Drowned

Chapter 16

I was dunking my head in the lake water, I saw Dean wake up then fall out of the car.
Sam said" Hey. How'd you sleep?"
Dean said" How do you think? I'm starving. Let's get breakfast."
" Where? We're like two hours from anything."
" But I'm hungry now."
" There's probably a sandwich in the backseat still." He grabbed the bag, and sniffed it, gagging,
" It's tuna." I walked up to them as a phone started ringing, Dean grabbed a phone from the dash.
" Isn't that dad's phone?" I pushed water against me, then evaporated the water off my body. Dean answered the phone,
" Hello? He can't come to the phone. Can I help you? Well, sorry to be the one to break this to you, pal, but John died more than two years ago. Who is this?" Dean made a look of surprise, Sam and I looked at him.
——
We pulled up to a diner in Windom, Minnesota. We got out,
Sam said" Dean, look, best I can tell, Adam Milligan is real. Um, born September 29th, 1990, to Kate Milligan. No father listed on the birth certificate."
I said" He's an eagle scout, graduated from high school with honors, and currently goes to the university of Wisconsin- biology major, pre-med."
" Dean? You listening?" Dean was grabbing easy tests,
Dean said" This is a trap." He closed the trunk and walked away from us, I looked at Sam.
I said" Oh, this is gonna be fun." I followed Dean into the diner quickly, this is gonna be fun!

We sat down,
Sam said" Dean, I'm telling you- the kid checks out." I sat next to Dean, looking at him, since he moved the chair to their side.
Dean said" Great, so he's an actual person on the planet earth. Sucks he's got a demon in him."
The waitress said" Hi, welcome to Cousin Oliver's. Can I-"
" We're actually waiting on somebody."
Sam said" Thank you." Dean poured out a glass of water and replaced it with holy water." Holy water?"
" Yep- one sip of Jesus juice, this evil bitch is gonna be in a world of hurt." He put the glass of water on the other side,
I said" And what if he's not possessed?"
" Then he is a shapeshifter."
" Hence the silver."
" Look, either way, this thing is gonna bleed. I mean, using dad as bait? That's the last mistake of its short, pitiful life." Sam was staring at him, Dean noticed," What? What?"
Sam said" Dean... Listen, there's an entry in dad's journal from January of 1990 saying he's headed to minnesota to check out a case. That's, roughly, oh, about nine months before the kid was born."
" Coincidence."
" Coincidence? Next two pages of the journal- torn out."
" You're not actually buying this, are you?"
" Look, man, I don't want to believe it, either. I'm just saying it's possible. I mean, dad would be gone for weeks at a time, and he wasn't exactly a monk. I mean, a hunter rolls into town, uh, kills a monster, saves the girl... sometimes the girl's grateful."
" Well, now I'm think about dad sex. Stop talking."
" Maybe he slipped one past the goalie."
I laughed" I'm an example."
Dean said" Dudes!" Then a kid came in,
Sam said" Adam?"
The kid said" You sam?"
" Yeah. Uh, this is Dean and Keir."
" Hi. So, um... how'd you know my dad?"
" Uh, we worked together."
" Oh. How did he die?"
" On the job."
" He was a mechanic, right?"
Dean said" A car fell on him." The waitress came, I pulled my hoodie up, stifling my laughter. You could end your brother's worries right now, just kill the kid. I snapped out of it,
Sam said" So, when's the last time you.. you saw John?"
Adam said" I don't even know. It's... a couple years."
" W-Why did you decide to call him now?"
" I didn't know who else to call. He's the only family I got. My mom's missing." I saw Dean get his gun out, oh, man!
" Really? I'm sorry. Uh, for how long?"
Dean said" It's tragic.. really. But if you're John's kid, how come we've never heard of you?"
Adam said" 'Cause John and me didn't really know each other. Not until a few years ago, anyway."
Sam said" What do you mean?"
" My mom never talked about him. I knew some stuff."
Dean asked" What kind of stuff?"
" My mom's a nurse, and dad came into the ER pretty torn up- hunting accident or something. And I knew his name- John Winchester. That's about it. We're not exactly a nuclear family."
Sam said" Yeah, well, who is these days?"
Dean said" So, when did you, uh, when did you finally meet him?"
He said" When I was 12. My mom had one of his old numbers, and... and after I begged her- god, 24/7- she finally called him. God, when John heard he had a son, he raced to town. I mean, he dropped everything. He drove all night." Look at that? He got the daddy he always wanted, too bad John hated your guts! You were just a worthless piece of trash to him, he discarded you next to a skimpy motel... ha! You're getting angry, Keir.
" Well, that's heartwarming."
" You mind?"
" No, please- dig in."
" He would swing by once a year or so, you know, called when he could. But still... he taught me poker and pool, and even bought me my first beer when I was 15. And, uh... he showed me how to drive. Dad- he had this beautiful '67 impala." And there goes goes the dean bomb!
" Oh, this is crap. You know what- you're lying."
" No, I'm not."
" Uh, yeah, you are."
" I'm sorry, but who the hell are you to call me a liar?"
" We're John Winchester's sons, that's who. We are his sons." He pointed at Sam and me,
" I've got brothers?"
" No, you don't have brothers. Look, man, I don't know if you're a hunter or what kind of game you're playing here."
" I have never been hunting in my life."
" Whatever. I'm out of here. Come on, Sam." He got up, walking away,
" I can prove it."
——
We got to the kid's house, and he gave them a picture of John and him at a baseball game.
Dean said" He took you to a baseball game?"
Adam said" Yeah, when I turned 14. Dad was around for a few of my birthdays."
Sam said" September 29th, 2004. One word- Minnesota."
Dean said" He took you to a freakin' baseball game?"
Adam said" Yeah. Why? What'd dad do with you on your birthday?"
" Oh..."
Sam said" Adam, you said you called dad because your mom was missing."
Adam said" Yeah."
" How long has she been gone?"
" Three days."
Dean said" How was the last person to see her?"
" Mr. Abbinanti, our neighbor. He saw her come home Tuesday night, but she never showed up to work on Wednesday."
Sam said" Did you call the police?"
" Mom's supervisor at the hospital did. And then I drove down here as fast as I could. I should have been here."
Dean said" What'd the, uh, what'd the cops say?"
" That they, uh, they searched the house. They didn't find anything. She wouldn't leave without telling anybody. It's like she dropped off the face of the earth, you know?"