Thanks for the reviews! I hope to continue to hear from ya'll. :) Anyway, here's chapter two...have a great weekend!

Chapter 2

"If I'm willing? Why the hell wouldn't I be? What is it? Let's do it."

Castiel held up a hand. "Give me a moment to explain. It is quite…complicated."

Sam echoed the angel again. "Complicated?"

"Yes," Cas nodded. "Do you remember when I took Dean back in time?"

"Yeah…but he said he couldn't change anything from there. He tried. It all happened anyway."

"That is true, but that is because it was not God's will for those events to be changed. It was too long ago. It would have changed everything if your mother had not made her deal. Your family would have become something else. The world you know would not exist as it does now."

Sam blinked. "Right…so why bring it up at all?"

Castiel didn't answer for a moment. "Since then…since I was given the order to bring your brother there…I have often wondered if perhaps there were another point in time—something much more recent--that could be changed to put the odds in our favor now. I believe I know now what that point in time is."

"You came up with that on your own?"

Castiel nodded. "It was an…errant thought, but…I inquired, when I went now to seek counsel. I was not given the order to look into it, but neither was I denied the request. I believe we must try."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Well…Dean would be proud of you, thinking on your own like that," he said quietly.

The angel just looked at him.

"Okay, so…" He glanced back at Dean anxiously. "What is it? What do you think we can do?"

This time Cas really did seem reluctant to answer. "Your brother's deal," he said finally. "I believe if that can be prevented, not only will this, his death here, never happen, but Lilith can be stopped."

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Okay, Lilith holds the contract, but what did Deal's deal ever have to do with Lilith trying to let Lucifer loose?"

"Everything…because your brother has everything to do with the seals."

"What?"

Castiel explained. He explained the first seal. He explained what the angels knew of Azazel's original plot—the reason the yellow-eyed demon had wanted one of the Winchesters in hell. John had escaped, but Dean had not…and how Dean had been the one to unwittingly break it.

And how Dean, as the one who had broken the first seal, was supposedly the only one who could stop the apocalypse from coming.

It all made so much sense that Sam wondered why they had never seen any of it before, figured any of it out. But how could they have known about the seal?

Sam sank back to the edge of the bed, choking back tears. "Oh god…" His hand closed over his brother's arm again. "Dean knew, didn't he?"

"Alastair told him," Cas confirmed.

"That's why he was so upset…after all of that," Sam whispered. "I was so worried about him, but I had no idea…"

He looked up quickly. "Why didn't he tell me? Why didn't someone tell me?"

"You did not need to know then. Now you must know, to understand what we must do."

"Understand..." His forehead creased as he did. "If Dean had never made that deal, he wouldn't have gone to hell. The seal never would have been broken, and Lilith wouldn't be able to release Lucifer."

Castiel nodded, and Sam stared at him. "But if he hadn't made that deal…"

Another nod, slower this time.

Sam looked away. "But…what's two more days back? Couldn't we stop Jake from killing me in the first place?"

Cas hesitated, gave him that apologetic look again. "If you had not been killed, Jake would not have 'won' the game Azazel forced all of you into. He would not have been brought to the devil's gate then, and the gate would not have been opened."

"Wouldn't that be a good thing?"

"In theory, yes, but unfortunately there is no avoiding this war in its entirety. It must happen, and we must win." Castiel sighed a little. "I am certain, at least, that we would be stopped if we attempted to stop the gate from being opened. Everything else must remain the same. If we can hope to be allowed through to attempt anything at all, we can only stop the deal. That would change enough."

Sam swallowed hard and stared at the floor. "It would change enough all right."

There was silence for a long moment.

"I guess that would just be perfect for you guys, wouldn't it? You get Dean back, and you get me out of the way. Maybe if he'd never broken the seal he wouldn't be needed in the same capacity as he might be now, but I'm sure you all like him a lot better than you like the kid with the demon blood," he spat finally. He looked up again defiantly, and was caught off guard to see Castiel looking…surprised.

"That is not it at all. Please forget anything Uriel ever told you. He was not on our side. I apologize for what he may have led you to believe…We do not wish to see you dead, by any means."

"But you don't want me using my powers."

"Because we fear for your soul, Sam," Cas snapped.

Sam stared at him. "What?"

The angel sighed. "By allowing yourself to learn to use and control these abilities given by evil, you risk…so much. I do not have to ask to know that your brother has always feared that. That is what the Lord fears for you—not that you will end up on the wrong side. He does not wish for you to end up in hell, and neither would I. Dean certainly would not."

"I thought I didn't have a choice. I thought I would have to stop her," Sam answered softly.

Castiel shook his head slowly. "If the use of such powers were the only way to defeat her, this war would have been lost before it began. Can you not see that?"

Sam swallowed and closed his eyes. His head dropped into his hands, whirling with too much new information for it all to process efficiently at once. "I don't know…"

What if Castiel was right, and Chuck's assumption's were wrong? What if it wasn't all up to him? What if, beyond anything he'd ever though possible…Dean was the important one in this?

And Dean was his brother. He couldn't do nothing.

"You're sure it's the only thing that would work?" he asked weakly.

He could imagine Castiel nodding solemnly when he answered. "It is the only thing we can be certain of—that would change only the right things."

"So…in a nutshell, this timeline is supposedly screwed without Dean, and because there's no way to just bring him back here, you want to change the timeline itself?"

"Only from two years ago, but yes."

Sam couldn't help smirking a little when he finally looked up again. "You know that's crazy, right?"

Castiel just looked at him. "I only know what has to be done if this world is to be saved."

He pulled himself back to his feet again, crossing his arms tightly. "How would that work?"

"I cannot interact directly with the past, but I could bring you there, as I did your brother. However, this will be harder than it was with Dean. Lilith's ranks will know by now that Dean Winchester has been slain. They will be watching to make certain that he remains dead, and I am sure there are other angels such as Uriel was—others on Lilith's side—who would also try to stop us. I may only be able to pull you through as a spirit."

"And then it would be up to me to stop it?"

Cas nodded once.

Sam turned away, pulling his fingers anxiously through his hair. "Do I have to answer now?" he asked tightly.

"No. The past will remain where it is," the angel answered gently.

When Sam turned around, he was gone again.

Sam groaned and dropped onto the edge of his bed this time, staring across the short space at his brother's still body.

"Dean, what am I supposed to do?" he pleaded. "Was everything you did for me all for nothing, too?" A sob jerked from his throat. "But I can't just—god Dean, I can't leave you in hell."

He didn't want to die. He didn't want to loose the last twenty-one months of his life. He knew Dean wouldn't want any of that, either.

But an extra year or two of life weren't worth letting Dean suffer for it forever. It was why they'd fought so hard to keep him out of hell in the first place. Maybe to Dean it had seemed like it when he made the deal…but to Sam, his whole lifetime had never been worth letting Dean go to hell.

"So what, then? I do this and you tear me a new one for it whenever you get to heaven or whatever it is with the rest of us? Or would you even know?" Would he know? Would either of them ever know anything had been changed once it had been done?

"Probably not," he muttered, and scrubbed a hand over his face.

He wasn't sure how much longer he sat there, but dim light was filtering in through the blinds when he pulled out his phone.

"Sam?" The voice on the other end of the phone actually seemed anxious.

"You can come back," he answered shortly. Sam snapped the phone shut and stared at it, wondering if he should call Bobby now that he would be awake.

No…he couldn't call Bobby. Telling Bobby Dean was dead would make it true.

Sam got up uncertainly, paced, started to look for food and then wondered why the hell he would want any now. He ended up hunched over at the table, nauseous and miserable. This time he didn't get up when he heard the knock on the door.

"Come in…"

He heard the door open, felt Ruby's hands on his shoulders. "Do you want it now? Lilith can't be that far, even if she's already taken a new host. We could track her down…"

Sam shook his head, standing and turning to face her. "I wish that would work. I wish we could end it right now—but we can't. You're right; I'm not strong enough. I don't know if I'll ever be strong enough." He swallowed and glanced back at his brother's body. "Even if we could, it wouldn't bring Dean back."

"Nothing can; not this time."

"Castiel thinks otherwise."

She raised an eyebrow. "You're listening to him?"

Sam spread his arms in a shrug. "Cas told me the truth; you never did."

"What?"

"You had to have known, Ruby—about the seals. About Dean."

She huffed. "You didn't need to know that."

"That's what he said! Have you all been so afraid to trust me? Am I really that dangerous? So close to going dark side or something?" he shouted.

"Depends on your definition of 'dark side.'"

Sam scowled at her. "You know what? Shut up. Just shut up. I don't know what your deal is, and I won't condemn you, but that doesn't mean I have to do things your way anymore, either."

"Sam, what are you talking about?"

"Castiel thinks that if we stop Dean from making the deal with the crossroads demon and stop him from going to hell, stop the first seal from being broken…that'll it'll fix enough that Lilith can be defeated, before she even gets started."

Ruby stared at him. "But wouldn't that mean leaving you dead?"

He flinched. "Yes."

"And you're okay with that?"

"Yes. No. God, I don't know…" Sam shifted uncomfortably and turned away. He needed something to do, so he crossed the room and began packing his things. Dean's were already in his bag by the door, though he'd never left, and suddenly is seemed like maybe he should clean up his own things, too.

Ruby was standing over him in an instant. "Sam, you can't do that."

"Why not? It's my life."

"A life I've saved half a dozen times! Don't I get some say in this?"

Sam dropped his bag. "No, you don't."

"Sam, you have a responsibility—"

"To what? To use my powers? To stop Lilith? According to Cas, none of that was ever up to me."

"And you're going to believe him over me?"

"I don't know what to believe! All I know is that I can't leave Dean in hell. I have to do something."

Ruby took a deep breath. "Listen, Sam. I know you miss him. I know you missed him last time, but it's not worth throwing your life away."

Sam straightened. "Yes it is," he answered immediately, suddenly believing it himself. If he didn't know which side to believe, he knew that—he knew Dean was worth the lost time on Earth. He turned away from Ruby, glancing up and nowhere.

"Castiel? Where are you? I know you're still around here somewhere…"

The breeze came again, and he spun to see the angel standing a few feet behind the demon, with Ruby glaring vehemently at him already.

"You have made your decision?"

Sam's jaw set. "I'll do it."

"Sam, no."

He ignored her. "If I do this, it means I'll have died two years ago—before I was mixed up in all of this, with my powers."

"Yes."

"So…the risk is gone? Anything I might have done since then…that may have put my soul in danger…"

"Would not have happened. Even if that were not true, your doing this would redeem you of anything you had done. You will be with your parents," Castiel answered, knowing where he was going before he got there.

Sam nodded once. "Then let's go."

Cas came to his side, and Ruby was forced to step away for distaste of being near the angel. "Sam, please don't do this. What about everything we've accomplished?"

"Have we really accomplished anything?" he asked wearily.

"The people you've saved exorcizing demons, at the very least!"

He sighed. "I'm sorry, Ruby. I couldn't save Dean last time, and I'm not letting him down this time. I have to save my brother." Sam broke from the angel and the demon and knelt at Dean's bedside for a moment. Hesitantly, he reached up push his fingers gently through his brother's short hair, and let his hand rest on Dean's cheek.

"I'm coming," he whispered. "I'm sorry there's no other way…"

The firm hand on his shoulder told him Castiel was ready, and he stood.

"What about everything I've done for you!" Ruby protested.

Sam glanced back at her. "If it's true that part of why you ever helped us in the first place was because you remember what it means to be human…then I'm sure you'll do some of it again, even if I'm not there. You helped keep Dean alive the first time around; I think you'll do it again. He may try to send you back to hell the first few times, but you're stubborn."

"This is a mistake…"

"If it'll save Dean, it's not a mistake." He looked to Cas. "Let's go."

"Sam—!"

He didn't hear her if she said anything else. Castiel brought a hand to his forehead, and everything went white.