Dean woke up slowly, the sun had already risen some time ago, but stayed in his bed, not wanting to get up and face the day just yet.

Slowly, bit by bit, things started to return to him. Everything that had happened yesterday replayed in his head and he groaned, turning to bring his blanket over his head in an attempt to block it from his mind.

Demons and monsters and hunting, both his brother and his mother were hunters, and everything else in between. He didn't want to think about any of that and just curled up on the bed a bit more.

But he also didn't have that luxury and he hated it. With a low growl he threw the blanket back, took a deep breath, and forced himself to at the very least sit up in his bed, rubbing at his eyes.

He looked around his childhood room, taking in the bits of pieces that he had left behind. Old posters were peeling off of the walls and he could see a few other odds and ends stuck around the room.

Everything was also clean of dust and everything else so that meant that his parents would come in here to clean up at the very least. Even in Sam's room, the bit that he could remember that wasn't his brother was clean, and it warmed a part of him that their parents still took care of everything they'd left behind.

He thought back to his brother for a moment, feeling his stomach twist in what he was sure wasn't hunger. A part of him believed that if he was going to leave his room he'd find out that Sam left in the middle of the night, just like last time, but this time for certain he'd never see his little brother again.

There was no point in denying the inevitable so he got up and went to the bathroom to quickly wash up and take care of business, lingering for as long as he felt comfortable before he left, going into the hallway.

He stopped in front of Sam's room, the door was half closed but not the whole way. Before he could psych himself out too much he reached for the door, pushing it open just enough to peer in.

He felt his legs weaken and almost collapsed in relief when he saw his brother still asleep on the bed, curled up into a ball, one hand under the pillow. Dean watched him for a few more moments, taking his fill in, before he pulled away going downstairs.

He had to lean against the banister for a moment, a relief he couldn't name or believe coursed through him. A part of him, a real part of him thought that either Sam would disappear or he was never here and he was just having a mental break as he lay dying on the warehouse that he had been kidnapped.

Swallowing hard Dean came down the rest of the way, going into the kitchen for some desperately needed coffee. He stopped in the doorway in surprise when he saw his mom already there, sitting at the table with a cup of coffee.

"Dean, hey." Mary said, looking up when he came in, blinking in surprise. She was wearing Johns bathrobe and she came up from the kitchen to hug him. "Morning, didn't expect you to be awake for a while."

Dean hugged her back tightly, lingering for a moment. "Couldn't sleep anymore." he said, glancing at the clock on the stove and grimacing, it was barely nine in the morning. At least it was the weekend and he didn't have to go to work today.

"Me either." Mary said softly, petting at his hair which was softer and out of place, he didn't put any gel into it yet. "Sams still asleep though, I checked in on him."

"Me too." Dean said, hugging her for one more moment before he let go, walking around her to get to the coffee machine. "Is dad still asleep?"

"He went to the supermarket." Mary told him, surprising him. "He didn't sleep that much last night so he went shopping to stock up." She shrugged. "I told him it wasn't necessary but he wanted to."

Dean nodded and drank from his cup, savoring the burn from the coffee. He rubbed at the back of his neck and leaned against the counter, just sipping.

"You want some breakfast?" Mary asked him, going to the refrigerator and peering into it. "Don't think we can do anything special right now but we have eggs and bacon."

Dean rubbed at his stomach for a moment, feeling the coffee settle a bit uncomfortably. "I'm good, thanks."

Mary nodded and then went back to the table, sitting down and just drinking her own drink, staring at the tabletop.

"You were a hunter." Dean suddenly said, bringing her out of her trance to look up at him. "Right?"

Mary nodded, looking a bit worn down at that. "I used to be." she said softly. "And I used to be a good one. But I hated it."

"What's it like?" Dean couldn't help but ask. "Just...hunting things? Monsters in the dark?"

Mary gave a small, it could almost be called bitter, smile. "Pretty much." she agreed. "Monsters that you had no idea existed, monsters that seem straight out of a book, monsters that have no right to exist. I've hunted a lot of them."

"Why?"

Mary shrugged. "It's how I was raised. A rattle in one hand, a sawed off shotgun in the other." she said, turning the cup around in a circle in her hands. "My parents, their parents, and their parents going back generation upon generation. I was kinda the first one to try to stop it." she glanced up towards where Sam's room was. "To no avail I guess. "

"But what was the point?" Dean couldn't help but press. "Why? Isn't it dangerous?"

"The most dangerous thing that exists." Mary told him. "You're constantly on guard, you're always looking over your shoulder, gun at the ready and silver right there. Hunters don't have a long life expectancy and what we did wasn't legal because no one really knew about it. And that was the point, no one knew about it other than hunters."

Mary sipped her coffee and stared down into the depths. "The reason? Because no one else would, no one else knew what was out there and it fell to the hunters to protect people that didn't know."

"All supernatural beings targeted humans in one way or another, some used them, some ate them, some possessed them." Mary continued. "And hunters were the only ones that knew about it, knew the signs, and could come in to help them."

"Hunting kills you eventually though." Mary said, shaking her head. "Either you couldn't move fast enough or another supernatural being comes for revenge of some kind. A hunter can kill a werewolf and twenty years later that werewolves child is all grown up and hunts them down to avenge their parents."

"Werewolves are real?" Dean couldn't help but ask, already feeling silly for asking such a thing.

Mary did laugh at that. "Yes, werewolves are real." she told him. "So are vampires, witches, and a lot of other things you've never even heard of."

Dean had so many more questions but stopped when he heard footsteps upstairs, taking a deep breath.

"Sounds like Sams awake." Mary said with another smile, getting up to pour another cup of coffee. "Once your dad gets home we can talk for real."

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