Author's note: I hope everyone had a good weekend. I had the day off from work today and decided to finish this one up and post it.

Chapter 8

Even Martha Kent Has a Dark Side

The following afternoon, Clark was mucking out the stalls in the barn when Dean went out there to have a word with him. He was planning on leaving Smallville again, and he wanted Clark to be the first to know.

Clark had his back towards the door when Dean walked in, and he smirked as he tried to think of a joke to break the silence, but he ended up settling with, "Having fun yet?"

Clark stopped what he was doing and turned around with a smile, while he clutched the handle of the pitchfork in both hands. "Loads."

Dean looked around at the mess on the floor and his smirk became an actual smile. "Ya know, I wish me and Sammy could've met you guys sooner."

Clark set the pitchfork aside and brushed some of the loose hay off the front of his dirty t-shirt. "Yeah, same here. Maybe if your dad would've hunted here more often, you guys could've hung out here when we were kids."

Dean nodded. "That would've been awesome. So, are all the bugs gone?"

Clark sighed. "I searched the entire farm three times now, but I haven't found any more."

"I know we should've told you about them sooner," Dean said. "But you were worried about Chloe, so we didn't want to burden you with it."

Clark grinned. "It's okay. Besides, you're a great exterminator. I'm sure those bugs never stood a chance."

Dean chuckled. "Well, I learned from the best."

Then Clark's smile faded, and he became worried again. "My mom told me about Roger Nixon showing up at the apartment. What did he say to you?"

"He tried to blackmail me into telling him your secrets," Dean explained. "He knows about my family and what we do. He thinks we're a bunch of whack jobs, so he threatened to have my dad locked away."

"What did you tell him?" Clark asked.

Dean pulled his white handled Colt out of a pocket on the inside of his leather jacket. "I showed him my gun and told him to get the hell out."

Clark laughed. "I hope you're not leaving because of him. We can deal with this thing together, just like my parents and I did with Phelan."

Dean put his gun away and frowned. "No, it's not that. There's a storm coming, and I've got to save Roger's ass just as much as everyone else's."

"So, you're not gonna hurt him?" Clark asked.

Dean's smirk returned. "Maybe a little. He violated my baby, so he's getting knocked on his ass the next time I see him."

Clark shook his head and chuckled, just before he grabbed the pitchfork again. He was about to turn away and get back to work, but then Chloe suddenly appeared in the doorway of the barn.

"Hey, Clark!" Chloe said with a grin.

Dean glanced back at her, and then he slapped Clark on the shoulder. "Go get her, tiger."

Then Dean turned away and said hello to Chloe on his way out. He couldn't help but grin when he heard the aspiring reporter announce that she finally got her internship with the Daily Planet after all.

"Chloe, that's great!" Clark said excitedly. "You didn't even have to interview!"

As soon as Dean stepped out onto the driveway, he spotted some foreign car that he didn't like the looks of parked behind the Impala, and he noticed Pete out there with some tall girl in a Metropolis University t-shirt, who was checking out the rims on his baby.

The girl had long, brown hair and Dean found her quite attractive, so he smirked and went over to have a chat with her. "Hello. Who might you be?"

Pete laughed when he heard Dean's pathetic attempt at making a pickup line, and Lois smirked at him when she said, "Not in your dreams, buddy."

Dean's face fell flat, and Pete laughed again. "Lois isn't your type, man!"

Lois offered Dean a handshake. "I take it this car is yours?"

Still feeling a little embarrassed, Dean gave Pete a dirty look, and shook Lois's hand. "Yes, ma'am. She's technically my dad's, but he gave her to me."

Lois looked at the car again and whistled. "She's a beauty. I wouldn't mind taking her for a ride."

Dean smiled. "Maybe you can, if there's time. I'm guessing you and Pete came here with Chloe."

"Yeah," Lois said without looking at him, since she was still focused on the Impala.

Pete went around the car and put his hands in his pockets when he came to a stop at Dean's side. "We've been keeping an eye on Chloe while you and Clark did your thing. I'm just glad it's finally over."

Then Lois glanced at Dean and an amused grin appeared on her face. "I heard that Birdego guy got to have Watts all to himself. Clark and I were supposed to take turns kicking his ass."

"He's a cop," Dean said. "They always get to call dibs. So, do you want to meet the Kents? They're pretty cool."

"Sure," Lois said, before Dean led the way and Pete followed them.

As soon as they entered the house, they found Martha behind the kitchen counter, where she was in the middle of peeling and cutting up a bunch of apples.

"What'cha making?" Dean asked with a grin.

Martha looked up at them and smiled. "I'm getting ready to make an apple pie. Jonathan invited Deputy Birdego over for a chat. He wants to talk about… What happened."

Lois glanced around at her surroundings, without noticing the hint Martha dropped for Dean. "Misses Kent, your house is so… nice! It's less cramped than my apartment in Metropolis."

Pete laughed. "Welcome to the country. Anyway, I'm gonna go see Clark. I'll catch you guys later."

Pete hurried back outside, leaving Dean and Lois alone with Martha, who then asked about Chloe. "So, you must be Lois. How's Chloe doing?"

Lois smiled at Martha. "Better! She's out in the barn right now."

Martha set her knife and the apple she was peeling down and asked, "What about the internship? I know she was looking forward to it."

Lois approached the counter and looked down at the apples on the cutting board curiously. "She got it."

Martha glanced down at the apples as well, but then she looked back up at Lois and was confused by her lack of enthusiasm for Chloe's success. "That's great, isn't it?"

Lois looked up at her. "Yeah, she's really happy about it. I'm just wondering… Can I stay for some pie too?"

"Sure!" Martha answered. "I'm gonna make a couple pies, actually."

"Awesome!" Dean and Lois said in unison, which caused them to exchange an awkward glance with each other.

Lois gave Dean a dirty look. "I'm gonna head back outside."

Martha waved to her and returned to cutting up the apples. "Okay."

After Lois went out onto the porch, Dean shook his head and made a clicking sound in his mouth. "Bribing the Deputy with pie to keep him quiet… I never knew you had a dark side, Martha."

Martha laughed quietly. "It's not a bribe, it's a friendly gesture that looks like a bribe."

Dean's smile faded as he stood there watching her work. "Right. I just hope he doesn't go out talking to any reporters. I know he saw the bullet holes in Clark's shirt."

Martha finished cutting up the apples and scraped the slices off the cutting board into a bowl. "Bobby saw them too… Are you sure we can trust him? I know you haven't seen him in years, so what if he's changed since then?"

Dean felt a sudden flash of anger as he prepared to defend Bobby, but realizing that the Kents hadn't had the chance to get to know him yet, he suppressed it. "He's still the same old Bobby he always was. He's a good man. He helped us stop Gary Watts and now Clark's friends are safe."

"I just hope Mike Birdego is that trustworthy," Martha said. "He and Jonathan went to school together, but they never got to know each other before now."

Dean nodded, but then a light bulb suddenly went off in his head. "You know, if it turns out Birdego can be trusted, then maybe having him know Clark's secret could be a good thing."

Martha's mouth opened in surprise when she appeared to reach her own conclusion about the subject, but then she shook her head when it seemed that she changed her mind. "I don't know, Dean. Knowing Clark's secret can be dangerous."

Dean went over to the table and pulled out a chair for himself. "But now, the cops are going after that Nixon guy, and Birdego can make anything he says sound like an excuse to cover his own ass."

Martha gave Dean a stern look, so he apologized after plopping down into the chair. "Sorry, to cover his butt. Either way, no one's gonna believe him if he says something about Clark."

"I hope you're right," Martha said with a sigh, just as Jonathan came in from outside, after saying hello to Lois and Pete.

"Clark and Chloe sound pretty happy out there," Jonathan said with a chuckle.

Dean got up from the chair he sat down in and said, "I think Clark finally made his move. I told him if he didn't man up and ask someone, he wouldn't get to be with anybody."

Martha smiled at Dean. "I hope he's gonna be able to move on. He decided to stay friends with Lana after George Fordman got sick, but I'm worried that he might get hurt if he doesn't make up his mind."

Dean smiled back. "He's a man now. He can take it."

Then his smile disappeared, and right away Jonathan could tell that something was wrong. "Dean, are you alright? You seem like you've got something on your mind."

Dean put his hands in the pockets of his jeans and nodded. "I've decided to leave town again and go hunting with Bobby."

Both Jonathan and Martha were surprised to hear the news, but it was Jonathan that guessed the reason. "Is it because of the storms? Clark was worried about them being demonic omens."

"That's right," Dean answered. "They might be nothing, but we have to check it out just in case."

Jonathan put a hand on Dean's shoulder in the same fatherly way he often did with his son. "You know you're welcome to come back any time, right?"

Dean smiled at him. "Yeah. I do."

"Can you at least stick around long enough to have some pie?" Martha asked, looking hopeful.

"Pardon my language Martha, but hell yeah!" was Dean's answer.

Jonathan pulled his hand away from Dean's shoulder and laughed. "I'm gonna see how things are going with Clark. Deputy Birdego is coming by later, so I'd rather not have Chloe and Lois here when things get interesting."

Dean nodded and sat back down in his chair. "Family secrets can be a bi- uh, I mean a burden."

Then Jonathan went outside again and came to a stop on the porch when he saw his son walking Chloe out to Lois's car like they were already a couple. He watched as Lois and Pete joined them out there, and the four of them exchanged words while they joked and laughed amongst themselves. Seeing how happy they looked made him smile, and he found himself hoping that Chloe could be trusted with their family's secrets. He knew Clark would want to tell her eventually, but he was still afraid to cross that bridge when they got to it.

The next day after he woke up, Dean packed up what little he had in the Talon apartment and put it in the trunk of the Impala. Lana was working with her aunt behind the counter when she noticed him walk in through the front door with the apartment key ring in his hand.

On her way out to serve a customer their coffee, Lana approached Dean with the pot in her hand so they could talk. "Hey, I wanted to thank you for everything you did. I know Clark could've handled it, but it was nice to know he had backup."

Dean smiled and held the keys out to her. "I'm glad I could help. At least Deputy Watts won't be able to hurt anyone ever again."

Lana shuddered as she remembered what it felt like when he died. "I know. I just wish I hadn't been there to see him die."

"I'm sorry you went through all that," Dean said, when she took the key ring from him.

"I saw Clark get shot, but he doesn't want to talk to me about it," Lana said. "Someone disabled the cameras in here yesterday, but I get the feeling it wasn't Deputy Watts who did it."

Dean gently placed a hand on Lana's arm and guided her over to the front entrance so they could get away from listening ears. "Whatever happens, you need to keep this a secret. Clark doesn't like discussing this with anyone outside of his family."

"I understand that," Lana said with a hint of annoyance in her voice. "But I want him to know that he can trust me."

The subtle change in her voice might have gone unnoticed to someone that wasn't paying close attention, but Dean noticed it, and his voice quickly took on a similar tone. "Just give him some time, alright? When he's ready to open up, he will, so don't push him."

Lana closed her eyes for a second and sighed. "I didn't mean to sound nosy, it's just that I'm still a bit shaken up by this whole thing. Seeing what that guy did to Chloe was scary. He could've come after me."

Dean nodded, but his phone started to ring, so he pulled it out of his jacket pocket and discovered that it was his dad. "I have to take this."

Lana went back to work, and Dean stepped outside to answer the call. "Dad?"

"Dean. I found it."

At first, Dean wasn't sure what 'it' meant, but it didn't take him long to figure it out from the sound of his father's voice. "It? The demon that killed Mom?"

"That's right. I'm with Constantine and we have a way to kill the bastard, but we could really use your help on this one."

"Yes, sir. Where are you?"

John told Dean to meet him at a diner in Lawrence that they both knew, and then he quickly got in the Impala and left the Talon. Even though he was in a hurry, Dean decided that he had an important stop to make before leaving town, but he knew his father probably wouldn't have approved of it. Martha had some leftover pie from the day before that she agreed to save for him, and he wasn't about to leave town without it.

When Dean pulled into the driveway at the Kent Farm and headed up towards the barn, both Jonathan and Martha came out when they heard the roar of the engine. The looks on their faces were a mixture of sadness that their adopted nephew was leaving, and happiness that he had stopped by to see them one more time. Dean exchanged a glance with them through the windshield, and when he noticed the expressions on their faces, he realized that he felt the same way they did. Ever since the exorcism in Sasha's barn, his time in Smallville had been special to him. He didn't expect to become so attached when he first showed up to help Clark with his demon problem, but now he hated to leave the Kents behind, especially when there was a chance he might never get to see them again.

Jonathan and Martha watched Dean park the car and they smiled at him when he got out. After he shut the door, he grinned at them and laughed. "I came back for my pie!"

Martha laughed as well. "And here I thought you came back just to see us!"

Dean hugged Martha and then offered Jonathan a handshake, but instead of shaking his hand, Jonathan laughed and hugged him instead. "Stay safe out there, Dean. Promise me you'll come back to us one of these days."

Dean patted Jonathan on the back. "I promise."

Just then, Clark came out of the house, and he smiled when he saw the three of them over by the car. He stood there on the front porch, while he waited for Dean to come up to the house for his pie, and he was grinning from ear to ear as he headed up the driveway towards the fence.

The moment Dean passed through the open gate, Clark leaned down over the porch railing. "Excited about your pie?"

Dean laughed. "Abso-frickin-lutely!"

He climbed up and over the railing, instead of taking the steps, and then he chuckled. "But most of all, I had to come say goodbye."

"I'm glad you stopped by," Clark told him, just before Dean's enthusiasm died off and a fearful expression came over him. "What's wrong, Dean?"

Dean grabbed Clark by the arm and pulled him into the house so the other members of the Kent family couldn't hear him. Once the door was shut behind them, he explained what was going on. "My dad called, and he needs me to help him with a case."

"I'm not surprised," Clark said. "You're good at what you do."

"No, it's not just that," Dean told him. "I don't know if my dad or Sam told you, but when we were little, a demon killed my mom."

Clark was horrified. "Oh my God! How old were you?"

"I was four," Dean told him. "Sam was just a baby, and the damn thing was in his nursery. I don't know what it wanted, but there was a fire, and she didn't make it out."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know," Clark said.

Dean smiled and went over to the refrigerator in the kitchen. "It's okay though. My dad found it, so now we're gonna kill that son of a bitch."

Then he pulled the door open and retrieved a large, plastic container from the top shelf that had a big slice of apple pie in it. When he shut the door and turned around again, Clark was standing by the sink with his arms folded over his chest. "You're gonna be okay though, right?"

Dean shrugged. "I promised Uncle Jonathan I'd come back. No matter what happens, I'm coming back to see you guys."

Clark smiled at him. "Uncle? Are we officially cousins now?"

Dean set the plastic dish aside and offered Clark a hug. "No, we're brothers now."

Clark accepted the hug and when they were done, Dean said, "It's like Bobby always used to say when me and Sammy were little, 'Family don't end with blood, boy!'"

Hearing Dean's impersonation of Bobby was surprisingly funny, and Clark laughed. "Hey, that was good! You sounded just like him."

Dean grabbed his pie again and smirked. "Thanks, I'll be here all of next week."

"I can come help, if you think it'll do any good," Clark suggested.

Dean shook his head. "No, after what happened with Nick, the last thing we need is to have you there with us. This thing is a lot more dangerous, and if it found a way to possess you, we'd all be screwed."

Clark shrugged. "I guess you were right. It really is a long way to the top if I want to rock and roll."

Dean chuckled. "For now, you need to worry about what's going on around here. Bobby says he interrogated a demon that was trying to summon Nick."

Clark furrowed his brow. "When did this happen?"

"The same night you dug Chloe out of Chandler's Field."

"Oh, God. At least tell me Bobby sent it back."

"Yes, he sent it back to Hell, but there might be more. I don't know how many of Nick's buddies are up here, but we're gonna hunt them down one at a time until they're all down in the pit."

Clark turned around and looked out the window above the kitchen sink. He saw his parents coming up towards the house, so he sighed and said, "So, about the demon you're hunting, do you think Nick is working with it?"

"I don't know," Dean answered. "But right now, my dad's waiting for me, so I have to get going."

Then Clark turned around to face Dean again. "When you come back, we'll figure out what to do about Nicodemus. Stay safe out there."

Dean thanked Clark and then they headed out onto the porch, just as Jonathan and Martha passed through the open gate in the fence. Dean thanked them for the pie and said good-bye to them one last time, before he returned to the Impala and backed out of the driveway.