Notes: this one chapter is really why I started writing this work, because I was trying to make sense of the Alpha/omega world in my own head and the story began to weave itself around it in my mind. I so hope this discussion makes sense. Please let me know if it doesn't!

"Hi Dean: what'cha doing?"

The young man's mouth snapped shut almost as fast as the laptop lid was snapped shut. Which was almost as fast as the man's face blushed a brilliant scarlet at being caught looking at what he was looking at.

"Deeean? What are you doing?" Samuel carefully sat down on the couch beside where Dean was sitting and leant across to open up the lid once more so he could see what was on the screen. "What is this? Why are you looking at something like this?"

Gently he nudged the older man as Dean impossibly reddened even more and cursed himself for not hearing the quiet approach of the boy. How could he have let himself get caught looking at...something like this? And on Samuel's laptop as well!

Shit.

"Dean?"

Double shit: he wasn't going to let it go.

"I was just..."

"Just what?" Samuel raised his eyebrows and put on an expression far too reminiscent of the real Sam's bitch-face for Dean's liking. He sighed, opened the device fully, and turned it so the young man could see properly.

"I was just trying to work out: I mean, it's all so confusing... What actually is an omega, Sammy? How can a man have a child? And how can a woman have a... what is a knot? What is it? M-A seems to know, and I haven't got a clue! What exactly is it that you're all saying I am?" The words finally came out in a rush.

"Oh Dean. Why didn't you just ask? Those 'information' websites are useless! No wonder you can't make sense of it, I mean: look at that drawing! You can't even tell if it's meant to be male or female! Let alone omega or beta! Here..."

And he was taking his laptop back, shutting it down, and putting it out of the way beside him so he could talk to the man properly. And try and explain the facts of life to someone from another world, which wasn't something that Samuel ever thought he would have to do! And he didn't have a clue where to start!

"Okay..." He sat back on the couch while he tried to think.

"See! This is why I was trying to work it out from that thing! It's embarrassing! This is embarrassing! Forget it, Sammy: I didn't mean to put you on the spot here..." Dean was throwing his hands up and moving to get up.

The young man caught his arm and pulled him back down to the seat, leaving his fingers resting on Dean's thigh so he could feel if the man was going to try and move again. "Yeah, it is," he agreed. "But it must be very confusing, so...let's just take it slow. This is all taught in elementary school here, and, I guess, it's so much a part of life and so interesting to everybody as to what someone is, that it's...well, something that everyone, even the children, just know!

So!" Samuel took a deep breath. "We'll keep it simple. Well... as simple as I can." He smiled at Dean, who smiled back at him in gratitude while trying to ignore where his hand was.

"Okay."

"Okay. Okay... Okay! There are three sexes here: each with two genders, which are male and female. Until presented, all little girls look the same physically, with one...erm, front opening for peeing and one rear one for erm, well...you get it."

"But Sara? She's an Alpha, isn't she...? How...?"

"Dean...just let me..."

"Sorry."

The fingers tightened their grip around Dean's leg.

"And all little boys, well, all unpresented boys, have the same...the same, well, they have an ass hole as well, and a penis."

"Okay so far: cock and balls, got'cha."

"No."

"No?"

Samuel shifted uncomfortably beside him. "No. Only a cock. For peeing, and it also... well, you know when you find somebody attractive, how it responds on its own without you meaning it to... By the Moon, this is embarrassing! But...no balls. Not yet!"

It was his turn to get very red in the face as Dean sat fully forward and twisted in his seat to stare at him. "Not yet? So... How can you...? How do they..? How...? But you do have them? I mean... somebody here does? The Alphas? ...And you're telling me that... none at all? And... you? You're not presented yet, so..."

"No. No, I've not. And no, I haven't got any...yet." He purposely and studiously stared at his own long legs while Dean stared with amusement at the red bloom that was now covering even his ears and tried to stop himself from smirking: 'he's sixteen, he's sixteen, don't tease him!'

"So when do you...? So that's what this presenting does, then?"

"Well, yeah. Until we present, we don't know for definite what we will be. I mean: we can give all the signs of being Alphas or omegas, but until we finally present then there's always room for doubt."

"So...do they just appear? And what's this knot thing?"

"I'm try-ing to explain!"

"Sorry."

Samuel sighed and tried to carry on with this most awkward of conversations! "I asked dad what it's like, presenting, I mean. I've been waiting and hoping since I was twelve! I've been so ready to know what I am: I'm seventeen next month, I'm so late! And anyway, dad said it was like being torn apart and put back together so fast that you don't even get the chance to feel the pain! It just...happens! Alphas grow...well, that's when they get their balls...testicles. And their knots of course. It all happens then.

And the female Alphas get everything all at once!" His face crinkled with wonder, enough for him to forget his embarrassment and look up to finally face the man again. "Penis and...balls! That must be weird, Dean! I mean, I'm nervous enough about... But how do you deal with a change like that? Although they seem to be fine with it, there's special..." his face went scarlet once again, "...female Alpha's underwear that holds everything securely so they can still wear their short skirts and..." he tried desperately to ignore Dean's unhelpful chuckle at his plight. "Anyway, most are fine with it, I guess everyone wants to be an Alpha, well, most... but a few...well they have it all removed. They don't like their new silhouette, it doesn't feel right: they'd rather change to be betas."

"You mean, like a sex change?"

"Yeah." He was finally starting to feel the skin on his face cool down, even though he felt like it should be getting warmer from the intensity of Dean's gaze now on him. He was sitting up and listening with interest, although still with far more than a twinkle of humour for the boy's liking, watching Samuel with those green eyes that were somehow far more beautiful even than his mother's.

All the colours of the great forest as it emerged from winter to bloom in the spring, Samuel thought, as he stared back into them: new life awakening.

"Huh." And Dean dropped his gaze to the young man's disappointment. The deep lines on his forehead crinkled again as he thought about it: "It all just...grows? How? From where? Is it there before...? Or is it magic?"

Samuel shrugged: "Doctors say it is all there, right from birth. They can x-ray the genital area of babies and see the...balls, or the womb if it's an omega, lying hidden inside the body waiting until the time of presenting arrives. Dad says, a while ago, the wealthy and celebrities went through a phase of 'predicting' what their children would be by having them scanned and making plans, life-plans, for them accordingly. But what they expected and what they got, didn't automatically follow: Our Lady likes to play games!"

"Our Lady?"

"Our Lady Moon: it is said that only She decides who is Alpha and who is omega. And many people here still believe that: it is all by Her will, and only Hers."

"Do you believe that, Sammy?"

This time it was the boy who dropped his gaze. "Yes, I do," he whispered. "And I believe that She will always look after us, as long as we trust Her and follow her Guidance. I bet that sounds crazy to you, huh: that I'm the son of an Attorney yet I have such faith in the spiritual?"

Dean reached to grip the boy's knee and squeeze it in understanding. "I'm not a believer. Not in anything, Sammy: I've seen too many things, horrible things, to do that...but... Well. I've always loved just watching the moon. And the stars. I always have. Just sitting with a beer and watching, and feeling their peace sink through me. So...if I was going to believe in anything, it would probably be in that."

The young man glanced up at him from beneath his long lashes as a feeling of warmth spread inside him: he had half expected Dean to laugh at him. He wasn't sure how he would feel if Dean had laughed at him.

But he hadn't.

"So...omegas? What is an omega?" Dean removed his hand and sat back on the couch, moving slightly away from the boy so he could lean against the armrest.

"Just as the Alphas change when they present, so do the omegas. The females suddenly have...well another entrance opens..."

"You mean a vagina?" Now Dean couldn't help but tease him a little and Samuel blushed nearly as red as he had been the few moments before. Dean butted him lightly on the shoulder with his hand, and the boy responded despite himself, turning his body away where Dean was sitting to instead lean back against the older man, so he would be still able to talk without having to face the smirk that he instinctively knew wasn't going be disappearing for a few moments.

It was automatic for Dean to put his arm around him so they could both sit a little more comfortably. As the boy settled back a little, the man noticed that he was using a new soap that had a natural-spring-fresh, yet also musky and pure scent. Somehow it reminded Dean of his beloved forest in Purgatory and he liked it very much.

"Yeah, the females get a...vagina," his ears were almost scarlet again as he whispered the word. He felt Dean chuckle behind him and hunched his body a little where he sat, unconsciously letting himself slide down against the man's chest. "As do the female betas. Although they don't get the intense heats that omegas do.

Nor do the male betas get the same intense desire to rut that male Alphas do. Nor the knot of course: only Alphas have a knot. In fact, betas hardly notice it when they present: you know Tim? Of course you don't, sorry," as he heard Dean open his mouth to respond. "He's one of my friends: he used to be the quarterback in the school's thirteens-and-under, a real Alpha definite if ever there was one. Then one day he came into class really stunned, I'll never forget it: said he had woken up, went to use the bathroom and discovered that he had grown testicles during the night. And lost most of his scent.

That was it: no fanfare, no feel of a life-changing event. But it was: it was life-changing! He's a beta. Even though he's still two inches taller than me and works out twice a day, he's a beta! And I think female betas are the same: they just wake up...and it's happened without them realising. They don't get the intense passion, nor will they ever get the bond of mating...but at least they can walk around freely without being terrified all the time."

He sighed. Dean tightened his arm around him as he knew the boy was now thinking of his mother and the intimidation that the other Dean had been having to put up with. They sat together in silence for a long moment.

Finally the older man broke it: "So, omegas get vaginas when they present, and...what? Wombs? Uterus's? Uteruseses? Is that even the right word? Ready to have children?"

Samuel considered. "I've never thought about it: I think the womb must already be there somehow. It's just the... manner of getting to it that everyone gets excited about!"

Dean chuckled again at the tone of the young man's voice: "Thinking dirty thoughts there, eh, Sammy?"

"No...! I!" Once more his face turned red. Dean leant up enough to nudge at his back with the top of his chest with amusement.

"At your age, I'd be more worried if you weren't!"

"Anyway!" Samuel tried to recover himself. "Whenomegas present...They get desperate for sex, really wild. And they produce slick, Dean. It's...the scent of it. And the taste apparently. It drives Alphas wild. I supposed that's what's it meant to do, from our animal ancestry: an omega has a heat roughly every twelve months or so that can last anything up to a week. Without suppressants to stop it occurring or birth control during it, they would be bound to be pregnant by the end of it. Gestation period lasts about six months, so the pup or pups would be roughly six months old when the omega hits their next heat. That's how it used to be. And omegas could have huge families: the sixties and the sexual revolution was a real god-send for them!"

He sighed again. "Well, at first, anyway. Now it seems it just opened up new ways to abuse them. There's also medication, meant to be illegal, but it can be used to keep them deliberately in a state of permanent heat, just keeps them drugged up. Heat really is almost a state of madness. Dad says that mom can get really... almost aggressive when he's in heat, he's thrown dad around physically, demanding he...well, let's put it this way: omegas can take, and certainly expect, a lot of sex. Dad says mom's exhausting to be with when he's on heat!

That's why Alphas will pay, really pay, huge sums of money to have sex with them when they are on heat, and knot them, without the risk or responsibility of them being able to get pregnant.

The less omegas in society; the higher the price to sleep with them. The higher the price: the more that omegas are getting snatched and either forced, or just drugged so that they're out of it, to be used as sex workers. It's got to be stopped. Somehow."

He fell silent. Dean sat up straight behind him and leant forward enough to see around to his face. Samuel's eyes were full of emotion: both from the terrible unfairness of this sick society, and from the added worry of having one, if not two, members of his family actually being what everyone else in this world wanted.

And would take without hesitation, given half a chance.

"So... this knot thing? What is it? I know in my world, there's wolves. And the males have something that is called a knot for when they breed: their...em..." it was Dean's turn for his face to again change colour to a slight pink, "well, they get larger inside the female as they mate until it locks into place for a while, literally holding him in there to try and ensure that she can only get pregnant by him."

"Exactly."

The man pushed the boy slightly forward so he could sit up enough to see his face openly. "Exactly? Is that what a knot here means as well? That...during sex, the..."

"An Alpha's, yes. That's what an Alpha is. Both male and female. But yes, their...penis's are different: to betas, and to mine as it is at the moment. Theirs have ridges that expand out during sex, you know, really expand, at least double the original width, and tie them inside the omega for anything from a half hour upwards, depending on the couple. And the stretch of the knot growing inside them forces the omega's cervix to be uncovered: it's the only time it is, when they're being knotted, and only a knot will do that. No beta could ever get an omega pregnant: it's not possible.

Nor could a beta ever take a knot: it would rip them apart internally and do a lot of damage, that's why it doesn't happen. Sometimes, in porn stories," Dean snorted but otherwise remained silent, "Alphas and betas will try, or pretend they do, by using slick sold from the sex trade: another expensive and disgusting commodity stolen from abused omegas, in attempts to simulate the scent and feel of an omega, but the risks of the beta being seriously hurt trying to take a knot inside them would be immense."

They both fell silent. Samuel was trying to cool himself down: he still felt as if his facial cheeks were burning.

And Dean was just trying to digest all of this information."But...? Didn't your dad tell me that Alphas and betas can have babies...erm, pups? How then...?"

The young man considered. "Again, sometimes in porn films..."

"You seem to know a lot about porn films, Sammy! Something I should know?"

"Shut up." He was blushing again. "Sometimes, the Alpha will say 'I'm going to knot you now', as if it's something that can be controlled... so, the act of knotting must not be necessarily inevitable: to some extent it must be a conscious act, and without it being expanded, then I guess they're just...well, equipped like ordinary male betas and produce sperm when they come without it exactly the same. I'm not really sure, Dean: these are all things I'm hoping to find out. I can't wait to find out." He straightened himself up in his seat and turned to finally be able to look directly at the other.

But the man didn't seem to be listening momentarily. "That explains something."

"What?"

"Something your dad said to me a couple of nights ago, it don't matter now. And you!" He now met Samuel's eyes with a genuine grin: "One day you will meet a beautiful omega and mutually find out everything you need to know about the subject. She'll be worth waiting for, I know it."

He leant back once again to rest against the arm of the small couch. Samuel bit his bottom lip and muttered something to himself that sounded suspiciously like he had already found a beautiful one and he was definitely going to be waiting.

"Sorry?"

"Nothing. Has that helped? Does any of it make sense?"

"Yeah. Yeah, it really has: Alpha and omega together equal a knot, Alpha and beta ... equal not!"

Despite himself the boy burst out laughing. "Well, that's one way of putting it! I should have just started with that!"

"That's been brilliant, Sammy, thank you. You always look after me."

The young man beamed with pleasure and looked as if he was going to say something more, but they were interrupted by the door to the living room slamming open and Johnny charging like a miniature, human-sized whirlwind into the room to wave a piece of paper at them both.

"There you are! You said you'd help me with my list for the spelling bee rounds tomorrow!"

Somehow he was squeezing into the non-existent space between Dean and the armrest, forcing the man to move up enough to make room until his leg was pressed fully against Samuel's on his other side.

Dean laughed and took the list off him. "Okay, let's see what you've got: 'insufficient', 'inconceivable', 'anti-establishment'. How old are you again? I can't spell these! And how many are there? We have to learn all these?"

"You said you'd help." The youngest son had perfected the pout as well: Dean suspected they had all been practising it since he had arrived.

"And I will."

"What are you all doing?" Mary-Anne was also now erupting into the room. "I was going to ask if I could have some more of your corn tortillas: they were yummy! But why are you all in here?

She was climbing on Dean's lap as she spoke, forcing him to rescue the list of printed words before she squashed it, and Samuel to hurriedly put his laptop down to the floor before she kicked it off anyway, and for Johnny to groan at her with annoyance. "This is my school work! For the spelling bee! Go away!"

"I can help! Give me a word, Dee!"

"Nuisance!"

"N...U...W..."

"That's wrong!" "That's what you are, little sis!" "Okay, everyone stop wriggling: we're going to break the couch!" "I need to learn these! Dean, make her go away!" "Is she ticklish? Reckon that will make her go?" "Nooooo!"

Sam stood in the doorway and couldn't help but smile at the sight of them all.

And at the noise they were making!

He wanted to talk to Dean but it could wait a few minutes. He had just received a call from his boss: their 'contact' had suggested that Mr Manolli was sending his men to a warehouse that evening to make a trade of some sort. The information didn't say exactly what, but he thought it was important enough that the man himself might be there. Sam's office were in touch with the police to go and stake it out, but they wanted the informant there to give as many details as possible, and he had asked for Sam to be there with him in the form of both legal assistance and moral support.

This might be it. This might be the break in the case that he needed. If he could get enough definitive and irrefutable proof that would get this case to court and win it, then he could finally concentrate on getting his Dean back and helping this one get home.

But even as the sound of laughter in the room, and the little girl's squeals of excitement, filled his ears, he wasn't sure he wanted to do that.

He not only liked this Dean, it was as if he had completed the family somehow. He had immediately been accepted by them all as a definite part of their lives. As much as he loved his Dean, he didn't want to lose this new one.

Sam wanted them both.