Okay, so I'm going on vacation to explore what the ocean is like up close and just wanted to get this chapter out there before I go!
I'd like to thank DearHart for the kind review and following the story! I'd also like to thank RushMaiden and dulcinea54 for following this as well! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I hope to get a lot more people on board with this story because I have quite a bit of confidence in it, but the again, you never know!
Thank you again! And thank you for reading this chapter! ;D I hope you enjoy!
Dean had been left to sit in his own fear and misery. Either way, one of them was crazy. Which obviously screamed 'BAD NEWS', and when bad news came to the Winchesters, it was usually the epitome of bad news.
An hour or so later, Sam appeared back in Dean's doorway with a bag over his shoulder. "What's happening?" Dean asked his brother.
Sam looked around before sighing and answering in an annoyed voice, "I'm… You can go home now."
The hunter stared at his little brother for a while before asking, "That's it? Sammy, I woke up from a ten month coma this morning and I can already go home?"
Sam rolled his eyes, obviously not in the mood to be talking about that. "I don't know! Your doctor said you were – strangely – completely healthy and, even though they didn't like it, there seemed to be nothing more they could do for you. And they said they never like using up beds when it's not being used by someone who actually needs it." The younger then threw the bag at Dean and continued, "In the meantime, there's some clothes in there. Meet me in the lobby when you're ready. It seems we have a lot to catch up on…" And without another word, Sam left his brother to change.
Inside the bag, Dean found a black t-shirt and green flannel with jeans. After putting them on, he left his room, wandered down the hall, and, somehow, found his way to the lobby. His brother was sitting in one of the chairs and, as Dean went up to him, Sam rose to his feet.
"So," Dean put his arms up slightly for a second before dropping them again. "What's the plan?"
Sam gave him an extremely annoyed face again before sighing and saying, "I was thinking…" He looked around. "That we could… get some lunch? Catch up… a bit?"
Dean stared at his brother for a while before nodding. "Alright!" The hunter then made his way out the door of the hospital.
"Oh, I, uh, brought your car, actually," Sam called from behind him just as Dean's eyes fell upon the beautiful, black Impala. Logically, to Dean, it felt like he had literally just seen it yesterday, but, strangely, it really did feel as if he hadn't driven it in months.
The man chuckled as he ran his hands along his car. "Oh, I missed ya, Baby…!"
Out of the corner of his eye, Dean could see Sam smile a little as he opened the door and jumped inside. The older of the two followed and before he knew it, he was driving down the road to a nearby diner with the help of his brother's directions.
After driving for about fifteen minutes, they found themselves sitting at a booth staring at each other, neither of them wanting to be the first one to start the conversation they knew they had to have.
But, after what seemed like forever, Dean finally spoke up, asking the question that had been killing him the most at the moment, "Why didn't you tell them?"
Sam furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Tell who what?"
"Well," Dean looked around, searching for a way to rephrase his question. "It's pretty obvious that you think I'm crazy."
"I don't-"
"Yes. Yes, you do," The hunter nodded. "I'm even having a hard time telling whether or not I'm crazy myself. But, the thing that's been bothering me the most, is the fact that you thought I was insane and you told no one." Dean paused, letting his brother take in his words. "Why?"
Sam didn't answer for a while, just staring at the table as he nodded and moved his jaw around in frustration, until finally, with a cracky voice, he said, "You don't understand… what it was like to… to be at work, having a normal day, and then… you get a call saying that your brother was just in a car accident… And not just a-an 'oops, I scratched your car' accident… Your car was smashed…" He paused to take a breath. "You don't understand what it was like for me to come to you, in the hospital, and sit by your bed for hours… trying to keep hoping that you'd wake up one day when everyone else said you had died the minute that car rammed into you…" Sam shifted in his seat, taking a breath before looking at his brother in the eyes. "You don't understand what it's like to get a call saying your dead brother is alive; and when you finally see him, he's still gone…!"
Dean said nothing after that. What could he say? That he was sorry? And if so, sorry for what? For not being there for his beloved brother? For scaring him? For getting hurt? He didn't even know if he really had gotten hurt in the first place. How could he know if he was even sorry to begin with? The most logical thing to him, at the moment, was that none of this was real. That he was dreaming or something. But even if it was a dream, he was still staring at his little brother. His little brother who claimed to have thought that he was practically dead and was wondering if he still was. How could Dean not feel bad?
"Sammy..." The hunter shifted in his seat. "You didn't lose me, okay?" Sam didn't look convinced. "I may think that we had a different past and we do different things for a living, but, at the end of the day, I'm still me! I still like my car, I still listen to the same crappy music, and we're still brothers."
His brother just stared at him for a while, not saying anything, until he sighed and put on a weak smile. "Y-Yeah… I guess…"
Their waitress then came over, slightly ruining the mood, and asked for their order, where Sam ordered a salad and Dean ordered a burger. When the young woman left, the hunter continued with his list, "I still eat crappy food, too, don't I?" Sam nodded as his smile widened a little bit more.
"And I bet I would have thought that our waitress was pretty hot, right?" Dean asked as he intently watched the waitress leave, which he was answered with a nod. "Still do!"
Sam sighed. "Okay, okay. So you're still…kinda the same."
"I am the same." The hunter corrected as he pointed at his brother.
"No, you're not." Sam rolled his eyes. "You don't hunt monsters, Dean. Monsters don't exist!"
Dean nodded with a hint of annoyance in his eyes. "Yeah… Speaking of which, what, uh, what is it like here? I mean, what are our lives like, according to you?"
Sam opened his mouth to answer but closed it to think of what to say. "Well… I think it would be easier if I knew what you think your life is like."
Dean nodded and suddenly he was telling his brother everything, from their mother being killed by Azazel to the Mark of Cain. And it was truly the weirdest thing he ever had to do. To tell his brother, the person who was there and stuck by him through pretty much everything, what they had done together, as a team. But now, Sam disagreed. They hadn't done any of that and everything he thought he knew was a lie. That everything he had experienced was all just a dream he had created for himself as he slept in a coma. It was all just a dream...
Sam nodded slowly once Dean was finished with his story. As if on cue, their food was placed in front of them. And once their waitress left, Sam said, "Wow… That was, uh, weird…"
"Yeah…" Dean muttered. It hurt him, actually. Sam was the one of the only people that made his job and life worth it, and now he was saying all of that was weird and crazy. "So, what really happened, then?"
"Well," Sam looked up at him. "Some of the things you said are kind of spin-offs of what really happened."
"What d'ya mean?"
"Like, mom's still dead." Dean practically deflated at that. "And, ironically, she did still die in a house fire. The same time and day you said, too. And dad died in a car accident, but that happened when you were twelve and I was eight. After that, we then lived at our uncle's house, who happens to be Bobby." The hunter visibly brightened at this news.
"Bobby!? Bobby's here!?"
"Yeah," Sam chuckled. "And still alive, too. He runs Singer Auto Salvage just outside of town. You work for him, actually. It was your first job, then you skipped around some, but you decided that you were happiest working with him. Oh, and Karen's alive, I have no idea why you made her dead in your dream world, but she's alive."
Dean felt like he could leap for joy. "Karen's alive?" Sam nodded in response. Then, didn't that mean that Bobby was happy? That he wasn't an alcoholic anymore? And everything was A-Okay with him?
"Then, uh, what about you?" the hunter asked. "Didn't you say you're a lawyer?"
Sam nodded. "Oh, yeah! Yeah, I went to law school, where I met Jess, and became a lawyer." He smiled, as if he liked talking about his success.
"Oh!" Dean put down the burger he was about to eat. "You met Jess!? Jess is here, too!?"
"Oh, yeah, she's still alive," Sam nodded again. "I actually, uh," He grew a nervous smile as he scratched the back of his neck. "…married… her…"
Dean's mouth hung wide open as he stared at his little brother. This world seemed to be a win-win for everyone! Bobby still had Karen and Sam was happily married to his beloved girlfriend. "Oh my- Oh my god! Sammy! That's-That's amazing!" Sam smiled at his older brother's words.
"Yeah…" the younger muttered.
Dean's smile dropped a little bit. "What's wrong?"
"It's just…" Sam looked around. "It's just a little weird telling you that when you had known that for years already…"
Dean's smile officially dropped as he nodded sadly. "Yeah, same. I felt the same way when I was explaining to you what I thought we had done with our lives." They sat in silence for a while again, slowly eating their lunches.
"So," Dean spoke up finally through a mouth full of burger. "Am I happily married?" He wagged his eyebrows up and down, meaning it as a joke, actually.
"Yeah, actually you are," Sam answered bluntly, but his answer actually made Dean almost choke to death.
"What!? I am!?"
"Yeah, to Lisa." Dean felt like the whole world had stopped, just suspended in time. He was married to Lisa? "And Ben's your son, except in reality he really is your son." That's what took it. If time hadn't stopped before, it had officially after Sam said that.
"I… have a… a family?" Dean asked in a slow, quiet voice, as if he thought he might scare his newly discovered family away if he didn't ask it quite right.
"Yeah," Sam smiled at his brother. "I was gonna take you to them after this."
"What? Really!?" The older man's face lit up. "Then why aren't we going right now!?"
"Well, for one, I'm gonna finish the food I paid for, and two, don't you think they'll be a little surprised to see you at the door?"
"No, the hospital must have called them, right?" Dean waved his hand, shooing the idea away.
"Maybe, but they definitely didn't tell Lisa that you were coming home today."
The hunter stood up as he said, "Whatever, we're going."
"Wha-" Sam looked down at his salad and then back up at his brother, who was now heading outside. "Wait!" He shuffled through his wallet to put twenty dollars down on the table and then ran to catch up with his brother. "You don't even remember the way!"
Dean found himself in front of the door he thought he had left five years ago. It was the exact same house that he had shared with Lisa and Ben. He heard Sam climbing up the stairs to the porch before stopping to stand behind him. After taking a deep breath, he knocked on the door and waited for the sound of someone unlocking it.
Suddenly, the door opened to reveal a familiar face: Lisa, his former, beautiful girlfriend. At first she just stood there, watching him. But Dean couldn't help himself. He smiled at her. Tears, for some reason, threatening to fall. "Hey, Lisa…!"
The woman's face crumbled once he uttered those two words and, before he knew what was happening, they both were holding each other in a tight, warm embrace.
Dean felt so extremely relieved. He had always dreamed of having a family with her and Ben, and that had happened, but it didn't work out, like most things in Dean's life. He didn't feel like a normal family was where he truly belonged. Well, until now. Now, he felt like he didn't belong anywhere more than here, at this house, with this family: his family.
After a while, they let go of each other and Sam and Dean were invited into the house. "We got a call that you had woken up but I didn't know you were coming home now."
"Yeah," Sam scratched the back of his neck. "Neither did we…!"
Lisa furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Weeeell…" Sam and Dean both said in unison as they looked at each other.
"Lisa, Dean's, uh…" Sam started. "He's a bit diff-"
"Dad?" A voice suddenly interrupted Sam from up the stairs. And when the man looked to see who it was, his heart stopped. There, at the top of the stairs, was Ben. Much older, probably about fifteen or sixteen, but still Ben. And he just called him 'Dad'.
Ben ran down the stairs and embraced him tightly. Dean slowly and hesitantly returned it. Suddenly, strange visions flooded Dean's brain once he touched the teen.
Dean was looking down at a small baby sleeping soundly in his arms. "He's beautiful…!"
"Do you have to go, Dad?" a young boy asked with a sad face as Dean crouched in front of him.
"I do, bud. But I promise I won't be gone long," the man answered.
"You're leaving for four years!" The boy pointed out.
"Hey, that's not too long!" Dean stood to his feet and ruffled the boy's hair. He then turned to his black-haired friend, who was hugging a little girl tightly, his daughter. Dean's friend said something to her that he couldn't quite make out before standing to his feet. The two men stared at each other for a while, as if debating to one another silently whether or not to stay or go. But they moved towards a large doorway anyway, and as they walked on in their cargo uniforms, Dean turned his head back to the boy to call, "Don't grow up too fast without me!"
Dean felt Ben let go of him. He watched as the teenager wiped his eyes. Before, the hunter could stop himself, he said, "You grew up so fast in five years!"
Ben's face was that of complete and utter confusion. "What?"
"Dean, honey," Lisa started. Oh, it was weird for him to hear her say that. "You've only been in a coma for ten months."
Dean's face dropped, realizing what he and Sam were going to have to go through. "Yeah…" Sam began. "That's what we were gonna tell you, Lisa." Lisa looked at his brother, confused. "You two might want to sit down for this."
The air was dead silent. Sam had just told Lisa and Ben everything and now were waiting for their reaction. Lisa stood looking out the window with her forehead in her hands and Ben was staring at the floor with furrowed eyebrows.
It was one of the most awkward silences Dean and Sam had ever experienced, in any reality.
"So…" Lisa started. "You're telling me… that…" She turned around to look at them. "…that Dean doesn't remember anything about his life and thinks he fought monsters instead?"
Sam and Dean nodded with stoic faces.
Lisa put her hands back on her forehead with elbows in the air. After staying silent for a couple minutes, she asked, "And why…why is he here? Shouldn't he be getting some help or are we just gonna leave him like that?"
"Hey, crazy or not, I'm definitely not a virus you need to cure, okay?" Dean spoke up.
Sam ignored his brother and said, "No, we, uh, decided we would see if bringing him back home would help."
"How would that help!?" Lisa demanded.
"Get him back into the swing of things? See if he remembers anything?" Sam answered, making Dean suddenly think back to when he hugged Ben. Was that a flashback or something? If it was, did that mean everyone was right? That this, what he was seeing now, was reality and not what he had known of before?
"Um…" Dean heard himself start, realizing he was about to tell everyone about that little episode.
After Dean didn't continue, he heard Sam say, "What?"
The hunter looked at his brother. "Oh, it's, uh, nothing…"
"Dean…" Sam threatened.
"No, it's nothing. Really..." Dean shook his head, waiting for Sam to question him again, but his brother said nothing.
"Okay, so get back into the swing of things did you say?" Lisa then motioned towards Dean, indicating she was talking to him. "Does that mean you're gonna stay here or something?"
Dean looked around before turning his attention back to her. "Well, I was…thinking of doing that… Is that a problem?"
Lisa sighed, not wanting to kick her husband out when he had just come back to them. "No… No, I don't think it is…" Her eyes scanned over Ben, as if deciding if he was okay with it or not.
"Awesome!" Dean forced a smile onto his face. He stood to his feet, clapping his hands once. "What's for dinner? I'm starving!"
"Dean, you just had lunch," Sam reminded him.
"Oh, right." The hunter frowned a little, before hearing Ben chuckle quietly.
"I have a casserole cooking in the oven!" Lisa spoke up as the adults made their way towards the kitchen.
"Oh! That sounds great! What kind?" Dean asked.
"Chicken." Lisa turned to Sam to ask, "Are you staying for dinner, Sam?"
"That sounds great, Lisa, but I don't want to disappoint Jess," Sam answered. "She got really excited when she heard Dean had woken up, so she wanted to make something special tonight."
"Oh, I understand." Lisa nodded.
"Maybe another time, then?"
"Yeah, that sounds good!"
They had all somehow made their way back towards the door and Sam was now holding the door open for himself. He turned his attention back towards Dean, pointed at him, then said, "I'm gonna come back tomorrow morning, around twelve probably, so that you can meet and talk to more people. Maybe Bobby or Cass?"
Dean nodded with a smile. "Yeah, that'd be great!"
"Cool!" Sam gave a quick nod, said his goodbyes, and then left all three of them in silence.
Once the casserole was done, they ate in quietude, only talking a few times. Though they had so many things to talk about, none of them wanted to. It was awkward and weird for all of them. After all, they had once thought that they knew each other, they had all been a family together, but now, it seemed as if their family was a piece of paper they were trying to hold on to in a terrible gust of wind. Slowly, but surely, slipping away.
