Chapter One – Not According To Plan

Beeping. Voices. A baby crying.

Dean's eyes slowly opened, and he blinked a few times. At first his vision was blurry, he could see shapes, yet they were very out of focus. After a few seconds, his eyes began to work again and they formed into distinct shapes. A bed… he was in a bed. Next to him was a machine, and that was what was making the beeping noise. He was in a room; painted all white with white curtains draped over the windows.

He was in a hospital. Dean couldn't remember what had happened. He tried and tried to remember but he couldn't. He just remembered being surrounded by people. Sam, his mom, Jessica, and a girl he hardly knew.

He realized he needed a drink. He looked around, there was a table over his bed, but no drink was on it. He lay back on his pillow and searched his brain for what had happened. A knife, focused on him. Hands. His hands. Dean realized in horror that he had stabbed himself. He remembered the pain. The searing pain that had plunged through this body. Then, slowly, he began to remember why. A Djinn sending him here; his mom and Jessica alive, he had a job, a girlfriend. Yet he didn't have Sam. Sure, he had a Sam, but it wasn't his Sam. He was different. By gaining his mother, he had lost the brother he knew and loved. The decision to leave had nearly killed him. He wanted to stay here with his mom; he wanted it so bad. But his body was dying in the real world. And he wanted Sam back.

He wondered if stabbing himself had worked. There was a way to find out.

"SAM!" He yelled. His voice was hoarse.

He yelled Sam's name again and this time the door opened and Sam walked in. He smiled. Oh, please be the real Sam. Dean thought to himself.

"Dean. You okay?" Sam sat in the chair next to Dean's bed.

"Hey Sam. What happened?" He asked. Of course, he already knew.

"You stabbed yourself, Dean." Sam frowned and shook his head. "Why did you do that?"

"Cause I don't want to stay here! I want to get back to Sam!" Sam frowned.

"What? I'm right here, what are you talking about?"

"What do you mean what are you talking about? You were all trying to get me to stay before, now you're acting like you don't even know what happened!" Dean yelled. It was true. All four of them had tried to get him to stay and now Sam was acting like he had said nothing.

"What are you... okay, I'm just gonna... get you a drink." Sam left the room, with one last look at Dean.

Dean whacked the side of the bed in anger. It hadn't worked. Now how was he gonna get back? He knew one thing; he had to get out of this hospital. He looked down at his wound, there was a large bandage wrapped around him. He tried to sit up. There was a pain in his side that felt like the knife going through him again. He lay back down. Dean was angry with himself. Why had he even bothered? It hadn't worked, now he was stuck here… in this bed… his real body hanging…. dying somewhere. He imagined Sam, trying to wake him up, or hunting the Djinn, alone.

"Nurse! NURSE!" He yelled. A nurse ran through the doors. She was skinny with blonde hair down to her shoulders and blue eyes. "Hey." Dean said, smiling.

"What's wrong?" The nurse asked.

"Nothing, anymore." She frowned.

"What do you want?"

"A drink of water. Please," Dean smiled.

"Sure." The nurse said, quite bitterly, then walked off. Dean watched her walk off, and then lay down on his pillow. He had to think of a way to get out of here. He'd made the decision to leave once before, and the longer he stayed here the more it hurt to have his mom back. The door opened, Dean looked up, and expecting it to be the nurse, but it wasn't. Dean's mom walked through the door. She walked over and sat on the edge of his bed. She handed him a glass of water.

"The nurse told me to give you this." Dean smiled and stared at her.

"Thanks mom"

"Are you okay?" She smiled at him.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Mary smiled weakly again and walked off.

What was he going to do now? Trying to kill himself again probably wouldn't work. Lying back in his hospital bed, an idea suddenly popped into his head. So, everything hadn't happened to him, his mom hadn't died, the demon hadn't come for Sam, but surely stuff like that had to have happened to somebody, there must be other hunters out there. Bobby, Ellen, Josh... who knows? He would have to track them down. He didn't have his usual geek boy sidekick, so he would go it alone, using any resource possible. As soon as he got out of this hospital, it would be all systems go. As much as he loved his new family, he would have to leave them. They would only get in the way and try to stop him as they had before. He couldn't let that happen, not again. The looks in his family's eyes as he contemplated leaving them, were heartbreaking. He felt as if he had betrayed them.

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Sam was pacing worriedly in the motel room he and Dean had rented. Dean had failed to check in, it had been hours since their last conversation. He had set off to hunt the Djinn alone. Sam had asked him to come pick him up, but he'd gone ahead and now he was missing. He didn't even know which building Dean had gone to. Even so, he still had a copy of the list he had given Dean. He would have to follow in his older brother's footsteps and slammed the motel room door on his way out.

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Dean spent a few more days in hospital with his "family" visiting him everyday. As much as he loved being part of a family, he couldn't help feeling like he was missing out on something…. his relationship with his brother. In this dream world it had never had chance to flourish in the way it had done in reality. Their mom never died, so their dad never started hunting and neither had they. Dean had never taken care of Sam and now here they were, just co-existing, sure they were brothers and they loved each other, but it was never more than that.

His wound was healing well, and Dean returned to the apartment he shared with Carmen against medical advice. Because she was a nurse, she nagged him every time he tried to do something, like make something to eat or to get up from wherever he was sitting or lying. He got that she wanted to take care of him and make sure he didn't tear his stitches, but she wasn't real…. none of it was, not the apartment, nothing.

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Sam searched the first few buildings without so much as a clue that Dean had ever been there. He was starting to panic now. He couldn't lose Dean. Not now. He was all Sam had. Dean had taken care of him his whole life and had carried him from a burning building.

He turned the corner at the end of the corridor and came to a metal staircase. Sam silently stepped down them and looked around the large basement he found himself in.

It was poorly lit, so Sam couldn't see the weirdly tattooed guy who came up behind him. The next thing Sam saw was pitched blackness.