"I wanted you back."
It hit Dean almost as soon as Sam said it.
"I wanted you back."
When Dean's clock turned back, Sam had had everything laid out in front of him, 'everything on a plate' like he used to say back in college. Dean-as-kid was Dean who couldn't drive, couldn't drink, couldn't 'date', couldn't best Sam in a physical fight and, most especially of all, didn't have the Mark of Cain just waiting to erupt into a one-man nuclear warhead.
Dean thought that one at least would make Sam even happier than it made him.
But…
"I wanted you back."
It wasn't like Dean wasn't still Dean, just in a smaller, 'old and improved' package. Same brain, same skills, same attitude. And even though Dean had 'reconstituted' himself to save Sam and Tina, he knew it wasn't just the physical Sam was talking about.
If it was even the physical at all.
"I wanted you back."
It wasn't a fake-relieved 'good to have you back' or a fake-troubled 'sorry that didn't work out' statement. It was the plain and simple truth. The 'I want you to be my brother again just 'cause, and I'll take you as is' truth.
Mark, madness, wrath, warts and all - Sam wanted Dean.
Dean glanced over at Sam, who was watching out the passenger window as the Impala blew through the miles back home.
"I wanted you back."
With an IQ in the stratosphere, skill that would put any hunter to shame, and courage that had never, ever put Dean to shame,
"I wanted you back, and here you are."
Sam 'Gigantor Moose' Winchester, wanted - still needed - his Big Brother.
Yeah, Dean was going to take that win.
The End
A/N: something I wrote fast after "speed watching" the episode on CW this morning (at work, before the Boss came in) (My darling son wanted to watch Agent Carter last night – the sacrifices Mothers make!)