Dean Winchester Rising

Author's Note: This is the first in what is supposed to be a series. No, this doesn't mean that I'm never going to finish Time and Again. I guess I should post more of that, huh?

x X X x

Jason could still smell the smoke of the fire. It had been days and he'd hardly slept. Mommy was gone, daddy had said. She wasn't coming back. And they couldn't go back home, either. Daddy put him and Jared into the back of the 'mpala and he drove a long way. They didn't stop for ages.

When daddy finally did stop, it was for breakfast someplace that was unlike any place Jason had ever eaten in before. Daddy called it a diner. And over pancakes that were not nearly as good as mommy's, Daddy told Jason that his name wasn't Jason Teague anymore. It was gonna be Dean Winchester. Jason had told himself he wouldn't say anything until he saw mommy again, but daddy insisted that he repeat it. So Dean's first words were "Dean Winchester".

Dean fell asleep leaning against Jar- Sammy's car seat. When he woke up, daddy had parked the car in front of a house that looked a little familiar. "This is Patty's house, remember?" asked daddy.

Dean nodded.

"We're going to stay here for a bit, okay, buddy?" said daddy.

Dean nodded again, reaching over to hold Sammy's hand.

"I need you to remember something, though," he said. And his voice got all low and quiet like he didn't want anyone else to hear, but there was no one else in the car but him and daddy and Sammy. "The people in this house... these are the only people I can trust. Uncle Virgil, and Uncle Robert and Aunty Laura, and Uncle Lionel and Aunty Lillian. But you can't trust any of them, Jason. Only me, and Sammy."

They were the coldest words that Dean had ever heard from his father's mouth, but he nodded anyway. Daddy was right. Everyone else would just go away and die. Everyone but daddy and Sammy.

"Good," said daddy. He got out of the car and kissed Dean on the forehead before unbuckling Sammy and taking Dean's hand.

x x x

Uncle Virgil opened the front door and smiled at them all. Then he turned his smile into a frown and said that he was very sorry to hear about Dean's mommy. Dean guessed that daddy had told Uncle Virgil all about their new names because he said, "Hello John. Dean. Sam," as though he was trying out the names.

Dean didn't say anything. Then Patty's nanny came into the room and daddy looked like he was going to give Sammy to her, but Dean screamed. Uncle Virgil looked at him like he was a crazy person. But daddy smoothed down the hair on his head and wiped away the tear that Dean hadn't realised had fallen from his eye. Daddy kissed Dean on the forehead. Then he followed Patty's nanny into Patty's playroom. She was in there with Alexander-don't-call-me-Alex, but Dean didn't see Ollie. Dean sat on the floor next to some blocks and daddy put Sammy in his lap. Dean squeezed him tightly. Then daddy left with Uncle Virgil to do grown up things.

Alexander looked at Dean the way he usually did, as though there were a lot of things going on inside his head that he could figure out if he just stared at Dean a little longer. Alexander was usually the quietest kid in their group, but Dean was going to out-quiet him today. As usual, Patty was the loudest. She was especially loud when they were in her house and she liked to boss the boys around. She was even louder than Sammy when he was crying.

Patty was trying to get Alexander to play with her dolls. And Dean didn't realise that kids could scoff, but Alexander did it just the way any of their dads would have. Patty frowned and stomped her foot and her nanny reminded her that it wasn't ladylike to do things like that. Then Patty started crying really loudly. Dean didn't think she realised that everyone knew she was faking when she did that.

Sammy started sucking on his whole hand instead of just his thumb and Dean knew that that meant that he was hungry. But Patty's nanny wasn't on the list of people daddy trusted. He missed his own nanny, but daddy didn't trust her either because she'd been in the house when mommy died. For a brief moment, Dean hated his mommy for dying. Because if she was still alive he wouldn't be here. He'd be home, safe and sound. Luckily for Dean, Ollie and his mommy came in at that moment. Patty stopped her fake crying and latched onto Ollie's arm, dragging him into the room. Dean wasn't sure, but he thought it looked like Ollie had been crying on the way over.

Dean stood up with Sammy in his arms, even though he was kind of heavy. "Aunty Laura," he said. "Sammy's hungry."

She looked at him for a moment. "Right. Dean," she said. "Let's get him a bottle." She bent to lift Sammy from Dean's arms and he didn't want to let go of him, but he knew that the kitchen was way far away and he didn't think he could carry him that far. "Would you like a snack, too?" she asked.

Dean shook his head. He didn't want anything she could give him.

x x x

Sammy was asleep on Dean's lap and Dean was just watching him. Patty and Alexander were drawing and Ollie was sitting next to Dean, building something with the blocks. Ollie was usually Dean's favourite. But usually he talked a lot more than he was talking today.

Patty's nanny kept asking him if he wanted to do anything but Dean didn't. He wanted to go home and daddy said that was never going to happen again. Where was his daddy? How long was grown-up talk going to take? It always took a long time, Dean knew, but had it always taken this long?

Then Ollie smiled at him, sticking his tongue out a little. "Hey Jay," he said softly, knowing that he was supposed to call him Dean. "You wanna knock down my tower with me?"

Dean smiled the first real smile he'd smiled since the last time he saw his mommy. "Okay." He carefully set Sammy onto the blanket next to him, then walked over next to Ollie.

"One, two, three," he said. And together they kicked down the tower and scattered the blocks all over the room. Patty's nanny looked at them in horror and Dean and Ollie laughed and laughed.

When they were finished, Alexander threw them the dirtiest look, and even Patty pouted from her seat at her desk. But all the destruction he'd just engaged in made him feel better. "Come on," he said to them. "Let's build another one."

Then Patty and Alexander walked over and started picking up blocks without arguing that it was an activity that was beneath them. Dean had always been the leader with the ideas. It was nice that some things still hadn't changed.

x x x

That night Dean crawled his way out of the enormous bed he was supposed to be sleeping in and went to find daddy and Sammy. He knew they were in the room next door. Daddy had made sure to tell him when Uncle Virgil was telling them which rooms to use. Daddy had looked completely unsure of himself and Dean wanted to make sure that he wasn't feeling as lost and lonely as Dean was.

The doorknobs were high, but Dean managed by standing on his toes and reaching way up. As soon as he opened daddy's door, daddy sat up and said, "Who's there?"

Dean let the door swing closed and ran all the way to daddy's bed, and jumped onto it. Sammy was lying there and Dean's landing made him roll over.

"Careful, buddy," said daddy. He carefully set Sammy back into place, and he rolled away from Sammy, onto the other side of the huge bed to make room for Dean.

Dean carefully pressed a kiss to Sammy's forehead, then snuggled into the warm place right beside daddy. Daddy wrapped his arm around Dean and pulled the blankets up over them. Dean liked that he didn't even have to ask but he wished mommy was here too.

"Daddy?" asked Dean in a careful whisper.

"Yeah, bud?"

"Will mommy come back if I'm real good?"

Dean found himself almost suffocated in his father's embrace. Daddy's eyes were wet and one of his big hands came and rested on Dean's cheek. "I'm so sorry, Jason," he said.

Then Dean's eyes were wet too and he didn't want to look at daddy anymore. He pushed his face right up into daddy's pyjama shirt. When the tears soaked right into it, it was like he wasn't crying at all.

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A/N: I totally need an alpha/beta/co-author(?) for this series. Preferably someone who knows Smallville better than I do. If you want to help, let me know... and you can start by beta-ing this prologue. Lol. Thanks. =)

Oh, but you should probably know that this is in no way going to turn into a Dean/Lana fic. I do have pairings in mind and they are slashy. Plus, the story's mostly going to focus on the people in this prologue, not Clark, Lois, & Chloe, though they'll make appearances.

I imagine this to be something of an epic, starting from here, going through the meteor shower in 1989, then to the boys at Excelsior, tracking through season 4 of Smallville before weaving in and out between the rest of Smallville and Supernatural (with Dean and Sam as part time members of the Justice League)... which is why I'm going to need help if this is ever going to be finished.