A/N: I'd uploaded this chapter yesterday, but I decided I was unhappy with it and made quite a few changes and wrote more into the scene. This is my updated chapter two and I hope you like it!

Chapter Two

21 Years Earlier…

The Winchester family was gathered around the hospital bed, all vying for a look at its newest member. Mary carefully cradled her newborn daughter in her hands, smiling as the little girl giggled at the faces John was making. Dean lifted up little Sammy so he could see the new baby, but he wasn't having much luck. John smiled and took Sam from Dean, holding him so he could see her better.

Mary smiled at Sammy and brought the baby closer to him, "Sammy…say hello to your new little sister, Elizabeth."

Sammy waved one of his small hands at his little sister with a shy smile, "H'lo Liz-buf."

John laughed. Sammy was still very young himself and wasn't able to properly pronounce her name yet. He began to chant her name happily, proud to be a big brother just like his brother Dean, "Liz-buf, Liz-buf. Buf, Buf…"

John raised an eyebrow at that, and Sammy smiled up at his father pleased with himself, "Sammy giving Liz-buf nackname."

Dean corrected him, "That's nickname, Sammy."

Sammy nodded, "Yeah, nickname."

Mary smiled, "What nickname do you want to give her, sweetheart?"

"Buff!"

John raised an eyebrow, "You mean Beth, sport?"

Sammy nodded enthusiastically, "Uh huh! Buff!"

John chuckled, sharing a look with Mary, "Okay, then. Buff it is."

Sammy smiled pleased with himself and looked back to baby Elizabeth, "Hello Buff-y. I'm Sammy, and that's Dean" he pointed over at Dean standing closely by the bed, "We're big brothers."

Now…

Buffy heard the Impala's approach long before the sleek black car pulled into the driveway, the sound of classic rock and the low rumble of the engine alerting everyone in the surrounding area to her presence.

Buffy checked her appearance in the mirror one more time before she excitedly ran out the door to greet her brothers, jumping into Dean's arms as soon as he stepped out of the car, "Dean!"

Dean hugged his little sister back before pulling back slightly to good-naturedly ruffle her hair, earning himself an annoyed glare. He grinned widely "Good to see you too, princess."

Buffy extracted herself from Dean and ran over to Sam, who'd just gotten out of the car, "Sammy!" and jumped into Sam's waiting arms for a warm hug from her other older brother, "I am so glad to see you guys!"

Sam smiled, "We're glad to see you too, Buff." He hugged his little sister back, not having seen her in a while. The last time they had been together was before Jess died and he hadn't wanted to tell her over the phone. Buffy had liked Jess.

Buffy grinned widely, "So come on, let's go inside. We have so much to catch up on." And with that Buffy grabbed Sam's hand and practically dragged him into the house, leaving an amused Dean to grab their belongings from the trunk of the Impala.

Buffy led Sam into the kitchen, where she poured each a cup of coffee. She knew her brothers. Sam accepted it graciously, carefully taking a sip of the scalding liquid. Soon Dean joined them in the kitchen, after dumping their bags by the stairs, and helped himself to a cup of coffee.

Buffy sat herself by her brothers at the island, "So where have you guys just come from? What did you kill?"

Dean grinned at his sister's curiosity. She had always been that way. Always wondering what is was like to travel the backroads of America, hunting the things that go bump in the night, instead of hunting in your own backyard, "We just finished a job in Pennsylvania. Took out a demon that was causing plane crashes."

"Wait…Pennsylvania? I thought you said you were nearby?"

Dean grinned, "Well we were. We were on our way to visit you when I called."

Buffy rolled her eyes. Typical Dean, always needing to check up on his younger siblings.

Sam smiled at the exchange, "You're our sister, Buffy. We missed you."

Buffy looked happy at the response, "I missed you guys too."

Dean rolled his eyes at the chick-flick moment and got up to rummage through the cupboards in search of something to eat. Buffy shook her head at his behavior and took the opportunity to take a better look at them. Dean was his same old annoying self, but something was different about Sam. He looked like he hadn't slept in days. She watched him for several moments before Sam looked up and noticed her staring at him. He raised an eyebrow at her, "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Dean came up behind him before Buffy could answer with a handful of cookies, "Probably noticed how you're looking more and more like a girl. It's probably the hair." And with that playfully ruffled Sam's hair, earning an annoyed glare.

Dean gave him a weird look, before turning to look at Buffy and then back to Sam, "You and her have too much in common." He took a huge bite out of one of the cookies, "At least there's only one geek in this family."

Sam shot him a look. Buffy looked at both of them, "Wow. You know what, I don't remember you guys being this snippy at each other. Hey, you know what else I don't remember? You guys hunting together without Dad. Sammy, how come you're hunting with Dean now? What happened to college?"

The look currently on Sam's face made Buffy wish she'd kept her mouth shut. She looked at Dean for some indication of if she'd said something wrong. Dean just shook his head and nodded towards Sam. In other words it was something Sam had to tell her himself. All was silent for a moment before Dean spoke up, "Why don't you two kids go talk in the main room. I gotta…check I locked the trunk…"

Buffy and Sam each gave Dean a look, before Sam walked into the main room. Buffy stared at Dean for a moment, willing him with her eyes to tell him what was going on. Dean just shook his head and insistingly gestured for her to follow Sam.

Buffy sighed in defeat and followed Sam, taking a seat next to him on the couch, "You're gonna tell me something bad, aren't you? Like you got expelled or you broke up with Jess." On seeing the pained look on Sam's face, Buffy was immediately alarmed, "You didn't break up with Jess, did you?"

Sam held up a hand to ward off her questions, "Not exactly. I don't know what Dean's told you about what's happened over the last couple of months, but, uh…Dad abandoned Dean to chase some lead he had on what killed Mom. Dean was worried about Dad so he came and broke into mine and Jess's apartment and convinced me to help him find Dad."

Buffy was, at this point, looking pretty worried, "Did you find him?"

Sam shook his head, "No. We've pretty much accepted that Dad doesn't want to be found. So we finished the job Dad was working on and Dean took me back to campus. When I got back to the apartment…I found Jess."

"Found? As in…?"

"I found Jess…pinned to the ceiling. The same as Mom."

Buffy's hand flew to her mouth, horrified, "Oh my god…Sammy…"

Sam looked down, his eyes welling with unshed tears, "It was too late. I couldn't save her. The whole ceiling burst into flames, and Dean had to drag me out."

Buffy was crying as she pulled Sam into a tight hug, "I'm sorry, Sam, I'm so sorry."

Sam leaned into his little sister's embrace, as the tears began to fall. Dean would never be comfortable holding Sam like Buffy was, and sharing painful memories. Sam hadn't been able to talk about Jess' death to anyone before, and now although it was painful to think about, at least he could get it off his chest. Except for one little detail that had been haunting him in the back of his mind. He himself wasn't sure what to think about it, and who knew what Dean or Buffy would say if they found out. So for now…he would concentrate on hunting the thing that killed Jess, and closing the distance between the family that had slowly been growing ever since Sam had left for Stanford.

So Sam hugged his sister that little bit tighter as they held each other, crying for lost loves and for each other, hoping that things in the future could only get better.

After the tears had finally run dry, Sam and Buffy sat quietly on the couch, Sam's arm around Buffy's shoulders as she rested her head on his shoulder, "So this is what you're doing now? Hunting with Dean?"

Sam nodded, "Yeah. I want…I need to find what killed Jess."

Buffy looked down sadly, "You really loved her. So you really think it's the same thing that killed Mom?"

"I think so. It was…exactly how Dad described how he found Mom."

"Have you spoken to Dad about it? What does he think?"

Sam sighed and shook his head, "We haven't been able to find him, or even contact him. He just took off halfway through a job, left it to me and Dean, and sent us on a couple more."

Buffy wrinkled her nose in confusion, "How…?" Then her eyes widened in understanding, "Those stupid co-ordinates again?"

Sam nodded, "Yeah, more of his ex-marine crap."

Buffy frowned and shook her head in disbelief, "I can't believe he just took off like that, and left Dean behind."

Sam said nothing and both were silent for a moment. Buffy thought about everything that had happened over the last seven years of her life. It seemed like every time the Winchester family tried to do something normal, something happened to ruin everything. Buffy herself had tried for years to just be normal, but she had eventually accepted that it was never going to happen.

When Sam had gone to Stanford and started seeing Jessica, Buffy couldn't have been happier for him. Sam and Dean had spent their whole lives being dragged around the country by their father, trained to hunt demons. And then Sam had finally decided to leave and take a chance at the life he'd always wanted as a kid. It hadn't worked for him either. All of them just kept getting sucked back into this life. It wasn't fair.

"We're never going to have any kind of normal life, are we." It wasn't a question, but a statement.

Sam gave Buffy a sad smile, "No."

Buffy sighed, having known what his answer would be, and dropped her head back to his shoulder, "I hope you find it, Sam. I really do. But for now…you've got me, and Dean. We're a family. And we're gonna stick together. No matter what." She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a reassuring squeeze.

Sam smiled at her confidence and hugged her back. This family was going to get back together and be a real family, "No matter what."