The Other Side of Doubt, Supernatural, R, Keeper!Verse
Fandom: Supernatural, Keeper!Verse
Title: The Other Side of Doubt
Pairing, Characters: Implied Sam/Dean, John, Bobby
Rating: R - for violence and implied child abuse
Word Count: 1987
Summary: Bobby calls John to Kansas City, to find out what his youngest son is up to...and John begins to doubt his convictions about Sam.
A/Ns & Warnings: This is set in the early fall before Dana's 9th birthday, so in the timeline, it comes before Aristotle.
“Hey John, it’s Bobby.”
John smiled and tousled his granddaughter’s head before stepping away from her and Dean. “Hey Bobby, what’s up?”
“I got something for you. Wanna meet up?”
“I’m kinda in the middle of something-“
“You’re gonna want to see this. It’s Sam.”
John nodded, waving as Dana called to him from the merry-go-round. “Yeah, okay. When?”
“Tonight if you can get here.”
“Here where?”
“He’s in Kansas City, Kansas.”
‘Yeah, I can get there. Give me a few hours.”
John hung up the phone and walked back to where Dean was watching Dana. “That was Bobby.” John said.
Dean nodded. “So I gathered. Hunt?”
John sighed. He hated lying to his son. “Yeah. You gonna be okay alone for a few days?”
“Sam should be home tomorrow, and I’m sure Missouri can pick Dana up from school tomorrow. They’re supposed to spend some time together anyway.”
“I shouldn’t be too long.”
“What about Mr. Armstrong’s Buick?”
“Have Ed finish it. He was helping out, so he knows what’s left to do.”
Dana was pouting as she got off the merry-go-round and came toward them. “Papa?”
He smiled at her. It never ceased to amaze him how she just always knew. “Only for a couple of days, Dana. I’ll be back in time for your thing at school.”
“You better be,” she said, still pouting.
Not quite nine years old and she already knew instinctively how to manipulate all three of them. John smiled as she wrapped her arms around him. “Okay, Monster. Let your Papa go. We should head home.” Dean stood from the bench and took Dana’s hand. “Be safe.”
“Bring me back a puppy!” Dana called and Dean shook his head.
John watched them go in the late afternoon sun. It was mid-October…Indian Summer…the walk from the park to the house was short. John watched until he couldn’t see them.
Kansas City. Sam.
John sighed and headed for the truck. He was gonna need coffee.
Bobby was waiting for him outside a diner as he pulled in. The last few times Bobby had called him about Sam, things hadn’t gone well. In fact, the last time had led to a long argument over why the boy-man-was still alive.
And John wasn’t sure he could give any other reason than Dean and Dana, even now. He pulled himself out of the truck and hugged his friend. “He’s been here for three nights.”
John sighed. “Show me.”
“Get in.”
Bobby nodded toward the beat-up truck he’d obviously arrived in. “It’s a drive. I’ll fill you in as we go.”
John tried to read his friend, tried to determine what kind of mess he was walking in to….but Bobby wasn’t the most expressive guy, and there was nothing there to indicate if he was angry or upset. “So…I thought you were going to stop following him, after that thing last summer.” John said finally.
“I wasn’t following him, not exactly.” Bobby glanced at him, then back at the road. “I was following a mystery. There was a series of unexplained things. Ellen put me on the trail. Hunters with police records discovering their records were clean. Money…falling into the laps of the ones with kids. Hunts gone really south suddenly turning around and hunters waking up in emergency rooms.”
“What does this have to do with Sam?”
Bobby nodded and merged them onto a side street. “The only common denominator I could find was that someone involved remembered seeing a tall, dark haired guy in the area. One nurse described Sam pretty darn good. Then I got wind from Jim that there was some serious demon activity here, something about a fight. Sam’s description was given as one of the participants.”
“In a fight?” John was confused. Sam was supposed to be on some research trip. “What kind of fight?”
Bobby was pulling them off onto a dirt road. “The kind where two things get in a ring and one comes out.”
“Death match?”
Bobby nodded.
“Things?”
“Demons, vampires, monsters…and Sam.” They were in a makeshift parking lot outside a huge barn. The whole thing was lit up like New Years Eve in Times Square. The variety of vehicles was astounding. Ramshackle pickup trucks, limos and everything in between. Men and woman drifted in and Bobby and John joined them, moving slowly through the double doors to find seating in the make shift arena built from bleachers and stacks of hay bales.
“Last night Sam beat the vampire who was heavily favored. And some…demon…thing.” Bobby pointed to where the six remaining fighters were all kept behind a barrier.
John picked Sam out easily, his heart skipping a little when he realized how beat up he was. One eye was nearly swollen shut and his bare chest was bruised. His left bicep was cut.
“Rules?” John asked Bobby as the lights dimmed and someone dressed in a tux entered the cleared fighting space.
Bobby nodded. “Don’t die.”
“This doesn’t make sense. Why is he doing this?” John’s eyes skimmed the crowd. “What’s the prize?”
Bobby pointed across the barn to a chair ring side. “See the kid? He’s supposedly some kind of Seer. Sees truth. Sees the future. They’re all fighting for the right to claim him.”
“Claim him?” John looked up as Sam entered the ring. From the opposite side came a slight young woman. “What is this?”
Bobby shook his head. “Watch. She’s a shape shifter…if she’s even a she. Saw her last night.”
Sure enough, Sam took a swing at her and she ducked away, morphing into Sam. His second swing struck home and the shifter Sam went over backward. Sam didn’t wait, pounced, a knife suddenly in his hand.
They grappled, rolled, into the center of the ring. John lost track of which was which, then there was a slash of the knife, and one of them was rising. “Sam?”
“Don’t know.” John squinted, picking out details. The Sam on the dirt floor was barefoot, and his right wrist was bare. The Sam trying to catch his breath as he moved back to the waiting area was wearing worn out sneakers and a leather band on his wrist. “Yeah. He’s okay.”
They watched a giant demon that looked a lot like a Harrier shred what looked an awful lot like a bukavac. “I didn’t think they were real.” John murmured.
The bukavac fell to the floor and writhed while the demon roared and lurched toward the boy. Even across the barn, John could feel the boy’s fear. Then the bukavac swung out with a leg and connected with the demon, pulling it back and ramming it with a horn. The demon roared again, this time in pain. The bukavac tossed its head and the crowd ducked as the demon went flying, out of the ring and through a wall.
“Okay, the only two we haven’t seen are the other vampires.” John followed Bobby’s gaze. Two men sat tall and still beside Sam, eyes on the ring. “The one on the left, they call King. The other one is Packer. Rumor is King is Packer’s sire. Bad blood. The fight is predicted to be bloody. But odds are on King to win.”
“Then what?”
“Three way. All three in the ring until only one’s left standing.”
“I don’t get why Sam is doing this.” He was tempted to march over there and ask him, but that would lead to questions and a confrontation he didn’t want. The two vampires stood and moved in lockstep into the ring.
Bobby was right, it was bloody. The teeth came out fast and in just minutes the dirt under their feet was red. King ripped open Packer’s throat and stuck his whole hand inside, pulling out bloody tissue and throwing it at the kid. Sam stood abruptly, reaching for the kid. He got punched in the gut for the trouble and sank back onto the bench.
John felt his stomach lurch before his eyes moved back to the ring, where King had just twisted Packer’s head off his body. He held it up like a trophy and threw it at Sam. John stomach twisted as Sam caught it, his face cold, hard. He put the head on the bench beside him and sneered at the vampire.
The man in the tux was back. “There will be a ten minute rest period. Refreshments are available from our wandering servers. Be sure to tip them well.”
“I don’t like this.” John said. “We need to stop this before he gets killed.”
“Six months ago you were talking about killing him yourself.”
“I know.” John dropped his eyes to the hay at his feet.
“Are you going to tell me what this is about? Who is this kid to you?”
John set his jaw and glanced at his friend. “He’s…important to Dean.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Bobby…he and Dean are…together…you know, like a couple.”
“Oh.” John wasn’t sure what that “oh” said, but he didn’t have time to feel it out.
“This will be our final match of the evening. Winner takes all. The 10,000 dollars and possession of Michael. Betting is closing in thirty seconds, get your bets in now…and welcome to the floor, King, undefeated Vampire…Pakalu, undefeated bukavak, fighting for the house of Aranor….and Sam Winechrest, undefeated human.”
The announcer barely got out of the way before King was charging at the bukavak, Sam not far behind. It made sense. It was the most wounded of the three, easy to take if they worked together. The vampire bit into its underbelly while Sam’s hands closed around the dangling horn. It screamed and blood spurted all over Sam as the horn came loose.
The bukavac down, Sam rounded on the vampire with the horn held at the ready. King laughed and came at Sam, teeth bared. Sam swiped the sharp tip of the horn at King’s face, leaving a long bloody line to mark its passing.
King hissed and came harder, knocking Sam to his back. The vampires hands were around his throat, pounding his head against the ground. Sam was tired, John could see it…and as they rolled closer, he realized that Sam was hurt far worse than he’d first assumed. There were burns, and he was bleeding from a spot near his waistband. He wasn’t going to make it. He was going to lose.
“We have to end this.” John whispered to Bobby.
“How? This mob will kill us if we interfere.”
“That bastard’s gonna kill him.”
Then John saw something. A spark. A tiny spark. Sam got a foot between him and the vampire and shoved. King had managed to bite him, but barely scratched the surface. King, however, was ablaze. He screamed, arms flailing. People cleared a path as he ran from the barn.
Sam lay on his back in the ring as chaos erupted around them, with people clamoring for their winnings and others screaming that they’d been cheated. John and Bobby worked their way out of the crowd, but by the time they’d gotten free, both Sam and the boy were gone.
“So…son-in-law?” Bobby asked as they climbed back into the truck.
John nodded thoughtfully. “Their introduction wasn’t the best…and Sam comes from a bad background. But Dean…he loves him. And Dana thinks he hangs the moon.”
“He’s done some really good things John. From what I can see, he just saved that kid a life of…I don’t even know what.”
John nodded again. “Yeah. So maybe I’ve been judging him too harshly.”
He was his son. He was a Winchester. He’d proven it…provided he hadn’t taken the kid for…no. John was going to give him the chance, he was going to believe in him. His son. The man his son loved and his granddaughter adored.
Maybe one day he’d be able to let go of the doubt all together.
Title: The Other Side of Doubt
Pairing, Characters: Implied Sam/Dean, John, Bobby
Rating: R - for violence and implied child abuse
Word Count: 1987
Summary: Bobby calls John to Kansas City, to find out what his youngest son is up to...and John begins to doubt his convictions about Sam.
A/Ns & Warnings: This is set in the early fall before Dana's 9th birthday, so in the timeline, it comes before Aristotle.
“Hey John, it’s Bobby.”
John smiled and tousled his granddaughter’s head before stepping away from her and Dean. “Hey Bobby, what’s up?”
“I got something for you. Wanna meet up?”
“I’m kinda in the middle of something-“
“You’re gonna want to see this. It’s Sam.”
John nodded, waving as Dana called to him from the merry-go-round. “Yeah, okay. When?”
“Tonight if you can get here.”
“Here where?”
“He’s in Kansas City, Kansas.”
‘Yeah, I can get there. Give me a few hours.”
John hung up the phone and walked back to where Dean was watching Dana. “That was Bobby.” John said.
Dean nodded. “So I gathered. Hunt?”
John sighed. He hated lying to his son. “Yeah. You gonna be okay alone for a few days?”
“Sam should be home tomorrow, and I’m sure Missouri can pick Dana up from school tomorrow. They’re supposed to spend some time together anyway.”
“I shouldn’t be too long.”
“What about Mr. Armstrong’s Buick?”
“Have Ed finish it. He was helping out, so he knows what’s left to do.”
Dana was pouting as she got off the merry-go-round and came toward them. “Papa?”
He smiled at her. It never ceased to amaze him how she just always knew. “Only for a couple of days, Dana. I’ll be back in time for your thing at school.”
“You better be,” she said, still pouting.
Not quite nine years old and she already knew instinctively how to manipulate all three of them. John smiled as she wrapped her arms around him. “Okay, Monster. Let your Papa go. We should head home.” Dean stood from the bench and took Dana’s hand. “Be safe.”
“Bring me back a puppy!” Dana called and Dean shook his head.
John watched them go in the late afternoon sun. It was mid-October…Indian Summer…the walk from the park to the house was short. John watched until he couldn’t see them.
Kansas City. Sam.
John sighed and headed for the truck. He was gonna need coffee.
Bobby was waiting for him outside a diner as he pulled in. The last few times Bobby had called him about Sam, things hadn’t gone well. In fact, the last time had led to a long argument over why the boy-man-was still alive.
And John wasn’t sure he could give any other reason than Dean and Dana, even now. He pulled himself out of the truck and hugged his friend. “He’s been here for three nights.”
John sighed. “Show me.”
“Get in.”
Bobby nodded toward the beat-up truck he’d obviously arrived in. “It’s a drive. I’ll fill you in as we go.”
John tried to read his friend, tried to determine what kind of mess he was walking in to….but Bobby wasn’t the most expressive guy, and there was nothing there to indicate if he was angry or upset. “So…I thought you were going to stop following him, after that thing last summer.” John said finally.
“I wasn’t following him, not exactly.” Bobby glanced at him, then back at the road. “I was following a mystery. There was a series of unexplained things. Ellen put me on the trail. Hunters with police records discovering their records were clean. Money…falling into the laps of the ones with kids. Hunts gone really south suddenly turning around and hunters waking up in emergency rooms.”
“What does this have to do with Sam?”
Bobby nodded and merged them onto a side street. “The only common denominator I could find was that someone involved remembered seeing a tall, dark haired guy in the area. One nurse described Sam pretty darn good. Then I got wind from Jim that there was some serious demon activity here, something about a fight. Sam’s description was given as one of the participants.”
“In a fight?” John was confused. Sam was supposed to be on some research trip. “What kind of fight?”
Bobby was pulling them off onto a dirt road. “The kind where two things get in a ring and one comes out.”
“Death match?”
Bobby nodded.
“Things?”
“Demons, vampires, monsters…and Sam.” They were in a makeshift parking lot outside a huge barn. The whole thing was lit up like New Years Eve in Times Square. The variety of vehicles was astounding. Ramshackle pickup trucks, limos and everything in between. Men and woman drifted in and Bobby and John joined them, moving slowly through the double doors to find seating in the make shift arena built from bleachers and stacks of hay bales.
“Last night Sam beat the vampire who was heavily favored. And some…demon…thing.” Bobby pointed to where the six remaining fighters were all kept behind a barrier.
John picked Sam out easily, his heart skipping a little when he realized how beat up he was. One eye was nearly swollen shut and his bare chest was bruised. His left bicep was cut.
“Rules?” John asked Bobby as the lights dimmed and someone dressed in a tux entered the cleared fighting space.
Bobby nodded. “Don’t die.”
“This doesn’t make sense. Why is he doing this?” John’s eyes skimmed the crowd. “What’s the prize?”
Bobby pointed across the barn to a chair ring side. “See the kid? He’s supposedly some kind of Seer. Sees truth. Sees the future. They’re all fighting for the right to claim him.”
“Claim him?” John looked up as Sam entered the ring. From the opposite side came a slight young woman. “What is this?”
Bobby shook his head. “Watch. She’s a shape shifter…if she’s even a she. Saw her last night.”
Sure enough, Sam took a swing at her and she ducked away, morphing into Sam. His second swing struck home and the shifter Sam went over backward. Sam didn’t wait, pounced, a knife suddenly in his hand.
They grappled, rolled, into the center of the ring. John lost track of which was which, then there was a slash of the knife, and one of them was rising. “Sam?”
“Don’t know.” John squinted, picking out details. The Sam on the dirt floor was barefoot, and his right wrist was bare. The Sam trying to catch his breath as he moved back to the waiting area was wearing worn out sneakers and a leather band on his wrist. “Yeah. He’s okay.”
They watched a giant demon that looked a lot like a Harrier shred what looked an awful lot like a bukavac. “I didn’t think they were real.” John murmured.
The bukavac fell to the floor and writhed while the demon roared and lurched toward the boy. Even across the barn, John could feel the boy’s fear. Then the bukavac swung out with a leg and connected with the demon, pulling it back and ramming it with a horn. The demon roared again, this time in pain. The bukavac tossed its head and the crowd ducked as the demon went flying, out of the ring and through a wall.
“Okay, the only two we haven’t seen are the other vampires.” John followed Bobby’s gaze. Two men sat tall and still beside Sam, eyes on the ring. “The one on the left, they call King. The other one is Packer. Rumor is King is Packer’s sire. Bad blood. The fight is predicted to be bloody. But odds are on King to win.”
“Then what?”
“Three way. All three in the ring until only one’s left standing.”
“I don’t get why Sam is doing this.” He was tempted to march over there and ask him, but that would lead to questions and a confrontation he didn’t want. The two vampires stood and moved in lockstep into the ring.
Bobby was right, it was bloody. The teeth came out fast and in just minutes the dirt under their feet was red. King ripped open Packer’s throat and stuck his whole hand inside, pulling out bloody tissue and throwing it at the kid. Sam stood abruptly, reaching for the kid. He got punched in the gut for the trouble and sank back onto the bench.
John felt his stomach lurch before his eyes moved back to the ring, where King had just twisted Packer’s head off his body. He held it up like a trophy and threw it at Sam. John stomach twisted as Sam caught it, his face cold, hard. He put the head on the bench beside him and sneered at the vampire.
The man in the tux was back. “There will be a ten minute rest period. Refreshments are available from our wandering servers. Be sure to tip them well.”
“I don’t like this.” John said. “We need to stop this before he gets killed.”
“Six months ago you were talking about killing him yourself.”
“I know.” John dropped his eyes to the hay at his feet.
“Are you going to tell me what this is about? Who is this kid to you?”
John set his jaw and glanced at his friend. “He’s…important to Dean.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Bobby…he and Dean are…together…you know, like a couple.”
“Oh.” John wasn’t sure what that “oh” said, but he didn’t have time to feel it out.
“This will be our final match of the evening. Winner takes all. The 10,000 dollars and possession of Michael. Betting is closing in thirty seconds, get your bets in now…and welcome to the floor, King, undefeated Vampire…Pakalu, undefeated bukavak, fighting for the house of Aranor….and Sam Winechrest, undefeated human.”
The announcer barely got out of the way before King was charging at the bukavak, Sam not far behind. It made sense. It was the most wounded of the three, easy to take if they worked together. The vampire bit into its underbelly while Sam’s hands closed around the dangling horn. It screamed and blood spurted all over Sam as the horn came loose.
The bukavac down, Sam rounded on the vampire with the horn held at the ready. King laughed and came at Sam, teeth bared. Sam swiped the sharp tip of the horn at King’s face, leaving a long bloody line to mark its passing.
King hissed and came harder, knocking Sam to his back. The vampires hands were around his throat, pounding his head against the ground. Sam was tired, John could see it…and as they rolled closer, he realized that Sam was hurt far worse than he’d first assumed. There were burns, and he was bleeding from a spot near his waistband. He wasn’t going to make it. He was going to lose.
“We have to end this.” John whispered to Bobby.
“How? This mob will kill us if we interfere.”
“That bastard’s gonna kill him.”
Then John saw something. A spark. A tiny spark. Sam got a foot between him and the vampire and shoved. King had managed to bite him, but barely scratched the surface. King, however, was ablaze. He screamed, arms flailing. People cleared a path as he ran from the barn.
Sam lay on his back in the ring as chaos erupted around them, with people clamoring for their winnings and others screaming that they’d been cheated. John and Bobby worked their way out of the crowd, but by the time they’d gotten free, both Sam and the boy were gone.
“So…son-in-law?” Bobby asked as they climbed back into the truck.
John nodded thoughtfully. “Their introduction wasn’t the best…and Sam comes from a bad background. But Dean…he loves him. And Dana thinks he hangs the moon.”
“He’s done some really good things John. From what I can see, he just saved that kid a life of…I don’t even know what.”
John nodded again. “Yeah. So maybe I’ve been judging him too harshly.”
He was his son. He was a Winchester. He’d proven it…provided he hadn’t taken the kid for…no. John was going to give him the chance, he was going to believe in him. His son. The man his son loved and his granddaughter adored.
Maybe one day he’d be able to let go of the doubt all together.