Disclaimer- Please see previous chapter.
Sorry this took longer than expected to get this up. Hope you like it and this makes sense, if it doesn't please let me know.
As time passed, Alec took Logan's advice, slowly getting to know the people he was staying with, helping behind the bar, taking Billy to school, and going with him to his doctor's appointments when the boy asked him to go. After a couple of weeks, Ellen was anxious to get her living room back from the six foot lump that seemed to have decided to stick around for a while, causing Alec, Billy and John to spend the afternoon cleaning out the small room in the back of the house.
There was supposed to be a bed in there, somewhere. But it had last been seen in 2015, before the room had begun to be used a repository for broken toys, old clothes, furniture that needed fixing, and bar receipts, as well as almost every conceivable item of junk that in a normal house would be found resting in the garage or attic. Not that anything that didn't have a specific purpose found its way anywhere within a fifty foot radius of the Winchester garage.
"ALEC!" Molly screamed as she came into the house, throwing down her bag at the doorway.
He stuck his head out of the room. "What?"
"Don't what me!" Molly said.
"Excuse me?" Alec asked, unsure what she was talking about.
She tapped her foot. "You know fine well what you did."
John smiled as he listened to the two of them argue.
"All afternoon I had to deal with him and it is all your fault."
"Who?"
"Frank!"
"Who's Frank?" Alec asked, trying to think of the people he had met since he had gotten there.
"Frank! Tall guy, likes to cook, a little quiet but real nice when you get to know him," Molly explained.
John laughed as he headed for the kitchen, where Ellen was currently cleaning some bedding for them to use in the little bedroom. He turned to the two of them on his way past. "The love of little Geraldine's life."
Alec turned to look in the John's direction before turning back to Molly who at that moment looked as if smoke was about to come out of her ears. "AAhhhh. She never said."
"Did you think to ask?" Molly said, hand on her hip.
He shrugged. "Not really."
"Alec!" she said.
"What? She's an adult and I didn't know!"
Molly picked up a cushion and threw it at him. "I spent all afternoon dealing with the poor guy."
"Why did you have to deal with him? Isn't it her problem?" Alec asked.
"No, it is yours," Molly said. "Do something."
"Right, I'll talk to her."
"Good," she said, spinning on her heel and walking away. "And then stay away from my friends."
"What happens if they offer to buy me coffee?" he asked with a grin on his face.
"Alec, don't, don't you dare!" Molly said, turning to look at him.
"Are you going to give me a list of the people round here I'm allowed to talk to, or am I supposed to guess?" Alec asked, enjoying the fact that she was getting more and more riled.
"Stay away from my friends, especially the ones with boyfriends, or I'll…"
"What, Moll? You'll do what?" Alec asked, blurring over and tickling her.
"Stop that, stop that now," Molly said, squirming.
"What will you do, Molly?" Alec said as Billy came in to see what they were doing.
"What are you doing?" Billy asked, causing Molly to make a grab for him.
"Stop it!" Billy yelled as his sister got a hold of him, pulling him into the struggle. "Mom!"
Ellen stood in the doorway, watching the three of them carry on in her living room. John wrapped his arms around her as they watched Molly and Alec gang up on their little brother.
"You okay?"
Ellen nodded. "Just watching."
"Yeah," John replied as Billy seemed to get away for a second, before being pulled back into the tickling match.
"It's missing something," Ellen said, her heart slightly heavy. "Some other people."
"I know," John said, kissing her on top of her head. "I know."
"Shh! You'll wake them!" she said as he stuck his head in the window. "And you have got to start coming in the front door."
"Yeah, I can see that going down well," he replied.
She smiled. "They are going to have to get used to it."
"I doubt it," he said. He kissed her deep, wrapping his large hand around the back of her head, threading his fingers through her hair, before attempting to climb in her window. "Can I come in?"
She pushed him back. "You have a death wish or something?"
"Why can't you move into town? What about that little place you were talking about? Then I could come over all the time."
She frowned. "Staying here saves money, and I can help out with the bar when Mom needs to stay home with Billy. Anyway, I can't move out right now."
"Why?"
"You know why."
"Molly, you don't have to put your life on hold just because this guy turns up, and I thought you said that he was okay; unless there is something else going on you aren't telling me?"
"Kenny," Molly protested. It had been discussed, no one outside the family was to know about Alec's non-human side, but that wasn't the whole reason that Molly was sticking close to home right now. "I want to make sure that he isn't going to take them for a ride."
"Take your mom and dad for a ride?" Kenny replied incredulously. "If he does, then God help him."
"Kenny, I don't want them to get hurt."
He smiled, kissing her again. "You are too good sometimes, you know that? You really deserve to be rewarded."
She pushed him back. "You are still not coming in."
"Come on, I'll be in and out, they'll never know I was here."
She kept him at arm's length. "You know how to make a girl feel wanted."
His shoulders fell. "Molly, you're killing me here."
"Kenny, I don't care."
"You know, you are real sexy when you are determined."
"Try all you want, you are not getting in here tonight."
"Tomorrow night?" he asked.
"Is that all you want?" she asked.
"No, world peace, and death to all things that go bump in the night." He grinned; she pulled him close, kissing him again.
He was still grinning as he came up for air. "I knew there was a reason I fell for you all those years ago."
"Ken, all those years ago would have been illegal."
"You were the one that chased me, remember, and I was good, wasn't I? Waited until you were out of pigtails. Actually, if you want to put those back in, I'd be all up for that."
"Kenny!"
"If you won't let me in, why don't you come over to the Roadhouse, then?" he asked. "I can leave my window open."
The light at the back of the house flicked on, startling the couple.
"Kenneth Gregory, the only reason I don't shoot you is that your father was a friend of mine," John said, pointedly laying the shotgun he was carrying over his shoulder.
Ken stumbled back from the window. "Mr Winchester, sir. Good to see you again."
"You're leaving, Ken. Now," John said flatly
"DAD!" Molly said, her head sticking out of the window.
John turned his head to look at his daughter. "You get back inside that room, young lady."
She hung in the window for a second.
"Molly," John said through clenched teeth.
She resigned herself to losing another argument over this subject. "Yes, sir."
"I can explain," Ken said to the man wielding the large gun, who happened to be the father of his girlfriend.
"Don't bother, time for you to go," John said, turning. "You two are damn lucky it wasn't her mother that caught you this time."
"I'm not going anywhere."
John sighed before turning back to face the young hunter. "Yes, you are. You are going to march your butt back to your room and you are going to stay there, and she is staying here."
"She is old enough to make her own decisions."
"Not where you are concerned," John said calmly. "She just doesn't know it yet."
"Yes, she does."
"Listen, you come round here with your stories, turning her head since she was fifteen. Just because you thought that you could get somewhere when she was a little older doesn't mean that you get points with me."
Kenny drew himself up to his full height. "What do I have to do to win with you?"
"Go away! She deserves better."
"It's up to her to decide what she deserves."
"You are a cocky little shit; bust a couple here and there, but you got no real idea."
"I've been in the game for as long as I can remember."
"No, you ain't. Your dad was right about you; you are a liability out there, and I'm not having you drag her into it."
"Like it or not, John, I'm sticking around, and there isn't anything you can do to change it."
John took the gun off his shoulder. "Do you want to test that theory right now?"
Ken swallowed, before turning and heading back to the Roadhouse.
Molly stood in the kitchen waiting for her father to come back into the house.
"You didn't have to do that," she said as John put the gun away.
He didn't look at her. "Yes, I did."
"What have you and Mom got against him?"
"He's no good."
"Why?" Molly asked. "He's good enough for you to take his money when he comes to the Roadhouse."
John turned. "You know what I mean."
"So, you'll take his money, but he can't go out with me?"
"Girl, we've had this discussion before," John said quietly.
"And we'll have it again and again and again until you accept him," Molly said. "I am not going to change my mind on this."
"You're too young to say that."
"I'm nineteen, Dad."
"Yes, you are, but that doesn't change things."
"Why?"
John sighed. "Molly, I've seen his type before, twist your head up and then he'll leave you high and dry."
"He's not like that."
"Like hell he's not," John said. "He's older than you are, and he damn well knows how to get what he wants from a girl."
"He's twenty-five, Dad, not exactly ready to collect his pension."
"Six years or sixty doesn't matter when someone starts sniffing around my teenage daughter – because that is what you are – and it's a hell of a big age gap."
"We are not going through this again are we?" Molly asked. "He never thought of me like that until last year."
"Convenient that you had turned legal, wasn't it?" John retorted. "Not like he'd been hanging around, thinking about it before that."
"Dad, please. Kenny isn't like that."
"If he was any good, he'd be coming to the front door of this house to say he was taking you out, not trying to climb in your window after the sun goes down," John said bluntly. "What do you think that says about what he really thinks of you?"
"He only does that because every time he's tried it you and Mom have made it perfectly clear he is never going to be welcome in this house."
"He's dangerous, Molly. He'll be lucky to make it 'til he's thirty – he'll be damn lucky if he doesn't take someone else with him. I'm not having that be you," John resisted the urge to bring his fist down onto the table, "and I am not having you be another notch on that idiot's bedpost."
"I am not!" Molly spat out. "You have got to let me make my own choices, Dad. You were in the marines at my age; you let Sam and Dean go hunting at that age. Christ, Dad, Mom was married at my age."
"Is that what you really want?" John asked. "Fine, find someone decent, as I'm not going to sit here and have you married and pregnant to an idiot that ain't fit to lick Bill Harvelle's boots."
"Not like you're ever going to have to worry about the pregnancy part! And we all know whose fault it is that I can't."
"Molly," John replied, knowing that Molly had been getting more and more bitter lately about the fact that she had been told she couldn't have children, thanks to what had gone down the night the boys and Jo had disappeared.
She turned and left to go to back to her room, brushing past her mother who had come to see what was happening. John sighed, running his hand over his face.
"You get rid of him?" Ellen asked. John nodded.
Ellen turned her head to glance in the direction of her daughter's bedroom. "She'll come round. She'll realize that we're right about him."
"I don't know. The more we tell her, the more she digs her heels in," John replied.
"Yeah, I know."
"I'll kick him out in the morning," John said.
"Maybe we shouldn't?" Ellen said, pulling out a chair to sit down.
"What?" John replied, slightly stunned.
"Keeping them apart hasn't worked," Ellen reasoned. "Maybe if she spends more time with him, she'll see what he's really like."
"Or she'll run off with him."
"If we keep going on like this, she's going to anyway, and then where will we be?" Ellen said. "I can't go through losing another daughter, John."
"I know," John said.
"As it is, and I never thought I'd hear myself saying this, but I'm glad she can't have kids, at least she won't get tied to him that way."
Molly lay on her bed, crying, trying to work out why her parents hated her boyfriend, when she heard a knock on the door.
"Moll, you okay?" Alec asked, sticking his head around her door.
She sat up, drying her eyes. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Sure you are," Alec said, "Can I come in?"
She nodded, and he moved to sit down beside her. As he sat down, she started crying again.
"Hey, is it that bad?" he asked, giving her a little hug.
She shrugged. "I don't know. They don't want to give him a chance."
"They're just being parents – I think."
"What?" she asked.
"They are doing the overprotective thing, want what's best for you."
"Doesn't feel like that. I don't know what I can do to get through to them that he cares about me."
Alec shrugged. "As every parent's worst nightmare, I wouldn't know what to tell you."
"Why do you say that?" she asked, slightly confused.
Alec's lip curled into a wry smile. "Seriously, how do you think that whole speech would go? Me and any ordinary girl? She'd say 'Well, Dad, he's very nice, and he spent his formative years being schooled in various forms of combat and weaponry, then he was sent out on covert government missions, probably has a number of groups who want to see him dead. Oh, and he was constructed by men in white coats in a laboratory from stolen DNA.'"
She laughed a little.
"See, and you think you've got it bad, at least your friend doesn't have that part to worry about," Alec said.
"I suppose I should count myself lucky."
"Damn right you should," Alec replied.
"Relationships suck."
"Damn straight they do." Alec nodded. "I'm planning to stick to the casual sex thing, I'm good at that."
"Yeah, Gerry told me."
"Really?" Alec asked. "What did she say?"
"You are gross, you know that?"
"Why do people say that? I'm just curious, and how else am I going to improve unless I get feedback to work on?" Alec said with a grin on his face.
She pushed him playfully.
He got up to go back to his room. "And for the record, if I had known she had a boyfriend I wouldn't have gone near her."
"Alec," Molly said, causing Alec to turn his head. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it. That's what family is for, isn't it?"
Alec was restocking the bar while Ellen was working the office. He was enjoying the lack of responsibility he had here; it was a nice change from the work he had been doing in Terminal City, though he was missing the others something fierce. Joshua had a show soon – and it would be the first one that Alec would miss.
"You must be Alec?" a young man asked, coming into the bar from the back.
Alec stopped what he was doing. "Yeah, and you are?"
"Ken."
"Moll's Kenny?"
The other man nodded as Alec weighed him up. He was over six foot, in good shape, and looked as if he could handle himself; all in all, Alec could understand why Molly would find the guy attractive. However, he could also see that the guy knew it, which was probably why John and Ellen didn't like the guy.
"Pleased to meet you," Alec said, offering a hand. Kenny shook it.
"Molly said you're staying at the house. How are you settling in?"
Alec nodded. "Fine, finally off the couch."
Ken pulled up a stool. "Really?"
"You sound surprised."
"They aren't usually that open with people."
Alec sighed. "I'm not the one dating their daughter."
Kenny smiled. "I suppose that's true."
"Anyway, I'm not saying it has been easy," Alec replied. "Pop isn't always the easiest person to read."
"Easy for me – doesn't like me."
"As I said, that is probably to do with the fact that you are going out with his daughter," said Alec.
Ellen walked through the door to see the two men in front of her. "Ken, you have everything you need?"
"Yes, thank you, Mrs Winchester," Ken replied, a little surprised. Ellen nodded her acknowledgement before she walked out the Roadhouse.
"You okay?" Alec asked.
"I think so," Ken said, staring in the direction that Ellen had went. He turned to Alec. "Is Ellen…"
"Think they said something this morning about trying to get along," Alec said to the other man.
"Really?"
Alec nodded. "Yeah, but I'm guessing you feel the same way as me about Ellen."
"What is that?"
"She scares the shit out of me."
Ken nodded. "Agree with you there."
Ken left the day later, promising Molly that he'd be back as soon as he could. A few weeks passed, and although he was settling in, Alec still felt that they were hiding something, especially when the customers in the bar would huddle and talk.
At first, he thought it was a smuggling operation as John would disappear down to the basement at odd hours, though Alec hadn't the heart to pick the lock that John had put on the door and take a look around. But, he had never seen any cash changing hands, apart from what was expected for drinks; although, he could have sworn that files were handed over from time to time.
What he could say for sure was that the people he met there were a little too gun happy for his liking. Not that he heard anything that meant that they were dangerous, or organized, seeing how the only thing that he could see that this lot agreed on was where the Roadhouse actually was.
He had heard a couple of them talking about hunting; though they would shut up when he was in earshot, or Ellen would get them to change the subject when one or two would ask Alec if John had talked to him about going on a hunt yet.
John got a call from an old buddy from the marines about going on a fishing trip, which meant that he had to go away for a couple of days. That didn't seem to affect anyone else too much, with life in the little family continuing normally, each going about their business until one late Wednesday afternoon. It was a little after one when they had gotten the call from Billy's school to pick him up.
Alec and Ellen had jumped in the car and gotten down there as soon as they could. Molly was already there taking care of her little brother, who had tears in his eyes, not understanding why people where shouting.
"You keep that 'child' away from my daughter," a woman was yelling in the school office.
Ellen bent down beside Billy, wiping the tears from the boy's eyes, and asking what had happened.
"We were playing and then Janey's mom came in and started yelling at me. She said I was to stop, and that I had to get away from Janey, and she was yelling other things too, not nice things."
"What where you playing, Bill?" Ellen asked.
"Tag," Billy replied. "That's all, Mom. I swear, I wasn't doing anything. Janey's mom turned up and started yelling."
"That all?" Molly asked.
"We were playing. I chased her, and the other girls, and I caught her," Billy said. "Then she was supposed to chase me, but she wouldn't, and then she started to laugh, so I pushed her and she fell down and then I fell down."
Ellen closed her eyes, causing Billy to start crying again. "Why does Janey's mom not like me? Did I do anything wrong?"
"No, Billy, you didn't," Ellen said, casting a look in the direction of the thirteen-year-old girl who was sitting next to the office as her mother argued with the principal. "Molly, stay with your brother."
Ellen took a couple of steps toward the girl, who visibly tensed at Ellen's approach.
"You and your friends have your fun?" Ellen said.
"No, ma'am," the girl said.
"You and your friends all have a laugh?" Ellen asked as the door opened and the other woman came out.
The girl looked at the floor as she answered Ellen's question. "We didn't mean anything by it."
"You are blaming her for this?" Janey's mother asked.
"If the shoe fits," Ellen said coldly.
"And where do you get that idea?"
Ellen stared the other woman down.
Janey's mother pulled her daughter to her feet. "You keep that … 'retard' away from my daughter."
Alec grabbed Ellen's arm before she did something she'd regret.
"Ladies, please," said the principal, who had followed Janey's mother out of the office. "Mrs Gillespie, I am certain that if we sit down and talk rationally…"
"Talk rationally? I want that child out of this school. He shouldn't be here anyway, he should be kept away from decent people," Janey's mother said, pointing at Billy.
"What do you mean 'decent people', and who the hell are you to decide who should or shouldn't be anywhere?" Ellen said, still being restrained by Alec. "My son has every right to be here, and he is a damn sight better behaved than your spoiled brat, who thought it was funny to rile him."
"I suppose you can't expect anything better, considering where you are raising him," Janey's mother continued.
"Coming from the likes of you, I'll take that as a compliment," Ellen said through gritted teeth. "You'd better get your narrow-minded, bony ass out of here before I do something I regret."
The woman turned to the school principal. "Are you going to let her talk to me like this?"
"Mrs Gillespie, you were the one who made this an issue. As far as I can tell, it was a case of a group of children playing."
"He had her on the ground."
"They are children, they say they fell," Ellen replied. "If you want to think anything else, then you should be the one people call retarded; unless you got a reason not to trust your own daughter? As it is, you should be happy that there's other people here as I swear to God if there weren't I would put you through that wall."
"Ladies, please," the principal said, hoping to calm the situation. "I think that both children should go home for the rest of the day."
"Fine," Janey's mother hissed at the principal before dragging her daughter down the hall.
"Sorry, Billy," Janey said as she passed the boy.
The drive home was a quiet one. Billy just sat in the back of the car not sure what had happened. Once they got back into the house, he headed to his room, not wanting to talk to anyone.
"Someone should talk to him," Molly said. "He doesn't understand what happened."
"The woman overreacted, it'll die down," Alec said, heading toward the kitchen. "Billy will be fine."
"Mom," Molly said to Ellen. "Someone has to go and talk to him; he doesn't understand."
"Your brother did nothing wrong!" Ellen said firmly.
"Mom, that is not what I'm saying. Someone needs to explain why she was saying those things to him."
Ellen sat down. "I wish your father was here."
"When is he due back?" Molly asked.
"I don't know, depends when they finish up." Ellen shrugged. "I know you're right; someone has to talk to him."
Both women looked over at the person who wandered out of the kitchen with a glass of water.
"Billy? You receiving visitors?" Alec asked the closed door. It took a second, but the door opened. Alec found himself staring down at a confused face with a large pair of red puffy eyes.
"Got a sandwich for you," Alec said, and the door to opened a little more.
The boy rubbed his face before taking the plate. "Thanks."
Alec wasn't too sure how to play this, not that Ellen and Molly had given him much choice. They were right, someone had to talk to Billy, and it wasn't like he was going to talk to his mother about what had gone down. "Do want to tell me what happened?"
Billy swallowed and shook his head.
"Look, buddy, if you talk about it, maybe it'll get it straight in your head."
Billy hesitated before opening the door a little wider.
"Hi, Alec," Logan said on the other end of the phone. "How are you?"
"Roller-boy?" Alec said, waking up from his slumber. "You're up early, or haven't you been to bed yet?"
"Just tidying up some things. Thought I'd get this to you, seeing how you asked a while ago."
Alec sat up. "You found something?"
"You're not going to like it," Logan replied.
"What?" Alec swallowed. When he had first asked, Logan had been right, he had wanted a reason to run, but not now; he'd grown to care about these people as much as he did Joshua and Max and everyone else he had left behind.
"It hasn't been easy. I've had computer blocks thrown up every time I get close to something. Nothing obvious – you wouldn't realize that someone was trying to throw you off the trail unless you knew what you were looking at."
"What?"
"Truth is, Alec, this has Ash's fingerprints all over it. If it wasn't for the parking tickets, I wouldn't have been able to put it together."
"Ash, as in 'computer guy' Ash who used to live with them?" Alec asked, confused.
"If you mean, one of the best in the business, yes, that one," Logan explained. "The guy can get into more systems than you can dream of. I've been dealing with him for years, but I never had a name until we met John."
"What has that got to do with Ellen?"
"Right, as she stayed in the same place, unlike John and his sons, I could actually find a history on her. Bill Harvelle, Ellen's first husband, disappeared in 1995, declared dead seven years later, one child: Joanne."
"So?"
"Well, she didn't look for him. She reported him missing to the police, but she didn't do anything else. I can't find anything that suggests she had follow-up visits, or hired private detectives; no ads in papers, nothing."
"Maybe she found out that he had just gone out for milk and ran off with the checkout girl?"
Alec could hear Logan shuffling papers. "No, it doesn't look like that either. There was no activity on the money front; the guy just dropped off the face of the planet, or he ended up in a shallow grave somewhere."
"Logan, Ellen may be many things, but I can't see her killing anyone."
"If she was involved, money definitely wasn't the motive. She spent years keeping that bar afloat."
"What about Molly?" Alec asked.
"Molly Winchester didn't exist until after the pulse."
"That makes sense because John and Ellen didn't get married until after Billy was born," Alec said. "Ellen adopted her a couple of years before that."
"What I'm saying, Alec, is that it wasn't exactly a legal adoption," Logan replied.
"Huh?"
"First 'real' mention of Molly Harvelle was when she was admitted to the ER with acute blood loss and internal haemorrhaging in 2007."
"I knew that; they disappeared, and Molly got hurt," Alec retorted. "She and John ended up in hospital."
"Yes, but I was able to trace it back further than that."
"You were?" Alec asked.
Logan sighed. "Yes, I was, and you could say something, you know, like,'Jeez, Logan, thanks for going out of your way on this for me.'"
"You got so far and wanted the challenge."
"That too," Logan admitted.
"So what have you got?"
"Molly told you that she wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for the Winchester brothers. So I had an idea."
"An idea?" Alec said, not liking the sound of that.
"Well, official records from before the pulse are sketchy in places as you know, except, bizarrely, in one area."
"Tell me it is in a good way," Alec said, before yawning.
"Sorry to keep you up," Logan said.
"Yeah, yeah. And?"
"You could be wanted for murder and bank robbery pre pulse and walk away clean. Have a few unpaid parking tickets, and you could still be wanted in a number of states."
"The Impala?" Alec asked. "You followed the car?"
"Yes, Alec, I followed the car. Turns out that a few weeks before Molly being admitted to hospital where you are, the car turns up in Georgetown."
"And?" Alec was intrigued, though Logan had fallen silent at this point. "Logan?"
"Right, you sure you want to know this?"
"No, I asked you just to jerk your chain," Alec replied, causing Logan to fall silent again for a few seconds. He finally spoke.
"After the pulse, lots of small papers started to create databases with all their back issues and put them on a number of global servers just in case another pulse happened."
"Logan, tell me what you got, please. I'm not Max; I don't care where you got the information just that you got it."
"I'm telling you this because I want you to know where it came from. The ticket puts the car in the same area as a house fire."
"And?"
"An electrical fire that had two casualties: a mother and daughter."
Alec closed his eyes, hoping that Logan wasn't going to say what he thought he was going to say.
"Their bodies were never found, so it was assumed that they burned up. However, the daughter's name was Molly Watson, and she would be have been three when it happened," Logan said. "That would make her the same age as Molly Winchester."
"You can't be sure, Logan."
"You asked, Alec, and there was something else…"
Alec swallowed. What could be worse than finding out that the person you were modelled on was guilty of kidnapping? "What?"
"I was able to get a list of injuries."
"You already said: blood loss and internal haemorrhaging."
"Not Molly's, Alec, I found John's. It isn't pretty, Alec, the man was badly hurt."
"How bad?"
"According to the records I could find, it sounds as if the man was tortured."
"Tortured?"
"Yes, and it wasn't short term. It looks as if he was worked over for a long period of time. I showed it to Mole."
"You showed it to Mole?" Alec said angrily; this wasn't anyone else's business.
"I wanted to check. Mole said that whoever did it knew what they were doing, and from the description it lasted for at least a year."
Billy watched as Alec worked the next day. Ellen had kept him home from school for another day seeing how he was still upset from what had happened the day before.
He had waited until his mother had went to work; she'd have said no, that it was still too soon, but he had thought it through and it was time for Alec to know.
The boy went up to Alec after Molly had gone to do something in her room.
"You're going to go away now, aren't you?" Billy asked.
"Why would you say that?" Alec replied. "Is it because of what happened yesterday? I told you, what we talked about was between us."
Billy shook his head. "The phone call you got last night. It woke me up."
Alec sighed. He still hadn't worked out what he was going to do with the information Logan had told him. "Billy, I'm not going planning on blazing anywhere right now. If I was, I'd tell you."
"You were asking questions about Mom, weren't you?"
Alec frowned. "Do you listen by doors?"
Billy looked at the floor. "You were asking about Jo's dad, weren't you? And how Mom got Molly, and what happened to Dad when he went away to that place?"
Alec furrowed his brow. "What place, Bill? Where did Pops go?"
"They said not to tell you. Mom says you're not ready and you've been through enough, but I think Dad thinks that if we tell you, you'll run away."
"Billy, it's okay, as I said, I'm not planning on going anywhere."
"Promise?" The young boy bit his lip as he looked up at Alec, to which Alec felt he had no choice but to nod his response. Christ, saying no to Sketchy when he had that hangdog look on his face was hard enough; at least when Joshua did it he had an excuse.
Alec followed Billy down to the basement – the place that John disappeared to when he seemed to want some peace and quiet, the place that Alec had only been in a couple of times and that was just to stick his head down to tell John that Ellen wanted him for something.
"Family rule – you have to swear."
"Swear to what?" Alec replied.
"Winchester rule number one, you have to swear."
"Billy, how can I swear to something when I don't know what it is?" Alec replied, his previous experiences making him wary of saying yes to anything before he knew what it was. He had been burned too many times, and it generally started with Max uttering the words, 'Alec, you got a moment?'
Billy fixed Alec with a stare. "You have to swear to it – we what we do and we shut up about it!"
The boy looked very serious, standing in the gloomy light of the basement. Alec sighed. "Okay, I swear. What do we do?"
Billy nodded, walking over to the bookcase. He pulled out a big old book and handed to Alec; it was cared for but very well used. Alec looked at the embossed mark on the cover that had long ago lost the gold leaf that had been embedded in it. He flicked through the pages.
"Dad's gone to help a friend; I think it wraiths this time."
"I thought it was a fishing trip?" Alec asked.
Billy smiled. "That is right: water wraiths."
Alec looked up from the book as Billy continued, "He doesn't go out as much these days. He's still looking for the one who took Sammy and Dean's mom, but the last time he got close, it was trying to get me, and I was real little, but we had a big dog called Patton and Patton fought it and then it went and hid."
Alec looked confused as Billy went back to the bookcase, sliding the panels apart to reveal what was behind it. Alec swallowed, the blood draining from his face, not liking the sight before him, one he had be in the presence of many times before. Hell, he was the one in charge of setting up the one in Terminal City.
He didn't need to get close to see that the weapons were well oiled and stored correctly; this wasn't a collector's armory, this arsenal was used, but for what Alec could only guess at. Especially as he realized that he recognized a couple of squiggles in that book; squiggles that he had seen on the board at Logan's during the discussions about White, about the cult, about the markings that peppered Max's skin.
"I think that the S-O-B is scared of Dad, it had Dad and Dad escaped, and now it's too frightened to face him," Billy said.
"Right."
"Lots of them are scared of Dad and scared of this place. They know that Dad fights them and so do Mom and Molly because they look for things for the hunters to stop."
Alec narrowed his brow. "What hunters, Billy?"
"The hunters who come here to the Roadhouse. The bad things can't hide from them because Mom and Molly know what to look for, and Ash trained Molly real good so she can find things in the computer, and her and Mom put the cases together and pass them to the hunters," Billy said rapidly. "That's what I want to do when I grow up – I know that I can't go hunt now because I'm too young and too slow, but I'll get bigger, and if I get fast enough then I'll go hunting like Dad, and be like Dean and Sam because they hunted, too."
Alec didn't know what to say as Billy went on, "If you understand, will you go hunting? Because seeing how you are a transgenic, that would mean that you would be really good and fast and they wouldn't know what hit them."
Alec took a breath; none of this was making sense. "Billy, what are you talking about? What does John hunt?"
"Demons," Billy answered in all seriousness.
Alec carefully put down the book and took a step back. What had he been living in the past few weeks? "Demons don't exist, Bill."
Billy shook his head. "No, demons exist; you know that, that is why you fight those snake people. Dad said that there were stupid people that didn't like your kind and that get their orders from a demon."
Alec stilled at that. "The cult? What about the cult? Are you guys' part of it or something?"
"No, we're not," Molly said, causing Alec to spin around as she stood on the basement steps behind them.
"Is this something to do with White?" Alec asked, his defences going into overdrive. "How do I know that this isn't some weird plan or something? How do I know that you guys aren't just biding your time?"
Billy cocked his head to the side. "And I'm the Grand High Pooh-Bah! Stupid, we're Winchesters; we don't worship demons, we send them back to hell!"
"Bill, go get Mom," Molly said, calmly.
"Why?"
Molly crossed her arms as she came down the stairs. "Billy, go get Mom."
"Yes, Moll," the boy said contritely, running up the stairs as his sister crossed the basement floor to close the bookcase.
"And don't think that she isn't going to ground for telling, you know we weren't supposed to until Dad said, let alone what she is going to do to you for picking the lock on Dad's gun cabinet."
Billy stopped and looked at his sister. "But Alec needed to know… and I didn't touch them."
"No buts, Billy, what have you been told? You aren't allowed near them by yourself until Dad says you're safe to handle them, and don't say for a minute we're babying you, it was the same for me. Now go get Mom."
"You guys are nuts," Alec said, backing up as Billy left to go get Ellen. "Demons don't exist."
"This from the clone?" Molly asked, sarcastically.
"Good one! Demons don't exist."
"What did Dad tell you about Mary?" Molly asked.
"His first wife? My 'mother'?" Alec replied. "That she died in a fire. He tried to get to her and he couldn't."
"Yeah, well, it would be pretty hard seeing how she was pinned to the ceiling."
Alec looked at the girl. "Things like that don't happen."
"Right, they don't, and people don't see spirits, and children always drown in two inches of water, and campers just go missing in the woods," Molly said, taking the grimoire from Alec's hands and placing it back on the shelves.
"You know, I'm sure I saw a shrink's office in town," Alec said.
"Alec, what is your first memory? Not the first time you remember going to school or first training thing, what is the first thing you remember clearly?"
Alec stood there, silently, causing Molly to sigh. "Please, Alec, what is the first thing you really remember?"
Alec thought. "A corridor, there was a door at the end and it was bright and cold. I must have been about three or four. I think it was the first time that I was let outside."
Molly nodded. "For me, it's fire. I'm watching a fire, and the next thing I'm off the ground and I don't know who, it could Sam or Dean, but someone is saying something – what, I can't remember exactly – but I remember sounds of them saying something. From talking to Mom, it was the night that my birth mother died. The night that they saved me."
Alec was confused. "You know about the fire?"
"Of course I do." Molly said. "Secrets get you killed in this life, which I suppose means we should have told you earlier. Anyway, they brought me here; thought Mom would take care of me, keep me safe, keep me away from the demon that killed my mother, the same one that killed theirs."
"Fires happen, Moll, accidents happen."
"I know that."
"It's all right, Molly, I'll take it from here," Ellen said as she stood in the basement doorway. "Someone needs to get that delivery in."
"Yes, Mom," Molly replied, turning to go up the stairs, leaving Ellen to deal with Alec.
Ellen let out a little sigh as Molly left. She came down the stairs, standing in front of Alec. "So, what do you want to know?"
Alec sat on the back step thinking about everything Ellen had told him: about Bill, about the hunting, about how they all seemed to believe in ghosts and demons and everything that he had ever seen in a half-baked slasher movies. That people went out and looked for the things that came out of fairy stories and that they hunted them down. Hunted them with an array of weaponry that would have any self-respecting transgenic salivating.
But, what did they use them for? Things like that don't exist and the only things that could be mistaken for the monsters out of fairy stories these days would be … transhumans. Did the people he had served drinks to, had talked to, been hunting down and killing people like Joshua, like Luke, like Mole, like the people he had left behind in those couple of city blocks back in Seattle.
He heard the pick-up come back earlier, but he wasn't ready to face John yet, not until he had processed the tale he had been told. But he wasn't about to run, not until he knew if this wasn't a way to get at the others; that the people in Terminal City were safe and that Pops and Ellen weren't just wannabe members of White's little group.
But how did they get Billy to buy into it? The boy didn't have an insincere bone in his body.
John opened the back door, causing Alec to look up.
"Get your stuff," John said before he turned and went back into the house.
Alec stood up. He wondered what was going on now. As he entered the kitchen, he could see Ellen and Molly standing there. John was nowhere to be seen. Neither of the two women said a word, leaving Alec to stand there and wait.
John wandered back into the room with a small bag and looked at Alec. "I said get your things."
Alec didn't know what to do. Now he was in on the big secret was he being thrown out? Or were they planning on doing something else to him?
Ellen turned to John. "How long?"
John shrugged. "Depends on her, doesn't it?"
Ellen nodded.
"Dad, she's still sick," Molly interjected.
John took a breath. "She ain't going to get better, Moll. Should have taken him to her when he first turned up."
Alec stood his ground. "I'm not going anywhere."
John looked over at Alec. "Yes, you are."
"It's all right, Alec," Ellen replied. "It's about time you saw someone."
"Who? Another one of these 'hunters' you talked about?" Alec said sarcastically. "Are you going to now chase down the 'monster' that been sleeping in your spare room?"
John clenched his jaw. "Deserve that. Should have told you when you first got here."
"Why didn't you, then?" Alec replied.
John turned said nothing and started out of the room as Alec watched on.
"He's going to take you to Missouri," Molly explained. "It shouldn't take too long. You'll get all the answers you want there."
"Missouri?" Alec said, not too sure about this.
"Alec, it's perfectly safe," Ellen said. "No one is out to harm you or any one of your kind."
"My kind?" Alec said. "You know, Ellen, that is the first time since the day I got here you've said that."
Ellen straightened. "You got a right to be angry, but you are still going. You are part of this family and you are going. You are going to Kansas and there will be no arguments about this, you hearing me?"
Alec knotted his brow. "Kansas? I thought you said Missouri?"