Chapter Fifty-Seven
Instead of going to his apartment, Dean went back to his mom's house. He hadn't seen her in over twenty years, so of course he wasn't going to go back to his apartment.
Dean thought about what he'd learned at the university. There hadn't been much that had been said that he hadn't already known, but he had learned that jinns did indeed have the power to change reality. The jinn he had come into contact with would have had the power to bring his mom back, change his life to how it would have been had she never been killed.
By the time Dean got back to his mom's house it was lunch time. She was in the middle of fixing a BLT and asked if he wanted one. He did, as he hadn't eaten all day. Even if he had, even if he wasn't hungry, he wouldn't have turned the sandwich down. His mom was going to cook for him.
"This is the best sandwich ever!" he said after the first bite.
His mom placed a glass of Coke in front of him before settling down to eat her own sandwich.
"I tried to get a hold of Sam earlier. Where is he?"
"He'll be here soon."
"Good. I'm dyin' to see him."
"Sweetie, don't get me wrong. I am thrilled you are hangin' out here all of a sudden, but shouldn't you be at work?"
Dean swallowed another bite and his mom took a sip of coffee.
"Work?"
"At the garage?"
"Right. The garage. That's where I work. Yeah, no, I – I've got the day off."
Dean knew that before all the supernatural stuff happened to his family his dad had worked in a garage. Dean had obviously followed in his footsteps in this world.
After lunch, Dean mowed the lawn for his mom and then not long after that Sam showed up . . . with Jessica, who was very much alive and well.
It turned out Sam had still gone to law school in this world and had still met Jessica, obviously, and no demon had interfered with their lives.
It also turned out that it was their mom's birthday that day. Sam accused Dean of forgetting, but Dean really hadn't known, so how could he have forgotten?
Sam and Jessica were staying at the house as well, so Sam took their stuff inside while Dean took his time to process that Sam's life had turned out great – how Sam had wanted it to – since the supernatural element had been taken out of it.
Sure, he looked like a preppy douche, but at least he seemed happy.
Dean saw the girl from the university again that night at the restaurant they all went to to celebrate his mom's birthday. She disappeared without a trace then too.
The evening had started out simply enough. He had gone back to his apartment to get changed into something more appropriate for a fancy restaurant and then had driven back to his mom's place so they could all go to the restaurant together.
Dinner passed by peacefully – though he would have preferred a cheeseburger and beer over whatever vegetable plate he'd just had and a glass of champaign – and at the end of it, Sam surprised their mom by saying he'd proposed to Jessica and then showing them the ring, which was already on her finger.
Hugs and congratulations were in order. Dean couldn't help but be glad that Sam was happy. The only thing that was missing – that he was missing – was Alyson. He could reconcile her absence by knowing that she was probably living her own version of a good life. A happy life.
That was when University Girl showed up. Her dress was no longer white but gray and dirty. To be fair, her whole body was dirty now, and her hair had become a greasy and tangled mess.
When he spotted her, he immediately started towards her, but a waiter passed by in front of him and when the way was clear once more, the girl was no longer there.
Things were quiet on the ride home, but once they got there Sam asked what had happened back at the restaurant. They had all looked at him with concern when he'd taken off after that girl.
"I thought I saw someone, I'm sure it's nothing."
Jessica and their mom were chatting in the background, but Mary eventually bid them goodnight. Sam and Jessica soon followed suit.
"It's not even nine o'clock yet," Dean said. "Let's go grab a drink or somethin'."
He knew Sam must be used to going to sleep earlier here because of school and all that, but nine o'clock?
Sam hesitated, though. It appeared he was allergic to fun no matter what world he was in.
"Come on. You're engaged." Dean nudged him in the arm. "Let's go celebrate."
Dean didn't understand the look of confusion – almost pure bewilderment – Sam gave him.
Sam turned to Jessica. "Can you excuse us? I just wanna talk to my brother for a sec."
"Sure. I'll meet you upstairs."
Jessica left and Sam led Dean further into the living room.
"Okay. What's gotten into you?"
"What do'you mean?"
"I mean, this whole warm, fuzzy, ecstasy-trip thing."
"I'm just happy for ya, Sammy."
Dean clapped him on the shoulder familiarly, but Sam stepped back from him.
"That's another thing. Since when do you call me Sammy? I mean, we don't talk outside of holidays."
What? How was that even possible?
"Well, we should. I mean, you're my brother."
"You know, that's what you said when you snaked my ATM card, or when you bailed on my graduation, or when you hooked up with Rachel Nave."
"Who?"
"Uh, my prom date – on prom night."
Okay maybe he would have done that one, but not the other two. He never would have stolen from his brother and he definitely wouldn't have missed his graduation ceremony. Not when he knew how important it would have been to Sam.
"Well, I'm sorry about all that," Dean said, trying to move closer, but Sam moved back again.
"No, it's all right. I'm not – I'm not asking you to change. I guess we just don't really have anything in common. Ya know?"
Sam went around him, started going towards the stairs to head up for the night, but Dean caught his arm, turning him back around.
"What about hunting?"
"Hunting? I've never been hunting in my life, Dean."
"Then we should go some time. I think you'd be great at it."
Sam still looked confused, but he also looked concerned. To him, Dean was probably just spouting out nonsense.
"Get some rest," Sam said.
"Yeah. Uh . . . tell mom I'll be back tomorrow."
"Sure."
On the way back to his apartment, Dean thought about all the things that were different in this world.
His mom was alive, which was great, something he'd always wanted. His dad was still dead, but he hadn't been killed by a demon, had never made the deal to save Dean, and was hopefully not in hell at this point.
Alyson wasn't there, but Jessica was alive, so that meant no demon activity had interfered with their lives at all.
But he and Sam didn't get along. They didn't spend time together outside of special occasions. Why? And had he really turned into some douchebag drunk? Sure, he drank in the other world, but not enough for everyone to accuse him of being drunk all the time.
Either way, he could fix things with Sam. He could make it up to him. He probably needed to fix things with his mom too. She'd seemed surprised that he had stuck around so long for the past day.
Dean had grown up without his mom, but he hadn't in this world. He'd learned to take it for granted that he had one. Because both of his parents had been alive, he hadn't had to shoulder the responsibility of raising Sam. That was probably why they'd never grown close.
It was like Sam had said. They didn't have anything on common. Not here.
Well, that would have to change. If he was going to stay in this world, he needed to fix his relationship with his family.
It wasn't until he was settling down for the night that he found an even bigger problem.
He was flipping through the channels and just happened to pass by a news station covering a memorial service for a plane crash that had happened a little over a year ago. He and Sam had stopped that crash. The pilot had been possessed, but they had exorcised him. Everything had been fine. No one had been hurt. Now the news was saying that 108 people had been killed in that crash.
He and Sam hadn't been there to stop it.
Dean was no longer settled in for the night. Seeing that news clip made him wonder about other hunts he had been on, other people he and Sam had saved.
He knew he couldn't check on all of them, because not all of them would have been reported. There were, however, a few that would have made the news.
Dean searched the place for a laptop, found one charging in the bedroom, took it to set up at the kitchen table, and began searching the internet. He found multiple articles about people he hadn't been able to save in this world.
The shtriga in Wisconsin had killed nine children. They had just languished in comas because he and Sam hadn't been there to get rid of the thing.
It was as he was researching that he saw the girl again. This time she was talking through his apartment, towards his bedroom. He wasted no time going after her, but when he got to his room she was nowhere in sight. He even checked the closet, but she wasn't there.
Something else was, however. He knew it wasn't real, they weren't really there, but he saw them. Two mummified corpses strung there, hands above their heads.
He heard a faint whimper behind him and quickly jerked around. There she was. She was even more messed up now. She was bleeding from her neck and she had a wound on her head.
She flickered out of existence – like a ghost – before he could do anything.
After Dean got over the shock of the mummified corpse hallucination and the ghost girl – if she was a ghost – he went back to researching every hunt he could think of that would have gotten some kind of media attention. In all cases, the people they had saved were no longer alive.
So that shot his 'there is no supernatural element' theory right out the window. There obviously was a supernatural element if these victims were anything to go by. And he hadn't been there to save them. Not any of them.
He'd even gone back further into the past to hunts he remembered going on with his dad . . . Same thing. The ones they had saved were all dead.
He'd saved Alyson for last because he honestly didn't want to know if she was dead, but he also had to know. She had been one of the ones they had saved.
At first, he couldn't find anything at all about her or her family, as if they didn't exist at all in this world, but then he found them.
"Mother and Daughter Tragically Die in House Fire"
The demon had gotten to them after all.
Of course it had. Sam had never dreamed about her and so they had never gone to check her out.
Dean almost slammed the laptop shut before pacing back and forth in the kitchen, thinking things through.
It was only his family that hadn't been affected by the supernatural. Maybe it had to do with his wish. He didn't know. He wondered if there were hunters at all in this world.
All he knew was that he wasn't a hunter and many people had suffered because of it. Alyson had suffered because of it.
It all came down to whether or not he was okay with that. He could stay there in his new world where his mom was alive and where Sam was engaged to the woman he loved. But that would mean he'd have to reconcile all the lives it had cost for that to happen.
The only other option was to go back to that abandoned factory and hopefully find that jinn so it could send him back to the world where he and Sam got along and where Alyson wasn't dead.