Prologue

Sam Winchester stood beneath the flickering light post positioned just off the side of the new residency of Dean's once-upon-a-time love, Lisa Braeden, and her son Benjamin. For a moment he stood, his hands shoved deep into his pockets, looking around until he realized where he was. The light above him flashed one more time and then turned to black, dead in the night. Sam's eyes were drawn to the only remaining source of light, the window with a wide view into Lisa's kitchen.

Sam observed Dean's somewhat strained smile as he talked to Lisa, who was listening attentively. Dean then dropped the smile, wiped his face with a napkin, took a gulp of beer, and with a far less cheerful expression spoke again to Lisa. She looked to Ben and said something to him. He looked at Dean, began to protest, but she cut him off, pointing out of the room. He stood reluctantly and left the scene.

Sam soon realized that tears were stinging his eyes. He quickly buried his head into the shoulder of his jacket, sniffling slightly. "Dean," he managed to breathe out. Dean had listened to him. He had gone to live that life. He had heeded Sam's last wish and gone to live with Lisa, the "apple-pie life" that Sam wanted for him upon his death. But for some reason, Sam had been plopped down smack-bang across from Lisa Braeden's house, given a chance to see his brother once more.

"God gave you this chance," he heard a voice say, making him jump. The flutter of a trench coat in the wind gave away the man next to him. Angel, rather.

"Cas?" Sam asked, breathing heavy after the surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I've come to tell you why you are back." He walked to look in the window of the Braeden residence, and then turned back to face Sam. "Sam, God found reason to reward you. You and your brother nearly single-handedly stopped the Apocalypse. You took control of Lucifer in the end and banished him to the pits of hell. God rewarded you and your brother's efforts by granting you each other once more."

"Why, though?"

"Sam," he smiled for a moment, stubbornly. He walked towards Sam and looked him in the eye. "You don't get it do you?" He laughed, looked to the sky, the ground, then back to Sam. "What did you and Dean do that went against all of the odds?"

Sam looked down at the ground, wrinkling his eyebrows.

Castiel sighed. "Sam, you and Dean used your free will. Although the demons and the Angels forced you into the apocalypse, played you into their plan, you never gave up each other. In the end, you overpowered Lucifer to save your brother. You chose each other over what the Angels told you, over the end of the world, and that was powerful enough to save it."

Sam looked at Castiel funny. "Are you okay, Cas? Since when are you all love and peace?"

Cas laughed. "Since that's what you brought to the world." With another flapping of his jacket, Castiel disappeared from sight, and left Sam looking around confused for a moment.

Though he could not yet understand the ways God worked he decided to take advantage of the chance he had. He walked into view of the window again, watching as the conversation between Lisa and Dean progressed. Lisa looked down and in her eyes, he could see a gleam of tears, building slightly, about to pour over the edge. Dean stood, strode over and hugged her, stroking her hair and whispering something.

"Oh my God," Sam laughed incredulously. "Things have really changed, huh..." He caught Ben looking from the hallway sadly. When Ben's eyes wandered to Sam, he shifted and ducked fast, breathing heavy.

"It's not his place to tell Dean I'm here..." he heaved, crawling out from under the window slowly, slithering like a snake until he was out of view. He stood, let out a breath and brushed off his clothes.

Now, what to do... Sam thought, looking to his side and spotting the front door. There's a start... he thought sardonically. He walked towards it, stopped, and contemplated a moment. Would his brother react normally?

Of course not, he scoffed, running through the list of things he had to do to prove to his brother that he was indeed himself. With a grimace, he walked to the door and took a breath. This was going to be hard. He pressed the doorbell, knocked. 1, 2, 3. He waited. He went to press it again, bouncing on his feet, and his brother answered the door. "Hello, Braeden... residence..." Dean's mouth hung open. Confusion entered his eyes first, soon followed by anger. "Get the hell out of here you sonofabitch."

Dean went to close the door on Sam, but Sam threw his arm up, a pleading look on his face. "Dean, please, wait! It's me..."

Dean spun back on him. "And how in hell can you prove that, huh? Last time I saw Sam, he was jumping into a Goddamn prison with Satan inside of his body. So if you can somehow show me you're the real Sam, by all means!"

Sam looked down.

"Oh don't give me that puppy dog face, don't you-" he cut himself off, fighting to keep cool. He went inside for a moment, as Lisa nearly collided with him.

"Dean?" she asked, concerned. "Dean, what is it?"

"I'm grabbing some silver!" he snapped, pulling a silver knife from his jacket, which he had hung up for once. He also grabbed a flask of holy water from the inside of his jacket and took some salt from the table.

"What... what for?" Lisa asked, a quizzical look on her face. Lisa looked to the front door, and quickly her expression changed to horror. "Oh my God..." she whispered shakily, covering her face.

"Lisa?" he shouted to her.

"Y-yes?"

"I'm going to have to screw up your walls a little bit. Least of our problems if this isn't Sam." He took the silver knife and breathed heavily, taking a stance and cutting his forearm. He winced, and dropped the knife, dipping his fingers in the blood and painting an Angel banishing sigil on the wall. "If you're Lucifer, you sonofabitch, you're gone." He slapped the seal and a light flashed.

Sam stood there, squinting his eyes and shaking his head. Once he regained his composure, he said, "I'm not Lucifer, Dean, it's your-"

"Shove it." Dean opened the flask and let fly a wave of Holy Water, which made contact with Sam's face. No burning.

"Are you ready to believe me yet?" Sam asked impatiently.

Dean's look faltered, but before he let Sam through, he tossed salt on him, to no effect, and grabbed his arm hesitantly, cutting him, to Sam's displeasure, with the silver knife. No extreme, out of the ordinary, supernatural freak pain. Dean looked up incredulously. "Sammy?" he asked, choking on tears.

"Yeah, Dean. It's me."

"Sammy..." he took shaky breaths, and after a moment flung his arms around his brother.

The Winchester brothers were reunited.