The younger Sam seemed just as surprised and confused as they were. The three men scrabbled to their feet, pointing pistols at each other. "Dean!" The younger Sam-the older Winchesters guessed around 22 or 23-called out.
"Ah, right here," Dean said, not really thinking.
"I don't think he's talking about you," Sam said," Well, he was talking about you, just not you-you."
"Hun?" Dean replied.
"Sorry," The older Sam replied, "Time travel, it gets a little confusing."
"What are you going on about?" The younger Sam demanded, before calling back down the hall, "Dean!"
Just then a running Dean appeared from the hallway, gun at the ready. Like the other Sam, this Dean also appeared younger, about his mid or late twenties. "What is it?!" He explained, eyes darted around the room, and landing on their older counterparts, "What the Hell?!"
"I don't know," The younger Sam said, "There was a flash of light and then they were on top of me."
"What are they?" The younger Dean asked, eyeing the pair suspiciously.
"I have no clue," The younger Sam replied.
"We're not anything," The older Sam cut in, "Look, we're you two, but from the future- I think."
"You think ?!" The younger Dean exclaimed.
"Well, it's a little hard to know anything for sure in this situation, "One minute we're going after this witch in Arkansas, the witch put something together said spell, suddenly we're here."
"Okay," The younger Dean said, "Let's just say we believe you for a second. How did the witch get the jump on you?"
"She somehow knew we coming," Sam explained, "Had all the stuff prepared ahead, and was powerful enough to hold us until she was ready."
"Alright," Dean conceited, "Sounds kosher. Can I just ask you guys a couple of questions before we all set our guns down, just to be safe?"
"I wouldn't expect anything else," Sam said.
"What's my favorite song?" Dean asked, "Tall dark and handsome over there should know that."
"At least we know you're who you say you are," The older Dean replied, "It's a tie between Zeppelin's Ramble On, and Traveling Riverside Blues."
"What's my birthday?" The younger Dean asked.
"January 24th, 1979," The older Dean answered, not missing a beat.
"What's his birthday?" The younger Dean pointed to Sam.
"May 2nd, 1983," Both the older Sam and Dean said at the same time.
"When did Dean make his first sawed-off shot-gung?" The younger Sam spoke up.
"About, sixth grade, I think," The older Dean said, searching him memory. "Gotta give it to you Sammy," He thought "That was a good one."
"Okay," The younger Dean said, lowering his weapon, ''I'm buying it. Now what do you say we all get out of here and figure out a way to get you two back to future."
Both the older and younger Sam rolled their eyes. They both knew he had been waiting to say that.
As they made their way out of the old house they were in, the older Dean asked, "So exactly how far have we gone back?"
"Well, where are you from?" The younger Dean replied, "Or when are you form, or whatever."
"2014," The older Dean answered.
"Awesome," The younger Dean said, "So, do we have like, jetpacks now?"
"Dean!" The younger Sam interjected, then turned to both men, "You're in 2005."
"So, how long has Sam been back in the picture?" The older Dean asked.
"About -" The younger Dean paused for thought, "Four months maybe. Hey, shouldn't you guys already know all this stuff?"
"That's the weird thing," The older Sam interjected, "We don't remember any of this. I mean, the house looks sort of familiar-"
"I think I remember this case," The older Dean said, then noticing the cream-colored chaise lounge in the living room added, "I remember that couch."
"Yeah, I remember you trying to take a nap on that lounge, make me do all the work," Sam snorted, suddenly remembering the case, "But I don't remember any future versions of us showing up. And I think I'd remember that, it's not exactly something you'd forget."
"Maybe the spell she used has something to do with it," The younger Sam suggested.
"Maybe," Sam agreed with his younger counterpart, "I never heard anything like it before."
They continued for a few moments in silence before the younger Dean spoke up, "So, any tips?"
The older Sam and Dean exchanged looks. The idea was temping, trying to help their past selves avoid what was to come. The mistakes, the disasters, the trail of deaths, the pain. In fact, it was more than temping, it was almost irresistible. But then they thought about how this had worked out for them before-i.e. not at all-and suddenly it was a little less irresistible. And what if it didn't fix things? What if whatever choices they made to avoid the choices they were gonna make just made things worse?
"Huh, guys," The younger Dean said, seeing the looks on their faces, "I was kidding. Sort of."
That got them to snap out of it. "Oh," Sam said.
"Yeah, right," Dean added. As they started down the stairs, he also said, "Tell you one thing though about the ghouls-"
Before he could finish, four men jumped out, just as they came to the bottom of the stairs, one with a knife, all in attack mode.
"There's actually four of them," Dean finished.
The one with the knife began to charge group, but the younger Dean, the closet to him, shot him in the head, killing him.
"You're gonna pay for that," The ghoul who had been by the side of the one who attacked them said, picking up the knife as the other two attempted to restrain four men at once. The younger Dean broke free, but dropped his gun, leaving him weaponless as the ghoul stabbed him in the shoulder. The young Sam bit one of ghouls, causing him to pull his hand that on the boy's arm away. Sam then pulled a crowbar from his pocket and hit the ghoul with the knife in the head.
"When did you get that ?" The older Dean questioned, kicking at one of ghouls.
"I didn't," The older Sam said, managing to wrangle his gun form the ghoul who took it from him.
Whatever the origins of the crowbar it did the younger Sam little good, as the ghoul reeled back, then snatch the crowbar, hit Sam in the shoulder with it, hard, tossed him against the wall, and then pinned the boy against the wall, pressing the knife against his throat. "Mmmm," Ghoul moaned actually sniffing Sam," it's been a long time since I had fresh meat."
The older Sam aimed his gun at the ghoul's head and fired, killing him before he could kill them.
At that point both older and younger Dean reclaimed their guns and shot the remaining ghouls in the head. "Alright," The older Dean said, "Now let's get out of here."
After dealing with the corpses and they had made it back to the safety of the motel, all four of them started researching, books spewed over the beds and the floor, the younger Sam on his laptop, all of them looking for anything on time travel.
"I don't suppose this could be some transcendental meditation thing, would it?" The younger Dean asked.
"Ah, that is a load of crap and even if it wasn't I'm pretty sure we would have to do something , too." The older Dean said.
The younger Sam looked at the spell the which had written down to the best of their memory, and said, "You know, these words look pretty accident, maybe Bobby would have a lead."
That got both the older Winchester's attention, because, given the time their past counterparts had given them, Bobby shouldn't be back in the picture yet. "Bobby?" The older Dean repeated, "Bobby Singer?"
" Yeah, you know," The younger Dean said, " "About 5'11 graying reddish-brown hair, always wears a baseball cap, gruff but a wealth of supernatural information."
"Yeah, I know who you're talking about , but," The older Dean explained," '05 we shouldn't gone to him until '06."
"What are you talking about? " The younger Dean responded, "I go to him all the time."
"Since when?" The older Dean replied, officially lost, "You haven't seen him since he threatened Dad with a shot gun."
"Hold up," The younger Dean said, his face lighting up, "Bobby threatened John with a shotgun?"
"Yeah," Dean said, thrown by the fact that is younger self just referred to his father by his first name, "Cocked it and everything."
The younger Dean grinned as he broke out into a fit of laugher. "Oh, my God!" I said in-between the laughter, "I wish I could have been there to see that!" The young man fell over on his back and was-literally- rolling on the floor laughing. The younger Sam smiled, amused.
"What are you talking about?" The older Sam said, also confused by the turn in the conversation, "We were both there for that."
Dean stopped laughing and Sam's smile disappeared so fast it was scary. "Of course we weren't," The latter said, a hint of anger in his voice, "The bastard abandoned Dean, and I was..." Sam's voice trailed off and from the lock on his face everyone could tell something had clicked in his mind, "I think we're looking for the wrong kind of spell."
All heads in room turned to him. "Continue," The older Dean said.
"I take it you two have a slightly different relationship with one John Winchester than we do," The younger Sam said.
"Yeah," The older Dean said, "Apparently." Even at their worst he didn't think he ever heard Sam call their father a bastard. At least, not that he remembered.
"And you said this witch was powerful, right?" The younger Sam continued, "Really, really powerful?"
"Yeah," Dean said, "And your point is?"
"This might be a long shot, but," Sam said, "What do you guys know about parallel universe theories?"
After a phone call and half a day's drive, the four found themselves standing around Bobby's desk as the older hunter walked to the other side, holding a giant book. "Looks like Sam was right," Bobby said, putting the book on the table causing a dull thud. "Our Sam, I mean," He added. Bobby had the feeling this was going to get confusing. "The spell doesn't send you back in time," He continued, "It sends you to a parallel universe. It says here the castor can summon whoever they sent to a different universe back at will, so that might be what she meant when said you'd be back in three days tops."
"And why did we land on top our parallel universe selves?" Sam asked, "I mean, was that chance or-"
"Apparently, the spell lands you by the nearest familiar thing in that universe," Bobby explained, "Nothing's more familiar than yourself. I mean, they're still Sam and Dean Winchester, they're still brothers, still hunters-I think you get the point."
"More similarities than differences," Dean said, "Is there any way you could get us back here sooner? We got a witch to track down."
"I could recreate the spell," Bobby said, "But I'm gonna need to do some shopping for some of the more exotic items on here. Plus the lamb's blood. I was hunting a Dijn last week and haven't got a chance to restock."
After dividing up what was still needed, and what they had around the house, Bobby went to acquire the former, leaving the boys to find to the rest.
"By the way, Sam" He said, on his way out the door, "Binks called, you need to check in. She's -her words, not mine-really starting to freak out."
The Dean of that universe seemed to stiffen at the name. "Since when does Binks have your contact information?"
"Binks?" Sam asked, "Who Binks?"
Just then as if on cue a dark-haired woman who looked to be in her late twenties or early thirties came into view, running until she was in the doorway, then she stood completely still for a moment, hers fixed on that universe's Sam, who still was bit scrapped up from their encounter with the ghouls. "Oh my God," She said, then ran into the house.
"By all means, come in," Bobby said flatly.
"You're hurt," The woman declared, before colliding with Sam, wrapping herself around and saying, "Oh, my poor baby!"
"Mom, it's just a couple of scratches," Sam protested.
"What?!" Dean exclaimed as he and his Sam exchanged shocked looks.