Author: Restive Nature
Genre: Crossover
Type: WiP
Shows: Dark Angel and Supernatural
Disclaimer: Neither show represented in this fiction belongs to me. Dark Angel is the product of Cameron/Eglee and Fox, whereas Supernatural is the product of Kripke and The CW. No profits are made from this fiction and it is intended for private enjoyment only.
Story Rating: PG-13 up to NC-17 for language, violence and sexual situations. (All higher rated material will be contained in its own chapter and clearly marked at the beginning of the chapter. PG versions of these chapters will also be available.)
Chapter Rating: PG-13 for language.
Timeline/ Spoilers: This story takes place predominantly in the Supernatural timeline. This means that the Dark Angel structure of post-pulse America does not fit in. The massive changes will be that Manticore is decades ahead of itself and the characters from DA are born much earlier than portrayed on the show. There is no Pulse occurring. Any other changes to the structures or episodes of the shows will be (hopefully) explained within the story itself.
Pairing: None at this time. (The pairing will become evident as the story progresses, but much further down the road.)
Summary: Change can be a choice and you never know where the road you choose to take will lead you.
When It Changes
Chapter Thirteen
Moving On, Looking Back
“You guys got to help me!” Max announced wildly as she rushed out of the school. She glanced around at the other students pouring out of the doors on the second to last Friday of the school year. Only one more week and they would be free at last for the seduction of summer days lazing around town.
“What’s the matter Max?” Dean queried as he hefted his back pack over his shoulder. Max held her silence until they’d crossed the street and was away from her classmates. As usual Dean placed himself on the outer edge of the sidewalk, with Max wedged between him and Sam. “So?” he asked.
“Um, my class is having an end of the year party,” Max informed them softly.
“So?” Sam sighed. “Every class is having an end of the year party.” He wasn’t really concerned about it. There would be food and fooling around. The school yearbooks that had finally arrived would be passed out to those that bought them. Not that the Winchester’s had. John had already decided that it was a luxury they couldn’t afford. Just like school pictures and all the other memorabilia that came along with standard education in public forum.
“Yeah,” Max agreed, slightly bitter. “But Courtney Kimble convinced Mrs. D’Amato that we should have a party and a dance.”
“For fifth grade?” Dean chuckled. The picture he’d formed was amusing. He could just see the awkwardness that would surround the kid. The boys would act like idiots while the girls spent the afternoon giggling. Max nodded.
“Didn’t you have a party for Valentine’s day?” Sam asked, even though he knew he was correct. Max nodded again miserably. “So what’s the problem? You know about class parties.”
“Yeah, but this time there’s gonna be dancing,” Max protested. Dean and Sam shared a glance over their sister’s head. They hadn’t quite figured out what the problem was, until Dean zeroed in on her words.
“Ah,” he droned out teasingly. “You don’t know how to dance.” Max nodded shyly. Dancing hadn’t been part of her Manticore curriculum, though she wondered if it might have been included, for mission purposes at some point. It figured that Manticore always seemed to skip over the things the kids actually needed to know about real life. Dancing and parties was just another in the long list of things that Max had had to discover for herself.
“So can you help me?” she prompted again. But both Dean and Sam were shaking their heads.
“Sorry kiddo,” Dean grinned. “I’m not into that teeny bop shuffle thing.”
“I don’t dance either,” Sam confirmed her fear. They’d reached their house by then and Dean unlocked the door to let them in.
“But at least you know what they do at parties like this,” Max argued as she set her backpack, once again devoid of homework, on the sofa. “Can’t you show me anything?”
“Sorry Max,” Sam smirked at her as he headed for the kitchen to make a snack. Dean threw his bag next to Max’s and was about to follow his brother.
“Dean?” his sister’s pleading voice stopped him. “What’s the teeny bop shuffle?” Dean stopped in the doorway and smiled broadly. He shook his head.
“It’s not an actual dance,” he groaned. He could see where this was heading. “It’s just… the shuffle.”
“The shuffle is a dance?” Max persisted. Dean groaned again. He could see that Max was certainly not going to give up on this. He wondered why. Usually Max marched to the beat of her own drummer, just as he and Sammy did. But then he realized what was fuelling her drive. Ever since her birthday and the party that her class had given her, she’d been starting to get along with the kids in her class more. And the unspoken rivalry that Courtney Kimble was bent on had amplified. But instead of ignoring her, Max was head on disregarding her and encouraging the other kids to do so as well. As a result, Courtney tried even harder to make Max the outsider once again. He wondered if Courtney had got wind of the fact that Max had never been to a dance and was using that as a final way of showing Max up. He knew then that he was doomed to help the kid. It might have been funny to tease Max and laugh off her ignorance at home, but he’d be damned if he let anybody else in this world pick on his family.
“Come on,” he sighed,” let’s get a snack and then I’ll give you a lesson in pre-teen party politics.”
John was startled as he walked up the path to the house, by a large burst of laughter inside. Without thought, his own countenance turned up the corners of his mouth and his step lightened. It amazed him still how that sound that greeted him when he got home from work had the power to turn his entire day around. No matter what, when the kids were happy, for the most part, he would be happy too. He just wondered what they were up to.
He opened the door to find Dean carrying Max around the living room floor, with one of his arms extended in front of them, his hand clasping the little girl’s. He spun her around and then moved back the way he’d come. Max was laughing and Sammy was sprawled across the couch, laughing at the pair. John stepped all the way in and slammed the door behind him.
“What on earth are you doing?” he demanded, though he was still grinning.
“Ve are tangoing!” Dean announced in a really cheesy Russian accent. He began humming badly to some obscure music that only he could hear. John blinked. Tango? Sam laughed even harder as Dean dipped Max so quickly and steeply that the girl had to scramble to grab Dean’s shirt, lest she fallout of his arms. She struggled feebly, giggling as he let her loose and she slid to the floor. Dean continued with the humming, spinning Max around the living room floor.
“Where on earth did you learn to tango?” John demanded impishly. “And so badly at that?”
“On ze television,” Dean answered grandly as he tried to continue dragging Max along with him. But the girl was too busy laughing at her older brother.
“And that’s why too much television is bad for you,” John answered wryly. He shook his head. “You definitely inherited my dancing skills.”
“Oh come on,” Dean straightened up, a mock pout on his face. “I’m not that bad.”
“At tangoing, yes, you are that bad,” John corrected. He left the room to deposit his lunch box in the kitchen and then came back. He looked at the kids. “So what’s this all about?”
“I have a party next week,” Max gasped as her giggles wound down. “Dean was teaching me to dance.” John nodded, though he wasn’t sure he liked the idea of his little Maxie getting all duded up for the pleasure of pre-pubescent boys to maul.
“Yeah,” Dean chimed in. “We don’t want her to be the laughingstock of her class now, do we?”
“If she dances like that she will be,” John sighed, though he was still amused.
“We tried to tell her Dad,” Sam piped up. “But she wouldn’t believe us.”
Max’s face dropped. “You mean I really just have to shuffle around the room while people step on my toes?” All three males nodded. It was a time-honored ritual. “That’s no fun! That’s stupid!” They laughed at the indignation on her face. “Well it’s not,” she protested.
“It might not be fun now,” Dean replied philosophically. “But it will be when you get older.” He glanced at his father. “Even Dad dances like that, and at his age too. It’s sad really.”
“How do you know what I dance like?” John demanded. Dean shrugged, his eyes not meeting his father. There was suddenly a shuttered look on the young man’s face. As far as John could remember, the last time he’d danced was with Mary, so many years before.
“I saw you and Mom dancing,” Dean admitted, confirming John’s suspicion. “Just before Sammy was born.” Sam perked up at that. Dean had been so young that his memory wasn’t clear about a lot of things about his parents. Everything had come into sharp focus with the demon and the fire that had taken their mother from them. All Dean could really share was senses, impressions and vague things about their mother. How she smelled, the softness of her voice. And of course, the devastation of her death ad sometimes robbed their father of the ability to speak of his memories of their early life together.
John’s face softened. He knew exactly the moment Dean had been talking about. It had been shortly before Sam was due. “We were listening to music,” he recalled, his voice soft and gruff, though the memory now made him smile. “You were in bed and your Mom’s back was sore because you kept wanting her to pick you up. She wasn’t supposed to but she did it anyways. So I was rubbing her back and the next thing I know, we’re dancing.”
Dean smiled as well. “I heard you come home and I wanted to tell you good night,” he explained softly, his voice carrying the same wistful tone. “You were in the living room and there was no music and you had your arms around Mom.”
“She kept saying that she was so big there was no way I could get my arms around her,” John chuckled. “But I did.”
“And she put her head on your chest and reached up and touched your cheek,” Dean whispered. “And then you kissed her.”
There was silence following that remembrance, everyone lost in the dream-like memory of the two older people. Sam and Max sat near one another, their imaginations taking them backing time to a safe place where all was right in Dean’s world. Where the only thing that mattered was that his parent’s loved one another and that knowledge soothed a four year old boy, allowing him to return to bed, knowing that his parents would be there for him no matter what.
Finally John shook himself out of his reverie. “I didn’t know you woke up,” he smiled at Dean. Dean shrugged.
“I always woke up when you came home late,” he informed his father. John looked surprised by that, but didn’t deny the possibility. Only in the first year of life could anyone accuse Dean of being a Mama’s boy and that was because with Mary nursing him, he preferred her over everyone else. But his father was an amazing close second in his affections. Once the boy had learned to walk, then he was definitely his father’s boy.
“Come on,” John decided, leading the kids into the kitchen. “Let’s get dinner started.” The subject was now officially closed.
No more was said of the subject, though Max’s so called dance lessons continued that weekend. She even encouraged Sam to get up and dance with her, even though he did exactly as Dean predicted he would and just shuffled around the floor, with his arms awkwardly resting around her waist. He kept her at the maximum distance allowed while still touching her. But at least by the weekend’s end, Max had a fairly good idea what to expect at the fifth grade party.
It really helped that Dean didn’t mind, and John allowed them to stay for the first part of Dean’s graduation dance. The ceremony had had to be pushed back because there had been roof damage in the old auditorium where commencement ceremonies were traditionally held. The contractors had begun work, but at last, the school had realized that the work wouldn’t be done before school was let out and decided to hold commencement the last weekend before school was let out.
So that Saturday afternoon, the Winchester family proudly watched as Dean received the diploma he didn’t really care about. They ate dinner, chatting with the other families that either had children graduating, or the friends of said families. In a small town, yearly graduation ceremonies were a big deal. Everyone in Dean’s class had graduated, so it was quite festive to have fifteen kids in the senior class all planning their futures.
The dance that followed was open to the public, since it was hard to get a good mix when nine of the seniors were female. The boys wouldn’t have minded, but the girls wanted to dance. So John, Sam and Max sat on the sidelines watching the girls flock around a flirtatious Dean. Once John had decided that Max had seen enough dancing, he herded them home, calling out a reminder to Dean about his curfew. To their surprise, he followed them home not much later. School dances just weren’t his thing.
The following Thursday, John had the afternoon off from work to attend both the fifth grade and eighth grade ceremonies. While neither was as lavish as Dean’s graduation, if it could be called that, the community considered these milestones as well. Heck, they even had a kindergarten graduation ceremony earlier in the week. It was simply an afternoon where proud parents watched their children being awarded silly little trophies to celebrate their move into the next stratosphere of school. Sam would move up to high school and Max into junior high.
John was extremely pleased and not all that surprised when Max won accolades all around for her schoolwork. Her teacher took a moment to explain to the other parents present about Max’s learning situation, as if most of them didn’t know already. They also handed out other awards, for creative writing, most improved student and things like that. Max was also given a little trophy for being the most athletic kid in class. That didn’t really surprise him either. And again, he wasn’t surprised when Sam won academic accolades as well. The kid was just plain book smart.
There was a combined party for the fifth and eighth grade students and their parents after the ceremonies. Some mothers had worked tirelessly in the morning to prepare finger sandwiches, punch and cookies for everyone to enjoy. John filled a plate and then waited for his three kids to do the same. They moved towards an empty table. Dean slid in across from him, excused from the last day of classes, since they were a moot point for the graduate. People talking and eating swirled around them and John took the moment to tell all three kids how proud he was of them. All three kind of shrugged it off, but he could see the gleam in their eyes. They were satisfied with themselves and with John for noticing their good work.
Eventually, Sammy’s teacher made her way over to talk with Sammy and congratulate him on a good year of schoolwork. She sat and chatted with John while he finished his sandwiches. That began an onslaught of teachers and students stopping by to chat with the family. Especially since it was common knowledge that they were leaving town. The family was quite private about the reasons why. To everyone else, namely John’s boss, he put about the story that he was offered a good position at a garage back in their hometown of Lawrence Kansas and the family was moving back there. So it made sense to the secretary when John had given her the post office box number there so that the school could mail the kids final report cards. He told no one of their true plans. That they’d be going back on the road to resume hunting. He’d only stopped for so long so that Dean could have his final year of schooling.
Mr. Thompson managed to make his way over to the family, wanting to talk to John about Max’s continued education. Upon hearing where the family would be moving to, Leo had worked with Beverly D’Amato at getting Max’s transcripts ready. They were certain that the school in Lawrence would be happy to continue her education in the same manner that they had. With that in mind, he took a seat with the family, his plan outlined and in his hand. John listened to the principal and politely waited for him to finish.
“Thank you very much Leo,” John spoke softly. “But actually, we were considering something different.”
“And what’s that?” Leo asked, slightly surprised, and especially since he’d discovered what a stickler was for the children’s education.
“Well,” John spoke slowly, pondering his words. “I’m thinking that now that Dean is out of school, and doesn’t plan on going to college,” Leo nodded at that. Dean hadn’t been the only child not to attend the twelfth grade career counseling that was offered. “We might give home schooling a try.”
“What!” Dean exploded, finally hearing his father’s plan for the first time. He looked over at an equally stunned Sam and Max. “You mean I finally get to forget everything I learned and now you decide that I have to teach these guys?” John laughed at that.
“No son,” John denied, his eyes twinkling. Leo looked interested as well. “What I meant was that since we’re going to be running a family business, we’ll have more flexible hours. You won’t be working on anything full time, right?” Dean nodded, understanding his father’s secret message. Family business meant hunting. “And so home schooling makes more sense. Max and Sam can each work at their own pace, with us supervising them. And maybe another lady I know,” he threw that in for the principal’s benefit. “While we’re working, she can supervise them.”
“Sounds like you have this worked out,” Leo commented, wondering just how committed John would be to home schooling. He’d hate to see these kids’ education suffer in any way. John turned to the other man.
“You said that Max would do well with home schooling,” he reminded. Leo nodded.
“Yes,” he conceded. “And I think both children would easily get through the course material applicable to them.” He smiled at Sam, including him in the scholastic praise. Sam returned the grin and stuffed a chip in his mouth. “But since the kids would be on their own, they might end up with a lot of time on their hands.”
“That’s where Dean comes into it,” John reasoned. “He can either watch them until I get home, or take them on historical outings. Or even bring them down to the garage.”
A smile lit up Leo’s face. “Hobbies can make excellent secondary studies,” he announced. “And depending on what they are, you might even get credit for them.”
“Like automotives?” Max asked. Leo nodded thoughtfully. “Dad and Dean have been teaching me to take apart an engine.”
“Not only that, but clubs like gymnastic or self-defense classes,” Leo supplied. “Maybe you might also be interested in joining a national club, like Scouting or 4H.”
“That sounds kind of cool,” Sam grinned. His mind was already whirling about how they could get credit for Pastor Jim’s camp on self-defense. John's mind roamed in the same direction.
“Then I wouldn’t have to baby-sit all the time,” Dean agreed quickly. Not that he minded babysitting, but he’d kind of had a more active role in his mind when it came to the ‘family business’.
John nodded absently at his eldest, and then turned to Leo. “So would I be able to get those information packets?”
“Certainly,” Leo agreed. “They’re national standards, but you’ll also have to check with the Kansas Board of Education in case there are other qualifications you need to meet.” John nodded. Leo stood up. “So when do you need that information?”
“As soon as possible,” John answered. “I’m working my last shift tomorrow morning. The kids will be getting their last bits of stuff packed up and we'll head out Sunday morning.”
“That quickly?” Leo was surprised. John nodded.
“We vacation every year with some old friends and they’re expecting us soon,” John explained carefully. “If we leave immediately, that gives us enough time to drop our stuff off at the house in Lawrence and then continue on to our friends.” It was a lie, since John had no intention of going to Lawrence too awful soon. But Leo didn’t need to know that.
“I see,” Leo nodded, the wheels turning in his head. “Well, stop by the office before you leave today and I’ll have that information for you.”
“Thank you,” John said with a note of finality. “I really appreciate it.”
“No problem,” Leo dismissed. He turned to the kids. “It was a pleasure having you three in my school and I wish you the best of luck for the future.” The three kids murmured their thanks and Leo marched off. John turned to ace the kids.
“Well, you better go say your goodbyes. You won’t get much chance tomorrow.”
“Yes sir,” they replied in unison. And slowly, the trio moved off to say another farewell in the long list of many.
Chapter Fourteen
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