(Or: the one where Sam and Dean aren't the most dysfunctional, co-dependent Winchester siblings out there)
A/N: This takes place sometime between Dean, Cas, and Mary saving Sam from the Men of Letters and Mary leaving. Cross-posted to AO3 under the username the_elegant_hedgehog
Dean should have seen this coming. They'd managed to stop Amara from ending the world, Mary was back in the land of the living, Cas was Lucifer free, and Sam was freshly rescued from the crazy English chick with the British Men of Letters.
So of course it was just a matter of time before something went horribly wrong.
Couldn't he just get one day without something weird happening?
But no, he had just been enjoying his morning cup of coffee and looking over the newspaper Mary had asked him to pick up yesterday morning when the ceiling suddenly started glowing with bright purple glyphs. He barely had time to grab the gun from under the table when the two girls suddenly fell through the ceiling and onto the table in front of him
"Who the fuck are you?" He demanded, shooting to his feet, gun trained on the mass of limbs on the table.
"Who the fuck are you asshole?" One of the girls, the blonde, shot back. "Jesus Sammy, get the fuck off of me."
The brunette tried to roll off the other girl, groaning as she flipped onto her stomach. The blonde pushed herself into a more vertical position, before suddenly noticing the gun pointed at her. She rolled her eyes. "Chill out man."
Dean readjusted his grip on the weapon. "Who. The Fuck. Are you?"
The blonde smirked, raising her hands up. Behind her, the brunette lifted her head just enough to turn it towards Dean. She scowled, and suddenly the gun was yanked out of Dean's hand and flew the short distance into the blonde's.
She smiled at him, bright and full of condescending amusement. "I'm Deanna. That's Sammy. Sorry for falling in like this, but magic's a bitch you know?"
Still trying to process what had just happened, Dean wondered why the fuck it was taking Sam and Mary so long to get back from their morning shopping expedition.
The blonde continued on. "We're the Winchesters. Now," She pointed the gun at Dean, tone suddenly serious. "Who the ever loving fuck are you."
After a very long and confusing conversation, Deanna explained that they were from an alternate dimension, one where the Winchester brothers were actually the Winchester sisters. They'd jumped through a portal after some monster, which had apparently spit them out in the middle of the bunker. When Dean asked where the monster was then, Samantha explained that the portal sigil had already been cold when they had reached it, so they had to reactivate it. Apparently portal jumping wasn't an exact science, so the hour difference in their dimension translated into a few days difference in this one.
When Dean mentioned that he would have probably noticed if a giant monster appeared in his living room, Sammy had just shrugged and muttered something about Dean and Sam's proximity shifting the spells location focal point.
It was a trippy conversation to say the least.
It hadn't gotten any better when Sam and Mary finally got back, shortly followed by Cas appearing with the latest update on where Lucifer wasn't.
Mary had thrown her hands up in the air and gone to the kitchen for some water when Cas had decided to mention that Sam and Dean made for very beautiful women even if they were somehow even more of an abomination than their male counterparts.
Sammy rolled her eyes and Dee laughed loudly. "You don't know the half of it Halo boy." She wheezed out between laughs.
Sam, always a nerd, asked them. "So other than the obvious, what else is different in your dimension?"
Apparently most of their life experiences had been the same. Mary died when they were young, they were raised as hunters, Sammy got out of the game for a while at Stanford before being dragged back in by John's disappearance. John still died to bring Dee back from the dead, Sammy was still stabbed in the back, Dee still died in exchange for her sister's life. Sammy still said yes to Lucifer, still threw herself into the cage to save Dee from herself.
That's when things got a little different. In quiet tones, Sammy explained that what happened in the Cage was too much, that her soul wasn't just damage, it was shredded. Then when Dee died and was taken to purgatory, she lost it. She returned to drinking demon blood and started learning magic from any witch or warlock she could find. And when she was powerful enough, Sammy went back to Wyoming and opened the gates to hell.
Within a month, she had lived up to Azazel's wildest dreams and claimed her status as the Queen of Hell. She sent demons out to every corner of the underworld to find Dee, and when that came up empty, she ripped Purgatory apart too.
And while the angels above raged at their absent God, Sammy brought Dee back to hell with her. They made plans to reform the system as much as possible. Sammy crowned Crowley "Chief Bureaucrat" and named Cas the official liaison between Heaven and Hell when the angels made it clear he was high up on their death wish list.
Dee took great delight in telling Dean and Sam that Sammy's official title was technically the "Divine Empress of all that is Unholy" and that Crowley's was "A Slimey Mofo."
When Dean asked what Dee's title was, she proudly announced, "I'm Her Divine Empress's Most Awesome and Kick-ass Sister, duh."
Dean didn't miss the affectionate look Sammy shot Dee at that.
Mary's re-emergence from the kitchen with a platter full of burgers and two six-packs of beers prompted an impromptu family lunch. Dean couldn't help but notice the longing but wary looks the two sisters kept shooting his mother when she wasn't looking, and the slight hesitation in her voice every time Mary addressed them.
Sitting awkwardly without any food, Cas asked Sammy. "So how did you deal with Lucifer?"
"We didn't give him free reign, but he's allowed to wander Hell and Purgatory. We let him up topside once a month if he behaves."
"You trust him?"
"Oh hell no," Dee interjected, "but he's been surprisingly useful. We've got a whole advisory board thing going and he's been an important part of it. Granted, we also had to set up a committee solely to double check what he says and make sure he behaves, but it's worked out so far."
Cas furrowed his brow, clearly about to voice his concerns, but Dee and Sammy had already turned back to the other Winchesters.
"What is this place anyways?" Sammy asked.
Sam replied. "It's the American Chapter Headquarters for the Men of Letters."
Dee grunted. "We've had to deal with those sons of bitches. They tried to take Sammy out when we visited London recently."
At Sam's confused expression, Sammy clarified. "Apparently being the Queen of Hell is enough to trip their supernatural sensors, so they tried to bag and tag me." She paused. "I'd recommend not trusting them by the way. We made that mistake when they said we were free to go and woke up to ten hunters standing around our bed and a priest trying to exorcise me."
"How'd that work out?"
Sammy's grin was just a little too feral for Dean's comfort. "Not well for them."
After lunch, Cas vanished to meet with Crowley and the sisters filled the rest of the family in on their hunt. They were looking for a warlock that had managed to get possessed by a renegade demon. The warlock was apparently already on the sister's shit list after trying to summon and bind Sammy so he could use her powers. Even with her powers bound, the warlock couldn't handle that level of magical energy and had wisely chosen to go into hiding before Dee arrived to break her out of the iron chains he'd used.
It seemed like the warlock and demon, who had tried to lead a very shortly lived rebellion in hell, had made a pact to work together to get out of their dimension, figuring it was the only way to survive. Thinking they were now free to go around killing whoever, the demon warlock duo were responsible for a recent string of disappearances in Kansas City.
"The dimension jump was enough to drain most of my powers," Sammy explained when Dean asked why the newly named demonlock hadn't immediately left for more interesting regions, "The jump probably took most of the juice between them so they're stuck traveling via car until either the Demon regains his powers naturally or the warlock performs enough ritual sacrifices to restock his batteries."
Impala packed full of holy water, iron, and guns, the Winchester family piled into the car. Sam and Dee rock, paper, scissored to see who got shotgun.
"Stupid fucking game," Dee muttered, sliding into the backseat next to Mary.
The forty minute drive passed quickly.
A quick stop at the police station by "Agents Ford and Hamill" confirmed that the police had no idea what was going on. The only commonality between the missing people were that they were all very physically fit and happy individuals.
"Makes sense," Dee said on the phone to Sam as they left the station. "You get more bang for your buck if your sacrifice is healthy and at their peak strength. We'll check with some of the families where the victims would work out, maybe they have a gym in common."
As it turned out, all of the victims either ran or frequently played sports in Swope Park.
"We could set a trap?" Dee offered. "Have one of us go for a run and hope the demonlock follows us back to the motel?"
"He'd recognize you two," Sam said. "I can do it."
Dean immediately prickled. "Not alone you're not."
"Dean, you hate running, and I'm a better target if I'm alone."
Sammy reached out and laid a hand on Dean's arm. "We can all hide out somewhere in the park and I should have enough energy by now to scry Sam. We'll just be five minutes away, and no one's disappeared from the park itself so far."
Plan set and Dean only somewhat grumpy about it, the group headed to the park the next morning. Sam started jogging at a leisurely pace around the park's wooded trails as Mary and Dean sat on a park bench next to the Impala's parking space. Inside the car, Sammy stared intently into a small bowl full of water, a thin wisp of black smoke connecting her to the liquid.
Half an hour later, Sammy spoke up. "They've spotted him." Dean stiffened on the bench outside, clearly ready to run to his little brother's defense. "They're following him, but they're fairly far back."
Dee nodded. "Dean, you should probably call Sam and tell him to head back to the motel. I doubt they're going to try to do anything here."
Sam's phone was already ringing before she had even opened her mouth. "They've spotted you."
"Okay, I'll meet you later."
"We're going to head back to the motel and set up for them."
"Yeah you can pick me up in like three hours? It's the Crown Lodge."
"Be safe Sam."
"Yep, see you then."
Dean and Mary got back into the car. Sammy snorted. "The demonlock legitimately just did a fist pump and what has to be the lamest victory dance ever."
At the motel, the four of them quickly got to work booby trapping the place. Demon circles were painted on the ceiling by the door and the bathroom window, shotguns were loaded with rock salt shells, and Dee gripped a machete with a disturbing amount of glee in her expression.
They weren't expecting the demonlock to drop through the ceiling just as Sam opened the front door.
The demonlock froze, a comical look of fear on its face. It had just enough time to swear before Dean brought up his shotgun and squeezed the trigger. The demonlock swore even louder as it ducked out of the way, trying to tackle Mary in the process.
"Mom!" Dee and Dean both shouted in unison. In retaliation, Mary brought down an elbow on the top of the demonlock's head, following the blow with another to the side of the head with the butt of her gun. It yelped in pain and let go of her waist, trying to dash behind one of the beds. Sammy was ready for it though, managing to intercept it as it passed her and getting an arm around its throat. Dean and Sam moved forward, angel blades ready for the kill, when the demonlock shouted something in what sounded like a weird hybrid of Latin and Demonic.
A bright blue light shot from its fingertips towards Mary. Dee managed to throw herself at their mother, right in time to shove her out of the way and take the hit herself.
Dee slumped to the ground unmoving, and there was a long moment of oppressive silence. Dean only realized that the quiet was supernatural in origin when he looked back at Sammy and saw her mouth was open and screaming.
In her arms the demonlock was shaking and crying as tendrils of smoke wrapped around it and shot under its skin, leaving deep burns in their wake. The demon, trying to save itself, tried to leave its warlock host. Instead of escaping into the air, the smoke coalesced in front of Sammy before burning in a terrible flash.
Deed done, Sammy dropped the still burning and crying warlock on the ground and crossed the room to Dee's body in two strides. She sat down, checking Dee's pulse, before drawing her into her lap. She cradled Sammy's longer body as sound slowly returned to the room.
Dean felt as if his own soul had been stripped from him, remembering all the times it was Sam's lifeless body on the floor. "You promised Dee," Sammy whispered, voice broken. "You promised not to go anywhere I cannot follow."
Her head shot up to stare at the wall, voice suddenly full of malice. "You do not get to take her. Her soul does not fall under your jurisdiction." Dean saw a female form flicker into existence for a moment before becoming solid.
Dean had never seen a reaper looked so worried, so human before now.
"I'm just here to take her to a better place, hon," the reaper spoke like Sammy was a wild animal.
"I am the goddamned Queen of Hell, and I hold the only claim on this soul."
Sammy's voice had gone cold and she pulled her shirt neckline down and to the right. Whatever was there caused the reaper to pale even more before putting her hands up in surrender. "I'm sorry I didn't know."
Sammy looked back down at Dee, clearly dismissing the reaper, who disappeared instantly. "I'm sorry Dee, you don't have a choice." Dean stiffened as Sammy raised her right palm and cut open the skin with Dee's machete. She dripped the blood first into Sammy's mouth and then pressed her palm against Dee's chest.
Her voice echoed through the room and Dean felt a deep rooted sense of fear and rightness down to his bones. The words themselves were not English, didn't even sound human, but Dean felt their meaning reverberate in his head, underpinned with such strong love and sorrow and joy and grief that it was a miracle he was still standing. "I hold you to your oath beloved, your soul and life is mine to command. You may only enter the great sleep when your promise to me has been fulfilled. Wake."
Dee immediately shot up, gasping. The room was quiet for a long moment as she breathed heavily until someone loudly said, "What the hell?" It took another moment for his brain to catch up with his mouth and he didn't know what to do when Sammy and Dee both looked over at him before collapsing into more than slightly hysterical laughter.
"What's so funny?" Dean asked, only to be met with shaking heads and exhausted giggling.
Sam and Dean tried to clean up the motel room as much as possible. They brought the now dead warlock to the park once evening fell, making sure to salt and burn the body before burying it off one of the running trails. They didn't discuss what happened in the hotel room, and it was an exhausted group that piled back into the Impala to head to Lawrence.
After bundling Sammy and Dee into some of the extra rooms in the bunker, Sam and Dean quietly joined Mary in the kitchen where she was heating milk for hot chocolate.
"So uh, what do you think that was about?" Dean finally asked the other two.
Sam shrugged while Mary chewed her lip thoughtfully. "I'm not sure exactly," she finally began, "but I did get a look at what Sammy showed the reaper. It was a tattoo of some celtic knot."
"So it was a spell?" Sam asked, "One that they prepared in case anything bad happened?"
"Probably," Mary said, "the weird thing is that I'm pretty sure that designed is usually used by married couples?"
The brothers pointedly didn't look at each other, and the family finished their hot chocolate in silence before wandering off to bed.
The next morning, the sisters acted like nothing happened the night before. Dean pointedly pretended not to notice Dee sneaking out of her sister's room. Samantha was extremely quiet during breakfast, even compared to his normally broody, emo brother.
After the meal was over and all the dishes were put away, Dee followed Sam into the library to look up inter-dimensional travel in the hopes that the Men of Letters would have some sort of info on how to craft the specific sigil required.
Left alone with Sammy, Dean figured the blunt approach might not be the best approach in the situation. Like usual though, his mouth spoke before his brain could. "So what exactly happened yesterday?"
Sammy shrugged. "One of the perks of Hell Queendom is that I get some amount of say over what happens to souls when they die."
Dean hesitated. "Yeah but isn't that only after the reapers decide where the soul belongs? Yesterday that reaper actually looked scared."
Sammy paused for a long moment, shifting uncomfortably. "I don't know if it's the same here," she finally said hesitantly, "but Dee and I share a soul."
Dean nodded slowly. "Sam and I shared a heaven. A friend of ours said that that means the same thing."
"Well, it turns out that Hell takes soulmates even more seriously than Heaven does."
"O-kay?"
Sammy sighed, before mumbling "Dee's my Queen Consort."
Dean blinked at her. "Say what now?"
Sammy took a deep breath, closing her eyes tightly. "Because Dee and I share a soul and because Hell is basically a sentient being in its own right, it recognized her as my Queen Consort. She gets to share some of my powers and we have final say over each other's part of our soul."
Dean thought for a long moment, but the only response he could come up with was "huh."
Another long moment passed before Dean asked, "so are you two like …?" Sammy flushed red as his voice trailed off and Dean could feel the warmth rise in his own cheeks. "There's uh, no judgement by the way." He managed to say.
"It uh, took a while." Sammy finally responded. "I mean we pretty much always knew there was something there we shouldn't talk or think about and it got worse after Stanford. Dee felt really terrible about it for years, like she was some sort of monster. We didn't do anything about it until after I saved her from purgatory." Sammy paused again. "I was really fucked up when we found her. I didn't just take over hell, I had to wage war on it. I had some demons and angels on my side, but I still hadn't really recovered at all from the Cage and I'd done so many terrible things just to get the gates open. When I saw Dee in Purgatory, covered in leviathan blood, I just snapped I guess." Sammy shrugged. "We've talked about it a lot and we've just kind of agreed that social norms don't apply to us. Plus," she grinned, "if Chuck is cool with it, why should we argue otherwise."
Dean chuckled.
"I'm guessing you and your Sam aren't like us?" Sammy's voice was hesitant.
Dean felt his blush return with a vengeance. "Nah," he said, "I mean, Sam's everything to me, but uh," he tried to ignore the lump welling up in his throat. "It doesn't go both ways."
Sammy snorted. "Fat chance of that."
"No uh," Dean's throat was getting increasingly tight. "Sam didn't exactly look for me while I was in Purgatory, let alone rip apart hell to do so."
Sammy watched him carefully. "The thing is," she said, "Dee was furious. 'You've got to let me make my own choices,' she said, 'you can't keep throwing your life away for mine'. I couldn't accept that she was gone. I couldn't even begin to grieve for her, even though as far as I knew, she'd just exploded into nothing. I ripped hell apart because I was too weak to do anything else. I'm not-," her expression was distant as she choked on her words, "I'm not strong enough to live without Dee. After I freed her from Purgatory, I could have let the angels take her to heaven, but instead I decided to bind her to my damaged ass forever."
Dean chuckled mirthlessly. "There is no universe where I would rather be in heaven than with Sam."
Sammy smiled sadly. "That's the point. Dee's entire life has been about me, even though I've always been damaged goods. I couldn't do the brave or right thing and let her go." She shook her head. "Sam might have fucked up leaving you in Purgatory, but he loves you enough to try to live without you, to give you a life outside of him. I've always been too selfish to even think about letting Dee go."
Dean frowned at her, trying to process what she said, as Dee bounded back into the room in front of a very distracted looking Sam. "So Sammy," she said cheerily, "you'll never guess the only person who the Men of Letters claim can control dimensional travel."
"Who?"
"It's Rowena," Sam sighed. "It's always Rowena."
It was surprisingly easy for them to get in touch with the witch. Cas informed them during his daily check-in that Crowley was working with his mother to try and kill Lucifer. She agreed to meet with the Winchester sisters surprisingly quickly.
"I just want to see what they look like as women, Ferguson." She was saying as the three of them re-appeared in the bunker. "You can't blame me for being curious."
The demon muttered something under his breath before turning around and seeing the Winchester family. "Bloody hell. There really is a female Moose and Squirrel."
Dee greeted him with a cheerful, "S'up slimy."
Crowley narrowed his eyes at her. "Your parts maybe different, but that attitude is the same. I hear that you," he turned towards Sammy, "are the Girl Queen of Hell."
"She's Her Devine Empress of all that is Unholy," Dee interrupted.
Rowena curtsied lowly, "Your Devine Empress," she began, "I am Rowena, your humble servant and but a lowely witch."
Sammy grinned at her. "I know exactly who you are Rowena and you are neither humble nor a servant."
"Oh?" A perfectly manicured eyebrow shot up.
"Where we're from, you're the Supreme Witch of Hell and one of our favorite advisors."
"You make the best cocktails Ro," Dee chimed in.
"And you helped me overthrow Hell." Sammy added. "So what did you want to trade for the knowledge of how to get us home?"
Rowena blushed prettily at all the praise, a wicked grin tugging at the corner of her mouth. "Hell used to have such a wonderful library, but the place has seen so much turmoil recently that the whole thing went up in smoke. There's a spell I want if you know it, and in exchange I'll give you the knowledge you need to return home."
The redheaded witch crossed the room to whisper something in Sammy's ear, and she laughed brightly before nodding in agreement. The two of them settled down on the table after grabbing a stack of paper and pencils.
"Well aren't you lot awefully chummy." Crowley groused from his position of raiding the liquor cabinate.
"Oh you don't know the half of it," Dee said, waiting for him to take a sip of his pilfered whiskey, "Sammy and our Rowena actually slept together."
Crowley choking on his drink was more than worth the mental image in Dean's head.
That night, after the family dinner that had apparently expanded to include both Rowena and Crowley, Mary pointedly looked at Sam and Dean and asked them to clear the dishes.
In the kitchen, Dean dumped the plates in the sink before standing in the doorway.
"Dude!" Sam said.
"Dude!" He mocked. "Don't you want to know what's so important that we had to clear out." Sam rolled his eyes, but went to stand by Dean in the doorway anyways. The tiled hallways made it ridiculously easy to hear what the girls were talking about in the dining room.
"I know I've been avoiding you," Mary was saying. "And I'm really sorry about that."
"It's fine," Sammy said, "We get that this whole thing is really weird."
"I'm fine with weird." Dean could imagine her waiving a hand dismissively. "It's that I feel guilty because it's my fault that Azazel targeted Sam, and I know that technically you have a different mother, but I feel responsible for her choices too."
"It's not your fault," Dee protested. "It's not our Mary's fault either."
"You didn't get your mother back though, and I know that she'd want to apologize and then tear both Heaven and Hell a new asshole for making you the Queen of Hell Sammy."
Sammy's voice was quiet, "I don't regret it Mary. I made that choice with my eyes wide open over and over again, and it's not your fault. It's no one's fault but mine."
Mary's voice sounded tight, and Dean's heart clenched knowing that his mother was crying. "That's not the only reason why I feel guilty."
"You're relieved, aren't you?" Sammy said, not unkindly, "that Sam didn't make the same choice I did." There's a muffled sob and Dean can imagine his mother nodding. "I'm relieved too." It's spoken like a confession. "I'm relieved because if Sam could choose not to become the King of Hell, then there might be something in me that's worth redemption."
Dee made a noise of protest, but Sammy ignored her. "And you should know that we're saving souls. Instead of becoming demons, we try to rehabilitate those that we can. Sometimes it takes a while, but eventually most of them can redeem themselves enough that the reapers show up and take them to a different afterlife."
Mary's chuckle was wet sounding but happy, "And let me guess, the ones that can't be redeemed are tortured via therapy forever."
"Right in one mom," Dee said affectionately.
Sam and Dean give the trio another minute before returning to the dining room.
"So did you guys actually clean the dishes or did you just listen in on our entire conversation." Mary asked, eyes still somewhat watery.
"I'm not even going to dignify that with a response." Dean retorted. Sam rolled his eyes before returning to the kitchen and starting to run the tap. "I'll just uh, be right back."
Bright laughter followed him back to the kitchen, and even though it was at his expense, Dean couldn't help the smile spreading across his face.
On the morning of their fourth day in this dimension, Dee made everyone chocolate chip pancakes and Sammy made hot chocolate and cherry pie.
"You can make pie!?" Without asking anyone else if they wanted some, Dean immediately buried a fork in the dessert. "Sam, dude," he moaned around it, "you've been holding out on me."
Sammy blushed as Dee elbowed her teasingly. "Growing up a lot of neighbors decided that I needed saving from my inevitable tom-boydom, so a lot of grandmas taught me how to sew and cook and stuff. Most of it actually comes in pretty handy."
"All the old biddies just wrote me off as a lost cause, but they figured Sammy's too pretty to not get married and pop out a few babies."
Sammy ignored her sister, instead nodding to the stove top. "There's also a blueberry one for you two."
Once breakfast was over, the family traveled topside, outside of the Men of Letter's warding. It didn't take long for them to draw up the sigil and the five of them stood around, trying to figure out how to say goodbye. Finally Dee said fuck it, and grasped Mary in a bone-crushing hug.
They went around clinging to each other and saying good bye. Sam loosened his grip on Sammy and the two sisters went to stand in the circle. "Wait," He blurted out, "before you go, why do you keep hunting? You guys could have sent literally any demon after the demonlock, but you went."
Sammy's grin was bright and blinding, and Dean felt something in his heart constrict at the sight. It had been so long since he'd seen that look of contentment and deep seated happiness on his brother's face. "We help a lot of souls in hell, but saving people?"
"Hunting things?" Dee said, "That's the family business."
The two sisters grasped each other's hand. Dee smiled and saluted while Sammy tapped her heels together and said, "There's no place like home."
They were gone in a swirl of black smoke and a flash of purple light, leaving the remaining Winchesters to make their way back down to the bunker.
"I'm going to go try and figure out the internet again," Mary announced. The boys pretended not to notice the waver to her voice.
Once she was gone, Dean turned towards Sam. "So in the library, when you guys were researching inter-dimensional travel, what did Dee say to you?"
Something in Sam's jaw twitched. "What makes you think she said anything?"
"You were awfully distracted afterwards for nothing to have happened."
"She just said some stuff that made me reconsider a lot of things." He paused, "Why did Sammy say something to you?"
"She uh," Dean's throat suddenly felt dry, "brought up some that I hadn't thought about in a while. Gave me a different perspective on some things."
The moment stretched out like taffy and the space between them seemed fragile somehow. Dean desperately wanted Sam to tell him what he's reconsidered, wanted Sam to tell him he wants what Sammy and Dee have as badly as Dean does. Instead Sam cleared his throat, "I might have found a case nearby, my Google Alerts pinged something this morning."
Dean's proud that his voice didn't waver when he said, "Sure let's saddle up."
It might not have been what Dean wanted Sam to say, but for the first time in what felt like forever, a tiny spark of hope bloomed in Dean's chest. Dee has her Sammy. Dean has his Sam.
No matter what comes their way, Dean could remember that.
Outtakes (from before I decided Sammy and Dee were hitched):
"So how'd you deal with Amara?" Dean finally asked Dee.
"Oh Sammy slept with her." Dean honest to god choked on his beer. Dee pounded his back a few times before he could breathe again.
"What?"
"Yeah, Sammy's gay and I'm bi." Dee peered at him curiously. "What, is your Sam not?"
Dean blinked at her. "As far as I'm aware, Sam's only ever been into chicks."
"Well I guess that's another thing that's the same here as back home." She grinned. "I'm sure you're also equal opportunity."
"Wait, I'm not bi."
Dee looked like the cat that got the canary. "Uh-huh, sure you're not honey."
Dean swallowed awkwardly, blushing furiously. "So your guys' solution to God's sister killing the sun was to have Sammy sleep with her? And that worked?"
"Oh no, our Amara never tried to end the world. She decided to try to seduce Sammy the second she realized she's the antichrist. Probably something about getting back at her brother? Sammy wasn't totally sure, but that was mostly a one-time thing and they're pretty good friends now. We kidnapped Dr. Phil to mediate some family counseling sessions and so they're off working through shit in some corner of the universe. They stop by for family dinners once a month or so though."
Dean swallowed drily, trying to process the image of Sammy and Amara tangled up together. "Neat."