Title: Lost and Found

Chapter: 35

~~~~~~~~~~~

Dean was bored, spending more time tapping his feet and staring at the ceiling then he was looking for the symbol. Jo stifled a grin and continued to look through the books spread out on the table. Sam had given them one job in his own quest for information and they were failing miserably at it. If they had any idea who the god was they were looking for, maybe they’d find the symbol faster, but they didn’t. Truth be told, she was bored, too. It wouldn’t take much to distract her right now. Jo wanted a distraction, even needed one.

She wanted something to take her mind off of the decision to ask about the sex of the baby at the appointment next week. They’d wanted her to come in a couple weeks ago, but with Dean gone then, she’d asked to reschedule so he could be there with her. Dean didn’t want to know the sex. He was vehement about it, claiming that he didn’t care either way. Boy or girl made no difference to him as long as the baby and Jo were safe and healthy in the end. He wanted the whole traditional, old-fashioned birth experience with her. Jo however, wasn’t sure she wanted to wait to know. It’d be nice to be able to get some things ahead of time.

The idea he had right then to canoodle wasn’t a new one for the morning. He’d had that idea once already, but Jo didn’t mind. Distractions were good. Unfortunately, they were interrupted. She sent him off to answer the door and returned to studying the book.

“Ben? What the hell are you doing here?”

Jo looked up at the tone of Dean’s voice. It held anger, exasperation, annoyance, and a little bit of fear. Did he just say Ben? As in Ben Braeden?

“Dean…. I need your help.” The boy was tall, with the gangly look to him that indicated he’d recently gone through a growth spurt.

“Where’s your mom?”

“You didn’t answer the phone. I’ve been calling for days. I had to come.”

The reason for Dean’s sudden cell phone switch made perfect sense now. Jo wondered a moment why Dean hadn’t told her about the calls. Ben said Dean hadn’t answered. Perhaps Dean had only speculated who was calling and switched phones to keep that part of his past in the past? He obviously hadn’t expected the boy to come to Bobby’s house.

She slammed the book shut and swallowed hard, her mouth suddenly very dry. Ben Braeden. A sliver of tension pierced her. Ben and his mother were one topic that made Dean revert into an uncharacteristic uncertainty. She could always tell when he thought about them because he moped around and talked about how horrible a parent he was going to be. For those moments they were in his thoughts, he was a different man entirely, a change that emphasized to Jo just how much Lisa had ultimately affected him and not a good change, either.

Sitting back, she rested a hand on her stomach, listening.

“I drove.”

“You drove? You’re not sixteen.”

“I have a fake i.d..” The boy said it like it was nothing. “And I’m a good driver. I know the rules of the road.”

For them, fake i.d.’s were nothing, for a civilian it was criminal, and Dean looked like he was about to have a stroke. Jo got up, tugged her tank down to cover her belly and joined them, putting a hand on the small of Dean’s back and feigning an ease she wasn’t feeling with the situation. Think calm, she told herself. She needed to be calm because Dean was anything but at the moment. He was tense already, the muscles hard knots. She slid her hand beneath his t-shirt, gently caressing the spot. “What’s going on,” she asked even though she’d heard every word thus far.

“He has a fake license. A fake license, Jo.” Dean looked at her, then back at Ben. “Where’d you get it, Ben?”

“I know a guy.”

“Oh you know a guy, do you? How’d you get here? You steal a car?” His voice sounded tight, as though he was having to force every word out.

“No! I borrowed it!”

“From who? What idiot would let a kid your age borrow their car?”

“Tommy’s mom.”

“Does Tommy’s mom know you borrowed the car?”

“No. She’s on a three week cruise with her new boyfriend. I’ll have it back before she gets back.”

“So that makes it okay?”

“No! I had to borrow the car. How else was I supposed to get here? I need your help. Mom’s in danger. I had to get here and see if that old guy that lives here knew where you were. It’s an emergency and we’re wasting time talking.”

“You just happened to keep Bobby’s address somewhere?”

“Yes!”

Jo took a step forward, positioning herself a little between them, hand on Dean’s chest. “Okay. Let’s bring it in the house, okay? You keep going, sweetheart, and they’ll hear you in Sioux Falls. Come on. Both of you.” She looked at Ben. “In the house. Now.” She motioned Ben inside and shut the door, shooing them both into the kitchen.

Dean went all the way across to the kitchen cabinets, taking a defensive stance beside the fridge with his arms crossed, leaning against the counter. “Why did you keep Bobby’s address, Ben?”

“Because I thought I might need it to find you some day. I needed to know how to find you if you might not answer your phone -- like the past few days! You didn’t answer, Dean. What else was I supposed to do? Sit there and wait for her to die? I had to do something and the guy that lives here is like a close friend of yours or something. I thought he’d know where you were if you weren’t here, but you are here and you can save her!”

“Right. What is it this time?” He shifted position slightly. “The last guy not work out? Is it a new guy that’s got you upset? Or….” His head tilted, as though an idea had just occurred to him. “Is your mom getting married? That it? Big wedding planned and you thought you’d break it up? That’s low, Ben. You’re getting way too old for this kind of behavior.”

Jo joined Dean at the counter, taking a similar position beside him. She watched the play of emotions on both their faces, trying to read what was happening and if it was what Dean thought.

Ben sighed and rolled his eyes as though the idea was stupid. “Mom’s not seeing anyone right now.”

A muscle on Dean’s jaw ticked. “And you thought you’d come and lure me back to her with the old danger routine?”

“No! She’s in real danger this time! I mean it!”

He shook his head. “Do better than that, Ben. I’ve heard this story before. You’ve given me this story before. Fool me once, shame on you.” He pointed at Ben. “Fool me twice,” that finger turned to himself, “shame on me. Not gonna happen.”

“Will you listen to me!”

Jo studied Ben Braeden a bit closer. Something in his tone alerted her that perhaps he wasn’t trying to manipulate Dean.

~~~~~~~~~~

The past hated him. That had to be it. All Dean wanted to do was shove Ben on a plane, train, or bus and send him back to Lisa without going through any of this. He wanted to never deal with any of it ever again, yet here was Ben, still in front of him even after he closed his eyes and opened them again. He kept praying he’d fallen asleep and this was a nightmare, but Ben wasn’t going away and Dean was feeling desperate for this moment to end already. He’d started over, done all of the steps to that end, so why couldn’t that part go away? His life was with Jo and Sam now, not Lisa and Ben. He and Jo had an appointment for a sonogram or ultrasound or whatever that thing was next week the doctor said Jo had to have! He didn’t need this! He needed to focus on the present and everything in his life now.

“Ben.”

“Come on, Dean. Come help me. Mom’s in real trouble.”

“No. I can’t help you.”

“You mean you won’t.”

“I’m not doing this again.” He put his arm around Jo. “Do you see this beautiful woman beside me?” At Ben’s slow nod, he continued. “She’s my wife. My wife. I can’t go back to you and your mom. I’ve moved on with my life, Ben.”

There was a flicker of hurt in Ben’s eyes and Dean felt a prickle of guilt for his harsh tone. These things had to be said though, right? “I’m not asking you to come back to us. I know you can’t. I’m not stupid. I figured you’d moved on by now. Geez. I just need you to help us.”

“I can’t. Me going with you would put trouble between me and Jo and I can’t have that. I can’t go running whenever you cry wolf. I won’t. Do you hear me? I’m done.”

Ben shook his head. “I need a hunter!”

“I’ll refer you to one.”

He made a frustrated noise and his desperation seemed real enough. However, Dean had fallen for it before. “She won’t believe she’s in danger. I’ve tried to tell her and she doesn’t believe me, but if you come and tell her, she’ll believe you. It’s like she doesn’t remember anything of what we’ve seen. She thinks I’m making this up.”

“Aren’t you?” He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. He couldn’t tell Ben that Lisa would no more believe Dean than she did Ben because Dean’s world had no place in hers. Lisa had made that clear. She liked her world neat, with certainty, and all of the things that weren’t a part of his world. He thought that was her defense mechanism: turning a blind eye to what she didn’t want to see or deal with. She’d rather smile, grit her teeth, and pretend everything was okay. “Ben….”

Ben’s lips thinned a moment and he changed tactics. Dean could see that flash of calculation in Ben’s eyes before he turned to Jo, a calculation that only increased his feeling that this was everything he’d called it as being: a ploy. Ben was trying to play them. “Please help me. Even if you don’t know my mom, help me save her. She’s my mother. Please. I know you’re a hunter, too. Talk to him.”

“What? How do you know I’m a hunter?” Jo crossed her arms, lips parting and brows raising.

“The charm on your necklace. It’s anti-possession, right? Only hunters know that stuff. Well…and people who are really interested in it.” Ben’s gaze lowered to Jo’s stomach, a speculative and strangely adult gaze turning back to Dean. “It’s because she’s pregnant, isn’t it? That’s why you won’t come.”

“No.” Though in truth, there was that. He wanted to take jobs near Jo for the last bit of her pregnancy and for about a year after. He didn’t want to miss the early months of their baby’s life. He’d been doing more reading and those first months were very important. “It’s because old girlfriends and new wives don’t mix, period. Look, there are hunters I know who’d be glad of the work right now --”

“No. I don’t want them. I want you.” The set of Ben’s jaw indicated further arguments to come. “You’re the best. I need the best because anything less and she could die.”

The dramatic tone, overly so, in his opinion, set the tension rising further on his back and he stood up straight. The knots on his muscles probably had knots of their own now. He felt like a spring being coiled tighter and tighter. “Other hunters are just as good, some better.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“There’s always someone better and more experienced, Ben.”

It was obvious in the way Ben began to argue with him that he was losing some of his awe in adults and authority figures, entering a rebellious phase even. He wasn’t going to go home without a fight.

~~~~~~~~~~

While Jo hated to admit the kid wasn’t being manipulative and faking, his desperation was real enough. He’d have to be a gifted actor to pull off the worry she was seeing. She licked her lips. “He has a point,” she interrupted with more than a little reluctance. She hated to support any reason that would send Dean back anywhere near Ben’s mother, but there was no way around Ben’s worry for his mother. It was genuine and now Jo was a little curious as to what had sent him across the country on what could have ended up a fool’s errand. “Ben has a point,” she said a bit louder.

Both heads turned in her direction.

“He what?” Dean’s voice was incredulous, as though he thought she was betraying him somehow.

“I do?” Ben was surprised, looking at her like she was a stranger offering him candy if he’d get in her van.

She came forward. “You are among the best, Dean, and if he does need help, contacting the skilled individual of his acquaintance for the job was a smart move.”

“Thank you,” Ben said with more than a little attitude of the sort that would have gotten Jo a hard smack to the rear even at his age.

“He met Bobby, Jo. Bobby’s got the years --”

“Bobby’s not here. Go on the porch and call Sam and Gwen. Have them come over and wait for them out there. Cool off.” When Dean had gone, over protest, she motioned at the table. “Sit.”

“But I --”

“Sit,” she said in a firmer tone.

Ben sat, watching her warily.

“I’m Jo and you’re Ben, right?” Jo tried to give him a friendly smile, though it was difficult.

He nodded.

“Dean’s mentioned you. He said you’re a smart boy.” That seemed to make him relax a little and it was the truth. Dean had mentioned way back when he’d first explained that part of his life to her that Ben was a smart boy. “Do you drink coffee yet, or are you still a soda guy?”

His voice was hesitant. “Um…. Soda I guess. Coffee tastes gross.”

When the soda was open and set before him, she sat across from him and crossed her arms on the tabletop. “You’re right, I don’t know your mother, Ben. I’ve never met her and never thought I ever would. I can see you’re very worried for her, so why don’t you tell me what’s been going on back in…Michigan, right?”

“Right. She’s in danger --”

“Start at the beginning, okay? When did you first notice something was wrong?”

He looked around the kitchen, then copied her pose. “Tommy and I were at the park. We’d been out in the woods west of town watching these people at the old Hotchkiss place. It’s a ginormous house that someone tried to turn into a hotel and they abandoned it because they ran out of money or something a long time ago. Well, some group bought it recently. All of a sudden. Friends of something. I don’t know. “M’ something. Some group. I’d never heard of them and neither had mom. This woman came by the house with information for mom, said they were fixing the place up and they’d like her to attend a special reception soon as a grand opening for their outreach center or something like that. Sounded weird because that house is all boarded up. Tommy and I have been watching them and they’re not working on it, at least not on the outside. It still look abandoned and that woman said the reception was July second. It’s almost July and when I left, it was still boarded up.”

She nodded and let him go on without interrupting. It did sound strange so far, at least to her. If she went on Dean’s assumption that he was making things up however, she could easily deduce that he was seeing sinister plots where there were none. Lots of groups bought houses intending on fixing them up and using them as a place of business and a reception for a place didn’t necessarily have to be at that place.

“I don’t think mom was going to go. She threw the invitation away. Anyway, Tommy and I saw mom sitting in a car that wasn’t hers. She hadn’t been looking at cars and my phone rang then. It was her and the mom in the car wasn’t on the phone.” He leaned over a little. “Weird-o-rama, as Tommy says.”

Jo leaned closer, matching his pose now in an attempt to make him feel like he could confide in her. She nodded. “Go on.”

“I started seeing mom when I knew she was either at home or work. One time I saw her when I was talking to her on the phone about staying at Jason’s house. She was just standing there across from our house, staring at mom through the front window. Tommy and I started following this other mom when we saw her and she’s like mom only not. It’s her, but it’s not. I can tell my mom and this other thing isn’t her. I was thinking about what could do that.” He took a quick drink of soda. “I think it’s a doppelganger. That means she’s going to die, right? If she confronts it?”

“Honestly, Ben, it could be other things, too.”

“I know.”

The vehemence of his answer made her blink. “You know?”

“Tommy and I have been doing research. Maybe it’s a shape shifter of some kind. I don’t know why a shape shifter would go after her though. Anyway, it all started right after that woman showed up about the friends group. I think there’s a connection, but I don’t know for sure. There hasn’t been anything strange in the paper. Tommy and I have been seeing this other mom more and more and I tried to call Dean for advice because he’d know about those things. More than me, anyway. He didn’t pick up and he didn’t answer my messages, so Tommy offered me the car and was going to cover for me in case mom realized I wasn’t at the camping trip.”

“Camping trip?”

“A group of us were supposed to go camping for two weeks and I sort of didn’t go. I mean, I talked to the chaperone just before they left and told him mom changed her mind, and it was okay to keep our deposit because it was her last minute decision. How could I go when it’s almost July second and mom’s got this double running around? I think time is running out!”

“You said your mom doesn’t believe you?”

“I tried telling her, but she thinks I’m making up stories just because Tommy and I did that one time as a prank. She told me to write it down and we’d send it off to be published.” He snorted like that had been an insult.

“Must have been some story you two came up with that time.”

“It was. It had everything. Action, adventure, horror. It was awesome! Like a video game and movie combined.” He took another drink of soda and sobered. “It was a story though. This isn’t. She’s really in danger. Can you convince Dean to come back with me and take care of it? I don’t know how to stop a doppelganger or any of the other things that it could be and I don’t want my mom to die.”

“You’re going to need to repeat all of this to Dean, Sam, and Gwen.”

He flinched at Sam’s name and Jo wondered why. She knew Lisa hadn’t liked Sam. Lisa had hardly welcomed Sam into her house. Had that rubbed off on Ben? “Who’s Gwen,” he asked.

She used the simplest explanation. Ben didn’t need to know the whole back story. “Sam’s girlfriend.”

“Is she a hunter, too?”

Jo nodded. “Born and raised, like me.”

She saw the flicker of hurt in his eyes bleed across his face as his gaze lowered to her stomach. “I thought Dean didn’t want his…family…involved in hunting?” His tone was sullen.

How did she answer that? She decided not to answer at all, staying silent, drawing conclusions as to what was going on in Ben’s head. He was hurt about Dean marrying her and having a baby on the way; by the unsaid implication of her being a hunter that their child would be raised one as well. She did know Dean had told Ben he would never be a hunter if Dean had any say in it. That Dean might allow his biological child to hunt and not Ben was likely emphasizing to Ben that perhaps Dean had never considered him family after all. Not true. Dean had thought of Ben as his own for that year.

But Ben was still a child, without the experiences to see the nuance of what was there. Jo thought it’d probably be years before Ben would understand -- if he ever did.

She snagged a pen and a yellow legal tablet from a pile of papers. “Can you write down the name of group and details like that for me? Anything. Names, dates you heard. Who’d had the property, any symbols you saw regarding the group. Try to use the proper spellings if you saw them. Don’t abbreviate unless that’s what you saw.”

He blinked, swallowed hard, and nodded. “I didn’t see a symbol, but I can give you the rest. What are you going to do with it?”

She watched him closely as she answered. If he’d made up the details, this was going to spook him and cause him to consider confessing. “Do some searches, make some calls, find out what we can.”

He took the paper and pen. “Can I help?”

“You can write it down to start. That’s a help right there. That’s a big help. If there really is something going on --”

“There is,” he insisted.

Jo raised her brows and her voice to just above a normal speaking tone. “If there is, then we’ll make sure your mother is kept safe.”

“Dean doesn’t believe me.”

“If the facts are there, he will.” Dean wasn’t going to like this. A rudimentary investigation would do two things however. It’d calm Ben first and foremost. Then, it would expose truth or lie, one or the other. Dean couldn’t argue with calmly refuting the details Ben’s story. In Jo’s opinion, either one meant Ben needed help. If he was lying, something had to have sent him across the country to Dean and that something needed addressed. If he was telling the truth, that needed addressed also, only in a far different way. She hated that they might have a serious issue to take back to Lisa. Jo had hoped they’d never see that woman.

“I already looked into what could be after her.”

“Not enough. It’s okay, Ben. This is the process. You have a general idea what could be there and now it’s time to look a bit closer at anything that could give a lead on how to proceed.”

“You’re not going to go in and kick it’s ass?” He sounded confused.

She smiled, a little laugh welling up. “Not yet. Not enough information.”

He wrote a minute, then looked up. “So…. It’s like detective work, not….” He shrugged.

“It’s not like in the movies, tv shows, video games, graphic novels, and books. There’s a process to it and if you go in half-cocked you can get yourself and innocent bystanders killed. It can cost a lot of lives.”

“But I thought….?” He frowned, shook his head, and returned to writing.

By the time Sam and Gwen arrived, she had Dean and Ben both calmed down a little.

~~~~~~~~~~

In Ben’s mind had been the rough idea that all of Dean’s cases were like the one Ben had been in the middle of when he was younger. He’d thought it was exciting, but after spending over an hour going over details and going back over them, he was thoroughly bored and thought they’d covered it enough. Couldn’t they just go back and kick monster ass? Why did they have to do all of this talking and research? Wasn’t it enough to decide what they were dealing with?

He got in the backseat of the Impala, sitting where Dean told him to. Jo was in the passenger seat. Gwen was driving her own car while Sam had taken the keys to Tommy’s mom’s car. The ride wasn’t a long one, fifteen minutes by his watch, and they pulled up in front of a two-story house outside of town.

“Is this your house,” he asked as he followed Dean inside. Jo was behind him.

“Yes,” Dean snapped. He was still angry. “Don’t touch anything.”

Ben resisted the urge to do just that, not wanting to make either of them mad. If he made Jo mad, she might not let Dean help him.

“You can sit on the couch,” Jo told him gently, gesturing at it before going through a doorway and up stairs.

“No touching anything. You sit and stay sitting.” Dean crossed his arms.

He sat. The room had a different feel from his house. This was a place where feet could go on the coffee table even with shoes on and spills on the carpet were no big deal. There was some dust and nothing was super neat or even really decorated. The table in front of the couch had a laptop on it and stacks of papers spread out. If he turned his head and looked past Dean, he could see a bedroom at the back of the house through an open door. The bed was made, a few clothes on the end.

Sam and Gwen came in through the kitchen. They glanced at each other and Sam slid his hands into his pockets. “Ben? You hungry? Gwen and I were getting ready to grill some burgers when Dean called. There’s plenty. How do you like your burger? Medium well?” His brows rose in question.

“No.” Dean shook his head. “We’re not eating. Soon as Jo comes back down to watch him I’m packing a bag and taking him home.”

Gwen leaned against the doorjamb, her smile and tone coaxing. “Come on, Dean. It’s lunchtime. Have a couple burgers and then you won’t have to stop until dinner. There’s salad and chips. Watermelon. Strawberry pie from the bakery.”

Jo came down the stairs and crossed to them. She was wearing a different shirt. “That sounds good.”

“Gwen.” Dean’s tone had a warning to it and Ben would have back off right there. That tone meant business.

Gwen’s smile widened however, like she hadn’t even noticed Dean’s tone. “What? A body’s got to eat.” She made it sound reasonable, shrugging her shoulders.

Jo cleared her throat. “The baby wants watermelon,” she told Dean.

“The ba --” Dean shook his head, like she’d confused him. “What?”

“The baby wants watermelon,” she repeated. “And a hamburger with mustard, relish and onion.”

“Onion gives you heartburn.”

Ben noticed some of the anger leaving Dean’s eyes, his body relaxing.

“Everything gives me heartburn. If I cut out everything that does that, there wouldn’t be anything left.” She batted her lashes at him. “Make me a hamburger before you go?”

Dean sighed. “Don’t think I don’t see what you’re all up to here. Fine. We’ll eat first.”

It was settled. They would leave after lunch, Dean still talking about dropping Ben off and leaving Michigan without investigating. Ben sat on the porch, watching Dean and Sam make the burgers and listening to Jo and Gwen getting the rest of the food ready. He really was hungry, but the uncertainty over whether or not Dean would help him once he was home had him leaving half a burger on his plate.

That, and watching Jo and Dean together. He didn’t like seeing those familiar touches couples did when they knew each other well, or the looks and glances that meant they could communicate an entire conversation with only facial expressions. He hated knowing they had that closeness and he hated knowing how ingrained Jo was in Dean’s life. She’d replaced his mother and was in the process of replacing him. Soon, in a few months, Dean would forget Ben had ever existed. He’d have a baby of his own blood.

Why was Jo being nice to him? She should be mean and nasty so he could hate her easily. The same with Sam. He should be arrogant, selfish, and all of those things he’d heard his mom crying late at night back when Dean had first started leaving. He remembered staying very still and quiet, listening to her in her room talking to Aunt Jenny on the phone. She’d told Jenny that Dean’s brother was arrogant, selfish, and inconsiderate; that he’d expected Dean to drop everything for him and he’d just gone. He’d left them over and over for Sam.

Why was Sam being nice then? If he was those things, he wasn’t nice, yet he seemed nice. Ben couldn’t figure it out. Sam kept making sure he’d had enough to eat, that he didn’t need anything to drink. Gwen asked if he was comfortable and Jo…. She was going to talk Dean into helping him. Why? It was confusing. They weren’t supposed to be like this.

~~~~~~~~~~

He’d been overruled. After the hour of debating Ben’s story back at Bobby’s, Dean had expected to be overruled, only not over lunch. He’d actually expected Sam, Gwen, and even Jo to suggest there might really be something there to investigate -- which he didn’t believe for an instant. Ben did have a wild imagination.

He took his bag out of the closet and checked it, making sure he had everything in there already. “I’m going to take him back,” he told Jo when she came in and closed the bedroom door.

“Uh…not by yourself you’re not.” Jo put her hands on her hips, shaking her head.

“Why not? I take him home, drop him off, come back here. It’s a couple days at most and I’m back long before our appointment next week.” He zipped his bag and glanced at her. “I cannot wait to see the first picture of our --”

She came close, not letting him change the subject. “Dean, you told me how that woman treated you. She manipulated you, tried to make you into a man you aren’t. She put down your brother and made it clear he wasn’t welcome there. You remember any of that? You’re the one told me all about it. Give me one good reason why I should let you walk in to her house alone?”

“You trust me.”

“Of course I trust you. It’s her I don’t trust. She tried to make you choose her over Sam. Over Sam, Dean. That’s a big problem right there. That tells me that she had no idea what Sam means to you, not even a little inkling. No, you’re not going alone. I won’t let her have the chance to work on you again, even for a minute. I’m going, and before you try playing the safe card, it’s not a job. It’s a road trip to take Ben home. I’ll be perfectly safe. You have no grounds to insist I stay home…. Unless you want to see her?”

He sat on their bed and looked up at her. “You know I don’t want that. When I said goodbye to her, I said goodbye for good. If I could send Sam and Gwen to take him home I would, but it’s my responsibility to return him.”

She stepped between his spread legs and put her hands on his shoulders. “No, sweetheart, it’s our responsibility. I’ll be right there with you. I never particularly wanted to meet her, but I’d rather do this with you than let you have to do it alone.” One hand stroked his cheek. “You need someone with you. If not me, then Sam.”

Dean let his shoulders slump. “I thought they were gone, you know? I thought I had this second chance to do things right and it’s working like it never had before. You, marriage, the baby…. Then here comes this monkey wrench right in the middle.” Reaching up, he took her hand in his. “I changed phones because I knew the area code that kept calling and I was afraid it was one of them. I was afraid if I answered….” He licked his lips. “It’d hurt you.”

“I know. I figured that out.”

“You did?” He peered up at her, then sighed. “I should have told you right then rather than let you be blindsided by him showing up.”

“You were just as blindsided and he’s here now. Let’s deal with this together.”

“Okay. You drive Tommy’s mom’s car --”

“Nope. Gwen says she and Sam will drive it.”

“Why?” He put his hands on her waist and pulled her closer.

Jo laid her arms about his shoulders. “Don’t know. Something Sam said to her.”

Sam was up to something. It wasn’t necessary for all four of them to drive Ben home. He was going to have to talk to Sam, one more thing to do before they left.

~~~~~~~~~~

After a grueling while of testing, Castiel had a list of angels who were able to adapt to circumstances and overcome any longing to fall to earth. What he was supposed to do with that list, he had no idea.

He stepped into the garden. He’d cancelled the last two meetings he was supposed to have with Joshua and could see the older angel wasn’t pleased with him. He resisted the urge to apologize over and over. “Joshua.”

“Better late than never, I suppose.”

“You requested a meeting.”

The look Joshua directed at him made him feel like an errant child. “I have something for you.” He proffered a scroll. “From God.”

“What does it say?”

“It’s sealed.” He twisted his wrist, revealing the large seal along the edge. “Only you can open it. Only you can read the contents.”

Slowly, he reached out and took the scroll. He broke the seal and opened it. It was an invitation to a meeting, with a date, time, and place listed. The date was this very day, the time not long from this moment. He rolled the scroll back up. A face to face meeting. After all this time, someone other than the archangels would see God’s face: Castiel.

It was an honor and at the same time, he was filled with a mixture of uncertainty, nervousness, and dread. What was this meeting about? Was he finally going to have answers to those questions he’d yet to find answers to?

“Did you know?”

Joshua didn’t answer the question. “I suggest you don’t keep Him waiting.”

With a nod, Castiel slipped from heaven and to the meeting place.

~~~~~~~~~~

When Sam had started this side project, he’d thought it really would be a shot in the dark to find anything. With the additional criteria of day and time of birth, he added a few possible clippings he’d already been looking at and one definite that he was waiting on final details on to a folder. The only thing that didn’t fit on the possibles were the ages of the kids. None were babies and one a teenager. So far, they’d had two babies and speculation on Gwen as a third. Did it need to be babies, though? The date and time of birth appeared to be the main factor, not the age of the sacrifice.

The call he’d been waiting for came and he added the information to one clipping in the margin. Sam studied everything he had spread out with a long sigh. Slowly, he moved papers and clippings around into a semblance of order.

It was time to talk to Dean.

“Dean,” he called out. “Talk to you a minute?”

He came from downstairs. Sam could hear Gwen talking to Ben, asking him questions that were all about putting the boy at ease.

“Sam?”

“Shut the door.”

He stepped back down, closed the door into the stairwell and returned. “Got something?”

Sam slid three photocopied clippings across the table. “Take a look.”

“What am I looking at?” He read through them and Sam waited until he’d read all three. The first was about a teenaged girl. The second a toddler and the third a foiled abduction. Michigan. Minnesota. Illinois.

“All of them girls, all born June second. Toddler killed in ‘01, teenager in ‘05. Bodies were found burned on altars with a symbol painted on the floor around it.” He pulled two pictures from the folder and laid them on the table. “Recognize them?”

“That’s the same symbol we found on the floor of the Atwater property from ‘09.” He tapped a finger to the last clipping and laid it down. “What about this failed one in ’97? Where does it fit?”

“It took a few calls and sweet talking to get it, but she was born June second, too. Dean, it’s the pattern. Look at the years. If you extend Patricia’s dates, they match up. ‘77, ‘81, ‘85 connection, ‘89 connection, ‘93 connection, ‘97 connection there but failed execution of the abduction and sacrifice, ‘01 connection, ‘05 connection, ‘09 connection. All girls. All born June second and get this. Born at five in the morning.”

“How much sweet talking did you do, Sammy?”

“I claimed I was doing genealogical research on a branch of my family. They caught the man in ‘97. His name was Mason Lee Hanover.”

“You ever notice how they always have three names?”

He laughed. “They do. Anyway, he happened to be active in a coven when he was arrested and that coven disappeared, let him take the fall. He has a very distinctive tattoo. Let me show you….” Sam drew out a picture.

“That’s the symbol, only it’s got initials in the center.” Dean snatched the picture from him. “What’re they? M…L…. Is that a ‘K’? Please tell me that’s not an ‘H’ and he got a creepy tattoo with his own initials on it.”

“No, it’s a ‘K’. Arresting officer wrote that he babbled about pleasing sacrifices to raise his god and the tattoo was to show his devotion. Whether or not the initials were for the god or the leader of the coven is another matter entirely. He wouldn’t say. At the time, he was the second of two men. The leader and the rest were women. The other man with that same tattoo was found dead in his cell recently, as in this month recent. Not a mark on him, though he did have a strange small roundish object in his cell that the officers called ‘voodoo paraphernalia’.”

“Hex bag?”

“Be my guess. That was all I could get on him. No one wanted to say much about him.”

“All the victims and potential victims were female, born on June second, at five a.m.” Dean set the picture down and rested his palms on the table. “Gwen was born then in ‘81.” He studied the clippings, then the pictures and without standing, he looked at Sam. “Jesus, Sam, you did it. You put it all together. It’s a cycle, a definite cycle of sacrifices being offered to a god.”

“Look at the pattern again. Patricia wrote that there was a four year cycle, right? We see that over and over.” He tapped the pages and pictures with a finger. “However, she also wrote that they couldn’t allow a full cycle. What’s a full cycle? What if a full cycle is four sacrifices, four years apart?”

“Sixteen years.”

“If that’s the case, Dean, this is the sixteenth year. ‘01, ‘05, ‘09 sacrifices were made. This could be the year they raise their god. Arlene told Gwen the witch needed Gwen because of her birth day and time, implying that her murder was going to be the one to raise the god.”

“Whoever he may be. Anything else?”

“Yeah, I found information on a failed abduction from ‘77 that could be a part of it. Patricia did mention ’77. Family is on the way to take Ben home. I thought Gwen and I could come along, drive the extra car back and I’ll make a side trip on the way. We can meet in Battle Creek, take Ben home, and if what I have pans out, I think we might have a shot at solving this and stopping the witch while we’re out.”

Standing, Dean raised a hand, and covered his mouth a moment before closing the hand into a fist and tapping against his mouth. His hand lowered and he nodded. “Can we do it and keep Gwen safe?”

He didn’t know. “Could go either way, but that’s normal for us. We can send Gwen and Jo home if things start going south.”

“If this thing is a god, what’s your best guess as to which one it is?”

“If we go by the initials in the tattoo, it could be Molek. I’ve found several different spellings of the name. He was supposedly an Ammonite god who liked baby and small child sacrifices to made to him, preferably with the child burned alive.”

“That fits.”

“Except not all of the sacrifices were small children and babies. There was a teenager in there, too. I’ve also found evidence that Molek might not be a god, but rather a high level demon, possibly very loyal to Lucifer.”

“Great. A god or a high level demon. Just what we need roaming around.”

“Yeah, but we don’t know that’s what the initials mean. I tried getting in to see the guy, but it’s a no-go. No visitors and it didn’t matter how I went at it. There’s no seeing him to confirm anything and if it doesn’t have to be a child sacrificed, that opens a wide range of gods as our possible one. If it’s even a god. If it’s a demon?” He snorted. “Needle in a stack of needles. If we could find the symbol in a book somewhere it’d help, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.

Dean’s gaze was steady and intense. “What aren’t you telling me?”

Sitting back, Sam crossed his arms, attempting a casual shrug. “I’m worried for Gwen.”

“No, there’s information you’re not sharing. I can see it on your face. How about you come clean now so we don’t have to do this later?”

Sam gathered up the clippings and photos and shoved them into the folder.

“Not only can I see it on your face, but you’re fidgeting.”

“Okay, there is something. It’s the last thing I need to check on. It’s that side trip and when I know something, you will. Trust me, Dean.”

“You promise you’ll tell me as soon as you know?”

“I do. I’m just not comfortable adding it to the mix until I’m certain it’s part of this.” Sam watched the struggle on Dean’s face. “You’ve got enough to worry about with getting Ben home. Let me take care of this.”

His lips pursed and eyes narrowed as he thought and then Dean sighed. “Fine. We leave in twenty.”

“I’ll be ready.”

Sam waited until Dean was back downstairs, then drew out the clipping he’d left out from the ones he’d shown to Dean. He already had confirmation of sorts, but he wanted to talk to the woman’s parents before going in to her house with guns blazing to protect her. He had a suspicion the sort of reception that would receive.

On June 3 of 1977, a child had been stolen from the hospital she’d been born in, snatched from beneath the noses of a very busy hospital staff and recovered by a good Samaritan days later. The Braden family had changed the spelling of their name and moved, but Sam’s digging had uncovered the particulars of the child involved. Lisa Braden was Lisa Braeden. Ben’s mother.

She was part of the cycle and Sam about groaned out loud every time he thought about that. Out of all the things he’d expected to uncover, it had to be this? L.B. in Patricia’s diary was Lisa Braden, just like G.C. was Gwen Carys. 1977 and 1981, two sacrifices saved by the Campbell family.

Couple that information with Ben’s story and Sam was afraid that Lisa really was in honest danger. She fit the criteria and if someone had actively looked for her and knew what they were doing, it wouldn’t have taken them any longer than Sam had to find her and the truth about her, not with today’s technology.

He’d go to her parents, talk to them, and hopefully he could rule her out. Sam would like Ben’s story to be just that and they could be done with the Braeden family once and for all, but he was afraid that simply wasn’t going to be the case. Why did it have to be Lisa and why did their paths have to cross this way?