[Cowritten with mini_dean. Sam = imnot_likeyou, Lisa = hisgumbygirl, Jeff is an NPC.]

Lisa was pacing, looking at her watch as he walked in and out of the kitchen. She was waiting for Ben, and starting to get a bit pissed off. This had been her idea - Sam, Dean, Ben and her having a nice cooked meal while Beth was on a job and Maddie was with her friends. Just a bit of family time.

And Ben was almost an hour late. "I told him not to be late today," she muttered, picking up her glass of wine again.

"Hey, it's alright," Dean said with a shrug. "I don't have anywhere to be. How 'bout you, Sammy?"

"Nope," Sam said, coming up from behind Lisa and placing a hand on her back lightly. "It's okay. Something probably came up and he couldn't call. I'm sure we'll hear from him soon."

She nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Both of you. It's just... ten years of worrying about that boy doesn't go away overnight, you know."

"Oh, trust me," Dean said with a chuckle. "We know."


Ben, meanwhile, was walking back from the garage. He knew he was running late but he had to stop in and give Mitch a list of things needed for one of the cars. Small things that were probably around the shop, but Ben didn't have time to look for them. Mom was going to kill him as it was.

He felt eyes on him as he got on the bus, something nudging at the back of his mind. But he tried to ignore it - this was New York after all. But when he got off the bus and started across the street to Sam's building, the feeling was back.

He got into the apartment as quick as he could, not noticing the black unmarked Jag that pulled into a parking spot across from the building's entrance, or the window rolling down to reveal Jeff's face as he tossed a cigarette out the window. "Thank you, son. So nice of you to show me where Mom is."


Opening the door, Ben shucked off his jacket and went straight for the sink. "Sorry I'm late. Work got held up and I've been just feeling paranoid lately so I took a different bus home."

"Don't worry about it," Dean said with a nod. "We were just gettin' ready to sit."

"This is just New York, honey. No reason to be paranoid." Lisa kissed Ben on the cheek as she went to start serving the salad.

"No, it was like I was being followed." Ben walked over to look out the window in the dining room. "Wait a sec... I saw that car outside the garage when I was leaving."

"What?" Putting the bowl on the table, she walked over behind him to look out. The door opened and both Braeden's eyes widened.

"Shit." Ben stated.

"What?" Dean said quickly, following them to the window and looking outside. He looked down and saw a very familiar man walking towards the building. "Son of a bitch." And with that, he was gone, out the door and heading down the stairs.

Sam came in a few minutes later, looking at Ben and Lisa in confusion, before turning back to his brother's retreating back. "What's going on?"

"Jeff," Ben said.

"We have to get out of here," Lisa said, rushing back to her room. "Ben, get your things."

"Mom..."

"Don't argue with me, Ben. Now!"

Sam glanced back and forth between them for a moment before heading after Lisa. "Hold on, okay. Just stay in the apartment for right now, alright -- lock the door behind me, don't let anyone in."

"Sam, I can't let him -"

Ben ran over, grabbing his Mom. "Where we gonna go, Mom? We're trapped in here." He looked at Sam. "You have a gun somewhere? I'll lock the door and watch her." His eyes showed he was deadly serious.


Downstairs, Jeff had waited until this cute little blonde walked out with her dog to open the door, then was looking at the names on the mailboxes. The name Winchester was on a particular one, and he smirked. "Got you," he muttered, starting inside to find an elevator.

Dean beat him to the punch, literally. He had decided to take the stairs and hold on to the element of surprise, and when he came out of the stairwell, Jeff was standing at the elevator, and Dean's fist was meeting his face hard. "I told you to stay away from them, you son of a bitch."

Jeff stumbled into the wall, recovering quickly from the surprise attack. "And I told you I would take it under advisement. However, that's my wife you kidnapped, and last I remember it's a crime. You want your son, fine. Ben's a pain in the ass anyway and you're welcome to him. but Lisa's coming home with me."

"Over my dead body," Dean replied, glaring heavily back at Jeff, watching the man in front of him, not letting his guard down for a second.

"That's how you want it to be..." Jeff went off after Dean, fists flying. One was wrapped around a tiny dagger, only the point poking out from the end of his fist as it went through the air.

Dean managed to catch whatever punches that he could and throw them back at him. Forty plus years of experience with martial arts did make him quite the force to be reckoned with, and while he could feel the point of the dagger catching him on one of the punches, and he grabbed the hand with it, slamming it into the nearby wall in order to try and get him to drop it.

He dropped the dagger, but used that focus Dean had to let his other fist slam upwards into Dean's chin. Jeff had a good idea now of the kind of fighter Dean was, and he was going to need some backup to get Lisa back. That or something which would make a better impression on why Dean shouldn't mess with him.

Which would lead to Jeff pulling a gun from behind his back and bringing it around to aim at Dean.

"Dean!" Sam had made his way out of the stairwell, catching the punch that Dean had taken as his brother stumbled back from the punch. His eyes then flashed to the gun, and his hand went behind his back to reach the gun that he had stashed there himself. "Dean, look out for the gun!"

Dean's head snapped up at his brother's voice, still in a bit of a daze from the punch. His eyes first went to Sam, then turning back towards Jeff, starting to try and move out of the way, but not moving fast enough.

The gun went off as Jeff made a dash for the door, seeing backup arrive with a weapon being drawn. He had aimed for a kill shot, but Dean moving sent it off course. Without waiting to see the result, Jeff took off for his car.

Dean would be out of commission for at least a few days. He'd come back and get Lisa in that time and take her someplace no one would find them.

Sam was caught between going to his brother and going after Jeff. Naturally, he went to his brother. Dean had caught the shot in his upper chest and was bleeding pretty bad. Sam was dialing 911 before he even landed on the ground, giving his brother a worried look. "Dean, just stay with me. We didn't go through all of this so you could die on me now."

Dean mumbled something in response, something that was probably along the lines of "I'm fine," but Sam didn't bother to try and understand it. He just waited for the operator to get on the line as he tried to stop the bleeding. "Please, you have to send help -- my brother's been shot."