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Artwork courtesy of Valjean & |
By Valjean
ARCHIVE: No
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Artwork courtesy of Valjean & |
*****
“You keepin’ secrets again, Sammy?” Dean asked as they stood in front of Dr. Carr’s office door.
“What makes you say that?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe ‘cause you haven’t been able to look me in the eye ever since I got that phone call?”
“No,” Sam said, shuffling his feet. “Not really.”
“Define ‘not really’.”
“Dean--”
The door opened and Sam Carr’s smiling face beamed up at the two brothers. “Thanks for coming so quickly,” he said.
“We were in the neighborhood,” Dean replied lightly. “Well, more or less. What’s up, Doc?” Hazel-green eyes went to the exam table set up in the middle of the small, but well outfitted medical room, and he shivered slightly. Old habits died hard, especially when there was that medicinal smell that reminded him of oh-so-very many unpleasant things.
The doctor closed the door and turned to them. “Alec--,” he began.
“Make it ‘Dean’,” Dean said. “Avoids confusion. ‘Alec’s’ a cute nickname and all, but that's all it ever really was, ‘cept where a couple of people are concerned.
“How about 494?” Sam asked with a little smile.
“Even worse.”
“Noted ... Dean, what can you tell me about the X6 series?”
Dean blinked at the unexpected question. “Probably not a whole lot more than what you already know from the files,” he said cautiously, drifting toward the room’s only window and looking out at the street as he shoved hands in the pockets of his leather jacket. “Manticore wasn’t too happy with our X5 freewheeling ways so they decided to make the next series a bit more tractable. X6s have our same basic genetic make-up, but were bred to be better followers -- or at least that was the rumor.” He looked back over his shoulder at the other two and smiled mischievously. “Most of the X6s I ever knew were okay in a fight, but they didn’t go out of their way lookin’ for one, if you know what I mean.”
“Actually,” the doctor said, “there was a bit more method in Manticore’s madness regarding the X6s than that. For one thing, they eliminated the serotonin problem. No seizures. They also upped the I.Q.’s and lightened up on the feline DNA.”
“Why all the X6 questions?” Dean asked, scowling.
“I’m getting there,” the doctor said, moving across the room to pick up a folder from off his desk. Then he turned to Sam. “Max sent me the sample you provided.”
“What sample?” Dean asked, the scowl deepening and now directed at his brother. “What’s he talkin’ about?”
“A DNA sample,” Sam said simply. “The doc here was doing some comparison studies and he asked Max if I’d donate.” He shrugged. “I didn’t see the harm.”
“Didn’t see the harm?” Dean said harshly, his eyes now narrowing as they pinned the doctor. “Sammy, cardinal rule number one. Never, ever give out free samples of your DNA.”
“Which is why you always wear a condom, right?” Sam snapped.
“Always,” Dean said smugly.
“Boys!” Sam Carr said loudly. “I’ve got the sample, and I ran the analysis. What’s done is done. What I called you in for is to tell you the results, which I think you, Sam, have a right to know.”
Now it was Sam’s turn to blink. “What?” he said. “Am I dying or something?” A ghost of a grin. “That’d be just my luck, considerin’ how my life’s been going lately.
“No,” the doctor said. “Well, at least not more than any of the rest of us. What I found isn’t really pathological, but it’s something you ought to be aware of.”
“Meaning?” Dean said, still belligerent.
“Sam’s not human,” Dr. Carr said levelly. “He’s an X6.”
*****
“No way! No fucking way!” Dean yelled while Sam simply stared at this doctor who had to be insane. “Sam’s normal ... human ... No one’s fucked with his DNA! And Manticore sure as hell had nothin’ to do with him bein’ born!”
“Dean, the test results don’t lie,” Dr. Carr said quietly, obviously used to outbursts by aggressive transgenics. “Calm down and I’ll explain.”
“You sure as hell better,” Dean muttered as he began to pace the room, at the same time throwing evil glances at the physician. “Sam,” he added, “why the hell did you even give him a sample of your DNA?”
“I told you,” Sam said simply. “Because Max asked me to. She said the doc here was doing some important studies that might help your people out over the long run.”
“Yours was a unique opportunity,” Dr. Carr chimed in. “Dean, you’re the only transgenic in existence so far as I know who has a completely human full-blooded brother ... or rather who I thought had a human brother. I wanted to do genetic comparisons.”
Dean's lips pressed together in a grim line. “So how’s it possible that Sam here is an X6 and he never knew it ... Dad never knew it ... hell Manticore never knew it or else they’d have hauled his ass off to military hell just like they did mine?”
“I don’t know if your father knew about Sam or not,” Carr said quietly. “But as for Manticore, I rather imagine they left Sam alone because they didn’t want him.”
“Excuse me?” Sam said, taken aback by that.
Dean shook his head in confusion. “Whatdaya mean they didn’t want him? If Manticore didn’t want one of its soldiers they didn’t send him home to daddy and mommy. They terminated him.”
The doctor shrugged. “I don’t know how Sam escaped culling,” he said. “But the chromosome comparisons don’t lie. Look.” He put up two charts on light boards on the wall that showed DNA bars. “Here’s yours,” he said to Dean, pointing to the one on the left, “and here’s Sam’s. Do you know anything at all about reading the code?”
“Not really,” Dean admitted.
“A little,” Sam said.
Dean shot his brother a dirty look.
“I took advanced biology,” Sam said in his own defense. “I like science. It was almost a double major.”
“The good news is that the two of you are definitely full-fledged siblings,” Carr said, pointing to several obviously identical areas of the DNA codes. “Same original sperm and egg donors.”
“Original?” Dean said, flinching a bit at the sound of that.
“Then Manticore began to meddle,” the doctor continued. “With you, Dean, they added the X5 strand -- the feline chromosomes -- as well as tinkering with a few other things like I.Q., temperament, and the immune system.” He flipped another switch and some of the segments glowed red. “This is the feline DNA added via a retrovirus,” he continued. Then he flipped the same switch on the light board behind Sam’s genetic map. “And this is the feline DNA in Sam’s.”
To Dean’s surprise (because he really hadn’t wanted to believe it), a small but significant portion of Sam’s DNA strand lit up Christmas bulb red -- fewer segments than on his own, but not by much.
“You said the X6s had a little less cat in them, didn’t you?” Dr. Carr said.
“Supposedly,” Dean admitted as Sam stared at his own blueprint, mouth slightly agape. “But that doesn’t mean he’s an X6,” he quickly added.
“Yes,” Dr. Carr said. “He is -- at least technically speaking. I know because I’ve compared Sam’s encoding to Dalton’s and several other X6 samples that Max has provided. It’s identical.”
“But I don’t have the strength of an X6,” Sam said. “At least not according to what Dean’s told me. “And I can’t see in the dark like he can, or as far, and his hearing’s so much better than mine not to mention his reflexes.”
“Sam’s right,” Dean said, clenching his jaw as he continued staring at the damning evidence. “Speaking as someone who’s known Sammy since he was born I can tell you there’s not a trace of X6 ability in him.” His eyes shifted to his brother. “No offense, Sam.”
“None taken,” Sam said quietly as his brows drew down in thought.
“Although,” Dean had to admit. “There is that whole really high I.Q. deal going on with him, but I always figured that was just a geek thing.”
“I can explain the lack of Sam having physical abilities,” Dr. Carr said evenly. “But again, you’re not going to like it.”
“Latent?” Sam guessed.
Dean scowled, not certain what that meant. “You mean it’s gonna show up later.”
“Not latent,” the doctor said. “More like recessive.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Dean asked as Sam shook his head, not understanding either.
“Alec’s X5 coding ... I mean Dean’s ... is dominant,” Dr. Carr said, pointing with a forefinger to the bright red segments on 494’s DNA chart. “By infusing him in the embryonic stage with the X5 feline mixture and a few other grains of special DNA here and there the geneticists were able to influence a great many of his body’s systems ... neurological, muscular, skeletal, immune ... He has heightened senses, strength, stamina ... a higher basal body temperature and overall metabolism ... It’s like his body is slightly supercharged. Combine that tampering with two very good looking biological parents so the end result not only looked completely human, but was extremely attractive, and Manticore had the effect they were after. You’ve said yourself, Dean, that the X5s were almost perfect soldiers. In fact, if it hadn’t been for two things -- the serotonin deficiency and the escape by Max’s group that proved a flaw in their psychological make-up -- the military might well have stopped the program and called the X5s their success.”
“But instead they kept working on their supersoldier blueprint, coming up with the X6s,” Sam said. “Old news. What does that have to do with me havin’ this Freak DNA inside of me that I never knew about?”
“As I said,” the doctor replied. “Your X6 DNA turned out to be recessive. In other words, you’re a mistake.” He held up his hand at Sam’s offended look. “Don’t feel bad, son,” he said. “Manticore must have had hundreds of embryos that didn’t quite make the cut. Most were undoubtedly destroyed. However, for some reason in your parents’ case they allowed your embryo to be implanted. Maybe, in part, it was to keep your family content so they could continue experimenting on the older son ... training him ... using him as one of their supersoldiers. Or maybe it was some kind of oversight, or manipulation on your father’s part that got your egg into your mother after it had been through the genetics lab. However it happened, it did. You were allowed to gestate and be born with the X6 encoding in your chromosome strands but with none of the dominant effects asserting.”
Dean, who’d been very quiet for the past minute or so, took a deep shuddering breath. “So,” he said quietly. “That means Sam’s as much of a Freak as I am?”
“On the DNA level,” the doctor said. “Yes. But it’s not like anyone will ever know. Everything about Sam is perfectly human unless you run a complete DNA analysis.”
“Look on the bright side,” Dean snarked, as he rubbed at the beard stubble on his chin. “At least you don’t have a bar code on the back of your neck.”
“Because I don’t deserve one,” Sam said softly.
“It’s a brand of slavery,” Dean shot back savagely. “Don’t make it sound like a good thing.”
“Sorry,” his brother replied, hanging his head.
“So, Doc,” Dean continued. “Other than sayin’ Sam and I are even more brothers than we thought we were, what does this mean?”
“Nothing really,” Dr. Carr said, flipping off the lights behind the charts. “I just thought the two of you should know. As you said, Sam has none of the benefits of his altered genetics, but he also doesn’t seem to be suffering from any drawbacks except--” The doctor stopped talking but was still looking at Sam.
“Except what?” Sam said, swallowing hard.
“Something we should talk about alone I think,” Carr said.
“Dean and I don’t keep secrets from one another,” Sam shot back, ignoring Dean’s raised eyebrows and muttered, “Since when?” “If you have something to say to me, you can say it to both of us.”
“Very well,” the doctor said. “It’s just that I can’t imagine Manticore letting an X6 -- even a recessive one -- out into the world without some assurance that he wouldn’t ...”
“Wouldn’t what?” both Winchester brothers said at the same time.
“Breed.”
“I’ve never had any problems in that department,” Sam said with an embarrassed little laugh.
“I don’t mean the ability to copulate,” Carr said. “I mean the ability to pass on your genetic material. Dean’s already successfully fathered a healthy X5 son, but that was with an X5 mate. When X5s and humans cross the resultant offspring are almost always mediocre, if not outright tragic ... deformities and such. I can only imagine it would the same with an X6. Manticore wouldn’t want to risk that happening, not to mention them not wanting their precious genetic coding falling into enemy hands via a fertile male.”
“Yeah,” Dean observed. “They used to make a big deal about us keepin’ our pants zipped and not lettin’ foreign governments get hold of our so-called ‘genetic material.’” He thought a moment. “’Course now every morning in the shower I watch about a million bucks worth of spunk go down the drain so I guess things change.”
Sam rolled his eyes. Then, to the doctor, “You’re saying you think I was probably sterilized by Manticore at some point.”
“We talkin’ snip-snip?” Dean wondered, hazel-green eyes now wide and sympathetic.
“Possibly,” Dr. Carr replied. “The only way know for sure would be to test a semen sample.”
“I want to have a family some day,” Sam said firmly, clenching his jaw. “If they did do that to me ... couldn’t it be reversed?”
The doctor shook his head. “It would depend, Sam. I’d have to do a lot of tests, and it would certainly mean surgery. But maybe they didn’t--”
“Like you said,” Sam said. “It wouldn’t make sense for them not to have sterilized their defective little X6 before giving him back to his natural parents.”
“Sam,” Dean tried. “We don’t know for sure. Let him run the tests and then we’ll face what we have to.”
“Easy for you to say!” Sam snarled, turning on his brother angrily. “You’ve got a son already. No one wanted to keep you from breeding. In fact, didn’t you say you were in Manticore’s breeding program? You’re the success. Me ... I’m just the failure -- again.”
“No!” Dean shouted right back at him. “What you are is normal! Don’t you think I’d give anything to be like you? To not have to suffer with seizures and horrible headaches and a tattoo on the back of my neck that won’t ever go away no matter how many times I laser it off, and the knowledge that I probably won’t have a very long life because my metabolism is too high? So what if you’ve got this recessive DNA shit somewhere deep inside? At least it’s not bitin’ you in the ass at every turn and cuttin’ your time on this earth short. At least you don’t have to feel like a freak every time you look in a mirror and see the face of a man who’s killed people he loved just ‘cause he was ordered to! Damn it, Sam! I wish to hell my shit-tampered DNA was recessive like yours. Then maybe I’d have a chance to live a happily ever after life too!” He glanced at the doctor, tears in his eyes. “Or, better yet, I’d have been destroyed in the test tube and not be dealin’ with any of this crap at all.”
*****
“You like it, don’t you?” Sam said from the passenger seat as the Impala put Seattle behind them.
“Like what?”
“The fact that I’m a transgenic too, albeit a ‘recessive’ one. Hey,” he added with a small smile. “Talk about bein’ the runt of the litter.”
Dean sighed heavily. “In a way, yeah,” he admitted. “Now you really are the same as me and Max and Brac. But--”
“But what?”
His brother turned to look at him, sympathy filling those golden green eyes. “It’s also a fate I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. I’m sorry, Sam. Really I am. I’m sorry they did this to you too. And I’m especially sorry if you find out that you can’t have kids. That’s not fair.”
“Who ever said life was fair?” Sam replied tiredly as he tilted his head back on the headrest and closed his eyes.
THE END
