Rebirth – Spn fic – Chapter 1.

Disclaimed.

Loved.

A/N - Sorry this came so fast...

OOooOO

THEN:

Dean shook his head, "There's no way to kill the demon part of that baby without killing the human part too." He clasped Sam's shoulder, "I'm sorry. The only thing we can do is make the little guy comfortable while he goes to sleep one last time."

Sam couldn't stop himself, there was no time to stem the little rivers that raced down his cheeks. His lips trembled and he bit them tight.

Dean nodded, "Please Sam, I'm begging you, at least I have an idea of what you're feeling… let me do this… let me save you this if nothing else."

--

"He's beautiful!" Kitsune grinned stroking the infants face, already a part of her was in love with him. After all he belonged to Sam and she loved him more than she loved life.

"His name is Neil. It means Champion." Dean grasped the Japanese Demi-god with a gentle hand behind her neck, "Whoever you leave him to, make sure it's someone who will raise him as one. Please." His voice cracked as he handed the child over to the woman.

Dean looked at the fuzzy headed, stag antlered deity, "Take her wherever she wants. Send no one to watch over her or the child. When she's ready she'll return to us. No one can ever know what came of the boy." He explained.

Cernunnos nodded, "As you wish."

"Leave me one of your potion masters." Dean ordered as Kitsune moved toward the veil.

He leaped to Kitsune taking one last opportunity to wrap the woman and child in his arms.

His lips pressed to the baby's forehead, "Your father is a good man who loves you." His voice broke at the last as he fell to his knees and watched the demi-god disappear.

Long moments later, Mustardseed himself touched Dean gently on the shoulder.

"My king?"

Behind them, a squad of sidhe were working to put Sam and Crowhawk onto boulder-stools and position them carefully.

"I'm okay." The senior Winchester breathed shakily.

The sidhe, after making sure Sam and Crowhawk were in proper position looked askance at Dean.

"Neither of them will remember passing out?" he asked.

"No. As you ordered, they will remember nothing but sitting." Mustardseed smiled sadly.

NOW:

"Hey." Dean snapped his fingers in front of Sam's blank gaze, "Sam!"

The blue-greens slid from the tiny mound burning on the pyre to his big brother.

"No…" it wasn't much more than a woosh of air but Dean felt it coming.

Sam launched himself toward the fire, intercepted easily by the older hunter, but keeping the young man under control wasn't going to be easy.

"No! Dean! Lemme go…" his voice cracked as he pushed through and reached over the eldest Winchester's restraining arms, "Stop… I can't… STOOOOP IT! No, NO NO! We can't!" he shrieked now fighting both Dean and Crowhawk who leaped into the fray.

"You can't son," the old Apache tried to reason, "It's too late."

"Sam stop! It's over!" Dean called watching his baby brother's fists close on Crowhawk's jacket and jerk the far shorter man to his toes while his own eyes blazed bright and molten.

Seconds later a strand of blood ran from the Indian's nose and his expression twisted in pain.

"Sam STOP!" Dean yanked the older man away and stood in his place.

Serpentine whispers like dry autumn leaves rolled out of the older brother's mouth, "The future doesn't have to be what you saw." He assured in what had become once again, after millennia of silence, their own language.

Sam froze. His eyes locked on Dean's. The vengeful power of his inner deity was quickly cooled by his confusion.

"What?" Sam barely breathed as Crowhawk pushed himself up groaning and pained.

"Later."

Dean ducked down, helping the old man to his feet, "Sorry man." He apologized.

The Indian shook his head and thumbed away the blood from his nose. Once he had his bearings his wide frightened eyes jumped from Dean to Sam to the fire and back to Sam, "What the hell are you?"

Sam's lips curled back in a snarl, his formidable frame stalked close and towered over the wizened and suddenly very small looking man, "I'm a man without his son." He growled then turned and took his place in the passenger side of the car while Dean smoothed things over.

Miles passed as the Winchester brothers rode in silence. Tears dripped from Sam's chin until he had none left, and when he was too exhausted to be a threat to the one person in his life who knew what he was feeling, finally asked, "What did you mean?"

"Nothing, just… I know you. I know the doom and gloom in your head since all this started…" he peeked at the younger man who was watching him intensely, doing his level best to read every nuance in his expression and hear every twitch in his voice. "We make our own future Sam. There's nothing that's written in stone…"

"Destiny."

"I hate that word." Dean frowned.

"Seems like one we can't escape, why should anyone else escape theirs?" Sam asked weakly before slithering over the bench seat into the back, "I think I'm going to throw up." He groaned.

"There should be a bag back there, or do you want me to pull over?" Dean asked.

"I want a drink, in fact I want a shitload of 'em."

Dean's hand slid into his jacket pocket, his fingers slid over the mushy rubber of a nipple, mm gotta get rid of this somewhere Sam won't notice. He thought grateful that in the end both Sam and Crowhawk had been reluctant to be the ones to 'feed' the baby the fatal concoction they'd brewed up. He then grabbed his rectangular flask, the one that held the sidhe sleep draught and tossed it into the back seat. "Here, knock your socks off."

"Thanks."

Dean watched in the rear view mirror as Sam poured the last of the draught down his throat and fell into a deep and hopefully dreamless sleep.

"How the hell am I supposed to get you through this?" he sighed then turned the radio on 'Sammy's-sleeping' low and wondered what his next move should be. And whether he should tell his brother what he'd done.

He couldn't tell Bobby, not yet. There was no telling how he'd react. From the get-go the three of them had been certain the child needed to be killed. It wasn't in any way to blame for being conceived or born, but there was too much at risk. All three of them had known it. They believed it. They understood that in order to save the world they might have to sacrifice an innocent and yet in the clutch, Dean had been the one to freeze.

When Bobby told him the child was being born he'd short circuited. All he could think about was the tortured man in the back seat. The day Mary set Sam into his arms, all the special ways she'd included him in Sam's care, from helping choose his food to prepping the changing table to helping with bath time. And all the times after that when he'd taken what he'd learned from Mary and applied it to the care and raising of HIS baby. She'd always told him that Sam was HIS brother, HIS to look after, and that he'd be HIS best friend so he should be a best friend to Sam first.

Then he'd had the dream or vision or whatever it was. He watched that lioness slink toward a year old Sammy that was standing there grinning at HIM, trusting HIM without a hint of the danger he was in. He'd leaped down the rest of the wall clutching the infant Sam and rolling out of the way of the huntress. When he rose with Sam in his arms the cat seemed to recognize him and padded contentedly back to the shade of the tree. No harm, no foul. It was a clean save, that time.

"Yeah, in my vision or dream… not so much in yours," he sighed pinching his eyes dry then pulled his cell phone and scrolled to the third name on the list. His eyes fell to the orange indicator on the dash, "When we stop for gas." He assured himself. After all, if there was one person he could talk to who might side with him, it was Laura.

OOooOO

In the beautifully wooded glade in the realm between worlds, Laura sat before a large ancient stump, it's top shifting and undulating as scaled geography rippled its surface. Beside her stood Kitsune holding a beautiful baby boy in her arms and cooing at him.

"I know of a place," she smiled leaning down then motioned to the map with one hand, "May I?"

"Sure." Laura leaned back.

"Would you hold him?"

"I'd love to."

Kitsune passed the newborn to the far larger woman and smiled at the instant funny faces and silly sounds she made to entertain the child.

Moments later there was a scale representation of a huge part Mt. Everest. In seconds she'd honed in on what appeared to be a 'tiny' Tibetan building seemingly carved into its face. "Here. The monks are wise, and strong and will give him every advantage that living in the world would deprive him of." She explained.

An instant later her brows furrowed, "Will he be safe here? As I think he will?"

Laura smiled, jostling the baby, then kissed his forehead and handed him back.

She held her hands over the spot, then over the region. "I can't feel war here. This would be a better place than most I think." She nodded.

The demi-god's gratitude was obvious as she leaned on Dean's woman. "Thank you so much for helping me protect him."

Laura nodded, "We're family," she stroked the infant's cheek, "it's what we do." Then she glanced down as Mustardseed approached.

The stump went flat leaving no trace of geographical evidence as the sidhe reached them.

"My Queen?" He bowed reverently.

"Mustardseed," Laura smirked, gently grasping his shoulder, "You've no need to bow to me my friend please." He straightened up and delighted as she cupped his face, "Will you help us?"

He leaped back, straight as an arrow and formally bowed to each woman, gladly accepting the challenge.

"Thank you." Kitsune bowed in return.

"Thank you." Laura pressed her temple to his smiling tenderly at him.

"I don't know how long it will take the king to contact you." Kitsune smiled, "but I could feel his need for you. It should be soon."

Laura nodded, "Maybe I'll beat him to the punch. Go, be safe, and tell them to take good care of my nephew."

Kitsune nodded, "I will and they will. I'll be back in a reasonable amount of time."

"Sam'll need you."

With a nod of her head she turned, heading toward the far end of the glade where Mustardseed would take her to begin the circuitous route to the adoptive 'family' of the son of humanized deity.

Once they were gone, Laura sat at the stump and watched as its surface roiled again before becoming another scale image of a landscape with a woody looking version of the Impala racing along a highway.

Her hand hovered over the car, her head tilted to the side and the landscape ahead shifted.

Motels and hotels lined the highway. She chose one along the route.

The 'scape shifted until an image of Dean's troubled face sighed.

She stroked the woody effigy and leaned in toward its ear to whisper, "Come to me."

The effigy sighed.

She leaned back, wiped the stump flat and grabbed her overnight bag.

She moved to the edge of the veil, grasped the fabric between realities in her fingers and gave a gentle tug that enveloped her car. Once it too was behind the veil she gave another quick tug until she was in the parking lot of the hotel she'd 'thought' to Dean.

Cernunnos emerged from the trees smiling benignly while he embraced her tightly, "Nicely done. Are you aware that Dean moved the veil from outside of it last night?" he asked.

A huge grin lit her face, "I'm not surprised. My love is exceptional."

"It does seem that he's finally coming into himself," the god of fertility and rebirth nodded. "Maybe there's hope for this world after all."

"He and Sam saved the universe, they can save the world."

"Give him comfort. He's still unable to see all the threads, to see the web for what it is. He acts on instinct."

"His instincts are truly all he needs."

"Not if he's to keep his sanity intact. His body is human. His soul may be immortal but it's housed…"

"I know," she bit partly chaffing at the reminder that the man she loved would one day physically die and then she'd be relegated to finding him all over again. It was a glimpse into her own possible and perhaps inevitable insanity that she didn't want to take. "Unless…" she sighed.

Cernunnos nodded, "If anyone can it's you. Look how far he's come already."

Tears welled up in her eyes, "I love him so much."

The stag horned deity wrapped her in a comforting embrace, "He is exceptional, as you said. Keep your faith in him strong, I know you won't be disappointed."

"I know." she smiled then slipped past the barrier leaving the deity she'd served for over twenty five hundred years just to find Dean, to wait for her love's arrival.

OOooOO

Tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks. Sifi.