she can really use her talents."
"Listen to me, you son of a bitch! You've already done enough damage to my family. Don't even think about doing anything to Sam. And you'd damn well better let Dean recover –"
"Or what?" the demon demanded as it suddenly stood toe-to-toe with John. "You have no idea what I can do and here you are, issuing threats? I know you're not that stupid."
Still being restrained by Caleb and Joshua, John could only stare at the creature before him.
"Good boy," the Gretchen-thing patted his cheek, then moved away from him. "Sam is special, John. Even I don't know what's going to manifest, but he's got seeds of power within him and when it's time, you won't be able to stop him from coming to me…like he's meant to ."
The demon lifted a hand which threw the three men into the wall behind them. The door to the bedroom slammed shut and though the hunters on the other side tried to open it, they couldn't.
"I'm going to walk out of here now and none of you will be able to do anything to stop me. You can't do anything, ever, to stop me from doing anything I want to do."
The demon lifted the same hand it used to pin the hunters and blew a hole in the back wall of the bedroom. It paused on the outside and turned to look at John. "He'll come to me, John. When it's time, he'll come."
As soon as the demon was gone, the men fell to the floor and the bedroom door opened. They scrambled through the hole in the wall, but the monster was nowhere to be found and it had apparently taken the old woman's body with it.
John stood in the kitchen, desperately trying to control his shaking. The other hunters were still outside, and in other parts of the house, searching for anything that might help them. He'd been outside for a few minutes, but feeling suddenly ill, he went off on his own and threw up. This was what he'd been afraid of for a long time. He hadn't been able to piece together much, but every bit of information he'd managed to find pointed to Mary being killed by a demon. He'd suspected since she died not only in Sam's nursery, but over his crib, that he was at the root of everything. There were still more questions than answers, but there was no way he was going to let anything take his son. And there was no way Sam would willingly go off with the demon; it was incomprehensible.
Caleb walked up behind him, intentionally making as much noise as possible, and put a hand on his shoulder. He wished he had a shot of whiskey for his friend. "You okay?"
"No."
"Why don't you let me take you back to the hospital?"
"What the hell am I supposed to tell them? What am I supposed to do?"
"The boys are still so young; especially Sam. Maybe this is one of those times when you should keep what you know to yourself."
"That isn't what you normally tell me."
"Yeah, I know," Caleb said and rubbed the back of his neck. "But I don't normally come face to face with a demon who says Sam belongs to it."
"He's my son."
"Yeah, he is. And he's at the hospital with his sick brother. He needs his father, John. We'll handle things here; though I doubt we'll find anything useful."
"You're probably right about that," John sighed. "You'll thank everyone for me and –"
Caleb held up a hand. "Go, John. I'm all over it. You okay to drive?"
"Yeah."
Caleb walked out to the Impala with John and leaned into the open driver's side window. "You sure you're okay to drive?"
"I can handle it. I need you to take care of things here."
"I'll see you soon," Caleb said and tapped the door as John turned the key in the ignition.
oooOOOooo
"Hey, kid." Aidan sat across from Sam at a table near the cafeteria entrance.
Sam only nodded and continued to stare into his cola.
"Sam?"
"What's happening at the house?" he whispered.
"Don't worry about your dad, Sam."
"A demon knows him by name and apparently sent someone to hurt my brother and I'm not supposed to worry?"
"Your dad is with some of the best hunters Caleb knows –"
"It's a demon, man." Sam still hadn't looked up.
Aidan had no idea what to say to his young friend. Sometimes the best course of action was to do nothing, so he decided to wait for Sam.
"You know before? When we were talking about why it went after Dean instead of me?" Sam asked a few minutes later.
"Yeah?"
"I wasn't afraid it was because Dean was Dad's favorite."
"What was it then?"
"My mom was killed over my crib. She died because of me," Sam said quietly. "And I don't want Dean to die because of me, too."
"Your mom didn't die because of you and Dean's going to be fine."
"You don't know that."
Aidan leaned forward. "Your brother is going to be fine, Sam. And your dad is going to take care of things; like he always does."
"One of these days he's going to run into something he can't beat." Sam sounded dejected.
Aidan watched him for a moment. "How about we go see how Dean is doing?"
Sam glanced at the monitor when he and Aidan walked back into Dean's room. He was glad to see his brother's temperature was lower and he sat on the edge of the bed, hoping Dean would wake up and give him crap for holding his hand. Aidan sat in a chair away from the bed, watching Sam care for his brother. His mind wandered and he didn't know how much time passed when he heard Dean's voice, quietly saying his brother's name.
"Hey, Dean," Sam smiled.
Dean swallowed hard, finding it hard to take and Aidan left, telling the brothers he'd be back with ice chips.
"Where's Dad?" Dean finally managed.
"He'll be back soon. How are you feeling?"
"A little better, I think. Is it still Friday?"
"Yeah."
"How the hell much longer is this day going to last?"
"It's just about over, kid," John said.
The brothers' eyes moved to the doorway where their father was standing with a pitcher of ice. He walked into the room and poured some of it into a cup that he handed to his older son.
"Thanks."
"Everything okay?" Sam asked, looking at his father.
John nodded at him, then looked back to Dean. "You look like you're feeling better."
"I think so," Dean said through the ice chips. "What did Sammy mean, is everything okay?"
"I just had something to take care of. Don't worry about it now."
Dean lay back against the pillow.
"You're going to be okay now, Dean. I promise."
The older boy looked into his father's eyes. "You got the old woman?"
"I didn't do it personally, but she's gone."
"Forever?"
John looked at his son curiously. His tone was a mixture of fear, strength and something the father didn't recognize. The last thing he wanted right now was for Dean to be afraid. Not on top of everything else; not when he was finally going to have a fighting chance to recover.
"I hope so. I think so. But you're safe," John saw Dean's eyes flash toward his brother. "Sam's safe, too."
"When do you think the doctor will let me go home?"
"Go home? Dude, you're sick," Sam said. "You're not going anywhere until your fever breaks and the infection is gone."
"Gee, thanks, Dr. Winchester."
John felt tears in his eyes when Dean smiled at his brother. It was hard to believe everything that had happened in just over twenty-four hours; it was just good to see his boy smile.
Although the ICU nurses had been understanding since Dean was transferred into their care, the head nurse insisted he be left alone over night. John didn't want to leave him, but Dean could see how tired his father and brother looked and convinced them to go home. After saying their goodnights, Aidan drove the family home and on the way, John told Sam just enough about what had happened at Gretchen's house to assuage his curiosity.
Caleb was nursing a beer in the living room when Aidan and the Winchesters arrived.
"How's Dean?" he asked, clearly not on his first drink.
"He's doing a lot better," John told him. He put a hand on his son's shoulder. "Why don't you get cleaned up and ready for bed?"
"Yes, sir." Sam had been sent out of the room enough times in his life to know when it was time for the adults to talk. He suspected there was more to what happened with the old woman than his father was willing to tell him, but he wasn't sure he wanted to know what it was.
Ever since he found out Dean was in the hospital, he'd been experiencing something he couldn't explain. It was like he could almost see something that wasn't really there and that feeling scared him. He already felt separate from the rest of the world and he didn't want some paranormal ability to widen the gap. He desperately hoped it was just worry for his brother that was causing the feeling.
"How much have you had there, slick?" John asked.
"There's more in the refrigerator if that's what you're asking."
"It wasn't, but good to know." John sat next to him on the worn couch.
"Dean okay?" Caleb took another long swallow from the bottle.
"His fever is down and he was joking with Sammy before we left."
Caleb nodded. "What the fuck, man? I mean, I know you and I have talked about the thing that took your wife being a demon, but what the fuck?"
John rested his head on the back of the couch. "I don't want Sam to know what it said about him. Ever."
Aidan walked into the living room and handed John a beer. "What did it say?"
John took a deep breath and recited most of what the demon had said. When he was done, Aidan could only stare.
"He's my son," John said to no one in particular. "There's so much of Mary in him and I'll die before I let anything happen to him. That bastard thinks he can take Sammy or that he'll willingly go. That's not going to happen."
"Of course it isn't, John," Aidan agreed. "We'll just have to find a way to send it back to Hell."
John shook his head. "I want to find a way to kill it. Forever. We send it back to Hell, it will only crawl out again. I don't want the boys to live with this threat over their heads forever. I have to find a way to kill it."
"What are you going to tell Dean?" Aidan asked.
"I don't know. Nothing until he's better."
Aidan glanced at Caleb; his head was resting on the back of the couch and his eyes were closed. "You might want to grab that bottle from Sleeping Beauty over there."
John took the bottle and drained the contents before going back to his own. "I've never seen anything like this demon. It's more powerful than anything I've even heard of before."
"We'll figure it out, John. We always do."
"After Mary died and I got my bearings back, I knew she'd been killed by something powerful. And everything I've learned since then pointed to it being a demon. I knew somehow that Sammy wasn't safe from it; his mother died over his crib, after all. Dean naturally took care of him; he'd wanted to be the best big brother ever," John smiled to himself. The beer and the exhaustion were taking their toll. "Even before Sammy was born, Dean talked about being the best big brother there ever was. After Mary died, I'd sometimes find Dean sleeping in his brother's crib, his little arm around the baby. He's always taken such good care of Sammy –"
Aidan watched as John drank the last of his beer. He didn't know what to say, but he knew it didn't matter because John wouldn't hear him anyway.
"He went to it on his own, but I made it his job. Maybe that was wrong, but Sammy needed someone –" John let the empty bottle fall to the floor.
"Come on, man. Let's get you to bed." Aidan stood and pulled John to his feet. He was surprised that John let himself be led to his bedroom and even more surprised when he let Aidan put him to bed. He pulled off John's shoes and pulled a blanket over him; the older man was already snoring lightly. "Sleep well, Johnny."
Sam was standing in his doorway when Aidan left John's room.
"My dad all right?"
"Yeah, he's just exhausted. I think the adrenaline finally wore off."
"You're staying, right?"
"Of course I am."
Sam nodded.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Caleb downstairs?"
"He is. I'm gonna check on him then salt the doors and windows –"
"I'll help."
Aidan nodded.
Once Caleb was settled on the couch and the salt laid out, Sam and Aidan headed to the room the brothers shared. Aidan saw Sam look toward his father's door.
"Why don't you go check on him?" Aidan suggested, suspecting that Sam needed to be near his father. "I'm sure I'll be asleep before my head hits the pillow so I'll see you in the morning."
"Thanks for everything," Sam said. It didn't come entirely as a shock when he hugged Aidan tightly.
"I'm always here for you, kid. You know that, right?"
Sam nodded. Aidan squeezed his shoulder before disappearing into the bedroom. Sam hesitated a moment, but then headed toward his father's room. He thought he would only sit on the side of the bed for a moment and make sure he was all right, but without hesitating he crawled in next to his father.
"Goodnight, Sammy," John muttered.
"'Night, Dad."
oooOOOooo
Sam slipped out of bed early the next morning before anyone else was awake. He put a pot of coffee on before settling on the back porch with one of his textbooks and it was about half an hour later that he heard someone open the door behind him. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see John walking past him to settle in the next chair.
"Did you sleep all right?" John asked, after a sip of coffee.
"Yes, sir. I thought you'd sleep later."
"So did I, actually. Thanks for making coffee."
"You're welcome," Sam said and set the book aside.
"You don't have to stop reading on my account."
"It's okay. When can we go to the hospital?"
"Visiting hours don't start for a while. Maybe we should give the staff a little break today."
Sam nodded and they sat in a somewhat comfortable silence for a few minutes.
"Are you going to tell Dean the old woman was possessed?"
John looked at his son over the coffee cup. "I suppose so."
"Did you exorcise the demon?"
"No."
"Why not? Where is the old woman?"
John set the cup on the porch next to his feet and leaned forward. "I don't know, exactly, but she's gone. The demon got away – it said if we tried to do anything to it, Dean wouldn't survive."
"Why did it want to hurt Dean?"
"To get to me."
"And it can come back?"
"Sammy, they can always come back. I don't know of any way to permanently kill a demon. But I'm going to start looking for one because with this one, it's personal and I don't want you or your brother caught in the crossfire again."
Sam nodded thoughtfully. "Are you telling me the truth?"
"What do you mean?"
"The demon; it didn't want me?"
"Why would you ask that?" John asked carefully.
Sam shrugged, not looking his father in the eye.
"Sammy?"
Still, Sam said nothing.
John moved closer to his son. "Listen to me. The demon wanted to get to me; to let me know it was around because I've made it mad. But if it had wanted you, it would have come after you. I want you to feel safe, Sammy. Your brother and I have always tried very hard to make sure you knew you were protected. I don't want that to change now."
"It's not that, Dad. I know you and Dean are always there. And Aidan, Caleb, Pastor Jim..."
"So what is it, then?"
Sam looked at his father. He'd decided not to tell him what he was really thinking; that this whole thing had something to do with his mother. He didn't think he was ready to know that yet, and wasn't sure that his father would be able to tell him the truth anyway. The last thing Sam wanted to do right now was force him into a corner. As far as he knew, his dad had never outright lied to him and he didn't want that to change over something he wasn't sure he could deal with yet.
"It's nothing," Sam said shaking his head. "It's just been a long couple of days."
John nodded. Sam didn't know if he believed him or not, but he was just grateful his father wasn't pushing it. They slipped into a comfortable silence that was interrupted a few minutes later by the sound of Caleb throwing up inside the house.
"He damn well better have made it to the bathroom," John grumbled as he walked inside.
TBC