Lisa was probably driving Ben to school right about now. Maybe casting him motherly sidelong glances as he sat in the passenger seat playing his Nintendo games. In about four minutes, the light blue mini van would stop in front of the elementary school, and Ben would hop out of the van with a smile to his mom. Lisa would let him run up the front steps before she called out to him, holding his neglected lunch bag in her hand. Ben would laugh, slightly embarrassed, and make his way back to her and refuse to make eye contact with the other students who were hiding their giggles as he collected his lunch from his mother and allowed her to ruffle his hair.
Dean sighed. He had to stop thinking about them. They were in his past now. Far in his past. This was his life now: driving down long, empty, window roads in the dead of night with Sammy sleeping in the seat beside him drooling like a prepubescent boy. Dean took his eyes off the road momentarily to stare at his brother. Sam seemed content lately. He was going through a spree of being on his game during their recent hunts. Dean on the other hand, didn't have his head in the game.
His mind was on Ben. Lisa. His family. The place and the people who had become his life and his home. Why couldn't he and Sam just walk away from this life? He could do it- he could put this all behind him. Cas would understand, he had to. Dean knew he and his brother were a pain in the angel's ass anyway, so what would he, Heaven, or God care if they backed out anyway? Cas barely had anything to do with them anymore- and they nothing to do with him. Maybe the angels wouldn't even notice if they began to walk the path of normalcy.
But Sammy… could he do it?
Dean looked at his brother again. This was their life. This was normalcy for them. It was all Sammy knew- only Dean had been given the opportunity to feel what it was like to live in a world where neighbours knew your name and having family dinners or friends over for a football game was all part of an ordinary routine.
Who was he kidding. He had said his goodbyes to Lisa and Ben, and he couldn't- wouldn't- just walk back in to their life and assume his place. That wasn't fair. And besides, he was good at hunting. He was great at it. And so was Sammy. And when the two of them were together they were practically unbeatable.
Sam stirred beside him and began to wipe the drool off his chin. He opened his eyes, peered out the window quizzically, then rolled his head towards Dean and frowned. "Where are we?" He muttered.
"Twenty miles outside of some dinky town- Greenlake or something? I dunno."
Sam stretched and yawned. "Greenlake? Never heard of it. What's there, a job?"
"A damn good job, Sammy." Dean smirked and nodded at the twenty mile marker on the side of the road. "A damn good job."