Bonds of Trust 4a/5
Title: Bonds of Trust 4a/5
Author: Ada
Fandom: Supernatural
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Angst, Action
Spoilers: Mild for AHBL and BDABR
Characters: John, Jim, Bobby, Daniel Elkins, wee!Sam, wee!Dean, OCs, no pairings
Disclaimer: I owe too much money to student loan companies to buy Supernatural.
Summary: Preseries. When the boys go missing, salt lines intact and barely any trail to follow, Jim brings a group of hunters together to find them. Unfortunately hunters do not always see eye to eye and John is forced to recognize that hunters can be just as dangerous as their prey.
Previous chapters: One, Two, Three
Bonds of Trust
By: Ada C. Eliana
Chapter 4a
When John woke to a splitting headache and a ringing in his ears the sun had long since set. He made to stand, and that was when he noticed that he was sitting up, propped against a tree with rope wound around his chest tying him to it. “Goddamn,” he muttered as he pulled against the bonds. His wrists were pulled around the trunk and knotted, and whoever tied them knew how to make knots tight and difficult to undo.
But damn it all, he had heard his kid’s voice, he heard Dean call out to him, and that meant that the boys were here, in the woods, and probably being forced to the drop off point by whoever knocked him out. John struggled against the ropes, and as he did so felt for the pocket knife he had stashed in the back pocket of his pants. He pushed his back up closer to the tree and strained his fingers to reach for his pocket, straining against the rope as it dug into his wrists. After some more creative maneuvering and awkward movement that ended up with him angling his rear towards the tree trunk, John grabbed the pocket knife. He moved back into a more relaxed position and caught his breath for a moment before opening the knife with fumbling fingers. He sawed at the ropes until his left hand came free, but movement somewhere nearby stilled his hands. He held his breath as he heard leaves crunching under boots, and waited for his attacker to reveal himself. The footsteps drew closer, until he was right behind John.
“Winchester? What the hell?”
John sighed with relief as he heard Bobby’s voice. “Here, help me cut these ropes,” John said.
“What happened?”
“Whoever kidnapped Sam and Dean happened. I heard Dean’s voice and then someone hit me from behind. They’re in the woods now, we have to find them.”
“We will,” Bobby assured him, ripping away the last of the ropes and freeing John.
John grabbed his weapons and then he and Bobby hurried West, following the footprints on the forest floor.
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Movement through the trees caught Teresa’s attention and she spun just in time to see a blonde head duck between branches, heading towards the trail out. “Tim?” she whispered in confusion. Tim was supposed to be searching the town, not the woods. She watched him silently, waiting until he was out of earshot to work her way towards the direction he came from. Her heart race increased and she remembered the conversation she initiated with Bobby the night before, the idea that a hunter could’ve been behind this. But she knew Tim, and Tim wouldn’t… Teresa shook her head, now was not the time for emotions. She had to go about this as if Tim were a stranger. “Jim, I might be on to something. If I don’t call back in, send John and Bobby to section B-12, the Western ridge.”
“Got it, be careful,” Jim cautioned over the line. Teresa nodded but did not respond audibly as she shut off the walkie-talkie and drew a handgun as she cut through the underbrush, boots sliding on fallen needles and leaves. The sun had completely set, and clouds moved to obscure the moonlight. Teresa’s flashlight shot a clear beam at the path ahead, but she worried about who else might see it. Snapping twigs could be heard somewhere in the distance behind her, but she pushed forward.
Near the mouth of a small cave Teresa heard the sound of soft crying. She pointed the flashlight into the cave and its beam caught on the faces of two small children who were tied to the interior of the cave. Tressy raced the rest of the way in, gun and flashlight pointing around the cave until she was sure it was clear. She holstered her weapon, instead pulling the bowie knife out of her pocketed sheath and rushing to them.
Metal rings had been pounded into the cave wall, and each boy’s wrists were tied to it with a length of rope. The older boy stared at Tressy with fear and mistrust as she approached the younger one, who cowered away from her. “Hey, I’m here to help,” she said softly, ripping through the ropes and freeing him. Face streaked with tears, he darted into her arms immediately, fisting his small hands in her jacket as he sobbed. She hugged him back briefly, wanting to comfort him but knowing that she needed to get the boys out of the woods fast. “I’m gonna go free your brother, okay?” she said. The boy nodded, scaling her rather than letting go, so she held him awkwardly on her left side while she cut through Dean’s ropes with her right hand.
“Thanks,” Dean mumbled, staring at Sam who had hidden his face in the crook of Teresa’s neck.
“Let’s get you boys out of here and back to your Dad,” she said, holding the flashlight oddly in her left hand, and resting her right on Dean’s shoulder.
When she reached the mouth of the cave, she saw the dark outline of someone racing through the trees towards her, coming from the wrong direction to be Bobby or John. Carefully, she pried Sam off of her, placing him back on his feet. “Dean, do you know how to use a compass?” Tressy asked the older boy. He nodded with assurance, eyes straying to the direction of the ever-closer footfalls. “Okay good.” She pressed her spare compass into his hands along with her extra flashlight, it was lower-powered and would help camouflage them more than her high-powered flashlight would. “Follow this, head South on the trail until you hit the parking lot, Jim’s waiting for you there,” she said.
“Teresa!” Tim’s voice shouted through the trees.
“Go now, quickly!” Teresa whispered pushing them ahead. Dean nodded, grabbed Sammy’s hand and took off towards the trail at a run, turning just once to look at Tressy before he disappeared into the trees.
Teresa drew her handgun and turned towards Tim, who had cut through the undergrowth in time to see Sam and Dean escape. She aimed at his head and the parting clouds revealed the anger on his face. “So it was you all along then,” Teresa stated calmly, not revealing the sinking feeling in her stomach at discovering it had been Tim after all, Tim who she had known for years and trusted and respected.
“Tressy, you can’t let those kids go. This needs to be done!” he cautioned, his 9mm gun pointed at her.
“What the hell is wrong with you, they’re just children!”
“No,” Tim said, shaking his head. “Not the little one. You know exactly what Sam Winchester is, you’ve known for five years.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play dumb with me. You’ve known all along and you’ve kept it a secret! I thought we trusted each other just a little bit more than that. I thought you would’ve shared information like this with me, information that could be the difference between saving this world and watching it be destroyed.”
“Tim I don’t-”
“I know all about that little side-trip you made to Lawrence, Kansas five years ago while we were researching a phantom attacker in Topeka. I know about Mary Winchester burning on the ceiling, how she fits into the pattern and all of it.”
“You read my journal,” she said quietly. Everyone knew other hunter’s journals were off-limits unless specific permission was given. His reading of her journal - her most important journal where she kept all of the information she had collected on the demon - it was a betrayal, and it stung deep.
“I sure did. I just wanted to take a look at your research, I was just curious about what you’ve managed to compile after all these years. But boy was I surprised at what I found out. John Winchester’s kid is a psychic, a demon-polluted freak.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” Teresa refuted. She thought of the fake ID that read “Insurance Inspector” and remembered shaking hands with a broken John Winchester five years ago. “Mr. Winchester, I’m from the insurance company. I’m here to inspect your house. I know this is a rough time for you so I’ll be quick… I’m sorry for your loss.” She remembered charred remains of a home and a life, EMF readings through the roof, and sulfur traces so strong that there was no room for misinterpretation.
“I know you feel bad for him because of your friend - because Katrina was one of them - but Tressy, you know better than anyone why those psychics need to be wiped out.”
She remembered Katrina, staring at her through bloodshot eyes. “Teresa… I keep having those dreams about that man… he wants me to do things, terrible things. God, what is happening to me? I’m scared, Tressy.”
“So you try and sacrifice a fellow hunter’s children to a demon?” Teresa said, her voice wavering slightly. “Something you’re supposed to be fighting against!”
“It’s clean, easy, and not traceable to me. And I’m going to exorcise that demon once she’s done with them. But don’t you paint me to be the bad guy here, I’m protecting all of us!”
“Tim come on, we can talk about this. You read the journal sure, but you don’t know everything, you don’t understand everything.” Her grip on the gun had not faltered, but she knew she would not be able to pull the trigger on Tim, not after the amount of times they had each other’s backs. She trusted him.
“I understand everything,” Tim said. “Just leave this alone Tress. Just go back to the parking lot, tell Jim you couldn’t find them, pretend none of this happened.”
“I can’t do that, Tim. And I can’t believe that you can! After all of the people we’ve saved, all of the good we’ve done, how can you justify this?!”
“You think I want to be responsible for the deaths of two little kids, Tressy? I don’t!” he shouted. “But I’m doing this for everyone else, I’m doing this to save people, other people who are going to die if we let that kid grow up. And as for his brother… the older kid wouldn’t have stayed behind if I tried to leave him, he was in this with his brother no matter what.”
“Tim we can find another way, make sure that Sam doesn’t turn. If you’ve read the journal then you know what happens, you know that they have a choice.” A woman with brown hair and eyes filled with pain, “I mean… I guess we didn’t have to do it but… kill or be killed and I was so afraid of dying. If I could do it all over I would’ve killed myself, death seems like nothing compared to the fear I live with now.”
“Yeah, kill or be killed. Sam’s gonna grow up a hunter, he’ll be more capable than anyone of taking out the others, it’ll be second nature to him by then. There’s no ‘other way’ here Tressy. And no one’s asking you to kill him, I’m not even doing it myself. All you have to do is look the other way, let the demon do her job.”
“You know I can’t do that,” Teresa said coldly. She knew exactly how this demon killed, and she would not sit back and let it happen to Sam and Dean.
Tim’s mouth hardened into a thin line. He had thought he could explain this to Tressy, that she would understand; she more than anyone knew why this had to be done. But Teresa was stubborn to a fault and Tim knew that what he was doing - taking out Sam Winchester - would make the world a safer place in the long run. “Well you can yell until you’re blue in the face, but it doesn’t change the fact that those boys are dying tonight.”
“No they aren’t.”
“Oh really? Because the way I see it, they’re alone in the woods, and the demon is here, searching for them.”
“There are hours to go before midnight!” Teresa rebuked.
“Haha! You really think there’s a set time, Teresa? Anytime before sundown and midnight that demon can go after her sacrifice! And she knows these woods better than anyone, those boys are goners, and the threat to us will die with Samuel Winchester.”
“Oh my God,” Teresa said, fearful for the children in the forest, knowing that if Tim was right, the demon would find them before they could make it to Jim. They were defenseless and vulnerable. Tressy turned to head down the path and follow them.
“Don’t move!” Tim shouted.
“Come on Tim, you’re not going to shoot me, not after everything we’ve been through together,” she responded, not even facing him as she headed towards Sam and Dean. The shot that splintered the night proved her wrong.
Author: Ada
Fandom: Supernatural
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Angst, Action
Spoilers: Mild for AHBL and BDABR
Characters: John, Jim, Bobby, Daniel Elkins, wee!Sam, wee!Dean, OCs, no pairings
Disclaimer: I owe too much money to student loan companies to buy Supernatural.
Summary: Preseries. When the boys go missing, salt lines intact and barely any trail to follow, Jim brings a group of hunters together to find them. Unfortunately hunters do not always see eye to eye and John is forced to recognize that hunters can be just as dangerous as their prey.
Previous chapters: One, Two, Three
Bonds of Trust
By: Ada C. Eliana
Chapter 4a
When John woke to a splitting headache and a ringing in his ears the sun had long since set. He made to stand, and that was when he noticed that he was sitting up, propped against a tree with rope wound around his chest tying him to it. “Goddamn,” he muttered as he pulled against the bonds. His wrists were pulled around the trunk and knotted, and whoever tied them knew how to make knots tight and difficult to undo.
But damn it all, he had heard his kid’s voice, he heard Dean call out to him, and that meant that the boys were here, in the woods, and probably being forced to the drop off point by whoever knocked him out. John struggled against the ropes, and as he did so felt for the pocket knife he had stashed in the back pocket of his pants. He pushed his back up closer to the tree and strained his fingers to reach for his pocket, straining against the rope as it dug into his wrists. After some more creative maneuvering and awkward movement that ended up with him angling his rear towards the tree trunk, John grabbed the pocket knife. He moved back into a more relaxed position and caught his breath for a moment before opening the knife with fumbling fingers. He sawed at the ropes until his left hand came free, but movement somewhere nearby stilled his hands. He held his breath as he heard leaves crunching under boots, and waited for his attacker to reveal himself. The footsteps drew closer, until he was right behind John.
“Winchester? What the hell?”
John sighed with relief as he heard Bobby’s voice. “Here, help me cut these ropes,” John said.
“What happened?”
“Whoever kidnapped Sam and Dean happened. I heard Dean’s voice and then someone hit me from behind. They’re in the woods now, we have to find them.”
“We will,” Bobby assured him, ripping away the last of the ropes and freeing John.
John grabbed his weapons and then he and Bobby hurried West, following the footprints on the forest floor.
------------------------------------------------
Movement through the trees caught Teresa’s attention and she spun just in time to see a blonde head duck between branches, heading towards the trail out. “Tim?” she whispered in confusion. Tim was supposed to be searching the town, not the woods. She watched him silently, waiting until he was out of earshot to work her way towards the direction he came from. Her heart race increased and she remembered the conversation she initiated with Bobby the night before, the idea that a hunter could’ve been behind this. But she knew Tim, and Tim wouldn’t… Teresa shook her head, now was not the time for emotions. She had to go about this as if Tim were a stranger. “Jim, I might be on to something. If I don’t call back in, send John and Bobby to section B-12, the Western ridge.”
“Got it, be careful,” Jim cautioned over the line. Teresa nodded but did not respond audibly as she shut off the walkie-talkie and drew a handgun as she cut through the underbrush, boots sliding on fallen needles and leaves. The sun had completely set, and clouds moved to obscure the moonlight. Teresa’s flashlight shot a clear beam at the path ahead, but she worried about who else might see it. Snapping twigs could be heard somewhere in the distance behind her, but she pushed forward.
Near the mouth of a small cave Teresa heard the sound of soft crying. She pointed the flashlight into the cave and its beam caught on the faces of two small children who were tied to the interior of the cave. Tressy raced the rest of the way in, gun and flashlight pointing around the cave until she was sure it was clear. She holstered her weapon, instead pulling the bowie knife out of her pocketed sheath and rushing to them.
Metal rings had been pounded into the cave wall, and each boy’s wrists were tied to it with a length of rope. The older boy stared at Tressy with fear and mistrust as she approached the younger one, who cowered away from her. “Hey, I’m here to help,” she said softly, ripping through the ropes and freeing him. Face streaked with tears, he darted into her arms immediately, fisting his small hands in her jacket as he sobbed. She hugged him back briefly, wanting to comfort him but knowing that she needed to get the boys out of the woods fast. “I’m gonna go free your brother, okay?” she said. The boy nodded, scaling her rather than letting go, so she held him awkwardly on her left side while she cut through Dean’s ropes with her right hand.
“Thanks,” Dean mumbled, staring at Sam who had hidden his face in the crook of Teresa’s neck.
“Let’s get you boys out of here and back to your Dad,” she said, holding the flashlight oddly in her left hand, and resting her right on Dean’s shoulder.
When she reached the mouth of the cave, she saw the dark outline of someone racing through the trees towards her, coming from the wrong direction to be Bobby or John. Carefully, she pried Sam off of her, placing him back on his feet. “Dean, do you know how to use a compass?” Tressy asked the older boy. He nodded with assurance, eyes straying to the direction of the ever-closer footfalls. “Okay good.” She pressed her spare compass into his hands along with her extra flashlight, it was lower-powered and would help camouflage them more than her high-powered flashlight would. “Follow this, head South on the trail until you hit the parking lot, Jim’s waiting for you there,” she said.
“Teresa!” Tim’s voice shouted through the trees.
“Go now, quickly!” Teresa whispered pushing them ahead. Dean nodded, grabbed Sammy’s hand and took off towards the trail at a run, turning just once to look at Tressy before he disappeared into the trees.
Teresa drew her handgun and turned towards Tim, who had cut through the undergrowth in time to see Sam and Dean escape. She aimed at his head and the parting clouds revealed the anger on his face. “So it was you all along then,” Teresa stated calmly, not revealing the sinking feeling in her stomach at discovering it had been Tim after all, Tim who she had known for years and trusted and respected.
“Tressy, you can’t let those kids go. This needs to be done!” he cautioned, his 9mm gun pointed at her.
“What the hell is wrong with you, they’re just children!”
“No,” Tim said, shaking his head. “Not the little one. You know exactly what Sam Winchester is, you’ve known for five years.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play dumb with me. You’ve known all along and you’ve kept it a secret! I thought we trusted each other just a little bit more than that. I thought you would’ve shared information like this with me, information that could be the difference between saving this world and watching it be destroyed.”
“Tim I don’t-”
“I know all about that little side-trip you made to Lawrence, Kansas five years ago while we were researching a phantom attacker in Topeka. I know about Mary Winchester burning on the ceiling, how she fits into the pattern and all of it.”
“You read my journal,” she said quietly. Everyone knew other hunter’s journals were off-limits unless specific permission was given. His reading of her journal - her most important journal where she kept all of the information she had collected on the demon - it was a betrayal, and it stung deep.
“I sure did. I just wanted to take a look at your research, I was just curious about what you’ve managed to compile after all these years. But boy was I surprised at what I found out. John Winchester’s kid is a psychic, a demon-polluted freak.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” Teresa refuted. She thought of the fake ID that read “Insurance Inspector” and remembered shaking hands with a broken John Winchester five years ago. “Mr. Winchester, I’m from the insurance company. I’m here to inspect your house. I know this is a rough time for you so I’ll be quick… I’m sorry for your loss.” She remembered charred remains of a home and a life, EMF readings through the roof, and sulfur traces so strong that there was no room for misinterpretation.
“I know you feel bad for him because of your friend - because Katrina was one of them - but Tressy, you know better than anyone why those psychics need to be wiped out.”
She remembered Katrina, staring at her through bloodshot eyes. “Teresa… I keep having those dreams about that man… he wants me to do things, terrible things. God, what is happening to me? I’m scared, Tressy.”
“So you try and sacrifice a fellow hunter’s children to a demon?” Teresa said, her voice wavering slightly. “Something you’re supposed to be fighting against!”
“It’s clean, easy, and not traceable to me. And I’m going to exorcise that demon once she’s done with them. But don’t you paint me to be the bad guy here, I’m protecting all of us!”
“Tim come on, we can talk about this. You read the journal sure, but you don’t know everything, you don’t understand everything.” Her grip on the gun had not faltered, but she knew she would not be able to pull the trigger on Tim, not after the amount of times they had each other’s backs. She trusted him.
“I understand everything,” Tim said. “Just leave this alone Tress. Just go back to the parking lot, tell Jim you couldn’t find them, pretend none of this happened.”
“I can’t do that, Tim. And I can’t believe that you can! After all of the people we’ve saved, all of the good we’ve done, how can you justify this?!”
“You think I want to be responsible for the deaths of two little kids, Tressy? I don’t!” he shouted. “But I’m doing this for everyone else, I’m doing this to save people, other people who are going to die if we let that kid grow up. And as for his brother… the older kid wouldn’t have stayed behind if I tried to leave him, he was in this with his brother no matter what.”
“Tim we can find another way, make sure that Sam doesn’t turn. If you’ve read the journal then you know what happens, you know that they have a choice.” A woman with brown hair and eyes filled with pain, “I mean… I guess we didn’t have to do it but… kill or be killed and I was so afraid of dying. If I could do it all over I would’ve killed myself, death seems like nothing compared to the fear I live with now.”
“Yeah, kill or be killed. Sam’s gonna grow up a hunter, he’ll be more capable than anyone of taking out the others, it’ll be second nature to him by then. There’s no ‘other way’ here Tressy. And no one’s asking you to kill him, I’m not even doing it myself. All you have to do is look the other way, let the demon do her job.”
“You know I can’t do that,” Teresa said coldly. She knew exactly how this demon killed, and she would not sit back and let it happen to Sam and Dean.
Tim’s mouth hardened into a thin line. He had thought he could explain this to Tressy, that she would understand; she more than anyone knew why this had to be done. But Teresa was stubborn to a fault and Tim knew that what he was doing - taking out Sam Winchester - would make the world a safer place in the long run. “Well you can yell until you’re blue in the face, but it doesn’t change the fact that those boys are dying tonight.”
“No they aren’t.”
“Oh really? Because the way I see it, they’re alone in the woods, and the demon is here, searching for them.”
“There are hours to go before midnight!” Teresa rebuked.
“Haha! You really think there’s a set time, Teresa? Anytime before sundown and midnight that demon can go after her sacrifice! And she knows these woods better than anyone, those boys are goners, and the threat to us will die with Samuel Winchester.”
“Oh my God,” Teresa said, fearful for the children in the forest, knowing that if Tim was right, the demon would find them before they could make it to Jim. They were defenseless and vulnerable. Tressy turned to head down the path and follow them.
“Don’t move!” Tim shouted.
“Come on Tim, you’re not going to shoot me, not after everything we’ve been through together,” she responded, not even facing him as she headed towards Sam and Dean. The shot that splintered the night proved her wrong.