The Plague Pt 1 FRAO Dean/Sam, John/Bobby, a little bit Dean/John
The Plague Pt 1
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairings: Sam/Dean and John/Bobby, a little bit of Dean/John
Rating: FRAO
Warnings: AU, M-Preg (Sam, John). Hermaphrodite characters (Sam/John) Graphic Sex, het and slash, Wincest (Sam/Dean)
Summary: In this world about 25% of all males are born hermaphrodites, although they function only as males. A demon creates a plague that kills most of the women of child bearing age, but one of the side effects is that the men who are born hermaphrodites catch the plague and become fully functional as females, without really changing their outward appearance. In order to keep the population from dropping dangerously low the government decides that all the newly functional “breeders” must have a male partner and give birth to at least one child.
My grateful thanks tio Sioux_Sioux for the wonderful beta work on the story.
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Darkness shrouded the rolling hills of the cemetery. Far in the distance the faint glimmer of light shimmered on the small pond in the vacant pasture beside the fence. The breeze ruffled the tall grass creeping up the hill side and spilling through the fence between the pasture and the neatly trimmed grounds of the graveyard. Small white caps peaked on the pond rolling across the surface in shimmering wave. Water slopped on the dew coated grass making small puddles.
Suddenly the idyllic scene erupted in chaos. A swirling vortex opened above the rolling grass, a blue-white tornado spinning counter clock-wise in ever expanding circles of energy. A figure stepped out of the mass of whirling winds. A form was tall, bulky in a way that bespoke of massive muscle and great strength.
Two smaller figures appeared flanking the larger form as he moved over the grass. When the figures got to the wrought-iron fence running the circumference of the cemetery grounds the lager one drew to a halt; raising a fist the creature twisted his fingers causing the metal to bend and twist. Soon the fence was ripped apart, gaping open.
The larger demon walked the length of the dirt path running across the ground pacing off distance carefully. When he had reached the desired point on the path he stopped. From a bag one of the smaller demons took out a large silver goblet, holding it aloft so that the chief demon could work his spell.
“They breed like a plague upon the land. Humans scattered to all points of the compass, building and destroying holding on to this dimension like vermin infesting a fine dwelling. Here tonight I will cast this spell. Let all the breeders alive now be struck down. We cannot defeat the whole of the human race by slaughtering them so then let them die by attrition, unable to reproduce themselves without the vessels that bring them forth to life.”
Lightening crackled in the night sky casting a sickly yellow glow over the lush green landscape. Around the demon the ground shook, from deep within the graves clots of moldy earth rose into the air. As the sky brightened the motes of dirt were snatched by the shrieking winds and cast out over the four corners of the globe.
One week later…
Dean pulled the Impala into the parking lot of the Motel Six in greater downtown Hadley, Arizona, population twenty-six, including the three Winchesters now occupying room
sixteen of the motel. They had come to Hadley on the trail of a Werewolf and by all accounts a very nasty one with a taste for little children, but so far they hadn't managed to turn up anything. A few days earlier they had run across a stone golem summoned by one of the locals and John had decided to take care of it. But his truck had ended up taking the brunt of the confrontation and needed some repair work on it. The three of them had been holed up at this dump of a motel for a week while Dean and John hustled money playing pool and worked on getting the truck back in shape.
He could see his Dad’s truck parked in one of the spots in front of the room and pulled into the parking spot beside the truck. He winced when he got out of the car glancing down at the crumpled rear corner of the truck bed where his Dad had decided to take out the stone golem the hard way. It had worked but the truck bed was sitting tilted at an angle and the false bottom of the flatbed containing his Dad’s weapons box was clearly visible. They had to get it fixed before moving on so that John wouldn’t get pulled over by the highway patrol for smuggling drugs.
Dean shoved the car door open and pulled out the white paper bags of food he had bought at the diner down the street, carrying them to the motel room door. He kicked the door until Sam opened it and Dean jerked his chin in the general direction of the car.
“Get the beer out of the front seat.”
Sam scurried across the hot asphalt barefoot and collected a six-pack out of the Impala. He hurried back to the room pulling the door closed behind him. Carefully he pulled one of the cans off the plastic rings and handed it to his brother. Dean dropped into a chair sorting out the food and glanced around the room.
“Where’s Dad?”
“He walked down to the AutoZone down the street. He should be back in a minute.”
Just then the door swung open and their father hustled in slamming the door closed against the glaringly bright sunlight. He deposited a plastic bag on one of the beds and settled at the table with the two younger men. Dean pulled a beer off the rest of the six- pack and slid it across the table to his father. John popped the tab and gulped half of it down in one shot.
“Damn it’s hot out there,” he hissed wiping the can across his forehead and wincing as the cold metal hit his heated skin.
Sam shoved their father’s food at him and then picked up the TV remote flicking on the news. The screen brightened to the sun drenched exterior of a large white building with the caption ‘St. Mary Magdalene Hospital’ on the bottom of the picture.
Sam thumbed the volume up on the newscast and they watched in silence as the reporter stood in front of the huge building in downtown Phoenix. The area around the hospital looked like a war zone. The sidewalk was littered with bodies laying on gurneys and cots. A steady stream of people was clogging the doorways and as the camera swept across the parking lot they could see that a long line of cars was falling off into the distance. The reporter turned to the camera with a grim expression on his face.
“As you can see the scene is chaos here at St. Mary Magdalene Hospital and it is the same at every hospital in the greater metropolitan area. Since this disease began to spread about three weeks ago the hospitals are seeing increasing numbers of patients, all female. And of the patients being admitted to the hospital a confidential source has told me the disease has a ninety percent fatality rate. As of this date the city administrators are stating that the city has lost approximately two-thirds of the total female population.”
Dean looked stunned.
“What the hell do you think is going on? Why are only women dying?”
John frowned.
“I think this is some kind of demon created plague. If they can’t kill us off directly they’re trying to take us out by making it impossible for humans to reproduce themselves.”
Sam nodded.
“I’ve been following this on the net and in the paper since it began. They tried to keep it pretty quiet for a long time, but people talked. I think that Dad is right. This thing only affects women who are able to bear children. Girls that are too young or women who have already gone through menopause don’t get it. So whatever it is it will definitely affect the population. And it’s not just happening here in the United States, it’s a global pandemic.”
Dean cocked an eyebrow at his younger brother but John shut him up with a glare.
“Have they come up with a cure yet, or are they even working on one? I can’t see that there’s much that hunters can do about this one?” John asked.
“Maybe if we track and kill the demon that started the plague?” Dean said.
John shrugged.
“I can’t see how that would help the women who have already died, wouldn’t stop the spell, the bastard’s already cast it. There’s no bringing them back.”
Sam shifted uncomfortably glancing at his father. They rarely talked about the fact that he and John were both hermaphrodites, although like all hermaphrodites, their female organs were non-functioning. John noticed Sam’s question look and shrugged again.
Finally Dean voiced what Sam was thinking.
“What about the guys like you and Sam? I mean, you do have all the right parts thrown in there. Do you think that you guys are going to get it?”
Sam nodded. In school health class he had studied the genetic mutation that had been responsible for causing about a quarter of all human males to be born hermaphrodites, he and John were complete, they had both sets of reproductive organs, but their female parts were non-functioning, at least, Sam had never had a period. He was sure that his father hadn’t either, but he had never been brave enough to ask John.
Both Dean and John turned to Sam, but he only shrugged.
“I don’t know. It’s true we have all the right organs, but we’re arranged a little differently inside and out. I mean most of the stuff is in the right place, but we don’t …at least, I don’t have periods. Dad, how about you? Have you ever…?”
John flushed.
“No, nothing but I’ve sort of been expecting it. My doctor told me that it might happen as I got older and my male hormone levels started dropping. He did tell me to be ‘careful’ because if that started happening I could end up pregnant.”
Dean snorted and John cast a baleful glare at him.
“Don’t even mention wanting a little baby brother or sister, ‘cause nobody is sticking anything in there, got it.”
Sam shot his father a look.
“You’re kidding, Dad, you’ve never let a guy…”
John shut him down with, “And you have?”
Coughing Sam turned to the computer.
“Uh…there’s not a lot of information available right now about the plague’s effect on hermaphrodites but, as long as we’re not producing large amounts of female hormones I think that we have enough male hormones that will protect us.”
“You know it’s kind of creepy that Dad is still a virgin…”
“Dean,” John said shifting in his seat, “I’m not a virgin. Where do you think you and Sammy came from?”
“No, I mean, sure, you’ve had guy sex but you’ve never had girl sex? So that makes you half a virgin.” Dean stared at John until he began to shift uncomfortably in his chair.
"Half a…that doesn't even make sense. Does that make me half a person?" John snorted.
Dean shrugged.
"So, you really never did it like a girl, not even when you…” Dean curled his hand into a loose fist and jerked it up and down meaningfully. John looked horrified.
“Who says that I even…” John snapped mimicking the gesture that his son had just made.
Sam and Dean both shot their father a look. Finally, Dean grinned.
“Come on, Dad. You’re not as quiet as you think you are.”
John’s face went livid red.
“End of discussion.”
Quickly he rose from the table and dumped the remains of his lunch into the trashcan. He pulled open the door and stalked out to the parking lot to survey the damage to his truck. He was standing beside the rear corner of the truck bed when Sam sauntered up beside him. John glanced up offering his younger son a tentative smile.
“You okay, Sammy?”
“Yeah, it’s just this plague thing. What if we aren’t immune, Dad? I know Dean is, he’s completely male, but you and me, we need to be careful not to go into highly populated areas, until this thing settles down.”
“You think it will settle down?”
“Yes, it will. Once the target population is all infected and they either die or get well, the plague will die out itself. It happened in Europe during the bubonic plague, once enough women are exposed and start building antibodies or die off the disease will run its course.”
Sam nodded, looking over at his father.
John sighed and asked,
“You want to know something else?”
Sam looked embarrassed then cocked his head at his father.
“It’s just, you’ve really never done it with a guy, or even let a girl…you know put something in there?”
Stammering John ran his hand over the crumpled fender.
“Uh, no. I’ve stayed away from that, so you had a girl that did… that?”
“I dated her before Jess. She was bi and she liked to use a dildo…”
“Okay, Sammy, I really do not want to hear this. Remind me to never ask questions about your sex life ever again.”
Sam smiled at him.
“Dad, just loosen up…”
“I could have never gotten loose enough to let your mother shove something up my…”
Sam cringed, “Okay, now I see what you mean about never wanting to hear about that. Dad, you and Mom?”
“Hell, Sam, what did you think, we found you on the doorstep in a basket?” John smiled but Sam just shuddered. Sighing John changed the subject.
“I think we should stay away from big cities for a while, take a little time off and keep to ourselves. It doesn’t hurt to be safe.”
“Yeah, Dean and I were thinking the same thing. We can work on getting the truck fixed.”
Two days later John woke with a scratchy throat and a throbbing headache. He rolled over grunting as his elbow came in contact with the solid bulk of his older son. Sammy had always been a restless sleeper and some nights he never really settled down. Dean usually asked John before crawling into his father’s bed especially since John had a tendency to sleep with his Glock under the pillow. But if Dean had asked John couldn’t remember, or more likely John was so out of it that he hadn’t noticed Dean climbing in the bed. He winced that meant that something was really wrong with him. He shifted experimentally then frowned. His boxers were wet, clinging to his body in a sodden uncomfortable mass of soaked material. John hoped that he hadn’t been passed out to the point he had wet the bed. Lifting the covers he looked down and let out an alarmed yell.
His underwear and the sheets were soaked with blood. He shifted retching and leapt out of the bed.
“Shit!”
John paced a few steps away from the rust colored stains looking down as the trickle of blood ran down his thigh dripping onto the carpets.
Dean was awake staring at his father from the bed. Suddenly his eyes flicked from John to the blood stain on the sheets then back to John again.
“Uh, you all right there, Dad?”
“All right? Does it even remotely look like I’m all right? Dean, I’m hemorrhaging.”
Sam rolled over his lips pressed together in a thin line.
“You’re not hemorrhaging, Dad. You’re just having a period.”
Suddenly John fled into the bathroom. Sam and Dean could hear him vomiting. Dean gingerly rolled out of the bed and padded to the bathroom door.
“Don’t worry, Dad. You just get cleaned up and we’ll take care of it.”
“We….,” Sam paused then continued, “I just know you’re going to make me go to the drugstore.”
“Yeah, but you’ve had a live-in girlfriend, you have more experience. Besides I’ll clean up the mess while you’re gone.”
John was very sick by the time Sam was infected with the plague. When he woke to blood-stained sheets Sam at least knew what to expect. The fact that his father was now deathly ill took some of his panic away from himself and focused it on John.
Dean was too absorbed in trying to keep a cool wet cloth on their father’s forehead while he writhed on the bed. When John had pushed him away Dean seized a thermometer from the bedside table and forced it into his mouth.
“Jeeze, Sammy it’s 105. I’m calling the paramedics.”
The hospital was not as crowded as it had been a couple of weeks ago. Sam could actually see that most of the patients now were male hermaphrodites and many of them seemed to be extremely ill. John had had a seizure in the ambulance on the way to the emergency room and they had him packed in blue plastic ice bags and cooling blankets. An IV pole was by the bed and Sam checked his father's chart making sure that he was getting antibiotics.
Sam was not very ill, but under the advice of John's doctors he was admitted to the hospital as well and Dean was running himself ragged between the ward where Sam was resting and the ICU where his father was fighting for his life.
He was sitting in an uncomfortable polyurethane chair beside John's bed when the specialist came in. Dean rose, standing beside the doctor as she read the charts.
"So is my Dad going to die?" he asked quietly.
The doctor glanced at him over her glasses then smiled reassuringly.
"No, John is actually getting better. I know it doesn't look like it to you, but he is stable and his temperature is dropping, just slowly. In all the cases that I treated thus far the patients have made a full recovery. He will probably have some adjustments to make. May I ask you some questions about your father?"
"I'll do the best I can, but he keeps a lot to himself."
"I understand. Has your father dealt with his sexual identity at all; does he acknowledge he is a hermaphrodite or does he live like a male?"
"Pretty much like a man."
"This is going to be a difficult transition for him then. He may need you to support him emotionally."
"Yeah, doc, you don't know my Dad." Dean smiled and the doctor shot him a look. "Uh, can I ask you something?"
"If it doesn't interfere with doctor/patient conditionality."
"It's not specifically about Dad. My father and my brother…"
"Your brother is a hermaphrodite as well? That's very rare, two members of the same family especially father and son. How is your brother?"
"He's okay now, but he is sick too."
"He'll be fine and it's actually beneficial that he was admitted early. His illness should run its course much more quickly with early treatment and he won't get as ill as your father."
"Are my Dad and my brother going to actually be able to have babies? I mean my Dad is fifty-two shouldn't he be going through menopause or something?"
"No, he wasn't functional all his life, just since the plague so he's actually going to be at the peak of his child bearing years, the same as your brother. And your father is extremely fit so he shouldn't have any problems, especially since the government is considering issuing a population increase initiative requiring that all hermaphrodites bear at least one child."
"What?" Dean asked, "How can they do that, what happen to individual rights?"
"Extraordinary circumstances. It hasn't been finalized, but if it is all these new "breeding" individuals are going to be paired with men selected by an agency to produce offspring, unless of course they already have a male partner."
Dean grunted rising from his seat and slapping a palm against the wall.
"How can they do that? I mean you're talking about selling my father and brother into slavery, worse you're talking about government sanctioned rape."
Shrugging the doctor put John's chart back on the cart she was pushing and turned to Dean.
"Don't say that you heard it from me, but your father and brother need to find a male partner on their own. Someone they trust and settle down with him, just until the initiative is defeated, or in case it passes. It's better if they at least know the men that will be their future sex partners and the fathers of their children."
When the doctor had gone Dean took his seat again looking over at his father's still form. Suddenly John moved, eyes opening slowly. He coughed and Dean rose calling the nurse,
"Hey, my Dad is awake."
The nurse came into the room and then brought John some water. Dean helped him sip at the glass then eased him back onto the pillow. His voice was weak and he stuttered a bit, but Dean sighed, smiling. John looked tired, worn in a way that Dean couldn't remember ever seeing him.
"I heard," John said quietly, "When you were talking to the doctor, I heard about the new law, about having to have a kid."
"We'll take care of it Dad. I won’t let them do that to you and Sammy."
"Dean, this is probably the lowest thing I have ever ask you to do, but don't let them take Sammy. I can fend for myself. I'll be okay if I have to do that, but I don't want any man putting his hands on your brother, do you understand me?"
Dean shivered. "It can’t come down to that, Dad. They can't do that...This is America, we have rights."
"Please Dean. We both know that they can and will. Please, God forgive me for asking you to do this, but if it comes to it take care of Sammy."
"Look Dad, if comes down to that. I'll take care of you both."
John shook his head winching in pain.
"God no, I can't do that. I can't ask you to do that, but I will ask you to do for Sammy."
"Dad, it's not like that, not now. Maybe it won't happen." Dean swallowed looking at John's grave expression. "But if it does, I'll watch out for him, whatever way I have too."
TBC