RATED T

Énouement:

the bitter sweetness of having arrived in the future, seeing how things turn out, but not being able to tell your past self

John/Original Female Character

~~Set Pre-season and kinda derails the whole show

John landed with a thump and a groan. Coughing a few times he groaned again before getting to his feet. Looking around he noticed nothing had really changed.

"Surprised John?"

John swung around to face the other man reaching for a knife that wasn't there.

"Who are you? What do you want." He growled out preparing for an attack.

"Oh do relax john," the man chuckled. "I'm not here to hurt you. I am here to show you that this self pity show you're putting on is useless."

"I don't have self pity and you never answered who you were."

The man threw his head back and laughed, a deep sound that shook John to his core. "You do John, 'Woe is me, my wife was killed by a demon.' News Flash John! Demons kill a lot of people, but you don't see their loved ones dragging their children all over the country forcing them to hunt the things that go bump in the night. No they move on with their lives, try to be normal again and forget about the monsters."

John growled again. "don't talk about my family like that."

The man held up his hands in mock surrender. "I'm not here to fight John I'm here to show. You are 10 years in the future. Sam is 15, Dean 19 and it is up to you to figure out the rest. Now I brought you here to see what your life could be like if you got your head out of your ass. You do not look like yourself, You do not sound like yourself and if you try to tell anyone you are from the past you will be muted. Understood? Good, you have 24 hours. As the kids say 'Go find yourself' John" With a snap the man was gone.

John looked around clenching his fists a few times. "Time traveling bastard. What am I supposed to do for 24 hours and how am I supposed to find myself?" trudging off down the alley way he emerged onto a main street. Looking around he noticed not much had changed though the fashion had gotten a little better...or worse depending on who he saw.

"OK find myself, lets take it literally, If I wasn't hunting what would I be doing..." John knew the answer instantly and went in search of a car.

He pulled up to a small building claiming to be Winchester auto repair. He had 'borrowed' the car from some kind gentlemen down by the river. They were more then willing to hand it over as he produced some credentials and threatened to arrest them for their business transactions he had seen. A few blocks away he pulled open the hood and disabled enough it would take a while to fix yet was still able to be driven for a short ways.

Getting out of the car he walked into the front to see Dean sitting behind the front desk with his feet up pushing the chair back and browsing a magazine. At the chime he glanced up then sat up correctly.

"How can I help you?"

John felt his throat catch, here was Dean a grown man. Gone was the slowly morphing baby face instead replaced with the strong jawline and stubble of a young man.

"You OK man?" Dean was giving him a strange look.

"Ye.." it came out cracked, John cleared his throat and tried again. "Yeah, sorry. You look like my son, it took me back a second. I need to get my car fixed, I loaned it out to a friend and its been making some awful noises since I got it back. I'm just passing through and needed a quick fix."

Dean nodded and handed him some paperwork to fill out. "Let me have the keys and we can pull her in, you're in luck we are kinda slow today so we can get right to her."

John handed over the keys to the car and sat to fill out the papers. He filled it in with an alias and a phony address from out of state. As he was replacing the clipboard on the counter Dean returned.

"Man that friend of yours needs to stay away from cars, that baby is sounding rough. Well..." Dean glanced at the paperwork. "Mark Mendoza...seriously? Like the bassist from twisted sister?"

John couldn't hide his smile and the feeling of pride in his chest. "Yes, but no relation I swear."

"Awesome." Dean replied with a smile. "Well Mark, my dad's gonna look her over and see whats wrong if you just wanna take a seat over there."

A few minutes later the door chimed and in walked a teenager followed by two younger children. Dean perked up and smiled.

"Hiya kids, how was school?"

The younger ones, a boy about 8 and a girl about 6 chirped out "Good" while the older boy whined "Dean! I'm not a kid."

The boys voice may be deeper but John would recognize that whine anywhere when directed at Dean.

Dean smirked. "You'll always be a kid to me Sammy. Oh! Hey you gotta see this." Dean motioned to John who was sitting in the corner. "This is Mark Mendoza!"

Sam turned and let out an awkward wave. "Hi." he turned back to Dean, "Is he a friend of dad's or something?"

Dean's jaw dropped. "No...Mike Mendoza...like the bassist off twisted sister?...What do they teach you kids at that school?!"

John chuckled and when they turned to him he softly explained. "You remind me of my two boys, they are always arguing over small things like that."

Sam nodded then motioned to the younger kids in front of him "I'm Sam by the way, this is Adam and Mary." the kids waved as their names were said and John felt his heart catch in his throat a bit

He cleared it before letting out a small "Nice to meet you."

The side door opened and John, future John, walked in. "Hey kids! How was school?"

Dean just laughed as Sam rolled his eyes. A lost John just looked between the two before shaking his head. "How about you guys? Anything fun happen today?' he looked past Sam to Adam and Mary.

Adam shook his head but small Mary launched into a tale about how her a boy in her class stole her cookie so her best friend Meg punched him and got sent to the principle. John shook his head again before cutting her off.

"Why don't we wait till mom gets here so she can hear the story too? Get started on your homework while I finish up." Mary just nodded and with a quick "Yes Papa." she went to the opposite corner which looks like it was set up for that reason exactly, Adam followed her while Sam pushed dean over so they could share the main desk.

John, Past John, felt his head spinning. 10 years in the future he was stable enough to own his own mechanic shop, his boys were respectable grown men, he had two other children, and (With a quick once over of future John) He was married to a woman who took great care of him, if the weight he had put on was anything to go by. He was snapped out of his daze by future John approaching him.

"Sorry about that Sir but you know how it is with youngin's running around, gotta corral them before they get too far gone. Come on in the shop and we can talk cars." He held the door open for 'Mike' then followed through with a last glance to Dean with an order to keep an eye on the little ones.

Once they were in the main shop in front of the car past John spoke. "You have quite the family there, I have two boys of my own I don't know how I could handle four kids let alone a girl, I would be lost."

Future John chuckled, "It was just me and my two boys for a long time, we hit the road after their mother died and didn't stop till I met my Emmy, she helped me heal and when Adam decided to make an appearance I made an honest woman out of her. Mary was our surprise, we hadn't even been trying yet she decided our family wasn't complete without her." He looked up to the other man and rubbed his hand along the back of his head laughing uncomfortably "Sorry, I forget sometimes people don't wanna hear our whole life story."

Past john smiled sadly. "It's alright, my wife died when my boys were young as well. I hope I can find happiness like you have."

After no response was forthcoming he glanced up to see past John not moving, looking around he noticed the clock had stopped as well further inspection of the space revealed the man from earlier who had brought him here. The man was smiling a toothy grin "Well done John, I thought it would take you longer yet." He glanced to the frozen clock. "Eight hours, I am very impressed indeed."

"Take me longer to what?" John growled out.

The man just tilted his head. "Take you longer to realize how you were screwing up your family of course. Those boys in there have a future. Dean is going to college to become a mechanic like his old man, little Sammy? He wants to go to Stanford to become a lawyer. Adam wants to become a baseball star, and sweet innocent little Mary wants to become a princess, she is only 6 after all."

John looked at the door separating him from his boys. "I wanted this life for them, I never wanted the life we have now but that thing killed Mary."

The man growled and for a moment the building shook. "And if you don't get them out and into a normal life then they will die as well. Plans have been set in motion John Winchester. Plans made long before you were a piece of stardust."

John's head whipped around to the man. "What plans."

The man shook his head "I have already said to much, that's alright when you return you wont remember anything besides that feeling of needing to get out and settle down. Can't give away all the secrets now can I?" the man lifted his hand

"Wait." the man paused and John looked at him. "Who are you and why are you doing this?"

The man chuckled. "Since you asked nicely. I'm Gabriel...and I'm doing this so I don't have to watch my brothers kill each other." Gabriel snapped.

John woke with a start and looked out the window of the Impala. Checking the back seat he saw Dean curled around Sam under a threadbare blanket shivering. He pulled up the blanket then pulled off his jacket draping it over the boys as well. He had just had a strange dream but couldn't exactly remember what it was about. Shaking his head to remove the last traces of sleep he started the engine. They were close to a town and when the boys woke they would want some breakfast.

Parking at the local diner a few hours later he turned off the engine and ushered the freshly woken boys out. As he was closing the door he noticed a small mechanic shop across the street with a for sale sign, it had obviously seen better days but with a fresh coat of paint and some business John had no doubt it would be booming. Herding the boys inside they picked a booth by the window so Sam could watch the cars. John couldn't stop thinking about that shop across the street and was startled when the waitress set down menus and crayons for the boys in front of them.

"Sorry to scare you sugar. I'll be your waitress for today. Name's Emmaline, but everyone calls me Emmy. What can I get you to drink?"