He wasn't too enthusiastic about moving from Chicago to Stars Hollow. Admittedly, it wasn't like sixteen year old boys got enthusiastic about a lot of things, but moving to the small Connecticut town definitely wasn't up there. On the long, seemingly never-ending car journey, his Mom and Dad went on and on about what an amazing opportunity this was going to be for all of them. Dean wasn't too sure. He'd lived in Chicago all his life; all his friends were there, and his grandparents, and his school and Beth. They'd split up just a couple of weeks before the move, and he'd sort of hoped they might get back together or at least stay good friends, but there was no chance of that now, was there? Maybe it was for the best, or at least that was what his parents kept saying.

Stuck in the back of the car for hours on end, he'd been dozing with his head against the window when a sharp nudge in the side jerked him awake.

'Dean! Look, we're here!' His little sister, Clara, was practically jumping up and down in her seat. 'Dean! Look!'

'I'm looking,' he said fondly.

'Look at all the trees, and the pumpkins! It's like a fairytale!' Clara cried excitedly, pointing out each thing as they passed. 'We're going to have so much fun here!'

'Sure we are,' Dean agreed, but Clara didn't seem convinced.

'You don't sound excited,' she pointed out, but a second later, she got too distracted to pursue the subject. 'Look at all the fairy lights, and it isn't even Christmas!'

'I am excited,' he insisted. 'Really!' he added when Mom turned round to peer at him concernedly from the front seat.

'I've had an idea,' Mom said thoughtfully, 'why don't you two explore for a little while and we'll go pick up the keys. You can meet us back at the town square in a half hour, ok?'

'But what if we get lost?' Clara asked, fearful all of a sudden.

'I promise we won't get lost,' Dean smiled. 'And look how small this place is, I bet you couldn't get lost even if you tried.'

That being said, he still hung on tight to Clara's hand once they'd clambered over the suitcases in the backseat and spilled out into the town square.

'Come on, Dean, I bet we can find a playground round here somewhere!' Clara exclaimed, tugging hard on his hand.

'Hey, cool your jets!' he laughed, tightening his grip on her hand to stop her running off in the opposite direction. 'Mom told us to go exploring, so we'll go exploring, ok?'

'But if we find a playground?'

'Then I promise you can go play for a little while.'

They walked along the little seats with the Fall leaves literally falling down around them, and even Dean had to admit that the whole town looked like a picture postcard. Whether or not that was necessarily a good thing remained to be seen. They passed a disconcertingly large number of stores entirely devoted to ceramic animal figures, which of course delighted Clara to no end, and a grocery store, and what looked like a strange cross between a hardware store and a restaurant. Clara insisted they stop outside a little bakery so she could take a good look at all the cakes in the window, and practically pressed her nose up against the glass to get a better look. Dean couldn't drag her away and they stayed so long in the end that a sweet little old lady he assumed to be the owner came out with a bag of cookies.

'Here you are, dear,' she smiled, patting Clara fondly on the head.

'We were just looking...' Dean tried in vain to protest, but the old lady ignored him and pressed the cookies into Clara's hands. He felt in the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a handful of change but she waved him away.

'My treat, dear,' she said kindly. 'I haven't seen you two kids around here before,' she commented. 'Are you here on vacation?'

'We just moved here,' Clara said thickly through a mouthful of cookie. 'Our Mom and Dad are getting the keys to our new house.'

'Well, isn't that just swell. Make sure and bring your parents round to the bakery soon. I'd love to meet them.'

'We will,' Dean assured her. 'Come on, Clara, say thank you.'

Once the lady had disappeared back into the bakery, Dean moved Clara along, steering her by the shoulders since her hands were otherwise occupied. Checking his watch, Dean decided they should be heading back, and Clara was too engrossed in her gift from Weston's bakery to put up much of a fight.

On the way back to the town square, they passed a large, nondescript building at the same minute that dozens of kids began pouring out of its doors, and Dean got his first glimpse of his new school.

'Look,' he pointed it out to Clara, 'Stars Hollow High.'

'That's your new school?' she frowned. 'It looks scary.'

'It'll be fine,' he reassured her, but of course, at that moment, two guys tossing a football around got in a violent tussle and a group of kids gathered round them, eager for a fight. So much for that quaint small town charm. 'Let's go meet Mom and Dad,' he said quickly, steering her out of the way.

'Are they fighting?' Clara asked worriedly, stowing her bag of cookies into her pocket and out of harm's way.

'No, of course not,' Dean lied. 'They're just playing.'

It was when they were hurrying back to the town square where Mom and Dad were waiting that Dean saw her, or at least the part of her not obscured by the hefty book she was reading. Moby Dick. He'd never read it, but the sheer size of the novel made his head hurt, never mind its actual contents. She sure was concentrating hard. She didn't look up once during all the commotion and Dean had the feeling that the whole world might collapse around her and she wouldn't even notice until she'd finished her book. Something about her just seemed interesting, like he could tell from ten feet away that she was a hundred times more interesting than Beth and all the girls at his old school put together.

Dean felt the sudden urge to go over and speak to her, introduce himself, only he couldn't exactly do that with Clara in tow, could he? And besides, it would be a shame to break her concentration, and she probably wouldn't thank him for it. No, he'd leave it for now, but he would talk to her soon. He was sure to see her round school; they might even share some of the same classes, though he was sure that any Lit class that girl was in would be way beyond him...

'Sam, we're here. Sam? Hey, earth to Sammy? Anyone home?'

Sam was abruptly jerked away from his vivid, and scarily real, train of thought by the loud and insistent sound of Dean's voice.

'Yeah?' he answered, trying to sound nonchalant.

Dean eyed him warily. 'You with me?' he asked.

'Yes,' Sam insisted, sitting up straight and peering out the window. 'So we're here?'

'We're here,' Dean confirmed. 'Man, would you take a look at this place? I think I'm going to throw up. And what's the deal with all the damn fairy lights?'

'Yeah, I know. Weird, right?' Sam aimed for a haughty, derisive tone that he wasn't quite sure he managed to pull off. Dean certainly didn't look convinced, but for once he didn't pursue the matter; a fact for which Sam was immeasurably grateful for right now.

'You want to find someplace to eat before we get started?' Dean asked. 'You did say that you owed me, but if this job is just so important to you, I guess we could hold off. I mean, I might pass out with hunger before your very eyes, but-'

'Yeah, ok, I get the point,' Sam intercepted before Dean could get much further. 'I'm sure there's a diner down this street.'

'This place doesn't even look real,' Dean muttered as they drove down a street lined with quaint little houses and highly decorative storefronts. 'It's like a film set for one of those stupid chick flicks that you like.'

'I don't like chick flicks,' Sam protested. 'And take a right here.'

'How the hell would you know?' Dean asked. 'You're not saying this is all exactly like your dream, are you?'

'Pretty much,' Sam said quietly as they drove past the town square. The town square where he'd taken his little sister to the winter carnival, stood by a bonfire hand in hand with a girl he loved, held the reception for his freakin' wedding on an uncommonly sunny Fall day...No. No! he told himself firmly. He, Sam, had never been to Stars Hollow in his life. He didn't have a little sister, the only bonfires he'd ever been to were strictly of the salt and burn the bones variety, and he certainly didn't have a wife. End of story. And yet, despite all that, he was feeling the strongest sense of dejá vu that it was possible for one person to feel. He wracked his brains trying to think as Dean broke every one of the many small town speed restrictions that were no doubt in place following Sam's directions. He'd definitely never been here, right? It wasn't the kind of place they were likely to frequent as kids with Dad. He couldn't help but smile at the thought of John Winchester in Stars Hollow, and his Spring Break trips with Jess had never exactly taken them to this neck of the woods.

'None of this is looking familiar to you?' he asked, just to be sure.

'Nope,' Dean confirmed at once. 'Just to you, dude. Sorry.'

'Thought so. And that's us here.'

Dean pulled up outside the building Sam indicated, then frowned. 'Yeah, Sam, I think you've got the wrong place here.'

'I don't,' Sam insisted. 'Now, come on, I thought you were hungry.'

'I am,' Dean agreed, 'but, dude, this is a freakin' hardware store. I don't have any pressing DIY needs right now, but I appreciate your concern.'

'Just trust me, alright?'

Dean rolled his eyes, muttering irritably under his breath the whole time but to give him his dues, he shut off the engine and got out of the car.

'Sam, the sign says William's Hardware,' he pointed out.

'I know, but there are tables and chairs inside, see?'

As Sam pushed open the door to the diner, that sense of dejá vu from earlier came back, only now it was ten times stronger, if such a thing were possible. Everything was exactly as it had been in his dream; the tables, the chairs, the chalkboard with the specials written on it, the man in the baseball cap behind the counter...

He followed Dean to an empty table and sat down, hoping the hand he reached out to grab a menu with wasn't shaking too bad. Man, this was weird. Driving into town, seeing the square and the gazebo had been strange, but this was just downright freaky.

'Coffee?'

The sound of the perky female voice startled him, and he recognised who it belonged to at once. She'd been his science partner in high school, they'd shared a few classes, but more importantly, she was her best friend. And she sounded exactly like she had in the dream; she was an entirely real person. It occurred to him, as Dean accepted the coffee and Sam refused from behind his menu, that he knew all about this girl from his dream, and she had no idea. It wasn't an entirely comfortable feeling by any means, but he knew her name was Lane and she'd gone to Stars Hollow High and she had an incredibly strict mother - he'd been on the receiving end after a perfectly innocent study session. They'd even been on a double date for crying out loud.

No, that wasn't you, Sam corrected himself. Man, this whole thing was getting incredibly complicated.

Only when he'd heard the sound of Lane assuring Dean she'd be back in a minute to take their order did he finally lower his menu, once he was sure she'd left their table for the time being. When he did, however, it was to find Dean staring at him with a most bemused expression on his face.

'What's wrong, Sam? Did the pretty waitress scare you?' Dean grinned.

'You're out of luck, Dean. I'm pretty sure she's married. With kids.'

'How the hell do you know?' Dean frowned.

'Because I know her,' Sam said quietly, watching her behind the counter from out of the corner of his eye. Lane looked exactly the same, a little older and more mature perhaps than the science partner of his dream, but then again, he wasn't exactly sixteen years old anymore either.

'Did she go to Stanford or something?' Dean asked lightly, perusing the menu with great interest. 'Why didn't you say hi?'

'No, she was in my dream!'

Dean rolled his eyes but he didn't set his menu aside. 'Come on, Sam, seriously?'

'Seriously.'

'So, let me get this straight; not only did you have a dream about this town, but now you know every single person in it?'

'Well, not every single person-' Sam began, but Dean apparently was on a roll and there seemed to be no stopping him.

'What about that guy over there?' he asked, indicating an older man sitting at the counter drinking a cup of coffee. 'Was he, like, the hockey coach in your dream, huh?'

Sam followed Dean's line of vision and his eyes widened in surprise. 'That's Taylor Doose,' he said in a whisper. 'He owns the market where I, uh, Dean, worked.'

'So you do know everyone,' Dean commented, clearly enjoying this situation far too much. 'What about that dude over there?' he asked. 'If you tell me that he was, I don't know, your brother or something-'

'That's Kirk!' Sam said quietly. 'Man, this is really weird.'

'You're telling me,' Dean scoffed.

'You guys ready to order?' Lane returned to their table, notepad and pen in hand, and Sam hastily looked in the other direction; it wasn't like she was going to know who he was, but even still, it felt incredibly weird to be interacting with her.

Dean prattled off his usual, failsafe order of a cheeseburger and fried and then Lane turned to Sam.

'Anything for you?' she asked.

'Me? Uh, no. Thanks. No thanks,' he stammered, not entirely sure why he was so flustered, but finding himself unable to act calmly.

Maybe his nervous demeanour attracted her attention, because she looked more closely at him, and Sam caught her eye at the exact moment that her eyes widened and she looked incredibly surprised.

'Dean?' she asked, entirely abandoning her job of taking his order.

'Yeah?' Dean replied.

Lane frowned slightly, her eyes darting uncertainly between Sam and Dean. 'What are you doing back here?' she asked, addressing Sam. 'I thought you'd left town for good?'

Sam tried to make some response, he had the words in his head to try and make her believe that she'd completely mistaken him for someone else and he had no idea what she was talking about. These words, however, didn't seem to want to come out. The idea that not only had his dream come true, but the vivid characters of his dream knew and recognised him too, was too much to handle. Thankfully, he had Dean, his brother Dean that was, there to rescue the situation.

'Sorry, lady, I think you've mistaken my brother here for somebody else,' Dean cut in smoothly.

Lane's frown deepened and she continued to look intently at Sam, but she didn't say anything.

'My name's Dean,' Dean continued, 'and this is my brother, Sam. We're just in town for a couple of days.'

'Right,' Lane said slowly, though she didn't sound even a little bit convinced. 'I'll just, uh...' she trailed off and left the table, though she looked back over her shoulder at Sam as she went, and almost walked straight into another table as a result.

'What the hell is going on?' Dean hissed, once he was sure that they'd been left alone.

'I don't know,' Sam muttered, resolutely staring down at the table in case he accidentally caught anyone else's eye.

'No, seriously, what the hell?'

'I don't know!' Sam snapped. 'I'm going to go wait in the car.'

'Well, then, I'll come with you,' Dean offered, pushing his chair back from the table.

'You stay and eat your food,' Sam insisted. 'Honestly. I just need to, uh, clear my head. This is just strange, man, you know?'

'You're sure?' Dean asked.

'Positive.'

'Well, ok, if you're sure. Just don't go wandering off, ok? I don't want to have to go looking for you in this place.'

Sam tried to raise a smile. 'Have you seen how small this place is? I bet we couldn't get lost even if we tried.' His smile instantly dropped as he realised he was echoing almost the exact words from his dream. 'I'll see you soon,' he muttered hastily, and he quickly left the diner, leaving a thoroughly freaked out Dean and his jacket behind in the process.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this second chapter! I'm having a lot of fun writing this, and if you enjoyed, I'd really appreciate reviews, follows and favourites, all of which mean the world to me. I've written a few Supernatural fanfics before, but they've all been pre-series, so this is my first time writing a story that takes place during the series, as well as incorporating Gilmore Girls, for the first time ever. Thanks for reading!