Anything
Anything
“So what you’re saying is that this bond between them, it’s going to make them … ”
She couldn’t say the words. She closed her eyes to hide the pain, to keep her emotions from showing too clearly but the woman before her was a psychic. It wouldn’t matter that she didn’t let her see it with her eyes. Mary wasn’t that person though, she couldn’t show that sort of weakness. It was her fault anyway and she had to face the consequences. If she’d just come to the psychic sooner, if she’d given into the fears and doubts and thought about what her boys needed instead of ignoring what was out there …
“They’re going to be lovers,” she finished, opening her eyes to stare at the woman in front of her.
“I’m saying the future isn’t written in stone Mary,” Missouri said softly. “The echoes I feel, they’re strong. These boys are going to see a lot and it’s going to be tough, but the bond between them is what makes them strong.”
“How can I break it?”
“Mary, you don’t understand. The bond is what helps them survive. You take that away and Lord only knows what will become of them.”
“But they won’t be… they won’t be corrupted like that.” It had to be the demon’s blood. She knew her precious baby wasn’t going to grow up to be a monster but that didn’t mean the demon blood couldn’t poison the good things in his life. She just had to find a way to make sure his brother wasn’t corrupted by it too.
“Girl, you are so focused on a possible future that you’re not looking at what I’m telling you. The bond developed because of Sam’s blood. We can’t deny that. That doesn’t make it wrong though. You’re pulling from a hundred possibilities and looking for the one you can least stomach. Sam and Dean need each other. With you and John there to steady them there shouldn’t be any reason why they can’t just be brothers.”
Mary nodded, but her mind was elsewhere, a conversation she never wanted to have and the family she was about to rip apart.
**
“I don’t understand,” John said, staring down at his hands as he listened to Mary’s words. It’d been two months since she’d told him about the life she used to live and he’d wondered - once he realized it was all real - why she chose to tell him. Now he knew. Now he wished he didn’t.
“I know. It’s the only way, John. We can’t allow this to happen to them. We have to keep them apart, at least until I can find a way to break the blood bond between them.”
“So you take Sam and have a little vacation while Dean and I hole up here?”
Mary looked at him with pity and it pissed him off more than he could have thought possible. He loved her, worshipped her even when they were in the midst of one of their explosive fights, but what she was suggesting - what he was trying to purposely misread - was beyond considering.
“The demon won’t stop at that. He won’t allow us to separate the boys while we find a way to stop it. It needs … John … it needs to be more permanent than that.”
“What are you suggesting, Mary? Just spit it out.”
“You take Dean and run. I’ll take Sam and go the other way. We burn the house, make it look like we were all home and died in the fire. The demon will leave us alone until we can find a way to fix it. John, it’s the only way.”
John walked out of the room without listening to the pleading in his wife’s voice. Instead he slowly climbed up to his son’s room. Sam was dead asleep in his bed where he was supposed to be, his back to the door but Dean’s security blanket was wrapped over his little body. John walked in, pulling back Sam’s blankets, and found Dean. Sam was tucked up behind him, his fingers tangled in Dean’s hair, with one of the longer curls sucked into his mouth. He tried not to think about Mary’s words, things to come she’d said. Demon blood corrupted everything, she’d said. Their only hope, she’d said.
He didn’t have anything else to believe in. The fight was long from over, but staring at his boys, he knew she’d have her way. He didn’t know this world like she did and she was the only family he had. He didn’t know if he could do it, live without half his heart, but if Mary was out there looking for a cure, he could do it. He would have to. For his boys, he’d do anything.
**
That night he made love to his like it was the last time, holding her close, his touch reverent and gentle. Every night for a week he made love to her life that, making up for what they were about to lose. He just had to hope that Mary could find a cure for this soon. As much as it was killing John - the thought of being away from his wife and his baby boy - he couldn’t imagine what this would do to Dean. It was his only hope, Mary said though, to stay clean of the demon taint.
A week of playing with his boys and indulging them in every way he could, that was all he had left. They went to the park and got ice cream. They bought bikes and rode around the neighborhood and played cops and robbers in the backyard. Mary always watched, with the same sad smile John had become so used to, scribbling in that journal of hers.
“It’s everything I know,” Mary said that night when she placed it in John’s hands, the glow of the fire already beginning to spread across the neighborhood. “It will protect you from what is out there John. It will protect you and Dean.”
“What’s going to protect you and Sam?” John asked her softly.
She smiled but it was a hard, determined smile. “We’ll be fine John. I’ll be in touch as often as I think it’s safe.”
Dean was asleep in the back of the Impala and Mary has a beat up Cobra with Sam tucked safely in the front. Mary had a trunk full of their belongings, things they didn’t really want lost in the fire and enough clothes for her and Sam to get by on. John had most of their money because Dean was old enough to ask why they had a suitcase when their house burnt down.
“Mary…”
“We have to, John,” she reassured him. She kissed him, one last time, then turned and walked away. In the distance he could see the neighbors moving onto the lawn of their homes, hear the wail of the sirens comes closer.
It wasn’t until the Cobra sped off in the other direction though that John finally crawled into the front seat of the Impala. He felt numb as he drove away but let out a shaky breath. He needed to be numb. He had to take care of Dean and find a new way to live his life. His wife and his sons were counting on him to keep them safe.
He’d do anything for Mary. Anything for his boys. Anything to keep them safe. Even if it meant becoming a soldier again. Even if it meant becoming a hunter.