It's in the Genes

Author: Cheryl W.

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or any rights to Dark Angel or Supernatural, nor am I making any profit from this story.

Summary: Crossover with DA and Supernatural -AU– It's the Winchesters who break Alec from jail in Hello/Goodbye and then they start road tripping together. No slash.

Author's note: Spoilers for Time is on my Side. For those immersed in SN's Season Four's storyline right now like I am, I'm going to have to ask that you put yourself back into the mindset of Season 3, to a time when there is still hope that Dean won't go to Hell…not much hope but still there is a thread of it. Also, just so you know, Dean doesn't make an "appearance" in this chapter but he is a source of conversation.

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Chapter 14

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It had become a predictable scene around TC: a closed down Alec, one who rarely smiled. One who no longer lived up to his name: smart aleck. Neither Max nor Joshua could rekindle that light in his eyes…not like the sound of his phone could. When it rang, no matter what he was doing, talking, riding his motorcycle, in the middle of a high risk mission where the sound of the phone could compromise his position, risk his life, he answered the phone, immediately. And what came next, when the call wasn't from one of his brothers, it was more devastating than what had come before: bitter disappointment, deeper grief, more of his precious, limited hope slipping through his fingers.

"You could call them, you know?" Max offered quietly, lifting her eyes from a corporate building's blue print to the only other occupant in the room. But Alec didn't react to her words, kept trailing his finger along the route his team would take when they broke into the corporation, played Robin Hood again, hoping to keep hold of some of their Good Will in the eyes of the citizens. Reaching across the table, she grabbed Alec's phone, wasn't all that surprised when Alec's hand clamped almost painfully around her wrist. Looking again to Alec, she was rewarded with his attention. Though there was anger in the green depths of his eyes at least it was some sign of life.

"Or I could call them," Max said with an inflection of coercion. But it was a show, a con because, honesty, she wasn't even contemplating crossing the line, of getting between Alec and his brothers. No, she wouldn't take that course of action even for Alec's own good, knew that it would cost her whatever trust, whatever affection Alec held for her.

At Max's threat, Alec felt his world shift again, felt his fortifications shudder under an assault, all be it an unintentional one, from a trusted ally. Sharply, he knew that Max was a danger to Dean and Sam, was yet another wild card in a deck with all Jokers. Her good intentions could kill them all as surely as his weakness, his need to call his brothers could.
Any connection, any contact he made with Dean or Sam could endanger his brothers' lives, could forfeit whatever "ace in the hole" status he had, could endanger Max and everyone at TC. And that meant that any contact that anyone even remotely tied to him made with Dean or Sam could bring the same disastrous, lethal results.

But there was more on the line than Dean's life, than Dean's soul. The stakes, they were all or nothing. If he lost Dean, if Dean was stolen away, the after effects of a loss that unspeakably cruel would resonate farther and go deeper than he could calculate. For him, for Sam, for the fight against evil that came in shapes more hideous and sinister than Manticore could fathom. The truth, the odds they faced in saving Dean, in trying to save the world he knew, it chilled him to whatever depths that consisted of a soul. And unknowingly, Max had proven herself to be an adversary to their cause.

Cruelly tightening his grip on Max's wrist, Alec savagely commanded, "You don't ever call them. Ever, Max. Ever. That clear? Is that clear?!" he demanded, his voice nearly a shout, shaking Max's wrist in his hold, adamant that he get her compliance, that she understand that disobedience would be unforgivable.

"Yes. Yes, it's clear," Max nearly stammered, shaken by Alec's merciless tone, by the cold, deadly look in his eyes as they bore into her, demanding allegiance and compliance, even submission. She gave Alec all three, willingly. "I won't call them, Alec. I never…I wasn't going to I just wanted…."

"Wanted what, Max? To get a reaction out of me? To threaten me?" Alex fired back roughly pulling the phone from Max's grip and standing up, needing to get away, to get his emotions back in check. To come to terms with the odds, the opposition that stood in his way of what he wanted, what he needed.

Worried that Alec would not forgive her for her tactics, her threat, that he would walk out the door and never let her get close again, Max stowed her lingering trepidation to match wills with Alec in his present mood. "Yeah on both accounts," she boldly admitted, looking up at Alec, her heart pounding in her chest as she easily read the firestorm in his eyes. But she was a soldier too, fought for her own causes, to keep safe what she loved. "You're here but you're not, Alec. You're out there with them."

"Clearly I'm not," Alec shot back, the words, the truth hurting him in places that shouldn't exist, not in the soldier he was, the man he thought he was. "And this," he held up his phone tightly gripped in his hand, "This is the only tie I have to them, Max. And what? You want me to throw it away, to not be there when they need me."

"What about your life here, now? When they don't need you." Catching the minuscule flinch that went through Alec at her words, she gentled her tone. "You're just going through the motions of living, they would want more for you, Alec. Even I know them well enough to know that," she quietly reasoned, didn't need to detect the hitch in Alec's breathing to know she was right. "I don't know what's happening between you three and I don't have to. I already know it's something bad. They are in danger out there and, whether you want to face it or not, you're in danger here. What we do, who we are, it puts you in danger. How pissed would Dean be if he knew you almost got killed last night on that mission because you kept your phone on waiting on his call?"

For the first time in a month, a shadow of a smirk appeared on Alec's features. Dropping his look from Max, Alec scratched the back of his head before he slid his hand down his neck to complete his nervous tell. "Ah, really pissed…make-me-do-all-the-laundry-for-a-month pissed."

Standing up, Max walked to Alec, was relieved he didn't shift back from her as she put her hand on his chest. "They will call Alec. And it would probably be great if you were alive to take the call, alive and maybe rested and not about to pass out from not eating. 'Cause when you get that call, they will need you to be at top form, to be ready to use your Manticore given talents and save their butts, right?"

Closing his eyes, Alec drew in a breath and released it before he nodded his head. "It's just…harder than I thought."

"What is?"

"Being left behind……having a family," Alec confessed, opening his eyes, looking down at Max's upturned face. "Loving someone more than I love myself, more than I love my own life," he nearly whispered, his hand gently coming up to trace her eyebrow and trail down her cheek.

Max gave a wide smile, "Well, talking from experience, I know what you do when it comes down to a choice between saving your life or taking someone else's life." And there was a sad smile on Alec's lips at her reference to his attack on her and Joshua, his readily abandoned plan to take their lives to prevent a chip from exploding in his head. With a tilt of her head that sent her hair sliding to the left, Max continued, "Course the girl in that situation might be pissed off for awhile, might make you do some penance but eventually she comes around. After she realizes the choice you had, knows the self sacrifice you made to save her life. She's not totally clueless."

"Not at all," Alec agreed with a smile. "Thanks Max."

"For what? Making threats, getting you angry?" Max taunted, needing him to say the words, to reassure her that she had gotten through to him.

"Yeah…that," Alec replied, a light laugh in his tone. "And saving me from getting my butt kicked by Dean …and Sam for taking foolish risks, for almost getting myself killed." Then he sobered, met her eyes steadily, "For helping me to get myself together, to be ready when they call," because that mattered the most. Being ready, being able to be what his brothers wanted him to be, needed to be, to have the stamina, the will, the heart to fight whatever battle he had to and win, to not lose either of his brothers.

"Nothing you haven't done for me, Alec. I think Manticore taught a class on it…" At Alec's confused look and tilt of his head, Max joked, "Yeah, it was titled, "Pushing People's Buttons To Get What You Want 101."

"Oh right, how could I forget that one. I believe you were at the head of the class," Alec joked back, which earned him a light punch to the gut. Pulling Max into his arms, he rested his chin on her head, felt her arms slip around him, hold him tightly.

Alec, he wasn't alone, he knew that. Max was there for him, and so was Joshua and some others. Trouble was, none of them were Dean, none of them were Sam. In the months since his brothers had been gone, he had come to realize that they had left a gaping void in his life, had slipped into the Impala with most of his heart shoved into their back pockets…or tossed it into the trunk, where most of their treasured possessions were stowed.

"Tell me again that they will call me," Alec quietly said, his tone more plea than lighthearted scoff.

"Alec, they'll call you. When it's safe, when they need you, they'll call," Max reassured, her voice strong yet soft, knowing the vulnerable ground she was treading upon.

But that was part of Alec's worry, that it would never be safe, that they would decide that they didn't need him, another brother, another liability, another weakness. "I need them Max…even if they never need me. I need them."

"I know," Max admitted, pulling back to meet Alec's eyes, sympathy and hope in her gaze. "They need you too, Alec. More than that, they want you." Then a true smile turned up her lips and a spark came into her eyes. "And I got proof: Sam bunking on that tiny kid mattress, Dean sticking around here eating Mole's crappy cooking, if that doesn't tell you they love you nothing will."

A laugh burst from Alec because Max was right. Winchesters may never say I love you …but they certainly showed it in a thousand, crazy, twisted ways. 'And one of those ways was going to be a telephone call.'

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Alec was walking back to his quarters after a late night shift when his phone rang with a call from an unknown number. His heart tripping in his chest, he answered the phone, fleeting hope flaring to life that a voice he desperately needed to hear would be on the line. "Hello," he answered, cringed at the gravely, breathless sound of his voice that proved that his emotions were far from hidden.

"Hey, it's Sam."

Alec's breath caught and he felt like part of his soul that was AWOL for nearly two months was back, was on the phone. "Sam," and there was no hiding the joy in his voice, the relief, knew he had no need or desire to hide either emotion from his brother. "Is everything alright? Should I meet you somewhere?" he asked as he quickened his pace to his room, was already planning the weapons he would grab, knew his clothing was in a bag on the floor by the door as it had been for months, ready for his departure.

"No. I mean..everything is…fine," came Sam's breathless reply.

Alec stumbled to a stop. Sam's breath wasn't gone due to exertion; it was squeezed out by hurt, by fear. Feeling the matching fear leap into his chest, he clenched his jaw. Knew that nothing was fine, with Sam…and now with him. Knew just as instinctively that the worst hadn't happened, that Sam wasn't telling him Dean was dead but he feared Sam's next words all the same.

At Alec's silence, Sam knew his little brother didn't believe his bluff. He wasn't sure if he even wanted him to. He desperately, cowardly wanted someone to understand what he was going through, to feel what he felt, to know the abyss that was lying in wait for him. When he spoke again, his voice was ravaged, "I had a way to save Dean. Maybe not the greatest solution but …" His voice cracked on the next words. "He shut me down, Alec."

"What way?!" Alec fired back, heart quickening in his chest at Sam's 'way to save Dean,' never mind the words that followed.

"Dean wouldn't even consider it!" Sam railed, a growl in his tone, uncovering his frustration, his anger but still unable to sufficiently mask the emotions that were underneath it all: terror, despair, love. "Said he would rather go to …." Sam bit his lip, closed his eyes. He couldn't say the word, couldn't think of that place, not ever with his brother in it. Couldn't shut out Dean's last words to Bela, 'See you in Hell,' meaning it, accepting his fate, giving up whatever feeble hope he had held onto for a year.

Alec's voice in his ear was a lifeline to him, was a lifeline not so different than Dean had always been. Steadied him, brought him back from the brink of destruction, of hopelessness, of merciless solitude.

"Whoa, whoa, Sam. I'm coming into this blind. Tell me how you were going to save Dean?" Alec asked, unnerved a little by the fact that he was trying to calm Sam, to give Sam support when the older man had always steadied him.

"Immortality," Sam breathed as if it were a dirty little secret, one to be whispered, an idea that good people didn't utter, let alone contemplate putting into motion.

The word cut through Alec's calm, made him still in the middle of his room, phone clutched tightly in his hand. "Immortality…that even possible?" because if it was out there to be done, Manticore would have wanted to do it.

Relieved to not hear condemnation in Alec's reply, Sam released his held breath. "Apparently it is. This doctor…he used science to keep himself alive. Thing is…" Sam shuffled on his feet, looked across the gas station to the motel where Dean was sleeping in their room. "He needed to keep….replacing parts…body parts." Before Alec could reply, he hurriedly exclaimed, "I know, I know, it's twisted and wrong in a thousand ways! I know that, you of all people, after all that Manticore did, you don't approve but…this is my brother we're talking about, Alec! He's going to die, to go to Hell if I don't…" he couldn't say it, couldn't even scrape together enough belief in the word again to let it pass through his head, let alone cross his lips.

'..if I don't save him,' Alec heard the words as if Sam had spoken them, had had them echoing in his own mind too often for them to not come unbidden. "How do we do it?" he asked matter-of-factly, not flinching away from doing whatever dirty tasks he had to do for his brothers, both of them. Had done despicable things at Manticore's bidding, he sure wouldn't lose any sleep doing whatever he had to in order to save his family, to keep them safe…forever if had the chance.

Taken aback by Alec's quick, determined reply, Sam stammered, "Alec…Dean said no."

"What do you say?" Alec shot back, surprised to find himself willing to go against Dean's wishes, to go against anyone's but his own if it meant keeping his brother with him.

Sam's breath left him in a rush. He knew what Alec was asking, what he was offering. To save Dean…to go against Dean's wishes…to betray Dean to save him. To follow in the Winchester steps of saving someone anyway they could, no matter the consequences, no matter what it would lead to later, what it would feel like to be saved that way.

Sam choked on a sob. "Dean said Doc Benton was a monster…and he was Alec. He was," he brokenly admitted but he couldn't shut out the memory of the demented doctor's voice yelling, promising, 'I can help you!' even as Dean shoveled the first load of dirt onto the doc's tomb. Dean hadn't slowed down his progress, not once, not until the dirt piled onto the refrigerator, hid it, muffled the doctor's pleas…his offers. Didn't stop until he had buried the only hope to save him that Sam had found after a year of looking.

Tears tracking down his cheeks, Sam gripped the phone tighter, looked at the Impala across the street through blurred vision. "I just want someone to help him, Alec. Cause I can't…" and the admission cost him, shattered his voice, decimated the reign of control he always struggled to maintain in front of Dean. "I don't know how! He's going to die, Alec. In three weeks he's going to leave me."

It was too much for Alec, Sam's pain. His brother's despair mixed toxically with his own, drown him with the hopelessness of it all. "Where are you, Sam?" Alec demanded, needed to be there, to be with Sam in his worry, to be with Dean for as long as he could, as long as he had to spend in his oldest brother's presence.

Remembering what could still be lost if he didn't get himself under control, not only Dean but Alec too, Sam drew in a steady breath, raised a shaking hand to wipe away his tears. "No. Dean's right. We can't let them know about you."
Frustration and need overriding any brotherly obedience, Alec argued, "I rode with you guys for months! You hung out at transgenic central. It's a good bet they know about me, Sam!"

"Even if that's true, they don't think you're tied with us anymore. I even stole some poor schmuck's cell phone to call you on instead of using my own," Sam tried to make light of the situation, to deny that he wanted Alec there too, wanted backup, wanted reinforcement, wanted his little brother there to help protect their big brother.

"Am I Sam? Am I tied with you?" Alec achingly asked, couldn't help the catch in his voice any more than Sam could his own a moment before. "You left me behind and I haven't heard from you in months."

"Course you're still tied to us! Just because we don't want to put you in unwarranted danger doesn't mean we're not family," Sam quickly refuted even as he felt like a hypocrite. His father had done the same thing to him and Dean. He, of all people, knew what it felt like to be left behind, how it felt like betrayal, that type of love, that type of protection. "Fact, in the Winchester world, if we leave you eating our dust, it definitely means your family."

Alec didn't refute Sam's claim. Somehow knew it was the truth by the little the brothers had talked about the year they had spent trying to find their father when he didn't want to be found, not if it put them in danger. "Well, your protection routine…it blows."

"I know. Trust me, I know," Sam commiserated with a sad laugh, feeling some of the crushing hopelessness lift after sharing his pain, his fear, his disappointment with Alec. After all, they didn't need a solution…not today, not for three whole, long, fabulous weeks. 'Yeah, plenty of time for us to come up with a miracle', he sardonically thought. "So how's the transgenic equal rights rallies going? I saw some news coverage on the good you guys are doing," he asked, switching topics.

"'Bout as good as my Winchester equal rights fight," Alec parried back petulantly. Sam's silent reply told him that his barb had wounded his brother, had him internally cursing himself and making apologies. "Sam, I'm sorry. I know I have no right to resent you…"

"Don't you?" Sam quietly replied, knowing only too well whose fault all this was: Dean's looming date with hell hounds, Alec not being able to be with them, to spend time with his dying brother.

It only took Alec a moment to understand the guilt he heard in Sam's voice, to remember that tone. It had been there when Sam had told him about how Dean's deal had come about, that Dean had done it to save him, that it was his mistake that had gotten him killed, not any failings on Dean's part, no matter what Dean thought. "No, I don't have a right to resent you, Sam. But it's….hard…being sidelined…being kept in the dark. And you said…you said you didn't want to waste the time you had left with Dean. Well, I don't either and it's…" but he broke off, couldn't choke out 'nearly gone.' Bit his lip to keep the words unsaid.

"I know, he's your brother too," Sam miserably stated, remembered Dean's same words about their father. Wondered if it was a curse in their family, that to keep one family member you had to lose another? Had to always be willing to sacrifice someone you loved in order to keep a hold of someone you loved even more.

"Crappy timing on my part to pick out a family, huh?" Alec tried to joke though his voice was again gravelly, said more about despair than mirth.

"Yeah and you could have selected better. I hear the Hiltons always wanted a boy…" Sam reciprocated Alec's tactics with little better success.

Alec snorted. "Can you see me as some rich kid, being all preppy 'joe college'? I would be bored within a week and probably run up daddy's lawyer bills higher than the national deficient. Nah, I got exactly the family I wanted, Sam. I have no regrets on that account." 'Not yet, not unless Dean goes and dies on me…on us. Then regrets will be the mildest of things I will feel.' And that thought, that real possibility broke down Alec's wall of pride. "Sam, please…please don't go into the end game without me. Promise me that, Sam. Promise me?!"

"I already made that promise, remember?" Sam teased like Alec was begging to go along for ice cream, like it was a promise that wasn't keeping Sam up at night, among other worries. Like he hadn't realized Dean had made no similar promise to Alec…or even to him that he wouldn't walk away, try to face his fate all alone. And Dean's refusal to even contemplate using Doc Benton's immortality formula, it told Sam more than he ever wanted to know about how far Dean would go to see the deal through, to keep him safe. Proved to him what Dean was willing and unwilling to do to save his own life, his own soul.

But a conviction borne out of desperation, out of love was starting to grow in Sam. 'Dean's not willing to risk what I will, won't cross the lines I'm willing to cross to save him.' And that was a contradiction to everything he had fought against since learning that he could turn evil. But it was becoming painfully clear as the days slipped away, as he drew closer and closer to losing Dean: what good was his clear conscience, his soul if Dean was dead? If Dean's own soul was being torn to shreds in Hell for all of eternity?!

"When we go after who holds Dean's contract…I'll call you Alec, you'll be part of it," Sam vowed, meaning it. 'Even if I have to do it against Dean's wishes, even if it puts Alec in as much danger as it puts Dean. God forgive me, but I'm willing to risk everything and everyone for even the chance to save Dean.' "But, Alec…it's …I can't …what might happen…I can't protect you," he stammered, wanted Alec to know how dangerous things would be, to try and warn the younger man, to make him see how desperate he was, what steps he might take for victory, what he might risk, who he might risk to save his brother. To save the brother that he had had his whole life, the brother that had given up everything he had for him since the day he was born.

"I'm not asking you to protect me, Sam. I don't even want you to try. We both have one goal, right? The same goal: To save Dean. And in my experience, backup is good, an ace in the hole is swell but motivation, now that's the real tie breaker. And you and I? We've got that in spades. With all of us fighting side by side, Hell had better bring more than a few Hell Hounds to the party," Alec boldly declared, fiercely protective of his brothers. These past months he had come to realize just how far he was willing to go to safeguard them, to keep them with him.

Sam gave a choked laugh, not sure he had ever loved Alec more than he did right then. "For a little brother, you're awesome Alec. Well, I got to go before Dean calls me wondering where his pie is. And by the way…Dean and I…we miss you."

"Me too," Alec readily admitted only to find he was talking to empty air. Sam had already disconnected the call, was apparently as anxious to return to Dean as he was to be with his brothers. "Take care of yourselves," he murmured. Then he stood there tightly clutching his phone in his hand long after Sam had hung up.

They had called, well Sam had called. He had heard his brother's voice…and it wasn't enough. Just like Sam's promise wasn't enough. Not when in three weeks Dean might be gone, Sam might fold in onto himself, when the family he had never dreamed he could have was on the brink of destruction. And he was just standing there, holding a phone like it was a life line. Manticore's best and brightest, benched in the war that would decide his own fate as surely as it would decide Dean's.

'Patience,' he growled to himself just like his Manticore instructors had said time and time again. 'Patience and perseverance will win the day,' they had drilled into him. But since meeting the Winchesters, he had learned something Manticore had not taught him, had done everything in their power to not let him learn: That the most powerful weapon wasn't grafted into DNA strains, was freely given, was love. And love, it had a tenacious way of winning wars that should, by all accounts, be lost. 'And it's going to win this one to. It has to,' he vowed, slipping the cell phone in his pocket and heading for bed. He had to get some sleep, had to be prepared for the battle ahead, had to be ready when the phone rang again and his brothers called him home.

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TBC

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Thanks for the reviews and encouragement for last chapter! It keeps me plugging away on this story even though the plot is now a season behind.

I promise, Dean's in the next chapter!

Have a great evening!

Cheryl W.