Hello! One more here! I hope you guys enjoy it!

Thanks to all of you who reviewed! You're awesome.

Now, I'll apologize about a few bits and pieces of this chapter, as they are pretty much what happened in the pilot episode of season 1 of Supernatural. I tried to keep the whole thing to a minimum, but some parts are the same. Sorry about that, it won't happen frequently, only when it's unavoidable.

Just one more point: Harry's (Alex's) glasses. Why isn't he wearing them? Because, well, poor eye sight might be genetic, but sometimes it has a way of being corrected, if the person gets the right treatment. Harry who was brought up by the Dursleys never got the right medical care, Alex did. So, for a while, he wore lenses, because glasses in a hunter just wouldn't work, and after that he could stop wearing them – until he probably gets older, and has to wear them again, if he lives long enough to do it… Ops, I might have said too much there.

Or maybe not. (smirks)

Oh, just one last thing: I have nothing against lawyers.

Anyway, the chapter!

Renegades

The Renegade Who Had It Made

"I just think this is the stupediest idea you've ever had, but, hey, who am I to say anything against your great plan?" said a tired and sarcastic voice, sounding loud inside the Impala.

"Do you have a better one?"

"Actually, I do. Two of them. One, we turn around, and wait until I can actually hunt something, and leave him the hell alone as he clearly wants us to…"

"Not happening." the first voice interrupted with finality, making the other man sigh exasperatedly.

"Yeah, that's why I have another one: we do this like normal people, and ring his doorbell. Call his phone. Send him a letter. But, Dean, man, breaking into his house on Halloween night, in the middle of the night is just… stupid."

"Alex, we already had this discussion twenty miles ago, and thirty miles before that, and you know he just won't answer. He won't pick up his phone, he won't open his door, hell, he'll probably just burn our letter, even if we had the time for that, which we don't."

"It's not like dad can't wait for a few more days, Dean."

"I'm not just talking about dad here."

Alex sighed again, and leaned more comfortably against the seat of the Impala, looking out of the window at the rundown building their younger brother was currently living in. Looking for Sam hadn't been his idea; he was still pretty much against it. If Sam wanted to be normal, he damn well had the right to do it.

But of course, their father and Dean had to be against it. And Dean just had to take the first opportunity to bother Sam and go through with it.

Dean took a deep breath and put his hand on the handle of his car, ready to get out.

"Do you wanna wait here?"

"Sure. I'll just sit here while you go and scare the shit out of Sammy, of course that's going to happen", Alex replied dryly, already opening his door, and grimacing when he got out of the car.

"Hey, easy there", Dean said, but Alex just threw him a nasty glare when he made to help the younger of the two.

"I'm not going to break, Dean, let's just go."

Dean looked at Alex concernedly once more, before walking as silently as possible towards the building they knew their brother lived in. Breaking into it wasn't exactly hard, and Dean had to shake his head at their brother foolishness. The number of things that could go wrong and Sam didn't even have a decent defense system set up.

Helping Alex through the broken window, they made their way downstairs, and Dean easily picked the lock on Sammy's door, opening and entering. Closing the door quietly behind him, he looked around, and then turned to Alex, growing worried when he saw, even in the dim light, how pale he was.

"What now?", the younger one asked in a whisper, and Dean shrugged, trying not to let his concern show, knowing it would annoy Alex.

"Now, I'm going to get a beer, while we wait for Sammy to show up.", he answered smirking, and Alex carefully made his way to a couch in front of the window, and sat there. He made an annoyed sound when he heard Dean purposely drop a glass on the floor, although he now couldn't disagree with Dean: what had Sam been thinking? There were two unknown people inside his apartment and he was still asleep. Their father would have three kinds of conniptions if he knew how careless Sammy had become.

With a sigh, he saw Sam's shadow in the hallway, and counted the seconds till he finally attacked. With growing exasperation, he saw his brothers fight, till Dean had Sammy under him on the ground.

"Easy, tiger", Dean said, a little out of breath, but almost smiling.

"Dean?", Sammy answered surprised, and Alex shook his head, waiting. He had seen the whole thing so many times growing up he could swear they were all teenagers again.

Dean provoked Sam, and Sam finally pinned him to the ground, just as Alex knew it would happen. After they had finished wrestling, - and still in the dark, Alex noticed more annoyed by the second - Sam faced Dean in a non-friendly tone.

"Dean, what are you doing here?"

"I was looking for a beer.", Dean tried to joke, but Sam was having none of it, his tone now serious.

"What the hell are you doing here?", he asked, punctuating each word with anger.

And that was just Sam. So easy to get a rise of, always ready to fall for Dean's cheap tricks to annoy them.

He missed him. Damn, he missed his brother so much.

While they were arguing, someone finally made their way to the living room and turned on the lights. A pretty blond girl, dressed in her night clothes, was staring confused at the sight before her. For the first time, Sam noticed Alex, who hadn't stood up from the couch.

"Sam?", the girl said.

"Jess, hey, this is Dean, that's Alex", he added with a frown on his face, seeing as Alex hadn't stood up yet, and just raised a hand in greeting with a slight smile, "Dean, Alex, this is my girlfriend, Jessica."

"Wait… your brothers Dean and Alex?", she said, with a gentle smile, obviously happy she was finally meeting the family.

Dean smiled widely, but refrained from any comments with just a look from Alex.

Sam stared at the two of them curiously; Dean not making rude or ingratiating comments to a pretty girl just because Alex looked at him was definitely new.

"Nice meeting you, Jess. But now, if you'd excuse us, I need to borrow your boyfriend here for a while, to talk about some private family business.", he finished with a wink, and Alex rolled his eyes.

"No", Sam said, apparently growing a backbone all of a sudden, and going to Jess's side, putting his arm around her waist, "No. Whatever you wanna say, you can say it in front of her."

Dean and Alex looked at each other, and Dean had a cynical smile on his face.

"Ok. Ahm… Dad hasn't been home in a few days."

Sam seemed to consider what Dean had said, and tried to assume a nonchalant attitude.

"So he's working over time on a Miller time shift. He'll stumble back in sooner or later.", he answered with his best rebel teenager tone of voice, and Alex decided he had just had it.

"Dad was on a hunting trip", he said from his position on the couch, with a cold voice, "And he hasn't been home in a few days", he finished seriously, staring directly into Sam's eyes.

It was one thing to have Dean worrying about their dad. Dean worried about everything and everyone, all the time. But Alex was a different story. Alex trusted their father even more than Dean did. And if Alex sounded worried, then Sam had better listen to whatever they had to say.

"Jess, excuse us. I have to talk to my brothers outside for a second.", he said in a low tone, and Alex smiled at him.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to stay inside. Too many stairs. I'm sure you both will be back soon", he finished still smiling and Sam frowned, knowing better than to just ask what happened to Alex. They probably couldn't tell him in front of Jess anyway.

Sam ad Dean argued the whole way outside, with Sam affirming Dean didn't need him.

"Look, Sam, dad hasn't checked with Alex for at least three weeks, ok? We have to find him. I can't do this in my own.", Dean said when they finally arrived beside the Impala.

"What about Alex? What's happened to him?"

Dean ran his hand in front of his face, and let out a harsh breath.

"In our last hunt Alex caught the brunt of a building that fell down on us. He was behind and got caught. I took him out, brought him to the hospital, and he had to have some surgery to set a few bones right, and some internal injuries had to be mended. Dad was there the first day after we called him, and after that he disappeared. Then three days ago we got a voice mail."

"What? How badly is he hurt? Why were you on your own in the hunt, where was dad?". Sam asked in a rush, and Dean sighed harshly.

"We've been on our own for a few months now, working our own gigs. But dad checked with Alex every single day. Then he didn't call for a few days, I called him when Alex was in the hospital. He showed up, made sure he was gonna live, and left again. Then no news for three weeks."

"Three weeks? Alex was in the hospital for three weeks? And you didn't think of letting me know?"

"This is not the point, Sam! Dad's missing, and I need you to come with me to find him. Are you coming?"

Sam sighed again, and tried to put up a fight. He knew even before he started that he was going to go with Dean, anyway.

They were family after all.

†

Alex watched Sam and Dean going outside and sighed, knowing he should be there to help with the argument that was sure to rise. Turning his eyes to Jessica, he smiled what his family called his good-guy smile, the one who could get him out of trouble in no time, and he could feel Jess getting less tense.

"So, you're the famous Alex.", she said brightly, sitting in a nearby armchair.

"Not sure about famous, what's Sam been talking about me?", he answered in a teasing tone, making the girl laugh.

"Well, he doesn't speak much about… his family, but he did mention you. But I thought you were older than him…", she trailed of inquisitively, and Alex laughed despite himself.

"I am. Sam is taller than a normal human being, that's all there is to it. Well, that, and I'm adopted. The freakishly big Winchester genes aren't found in me.", he said smiling, while Jess blushed.

"Sorry, I didn't… I mean, Sam's never said…"

"Oh, don't worry. I'm cool with it."

Silence fell upon them, and Alex looked around the room. It was a simple place, but he was sure Sam loved it. Normal decoration and ordinary furniture. No guns in sight. A pretty girl, an apple-pie life ahead of him… It was everything his little… well, his younger brother wanted in life.

Deep inside, he was happy for Sam.

Now, if only he could stop Dean from trying to drag him back into their crazy life, everything would be alright.

†

Sam had finally agreed to go hunt their father, on the condition Dean would bring him back in time for his interview on Monday, when Dean stopped in his tracks before going into the building again.

"What is it now?", Sam asked a little annoyed and could see his brother shifting a little.

"I have one more thing to ask. Can Alex stay here till we come back? He's just got out of the hospital; he should be recovering, but this whole mess with dad… You know he wouldn't dare do anything to your girlfriend, I just want him to be… safe. Just until we get back."

Sam honestly didn't know how to answer that. On one hand, that was his brother they were talking about, the little guy who would try to keep him safe when they were on hunts, who would read to him at night, who would sleep with Dean so that he could have a bed all to himself. The only Winchester who hadn't thought him a traitor when he had run away and found a dog, the only one who tried to argue with dad that he was just going to school. On the other, he was a hunter, and Jess didn't know about his past. What if Alex said something he shouldn't?

His eyes caught Dean's, and the man was staring at him with something akin to… disappointment?

"Look, you know what, you don't have to come at all. If you think you're too good to allow you own brother to stay in your apartment while he's too injured to hunt, that's fine, Sam, I guess we have nothing to say anymore."

Dean was pissed. He started walking towards the building, and Sam had to run to catch up with him.

"Dean, DEAN, that's not it, alright?" he said, catching Dean's arm, while the man stared firmly at him, "I was just thinking what we should say to Jess. Of course Alex can stay."

"You sure about that, Sammy?"

Dean's hazel eyes were serious and somewhat dangerous. There was much more to the question than simply asking for Alex to stay. It was a question of whether he still was a Winchester, one of them, or not. Dean was asking if he still belonged in the family.

And although he'd sworn he was done hunting, and he still would say he would never ever hunt again after they found their father, he still was Samuel Winchester. He would never stop being him.

If only his father could see that, as Dean did.

"More than sure." he answered, half smiling.

"Alright, then, let's get a move on."

And with that, Dean led the way to Sam's apartment.

†

Alex was tossing around in his makeshift bed, on Sam's couch. Something was just not right, and he could feel it in his bones.

The last forty-eight hours had been enlightening, if not a little boring, although a huge improvement over the hospital Alex had been in for the past three weeks. After Sam and Dean had left – Alex's injury explained as a fall from the stairs kind of thing, which Jess surprisingly bought as truth (although her gullibility could be the reason her romance with Sam had lasted as long as it had) – he and Jess talked a little, and Alex made sure to share a few amusing and embarrassing (if slightly altered) stories from Sam's childhood. Jess made a comfortable bed for him in the couch, and he helped keeping her calm.

Dean checked every twelve hours by phone, just like clockwork. Alex was exasperated when he learned Dean had been arrested, and relieved when he finally heard they were on their way back home, after having taken care of a Woman in White.

Sam hadn't called Jess, which she blamed on his nerves over their father still being missing, and Alex knew it was just apprehension of saying something he shouldn't.

Finally, they were just a few hours away from Stanford, and Alex was counting the minutes till they got there. He was running out of conversation topics with Jess, and he wasn't used to not having Dean with him.

They turned in early that night, in hopes that with sleep time would go by faster. Sam had a big interview in the morning, they still didn't know where John was, and Alex still wasn't completely fine, but he would be in a couple more days. Everything would be alright soon, and they would leave Sam in his normal and peaceful life, hopefully this time, keeping in touch with him.

He had heard Jess turning on the shower a few minutes ago, but couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong… Something bothering him, crawling over his skin, as if he could feel it, as if he should know it, as if…

Suddenly, the lights flickered twice, the TV in Jess's room went out, and Alex reached for the gun he had hidden under his pillow. There was a soft knock on the door and Harry eyed it suspiciously, watching as Jess ran along to answer it, wearing her nightgown.

By the sound of it, it was a friend of both hers and Sam's, and Jess asked him to come in.

"Alex, this is Brady. Brady, this is Sam's brother, Alex", she introduced, smiling, while Alex quickly hid his gun again, "Let me just turn off the shower, I won't be a minute", she continued smiling, and went off the room.

Alex turned his head to Brady just in time to see a dark smile and pure, complete black eyes, while Brady raised a gun in his hand.

Faster than Alex could react, the handle of the gun went down on the back of his head, and he saw only darkness.

†

Sam entered the house, noticing the absolute darkness, and couldn't help but be a little more alert with that – Jess sleeping when people were in the house he could get, but Alex?

Dean was waiting on the car, not big in goodbyes, waiting for their brother to leave. Sam took a look in the living room; Alex was fast asleep in the couch. Maybe his brother had been knocked out by pain killers. Shrugging, he went to his room, listening to the sound of Jess in the shower, and dropped in the bed, eyes closed.

And that's when all hell broke loose.

†

The sound inside the impala was not loud, just loud enough that Dean couldn't hear what was going outside. He was waiting for Alex, and then they would hit the road, just the two of them again. Part of him was almost happy with that – things were so much simpler when it was just the two of them -, but a bigger part of him was almost… disappointed in Sam. How could he leave everything, and not just him, and Alex, and dad, but everything. He used to save people. Make the world a better place, even if half the world population would like nothing better than to lock them up in a padded cell if they told what they really did.

And then Sam just gave that all up to become… a lawyer. Jesus, a Lawyer of all things. A doctor he could understand. A teacher, a professor, those were things he could understand and see Sam doing, and accept he wanted to keep helping people, only in a different way, but a Lawyer?

Shaking his head, his attention turned to his radio that had stopped playing his tape, making static noise. Getting out of the car quickly, he ran into Sam's apartment, just as he heard Sam calling out Jess's name, and an explosion going off.

Desperation gripped his heart when he couldn't seem to see Alex anywhere, and after a few steps into the living room, he saw his younger brother in the couch, unconscious. Taking him in his arms, he ran out, and put him in the ground, before going in again, and bringing a still screaming Sam out, while his girlfriend burned in the room's ceiling.

Just like their mother had done all those years ago.

"Jess! JESS! Dean, LET ME GO, JESS!"

"Sam, calm down, you can't help her, it's too late!"

Sam seemed to grow even more distressed with Dean's words, and tried to reach the apartment again when the firemen and police started pulling in front of the place, finally blocking Sam's way, allowing Dean to check on Alex, who was blearily opening his eyes.

Dropping to his knees, Dean took Alex's head in his hands and put it on his lap, staring intently in his brother's eyes.

"What happened?" he asked hurriedly, and Alex blinked a couple more times before answering.

"Lights flicked a bit, someone knocked on the door, Jess answered… it was some friend of hers and Sam's… then… I don't remember." He said, eyes still mostly unfocused, and Dean allowed one of the paramedics to take him away for examination.

The rest of the night was pretty much a blur. The story they arranged was that Jess had been attacked by someone who knew her, and had attacked Alex first in order to do whatever he did. They were lucky Alex had stayed behind, or Sam would be the very first suspect on their list. As the police could check, Alex had indeed been in a hospital until three days ago, when they headed to their brother's house, so that the boy could rest some more. Sam and Dean were out for dinner, when Jess was attacked.

Sam was quiet the whole time, only ever nodding in the appropriate times to confirm whatever excuse or lie Dean was making up to get them out of trouble. Alex had a dressing around his head, and was resting in the back seat of the Impala.

When they were finally allowed to go, Dean watched as Sam put a gun back in the trunk of the car, their eyes meeting, and a reluctant tear making its eye down Sam's face.

"We've got work to do", he said, turning around, and getting in the car, while Dean ran a hand through his hair.

This wasn't what he had hoped for when he asked Sam for help.

This wasn't it at all.

Wow, I'm done with this one, hard work too, and I don't even like it.

Well, anyway, thank you all who left a comment, keep them coming and

R E V I E W !