I do not own Supernatural or any of the characters found there in. Alex and the Mayfair mythology are my own.
Chapter 10
Their lips moved together in perfect time. Sam moved his hands up to cup her face as she tangled her fingers into his luscious hair. Sam suddenly realized just how much he had missed her. The only explanation he could come up with for not realizing it sooner was time. Their time apart had created a cavern between them, but in that instant it didn't matter.
Breath eventually became a necessity and they pulled apart. Sam continued to hold her face in his hands and studied her. A gentle smile crossed her face before she rested her head against his chest and began to cry softly, releasing the pent up emotion of the past few months. He was there. He was holding her. For a moment, everything was perfect again.
Sam began to gently smooth the hair out of her face as he placed a kiss to the top of her head. He couldn't stop the smile that formed on his face any more than she could stop her tears.
The magical moment was broken when a paramedic came over to them.
"Ma'am?" Sam loosened his grip on her so that she could turn to face him. She hopped slightly on her injured foot. "Can I check your leg?" Alex nodded and followed him over to a nearby ambulance. As he examined her leg, she looked up to Sam and gave him another smile. Maybe things were going to turn out alright for them after all.
The final verdict was a severely sprained ankle. They showed Alex how to wrap her ankle and gave her some crutches. Ordering her to take it easy for a few weeks. Sam had helped her to the car before they drove off in search of a motel with power so Alex could get cleaned up.
While she was in the shower, Sam and Dean started to discuss what was next for the tree of them. Dean was guessing that Alex was back on board considering the greeting she'd given his little brother. He figured he'd have to give them some alone time to talk again in the near future. One kiss was not going to undo everything that had happened between them.
"You hungry?" Dean asked as Alex began to hobble out of the bathroom.
"Yeah." Dean started to lace up his shoes. Alex held up the wrap. "Hey Sam, do you think you could help me out? I'm having a hard time getting it tight enough."
"Sure," he said with a small smile. He patted a spot beside him on the bed. She was just lowering herself to the matress when the closet door flew open, and a man fell out.
Sam quickly rose to his feet, instinctively putting himself between you and danger. The man slowly rose to his feet as he studied the boys.
"Which of you is John Winchester?" The boys just looked at each other as you reached for the pistol sitting on the bed. "Please, time is of the essence! Which of you is John Winchester?"
"Uh, neither." Dean looked at the closet door behind the man. There was nothing unusual about the door that he could see. Something strange was definitely going on.
"That's impossible. That's absolutely… What did I do wrong?"
Alex trained the gun on him as best she could from behind Sam. "Mind telling us who the hell you are?"
He waived her off. "Not now. I'm thinking."
Frustration and rage bubbled over as Dean grabbed the man and pushed him up against the wall. Holding him there with an arm across his chest, he demanded answers. Sam stepped up next to his brother, looming over both of them.
"I'll tell you what," Sam said, "when one of us falls out of your closet, then you can ask the questions."
The man made his apologies "Is it absolutely essential, sir, that you keep your hands on me?"
Dean let him go and stepped back. He still didn't trust him, but physical force wasn't getting them anywhere.
"Thank you. Gentleman," he looked behind them at Alex, "miss, in the absence of any and all other explanations, I'm afraid this has been a marvelous, tragic misunderstanding. I'll be on my way."
Sam shook his head. "That's not happening."
"There are things of grave importance. I do not have time to deal with the likes of you."
He moved to push past the boys. Sam got hold of him as Dean reached for the cuffs resting on the table. Dean grabbed his wrist. "You're not going anywhere, 007, 'til we get some answers." He moved to handcuff him to the chair. There was a blur of movement, and suddenly both Sam and Dean were handcuffed to the chair as the man walked out the door.
Alex jumped to her feet and tried to run after him. A yell escaped her throat when she put the full weight of her body on her badly damaged ankle. She fell back on the bed, grasping the joint in main. "Son of a bitch!"
"Don't just lay there," Dean shouted. "Do something!"
She glared at him as she rolled to her feet and hopped towards them, careful not to put too much weight on her foot. "Yeah I'll get right on that." She grabbed the cuff key and started releasing the boys. "How the hell did he do that anyway?"
"I have no idea," Sam said.
"Come on. He's getting away."
Dean grabbed his gun and keys before heading for the door. Alex started to reach for her crutches when she felt Sam's hand on her shoulder.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. There's time for that later. Right now we've got to catch this guy." She crutched as quickly as she could after the elder Winchester, Sam close behind her making sure she was okay.
They found Dean, pointing the gun into the broken driver's side window of the Impala. The mysterious man was seated behind the wheel. The sound of the hammer being pulled back on the gun caused him to flinch slightly as Sam opened the other door, ensuring he had no escape.
"Nice taste in wheels," said Dean.
"Yours I presume?"
Dean wrenched open the door and haled the man to his feet. The boys quickly got him back inside and kept hold of both of his arms until they made sure he was properly secured to the chair before stepping away from him. Alex did all of the requisite tests.
"He's clean," she said.
"I could have told you that."
She gave him an exasperated look as knelt down and wrapped the wound on his arm. Using her boot knife, she cut his bindings and let him loose. He nodded in thanks before rubbing his wrists.
Dean was the first to break the following silence. "Yeah, well, you can start by telling us everything before I beat it out of you."
"I'm quite certain this is all beyond your understanding, my alpha-male-monkey friend." Dean's eyebrows rose. "And violence will not help you comprehend this any easier."
The thinly veiled insult enraged the elder Winchester. Drawing his gun, Dean surged forward and took hold of the man's jacket before pointing his weapon at him.
"Let me tell you what I understand! Some asshat pops out of my closet asking about my dad, smashes up my ride. So why am I not getting violent, again?"
A look of utter shock marred his features. "John Winchester is your father?" Before anyone could answer, a loud rattling sound could be heard coming from the closet the man had emerged from less than a half hour before. " What is that?" He slowly rose to his feet and turned towards the closed, realization sinking in. "Oh, my God."
"What?"
"Run!"
The door flew open with a flash of blinding light. A woman in a blood spattered grey dress sauntered through the doorway.
"Henry," she laughed as she looked at the terrified man before her. "Silly man, you forgot to lock the door. But then spells never were your best subject, were they? Why don't you be a doll and give me what I want? And I promise to kill you and your friends her quickly."
"You know I can't do that."
"You're not a fighter, Henry."
Dean stepped forward, gun at the ready. "No, but we are."
The woman turned her attention to the three hunters, pausing when she laid eyes on Alex. Her eyes narrowed in a slight squint as she studied her. "Do I know you?" The boys lunged, but had little success as she flung them back against the wall.
Taking her gun in hand, Alex moved towards the demon. She was caught completely off guard when she found herself suddenly flying backwards, her head making a solid thumping noise as it came into contact with the wall before sliding down next to Sam.
Both boys froze, eyes wide, as they slowly got to their feet. Dean came to his senses and stabbed the woman in the back with the demon knife. Hellfire flickered for a moment before going out. She turned to Dean. This can't be happening.
"Well that's no way to treat a lady."
"Alex, you okay?" Sam asked as he crouched down next to her. She was so stunned that all she could do was nod. They heard Henry telling them to run. Hoisting Alex up by her armpits, Sam threw her arm over his shoulder as they all assented from the room.
Sam checked Alex for injuries despite her insistence that she was fine while Dean rocketed them down the highway. Finding a secluded spot under the bridge, Dean pulled over. Gravel flew as the Impala came to a screeching halt. Their new friend rocketed from the car. He fell to his knees a few feet away and began riding his stomach of its contents.
"You okay?" Alex asked as she got out of the car. Sam quickly rushed around to offer her support seeing as how her crutches had been left behind in the motel.
The man nodded. "Yes, I will be." Alex flinched and looked away when he vomited again. He produced a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his mouth. "It's just all the adventures I enjoy are usually of the literary nature."
Dean took up his position on the opposite side of Alex. "Yeah, well, no that you're done blowing chunks, you want to tell us who Betty Crocker was?"
"Abaddon," he said as he rose to his feet. "She's a demon."
"No she's not," said Alex.
"I can assure you she is."
"No." Dean shook his head violently. "No you see, I know demons. And that, that's no demon."
Looking at Dean in exasperation he said, "And how would you possibly know that?"
He pointed to Alex. "Because demons can't throw her into walls like that!"
He studied her for a moment. "It's true," she said as she leaned on Sam a bit more. "That's never happened to me before, and I've been dealing with demons for years." He didn't seem to understand what she was saying.
Sam could tell that they were getting nowhere. "Okay fine. She's a demon. Where'd she come from?"
"Where'd you come from?" followed Dean.
"She's from Hell." Dean rolled his eyes. Could of guessed that one. "I'm from Normal, Illinois – 1958."
That was not the answer Alex was expecting to hear. Sam had once told her a bit about the boys pulling a Back to the Future and meeting their parents. It had all been too weird for her to comprehend. Now a man stood in front of them claiming to have done a Part 2. It was just too much.
"If you could just take me to John, we could clear all this up. I'm sure."
"I've told you," Dean said, "that's not gunna happen."
"Why not?"
"Because he's dead!"
The man's eyes grew wide. "No." The word was barely above a whisper. He turned is back to the hunters and fought to keep his racing mind in check.
Alex could see how upset he was and unconsciously tightened her grip on Sam's arm. Looking down at her, he could see the concern she had for the mysterious man. If she was concerned about him, he would do his best to figure out what was going on for her.
"Everything." He turned back towards them. "I'm his father."
Alex carefully examined the driver's license and other items in the man's wallet. "They're real," she said. "That or he's better at making fakes than you are Dean."
The older Winchester just stared the man down. Nothing this man could say would make Dean like him. He'd heard all of his father's stories about the deadbeat dad that ran out on him as a kid. If this really was his grandfather, he didn't want to get to know him.
"Whatever." He hit Sam on the shoulder. "Let's go get some food."
The boys went to get food, leaving Alex and the newly discovered Henry Winchester alone. They watched the boys walk away
"He's not a very nice man is he?"
Alex turned her eyes back to him. "Who Dean?" He nodded. "He's actually one of the best men I know. They both are. They'd do anything for the people they love. I've seen it."
He seemed puzzled by her answer. The man he was describing and the one she was describing did not seem to match. It made sense for her to describe the younger of the two men that way, but he could not see any of what she described in Dean.
"What was your father like?"
"My father?" Alex asked.
"John. What was he like?"
Her eyes grew wide. "No. No. No." She shook her head vigorously. "We're not related."
"Then why do you travel with them?"
She turned her head and looked at Sam with soft eyes. "I have my reasons." The look on her face told Henry all he needed to know.
The boys came back with the food. Sam sat Alex's favorite sandwich in front of her as Dean threw a burger down in front of his grandfather. They ate in silence for a moment before Sam spoke up.
"How you doing?"
Henry cleaned his mouth with a napkin. "I'll be fine. After all, despite everything, I've just met my grandsons haven't I?" He extended his hand to Sam. "Henry Winchester. It's a pleasure."
Sam shook the man's hand and greeted him like he would anyone else. When Henry turned to Dean, he just looked at him for a moment before looking down and returning to his food. Alex elbowed him.
"What?"
"Don't be an ass." He still didn't do anything. "That's Dean."
Henry nodded. "Where's your family?"
"I don't really have one." When she realized that Henry was waiting for her to continue, she elaborated. "My family is all dead. I never knew my parents. Just got to inherit the legacy."
"What legacy?"
"Well," Alex cleared her throat and tried to look more comfortable than she was. She looked straight into Henry's eyes as she spoke. "I'm the Mayfair."
A cold shiver ran down the man's spine. His chair made a scraping noise as he quickly stood, ready to run from the room. Alex held up a hand to stop him.
"No, it's not like that. I'm not evil. I uh… I don't even have my magic anymore."
That' got everyone's attention. "What?" Sam and Dean said in unison.
She shook her head. "I can remember how to do it. I just… can't. I try, but nothing happens."
"When were you going to tell us?" Dean asked.
"When I figured out what it all meant."
Henry started to sit down.
"How did this happen?"
Alex looked down for a moment before telling them about the small things she had noticed upon her return from Purgatory. First it was the reflexive magic. Then it was seeing the demons. Eventually she told them about her visit with Crowley and how he had taken a piece of her soul. She purposefully left out the fact that he had taken a piece of Sam's soul as well. That was a conversation best had in private.
"Interesting," said Henry.
"What?"
"Everything we know about the Mayfair indicates that no good can come from her existence."
Dean was getting tired of the man already. "Yeah well she's not going anywhere. Now you know why we were so shocked at her being throw up against a wall. So how about we figure out how to clean up your mess, huh?"
He nodded. "Abaddon. Yes. She must be stopped."
"How come she didn't die when I stabbed her?"
The naivety of the man shocked Henry. How was it that he didn't know he couldn't kill a demon with a simple knife. He tried to make him she that by describing a knife that could do what he wanted. When Dean pulled the exact knife he had been describing out of the inside pocket of his jacket he was stunned.
"Where'd you get that?"
Dean put the knife away.
"Demon gave it to me."
Reaching forward, Alex placed one of her hands on Henry's. "This isn't exactly our first rodeo."
"I can see that."
Sam brought up the subject of the portal he had used to arrive in their time. "Now, that portal or whatever it was you came through – is it still open?"
"I highly doubt it. Why?"
"I'm just thinking if we can't kill this Abaddon…"
Alex picked up the rest of his thought. "… maybe we can send her back to where she came from. Now, I know a lot about magic, but I don't know how you did that."
"It's a blood sigil," Henry said. "Blood leads to blood. Or their next of kin."
That made since, but somehow Abaddon had been able to come through it as well. That meant it wasn't exclusive to the person casting the spell. That gave them a way to send her back. "So can't you create this blood sigil again?"
Henry thought he could. He started listing off what he would need. The part that Sam found most intriguing was when he started talking about letting his soul recharge. Sam was in awe.
"You tapped the power of your soul to get here? I thought only angels could do that."
How do they not know this? "You should know this. What level are you two?"
"What level?" Dean asked.
"Level of knowledge." He looked between the two young men in confusion. "You're Men of Letters, correct?"
The three hunters looked at each other in confusion. "Men of what?"
"Men of Letters," Henry repeated, "like your father, who taught you our ways."
Sam was the one to be confused this time. "Our father taught us how to be hunters."
It was Henry's turn to be utterly lost. John should have taught them everything Henry taught him. The gaps in their knowledge were completely absurd to him. It actually caused him to laugh at Sam's implication.
"You're not." When they just gave him blank stares he faltered. "Are you? Hunters?" Alex nodded. "Well, hunters are… hunters are apes."
For the first time since meeting him, Alex was actually annoyed at the man.
"Well these apes are the only chance you've got. So I suggest you start helping us out a little or this Abaddon is going to steamroll us all."
The Impala came to a stop on a rundown side street that was little more than an ally. Henry opened the door and made a hasty exit. Sam helped Alex out of the back seat and retrieved her replacement crutches for her.
"Thanks," she said with a little smile that he returned with a nod. Great. Still awkward.
They followed the Winchester patriarch down the street to a rundown little comic book store. "What's going on here?" He seemed so lost. So confused. He knew that this was the place. Everything was just so different. For a moment, he doubted his memory until he saw the aged carving on the door. He reached out and caressed it with the tips of his fingers to reassure himself that it was real
"Alright, well," Dean said as he clapped his hands together, "this is enlightening. Let's hit the road hu?"
Alex smacked him on the chest. "Don't be an asshole, Dean."
"Just give him a minute," offered Sam.
That did not make Dean very happy. "We just spent four hours driving, okay? All he did was stare out the window and request Pat Boone on the radio. He had is time?"
Alex loved Dean like a brother, but there were times that she really wanted to lay him out. Now was quickly becoming one of them. She was about to tell him just how she felt when Henry drew her attention.
"It's just a facade, a way to rook our enemies into believe we are house elsewhere."
Patience had never been Dean Winchester's greatest virtue, and what little he had was pretty much shot. He started to demand answered. Henry, however, was not willing to talk. All of the secrecy was not helping anybody. Dean hazard a guess that it had to do with the fact that they were hunters, something Henry clearly had distaste for.
"What do you have against us?"
"Aside from the unthinking, unwashed, shoot-first-and-don't-bother-to-ask-questions-later part, not much, really."
"You don't know us," said Alex. "You can't just assume that we are robots. You have no idea what we've been through. What we've done to keep people safe."
Things were starting to get heated.
"You know what?" Sam joined in. "Wait a second. Were also John's children."
That seemed to give Henry pause. With a bit of prompting, he finally started to open up about the Men of Letters. They were a group of knowledgeable individuals that did all they could to learn everything about the supernatural world. "We share our findings with a few trusted hunters – the very elite."
Alex found herself wondering if they would have been in that group, if they would even exist.
"So you're like the Yodas to our Jedis," quipped Dean. Henry looked at him uncomprehendingly. Dean just shook his head. "Never mind. You'll get there."
One question still remained. Why had they never heard of them? What Henry was describing made them sound like the cream of the crop. A group like that didn't just disappear overnight. There had to be some trace of them somewhere. Alex racked her brain to come up with a reason as to why nobody knew about them. Henry had one theory to offer. Abaddon.
They followed him through the door and down a narrow hallway. He held up a small wooden box with some sort of intricate symbol carved into it. It is what he assumed she was after. He didn't know what it was, but it must be important if she wanted to get her hands on it so badly.
"Let me get this straight," Dean said. "You traveled through time to protect something that does you don't know what from a demon that you know nothing about?" Henry stopped and looked at Dean for a moment before he continued down the hallway. When he put it like that, it sounded silly even to his own ears. "Good."
The corridor opened into the main shop. Henry looked around for a moment before asking Sam for his walkie-talkie.
"You mean my phone?"
"Even better." Sam willingly handed him the device. He held it near is mouth and said, "Operator, I need Delta 457." Alex suppressed a laugh.
"Who are you not calling?" Dean asked.
"Our emergency number."
Alex crutched towards him and put a hand on his shoulder. "I hate to break it to you, Henry, but I don't think that works anymore." She gently took the phone from his hand and returned it to Sam. An idea suddenly came to her. She turned to the young woman in black behind the counter and asked her if she could borrow the laptop computer she was currently on.
"Like you could fit a computer in this room," scoffed Henry.
Alex quickly pulled up a search engine and began asking for the names of the men he knew in his time. Soon they found a newspaper article and a lead they hoped would tell them what happened to the long lost secret society.
Nighttime visits to graveyards were not a part of the job any of them particularly enjoyed. It usually meant hours of hard work with a ticking clock hanging over their heads that kept them from resting when they became so tired that they wanted to just lay down in the hole they were digging and take a nap. Alex was the only one not carrying a flashlight as they examined the headstones. She watched as Henry took a closer look at the grave belonging to Albertus Magnus.
"I'm sorry your friend is gone," she said.
He looked at her over his shoulder. "He was hardly a friend. He was the greatest alchemist of the middle ages."
That confused everyone. "Okay, so why is he buried here?" Sam asked.
"He's not. His was the alias we'd us when going incognito. I believe someone planted his name in that article…so that if a Man of Letters came looking for answers, he'd know something was amiss."
"So someone wanted you to come to this grave?"
Henry seemed to think so. He just wasn't sure what the motivation for it was. The graves had an unusual symbol carved into it. When Dean had asked about it, Henry had explained that it was their crest.
"It's on all the tombstones except for this one," Sam said. "Larry Ganem."
Henry examined it for a moment before coming to a decision. "You boys ever exhume a body?"
The hunters all looked at each other. Their silent conversation spoke of far too many exhumed bodies and disturbed graves in the name of keeping the world safe. Dean went to the car to get the shovels after losing Rock, Paper, Scissors once again. He handed one of the three shovels to Sam before looking at Alex. He started to hand it to her before realizing what he was doing.
She shrugged. "Kinda can't dig. Crutches." Dean grumbled slightly before tossing the shovel aside and going to help his brother. They started sweating almost instantly as they worked. "Sorry I can't help this time guys."
"Shut up, Alex," Dean grumbled
Henry looked at her in surprise. "You've dug up a grave before?"
She smiled at him. "More times than I can count. I was a hunter long before I met these two. At least they have each other. I always had to do it by myself."
"Interesting."
"What?"
"Noting it's just… I never would have guessed that a woman would choose to be a hunter."
"It's not so much that you choose this life. It kind of chooses you."
The words rolled around in Henry's mind as the boys continue to dig. He had always assumed that hunters chose their path because they were incapable of pursuing anything else. The few hunters he had interacted with in the past had not lead the best of lives. In fact, he's not sure he would even call it living. No family. No home. It was no way to live.
Sam's shovel came into contact with the coffin. The boys quickly threw down their shovels and hoisted the coffin out of the grave. Henry grabbed one of the shovels and used it as a lever to pry open the casket. Inside rested a skeleton in a suit.
Dean looked at it in confusion. "Hey, was, uh, Larry a World War I vet?"
"No," replied Henry.
The name on the tags didn't tell them anything either. They were pretty much back to square one. The only thing they knew for certain was that this wasn't Larry. If Larry was in fact dead, he wasn't buried here. Henry stood. He ordered the boys to cover everything up before purposefully striding in the direction of the care.
"Cover this up," mocked Dean. "Wouldn't kill you to help out! We have an extra shovel!"
They hit the books the moment they returned to the motel. Since there were limited resources, Henry sat off to the side on the couch so that Alex and the boys could get to work. He started whistling and old song.
"What is that?" Dean asked. "I know that tune."
"As Time Goes By? I hope so. It's from Casablanca."
"Right. Dad used to whistle it from time to time."
That surprised Alex. It was hard for her to imagine John Winchester being the whistling type. Everything she'd ever heard about the man made him sound like a mixture of Dirty Harry and John Constantine. Two men that she was pretty sure didn't whistle.
Henry started telling them the story about his personal connection to the song. Sam seemed to be surprised that his father had been so afraid of a movie that he couldn't sleep. He had always been fearless in his eyes. He tried to picture his father winding the gears of the little music box before he went to bed every night. It was an image he didn't think he could ever get right.
The emotion in the room started to close in around Dean, making him uncomfortable. He turned back to the computer. "Hey, uh, according to county records, Tom Carey lives in Lebanon, Kansas and is a very happy 127 year-old." He closed the computer. "I say we get some shut-eye, head over first thing in the morning."
Everyone was beginning to pack it in for the night when Sam noticed something in his father's journal.
"Listen to this. According to Dad's journal, he once tortured a demon that said he made his bones working for Abaddon, who, it turns out, is a Knight of Hell."
That caught Alex's attention. "Knight of Hell?"
Henry stood from the couch and made his way towards the team of hunters.
"Knights of Hell are hand-picked by Lucifer himself. They are the first-fallen, first-born demons."
"So very pure, very strong," said Sam.
Henry nodded. "Legend has it that Archangels had killed all of them, which, as we have witnessed, is not the case."
"I guess that would explain a few things," said Alex.
"Like what?"
"Like her being able to throw me around like a rag doll. I've never met a demon that could do that before. It was something I actually kind of counted on." Sam could see how heavily the recent changes were weighing on her. She was a damn good hunter, but now she was having to relearn the rules to a game she had once known by heart. He placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed slightly. She gave him a small smile. "Hopefully the legend is mostly right and she's the last of her kind."
They all nodded. Henry looked at the journal with interest. "You say that belonged to your father?"
"Yeah."
"May I?"
Sam slid the journal towards his grandfather. He examined it carefully, a soft look of pride on his face. The Men of Letters used journals too. Lifting a photograph that was tucked into the corner he found "HW" engraved into the worn leather. It was the journal he had ordered for himself.
Dean's heart gave a painful twist. "That was yours?"
"It must have arrived after…" realization dawned on him. "I'm beginning to gather I don't make it back from this time, do I?"
"We don't know for sure," Sam said. "All we do know is that Dad never saw you again."
"What did he think happened to me?"
All of the hatred Dean had developed for his grandfather over the years bubbled to the surface. "He thought you ran out on him." Everything Dean had ever thought about the man before him was turning out to be a lie. He had a picture in his mind of a dead beat man with dirty hands and a beer belly that had abandoned his family. The suited man in front of him didn't match any of that, and Dean wasn't sure how to handle it.
"John was a legacy; I was supposed to teach him the ways of the Letters."
"Well, he learned things a little differently."
"How?"
Dean didn't hold back. He let his anger and frustration seep into every word. "The hard way. Surviving a lonely childhood, a stinking war… only to get married and have his wife taken by a demon… and later killed by one himself." Henry looked down at the floor. "That man got a bum rap around every turn. But you know what? He kept going. And in the end, he did a hell of a lot more good than he did bad."
"I'm sorry. I wish I had been there for him."
"Yea, it's a little late for that now, don't you think?" Dean pushed back from the table and headed for the door.
"It's the price we pay for upholding great responsibility. We know that."
Alex closed her eyes and brace for the storm she knew was about to hit. If anybody in this world knew anything bout responsibility, it was Dean Winchester. That man had given up more in his life than anyone had the right to ask of him. And he did it for the people he loved. She opened her eyes to see Dean storming towards Henry.
"Your responsibility was to your family, not some glorified book club!"
Sam quickly stood and created a human barrier between his brother and Henry. The feeling of his hands on Dean's shoulders was probably the only thing that kept the older Winchester from punching the 'deadbeat dad' he had often imagined.
"I was a legacy. I had no choice."
Dean backed up a step. "Yeah, you keep telling yourself that." He spun on his heels and quickly moved to the door.
"Dean, where are you going?" Alex asked.
"Out!"
Sam put a hand on her shoulder. "I'll keep an eye on him. You stay here with Henry alright?"
Alex nodded her consent and watched the boys leave.
"He doesn't think very highly of me does he?"
She turned her attention to Henry as he sank into the chair Sam had recently vacated. "He's just confused. Everything he's ever known has suddenly changed. It's gunna take him a little while to get used to it." She placed one of her hands over his folded ones that rested on the table. "Just give him some time."
He nodded. That sat in silence for a while, each lost in their own thoughts. Curiosity finally got the better of Henry. "What do they know?"
Alex was confused. "I'm sorry?"
"What do they know? About me? How… how did they end up living like this? And how," he paused, "how did the Mayfair end up on the side of good?"
Alex chuckled. "That's a pretty long answer. I hope you've got a while." He gestured for her to continue, so she did.
Alex spent the next hour telling him everything. She told him what she knew of the boy's lives before she met them. They laughed over Dean's initial reaction at meeting her. The time he sold his soul to save his brother and how Sam had torn up the entire country trying to find him. She even told him about her love for Sam, and how she had felt a pull to him the instant she'd laid eyes on him.
"Soulmates."
She seemed a bit surprised. "How'd you know?"
"Research. There's not a lot of lore on the phenomenon, but legend has it that once the two souls find each other there is nothing that can keep them apart. Not even death."
She nodded. "Yeah that's what I thought too." A tear started to form at the corner of her eye. She sniffed and sat up straight, forcing the emotion back down, but it was too late Henry caught on.
"Something tells me that's not exactly the case."
Taking a deep breath, Alex looked over at him and launched back into her story. This time she focused on herself. "The Apocalypse played a big part in all of this." When Henry asked her if she meant the Biblical one she just nodded. She went on to tell him about Sam and the demon blood. The broken seals making her power grow, and how she had ultimately given into the darkness inside of her to save Sam's soul. Henry's heart softened when she told him about how he had gotten through to her and brought her back to herself once Lucifer had taken hold. Then, finally, she told him about Heaven and Hell. She told him about their souls being separate and finding herself alone in Purgatory.
As he listened, Henry found himself in awe not only of his grandsons but of the woman in front of him. These three had faced insurmountable odds time and time again, but had made it through to the other side each time. He could tell, just by watching the woman in front of him, that they had not made it completely unharmed. That was when Alex lowered the bombshell.
"You know what the craziest part of all this is?"
"What?"
"The fact that all that can be taken away." She went on to describe how things had been since her return. That's when she told him the rest of what Crowley had said when he took her magic.
Henry's eyes grew wide. "I didn't think that was possible." In fact, everything he had ever learned told him that something like that couldn't really happen. Souls were far too complicated a thing to just simply remove part of it completely.
"Neither did I."
The sound of heavy footsteps outside the door. Alex quickly wiped her eyes and put her mask back in place. Henry just watched her in awe as the boys wandered back in.
Dean was obviously a little worse for the wear and fell straight into bed. Sam shook his head at his brother.
"He okay?" Alex asked.
"He'll be fine. Um... I think I'm gunna get some sleep too. I'll uh..." he gestured towards the couch.
"Now it's okay. You take the bed. It's my turn to sleep on the couch anyway."
"You sure?"
She gave him a soft smile. "Yeah."
Sam nodded.
"No wait," said Henry. He may not be able to do much for them, but perhaps he could help push them in the right direction. "I'll take the couch. The beds are large enough for the two of you to share one." He looked over at Dean who was currently in a face down starfish in the center of the bed. "I would say I could share with Dean, but I don't think there would be room."
Alex looked over at her friend and chuckled. "Yeah not so much." Then she looked at Sam. Trepidation formed in the pit of her stomach. "You, uh, okay with that? Us sharing I mean." She did her best to keep the hope out of her voice, but she was sure Sam heard it anyway. She had missed his touch so much. The kiss they had shared only a few days before just served to make it that much worse.
"Yeah." It came out as just a whisper. Sam cleared his throat. "Yeah sure. T-that's fine."
Alex stood to go get ready for bed. The feel of Henry's hand on hers stopped her from walking away.
"Thank you, Alexandra. For the telling me everything." She smiled at him.
"Please just call me Alex. Only demons or my dad when he was angry called me by my full name."
He returned the smile. "Of course. Thank you, Alex. I never thought I'd met the Mayfair, or that she would be like you."
She gave his hand a small squeeze before going to join Sam in the bed. Each of them claiming a different side and trying their best to keep to it. Henry watched them for a little while as they drifted off to sleep. In sleep, their true feelings came to light. He watched them start to reach for one another without knowing it. Each of them having a need for the other. He looked over to Dean and saw that he hand turned onto his back and moved into a position that would easily lead to fighting if need be. It made him sad to know that the oldest of his grandsons could not completely relax even in sleep. He always had to be on guard and ready for a fight.
He turned his attention from them to the journal in front of him. He spent the rest of the night reading its pages. From them he learned the kind of man his son had become without his guidance. By the time the sun had started to peek through the curtains, he knew what he had to do.
Warmth was the first thing Alex noticed the next morning when she awoke. She was very warm and cozy. The second thing she noticed was the weight on her side followed by the scent. Blinking her eyes open, Alex came face to face with a sleeping Sam Winchester. It startled her for a moment before her mind caught up with her surroundings.
Sometime during the night, Sam had pulled her to him or she had gone to him. Either way it didn't matter. What mattered is that for the first time in over 300 years she woke up where she belonged, Sam Winchester's arms. It brought a smile to her face. They still had a lot to talk about, but this was a good start.
She carefully detached herself from the sleeping man and grabbed her crutches from the side of the bed before moved to check on Henry. A frown marred her face when she didn't find him on the couch. A quick check of the bathroom reviled he wasn't there either. Henry Winchester had vanished.
Alex rushed to the bed and started shaking Sam. "Sam. Sam get up."
He bolted upright, preparing to fight. His muscles instantly relaxed when he realized it was Alex holding his arm, but the panic soon gave way to worry when he saw the look on her face. "What's wrong?"
"Henry's gone."
Sam looked around the room in much the same way she had too much the same result. The one difference was the note he found scratched out on a yellow notepad. "What is it?" He showed her the note that simply read
I'm going to fix everything.
HW
That was not a good sign. Sam reached over and hit Dean's shoulder with the notebook.
"What? What?!" Dean grumbled as he pulled himself out of dreamland.
"Henry – he's gone."
"Where is he?"
Alex rolled her eyes. "Do you really think we would be waking you up if we knew, Dean?" He shot her a grumpy look of derision.
"He left this." Sam showed his brother the note.
Dean instantly reached the same conclusion the others had. Henry was going to play with time and destroy the universe as they knew it. "I'll go check the car. You guys see if you can find anything else."
"On it." Alex opened up the laptop and immediately began looking for places of interest that Henry may have got to. Dean returned a moment later.
"Now we know what he meant by fix everything."
"What?" Sam asked.
"He broke into the trunk, stole an angel feather. I'm guessing he's gunna whip up another one of those blood spells and Marty McFly himself back to the 1950s."
"He may be trying to stop Abaddon before she attacks," offered Alex.
Dean nodded. "Or grab Dad and haul ass. Look, point is he's doing it."
"How?" Sam asked. "He still needs two ingredients for the spell."
Alex offered an answer. "There's a shop in town that might be able to help him out. I went there a couple times when I was on my own. He could get the ingredients there."
The police scanner interrupted them as it sounded from the laptop speakers. "One dead at Astro Comics."
"That's the shop we visited yesterday."
The brothers looked at each other. "Abaddon?"
"That'd be my guess."
"Okay, so she's close." Dean started grabbing his weapons. "I'll go find Henry." He looked at Sam. "You find Larry. Figure out how to kill this chick."
"No wait!" Alex said as the boys were about to leave. They stopped, Dean holding open the door. "If Abaddon is really that close he's gunna be gunning for Henry. He'll need both of you if she shows up. I can talk to Larry."
"And what if she comes after him?" Sam offered. "You're in no condition to fight."
"She won't. She thinks all the Men of Letters are dead. Henry is her only possible target."
There was a tense moment as they considered her words. Dean eventually gave in. "Alright. We'll drop you off, but you're taking the knife. And I want you to call us the second you're done you understand?"
Alex just nodded. She knew there would be no arguing with him. Not when he took that tone. She turned her attention to Sam. He looked like he was fighting with himself about something. A sight she was seeing far too much of lately. It only lasted a moment before he too nodded and followed his brother and Alex out the door
Pulling up outside the little house, Alex carefully got out of the back seat and retrieved her crutches. She was just about to hobble off when she heard Dean say "Hold up." She turned back to see Sam's window down and Dean leaning across the center of the seat to get a better look at her. "Aren't you forgetting something?" He held up Ruby's knife.
She made her way back towards the car. Sam took the knife from his brother and handed it to her. "Thanks." Taking hold of the knife, she went to pull away but the feel of Sam's tight grip on her wrist.
His eyes pleaded with her when she looked back at him. "Please be careful."
"I will." He released her hand. She reached up to brush a strand of hair from his face, a loving gesture that he leaned into ever so slightly. "You too."
He nodded. "Always."
With that, she put the knife away and went to ring the doorbell as the Impala roared down the street. She turned back to the door and knocked. A kind older woman answered the door.
"Can I help you?"
Alex smiled at her. "I hope so I'm looking for Larry Ganem. Is he home?"
"Who's there?" a man asked from inside the house.
Alex looked past the door to see an old man sitting in an arm chair. "My name is Alex Thomas. I, uh, my boyfriend and I found Henry Winchester's journal. I was hoping you could fill in some of the gaps."
At the mention of the man's name, Larry sat up straighter. "Let her in."
The woman moved aside. "Thank you." She led Alex to the sitting room where she took a seat on the couch opposite the old man. His wife went to the kitchen to make them all tea while Alex and Larry talked.
"You found Henry's journal."
"Yes. My boyfriend is his grandson. It was in his father's things, and we were hoping you could fill in some of the gaps. Sam wanted to talk to you himself, but he's been a little under the weather. So I came myself."
He nodded for a moment. "I hope he feels better soon."
"Thanks. Me too."
"So these questions that you have. Why don't you just ask Henry?"
She looked down sheepishly. "He's dead. His son too. My boyfriend and his brother are all that's left."
Pain seeped into the man's features. "So, Henry is dead. I was so sure that – that he had survived."
"I'm sorry." His wife returned with the tea set and began pouring them all cups of the steaming liquid.
"It doesn't matter. They're gone. We're gone."
"But Abaddon's not. She's the reason we found the journal. She came busting through our door demanding a box. We barely got out of there. Once we did, we started looking for whatever it was she wanted. We thought that maybe if we found it first we could keep it safe."
"Abaddon was a hired gun. She killed us all that one night."
"Everyone but you," Alex offered.
"She blinded me. It's a miracle I survived." His wife took his hand and assured him that he was alright now. He was safe from the demon that haunted his every nightmare. "Did you find the box?"
"Yes. I need to know everything there is to know about it."
"In the box is the key to every object, scroll, and spell ever collected for thousands of years under one roof. It is the supernatural mother load." Alex nodded. She could easily see why the demon would want something like that.
"So how do we stop Abaddon?"
"You don't." He took a pen out of his pocked and began scribbling on a small notepad. "If you know where the key is, then take it to these coordinates." Alex examined the coordinates. They weren't that far away. "Throw it in. Shut the door forever. And walk away."
This shocked Alex. "Why?" He told her of the wards and protections guarding the coordinates. What he was describing sounded like the ultimate supernatural fallout shelter. "But all of that knowledge will be gone."
"And that is the price we have to pay for keeping it away from Abaddon." The gravity of the situation was starting to become apparent to Alex. She knew that taking down the Knight of Hell was going to be difficult, but if what Larry was telling her was true, it may very well be impossible. "You do… have the key, don't you?"
"I don't." His face fell. "By boyfriend has it." She stood. Larry's wife followed suit. "I better get going." She reached for her crutches. "The sooner we can get this taken care of the better."
"Godspeed."
"Thank you." She turned her attention to the woman so she could thank her for her hospitality. She stopped short when she saw the look in her eye.
"How rude. You didn't even finish your tea." Her eyes went black. Alex started to reach for the knife in her jacket pocket, but never had a chance. The woman knocked her to the ground and rendered her unconscious before turning to Larry.
"Abaddon."
She gave him an evil smile before ending his life with the knife that was intended to end hers.
They entered the shop just in time to see Henry finish drawing the blood sigil and begin chanting.
"Henry, wait!" Dean yelled.
He looked over his shoulder at the boys. "This is a risk I have to take."
"No you don't," Sam said. "If you come with us now we may be able to stop Abaddon."
The sigil began to glow.
"You cannot begin to understand how I felt after reading John's journal."
Dean assured him he could. He had practically committed the thing to memory through the years. It was like his Bible. He read it to some extent every day.
"I'm going to go back and give him the life he deserves, not the one he was forced to live."
"And what if it's not meant to be?" Dean asked.
"Then it will be!"
"You don't know that," Sam said. "Even if you manage to go back and stop Abaddon. You'll change everything. Dean and I might not even exist."
"I'm aware that time is a delicate mistress, but I'm willing to bet on this being for the best."
Dean began pleading with him. "Listen, I understand that this is not your idea of a happy ending, okay, and that – that you're disappointed that me and Sam are mount-breathing hunters. But you know what? We stopped the Apocalypse. Sam stopped Alex from going all darkside and deep-frying the planet. If you go back there and change everything, that may not happen."
"I understand."
He did, truly. There was just no possible way that he could let things stand as they were. He looked at both of the boys one last time before turning to the still glowing sigil. Reaching towards it, he readied himself for the journey, but suddenly everything went black.
Dean had used the butt of his gun to knock the man out. Henry going back in time before they took care of Abaddon was just too big of a risk. The boys went to pick him up and put him in the car when Sam's phone began to ring. "It's Alex," he said as he read the caller id.
"Hey Alex..." he was cut off by another woman's voice on the phone.
"No. Wrong answer. Try again."
Dean watched the color drain from Sam's face.
"Abaddon."
"Good boy. Now listen up. I want to make a good, old-fashioned horse trade. Henry and the key for your sweet little girlfriend."
"What did you do to her?" By this point, anger was rolling off of Sam in waives. Dean was now standing to his full height and watching his brother with baited breath.
"On nothing yet, but if you don't hurry up… she dies." Sam gulped. "Am I clear?"
"Crystal." She told him where to meet her and warned not to keep her waiting before ending the call. Sam's hand trembled slightly as he pulled the phone away from his ear. For a moment, he just stared at the now blank screen.
"Sam?"
"Abaddon. She has Alex."
Henry slowly came to in the back seat of the Impala. His small groan alerted the others to his newly conscious state.
"Hey," Sam said. "How's your head?"
"Throbbing."
"Sorry about that," Dean said.
"No, you're not. You've wanted to do that since we met." He took a moment to look at his surroundings. "Where are we headed?"
Sam looked at his feet. "Abaddon has Alex." Henry felt himself become concerned for the woman's safety. "She wants us to trade you and the key for her."
"And you're going to do it?"
Sam sighed. "I don't know."
This surprised Henry. "You know she told me about you two. When it was just the two of us left in the room, she told me about your shared past. Not just about the two of you, but about you as well, Dean. She told me everything. "He looked at Sam. "About how she felt after you died." Then to Dean. "About your deal. The Apocalypse. All of it. I'm sorry you boys had to go through that."
"Yeah well," Dean said, "it happened. Not much we can do about that now. Now we just have to figure out how to get Alex back from Abaddon."
Henry nodded. "She seems like quite the remarkable woman."
"She is," Sam said, the ghost of a smile forming on his face.
This did not go unnoticed by the Man of Letters. It made him feel that his theory about the removal of a section of a person's soul was correct.
"Can you slow Abaddon down?" Dean asked.
Henry thought about it for a moment before asking to see one of their guns. He removed a bullet from the clip. "Hand me a knife." The boys exchanged a look. "Please." Sam handed him his pocket knife and watched as Henry started carving something into the bullet.
The bindings on her wrist dug into her skin slightly as she tried to work the ropes loose.
"You know that's not going to do any good," Abaddon said from across the room.
"Yeah well, it beats just sitting here."
The demon studied her for a moment. The scrutiny of her gaze made Alex extremely uncomfortable. Abaddon's head tilted slightly as she continued to study her, moving closer to get a good look
"What is so different about you? You're not normal."
Alex's chest heaved. "You're right. I'm not. I'm the girl that's gunna kick your ass. Ugh" The punch to the face caught her completely off guard. Her head snapped to the side. She spat the blood from her split lip out of her mouth before looking back up at the demon.
The sound of the Impala roaring to a stop outside caught their attention. "It's showtime." The demon hauled her up from her seat and drug her to the center of the room.
Sam's eyes found yours the moment they entered the room. His eyes drifted to the bruise forming on your left cheek. His nostrils flared as rage began to form inside of him. Dean's hand on his chest was the only thing that kept him from charging the demon.
"Abaddon! Dean yelled. "I'll send Henry over with the box. You do the same with Alex. No tricks."
"My only interest is Henry and the key. You three are free to go."
Henry seemed reluctant to move. "You can do this standing," Dean drew his gun, "or you can do it crawling. Your call."
Abaddon gave Alex a harsh shove, causing her to stumble to the floor when she put all of her weight on her injured foot. Sam grabbed Henry's arm and started dragging him along.
"Henry, I'm sorry."
"Save it."
Alex pushed herself to her feet and started limping forward. The instant Sam was within reach, he reached out to her and grasped her arm as if it was they anchor holding him to this earth. Henry gave her a nearly imperceptible smile before he continued to move towards Abaddon. Sam quickly cut Alex's bonds and practically carried her to where Dean stood waiting for them before they all moved towards the door. She pleaded with them to stop. That they didn't know what they were doing.
"Shut your mouth," said Dean. "Let's go."
They were just feet from the door when it suddenly slammed closed in front of them. Dean screamed in rage as he turned towards the demon. "We had a deal!"
She laughed. "Surprise. I lied." By this time Henry was standing beside her. She plunged her hand into his abdomen. Alex screamed his name in horror. Now we know why he never came back. She wanted to go to him. Even though her magic was gone, the urge to do all she could to heal him was still there. Sam's arms tightened around her.
"Wait. Wait."
The demon removed her hand from the Winchester's side. A small trickle of blood escaped his lips as he gasped in pain. Choosing that moment to strike. Henry freed himself from the cuffs and produced the gun he had hidden behind his back.
"You're not the only one."
He fired one round into the underside of Abaddon's chin. Her skull glowed for a moment before she shook her head and returned to normal.
"Whoo! What a blast. Now, give me the box." She reached into Henry's pocked. Her hand soon landed on a box. Pulling it out, she turned it over ot see that it was merely a pack of playing cards that had been painted on one side to look like the box containing the key. "Where is it?!" she screamed.
Lights began erupting around the room with her rage. The hunters covered their heads to shield themselves from the sparks as the demon tried to use her abilities to extract the truth from Henry's mind. The smoke that came from her mouth only moved a foot or so away from her face befor curling back towards her. She shoved Henry to the ground. Sam quickly hurried towards his grandfather. Dean put Alex's arm around his shoulder and helped her move forward.
Abaddon tried to move foreward to attack them only to find she was unable to move. "Why am I stuck?!"
"Devil's trap carved into the bullet," Henry offered weakly as Sam pulled him into a seated position. He began to shudder as if he were cold.
Dean stopped to let Alex kneel next to Sam and Henry, offering what little assistance she could. "No, but you'll wish we did." He drew his machete and with one mighty blow, severed her head from her shoulders. "The demon trap in your noggin is gunna keep you from smoking out. We're gunna cut you into little steaks and bury each strip under cement. You might not be dead, but you'll wish you were.
"We did it."
Henry's weak voice drew Dean's attention. He crouched on the opposite side of his brother and helped him support the dying man. "No, you did it. For a bookworm, that wasn't bad, Henry."
He smiled. "I'm sorry I judged you two so harshly for being hunters. I should have known better."
"Hey none of that," Alex said. "They can be pretty stubborn sometimes." They all shared a laugh at her joke until Henry began to cough blood. She placed her hands on his wound and tried with all her might to will it closed, but nothing happened. "I wish I still had my powers. If I did you'd be able to go home." A tear escaped the corner of her eye.
Henry took hold of her hands. "You're power is not really gone," he said. "Just hidden. What Crowley took… the soul is not that simple. There is no way he could remove something entirely." His eyes drifted to Sam and then back to her, trying to make her realize his meaning before turning his full attention to the younger of his two grandsons. "You found yourself an amazing woman, Sam."
He looked from his grandfather to the woman at his side. "I know." A few more tears ran down Alex's cheeks.
Henry took the boys hands. "I meant what I said about judging you. You're not just hunters. You're also Winchesters. As long as we're alive, there's always hope." The boys shared a meaningful look. "I didn't know my son as a man, but having met you two…," He took one of each of the boy's hands into his own. "… I know I would have been proud of him." And with that, Henry Winchester, the last of the Men of Letters died surrounded by what remained of his family.
The hammer struck the cross a final time before Sam moves to stand next to Alex and Dean. The grave was simple. There were no dates. No quotes or sayings. Just a name. H. Winchester.
"I get it now," Sam said as he looked down at the grave.
Alex turned to look up at him. "Get what, Sam?"
"What Cupid said about Heaven busting ass to get Mom and Dad together. The Winchesters and the Campbell's – the brains and the brawn." Everyone fell silent for a moment. "Maybe it explains us too."
The words took Alex by surprise as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder. The gesture was not unwelcome. Just unfamiliar. Henry's words came back to her mind. "You're power is not really gone," he said. "Just buried. What Crowley took… the soul is not that simple. There is no way he could remove something entirely." As her mind wandered, Alex began to hum a familiar tune for the Winchester clan. One that Henry had started long ago with his son.
Let me know what y'all think.