A/N: I have a few notes to give in this chapter.

First off, sorry it's taken longer than normal to put up. This chapter didn't exactly go the way I intended it to, but I like the way it turned out. It was harder to finish than I thought it would be.

I got a question asking if this would be a family drama story or a supernatural story. My answer is both, but it will be mostly family drama. That's just my comfort zone, and what I feel I write the best. The ratio will be around 95/5 in favor of family drama. It will deal with the story of Supernatural, but focus on Sam's relationship with his parents.

I was also asked if Dean would appear in this story. Yes. He's in this chapter in a special way. This is an important warning, though-this chapter tells the story of Dean's death from Dean's POV.

Finally, I was asked if this story would extend into the show or if it would be entirely preseries. I am planning on it being entirely preseries, but I won't say exactly where I'm planning to end it.

I know the fight in the fight in the last chapter, the fight between Sam, John, and Mary was kind of rough. Don't worry-I'm not planning to leave things between them that bad. That does not mean that things won't happen later in the story (hint hint), but that's all I'll say right now. As my favorite Doctor Who character likes to say, spoilers.

Dean had wondered when it would happen. When Sammy would hate him for what Mommy and Daddy had done after he died. He hated it, but if he revealed himself to Mommy and Daddy, they'd send him away. That couldn't happen. His family still needed him.

Part of Dean wanted to yell at Sam for being so mean to their parents. He wanted to scream that it wasn't fair that he didn't get to grow up normal either. He was only four years old, and would never get any older. Sam had already gotten to do things that he would never get to do. He'd started school. He'd lost all his baby teeth. He'd gotten to learn to read and write. So many things that Dean would never get to do. But then Dean would think about all the things he had gotten that Sammy didn't, and he'd feel bad for wanting to get mad at Sam. He'd had a mommy and a daddy there for him all the time. Without them, Dean had come to learn, none of the other stuff meant much.

Dean had figured out, almost right away, that he was dead and he was a ghost. It scared him at first, and he didn't know how he'd learned to be a ghost so quickly, but it seemed to come naturally to him. He could lay a hand on his Mommy when she was crying and talk to her without her hearing him. It seemed to comfort her some, but Dean never dared to go any further. It had scared him the first time he'd found his Daddy crying. He was drinking the weird brown stuff that Daddy had always kept locked up before and forbidden Dean to even touch. He sounded strange, but was hugging Dean's teddy bear and was crying

Dean could see that Sam was lonely, and he wished he could help. He still loved Sam as much as he always had, even though Sam was now technically older than he was. Dean spent a lot of time thinking about the night he'd died. When his family was asleep, it was the only thing he really could think about. As he stood in the corner of Sammy's new room, he thought about it again.

1983

Dean always woke up when Sammy started whining, and tonight was no different. As soon as he heard Sammy's little cries through the wall connecting their two rooms, he got up and walked over to Sammy's room.

"'m coming, Sammy."

But when Dean got to the doorway of Sammy's room, there was already someone there. At first, with how sleepy Dean was, it looked like Daddy. Dean was surprised, but happy he could go back to sleep.

"Daddy, you got him?"

Daddy shushed him, which normally annoyed Dean, but he figured that Sammy was going back to sleep. Dean shrugged, then headed off back to his room. Down the hall, he saw something. The light on the hallway wall flickering. Curious, Dean walked over and looked at it for a minute, then shrugged again. It wasn't all that interesting.

But something else caught his attention then. He heard the TV downstairs. Mommy hated it when it was left on all night, like Daddy sometimes did. Trying to keep his Daddy out of trouble with Mommy, Dean walked downstairs to go and turn the TV off. Dean was at the bottom of the stairs when he noticed it.

Daddy was in the chair asleep. Not in Sammy's room.

Dean would later wonder why he hadn't woken his Daddy up to tell him that there was a strange man in Sammy's room. He'd end up wondering about it forever. But instead of waking his Daddy up, Dean ran back up the stairs to Sammy's room. The stranger was still there, hovering over Sammy's bed. Dean gathered his courage and ran in, wrapping his arms around the stranger's legs and trying to pull him off Sammy.

"Leave my brother alone!"

The next thing Dean knew, he was flying through the air straight to the wall behind him. He landed with a hard thud and was climbing, faster and faster, up towards the ceiling. Dean was too scared to say anything, until he was finally on the ceiling looking down directly into Sam's crib. While it was Dean's job to keep Sam safe and keep him from being scared, Dean was too scared himself now to do anything for Sam.

"MOMMY!"

Dean never knew anything else. His stomach hurt a lot, his pajama shirt felt wet underneath him, and he saw his mommy run in to check on Sammy. As his eyes faded to black and he slipped into unconsciousness, Dean's last thought was wondering why it had gotten so hot in the room and why Mommy was screaming his name.

Back in Sammy's room, Dean felt a tear escaping his eyes that he wiped away. He didn't like thinking about the night he died, but he couldn't make it stop. It came whether he wanted it to or not. At first, he'd been able to block it out. But as time went on, it became harder and harder. A lot of times, he understood how Sam felt. Because he knew, from following his parents on other ghost hunts before, that he couldn't make himself known to his parents. They would say goodbye to him and send him away forever. So, if he wanted to stay with them, he had to keep his bad memories to himself.

Dean's attention turned back to Sam when Sam dug the photo back out of his bag and set it on the bed next to him. Dean decided that it was time to do something to help Sam. But what? He decided on a plan, hoping he could pull it off without revealing his location to his parents.

Dean went into the living room, where his Mommy was standing at the kitchen counter, taking some food from a pan onto a plate. It was Sammy's favorite. Dean forgot what it was called, but it was a bunch of different vegetables, some strips of chicken, thrown together into a sauce. Mommy put the pan into the sink, then turned to Daddy.

"I guess we should go talk to Sammy now. I don't want his lunch to get cold."

Dean didn't have much time. He closed his eyes and willed himself to become visible. When he opened them back up, his parents were staring at him in shock.

"Dean?"

Dean smiled. "Hi, Mommy. Hi, Daddy."

"Wha…what the hell is going on?" John asked in shock.

"I think you know." Dean said.

"How? Have you been here the whole time?" Mary asked.

Dean nodded. "Yes. I have. But I won't tell you how. If I do, you'll send me away."

"Dean, we have to…"

"No. You don't." Dean said stubbornly. "I'm not letting you send me away."

Mary approached Dean slowly, still too much in shock to believe what she was seeing. It had to be a dream. John grabbed her shoulder to stop her, still unsure that Dean was actually a ghost and not something else.

"I am a ghost, Daddy." Dean said. "You don't have to be scared. I won't hurt you."

Mary knelt to Dean's eye level, holding out a hand to grab Dean's hand. She stopped just short, afraid to touch him. She was afraid it was a dream, and if she touched Dean, he would fade away.

"It's okay, Mommy."

Mary put a hand to Dean's cheek, still afraid it was too good to be true. Her voice wavered as she asked, "Are you alright?"

"I'm okay."

"Do you remember…" Mary swallowed, not really wanting to know the answer. "Do you remember what happened to you?"

"I remember." Dean said. He remembered something he'd heard her ask once before. "It only hurt for a second, Mommy."

Mary let out a sob but did her best to keep her composure. "You weren't in pain?"

"Not for long. Just for a second." Dean said. "Please don't cry, Mommy. I promise I'm okay."

"Dean, why haven't you told us you were here before?" John asked. He was battling his own raging emotions, putting up a brave face for Mary and Dean's sake.

"Because I knew you'd make me leave if I told you."

"So why tell us right now?"

"'Cause of Sammy." Dean said, and immediately John and Mary's face fell. "He's feeling really bad."

"We know, honey." Mary asked.

"No, you don't. Not everything." Dean insisted.

"What do you mean?"

"He just wants a Mommy and Daddy like I had. I know he was kinda mean to you earlier, but he doesn't know what else to do."

"What else to do?"

"He's lonely. He didn't tell you about this, but he had a girlfriend in Why."

"He did?" Mary asked. "Why wouldn't he tell us that?"

"Because he was scared you'd tell him he couldn't see her. But he thought you were gonna stay, so he was going to tell you about her. But he never got the chance."

"Because we left?"

"Yeah." Dean said. "Sammy needs you guys. I know you want to find the man that killed me, but take care of Sammy first. He needs you more than I do."

"We will, Dean." Mary promised. "I promise we'll take care of your brother."

"Daddy? You too?"

"Yeah, Dean. Me too."

Dean smiled again, and Mary forced herself to smile back at him. She wanted to weep. Dean was missing a tooth. It had fallen out the day before he died, and it would apparently stay that way forever. Losing the tooth was the last time Mary really remembered comforting Dean and being able to be his mother. Mary had saved the tooth after playing tooth fairy that night, and had held on to it from that moment forward.

That's it. That's how he stayed here.

"Are you gonna make me leave now?" Dean asked fearfully.

Mary turned around to John, who despite his efforts was crying. They'd both wanted desperately to be able to say goodbye to Dean properly, but now that the time was here, it was harder than they'd ever imagined. John joined Mary, kneeling down to talk to Dean.

"Dean, you can't stay here. I'm sorry, buddy. It's just not good for you."

"You don't want me to stay?" Dean asked.

"It's not that. We miss you every single day. But you need to move on."

"I don't want to." Dean whined.

"Dean." Mary said, fighting back the river of tears she felt welling up inside her. "Daddy's right. I know you stayed because we needed you. That was so brave of you, Dean, and I do thank you for that. But it's okay to move on, baby."

"What's gonna happen if I do?"

Mary and John looked at each other, and seemed to agree on their answer. They turned back to Dean, both faking smiles they didn't feel.

"You'll go to heaven, honey." Mary said. "We don't know exactly what it's like, but it'll be nice and peaceful."

"You promise?" Dean asked. "I won't be scared? I won't have any bad dreams?"

"You have bad dreams?"

Dean nodded. "I can't stop thinking about what happened that night."

"You mean, in Sammy's room?"

"Yeah."

Mary wanted badly, very badly, to ask Dean what exactly had happened that night. She'd always wondered why he had gotten out of bed that night. She hadn't heard Sam wake up that night. She knew that Dean sometimes got up with Sam, but he wasn't as sneaky about it as he believed. Dean knew not to pick up his little brother without his parents there. Mary would listen on the baby monitor, and if Sam got particularly fussy, she would either get up or get John to get up with them. On that night, she'd heard nothing. But Dean didn't need to recap that night for his parents. He needed to be relieved of the burden of having to relive that memory over and over.

"Dean. Mommy'll be right back, okay?"

Mary left and walked to the room where she and John had two unpacked boxes. One for their clothes and one for their meager possessions. In the bottom of the box was a small jewelry case, which Mary pulled out and dug around in for a moment. She found it, hiding in the bottom of the case. Dean's baby tooth. Knowing it would soon be gone broke her heart, but not as much as the thought of Dean hanging around them, reliving his death, in a misguided effort to help them. When she came back out, John was talking to Dean.

"How'd you stay here so long without us knowing?"

"I wasn't here the whole time. I kinda just appeared one day. I didn't know where I was exactly, but you and Mommy were fighting some kind of monster. I tried to call out but you couldn't see me."

John shuddered at the thought of Dean watching them fight anything. Had he followed them on hunts since then? But he quickly thought the same as Mary. They had to send Dean to where he belonged. Mary walked over to them and showed them the tooth in her hand.

"Dean? I think this is how you've been able to watch us."

"My tooth?"

"Your tooth. Do you remember how you lost it?"

"It was loose and I fell." Dean said.

"That's right." Mary said. She reached up and pushed Dean's slightly too long hair away from his face. "That's what I think about all the time. Because that's the last time I remember being a mommy to you."

"So what do we do now?"

"We have to…" John started, before Mary grabbed his arm.

"Do you trust me, Dean?" Mary asked. Dean nodded, and Mary took his hand. "You're gonna sit in Mommy's lap. I'll sing to you, just like I used to. When you wake up, you'll be in Heaven. How's that sound?"

Dean grinned again, shattering both parents' hearts. "Sounds good, Mommy."

"Okay. Give Daddy a real good hug, okay?"

Dean walked over to John and wrapped both arms around John's neck. John squeezed Dean as tightly as he could to try and lessen the pain that was constricting his heart.

"Daddy loves you, bud. Don't ever, ever forget that, okay? No matter where you are. Promise me."

"I love you too, Daddy. Promise me you won't forget?"

"I won't forget." John said. He didn't want to let Dean go, but he couldn't delay the inevitable anymore. "Go on. Go sit with Mommy, okay?"

"Okay, Daddy." Dean let go of John and ran back over to his mother, who was sitting in the floor waiting for him.

"Come on, sweetie. Come here."

"You promised you'd sing to me, Mommy." Dean said.

"I will. Just close your eyes and I'll sing to you." Mary pulled Dean into her lap and cuddled him to her, rocking him back and forth. "Everything Daddy said goes for me too. I love you, my baby. You know that, right?"

"I know, Mommy. Love you too." Dean said. "Don't forget to let Sammy know you love him too."

"I won't. Go on to sleep." Mary said.

Dean closed his eyes and Mary swallowed hard against the lump in her throat. John took Dean's tooth from Mary and pulled his lighter out of his pocket. He nodded in encouragement at Mary, who seemed to freeze and not want to send Dean away. We have to, he mouthed to her, and Mary finally began.

"Hush little baby, don't say a word, mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird…"

Before finishing the first verse, Dean was gone. Because he wasn't resisting when John lit the tooth with the lighter, it didn't take long for Dean to disappear. He opened his eyes and looked surprised for a second, then was consumed by flames and disappeared. A heavy silence descended into the room, two heartbroken parents hurting deep in their souls after what had just happened.

"Are you okay?" John asked Mary. She seemed to be in shock, her empty arms still in the position they'd been in to hold and rock Dean.

"How the hell am I supposed to answer that?"

"Sorry." John said. "I know. Stupid question."

"He was with us longer dead than alive." Mary said. "Twelve years."

"Did you ever think he might be haunting us?"

"I thought he might be. But I figured it was just wishful thinking, you know? Wanting to see him again." Mary said.

"Me too." John looked towards Sam's room. Sam either hadn't heard them talking to Dean or was simply ignoring them. "What do you want to do?"

"Wait a few minutes then we'll go talk to him."

"You sure?" John asked. "We can hold off on it."

"No. We can't. We made Dean a promise and I intend to keep it." Mary turned to John and said, "We need to talk to him. No fighting. That means even if he snaps at us, we keep our cool."

"I know. I will." John said.

"Come on. Help me set the table for lunch."

Once the table was set, the two of them were ready to talk with Sam. They walked down the short hallway and found Sam lying on his bed, staring at a photo that they couldn't see right away. Mary knocked lightly on the door.

"Sam? Can we talk, honey?"

Sam sniffed and answered, "If you have to, but I think we talked enough."

"Sam, we mean talk. Really talk." John tried. "Can we do that?"

Sam sat up and noticed that both of his parents looked visibly upset. He could tell his mother had been crying, and though he'd never seen it before, he thought his dad might have been crying too.

"Talk about what?"