Prologue

They say your life flashes before your eyes in the moments leading to your death. Whether it is the faces of family members; a beloved pet; a room or location of significant importance. Perhaps it's feelings, or the memories of forgotten times? For Dean Winchester, it was a face. Just one particular face; with soft, full, pink lips; bluer than blue eyes that can drown you in the waves of the ocean the longer you stare into them; the stray soft, black strands of messy hair across a forehead. For Dean Winchester, it was the warmth in the pit of his stomach that had nothing to do with the heat of the explosion, and the break of the heart that wasn't caused by the heavy impact of flying shrapnel. For Dean Winchester, it was the man he was hopelessly in love with.

And then there was nothing but darkness.

~Two years earlier~

Dean Winchester was the typical head-of-the-school jock. He got the girls; the sweet ride; the letter man jacket; the looks. He had everything.

He was a legacy.

If you were to ask around the halls of the school, 'Who is Dean Winchester?' you would get the same answer, maybe in different wording, by each person you asked. 'Dean Winchester is such a party animal!' 'Did you hear Dean had sex with so-and-so?' 'I heard Dean Winchester is the descendants of Gods!'

Since the moment Dean Winchester walked into Lawrence High School on the first day of freshmen year, he was popular and wanted. The summer before school started, Dean successfully became the first freshman to make it to the varsity football team since before his own father's time. Sure he was the third string linebacker, but he was still on varsity. He played his fair share of games that year, all the while forming a reputation of getting what he wanted, when he wanted. Usually this consisted of long legs and skinny waists.

Sophomore year brought Dean higher on the school hierarchy. He was promoted to the teams' second string linebacker. He worked harder on his game, improving on his strength and endurance. Pushing himself farther, faster, stronger. He went to parties. Made out or hooked up with the random drunk girl; never learning her name; never remembering what color her hair or eyes were. He never looked them in the face, preferring to do quickies from behind.

For Dean, high school was the prime of his life. And when he succeeded in becoming first string linebacker during his Junior year, well life just continually got better.

That was his life in school. His life where he was the play-boy footballer who got the girls and the just passing grades to stay on the team. His life at home was a different story.

When Dean Winchester was younger, no more than four years old, his brother's nursery was engulfed in flames; some freak electrical fire according to the police firemen. His mom died that night while he carried his six month old brother to safety. Some nights he still wakes up with the stench of burning skin in his nose, fresh in his memory as if it was happening at that precise moment. As if his mother was burning to her death in front of him, startling him from his sleep.

After that night, John, his father, changed. He went out drinking, hoping that at the bottom of a bottle held the answers to why the love of his life was torn away from him at such a young age. Every night he went out drinking, and every night Dean had to care for Sammy. He practically raised the kid.

Only few people knew the real Dean Winchester.

Ellen Harvelle and Bobby Singer were practically Sam and Dean's surrogate parents. They were there for them when their own father was passed out on the floor in a pool of his own vomit. They took the Winchester boys in when there was no more food in the house, or when John forgot to pay the water bill.

The only other person who knew Dean, the real Dean, was his best friend Jo, who grew up with him since they were both in diapers. Her mother, Ellen, had the boys over so often, Jo was practically the little sister he never had. She knew of his protectiveness over his little brother. Hell, she shared the same protectiveness of Sammy. Only she and Sam knew that he went out to parties to try to drown away the emptiness that resided in him. Only they knew he didn't believe he had a higher purpose in life other than, 'Watch out for Sammy!' 'Keep Sammy safe!'

So when he received news at the end of his Junior year that he was a shoo-in to be the varsity team captain, he didn't have the heart to feel excited. To him, all that meant was that he was required to attend more parties and fuck more girls.

The day Dean Winchester's life truly changed was just weeks after school let out for the summer. It was a hot and humid day in the middle of July. Too hot to be outside. So Dean found himself sitting in the a/c on the couch in the living room, flipping through channels, when a commercial caught his eye. It was a commercial for the United States Army.

To this day he couldn't explain if his life depended on it why he stopped on the commercial, for he himself didn't know. It was like something in the back of his head told his thumb to pause and his eyes to glue themselves to the screen. Before he knew it, he was on the Army website looking for the nearest recruiter, hopping into his classic black 1967 Chevy Impala, and making his way to the station.

Not once did he stop and ask himself, 'What about Sammy? Who will look after Sammy?'

As he pulled into the parking lot, he didn't ask himself about Sammy.

As he greeted the recruiting Sergeant, he didn't ask himself about Sammy.

Nor did he question it when he was filling out the forms and agreeing to have his dad sign as his guardian.

He didn't need his dad's signature. He mastered it at the age of ten. All those forms that the school sends home at the beginning of the year, and all those permission slips for field trips to the museum and zoo, it was Dean who signed the go ahead.

It wasn't until he was laying in bed at the five star hotel the Army was paying for, that he started asking himself what about Sammy? By then he already took his Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) test, which he scored an impressive 86 on. Before he left with the recruiter that afternoon, he told Sammy and his dad that he was staying the night at a teammates house and not to wait up for him.

When it finally hit, he picked up the phone, and called the first number he could think of. When Jo answered, he told her everything. At first she was pissed. 'I should kill you for keeping something like this from me!' But the anger didn't last long. Soon, she was asking what job he was going in for. 'Military Police.' Then, she was asking when he would be leaving, because surely they wouldn't take him out of school. 'Next summer, sometime after graduation.' Finally, after what seemed like hours, she was telling him that they were going to throw a big party the next night and he had better be there. Saying no to Jo about parties is like signing your death wish, so how could he say no to that?

After they hung up, he showered and was passed out on his bed. Before he knew it, the hotel phone was ringing for his four in the morning wake up call. The hopeful recruits ate breakfast and hopped on the bus, waiting to arrive at the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS).

Upon arrival, they were directed into what appeared to be a classroom, where they filled out medical information about themselves. Then, before leaving the room, they had to participate in a breathalyzer test. The men got directed down the hall to one room, the women to another.

The next four hours passed by slower than a snail in the middle of winter. Each man had to receive a physical exam, give a piss sample, have their ears and eyes tested, and give a blood sample.

To make matters worst, the building felt no warmer than fifty degrees. Even with the intense humidity outside, Dean had to admit it was too cold for comfort.

After filling out a background check packet, Dean waited what felt like another two hours before finally standing in front of the Army liaison officer. A quick review of all the paperwork and Dean was crossing the t's and dotting the i's and standing in front of a camera to have his photo taken.

Dean Winchester is now officially a future soldier of the United States Army.

Notes:

This is my first story in this category. Sorry if there are any mistakes, this is not beta'd. So if anyone wants to be my beta send me a message or say so in the comments. I'm sorry if this first chapter is total crap, it gets better, promise!

I do not own any of these characters! They are property of The CW. If I through in my own characters then those I claim!

I hope you enjoy and I'll love to know what you think!

Just because I kind of figure what everyone is thinking at the end of the summary, about where the story will end, I'm asking you to trust me when I say the summary might not be as absolute as you think. If that made any sense at all.

Also, chapter titles based off the lyrics from the song 'Some Nights' by Fun. So just think about these lyrics in regards to the summary and story... "Sorry to leave, mom, I had to go. Who the fuck wants to die alone all dried up in the desert sun?"