John looked over at Mary to see her sitting on the couch, reading a book. "What did the boys tell you? When you came back?" he asked. He wanted to know what to expect, after all he missed thirteen years. He was sure there was more to it than Dean going to Hell and Sam reviving the darkness. Hell he still didn't even fully understand the fact that Dean was cursed, that Sam had somehow managed to remove such a powerful curse that could unleash God's own sister from a cage, or how Lucifer was even able to have a kid. Why did the angels pull Dean out of Hell? Despite the fact angels were supposed to be benevolent he doubted they went to Hell just to rescue one man unless they had something they needed from him. Not to mention Mary and the others didn't seem to have the highest opinion of angels.
"Well, after Sam and Dean saw you go to Heaven, they started working with Bobby to hunt down the demons that escaped from the Hell gate. With Azazel dead there was no one to run Hell until Lilith, the first demon stepped up." Mary said. John frowned at that but nodded. He had assumed the throne would go to the second Prince of Hell, but he figured since Lilith was older than all other demons it wasn't too surprising. "According to Dean she saw Sam as a threat since Sam was supposed to be the next leader of Hell by Azazel's plan, so she started targeting the boys, and the boys were trying to find a way to save Dean from his deal." Mary said.
"Which they didn't manage to do." John said bitterly. Mary nodded. At least that explained why the boys didn't get out when they were supposed to. Dean had to save Sam, believing it was his job to protect Sam at the cost of his own life. And Sam wasn't about to let Dean just go to Hell for him after all. John knew he had driven home to Dean through the years that Sam was his responsibility, but the road had gone both ways. Sam looked up to his brother, admired him. Sam wasn't the type of person who would stand by and allow someone to die, especially if they were dying for his sake.
"After Dean went to Hell, Cas and the angels went to pull him out. I guess the angels wanted Dean to be a soldier for them." Mary said. John felt like his brain was short circuiting.
"Wait, so the demons wanted Sam to be their leader in a war and the angels wanted Dean to do the same?" he asked. Mary nodded. John winced. The first analogy that popped into his head was the civil war, of brother against brother. That was too much, too much for his boys.
"I don't really know what all happened, but what Sam said was that the angels and demons were tired of how the world was and God had disappeared so they decided to end it and start the apocalypse. Sam was supposed to fight on the demons side and Dean on the angels. I guess in order to start the apocalypse through they needed to free Lucifer first, and there was sixty six seals to his cage that needed to be broken. Lilith broke them all and Lucifer was freed but he needed a vessel. Sam said yes because they thought he could throw Lucifer in his cage using the Four Horseman's rings." Mary said. John blinked and shook his head.
"Wait, the four horsemen? Like Famine, Pestilence, War, and Death?" he asked. Mary nodded. John rubbed his face, trying to force his brain to process this.
"Dean said it worked in the end and Sam jumped into Lucifer's cage with Lucifer, Michael, and his vessel." she said. John nodded.
"And Dean?" he asked. John knew how Dean felt about Sam. Dean sold his soul for Sam after all, there was no way Dean was just going to stand by and let that happen. And if the angels had plans for Dean but he wasn't on the finale battleground that meant they had other goals for his boy.
"Dean told them to bite him when they told him their plans and refused to do what they wanted. He was there though, and after he had promised Sam he would quit hunting. Sam said he went and lived a quiet life with a woman and a little boy." Mary said. John frowned at that. He had wanted the boys out, but not like that. Sam was in Lucifer's cage? He was in the deepest corner of Hell with the devil himself! An Dean was probably so broken and afraid that he did what Sam and John's last wishes were, for Dean to have a home and a family and get out of hunting. However John knew there had to be more to this story, because they were together now. Sam didn't stay in the cage and Dean didn't get to retire.
"I'm not really sure about what happened because the boys glossed over it pretty well, but I guess almost immediately Sam was pulled out of the cage, but whatever pulled him out had left his soul behind. For a year Sam worked with a few other hunters until some monsters attacked Dean and they had to pull him back in. Then with Lucifer and Michael in the cage and the archangel Gabriel gone, the only archangel left to take over heaven was Raphael, but he wanted to stop the apocalypse. Cas and Sam were working to stop him when they pulled Dean back in." Mary said. John nodded, felling afraid of what this meant.
"So Sam had no soul?" he asked. Mary nodded.
"According to Sam, he was still him, but he wasn't. He had his mind, his memories, but he didn't have his soul, so he didn't have a conscious. When Dean found out about it he had made a deal with Death to get Sam's soul back. By that time Sam had been in Hell for almost eighteen months." Mary said. John suddenly couldn't breathe. Dean's forty years had to have been horrible, his own hundred and twenty years had been almost unbearable, but his youngest son tortured for almost two hundred years by Satan himself? He couldn't even begin to imagine what happened. "John?! John, are you alright?" Mary sounded worried and John realized he had hunched over in his desperate search for oxygen. He never wanted this. Never wanted his boys in a position where they felt they needed to sacrifice themselves for each other. Slowly he nodded, wanting to assure Mary he was still there.
"Yeah, so what happened?" he asked. Mary looked away for a moment.
"Sam told me that Cas was looking for Purgatory in order to take in the souls of the monsters there so he could defeat Raphael. He said it worked, but Cas took in the Leviathans as well and when he put the souls back, the Leviathans didn't leave. He said Cas died and the Leviathan's were set free. Somehow Cas was brought back and he worked with Sam and Dean to kill the Leviathan leader. They succeeded, but Dean and Cas were sent to Purgatory." Mary said. John felt his emotions swing in the other direction. A moment ago he was morning what happened to Sam, but now Dean? His boys were bound to kill him in his afterlife of worry. He briefly wondered how Mary could retell this so calmly, but he figured she had already dealt with it herself. Not only that but it's clear there was a lot the boys had left out, things the boys didn't want their mother to hear.
"How long?" John asked.
"A year. Sam had settled down, had a girlfriend and a dog, but he left them right before Dean came back. I don't think they knew what they were going to do next but they heard about a way to close the gates of Hell. Dean said Sam started doing the trials to close them, but when he realized Sam was going to die doing it he stopped him. At the same time an angel named Metatron who was the scribe of god was trying to close the gates of Heaven. He convinced Cas to help him but instead of closing the gates he expelled all the angels from Heaven." Mary said. John was about to comment when he recalled Ellen mentioned that happening. Why wasn't he even surprised anymore that in an universe reorganizing event, his boys were smack in the center of it? "Dean said that while that was going on they found the bunker for the Men of Letters." Mary said. John tilted his head to the side in thought.
"Why does that name sound familiar?" he asked.
"Because your father was part of it." she said. John gave her a startled look and Mary knew she had to do this carefully. Dean had told him about how much John hated Henry for leaving him and his mom. Yet for whatever reason the journal John had used had originally been meant for his dad.
"What?" John asked. Mary recalled how Dean told her the story. It was one of the few the boys had actually gone in detail about, like they wanted their mom and one day their dad to understand what kind of man Henry was.
"Dean said that they were in their hotel room trying to figure out what to do about the angels when your father Henry jumped out of the closet. From what they said he was part of the Men of Letters, who are like Hunters but more…connected I guess. They see hunters as beneath them, like they are more educated than Hunters and Hunters do their dirty work. The American Branch was wiped out when your father joined, a demon named Abaddon. He escaped the slaughter by going to the future. He was looking for you, but he ran into Sam and Dean." she said. John actually snorted.
"Really, time travel?" he asked. Mary shrugged.
"According to the boys, they've time traveled a few times." she said. John nodded, figuring that they wouldn't' lie about that. He was starting to think he might need to go find the alcohol again, maybe stop by the Roadhouse later for something stronger than a beer. "They said Abaddon followed him and entered their time. I guess she was upset with how Hell was being ran. After Sam killed Lilith, Lucifer took over Hell and after he was put back in the cage a demon named Crowley became the King of Hell. She wanted to take it over." Mary said. John frowned.
"Why does that name sound familiar?" he asked. He couldn't' think of where, but he knew he had heard it.
"Dean said it was mentioned in your journal, that you met a demon who worked for her once. She was one of the Knights of Hell. They were an organization of old and powerful demons, just below the Prince's of Hell. She was hunting down Henry for whatever he brought with him and took Sam hostage. Dean said that Henry was going to go back in time at first, to go back to you and raise you as a Man of Letters, hoping that the future wouldn't turn out like this, but instead he went with Dean. He died saving Sam and Dean from Abaddon." Mary said.
John knew Mary stopped talking to give him time to mull over what she just told him. His father, the man he thought abandoned him and left him and his mom without a care, had actually fled due to circumstances and found himself with his grandsons, John's sons! And when given a choice between going back to be with John or saving Sam and Dean, he chose Sam and Dean. John felt a wave of pride and gratefulness to his father. It was the choice John would have begged him to make had he known. He nodded to Mary, showing her it was alright to keep going. He wanted to hear the rest of this story.
"With a Knight of Hell and an angel trying to be god causing trouble, the boys were running out of options. Dean ended up taking on an ancient and powerful curse because it was the only way he could think of in order to defeat them. It was called the Mark of Cain. The boys didn't tell me much about it, but I do know it…it changed Dean." Mary said. John thought about that a moment. He had heard of that curse before, but he couldn't remember what it was. "Dean was able to use it to kill Abaddon, but he died in a fight with Metatron. The mark, it turned him into a demon." Mary said. Again John felt the air leave his lungs. It really wasn't fair. Not to Dean, not to Sam.
A moment later the implications of what Mary said had hit him. Dean had been turned into a demon! A monster, a creature that they hunt! Dean's soul had been twisted, torn, and shredded into something no one would ever recognize. What could have happened to his boy? How was that even possible? He was still there though, with Sam. How had he learned to live with being a demon? How did they keep the other hunters from coming after him? "Sam said he was a demon for six weeks, but Sam was able to cure him." Mary said. John looked up at her. He had never heard of the possibility of a demon being reverted back to a normal human! He never even considered it!
"How?" he asked, his voice cracking in fear and worry. Mary shook her head.
"Some ritual, I don't really know the details. But just curing Dean wasn't enough. He still had the mark. Dean got desperate. He went to Death, trying to find a way to die, to get rid of the Mark, but I guess getting rid of it would bring out the Darkness. Death was going to take Dean away, and Sam couldn't let that happen. Dean ended up killing Death and Sam was able to remove the mark from Dean." Mary said. John nodded. He understood now, or at least the basics. He had many more questions, but it was obvious Mary didn't have answers to them.
"So that's how the darkness was released. Then she fell for Dean and brought you back." John said, smirking. Mary nodded.
"When me and Dean went to the bunker that they were living in, we found out the British Men of Letters had kidnapped Sam. I guess they were looking to start a partnership with the American Hunters, but Sam wasn't being helpful so they tortured him. Dean found him first, but they kidnapped Dean too and tried to torture him to get Sam to talk. Cas and I were able to save them. After that I just…I don't know. I was so lost and confused John. The world, it's so different than what I knew." Mary said trailing off. John felt a cold feeling creep into them.
"You left them didn't you?" it was a question but he already knew the answer. John knew he couldn't blame Mary at all, not for that. He had lost track of the number of times he sent Dean away, of the number of times he just left Sam and Dean places with no warning. He lost track of the number of times Sam had just up and left him and Dean. Now that he thought about it John realized why Dean of all people couldn't let family go. In Deans' mind everyone was going to abandon him and leave him alone, and it was all their fault!
"I was scared, and I needed space. I started working with the British Men of Letters." Mary admitted. John froze at that. He felt a thread of anger go through him. The organization that she just said tortured Sam, hurt Dean, and she was working with them? "I'm not going to make excuses. The boys were hunting Lucifer at the time. They had freed him from the cage again to help take on Amara and now without God to keep him in check he ran wild causing problems. He possessed the President and created Jack. Sam and Dean saved the President, but they were put in an underground prison for it. We needed help, and the Brits were the only ones who could do it. John…they were gone for over two months. I didn't know what else to do, I was worried…" John felt the anger vanish. Of course she would do it out of desperation. He had no idea what he would have done in that situation, but he suspected it would be along those lines. "We found the boys, but they were there for two months and made a deal with a reaper in order to get out." Mary said. John nodded.
"Mary, I'm sure…I'm sure the boys understood." John said softly. After all that was one of the worst parts, that the boys actually did understand, and while Sam would have a few words to day about it, Dean had always accepted it.
"Dean and Sam were trying to track down Kelly and I was still working with the Brits. I uh…I was brainwashed John. I guess they just got tired of dealing with the stubborn American Hunters and decided to just start killing them all. I trapped Sam and Dean in the bunker, left them to die a slow death." Mary's voice was shaking. He knew that would forever be one of her greatest regrets, and he knew that from experience. If he closed his eyes and thought about it, he could still see himself, in his body seeing through his own eyes as Azazel tortured Dean, hearing Dean's screams and pleas and feeling like he couldn't escape.
"But you didn't kill them." John said, and while it wasn't very helpful, it was one of the things that kept him going. He didn't kill Dean, he stopped Azazel, and Dean of course forgave him as if it never happened. In a way though, that was worse.
"Dean found a way to get out, but he got seriously injured during it. I was ordered to kill a woman, Jody Mills. She's a friend of Sam and Dean's…looks after them like a mother would. She's good too, knocked me out and tied me up to hand me over to our boys. Dean was hurt so he stayed in the bunker with me and tried to reach me, but Sam led a group of hunters and drove the Brits out." Mary said. John felt a swell of pride. He could imagine how hard of a decision it would have been for Dean to stand by and watch as Sam and the others left for an assault that Dean couldn't watch Sam's back for, but he didn't take himself out of the fight either. He focused on Mary, on reaching her. And Sam, being a leader, it was an amazing image to John. He honestly hadn't really considered that before, seeing how every time he gave orders he saw Sam look to Dean first, as if asking Dean for his input. To hear he was striking out more on his own made John so proud. He could imagine it though, Sam standing in front of a group, showing them his wisdom and experience.
"Those are your boys." John said, grinning. He pulled Mary to his chest and kissed the top of her head. She couldn't let this haunt her.
"We caught up to Kelly who was hiding with Cas' help. Cas had decided that instead of killing the Nephilim we would protect him. The night Jack was born, he accidentally opened a portal to the other dimension. Lucifer came to get him, but we couldn't hand him over. The boys tricked Lucifer into going into the portal, Cas and Crowley were killed trying to keep him sealed in the portal but he tried to slip out. I…I took him back in and me and Lucifer were trapped in the other dimension." Mary said. John nodded. Had he been in that situation, he would have done the same thing, no questions asked.
"Cas died? Again?" John asked, wondering how he was brought back, again. Mary nodded.
"Sam said Dean took the loses hard. He took a shot at Jack when he was born." Mary said. John frowned, but he figured that wasn't too surprising. Most people had thought Sam was the emotional on and Dean had his emotions under control fairly well. John knew better. Both of his boys were extremely emotional, but in different ways. Sam could get attached to anything after a short period of time, but Dean only made a few major connections yet those ran deep. John had caught Dean more than once hiding somewhere, crying and clinging to old family photos. He never mentioned it to Dean, knowing his oldest didn't want him to know. Sam would talk about it, Dean would bottle it away. "I guess they found Jack and they decided it would be best to keep him with them. Sam and Dean started to raise him and Cas was brought back. Then Jack decided to try and get me. He and the boys had tried to come the Apocalypse world, but only Jack made it. Me and Jack started helping the survivors fight off the angels until Sam and Dean showed up with Lucifer and Gabriel. They managed to get us all back to our world, but Gabriel was killed and Sam made Lucifer stay behind. Lucifer and Michael managed to cross over anyway." Mary said. John tilted his head to the side.
"Wouldn't they fight than? Michael is the one who is supposed to defeat Lucifer." he said. Mary scowled.
"It turns out Michael was just as bad as Lucifer, if not worse. Michael came to the bunker and tried to kill Sam, Dean, and Cas but Jack came to save them. When he did Lucifer came with him. When it was clear Jack would side with Cas, Sam, and Dean; Lucifer took Jack's grace. He then took Jack and Sam and was going to kill him. Dean decided to let Michael possess him since his vessel was destroyed in order to kill Lucifer and save Sam and Jack. When Lucifer was dead though, Michael took Dean's body and disappeared." Mary said. John groaned as he hugged her tighter. "Dean said it was like he was being tortured, that for the three weeks that Michael had him it was like he was drowning in his own body. We went looking for him but when we found him Michael just…he just left." Mary said. John was confused.
"What do you mean he just left?" he asked. That didn't make any sense.
"He left Dean's body. He said it was because Dean kept fighting him. Sam had started to lead all the survivors during that time and John, you'll be so proud of him. Sam had become a real leader." Mary said. John felt like he was proud of both of his boys. "The boys tried to find out what Michael was doing. I guess he was building a monster army and was planning on destroying the world with it. And then Jack…without his grace his body just started to shut down. He died." Mary said. John frowned but nodded to show he was still listening. "Dean called me to tell me. Cas went to heaven and the boys found a way to bring him back. Then they got a lead on Michael and went to kill him. He took Dean's body over again without Dean's permission and Sam and Cas had to go inside Dean's mind to help him. Dean locked Michael in his own head." Mary said.
"Can he do that?" John asked in awe. He had never considered that before, locking away something in your own mind. The amount of willpower it took to fight back control from a demon was extraordinary, but to fight back against an archangel, let alone to lock it away in your own mind was something John couldn't even imagine.
"For some time he could. He tried to create a box though, a Malak box, to lock himself and Michael away for all eternity at the bottom of the ocean." Mary said. John looked down at her again. "He came to see me you know, when he was planning it. Built the box after he sent me to go get groceries. Guess he was doing some kind of farewell tour. Sam said it wasn't the first time he's done it. Sam was able to talk him out of it, to give them time." Mary said.
"Good." John said, the word out of his mouth before he could even consider it. Dean couldn't' just check out, not like that. Sam still needed him.
"They tried a few ways to get rid of Michael. One of them was a peril that was supposed to grant your hearts greatest desire." Mary said. John leaned back to get a good look at Mary's face, trying to see if she was being sarcastic.
"Oh?" he asked. She nodded. "Let me guess, some girl, maybe Daisy Duke or some other woman Dean was crushing after? Maybe a bacon cheeseburger?" John joked with a laugh. After all he knew how much Dean loved food. Mary shifted a little, making sure she could see his face.
"No, it was you." she said. John gave her a confused look.
"What?" he asked. Mary grinned.
"It was you. Dean's greatest heart's desire was having his whole family together, to have you, me, and Sam. Back when things were simple. Back before all the angels and demons, back when the most dangerous thing he had to worry about was a wayward wendigo." she said. John was stunned, yet he knew he shouldn't be. He knew how Dean was. "But if you stayed, it would have changed the whole future, so you decided to go back. Sam said you wouldn't remember what happened." she said. John had to admit she was right. He had no idea what she was talking about. However he found if he concentrated hard enough he could recall a faint dream, a dream of sitting at a dining room table having a family meal with his wife and grown sons.
"Bet that didn't go over well." he mused. Mary shook her head before leaning on his side, resting her head on his shoulder.
"A few weeks after that the boys got injured by a gorgon. It banged Dean's head around pretty good, and when Dean wasn't conscious anymore Michael escaped. He killed a lot of the hunters that were following Sam, and Jack…Jack using his soul as power to kill Michael and take his grace." Mary said. John felt sick. He couldn't even begin to imagine how all of them would have felt for something like that to happen. "When they brought Jack back they knew he needed magic to stay alive, so they used a magic that would use Jack's soul. Jack wasn't supposed to use it, just enough to stay alive, but he did in order to save the boys. And the results…well the results are this." she said. John nodded.
"Those boys. They've been through so much." John realized. He knew there was holes, many things that they didn't know about. He figured they'd find out about it eventually. Someone else would tell them or he would make Sam and Dean tell them when the boys one day actually die for good. For now he just wanted to hold Mary, to assure her this wasn't her fault. "It's all going to be alright." he heard himself whisper to her.