Dean escorted his brother inside the house, told him to sit down, and he hurried to the basement door, the moment Sam was out of sight anxiousness took over his body and he just wanted to get back there, just wanted to hurry up. Once at the door he knocked three times, and then tapped twice, the code that he had made the two practiced time and time again since he started living with him. Dean always expected something nasty from his past to come back and try to destroy Lisa and Ben, because past precedent was past precedent and the fuglies of the world loved nothing more than to make a Winchester feel guilt and remorse for something that wasn't entirely their fault. And Lisa and Ben destroyed because they had taken him in, loved him, helped him try to fit back into the world after his brother's death, would have been enough to break the last Winchester standing. So, he had drilled them, taught them about salt lines, taught them about salt and silver rounds in guns, hell he had taken them out and showed them how to handle themselves around a gun. But the most important thing that he had taught them was the plan in case of home invasion. And he had devised a code that would allow them to know that he was the one at the door, a code to make sure that they never got hurt.

He heard them come up the stairs and knock four times, and tap once. Dean opened the door and Lisa, threw holy water in his face, he blinked, nodded. Lisa looked a little chagrinned but put the vile back into her pocket and stepped forward and the look on her face, when she looked at him, morphed from one of determination and slight embarrassment to a look of worry. "What was it Dean?"

Dean couldn't make the words, he was too happy, too nervous, to concerned. Lisa put a hand on his cheek and said, "What's happened? Are you okay?"

"My brother is back." Dean said softly.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

"But you said that he was in Hell, and there wasn't any way to bust him out."

"I didn't do it. God did."

"God?" Dean was beginning to become impatient with her questions, he tried to hurry her along.

"Castiel, the angel who pulled me out of hell two years ago, he pulled Sam out on God's orders."

"Are you sure?"

"Cass is here."

"No tricks?"

"No. It's Cass." She nodded and instead of resisting his tugging she began to walk along side of him, hand firmly in Ben's. When she entered the kitchen an imposing figure was sitting at the kitchen table, next to a man who looked like he had just finished a long day at the office.

The imposing figure turned and gave his full face to the little group, and she remembered him from the time they saved Ben from the changelings.

"Sam?" Dean started.

"You listened to me. You kept your promise." He said softly.

"You told me to go live the apple pie life Sammy. I couldn't let you down." Sam looked up at his brother and the intensity of the look was enough to make Lisa take a step back.

"Why am I here?" Sam asked voice cracking.

"Because God willed it." Castiel said in his stoic grumble.

"Because God willed it?" Sam mulled that over for a second and then looked at Dean. "How long?"

"Almost four months."

"Felt like…"

"Forty years." Dean finished in a near whisper. And Sam nodded. Dean's stomach twisted in a knot. He pulled a chair up and sat in front of Sam. "What do you remember?"

"I don't' know." he said honestly. "I don't know what's real and what was a nightmare." The silence was palpable. Lisa's eyes went from one brother to the other and realized that the tension, the memories, the pain needed to be alleviated, if only just slightly.

"Sam, we were just sitting down to dinner, are you hungry?"

"I didn't meant to interrupt your dinner." Dean couldn't help the smile that spread over his face. That was his Sammy, always worried about etiquette.

Lisa closed her eyes, shook her head, and sighed. "Are you hungry?" Sam stayed silent.

"He's hungry Lisa, let's fix him a plate."

"Castiel, are you hungry?" Lisa asked as she moved to the cabinet with the plates, however, before she finished the question she heard a flutter of wings and the angel was gone.

"Wow! That was way cool!" Ben said with a grin. Dean ruffled his hair.

"Castiel has some cool moves." Dean admitted. "Come on, let's eat dinner." Dean said as he took the plate from Lisa, and began to fill it full of food for his little brother. He put the plate in front of Sam and handed him a fork. Sam at slowly at first, and then as he tasted the first vestiges of food he began to eat quicker and quicker until everything was gone from his plate, and when it was, Dean slid his in front of his little brother, and patted him on the back. He remembered how hungry he had been when got back from the pit, he remembered how scared, how tired, and how frazzled he had been too. Dean could only imagine how those feelings were amplified in his little brother, not only had he been in Hell, he had had the king of hell in his skin for that time as well. Wrecked was probably an understatement in regards to Sam's mental health.

SNSNSNSNSN

Lisa watched Dean with Sam, and she, for the first time, saw the man who came to her broken and sad, as someone who was complete, and happy. Helping Sam to the bathroom, making sure he had his duffel with him, and all of the toiletries that Dean managed to materialize out of nowhere, then helping him into the spare room, and helping him get settled in, made her want to cry. She knew that Dean needed to leave. Knew that he needed to be with his brother.

She stopped him on his way out of the bathroom, "Dean, you staying with him tonight?"

He bit his lip and a curious expression came across his face that she couldn't identify and he nodded, "If that's okay with you."

She gave a wilted smile. "He needs you." Dean nodded, leaned over and kissed her cheek.

"You are a special woman you know that?" She smiled. He took her hand for a moment squeezed it, turned and went back to his brother.

Sam was sitting on top of the covers, starring at his uncovered feet. Dean closed the door softly. "Lucifer made me eat my own toes." Sam started. Dean sat down on the bed next to him and let him talk. "He forced my body to pull my feet up to my mouth and bite off each and ever toe. Then when my feet were bleeding he made me drink my own blood said that I liked demon blood so much I should just drink my own, there was no real difference. That was just the beginning I think Dean."

"They destroy you in Hell." Sam nodded. "I never wanted that for you Sammy. I never wanted you to have to experience the things that I did when I was in the pit. You….I tried to protect you from all of that."

Sam looked up at Dean with tears streaming down his face. "I never appreciated what you went through. You told me to remember what you taught me, and I did everything against it, and then when you came back, I didn't sit beside you and listen to you, I was too busy for that. Dean…"

"It's in the past. You are back with me. That is all that is important right now." Dean leaned a fraction of an inch closer to his brother, touching his shoulder with his, trying to lend the strength that Sam was going to need to keep himself together for the night.