A/N: Supernatural... I don't know how to do this. I mean, how would anyone? After four years of being my best friend, after 327 episodes with love, and laughter, and bravery, and choice, and a good story, I just don't know how I can do this. You taught me that I could write, that I could share my voice with the world. You taught me that I wasn't alone, and that even when I felt like it, Sam and Dean were always right there, fighting their own fight beside mine. You gave us family, and love. You gave us Castiel, and Jack. You helped me through one of the toughest parts of my life. I got through the other side because of you - through that dark, that hopelessness. Because I wasn't alone. Even in the middle of the night when I couldn't cry out for help against the thoughts in my mind, you were with me. I know, it sounds stupid. I guess it all does. But that's what you are to me, man. You're what got me through. You're what taught me about myself. So... how do I say what I want to? Maybe... Maybe I'll never be able to. But this, this story, this note - it's the best I can do right now. Supernatural, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I loved going for the drive.
"Took you long enough," Dean commented.
"Hmm?" Sam didn't bother taking his eyes off the mountains or the river, knowing that his brother was beside him, knowing that he always would be beside him.
"Getting to Heaven."
"What, did you count?" Sam teased.
"Time, Sammy — it doesn't pass any differently up here," Dean said. "What? Welcoming committee didn't tell you that?"
Sam took his eyes from the view. Dean, he was looking at Dean. He was here with his older brother. There was a teasing light in those eyes, and a youth that Sam had never seen before. Now he would always see it.
You are my welcoming committee, dumbass.
He smiled while Dean tried to keep a straight face.
"You're a jerk, Dean. You know that?"
Sam Winchester laughed, and he meant it from within every part of his very being. Dean laughed.
"So how are we together?" Sam asked. "Been trying to figure it out—"
"Cas re-made all this. Guess we're standing in the middle of his passion project," Dean answered.
Sam swiveled. "Wait, is he here?"
Dean pat Sam on the shoulder, and Sam knew that this was home, that this was where family was.
"He will be."
"And you're good?" Sam asked.
Dean gave him a confused look. "What do you mean?"
"With how he went, what you didn't say…"
"This is Heaven, Sam. Castiel's Heaven. What he didn't know before, he does now. He knows…"
"That we love him."
"That we love him," Dean finished. His gaze wandered out back towards the river. "That I love him."
Birds chirped, and water rushed by underneath. Wind sang through the trees, and plucked its way through the grass.
"You know, Dean, I… I had a son," Sam informed him. "Named him after you."
"Let me guess — ladies man?"
Sam instantly responded, falling into the old routine of being with his brother, "Nah, he — get this — likes chick flicks."
"You really do know how to raise 'em right," Dean complimented, the humor falling away. Finally, he turned to him. "Were you happy?"
Sam thought of all the time he'd spent alone, lost. But he'd lived a life. He'd gotten out of hunting. He'd had a family. He was…
Sam couldn't stop the smile that broke out on his face. "Yeah."
Dean tossed something into the air, and there was a shine of metal before the keys to the Impala landed in Sam's hands.
"She missed you. Take her for a spin."
Sam glanced at the Impala where it waited for them on the other side of the bridge. "Where to?" he asked.
Walking over was like walking home for the very last time. When Sam opened his door, it creaked, the sound so beautiful he nearly cried.
"Wherever you want. And Sammy?"
"Yeah?"
"It's your turn to pick the music."
The Winchesters got into the Impala, and Sam drove them through peace and happiness. In that peace and happiness, they found their family, those they'd lost, those who they had thought they'd never see again, and when the road ended, Castiel and Jack were waiting for them. Castiel kissed Dean, he hugged Sam. Jack held them all. Sam tried to say thank you, but Jack just gave him a reverential nod, while Castiel entwined his fingers with Dean's, and started to pull him inside.
Sam stood outside the bunker, something that didn't need to be a fortress of safety for him here. It just needed to be one thing, and it already was. Yet, Sam couldn't walk in. Not yet.
Honestly, he'd thought that tears didn't exist in Heaven. But he did cry, just a single one…
And then he was ready.
Sam breathed in the love and laughter of his home as he took those final steps in.
Heaven. You made it.
That voice was Sam's, and it was everyone who'd ever loved him, or had rooted for him, or been there for him.
And he responded, thinking of every evil he had put away, knowing that he'd won, up against good, evil, God… all of it: I did.