"Dean? Anyone home? Please, let me in! Dean?"

This pleading was accompanied by a frantic knocking on the back door. "Dean? Please! Please be in!"

Dean swore to himself: he had been on the old laptop that he had 'borrowed' from the family and set up so he could see exactly what was happening with Sam's case without his brother knowing what he was up to.

But that was Annie's voice. What the hell was she doing there? He and Sam had agreed that it was probably better that he didn't talk to Annie in case he gave himself away, but... they obviously hadn't let her in on their decision. Against his better judgement he hurried to hide the laptop in the small cupboard beneath the stairs and went to the back to let her in.

He was all but knocked to one side at her haste to get inside the kitchen once he opened the door: "Dean!" And she was flinging her arms around him in a massive hug, trapping his upper limbs into his chest. "Dean!" Her voice got even shriller. "Oh, thank Our Lady, are you alright? I'm glad Sam's started to accompany you and the children to school every morning instead of you walking with us as usual, but I've been so worried!"

"About what, Annie?" He was trying to pull her off him, but was surprised at how tenacious the female omega could be once she had a good hold. "What have you been worried about?"

Dean finally succeeded in un-wrapping her arms from around his upper body and limbs, and pulled her to sit on one of the kitchen chairs: he himself taking another the opposite side of the table so he could hold her hands without the risk of being accosted again. But then she was tightening her grip on both of his.

"About you! About what Sam might have done after you openly defied him last week! Even Sara was worried when she saw the images of it being circulated on social media, and then, when you've been coming to school but haven't been allowed to talk to anyone... has Sam been hurting you? He never lets go of your hand at all now, not for a moment... oh Dean, I've missed talking to you so much."

The smile of relief on her face was genuine, as were the tears in her eyes. Dean squeezed her hands in return, trying to emphasize that he was alright without incriminating himself by making a stupid mistake when talking to the other Dean's best friend.

"I'm fine, Annie. Really! Sam's just worried about these strangers hanging around that your Sara told him about. He wanted me to stop coming to the school completely, but... I've got to be there for my pups, Annie. Otherwise... what use am I? What use to anyone?"

"Oh Dean." And the tears were coming now.

He sighed and stood to move around the table, reaching down to hold her tightly this time and letting the omega cry into his chest. When her sobs finally turned into snivels, he was ready with the box of tissues from the side. "Coffee?"

"Please." As she took one to blow her nose and used the backs of her hands to wipe her face on. "I'm sorry. I was just so worried. And about your lack of scent that day as well, had you been ill? But at least that seems to be returning: this kitchen smells wonderful."

"I've spent the morning baking."

"Oh Dean, that's not what I meant and you know it." Annie was taking a deep breath in as she spoke and noticeably relaxing. Then she smiled and took the mug Dean was offering her, inhaling once more but this time in appreciation of the freshly ground aroma, while he settled himself once more in the chair opposite with his own.

"It's great to see you, Annie. I was surprised to see you at the back door, though. How did you get into the garden, I thought the gate was locked?"

She stared at him: "Dean? We made that little entrance in the corner years ago when you moved in. So we could use that tiny back lane that runs between the gardens to get to your house this end from mine around the corner on the other side, and Jenny's at the end, and Lynne's. So all us omegas could see each other without having to risk any Alpha seeing us in the street without our children. How did you think I got in?"

"Sorry, I just wasn't thinking. Come on, let's take our drinks to the living room: it's more comfortable in there."

He hoped he had managed to change the subject as they moved through to sit on the soft couches. As Annie went to put her mug down on the sideboard beside her chair, she knocked something off the surface that went to the rug with a crash.

"Oh, I'm sorry!"

Dean was already there: "I'm always doing that, don't worry. I'll move it to the back."

He couldn't help but look at it as he put it back: in fact, it had been one of the first things he had noticed when he entered the house. Once he had got over the shock that his counterpart of this world was mated to his own brother and had given birth to three children, that is. But this framed photo had definitely caught his eye almost immediately.

It was of him and his dad. Well, of the Dean from this world standing with their dad of this world. And they were both smiling and relaxed, and laughing into the camera. Dean smiled to himself even as he carefully put the picture back: his dad looked tired but happy, not stressed and driven by fear and revenge like the version that Dean remembered.

And he looked happy.

Sam had noticed him staring at it the day after he had arrived and told him that it been taken on a rare day off for their hard-working father that he had decided to use to go fishing. And of course, Dean had gone with him, because by that time he had gone with their dad everywhere because of John's worry about leaving him unguarded. And Sam had been invited to join them, but he had thought fishing just a stupid waste of time and told his dad that, so John and Dean had gone on their own.

"And I spent the day doing nothing, bored out of my mind and lonely, and wishing that I had just said 'yes', and when they returned that evening, I could hear their laughter above the noise of the Impala, and you...my Dean...had caught a bigger fish than dad had, and they were joking about it, and it was so good to see them just so... Well, I grabbed my camera and took the photo, and then I got so jealous that I hadn't gone that I refused to eat any of the fish, and then dad and I had a huge row which upset Dean and ruined the day. And only three months or so after, I presented and... well... I've told you what happened.

By the Moon," Sam had sighed. "I must have been so obnoxious, Dean. Dad never touched my Dean, I don't know how, because he must have been so tempted to, and I was always so horrible to him all the time. Telling him how Dean should be allowed to have a life, and arguing all the time about...nothing, Dean! I would pick a fight over things that the previous day I had wanted! And when he died in that crash... it was too late. I should have said sorry. I should have told him I was sorry. And I know he used to sneak to Uncle Bobby's to see Dean and Samuel: I'm glad he got to meet Samuel. And I'm glad he never hated Dean for what I did.

Anyway, after he died, I found this photo again and put it in the frame for my Dean. I see him look at it all the time..."

Dean had already taken a picture of the photo with his cell phone: it might not have been of him and his dad, but it was close enough. And Samuel had promised to get him a small copy taken off of it and put in a light frame, with the hopes that he could take it home when he finally figured out how. Although he had to admit that he liked the frame that this one was in: it was made from genuine cold-grey granite and was incredibly heavy. And very much prone to being knocked off the sideboard.

He and Annie sat and drank their coffees, and had some of the chocolate fudge cake that he had baked that morning, and discussed their children and their lives and the school and the world in general. And how omegas were treated.

Which was when Annie sat up straight and cleared her throat.

"This is why I've been wanting to talk to you, Dean. Because you're the only one that I can talk to! I've found someone who can put me in touch with the F. A. O!" She sounded triumphant. "I'm going to check it out, but if I can, then I'm taking Lauren and we're going, Dean."

"Annie, wait..."

"Oh, don't you try and stop me, Dean. I know you're happy with Sam...well, usually...but Sara is so... I can't bear the way she talks about me anymore...and Lauren. Even if she's only a beta, she's still Sara's daughter!"

"Annie, please be careful. I asked Sam about them, and he thinks they're omega sex traffickers: you could be running literally into danger..."

"You talked to Sam about me, Dean? How could you...?" She was getting to her feet, extremely upset. "I trusted you! You're my best...well, my only close friend! How could you?"

"No, I didn't mention you to Sam!" Dean was also on his feet. "And I only casually mentioned them to Sam anyway! I pretended to be just your typical naive, stupid omega, and I got the full lecture about not going anywhere near them, but actually...I'm worried he's right, Annie. Please don't do anything to put yourself or that little girl in danger. Sara may be a total bitch, but she does love you...in her way. And Lauren!"

"I'm only going to ring a number and find out, Dean!" She was mollified, but not fully. "I'm not a complete idiot!"

"Then let me do it."

"What?"

"Let me call and check it out. Make sure it's what you hope it is. Please, Annie. If you're really thinking about doing this, then let me call this whoever and find out first."

He was holding his hand out for the number. And she was pursing her lips, but then reaching into her small purse and slipping out a piece of paper with a phone number written on it. "Are you sure?" as she handed it to Dean.

"Just let me check it out: make sure it's safe. Please, Annie." And he was carefully putting it away. "What's a couple more weeks? Just to make sure?"

"Well, okay." She still sounded reluctant, but at least he had taken the number from her. Then she was moving to leave: "Oh. I nearly forgot. Sara wants to be the first in the block to have a barbeque this year. Probably in the next couple of weeks, depending on the weather. So just be ready for the invite: you know what she's like! She'll take other people having previous arrangements as a personal affront!"

"I'll let Sam know. We'll try and be there: Mary-Anne will love seeing Lauren anyway, I'm sorry we haven't been able to have her around much lately. And just leave the F.A.O. to me, please Annie."

"If you haven't done it by the barbecue, then I'm calling, Dean! I already put the number in my cell!" And before he could stop her, she was off and running across the garden to the deliberately loosened fence panel in the corner and slipping through the seemingly solid barrier.

Dean swore to himself: he would have to do some serious investigating into whoever these people were, there was no way his friend and her daughter were getting hurt. Not on his watch.

With a sigh he returned inside to retrieve the laptop from beneath the stairs. Sam had finally brought home the file containing the evening that he had spent with the 'informant', and Dean was desperate to study the details. His brother had returned that night disappointed that nothing had happened as he had hoped, but that was about as much as he would tell Dean.

And it had been driving the human crazy.

So now, he sat and read through the files, making notes as he went. Sam had been correct in that it had been a bust as far as they were concerned: there had been no sign of Manolli at the warehouse, although the police had managed to seize a good quantity of drugs and taken a couple of genuinely unpleasant characters off the street. But there was nothing to connect them to the man that Sam was so desperate to catch. And there would be no way that the arrested men would be admitting that there was: they weren't that stupid as to cross the powerful crime figurehead, they would rather wait it out in jail.

He sighed and began to look instead for information on the Freedom for All Omegas. As his brother had said, it was all rumours and hopeful speculation: stories of omegas finding their own version of Shangri-La and living in peace and harmony with respectful and understanding Alphas and betas. It was such a wonderful place that not a single one of the numerous omegas that went missing every year to supposedly find it, had ever bothered to return to help their anxious friends or relatives also find such tranquillity.

It was as if they had simply vanished into thin air.

Dean tried to find the phone number that Annie had given him on all the numerous web search sites, but came up with nothing. The only thing he could do was... call it. Unless he could think of something else in the meantime.

With a sigh, he hid his work and the old laptop away in the cupboard once more. It would only be an hour before Sam would be returning with the children anyway: his brother had decided that every morning he and Dean would accompany the two youngest on foot to school before returning the short distance back to the house to make sure Dean went, and stayed, safely inside and for Sam to pick up his car, then later he would bring some of his documents back with him to continue working at home in the evening after he had picked all the children up again on his own in the afternoon.

Dean got the reasoning behind it, but he still itched to get out of the house: he had never felt so trapped in his entire life as he did in this suburbia.

At least he had time for his coffee: during this last week...was it longer than a week now?... it had become a little routine for him, although if he had the choice he would have still preferred a shot of good whisky! But, anyway, he had got into the habit of taking out a freshly made mugful of coffee to sit at the patio table in the small, quiet, tidy garden and just... enjoy the calm before the children arrived home.

He was doing just this when he heard the front door slam from inside the house, followed by an anxious call of "Dean? Dean?" Despite himself, he sighed: that was Sam's voice! So much for his peaceful half an hour.

"Out here!" He was up on his feet and approaching the French doors when the other appeared at them, looking slightly worried.

"I wondered where you were. For a moment, when I couldn't scent you in the house immediately..." Sam caught at his words and tried to put his show of worry over his brother away. And failed miserably. "Should you be sitting out here on your own? Do you do it often? I mean..."

He fell completely silent as Dean glared at him. "I came out to sit and drink my coffee. You've forbidden me from leaving the house, you going to stop me from being in the fucking garden now!"

"Language! And no: I didn't mean that... I just... you said you thought they were watching the back of the house as well?!"

"Don't look to your two o'clock... I said, don't look... but there's always someone there, past the houses opposite and into the trees on the slope, watching this way. You can see the light occasionally hit his binoculars."

"Where?"

"I said, don't look! Jesus, this is only first grade stuff. Christ, way to go, tipping them off that we know they're there!"

"I still think we should call the police."

"And do what? Report a bird-watcher? And I thought you were meant to have brains." He glanced ruefully at his brother who had drawn himself up enough in his stance from his anger at their privacy being invaded, to cause Dean to be reminded irresistibly of a strutting cockerel. "Anyway, you're early...I wasn't expecting you until school was out."

"I thought you might like to come with me and pick the kids up for a change. I've...erm...I've got to go back to work later."

"Oh?" Dean stopped where he had returned to his chair and waited, sighing as Sam self-consciously and extremely obviously moved to make sure his face was turned away from anyone watching the garden as he spoke.

"Yes. The man...he's given us information that there's going to be a... well, something's going to go down with one of Manolli's... erm...'rivals'. They're going to be put 'out of business', apparently. He's pretty sure that the man himself will be there this time. But he wants me with him as his adviser again, so I came home early."

Dean shook his head in amusement at his brother's awkwardness: "Okay. Do you want a coffee? The pot's freshly made." He made as if to cross to the house.

"I'll get one." And Sam was returning through the open doors instead, returning almost immediately with a full mug of his own. And a grin on his face that immediately put Dean on his guard: what could be going through his brother's mind that would cause that smirk?

"So, we are being watched here?"

"Most definitely."

Sam moved past him where he sat, placing his mug carefully down on the small table. Dean sat up a little, still wary: what was his brother up to?

"Well, we better put on a show, then."

What...?" But Sam was stepping over to him, removing his half-empty mug from his grasp and also placing it safely on the table. And then to Dean's shock and immediate intense discomfort, he was being pulled suddenly out of his chair to be swept up bridal style in Sam's strong arms. He grabbed around his brother's neck to try and stop himself from falling as he felt very insecure, and more than ridiculous: "What the f...?"

But his words were smothered as Sam's mouth covered his even as he turned to settle himself on the previously occupied seat, holding Dean forcibly down on his lap as he sat. "I said, let's put on a show."

He could feel his brother tense angrily and try to pull away but Sam didn't care. His right hand moved to 'lovingly' caress the back of Dean's head, physically holding him there even as he tried to move his head back, while he started to work his left hand beneath the hem and then up under his brother's borrowed sweatshirt, trying to get beneath the collared shirt as well, desperate to feel the warmth of bare skin against his fingers.

But Dean wasn't going to make it easy and was trying desperately to break his hold around him without making it obvious to their observers what he was doing. "Sham, get awff!" The other could barely make his words out as they were hissed into his mouth, but he got the gist. And he didn't care: oh, Our Lady, how he had missed this! He had tried, he had really tried to keep his hands off Dean, but... even through the residue of coffee he just tasted so wonderful.

"We're being watched, Dean! Don't show me up! We're supposed to be a loving mated couple!" And he was pushing through with his tongue to hopefully wrestle with his brother's, while at the same time giving up on fighting Dean's hands and get his shirt loose, and moved to simply cup his groin instead.

He couldn't help but chuckle at the loud grunted exclamation that was the response. But he was ready when Dean immediately moved his hand to try and push him off, only to find his fingers caught in Sam's hand instead and being used to rub his own groin himself through his trousers. "Nargh! Yew fowkin' k..."

Sam chose his moment to pull his mouth away briefly, resting their foreheads together in a loving looking gesture that belied the strength of the grip of his hand still around the back of Dean's head and neck. "We're being watched, Dean. Better make this look real, or it could give you away. Just kiss me back. I can't be that repulsive!" And his mouth was closing on his brother's again.

He felt the sigh rather than heard it, felt Dean try to force himself to relax, felt him begin to kiss back even though his body remained stiff and rigidly determined not to be any closer to Sam's in any area that he didn't have to be.

And he was very good at kissing.

Soon Sam wanted so much to taste more than just Dean's mouth.

He knew it was wrong. And unfair. But he so wanted to.

This time he let Dean break the embrace. The older man sat back a little, uncomfortably aware of how hard Sam seemed to be in his pants beneath the weight of his ass as he sat in his brother's lap, and a quick glance at Sam's face informed Dean that he wasn't over-exaggerating the intensity of the situation. The younger man's eyes were filled with such dark lust that Dean could see his own reflection clearly in each of them.

He licked his lips nervously. "We should get going to the school. Wouldn't hurt to be early."

Sam's eyes focused on him, still so dark as to be almost demonic. "We've got lots of time!" And to Dean's horror, he was suddenly getting up off the chair, still with Dean in his arms and carrying him into the house.

Even as his brother kicked the French door closed behind them, Dean was trying once more to escape the tight grip around his back and legs: "Sam! Wait a minute! We don't need to act anymore in here!"

But his entreatments were ignored as Sam continued through the living room to the hall, and headed up the stairs as if the weight of the man were no effort at all to him. "Sam! Hold on! Just...let me down. Please."

But he wasn't put down until they got into the main bedroom. And even as Dean readied himself to run the moment his brother released his grip on him, he found himself all but thrown onto the mattress with a whompf that knocked the air momentarily out of him, and then the chance had gone as Sam was climbing over him to straddle his chest, catching at his hands and holding them, and him, down.

"Sam! Wait! Please!"

But Sam was already loosening his pants, opening his flies and releasing his cock. It sprang out to immediate attention, focusing Dean's eyes on it with more than disbelief.

His brother was huge!

And there was a... strange raised ridged ring around it... almost like an elastic band had been slipped around it just beneath the surface of the skin, two or three inches up from where the Alpha's cock met the rest of his body. But then Dean's attention was returning to his more pressing situation: literally, as Sam's free hand was reaching behind him where he was sitting astride Dean's chest to try and loosen Dean's pants and pull them out of the way.

"Sam! Wait! No, no, no, please!"

"I want you so much! I'll control it! I will! I'll try to! But it's been more than a week! And, oh how I miss my Dean so much! Just relax, Dean. Just let me..." And he was tearing at Dean's buttons in his desperation to get to the warmth beneath.

"Wait! Wait! Just let me...just let me use my mouth then! Okay! Don't do this, but I'll give you a blowjob instead, okay? Just don't rape me!"

Sam paused and stared at him: the lust still full in his eyes, but now his expression slightly unsure. "You'd do that?"

"Yeah. Yeah! If it means I don't have to... Look, just let me up." He lay and stared up at Sam, willing him to get off his chest and let him catch his breath.

Still Sam hesitated: "You won't try and run?"

"No. But you've got to let me up. I can't do it like this: I'd choke if you pushed that thing into my mouth like this!"

"Okay."And to his relief Sam was moving off him, still with both Dean's hands caught tightly in just one of his younger brother's immense ones, but allowing him to take some much needed air as he quickly twisted to sit up. They sat and stared at each other momentarily on the bed.

"Okay." Dean tried to calm his pounding heart. "Just...lie back. Just..."

He couldn't believe what he was doing. Or rather...he couldn't believe who he was about to do it with.

But...it wasn't as if he had never messed around sexually before. Dean had had his moments with men, when both his dad and his Sam were well out of the way...and although he had quickly realised that that wasn't the way his taste ran, it hadn't been too bad either. So... a blow job seemed the most sensible solution to the situation.

Having made the decision, he just had to get on with it: so he did. Even as Sam lay down on his back and stretched himself out fully out on the mattress, Dean was leaning forward to run his hand up and down the shaft, making the other moan and thrust his hips upwards impulsively. He hadn't been lying about his desperation: Dean could see that this wasn't going to take long. Quickly he leant forward and engulfed the head of his brother's cock with his mouth.

It had a strange taste: booky somehow, if there was even such a word as booky; and clean, in the freshly starched linen way of being clean; and musky, a musk that he associated somehow with Sam. Both of them! But it wasn't unpleasant: he could do this.

He began to move his head up and down, feeling his brother come just about completely undone with the sensation. And he knew he himself was smirking a little at being able to have such an effect.

Then Dean was pulling away in a panic as he felt...something that he had definitely never felt before. Sam's cock had started to... widen in his mouth. He stared at it incredulously even as Sam groaned, sat up on his elbows, and put his own large hand to himself, gripping tightly around the base.

"Is that...your knot?" It reminded Dean of when a children's performer blew up one of those strange long balloons to make shapes with, and there was that moment when the gas being trapped inside made one part of the sausage shape twice the width of the rest before it all expanded. Only this was his brother's cock that Dean had only just managed to get his hand around before the top half of it, from the strange ridge to the head, had started to expand! "How big does it go?"

"Just let me..." And Sam concentrated, trying to get his knot to subside again. "I'm not sure, roughly twice the normal width? And I would never expect you to take it in your mouth like that, Dean. Or even for my Dean to! Just let me..." His head tipped backwards with the effort of controlling himself, but slowly the strange bulge that was creating the effect of a mushroom that Dean had seen out in the wild...what was it...a shaggy mane something?...pretty apt for his brother, he thought wildly and felt like giggling hysterically at the absurdity of the situation he had yet again found himself in... subsided until it just looked like a normal erect penis again.

"Finish me." Sam gasped. "Please, Dean!" He was pleading now: his earlier aggression completely gone.

So Dean did. It only took another couple of deep thrusts into his mouth, feeling his brother hit the back of his throat and trying not to gag, and then Sam was crying out uncontrollably as he felt the release of over a week's worth of sexual tension leave his body.

"Oh, My Lady, Oh, My... Oh, that was wonderful, thank you!" And he was pulling Dean down to lie next to him on the bed, wrapping his arms tightly around the other and moving to kiss him with every bit as much tenderness as he had earlier done with force.

They lay in silence for a while. Sam broke it first. "I'm sorry. I should have far more control around you than I do. You just don't know what your scent does to me, Dean."

"Just this 'knothead' thing that I keep reading about, huh?"

"No. No!" And Sam was raising himself up on one elbow to stare at him. "Well..."he conceded, "perhaps just then, yes. But knotting isn't about the actual knotting: not to me, anyway!"

Dean's eyebrows raised. Sam sighed as he tried to figure out how to explain what he meant.

"Yes, some Alphas are derided as 'knotheads', and they give the rest of us a bad name, but to most...well, to me...it's not about the actual act of knotting, although that is incredible, but it's about...now. The aftermath. When Dean and I are joined as one, and I get to hold him tightly in my arms, and kiss him, and just watch him settle to sleep, because he knows he's safe and protected, and... loved. And desired. And wanted, always."

He was moving to kiss Dean again as in emphasis of his words, rolling slightly on top of his brother to feel as much of his fully clothed warmth and solidity along as many inches of his own long body as he could.

"No mere beta could ever understand that: they have sex, and then it's gone; it's over; it's done. For an Alpha-omega pairing, it's... or it should be, at least... everything."

He was smiling down at Dean now, leaning on his elbows on the bed, his body still over his brother's. Dean stared back up at him, his green eyes catching the light like the most perfect emeralds, and his lips... Sam just had to kiss them once more before he forced himself to move away from this...human that was the identical of the man that he loved so much with every single atom of his being.

He lay down on his face beside Dean on the bed, knowing that the other would move away from him as soon as he could. And indeed Dean was getting off the mattress immediately.

"I'm, er... going to brush my teeth, and then we'll get going to the school? It'll be nice to be able to pick them up."

"Okay." Sam's voice was momentarily muffled against the covers. "Was that a chocolate cake I saw downstairs?"

"Yeah, I've been baking again. Gives me something to do. Annie came round and had some. I wasn't expecting her!" he added hastily as Sam immediately stiffened where he lay and twisted in somewhat of a panic on the mattress to face him. "And I don't think I said anything out of turn! She came round to invite us to Sara's barbeque either next week or the one after."

He was silenced by Sam's genuine groan of miserable regret and disgust. "Oh, no! Not a party at Sara's! What did you say? Do we have to go?"

Dean stared at him: "Hey, don't look at me, baby brother! She's your friend!"

Sam's rueful expression changed into a definite surprised but sulky pout. "That's exactly what my Dean says to me whenever the subject of Sara comes up! Exactly!

Do you think if we went back to that factory, we could fix it so I'm taken this time? At least until after this bloody barbeque's over with, anyway!"