What Dean Winchester Needed Most

Set after Season 11 Finale, what I imagine Season 12 beginning like, with added Destiel. Dean is shocked to say the least when his mother turns up after God and Amara's reconciliation. And what happened to Sam? Is Cas gonna find his way home again?

Chapter 1

Dean had taken part in a few breath-taking reunions once or twice in his lifetime, but nothing remotely compared to this. Dean was the first to say life wasn't fair for him and his brother. Him and Sam never really had much except each other, and they had to fight tooth and nail to keep what they had. Fate was a cruel bitch. Literally.

They had lost so much, sometimes Dean found it nearly impossible to get out of bed in the morning. And after losing Cas to the Leviathans and then Bobby shortly after, Dean had shut down emotionally. He had lost all hope that he could keep his patchwork family together, because like he told Amara, when everything went to crap, all you had was family. They were the only ones that stuck by your side at the end of the day. And it was a fact of Dean Winchester's life that everybody left him eventually, so he didn't really see the point anymore. He had Sam and Cas for now, but he felt like he was waiting for the inevitable time when he just couldn't take it anymore.

Even the Empty sounded better than being left alone.

But somehow he always kept fighting, he never gave up.

And now…

"Mom?" Dean whispered, his voice throaty and hoarse, feeling a burning behind his eyes and a lump forming in his throat.

Mary Winchester stood there in the white gown she wore the night she was burned on the ceiling in Sammy's nursery. She just stared wide-eyed and terrified at her son, not daring to speak. And in that instant, Dean realized she had no idea who he was.

Dean felt all the air leave his lungs and like his legs might give out under him. Clearing his throat and blinking a couple times as his eyes burned and heart began to speed up, he spoke. "Mom…" his voice sounded nothing like what he thought he usually sounded like. He sounded like a broken man, like if this was a dream and he woke up, he would wished he hadn't. In that instant, he closed his eyes tight around the moisture there and wished with all his heart that this wasn't a Djinn-created reality. "Mom…it's me. Dean… your son," he breathed out heavily, his heart pounding in his chest.

Mary didn't move, her lips moved wordlessly, her brows furrowing and unfurrowing in confusion. "What?" she whispered, her tone disbelieving.

Dean laughed, a breathy watery sound to his own ears, and was too caught up to even care that tears were streaming down his face. "Yeah mom… it's me," he sent her a watery smile, this one of joy. "I'm all grown up," and his voice broke and his lower lip trembled as he watched his mother's face transform. She was awestruck. Dean didn't even hesitate as he moved forward, and before he knew it, his arms were around the one thing he needed most.

"Dean," she whispered as her arms wrapped around his waist, and Dean gripped her tighter, too relieved and desperate to care, because the one person he had needed all his life was in his arms. His mom was here.

Dean sobbed into her shoulder as she kneaded his back, because a mother knew, sometimes their child just needed to be held.

And Dean didn't let go for fear that if he did, she might just up and vanish again.

"Shhh," Mary whispered in her son's ear as he shook and sobbed and let out thirty-five years of pain and suffering. "I'm here my little angel. I'm not going anywhere," she confessed and laid a gentle kiss on her son's bent head as he cried his heart out.

Dean chuckled, halfway between a sob and whimper. "Not an angel mom… I could introduce you to one though… he's great… my best friend actually." Dean's gaze rose and his eyes locked with hers, and Dean couldn't help it that a new wave of tears fell from his eyes, and his smile was one of pain and sadness and joy all at the same time. He just needed his mom.

And he had Amara to thank for it all.

Mary Winchester chuckled and Dean felt a wave of affection burst with warmth in his chest and it only felt natural to embrace what he had been missing all these years.

As she held her son, petting his hair and rubbing soothing circles on his back, she spoke low in his ear. "I always told you angels were watching over you my baby."

Dean hugged her tighter and buried his face in his mother's neck, inhaling her scent, committing it to memory. He had forgotten what his mom had smelled like. Juniper berries and cinnamon.

"I love you mom…" he confessed in a whisper as he pulled her closer in his arms. "I'll never leave you."