Disclaimer: Nope still own nothing.

Almost done with this bit!

As the time went on and on, Billy started to spend more and more time in bed, the news hadn't been good. With his condition he needed a transplant, but due to other factors, he was not a great candidate for the transplant list, not that he complained. Joshua had finished the mural on the wall, so he had plenty of time to look at the artwork.

Alec had slipped John a number, not that he had told anyone else about it, though Max and Logan guessed, not that they could blame them. But English Eddie and the Steelheads didn't deal in black market organs anymore and didn't know anyone that currently did, not that John had stopped putting out inquiries.

It was a couple of weeks later when Ellen found Billy passed out on the couch. They got the boy to the hospital as quickly as they could, and the whole family sat and waited for the doctors to be told that all they could do was make Billy comfortable at that point.

John had stood up and walked into the hospital room, scooped his son out of the bed, and started down the corridor.

"We're going home," he had simply said before marching out of the hospital.

The house was busy the next few days, everyone coming around. Billy enjoyed the noise and life as everyone refused to be sad, refused to say goodbye. He played with the baby a little as well as sitting with his friends who came around, cutting school over those few days didn't seem to get anyone in as much trouble as it usually did.

They started to take shifts as he slept, not that it was planned or organised. It just started. They sat there and watched over him during nap time, not that Billy was happy about it – they could deny it, but he knew they were watching him as he slept – downright freaky, he said, and if you couldn't get some alone time when you slept, when the damn hell was he going to get it? His mother told him to watch his language, to which Billy had asked what was she going to do, ground him? He spent most of his time in his room as it was. Ellen had stared down her son for a second before muttering something about Billy being his father's son.

Billy's breathing got more and more labored after that, until it reached the point when he couldn't get out of bed at all. He tried to be strong, tried not to be scared as he started asking his sister questions about what happened after, after things ended. She gave him books and sat with him, telling him that it, if there was definitely a hell, that meant that there was definitely a heaven. Billy sat there and stared at her for a second.

"Stupid, I know that. It's just all the books say different stuff, so I want to know which one I'm supposed to go to, because I'm not going to sit on cloud and play a stupid harpy thing, because that is so boring."

Molly looked at him. "What do you want, then?"

"A nightclub with a few honeys would do. I think I'd like that."

Molly shook her head, "You are a teenage boy, aren't you?"

"Well, I ain't chopped liver," he said with a big grin on his face.

"Billy," Molly said with a disapproving tone in her voice.

"Oh, come on, I'm fourteen," he replied with a pout on his face. "And what guy my age doesn't think about things like that!"

"I don't want to hear this."

"No, don't you do that; don't look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like 'Billy, you shouldn't think about things like that,'" he said angrily.

"I'm not looking at you like that."

"Yes, you are. I'm checking out soon, and I know it, so I'm done playing the nice 'little Downs boy' just to make everyone else feel comfortable. I might be slow on some things and get confused a bit, but I'm growing up even if you don't like it."

"When have I, Mom, or Dad expected you to be the nice little Downs boy?"

"I don't know, but lots of people expect me to be nice and innocent all the time or there are the ones that expect me to be... just retarded."

"Billy, you know I don't like you using that word. You are not retarded," Molly said firmly. "What you are and always will be is my baby brother, so I really don't want to hear about your thoughts about girls, and that has nothing to do with you being sick or the fact that you are special."

"It's just I don't want to miss out on the things boys my age get to do, especially seeing as how I don't have much time left."

"And what does Curly say to that?"

Billy looked serious. "We've discussed it, and she's fine with it."

"Really?"

"Yes, and so is Emily, Cally, and Pippa."

"What? Billy, who are they?"

"I met them at the day center. They're really nice," Billy said innocently.

"Right," Molly replied. "And..."

"Hey, it isn't like I'm stringing anyone along. They all know the score. It's not exclusive. They can see other guys if they want to. No one is expecting to get married or anything. We're way too young for that. "

"And Curly?"

"I said she's fine. I like her lots, and she likes me, too, even though she's a lot smarter than me. As I said, it isn't exclusive, and she's only thirteen. It wouldn't be fair to put all this pressure on her to be my girlfriend seeing how I'm..."

"Billy, don't," Molly said.

Billy narrowed his gaze. "It's going to happen, Molly. Not like we can change it. As I said, she's fine, and she's spending lots of time with all of the transgenics at her school, too. She could have her pick of any of the guys there, and that is without the fact that there ain't a lot of female transhumans of her age, but she still wants to spend time with me."

"Because she likes you."

He nodded. "She tells me what the guys at her school do to try impress her, and I tell her about the stuff that I'm doing. We don't keep secrets. Anyway, the girls all know each other."

"They know each other?"

"Yep, all of them were over this morning, and they got along fine, well, except Cally and Pippa, but they had some argument, but what can you do with sisters."

"Sisters?"

"Yeah, sisters. Twins actually. They turned sixteen last week if you're wondering, and yes they are like me, but they're smart, too. Is there something wrong with that?"

Molly ran a hand over her face. "Christ, Billy, if you go on like this, you are going to cause a riot pretty soon."

"Nah," he said honestly before breaking out in a big grin. "You think?"

"Yes, I think."

"Cool," he said slowly, the smile still plastered on his face.

"Not cool, Billy!"

"Hell yes, it is," Billy replied.

"Billy, you don't have to have lots of girls on the go to compete with your brothers. You know that."

"Who the hell says I'm competing?" Billy asked firmly. "Anyway, Mom never lets Dad tell the stories about what Sam, and more importantly, Dean got up to with girls when I'm in the room."

"You don't want to hear them, anyway."

"Why not? If I don't hear them, I just have to use my imagination."

"A fourteen-year-old's imagination? Not good," Molly said with a shake of her head.

The grin he gave her lit up his pale, tired face. "I'll have you know I have a hell of an imagination!"

He passed away a little after two in the afternoon as the rain stopped. It looked as if he was still asleep-a little drool in the corner of his mouth, his bedding all scrunched up the way it got every time he took a nap. John stood at the doorway knowing that it was over-that Billy wasn't breathing as Ellen came up the stairs with the laundry; he grabbed hold of her as she broke down realising what was happening.

The service was big. Transgenics and hunters came to pay their respects as they said goodbye to a teenager who hadn't had the chance to do as much as he should have.

When they cleaned out his room they found a large brown envelope, containing, 'The Last Will and Testament of William Robert Winchester (2010 -2024)'. It had been witnessed by a couple of his friends and it set down, in Billy's own unique style, how what little he had, was to be divided up among the people he cared about.

His old baseball card collection to one of his friends at the daycenter; his books on ghosts and monsters went to Curly because she was interested in those things, even though the real reason was more to do with the fact that he probably wanted her to know how to protect herself; with the rest of his books to go to Bugle and Larry. His model plane collection was to be given to little Mo, who at the age of 5, had announced that she was part pterodactyl, and was going to fly some day, after seeing a film on dinosaurs.

He had left a couple of sketch book he had doodled in to Joshua, so the big fella could improve on his teaching techniques, for when he got a more willing pupil. His journals went to Cindy as he wanted someone outside his family to remember him exactly as he was and not paint him as anything else and he trusted her to do that.

With the Will, they also found a large pile of letters for everyone with a note which stated in big writing, that he knew that writing letters to people for after he was gone was cliché, but what were they going to do to him now? Summon him back from the dead to complain?

They were simple things, goodbyes and thanks for everything, apologising to Molly for being so horrible to her at times when they were younger, saying sorry that he wouldn't be around to see Aimee grow up. To Alec he told him that he shouldn't be so hard on himself, that he bet that he was going to be a good dad. To Max had written thanks for everything, and that she didn't have to act so tough all the time. To Logan, Billy had thanked him for the computer lessons, but he was to remember that he needed to lighten up a bit.

To his parents, he had written a long letter saying that he was sorry he was going, but they were not to worry about him, that he wouldn't be alone, that he would have Mary and Bill there, and if they were as nice as in the stories, he had been told they would look after him, and there would be Uncle Bobby and Patton the dog, too.

Also, if he could find a way, he was sure he would be able to find something about what happened to his big brothers and sister, and if spirits can find a way back to tell people things, he could, too.

Alec found John in a bar by the bay a little after two in the morning near the place where Billy had asked them to scatter his ashes.

"Thought I'd find you here."

"What do you want?" John slurred.

"Ellen was worried."

John smiled a nasty smile. "Was she?"

"Don't be like that," Alec replied.

"Go away," John said, going for the bottle.

Alec grabbed it, placing it out of John's reach. "You don't want that."

"Don't tell me what I want."

"When were you going to tell us?"

John knotted he brow. "What?"

"Carr called, said you missed your appointment."

"None of your goddamn business."

"Like hell it ain't!" Alec said angrily. "Christ, John, we've all played dumb around you long enough about the fact you're sick, because we all knew you were doing something about it."

"Shouldn't you be off changing diapers or running after Max?" John said to Alec as he tried to get the barkeep's attention.

Alec shook his head, causing the barkeep to walk by.

"Carr told Ellen it's still treatable."

"So what?" John said. "What is the point?"

"You know what the point is, John. You get the treatment, and then the cancer will be gone."

John smiled, lifting the empty glass. "Got my own treatment plan."

"Right," Alec said, lifting John out of his chair and carrying him out of the bar.

John took a swing at Alec as they got outside. "You got no right."

"Don't I?" Alec said, easily deflecting the blow.

"Leave me alone," John said.

"I can't. I promised Ellen I'd get you home," Alec replied. "And don't say that you didn't think that she wouldn't know you were gone."

"Stay out of this," John yelled.

"No," Alec replied. "Pops, I get it, I do, but please look at yourself. You're a mess."

John slumped. "Alec, go away."

"Losing Billy, it hurt us all like a bitch, and I know that you want to have the pain go away, but please, we need you. Ellen needs you."

"No she don't," John said. "She's got things to do."

"I know she is putting all her time into Molly and the baby, but she needs you too. She just doesn't know how to get through to you."

"Ellen will be fine," John said. "So will Molly."

"Fine, then go. Crawl into a bottle, have that cancer in your gut eat you up, and die," Alec said. "See if I care."

"Okay, I will."

"Right, and I'll deal with that demon you say that has it out for this family when Aimee turns six months old as well as everything else."

"What?"

"Aimee. Remember her?" Alec retorted. "Part of this family."

"What has she got to do with this?"

Alec didn't know what to say, "Okay, I was wrong. I don't get you. I really don't. Did it never enter your head that she might need you? That I might need you?"

"No, you don't," John said in disgust.

"It didn't, did it? Well, we do, Pop. I don't know what to do. You came here, gave me something I never had before, and now, after all the crap that we have dealt with, you go and decide to do this."

"It's my decision."

Alec shook his head, "Well thanks, Pops. Glad to know that Aimee and I mean that much to you."

"You keep bringing her into this."

"She is part of this, even if the Yellow-Eyed whatever doesn't turn up, I need you. I can't do this alone. I don't know how to be a father, and I don't have anyone to ask apart from you."

"You'll be all right."

"Will I? I'm a weapons system, Pop, I'm a killing machine. They never designed me to be a dad. Ellen can help Molly when she gets stuck, but what do I do? Who do I ask? Who is going to stop me screwing up?" Alec asked, as the rain poured down. "Please, Pop. You said I'm not like Dean, and you're right. I can't hold everybody together like you say he did. I need you, Aimee needs you, Ellen needs you. Billy wouldn't want you to go out like this. He wouldn't want you to leave her all alone, not without a fight."

John stood at the doorway of the house, hesitating before opening the door. After about a minute she did.

"I'm sorry," he said with tears in his eyes.

Ellen held on to him, not caring that he was soaking wet and stank of stale booze. "I am, too."

Six weeks later.

Max shifted uncomfortably as John brushed past her on his way to one of the kitchen cabinets.

"Are you just going to stand there?" he barked as he left the room.

She sheepishly followed him into the living room, not one hundred percent sure what she was meant to do.

"He doesn't want me here," she said quietly to Alec as she walked up to his position by the window.

"Don't start this now Max," he replied as he glanced over his shoulder to see John retouching the salt lines as Ellen kept point while Joshua watched Molly trying to get Aimee off to sleep.

"I killed Ben, and if John accepts you as his son, then he has to see Ben in the same way," she argued. "And I killed him! You are kidding yourself if you think that John isn't going to have problems with that, with me, so don't tell me not to start this now."

"Max, stop it. We all know why you had to do it, and yeah, John may not like it, but he said it himself; he would have done the same thing. Anyway, he knows why you're here, and why Joshua is here, and trust me, he's as much pissed at me for asking Joshua to turn up as much as me asking you to come."

"Why am I here? I get this is some weird 'family bonding' thing going on, but why do want me and Joshua here?"

Alec grabbed her arm, pulling her a little further to the side, "Because I want you guys here. I need you here."

"Alec, this thing that John told you about doesn't exist," Max said. "No 'demon' is coming for Aimee. We have enough shit to worry about with White and the government without you letting John fill your and Molly's heads about yellow-eyed things from hell. Or are you making a big deal out of tonight so that John'll keep going for chemo?"

He glared at her. "Okay, yeah he said that he'd keep up with the treatments, but it isn't just that, Max. These things exist."

"I'm not saying John and Ellen are completely crazy. It's like you told me. It could be some genetic project that he came across all those years ago."

He shook his head. "No, it came for Sam, it came for Billy, but I'm guessing that was just to piss of John off, so it probably will leave Aimee alone. But I'm not risking it, I'm not risking her."

"Then answer my question. If this thing is from hell, and you're not sure how to stop it, how does me and Joshua being here help?"

He scratched his head, trying to work out how to phrase this. "From the stuff I've read and the hunters I've talked to...," he swallowed, took a breath, and came flat out and said it. "Some animals, like dogs and cats, are able to sense supernatural stuff before it hits, and I'm not sure if it will work because I'm not sure if those few times I went out with John that I sensed anything before John did..."

"Wait, you want me and Joshua to act as an early warning system?" Max said, slightly affronted.

Alec rolled his eyes, "We ain't human, Max. I know you don't like to be reminded of it, but we aren't, so yeah, I think that we could possibly get some funky feeling before it hits, or that Joshua could, seeing how he probably has more undiluted animal DNA in him than the rest of us."

"But if you're not convinced that it the freaky feeling thing works for you, you can't say that I'd be any different, because even with Sandeman's little adjustments to my DNA, I'm no different functioning wise than any other X-5, unless you think that me being female makes me in tune with my 'feelings.'"

He let out a chuckle before putting a hand on her shoulder. "Trust me, Maxie, accusing you of being in touch with your feelings is something I don't think I or let alone anyone else will ever do."

She crossed her arms, causing him to stop smiling.

He rubbed a hand over his face. "You are going to make me say it, aren't you?"

"Say what?"

"Jesus, you are. You couldn't just be here because I asked, could you? Just because Molly and I want you here for this?" he said, causing her to glare even harder.

"I need you here because you are... better than me," he said quickly. "Right, now I said it. Happy?"

"Excuse me?" she replied.

"Max, right here, right now you are better than me, you and that damn Shark DNA of yours."

"What does my DNA have to do with this?"

He bit his lip for a second. "Because even though I know I'm sharp without my minimum four hours for more than three days, and I haven't been awake anything close to that, your reaction time might be better."

"What does my reaction time got to do with this?"

He took a look at Molly, who had been watching them talk as she held her sleeping daughter. She nodded. Alec swallowed before turning back to Max. "Because if this thing comes and we can't stop it, I need you to take Aimee and run."

"What?"

"I'm serious, Max. I'm sorry to lay this on you, but this yellow-eyed, I don't know what, could come anytime tonight, and if it comes, you might be able to assess things a split second faster than I would, so if it happens and you think that it is going south, here, I want you to take Aimee and get the hell out of here."

She stood there in stunned silence for a moment. "Alec?"

"No. Molly and I talked about it. We know what will happen to the rest of us, but we figure it would give you time to get Aimee and get to some church, temple, mosque, or something where the two of you should be safe or safer." He looked at her shocked face before he admitted, "I'm not too sure how it works, not with high-up demons. John said that it probably wouldn't do any good, but I figure a place of worship would be safer."

She didn't answer him.

"Oh, come on, Maxie, I'm as much in the dark about this stuff as you are," he admitted. "I'm trying to hedge my bets here."

"Alec, you've just asked me to take off with your child while you guys make some grand last stand against an extra from a crap direct-to-DVD horror movie! How do you expect me to take it?"

"It isn't just that."

"What! There's more? More than Joshua and I getting in touch with our Indian spirit guide so we can to sense if an 'earthquake' is on its way, and more than the 'please be responsible for my small child as I get killed by something that only exists in John's head'?"

"Maxie, please." He looked at the floor. "It's like you said. I'm as much John's son as Ben was. I have Dean's DNA in me. That makes me... a Winchester."

"So?"

"It killed Mary. It might have been because she was in the way of it getting to Sam, but it killed Sam's girlfriend, and I'm guessing that, if it had gotten to Billy that night, Ellen would have been toast, and probably Molly, too."

"So?"

"If it does come, and it can't get into here, it might go somewhere else; hurt somebody else to make a point."

"What does that have to do with me?" she asked, confused, to which he didn't answer. "Alec, what are you saying?"

"You know, Max. I don't want it coming after you just to hurt me," he said, causing her to take a breath.

"Alec?"

"If you are here and it does come, then you're less of a soft target. If you're here, then it's less likely to try and pick you off when you're by yourself." He looked into her confused face. "Because if it can't get to Aimee and Molly tonight, it might go for you … and Joshua."

She swallowed. "And Joshua?"

He nodded. "Yeah. You two are family to me, right?"

"Family?"

He scratched his head as he nervously continued, "Yeah. Remember when we first got out, it was you, me, and the big guy. I know it wasn't all that much fun and that I didn't deserve it, but I always knew that you guys had my back."

She stared at him as he continued.

"All the people that John is close to are already in this room, so it might go for people that I'm close to just to make a point against the Winchesters, and I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to you... and Joshua."

"Because you see us 'both' as family."

He bit his bottom lip. "Yeah."

"Fine, then," she said curtly before turning around, calling out to John, asking him which door he wanted her to watch.

Alec closed his eyes as Max walked away, inwardly telling himself that this wasn't the time or the place to try and work out what exactly he had said wrong this time.

Max looked out of the window as the sun started to rise over the Seattle skyline after a quiet, if not very tense night.

"And can someone tell me why you guys were so desperate to do this again?" she asked Alec.

Alec looked at a tired Molly and Joshua who were entertaining Aimee who was lying on a baby blanket in the middle of the sitting room. "Just in case."

Max turned around as everyone else stopped and looked at her. Max sighed. "Right, I get it. Don't break the lines again."

John nodded before adding gruffly, "That's right."

"Little fella get in trouble," Joshua said smiling at Max as she stepped over the salt line.

She pouted. "At least I didn't almost shoot the damn starling off its branch."

"It was four am and it was singing. They don't do that normally," Alec replied.

John sighed. "They do sometimes."

Joshua smiled. "Alec no expert on birds."

"Not of the winged variety, unless they're deep fried," Alec said with a slight grin on his face.

Joshua turned to Molly. "Someone smell. I think."

"Thanks, Josh," Molly said as the she picked her daughter up to take her to get her diaper changed.

"Ellen, are you going be able to get all this salt out of the carpet?" Max asked.

Ellen shrugged. "I don't know, but right now I don't care."

Alec looked at the rising sun. "It's over?"

"I think so," Ellen nodded. "John?"

"Yeah, I think so," John said, feeling ambivalent, happy at his family being safe and disappointed at not getting another shot at the same time.

"Now what?" Max asked, "Do you want us to sit up all night every six months?"

John stood up and went to the back door. He took a breath of the morning air, listening to the sounds of the neighborhood before it started to rise. He smiled; sure he heard a boy's laugh and a dog barking in the distance.

"No, I think we're all right." He turned around to face the others. "So, Max, you told Ellen about this idea you and Cindy have for her and that bar you go to."

"What bar?" Ellen asked as John closed the back door.