Hello my lovelies. This is a slight departure to what I normally write but I got this idea and it just won't let go so here we are. So this is an AU story, my first so please be kind. Also I think (hope?) this one will be less angst ridden than the other's I've written (what can I say,I'm writing about Supernatural!). Anyway please read and review.

Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or Jane Austen.


It started with three paintings. The women in flames looking serene and at peace. The man in the woods looking haunted and determined to protect, and the eyes always watching, innocently learning from the all they see.

Yes I know I should start from the being but it was such an ordinary start, nothing to talk about, so tell me why shouldn't I go for sensationalism? Okay fine let's begin at the beginning, but don't ever say I didn't warn you.

Once upon a time (what? Nothing wrong with starting with a classic is there?) There lived a man. He had not had the easiest start in life I will grant you but he had his brother. And in his mind he could ask for nothing more. He looked after him and protected him from the crap that life threw at them so that his brother never knew the difference between his life and that of his friends. He graduated from high school, but didn't go to college saying that it wasn't for him when in reality he wouldn't leave Sammy alone with the man who was their father. Then his brother got accepted to Stanford. He of course encouraged his brother to leave, not because he thought of himself but he thought that if Sammy was gone nothing could happen to him. The problem was the money. Yes Sam had got a scholarship but things still needed to paid for, books and stuff. So being the good brother he was he found a way to pay for all his brother ever needed, without Sam ever knowing the truth. And no it is not what you think. This man who was once upon a time a boy was in fact rather clever. He had spent many a night making up a dream world for his brother to hide the sounds from their father downstairs. This dream world was not one you would think that a child could come up with. It contained monsters and evil, but the brothers hunted it all. They were fearless together and could take on the whole world. It made Sam feel safe to know that his brother would protect him from everything. And every night Sam Winchester used to go to sleep of stories of him and his brother fighting and defeating the monsters that hid in the dark, with the background sound of Metallica on the tape deck. Dean was just happy that the sounds covered that which Sam did not need to hear.

So when Dean heard that his brother needed money in college he thought back to those stories and decided to write them down. He was surprised when he first sent them to the publishers, not because they rejected him, but because they seemed to want more. And thus the stories Dean Winchester told his brother to help him through the dark of the night became best sellers.

Dean did not do publicity. He stayed away, not even telling his brother how he got the money he needed, instead claiming it was what he earned working three jobs. They both knew it was a lie but never of them was willing to call the other on it. Dean because he didn't want to tell his brother the truth and Sam because he didn't want to think about where the money had come from. His thoughts automatically going to something illegal.

The years past and Sam got given a full ride at law school. Dean could not be happier for him, though he still helped out with money, he was still writing the books and people were still reading them. Then Sam graduated a lawyer. He could not let himself still take the money he thought his brother got from illegal means and so found himself a place in a good law firm. Dean still continued to write, though now the stories had a darker edge, one in which the younger brother cared nothing for the older and he blamed himself for every pain in the world and sort to find a release for it.

After a few years of dark times in Dean's mind, though good times in Sam's, Sam set up his own practice in a the small town of no consequence except to those fortunate enough to have lived there. This was where Sam finally got round to proposing to his college sweetheart Jessica and she obviously said yes. (Come on who would say no if Sam Winchester proposed?) Once Sam phoned his brother to tell him Dean was over the moon that Sammy was finally happy. Though he was upset to find that now he was dispensable, after all Jess would be there for him now. But being the man he was he put his own feelings to the back of his mind and concentrated on being happy for Sam.

It was one night three months after Sam got engaged that they were sitting in the local bar while Dean was visiting drinking when the owner came over to them and mentioned he was selling. He was retiring with his wife, moving out to California to be with their daughter and grandchildren. Sam made the expected noises of shock but pleasure while Dean just sat there. Since Sam had left he had never had a home. Yes he had a house but it was empty when Sam wasn't in it. And Sam wasn't coming back. Maybe if he could move closer to his brother he would find home again. So he decided on impulse to buy the bar. After all his writing was still going strong and he had enough in royalties so he really didn't need to work again. He wanted a home and he thought that maybe by running this bar he might find one. How little he knew, that that one decision would change the course of his life, finding him not just a home, but a family.