Disclaimer - Please see earlier chapter.

This is a short bit.

They all got up early the next morning to wave them off.

As the others were helping to pack the van, John handed Max a package.

"Looked into what I could from what Alec told me, but to be honest I've not got a lot of experience with cult worship."

Max opened the package; it contained a few old leather bound books. "Thanks, but don't you need them?"

"Not really," John said with a shake of his head, "They belonged to an old friend of mine, gone now but he'd want them used. Though, there is probably a lot of stuff in them that lot you've already got, but, there may be some other things in there as well, and I've written down some numbers of some guys that might be able to help you a lot more."

"You didn't have to do that," Max replied.

"Max, if these 'breeders' are that desperate to get rid of you transgenics, then I'm thinking that they have a damn good reason for wanting you lot out the way."

Max nodded, not sure what Alec had told John about Sandeman's links to the cult.

"And whatever that reason is, it isn't probably isn't going to be too good for anyone who isn't one of them."

"The enemy of my enemy," Max muttered under her breath as she flicked through a few pages.

"It can be handy sometimes to remember that, but not everyone is out to get you, girl."

Max looked up. "Sorry, force of habit."

"Relax, will you," John said. "You got a long drive ahead of you before you have to put those walls back up."

"Right," Max said.

"Give yourself a break," John replied.

"I'll try," Max said.

John smiled. "Take it from someone who knows, you'd better do more than try or you'll end up having a breakdown before you hit the state line."

Max looked at John for a second before she nodded her response. "And you'll let us know how it goes here?"

"Sure," John said as they started to walk over the van. "We'll keep in touch, and don't worry about Alec, he'll be fine."

"He always is," Max replied as they joined the others.

"Now you got everything?" Ellen asked as Joshua got into the van.

"Should have," Mole said, sitting in the driver's seat. "Although…"

Ellen turned around to see the same sight that Mole had seen. Billy was handing Curly a bit of paper.

"You'll let me know about everything that is going on there, right?"

Curly nodded. "Yeah, you really think there'll be others like me?"

Billy nodded. "That's what Alec said, and there are supposed to be lots of other types as well."

"I don't know," Curly replied. "It won't be like it was."

"You'll be okay. Remember you don't have to be in charge of Larry and Mo anymore."

"But…"

"No buts," Billy said. "You'll get to see all these cool things and do stuff you'd never have gotten to do if you stayed back at the cave."

Curly bit her lip. "I'm scared. It's just been the four of us for so long, and now with all these people."

"You'll get used to it. Joshua and Max seem nice, don't they? So even if there aren't ones like you, you'll have Smurf and Larry and Mo and them, won't you?"

"I suppose."

"See," Billy said, gently pushing her. "You'll be fine."

"And you'll write to tell me what is happening here, right, with all the hunting and stuff?"

"Sure."

"You two," John called out. "Time for Curly to go."

"Okay, Dad," Billy said as both him and Curly turned around and began to walk toward the van. As they got close, Curly turned and gave Billy a big hug and a kiss on the cheek before running off to jump in the door that was Joshua was holding open.

Billy stood there, a little confused, and rubbed his cheek.

Max smiled and gave a little nod to Alec. "We'll let you know when we get there."

"Good," Alec said. "Drive safe."

"When don't I?" Mole replied as Alec took a step away from the van.

"Alec," Max yelled leaning out of the window, causing him to look at her, "Thanks, for you know."

"Don't mention it," he said with a little smile on his face as he gave them a little wave.

Max turned around to the children in the back. "You guys ready?"

"Yeah!" Larry and Mo shouted as the van started moving.

"Okay, remember how it goes?" Max said as she put in the little present she received from Alec.

"A thousand bottles of beer on the wall, a thousand bottles of beer..."

"Max?" Mole said, turning to the person in the passenger seat.

Max grinned as she turned her head gesturing to the ear plugs she was currently sporting. "Did you say something, Mole? Sorry, I can't hear you."

Billy was still standing, rubbing his cheek, as the van drew away.

"Ahh, Billy has got himself a girlfriend," Molly said, smiling as Billy looked at his family.

"I…what?" Billy asked, though after a second he began to blush. Molly and Alec started to pick up some of the old toys and things that had been left behind that hadn't fitted into the van.

Ellen turned to her husband, whose shoulders fell.

"Right," John mumbled. "At least someone in this family is getting some."

"I heard that," Ellen said as John started to walk over to their son.

"Come on, Billy, we got to talk," John said, taking the boy by the arm as he started to lead him to the house.

Alec smiled as he watched John and Billy go into the house, followed by Ellen.

"Okay then," he said as he picked up a small crate.

Molly looked to see what Alec was talking about, she watched as her mother closed the door the house behind her. Molly shook her head before standing up. She turned to Alec, "What does 'the hood of would do' mean?"

"What?"

"You told Mole that the hood of MY car would do, when they thought Max was going through that heat thing."

Alec knotted his brow before he smiled innocently. "I was trying to get him to move."

"Really?" Molly said, readjusting her grip on the box she was holding.

"I wouldn't have."

"You are apologizing," Molly said firmly.

"I'm sorry?"

"Not to me," Molly said, starting to walk off.

"Then to who? Max is gone," Alec said, beginning to follow her.

Molly didn't say a word as she walked.

"I am not apologizing to your car, Molly."

"You so are," she replied as she got to the house.

"I am not!"

"Yes, you are."

Late summer was damp; it seemed to have been raining for forever.

Business was quiet in the Roadhouse due to the weather, although it did give both Molly and Ellen a chance to catch up on some old cases they had been compiling.

Max had called; the hunters and transgenics had slowly entered into an uneasy truce as the first of them turned up at the gates of Terminal City. It had taken a couple of days before the guy had actually talked to someone.

Biggs had taken two transgenics with him when he went with the hunter to meet a small group of men, who the sentries hadn't seen watching Terminal City. The discussion had been brief but had involved a picture being handed over and questions being asked. Max had said that it wasn't much, but it was a start.

At Alec's end, the hunters asked questions about the different types of transhuman, but apart from that Alec found he had little to do, so took to disappearing when he could. Though, his entertainment options were somewhat limited in a town as small as the one he was living in.

John had begun to snap at people, trawling the house like a caged animal as he couldn't get out to hunt. Although the real reason he was at home had little to do with the weather.

Billy caught a bad cold around about August that went straight to his chest, and it didn't seem to want to move. As September rolled in, John and Ellen had to explain to the boy that he wouldn't be going back to school with his friends.

John's mood lightened somewhat when he found some jobs around the house, giving him something to do, considering Ellen had started to get a little territorial over her research. She had hidden most of her work in the office of the Roadhouse to stop him fowling up her filing system. So, she was pretty sure that he wasn't going to mess things up when she had gone for bar supplies, though she hadn't expected the phone call from the clinic.

The clerk at the desk directed her to the treatment room, not that she really needed direction considering the amount of noise that was coming out of the place.

She opened the door to find Billy sitting beside his sister as the doctor was trying to work.

"Will you sit still and let the poor man do what he has to do!" she yelled.

John grimaced, stilling for a second as the doctor attempted to examine him.

"The arm is broken, nothing else, so can we please get it X-rayed and set, and then I'll be out of your way," John repeated in a quiet, though slightly angry tone to the scared young medic, who had been previously been on the receiving end of some colorful language.

"You okay?" Ellen asked Billy, who was wrapped a warm coat.

He nodded his response. "I'm fine, Mom."

"Good," Ellen said, before enquiring how Molly's boss took her leaving work early.

"The boy is fine, and Molly didn't need to come down here or call you," John said through gritted teeth. "And I'm okay, if you want to know."

"Sorry if I ask the people who are not stupid enough to go falling off the roof how they are doing, before I talk to the idiot who was," Ellen replied to her husband, before telling her children to go get something out the vending machine.

"It was starting to leak," John stated.

"Holes in the roof will tend to do that when it rains," Ellen said, finally turning to give her husband some attention.

"It needed fixing," John said as the medic went to arrange the X-ray. "Anyway, I only went up there to see what needed to be done."

"It could have waited until the rain stopped." Ellen thumped him on his injured arm. "Do you know how frightened I was when Molly called and said were she was?"

"I told her she didn't need to call you," John replied. "Billy is okay."

"How stupid could you have been, and what the hell were you thinking, driving yourself and Billy here?" Ellen asked.

"I thought, 'I've fallen off a roof and busted my arm, maybe I should see a doctor'. That is what I was thinking."

Ellen sighed. "John, I get you're bored."

"I'm not bored. I'm in pain, not bored," John retorted.

Ellen sighed. "For you it's almost the same thing. Hell, John, I half expect to get a call from God knows where when you are on the road. I don't expect to get one because you've decided to become an extreme handyman!"

John grimaced as he held his arm. "Damn roof still needs fixing."

"Don't think that you are getting back on that roof anytime soon," Ellen replied. "I'll do it."

John sat up. "You will not."

"I survived fine for years before you moved in, John Winchester."

John sat down again. "Alec can do it."

"We'll see," Ellen said as the orderly came in to take John to get his X-ray. "I need to give him a call, anyway."

"Why the hell do you need to do that?" John asked as he got into the wheelchair.

"Because I can't drive your damn pick-up and my car at the same time, and Molly has work," Ellen retorted. "He'll have to take some time out of his busy social schedule."

"I can drive my own pick-up."

"No, you can't. You'll have to have that arm set, which means you will be taking something," Ellen said firmly. "And don't get any ideas that you aren't because if necessary I will stuff the pills down your throat myself."

John turned to Ellen. "I never realized how much of a piece of work you are actually are."

"You better believe it," Ellen said.

"Wouldn't change you."

"As if you could," Ellen replied, smiling. "Same goes for me, you stupid old fool."

Alec helped the John back into the house; the morphine hadn't exactly worn off yet.

"Get him in here," Ellen said with a shake of her head.

Alec maneuvered the sleepy, but happy, John Winchester into the bedroom and dumped him on the bed.

"He'll be fine when that stuff wears off."

"More like a bear with a sore head," Alec replied, before smirking. "Yeah, he'll be back to normal."

Ellen nodded. "Hope we didn't disturb whatever you were doing."

"Nah, had a bum hand, anyway," Alec said, which had been true; the pot had been small, as well, so he hadn't lost anything when he'd left the game. "Do you want me to look at the roof?"

"It can wait. Don't need another trip to the damn emergency room."

Alec grinned. "Emergency room? Me? Please."

"Don't say that you always land on your feet," Ellen said.

"Who am I to fight genetics?" Alec replied.

"There you are," John said drowsily to the two of them.

"Yeah, we're here," Alec said.

"Didn't know where you were," John said. "Looked for you, but couldn't find you."

"John?" Ellen said, looking over at Alec before turning to John.

"Sorry, Deano, I tried, but we couldn't find you or Sam or Jo – found Alec, though," John continued.

John shook his head as Ellen explained to him that he was home and that he had been given a shot when they set his arm.

"It's okay, sweetheart," John said gently, stroking Ellen's face. "Alec's a good guy; Dean will like him."

"I know that, but that isn't Dean," Ellen explained.

"Not Dean," John said. "So it's the other one, then?"

Alec tensed. "What?"

John turned to him. As he started to speak, his words became more and more slurred. "Alec won't talk about you, not sure he even met you, not your fault. He doesn't think I know."

"How?" Alec asked as John slipped into unconsciousness.

Ellen sighed. "Max didn't say when she was here."

"Joshua," Alec stated, answering his own question.

"Yeah, thought we should know. Didn't come into your head to ask him not to tell, did it?"

"To be honest, no," Alec replied, realizing that he had been so worried about Max or Logan saying something that he had forgotten that there was one other person who knew his link to Ben.

"He wasn't going to push you on it," Ellen said as John started to snore.

"Okay," Alec said. "But I take it you want to know."

Ellen shook her head. "Figured if you didn't want to talk then there was a reason."

Alec clenched his jaw; part of him wanted to scream, 'Yes, there is a reason, a fat big body count of eleven reason'. "I know he's dead but I never actually met him."

"Joshua said that, and when you're ready to tell us, I guess you will."

Alec stood in silence for a second before turning to go.

"Alec," Ellen said. "He didn't mean to call you Dean."

"It's okay Ellen, it's the first time he's ever done that and I've been here, what, 10 months? I know it's the morphine talking," Alec said as he turned to leave, "I know how that stuff can get to you – hell last time they tanked me up with the stuff I swear I saw Mole in a pink tutu swearing his undying love to a pineapple he's gotten his hands on."

Ellen smiled, "How do you know he wasn't?"

Alec stopped, "Not going there!"

Ellen smiled, before turning serious "Alec?"

"It's okay Ellen, I'm fine. Hell there are worse things he could have called me," he replied, lightly as he left to get his bike out of the back of John's pick up truck.

A/N not sure if I should put this here or wait till the next chapter to explain - which if all goes according to plan should be this week.

The rating is going to change for the next chapter - it is going to go M, due to - well if you read it, you'll see why. but basically this is the end of the fluffy stuff people, hope you liked it and will keep reading when I put the darker angsty, lets rip everybody apart, stuff up and as always let me know what you thing, like, dislike or are undecided.