The Kids are Alright

Sam, Genna, and Adonia sat in a generic diner waiting for Dean. Sam was on the phone with Bobby, still trying to find solutions to save Dean from going to hell. Adonia sat there shaking her head as she drank her coffee. Genna stared out the window, as she had been doing a lot recently; ever since she found out Dean was going to die in a year. Dean tapped on the window and Sam rushed to get off the phone.

"Hey. Who was that?" Dean asked curiously as he sat next to Genna.

"I was just ordering pizza," Sam said awkwardly. Everyone gave him a strange look. Dean looked around.

"Dude, you do realize you're in a restaurant?"

"Yeah, yeah. I just felt like pizza, you know?" Adonia gave Sam a look, like he was an idiot.

"Okay, Weirdy McWeirderton. So, I think I got something," Dean took out a newspaper to read an article.

"Cicero, Indiana. Falls on his own power saw," Dean tossed the newspaper in front of Sam for his to look at it. Adonia glanced over his shoulder.

"And? That's it? One power saw?" Adonia asked.

"Well...yeah," Dean responded somewhat confident, somewhat unsure.

"And you think that this is a case?"

"Well, I don't know. Could be," Dean said childishly defensive.

"I don't know, Dean." She said crossing her arms on the table.

"Okay, there's something better in Cicero than just a case," Dean said with a smirk on his face.

"And that is?" She asked with a uninterested tone.

"Lisa Braeden," he said with a smile. Genna just looked down at the table and rolled her eyes.

"Should I even ask?" She asked with a bad feeling.

"Sam, remember that road trip I took, uh...gosh, about eight years ago? You were in Orlando with dad wrapping up that Banshee thing."

"Yeah, the five states, five days-" Sam was cut off.

"Well, kind of. Although I spent most of the time in Lisa Braeden's loft," he was getting a bit cocky in a sense.

"So let me get this straight. You want to drive all the way to Cicero just to hook up with some random chick?" Genna asked, obviously irritated. She got up and shoved her chair in, leaving the diner.

"I just wanted to say hi!" Dean shouted to her. Adonia and Sam looked at Dean with annoyed expressions on their face.

"I just want to say hi," he pleaded innocently. They weren't buying it.

The hunters pulled up to Cicero Pines Hotel and Dean dropped them off. Genna wouldn't speak to him; she was disgusted. Adonia took the initiative to read Dean's thoughts along the way; hoping to give Genna some promising hope he wasn't being his typical self. Dean drove off, leaving them standing outside the motel. Adonia put her arm around Genna.

"I can promise you, his intentions are pure." Genna turned away from her.

"Yeah. We'll see about that," she turned and walked away to order a room. Sam turned to Adonia.

"Are you sure?" Adonia sighed.

"Positive. Read his mind the second he mentioned Lisa. Genna's hurt. It's been obvious since we found out about the deal. The last thing she needs is to think Dean is going to cheat on her. I mean, old Dean is still in play, but he's loyal." Sam smiled slightly, hoping she was right. Adonia started to walk away.

"Hey, Addie..." She turned around to see Sam had something on his mind.

"Yeah?" She asked with a kind tone in her voice.

"Nothing. Nevermind. Forgot what I was going to say," Sam said after thinking for a moment. Adonia knew he was lying, but she didn't want to question him.

After about 2 hours, Dean called Sam.

"Dude, there is a job here," Dean said over the phone.

"Really?" Sam questioned. The girls looked over at Sam in the motel as he spoke to Dean.

"Yeah. You know that one freak accident we read about in the paper? There's four more that never even made the paper, all in this Morning Hill gated community. People falling off of ladders and drowning in their jacuzzis all over the neighborhood."

"That is weird."

"Yeah, something's up. Something these nice, big gates can't protect them from."

Dean had been out all day. The rest stayed in the motel room doing research, well, mainly Sam. Adonia checked the Book of Shadows and Sam checked the internet. Genna didn't really have anything else to do, so she mainly sat around, fiddling with her powers. Things shifted throughout the room all day. Adonia finally got off the bed and sat next to Genna on the other.

"Listen, I could either read your mind to get everything out of you or you can tell me," she nudged Genna, "now which will it be?" Adonia kept down her voice so Sam couldn't hear. The vase Genna had been moving sat back down on the dresser gently.

"Gen, I'm just worried about you. I have a general idea on how you're feeling. You need to talk about it," Genna turned to her without a pleasing look in her eyes.

"What about all the times I wanted you to talk to me? Now I don't want to talk and you're forcing it out of me?" Adonia was taken aback.

"It's always been this way. You cave in, I don't. The problem is, things are different now. We need to vent to each other. Times are getting darker for all of us and, including myself, we need to talk everything out. No secrets." Genna was a little more relieved to hear that Adonia would open up more. She wanted to take it to her advantage, but later.

"I just don't know what I'm going to do," Adonia waited for more, but Genna left it at that.

"Okay... Don't know what to do about Dean, I'm assuming?" Genna nodded sadly. Adonia sighed.

"I wish I could tell you I know what you're going through, but I don't. With my parents, I didn't know what happened to them, if they were still alive," Adonia looked up at Sam and lowered her voice even farther," and with Sam, he just died right in front of me. I've never had to anticipate a death, especially a year from now. But we're going to find a way to stop it from happening. We have plenty of time to-"

"That's not just it," Genna interrupted. Adonia looked at her, confused.

"Then what is it?"

"I care about Dean, I truly do, but...I don't think we should be together." Adonia was shocked. She didn't expect to hear those words.

"Gen, I told you. He's not intending on doing anything with Lisa."

"Addie, stop. You and I both know that this isn't the first time he's mentioned another woman. I'm sorry. I don't mean to be the jealous type, but he clearly isn't ready for a relationship. He likes to play the field, I get that. But if he hasn't been able to stop himself from looking, thinking, and almost getting together with another woman by now, then I don't know how much longer I can wait for him to stop treating me this way. I just can't do it anymore." Adonia reached over and leaned Genna into a hug with her head resting on Adonia's shoulder. Sam looked over wondering what was going on. Genna got up.

"I'm going to head down to the diner and grab a sandwich to go. Let me know if you want anything." Adonia nodded and watched Genna as she left.

"What was that about?" Sam asked finally prying himself away from his laptop.

"Dean's ignorance." Adonia stood and sat across from Sam at the wooden, rounded table.

"Relationships are hard to come by. It just seems like when you get in one, there's going to be some complication that you're branded with from the beginning," Adonia laughed slightly.

"It's like when I met Mike, I knew he was going to ask me out. He made it so obvious. But...I also knew that I had to hide my powers from him. Three years later, I still don't have a ring on my finger and I wiped his memory."

"I'm really sorry about that," Sam said sympathetically. Adonia shrugged.

"Don't be sorry. I told you months ago, it wasn't meant to be. You can't love someone you have to hide yourself from," she laughed, "my only options are a hunter or the hunted.' Sam laughed, but then there was an awkward silence. Sam opened his mouth to speak, but Genna came back into the room.

"Saw a vending machine along the way. Wasn't in the mood to walk a mile in the dark." Adonia laughed quietly to herself and got up. It was never a good time to talk; not like she knew what to say. How do you tell a guy that you poured you're heart out to them as they laid on their death bed? She had no idea, but she was leaning towards keeping her mouth shut.

"Something's wrong with the kids in this town," Dean said as he entered the room.

"Yeah, tell me about it. So, what do you know about Changelings?" Sam asked as he opened his laptop to pull up the articles about them.

"Evil monster babies?"

"No, not necessarily babies."

"They're kids. Like creepy, 'stare at you like you're lunch' kids." Dean said walking over to the table.

"Yeah. There's one at every victims house," handed Dean a layout of the suburban development with houses marked.

"So, changelings can perfectly mimic children. According to lore, they climb in the window, snatch the kid. There were marks on the windowsill at one of the kid's houses. Looked to me like blood." Sam referred to earlier in the day when he had interviewed one of the recent widows and noticed the signs. Dean sat by a mirror and prepared a kerosene torch.

"The changeling grabs the kid, assumes its form, joins the happy fam just for kicks?"

"Not quite. Changelings feed on the mom: synovial fluid. The moms have these odd bruises on the back of their necks. Changelings can drain them for a few weeks before mom finally croaks."

"And then there's dad and the babysitter," Genna chimed in.

"Yeah. Seems like anyone who gets between the changeling and its food source ends up dead," Adonia added from thought. Dean held up the torch.

"And fire's the only way to waste them?" Sam nodded.

"Great. We'll just bust in, drag the kids out, torch them on the front lawn. That will play great with the neighbors. What about the real ones? What happens to them?"

"They stash them underground somewhere. I don't know why, but if it's true, the real kids might be out there." Dean walked over to Sam.

"We better start lookin'." Sam handed Dean a lighter.

"So, any kid in the neighborhood is vulnerable?" Dean asked with concern.

"Yep," Sam noted.

"We gotta make a stop. I want to check up on someone." Dean headed towards the door.

"Well Dean, if the real kids are still out there, we don't have time," Adonia said.

"We have to," Dean said sternly.

They watched from the car as Dean went to Lisa's door. She didn't look pleased to see him. Genna tried to avoid looking at the scene. After a minute, Lisa slammed the door in Dean's face. Dean ran back to the car.

"They took Ben. He's changed."

"What? Are you sure?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I checked his windowsill."

"Blood?"

"I don't think it's blood, and I think I know where the kids are." Dean started up the car and drove off.

There was a large mound of dirt outside a semi-finished home. Sam inspected it.

"Red dirt," Adonia noted, "That's what was on the window."

"You and Sam take the front, Genna and I will go around." Adonia gave Genna a look and she left with Dean unwillingly.

Inside, Dean and Genna see a series of cages, each containing abducted kids. Dean spots Ben, Lisa's son.

"Ben...Ben...it's okay. I'm gonna get you out of here." Dean grabbed a metal bar from his bag to break the chains on the cage. Genna looked at Ben.

"Dean...is he-"

"I don't know." Dean interrupted.

"He looks a lot like you..." Dean broke the chain and grabbed Ben.

"I know, but I just don't know yet," Dean said facing her. Genna looked back at Ben with sad eyes. Dean reached into his bag and grabbed a heavy object and handed it to her.

"Here. Help me get the kids out," she nodded and started breaking the chains.

"It's okay. We're gonna get you out of here, okay? Come on, girls! Come on!" Genna rushed the children along. He cleared off the windowsill and prepares to break the glass.

"Everyone back! Cover your eyes!" He demanded. Genna stood in front of the children to protect them. Dean broke the glass and Ben offered his jacket to place at the foot of the window. One by one, Dean helped the kids through the window.

"Dean! There's a mother," Sam said coming around the corner. Adonia followed.

"A mother changeling?" Dean questioned as he lifted another child.

"We got to get these kids out quick," Adonia said.

"Right there. There's one more. You gotta break the lock," Dean directed to Sam.

"I guess that's why the changelings are keeping the kids alive- so the mom can snack on them," Sam noted.

Ben helped the other kids up and out the window as the hunters confronted the Changeling Mom. Eventually, they burned her to a crisp with Dean's homemade torch; as she went up in flames, Ben and all the other changeling kids, also disappear.

By the time they returned to Lisa's house, it was morning. Everyone got out of the car and Lisa ran out of the house to hug Ben.

"Ben? Ben, are you okay?" She asked as she held him.

"I'm okay, mom," he assured her.

"Oh, my God. What the hell just happened?" Lisa asked, tears down her face.

"I'll explain everything if you want me to, but,trust me, you probably don't. the important thing is that Ben's safe."

"Thank you," she hugged Dean, "thank you."

Dean went inside the house to talk to Lisa. The rest stayed outside by the car. Dean came outside with a look of relief. Adonia and Sam got in the car with Genna standing against the car. She walked towards Dean, away from the car.

"Ben's not mine," he said approaching her.

"That's...a relief. I guess," she said almost emotionless.

"Yeah, I guess so," Dean said with a smile, but it faded.

"What's been bothering you?" Dean asked her. Genna sighed and glanced at Lisa's house.

"A lot, Dean. I don't want you to think I'm jealous. It's more than that. We should have known from the beginning that this wouldn't work." Dean looked at her confused.

"What do you mean?" He asked, disappointed.

"You know what I mean, Dean. It's obvious," she stepped closer to him and held his hand.

"I care about you. I really do, but we're too different. I'm not saying a want to settle down and marry a guy right now, but with everything that's going on and has been, I need something stable. You're not ready for that and I understand. But I can't keep letting myself get hurt. I will make sure you don't go to hell, I can't let that happen." She reached her hand behind his head and gently pulled him in for a hug. He held her tightly. She pulled away and kissed him softly on the lips.

"But you're ready, I'll be here." He smiled slightly and nodded. They began walking back to the Impala.

"Oh my God," Adonia said as she watched them.

"What's going on?" Sam asked, clueless.

"I think they just broke up."