Dean Winchester, when he could bear to think about it at all, thought he'd probably fallen in love with Piper Finley shortly after he'd pulled her from beneath the table he'd found her under.
He, simply put, loved almost everything about her. Her hair, her laugh, the way she cared about people, the way she bullied Bobby into letting her take care of him, the way she bullied Dean and Sam into letting her take care of them, the way she moved, even her smile. Almost every damn thing there was about Piper, Dean was there to adore it.
There was really only one thing he didn't like, and he despised it to the very core of his being. It kept him up at night, drove him to drink, had driven him into a stranger's bed on more than one occasion.
Piper was, and had been for several years, dating his brother.
Dean was investigating the scene of a hunt, scanning everything with the flashlight in his hand, grateful he wasn't still in Sioux Falls with Bobby, who was taking the word "surly" to whole new levels.
Piper had told them to go, and while Dean hated leaving her (keep that thought to yourself), he was grateful that someone was left to take care of Bobby. Not that Piper came with them on hunts often, she rarely left the salvage yard. She claimed to be a "diet hunter," and though Dean chuckled every time she said it, it made him ache to be separated from her for so long, even if he couldn't touch her like he wanted to.
Stop thinking like that.
It was a familiar mantra, one that Dean repeated to himself every day. Piper wasn't his, wasn't anybody's, really, but more specifically she wasn't his. She was with Sam.
Which made sense. They were both smart, both well-read and articulate. They just… They looked good, standing next to one another. Dean tried not to think about how much better he thought Piper would look under his arm.
Outside of all that, though, was the fact that they were in love, and had been for a long time. All those years ago, when Sam had made a move before Dean had had the nerve to do so, seeking her out for comfort after Dean had sold his soul (and didn't Dean struggle not to be bitter about that sometimes), Dean had easily decided to take a backseat to his brother. He'd spent his whole life putting Sam's interests ahead of his own, it was a no-brainer to do it again.
It shouldn't matter that Piper was Dean's everything, the sun around which he rotated, the only face that could comfort him sometimes. She was Sam's.
Dean tried to shake the thoughts away and flipped the switch for the EMF meter he held in his hand. It remained silent. "Not a beep."
Sam sighed. "Well, not a vengeful spirit, then. So what is it?"
Dean shrugged and kept looking around until Sam hummed. He turned to see Sam holding what looked like gold thread in his hand. "Whatcha got? What is that, Christmas tinsel?"
"I don't know." Sam rubbed it against a flowerpot. The thread left a gold streak. "It's actual gold." He frowned and looked up at Dean. "Why would a handyman have gold just lying around in his garage?"
"Dunno. There's definitely a skeleton in this family's closet."
Sam went down the steps of the home he'd just left, flipping his phone in his hand. He hadn't found anything about the family he'd been investigating, and he knew Dean would call him as soon as he was done interviewing the lawyer, Russo.
He was debating calling Piper. He knew she preferred he keep heavily in touch, and she tended to gather all of the information they found on a case and keep it all in one place. He knew he needed to call her, to tell her what was up, to see if she'd found any other relevant information to what they were investigating.
It had just gotten so hard to talk to Piper. Things were strained, to say the least, and neither of them wanted to admit it, or admit that they knew why.
Shortly after he'd gotten back from hell, Sam had proposed. Piper had said, kindly and softly, that she wasn't sure that she was ready for that step. At the time, staying together had made sense to Sam. This was just a speed bump, it wasn't the end.
Now, standing there in front of the house he'd just been in, he wasn't so sure.
Especially because he knew why she'd said, "no," and he knew why he hadn't brought up to anyone else what had happened. It all came down to Dean.
Dean had never done anything untoward. He was often hesitant even to hug Piper, and eyed Sam guiltily for days afterward each time. Sam knew that Dean would (quite literally) rather die than hurt Sam by trying anything with Piper.
Which was the problem.
Because Sam had suspicions that Piper was harboring some feelings for his brother. She, too, had never done anything untoward, but Sam wasn't stupid. He saw the way her eyes would flick to Dean on occasion in a considering way. He saw the way she avoided touching Dean just as much as the elder Winchester avoided touching her. Sam wasn't stupid.
So he was still debating calling Piper when his phone rang. When Dean's name flashed across the screen, Sam winced in guilt a little bit and answered. "Hey."
"Sam."
"Find anything?"
"Uh, one asshat in a shiny suit. You?"
"Not much. Great grandparents born in Calabria. Emigrated in nineteen twelve. Been here ever since."
"What, no severed horse head?"
Sam huffed out a laugh. "Ha. Four generations of picket fence."
"If these people are the Waltons, then why the hell are they dying?"
"I don't know. Come get me, we'll do more research at the motel, and we'll call to see what Pipe has found."
The hesitant, barely there beat of silence would have been missed by anyone but Sam Winchester. "Sure thing."
Sam hung up without saying goodbye and waited for the sight of his brother's black Ford Mustang coming down the road.
With a flickering of lights, Balthazar appeared in the motel room.
The angel smirked. "Boys, boys, boys. Whatever can I do for you?"
Dean scowled. "We need to talk."
Balthazar feigned concern. "Oh, you seem upset, Dean?"
"The hell with the boat, Balthazar?"
"What boat?"
"The Titanic," Sam deadpanned beside Dean.
"Oh, the Titanic. Yes, well, it was meant to sink, and I saved it."
"What?"
The angel shrugged. "Well, it was meant to bash into this iceberg thing and plunge into the briney deep with all this hooplah, and I saved it. Anything else I can answer for you?
"Why?"
"Why what?"
Dean heaved a sigh. "Why did you unsink the ship?"
"Oh, because I hated the movie."
Dean was done. "What movie?"
The angel cackled. "Exactly."
"Wait," Sam had that wrinkle on his forehead that said he was trying to figure something out, "so you saved a cruise liner because-"
"Because that God-awful Celine Dion song made me want to smite myself."
Sam was full on frowning now, too. "Who's Celine Dion?"
"Oh, she's a destitute lounge singer somewhere in Quebec, and let's keep it that way, please."
"I didn't think that was possible," Sam protested. "I thought you couldn't change history."
"Oh, haven't you noticed? There's no more rules, boys."
Dean rolled his eyes as Sam scoffed. "Wow, the nerve on you. So you just, what, unsunk a giant boat?"
"Oh, come on. I saved people! I thought you loved that kind of thing."
"Yeah, but now those people and their kids and their kids' kids, they must have interacted with, with so many other people, changed so much shit. You totally 'Butterfly Effected' history!
Dean was completely incapable of letting that go. "Dude, rule one, no Kutcher references."
Balthazar sighed. "Ah, yes. Unfortunately, there's still an Ashton Kutcher. And you still averted the Apocalypse, and there are still Archangels. It's just the small details that are different, like you don't drive an Impala." At their confused looks, "Yes, yes, 'what's an Impala?' Trust me, it's not important. Let's see. Ellen and Jo Singer-Harvelle are alive and happy."
Dean felt that like a punch to the gut. "Ellen and Jo? What?"
The angel was still speaking, however. "And, of course, the lovely Piper isn't a Winchester, and is dating Sam, instead."
All of the air in the room had been sucked out as Sam stared at the angel. "Dating… Me… Instead?"
When he looked over to his brother, Dean's face looked like it could have been carved from stone. Sam knew it was a defense mechanism, a way to hide what Dean was feeling. Shit. If Piper had been here, she would know how to read him.
Maybe Sam knew why, now.
Balthazar seemed unfazed by the chaos he'd just dropped onto them.
"Oh, yes, she marries Dean soon before Ellen and Jo die. You see, I save a boat, one thing leads to another, which leads to another thousand things, and yada, yada, yada. To cut a long story short, Piper ends up with Samuel, and Ellen and Jo don't die in a massive explosion. So let's all just agree that I did a good thing. One less Billy Zane movie, Sam finally has a girlfriend who doesn't die a horrible, bloody death, and I saved two of your closest friends."
Sam tried to shake his shock away and stay focused on the problem at hand. "But now somebody is killing the descendants of the survivors."
"And?"
"And that's maybe fifty thousand people."
"And?"
"And," Sam couldn't detect any emotion but anger in Dean's voice, "we need to save as many as we can, but we need to know who's after 'em."
"Oh, uh, sorry. You have me confused with the other angel - you know, the one in the dirty trenchcoat who's in love with Piper. I, however, don't care."
He vanished.
"Dean."
"No, Sam."
Dean heard his brother roll his eyes, but he was ignoring him for the tumbler of whiskey in his hand, trying to figure out what their next move was. "Shit."
"Dean."
"Sam, we're not talking about this."
Sam finally came and took the glass out of Dean's hand, put it out of his reach and sat next to him. "Dean, we need to."
Dean tilted his head back to look at the ceiling so he could avoid eye contact with his brother. "Why, Sam? It doesn't change anything."
"How?"
He finally looked at his brother, and instead of yelling like he wanted to, he kept his voice almost too soft, kept his tone even. "Because, Sam, Piper loves you, and you love her. We have no idea what that dick meant, if he meant she'd…" Dean swallowed hard. "If he meant she'd be with me. And even if he did mean that, it would come at the price of Ellen and Jo. You wanna explain to Bobby that we killed his wife and our surrogate sister so that I could be with Piper? Because I do not."
Sam inhaled sharply, but was silent otherwise. Dean nodded, knowing he had won the argument, and tried to ignore the deep chasm of pain that had opened where his heart once was. "All right. Go call Piper to find out what she's got. I'm gonna… Go for a walk."
He couldn't deal with hearing her voice, not just then. Not when he knew that, in a world where everything was as it was supposed to be, Piper was, in fact, his.
Dean crept into the abandoned restaurant they had followed Fate into, swinging his flashlight back and forth. Maybe he was being reckless, but he couldn't find it in himself to care. There was a constant mantra of Piper would have been a Winchester she would have been mine not Sam's mine not Sam's Piper would have been a Winchester we would have been married-
"Hello?" He interrupted himself. "Hello?"
He heard Sam come in behind him at the same time that his flashlight died. "Oh, come on."
Sam tapped him on the arm. "You got a lighter?"
They'd been pretty quiet since they left the motel. Neither wanted to talk about the implications of what the angel had said. "Yeah, okay."
Sam took the Zippo and started to flick it, but the spark sputtered and didn't catch. "Oh, come on. Is it out of juice or something?"
"It shouldn't be."
The lighter finally caught, and the entire world bloomed in flames and fire. Before it really sank in what was happening, Castiel grabbed them both and yanked them out of the way.
Dean blinked and looked around the forest they were in, then looked back at his angel friend. "Heya, Cas."
A dark forest.
An angel named Atropos, angry at the Winchesters and Castiel alike.
A deal struck.
Dean jerked to consciousness in the front seat of Baby. "My Heart Will Go On" played on the radio.
Sam was waking up next to him. "Dude, what time is it? I… I just had the weirdest dream."
Dean scoffed. "Twenty bucks says mine was weirder. I am not kidding."
"No, no, no, I'm not kidding, either. I mean, it was… Just bizarre."
"Mine had the actual Titanic in it." Sam paled, and Dean cocked an eyebrow. "What? Something on my face?"
"Did… Did it, uh… Not sink, because Balthazar-"
"Had a hate on for Billy Zane?" Dean frowned. "Why are you having my dreams?"
"Wasn't a dream," Cass deadpanned from behind them.
Piper jumped when Dean burst through the door, and took in with wide eyes as he scanned the room, then strode toward her and swept him up into her arms. He crushed her to him, and she slowly wrapped her arms around his neck and held him close. "Dean? Sweetheart, what's wrong?"
"I love you," he said roughly into her neck, and she realized this was a little deeper than her husband feeling needy.
She leaned back a little, just so her lips were pressed to his temple. "Talk to me."
He took a deep breath, then let it out explosively. "Cass and Balthazar unsunk the Titanic…"
Sam watched surreptitiously through the doorway as his brother spoke to his sister-in-law.
While the loss of Ellen and Jo was cutting just as deeply as it had the first time, Sam was glad things were back the way they were supposed to be. As much as he loved Piper, it had been like trying to be in love with his sister. Emphasis on the trying part, because it had felt stiff and unnatural the entire time.
No, he decided, as he turned to go back to his bedroom to catch up on his research, this was better. There was no better love story than Dean and Piper's, and he felt guilty enough having intruded on it as much as he had.
He'd let them have this evening to catch up. They could hunt Eve again tomorrow.
**This was supposed to be kind of funny, and ended up kind of angsty. Huh.
**Feedback gives me the warm fuzzies and keeps me going.
