AN: Takes place directly after "Dinner and a Show". Apparently needs a tissue warning. Sorry about that. :-)
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"They took you away from me."
Mary was standing in the doorway, watching him sleep and whispering to herself.
"They took you away from me, and now you're back but I don't know you."
He shuffled around in his sleep. It was well into mid-morning and he wasn't up. She hadn't ever seen him sleeping before and now here he was, deeply asleep.
"Who are you?"
Alec woke up and wasn't surprised to see the sun had beaten him. He'd spent most of the night camped out on the roof, just making sure. It didn't mean he put any stock in Lydecker's words. It just meant he was nothing if not prudent.
He scrubbed his face again in the bathroom and tried not to think of what Max would say, of how dangerous he was to the people he loved. She had sent him here, after all.
Everything would be fine.
Downstairs, Mary started making Sunday brunch and planning a shopping list in her head. Ever since he'd gotten here the second time she'd been cooking and cleaning nonstop. She couldn't think of anything else to do with herself that didn't involve grabbing her son, both of her sons, and holding on to them so tightly they'd never leave again. Instead, she cooked, and tried not to think about Sam leaving for college and Dean…no, Alec…leaving for, well, anywhere. That place in Seattle maybe, or back to wherever he'd grown up. She couldn't even work up the nerve to ask him about it. All she knew was what she saw on the news and what she heard from John, which was basically just to ignore the news.
She didn't know him. She didn't know her son.
Sam stumbled downstairs with all the grace of heard of elephants, which made Mary roll her eyes in fond exasperation. She knew he could be remarkably soft-footed. John was his father, after all.
"Hey honey," she said. "Want some eggs?"
"Maybe later, mom, I've got to go out for a run. Dad's rules, you know."
He grumbled a bit under his breath, but he still laced up his shoes and headed out. His resistance to his father's military strictness had toned way down with Dean's…Alec's…arrival back home and his acceptance to Stanford. She knew that getting away was going to be good for him. She just hoped that he stayed safe, what with the mess the Pulse had created.
She went back to slicing fruit and vegetables and when she looked up next, Alec was standing there, looking back at her. She hadn't heard him come downstairs at all.
"Hi," she said. Hi honey, want some eggs? "Can I make you something?"
Last night he'd told her not to go to the trouble.
Last night she'd told him she wanted to. And she did, but she also wanted to talk to him, and for him to talk to her. But all they had was food. And she'd done that, she knew it. She remembered her feelings about the transgenics before she'd known he was one, too, and now with the proof in front of her, the proof that came from her own body, she didn't know how to cope with that.
John was avoiding it. Sam was completely nonplussed, and she wasn't coping. She wondered what was going on in Alec's head.
"Um, sure. Where's Sam?" He slipped into a chair at the table and looked calmly back at her.
She studied him. "French toast?" He looked tired still, and there was a black smudge on his ear.
"Okay."
She nodded and got to work.
It was bread soaked in egg and syrup and it was heavenly. Alec ate carefully instead of devouring it like he would have liked. He had learned manners at Manticore. He'd watched a video and then had an "instructor" critique his every move and dole out appropriate punishment for his shortcomings. So he knew what to do. He knew exactly how to behave.
She sat down with him and nursed a cup of coffee. She watched him over the top of her cup and he did his best not to watch her back.
"Did you sleep well?" she asked. "You slept late."
"I was tired," he said. He put his fork down next to his plate.
"Oh," she said. "Were you up late with Sam?"
"No," he said.
"Oh," she said. "Okay."
He picked his fork back up and resumed eating. This time he studied his plate and did not look up at all. He felt that he was making it worse, whatever it was. Max would have something to say about this, too. She always knew what to say, what to do.
"Can I ask you a question?" Her voice was quiet, hesitant. He felt himself tense up gripped the fork so hard he thought he felt it bend.
"Did you…" She let her breath out in a rush and tried again. "Did you have a mother there? Did someone take care of you?"
They sat in silence for a while. He couldn't make his lips form words. He didn't know what to tell her.
He'd told Sam about camp and mercifully that had been that. John hadn't wanted to know anything at all. Or at least, they'd avoided it so far. But this woman was his mother. They hadn't provided instructors for this, and it shouldn't even be him, sitting here. It should be Max. She was the one who wanted a mother.
"Did they tell you about me?" she asked.
"No," he said, and got up and walked out of the room.
Outside, Alec found Sam a few blocks over, jogging lightly and breathing easily. He tagged him on the back and they sprinted until Sam doubled over gasping for air.
John found Mary inside, gripping the kitchen counter with both hands and staring at the window like she could break it with the force of her gaze.
"Hey," he said. "Hey, what's wrong?"
"Alec," she said.
"You mean Dean."
"No. I mean Alec."
Alec and Sam made their way back to the yard where Sam collapsed in the grass and Alec crouched near him.
"Man," he said, "whatever they gave you, it's no fair."
"No fair?" Alec asked.
"Yeah, if I could run like that and never have to train, dad wouldn't be on my case."
"I had to train," he said.
"Yeah, sure, but, you know, the genetics?" Sam waved a hand around. "Pretty kick-ass."
"Yeah," he said, "kick-ass." He wanted to say Psy-ops and lasers and tryptophan and family, but he didn't.
John found them there.
"Dean," he said. "We need to talk."
Sam went inside for brunch, and Alec followed John into the garage. He grazed his hand over the car and waited.
"You're upsetting your mother," John said.
"Okay," Alec said. "What do I do?"
"Go talk to her. Make it right."
"Make what right?"
"Have you been telling her not to call you Dean?"
"I didn't tell her anything."
"Your name is Dean."
Alec was quiet for a while. He ran his hand over the car again. "My name is Alec."
"Your mother and I named you Dean."
His jaw clenched and he took his hand off the car. Your designation is X5-494. "Okay."
Mary cleaned up the kitchen after hurricane Sam and was just wondered where Alec and John had gotten off to when Alec appeared in the doorway for the second time that day. Sam said they'd been running together, but she couldn't tell by looking at him.
Rationally, she thought of reasons for that, but she closed her eyes and turned her head away instead of facing them.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't have a mother, but you can call me Dean if you want to."
When she finally opened her eyes, he was gone.