Chapter 2

"Nephews?" Sam's eyes widened even further. "You're kidding me?" Eliza shook her head.

"John said someone named Missouri had a vision of me, right after the boys were born, she could tell that they were Winchester blood. John found me, has been taking care of me and boys since." She looked down and swiped at her face with the back of her hand. "He said that it would be for the best if no one knew, so that they wouldn't be in danger. He gave me your number Sam, to call in case something happened." She sniffled and took a deep shuddering breath.

"Dad kept this from us." Sam turned his head and looked into the back seat. "I just..Dean, a Dad? They do look like him, how do you tell them apart?" He turned back and stared at the road ahead of him, "I had hoped that Dean would have been a little more careful over the years."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, her eyebrows drawn together in concentration. "You think he said a few nice words to me and I just fell on him, naked?"

"That's what usually happens." Sam muttered and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, this is just a lot to handle at once. What has my Dad told you about the..family business?"

"You mean hunting all the things that nightmares are made of? Yeah, he told me, that was the excuse he gave for Dean being unable to emotionally attach himself to anyone. What's your excuse for him?" She pulled up to a stop sign and looked over at him. "You know, nevermind. I don't want to hear any more excuses." After checking traffic both ways she continued. "John thinks..thought" she corrected herself with a wince, "that the boys will be the next generation of Winchester hunters. I don't know how I feel about that." Eliza pulled into a driveway. Sam looked up and saw a small, yet quaint house.

"Absolutely not, they're going to go to college and not know about anything that goes bump in the night, especially if I have anything to say about it." Sam stated plainly. "I'm afraid that we may have gotten off on the wrong foot. Please, once we get inside and settled, can we start over?" Sam asked, his eyes pleading. Eliza took a deep breath and nodded. "Do you need any help getting them out of the car?"

"No thanks, I'm used to it." She opened the trunk so Sam could grab his duffel bag, and then got the boys out of the car. Each one took a hand and walked beside their mother dutifully. "I'm sorry to spring all of this on you Sam." She said as she unlocked her door. There was salt laid down across the doorway.

"Good girl." Sam muttered to himself as he shut the door behind him. "It's alright, I just can't believe Dad never said anything. I don't even want to imagine how Dean is going to react when he finds out. I've got to tell him Eliza. He's my brother. He deserves to know."

"I know, I just..I don't want anything to happen to them. They're my world Sam. I would die for them." Sam smiled and patted her hand.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that ok?" The boys brought a couple of toys to the living room from their room. They were hesitantly making their way toward Sam.

"The one in the red is Dustin, the blue is Devon." She told him and watched as his eyes lit up. He was finally able to get a good look at them now that the shock had worn off. Identical boys with green eyes, a slightly cleft chin and sandy brown hair, they really did resemble Dean, and oddly enough he could see his father and even a little of himself.

"Hello boys, well, you sure are handsome. I'd say you look a lot like your uncle." He chuckled. "Uncle Sam." Eliza smiled and watched as Dustin brought Sam a motorcycle for inspection.

"Don't ask me because I don't know a thing about cars or motorcycles but Dustin has to have every matchbox car ever made." To illustrate the point he grabbed Sam's hand and tried to pull him up. "He's probably going to show you his room. His grandpa would visit every two weeks and bring sacks full of presents."

"Dad was right Eliza." Sam said as he got up and let the little boy lead him. "There are things out there that would come after them if they knew."

"I know." She whispered.

Dustin was pointing at the various toys in his room and babbling, Sam just smiled and nodded. Devon was standing back, watching, still trying to get a read on Sam. "So guys, this is your room, it's a pretty cool room." Sam commented. He sat in the middle of the floor and watched the boys communicate with their eyes. "I'm your uncle."

"Unkle." Dustin repeated with a grin. Sam smiled back and then looked at Devon.

"You're the quiet one huh?" Devon looked away and went to stand next to Dustin. "Wow, wait till your Daddy gets a look at you two."

"Dada!" Devon's eyes lit up and he clapped his hands. Eliza happened to walk into the room at that moment.

"He thought of your father as his own. You know John, a sucker for kids." Sam looked up sharply and thought that the old man must have mellowed out over the years. "Your Dad would never correct him." She shrugged and picked Devon up. "When are you planning on telling him?"

"I told him I would call him as soon as I found something out." Sam stood up and walked up to her. "I can't wrap my head around it, you seem so…normal, how did you and Dean hook up, or um..meet?"

"God, you make it all sound so sleazy. I think it was beautiful and you don't give your brother enough credit. He can be very charming and sweet." She smiled wistfully and bit her bottom lip. "First time I saw him, he was talking to one of my professors, he was wearing a suit, had glasses on, he looked so handsome and distinguished. I thought he was another professor or a PA." She stopped and Sam watched her face, the blush, he noticed the vein in her neck flutter rapidly.

"He stopped a group of us girls after class and started asking questions about a girl that had committed suicide. Guess he took a liking to me," she shook her head, "next thing I know he's got me singled out asking me for drinks that night. One thing led to another and he moved with me, we were together for a couple of months before your father called. I found out I was pregnant a month after he left. I tried to call him and his number was disconnected. I don't know where he went after that. He had my number, said he would call." She stopped and looked up, trying to hide her hurt. "How pissed is he going to be?"

"Family is everything to him." Sam said quietly and looked back at the boys again. "I'll give him a call in the morning, I won't tell him over the phone. When he gets here I'll," he paused and pursed his lips together in thought, "well, I'll take the kids and leave. Let you tell him." Sam grimaced. "Yeah, we'll go far - far away."

"Do you think you can handle both of them?" She asked hesitantly. "What experience do you have with children?" Sam smirked and cocked an eyebrow.

"I've lived with Dean Winchester for the last 24 years, you don't think I know how to handle a child?" Sam smirked and slid by her, escaping on the other side of the door. "Do you have a phone book?"

She followed behind closely as he walked into the living room. "Yeah, there's not much here in town though, what do you need?"

"A place to stay."

"Nonsense, you're family, you're staying here. The couch lets out into a bed. It's where your Dad sleeps…slept." She winced as soon as the words left her mouth. "Sorry."

"Yeah, it's alright." Sam sighed.

"Momma, nummy." Devon walked into the living room, still weary of Sam and turned to his mother. "Num Num."

"I guess that means it's dinner time!" She smiled gently at her son and looked up at Sam. "Hope you like Spaghetti."

"Homemade?" At her nod he stood up. "Let me help, please?" He smiled and then the two of them started gathering the ingredients from the cabinets and refrigerator.

Dean sat in his car, one eye on the house in front of him, the other on the phone sitting on the dash. He took a deep cleansing breath and turned the music down slightly, Killswitch Engage's "My Curse" played softly now.

He grabbed his phone for the third time in as many minutes. He dialed his brother's number and it went straight to voicemail.

"Damn it Sam, if you don't call me back in five minutes I'm coming after you." Dean slammed the phone shut and tossed it back on his dash. It was then when he realized that there was static coming from the radio and that the porch light connected to the house he was supposed to be watching carefully flickered off and on.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean jumped out of the car and started up the path to the door. He was about to kick the door in when everything stopped. The flickering, gusting wind, all of it stopped. He looked around, puzzled at the turn of events. "What the hell?" He asked himself and backed away from the door slowly and quietly.

He jogged back to his car and got back in. He decided to wait a few hours to see if anything happened. Could be that Yellow Eyes knew he was there and is toying with him? The alternative didn't make him feel any better -maybe because Yellow Eyes knew that Sam wasn't there with him.

"Sammy, something weird just happened, he was here, it started..and then..nothing. It stopped without anything happening. What's going on with you man, you said you would call. I'm going to wait it out here for a couple more hours to make sure nothing comes back, then I'm heading to Texas and you better have a damn good reason for not calling me back." Dean flipped his phone shut and turned his attention back to the house. All the lights were out, seemed that whatever was going to happen didn't – and he knew he was going to lose sleep over it.

"I guess you're wondering why I really called you." Eliza looked over her shoulder at Sam who was still sitting at the kitchen table, relishing the normalcy. Sam just ate a home cooked meal, one that he had helped prepare; he sat down at a kitchen table and ate that meal, with a family. Now, he was enjoying an after dinner coffee while Eliza did the dishes.

"You sure you don't want any help with the dishes?" He asked instead of answering her question. He thought he knew why he was here. She shook her head and he continued. "I'm guessing you called because you relied on my Dad for groceries and money..things like that right?"

"Yes." She turned around, wringing her hands in the dish towel. "I hated it, I hated not being able to have a job and support myself but John wouldn't hear of it. He always would say that boys needed their Mother."

Sam shook his head. "I suppose he would say that after the way Dean and I turned out."

"Don't you dare Sam Winchester!" Eliza through the towel down on the counter and put her hands on her hips. "Your father was damn proud of both of his boys. He talked about you constantly. He told me stories of when you were a baby. Did you know that he carried pictures of you and Dean around in his wallet?"

Sam looked down, his eyes filling with tears. "He would talk for hours about how his little Sammy would be a lawyer someday." Eliza continued. "I only knew your father for a couple of years but in that short period of time I came to love him like a father. I never knew my own father Sam, my Mom married a string of bastards who treated us like punching bags." She sat down next to him.

"I don't know how this is all going to play out," Sam looked up finally, his eyes still threatening to spill over, "but know this, those boys will have a family, they will have a father and a mother."

"Thank you Sam." Eliza smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Let me get you some things for the shower."

"How did you know that's what I was going to ask about?" Sam smiled and raised an eyebrow. "You psychic?"

"Not quite," she chuckled, "your Dad. After dinner, tucking the boys in and then coffee would take a shower. You two were more alike than you thought huh?"