"I told you you'd want to see this."

Bobby was still not happy that Jo had so foolishly brought an outsider-no, a threat- along with her without so much as a second thought. After he had done so much campaigning to her mother that she was smart enough and strong enough to hunt by herself without getting herself killed, this is what she does! She brings a monster to his home and tells him not to do anything about it. Who does she think he is? He may be retired but he is by no means stupid, unlike her apparently. At least he never made friends with the subject of a future hunt!

The familiar rumble of the impala pulling into the salvage yard pulled Bobby away from his inner tirade. He went out to greet the boys with Jo and Alec in tow. Just as soon as the Winchester brothers had exited the car, Sam had a flask in his hand and Alec was once again dripping with holy water.

"Why does that keep happening?" He grumbled to Jo with his hair now sticking up at odd angles. He looked up and glared at the boys. Only then did he get a good look at Dean. His eyes widened and his brow furrowed at the sight. Alec felt like he was looking in a mirror. His first thought was that he was standing opposite another Manticore clone but it took only a moment to rule that out. The man standing in front of him was not made in a test tube. His body bore the scars of a rough life. With genetically enhanced cells, scars were virtually impossible to get. His eyes were guarded and had a bit of that haunted look to them but they had a warmth hidden within their depths that most Manticore natives lacked…and loyalty. He didn't look scared for his own life and protecting those around him seemed to be his only objective. Looking at him again, something clicked in Alec's brain. He must be the original.

Saying Dean was shocked would be the understatement of the century. He'd seen shapeshifters with his face before, but with them, their disguises were merely imitations of the real thing and if you knew what to look for, you could see through the cracks. This was different. The man standing opposite him looked just like him but at the same time, completely different. From his hair, his eyes, his stance: all of it. It was uncannily similar but strangely foreign. This guy didn't have quite as much bulk to him and even looked to be a few years younger. He could tell he was gaping but couldn't bring himself to care. His mind was racing and his heart seemed it would beat out of his chest. His adrenalin was working on overdrive with the fight or flight response that he was struggling to ignore. This guy was not in a threatening pose at all. He was leaning against a rundown car's bumper trying to get water out of his hair- not exactly frightening.

Sam, still standing next to him, was also quite perplexed. Jo and Bobby seemed okay with this newcomer so he probably wasn't an immediate threat but looking at this stranger and seeing his big brother definitely put him on edge. He subconsciously moved a little closer to Dean to both give and get support and backup should his threat assessment be wrong. They both tensed.

Alec spoke first, breaking the silent scrutiny, "If I didn't have a clone already, I'd be seriously freaked out right now."

Out of the corner of his eye, Alec observed Dean slowly grab a dagger from somewhere on his person and grip it menacingly.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey. Slow down there, big guy." He placated as Dean advanced toward him, knife in hand. "Come on now, what's a little shared DNA between friends, huh?" He once again tried to diffuse the situation. Dean wasn't buying it and pulled back his arm and threw the dagger right at Alec. Alec silently thanked Manticore for his inhuman reflexes but quickly cursed them again realizing that it was his genetic sequencing that had gotten him in this mess in the first place. He blurred out of the way less than a fraction of a second before the knife whizzed past his ear and punctured the tire of a derelict vehicle that was directly behind where the transgenic had been not even a moment ago. The air could be heard hissing out from the captivity of the tire as everyone stared at Alec. He shrugged, his shoulders conveying the message of 'Don't look at me like that. He's the one who threw the knife.'

Dean and Sam were frighteningly still.

"Guys, this is Alec. He's a friend. We're just here to figure out how he looks just like you, Dean, and we thought you should come see for yourselves. Just calm down, and we'll figure this out." Jo said cautiously. She knew full well that when the Winchesters had their sights set on something, nothing could stand in their way, and right now, Alec was Enemy #1. "Relax."

"Well now, hold up there, Jo. We don't know for sure what 'Alec' is. I think it's perfectly reasonable for the boys here to assume he's a threat. We haven't officially ruled that out yet." Bobby reasoned, siding with the brothers.

"Either way, we should still go inside and let Alec defend himself before we automatically assume we should kill him." With that, the petite blond hunter headed off toward the house without bothering to see if the others were following.

"Since when is that the policy?" Dean muttered to himself and Bobby quietly commented, "Man, that girl is going to be just like her mother." but they all followed her in regardless.

Once they were all seated in Bobby's dusty living room, they let Alec have the floor. This time, however, he was tied to chair with multiple guns pointed at him, but at least they let him say his piece. That much he was grateful for. He swallowed and began to recount the painful memories of his childhood, or lack thereof, for the second time that day. The Winchester brothers didn't speak even after Alec had finished. They would occasionally share a glance that obviously meant something to them but no one else in the room could decode it. As far as anyone could tell, Dean was taking this whole 'I was made in a test tube with your DNA mixed with feline DNA and who knows what else and was raised in a secret government facility and broke out a few months ago' thing. Whenever Dean wasn't silently speaking with Sam, Alec could feel his eyes resting on him.

'That's normal, I guess. I am a little more used to the idea of people looking just like me.' he thought, but it was still weird. Eventually, all eyes shifted from Alec to Dean to see his response after Alec was finished speaking.

He had a mask in place that any Manticore veteran would be proud of but after a moment of silence, he rubbed a hand over his face. He let out a small laugh, the first sound he'd made since Alec started show and tell, and clicked the safety back on his pistol.

"And I thought our lives were weird."

A/N: I'm really glad people are reading this story. I was a bit nervous when I started to rewrite this. It was my first real chaptered story but I'm beyond thrilled that I got so many alerts/favorites after I started posting it.

I would really love to hear from you guys. So that little button down there, click it. Tell what you liked, didn't like, predictions about what's going to happen, I'm not all that picky about reviews. God bless.

-Kate