A Certain Kind of Soldier
A Certain Kind of Soldier
It’s not something Sam does often. It causes too many problems for the people that see it, raises too many questions that Sam and Dean aren’t ready to talk about. Knowing the truth, John’s not sure he wants them to talk about it anyway. The battle is raging around them and it’s going bad. Not in the, they aren’t going to make their target sort of bad, but as in they could all die here and now. Cameron and Dean are doing a hell of a job keeping he and Sam out of the crossfire but they can’t do it for long and they need to get the communications relay down before the rest of their troops can come in and try to get to the camp for the prisoners.
Derek is in there now, taken on a mission for John a few weeks back and it’s all he can think about.
“God damn it!” Dean throws himself back, a shot to his shoulder and Sam’s already leaning forward, trying to get to the wound.
“Enough blasphemy Dean. We have enough trouble without Uriel showing up.”
John hears the words and considering everything else he knows about Sam and Dean, he’s afraid to ask who Uriel is.
They’re pinned in pretty well by the hunter-killer and all John can think is he needs to save Derek and who the hell did he end up with the three people he cares about the most all in the position of prisoner or about to be taken.
Sam looks at Dean, presses his hand against Dean’s wound and takes a deep breath. “Dean, this is kind of a now or never, don’t you think?”
Dean’s eyes come up quickly before flashing over to John’s. There’s panic in his gaze and something dark that challenges John to question his word on what is about to happen. Dean nods though, looking back at Sam. “Cameron!” Dean calls to the T and she crouches down to look at him. “Keep Sam safe.”
“Dean no!”
But Dean is already running into the middle of things and Sam’s cussing up a blue streak that would have even Sarah Connor blushing.
“What’s he doing Sam?” John asks as Cameron takes up position between the two of them, a move that he's going to have to question later, because when did Cameron start taking orders from Dean?
“It works better when I’m angry. When…” Sam lets out an angry breath, turning his eyes to John. “It works best when Dean’s in danger.” And then his eyes turn completely white.
Sam looks away and then his attention is on the hunter-killer. He isn’t sure what Sam can do about the giant machine but even as he’s about to ask he hears something give way.
“Focus on the central processors. I can open it up.” Sam says, his voice distant. John does just that and Cameron follows his lead. He can see Dean in the middle of the field, pinned down and when their eyes meet he follows Cameron’s shots and turns his back to them, guns brought to bear on the opening that Sam is creating in the outer skeleton.
Something goes off inside and suddenly the thing is going down. “Dean!” Sam shouts and Dean’s body is flung back, away from the machine that was falling onto his location. Cameron is already moving out from behind their cover and they both watch as she comes out of the dust cloud with Dean’s arm draped over her shoulder.
She practically throws him down and John’s sending orders out, sending the men in to finish off the communications relay and get his Uncle back. When he looks at Sam he’s doing field wrappings on Dean’s wounds. “He good Sam?” John asks.
Sam’s eyes are wild when he looks back at John, but they aren’t white anymore. “He’s a god damned idiot. Gonna get yourself killed one of these days Dean, swear I’m not always going to be able to get you out of these things.” And then he’s crushing his lips into Dean’s, a reminder of love and loss and pain and life.
When they get clear of the battle all John can think about is how much better off they’d be if Sam was the one leading this battle, if Sam could take that thing out… He takes a deep breath as Cameron sits beside him, a hand on his thigh to offer comfort. “You shouldn’t beat yourself up for today John. We had faulty intel.”
John nods. “Yeah I know. I just…” He gets up and walks around the room, pacing. “Have you heard the stories? What they’re capable of? The stopped the apocalypse and I can’t stop a damn computer. All Sam has to do is think about a hunter-killer and it goes down. Why the hell am I even here Cameron? Why aren’t they doing this?” John sinks to the bed and lets his head fall to his hands when he hears a knock at the door. Cameron comes back a minute later, kneeling beside him. “Why the hell am I the one that has to fail?”
“You aren’t failing John.”
John takes a deep breath and looks up at his uncle, sees the lines of worry that deepen around his eyes when he’s watching John be John Connor instead of just being himself. The thought of losing him is just too much and he’s pushing past Cameron and wrapping his arms around the other man.
Derek takes a step back at the impact, but his arms come up to steady John all the same. He lets John hang on as long as he needs to, lets him breath in his scent and feel him alive under his hands.
When John stands back, Derek drags his face back up so that they are looking at one another. “It might not feel like you’re winning John, but every day we’re still alive, it’s a victory. You know that. Every time we free more people, it’s a victory. Every battle is one step closer to the last one.”
John takes a deep breath and nods, knowing that as much as Derek might give John the space to be himself, he won’t put up with foolishness either. Even the great John Connor can be idiot enough to need his ass kicked every so often.
“I know.” He says, nodding to Derek. “I know, it’s just… Sam and Dean…”
Derek shakes his head. “They had their own war and it had a need for a certain kind of soldier. This is a different battle and a different war. You think we need a jackass running off in the field to get himself killed just to provoke his brother?”
There’s a fond tone in his voice though and John knows that Derek finds the Winchester boys as fascinating as he does. He’s never really allowed himself to reflect on that too much, but lately he can’t help it. Still, another time and place.
“Good to have you back Derek.”
Derek smiles then, wrapping an arm around John’s shoulder. “Good to have you back too John. Now, what do you say we go find Sam and watch him beat the hell out of Dean for a few hours?”
John laughs as he lets himself be led away from his rooms, Cameron watching the two closely, head tilted to the side as she thinks her programmer did not understand the dynamics of human families at all.