If there was one word to describe Mary Winchester it was tough. She had grown up in a family of hunters, and even if she didn't like it, she was good at it. Then when she wanted out, she got out. She told her remaining family no, and left with John to go live a normal life. And for the next ten years she did. She got married and loved. For the first time in her life she didn't have to worry if her loved ones would come home from work. Mary had left the life, but she didn't forget. She made sure to ward her house; but other than a few bottles of holy water gathering dust in her pantry, Mary got to have her apple pie life. She had two beautiful sons and a loving husband. Until everything changed the night of November 2, 1982.
After that night she told John everything, as it was obvious something supernatural had taken her son. She told him about how she had seen a demon and another creature, most likely also a demon, fighting over her son's crib. She had arrived just in time to see one demon's eyes flash yellow before smoking out. Strangely enough, the remaining demon had looked at her almost apologetically before leaving with her youngest. From that moment on Mary knew that she couldn't go back to some normal white picket fence life. Her son had most likely been taken because of the deal she had made for John's life ten years ago, and she needed to get him back. John hadn't been happy when she told him about the deal, but they got over it. They had more important things to do than fight.
John agreed with Mary that they had to start hunting. They had to do something or they knew they would go crazy with grief for Sam. Mary's only consolation was that the demon had taken Sammy, not killed him. That had to mean that for some reason the demon wanted him alive. That night Mary vowed that she would find those demons and get her son back. She didn't have any clues to the demon that actually took her son other than that he was powerful enough to get past her wards and disappear at will. The other demon, though, she had a bit more to go on; it had had yellow eyes.
The first thing she had done was contact the remaining Campbells. Even though her dad, the head of the family, had passed, there were still other branches of the family hunting. The Campbells usually tried to keep themselves separated from the rest of the hunters. After all, they were one of the oldest hunting families and they knew best. The problem was that since Mary had been out of the game for ten years, she was sure the one hunters place she knew of that wasn't a Campbell compound was gone by now, and she didn't know how the remaining Campbells would feel about her return to the life. She just hoped that the Campbells would let her beck in. About a month after Sam's kidnapping Mary was finally able to find a living Campbell; one of her second cousins, Terry, was apparently still kicking. Which was surprising seeing that in the past few years demons had started to specifically target the Campbells. Mary couldn't help but wonder if maybe that had anything to do with her deal.
Once she finally reached the last remaining Campbell compound she thankfully received their condolences and the guarantee that her family would do everything they could to help her find Sammy. John was a quick learner, and the compound had great resources for Mary to train him to be a hunter. That being said, John didn't particularly like the rest of her family. Though they never said anything, the rest of the Campbells looked down on John for not being born into the life. And John, well he didn't really like the idea of living with his four year old son and wife in what resembled an army base; it reminded him too much of Vietnam. In that area, Mary agreed with him. Because of Sammy, Mary knew that Dean would end up being raised in the life if only because Dean needed to find his Sammy too. Still, Mary would not raise him in the paramilitary lifestyle Terry seemed to be running at the compound. Monster hunting or not, Mary still wanted Dean to have some time to be a child.
Because of this, after about a year at the compound, during which John became a pretty good hunter thanks to Mary's tutelage, the three Winchesters left the Campbell compound deciding to move with the hunts rather than working from a home base. Besides, the trail for the yellow-eyed demon had gone cold and there was nothing else the Winchesters could do at the compound that they could't also do on the road. Hunting on the road did have its problems though. John was all for leaving a five year old Dean in the motel rooms while they hunted, but Mary shot down that idea faster than the speed of light. Mary sat John down and established her ground rules for hunting. Dean had already lost his brother, he wasn't going to lose his parents too.
In the research phase of the hunt, Mary made sure that one of them was always with Dean. It may have taken longer to question the witnesses but Mary didn't care. Then for the actual hunt they would hire a sitter or daycare for when Dean wasn't at school. They always made sure that they tested whoever they left Dean with and that they had the Campbells number if anything were to happen. It may not have been perfect but at least Dean got to see and spend time with both his parents regularly. Mary didn't want him to have a childhood like hers where one parent was gone for weeks at a time on a hunt.
After they left the Campbells, Dean finally started talking again. Losing Sammy had hit him hard and he was too young to really understand what had happened. All he knew was that his little brother was gone and his parents were sad. The first few days after Sam had been taken Dean had constantly asked where he was, but eventually he just stopped talking. Thankfully leaving the paramilitary compound got him to open up again. At first, he would only talk to Mary, quietly telling her how he missed his Sammy late at night. Eventually he started talking to John again and later others, but Mary could tell that Sammy's disappearance was still affecting him. The carefree little boy had been replaced by a confused one who was dead set on finding his brother.
John saw Dean's commitment to finding Sammy as a good thing and wanted to start training him to hunt. Mary wouldn't let him. Dean was still just a child, and even though he missed his brother, she wouldn't get him involved with the hunt. She stuck to her father's rules of raising a hunter. Lore training wouldn't begin until he was eight and physical training at ten. And, most importantly, under no circumstances would Dean be allowed on an actual hunt until he was sixteen. Those were her rules and she wouldn't change them. Dean had thrown a tantrum when she told him he couldn't go out with mommy and daddy to look for Sammy, and John didn't really like it either, but Mary wasn't afraid to make John sleep on the couch if she had too.
Life went on for the Winchester family, but they still constantly felt the loss of their youngest. John became revenge-driven and chased that revenge with singular focus. He still made time for Dean and Mary, but he was a much harder man than he had been. There were less hugs and more late night research sessions. John threw himself completely into hunting; he couldn't let some demon get away with stealing his son just because he wasn't prepared. Mary, too, was driven, but she focused more on finding Sam and getting him back than revenge.
Even with her drive to find Sammy, she made sure that she was there to be a mother to Dean when he needed it. Sometimes Mary thought that Sammy's loss affected Dean the worst out of the three of them. From the moment Sammy had been born he had been Dean's whole world, and Mary knew they had had a special bond. She could even remember a few times when Dean had been the only one who had been able to calm Sammy down. Dean had just had a way with his little brother, but suddenly the boy had had that little brother ripped away from him.
There were days that the only thing keeping Mary from breaking down was the idea of getting her boys back together. She kept a picture of Sammy in her wallet, and could often be found just looking at it late at night, making sure she would never forget a detail of her son's face. Mary suspected that Dean often snuck into her purse so that he could see the picture too. Mary had hoped that Dean would start to heal after they left the compound, especially since he had started talking again, but she knew it was far-fetched. For some reason she knew that Dean would always be calling out to his Sammy. Mary was proved right when she picked up Dean from first grade about a year after they had left the compound to find him holding back tears. As soon as they got back to the motel room, Mary took him into her arms.
"Dean, sweetie, what's wrong?" Dean took a big breath and started sobbing in earnest.
"I-in school today, Miss Lachent told us to draw pictures of our f-family in our house for Christmas and I wanted to draw Sammy but Leo said I couldn't cause he doesn't live with us and that means he isn't family any more!" Dean took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes as he continued. "So then I didn't draw Sammy in cause Leo said not to, but now I feel like I'm leaving Sammy out, but I didn't want to! I want Sammy to be in the picture cause he's gone and he's been gone a really long time, but I still want him, Mommy!" Dean gave a hiccup and looked at Mary with watery eyes. "Mommy, when's Sammy coming back? I miss him and I need to tell him that I didn't want to leave him out of the picture." Mary almost cried herself looking at her son's tear stroked face and listening to his sobbed confession.
"I don't know when Sammy's coming back, baby, but know matter what Leo says Sammy will always be a part of our family and you can always draw him in your pictures. Now if you want we can add him in right now, Okay?" Dean nodded at Mary and took a crumpled drawing out of his little pocket. Mary got the crayons out of his backpack and together they added Sammy to the drawing before taping it to the impala's dash.
So here's the Winchester side of things. As always reviews are very much appreciated!