Chapter Two: No Son Of Mine
Joshua could hardly believe what he was hearing.
John Winchester had called him a few minutes ago, asking him to help take care of a monster problem he had.
At first Joshua was more than willing to assist his fellow hunter and occasional partner gank a creature but when John told him just what- or who- the man wanted killed, he wasn't so sure.
Everyone knew John Winchester's history, even though the man had tried to hide it. Secrets weren't so easy to keep in the hunting community, much to the chagrin of more than one man or woman who had been foolish enough to believe otherwise.
Joshua knew John had lost his wife in a strange house fire, which was what had sparked the auto mechanic and ex-Marine to enter the hunting life in the first place. John had vowed to destroy every supernatural son of a bitch out there so that no one would end up like he had.
Joshua also knew that John had two young boys as well, and one of them was the topic of the hunter's conversation now.
"He's not human, Josh," John repeated for the sixth time, "He's a monster and he needs to be put down before anything else happens."
Joshua listened to his friend, wondering just how much John had been drinking before he'd picked up his phone to call.
Joshua opened his mouth but nothing came out- he just didn't know how to respond, John Winchester was telling him one of his sons was evil, no better than the creatures they hunted.
"I- I tried to do it myself but…" John began and Joshua's heart leaped up to his throat, "…But I couldn't. Not with Dean in the other room."
Joshua had a very clear image of a cheap motel room; four-year old Dean sitting on one of the dust-mite infested beds, watching cartoons while John was in the bathroom with his younger son, water rushing into a lime-stained tub.
Before the hunter could finish that scenario, he shook his head gripping the phone tightly.
"I need you to help me, Josh," John continued, "You're the only one I trust with this."
Josh closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath and spoke, "What do you need me to do?"
Of course he had no intentions of 'getting rid' of John's son, but he wasn't about to tell the distraught father that. Instead, Josh decided to play along with John and get that little boy to safety as quickly as he could.
"We're not too far from you," John informed him, "In Bannock. There's a little convenience store here, right beside the gas station."
Josh nodded, tiny Bannock with a population of just over two hundred souls, was about a two-hour drive from his home of Kent, Ohio.
"I'll drive there, fill up the Impala, and then take the boys into the store," John continued calmly as though reciting the instructions on a recipe card, "Now, Dean doesn't usually go anywhere without his brother but I'll separate them. All you need to do is walk into the store, find us, grab the boy and then leave. It'll look like an abduction and the police will search high and low for a while but they'll never find him, you'll make sure of that."
Josh listened to John outline what he was certain was going to be his son's murder and he felt sick to his stomach.
What the hell had happened to John to make him convinced his baby boy was anything but human?
Josh didn't bother asking John and instead told the man that he would be there within two hours tops, committed to getting that little boy away from his father.
"What about your other son?" Josh asked carefully.
He had met John's sons only briefly, when the father was staying at Bobby Singer's place in Sioux Falls and he clearly recalled the four-year old who hadn't let his infant brother out of his sight the entire time Josh had seen him, regarding the hunter with a wary expression that told him the little boy wouldn't be shy about kicking up a fuss if anyone so much as got too close to his tiny sibling.
"He'll get over it," John said shortly, clearly more concerned with disposing of his evil offspring than the emotional state of the remaining one.
Without saying goodbye, Josh ended the phone call and stepped out of his trailer and across the sunbaked yard to his truck.
SPN
John stepped into the motel room, having taken his phone call with Josh out on the sidewalk to prevent his sons from hearing the conversation. The motel was small- like the town- and old, completely deserted except for the Winchesters who were the only customers.
Dean looked up from the motel stationary he was drawing on with some cheap Crayons John had picked up somewhere and smiled at his father.
"Hi Daddy," he greeted and John returned the gesture.
"Where's your brother?" John asked, searching the motel room for his youngest son.
The four-year old pointed to the space in between the two beds and John spied his youngest son sitting on the floor, playing with an old stuffed teddy bear that had once belonged to Dean.
The baby lifted his gaze, stood on wobbly legs- Sam had only just started walking and was still unsteady- and reached out with both arms outstretched towards his father to be picked up.
John ignored the child and turned away. He was not going to be fooled. It might look like a little boy but John knew better, Mary was dead because of it.
Sam sat down hard on the carpet, his tiny legs no longer able to hold him up and he stared at his father's back, confused and hurt.
Determined to seek comfort, the infant crawled across the floor, past John, to Dean, who instantly picked his little brother up. Sam cuddled right up to Dean and John held back the urge to grab the baby from his four-year old's arms.
Letting out a breath slowly, John raked a hand through his hair to calm himself before peering at Dean's picture.
"What're you drawing there?" the father asked and Dean smiled up at him, "It's us! Me and Sammy and you and Mommy."
John nodded and stared down at the child's drawing and cringed at the feeling of grief that welled up within him at the thought of his late wife.
"Do you like it?" Dean asked as Sam played with a red Crayon.
John nodded and forced a smile for his son.
W
The father clutched his eldest son's hand tightly as he peered at the snack items for sale in the aisle of the little gas station convenience store.
They had been inside for no more than two minutes but John was getting anxious.
What if Josh was late? What if he decided not to come?
No, Josh was a man of his word. He'd be here, John told himself as he peered distractedly at a selection of potato chips, wondering if he should get something later for Dean.
Peering over his shoulder, the hunter saw that his youngest son was where they had left him, standing in front of a display of candy bars. Dean hadn't even noticed his brother wasn't in tow and John hoped that it would stay that way.
"You want some chips, Dean?" John asked to occupy his eldest and the four-year old nodded eagerly.
SPN
Josh pulled into the small parking area beside the Bannock Gas N' Go station, easily picking out the classic '67 Chevy Impala among the minivans and pickup trucks it shared the lot with.
Without turning the engine off, Josh sat in his truck for a long moment, wondering for the nth time since he'd agreed to do as John asked, if he was doing the right thing after all.
He hadn't even thought this all the way through. He'd grab the kid, drive away from Bannock as though there were Hell Hounds on his ass and then… well, he didn't know what he'd do after that, with a kidnapped infant as his passenger.
One thing Josh knew for certain was that there was no way he was leaving the child with John. That just wasn't an option. If the man was so convinced his little boy was a monster, it was only a matter of time before he decided to take care of the child himself- as he'd already mentioned that he had tried and failed to do- and Joshua refused to let that happen.
Gathering himself, Josh opened the door to his truck and stepped out, heading purposefully towards the little gas station.
A bell chimed above the door as the hunter stepped inside the air-conditioned store but all else was quiet.
Peering over the tops of the shelves, Josh quickly caught sight of John Winchester's form, his broad back to the front door.
Moving forward slowly, somewhat reluctantly, but spurred on by the fact that the life of a child may hinge on his actions, Josh entered the store.
He walked casually, nonchalant, pretending to look over the offered snacks, all the while moving closer and closer to John.
Stepping into the aisle, Josh saw John and his eldest son- Dan or Don, something like that- standing near a display of potato chips while the youngest Winchester was closer to him, gaze drawn to the colourfully-wrapped chocolate bars on the shelf.
Both John and his older son had their backs to Josh and the little one- who couldn't be more than a year old- hadn't appeared to notice him at all.
The hunter heard a bell tinkling from the front of the store, signaling that more customers had just entered and judging from the loud voices and whooping, they were a bunch of teenagers.
Quick as a snake, Josh reached out and picked up the infant, one arm wrapping his chubby body while the other he kept firmly over his mouth.
A pang of guilt shot through the man as he turned and headed towards the exit, the baby kicking and hitting him in a desperate attempt to escape.
Josh walked right through the group of teens who were too focused on getting snacks and drinks to pay him close attention.
Resisting the urge to run to his truck, he opened the passenger's side door, sitting the infant on the seat and buckling him in- the only thing he could do since he had no child's safety seat- before walking around the front of the vehicle and climbing into the driver's seat.
The little boy looked shocked, he stared straight ahead with large green eyes, his lower lip trembling threateningly and his tiny hands clenched into fists.
As soon as Josh turned on the truck and began to pull out of the parking lot, the baby started to wail. The hunter gritted his teeth because he knew he couldn't comfort the baby, even if he tried.
Instead, Josh drove in silence, hands clenching the steering wheel, certain a cop would see him and pull him over for not having a car seat for the child.
"Daaaaaaahhhhhh!" the infant screamed, fat tears rolling down his face, "Deeeeeeee!"
As he drove, Josh tried to figure out what he could do with the little boy. He was not going to walk into a police station with the child, nor did the idea of simply leaving him in front of one and driving off, appeal to him at all. Besides, if Josh left him, even with cops, he had no idea what would happen to the tyke. He could end up back with his father or in the hands of Child Protective Services and get shuttled from foster home to foster home for the greater part of his youth.
"Damn it, John," Josh ground out, wiping a hand across his face.
Glancing at the little boy from the corner of his eye, Josh felt his heart clench. Although the child seemed to have calmed down- or at least he had stopped crying for now- he still looked terrified. He sat as far away from Josh as he could, huddling against the truck's door, his green eyes wide and wet, his face red, twin trails of snot hanging from his nose. The boy's brown hair was so dark it was almost black, and curly, messy with bedhead.
"He looks like a little mouse," Josh thought and smiled, finally coming to a decision.
He would take care of the child. He, unlike other hunters, preferred to work alone and rarely saw others; the most contact with any one hunter he had was Bobby Singer and Josh knew the man didn't go around spreading stories.
He would look after the boy like his own.
Josh would be able to protect the child and train him to protect others against the real monsters in the world
Josh's heart clenched in his chest as he thought of his son, Luke, who had passed away years ago, killed by a Striga.
Jaw set, Josh drove back to Kent, now much more confident than he had been when he had left.
W
The hunter wasn't surprised to see that the infant's head lolling to the side, the boy fast asleep, when Josh pulled into the trailer park where he lived. The boy must be exhausted from crying.
Driving slowly through the park, Josh realized that he wasn't at all prepared to care for an infant. He would have to get a few things before too long.
Maneuvering between the tightly packed rows of trailers and RVs, Josh found his and cut the truck's engine.
Getting out of the vehicle, he walked around the front to the passenger's side and unlatched the seatbelt, picking up the baby with one hand beneath his bottom and the other supporting his back. The child, still mostly asleep, snuggled against Josh's chest and sighed, quickly falling back into his slumber.
Climbing the three built-in steps to the door of his trailer, Josh leaned the infant towards him so he could grab his keys from his pocket and let the both of them inside.
The trailer was narrow and cramped, not exactly tidy but clean. Moving past the small kitchenette area and into the back of the trailer, Josh used his free hand to fluff up the blankets on the lower of the two bunk beds and carefully settled the sleeping infant onto it.
The baby didn't even move as he was transferred from Josh's arms to the mattress and the hunter sighed with relief.
Straightening, Josh decided that he could gather some necessary items while the child was asleep and be back before he woke.
Pausing to grab a towel- he didn't think it had been used- the hunter rolled it into a tube and tucked it between the mattress and faux-wooden bedframe to create a buffer in case the baby rolled in his sleep.
Turning and heading outside once again, Josh walked purposefully down the row of trailers until he came to one with a half-dozen plastic rainbow pinwheels stuck into the dirt in front of it and briskly knocked on the door.
A fat, middle-aged woman opened the screen door and smiled at him.
"Josh! What can I do ya for?" she asked in a friendly manner.
The hunter smiled; he could hear the woman's four sons and one daughter rough-housing inside the trailer.
"Do you have a baby's car seat by any chance, Rita? I'm looking after my sister's boy and I don't have one of my own," Josh explained.
The woman grinned, showing off three missing teeth, "I sure do! I was going to sell it but if you need it… How long do you have your sister's kid for?"
Josh frowned, his expression schooled into a not-so-fake look of sadness, "Indefinitely. My sister and her husband passed away- drunk driver- and left me with the boy. I couldn't let him go to the foster-care system."
The large woman nodded in sympathy, "I'm sorry for your loss."
Josh nodded. He hadn't been lying, he did have a sister and she had passed away, but when she was seventeen, from cancer, not a car accident.
"I'll get you that car seat," Rita told Josh and closed the screen door.
The hunter looked up when the door opened again and Rita appeared holding an old but still serviceable child's car seat.
"Thanks, Rita," Josh said, genuinely gratefully, "I owe you one."
The woman smiled, "Just bring your nephew by sometime to see me."
"Will do," the hunter promised and headed back towards his trailer.
Author's Note:
Chapter title comes from a Genesis song of the same name.
The next part of the story takes place after some years. Since Sam was only about a year old at this point and eleven years have passed so in the story so in the next chapters he will be twelve years old.
Thanks to ktdog1, StyxxsOmega, reannablue, QueenBea93, lisa642, Ruby, Mistycat, BranchSuper, Lennelle, SamDeanLover28, Maybe2Morrow, TheFantasticLadyMax and Guest for reviewing.
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