The story is reaching its climax and I hope everybody likes where I take it. For the sake of confusion over some references in the story from here on out, this takes place almost five years after the pilot. Enjoy!

Chapt. 10

All day was spent rummaging and hauling beneath the hot Kansas sun with the three Winchesters working side by side. They rarely talked, there was still so much between them, but it felt good to be a team again, if not a family. By evening they were tired and sore, but a good sore, one that came from a good, honest day's work.

"Put a fork in me," Dean groaned leaning against the side of the Impala with a water bottle. "I'm done."

Sam smirked and looked around. "Everything looks a lot better though."

Dean nodded and smiled and put two fingers to his lips and whistled and Obadiah came scampering into sight from wherever he had been sniffing around. Dean opened the door and the hound jumped in.

"And the family is back together," Sam mused under his breath. "It's six 'o clock," he said so his brother could hear. "Dad and Jason left a little while ago so they could get cleaned up and to the diner early enough."

Dean nodded and tossed him the keys. "You drive."

Sam caught them deftly and nodded. He knew that it was Dean's way of accepting his peace offering and returning it. Nothing was said in the Impala on the way back to the Anderson place; Sam kept his eyes on the road and Dean stared out the window and rubbed Obadiah when the dog cuddled up to him.

Natalie and Missouri were in the driveway loading the car when they pulled in. Dean wolf whistled at Missouri when she bent over the trunk and she snapped back up and glared at him. "I'd hate to have to cut of the blood flow to your brain."

Dean grinned and kissed her cheek while Sam and Natalie laughed. "You look good," he said taking her hand and twirling her. "You left your hair down."

"Well, two years of raising a punk in biker boots can put a cramp in you style, I thought it was time to freshen things up" Missouri said fixing her bracelet. She patted Dean's cheek affectionately. "You better get yourself cleaned up if you're going to have me on your arm this evening. We'll meet you boys there later."

John and Jason came out freshly showered, shaved, and clothed. John looked up from rolling hi cuff up and raised an eyebrow at his boys open wide eyes. "What?"

"You look clean," Dean blurted out.

John gave him a lopsided grin. "You didn't get all your looks and charm from your mother." He opened the door to Jason's truck. "Watch yourselves."

"Sure thing," Sam said.

Jason and John rumbled off and Natalie smiled and waved before getting behind the wheel of her car and following. Dean waved and sighed. "God, she looks beautiful," he said. "Pregnancy suits her."

He said that last part wistfully. Sam couldn't help but feel wistful either. They were thirty-one and twenty-seven and most young men their ages were forming families or had already had them for years. What man didn't want a good woman in his arms with his child in her womb? It was instinctive and it was natural.

"You okay?" Sam asked, genuinely concerned by the look in his bother's eyes.

"Wait until I'm drunk again and then I'll tell you," Dean said.

Sam sighed and closed his eyes. Don't argue. You're done with arguing. "Whatever, man."

oooooooOOOOooooooo

It was dusk when Sam pulled into a parking spot. The party looked like it was already underway and in full swing. Laughter and music floated out the open doers and into the balmy July evening. The rest of town was closed down except for the deserted gas station down at the corner. The only other sound other than that of the party was the fountain trickling in the town square.

"Looks like Patty's Diner is the place to be on a Friday night," Sam mused. "C'mon, let's go get a malt and spin on the bar stools."

Dean favored him with a small smile but regarded the diner with troubled eyes.

"What?"

"I'd rather be in a bar with knives sticking out of the walls."

Sam raised his eyebrows. "You don't have your gun do you?"

Dean gave him a dubious look. "Those people are my friends. I'm not gonna be packin' my Glock at a baby shower." He sighed. "I just need a minute."

"I'm gonna go on in, okay?"

Dean nodded and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Tell them I'm coming."

Sam nodded. "Remember Dad's rule though. You don't show up in ten minutes, you'd better be bleeding or unconscious when I find you."

Dean snorted. "I'm not gonna take off on you."

An awkward moment of silence followed.

"Aw, Sam," Dean muttered. "I didn't mean it like that."

"I know," Sam assured him unbuckling his seatbelt. "I'll see you inside."

Dean nodded.

Tucking his hands in his pockets Sam jogged across the street and nodded at the man leaning against the street lamp smoking a cigarette. "Evening."

oooooooOOOOooooooo

"Where's your brother?" John asked handing Sam a beer.

"He's coming." Sam looked around at the crowd. "Cozy place."

John nodded and followed his son's gaze around the room. "You were in a uterus the last time you were here," he said with a grin. "Dean's fourth birthday."

Sam gave the room another once over. He'd always thought of Lawrence as "home" in the sense that he was born here, but he'd never really looked around and seen it as where his family had once been active citizens.

If fate hadn't so cruelly intervened, this town would've been his and Dean's stomping grounds and he would've been able to greet these people with all the warmth of old friends. At that moment, the sense of belonging that he'd felt Jessica snuck up on him, softly and not as strong, but planted.

"What?" Jon asked frowning at his son's vacant eyes.

"Nothing," Sam said sipping on his beer. "Just spaced out."

John shrugged. "Oh, by the way if anyone asks, we've been in Sacramento living with my family since we left."

Sam snorted. "If only."

oooooooOOOOooooooo

Outside a shoe put out a cigarette as Dean climbed out of the car.

oooooooOOOOooooooo

"Hey guys, where's Dean?" Natalie asked approaching them.

"He's coming," Sam repeated.

John smiled at her. "My wife glowed just like you do when she was pregnant."

Natalie gave him a brilliant smile. "Jason says that too, but I think the flush is leftover from the morning sickness."

John chuckled. "Whatever it is, you wear it well."

oooooooOOOOooooooo

The man was halfway across the street before Dean turned around from shutting the door. He frowned warily and instinctively reached around to the back of his pants wher his gun usually was.

"Evening," he said as the man approached within an arm's length.

The stranger's eyes glittered as he raised his Glock and centered it on Dean's forehead. "Evening."

Dean swallowed hard. "Nice piece."

oooooooOOOOooooooo

Sam straightened like someone had just taken a shock prod to his nervous system. His eyes darted around the room in a panic and he stood abruptly, almost knocking his beer off the counter.

"Something's wrong," he said interrupting Natalie and John's conversation.

Natalie raised her eyebrows, but John recognized the panic in his son's voice and knew to trust him. "What is it?" he asked, standing.

"Dean," Sam whispered.

oooooooOOOOooooooo

Sam had shot out of the diner so fast his father wasn't able to grab him. He ran to the Impala and looked inside, outside, and underneath in a panicked frenzy. "Dean," he murmured breathlessly. "Dean, where are you?"

He scanned the area and noticed the disturbed and broken limbs of the shrubs that lined the sidewalk and encased the town square. Slowly, quietly, he slunk over and gently made and opening in the shrubs. He could barely make out two forms next to the fountain, and as his vision adjusted he saw that it was Dean with a gun trained on him by another man.

Panicking, Sam slid through the shrubs silent as possible and crept forward at an angle. The man saw him at the corner of his eye and spun to the side so he could see both Winchesters clearly and cocked the gun. "Another step and I'll shoot him without a moment's hesitation," he growled.

Sam froze.

The man grinned as he got a better look at him. "His brother."

"Who are you?" Dean asked calmly.

"Paul Mitchell. Anne Mitchell's brother."

Dean stared at him blankly.

"What does he have to do with your sister?" Sam asked inching forward.

Paul raised his gun to Dean's forehead again. "He killed my sister in St. Louis four years ago."

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