Title: Coming Home

Summary: Sam and Dean have some catching up to do. But first things first. Coda to "Carry On" 15x20. Series Finale. Hurt/Comfort. Gen. Brotherly Love.

Warning: MAJOR spoiler alert. This is an episode tag to the series finale so please heed the warnings and do not read on from here if you have not seen the episode 15x20 "Carry On" or do not want to get the ending of the show spoiled.

Disclaimer: I don't own the boys or the art.

The Impala's comforting purr is a balm to Sam's soul as he allows his fingers to glide over baby's interior. The scent of motor oil and leather fills him with every shaky inhale he takes, and the sound of her creaking doors and the roar of her engine damn near bring him to tears.

Dean gets in behind the wheel and looks over at Sam with so much warmth in his gaze that it makes Sam shift bashfully in the passenger seat.

He has waited so damn long for this. For his brother's radiant, cocky smile and for the proud, loving look in Dean's eyes. For the way Dean smells and laughs and feels against him, solid and strong and with a beating heart thud-thud-thudding in tune with Sam's very own.

"What now?" Sam asks like it holds any meaning at all to him. Like it matters at all where they go or what they do when all he cares about is that they're back together. Sam closes his eyes, relishes the roaring wind that twirls through his thick brown hair and whistles in his ears as the Impala smoothly glides across the blacktop.

Dean smiles. "Mom and Dad are here. Bobby. Rufus. Ellen and Jo. Miracle."

Sam laughs through the wetness clogging his throat and stinging his eyes. It figures Dean would keep the dog, even in the afterlife.

"We can go meet them if you want."

The idea of meeting friends and family sounds inviting, the image of sitting at a dinner table with their parents or to have one of their legendary movie nights with a couple of cold ones sounds almost too good to be true. Sam thinks about their dad's infamous kitchen sink stew, about their mom's radiant smile, about a night out in the Roadhouse in the company of their Ash, Ellen and Jo.

He thinks about a house that belongs to just Dean and him, filled with past possessions and cherished memories. He thinks of tin soldiers and gun oil and duffel bags. Of photographs and angel blades and worn-out flannel shirts. He thinks of all his favorite books – not just lore and Latin inscriptions – no, real books. Like all his favorite dog-eared paperbacks. And about pie. And Dean's memory foam. And a fridge filled to the brim with all their favorite foods. He thinks about how they've got an eternity of new moments ahead of them and how time isn't even a concept he should be concerned with anymore.

They have all the time in the world. They can do anything they want, go anywhere, see anyone.

There's absolutely no rush.

So Sam throws a glance over his shoulder, at the cooler sitting in the backseat.

He looks at Dean with a soft smile playing his lips and lets out a shaky breath. "God. I missed you."

Dean's smile takes on a sad little pinch.

Sam can't help it. His voice cracks. "I missed you so fucking much."

Sam should be telling Dean about what a fantastic life he had led. About his son, who grew up to be so much like Dean that it sometimes felt as though a part of him had never really left Sam's side. A son who grew up to be a man of letters, carrying on their legacy. But there will be time for that later. Eventually.

Right now, all that matters are the two of them. With Dean sitting right next to him, Sam feels whole again. He feels complete.

"I just want this… us." Sam swallows. "Just you and me. I mean if that's… if that's cool."

Dean hits the gas a little harder. Smiles wider.

The road is a smooth black river in front of them, the sort that the Impala's wheels float so effortlessly along. Their car makes its steady way along, the scenery taking on an almost meditative quality, the golden sun igniting in bright hues of light that peek out from behind luscious tree crowns and branches.

"I was actually kinda hoping you'd say that."

"Yeah?" Sam grins over at his brother, his soulmate. His other half in every way. This man who raised him, who protected him, who taught him so many things about life and love and about himself. And he hasn't smiled this hard in forever.

"Yeah," Dean agrees easily.

Out on the horizon, the sun rises higher, casting trees in their warm, earthy hues and Sam feels something he's never felt before. It's as though someone had poked an invisible hole into his heart and all the tension and responsibility suddenly leeched from it. He feels lighter than he's ever felt before and he tilts his face toward the sun rays that breech the glass.

So this is what comes when the battle is over.

This is what being 'happy' and feels like.

Sam suddenly frowns as a memory takes hold. He clears his throat, raises his chin a bit in an almost cocky way. It's been so long since he's been the teasing little 'bitch' of a younger brother that he's almost giddy about it.

"I told you that version of heaven you saw wasn't my 'real' heaven."

It used to be a sore topic for so long.

Now nothing is sore between them.

Dean snorts, the smile not weakening in the slightest. If anything, the look in his eyes seems to grow even fonder when he glances over at Sam.

"Shut up," he says with absolutely no heat in his voice. "Bitch."

There's only love there. In Dean's tone, in his eyes, in every fiber of his being. So much of it, it feels humbling. And Sam's heart gives a leap in his chest, he feels so elated to finally have this back. He has tears in his eyes and a laugh bubbles free. Laughing and crying at the same damn time. Only Dean ever got him to do that.

"You shut up. Jerk."

It's lame as far as comebacks go. But judging from the way Dean throws back his head with a soft laugh, the message hits home just the same.

This is it.

They're finally free.

Finally home.

The End.

A/N: I don't have words. My heart broke for the boys we've grown to know and love throughout the past 15 years. My heart broke for Dean, who would have deserved to enjoy the freedom and happiness and domesticity he and Sam have fought for their entire lives. I can't say I'm particularly happy with the boys getting separated in this heart-breaking way. Or with the way Sam didn't get to say much in return to Dean's heart-felt and loving confessions. But after some consideration, I do come to the conclusion that the final episode was still a major declaration of love between the brothers. The writers made it very clear that the story of Supernatural was and always will be about the unbreakable bond Sam and Dean share. That's why the focus was solely on them. And that's why it ultimately doesn't matter that Sam has a son now or that Bobby and other family members are also present in heaven. Sam and Dean's happiness resides within being together. Everything else comes and goes. Everything else is just 'extra'. Their heaven is just - them, being reunited. Being together. And at the end of the day, with Sam and Dean traveling through space and time and other dimensions, with them spending small eternities in Purgatory and Hell and god-knows-where-else, does it really matter all that much if they spend spend another 30-40 years separated? What's a few decades compared to the eternity of 'togetherness' that follows? So the way I see it (and the way I can make my peace with it) is to see it as just another realm of reality, where they live together and go on hunts and see their family and friends. Only difference being that instead being alive on earth, they do all of this stuff in heaven now.

I might write a few more tags for the final episode(s) but for now I wanted to drop a quick piece to send our boys off with a teeny-tiny goodbye of my own.

But don't worry. Just because the show is over, does not mean I will stop writing for this fandom.

The show might be over. But the fandom and SPN fam will *carry on* forever.