Tears started falling without his permission as Dean walked forward and enveloped him in a hug. He pulled away from Jake and Jody, and wrapped his arms around his brother, hiding his face against his chest. He didn't care that he looked weak and pathetic in front of everyone; it had really hurt that Dean didn't want to see him, but now his brother was here, had left the house to come find him.

"I'm so sorry, Alec," Dean whispered. "I should've come down to talk to you sooner."

"It's ok," he mumbled back.

Dean pulled back from him, but kept his hands on his shoulders, and looked him over. "What were you thinkin' comin' out here? You should be in bed…" He dropped his gaze from his brother and refused to look up. He didn't want to admit to Dean that he'd left to get away from him.

"He collapsed…" Jake suddenly said to fill the silence. "I was just about to take him to the hospital."

Before everything happened, he would've known exactly how his brothers would react to someone trying to take him to the hospital. They would have instantly refused and taken him home to recover under their supervision instead. But now, he had no idea how they would react. He couldn't even wrap his head around the idea that he'd been a kid for 10 months, let alone his brothers taking care of him like he was their kid.

"Alright, c'mon," Dean said.

"We goin' home?" Alec asked hopefully, needing at least one thing to be normal again.

"No, you're goin' to the hospital," Dean said. Well, there went normal. "We should've taken you there as soon as we found you."

"Dean…" he tried, but Dean cut him off before he could say anything else.

"You're not getting outta this one. I can tell you've got a fever and you're so pale…" Dean said, trailing off with his concern.

"Ok," he agreed. He didn't really want to go to the hospital, but he didn't want to argue with his brother and make things worse. He didn't want to mess up and lose his family.

Dean's eyebrows rose in surprise and he looked over at Sam, "That was too easy, right?"

Sam smiled and nodded, "Yeah…used to be a lot harder to get him to the hospital."

"I just don't want to be difficult…" Alec muttered.

Dean ruffled his hair, and then moved to wrap his arm around his back. "Maybe they won't want to keep you overnight," Dean said. "It could just be a quick check where they tell us you just need rest and fluids."

"When have I ever gotten that lucky?" Alec said.

"Boys, we're wastin' daylight," Bobby suddenly said. He jumped since he hadn't noticed Bobby before. He'd been so surprised to see Dean that he didn't even look for anyone else. He looked back at Jake and Jody feeling like he should say something or thank them…or at least say goodbye.

"Hey, you better come see me again once you're feelin' better," Jake said. "And bring your ID next time so I believe you're old enough to drink." He chuckled and nodded as Jake looked over at Bobby and asked, "Maybe you could call over here and keep me updated once you guys are settled?"

"Yeah, I'll call," Bobby said.

Jake gently patted his shoulder and headed back into his bar. Before he went inside though, he turned and said, "Take care of yourself, kid."

He smiled and nodded, and then looked over at Jody to see what she was going to do. He was surprised to see determination in her stance as she looked between all of them. "I'm going with you," Jody stated.

"Jody-" Bobby started, but Jody didn't give him a chance to change her mind.

"There's a lot that needs to be explained," Jody said. "You can either start talking now, or we can all go to the hospital and you can explain it there."

"Hospital," Sam said before anyone else could decide. "Alec needs to be in bed and we'll tell you everything once he's taken care of."

"Fine," Jody said. "You boys lead the way. I'll follow."

"This is gonna be fun…" Dean muttered as Jody walked over to her car.

Dean led him over to the Impala, and he let him. He found that he didn't care that they were heading to the hospital and he didn't care that Jody was going to be told everything. He just wanted to make sure Sam and Dean weren't going to abandon him. He needed his family, and he didn't want them to go anywhere.

He fluffed Alec's pillow, and then pulled up his blanket a little more just to have something to do. He missed taking care of his little boy, but as soon as he saw Alec being helped out of the bar, he knew he was being an ass. He lost his little boy, but his little brother was still alive. And as soon as Alec started talking, it was like a hole had been filled in his heart. He hadn't realized how much he'd missed his little brother until he was back again.

"Dean, I'm alright," Alec said, but he didn't push his hand away. The doctor had gotten Alec in a room, started him on warmed fluids, and gotten him a heated blanket. The guy had wanted to start him on humidified oxygen, but that's where Alec drew the line. But if he didn't get warmed up within the next couple of hours, then he was going to get outvoted.

"Sorry…" he muttered, forcing himself to sit back down. He probably needed to be in bed too, but he wasn't planning on saying anything. He felt a little warmer now and he planned on resting once he was sure Alec was ok. He just couldn't shake the feeling that he needed to take care of Alec.

"It's ok," Alec quickly reassured.

He gave Alec a small smile to try to reassure him that he wasn't going to vanish again. He should've known Alec was going to disappear if he found out that he wasn't going to see him and talk to him. "Alec, I'm not going to disappear again," he said, his voice soft.

"Even after I'm released from the hospital?" Alec asked, his eyes down.

"I promise, I'm not goin' anywhere," Dean said. He kicked off his boots and grabbed the blanket Sam had asked for, and made a show of getting more comfortable in the recliner that was in the room. Alec smiled, which made him feel like he'd finally done something right. "I'm sorry, Alec," Dean said. Sam, Bobby, and Jody were out of the room right now so Alec could rest if he wanted to. And Sam had thought the two of them needed to talk while he and Bobby tried to explain things to Jody. "I just…It sounds weird saying it out loud, but you were my kid. And I thought…I thought I was going to raise you…give you a better life…"

Alec nodded in understanding, but he could tell it still didn't make sense to him.

"It's hard to explain," Dean said. He wanted to get up and pace, or even find a way to escape, but he owed Alec an explanation. It had been his decision to keep Alec as a kid, to not even look for a way to change him back. "You were the cutest little kid…and you hardly remembered anything from Manticore. You still had nightmares and you were terrified of thunder and you were scared anytime we tried something new…but I got to teach you so much. I taught you how to swim, catch frogs, color…"

"You don't have to explain it if you don't want to," Alec whispered. "I get it, it's hard to adjust…"

"Alec, I…" He stopped and took a deep breath before he said, "You're right. It is hard to adjust. It was hard to adjust when you first got turned into a kid, but we did adjust. We figured out how to take care of you and we had a good life, a happy life. But I missed you. We hid your stuff so we couldn't see it. It hurt too much to look at it because we didn't think there was a way to get you back. None of us had heard of this ever happening, and we didn't really try to look for a way to fix it. You were happy, we were happy, it just didn't make sense to change it. And it's hard to admit it, but I really liked being your Dad and taking care of you. I was never gonna get a chance at doing that if you hadn't been turned into a kid, and I wouldn't change what happened."

"Would you change me getting back to normal?" Alec asked, his eyes snapping up to meet his, his little brother's hurt clear.

His breath left him; he honestly didn't know the answer to that question. He loved having Alec as his kid, but he also loved having him as his little brother. He didn't want to have to choose between the two of them. "Alec…I wish I could have you both. I don't want to give you up, but I don't want to give up being a Dad either," he said honestly. He looked to his little brother and silently begged him to understand.

Alec was quiet for a long time, but then said, "Y'know, I'm sure there's a lot of women that would love to have a kid with you…"

He huffed out a laugh and said, "Sam kinda said the same thing, but Alec, I don't want another kid. You were my kid and no one can replace you. Not as a little brother and not as my little kid. I can't choose between the two of you, but I just want you to be happy."

"I don't even remember it," Alec said. "The last thing I remember was that hunt. Sam told me it'd been 10 months since I'd been turned into a kid, and that's a lot of time to be missing. I'm lost here. I don't understand it and I don't…I don't even know if I belong here anymore."

"Alec, you belong with us," Dean said, sitting up and locking eyes with his brother. "You're a Winchester no matter what age you are, and me and Sam will always look out for you and either be your brothers or your Dad and your Uncle. No matter what it takes, we're there for you because we're family."

Alec nodded, but looked away from him. "I just wish I could remember. Maybe if I remembered, I would understand it better…"

He sat back again and said, "Alright, well, what do you want to know? I can fill in whatever blanks you want and maybe that will help."

Alec shrugged back, "I don't even know what to ask…"

"Um, ok, let's see," Dean said. "We found you upstairs in that house. You were unconscious with a gash on the back of your head. We didn't see the thing that attacked you, but you were so tiny, I wanted to get you out of there as fast as I could. But you were so scared and you thought I might hurt you. You even flinched when I reached out for you. For some reason though, you decided it was ok to let me help you and I picked you up and carried you back downstairs." He stopped and chuckled thinking back to that time. "You refused to let go of me, even when we got back to the motel and we needed to patch you up. You just held on and hid against me…"

"I was two?" Alec asked when he trailed off.

"Yeah, that's what we decided on," Dean said. "We had to buy you all new clothes since yours were way too big. We had to take you to the store with you wearin' an oversized t-shirt. I'm surprised they didn't call social services on us as soon as they saw us. But we got you clothes and a car seat before we headed for Bobby's. We were way in over our heads because we had no idea how to take care of a little kid." He started laughing, and then said, "I wish I had a picture of Bobby's face when he saw you. I thought he was gonna have a heart attack."

Alec actually chuckled, "You should've warned him. That would be a shock for anyone."

"We did warn him!" Dean defended. "He just didn't believe us until we brought you over."

He didn't really know what else to say or how much Alec wanted to hear, but his little brother let him know. "What else? What happened next?"

"So this is helping?" Dean asked back.

"Yeah, this is helping," Alec said.

He smiled and immediately started telling Alec everything he'd missed. Every boring little detail, but little details that meant the world to him like Alec's favorite color, his favorite toy, favorite song to sing, thing to eat for breakfast…he told him everything. And he could tell it was helping his little brother to have the gaps filled, but he was surprised to find that this was helping him too. This was slowly easing the pain he felt at losing his little boy. It didn't fix everything, but it was helping. So, he kept going.

"Alright, start talking," Jody demanded as they all sat down at a table in the cafeteria. He and Bobby sat across from her, but he was at a loss on where to start. Bobby must have been too because he didn't say anything either, so the three of them sat in silence for a few minutes. "How about you tell me where baby Alec is," Jody suggested. "Because I'm assuming you didn't leave him home alone while you came out to take care of adult Alec."

"Baby Alec and adult Alec are the same person," Bobby bluntly stated. "You won't believe it, but it's true."

Jody really looked like she didn't believe them, so he said, "Alec was our little brother, and something happened and suddenly he was a little kid. We didn't know what to do, so we just took care of him and acted like he was Dean's kid. He looks just like Dean anyway, so it was believable. But out in those woods, we found Alec all grown up again. We still have no idea what happened, but Alec needs us and that's what we're focusing on."

Jody's gaze softened as he spoke, and she nodded when he was done. "And you have no idea what did that to him? What could've done that?"

"We have no idea," Bobby said honestly.

Jody nodded again, "Ok, I can see why you didn't tell anyone that."

"It sounds crazy," Sam said. "But you can see the proof with your own eyes. You saw Alec as a little kid and now he's all grown up. There's no way to explain it unless you know him."

"So, now what're you going to do?" Jody asked.

Sam shrugged, "We're just gonna get him back on his feet, and then I guess do what we did before he was a little kid." He was kind of sad that they were going to go back to hunting. They finally got to be a family for 10 months, where the scariest thing that could happen was Alec falling and getting hurt at the playground, and now monsters would be gunning for them again. His brothers would be in danger, serious danger, and he could lose them on any hunt. He didn't want to go back to that. He didn't care how many people they saved, no one could amount to his brothers.

"And what did you do before Alec was a kid?" Jody asked.

"We just traveled around looking for work," Sam hedged. It was sort of true; they did travel around looking for jobs, just not jobs that normal people would take.

"And you'll go back to doing that?" Jody asked with a frown. "But you have a life here, friends, why would you leave again?"

"It's too hard," Sam admitted. "Everywhere we look, it reminds us of taking care of Alec when he was two. Alec has no idea what happened to him, and it's hard enough trying to explain it to him let alone everyone else in town. Half the people here knew Alec as a little kid…it's going to be impossible to explain how Alec just suddenly grew up."

"But Jake had a good solution," Jody pointed out. "He said Alec had just gotten back, assuming he was in the army or something. You could use that, and that would be a good explanation for everyone. You boys wouldn't have to go."

"And where would baby Alec be?" Bobby asked, his voice gentle. "They would never see him again and there'd be so many questions. That little boy had a lot of friends…"

Jody took a deep breath, "We could work something out…I don't know…"

"It'll just be better to get back to normal," Sam said. He said it, but he didn't think it was true. Dean had freaked out when he'd told him Alec was missing, but he wasn't sure his brother would get over losing his chance at being a Dad. He hoped that the two of them were actually talking and were somehow getting through this. Hopefully it wasn't the stupidest idea in the world leaving the two of them alone together, but things could be a whole lot worse if the two of them didn't find some way to get through this.

Bobby gave him a look, knowing he didn't believe it, but he said, "The boys need some time to adjust. They'll probably hang out at the house for a while to get used to being brothers again before they hit the road."

"What about Mushu? Your dog can't travel around like that, can he? He's just a puppy…" Jody said.

"Mushu will be stayin' with me," Bobby said. "I lost my other dog, so now I've got a new watchdog."

"And it'll be that easy? To just cut everyone off? To forget everything?" Jody asked, her eyes sad. He realized she really was sad to see them go. She'd been going to the park with them every week and hanging out at Bobby's house more, so she felt like family. They wouldn't just be leaving their life behind that they'd made here, but they'd be leaving family behind too. There just wasn't an easy solution to this.

"Jody…" Sam breathed. "It won't be easy, and we'll still visit. It'll just take a while to get used to things being back to normal."

"It would be hard to stick around, to have a life and friends, family…" Jody said, standing up. "But it wouldn't be impossible." She started walking away from them, but then said, "Can you at least let me know before you hit the road? Like it or not, with baby Alec or adult Alec, you boys have become like family to me and I'd like to say goodbye if I'm not going to see you again."

She walked away from them, making him feel even worse about their situation than before. This was an impossible choice. Bobby patted his back after a moment and said, "Not much else you can do…Just be sure to actually call her before you boys hit the road…"

He took a deep breath before he let it back out in a huff. Why didn't everything have to be so complicated?

It was dark in his room when he finally woke up again. He'd fallen asleep when Dean had started telling him about their trip to Freak Valley. Things were starting to make sense now that he knew what had happened. Sam and Dean really had taken care of him, and it sounded like he really was happy. There was no reason to look for a way to change him back, and he understood it now.

He'd wanted to hear more about everything that had happened, but he was still exhausted. His muscles still ached, and even though his fever had dropped down a little, he wasn't back to normal. He still had cold chills and was still dehydrated, so he wasn't getting out of the hospital any time soon. He was still hoping for just one night at the hospital, hoping his brothers would accept that he could recover at home.

He looked around his dark room and saw that his brothers were both asleep. Dean was still in the recliner while Sam was laying halfway on his bed, but still sitting in a chair next to him. Bobby was asleep too, well, probably asleep. It was hard to tell since his hat was pulled down over his eyes and he was sitting in the corner at an angle that he couldn't really see him at.

He did a double take when he saw there was one more person in the room. It was a woman, and she was standing in the doorway. She was beautiful. She had long red hair, pale skin, and she was wearing a flowy looking dress. He thought he might be hallucinating, or even seeing a ghost, but her green eyes snapped over to his as soon as he looked at her. She gave him a soft smile and slowly walked over to him.

"Hi Alec," she said. Her voice was soothing, and he immediately felt at ease as soon as she spoke.

"Hi…" he replied, unsure what else to say. He didn't even think to question how she knew his name.

She reached out and held his hand, but he was surprised to find that her hand was even colder than his. Maybe she was a ghost. She sat next to him, sitting on the edge of the bed on the opposite side that Sam was on. "Alec, my name is Mira. I'm the one who turned you into a little kid," she said.

He frowned, "What?"

"I'm a witch, but I don't use my powers for evil," Mira said. "I find people who need a second chance at life, and give them that. I make sure they have someone around that will love and take care of them before I turn them. I usually look for hunters that hunt in pairs. Hunters do a lot of good in this world, but at a high price. They lose most of the people they love and don't have any family left. But as soon as I saw you, I knew I needed to give you a chance. You had a terrible life until you met your brothers. I wanted to take that pain away and give you a second chance. A chance to be loved and protected."

"Ok…then why'd you turn me back?" Alec asked.

"I give everyone a choice. I was going to turn you back a few months ago, but Sam and Dean were very protective of you and wouldn't let you out of their sight," Mira said. "But I don't force anyone to take their second chance. I let them choose if they want to live their current life, or if they want to start over."

"How can I even make that choice? I don't remember being a kid," Alec said. His heart pounded with the possibility that he could give his brothers what they wanted. He could be a kid again. He didn't know if that was really what he wanted though. He couldn't really remember being a kid; he just knew what Dean told him.

"Alec, close your eyes," Mira said.

He did what he was told, and gasped when he was suddenly bombarded with memories. Everything was coming back to him. Every day with Sam and Dean, every time Bobby chased him around and made him laugh, every bath, every nap, every meal…His heart felt like it was going to explode with the amount of happy memories that he suddenly had.

He felt tears streaming down his cheeks, but he wasn't sad. He could feel how happy he'd been, how much hope he had. He actually loved life. He didn't feel any weight from Manticore, any of the losses he'd felt, any of the pain.

He finally opened his eyes after a few minutes, his tears still falling. Mira gently wiped away his tears and said, "Now you remember, so now you can make a choice."

"How? How am I supposed to choose between that life and this one?" Alec asked, suddenly feeling a new weight. This choice was the choice that would actually determine the rest of his life. But it wasn't only his life, it was his brothers' lives too. How was he supposed to do this?

"Think about it," Mira said. "Talk to your brothers, and find out how they feel. But remember, the decision is still yours. Chose what makes you happy."

"When do I have to decide?" Alec asked.

"I'll come back tomorrow night," Mira said. She leaned forward and kissed his cheek before she stood up and walked back to the door. "I'll be back tomorrow," Mira said again, and then she disappeared.

He blinked a few times, wondering if he really was insane, but he couldn't ignore the memories that he suddenly had. He closed his eyes and smiled thinking about having a family that loved him from the very start. He could have that again if he wanted…

He opened his eyes again and looked at his brothers. He needed to talk to them; he needed to know what they thought before he made a decision.

He took a deep breath and dropped his head back against his pillow. This was going to be impossible.

So, there's only one, maybe two chapters left! Any thoughts on what Alec should choose?

Hope you guys like the story! More soon!