When John opened the door at Joshua’s house that following Thursday morning he never expected to see Cassie and Jessica standing there. He could see Dean in the driveway getting the bags out.
“Hi Cassie,” he said with a forced smile.
“Hey John,” she replied before he reached to get Jessica from her.
Jessica began to cry and turned her head away from him while she held on tightly to Cassie.
Sam heard the baby’s cries so he came to the foyer and took Jessica from Cassie arms with no problems.
“Hey Sweet Cakes,” Sam said to Jessica as she smiled up at him.
Cassie was glad that Sam had come when he had. He took off out of the room with the baby after saying hello to her.

Dean nodded in the general direction of his father as he came in with the bags a second later and John moved out of the way to make room. Cassie reached to get a bag just when Joshua showed up at the door.
“Welcome back Dean,” Joshua said with relief on his face.
“I’ll get that, Sis,” he said smiling at Cassie as he took the bag from her.
“I assume you’re Joshua,” she smiled.
Dean cleared his throat so she turned around and grinned at him. Cassie laughed to herself, no I only need one Winchester man in my life you don’t have to worry.
Dean followed Joshua upstairs to the room he had for them. John was the only one besides the kids who didn’t know they were coming to Kansas. Cassie nodded at John before she went in search of Sam.

She found him and the children; Bethany and Jessica in the Den. Bethany smiled up at Cassie.
“Your baby is pretty like you,” Bethany said as she watched Jessica.
“You’re pretty cute yourself,” Cassie said as she ran her hand over the little girl’s flyaway blonde curls.
Sammy was surprised at Dean’s appearance when he walked in the room. His hair was longer and he had facial hair on his upper lip and chin.
“Hey you look like you ought to be riding a hog,” Sam teased.
Dean gave him a big smile.
“You finally got a Harley to go with your biker boots?”
Cassie laughed, “Yea he did it.”
“It’s used but its great man, you would love it,” Dean said as he grabbed Cassie for a quick kiss.
Joshua walked in the room clearing his throat.
“Cassie let Dean get a bike,” Sam said to Joshua.
“No way, I always wanted one,” Joshua smiled, “in that case kiss away” he added.
Sam laughed like he could stop them.

Jessica heard Dean’s voice and began to make sounds.
“Dada baba dada.”
“Hey that’s my favorite song,” Dean said as he went over to get the little girl from Sam.
“She should take a nap,” Cassie said.
Before they left the room Cassie gave Sam a letter from Missy. He looked at Cassie with trepidation.
“It’s not bad news,” she assured him.
“Thanks for letting us stay here,” Dean said to Joshua before he and Cassie took the baby upstairs.
“No thank you for coming we need to take care of Dad’s situation.”
Dean nodded as he made sure Cassie took her time.

John met Dean after he came downstairs again.
“I’m sorry son.”
“I know it’s not your fault but I know you aren’t used to me disobeying you. I’m not used to it either but things are different now, Dad, there are other lives I have to take care of,” Dean said.
Joshua was listening in the kitchen as he tried hard to be invisible.
“I hope you boys have a plan to keep this thing out of my head,” John said as he grabbed his head.
“Dad? What’s wrong?”
John shook his head but he looked like he was in pain.
“Every time I try to think my own thoughts my head hurts.”
Dean guided his Dad to the kitchen table. Joshua sat down with them.

“Dad even if it hurts you have to try to think your own thoughts that is the only way to defeat it.
You have to overcome evil with good,” Joshua said.
“I think that is the best idea the pain may just be an illusion to keep you from saying what you need to say.
Plus you have to help us find the cure in time.”
John grabbed his head again and screamed. Sam ran into the room.
“What’s going on?”
They told him about what had just happened.
“Well at least get him some Advil,” Sam suggested.
Dean looked at his Dad with sadness in his eyes as he went up to the bedroom to get some of Cassie’s Advil.

“Joshua, you think this is the only way?” Joshua nodded as Sam watched their Dad in pain.
They made him comfortable in his bed but they decided someone had to watch over him in case he got worse.
Dean brought in the medicine and it was decided Sam would take the first shift. Dean and Joshua went to his study to talk after Joshua put the Bethany down for a nap.
“Grandpa will be okay Daddy,” Bethany said before she closed her eyes.
“I hope so,” Joshua said as he kissed her cheek.
Dean waited in the hall while hoping they would get some kind of break in this mess soon. Just a little time to relax again, of course that was always the calm before the storm.

The phone rang before Joshua came out of the room so Dean answered.
“Hello.”
“Dean is that you?” Missouri asked.
“Yes, Hi.”
“How is your Dad doing Joshua called me to see if I could help with him a few days ago?”
Dean told her the situation.
“Well I think you boys are headed in the right direction with the good versus evil theory but I have some journal entries that may give you more help.
Maybe you could bring your family by later and pick it up. I would love to see your little one,” she said.
Dean agreed he would do that when Cassie and Jessica woke up. Looked like he would have the overnight shift with Dad but that was fine with him.

“But why would it be important for Dad to be angry with me?”
“Because fear and anger are what these things seem to feed on.” Joshua said as he sat down across from Dean. “It seems is as though they have had to modify their plans over the years based on what we have done. We’ve basically kept them on their toes.”
“Yea from taking Mom and Jessica I’m sure was a warning that our family was not in the clear until now threatening our children,” Joshua said as he ran his hands through his hair.
“Oh, Missouri has something for you Cas and I are going by later to so we will bring it back with us,” Dean said as he got up off the sofa.
“Good hopefully it will help us.”

Dean was shaving when Cassie woke up.
“Hey you, did your Dad say you had to shave?”
Dean wasn’t amused so he kept shaving. Cassie just watched a few minutes before going to wake up the baby.
“We’re going to Missouri’s house, I hope that is okay,” Dean said.
She brought the baby with her back to the bathroom.
“What?” he asked as she watched him silently holding Jessica who was making noises.
“Nothing,” Cassie said as she turned to go back in the room but he stopped her.
“I don’t need my father to tell me what to do and you should be nicer to me,” he said with a smile.
“I know I’m sorry it just came out,” she said as she watched him a moment longer before she went to dress the baby.

The rest of the family had dinner together but John was out of sorts. He tried conversing but it seemed like such a hassle for him to focus on a sentence that he gave up. After dinner Sam took John to the den to watch television while everyone else did their nightly duties. Sharon was at book club so Joshua put the dishes in the washer and took care of the kids. Joshua had hired a detective to watch his wife so he knew there was no book club. He already had pictures of her and another man that disgusted him; now he was just waiting for the right time. He hoped to wait until his family had gone so they wouldn’t end up in the middle of the mess it was bad enough Jon Jon and Bethany would be the pawns in the whole sordid divorce.

Missouri was a bit surprised to see that Cassie wasn’t a blue eyed blonde but she didn’t let it show, or so she believed. Cassie knew right away she wasn’t what the lady had expected but she didn’t let it bother her. She and Dean had rarely spoken about race since their marriage they wore out the issue when they dated. He assured her it didn’t matter to him; he loved her for who she was, she felt the same despite the frequent stares they received from strangers. Dean knew the attack on her had been racially motivated and it bothered him that people would want to hurt his wife for something she had no control over but beyond that something that wasn’t anyone else’s business, their relationship. It seemed to Dean life would be much easier if people let each other make their own individual choices instead of getting in each other’s way.

They sipped tea while Missouri went to retrieve the journal pages. It was actually a small leather binder with several notebook paper pages inside that were yellowed and some were torn.
“Well John said for me to pass this on to Joshua when I thought the time was right. He didn’t know were he would be or if he would even be alive when that time came,” she said as she left the room with tears in her eyes.
Dean didn’t know what to do and Cassie was a stranger to Missouri but she let Dean know it was his job to comfort her. He followed her into the study to see if she was okay.
“Dad will be fine, right?” Dean said as he stood in front of her.
Missouri shook her head. Dean went to his knees in front of her.
“What do you mean?”

“Dad you have to focus, okay,” Sam said as he father seemed to be looking through him.
“Okay,” John said before grabbing his head and closing his eyes tightly against the pain.
Sam could only watch and pray as his father took a deep breath and tried to relax a moment. Sam looked across the room to see the thing sitting in a chair.
“You can’t help him you know,” it said.
“LEAVE HIM ALONE,” Sam stated loudly as it faded away as it laughed at them.
Joshua ran in the room when he heard Sam yelling.
“What’s going on in here,” he asked.

TBC