AN: This is my fix it for that scene in S15E20 - to me, the way Dean died was not right, not the when. Not the how. So... I just had to do it.
~ SPN ~
Dean watched Sam chop off the head of another vampire before setting his focus back on the vampire giant that was eyeing him like a juicy piece of meat. Their eyes locked, determined and Dean knew that he'd have to use all his power to wrestle that one down.
They rushed each other, arms stretched out. Dean braced himself for the impact, but it still managed to steal some of his breath. The vampire was big, strong, vampire strong, pushing him back with an ease that scared Dean. He hated the feeling when he was being manhandled and could do nothing to stop it.
And then it did. It just stopped.
The vampire stopped.
He stopped.
Sam stopped.
Dean looked up from where he had been trying to fend off the onslaught, backpedaling against his will. The vampire still snarled at him under the mask. But he was frozen. Sam was frozen. And Dean? He could blink his eyes, move his head and torso, but his arms and feet were like glued to the spot. What was going on?
"I know I said I wouldn't be hands on, Dean, but I didn't help with defeating Chuck, letting you two take a beating and healing you, so it would end now. Not like that."
Dean's head turned abruptly, as he looked at the speaker, the familiar voice he hadn't expected to hear again.
"Jack? What... is this? What do you mean? Why can't I move?"
"This is me intervening one last time, Dean," Jack said with a smile. "There are just too many people who will still need you, still depend on you. And Sam? He just wouldn't be the same without you."
"Without me? What are you talking about?" Dean was confused.
"Look over your shoulder," Jack told him, indicating the beam Dean had been about to be shoved into.
What he saw made him blanch in horror. Literally an inch from his back there was a massive piece of rebar attached to the beam. If Jack hadn't done whatever it was he did, he would have been impaled by this rebar and from the position it was in, Dean knew that it would have been fatal. His heart began pounding even harder in his chest.
"You see, it wouldn't have killed you right away. Sam would have had to watch you die, Dean. Do you remember how you felt when you had to watch Sam die?"
"How do you know that?" Dean asked breathlessly. He knew he couldn't move, but the knowledge of this lethal rebar right at his back made him instinctively try to dodge it.
"I absorbed Chucks power. I know everything he did. And he... you know what he did."
Dean nodded, still struggling.
"Why are you showing me this, now? Like this?"
"I needed you to see the danger, Dean. There are no more angels to reanimate you, no demons to make deals with. There is still heaven, but the dynamics have changed. To the better. You don't belong in heaven, yet, Dean. I need you to be even more watchful than before, because I will be... hands off."
Dean nodded in understanding. Jack had told them he will be everywhere but he won't interfere. And yet, this time, he did. An image lit up in Dean's mind, Sam, all gray and sad looking, pulling some tarp from Baby, sitting behind the wheel, hands trembling before he closed his eyes and gripped it tight. Dean gasped.
"Stay alert."
With that, Jack stretched out his hand and held it over the rebar, which dispersed into nothing, so that only the wooden beam was left. Then he looked at Dean and smiled.
"Good bye, Dean."
Jack faded into light and Dean's back connected hard with the wood behind him. The vampire roared and he tried to get his hands free, and even though Dean felt slightly winded and would definitely have a massive bruise on his back, he was determined to make sure that Jack's efforts hadn't been in vain.
With a mighty effort and a grunt he succeeded in pushing the vamp enough to bring the distance between them that he needed so Sam could swing the machete. The vampire's head hit the ground with a thud and Dean's eyes sought out Sam's.
They were alert and relieved when he found that all the vampires had been killed. A certain satisfaction appeared on Sam's face, the face Dean knew would be majorly distressed if Jack hadn't stopped the inevitable. Dean remembered Sam's face when the hellhounds had mauled him, when Metatron had stabbed him, and Dean knew he never wanted to see that pain on Sam's face again. Ever.
He swallowed and forced himself to relax his shoulders, glancing at the decapitated torsos and the rolling, masked heads. Then he took a deep breath. There was no way he could tell Sam what had just almost happened.
"You good?" Sam asked.
"Yeah," Dean replied. Suddenly he couldn't get out of this barn fast enough. "C'mon, let's get those kids back where they belong."
"Yeah," Sam agreed and smiled. Together they made their way to their car. Something about the way the kids were standing next to Baby reminded Dean of their own childhood and just like that, he was glad that he hadn't gone out this night.
Not like this.