And Now for the Cosmic Egg's Next Trick (spn/gg)
Dean sat quietly in Ortiz' car as he was driven back to his friend's house, his mind milling over the fact that someone had recently 'violated' his home as well as all the other events that had made him feel powerless and out of control. The feeling in the pit of his stomach wasn't good, and he wasn't sure what to do about it.
Had the cop been right? Had he imagined the Winchesters? Though the other insinuations the cop made had been way, way, way off base, could he have been wrong about the men who grabbed him, about the guy who looked like him? Possibly, he had been in and out of consciousness, but he knew for a fact that he hadn't dreamed up that damn bag or the fact that someone, not him, had been through his things.
But who the hell had it been? The guys he had 'imagined' putting him in a cab? They knew where he lived or knew where his neighborhood was, and it wouldn't take long to find out his actual address.
And if that was the case, what the hell did that mean for him now? Jesus, why him? He didn't have an interesting life, he worked construction, sent most of his spare cash to his ex wife and her family for alimony and to pay back for the wedding they paid for.
He was a nobody; just a schmuck with a high school diploma, who picked up a pay check like millions across America.
Why the hell was he being targeted by a psycho who at best appeared to be into voodoo and at worse probably spent his time painting clown pictures between digging holes that he planned to fill in his basement. Actually, neither of those scenarios were very good.
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"So? Anything?" Sam asked as he joined his brother by the side of the car.
"Our boy seemed to be keen for his friend to leave the stuff they took from his place in the car." Dean Winchester shook his head. "You?"
"Dean Forester, good work record. Born Chicago, went to High School in Connecticut. Dropped out of college. Married at nineteen."
"Married at nineteen?" Dean asked.
"And divorced about a year later. Ex-wife still in Connecticut."
"So the kid wasn't his then? Or is he living in a one bedroom apartment so he can keep up with child support?"
"What?" Sam said.
"Married at that age, only reason for that is that someone found out that he should have taken out stock in Trojan instead of taking Kirk Cameron's advice about celibacy rings," Dean joked.
"Not the only reason."
"Well, divorce makes it sound like both of them are alive, so I'm guessing we aren't talking a Hallmark film of the week, guest starring Rosie O'Donnell as the caring oncologist who helps the two teenagers be together during the last days for one of them."
"What?"
"Never mind," Dean said quickly. "Just saying that no-one gets married straight out of high school, other than the Amish, without a crappy reason being behind it."
"There was no kid."
"Oh, well that sucks," Dean said slightly mournfully. "Okay, I'm a douche, I admit it."
"Dean, there doesn't appear to ever have been a kid, or that the girl was pregnant."
Dean knotted his brow, "So?"
"Adultery; that is what was cited on the papers. He didn't contest it."
Dean nodded, sagely. "Well, what do you expect when a guy at his peak ties himself to one girl, even if he thinks it's forever? Must have got the urge to get the itch scratched the second that ring went on."
"Dean, unlike you, some people don't think that getting married is equivalent to being put on a leash," Sam said.
Dean raised an eyebrow in response to his brother's statement. "So, you think it's possible it's the ex-Daddy in law that came a-shooting?"
"From a small town in Connecticut, that's about a thirty-minutes drive from Yale?" Sam asked. "Not exactly gun-toting, out-for-revenge country, is it?"
Dean shook his head, "Probably would have just black balled him from every country club in the New England area."
"Not everyone from New England is in a country club, Dean."
"Yeah right," Dean said as he headed towards Ortiz' car.
"What are you doing?"
"Well, I was waiting for you before I did this, but I was going to have a peek in the jalopy here," Dean said. "Because the two of them seemed spooked about something."
"So you thought you'd wait for me?" Sam asked.
"Well, if you weren't there, I'm guessing I'd be doing it twice, just to prove to you that I'd done it in the first place."
"Why?" Sam said "Couldn't you just tell me that the voice in your head that talks like me, saw that you did it?"
"Bite me!" Dean said coldly as he made a move towards the van.
About five minutes into the search, Dean stopped. "Oh crap!"
"What?" Sam asked as he popped up from searching the back seat.
"Oh, double crap!" Dean said firmly. "Tell me that our friend Forester is a member of a Hoodoo cult?"
"Not that I can find, why?" Sam asked as his brother handed him the small leather hex bag he had found in the glove compartment.
"Because if he or his pal ain't, then I think that it's all about to hit the fan," Dean said. "Unless you're going to tell me that you put it at his place?"
Sam shook his head, "Did you?"
"Sam, when the hell have you ever known me to get my hands on these on short notice?"
"Good point."
"That just leaves our friend with the dust then, doesn't it?" Dean said. "Shit, how did we miss this?"
"Because we weren't looking for it," Sam said before noting the bag of clothes and other stuff in the back seat. "He's going to run."
"After what he's been through, and I'm guessing finding this, do you blame him?" Dean asked.
"So what now?" Sam said as his brother seemed lost in thought as they heard the yell from the house.
"Leave them alone!" Dean Forester shouted as the man forced him and Ortiz to the floor.
"Not yet we don't," the masked hunter said as he held a gun on them.
"I'm sorry, we didn't want to do it like this. With any luck, this will be over real soon," the second said as he made Angie sit down.
"Well, for some of you," the first hunter said, pushing the barrel of his gun into Dean Forester's back as the front door was kicked open.
"Well, you took your sweet time didn't you, Sam!" the first one yelled. "Was getting to the point where I thought you weren't going to show."
"Who are you?" Sam asked as he trained his gun on the first assailant.
"Just the instrument of the Lord," the first hunter said. "And we're not going to sit back and let whichever one of you it is, lead us all down to the gates of hell!"
"What?" Ortiz asked.
"Oh, didn't you pal 'Dean' here tell you?" the first hunter said.
"Will you stop dragging this out and get it over with?!" the second hunter yelled.
"Yeah, why don't we get this over with?" Dean Winchester said as he came up behind the second hunter and cold cocked him, just as the first pulled Dean Forester to his feet to use as a shield.
"Didn't need to go down this way, Dean!" the first hunter said to Dean Winchester. "Gordon and others said you're a good guy, but you're being blind here."
"Let the guy go!" Sam yelled as his brother took a step toward the first hunter, eyes blazing, angry as hell.
"Don't take orders from you, hell spawn."
"Gordon was a dick!" Dean Winchester yelled.
"Maybe it isn't Sam," the first hunter replied, "Maybe it's this Forester guy, but you know it's one of them, and you know what has to be done to be sure. You should be helping us on this, end it for them now while the innocent can be saved. You're a good soldier Dean, one of us. Your father taught you well, so why won't you see that you should do? What you were taught to do?"
Dean Winchester cocked the gun in his hand just as Dean Forester took that moment to elbow the hunter in the ribs as hard as he could. The hunter let go of him, allowing Dean Winchester to take a shot that connected with the man's shoulder. The resulting confusion of Forester falling forward and Angie's screaming did nothing to slow the hunter in his escape through a window, though.
"Angie!" Ortiz yelled as he got to his feet, scrambling to the frightened older woman.
"Damn it!" Dean Winchester yelled as he got to the window, while his brother tended to a confused and scared Dean Forester.
"Whoever it is, I'm gonna hunt him down and end him!" Dean Winchester snarled, hauling the second, still unconscious hunter into a chair.
"Dean," Sam said motioning to the others in the kitchen.
"You guys okay?" Dean Winchester, asked noting Ortiz's bleeding brow.
"What the fuck is going on here?" Forester growled as he nursed his side, while Angie began to quiet down.
"Where's her husband?" Sam asked Ortiz.
"Like I'm going to tell you anything."
"She looks like she needs him, that's all. She's going into shock, so call her husband," Sam reassured, passing the phone over to Ortiz.
"Shit!" Dean Winchester exclaimed as the second hunter began to wake up. He pulled off the mask to find a hard-faced man staring back at him.
"Knew it would come to this," he said, "should've made sure we took him out in the damn market."
"You were the one that shot me?" Dean Forester asked, causing the whole room to look at the hunter. "Why? What have I done to you?"
"We thought you were him," the hunter admitted, motioning to Sam. "We thought he was up to something and we couldn't risk it."
"So this is a mix up then?" Sam said.
"Was, but now we have to be sure," the hunter said before turning to Dean Winchester. "You know there's only one way to be sure of that."
"Bullshit!" Dean Winchester said through gritted up teeth.
"You know this has to be done, don't you, Dean?"
"I'm asking the questions, so are you going to tell me how many of your friends are out there? How many want us dead?" Dean Winchester asked firmly.
"We don't want you dead, Dean. As for those 'friends,' they aren't my friends. Honestly, I don't know how many of them have the same mindset about your brother. No-one has a beef with you and you know it, they all understand why you don't want this done," the man said to Dean Winchester, looking at in the direction of Sam and Forester. "I don't like it, but you know one of them is marked, Dean; it's either this guy or your brother, and if they were any type of decent men they would go and end it themselves. But if not, better we do it now before they show their true colors."
"That's bull," Dean Winchester retorted.
"No, it isn't, and you know it. There's too much at stake to let them both simply walk away. Christ Dean, you thought Mr. Forester there was your brother when you took him from that ER; if you can mix them up, and if we can mix them up, who's to say someone else won't or hasn't? We have to be sure."
"You're going to kill both of us to be sure?" Dean Forester asked.
"There isn't any other way, I wish to God there was. You seem like a normal guy, but we can't take the risk, even if you are innocent."
"It was you that broke into my place?” Dean Forester asked confused about everything that was going on. “You that put that stuff there?"
The hunter didn’t say a word, to which Dean Winchester pulled out the hex bag and thrust it under the hunter’s nose. “Answer his question - did you put this in his place?”
The hunter looked at the bag. "We couldn't risk him calling in reinforcements."
"You put teeth and bones in my place to keep me from calling reinforcements? What the fuck are you talking about?" Dean Forester asked in disbelief as the Winchester brothers looked at each other knowingly.
"So if you've been watching him since he was dropped off, why do this? This isn't smart," Dean Winchester said.
"We didn't mean to barge in here," the hunter said turning to Ortiz and Angie. "We didn't want to scare you. I didn't want to do that to you guys."
"So why did you?" Sam asked.
"We wanted to get him when he was alone; we knew you would be watching."
"So you hoped that when you tried to grab Forester, you'd get both him and my brother when we stormed in and got in your way?" Dean Winchester asked. The hunter nodded in response.
"But we saw that he had brought bags back with him, he was packing his things," the hunter said. "He was going to run and this would have been our best shot before you picked him up."
"What?" Dean Forester asked looking at the two men in front of him.
"The plan was to get you when you were alone, but you changed things." the hunter explained. "We couldn’t risk missing our shot."
"Now for the six four thousand dollar question; who are you?" Dean Winchester asked angrily.
"Dean!" Sam said as he saw the look on his brother's face.
"It doesn't matter who I am. Because this isn't over and you know it!" the hunter retorted causing Dean to knock the man back into unconsciousness.
"That's great, Dean!" Sam exclaimed as the hunter slumped to the floor. "That was real helpful."
"Hey, smartass, I'm not the one they want in the ground," Dean Winchester barked as he flexed his throbbing hand. "Shit, should have hit the interstate, they damn well would have left these people alone if we had left."
"You don't know that," Sam replied.
"They were going to kill me?" Dean Forester said quietly. "What the hell did I do to them?"
"Nothing dude, these dicks….are just dicks," Dean Winchester said pulling the guy to his feet, "Call the ambulance for her, and the cops as soon as we're gone."
"What are you going to do with him?" Dean Forester yelled as the Winchesters' headed to the door. Sam stopped and turned looking at his double.
"What do you care?" Dean Winchester snapped, before turning to look at the expression on his brother's face, as well as the others in the room.
"We're not going to hurt him," Sam said.
"How do we know that?" Ortiz said. "Not that the bastard doesn't deserve everything that's coming to him."
Dean Winchester glared at the large construction worker for a second, before he relaxed, "This guy is going to find himself in a place where he's going to get three squares, a soft bed, padded walls and a nice jacket that fastens up the back. Good enough for you?"
"Yeah," Dean Forester said as he put a hand on his friends shoulder to calm him. "But what about the other guy? He's going to come back isn't he? He's going to try and kill me again, isn't he?"
"So we tell the cops," Ortiz said to his friend. "We make them give you protection this time."
"From who? A crazy guy we can't describe, who has a hard on to kill me?" Dean Forester asked before gesturing in Sam Winchester's direction. "And all because I look like whoever this guy is?"
"Won't matter if the cops do believe you, because they ain't going to be able to stop it," Dean Winchester replied. "So I'm going to give a piece of advice: If you care about your friends here, your family, it's best that you follow through on packing your bags, dude. Don't want them to get caught in the cross-hairs, do you?"
"What?"
"You think they knew just to follow you here? They knew your name, and they've been watching you, so if you care about anyone it's best you don't contact them for a while. Just so they and you are safe."
"Hey!" Ortiz said as Dean Forester took in what was said. "You ain't thinking on bailing now, are you?"
Dean Forester swallowed, before turning to look at Angie; she was sitting in the corner, still terrified.
"Dean?" Sam said as his brother made a move to leave.
"Don't you dare give me the bitch face, bro!"
"Okay then fine, you drop the guy off at county psyche ward, but I'm staying here," Sam replied.
"Staying here?" Dean Forester asked.
Sam nodded. "I’ll help you pack up what you need, got a friend who'll probably put you up."
"Sam!" his brother yelled.
"We aren't leaving him here, not now," Sam replied. "We'll take him to Bobby's."
"Don't you think that he might have a say on that?" Dean Winchester said.
"Yeah, you're not taking me anywhere," Dean Forester replied.
"Look, my brother's right. The guy who got away is going to keep coming, and you can't be sure that you're going to be as lucky next time. Our friend, he'll let you stay with him until we find the guy, unless you have some other idea about what you want to do," Sam said. "If that's the case then fine, you got questions, I'll try to answer them the best I can."
"Fine, but I'm not breaking your ass out of jail when the cops come and pick you up," Dean Winchester muttered under his breath as he turned to his brother.
"Be quick then," Sam replied.