Chapter Two
1996
"I'm taking Lisa to the doctor, mom!" Dean called out, jingling the keys to signify that he would be taking the car.
"All right!" Mary called back from the kitchen where she was making a pie. Dean always loved her pies, and she wanted to give him something to look forward to when he got home from the doctor.
Dean walked out of the house with Lisa, seeing a man walking into their yard as he walked his girlfriend to the car.
"Can I help you?" Dean asked as he shut Lisa in the car. He didn't want anything to go wrong with her around, and this man definitely seemed like a suspicious character.
"I'm Sam's dad..." the man trailed off awkwardly. "I wanted to thank your mother for the cookies she gave us yesterday. It was nice of her."
"Oh, well, she's inside if you wanted to talk to her," Dean said. Normally he wouldn't throw his mom under the bus, but Sam seemed like a good kid, so he couldn't have come from creeps, could he? "She was just finishing her morning coffee."
"Thank you," John said. He walked over to the door as Dean pulled out of the driveway with Lisa.
"Are you sure that was a good idea?" Lisa asked.
"It's not like he doesn't know where we live," Dean said with a shrug. "Besides, my momma can handle herself."
John hesitated before knocking on the door. He just couldn't find it in himself to do it. Sam was waiting for him inside the house to take him to school, but he just had to see if this was the woman he thought it was when he saw her from outside his living room window.
He finally knocked.
Mary walked from the kitchen table and opened the door, standing in silence when she had.
"John..." she trailed off.
"Mary..."
"I didn't know you had stayed in Kansas," Mary mentioned.
"I didn't know you had left until you were gone," John responded.
Mary looked down at her feet, feeling like a child who had to explain herself to her lecturing parents.
"It wasn't really my choice, John."
"Then who's choice was it?" John asked. "Your parents said that you ran away from home?"
"They threw me out," Mary said.
"Why?"
"Because I..." Mary trailed off. She didn't want to involve John into Dean's life if Dean didn't want him to be apart of it. Then again, Dean did say that he would meet him. "I was pregnant, John."
"What?"
"My parents sent me away to give the baby up for adoption, but I didn't want to," Mary explained. "So I left and raised him on my own."
"Him?"
"You have a son," Mary said. "Two, apparently."
"Uh...yeah..." John trailed off. "Was that him outside with the...the pregnant girl?"
Mary nodded. "Yeah. He's taking her to the doctor."
"She isn't your daughter or anything, is she?" John asked.
"No, John; she's Dean's girlfriend," Mary answered. "She's having his son."
"A grandson?" John raised his eyebrows. "Wow..."
"When they get back, I'll talk to him about seeing you tonight," Mary said. "But I'm sure you have a job to get to."
"Yeah, I do..." John trailed off once again. "I own a garage in town."
"That's great," Mary said.
"What have you been doing for work?" John asked.
"I was a waitress for a while," Mary answered. "I've actually been paying my bills by..." she trailed off.
"By?"
"Writing and illustrating children books," Mary finished. "It's enough to pay the bills, at least. I have a pretty good fan-base."
"That's great," John said. "I, uh..I better get going. I'll see you later?"
"I'll come by," Mary said. "Next door, right?"
John nodded before walking away from the door. He felt like he was walking away from her for the last time again.
January 24th, 1979
Mary held her baby in her arms while she sat in the hospital bed. The birth certificate forms were sitting beside her bed, and she couldn't help but stare at the father's place on the certificate. It was empty.
Dean Micheal Winchester. Mary had decided to name Dean after her mother, even though both of her parents had thrown her out.
She had her baby alone in the hospital.
Shortly after he was born, Jennifer came by the hospital and gave Mary a stuffed bear for her new baby. She even held Dean a bit before making her leave, telling Mary that she didn't need to come into work for a few more weeks, and that her job would be held for her, but they would be hiring in a replacement while she was out. Mary was promised her job when her maternity leave finished.
Mary cradled Dean in her arms until the nurse took him to the nursery to run some tests. She then took the opportunity to use the hospital phone and call her parents' number.
After a few rings, there was an answer.
"Campbell residence, Deanna speaking," her mother answered.
"Mom?"
There was a long pause before her mother answered with a whispered, "Mary?"
"It's me, mom," Mary said. "I wanted to tell you that I had my baby. A boy, mom."
"You can't call me here, Mary," Deanna said. "If your father found out I spoke to you, he'd be livid."
"His name is Dean. I named him after you."
"I have to go." Deanna hung up the phone.
Mary sighed, placing the phone back on the hook. She curled up in her hospital bed and waited for the nurse to bring Dean back.
After a few minutes of waiting, Mary grabbed the phone and dialed another number.
"Hello?" a female voice - one Mary recognized as John's mother - answered.
"Is John there?" Mary asked.
"Mary?" John's mother asked. "Your parents have been worried sick! Where are you, girl?"
"Is John there?" Mary repeated.
"He's enlisted," his mother answered. "You really should have been here to see him off."
"I couldn't," Mary said. "I'm sorry. I have to go." She promptly hung up the phone.
1996
"We're back!" Dean called when he walked into the house with Lisa by his side. He hung the keys on the key ring they had installed the previous night.
"He knows," Mary said, sitting at the table where she had been since she had confronted John.
"Who?" Dean asked.
"Him." Mary sighed, letting her face fall into her hands. "John came over this morning and we talked. He asked why I left, and I told him I was pregnant."
"You mean Sam's dad is my dad?" Dean asked.
Mary nodded. "I told him that I would talk to you about seeing him this evening when he gets off of work."
"I guess I'll see him," Dean said.
"I just don't want you to blame him for not being in your life," Mary said. "You know full well that I was the one who chose not to include him. I didn't tell him about me being pregnant."
"I know, mom." Dean sat beside her. "I know, and that's why I'm gonna give him the chance. I don't know what would have happened if you had told him, but I can try to have a relationship with him now, and he can see his grandson when he's born."
"Thank you, Dean," Mary said.
"For?"
"For being such a good kid."
"You know I'm about to be a teen dad, right?" Dean asked.
"Yeah, but you stuck by your girl."
Mary's pie, which had finished baking long ago, was wrapped up to take over to John's house that evening. She didn't want to show up empty handed - even if she was bringing the man his son for the first time.
When they walked to the house, it was a bit awkward.
Dean had brought Lisa along so that she could meet his father as well, and the three of them standing in front of the door was a bit awkward. Lisa wanted to hide behind Dean, Dean wanted to hide behind Mary, and Mary wanted to hide behind both of them out of the shame she felt for not telling the man he was a father.
John answered the door, seeming just as frazzled and worried as the rest of them.
"Come in," he said, moving aside to let them through the door. Dean and John shared extended eye contact, staring at each other in...amazement.
1989
Growing up, Dean had been fascinated with seeing other fathers. Whether they were at the park, at the diner that he frequented with his mother, or at the school on fathers day, Dean was fascinated with them.
Having never had one of his own, Dean didn't know what a father would be like. He assumed just like a mother, but a boy instead of a girl.
On fathers day at school when the teacher forced them to write a card, Dean always wrote his card to Mary. The school had frowned upon this, but Mary encouraged Dean that he wasn't any different than the other kids.
"Mom?" Dean asked when he was busy doing homework at the bar of the diner Mary was currently working at.
"Yeah?" Mary asked as she placed a slice of pie in front of her son. It was his favorite dessert that she treated him to on Friday nights if she had to work. She knew how much he would rather be at home, and it was her way of apologizing.
"Why don't I have a dad?" It was a question that Mary had been expecting, and it actually came later than she had thought it would. It still wasn't something she had come up with an answer for, and her and Dean were always honest with each other.
"Well, Dean," Mary started as she topped off her son's root beer. "Things were a little different where I lived, and when I got pregnant with you, my parents either wanted me to get married to your dad or give you away. So I left without telling your dad I was pregnant."
"Did you not want to marry my dad?" Dean asked.
"It wasn't that I didn't want to get married to him," Mary said. "I just wasn't ready. I was seventeen, and I was scared."
"So you left home to keep me and not get married?" Mary nodded. Dean smiled. "Thanks for keeping me, mom."
"Of course, bumblebee." Mary ruffled Dean's sandy hair before going back to her tables.
1996
"John, this is Dean," Mary introduced. "Dean, this is your father...John."
"Hi, Dean," John said, a smile plastered on his face. Like he was amazed that he could have helped make a person even though he had another son.
"Hi...John..." Dean trailed off. John's happy expression faltered a bit, but he managed to keep it up. "Sorry; I just don't think I'm ready to call you the 'D' word yet. I hope you understand."
"No, I get it," John said.
"Well, John, this is my girlfriend, Lisa," Dean introduced. "And our baby boy who has yet to be named."
"And why doesn't he have a name?" John asked.
"Because Lisa can't decide on one out of the baby books," Dean answered.
"You're...you're only seventeen, right?"
"He is," Mary answered for her son.
"Well, what about high school?" John asked.
"I got my GED," Dean said.
"When Lisa has the baby, I'll be watching him while she takes classes at the community college," Mary said.
"Lisa, do you have your GED too?" John asked.
"No, I had my high school diploma before I got pregnant," Lisa answered.
"She went to an accelerated high school for braniacs," Dean said.
"Sam - my son - has also always done well in school," John mentioned.
"Where is he, anyway?" Dean asked.
"He's up in his bedroom," John answered. "I was just about to go get him for dinner."
"Oh, I brought a pie," Mary said, pulling a wrapped pie out of the bag she had brought over."
"Your mother's recipe?" John asked.
"My own recipe," Mary answered. John smiled softly, taking the pie from her.
"Feel free to look around while I take this to the kitchen and get Sam," John said before walking out of the room.
Dean took up his offer, standing and walking around the room, looking at photographs on the walls and on the stands.
"He's married," Mary mentioned when she saw a photograph of a wedding. John was in a tuxedo standing beside a blonde woman in a wedding dress. "He must have a thing for blondes," she commented.
"If he's married, where's his wife?" Dean asked. He continued looking at the photos, which were mainly Sam. School pictures, family outings, baseball games. The majority of the photos did not contain the blonde woman in the wedding photo. "Not a lot of pictures of the mystery lady."
"Maybe she's the one taking the pictures," Lisa suggested. Dean and Mary both made the same expression of thought.
There were sounds of footsteps walking down the stairs before Sam appeared in the living room.
"Oh..." he trailed off. "Hi."
"Hey, Sam," Dean said with a small smile. "Did your dad talk to you?"
"He said you were my brother," Sam answered. "But that we didn't have the same mom, so that made us half brothers."
"That's right," Dean said.
"Is your dad in the kitchen, Sam?" Mary asked. Sam nodded. Mary smiled, walking past Sam, ruffling his hair softly as she did, before making her way into the kitchen.
"We need to talk, John," Mary said to the man.
"Is something wrong?" John asked. "Does Dean not want to see me anymore?"
"No, that's not it," Mary said, allowing the man to breathe in relief. "Dean wants to get to know you. He never had a father figure in his life before, and is curious."
"Then what did you want to talk to me about?"
"About your wife," Mary answered. "If me being around with Dean is going to be a problem with her, then I need to know about it."
"It won't be a problem," John said.
"Have you spoken with her about it?" Mary asked.
"She died when Sam was a baby," John answered. "Sam was six months old...Kate had postpartum depression; I thought I was giving her a break by taking Sam to my mom's for the day...When I came back, she was dead."
"How did she...?" Mary started. "If you don't mind me asking, I mean..."
"She took a bottle of sleeping pills," John answered.
"I'm so sorry," Mary said. She placed a comforting hand on John's shoulder. "I didn't know..."
"Sam doesn't know, so please don't mention this to him," John asked of her. "I never wanted him to think that it could be his fault that his mother committed suicide."
"Does he know that she did commit suicide?" Mary asked.
"I told him she died in her sleep," John said. "I didn't tell him how or why."
"I won't tell him," Mary said. "I understand why you wouldn't tell him before, but he'll need to know the truth someday. Otherwise he'll find out on his own and that will be way worse."
"How did you...how did you break things to Dean about me when he was little?" John asked.
"I was always honest with Dean," Mary answered. "He knew that I never told you that I was pregnant. He knows it isn't your fault, and that if anyone is to blame for you not being apart of his life, it's me."
"Does he blame you?"
"No."