tebtosca

“The creativity is this house is sorely lacking,” Misha deadpans, as he opens the third box containing pants that don’t belong in a costume shop.

“I think coming home from work and seeing you in a hula skirt was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me, dude,” Jared points out.

“You’re just upset that I wouldn’t give you my coconuts.”

“Yes, Misha, but how else am I gonna get lei’d?”

The entire room groans and pillows are tossed at Jared’s head as he laughs and attempts to dodge.

“Daddy, what’s get lei’d mean?” Kat demands, looking up from her new watercolor set.

“Such a bad influence, Jared,” Misha reprimands mockingly and smirks as he wraps the silk kimono snug against himself.

“Kat, stop listening to us when we talk and open your presents,” Jared insists, ignoring Misha and thrusting another gift at his daughter to distract her.

“Clever diversionary tactics,” Jensen grins, leaning over and hesitating a moment before placing a quick kiss on the corner of Jared’s mouth.

Jared smiles back and doesn’t even mind the catcalls from across the room. Kat is all teeth and dimples, and that’s good enough for him.

The doorbell rings then and they look at each other in surprise. Who could be stopping by at 10AM on Christmas morning? Chad is with his parents, but it’s the best possibility so Jared gets up to go answer it. He pulls open the door expecting a face full of Murray, but sees a messenger instead.

“I have a gift for Katherine Padalecki,” the messenger reads the slip of paper in his hand, mangling their surname badly.

Jared looks at him in surprise. “Does it say who it’s from?”

The messenger shrugs, obviously bored and not terribly excited about working on Christmas morning. “Nope. Sign here.”

Jared signs for the small package and goes back into the living room. “Kat, I think maybe your grandparents sent you a present. “

“Another present! Give it to me Daddy, pleeaaaaase,” she squeals, grabbing at the package before he has a chance to inspect it. She rips it open and spies a small jewelry box. Inside is a locket and she just manages to get the clasp undone to see what is inside.

“What’s in there, Kit-Kat? Let me see,” Jared insists, frowning at how still Kat has become. She is pressing her thumb over whatever is in the locket and standing frozen to the spot.

“Kat,” Jensen says, his voice suddenly deeper as he stands up from his spot on the floor next to the couch.

“Daddy, I don’t feel too good,” Kat whispers hoarsely.

Suddenly the entire room erupts in chaos.

“Holy shit!” Chris hollers as the clock on the mantel flies towards his head with barely an inch to spare. Pillows and gift boxes are flying every which way like the room is the eye of a tornado. The dogs are barking hysterically and running around in useless circles.

“Jensen, stop her!” Danneel screams and Jared is utterly confused by what that is supposed to mean. He tries to get to his daughter, but books from the bookcase start flying furiously at him and knock him sideways.

“Kat!” he yells and there is a high pitched whirring noise in the room like a giant machine is grinding around them. Objects are flying and he can barely see Jensen dropping down beside Kat to lay his hands on her shoulders. After a moment, everything abruptly stops. The flying objects fall to the ground, the noise stops, and Kat is staring directly in Jensen’s eyes like a zombie, tear tracks on her face.

Jared looks around, eyes wild. He runs to his daughter and drops down next to her, but she looks solely at Jensen.

“Jensen, what is going on? Kat, baby, look at Daddy,” Jared begs and he has no idea what to do. He looks at the roommates, who are all in varying stages of shock and distress. Danneel and Chris keep looking at each other and Misha almost looks guilty.

Rage fills Jared. “Will someone tell me what the fuck is going on!”

“She manifested,” Jensen says, so softly that Jared can barely hear him. His gaze remains locked on Kat like they have some kind of strange connection.

“What the hell does that mean?” Jared chokes and his head feels like it’s on fire. Every neuron in his brain is firing and telling him to get the fuck away from this living room, from this house, and from these people.

Jensen finally looks at him, while still keeping his hands firmly on Kat’s shoulders. His eyes are so sad and weary that it’s like he’s aged twenty years in the past three minutes. “Jared, what I’m about to tell you is going to be hard for you to understand, but you have to know that I never meant to hurt you.”

“Jensen, what the hell is going on,” Jared whispers, moving back and forth between hurt and anger at lightning fast speeds.

“Kat just manifested her powers. She’s probably a telekinetic. I’m an empath, with healing abilities both for myself and other people. Danni’s psychometric. Misha’s just odd.” Jensen tries for levity, but his voice cracks and Jared is horrified.

Jared grabs Kat roughly in his arms and backs away from all of them. He looks around like a caged animal. “This is crazy, you people are crazy.”

Jensen flinches and Jared wants to feel bad but he’s holding his daughter in his arms and something terrible is happening to her and there is no part of Jared’s brain that is able to comprehend any of it.

“Jared, it’s gonna be okay, we’ll help her,” Danneel steps forward, holding her hand out to try and touch him but he jerks away. He’s still holding Kat against his chest like a shield and starts shaking when he realizes how limp she is, even if her eyes are open and aware.

“Oh my god, you did this to her,” Jared cries out as realization dawns. “You put some kind of freaky spell on her. And me...oh god, Jensen all of this was a trick, some sick game. Everything I feel is some freaky mind trick. Oh my god, what did you do to us?”

Jensen is crying and Jared feels a pang deep inside of himself that he pushes aside. Jensen lied to him, betrayed him, tried to turn his child into an abomination.

“Jared, please. Just listen to me. It wasn’t a trick. It’s all real. I love you Jared, I love Kat, please listen to me,” Jensen pleads and tries to come towards him again.

Jared shakes his head violently and starts backing out of the room. “I won’t let you turn my daughter into a freak like you,” he bites out and is out the front door before he registers the sob coming from the next room.

Jensen manifested the week before his parents died.

The boy’s name was Justin. His hair was bleached blond from the Texas sun and he had a little cleft in his chin that Jensen would stare at in English class. He was on the debate team and played the lead in the school play and was the subject of many a classmate’s dreams.

Justin kissed Jensen behind the bleachers one late Tuesday afternoon. It was late spring of his freshman year and the air had just started tipping itself into lazy humidity. Justin’s hand curled itself around Jensen’s neck and Jensen was shocked enough to let his mouth fall open. Justin was a year older than him, and his tongue felt like it knew where it was going as it slipped itself in and licked Jensen’s teeth.

It was Jensen’s first kiss and although it probably only lasted seconds, Jensen felt like the earth had stopped moving on its axis. Justin pulled back and smiled against his mouth, and Jensen didn’t think anything would ever be better.

A minute later, Justin quirked him a grin and turned to head off. He was stopped by a hand on his chest and a hissed out “fucking fag!” as Rick the Meathead from the football team decided to start pummeling Justin’s face.

Jensen, to his everlasting shame, hid terrified behind the bleachers as Rick kicked Justin in the ribs one last time before spitting on him and running off.

Electricity flowed through Jensen’s veins then as he crawled his way over to Justin’s broken body. It was like every single nerve ending in Jensen’s body was on fire and the only thing that seemed to make sense was to curl himself around Justin, who was lying there in the grass.

A few minutes later, Justin sat up, his eyes stunned. The blood was still there on his face, but there were no cuts for it to have come from. Justin touched his ribs gingerly and then pressed, as if he couldn’t understand why they didn’t hurt anymore. He started backing away from Jensen, not standing yet, just slinking back like Jensen was poison.

Jensen lay there, a lethargy he had never felt before rushing over him, like touching Justin had drained all of his energy.

“Justin,” he croaked out, and even his voice sounded wrecked.

Justin jumped up and ran away. Jensen never saw him again.

Jensen went home and sobbed in his mother’s arms as she told him that he was wonderful and special and their perfect little boy. His father came in an hour later and together they calmly explained their family legacy, the power that ran in their blood and the blood of their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents before them. His father said that they had thought that maybe Jensen would never manifest, that he was older than anyone else before him. They smiled at each other and then at Jensen and stroked his hair like this thing that made Justin look at him like a freak was actually something positive.

They let him stay home from school the rest of that week and then come Monday, they pushed the limits of their own powers and were dead, leaving Jensen with nothing.

Jensen tried to slit his own wrists that same night, but the skin healed over before he could get too deep so instead he just hid in his bedroom and cried until Child Protective Services came and got him.

The Kane family took him in as a foster a few weeks later. He barely spoke more than three words at a time and refused to touch anyone, scared that they would know just from that, like they could feel the freak through his skin. School was almost out for the year and they were in a different district than his old one anyway, so they let him be. Mrs. Kane would make him pancakes when he stumbled out of his room at noon and only hummed a little when Jensen flinched back from her touch. Mr. Kane waited a month to ask him if he wanted to help him clean out the shed, and Jensen nodded because staring at the ceiling in his room was getting exhausting and he thought some solid physical work would help numb him.

Jensen smashed his finger a week later helping Mr. Kane build a birdhouse for the backyard and didn’t realize that Chris was standing there watching the wound stitch itself back together.

“That’s a neat trick there,” Chris drawled. His face was clear then, no ink to cover his skin, his eyes bright blue under normal, unridged brows, no synthetic whiskers around his heart shaped mouth. He was just a normal fifteen year old kid then, not a jungle cat, or an artist, or Jensen’s best friend.

Jensen’s face twisted with panic and he looked around in an attempt to find somewhere to run.

Chris’ face morphed then into something that wasn’t quite pity. “So, if you want to talk about it sometime, you know where to find me. “

Jensen laughed then, for the first time in weeks. “You mean in the room next to mine?”

Chris smiled brightly at that and Jensen realized that was the longest sentence he’d spoken since he arrived at the Kanes’ front door. Chris patted Jensen on the shoulder and let his hand rest there. Jensen didn’t shrug him off and it suddenly felt like a new beginning.

Jensen didn’t use his healing powers again until their junior year at UT. Chris had already started getting work done on his face and, though Austin was a lot more liberal than the Dallas suburbs, there were still enough people there that didn’t appreciate anyone they perceived to be different. Jensen tried not to think about Justin staring at him as he healed the black eye that he could only barely see around the ink tattooed in Chris’ face.

They moved to New York the minute they graduated and Chris got an apprenticeship with a tattoo artist down on St. Marks. They met Danneel a month later in a noodle shop in Little Tokyo as they were doing shots of sake. Danneel had held up her hand to caress Chris’ face around the third shot and paused when she touched the one right in the middle of the cupid’s bow above his top lip. That was the first piece of metal Chris ever got in his face. He had carried the little round ball in his pocket for three years and would touch it every now and again like it held all the promise of what he could someday become. Danneel blinked a little as she stroked the little ball and Chris held his breath until her eyes got teary.

She explained to them years later while tipsy on Merlot that she had seen everything a teenaged Chris had hoped and dreamed when she touched that piece of metal. Jensen ached when he realized he wished that he had someone that would know him that deeply.

Danneel had met Gen back in New Orleans when Gen was going through her Tennessee Williams phase. Danneel had just gotten her acceptance letter back from NYU and Gen had always loved her alma mater, so she finagled her way into one more try. Jensen never did figure out how she managed that but computer hacking seemed to be among Gen’s many talents, alongside debating quantum psychics and tormenting him.

Gen liked to stand in Union Square on weekends and sing songs that Josephine Baker taught her that decade she had spent bumming around Paris. Misha liked to sit on the bench and stare at her as she shimmied along to the music. Danneel dragged Jensen and Chris down to “support” Gen the day that Misha got on one knee and proposed with one of the leather bracelets he bought off one the nearby craft stands that had set up shop next to the Greenmarket’s vegetable sellers. Gen just snorted (she’d been hanging around Chris too much lately), pulled Misha to his feet, and invited him out with them.

A month later they sat in the Beer Garden on wooden benches eating potato pancakes smothered in sour cream and drinking Pilsner.

“I’m a vampire,” Gen had announced.

Everyone had gotten quiet suddenly. With a shrug, Gen let her fangs lengthen and rubbed her tongue against them. “See?”

“I’m psychometric. I can see things when I touch an object,” Danneel added as she wrapped her fingers lightly around Gen’s in solidarity.

Jensen’s stomach had flipped over, the pancakes suddenly heavy in his belly. Chris looked at him expectantly.

“I can heal people,” Jensen said, his voice low. “And myself, I can heal myself.”

He had never said it out loud before and the confession felt weird on his tongue.

“My penis hates unnatural fiber,” Misha had added then, breaking the tension as he glared down with disdain at his jeans and ridiculously chunky blue sweater.

They were still laughing a few hours later when Jensen realized he finally had a family again.

++++++

“You did everything you could, Jen,” Misha insists, absolutely serious for the first time in what seems like years. He’s leaning against the kitchen counter nursing a wheatgrass smoothie and eyeing Jensen with sad eyes.

Jensen hasn’t been able to sleep in ten days. All that he can think about is how Jared hates him. Leaving him is not even the hardest part. Jensen knows how to deal with loss, even on a most profound scale. But just thinking that Jared is out there somewhere thinking that everything they shared was just some spell or trick….it’s too much for Jensen to bear.

“He doesn’t know how to deal with her, Misha. She needs someone that understands her powers and how to help her learn to use them properly,” Jensen says, his voice gravelly from disuse. He rubs a hand over his face and notices vaguely that he really needs to shave if he ever feels like being normal again.

Ha, normal. What a fucking joke.

The house phone rings and he scowls at the noise. His head is pounding and even his fucking magical healing powers don’t seem to want to help out. When he had asked to feel pain he didn’t mean the emotional kind.

“Jensen!” Danneel shouts out, running into the kitchen.

Her face is pure panic and it terrifies him. “Danni, what happened? Is it Jared?”

She shakes her head frantically. “It’s Kat. That was her teacher. They can’t get a hold of Jared. I think she manifested at school and now they can’t find her. You need to go there, Jensen, talk to them!”

“Shit, fuck, yeah, Danni, I’m going. Did you get any leads off that locket that might help us figure out who sent it?” Jensen demands.

Danneel has been working on the locket since Christmas, but there seems to be some kind of block on it. Whoever sent it obviously knows about people with abilities and doesn’t want whatever information that locket holds to get out.

“Not yet, but I will. We’ll figure it out, but you need to go,” Danneel says, squeezing him into a quick hug before pushing him towards the door.

Jensen tries not to run any red lights getting to the school and runs into the office where Julie is gathered with a man Jensen assumes is the principal.

“Hi, I’m Jensen, Jared’s roommate,” Jensen says and it’s a lie at this point, but it’s the only thing that will help now.

“Oh, you’re Jensen. Kat talks about you all the time,” Julie says and she flushes which means she knows exactly what he is to Jared.

Was. Was to Jared. Past tense.

“You said you couldn’t get a hold of Jared?” Jensen prompts, bringing Julie back into the conversation.

“Hi, I’m Jim Beaver, the principal,” the older man standing next to Julie introduces himself, shaking Jensen’s hand briefly. “We called his cellphone several times and his work, but we couldn’t reach him. School’s letting out in 15 minutes so we’re hoping he’ll show up to pick Kat up.”

Jensen swallows thickly. “But Kat’s not here.”

Jim and Julie look at each other and Julie shakes her head hesitantly. “There was an…incident at recess.”

Oh god. “What kind of incident?”

Julie starts rubbing her temples furiously, like she can somehow rid herself of the memory if she tries hard enough. “It was the strangest thing. Mandy Cohen was saying something to her and then Kat went stock still in the middle of the playground. Suddenly things started flying, like there were hurricane winds blowing or something. Basketballs, sneakers that the kids took off, you name it. And all the kids were running around hysterical, but Kat just stood there completely frozen with this look in her eyes.”

Julie shivers and Jensen looks away.

“What happened to Kat after that?” he says, voice breaking a little because he knows the answer is not going to be good.

“I don’t know really. There was complete hysteria and when it was all over, she was just gone. We searched the entire school ground but we can’t find her. ”

Jim looks seriously uncomfortable, knowing the ramifications of losing a child from school property. “Jensen, I’m hoping that you can help keep Jared calm when he gets here. Then he can decide if he wants to call in the police.”

Jensen looks up quickly at that and shakes his head. “No, don't call them. I’ll take care of Jared and we'll figure out how we should proceed.”

Julie pulls out a tiny pink sneaker and hands it to him. It’s Kat’s. “This was on the field. It must have come off before she disappeared.”

Jensen takes the shoe and swallows hard, attempting to stay calm so he can deal with Jared when the time comes.

Ten minutes later, he gets the chance to prove that when Jared comes bounding up the stairs.

“Hey Jared,” Jensen says softly, staring at the only man he’s ever loved. Jared looks like shit, clothes rumpled, unshaven, purple smudges under his eyes. Part of Jensen is glad that Jared is suffering too, until he remembers what he’s about to tell him.

“What are you doing here?” Jared demands through gritted teeth, his eyes murderous.

Jensen holds up his hands and approaches Jared slowly like a scared, unbroken horse. He pitches his voice low so Julie and Jim can’t hear him. “The school called me when they couldn’t reach you. I think Kat manifested again and in the commotion she ended up missing.”

“Missing?” Jared chokes, eyes widening with disbelief as he takes in the sneaker in Jensen’s hand. “Did you do this? What did you do?”

Jensen aches in ways he didn’t know were possible. “I swear on my parents’ graves that I had nothing to do with this. I think Kat was taken, and I think it was by the same person who sent her that locket. Jared, listen to me, we think she was triggered by whatever was in it, and that it was on purpose.”

Jared is rubbing at his eyes, making them even redder than before. “God, Jensen, what did I do? This doesn’t make any sense. She’s just a little girl. She doesn’t have powers, for fuck’s sake. What does that even mean?”

Jensen’s voice turns firm. “Jared, listen to me. Your daughter is missing, but we can get her back. Danni is working the locket, as we speak. That’s what she does, what she’s good at. You need to come with me and we are going to figure out where she is and how to get her back. I promise you on my life, Jared, I’m going to get her back to you.”

Jared looks up and Jensen sees it, if only for a moment. That yearning to believe him, to trust him. It’s gone in an instant and replaced by cold steel, but it was there long enough for Jensen to know Jared’s going to come with him.

“Good, let’s go,” Jensen nods, grabbing Jared by the arm and pulling him towards the car.

Danneel rushes to them the minute they get into the house. “It’s Roché.”

Jared spins around and stares open-mouthed at her. “Sebastian Roché? The lawyer?”

“Goddamn it, I knew it,” Jensen curses, and he’s pissed off at himself. He could feel it when he shook the man’s hand months ago that something was off about him. None of this would have happened if he called the bastard out.

“Yeah, it’s him,” Danneel continues, leading them back into the living room.

“Did you see anything else? A reason? Motivation?” Jensen grills her.

She shakes her head with frustration. “I didn’t get too much off of it because he must have put some kind of blocker on it. All I can tell you is that he has some sort of psychic ability but it’s fueled by other people’s abilities. He absorbs them, I think, I’m not too sure on the specifics yet.”

“This is so fucking nuts, I can’t believe I’m listening to this,” Jared laughs hysterically and Jensen shakes him by the shoulders.

“Jared, fucking stop it. Look me in the face and tell me that you don’t believe me. That you think I could make up something like this. Hell, look me in the face and tell me you didn’t see what Kat was able to do on Christmas,” Jensen demands and he knows he’s being harsh but they don’t have time to play games.

“Yeah, yeah okay. I don’t know what I believe, but this seems to be the only option right now, so okay,” Jared relents, but his eyes are still wary and he can’t quite look Jensen in the face.

Danneel breaks in then, pointing at the shoe that Jensen is still clutching in his hand. “Is that Kat’s shoe? Was she wearing it when she went missing?”

Jensen’s eyes get wide and he practically throws the sneaker at her. “Yes, shit, here. Can you get anything off of it?”

Danneel’s eyes flicker as she holds the shoe firmly in both hands. “Roché’s bodyguard took her. He has a power…I can feel it. Strength, I think? Super strength maybe. He must have thrown some of his energy into the shoe when he was grabbing Kat.”

“Oh my god!” Jared chokes, his shoulders trembling. Jensen puts his hand on his arm, but Jared shakes it off.

“It’s okay, she’s not hurt,” Danneel assures him. Her fingernails twist in the shoelaces and she takes a deep breath. “I can see where they took her. It’s a warehouse near the water. Long Island City. I can get us there.”

“How am I supposed to deal with this? You touch my daughter’s fucking shoe and tell me you can see some super strong maniac drag her to some random warehouse? This is insane!” Jared is yelling and Jensen wants to reassure him but he knows it would only make things worse.

“Okay, you guys done arguing now? Because now is the time we use what Danni saw to think of a plan to rescue your kid,” Chris interrupts, coming fully into the living room along with Misha and Gen. “And, yes, we’re all going together.”

“Even me,” Misha says nervously.

Jared looks at him incredulously. “You haven’t left this house in years.”

“She’s our little girl too, Jared,” he responds softly and Jared looks stricken a moment before unshed tears fill his eyes.

“So, the plan,” Jared coughs, clearing his throat as they sit down to figure out how to save his child.

Jared can’t believe he moved his daughter into a house full of crazy people.

Okay, maybe they are telling the truth, but either way they are all definitely stark raving mad.

His daughter is missing and all he has to go on is a chick in a caftan getting psychic visions from touching a shoe and a guy who has lied to him from the moment they met. He’s spent the last ten days living in the guest room at Chad’s parents’ house, just him and Kat snuggled together in one too-small bed. In his frantic rush out of there on Christmas he had left the dogs, with the probably insane hope that they wouldn’t be hurt. All he knew that day was that he had to get out of there, had to get his child to some semblance of safety.

As he stands outside a warehouse in Long Island City, the chill off the river freezing him down to his bones, he wonders how he managed to fail so abjectly as a father. Maybe the McCoys are right, maybe Kat is better off without him.

“I’m sorry, Sandy,” he mumbles and turns away when Jensen glances at him sadly.

Misha is in charge of step one of this utterly preposterous plan. All he knows is that it involves Misha in a HAZMAT suit convincing the single security guard (who Danneel insists is clueless) that he’s from the CDC and that he has mere moments to vacate the premises if he doesn’t want to face imminent and painful death.

Four minutes later, a man in a guard uniform comes running out of the door like he’s on fire and Misha pops his masked head out to wave them in. Jared is dumbfounded but Jensen just smirks at him as they head inside.

“Never underestimate the power of Misha’s persuasion,” Jensen insists, as Misha pulls off the head of his suit and fans himself.

“God, my penis is fucking dying,” Misha grunts as ineloquently as Jared has ever heard him.

They head down a long, eerily quiet hallway. Danneel told them back at the house that Roché only bothers to have his one bodyguard protecting him. She guesses he figures he only needs the one because of the man’s super strength. Jared hopes that the man’s hubris will ultimately wind up helping them get Kat back.

Step two is getting over an elaborate series of lasers that seemingly trigger an alarm system. Jared discovered that Chris’ “swing” is really a suspension unit that Chris uses to hang himself from hooks in the ceiling. As gruesome as the idea was, the years of working with the technical side of the pulley system for safety reasons give Chris plenty of experience necessary to complete phase two.

Jared and Jensen working together manage to prop Chris up enough so he can crawl into the vent in the ceiling above them and rig up a makeshift hanging bridge. Then he straps a harness to himself that he attaches to a series of hooks attached to ropes hanging from the various ceiling panels. Jared watches in awe as he pulls himself along the ceiling and right over top of the laser field like a cross between a mountain climber, Tarzan, and Tom Cruise in “Mission Impossible.” Jared has to grudgingly admit that Chris is way cooler than him and Kat chose her best friend really well.

Finally, Chris pushes the button that disconnects it from the circuit. With a wink at the gang he urges them forward and up to the next level.

Sitting at a panel of security cameras is the huge, bald henchman that took Kat. Gen turns around to them and smirks “I got this one, fellas.”

Jared looks incredulously at Jensen. They didn’t explain this part of the plan to him. “Gen is like four feet tall. How the fuck is she going to deal with Giganto over there?”

“Gen is a 227-year-old vampire,” Misha states simply with a nod. He pauses, looking at his girlfriend with lusty abandon. “And fucking awesome.”

Jared’s eyeballs almost fall out of the sockets and he glares at Jensen who just laughs nervously. “Um, I forgot to tell you that one, huh? Well, too much information at one time is never a good thing.”

“Hey big boy, remember me?” Gen calls out to the bodyguard, who turns around with a startled expression. When he sees who the voice belongs to a dangerous looking leer takes over. His tiny moustache twitches in his face and Jared is suddenly terrified for Gen, vampire or (oh god, what the fuck?) not.

“What do we have here?” the bodyguard sneers, standing up to his full height and lurching towards her.

“You fucked with the wrong family, you fat fuck,” she smirks half a second before literally flying at him and landing a sharp kick right to the middle of his chest.

He grunts and stumbles backwards, but recovers relatively quickly. “You dumb bitch!”

“Watch who you’re calling a bitch,” Gen snarls and pounces on him. Her suddenly sharp nails cut into the side of his head and it disorients him just enough for him to fall backwards.

Gen wastes no time in jumping onto his chest and landing several vicious blows straight to his jaw, knocking him out cold.

Complete silence overtakes the room. Gen turns back to them, blood covering her fingers and Jared stares at her in horror.

“Oh my god, is she going to drink his blood?” Jared mutters to no one in particular.

“God no, my woman’s not a cheater,” Misha hisses at him and sure enough Gen is wiping her hands off on the bodyguard’s shirt and grimacing at him.

“Well, that happened,” she rolls her eyes as Misha lifts her up like she weighs nothing and smashes her against the front of his HAZMAT suit.

“Jen, Jared, look!” Chris exclaims, pointing up at one of the security monitors, which has a clear picture of the inside of the room where Kat is being held. She’s hooked to some kind of machine and Sebastian Roché is standing nonchalantly a few feet away.

“Goddamn bastard, I’m gonna kill the sonofabitch!” Jared grits out, pounding his fist on the console.

“Me and Chris are gonna go figure out what room they’re in,” Danneel announces, grabbing Chris and running down the hallway.

Misha pushes Jared aside and manages to get audio so they can hear what Roché is saying.

“I followed your mother for a long time, Katherine. Once I found her working in that dinky little office, I knew that she would be perfect. Her power was so pure, so untapped. Poor little Sandra, just wanted to be normal,” Roché is purring to Kat on the video screen.

Jared looks at the others frantically, but they look just as confused as him.

Roché moves a little closer and bends down. “But in the end she was weak, your mother. She tried to use those powers on me, but she didn’t know who she was dealing with. She thought she could beat me with her mind, but mine was stronger. It made her brain pop, Katherine, just like yours is going to pop if you try and fight it.”

Jared gasps at the screen. Sandy had powers? She knew all this time? Oh god, was everyone lying to him?

“How could she lie to me all that time,” Jared chokes out.

“Sometimes you get scared that the people you love won’t love you anymore if they know who you really are,” Jensen says quietly, his eyes so sad it’s like he’s drowning.

“Don’t you think the people who love you should get to decide that for themselves?” Jared spits out and he’s almost thankful when Roché starts talking again.

Roché tips his head almost wistfully. “I waited for you as long as I could. Made your grandparents fight for custody to get you and it was almost obscene how easy they were to manipulate. I don’t like the ones like that, Katherine, I like a little bit of struggle.”

“Mind control?” Jensen says in awe, staring at Jared, who is momentarily incapable of speech.

Roché continues on screen. “I thought for sure that the house full of freaks that you were living with would trigger you, but no, you refused to manifest. But a lock of mommy’s hair and a little bit of spellwork was all it took, right, darling? One little touch and the whole room went a-flying.”

Jared feels like he is going to be sick and Jensen must guess it because he places his hand firmly on his forearm. Jared stares down at it, realizing now exactly what that calming influence was. Jensen quite literally has magical hands. Jared tears his eyes away from where it’s rested, but doesn’t pull away. He’ll take any comfort he can get at the moment.

Roché is closer to Kat now, too close. They have to strain to hear what he whispers. “I’m going to use your mind to fuel mine, Katherine. Together we’re going to be a great team.”

Suddenly a spark goes off above their heads and all the monitors go off.

“Over here!” Chris shouts from somewhere down the corridor. “We found the room!”

Jared’s never run so fast in his life.

Jensen can barely believe what they just heard come out of Roché’s mouth on the monitors. He thinks about his parents, wonders if they knew about people like Roché using other people’s powers to fuel their own. He thinks back to how they died and starts to wonder. He knows that they sacrificed their lives to heal a group of kids who were dying, but now he starts to wonder just how those kids came to be so gravely injured in the first place. He’s starting to think that only people with powers would require enough of his parents’ life force to actually kill them.

He brushes off the past as Danneel touches the security keypad and sees the code it takes to open the door, allowing them to burst into the room. A burst of light envelops them and he does his best to shield his eyes from the glare. It dies down just enough for him to see Sebastian Roché on his knees in front of Kat in agony, bleeding out of his ears and screaming. Her teeth are grinding together and her gaze is laser-focused on him as she uses everything inside of herself to fight back. He’s never been prouder of a person in his life and if they live through this he’s going to make sure she knows it.

“Jared, stay back!” Jensen yells, as Jared makes to go to her. “You’ll make it worse! “

It seems like years but is probably only seconds when Roché collapses to the floor and Kat’s eyes roll back in her head.

Jensen pushes Jared back and yells “let me save her!” as he rushes to unhook her from the machine. He lays her gently down and feels for a pulse, but there is none. There’s blood coming out of her nose and her ears and he can hear Jared sobbing behind him.

Jensen closes his eyes and tunes out all of the noise in the room. With a deep breath, he places both of his hands directly over her heart. Electrical current rushes directly into his veins and he gasps, but doesn’t let go. He’ll give his life for her, if he has to, happily and without pause. Then Jared will know that he loves him and never meant to hurt him. All of his life Jensen’s been alone, but now in this moment, with his hands pressed to this little girl’s heart, he is more connected then any time he’s ever known.

The rushing in his ears drowns out the voices screaming in the background as he finally slumps to the ground and hopes that he did enough.

The sounds come at him like through a wind tunnel.

Chris yelling at him to fight.

Jared’s voice, telling him he loves him. Maybe Jensen’s already dead. Maybe this is heaven.

Kat’s voice breaks through then and if he was conscious of his body he would start to cry, because she’s alive and Jared will never be alone like him.

It’s enough now. Jensen’s done enough.

His heart stops beating.

PART FIVE AND EPILOGUE