Fic: Bedfellows (Supernatural)

[ivyfic]

Title: Bedfellows
Author: Ivy
Fandom: Supernatural
Rating: PG (language)
Pairing: gen
Warnings: Spoilers through "Nightshifter"
Summary: John hasn't always been able to chose who he does business with. Takes place shortly before "Nightshifter."
A/N: Agent Henrickson's line about white supremacists in "Nightshifter" just keeps bouncing around in my head. So here's a theory how he came to that conclusion.




~*~

Howard Fellowes had been on the FBI's radar for years. He was one of those second amendment crazies—touring the gun show circuit and shooting his mouth off. After 9/11 he'd gabbed on and on about how the pansy liberals in New York got what they deserved, how it had been worth a few hundred Americans dying to teach all them hippy senators to close the borders against immigrants. He'd even explained to anyone who'd listen exactly how to knock out the leaders of this country with weapons-grade anthrax. But as far as the FBI was concerned, he was just hot air. All talk, no action, no connections. Just some racist lowlife seriously overcompensating.

Then ATF caught Fellowes in the act of selling illegal firearms—heavy-duty stuff. Chucking him in jail wouldn't be worth much in itself, so they figured they'd turn him informant, get him to give up some of the bigger fish. His information was as useless as his politics, though, until he gave one name. A name that had a Special Agent Henrickson from the FBI swoop down and take over the case; a name that kicked Fellowes up from a worthless waste of flesh to a potential asset:

John Winchester.

~*~

"How long have you known John Winchester?" Henrickson sat in Fellowes's cell. He would have liked to do this in an interrogation room—do it properly—but Fellowes didn't need to be intimidated. If anything, Henrickson couldn't get him to shut up.

"We go way back. Way back. He keeps to himself mostly, but I know what he's doing."

"What's that?"

"Fighting the good fight. You know, the border patrol don't do nothin' to stop the spics from crossin' over into our country. They're coming across the border like rats from a sinking ship and you people sit on your ass and let them! And the Minute Men—don't get me started on those pansies. Militia, my ass. Just a bunch of pasty white boys sitting in the desert with loudspeakers. What do they do if a Mexican runs across the border? Nothin'. Say they're helping out the government, shit. They're just sitting out there drinkin' beer pretending to be heroes."

Henrickson cleared his throat. "John Winchester?"

"John," Fellowes got a look of admiration on his face. "John Winchester is a hero. A real one. You just look at him and you know it."

"Did he ever tell you what he was doing?"

"No, no, he was too smart for that. Cagey son of a bitch, you know? But I knew he was doing whatever was necessary to keep all red-blooded true Americans safe."

"And what was that?"

"Whatever was necessary."

"What were your dealings with him?"

"He came to me for guns, knives, flares, sometimes explosives. Mostly just shot guns, you know. Don't think he wanted to deal with your liberal-punk waiting period. You know what it says in the goddamn Constitution? We have a right to bear arms! That's right. Some lawyer up in Washington try to take that away but that is my goddamn God-given right!"

Henrickson shook his head. "It actually says, 'a well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.'"

"Damn right!"

"You are aware of the seriousness of the charges against you? And just how much the right information could help you out here?"

"Yeah."

"Then I suggest you stay on topic—exactly what has John Winchester bought from you?"

"It's not like a keep a ledger. He'd just come around once or twice a year, always pay in cash. Oh—there was one thing. He'd always get a few boxes of shot and a few boxes of salt rounds. Damnedest thing. Guess he just wanted to scare the spics sometimes. The women and kids, you know."

"When was the last time you spoke to him?"

"Must've been, oh, three years ago. Haven't seem much of him lately… kind of odd, that."

Henrickson made a pretense of shuffling through his papers. "John Winchester was killed in a car accident two months ago."

"That's a damn shame, a damn shame." Fellowes clutched his hand over his heart and raised his eyes heavenward. "So passes a true American hero. He was a true patriot." After a few moments, Fellowes looked back towards Henrickson. "Well, at least…"

"At least what?"

"At least he's got his son to carry on for him."

"His son?"

"Dean. That was his name. Dean. Had that light in his eyes, just like his daddy."

"What about John's other son, Sam?"

"Sam? Sam…" Fellowes looked like he was thinking. "Yeah, there was another boy. Real gutless fairy. Didn't like what his dad was doing; always hung back in the car. No grit, that boy. Waste for John to be saddled with that runt."

Henrickson filed that information away; if there was a division between the two brothers he could figure out how to exploit it.

"Dean I saw a few months after I last saw John," Fellowes continued. "I remember it cause he'd never come on his own before. Had a special order for me, took me a few days to fill it."

"What did he want?"

"Armor-piercing rounds."

Henrickson felt his face grow grim. "Cop killers," he muttered.

"Whole bunch of 'em," Fellowes said with a grin. "Guess you better watch your ass."

Dean Winchester, Henrickson thought. Raised by an ex-Marine, isolated, trained, warped by his father's racist crusade. And now it sounded like the son was even more dangerous than the father. A real monster. Good—those were the most fun to hunt.

Read on AO3.

Comments

[taniapretender.livejournal.com]

omg awesome !!!

I love how you brought Hendrickson to think this is what John was doing. Can I hope for a sequel ? ?

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked! Don't know what a sequel would be, though.

[ewanspotter.livejournal.com]

Even though this doesn't speak very highly of John or Dean (we know the truth though) this is excellent. Those last few sentences are amaing. Great job. Little does Henrickson know... ;D

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I'm just hoping that Henrickson will have a rude awakening about the Winchesters in the future. Glad you liked it!

[bubbleslayer.livejournal.com]

Henrickson is gonna make one huge mistake....

He's gonna underestimate Sam....

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Can't you just picture a fourteen-year-old Sam, pre-growth spurt, all pissy and staying in the car because he doesn't think his dad should give money to this racist pig? But hey, those guns had to come from somewhere, and I doubt they came from somewhere legal.

I just keeping watching the scene between Henrickson and Dean. What Henrickson says -- and then Dean tries to defend his Dad! He's not even trying to deal with this threat logically, it's just a knee-jerk reaction, and one that would completely play into Henrickson's picture of him. I hope where this is going is someplace good.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

In both the episode and your fic, I loved the portrayal of Henrickson as a smart, informed hunter. Just not the same kind as the Winchesters. I suspect that Fellowes saw Sam as a sulky teenager (with Dean making him zip up his jacket to cover the Martin Luther King Jr. t-shirt he wore on purpose), but at least that gives Henrickson a spot of weakness. I love that John could happily overlook anything that people like Fellowes were doing in order to what's *really* important to him, without spilling a single details about what he's doing. Smart genfic rules!

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Thanks! You really got what I was trying to show here, which always makes a writer happy. I love the image of Sam with the MLK t-shirt. The point is--even scum like Fellowes saw John as a hero.

[mclittlebitch.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed this and the previous story. It's so cool how you fleshed out little pieces of background that are sort of throwaway lines in canon.

This one in particular is great, it could almost evolve into a Five Things.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I don't know how it would be five things, though... I sort of see "Nightshifter" as the sequel. People keep asking me for continuations! I don't understand! /whining

Yes, I was writing these to procrastinate from doing freelance work, but hey, this can count as productive, right?

[mclittlebitch.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound pushy. Try to take the continuation requests as a compliment, I guess.

Procrastination is awesome.

Relatedly, is your most recent one the 'Wincest where everything ends horribly and it destroys their lives' you were talking about when we met?

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Um...if I say yes, will that completely spoil it for you? And I may have come up with a way for it not to be utterly horrible in some future story. Maybe.

I sort of like the demands for sequels. It's just in this case I really don't know what I would do for one. Really.

BTW, I met a friend of dotfic's at NYCC who knew me through your lj. Don't remember her user name, but it was kind of funny.

[mclittlebitch.livejournal.com]

I was just wondering. Realistic not-horrible would also be interesting.

I dunno, Five Reasons Hendriksen's Got The Wrong Idea? I'd be tempted to try a Cassie one, though beyond the humor inherent in "he said they fight evil so I called him crazy and dumped him, but then my father was murdered by an evil racist truck" I've got nothing.


Yeah, tirtzah was very amused you and I said the same thing about our meeting: "...and then we traumatized Eugene with the Wincest."

[lark_ascends]

Very very impressed.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[seren-mercury.livejournal.com]

Double points for it being a Hendrickson fic. This was great, I really liked it. You hit the nutty rambling soap-box standing nail on the head, repeatedly. Seriously cool.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Thanks! All the rambling was stolen from interviews on NPR, I freely admit.

[fleshflutter.livejournal.com]

That was awesome. It's completely understandable how Henrickson would think what he does of the Winchesters, and yet oh-so wrong. :)

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I just loved that line in "Nightshifter"--it seemed so bizarre Henrickson would think that. But if he does, oooo the possibilities. Makes me want to write an AU where John is a militant racist and Dean has always followed his lead and been the loyal son and Sam has serious doubts about it and eventually leaves because he hates what his father does... And then one of the times John leaves Dean alone, he falls in love with Cassie, and he has all these issues about maybe blacks aren't evil, but he can't quite get himself to abandon his father, and then Sam comes back thinking Dean is still completely bigotted and finds out about Cassie and realizes Dean's deeply conflicted about this and helps him to reconcile his loyalty to his dad with his disagreement with his father's beliefs...

[kronos999.livejournal.com]

This is a great Henrickson fic. It is totally understandable that he has built a certain picture of the Winchesters and of Dean. Also, love the last few lines. I am adding this to my recs page (http://del.icio.us/kronos999/type:fic_rec).

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reading (and for the rec)!

[clex_monkie89.livejournal.com]

You've been recced (http://community.livejournal.com/spn_themes/16273.html) at spn_themes!

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That rocks.

[anniehow.livejournal.com]

Awesome outside pov fic! And a great explanation for that remark

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Thanks! That remark seemed so out of left field, I just had to explore it a bit. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[nativestar.livejournal.com]

I really like this explanation of how and why Hendrickson has drawn certain conclusions about the Winchesters. Cleverly done and very believable.

Just to let you know, I'm reccing this at spnroundtable.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Ooo--awesome! Thanks for the rec.

Bedfellows

[yourlibrarian]

Actually I wouldn't have put it past John to have bought from Fellowes exactly because he knew no one would take the guy seriously.

Re: Bedfellows

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Well, Fellowes is a wingnut. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[kriptkeeper.livejournal.com]

Cool explanation of the line in "Nightshifter." You're totally right - the guns had to come from somewhere, and this makes sense.

Henrickson filed that information away; if there was a division between the two brothers he could figure out how to exploit it.

This line makes me afraid that Henricksen is going to use that info for psychological warfare against the Winchesters - I literally forgot "Jus in Bello," forgot that this was fic, and was like "Oh shit! They really can't handle mindgames from other people when they've already screwed themselves up so much! Henricksen's gonna break the boys!" And then I remembered...

So anyway, that's my long-winded way of saying: Great job!

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm still sad they got rid of Henricksen. They had to off him sometime, but there was so much more potential for him as a villain. Instead he just instantly believes. And he's NOT DEAD! I do not care what the episode says. :)

I'm glad you liked it!

[layne67.livejournal.com]

That was very nice, I like it! Yeah, I guess it's kind of easy to underestimate Sam - Fellowes, and Henricksen himself ( Bonnie to Clyde ).

if there was a division between the two brothers he could figure out how to exploit it.

I guess he figured out soon enough that there was actually no division between Sam and Dean!

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked it! There aren't enough Henricksen fics out there.

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

I really like this. It's hard to imagine what the Winchesters look like to outsiders!

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Thanks for reading!