The room was shrouded in darkness, the only illumination coming from the small floor-level night-lights which seemed to have been installed in abundance throughout the bunker.
Dean was lying on his back, the first tendrils of impending sleep placing him in that hazy moment between awareness and oblivion…. All of which was completely shattered by the sound of his brother's voice.
'Dean!' Clearly for Sam, sleep wasn't at the forefront of his mind.
'Not now, Sammy,' the older man muttered sluggishly.
'There's something, I've always been meaning to ask you, Dean,' Sam continued, ignoring his sibling's protest.
'Dude. Can't it wait until morning?'
:
'When I jumped into the Cage with Lucifer, did you…uh…. were you thinking of following me?'
With a huge exhale, Dean opened his eyes. Sam was like a dog with a bone at times, and this was clearly one of those. If he wanted to sleep, then he'd have to give his sibling an answer.
:
'What do you want to hear? The truth or a lie.'
'Both, I guess,' Sam replied. He pulled himself up to better gaze down at his brother.
'Fine. I drove to Stull Cemetery, though to be honest, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. All I knew was that I wanted to be with you, Sammy. Wherever you went, I was gonna follow. And right up to the end I was gearing up to grasp your coat-tails and tumble into the Cage right behind you.'
'But you didn't.' Sam broke in.
'No. You can't imagine how much I wanted to, but there was one thing which stopped me at the very last moment.'
'What?' Sam's hazel irises were two verdant cat's eyes in the gloom of the bedroom.
:
'If I followed you, then there would've been no one left to get you out of Lucifer's clutches. And I needed to save you Sammy…I needed to. Without you, there would've been no 'Winchesterland' as Ash elegantly put it, for us.
We'd have been condemned to live out eternity apart and alone, with you being tortured non-stop by that slimy fucker.
And the irony is, I did a piss-poor job of saving you, Sammy. Even after a year, I hadn't come up with anything useful.'
:
Reaching out an arm, Dean cupped his brother's neck, pulling him back down to his side.
'I love you too much to live or die without you, Sam.' He caressed his brother's face, smoothing back the unruly flippies which had fallen over his cheeks.
Sam rubbed his face against his brother's palm. 'I'm glad you didn't throw yourself down with me, Dean. I wouldn't have wanted you to suffer at Lucifer's hands too.'
Dean sought out his brother's mouth, drinking deep at the fountain of his love, then he fell back onto the sheets with a thump.
'Enough chick-flicking, dude. Can we get some shut-eye now?'
Sam didn't bother replying, he merely burrowed into Dean's side with a happy snuffle.
:
The Winchesters' bedroom was akin to a womb, one where the love of two brothers grew, was nourished and matured until it became greater than its parts.
The end