Chapter Text
The day he discovered his scales growing in was one of the worst in Dean's life. The sun beat down on Dean relentlessly and glinted off the old husks of cars scattered throughout the junkyard. Dean picked up a few nails and placed them in his mouth, grabbing one to nail a board in place as he worked on the fence that Bobby asked him to help repair. Dean worked on the fence quietly, stopping only to take his shirt off, wiping off the sweat from his skin.
"Convince you to stop long enough to get a drink, son?" Bobby asked, a bottle of water in his hand.
Dean hammered in the last nail and put the hammer down on the car he was using as a work bench.
"Sounds good, thanks Bobby." He took the bottle and drank from it.
"Everything okay? Your back is all red, you hurt yourself?" Bobby asked.
"I don't know." Dean said, twisting to get a better look at his back. "But my back has been itching really badly lately."
"Turn around, let me see." Bobby said. Dean nodded and showed Bobby his back, leaning against the car.
Bobby stepped in closer to get a better look at Dean's back. The redness was mainly concentrated on Dean's lower back, it had a bumpy, scaly look to it, like a bad patch of dry skin. Or rather it did until the light caught it.
"Son of a balls!" Bobby swore, realizing what he was looking at. "Son of a goddamn bitch!" He stepped away from Dean and let loose a steady stream of profanity.
Dean turned around. "What? What is it? What's wrong, is it some kind of cancer?" he babbled.
Bobby stopped swearing and looked at Dean. "No you idgit, it's not cancer, you're Dragonkin."
"What?!" Dean shrieked. "I can't be Dragonkin!" Dean started to hyperventilate at the thought of being...he couldn't even finish his thought, his father would kill him if it was true. The world went black as Dean fainted dead away, his head hitting the car's bumper on the way down.
"Welcome back to the land of the living." Bobby said as Dean opened his eyes with a low groan. He was laying on Bobby's sofa and sat up with some help from Bobby.
"I just had the strangest dream that I had had a rash on my back and that you told me I was Dragonkin." Dean took the aspirin and water that Bobby offered, swallowing them down.
"How many fingers?" Bobby asked holding two in front of Dean.
"Two." Dean replied after he drank the water.
"Good. Follow my finger." Bobby moved his index finger from side to side and watched Dean's eyes. "You whacked your head when you fainted but it's not too bad. And it wasn't a dream, you really are Dragonkin, Dean."
"How?" Dean demanded. "Neither of my parents are or were in Mom's case, dragons."
"That's not actually true." Bobby admitted as he put away the first aid kit.
"What are you talking about?" Dean asked.
"Get comfortable, this may take a while." Bobby sat down in his chair and took a drink from the glass on his desk.
The first time Mary met a dragon, she didn't know it. That dragon was her older brother's girlfriend, a copper dragon by the name of Meridith. Kyle and Meridith met when Kyle went away to college, he had always thought that his parents were wrong in their thinking, an opinion he had kept to himself over the years. When he was a child he wondered why his family was so dead set against the dragons, dragons had never done him any harm. When he asked why, the response was to not ask questions, that the dragons were evil and deserved to be killed.
Kyle and Meridith met during freshmen orientation and it was love at first sight. Well more like second sight, they saw each other at orientation and met in a class they had together, Herbology.
"Don't worry, she'll like you." Kyle reassured Meridith.
"Are you sure?" Meridith asked, fussing with the silverware. Her hair glinted in the overhead lights, a fiery blend of red and copper. Her blue eyes flashed with worry.
Kyle placed a hand over hers, the table was fine and set perfectly. Fussing with things was a nervous habit; one all dragons had when they were worried about something.
"The table is fine, stop picking at it. Mary will love you, out of my whole family, she's the only one I want to meet you."
"I thought you said your parents were trying to brainwash her into the fold, what if she hates me when she finds out I'm a dragon?" Meridith asked, putting down a spoon.
"She won't" Kyle replied
"But what if-"
"She won't." Kyle repeated, this time more firmly.
Kyle had invited Mary to look at his school, they had some programs he knew she'd like and had told her that he had a surprise for her. The first meeting between Meridith and Mary went fine, the two liked each other and Mary enjoyed looking around the school and the town it was a part of; so much so that she decided to add it to her growing lists of schools to apply to for college. It was summer and the list would be narrowed down, but this one looked to be staying. They decided to tell Mary the truth a few days after her arrival.
Kyle dusted off his hands, the picnic was excellent and where they were, a meadow, was an good spot to show Mary, quiet and private.
"There's another reason we wanted you here besides the school."
"What?" Mary asked.
Meridith and Kyle stood up. Meridith helped Mary to her feet and stepped away from the two.
"Don't freak out at what happens next, okay?" Kyle asked.
"I'm not going to hurt you, just watch." Meridith told Mary. She took another big step back and began to concentrate. An amber glow began to seep from her skin, getting brighter the harder she concentrated. There was a quick, outward burst of light and when it cleared, a copper dragon was standing where Meridith had been.
Mary stared in shock at the creature before her. A creature, that until now, she had assumed was another human.
"She's a-" Mary started to say to Kyle. "You're a -" she gestured at Meridith.
Kyle nodded as Mary gaped at the dragon in front of them.
"She's a fucking dragon!" Mary burst out finally.
"Yeah, she is." Kyle said, matter of factly.
"You're dating a dragon!"
"Yeah, I am." Kyle replied.
"You're dating a dragon!" Mary repeated as Meridith shifted back and came to stand next to Kyle. "Do Mom and Dad know? Wait, stupid question.."
"No, they don't." Kyle admitted. "For obvious reasons." Kyle squeezed Meridith's hand. "I wanted you to meet her, because you're the only one who would listen to me and not just kill her on sight."
Mary just looked at Kyle. "Are you sure about this? I mean, aren't dragons supposed to be able to brainwash humans? Maybe what you're feeling isn't real at all." According to everything that Mary had learned growing up, dragons were evil vicious creatures that took humans for their own, either to eat or mate with. And her brother was with one, surely he couldn't actually love this thing? This girl?
"And that's Mom and Dad talking right there." Kyle said. "Look at me Mary. I love her, nothing will ever change that, ever. I'm with her because I want to be, no brainwashing at all."
"Have I ever hurt you?" Meridith asked.
"No. You've been nothing but great to me and to Kyle." Mary remarked.
"That's why Kyle wanted us to meet. He wanted you to see how dragons can really be. I'm not going to lie and say we're just misunderstood, but my family and I want nothing more then to be left alone. We don't want to hide."
"I know what Mom and Dad are trying to do with you and I wanted you to know the truth." Kyle admitted. "Yes, she's a dragon. Yes, I love her. No, she isn't brainwashing me, dragons can't do that."
"We're able to speak telepathically with other dragons and with our mates, but that's it." Meridith elaborated.
"So showing me the school was just a lie to get me out here?" Mary questioned.
"No, I really did want you to see the school. But this was the other reason. I'm trusting you to not blab to Mom and Dad about Meridith. Can you do that?" Kyle asked.
"What happens if I do tell them?"
"We leave and you'll never see me again." Kyle replied. "I love you little sister, but if you can't be trusted, then I will run."
"Are you really happy with her?" Mary asked softly.
Kyle nodded.
"Then I'll stay quiet."
Kyle and Meridith were married at night in secret. The only ones to attend were Mary, Meridith's parents and two friends, all sworn to keep quiet. It was soon after, that Mary began to openly rebel against her family.
"Mom's family was anti dragon? That explains why she never really wanted to talk about them. And Uncle Kyle is married to a dragon? What's she like?"
"I never met her, but Mary enjoyed being around her." Bobby shifted in his chair before getting back to the story.
When John and Mary first met each other, it had been at a debate on if dragons deserved to been seen and treated as people and all the rights that went along with it. Mary was arguing for the pro dragon side, her arguments were well thought out and her reasoning clear. And while John didn't agree with what she was saying, she was interesting enough for him to want to talk to her after the debate. Mary looked at him warily when he introduced himself, but was willing to talk. They spent most of the night talking about dragons and their place in the world and why they're treated the way they were. While they were on different sides of the subject, they could agree to disagree and moved onto other subjects.
John's interest in Mary worked out in his favor when he came to her house and introduced himself to her mother. Mary wasn't home at the time, but he did manage to find out that their families ran in the same anti dragon circles. The Campbell family had just moved to town a few months ago, but their name preceded them. Both Deanna and Samuel were as anti dragon as his folks. Mary's mother loved the idea of John trying to help Mary see sense and come back into the fold.
"I don't know where she gets it from, not my side of the family, that's for sure." Deanna told John. "Her father does have that very distant cousin that is foolish enough to think that dragons are just like us, but Mary's never met him. We made sure to raise both her and her brother right." She sighed. "Honestly John, I'd love for her to meet a nice boy like you and forget about all this nonsense and settle down. Married life is what Mary needs, not to be running around crusading for a bunch of animals."
"That is part of the reason I'm here Ma'am. I'd like to take your daughter on a date, if that's all right with you."
Deanna's face lit up like the sun and they began to plan and set a date.
"Hold on, Dad and Grandma set up my parents?" Dean asked, draining his glass.
Bobby nodded, getting up for another drink. Dean handed him his empty glass, asking for more water.
"Yeah, they did. Your mother was not thrilled about it." Bobby came back into the living room, handing Dean his glass, and sitting back down.
Mary looked at herself in the bedroom mirror and sighed heavily to herself. She looked nice, her jeans were new and the shirt had just been washed. Mary eyed her small collection of make up and picked up the mascara, swiping it across her lashes. She knew exactly what was going on, her mother had set her up on another date.
Oh well. At least this time she already knew the guy...
It was another attempt on her parents part to make her see what they referred to as 'common sense', and she thought of as 'barbaric hatred and slaughter'. John at the very least, could argue why he hated dragons intelligently. Mary hoped she could get through dinner without tossing her drink in his face. That alone would be a vast improvement over her last 'date'. Her last date had also tried to cop a feel, Mary stabbed his hand that had been on her thigh with her fork, kneed him in the balls and fractured his wrist when she shoved him away. The fall to the ground is what fractured his wrist. There was no guarantee of things going smoothly but she hoped they would. Despite their differences on dragons, she did like the fact that John could hold a decent conversation. Mary added some lip gloss, brushed her hair one more time and went downstairs to meet John.
They got out of the house with a minimum amount of embarrassment from her mother and John led her to his car, a blue 1969 Dodge Charger.
"Nice car. Thank you." Mary said as he opened the door for her. The thank you was more surprised than normal, normally dates didn't open doors for her.
"You're welcome and thanks." John replied, shutting the door once she was in the car. He got in as well and they were off.
John took Mary out to a little Italian restaurant that he liked and hoped that she would as well, a place called The Wolves Den. They sat and ordered and spent their time having a rather lively debate on dragons again. This time John was prepared and was able to back up his defence even better then when they had first met. Mary listened as John not only brought Darwin into his defence, but also the church.
"Evolution and religion, that's new. I've never heard anyone use both in their arguments before, normally it's one or the other." She took a sip of her drink. "Are you a religious man?" she asked.
"No. I just think they make a lot of sense is all." John said as they ate.
They verbally sparred back and forth so long that the remainder of their meal went cold and the manager had to politely kick them out. Both Mary and John looked around, every table but theirs was set for the next day. They apologized for the inconvenience and left so the staff could finish closing up.
The debate continued as John pulled into Mary's driveway and shut off the engine, once again getting her door for her. They spent twenty minutes alone leaning against the Charger, picking each other's arguments apart.
"I hate to bring things to a halt, but look at that." John pointed over Mary's shoulder at the sky. The sky was getting brighter as they watched.
They had stayed out all night.
"My throat is killing me and as fun as this was, can we please pick it up a couple of days from now?" John asked.
"Um, sure." Mary agreed, slightly shocked that they had stayed out all night. "I really should get inside."
"I'll walk you to the door." John replied.
"I had a nice time tonight, or last night really." Mary said as they came up the path.
"Me too. I'll call you in a couple of days, okay?" John asked.
Mary nodded. "Sure, but you don't have my number."
John grinned. "I can get it from my Mom, it's how I got your address."
"Oh." Mary said.
John bid her goodnight and Mary let herself into the house.
She was half way up the stairs when her mother appeared at the top.
"Mary, are you just getting home?" she asked.
"Um, yeah." Mary admitted.
"Don't let your father know. Did you have a good time?" Deanna asked, beginning to come down the stairs.
"Yeah. We spent all our time arguing, but it was fun." Mary said, a half smile on her lips.
"Oh dear."
"No really, it was." Mary said assuredly.
"Well as long as you enjoyed yourself." Deanna responded, walking past Mary.
Mary nodded and continued to her room.
One date led to two, which led to three and soon John and Mary were seeing each other on a regular basis. For the most part, they got along fantastically, except when it came to dragons.
But what John didn't know was that Mary was also seeing a dragon, no one did, it was one of her most guarded secrets.
The dragon that Mary was seeing was called David. David was a few years older then her, with sandy brown hair, olive skin and hazel eyes. They had met at a Dragons Without Mates support group, a group dedicated to helping dragons find their mates and helping those who had lost theirs. DWM was known to provide help and resources in a dragon's or dragonkin's search for its mate, and provide a safe shelter for dragons in heat without a mate, if they didn't already have a shelter. But its main cause was helping dragons deal with the loss of their mate. Mary was a surrogate mate and her main job was to provide the dragon someone to spend their heat with, someone to talk to and a body to hold. All dragons with a surrogate were required to take the provided herbal remedies and while sex wasn't frowned upon between a dragon and their surrogate, DWM wanted both parties to be fully aware of and in control of what happened.
In the event that a child was created from the union, the parents were given the choice to raise the child together, put it with a dragon friendly family, or to abort. The last option was rarely chosen and usually only in cases where either the mother's or baby's health was in danger. The window of time for that option was also rather short, because the fetus would soon grow its shell during the second trimester, and that only came off when the child was born. Most dragons raised their children either with or without the surrogate or it was adopted.
Mary met David and his mate Leeta at a meeting, DWM had helped Leeta to find David. The three had bonded together and after Leeta's death, Mary and David had stayed friends. Mary knew that the main reason that David asked for her to be his surrogate was her resemblance to Leeta, and that was alright with her, she didn't mind helping a friend sort through his grief. Things started innocently enough between them, Mary stayed with David at his apartment and the most sexual thing they did was sleep in the same bed and have Mary hold David through the worst parts of his heat. The majority of David's heats were spent holding hands and just having Mary around. They had kissed on occasion but that was it. None of that changed when she met John. She never told John what she did to help the dragons, he wouldn't have liked it at all. David knew about John and couldn't believe that his friend would associate with someone like him. David had heard about what John's family was capable of.
"It's mainly to shut my parents up." she told him one night while they made dinner. "But I do like him."
"What's he like?" David asked, picking out a radish from the salad Mary was making and nibbling it. "Besides the anti dragon thing."
Mary slapped his hand, picking up the last of the veggies and mixing them into the bowl. "No too bad, he's very passionate in what he believes in."
"More like a fanatic." David snorted, as the oven timer went off.
"You don't even know him." Mary shot back.
"I don't need to, to know his type. Promise me you'll watch out for yourself. I'd hate for anything to happen to you." He got the roast out of the oven, sans oven mitts. He shut the oven door with his elbow.
"It really freaks me out when you do that." Mary said, beginning to set the table.
"That's why I like doing it." David snickered.
Mary just sighed, shook her head, and continued setting the table.
Things changed drastically late one afternoon for John and Mary when they were parked out at Panther Canyon. Panther Canyon was named so, because you used to be able to see panthers in it. But no one had seen any in around fifty years or so, due to hunting, so it was mainly used as a make out spot by teens and young college students. They were sitting on the hood, eating take out and talking, when the subject of John's car came up.
"Man, I love this car. I don't think I'll ever get rid of it." John patted the hood, smiling at the car.
"Seriously? What if you have a family some day? A Charger isn't the best for that." Mary stole a french fry from John and ate it.
"I can get a bigger car, besides I don't see that happening anytime soon." John protested. "Not to mention that there's plenty that you can do with this car."
Mary snorted as John stole one of her fries. "Like what? Flip Boss Hogg the finger and jump it over a pile of dirt or a haystack? And what other car would you get anyway?"
John coughed as he drank his soda, trying not to laugh. "That would be fun and you know it, and I'd get, I don't know maybe an Impala or something."
"An Impala? That's the best you can do?" Mary looked at John. "So what else would this car be good for, it's not like you can have sex in it."
"Yes, you can." John retorted.
"Where? Look at those seats." Mary pointed at the bucket seats in the front. "There's no room."
"Not in the front, in the back, plenty of room there." John got off the hood of the car.
"And you know this how? Have you had sex in this car?" Mary asked, staying where she was.
John laughed. "No, but I know there's room." He opened the passenger door. "Look I'll prove it. Come here."
"Oh really? No thanks, I'll stay here." Mary tossed the remainder of her fries into the paper bag.
"I'm not gonna do anything. Just come here." John said.
Mary looked at him and hopped off the hood. "No way you could have sex in this car, there's no room at all."
"Just get in the back."
Against her better judgement Mary sat on the back bench seat and after some maneuvering, both she and John were lying on the seat. Mary shifted her hips and looked at John. "See? Told you, no room." She started trying to get up.
"Well, not lying down obviously, but if you were sitting in my lap or had your feet out the window, we'd have room." John replied. If she shifted or rubbed against him anymore... John moved to get up and pulled Mary into his lap.
"See?" he asked.
Mary shifted and made herself more comfortable. "Fine, there's room. But what if I were wearing a skirt?"
"Are you trying to be difficult?" John asked staring at her.
"No. I just wanna hear your answer." Mary smirked, rocking her hips.
John groaned under his breath. "Yes, you are." He grabbed Mary's hips and thrust up. "You so totally are." he mumbled, leaning up to kiss her.
The windows had fogged up completely and the sun was well into setting by the time Mary and John were able to pull themselves together and off each other. Mary's bra might have been left behind shoved into the crevice of the back seat, only to be found later by John when he was cleaning, and grateful that neither of his parents had seen it. And John's shirt collar might have been a little stretched out, but neither of them would tell. This happened a couple different times and would have been fine if their parents hadn't found out.
Mary had been talking on the phone with a friend when the subject came up and Deanna overheard it. Mary wasn't going into great detail, but enough that her mother could put two and two together and get four. Deanna immediately went to Samuel, who in turn went to John's parents. Both John and Mary were sat down in the Winchester's living room and a "talk" ensued. It consisted of their parents freaking out on them and just generally carrying on because they found out their children were having sex.
"Oh good god, it's not like she's pregnant." John burst out in the middle of one of his father's speeches.
"She could be!" both their mothers chorused. "What if she is?"
"Are you?" John asked Mary. With the exception of the first time at Panther Canyon, they had been careful, so far they had been lucky.
"No." Mary said. This was getting ridiculous and she said so.
"You're right. This has got to stop." Samuel agreed. "The two of you will be getting married."
"What?" Mary and John yelled."Why?"
"It has already been decided, the wedding will happen next week." Samuel said.
Both Mary and John sat in stunned silence. Well, this was new. And out of nowhere. What the hell? Being made to get married because they had decided to have sex with each other? Mary had known her parents, along with being dragon haters, had been a little old fashioned, but this was too much. Way too much. Mary got up from the sofa and walked out, the thunk of the front door following behind her. John looked at their parents before getting up himself.
"Nice going, I was going to ask her anyway, but thanks for screwing that up." John shook his head walking out of the room.
John left the house, scouring the street for Mary. He found her half a block away, the girl could move when she was pissed. John ran after her, catching up after a couple of minutes.
"Hey." he said, pulling Mary to a stop.
"What?" she asked snippily.
"Nothing, just hey. And to apologize for that mess back there, I had no idea it was going to happen." John squeezed her hand and they started to walk again.
They walked in silence for a bit before Mary threw her hands in the air and burst out "I can't believe they're making us do this! Just for having sex, like it was something wrong."
"Would it help to know that I was gonna ask anyway?" John asked.
"What?" Mary stopped in her tracks and looked at John, confused.
"I know the timing couldn't be worse, but I was going to ask you anyway. Not right this second, but sometime this year, I was gonna ask." John admitted softly.
"Why? We disagree on-"
"On one thing. It's not the end of the world, lots of couples do." John remarked, a smile playing across his face. "And since our parents seem so set on it happening, we should be a little happy, maybe?"
"I don't know John, we're so young..."
"I don't care about that. Do you want me to ask? Because I will, right now."
John dropped to one knee in front of Mary. "I planned to have a ring for this, but, Mary Campbell will you marry me?"
"Seriously?" Mary asked.
John nodded. "Dead serious."
"Not because our parents are making us?" Mary questioned, utterly floored that John was doing this.
"I want to marry you, Mary Campbell. Will you marry me?" John asked again.
Marry nodded, her hands shaking slightly. "Yes."
John's smile grew bigger as he stood up to kiss her.
She was hiding something, John didn't know what it was, but he could tell that something was going on. Mary had been quiet lately and was coming home late more frequently. John began to snoop around and hadn't come up with much, a quick check of her credit cards revealed nothing, and the most incriminating evidence was the faint scent of what he thought was dragon musk in her car.
He had even called her parents to see if they knew anything. He got a hold of her dad and explained the situation.
"This is how it all started with us. She was staying out late and coming home at odd hours. I hired a Private Investigator at one point and he found her going to pro dragon rallies."
John swallowed and clutched the phone harder, his palm suddenly sweaty. Could Mary be involved in dragon things behind his back? Why would she do that, she had always been up front about it before. He and Samuel talked for a few more minutes before hanging up.
Mary glanced in her rear view mirror, yeah he was still back there. He was three or four cars back, but Mary could still make out the Charger that was in line behind her. It was totally possible that she was being paranoid and that it wasn't John's car, but she decided to err on the side of caution and when the light turned green, drove to her brother's house.
John pulled over down the street, and watched as Mary pulled into the driveway of a nice one store house, and knocked on the door before going inside. He waited a few minutes and then drove up the street, stopping at the group of mail boxes when he saw the mailman.
"Excuse me, do you know who lives in that house over there?" He pointed to the house Mary had gone in to.
The mailman, an older gentleman, looked and shuddered with disgust. "A dragon and her lover. It's terrible how those things are allowed to live amongst us, they should be taken out into the street and shot."
"Thank you." John told him and drove away, glancing once in his mirror at the house as he left. A dragon. Mary had gone into the house of a dragon. He gripped the steering wheel with a worried hand and felt the sudden urge for a drink. He drove home, found the nearest bar and proceeded to try and drown the voice that kept screaming that Mary was cheating on him.
Mary watched from the blinds as John left. She waited until he was out of sight and then waited for another twenty minutes before thanking her brother and leaving to see David.
Later that night Mary came home after John's night at the bar and turned on the living room light as she walked in to the house. She looked over and jumped a foot in the air. John was sitting in the living room, a bottle and glass on the table.
"Jeeze John! You scared the hell out of me." She shut the door and came further into the living room.
"Where have you been?" John asked, his speech slurred.
"Out. How much have you had to drink?" Mary asked. The bottle was somewhere around a fourth to half empty, and she wasn't sure how full it had been to begin with.
"Out where?" John demanded..
"My brother's." Mary replied.
"Brother's?" John stated at her as things began to filter through. Namely that Mary had asked Kyle to attend their wedding and that her parents had thrown a fit about it. "But- but your family disowned him when they-"
"Found out he married a dragon. And it was my father who did and Mom followed suit. He's my brother and I still love him, so I kept in touch with him." Mary told John. Mary didn't know how Samuel and Deanna found out, it was never from her, but it caused them to throw Kyle away and they never spoke of or to him as far as she knew. They most certainly hadn't at the wedding, they went out of their way to pretend that he wasn't there.
"But a dragon lives at that house." John argued as Mary came over to him, sitting on the table in front of him.
"Yeah, that's his wife." she spelled out for him.
"Oh yeah." John said. Maybe the information would stick this time.
"Come on, you need to go to bed." Mary moved to help John up and to the bedroom.
Mary put up the bottle and rinsed out the glass. After she was sure that John was asleep, she called Kyle.
"John definitely saw me at your place today."
"Wonderful." Kyle muttered through the line. "You're playing with fire sis, you sure to want to do this?"
Mary glanced down the hallway toward the bedroom door. "I need to, David's going into heat soon, he'll need me."
"Okay then. Next time, use one of our cars, we'll be here."
"Thanks Kyle."
They talked for a bit longer hammering out details and then hung up for the night.
The second time that John decided to follow Mary, he stayed a little further back and she went to her brother's as before. Mary knew he was there the entire time as she pulled in and knocked at the door. John watched as Kyle let her in and waited for a bit.
"He followed me again." Mary told him as she walked in.
"Okay, let's wait a few minutes, see what he does." Kyle replied.
"Let's go out to dinner, see if he follows." Meridith suggested after John had been waiting about ten minutes.
"Good idea. He should get bored after an hour or so of seeing me visit with you guys."
They walked out the door and got into Kyle's car. John followed as they drove to one of Kyle and Meridith's favorites, making sure to stay a few cars back.
The three were soon seated at a booth in a window and Mary watched John pull into the lot, picking a spot under a tree, from the corner of her eye. "He's here."
"Well then, I suggest that we enjoy dinner." Meridith said, picking up her menu."
John left as they got their desserts from the waitress.
"So does you're husband know you're still seeing me?" David asked Mary.
"He doesn't know about you at all." Mary replied. They were in her car on their way to do some household shopping. David tended to prefer the farmer's market for his produce and an organic butcher shop for his meat, but there were still items he needed from the city market.
"Why not?" They pulled into the store's parking lot and got out of the car.
"It would cause a lot of fighting and I really don't want to get into that with him." Mary pocketed her keys and they went inside. "As far as he knows, I'm spending time with Kyle. We live close enough to each other now, that it's plausible, we're making up for lost time."
"And where does Kyle actually live?" David asked. "And does he know you've involved him in this?"
"It's his idea, so yeah, he knows. And he's over in Kansas City."
"As in where we are, Kansas City, Missouri, or Kansas City, Kansas?" David questioned, grabbing a cart.
"Kansas." Mary replied.
David snorted. "Well, we can't all live on the awesome side of town now, can we?"
"Don't give me that Missouri vs. Kansas crap. You know it's bullshit." Mary said. "Gimme the list, you push."
David handed her the grocery list and a pen. "But it's so much fun..."
"Just push the cart."
"So how did you and Mom meet, since you know all of this?" Dean asked playing with the condensation on his glass.
"I'm getting to that, don't worry." Bobby shifted in his chair.
A couple of days later, John's car began to act up and he took it in to be checked out. Luckily for them, he and Mary lived close by to a decent garage and he could easily walk home to borrow her car to do what he needed. It was the middle of the afternoon and he came home to Mary talking a nap. He picked her keys up from her nightstand and gently shook her shoulder.
"Hey Mary? I need to use your car, that okay? I'll be back later."
Mary sleepily blinked her eyes and nodded when what he said filtered through her sleep fogged brain. "Sure, have fun. What happened to yours?"
"At the garage. Richard's looking at it." John replied.
"Oh. Mkay." She burrowed down into the blankets and drifted back off. John left the room and quietly shut the front door behind him.
About a minutes later, everything that had happened cycled back through Mary's brain. She sat straight up in bed, now wide awake. This was not a good thing, not at all. David had been in her car recently and if John found out, he'd lose his mind. Mary groaned to herself, the desire for sleep gone. She'd have to wait until John got back to find out anything.
"What the hell is this?" John demanded, storming into the house a couple hours later.
"What's what?" Mary asked.
"This!" John thrust his hand at her. In his palm lay a scale, a shiny golden copper one. "I found it as I was turning into the driveway. It fell out from between the seats."
Mary looked at the scale. "It's one of Meridith's." she lied. It wasn't, but some of David's scales looked close enough to some of Meridith's, that she could plausibly lie about it. "It must have happened when I was visiting with Kyle."
John looked at her, the fire in his eyes dashed. "Oh. That makes sense."
Mary nodded. "Uh huh." She took the scale from him, walking into the kitchen to throw it away. "That was close." she thought as she tossed David's scale into the trash. That night while she slept, John took the scale out of the trash can.
The next day, John came over to Kyle's house, claiming that he wanted to start over and have a fresh start with Kyle and Meridith. Both Kyle and Meridith found it odd but were willing to listen to him. John smiled as they let him in. John agreed to a tour of the house and watched as the light played over the scattering of scales on Meridith's skin. The scale in his pocket didn't match, not if you looked really close. After he saw this, John quickly excused himself and left the house.
Kyle called Mary as John's car left. "Hey sis, your husband was just here saying that he wanted a fresh start with us."
"Really?" Mary asked. "Okay... Is everything okay?"
"I don't know, but he was watching Meridith and he left after like twenty minutes or so." Kyle said. "He seemed agitated. Everything okay with you two?"
"He used my car yesterday and found..." Mary's voice trailed off as she looked at the trash can.
"Found what?" Kyle asked.
Mary rushed over to the trash can, she hadn't taken out the trash yet, and began to look through it. "He found one of David's scales yesterday and I said it was one of Meridith's, they have similar coloring." She came up empty handed, the scale was gone. "Shit, he must have the scale and came to compare it to Meridith's."
"Oh crap." Kyle hissed.
Mary nodded. "Yeah, that sounds accurate. I gotta go Kyle, I need to take care of this." Mary hung up the phone and dialed another number.
"You need me to what?" Bobby asked.
"I need you to stage a car accident with John." Mary repeated. "David's heat is coming and I need to be there. I can't do that if my husband keeps following me. Please Bobby."
Bobby sighed deeply. "I know I'll probably regret this, but alright, I'll help. What do you need and when?"
"Nothing that would land you or him in the hospital, but enough to keep you busy for a few hours tomorrow night."
"What time are you leaving?" Bobby asked, making a few notes on what cars he had ready.
"Late afternoon, a little before sunset."
"I'll be waiting. See you then Mary."
Bobby pulled together an old junker truck and waited for Mary. She had called that morning while John was at work and told him what John's car looked like and the route she took to get to David's. And that John had developed the habit of following around three to four cars back. So Bobby waited on a side street and opened the bottle of whiskey he had brought for the occasion. He quickly splashed a bit of the alcohol on his shirt and turned the engine over, putting the car in gear. A few a few minutes Mary went by and Bobby rolled the truck forward counting off in his head as he sped up.
Bobby timed it perfectly, he ran right into John, hitting him in the side towards the rear of his car. There wasn't a scratch on John, but his trunk was crushed rather well on one side and the window on the rear driver's side was shattered. The car would not be driving any time soon. Mary was able to go on to David's with no problem as Bobby got out of his truck, briefly seeing her car in the distance, before turning his attention to John and acting the part of the drunk. He hoped Mary appreciated what he was doing.
Mary pulled into David's complex, she was cutting it close this time, the sun was already setting and David's heats tended to be more intense around this time and as the moon rose. She got out of her car, locking the door and made her way to David's apartment, very happy that he lived on the first floor. She hadn't even finished knocking when the door was pulled abruptly open, David standing in the other side. His scales were showing more and he growled as he yanked her into the apartment, slamming the door behind them.
Across from David's complex was a gas station and filling up his car was one Martin Creaser, but everyone called him Marty. He was waiting for the tank to fill when Mary drove by. Or at least he thought it was her. He watched as the woman got out of the car and yes, it was her. Marty watched her be yanked into an apartment, catching a glimpse of wings and light bouncing off scales before the door slammed shut. Holy... what the hell was Mary doing in the lair of a dragon? Marty reached in his pocket for some change and fumbled out a quarter, nearly dropping it in the process. John would want to know about this. He ran across the parking lot and dialed John from the payphone.
John looked at the complex that Marty had pulled up to. It was nice, was in a good neighborhood, and was fairly nondescript.
"That's her car right?" Marty asked, pointing to a red Toyota four door.
John nodded numbly, they were in the right place, he recognized the bumper stickers. "Stay here." he told Marty and got out of Marty's truck.
Marty nodded and told John which direction he had seen Mary go in, which helped John narrow down which building she could be in. After several minutes of looking, John found the apartment that he wanted. The blinds were semi open in one of the windows in the ground floor apartment and John could see Mary through them, she appeared to be talking to someone he couldn't see.
There was movement in the apartment and John could finally see who she had been talking to. It was a guy and he was a dragon on top of that! John could see his scales and his wings were flared out; this one must be near a mating cycle. John watched as the dragon embraced his wife and began to kiss her. He saw red when Mary began to reciprocate and kiss him back. He had known that Mary liked dragons, but he was totally unaware that it was this bad. She let those foul creatures touch her. John growled as the dragon kissed down Mary's neck and made short work of her blouse. He turned away as the fabric fell to the floor, instead going back to Marty and the truck. Mary's place was among the humans, it was time she remembered that.
"Well?" Marty asked as John got in.
"It's her. We need to go back to my house. Now."
Marty looked at John. "I thought you'd-"
"Just do it Marty!" John snapped, cutting the other hunter off.
"Okay then." Marty replied. "But if it was my wife..."
"We're coming back, there's just something I need at home." John said and then gave Marty directions back to his house.
The bullets needed were in the safe, stored in a wooden box. They were called Fireflies and Marty grinned when John opened the box to load his revolver. The bullets were packed with sulfur and powdered brimstone, silver shrapnel, and blessed with holy water. They went back to the complex, John telling Marty to stay with the vehicle. John quietly and quickly picked the lock on the door and entered the apartment. The entire place stank of sex and dragon pheromones and judging from the amount of noise tapering off from the bedroom, John had no problem knowing where they were. Mary had never been as enthusiastic with him. So she not only liked being touched by these filthy animals, she enjoyed fucking them too. John picked up Mary's blouse and headed for the bedroom.
Moonlight streamed through the bedroom window as John entered the room, his gun pointed at the couple on the bed. Mary lay on her side, leaning against the animal that masqueraded as a person, like what they had done wasn't wrong and inhuman.
"Get away from her." John growled.
"What are you doing here?" Mary asked, sitting up in bed the sheets clutched to her chest.
David hissed at John, how dare this man come into his nest and threaten his mate!
"How could you?" John asked Mary. "How can you betray me and our vows like this and share a bed with that thing?" Both David and Mary slid to the foot of the bed, David staying close to Mary, every instinct screaming to protect his mate.
When they reached the foot, Mary stood in front of David. "He isn't a thing, and if you're going to shoot him, you'll have to go through me first."
"What you're doing with that thing is wrong, it isn't even human and yet, you lay with it." John hissed.
"He's my friend and what I do with him is none of your business John. Once more, if you're going to shoot him, you'll have to do it through me."
John's heart broke hearing that his wife would choose to side with the monsters. He swallowed once and steadied his hand, making sure he had the two of them in his sights.
"If you insist on standing with that animal..." he said.
David had been watching John the entire time, he was serious, John really would kill her to get to him. Before either of them could say or do anything, he shoved Mary out of the way and leapt at John, forcing John to shoot him. Mary fell on the bed and screamed when the gun went off. She hit the floor and scrambled over to where David was, blood pooling around him.
"David? David, answer me!" she cried, shaking his shoulders. David looked at her, choking on his blood. He tried to talk, but blood just welled at his lips, a dribble of it sliding down his chin. Mary slapped her hands over the wound, a feeble attempt to slow the blood.
"It'll be okay. I'll get help and you'll be fine." A part of her knew she was lying, that David was dying fast in front of her, but she pushed it back down in fierce denial.
John watched as his wife cried over this lizard and tried to save it. "Mary." he said, trying to get her attention. "Get over here, we can forget about this and start over. I can make sure no one knew we were here and it'll be like it never happened. I can forgive you and we can go on, if you just come over here now."
Mary looked up from David, her face streaked with tears, one hand still over the chest wound, the other tangled with David's. "No. You're a monster, I'm not leaving him."
Hearing that, the part of John that still hoped that this was all a mistake, that desperately wanted it to be so, died. It shriveled up into a dry husk and blew away. John grabbed Mary by the hair and yanked her up and away from the dragon. John raised his gun to David's head, the dragon watching with glassy eyes, aimed and pulled the trigger.
"Get dressed, someone will have heard that." John growled at her, tossing Mary the shirt he had picked up.
"How could you?" Mary asked numbly, blouse hanging from her hand. "He never-"
"It tried to attack me." John hissed.
"He was defending me John, not attacking you." Mary replied, the numbness beginning to fade away.
"I said get dressed!" John took Mary's blouse from her hands and put it on her, rushing to get her dressed as there was a knock on the door. John took Mary by the wrist and hustled her out of the bedroom.
"Police! Open up!"
"Thank god you're here." John said opening the front door to let the officers, both of them men, one older than the other, in.
"We got a call about gunshots fired here." said one of the officers.
"Yes sir. My wife was kidnapped by the dragon that lives here, I was forced to subdue it." John said.
"No, I wasn't, you killed him." Mary argued, glaring at John.
"Forgive her please, the brainwashing by that animal is still affecting her." John told the officers, speaking over Mary.
"Go call for a bus and backup, we'll need to secure the scene." The older officer told the younger one. He nodded and ducked out to go back to the car to call.
The older officer turned his attention back to Mary and John. "We'll need to talk to you both about what happened."
Mary watched as more officers, crime scene techs and EMTs crawled over David's apartment. Over and over she told her story. Yes, she was John's wife. Yes, she knew where she was. No, the dragon had not brainwashed her, despite the propaganda that said so, dragons couldn't do that. She was here of her own free will and was this dragon's surrogate mate. That last part of her interview was ignored every time, the officers and EMTs saying that it was just the brainwashing talking and she'd be back to her normal self after some time away from the dragon.
"His name is David!" Mary wanted to scream. "Not 'the dragon', not 'the animal' or 'the creature'! David!" She shuddered as the EMTs rolled a gurney back through the living room, the sheet covering David bright and sticky with his blood.
"We'll need to take her to Glenham for observation, make sure there are no lasting side effects." an officer told John. John nodded and Mary was soon on her way.
Glenham was a cold desolate stone building several miles out of town. It was mainly used to house the criminally insane, but they also did a rather nice business in "rehabilitating" the so called victims of the dragons. Mary was admitted and once deemed not a threat, put into the minimal security wing. Glenham was a living nightmare for Mary, one she quickly learned to deal with. Whenever she tried to tell the truth of what really happened, the doctors always disagreed with her, telling her that she had been brainwashed into thinking that, and that once she accepted it, her healing could truly begin. Until she did, they were getting nowhere.
Mary knew they were wrong and that most of the "victims" here, were really victims of families who didn't care that their loved ones loved a dragon, they just wanted to be rid of them. The orderlies weren't paid to care as well and more than one had called Mary a scale slut to her face. Scale whore and fire breather were other names use to describe those who chose to lay with dragons. Scale slut and scale whore were rather obvious in their insulting nature, and fire breather sounded pretty until you realized what sexual act it was insinuating. Mary ignored all of it and maintained her story as the truth until she had been in there a little over a month and her period was late.
It was around then that she began to waver in her conviction around her psychiatrist, Dr. Erica Cartwright. When she did, Dr. Cartwright congratulated her on taking the first step to recovery and began to work with Mary on "healing the damage done by that nasty reptile.". Mary didn't really care what the fuck Dr. Cartwright thought as long as it got her out before she started to show. She would begin to show around four or five months and the shell, if it was David's, would begin to form around six months. The sooner she was out and back with John, the better she would be able to convince him that the baby was his. Otherwise this baby wouldn't stand a chance.
The reunion between Mary and John went well, all things considered, she said all the right things and was able to confirm her pregnancy. Telling John that she was pregnant with "his" child was a hard thing to do. When the doctor told her how far along she was and the expected due date, she knew the chances of it being David's were very good. Luckily the dietary needs and urges of a pregnant human female and a female dragon were very similar.
The shell growing around the baby was a big tip off. She was lucky in that John hadn't been at the doctor's with her when it was discovered. When John asked how the appointment went, she told him it was fine, but that the baby hadn't wanted to show what it was. It was technically the truth, with the shell forming around the baby, they wouldn't know what the baby was until it was born. The night Mary went into labor, was the night she became very worried about her life and that of her child.
"It's moved into position, when I tell you to push Mary, do it." The doctor said as he checked on both mother and baby. The nurse squeezed Mary's hand and wiped the sweat from her forehead.
"You're doing just fine dear. First child?" she asked as a way to distract Mary.
Mary gasped as the baby moved inside her. "Yes." she whimpered, clenching her teeth.
"Push!" the doctor told Mary. And again. And again. And again.
After what felt like an eternity, Mary gave birth to a blue and gold swirled egg, the size of a baby. The doctor startled at the sight of the egg, he had not been expecting this at all. The egg began to twitch in his hands, so he quickly moved to set it on some towels and the nurse saw to Mary while the egg shuddered and rocked in its makeshift nest.
"Is it okay? What is it?" Mary asked.
"An egg." the doctor replied as it began to crack open.
John wasn't going to like this. The doctor knew of his family and that they'd want the baby killed on the spot. The doctor couldn't bring himself to do it, his oath to help those it need and to harm none forbid it. He sighed to himself and began to clean the baby up; the child would have a long hard road ahead of him. As soon as the baby was clean, he was wrapped in a warm blanket and handed to Mary, along with a fragment of his shell. Mary memorized the colors on it before throwing it away with the others. As much as she wanted to keep it, it was simply too dangerous a thing to do.
Mary watched John interact with Dean. She had gotten lucky in the fact that Dean looked more like her, than David and that there was no visible sign of his dragon heritage. Yet. She hoped it never would but vowed to be ready just in case.
Dean was silent, the glass empty in his hands. "Dad did that?"
Bobby nodded. "Your mother risked a lot to make sure you and your brother would be all right."
"I remember a little. They always clashed on the subject of dragons. She seemed a little sad sometimes."
"She didn't want you boys to grow up to be like your father." Bobby agreed.
Mary looked at the stick in disbelief, according to it, she was pregnant. Again. Mary blinked and looked again. Yep, that was a plus sign. After nearly four years of being able to keep from getting pregnant, it had happened. Mary wasn't sure if she should be happy or scared at the thought of another baby. She settled on a mix of both. She would love this child but wasn't happy about having another child exposed to John's hateful way of thinking. With her choice made, Mary tossed the test away and went to tell John.
John held Sam very carefully, he was so small, John was afraid of hurting him. John glanced over at Mary and smiled at her. She smiled when he commented on Sam's size.
"He's a baby, he'll grow." she ran her hand through Dean's hair as he slept curled up next to her. "Soon he'll be as big as Dean."
John looked at both of the children that his wife claimed were his, wanting to believe it and not being able to completely.
"Go home Dean, you did fine today. I can finish the rest." Bobby said, standing up.
Dean stood, handing Bobby his glass and nodded to himself.
The bike ride home didn't take very long but when Dean walked in the door John demanded to know what had happened.
"I'm fine. Just had a fall at work is all." Dean replied. "I'm gonna go lay down, let me know when dinner's ready."
John went to get the first aid kit just in case, he wanted a look at Dean to make sure he was fine. John walked in without knocking and saw Dean standing in front of his mirror, looking at his back.
When he saw the swirling vine of gold scales along Dean's lower back, John lost his mind and the kit dropped to the floor. Dean grabbed for his shirt and turning his back away from John, tried to put it on. John slammed Dean up against the wall, cracking Dean's skull against it which sent stars shooting through Dean's vision. "I always suspected you weren't mine." he accused, throwing Dean to the bed, pinning him down by the back of his neck. John ran a hand down Dean's back, they were real.
The scales were the most noticeable along Dean's lower back, the scales were shiny and gilded and had already begun to harden. They also had begun to wind their way up Dean's back and branch out onto his sides. John made a sound of disgust at the sight of the scales.
The ones on Dean's upper back and shoulders were still growing in, they were still pale and soft to the touch. Dean managed not to scream when the first lash of John's belt hit.
"That tramp! I knew it, she did cheat on me!" John snarled, the belt hitting Dean again. John went on a tyrannical rant about Mary and what a cheating whore she was, a fire sucker that preferred the touch of an animal to a human. On and on he went, all the while whipping Dean with his belt. By the time John was done, Dean had passed out from the pain and had screamed his throat raw. He came to when he felt something prodding him.
"Wake up Dean!" he heard Sam say frantically. Sam pushed and prodded Dean as gently as he could, until Dean was more awake. The bad part of being awake, was that everything came roaring back to Dean. Everything that John had said and did and the pain that went with it. Dean tried to not whimper in pain as Sam cleaned him up with the first aid kit John had dropped. Dean succeeded for the most part, but every once in a while, one would slip out. Sam apologized after every one and asked what had happened and where John was now.
"No idea where he is." Dean admitted half delirious with pain. He haltingly told Sam what he had learned about their mother and Sam filled in the blanks when Dean couldn't say any more.
"You were like this when I got home and Dad was already gone." Sam said as he began to repack the kit. He helped Dean put on a loose t-shirt and lay on his stomach in bed.
"Thanks Sammy." Dean mumbled.
"You're welcome." Sam started to say when he heard the rumble of a truck engine outside. Sam quickly grabbed the kit and got out of Dean's room. He dumped the kit back in the bathroom and hightailed it back to his room, shutting the door behind him.
John was home.