SPN/DA Fic: With a Bang part 15 of 15
Title: With a Bang - part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - part 5 - part 6 - part 7 - part 8 - part 9 - part 10 - part 11 - part 12 - part 13 - part 14 - part 15 & Epilogue *Completed*
Continued in: The Aftershocks
For all other stories in the bang!verse go: here
Author: Mink
Rating: SPN/DA Crossover - PG - Gen - AU in the year 2020 clap your hands and believe!
Spoilers: General (for all aired episodes)
Disclaimers: SPN & DA & characters are owned by their various creators.
Summary: Two worlds collide and all three explode.
chapter 15
A few thousand dead bodies lying around the Space Needle had caused quite a stir even in a city used to its share of causal slaughter. As soon as the security grid came back online and the cameras started picking up images of downtown, all municipal hell broke loose.
So to speak.
The cops got so thick topside that Dean made the executive decision that they would not venture from the safety of the sewer until the coast was clear. The wait turned out to last the rest of the night and into the early hours of dawn. Once Alec’s abused senses emerged back into fresh air again, he was happy to know that their new collective mission was to go hide in the much less fragrant shelter of Logan’s place. Unfortunately, the fastest way to get through the sector checks during a security alert was via public transportation.
Alec had envisioned many hardcore action scenarios of fleeing the crime scene but waiting around at a bus stop hadn’t been on the top five.
“Some night, huh?” Dean managed to make the stiff plastic bench look comfortable. “That was one for the books.”
Alec kind of liked how his uncle made the whole thing sound like a particularly harrowing bowling game.
“Is she okay?” Logan asked. “She hasn’t moved in an hour.”
“She’s fine,” Dean patted Max on the hip. “Just needs to sleep it off.”
Dean had designated himself as Max’s caretaker ever since they’d left the Space Needle. She hadn’t ever really woken up long enough to protest the arrangement, but her body stayed curled up neatly under Dean’s arm like an animal seeking warmth. The leather jacket over her shoulders hid her mostly from view, the too long sleeves tied and knotted like a straight jacket for extra heat. Alec could only see the pale curve of her cheek and a tangle of dark hair but she looked great to him.
Better than great because she was completely and without a doubt alive.
“Maybe I should write about last night,” Logan was half dreaming with painkillers from a drug dealer they’d mugged a few blocks back. “You know, something to pass down through the ages like the old bards did.”
“Good idea,” Dean had taken a few pain killers himself. “But if I were you I’d skip the parts with all the raw sewage. Although a little grit does keep the gig glamorous.”
Alec slouched sideways to catch the newscast flickering over the bus stop. The monitor kept rotating back and forth between sneaker logo ads and the 24-hour international news station. Seattle only got a five second time slot up against a few mudslides over in Indonesia and another week of genocide running through the coast of east Africa.
Looked like business in the big wide world was carrying on without a hitch.
No tickers under the pretty anchors about demon armies. No panic in the streets. Just a strange overnight death toll and a few half-hearted accusations of bio-terrorism.
“Wait till the reporters find out about the robes,” Dean promised. “They’ll spin this into something awesome by tonight.”
Alec wondered for the first time what the ramifications of that could possibly be. Was there even a protocol for that kind of thing? The president airing on every station to announce the existence of Hell would make for some kick-ass prime time television. “Everyone will find out about the gate. A-And then what?”
Sam shrugged. “Then nothing.”
“The Needle was on fire,” Alec pointed at the fuzzy monitor overhead. “Not to mention deceased Caucasians all over the streets. And lemme tell you, there’s nothing an alive Caucasian hates to hear about more than a dead one.”
“It won’t even get that far,” Logan sighed. “The world just isn’t ready for this stuff. Even with reliable evidence all of this will be buried in a week.”
“’Fraid Logan is right,” Dean shook his head. “All this is gettin’ is a cover on World Weekly with some bullshit mass suicide theory complete with aliens.”
Alec wasn’t sure if that was a relief or not.
The battered bus arrived and they all quickly climbed on board. Alec had a moment of worry that they might stick out amongst the crowd but one look at the crowd in question made him forget all about that. Alec got a whiff of himself and winced. Not to mention that fresh out of the toilet smell they were all currently sporting.
“I paid the driver to make an extra stop,” Logan informed them all. “He’ll take us to the edge of the blockades and then we walk from there.”
“Will there be a de-briefing?” Alec wanted to see a different look on Logan’s face. “Coffee and donuts?”
“Now yer talkin’,” Dean stretched out and crossed his ankles. “I need to de-brief the ever living shit out of myself for at least 12 hours.”
“There’s plenty of room for all of you,” Logan said. “And you can stay as long as you’d like.”
“All of us huh?” Dean whistled. “How big is this apartment exactly?”
“Well,” Logan’s voice shifted to embarrassment. “It’s actually a penthouse.”
“No shit?” Dean said. “You steal it?”
“Not exactly,” another pained admission. “My family gave it to me.”
Alec rolled his eyes. Anybody could find shame these days. Shame because you had too little. Shame because you had too much…
He got up and headed for the back of the bus to get some distance while he could still get it. Sharing his brain and all the airspace of a square city block of zombies had left him feeling like his head was a pocket that got flipped inside out. Problem was it also felt like he couldn’t tuck it back in. He stared out the window while the bus’s crappy fluorescents went in and out. Giving and taking his reflection back to him over and over again. He looked fucking tired. He looked a little scared too.
Sam ignored Alec’s obvious desire to be alone and sat across the aisle from him.
“Before you ask, I feel like crap.” Alec mumbled. “And yourself?”
“I’m okay.”
Alec studied Sam’s weary features and recalled how different his father had been after his fight with the Meg-Demon. However, this round with the forces of darkness just left Sam looking run down like everyone else. Alec knew he had something to do with his father’s new and improved battery but he wasn’t sure what. He swallowed back a sick feeling as he thought of all those hearts that stopped beating all in one instant.
His dad and him sure did some great team work.
“T-Those people,” he said quietly. “It barely even felt like trying and then they were just gone.“
Sam let out a slow steady breath and nodded only once. “This war takes no prisoners, Alec.”
Alec looked at the sad resolve in Sam’s eyes and bit back what he was ready to say. They’d gotten Max back hadn’t they? That meant there was hope for other people too. Like all those kids that went darkside and never came back or even those freaks standing around in the robes lining up to be demon condos...
Alec glanced over the seats filled with dozing strangers. “Weird, isn’t it? Everyone just waking up and doing their thing. None of them know what almost happened out there. They’ll never know.”
“That’s a good thing.”
He considered what his father meant by that, but his instinct still insisted otherwise. “But what about the gate?” Alec pictured hundreds of others like it hidden all over the planet. “If we know about it, shouldn’t we try to tell as many people as we can?”
“Do you remember what you did when we told you who we were?”
Alec did remember actually. He'd told them that they were fucking lunatics.
“Don’t get me wrong, Alec. The spread of information is vital and what Logan does is important. But our kind of work will always be on the road.”
“B-But you’re just two people, you can’t do it all-"
“This isn’t going to be finished overnight,” Sam sighed. “We have to be in this for the long haul. It’s what the bad guys are doing and we have to play this game smart or it’s all lost.”
Alec thought of Ames White saying almost the same thing up there at the top of the tower. “No one even knows who you are,” he folded his arms into his damp jacket sleeves. “You saved everyone in this whole damn town. You should get a parade or a fat check from the mayor. Or something! It-It doesn’t seem fair.”
Sam’s response of a hard squeeze on the knee wasn’t an answer but Alec got the picture clear enough. The Winchesters didn’t operate on the adoring gratitude of the public that they kept safe. They worked in the dark and they moved there all alone.
Every day of their lives.
Alec’s coat was still wet after a few days of rain and worse. Shivering in the cold leather, he didn’t say a word when his father pushed into the seat next to him and put an arm around his shoulder. Alec shut his eyes and rested his head against the shuddering bus window. Fighting off sleep he drowsily considered all the other genetic markers that proved his biological origins.
He opened his eyes again to watch the dawn slowly stain the sky pink.
Much like his relatives, Alec wasn’t big on thank yous either.
~epilogue~
Max spent a lot of time trying not to stare at Sam and Dean.
Alec wasn’t sure if it was because of their legitimate family connection to him and what that also meant in an extended way to herself. Or it could have been just a healthy ingrained distrust for armed strangers. Alec on the other hand tried his best not to watch his family stare at her right back.
But it was a good thing Logan didn’t give a shit about who was staring at what.
All Eyes Only cared about was the fact that Max was willingly participating in bed rest and was drinking all the tea and soup provided. Alec helped feed her the morning tray of macrobiotic yogurt, canned fruit and wholegrain toast. When Alec wasn’t sleeping he’d been sitting by her bed a lot. The sight of her blood-shot and non-demonic eyes were a comfort every time they narrowed angrily in his direction.
She got better every day even if her mood got worse.
The bruises faded into sickly green and browns down her cheek and jaw. Her arms and legs healed as rapidly as the marks down her spine. Alec watched Doctor Shankar dress the wounds every day and helped Max get dressed back into the loathsome hospital smock she was forced to endure. He didn’t want to forget one single metal stitch in her skin. He wanted to remember that in the end she had still made a choice.
A choice that some day he might have to make too.
Despite their underground status Cindy was smuggled over for much needed medical supplies and some beers.
Alec didn’t know why the sight of her smiling like an idiot in the hallway made him want to cry. He kept hugging her even after he counted the allotted seconds that an average hug should last. Cindy held on to him too and it felt good to just stand there like that without any talking about gates, zombies or the last look in the black eye’s of a demon named Ames White. But Cindy brought more than booze and hypos.
Logan’s contacts had scattered and reformed sending emergency messages out like flares in the dark ever since the big event downtown. Max’s apartment had gotten several hits from friends looking for intel on the Space Needle Massacre (now dubbed by the Channel 5 news team) and Cindy brought them all packed in a laptop. Logan was quickly reestablishing his network and spreading the news on the underground of what had really happened out there. Less than a week after the gate had been sealed, Eyes Only did his first broadcast on the existence of the paranormal on his pirated 60 seconds of bandwidth.
And everyone listening out there in the dark sat up in notice.
Alec felt a giddy satisfaction at the response Logan immediately received from all the various factions of hunters and informants on the fringes. There were people out there that really believed every ludicrous detail and demanded to know more. Alec kept waiting for some admission from his family that the truth really did matter as a means to help more than just the individual.
But besides a few words of congratulation, Alec noticed his father and uncle weren't as excited by the news as everyone else seemed to be.
In the days following, Alec saw Sam sitting in Logan’s living room more and more often by himself. Dean also began disappearing out into the city for longer periods of time and coming back in the early morning hours while everyone slept. The Winchesters were getting restless, speaking in quiet voices as they went through Logan’s library and consulted map after map after map...
But Alec’s hours were filled with trips to various rooftops to jack satellite dishes and hack into a few larger ones sitting on nearby office buildings. By the end of the week Alec’s evenings were booked to deliver hand written documents that Logan didn’t even trust under his best encryption programs.
Somewhere between the hacking and the shady waterfront hook-ups, Sketchy caught Alec on his cell phone and said he missed him down at Crash. The stupid jerk told bad jokes until Alec laughed out loud for the first time in days. That same night Normal left a message that he was real sorry to hear about his grandmother but Cindy had explained the entire thing. Alec could return to work whenever he got back in town after the funeral. With a cut in his Christmas bonus of course.
Things almost felt like they could get back to usual again.
Except for the matter of his family.
When Alec’s attempts at conversation with his father grew more curt and awkward, he sought his uncle and only found the same withdrawn look in Dean’s eyes too. Instead of an easy smile Alec got questions. Dean suddenly wanted to know about that courier job he had downtown. Dean asked if it paid well and if Alec missed it. He asked about Cindy and Alec’s strange friend that lived alone with all the oil paintings in the empty house outside the gates of Terminal City.
Alec’s phone kept ringing distractingly while he attempted to give his uncle some answers. Dealers, friends, girls, they all heard he was back in town and required his attention… Dean’s consolatory pat on the shoulder left him alone to sort out his incoming calls. As he watched his uncle head out the front door and onto another mysterious errand, Alec felt like something important had been decided that he hadn’t been aware was up for consideration.
But before he could stop Dean to ask what it was, Logan announced the news they’d all been dying to hear.
The security grid was now clean enough for them all to start moving through the sectors like real people again. Alec wasn’t surprised to hear Dean immediately and happily declare that his car was waiting right outside the city limits. He said it was time to take off for the Canadian wilderness and vanish for a while. Alec tried not to notice that Dean wouldn’t look him in the eyes when he said it. He tried not to notice that Sam couldn’t look at him at all.
Although he’d avoided it ever since that night by the Needle, Alec let his mind open back up to the noise whispering all around him. With a tentative push he brushed at his father’s thoughts and searched for the peaceful light he’d found there every other time he’d dared try.
But this time it was closed off in silence.
It was a beautiful sunny day.
They all crammed into Logan’s van and took the long trip out past the sector points until the town dropped away and even the smell of the landfills fell off the breeze. Alec always forgot how impossibly green it became as soon as you traveled just a few minutes out. Dean had arranged for his car to be taken out of whatever storage it had been stashed away in for the detour into Seattle. The thing was bigger than Alec had expected. He let his hand trail across the black paint he’d only seen in his dreams before taking it away and stepping back.
The miles of pine forest and nothing but a stretch of dirt road made him feel small while he stood there and watched the Winchesters get ready to leave.
Sam still wasn’t saying much so Alec filled the silence with a weak joke instead. “How do you guys even afford to keep gas in this thing?”
“Difficult times call for horrific measures,” Dean gave a pained sigh. “A decade back or so, we had to switch out the original engine for something a little more… practical.”
The hood popped open to reveal the souped up hybrid contrivance that had been custom crafted out of the ample transmission. Dean looked highly ashamed by the polished machinery inside, but Alec was impressed by the fine interlock of electric and the muscle power of plain old fashioned combustion.
“So,” Dean held out his hand and Logan took it. “Keep fightin’ the good fight. Eyes Only must live to bitch and moan another day right?”
Logan took the playful punch to his bicep but didn’t return the favor. “Take it easy out there fellas. I’ll be watching out for you on the networks. Use the patches I gave you, they should block a lot of those police trackers that tag you from time to time. But I think you know what I think the best policy is tho?”
“I know, I know,” Dean laughed a little with him. “Ditch the car every few months and start from scratch. Easier said than done Logan. But you know how it is? Some girls just grow on ya no matter the hassle.”
Logan begrudgingly smiled back. “By the way, you gonna take those laptops I put together for you?”
“Oh yeah,” Dean brightened. “Thanks again for doing that. Our equipment was getting a little uh… what are the kids calling it these days?”
“Out-dated and useless?”
“The kids sure are judgmental and harsh.”
“You’re still using Windows.”
“What’s wrong with Windows?” Dean honestly wanted to know.
Logan let out a small sigh.
Alec listened to them argue about operating systems as they walked down the gravel road to the back of Logan’s van. Alec had scored a seat on top of a wood fence that once upon a time might have been used to keep horses. It gave him a perfect view of Sam. And staring at Sam packing the back of the car was his primary focus at the moment. He was getting ready to try out a new trick he’d had been practicing. So far the move had been performed without an audience but he’d been working on it every night and he’d gotten pretty good.
He had no idea why he cleared his throat first but he did it anyway.
CAN YOU HEAR ME?
Sam jerked upright and cracked his head on the underside of the trunk.
“Sorry,” Alec mumbled. “I guess that was a little more than I thought it’d be.”
His father turned around slowly, rubbing at his head and shoving the trunk closed.
“With this right here,” Alec tapped his forehead. “We can always catch up on the holidays right?”
“Sure,” Sam agreed. “Probably never even get a busy signal.”
Alec felt his mounting frustration start to shift into the anger he’d been trying to keep down all morning. “I mean, that’s why yer leaving me here right? It’s because- it’s because… well I dunno really why you’re leaving me here but it feels like that’s what you’re about to do.”
“Alec, this your home-“
“Stop,” Alec shook his head like it hurt. “Just stop saying whatever it is you are saying because its fucking bullshit, Sam!”
“I'm just telling you what I can see!” Sam shouted back.
“You know what I figured out in my short span of life out here so far?” Alec angrily slid off the fence. “That no one really needs anybody. But sometimes they like to have them around because they want them to be.”
Sam blinked down at him uncertainly.
“I know no one here needs me,” Alec shoved his hands in his pockets. “I-I just wanted you to know that if you ever, if- you ever wanted an extra hand that I’ll be here.”
“Alec…”
He looked up at the weird tone in his father’s voice.
Sam rubbed a knuckle at the spot between his eyes. “You know I got in a fight with my dad once about something just like this? I wanted to live my life and he just wanted what was in his plan. I don’t want to do that to you Alec, no matter how much I want you around.“
Alec realized they'd both stepped closer to each other.
“I know you don’t think much of your life around here,” Sam waved back towards the city “But you have a lot going on. I’m not talking about your job or that crap apartment either. You’ve got real friends here. Good friends. And Logan needs your help with his work. And I know you do it outside of the money he throws your way. You do it because you want to do what’s right. You want to help because you’re a good person.”
All the pretty green countryside blurred as Alec’s dragged his sleeve across his eyes.
“Your mom would have been really glad,” Sam nodded. “She would have been real proud to have a son like you.”
Alec didn’t know what to do. His heart was pounding, his face hurt and his eyes felt hot and wet. He couldn’t stop his hands from reaching out towards his father but the man had already closed the distance and was crushing him into his arms. Alec didn’t mind being unable to breathe. He didn’t care about the indignity of being lifted off the ground. He didn’t care if anyone saw them. He didn’t even care that he was crying even though all he mostly felt was so happy that he thought he might pass out.
“I want to go,” Alec blurted. “With you. I want to go with you and Dean.”
“What?” Sam dropped him back onto the ground and wiped fiercely at his own eyes. “Alec, please understand. This life isn’t fun. W-We live in a car for Christ’s sake. I want something else for you, I want--”
“Yeah, yeah,” Alec eagerly reached for the passenger side door. “Your concerns have been documented.”
“No way.” Sam shouldered him aside.
Alec felt his eyes blur again but this time in frustration.
“You can get in the back.”
Alec thought that laughter through tears was as magical an emotion as the hallmark card companies said it was.
Dean didn’t look all that shocked by the sight of Alec testing out the backseat like a brand new couch. In fact, he just cast his brother a sideways look and pointed complacently into Sam’s happy yet tear streaked face. “You owe me twenty bucks.”
Alec gave Logan a wave before his van pulled away down the empty road. Logan hadn’t looked all that surprised that he was driving back alone either. Alec thought of the weird e-mail he could send Max later. Cindy too. He’d tell them he’d decided to hit the road for a while and he’d see them again whenever they drove back this way.
Whenever that happened to be.
The sudden realm of unlimited possibilities made Alec feel more free than he had ever had in a long time. Alec sat back on worn leather seats and listened to the refurnished rumble of the engine. He stretched out with his mind and tried his jedi mind trick again.
You think Dean’ll ever let me drive this thing?
Sam piled four Canadian providences worth of road maps into the back seat along with a flashlight. Maybe when you get a little older.
Alec tossed the maps over his shoulder and looked longingly at the drivers seat. How much older?
“Like another twenty years older,” Dean answered. "And that's only if I croak off first."
Sam and Alec blinked at each other in shock.
“You can hear us?” A smile of amazement lit up Sam’s face. “Really?”
“Some of it,” Dean muttered with a scratch at his head. “And talking right in front of me is totally rude by the way.”
“All these years I’ve tried talking to you and every single time all you got was a nose bleed.”
“Yeah well, not anymore,” Dean shrugged and glanced back at Alec. “I think the kid closes the circuit. Maybe. Who knows? Who cares. It works and now we can get rid of all those overpriced family cell phone plans.”
Alec’s stunned smile cracked into a real one as he fell back into the seat, the engine sending him backwards with the tumble of maps and bags. He rolled his two windows down even though it was a little cold.
For once in his life he was going to just sit back and enjoy the ride.
“So,” he grinned. “Where we headed?”
“Blue Earth, Minnesota.” Dean said with a flick to the rear view. "Great little town."
“Minnesota?” Alec repeated in disappointment. “What’s out there worth seeing?”
“An old friend,” Dean tapped in an ancient cassette tape into the player. “That’s who.”
Alec loved old friends.
They were his favorite.
the end?!
Continued in: The Aftershocks
For all other stories in the bang!verse go: here
Continued in: The Aftershocks
For all other stories in the bang!verse go: here
Author: Mink
Rating: SPN/DA Crossover - PG - Gen - AU in the year 2020 clap your hands and believe!
Spoilers: General (for all aired episodes)
Disclaimers: SPN & DA & characters are owned by their various creators.
Summary: Two worlds collide and all three explode.
chapter 15
A few thousand dead bodies lying around the Space Needle had caused quite a stir even in a city used to its share of causal slaughter. As soon as the security grid came back online and the cameras started picking up images of downtown, all municipal hell broke loose.
So to speak.
The cops got so thick topside that Dean made the executive decision that they would not venture from the safety of the sewer until the coast was clear. The wait turned out to last the rest of the night and into the early hours of dawn. Once Alec’s abused senses emerged back into fresh air again, he was happy to know that their new collective mission was to go hide in the much less fragrant shelter of Logan’s place. Unfortunately, the fastest way to get through the sector checks during a security alert was via public transportation.
Alec had envisioned many hardcore action scenarios of fleeing the crime scene but waiting around at a bus stop hadn’t been on the top five.
“Some night, huh?” Dean managed to make the stiff plastic bench look comfortable. “That was one for the books.”
Alec kind of liked how his uncle made the whole thing sound like a particularly harrowing bowling game.
“Is she okay?” Logan asked. “She hasn’t moved in an hour.”
“She’s fine,” Dean patted Max on the hip. “Just needs to sleep it off.”
Dean had designated himself as Max’s caretaker ever since they’d left the Space Needle. She hadn’t ever really woken up long enough to protest the arrangement, but her body stayed curled up neatly under Dean’s arm like an animal seeking warmth. The leather jacket over her shoulders hid her mostly from view, the too long sleeves tied and knotted like a straight jacket for extra heat. Alec could only see the pale curve of her cheek and a tangle of dark hair but she looked great to him.
Better than great because she was completely and without a doubt alive.
“Maybe I should write about last night,” Logan was half dreaming with painkillers from a drug dealer they’d mugged a few blocks back. “You know, something to pass down through the ages like the old bards did.”
“Good idea,” Dean had taken a few pain killers himself. “But if I were you I’d skip the parts with all the raw sewage. Although a little grit does keep the gig glamorous.”
Alec slouched sideways to catch the newscast flickering over the bus stop. The monitor kept rotating back and forth between sneaker logo ads and the 24-hour international news station. Seattle only got a five second time slot up against a few mudslides over in Indonesia and another week of genocide running through the coast of east Africa.
Looked like business in the big wide world was carrying on without a hitch.
No tickers under the pretty anchors about demon armies. No panic in the streets. Just a strange overnight death toll and a few half-hearted accusations of bio-terrorism.
“Wait till the reporters find out about the robes,” Dean promised. “They’ll spin this into something awesome by tonight.”
Alec wondered for the first time what the ramifications of that could possibly be. Was there even a protocol for that kind of thing? The president airing on every station to announce the existence of Hell would make for some kick-ass prime time television. “Everyone will find out about the gate. A-And then what?”
Sam shrugged. “Then nothing.”
“The Needle was on fire,” Alec pointed at the fuzzy monitor overhead. “Not to mention deceased Caucasians all over the streets. And lemme tell you, there’s nothing an alive Caucasian hates to hear about more than a dead one.”
“It won’t even get that far,” Logan sighed. “The world just isn’t ready for this stuff. Even with reliable evidence all of this will be buried in a week.”
“’Fraid Logan is right,” Dean shook his head. “All this is gettin’ is a cover on World Weekly with some bullshit mass suicide theory complete with aliens.”
Alec wasn’t sure if that was a relief or not.
The battered bus arrived and they all quickly climbed on board. Alec had a moment of worry that they might stick out amongst the crowd but one look at the crowd in question made him forget all about that. Alec got a whiff of himself and winced. Not to mention that fresh out of the toilet smell they were all currently sporting.
“I paid the driver to make an extra stop,” Logan informed them all. “He’ll take us to the edge of the blockades and then we walk from there.”
“Will there be a de-briefing?” Alec wanted to see a different look on Logan’s face. “Coffee and donuts?”
“Now yer talkin’,” Dean stretched out and crossed his ankles. “I need to de-brief the ever living shit out of myself for at least 12 hours.”
“There’s plenty of room for all of you,” Logan said. “And you can stay as long as you’d like.”
“All of us huh?” Dean whistled. “How big is this apartment exactly?”
“Well,” Logan’s voice shifted to embarrassment. “It’s actually a penthouse.”
“No shit?” Dean said. “You steal it?”
“Not exactly,” another pained admission. “My family gave it to me.”
Alec rolled his eyes. Anybody could find shame these days. Shame because you had too little. Shame because you had too much…
He got up and headed for the back of the bus to get some distance while he could still get it. Sharing his brain and all the airspace of a square city block of zombies had left him feeling like his head was a pocket that got flipped inside out. Problem was it also felt like he couldn’t tuck it back in. He stared out the window while the bus’s crappy fluorescents went in and out. Giving and taking his reflection back to him over and over again. He looked fucking tired. He looked a little scared too.
Sam ignored Alec’s obvious desire to be alone and sat across the aisle from him.
“Before you ask, I feel like crap.” Alec mumbled. “And yourself?”
“I’m okay.”
Alec studied Sam’s weary features and recalled how different his father had been after his fight with the Meg-Demon. However, this round with the forces of darkness just left Sam looking run down like everyone else. Alec knew he had something to do with his father’s new and improved battery but he wasn’t sure what. He swallowed back a sick feeling as he thought of all those hearts that stopped beating all in one instant.
His dad and him sure did some great team work.
“T-Those people,” he said quietly. “It barely even felt like trying and then they were just gone.“
Sam let out a slow steady breath and nodded only once. “This war takes no prisoners, Alec.”
Alec looked at the sad resolve in Sam’s eyes and bit back what he was ready to say. They’d gotten Max back hadn’t they? That meant there was hope for other people too. Like all those kids that went darkside and never came back or even those freaks standing around in the robes lining up to be demon condos...
Alec glanced over the seats filled with dozing strangers. “Weird, isn’t it? Everyone just waking up and doing their thing. None of them know what almost happened out there. They’ll never know.”
“That’s a good thing.”
He considered what his father meant by that, but his instinct still insisted otherwise. “But what about the gate?” Alec pictured hundreds of others like it hidden all over the planet. “If we know about it, shouldn’t we try to tell as many people as we can?”
“Do you remember what you did when we told you who we were?”
Alec did remember actually. He'd told them that they were fucking lunatics.
“Don’t get me wrong, Alec. The spread of information is vital and what Logan does is important. But our kind of work will always be on the road.”
“B-But you’re just two people, you can’t do it all-"
“This isn’t going to be finished overnight,” Sam sighed. “We have to be in this for the long haul. It’s what the bad guys are doing and we have to play this game smart or it’s all lost.”
Alec thought of Ames White saying almost the same thing up there at the top of the tower. “No one even knows who you are,” he folded his arms into his damp jacket sleeves. “You saved everyone in this whole damn town. You should get a parade or a fat check from the mayor. Or something! It-It doesn’t seem fair.”
Sam’s response of a hard squeeze on the knee wasn’t an answer but Alec got the picture clear enough. The Winchesters didn’t operate on the adoring gratitude of the public that they kept safe. They worked in the dark and they moved there all alone.
Every day of their lives.
Alec’s coat was still wet after a few days of rain and worse. Shivering in the cold leather, he didn’t say a word when his father pushed into the seat next to him and put an arm around his shoulder. Alec shut his eyes and rested his head against the shuddering bus window. Fighting off sleep he drowsily considered all the other genetic markers that proved his biological origins.
He opened his eyes again to watch the dawn slowly stain the sky pink.
Much like his relatives, Alec wasn’t big on thank yous either.
~epilogue~
Max spent a lot of time trying not to stare at Sam and Dean.
Alec wasn’t sure if it was because of their legitimate family connection to him and what that also meant in an extended way to herself. Or it could have been just a healthy ingrained distrust for armed strangers. Alec on the other hand tried his best not to watch his family stare at her right back.
But it was a good thing Logan didn’t give a shit about who was staring at what.
All Eyes Only cared about was the fact that Max was willingly participating in bed rest and was drinking all the tea and soup provided. Alec helped feed her the morning tray of macrobiotic yogurt, canned fruit and wholegrain toast. When Alec wasn’t sleeping he’d been sitting by her bed a lot. The sight of her blood-shot and non-demonic eyes were a comfort every time they narrowed angrily in his direction.
She got better every day even if her mood got worse.
The bruises faded into sickly green and browns down her cheek and jaw. Her arms and legs healed as rapidly as the marks down her spine. Alec watched Doctor Shankar dress the wounds every day and helped Max get dressed back into the loathsome hospital smock she was forced to endure. He didn’t want to forget one single metal stitch in her skin. He wanted to remember that in the end she had still made a choice.
A choice that some day he might have to make too.
Despite their underground status Cindy was smuggled over for much needed medical supplies and some beers.
Alec didn’t know why the sight of her smiling like an idiot in the hallway made him want to cry. He kept hugging her even after he counted the allotted seconds that an average hug should last. Cindy held on to him too and it felt good to just stand there like that without any talking about gates, zombies or the last look in the black eye’s of a demon named Ames White. But Cindy brought more than booze and hypos.
Logan’s contacts had scattered and reformed sending emergency messages out like flares in the dark ever since the big event downtown. Max’s apartment had gotten several hits from friends looking for intel on the Space Needle Massacre (now dubbed by the Channel 5 news team) and Cindy brought them all packed in a laptop. Logan was quickly reestablishing his network and spreading the news on the underground of what had really happened out there. Less than a week after the gate had been sealed, Eyes Only did his first broadcast on the existence of the paranormal on his pirated 60 seconds of bandwidth.
And everyone listening out there in the dark sat up in notice.
Alec felt a giddy satisfaction at the response Logan immediately received from all the various factions of hunters and informants on the fringes. There were people out there that really believed every ludicrous detail and demanded to know more. Alec kept waiting for some admission from his family that the truth really did matter as a means to help more than just the individual.
But besides a few words of congratulation, Alec noticed his father and uncle weren't as excited by the news as everyone else seemed to be.
In the days following, Alec saw Sam sitting in Logan’s living room more and more often by himself. Dean also began disappearing out into the city for longer periods of time and coming back in the early morning hours while everyone slept. The Winchesters were getting restless, speaking in quiet voices as they went through Logan’s library and consulted map after map after map...
But Alec’s hours were filled with trips to various rooftops to jack satellite dishes and hack into a few larger ones sitting on nearby office buildings. By the end of the week Alec’s evenings were booked to deliver hand written documents that Logan didn’t even trust under his best encryption programs.
Somewhere between the hacking and the shady waterfront hook-ups, Sketchy caught Alec on his cell phone and said he missed him down at Crash. The stupid jerk told bad jokes until Alec laughed out loud for the first time in days. That same night Normal left a message that he was real sorry to hear about his grandmother but Cindy had explained the entire thing. Alec could return to work whenever he got back in town after the funeral. With a cut in his Christmas bonus of course.
Things almost felt like they could get back to usual again.
Except for the matter of his family.
When Alec’s attempts at conversation with his father grew more curt and awkward, he sought his uncle and only found the same withdrawn look in Dean’s eyes too. Instead of an easy smile Alec got questions. Dean suddenly wanted to know about that courier job he had downtown. Dean asked if it paid well and if Alec missed it. He asked about Cindy and Alec’s strange friend that lived alone with all the oil paintings in the empty house outside the gates of Terminal City.
Alec’s phone kept ringing distractingly while he attempted to give his uncle some answers. Dealers, friends, girls, they all heard he was back in town and required his attention… Dean’s consolatory pat on the shoulder left him alone to sort out his incoming calls. As he watched his uncle head out the front door and onto another mysterious errand, Alec felt like something important had been decided that he hadn’t been aware was up for consideration.
But before he could stop Dean to ask what it was, Logan announced the news they’d all been dying to hear.
The security grid was now clean enough for them all to start moving through the sectors like real people again. Alec wasn’t surprised to hear Dean immediately and happily declare that his car was waiting right outside the city limits. He said it was time to take off for the Canadian wilderness and vanish for a while. Alec tried not to notice that Dean wouldn’t look him in the eyes when he said it. He tried not to notice that Sam couldn’t look at him at all.
Although he’d avoided it ever since that night by the Needle, Alec let his mind open back up to the noise whispering all around him. With a tentative push he brushed at his father’s thoughts and searched for the peaceful light he’d found there every other time he’d dared try.
But this time it was closed off in silence.
It was a beautiful sunny day.
They all crammed into Logan’s van and took the long trip out past the sector points until the town dropped away and even the smell of the landfills fell off the breeze. Alec always forgot how impossibly green it became as soon as you traveled just a few minutes out. Dean had arranged for his car to be taken out of whatever storage it had been stashed away in for the detour into Seattle. The thing was bigger than Alec had expected. He let his hand trail across the black paint he’d only seen in his dreams before taking it away and stepping back.
The miles of pine forest and nothing but a stretch of dirt road made him feel small while he stood there and watched the Winchesters get ready to leave.
Sam still wasn’t saying much so Alec filled the silence with a weak joke instead. “How do you guys even afford to keep gas in this thing?”
“Difficult times call for horrific measures,” Dean gave a pained sigh. “A decade back or so, we had to switch out the original engine for something a little more… practical.”
The hood popped open to reveal the souped up hybrid contrivance that had been custom crafted out of the ample transmission. Dean looked highly ashamed by the polished machinery inside, but Alec was impressed by the fine interlock of electric and the muscle power of plain old fashioned combustion.
“So,” Dean held out his hand and Logan took it. “Keep fightin’ the good fight. Eyes Only must live to bitch and moan another day right?”
Logan took the playful punch to his bicep but didn’t return the favor. “Take it easy out there fellas. I’ll be watching out for you on the networks. Use the patches I gave you, they should block a lot of those police trackers that tag you from time to time. But I think you know what I think the best policy is tho?”
“I know, I know,” Dean laughed a little with him. “Ditch the car every few months and start from scratch. Easier said than done Logan. But you know how it is? Some girls just grow on ya no matter the hassle.”
Logan begrudgingly smiled back. “By the way, you gonna take those laptops I put together for you?”
“Oh yeah,” Dean brightened. “Thanks again for doing that. Our equipment was getting a little uh… what are the kids calling it these days?”
“Out-dated and useless?”
“The kids sure are judgmental and harsh.”
“You’re still using Windows.”
“What’s wrong with Windows?” Dean honestly wanted to know.
Logan let out a small sigh.
Alec listened to them argue about operating systems as they walked down the gravel road to the back of Logan’s van. Alec had scored a seat on top of a wood fence that once upon a time might have been used to keep horses. It gave him a perfect view of Sam. And staring at Sam packing the back of the car was his primary focus at the moment. He was getting ready to try out a new trick he’d had been practicing. So far the move had been performed without an audience but he’d been working on it every night and he’d gotten pretty good.
He had no idea why he cleared his throat first but he did it anyway.
CAN YOU HEAR ME?
Sam jerked upright and cracked his head on the underside of the trunk.
“Sorry,” Alec mumbled. “I guess that was a little more than I thought it’d be.”
His father turned around slowly, rubbing at his head and shoving the trunk closed.
“With this right here,” Alec tapped his forehead. “We can always catch up on the holidays right?”
“Sure,” Sam agreed. “Probably never even get a busy signal.”
Alec felt his mounting frustration start to shift into the anger he’d been trying to keep down all morning. “I mean, that’s why yer leaving me here right? It’s because- it’s because… well I dunno really why you’re leaving me here but it feels like that’s what you’re about to do.”
“Alec, this your home-“
“Stop,” Alec shook his head like it hurt. “Just stop saying whatever it is you are saying because its fucking bullshit, Sam!”
“I'm just telling you what I can see!” Sam shouted back.
“You know what I figured out in my short span of life out here so far?” Alec angrily slid off the fence. “That no one really needs anybody. But sometimes they like to have them around because they want them to be.”
Sam blinked down at him uncertainly.
“I know no one here needs me,” Alec shoved his hands in his pockets. “I-I just wanted you to know that if you ever, if- you ever wanted an extra hand that I’ll be here.”
“Alec…”
He looked up at the weird tone in his father’s voice.
Sam rubbed a knuckle at the spot between his eyes. “You know I got in a fight with my dad once about something just like this? I wanted to live my life and he just wanted what was in his plan. I don’t want to do that to you Alec, no matter how much I want you around.“
Alec realized they'd both stepped closer to each other.
“I know you don’t think much of your life around here,” Sam waved back towards the city “But you have a lot going on. I’m not talking about your job or that crap apartment either. You’ve got real friends here. Good friends. And Logan needs your help with his work. And I know you do it outside of the money he throws your way. You do it because you want to do what’s right. You want to help because you’re a good person.”
All the pretty green countryside blurred as Alec’s dragged his sleeve across his eyes.
“Your mom would have been really glad,” Sam nodded. “She would have been real proud to have a son like you.”
Alec didn’t know what to do. His heart was pounding, his face hurt and his eyes felt hot and wet. He couldn’t stop his hands from reaching out towards his father but the man had already closed the distance and was crushing him into his arms. Alec didn’t mind being unable to breathe. He didn’t care about the indignity of being lifted off the ground. He didn’t care if anyone saw them. He didn’t even care that he was crying even though all he mostly felt was so happy that he thought he might pass out.
“I want to go,” Alec blurted. “With you. I want to go with you and Dean.”
“What?” Sam dropped him back onto the ground and wiped fiercely at his own eyes. “Alec, please understand. This life isn’t fun. W-We live in a car for Christ’s sake. I want something else for you, I want--”
“Yeah, yeah,” Alec eagerly reached for the passenger side door. “Your concerns have been documented.”
“No way.” Sam shouldered him aside.
Alec felt his eyes blur again but this time in frustration.
“You can get in the back.”
Alec thought that laughter through tears was as magical an emotion as the hallmark card companies said it was.
Dean didn’t look all that shocked by the sight of Alec testing out the backseat like a brand new couch. In fact, he just cast his brother a sideways look and pointed complacently into Sam’s happy yet tear streaked face. “You owe me twenty bucks.”
Alec gave Logan a wave before his van pulled away down the empty road. Logan hadn’t looked all that surprised that he was driving back alone either. Alec thought of the weird e-mail he could send Max later. Cindy too. He’d tell them he’d decided to hit the road for a while and he’d see them again whenever they drove back this way.
Whenever that happened to be.
The sudden realm of unlimited possibilities made Alec feel more free than he had ever had in a long time. Alec sat back on worn leather seats and listened to the refurnished rumble of the engine. He stretched out with his mind and tried his jedi mind trick again.
You think Dean’ll ever let me drive this thing?
Sam piled four Canadian providences worth of road maps into the back seat along with a flashlight. Maybe when you get a little older.
Alec tossed the maps over his shoulder and looked longingly at the drivers seat. How much older?
“Like another twenty years older,” Dean answered. "And that's only if I croak off first."
Sam and Alec blinked at each other in shock.
“You can hear us?” A smile of amazement lit up Sam’s face. “Really?”
“Some of it,” Dean muttered with a scratch at his head. “And talking right in front of me is totally rude by the way.”
“All these years I’ve tried talking to you and every single time all you got was a nose bleed.”
“Yeah well, not anymore,” Dean shrugged and glanced back at Alec. “I think the kid closes the circuit. Maybe. Who knows? Who cares. It works and now we can get rid of all those overpriced family cell phone plans.”
Alec’s stunned smile cracked into a real one as he fell back into the seat, the engine sending him backwards with the tumble of maps and bags. He rolled his two windows down even though it was a little cold.
For once in his life he was going to just sit back and enjoy the ride.
“So,” he grinned. “Where we headed?”
“Blue Earth, Minnesota.” Dean said with a flick to the rear view. "Great little town."
“Minnesota?” Alec repeated in disappointment. “What’s out there worth seeing?”
“An old friend,” Dean tapped in an ancient cassette tape into the player. “That’s who.”
Alec loved old friends.
They were his favorite.
the end?!
Continued in: The Aftershocks
For all other stories in the bang!verse go: here