Chapter 8

Niko felt an odd roaring in his ears, and a feeling rose up in him that he didn't recognize until a moment later, when he realized it was disbelief. He couldn't remember Cal ever truly, blatantly going against his wishes before, not on something this important.

"Cal," he said quietly, wondering if anyone other than Cal could hear the warning in his tone.

"Niko," Cal replied, deadpan, but the look in his eyes said plainly that he'd picked up on the warning—and had just as plainly chosen to disregard it. In fact, his expression spoke volumes—or started to, until he began to tip forward and had to catch himself by gripping the doorframe. As one, all three of them started toward him, but of course Niko got there first.

"I cannot believe you," Niko seethed, so quietly that Sam and Dean couldn't hear. He let Cal lean against him, supporting him even as he continued to growl at him. "You really didn't hear a word I said, did you?"

"I heard. I just disagreed," Cal grunted as Niko deposited him on the couch and stuffed some pillows behind him, his movements clipped as they only were when he was angry.

"So you just decided to tell them, and that's it. You're going to make yourself two more enemies who wish you dead out of a misguided—"

"Who said anything about making enemies?" Cal asked. "Just…trust me, okay?"

Niko's jaw clenched, but he was careful not to let anything else betray his anger. "If I have to kill them when you're done, you're scrubbing the blood out of the carpet. With your toothbrush and without soap."

"Uh…guys, is there any chance of you wrapping this up anytime soon, or should we just take off so you can continue this?" Dean asked behind Niko.

"No, we're done," Cal said quickly. "Um…could you guys sit down?"

If only he were always that polite, Niko thought ruefully as he took a seat at the free end of the couch. Sam and Dean took the other seats, looking faintly curious now.

"Okay, what is this?" Dean asked after a moment of silence. "Why do you two look so tense all of the sudden?"

"Well…uh…we have to tell you guys something, and…you probably aren't gonna like it. Actually, I know you're not gonna like it. It's…well, it's about our mom. Mine and Nik's."

"Uh…" Sam said, looking quizzically at Dean. "…Okay What about her?"

"Her name was Sophia. Sophia Leandros?" Cal said, with just the faintest inflection on the last syllable to make it a question. He seemed to be studying the Winchesters for some sign of recognition, but they both looked utterly nonplussed. "We think she knew your father."

Sam blinked. "What, you mean she was a hunter or something?"

"Um…not exactly." Cal took a deep breath. "Okay, here's the deal. Nik and I are only half-brothers. I know my dad—" His mouth twisted bitterly, and Niko did his best to keep his movements subtle as he squeezed his brother's knee. "—But Nik never met his. Our mom didn't really talk about him much, but she said a couple things. She said he traveled a lot, and he never told her why, really. But he did come back around every six months or so, just for a night or two, and during one of those visits she—uh—she got pregnant with Nik here. She told us his name once—one of the only things she ever told us about him—and…uh…it was…" Another deep breath. "It was John Winchester, guys."

It was a good thing that Niko was so accomplished at hiding his thoughts. He was quite able to act like this story—this incredibly, impossibly flimsy story—wasn't entirely new to him, with enough free brain space left over to concentrate on everything that could possibly go wrong now. He knew very well that there was no possible way for Cal to be sure that any part of his narrative was remotely plausible, and that it was possible that Sam and Dean would see through him in a second and start demanding to know where he'd really gotten his information.

In summary, Cal was taking a great risk for very little reward.

Niko was going to kill him. He hoped his glare told Cal so.

Cal, though, seemed to be entirely focused on Sam and Dean, who had not yet said a single word in response to Cal's extraordinary pronouncement. They were sitting in their chairs as if turned to stone, and Niko was finding this to be one of the few times that he couldn't read another person.

He didn't like it, and found himself mentally reviewing the position of every hidden blade in the room.

The silence was finally broken by Dean, who said, very clearly, "No."

That was it. Just, simply, "No," and then a return to silence. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he wasn't glaring, but there was a certain implacable, threatening something about him all the same, like he was daring Cal to press the issue.

Which Cal, being Cal, did, of course.

"I know, it's hard to believe, but…"

"My dad did not sleep with your mom, whoever the hell she is. It's impossible."

"Why?"

"Why? It just…is, okay? I'm sorry, but you've made a mistake. It must be another Winchester. Pretty common name, ya know. Come on, Sam. We still have to pack before check-out."

And without even looking at Niko, he got up and headed for the door. After a moment, Sam, looking torn between disbelief and sadness, got up and followed.

Neither of them looked back once.

XXX

"Of all the hair-brained, ridiculous, ill-conceived ideas you have ever come up with, this one takes the cake. And I was here for the Chili Dog Marathon of '92, the Chocolate Cake Binge of '97, and the Great Pizza Consumption of '98. But at least those only ended in large pools of vomit. Then again, this might even beat the time you saw an episode of MacGyver and decided to make your own gunpowder. I…cannot…believe you."

Cal looked positively alarmed by his expression. "Nik, c'mon, don't be like that. I just wanted to help."

"I realize that. If I didn't you wouldn't be conscious to have this argument with me. That does not, however, excuse the danger you could have put yourself in."

"It wasn't much of a risk. They're only human—no match for you, bro."

"Thank you, but that doesn't make it any better."

Cal sighed. "Look, I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's obvious that we're never gonna agree on this. Can't we just talk about something else?"

Maybe it was the fact that he was still white as a sheet; maybe it was just the exhausted note in his voice. Either way, Niko glowered at him for a moment and then said, "All right, we'll talk about something else." He'd been pacing back and forth in front of the couch, but now he resumed his seat at Cal's feet and asked, "Tell me, how did you come up with that story?"

Cal shrugged. "Seemed like a pretty obvious one to go with. I didn't have time to think of anything better."

"You realize that you took a lot of risks, pretending to know their father's traveling patterns. It's entirely possible that their father always had them with him when he traveled, that he never really travelled at all, that they have a mother already and their father cheated on her….I grant you, they didn't seem to be suspicious, but you shouldn't have done it."

"Well, it seems like I've done a lot of things I shouldn't have done today," Cal snapped, starting to feel more short-tempered as the pain medicine Niko had given him began to wear off. "I took a chance, okay? I put a couple things together—the fact that they don't live here and seem to hate it anyway, the fact that the stuff they hunt can't always be in one place, the fact that this gig seems to have been passed down to them and that they only mention their dad, never their mom—I put it together and took a chance, and I'm not sorry I did. I thought you were gonna trust me."

Niko looked slightly taken aback. "I do trust you. That was never the issue. It's them I don't trust. Although I guess it doesn't matter, since it would appear that we won't be seeing them again—really, this time."

Cal rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that kinda sucks. I guess I don't blame them, but still—it sucks."

"I don't know. It seems to me that we're simply back to the way we were before they came here, and that wasn't so bad an arrangement." Niko smiled as he spoke, his exasperation fading as Cal yawned.

"I know," Cal said, through the yawn. "I just thought it would be nice for you—hell, for us—to have someone else. So it's not just us against the world anymore."

"It isn't just us now. Not anymore. We have Robin and Promise, after all."

"Yeah, but family…family's different. You know that."

"They'll never be family, Cal," Niko said gently. "Not like we are. You know that."

"Yeah. But they could be close. They could be something. And it would be nice, wouldn't it?"

Niko couldn't fathom it. He had never seen Cal so single-mindedly determined to add more people to their lives. He'd never even liked people—he even only really liked Robin and Promise about half the time. And Niko, who usually knew Cal's thoughts as well as he knew his own, couldn't figure out what his brother was thinking now.

"Yes," he said, watching as Cal began to drift off. "It would be nice."

XXX

There wasn't a single sound in the car all the way back to the motel, and it was one of the few times when Sam wasn't sure how to break the silence. Not that he didn't try.

"Dean?"

"Now now, Sam."

"But Dean…"

"I said not now. I don't want to talk about it right now."

And so Sam subsided for the rest of the uncomfortable ride and into the motel room, where Dean grunted that he was going to take a shower.

Sam chose not to comment on the weirdness of Dean showering before they left for an all-day drive, and instead simply asked, "Do you want me to get take-out for breakfast or just pick up something on the way out of town?"

"Whatever," Dean said with a shrug, and then disappeared into the bathroom.

By the time he reemerged, Sam had their tiny table laden with Styrofoam take-out boxes, including all Dean's favorites. As expected, the second his brother saw it he rolled his eyes and muttered, "Great, it's time to talk."

"Yeah, it is," said Sam, who seemed to have acquired a sudden and intense determination while Dean had been in the bathroom. "Pancakes?"

Dean heaved a sigh and sat down in the other chair, pulling the offered box toward him. "There's nothing to talk about, Sam. It's a mistake. They were wrong. End of story."

"Dean…" Sam said. "You don't think it's possible that…"

"No, I don't. It doesn't make any sense—"

"Why not?" Sam asked reasonably, knowing that sometimes the thing Dean responded to best was sheer common sense.

Sometimes.

"Because…it just…it doesn't," Dean said. "I mean, how old were those guys? Dad would have had to have met this chick, like, right after Mom died. There's no way he slept with anyone—hell, dated anyone—that quick."

"But how do you know?" Sam asked, deciding all at once to just drop any kind of subtlety.

"I just do. He wouldn't. He couldn't."

"He was grieving, Dean. People do crazy things when they're grieving. We both know that. And what do you really remember from that time?"

Dean shrugged. "Not much. He left us with Pastor Jim a lot in the early days."

"So he could have come to New York, then."

"He didn't."

"But he could have, and if he did, and he met Cal and Niko's mom, then—"

"Sam just…drop it, okay?" Dean said. He didn't sound angry, not even aggravated, just…tired. "It's over, okay? Even if it's true—and I'm not saying it is, because Sam, that would have been way beyond a simple mistake by the grieving widower—we're leaving town in an hour, and we won't see them again—"

And, perfectly on cue, as if someone above had just been waiting for yet another thoughtless repetition of that exact phrase, there came a knock on the door.

XXX

Less than an hour ago, Niko had whole-heartedly believed that he was perfectly happy to never see Sam and Dean Winchester again. He'd been content, after the initial argument with Cal, to drop the whole subject and start to get back to the way things were before that black vintage Impala had rolled across the Manhattan border.

He certainly hadn't harbored any plans, half-formed or otherwise, of waiting until Cal was deep in drugged slumber before calling Robin and Promise to come and stay at the apartment so that Niko could return to this dingy motel and talk to two people who in all likelihood would just open the door and tell him to leave anyway.

And yet, here he was. He wasn't nervous—or, if he was, he was never going to let anyone guess it—but that didn't mean he didn't wish he had a plan for this. He'd always had a plan for everything, for as long as he could remember, a Plan A and Plan B and Plan C-Z, and he didn't like being without one now. But honestly, how did one begin to plan for something like this?

It was Sam who answered the door, his long, lanky form towering over Niko, his head a mere couple of inches from brushing the doorframe. He didn't look exactly surprised to see Niko, but he didn't look too happy, either. He simply regarded Niko with an impassive, unreadable expression that somehow didn't belong on his face, before stepping aside with a muttered, "Come in."

Dean stared at him as he stepped inside, his hair damp and his mouth full, evidently frozen mid-chew. For a moment their eyes remained locked; then Dean gave an enormous swallow and said, "Dude, can't you take a hint?"

"Sometimes, when one is given. But if I recall correctly, you gave no hints—you just left."

"Yeah, and in some cultures, that's a hint. A really, really obvious one, telling you to leave us alone."

"And I planned to," Niko said, as Sam walked by him to sit in the chair across the table from his brother. "I did, I planned to let you two leave town and never see you again."

"So why didn't you?" Sam asked, still perfectly indecipherable.

"My brother," Niko said simply. "Cal wanted me to come here."

Both of them stared at him, and he couldn't figure out why. Then Dean said, "Seriously?"

"Well, yes," Niko replied. "We argued about it, actually."

"So you just suck enough that he wanted to dump you on someone else?" Dean asked. "Like he just couldn't get you away fast enough once a convenient excuse came along?"

"Dean!" Sam said sharply, looking appalled.

"Relax, I'm kidding. Sort of."

"It's all right," Niko said, and was surprised to discover that it was. "To be honest, I was a bit confused about it myself. With our lives…well, we don't really trust outsiders. Cal doesn't usually even like them. So the fact that he wanted me to get to know you was…a surprise."

"Then why the hell are you here?" Dean asked flatly. "If you guys hate everyone, don't trust anyone, and you and Cal are really as close as you seem, then why did he want you to come?"

"He's scared."

There was a second in which everyone was silent and Niko tried to figure out who had spoken the truth so bluntly, before figuring out that it had been him.

Evidently this whole thing had taken more of a toll than he'd thought.

Niko sighed and said, "Look, I think that you two probably know better than anyone what it's like to only have one person in the world you can really count on. Is that true?"

"More or less, yeah," Sam said before Dean could speak.

"Well, that's been Cal and I for our entire lives. We take care of each other." Better not to go into details, even if he might be talking to two of the only people in the world that he and Cal's relationship was different than that of most siblings'. It could only get sappy if he did, and no one would want that. "But Cal…he attracts a lot of trouble. It's a simple fact that he isn't the fighter I am, and after this…incident…and another a few weeks ago, he's beginning to worry that he won't always be here. He wants me to have someone to trust, if that happens. It won't, but there's no convincing him of that, and to him there's nothing as important as making sure I always have someone."

"He told you all this?" Sam asked, while Dean looked aghast, apparently at the idea of Niko and Cal sitting down and having that kind of talk.

"He didn't have to. He's my brother," Niko replied.

"So…what, are you guys expecting us to sit up talking all night and hug and share our feelings and forge a…relationship?" Dean asked, looking revolted at the very thought.

"No, actually, exactly the opposite," Niko said calmly.

"Okay, you've lost me," Sam said.

"All right, this is how it is," Niko said, carefully looking each of them in the eye. "I know that you two don't want to believe that we're half-brothers. But we are, I promise you. We are blood-related—and that doesn't matter to me at all."

Even Dean looked surprised by the iron firmness in his voice.

"What I mean is that just because we share some DNA does not make us family. I know, and I will make Cal understand, that he is my family. He always will be, and you never will—just as Sam will always be your family, Dean, and vice versa, and I never will be. That is what you've been thinking, isn't it? It is at least part of the reason that you left our apartment so abruptly?"

Neither of them confirmed or denied this, and after a moment Niko went on.

"Anyway, I know that both of you are as uncomfortable right now as I am, so I'll go. I just wanted you both to know that you don't have to dwell on this. It doesn't have to change anything. Cal will be annoyed with me for severing whatever ties he thinks I should form with you, but then, I'm annoyed with him for pushing me on this, so we'll be well-matched." He smiled a little, then let it fade. "I should leave. I don't want to leave Cal for long. Good luck on your next job."

He was already halfway out the door when behind him Dean said, "Wait a second."

XXX

When Niko slipped silently into Cal's room fifteen minutes later, having dismissed his friend and his lover from guard duty, Cal was still sound asleep. He hadn't indulged in his usual sprawl, but rather lay half-curled, protecting his injuries. Niko crept up to his side on silent feet and pulled the blankets more securely around his shoulders before sitting down next to him. Cal didn't even twitch, so deep in drugged slumber that nothing short of an Auphe invasion would wake him now.

Niko studied his face in the dim moonlight coming through the open window, absently fingering the piece of paper in his pocket as his mind drifted back to the events of the last hour or so.

He was still surprised at himself for having talked as much as he did. He couldn't even remember opening up that way to anyone except Cal. It would be embarrassing, if he knew embarrassment. And he would have expected that the Winchesters would have been mortified at such a display.

Only they hadn't been.

In fact, his little speech seemed to have been the thing that had galvanized Dean into action. He replayed the scene in his mind's eye, seeing Dean's closed face as he turned around, the way the older Winchester looked at the younger as he reached for the piece of paper that Niko now pulled out of his pocket to examine.

He studied it for a long time before his attention was drawn by Cal groaning a little in his sleep and shifting his position the slightest bit. Niko made sure he wasn't waking, then turned to look at the time. It was still early, and he hadn't slept, nor would he today. He would wait until it was safe.

Until then, he would make lunch.

He tucked the phone number back into his pocket as he stood. He would keep it. He might even use it one day, because even if they would never have family with the Winchesters, maybe Cal was right. Maybe they could have…something.

And maybe, just maybe, "something" could be enough.

XXX

"I don't believe this. I had him."

"Calm down. We'll get our chance."

"But how? That kid's gonna be as protected as the goddamn holy grail now!"

"Then we won't use him. Do you really think, darling, that I went in with that stupid little boy as my only hope? Please. No. Make no mistake, my dear: we are still in this."

Lilith smiled as she spoke, and after a moment the blond young woman who had lately called herself Ruby smiled back.

Author's Note: Well, that was…abrupt, wasn't it? I expected this to go on at least another chapter, but I guess it's ready to be finished now. So…hmm…hope you enjoyed it, and review, please?