Betrayal, Supernatural, NC-17
Fandom: Supernatural
Title: Betrayal
Characters/Pairings: Sam/Dean, John, Caleb, Bobby
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 3401
Summary: A sequel to Anything which was a Christmas request from nanakomatsu, Nothing, Something, To Be Good, Broken, To Be Strong, Nothing, No One, Alone, Yours, Mine, Better, Choice and Gathering. A traitor revealed...others suspected, and Sam and Dean find themselves betrayed yet again...
A/Ns and Warnings: Dark, angsty, and the threat of violence...memory of rape and torture...
“John, a word?”
John set aside the shot glass and turned. Joe stood behind him, tucking his gun away now that the immediate threat had passed. “I’m the first to agree, Gordon’s an ass, but he’s not the kind to sell anyone out like this.”
John exhaled slowly. Now that he’d calmed down he was inclined to agree, but he was still pissed, and Gordon’s pictures proved that he had seen Dean and the others and done nothing to help them. “I know.” He picked up the stack of pictures, shuffling through them. After a minute he handed them to Joe. “You recognize anyone else in these?”
Joe squinted at the top picture, and started to shake his head, then he flipped to the next one. “Hey, isn’t that Jerry? Mark Hatchet’s boy?”
John frowned and took the picture back. “I thought Hatchet left the country.”
Joe shrugged. “That’s what I heard too. But the kid in that picture’s the right age, looks like his daddy.”
“Sam did say that they liked hunters…something about the challenge.” He sighed and looked up at Caleb who was keeping Gordon in his chair while someone tended his wound. He crossed to them and crossed his arms. “How long ago were these taken?”
“A month…a little less.” Gordon said dispassionately. “I didn’t know that was your boy.”
“Not when you took them.” John agreed, watching as the female hunter from Gordon’s group tied off the bandage on his thigh. “But you figured it out.”
A lot of Gordon’s attitude seemed to have drained with the blood seeping out of his thigh. “I ran into another hunter a few days or so ago, he recognized your boy.”
“Who?” Another hunter. Someone who knew Dean.
Gordon’s eyes jumped to Caleb, then back to John. “Joshua. I had heard rumors about something big, and he was obviously hunting something he didn’t want to share information about. I tried to draw him out with the pictures. He told me about this little gathering, and said I should bring them.”
Joshua. John looked at Caleb, then up to Ellen. Joshua who wasn’t here. “Did he say what he was hunting?”
Gordon shook his head. “Nah…tight lipped that one. I made him nervous though.”
“Where was this?”
“A place called Sharon, south of here. He said he’d be here.” Gordon looked at his friends. “If it’s worth anything, I had one of my crew follow the truck. He lost them somewhere in New York.”
Sam’s side ached as he settled into the chair in the kitchen. Dean had insisted he make lunch, that Sam had to eat and then take a nap. He wasn’t really inclined to argue. Their father hadn’t called yet, which was troublesome, but not enough to call him. If he’d gotten caught up, or…if there was trouble, calling him wasn’t going to be helpful.
He watched Dean at the stove, stirring whatever he was cooking. It was reminiscent of younger days, when it was him and Dean while Dad was off hunting and Bobby was out in his yard messing with some car. He smiled, remembering the day Dean had forgotten about the spaghettios and burned them…and the smoke detectors went off.
“What?” Dean asked and Sam realized he was putting a bowl in front of him. Sam chuckled, looking at the macaroni and cheese in the bowl.
“Just a memory. You burning my lunch.”
Dean frowned at him and sat next to him with his own bowl. “I was distracted.”
“Yeah, I remember. Baywatch.” Sam picked at the pasta.
“Nicole Eggert was hot.”
Sam looked up as Dean blushed and ducked his head. He opened his mouth to say something, but the sound of the dog and a car door stopped him. He reached for his gun and stood up. “Stay here,” he said softly, moving to look out the window. It was way too early for their father to be back.
He craned his head to see out the window, but all he could see was a hint of bumper. The dog wasn’t barking. That was disconcerting somehow. Sam moved toward the door, gun up. It opened among a jingle of keys and a half-familiar voice calling “Dad?”
Sam stopped and so did the man at the door. They stared at each other then the other men held up his hands. “Sam? Jesus. You scared me.”
“Robert?”
He nodded and stepped inside, closing the door. “Yeah…what are you doing here?”
Sam lowered the gun and shook his head. “You’re father’s letting us crash for a few days.”
“Yeah? He around?”
Sam shook his head. “No. Did he know you were coming?”
“Nah, I had a job not far from here, and it finished early. I was just dropping in to say hey…mooch a little…you know…”
It had been a few years since he’d seen Bobby’s son. He looked different…older, more filled out. “You look good.”
“You look spooked. Anything wrong?”
Sam shook his head. “No…just, you know…got shot a few days ago…a little jumpy.”
“Shot? I thought you were going to school…some big school according to my father.”
Sam nodded, tucking the gun away in his belt. “Yeah, Stanford. I…I’m taking a break.”
“Sam?”
He turned to find Dean in the doorway, looking from Sam to Robert and back again. “Dean…look who dropped in to see Bobby.” Sam crossed to him, trying to urge calm as Dean’s eyes registered a bit of panic.
“Robert.” Dean said and looked to Sam for confirmation. Sam nodded. He needed to get Dean away from Robert before he freaked out.
“Hey, Robert, can you give us a minute? Dean and I were in the middle of something.”
Sam thought he heard Robert mutter something, but then he was opening the door again. “Yeah, sure…I gotta get stuff out of the car anyway.”
“Dean…come on…let’s go upstairs.”
“He…I know him.” Dean said, letting Sam direct him back through the kitchen to the stairs.
“Yeah…we know him. He’s Bobby’s son. He was around sometimes.”
“No.” Dean shook his head. “We had a fight. I punched him.”
Sam scowled and looked at him. “When?”
“Don’t remember.”
Sam watched the flickers of memory in Dean’s eyes, then jumped when his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket. “Bobby,” he said to Dean. “Why don’t you go into my room, I’ll be there in a minute.”
He opened the phone, watching Dean go. He stood at the top of the stairs, listening for Robert to come back in. “Hey Bobby…No, we’re fine…yeah, okay…Hey, did you expect Robert?”
He chuckled a little when Bobby declared that his son had the worst timing in the world…no instincts. “He just showed up, said he was doing a job nearby.”
Sam heard Robert come inside again. “Okay…tell Dad we’re fine. Yeah, I’ll tell him.” He shut off the phone, then peeked his head into the room where Dean was making the bed. “I’ll be back up in a minute. I need to go talk to Robert.”
John thumped into the van, throwing the collected pictures and information down next to Bobby. “Had to get out of there,” he muttered when Bobby looked up.
“How’s Gordon?”
John rolled his eyes. “Not bleeding any more. I swear, I could’ve killed him. Anything?”
Bobby shook his head. “It’s been quiet. No calls worth mentioning.”
“Did you catch Joshua’s call to Ellen before we got here?”
Bobby nodded. “Traced it to Sharon, just like Gordon said. Sounded sincere.”
John nodded and shook his head. “We’re no better off than we were before we got here.”
Bobby picked up the folder and thumbed through it. “This everything?”
“Yeah. A whole lot of nothing that’s going to do us any good. Gordon’s pictures are the closest we’ve got, and they’re a month old.”
Bobby nodded. “What’s our next move?”
John ran a hand over his face. “We find Joshua.”
Bobby murmured agreement, then froze. John looked at him, trying to determine what that expression meant. “Bobby?” His face drained of color and his hands were shaking as he set the pictures down.
“Call Sam. Tell him to get Dean out of the house. Tell him to go out into the yard and find someplace to hide.”
“Bobby?”
“Just do it, damn it John. I’ll explain on the way.”
Bobby left the equipment he’d been monitoring and moved to the driver’s seat of the van. Before John even had his phone out of his pocket, Bobby was pulling out of the roadhouse parking lot, his own phone in his hand. John turned his attention to his phone, watching as it connected, then raised it to his ear. “Hello, you’ve reached Sam Winchester. Please leave a message.”
John stared at the phone for a moment. Sam should have answered. “Sam, I can’t explain. Bobby said to get Dean and get out of the house. Hide in the yard somewhere. I think we’re on our way back to you.”
John moved up to the passenger seat. In the mirror he could see hunters spilling out of the roadhouse. “You gonna explain?”
“The boys are in trouble.” Bobby’s face was still pale, drawn. “God…John…I thought they’d be safe. I didn’t…” He pulled them onto the road and stepped on the gas. “I think I know how this happened…or…at least…” He pulled his hat off and scratched at his head. “Shit.”
John looked down on the floor between the seats at the picture Bobby had dropped there. “Bobby?”
He picked up the picture, a shot of the truck and John recognized James standing near a door to the building. Beside him was a man a little older than Dean…a man John might never have recognized if not for Bobby’s reaction. “Bobby?”
“I talked to Sam. He’s there. Said he was looking for me.”
Dean paced in the room. Sam should have been back. He needed to sleep. Dean was uneasy. None of the memories he had of Robert were really good ones. They weren’t bad either. He remembered being jealous. He wasn’t sure he remembered why, something to do with Sam.
He opened the door and listened. He heard a voice that wasn’t Sam’s. Uneasy. Dean’s stomach flopped and he moved as quietly as possible down the stairs. He didn’t see Sam, didn’t hear him.
“No, it’s not enough. I want what you originally promised. You should have handled this in Tulsa.” He heard Robert moving toward the stairs and flattened himself against the wall. “No. I have him restrained. I haven’t touched him. I told you already I have no interest in him.”
Robert was pacing from the sound of it. Moving back into the kitchen. Dean inched down the stairs and dared a glance around the wall. He could see Sam’s foot near the table. Robert was turning around again. “Yeah, I don’t know how long before they get here, so if you don’t want a battle, you’ll get here before them.”
Dean heard him hang up the phone. “I guess I should go check on your brother, Sammy. Wouldn’t want him getting into trouble.”
Dean hurried back up the stairs, then hesitated. If Robert had restrained Sam…what would he do to him? Obviously he thought Dean was less of a threat. He was on the stairs. Dean moved into the bedroom, and lay on the bed, closing his eyes and pretending to be asleep. The door opened, and he heard Robert come into the room. It took a lot not to open his eyes.
“That’s a good boy Dean. You sleep. When you wake up you’ll be safely back in your cage…and Sam will learn to forget you ever existed.”
Dean listened as he left the room. He lay there shivering at the naked hate in the other man’s voice. He didn’t remember Robert like that. But…he had Sam…and it didn’t sound like he was planning anything good. Dean got up and went to the window. He could see Robert’s car parked in front of the house.
Think Dean.
He shivered as a memory slid into his head, an image in the dark. Robert’s face.
”Told you he was worth the effort.”
“You shouldn’t be so cocky. I could still put you in his place.”
“We both know he’s worth three times what anyone would pay for me. He’s the holy grail of pretty boys. Even his own brother can’t keep his hands off him.”
Somehow he had to get out of the room. He had to help Sam.
Sam pulled on the ropes that tied him to the chair, but that was one thing Robert had obviously learned. He chewed on the gag and growled his frustration. He’d only managed to open his mouth to tell Robert that Bobby would be home in a day or two, when he’d hit him, hard. Sam probably wouldn’t have gone down, but he’d hit the soft spot where he’d taken the blow a few days before, and despite being out of bed, Sam was still not well.
Sam tracked Robert’s movements as he paced with the phone. He couldn’t believe…but then he mentioned Tulsa and Sam wanted to kill him. Robert. Sam had to admit it made sense. He’d always been jealous of Dean. The last time they’d seen him had been before Sam had left for school. They’d brought Bobby some books from Pastor Jim’s. Sam hadn’t told anyone about Stanford…not until he and Dean had gone out to the car.
It was the last time Dean had been inside him…they’d been too big for the car…too tall, too broad at the shoulders…but they made it work somehow. In the twilight, Sam had clung to Dean, aching with the knowledge that he was going to hurt him. He hadn’t wanted it to end.
Robert had been there, when they came out of the car, still rearranging their clothes. He looked at them funny, but if he’d known anything, seen anything…he didn’t say. He just told them dinner was ready.
“I suppose by now you’ve figured me out.” Robert said, sitting in the chair at the end of the table. “Figured Dean would remember eventually, so I should just get on with it. He’s sleeping. Like a little baby.”
Sam glared at him and Robert smiled. “I know what you’re thinking, Sammy. How’s a guy like me get involved in something like this?” He set his phone down on the table and spun it. “Really…it’s not that difficult. I wanted something. This man promised me I could have it. All I had to do was give him a little information. But you Winchesters are more trouble than your worth. And I didn’t figure on your father crawling back to you after you ran away.”
Sam worked at the knot behind his back and tried to listen for some sound to indicate Dean was awake and moving around. Dean didn’t sleep that easily anymore. Not that quickly. Not without Sam or their father nearby. “Just relax, it will all be over soon enough, and neither one of you will need to remember any of this.”
Robert stroked a hand over Sam’s face and Sam froze, his eyes climbing up to Robert’s face. “If Gorlian hadn’t insisted that Dean be purchased and proven in his role before they picked you up, you probably would never have found him.”
Sam stopped struggling and stared at him. Robert smiled, looking a lot like his father with the dark dusting of hair on his chin and the sparkle in his eyes. “Yes, Sammy. You. That was my price. I gave them Dean, and I got you in return. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.”
Robert got up and paced around the kitchen. “Funny really. They’d been tailing your ass since you left Stanford. Lost you though when you went underground in LA. You had them fooled. But not me. I saw the video of you getting out of the car, and I knew. Took me a while to figure out which way you’d go. But you boys have patterns. I figured it wouldn’t take long for you to turn up in one of the spots you go to ground.”
Robert stopped near the sink to look out the window. “Then, I got lucky. Your old man called my old man. I gave him the phone more than a year ago. Bugged it. Wasn’t even sure yet I’d go through with it.” He turned to face Sam and smiled. “Of course, I didn’t expect to have to trap you myself. You weren’t even supposed to see me until you were delivered all broken and programmed and ready to be mine forever.”
“Dad?” Dean kept his voice low and tried to keep the panic out of his voice. “Dad…there’s someone here. He has Sam.” His father’s voice was comforting, deep and rumbling through the phone as he asked Dean where he was. “The bedroom. They’re in the kitchen. I don’t know what to do.”
Dean stared at the phone for a minute when his father told him to leave, to use the escape route out Bobby’s bedroom window. “I have to take care of Sam.”
Dean felt panic creeping up inside him as he moved back to the door. He couldn’t leave Sam. His father was telling him to leave Sam and go hide. Hide in the yard. “What about Sam?” He listened as his father told him what to do, then hung up the phone and stuffed into his pocket.
Get a gun. Dad had a gun under his pillow. Dean slipped as quietly as he could over the worn old boards of the hallway and into his father’s room. Dean tucked the gun in the back of his jeans. Out Bobby’s bedroom window, down the trellis and into the yard.
He had a vague recollection of doing this before, as he climbed from the window to the ledge and over to the trellis. Every fiber of his being screamed at him to go get Sam, to take out Robert and rescue his brother. But his father had ordered him into hiding. Ordered. Commanded. Dean hovered behind a big oak tree, absently petting the head of Dryfus, the massive mastiff who prowled the back side of the house.
It was mid-afternoon. His father was at least another 3 hours away. Sam was alone with someone who Dean remembered…only he wasn’t really sure what he remembered.
“We both know he’s worth three times what anyone would pay for me. He’s the holy grail of pretty boys. Even his own brother can’t keep his hands off him.”
Robert had been there the night he was grabbed…not when he was taken…after…after the rape and the beating…after the alcohol started to wear off…before the cage. Dean rubbed a hand over his eyes, trying to remember.
His head was swimming, and he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t vomit again. They’d pushed him to his knees and he was cold, shivering, only vaguely aware that he was naked. He was more aware of other things…that he had been fucked, hard and without permission…that his back was bruised from the beating…that his head felt like it might just explode.
There was a fist in his hair, pulling his head back, fingers running over his face, into his mouth. “This one was a lot of work to get out hands on, Robert.”
”Yeah, but look at him. I told you he was worth the effort.”
A familiar face was leaning into his. “And he’s a natural little cock-sucker…so he should take to his new life with ease.”
“You shouldn’t be so cocky. I could still put you in his place.” The one with his fist in Dean’s hair said.
“We both know he’s worth three times what anyone would pay for me. He’s the holy grail of pretty boys. Even his own brother can’t keep his hands off him.”
Dean was let go then, and the darkness came…the cold, silent darkness.
Dean shivered, despite the heat. Now Robert had his hands on Sam. He couldn’t let Robert hurt his Sam…but he had orders. Growling in frustration, Dean inched backwards, keeping the tree between him and the house until he’d reached the first line of junk cars and ducked behind them. His father said hide. Dean would hide. And he would hope that Sam would be okay until help arrived.
Title: Betrayal
Characters/Pairings: Sam/Dean, John, Caleb, Bobby
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 3401
Summary: A sequel to Anything which was a Christmas request from nanakomatsu, Nothing, Something, To Be Good, Broken, To Be Strong, Nothing, No One, Alone, Yours, Mine, Better, Choice and Gathering. A traitor revealed...others suspected, and Sam and Dean find themselves betrayed yet again...
A/Ns and Warnings: Dark, angsty, and the threat of violence...memory of rape and torture...
“John, a word?”
John set aside the shot glass and turned. Joe stood behind him, tucking his gun away now that the immediate threat had passed. “I’m the first to agree, Gordon’s an ass, but he’s not the kind to sell anyone out like this.”
John exhaled slowly. Now that he’d calmed down he was inclined to agree, but he was still pissed, and Gordon’s pictures proved that he had seen Dean and the others and done nothing to help them. “I know.” He picked up the stack of pictures, shuffling through them. After a minute he handed them to Joe. “You recognize anyone else in these?”
Joe squinted at the top picture, and started to shake his head, then he flipped to the next one. “Hey, isn’t that Jerry? Mark Hatchet’s boy?”
John frowned and took the picture back. “I thought Hatchet left the country.”
Joe shrugged. “That’s what I heard too. But the kid in that picture’s the right age, looks like his daddy.”
“Sam did say that they liked hunters…something about the challenge.” He sighed and looked up at Caleb who was keeping Gordon in his chair while someone tended his wound. He crossed to them and crossed his arms. “How long ago were these taken?”
“A month…a little less.” Gordon said dispassionately. “I didn’t know that was your boy.”
“Not when you took them.” John agreed, watching as the female hunter from Gordon’s group tied off the bandage on his thigh. “But you figured it out.”
A lot of Gordon’s attitude seemed to have drained with the blood seeping out of his thigh. “I ran into another hunter a few days or so ago, he recognized your boy.”
“Who?” Another hunter. Someone who knew Dean.
Gordon’s eyes jumped to Caleb, then back to John. “Joshua. I had heard rumors about something big, and he was obviously hunting something he didn’t want to share information about. I tried to draw him out with the pictures. He told me about this little gathering, and said I should bring them.”
Joshua. John looked at Caleb, then up to Ellen. Joshua who wasn’t here. “Did he say what he was hunting?”
Gordon shook his head. “Nah…tight lipped that one. I made him nervous though.”
“Where was this?”
“A place called Sharon, south of here. He said he’d be here.” Gordon looked at his friends. “If it’s worth anything, I had one of my crew follow the truck. He lost them somewhere in New York.”
Sam’s side ached as he settled into the chair in the kitchen. Dean had insisted he make lunch, that Sam had to eat and then take a nap. He wasn’t really inclined to argue. Their father hadn’t called yet, which was troublesome, but not enough to call him. If he’d gotten caught up, or…if there was trouble, calling him wasn’t going to be helpful.
He watched Dean at the stove, stirring whatever he was cooking. It was reminiscent of younger days, when it was him and Dean while Dad was off hunting and Bobby was out in his yard messing with some car. He smiled, remembering the day Dean had forgotten about the spaghettios and burned them…and the smoke detectors went off.
“What?” Dean asked and Sam realized he was putting a bowl in front of him. Sam chuckled, looking at the macaroni and cheese in the bowl.
“Just a memory. You burning my lunch.”
Dean frowned at him and sat next to him with his own bowl. “I was distracted.”
“Yeah, I remember. Baywatch.” Sam picked at the pasta.
“Nicole Eggert was hot.”
Sam looked up as Dean blushed and ducked his head. He opened his mouth to say something, but the sound of the dog and a car door stopped him. He reached for his gun and stood up. “Stay here,” he said softly, moving to look out the window. It was way too early for their father to be back.
He craned his head to see out the window, but all he could see was a hint of bumper. The dog wasn’t barking. That was disconcerting somehow. Sam moved toward the door, gun up. It opened among a jingle of keys and a half-familiar voice calling “Dad?”
Sam stopped and so did the man at the door. They stared at each other then the other men held up his hands. “Sam? Jesus. You scared me.”
“Robert?”
He nodded and stepped inside, closing the door. “Yeah…what are you doing here?”
Sam lowered the gun and shook his head. “You’re father’s letting us crash for a few days.”
“Yeah? He around?”
Sam shook his head. “No. Did he know you were coming?”
“Nah, I had a job not far from here, and it finished early. I was just dropping in to say hey…mooch a little…you know…”
It had been a few years since he’d seen Bobby’s son. He looked different…older, more filled out. “You look good.”
“You look spooked. Anything wrong?”
Sam shook his head. “No…just, you know…got shot a few days ago…a little jumpy.”
“Shot? I thought you were going to school…some big school according to my father.”
Sam nodded, tucking the gun away in his belt. “Yeah, Stanford. I…I’m taking a break.”
“Sam?”
He turned to find Dean in the doorway, looking from Sam to Robert and back again. “Dean…look who dropped in to see Bobby.” Sam crossed to him, trying to urge calm as Dean’s eyes registered a bit of panic.
“Robert.” Dean said and looked to Sam for confirmation. Sam nodded. He needed to get Dean away from Robert before he freaked out.
“Hey, Robert, can you give us a minute? Dean and I were in the middle of something.”
Sam thought he heard Robert mutter something, but then he was opening the door again. “Yeah, sure…I gotta get stuff out of the car anyway.”
“Dean…come on…let’s go upstairs.”
“He…I know him.” Dean said, letting Sam direct him back through the kitchen to the stairs.
“Yeah…we know him. He’s Bobby’s son. He was around sometimes.”
“No.” Dean shook his head. “We had a fight. I punched him.”
Sam scowled and looked at him. “When?”
“Don’t remember.”
Sam watched the flickers of memory in Dean’s eyes, then jumped when his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket. “Bobby,” he said to Dean. “Why don’t you go into my room, I’ll be there in a minute.”
He opened the phone, watching Dean go. He stood at the top of the stairs, listening for Robert to come back in. “Hey Bobby…No, we’re fine…yeah, okay…Hey, did you expect Robert?”
He chuckled a little when Bobby declared that his son had the worst timing in the world…no instincts. “He just showed up, said he was doing a job nearby.”
Sam heard Robert come inside again. “Okay…tell Dad we’re fine. Yeah, I’ll tell him.” He shut off the phone, then peeked his head into the room where Dean was making the bed. “I’ll be back up in a minute. I need to go talk to Robert.”
John thumped into the van, throwing the collected pictures and information down next to Bobby. “Had to get out of there,” he muttered when Bobby looked up.
“How’s Gordon?”
John rolled his eyes. “Not bleeding any more. I swear, I could’ve killed him. Anything?”
Bobby shook his head. “It’s been quiet. No calls worth mentioning.”
“Did you catch Joshua’s call to Ellen before we got here?”
Bobby nodded. “Traced it to Sharon, just like Gordon said. Sounded sincere.”
John nodded and shook his head. “We’re no better off than we were before we got here.”
Bobby picked up the folder and thumbed through it. “This everything?”
“Yeah. A whole lot of nothing that’s going to do us any good. Gordon’s pictures are the closest we’ve got, and they’re a month old.”
Bobby nodded. “What’s our next move?”
John ran a hand over his face. “We find Joshua.”
Bobby murmured agreement, then froze. John looked at him, trying to determine what that expression meant. “Bobby?” His face drained of color and his hands were shaking as he set the pictures down.
“Call Sam. Tell him to get Dean out of the house. Tell him to go out into the yard and find someplace to hide.”
“Bobby?”
“Just do it, damn it John. I’ll explain on the way.”
Bobby left the equipment he’d been monitoring and moved to the driver’s seat of the van. Before John even had his phone out of his pocket, Bobby was pulling out of the roadhouse parking lot, his own phone in his hand. John turned his attention to his phone, watching as it connected, then raised it to his ear. “Hello, you’ve reached Sam Winchester. Please leave a message.”
John stared at the phone for a moment. Sam should have answered. “Sam, I can’t explain. Bobby said to get Dean and get out of the house. Hide in the yard somewhere. I think we’re on our way back to you.”
John moved up to the passenger seat. In the mirror he could see hunters spilling out of the roadhouse. “You gonna explain?”
“The boys are in trouble.” Bobby’s face was still pale, drawn. “God…John…I thought they’d be safe. I didn’t…” He pulled them onto the road and stepped on the gas. “I think I know how this happened…or…at least…” He pulled his hat off and scratched at his head. “Shit.”
John looked down on the floor between the seats at the picture Bobby had dropped there. “Bobby?”
He picked up the picture, a shot of the truck and John recognized James standing near a door to the building. Beside him was a man a little older than Dean…a man John might never have recognized if not for Bobby’s reaction. “Bobby?”
“I talked to Sam. He’s there. Said he was looking for me.”
Dean paced in the room. Sam should have been back. He needed to sleep. Dean was uneasy. None of the memories he had of Robert were really good ones. They weren’t bad either. He remembered being jealous. He wasn’t sure he remembered why, something to do with Sam.
He opened the door and listened. He heard a voice that wasn’t Sam’s. Uneasy. Dean’s stomach flopped and he moved as quietly as possible down the stairs. He didn’t see Sam, didn’t hear him.
“No, it’s not enough. I want what you originally promised. You should have handled this in Tulsa.” He heard Robert moving toward the stairs and flattened himself against the wall. “No. I have him restrained. I haven’t touched him. I told you already I have no interest in him.”
Robert was pacing from the sound of it. Moving back into the kitchen. Dean inched down the stairs and dared a glance around the wall. He could see Sam’s foot near the table. Robert was turning around again. “Yeah, I don’t know how long before they get here, so if you don’t want a battle, you’ll get here before them.”
Dean heard him hang up the phone. “I guess I should go check on your brother, Sammy. Wouldn’t want him getting into trouble.”
Dean hurried back up the stairs, then hesitated. If Robert had restrained Sam…what would he do to him? Obviously he thought Dean was less of a threat. He was on the stairs. Dean moved into the bedroom, and lay on the bed, closing his eyes and pretending to be asleep. The door opened, and he heard Robert come into the room. It took a lot not to open his eyes.
“That’s a good boy Dean. You sleep. When you wake up you’ll be safely back in your cage…and Sam will learn to forget you ever existed.”
Dean listened as he left the room. He lay there shivering at the naked hate in the other man’s voice. He didn’t remember Robert like that. But…he had Sam…and it didn’t sound like he was planning anything good. Dean got up and went to the window. He could see Robert’s car parked in front of the house.
Think Dean.
He shivered as a memory slid into his head, an image in the dark. Robert’s face.
”Told you he was worth the effort.”
“You shouldn’t be so cocky. I could still put you in his place.”
“We both know he’s worth three times what anyone would pay for me. He’s the holy grail of pretty boys. Even his own brother can’t keep his hands off him.”
Somehow he had to get out of the room. He had to help Sam.
Sam pulled on the ropes that tied him to the chair, but that was one thing Robert had obviously learned. He chewed on the gag and growled his frustration. He’d only managed to open his mouth to tell Robert that Bobby would be home in a day or two, when he’d hit him, hard. Sam probably wouldn’t have gone down, but he’d hit the soft spot where he’d taken the blow a few days before, and despite being out of bed, Sam was still not well.
Sam tracked Robert’s movements as he paced with the phone. He couldn’t believe…but then he mentioned Tulsa and Sam wanted to kill him. Robert. Sam had to admit it made sense. He’d always been jealous of Dean. The last time they’d seen him had been before Sam had left for school. They’d brought Bobby some books from Pastor Jim’s. Sam hadn’t told anyone about Stanford…not until he and Dean had gone out to the car.
It was the last time Dean had been inside him…they’d been too big for the car…too tall, too broad at the shoulders…but they made it work somehow. In the twilight, Sam had clung to Dean, aching with the knowledge that he was going to hurt him. He hadn’t wanted it to end.
Robert had been there, when they came out of the car, still rearranging their clothes. He looked at them funny, but if he’d known anything, seen anything…he didn’t say. He just told them dinner was ready.
“I suppose by now you’ve figured me out.” Robert said, sitting in the chair at the end of the table. “Figured Dean would remember eventually, so I should just get on with it. He’s sleeping. Like a little baby.”
Sam glared at him and Robert smiled. “I know what you’re thinking, Sammy. How’s a guy like me get involved in something like this?” He set his phone down on the table and spun it. “Really…it’s not that difficult. I wanted something. This man promised me I could have it. All I had to do was give him a little information. But you Winchesters are more trouble than your worth. And I didn’t figure on your father crawling back to you after you ran away.”
Sam worked at the knot behind his back and tried to listen for some sound to indicate Dean was awake and moving around. Dean didn’t sleep that easily anymore. Not that quickly. Not without Sam or their father nearby. “Just relax, it will all be over soon enough, and neither one of you will need to remember any of this.”
Robert stroked a hand over Sam’s face and Sam froze, his eyes climbing up to Robert’s face. “If Gorlian hadn’t insisted that Dean be purchased and proven in his role before they picked you up, you probably would never have found him.”
Sam stopped struggling and stared at him. Robert smiled, looking a lot like his father with the dark dusting of hair on his chin and the sparkle in his eyes. “Yes, Sammy. You. That was my price. I gave them Dean, and I got you in return. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.”
Robert got up and paced around the kitchen. “Funny really. They’d been tailing your ass since you left Stanford. Lost you though when you went underground in LA. You had them fooled. But not me. I saw the video of you getting out of the car, and I knew. Took me a while to figure out which way you’d go. But you boys have patterns. I figured it wouldn’t take long for you to turn up in one of the spots you go to ground.”
Robert stopped near the sink to look out the window. “Then, I got lucky. Your old man called my old man. I gave him the phone more than a year ago. Bugged it. Wasn’t even sure yet I’d go through with it.” He turned to face Sam and smiled. “Of course, I didn’t expect to have to trap you myself. You weren’t even supposed to see me until you were delivered all broken and programmed and ready to be mine forever.”
“Dad?” Dean kept his voice low and tried to keep the panic out of his voice. “Dad…there’s someone here. He has Sam.” His father’s voice was comforting, deep and rumbling through the phone as he asked Dean where he was. “The bedroom. They’re in the kitchen. I don’t know what to do.”
Dean stared at the phone for a minute when his father told him to leave, to use the escape route out Bobby’s bedroom window. “I have to take care of Sam.”
Dean felt panic creeping up inside him as he moved back to the door. He couldn’t leave Sam. His father was telling him to leave Sam and go hide. Hide in the yard. “What about Sam?” He listened as his father told him what to do, then hung up the phone and stuffed into his pocket.
Get a gun. Dad had a gun under his pillow. Dean slipped as quietly as he could over the worn old boards of the hallway and into his father’s room. Dean tucked the gun in the back of his jeans. Out Bobby’s bedroom window, down the trellis and into the yard.
He had a vague recollection of doing this before, as he climbed from the window to the ledge and over to the trellis. Every fiber of his being screamed at him to go get Sam, to take out Robert and rescue his brother. But his father had ordered him into hiding. Ordered. Commanded. Dean hovered behind a big oak tree, absently petting the head of Dryfus, the massive mastiff who prowled the back side of the house.
It was mid-afternoon. His father was at least another 3 hours away. Sam was alone with someone who Dean remembered…only he wasn’t really sure what he remembered.
“We both know he’s worth three times what anyone would pay for me. He’s the holy grail of pretty boys. Even his own brother can’t keep his hands off him.”
Robert had been there the night he was grabbed…not when he was taken…after…after the rape and the beating…after the alcohol started to wear off…before the cage. Dean rubbed a hand over his eyes, trying to remember.
His head was swimming, and he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t vomit again. They’d pushed him to his knees and he was cold, shivering, only vaguely aware that he was naked. He was more aware of other things…that he had been fucked, hard and without permission…that his back was bruised from the beating…that his head felt like it might just explode.
There was a fist in his hair, pulling his head back, fingers running over his face, into his mouth. “This one was a lot of work to get out hands on, Robert.”
”Yeah, but look at him. I told you he was worth the effort.”
A familiar face was leaning into his. “And he’s a natural little cock-sucker…so he should take to his new life with ease.”
“You shouldn’t be so cocky. I could still put you in his place.” The one with his fist in Dean’s hair said.
“We both know he’s worth three times what anyone would pay for me. He’s the holy grail of pretty boys. Even his own brother can’t keep his hands off him.”
Dean was let go then, and the darkness came…the cold, silent darkness.
Dean shivered, despite the heat. Now Robert had his hands on Sam. He couldn’t let Robert hurt his Sam…but he had orders. Growling in frustration, Dean inched backwards, keeping the tree between him and the house until he’d reached the first line of junk cars and ducked behind them. His father said hide. Dean would hide. And he would hope that Sam would be okay until help arrived.