Title: Beer Bad
Author: Chosenfire
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN. All recognizable characters and situations belong to their respective owners (the gods that are Whedon and Kripke) and while they are getting rich off it I make no profit from playing with their characters like my personal bendy dolls. :D
Rating: PG-13
Pairing(s): Buffy/Dean, Sam/Dawn, Faith/Xander, Willow/Oz
Spoilers: BtVS post Chosen, SPN season 1"Provenance"
Summary: Answer to Jinni's woke up in Vegas challenge. Dean and Sam are on a Hunt in the city of sin when Dean wakes up after a night of heavy drinking to find himself married to none other than Buffy Summers, the best friend of the brother he had to give up and a Vampire Slayer.

A/N: Once again sorry for the wait although I'm happy this one was shorter than the last, if I make it my goal to have the time between updates get shorter and shorter I'll have a much happier audience and a longer story lol. So this is the big reveal chapter, I've put it off for as long as possible. Enjoy the ride and remember to show me some love :D

Chapter 10 Well Hello

Willow looked out the small, oval window her mouth a tight line as she thought about what she was doing. A lap top sat on her lap another page loading on the screen and she was once agin thankful for the silence that filled the private cabin of the Council funded jet.

The luxuries that were at their disposal now where a far cry from a public school library and the ancient computer Giles had kept on hand for her.

Now with one phone call they could have any device, manpower, and texts at their disposal. There had been a time when all they had on hand was their ability to "acquire" what they need and Oz's van.

Oz, that was where Willow was heading. She had thought he was in Budapest or Istanbul or some other place learning how to control the wolf after he had dropped his bombshell but as it turned out he was at the Council Headquarter's in Cleveland waiting for her.

Xander had assured her that they had everything covered and to go, if anything came up that they couldn't handle they'd call an d she could just zip right over. She had refrained from reminding him that "zipping" took a lot of energy out of her and it was faster to use the jet.

Not to mention safer.

Willow had thought she had had time to adjust to the whole her being Oz's "mate" but his message haad been urgent and very the guy that had mastered calm it had worried her. She was scared and nervous and more excited than she liked to admit at seeing him.

It seemed like a life time ago she had been the girl with Oz, the girl he had fallen with had been shy and bubbly, the Willow of Oz time had been uncertain and so ready to prove herself, to see what the world held for her.

Willow knew now, she knew who she was and what she was capable of. She was confident in that knowledge and sometimes she even feared what she could do. She was guarded and had been to a place that had fractured her soul.

She didn't know if Oz could love the new her when she didn't even want to look too closely at what she had become.

She missed the innocence, but then they all did. Her, Xander, Buffy, Faith, even Dawn had aged and had scars of her owns besides the ones on her arms from Glory..

Willow frowned at what was coming up on her computer screen and she rapidly typed in another command as she worked on something else to distract herself and solve a puzzle that was nagging at her.

She had watched Dean and Sam and something about the way they had moved, especially Dean, had seemed familiar. The first thing that had stood out was how careful they were. Sure some people were neat but Willow hadn't expected a brother of Xander's to be able to move through a crowded restaurant without bumping into a single person.

It wasn't anything big but Willow had found it odd and she had learned to trust the instincts that had guided her over the years. It had been Dean that had held her interest and not just because all Xander's animosity had been aimed at him.

Dean was confident and charming, he had a way of even making Dawn, who claimed to hate him, almost smile. But he was, Willow had observed, even more guarded than Faith and that was a feat in itself.

Willow paled as she read the report and her hand instantly reached for the pink phone in her pocket fingers shaking slightly as she opened it and dialed Xander's number.

It rang and she consumed the report in front of her feeling a pit of dread in her stomach.

This was bad, really really bad.

"What Will, what do you got?" Xander's happy voice came across to her and Willow felt her heart breaking as she looked at the all too familiar picture on the screen of Xander's oldest brother.

Her heart was breaking for him because she knew despite all his protests and words to the contrary Xander loved Dean fiercely.

"Xan I think something bad is going on." Her voice choked as she tried to find the words.

"What?" his tone grew serious.

Willow took a deep breath and told him hurriedly "According to the police report I'm reading Dean Winchester died four months ago, he was suspected of several murders in the St. Louis area."

"No," Xander's voice came across as firm and determined "It wasn't him, there was to be some mistake."

Willow's voice softened "There isn't, there was a funeral. Dean Winchester is legally declared as dead."

"Dead men can't get married Will." Xander whispered softly his voice tight and breaking and he sounded so young and lost.

"I'm sorry." Willow didn't know what else she could say and she closed her eyes against the truth that she had uncovered.

"Don't be." Her best friends voice was clipped and laced with steel "Willow, I know my brother, I don't like him half the time, but I know him and he's not dead. He's an asshole and Dawnie wants to do him in but he's not dead, look into it, we'll get to the bottom of it."

"Xander…" Willow began but was cut off.

"Trust me okay, Dean is alive and whatever's going on we'll figure it out, he's alive."

She sighed favorting the page "Okay, if I find anything else I'll call you."

"Good luck," she heard a shout in the back ground and Xander muttered something telling her quickly "Gotta go, we have company." The phone clicked off and Willow closed it tucking it back into her pocket and with halting hands began to gather all the information she could on the Winchesters.

She had needed something to distract her and now she had it.

"Someone's coming fast." Faith barked at Xander and he hung up on Willow swiftly pocketing the phone and lifting the gun in his hand moving in front of Dawn and beside Faith Buffy a couple of steps ahead on his other side. He could feel the pounding of footsteps on the floor and he braced himself aiming his favorite toy on the space in the hallway.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Buffy move closer to the wall raising the Scythe, the pristine surface gleaming wickedly and he could feel the rush of air behind him as he heard the click of a crossbow bolt in place Dawn taking careful aim over his shoulder, she was protected by him like they had done so many times before.

Dawn was a lot like Buffy and refused to sit out on a fight so they had learned to compromise. She didn't have the strength of a Slayer either but she was a damn decent shot, better than Buffy even, and Willow had taught her a couple little surprises if it came down to a fight.

She was a Scooby through and through and she could hold her own as well as he could, probably better as he got older and she learned the sun spell Willow was still getting the hang of.

Sometimes it made him feel old to see the next generation ready to take his place.

Mostly it just made him proud and he would want Dawn over any of the new Slayers watching his back, she was his family.

"Let Xander take the first shoot." Buffy muttered her eyes locked on the hallway ahead as they advanced as a unit.

"I know that." Dawn's exasperated voice reached him as from a distance as everything seemed to go in slow motion as he saw who they were about to crash with around the corner.

Buffy and Faith where faster, pulling themselves into a holding position clearly stunned but weapons at ready. Dawn had hung back crossbow wavering but still aimed at the two familiar men that faced them guns drawn shock registering across their features.

Xander was a scant few feet in front of him his gun so close it could almost touch theirs and he was the only one that didn't look like one of the sitcom characters when someone yelled surprised.

His mouth curled into a bitter smile and the gun was aimed at the air between Sam and Dean as he asked almost conversationally "So you're reporter's huh?" he snorted eyes glittering dangerously "What cover did daddy give you this time?"

He had always wondered. After he met Buffy he had asked her and Giles offhanded questions trying to figure out if the supernatural world had touched his life before he had met the Slayer and found out that he lived on a Hellmouth.

All the signs had been there, he had just been too young to see them, then he liked to think he had taken on the whole Sunnydale philosophy of denial. That his father hadn't spent a little too much time with his guns and speaking gibberish while spreading salt on the windows and the door. That Dean didn't sleep with a wickedly sharp knife under his pillow. That his father, who he believed loved and cared for him, hadn't left him on a Hellmouth of all places when he knew what was out there, hadn't left him alone to face it.

Dean looked at his little brother in stunned realization. Xander knew, not just about what they did but the darkness in the world they faced day in and day out. The darkness they had given him up so he would never know. The darkness they had tried to protect him from.

The way Xander held the gun pointed at him as pure Winchester, he didn't hold like he had watched too many cop movies, he held it like he had spent hours training and getting familiar with the mechanics of the weapon.

Dean did the only thing he could, he lowered his gun and smirked "No cover, haven't had time to think one up and dad is MIA."

Xander smiled sadly doing the same much to the confusion of the woman beside him "How like him."

Sam choose that moment to clear his throat having lowered his gun the instant he had recognized them "So you know?" he demanded stunned his eyes going from Xander to Buffy to Dawn to Faith neither of them looking uncomfortable with the arsenal they had at their disposal.

"Know what," Dawn demanded lowering the crossbow her eyes going wide as she tried to look innocent a nervous smile on her face "what do we know, we don't know anything."

"So, what, you're here on a medieval tour." Dean snorted disbelieving.

Xander shrugged "We we're going to go with shooting a documentary, hidden cameras and all that."

Dean looked from Xander to Buffy who had lowered the Scythe and was peering at him like he was an unpleasant puzzle "So you guys are amateur demon hunters?" he asked looking at the group his brother had gotten himself in.

Faith huffed "I'm not an amateur at nothing baby." She turned to Xander trying to hide her concern.

There was a low hum and they looked around weapons being raised and the two groups seemed to merge as one as they went on the defense. Something began to growl and Dawn broke the tense silence "I'm going out on a limb and saying that growlings not good."

Sam moved to stand beside her his gun raised as he searched for the source and Dean moved between Buffy and Xander as the lights began to flicker on and off.

"So you work at a school?" Dean muttered out of the side of his mouth at Buffy.

She didn't look at him every muscle tensing as she gritted out "Now's really not the time, and I do work at a school, you didn't ask what kind of school." Shadows began to dance on the walls the floors shook. The group moved closer together and the growling intensified.

The lights flickered and an unnatural darkness surrounded them blocking out any source of light casting them in complete darkness cut off from the others.

Dawn screamed as something hit her fro behind and she felt a strong arm go around her waist and Sam's soothing voice in her ear as he dragged her away from what sounded like the low whir of electricity. Dawn heard a female voice scream before she gave into the darkness of her mind as a trickle of warm crimson slid down the side of her face.

"Dean." Sam screamed as he held Dawn's unconscious body easily in his arms feeling the panic grip him as an eerie silence met his calls. "Xander." He yelled hopelessly and he kept his back to the hard reality of the wall moving until he hit a corner. He sank with Dawn in his arms feeling unexplicable tired and she lay cradled on his chest breathing steadily.

"B," Faith croaked out weakly felling her eye lids close as her body shut down without her permission. Something had hit her hard and she had went down ready to spring back up and fight but finding she didn't have the energy to move.

"I'm still here." Buffy's voice was weak and reached her as if from a distance.

"Fuck." Dean uttered as he threw his body out of the path of the oncoming blow hitting the floor hard and twisting his shoulder. The gun held uselessly in his hand, the hallway was too narrow and crowded and he couldn't take the chance of shooting someone.

"I think I see a light." Xander muttered from beside him his hand clasping on to Dean's forearm and dragging him up.

Dean grunted wincing against the pain and offered "Lead the way then superstar." He pulled himself together letting Xander lead him and he saw it, a dim light up ahead. Since he had tossed out any religious belief long ago he had no apprehension about walking into the light, it looked a damn sight better than the unnatural darkness that had swallowed them up.