Disclaimer: I do not own the boys or their little friends.

Warning: Language, slash of the Wincestual sort implied

Note: Unbeta'd. Sorry if there are mistakes!

All That Hell Was Worth It

Every cloud has a silver lining.

Except for Dean Winchester's cloud, which was just a black mass of guilt, sex, lies, and regret. He knew he was going to hell. And he knew he was doing it for Sam. But all of that guilt and sex, those lies and that regret, he knew that would keep him down south untik he fried extra crispy. But Dean Winchester's silver lining would be him and Sam being together forever, just living millenia of hunting, sex, and togetherness. And the Impala. The Impala was definitely part of the package.

Dean Winchester had gone to hell and back. He had endured thirty years of physical torture and ten more years of emotional agony as he hacked other damned souls to shreds. But what really got to him was the part of hell he never had. Sure, he'd had to endure visions of the Impala being crushed to smithereens, all of the demons he'd ever ganked coming back, and almost everybody he loved coming back to take a hunk out of him. Almost everybody.

For forty years, Dean Winchester didn't see his brother.

Sure, he'd seen apparitions of Bobby, Ellen, Jo (most definitely), Ash, Lisa, Ben, and Cassie all lined up to give him a good kick in the balls, but not once did the demons torture him with any visions of Sam. Because they knew. They knew that Dean loved Sam too goddamn much to ever think of hating him. Not even if they had an apparition of Sammy ripping his brains to shreds for years on end, Dean wouldn't hate Sam. So instead, they tortured proud, strong Dean the best way they could.

Dean Winchester's real hell was never seeing his Sammy.

But then he clawed his way back out from six feet under. He crawled through suffocating, black dirt until his head broke the surface. And he walked and hitchhiked his fucking ass off until he reahed his Sammy again. And Dean Winchester was in heaven when he embraced his brother again, when he pulled the one person he loved more than anything into his arms.

And that night, when they lay in bed making up for forty years of lost love time, Dean Winchester knew that, silver lining or not, it had all been worth it.

Yay for misery! Only not really...well, reviews are the equivalent of meeting Jared and Jensen in person, if you know what I mean! Thanks!