Dean Winchester glanced at the woman beside him it was different he was so used to having Sam beside him but he had made Sam stay back at the camp with Jack. Dean knew that Sam had wanted to come with him on this last mission run before they headed back to their world but Sam had nearly been killed by vampires and Dean wasn't ready to put him in danger again and he trusted Jack to keep Sam there and safe. It was one of the things that had bonded them their love for Sam.
But if he couldn't have Sam watching his back then he had his mom and he trusted him to have his back.
"Jack was very happy that you entrusted him to look after Sam." Mary had grown close to the young man since being trapped in this world and it had quickly come clear to her that while Jack loved and cared for Dean and Castiel Sam had a deeper place in his heart. When she returned to life she hadn't expected to become a grandmother so fast.
It was no secret that Dean had been the most shaken by nearly losing Sam to the vampires followed very closely by herself and Jack.
"Sam needed to rest and Bobby can use Sam's organization skills to get the survivors at the camp ready to move while we go find this group that was supposed to have arrived already." Dean knew that Bobby was a little worried that they had fun into trouble and that he feared Michael or the angels had found them.
"They must be important to Bobby if he is willing to go searching for them." Dean has been barely able to talk Bobby and yeah that was still odd seeing and working with a live Bobby that wasn't the Bobby that had been like a second father to him and Sam.
"The way Bobby talked about them one he has known since she was a little girl, her parents were some of the first rebellion members and it seemed he took it upon himself to help raise her after her parents fell in battle," Mary explained telling Dean what she had learned from the others around the camp and from the way Bobby clutched a worn photograph she was special to him.
Dean nodded. "That makes sense." He knew that it was quick to form bonds that some people just buried themselves deep into your heart and if Bobby had known her since she was a girl it would explain why he was worried. "Did you get a name or names by chance?"
"Victor Henriksen, Rufus Turner, Jo Harvelle and Bela Talbot."
Dean froze and could only stare at his mother those were four names he never expected to hear again.
"Dean do you know them?" Mary asked glancing at her son who had gone pale.
"Yeah, I do." Dean swallowed hard. "Victor wasn't a friend but he wasn't an enemy at first but by the end, he was someone who understood what Sam and I did. Rufus, he was a hunter a friend or former friend of Bobby and dad. He was a good man." Part of Dean wasn't surprised to hear that they had survived the apocalypse not if they were anything like the versions he knew.
"Jo was the daughter of a fellow hunter who hunted with dad and her mom ran a hunters bar. She was an amazing woman and one that you didn't mess with." There was no missing the fondness in Dean's voice and he wonders if Ellen was alive in this world.
"And the other woman?"
Dean didn't know how to explain Bela they had a rather interesting history. "Bela, she wasn't a friend but I wouldn't call her an enemy. She was more of an ally," If that at best but Dean really didn't know how to classify her.
Dean's jaw clenched it was hard thinking about Bela and Jo without thinking about how the demons and angels had almost succeeded in breaking him and Sam part, it had taken so long to heal the break in their relationship.
Mary wanted to ask more about Bela but from the way, Dean's jaw had clenched she let it lie something told her that no matter how curious she was about them it was not a subject to bring up around Dean or Sam.
"They came into our lives when heaven and hell was trying to break us apart with hell trying to have Sam take the throne as their boy king or accept this role as Lucifer's vessel and heaven was working on me trying to convince me that I would have to destroy my brother to save the world to say yes to being Michael's sword," Dean explained when he saw the question in his mom's eyes.
"Aah." Mary didn't say anything else on the matter while her sons were pretty mum about what had happened to get them involved with angels but luckily Castiel wasn't as tipped lipped.
"Castiel, what has happened to my sons? They won't talk about it and I can see that it left them some deep scars." Mary found herself cornering Castiel one night when she couldn't sleep from the nightmares of Azazel's yellow eyes as he taunted her about how her youngest will one day be hers.
"So much. I can never truly make amends for my role in attempting to break the brothers apart. This world is the one my brothers and sisters wanted it was only Dean and Sam standing up against the forces of heaven and hell that saved our world. They showed me that I was more than just a solider that it was in me to stand up for what I thought was right."
"You admire them."
"I do. Even though I let my prejudices blind me when it came to Sam, I am just grateful that he has forgiven me."
"Are you okay in seeing this world's version of them?" Mary asked pulling herself from her memories.
That was the million dollar question. "I think I will be okay with meeting this world's Bela she wasn't as close to Sam and me." Dean knew that was the truth but he couldn't say the same about Jo.
Jo would always be a what if. Dean knew that she had a crush on him that had blossomed into something more and it had made him wonder if she and Ellen hadn't been killed trying to help them stop Lucifer would it have been her he tried to settle down with instead of Lisa? Would Jo have helped him find a way to save Sam from the cage? Would she have joined him and Sam on their hunting trips?
"And Jo?" Mary asked softly.
"Jo is a different story. But I handled seeing Bobby again and he was like a second father to me and Sam so I think I will be okay seeing her again." 'Or I can fake it pretty damn good.' "After all she is not my Jo."
"That's a darn shame, after all, you are pretty good looking and I bet a stallion in bed."
Dean froze even though it had been years since he last heard that voice but he never forgot it, just like he never forgot the woman who gave her life trying to stop Lucifer from rising. He couldn't move, he couldn't turn around to see the faces of his past.
Mary could see it in her son's eyes and she studied the two men and the two women that had appeared behind them and for a moment she cursed herself for letting her guard down they couldn't have been found by angels. "We were sent by Bobby Singer."
The group clearly didn't believe them as they all tightened their grip on the shotguns in their hands. "How do we know that you are telling the truth?" The shorter of the two women demanded her eyes hard as she studied the two before her.
"Listen I can understand why you wouldn't trust us but if we could just take a moment to talk before anyone does anything rash I think that would be best for all of us." Mary didn't lower her gun but she did her best to look as unthreatening as she could.
"It's not on us if you don't want to believe us. If they want to stay in this hellhole where they are hunted by angels that is their choice," Dean growled out as he turned to face ghosts of his past.
The first thing that Dean noticed was how filthy they all looked. This certainly wasn't the Bela Sam and he had met and worked with for one thing she would have never allowed herself to have a speck of dirt on her let alone be fine covered in it.
They had a hard edge around them one that shone in their eyes they would do anything and everything they had to do to survive.
Dean didn't think it was possible but the two of them looked even more badass they his world's version of them did.
"Listen, you might be cute but that doesn't mean that the two of us should just trust you because you bat those pretty green eyes at us," Bela growled out.
Now Dean had a feeling that something this Bela had in common with her counterpart was that she wasn't afraid to shoot first and ask questions when she wanted to.
"Yeah, and how can we trust you? For all, we know that the four of you aren't angel spies? You were the ones out here all alone?" Dean snarled out. "So either you are going to have to trust us or you can stay here. We don't have time to wait for you to decide if you want to trust us or not."
'It's like oil and fires meeting these two are ready to explode.' Mary wondered just what Bela had done in the other world to make Dean distrust and hate her so much. "Dean that is enough." Mary hissed at her son.
Dean was on edge he knew it coming close to losing Sam and being reunited with ghosts of his past reminding him of all he had lost of all he and Sam had lost he felt he had the right to act like a bastard.
"I'm Mary Winchester, this is my son Dean. We were sent by Bobby to bring you to the safe zone. We are planning on moving you out to a safe place somewhere that Michael and his followers can't get to you."
"Mary Winchester? The woman who came from the other world? The one who came with the Nephilim from a world that has no angels hunting people? Sounds like a fairytale." Rufus scoffed. Whispering had reached all refugee camps about a world where Michael and Lucifer never went to war it seemed like a fantasy something that someone created to give hope to a desolate world.
Jo had been one of those who had found hope in the rumors of a better world than the one they were trapped in. "Guys, I understand why you don't want to trust them but anything is better than this world. I'm tired of running of always being on the lookout for angels. Don't you want to a world where you don't have to do that?"
Bela's finger twitching was the only sign that Jo's words had gotten to her. Victor and Rufus exchanged a look while they didn't fully trust the two people in front of them but anything was better than this world.
"Our world is nowhere perfect, believe me, but it is a lot better than this hellhole. Sure we have demons and monsters to deal with but nothing like this. We aren't hunted and live every day in fear." Dean spoke after getting a look from his mother.
"You have a chance to start fresh or if you want to return here after you have been given some lessons in how to take on the angels make things a little even more... well, not even but we can help you get a bit of better fighting chance." Mary added she knew that some didn't want to leave that they were only going in order to learn a way that they could save their world. She could understand this was their home in the short time she had come to care about those in this world and she wanted to fight for them as well.
Jo turned to look at her group, "What else do we have to lose?"
"Our lives! It might be a shitty world but I like living." Rufus shot back instantly but in the end, he let out a long breath, "But I can see it in your eyes you are determined to go and there is no way that I am letting you go by yourself, you wouldn't last one day without me."
Bela's lips twitched up into a smirk, "Besides I need to see if there are any more pretty boys this one is not tall enough for my taste and too much of a pretty boy."
Dean wasn't sure if he was insulted or complimented or not his eyes narrowed as he studied the woman before him, "You are going to be a pain in my ass aren't you?"
"And not the good kind," Bela promised as she passed him.
Sam Winchester had come to accept that in this world he was going to see a lot of familiar faces, faces that brought back old pains and opened up old wounds so when Dean and their mom came back into the camp with this world's version of Jo and Bela Sam could only stare in shock. Since the moment they arrived in this world, Sam had wondered who else that he and Dean would meet. He wondered about Elieen, Sarah, Madison and most of all about Jess lives that had been unfairly cut short because they knew him.
"I know that look, Sam, you are sad."
Sam could only smile at Jack. "I am a little sad. I was a little taken aback to see more familiar faces from mine and Dean's past and while I know that it is not them I'm still happy to see some version of them. It just opens up old wounds that though they have healed will always be there."
Jack studied one of his adopted father figures and while he loves Dean and Castiel he knows that he is closer to Sam how close they came to losing him made him worry, "There are some that you wish you would meet again just to know that they are alive even if it is in a world such as this one at least they would have a chance to live the life that was cut short. And Sam it isn't your fault." Jack knew Sam well enough to see the guilt in his eyes that he blamed himself for their deaths it weighed heavily on him.
Sam's lips twitched up into a smile. "You sounded just like Dean there," a chuckle escaped Sam as Jack's chest puffed up with pride.
"Well Dean is right you carry too much weight on your shoulders Sam and too much guilt. Not many people have done what you have to save the world. Look around we are in a world where we have seen how much worse the world is off without you and Dean in it." Jack flashed Sam a small smile.
"The kid is right."
Both men jumped neither having heard Dean approaching.
"Are you alright?" Sam asked studying his brother.
Dean could have lied to Sam but no one knew him better than his little brother, "No. It's strange seeing them alive and well here and wondering what if our versions the ones we knew would have been."
Sam wasn't a fool he knew that Jo had a crush on his brother and he figured that Dean might return her feelings and seeing her here alive must be torture for him. "Hey, no matter what happens we are going to be getting through this together. You know I have got your back."
Dean's lips twitched up into what felt like his first real smile since they got there. "Thanks, man. I know you do." Dean clapped Sam on the shoulder pleased to see that Sam looked a lot better after he came so close to losing him again. "Thanks, Jack for looking after Sam; I knew I could trust you to keep him safe."
Jack's eyes shone with happiness and pride. "I'm glad that you could trust me to look at Sam, he is important to the both of us."
Sam felt his face heating up from the attention he was getting from the two most important men in his life.
"Well, now he is a tall drink of water." Bela licked her lips as she took in the handsome man that their guide had made a beeline towards once they reached the camp while she had relaxed a little upon being reunited with other survivors she still kept her gun at her side. She turned her attention to Jo who was still next to her and her eyes shone with mischief, "You can have the pretty boy I want him."
"Bela! You can't just call dibs on someone for all you could know he could be involved with someone." Jo hissed out.
Bela shrugged her shoulders. "You can't blame me for looking they are both on the very handsome side and that tall drink of water looks like he would be a fun right. If he isn't taken you can bet I am going to get me a taste of that." Bela promised.
Letting out a sigh Jo could only shake her head but she couldn't really blame her friend they were both so pretty to look at never before had she felt self-conscious of her looks before but now she wished that she had a chance to wipe away the dirt that she knew was on her face.
"Hey, don't worry about it. You look beautiful." Bela murmured as she bumped her shoulder against Jo's.
Jo wasn't at all surprised that Bela had been able to read her mind after what they had lived through they had managed to get close. "Besides if this world they come from has indoor plumbing then that is a gift. I miss having long hot bubble baths." Bela let out a soft moan at the idea, "And maybe just maybe I can handsome over there massage my back I bet he looks even better naked and wet."
Jo could see Bela undressing the man with her eyes. "Don't you think you should learn his name before jumping him?"
"You are correct let's go introduce ourselves." With a swing in her hips, Bela headed towards the three men.
Rolling her eyes Jo had no choice but to follow her friend just to make sure that her friend behaved herself.
"So Dean are you going to introduce us to this tall drink of water?" Bela asked a flirty smile on her face.
Jo couldn't remember the last time that she had seen her friend like this and it made her happy to see that she hadn't lost that playful side of herself.
Sam felt his cheeks heat up at the smoldering look Bela was giving him as she dragged her eyes up and down his body. It hadn't been a secret between him and Dean that he found their Bela very attractive and this one was just as beautiful as theirs was. It made Sam want to get to know her to see how she was different from the thief they had known but he wasn't surprised that she had survived the apocalypse she was a survivor after all. "I'm Sam Winchester and this is Jack."
"Sam." Bela let the name roll off of her tongue.
Sam never really knew how to talk to women without feeling like he was making himself sound like a fool and he will admit that he was always amazed when a woman paid attention to him with Dean standing next to him.
"Yes, that is his name. May I ask why you are looking at Sam the way that Dean looks at a burger?" Jack asked confusion in his voice.
Dean couldn't deny that the kid had a point Bela was looking at Sam like she wanted to eat him up and Dean couldn't wait to see how Sam handled this his brother was good looking but kind of awkward when talking to girls but they dug the shy thing.
"While this is lovely watching Sammy turn all kinds of different shades of reds we have an exit plan to well plan. So you will have to flirt with Sam a little later." Clapping Sam on the shoulder Dean lead him and Jack away from the two women.
"You trust them?" Rufus asked as he came to stand beside Bobby neither greeted one another.
"They have proven themselves and hell anything is better than this hell."
Rufus could only agree.
It was easier than they thought to get the survivors organized Dean was amazed at how Sam took over into the leadership role he always knew that given the chance Sam would flourish while he still didn't like the idea of having them in the bunker as Sam pointed out it would only be for a little while.
"Hey, I understand man. The bunker is the first place other than the Impala we have had to call home and I'm not comfortable with opening it up to other people as well. It's our home but just for a little while until we can find them another place to set up." No one could read Dean better than Sam and he knew that his big brother was uncomfortable in letting strangers into their home, he felt the same way he had ever since Lucifer took over his former room. Sam had moved out once he was gone something Sam hadn't enjoyed as that was his first real room but he couldn't stay in a place that was touched by the monster that still haunted his nightmares.
Dean wasn't at all surprised that Sam seemed to know what he was thinking. "It just feels odd to see so many familiar faces yet to know that it isn't them."
"I know how you feel. Still, you should go talk to her, she's not our Jo but that doesn't mean that you can't get to know her still." Sam encouraged his brother.
"You should go talk to him."
While Jo had been admiring the bunker that they would call home for a little while she couldn't lie and say her attention had been drawn back to Dean.
"And what about you and Sam?"
Bela grinned, "Oh I plan on climbing him like a tree and finding out if his hair is as soft as it looks." The grin faded as she put her hand on Jo's shoulder, "You deserve to be happy this is a chance don't let it slip through your fingers. I don't plan to." With a wink, Bela was gone off to where Sam stood.
"How are you finding things?"
Jo felt her heart skip a beat as Dean appeared next to her. "Okay, things are just a little different here. Bela seems to be fitting in a little better than me. I guess it is obvious that Bela likes Sam. She also said something about his flawless hair and climbing him like a tree." Jo happily informed Dean.
Dean couldn't help but chuckle. "Sam had a bit of a crush on our world's Bela but we didn't have the greatest relationship with her and things were a little hectic with us trying to stop Lucifer from rising."
"You really stopped him?" Jo asked looking at Dean with hope in her eyes. She had heard it a few times but she still needed to know for sure that this wasn't some kind of dream.
"Yeah we did but it cost us a lot Sam ended up in the cage with Lucifer, Michael, and our half-brother. It cost us friends good friends and someone who could have been more."
"I'm sorry. I can't imagine what that must have been like for you." Jo's gaze drifted over to where Sam was a shy smile on his face as Bela flirted with him. "Losing someone you love but watching as he tosses himself into the cage with the devil riding shotgun I can't even begin to imagine how hard that was."
Following Jo's gaze, Dean's lips twitched up into a smile as he watched Sam blush as Bela placed a hand on his arm. "I already held Sam's dead body in my arms and I thought nothing was worse than that. Holding my brother as he died in my arms begging him to come back to me, then I had to watch as he with the devil still in his body stepped towards the cage and threw himself in." Dean looked at Jo, "Then I knew the true feeling of hopelessness."
"But you got him back." Jo was amazed at the bond between the two brothers and she wondered if she would ever find someone who would love her as much.
"Yeah, I did." And Dean was thankful for that every single day.
"I'm not her."
Startled Dean turned to look back at Jo.
"Your world's Jo." Jo smiled softly at Dean. "The way you look at me like I am a ghost that you are afraid to touch in case I turn out not to be real."
"Yeah, my world's Jo." Dean trailed off in a broken tone. "I know you are not her. The two of you lived very different lives and I would never disrespect either of you."
"How?" Jo will admit that she was curious about her other self.
"She gave her life trying to stop Lucifer from rising." Even though it had been a few years Dean still had a hard time talking about Ellen.
"I lost my parents early on. They were part of the rebellion when it first began they fought along with Bobby. I had wanted to fight with them but my dad told me that they couldn't worry about me out on the battlefield that it was safer for all of us if I stayed at camp. Then one day Michael came. I can still hear the screaming he and his troops showed no mercy I only escaped because of my mom. She was the biggest badass she showed no fear as she took on Michael face to face." Jo explained.
"Sounds like my world's Ellen she refused to leave her Jo behind. We were trying to stop Lucifer but we had hellhounds hunting us. She blew herself up and took some of them with her." Dean explained.
The part of Jo that had hoped when word reached her camp that there were hunters from another world one where Michael and Lucifer were locked up that it was true then maybe her mother was alive their living the life she had been denied here turned to ash.
"So she is gone in both worlds." Jo murmured softly.
"I'm so sorry Jo. She was one of the best and I felt so honored to have met her." Dean wrapped his arms around Jo and pulled her into a tight hug.
Jo let out a shuddering breath before the first sob broke from her followed by another and she found herself clinging to Dean as she broke down mourning the family she lost and the family she never had a chance to meet.
"I met Bela a few days later she was part of the team that came to the camp to see if there were any survivors she found me under the wreckage protecting the few children we had in the camp with my body. We met up with Victor a few weeks later after he saved our lives. We found ourselves at Rufus' cabin where it took some time in convincing him to let us in." Jo finished her story to move past the loss of her mother in both worlds.
"Your Bela is very different from my world's Bela. My brother and I met her a few times and she only helped us out because, in the end, it helped her out. But that sounds like Rufus." Dean grip tightened around Jo's shoulders for a moment. "This is a fresh start for you and I know that your mom would want that for you. Your safety was the most important thing to Ellen.
"I think I can be happy here." Jo knew it was too soon to say with you but from the way, Dean's eyes shone he knew it as well.
"If your brother hurts Jo in any way I will have to kill him."
Sam was pleased when he didn't jump at Bela's whispered words he knew he was flushing from the way she pressed her body against his. "The last thing you have to worry about is Dean hurting Jo."
"Good. Now hot stuff before you ask my parents died early on in the battle between Michael and Lucifer and I didn't mourn them then and I certainly don't mourn them now. I hope they are rotting in hell." Bela informed Sam there was a coldness in her voice and her eyes like ice she had no love for them and she hoped they were suffering in the deepest pits of hell.
Sam felt bad for this Bela that she had been cursed with the same monsters for parents as his world's Bela had. His dad might not have been perfect but he loved him and Dean, he proved that when he sold his soul for Dean.
He wondered what Bela would have been like if she had a parent like Ellen. Would their paths still have crossed?
"Now that is out of the way how about you show me around this bunker of your and make sure I end up with a room close to yours." Bela loved the way Sam blushed and she wondered if he would do that in bed oh well she time to find out.
