Anything But Normal

Part 27

A/N: bolded is a recap of all the flash forwards since it has been quite a while.

Present Day

"What are you doing?" Liz questioned.

"Reading the newspaper." Dean said.

"Why?" she asked.

"I thought I'd catch up on my current events." Dean said.

"That's why you watch the five o'clock news. You don't like reading."

Dean looked up at her. "What are you getting at, Lizzie?"

"You've got two weeks off from work, and you're gonna go on a hunt." She knew that him hunting would never permanently stop. She accepted that....usually. He'd been working at the firehouse a lot since he was promoted to fire marshal, so he hadn't spent much time with Liz lately. When he said that he was taking two weeks off, Liz assumed that she would be spending time with him.

Dean looked back down at the paper without answering.

"Dean! What are you not telling me?"

Dean sighed. "Ash called Sam. Sam called me. Ash found something important."

"What do you want me to do, Dean? Beat it out of you?"

Dean sighed yet again. He knew that she wasn't gonna like this at all. "There have been three nursery fires within the past month."

The color drained from Liz's face.

"When did Bobby call?" Liz asked.

"A little over three weeks ago," Dean sighed, "After the first."

"You've known for a month about this?" Liz was starting to get pissed.

"I haven't been that busy at work. I've been looking into this case." Dean confessed.

"You what?!? How the hell could you keep this from me Dean?!?" Liz yelled.

"I didn't want to worry you incase it was nothing."

"Dean, you've known since the first. After three attacks you finally decide to tell me?" Liz was trying to keep her voice at an even level.

"We've never had anything to check out before. The first two burned to the ground completely and there wasn't anything left. They were able to contain the fire this time. There are still remains for us to check out there. We can check for sulfur."

"You think the yellow-eyed demon would be powerful? After escaping eight years of hell, literally?" Dean looked away. "What are you keeping from me now?"

Dean looked back at her. "Sammy figured out how to hack into the police computer database last week. All of the police reports had something listed that wasn't released to the public. They all found a black, thick substance."

"Ectoplasm?"

"We think so."

"I can't believe you never told me any of this, Dean."

"I know you're angry– "

Angry? Try pissed as hell!"

"Liz – "

"Don't bother, Dean. Just leave me alone right now." Liz took her coffee and walked out of the kitchen.

Sam knocked on the door to his brother's house. Dean lived in Wakefield, Massachusetts, while Sam lived less than an hour away in New Durham. Sam loved New Durham. He lived in a nice house that was right on Merrymeeting Lake. He had a great wife, Sarah, whom he loved very much along with his daughter, Jenny. He knew all of his neighbors, a white picket fence, and a life that Dean continuously teased him about.

Though Sam wouldn't point out to Dean that his life wasn't that much different. He didn't know his neighbors because his house was very out of the way. He had two acres of his own land that the house was on, so he definitely had his privacy, and no neighbors. He didn't have a fence. But he went to work everyday. He went to the company picnics and friends barbeques. He convinced people that he was normal. Sam didn't bother pointing that out to Dean, though. He knew that Dean would just deny it all, and Sam didn't care all that much.

"Hey, Sammy." Dean said as he opened the door and let his brother in, "How's it going?"

"Sarah is a bit angry, but more afraid. How about you?" Sam said as the walked into Dean's living room. The blue and white couch, love seat, and recliner chair sat on a tan carpet surrounding a wooden coffee table and facing a big screen tv (which Sam was positive Dean had picked out).

"Liz hasn't said a word since I told her this morning." Dean collapsed onto the couch.

"I told you she'd be pissed." Sam said as he sat down on the recliner.

"I know."

"I told you she should know."

"I know.

"I told you–"

"I'm so glad you aren't being an ass and rubbing the fact that you predicted all of this in my face." Dean said bitterly.

"She deserved to know, Dean. This affects her even more than it does you."

"Bitch."

"Jerk." They both smiled at their little joke.

"Uncle Sammy!" an adorable little girl with light brown hair and bright blue-green eyes came running out of the hallway into Sam's arms.

"Hey cutie." Sam hugged his niece, "You've gotten taller."

"What're you doing here?" the little girl asked.

"I am staying for dinner tonight."

"Katie," Dean said, "Wanna come with me to Antonio's to pick up the pizza?"

His daughter agreed to go as he scooped her up in his arms. The said bye to Sam and left for the car.

Sam found Liz in Katie's room, cleaning up a few of her toys. The room was a nice size. There was a small bed in the middle with a purple butterfly blanket covering it. The room was filled with assorted toys and Barbie dolls.

"Hey." Sam said as he leaned against the door frame.

"Sam," Liz gave him a big hug, "Hi."

"How are you?"

"I'm okay. You know, considering my freaky destiny to be an evil killer might still happen when I thought it ended about 11 years ago, I'm doing okay. How about you?"

"Freaking out the same way you are. I finally stopped worrying about finding Sarah pinned to the ceiling in Jenny's nursery. For the first year I wouldn't even let her check on Jenny by herself at night."

They both sat down on top of a wooden toy chest that sat against the wall. "I remember. She was so annoyed with you for that. How did she take the news?"

"She was pissed that I never said anything before. At this point, she is just scared. But she's a bit more understanding than you."

"I have good reason though! He kept this a secret when it directly affects me!" Liz said defensively.

"I know, believe me, I know. That's what I told Dean. He didn't tell you because he didn't want to get you worried, Liz. You know him. He just wants to protect you."

"But he can't protect me from this."

"He doesn't wasn't to face that. He never did with me either. You know that he was only keeping this from you because he thought it was for the best. He wasn't trying to upset you."

"I know." Liz sighed. "Sam, I can't let this hunt for the yellow-eyed demon start again. I can't raise my daughter in motel rooms, and teach her how to hunt demons. I mean, this is why Dean and I never even brought up the subject of kids until the war was over and everything was calm."

"I know. My dreams..."

"Are you getting visions again?"

"I don't know. They started out as dreams in the beginning. Lately, my dreams have been about the demon."

A tear slid down Liz's cheek as the reality of the situation began to sink in. "This can't be happening. You and Dean barely made it out alive the last time. Hell, you didn't make it out alive. This just can't be happening again."

"I know." Sam wrapped his arms around his sister in law. "We aren't going to let them grow up the way we did. I don't want the girls hunting demon, never being able to live a normal life because of this. If it really is the demon, we will stop it, we will kill it, and we will end it...again." he said firmly.

"I'm sorry." Liz said. Sam just left. He and Dean had been going over plans before they leave tomorrow. Liz sat on the desk of Dean's office, which was cluttered with papers, newspaper clippings, and pictures of his family. "It's just...It's hard not to flip out, Dean. Hunting the odd demon here and there is one thing, but Azazel? You know what he's done to our families. I never want Katie to go through that."

"You think I don't know that, Lizzie? I'm going so that she doesn't ever have to live the way we did. I don't want to ever have to teach her to shoot first, ask questions later. It's bad enough that she can't sleep without salting her doors and windows. I don't ever want her and Jenny digging graves." Dean said firmly.

"I know. I just flipped out."

"Yeah, well I probably should've told you." Dean reasoned.

"Definitely should've told me." Liz corrected.

Dean rolled his eyes. "Okay, definitely. Are we good now?"

Liz reached up and kissed him. "Is that a yes?" Dean asked. Liz didn't respond, instead kissing him again only breaking apart to pull Dean's shirt off. "That's definitely a yes." Dean grinned.

Present Day

"You remember your promise, right?" Dean asked. He was kneeling on the blacktop to be at eye level with her.

"Yep." Katie nodded. "Now you have to make me one."

"Oh, yeah?" Dean raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah. Promise that you'll come back." She looked at him with her big puppy eyes. He's sure that she picked that up from Sam.

Dean didn't want to leave her. Of course Dean would miss Liz, but he wasn't worried. She could take care of herself. But Katie still needed her Daddy. Who else would be there to threaten future boyfriends and teach her how to drive?

Dean couldn't come up with any words that moment so he just nodded his head.

"Pinky promise?" the little girl held out her right hand, pinky up.

Dean couldn't do anything but chuckle. He complied with her wish, his pinky wrapping around her tiny one. He pulled her close to him and hugged her. "I love you kiddo."

"I love you too, Daddy. Remember your promise."

"I will." He kissed her cheek. The school bell rang. "Go with your class."

"Bye Daddy."

"Bye Katie."

Dean watched her enter the school and left for the firehouse. He had to sign a couple papers before he left.

"What are you doing here Welsh?" Cal, a tall guy in his forties, asked. Dean didn't even flinch at the name anymore. They'd had to get an alias so the Feds kept thinking they were dead.

"Just have to sign a bit of paperwork before I leave."

"Or did you just want to see my pretty face before you face those grizzly bears?"

"You wish. If I wanted to see pretty, I'd just look in a mirror."

"Cocky. I think Lydia is in your office."

"Oh."

"Yeah, she creeps me out too. I think she was trying to hit on you earlier."

"Yeah, well she knows I'm married." It was something Dean was used to by now: women hitting on him when they knew he was married.

"To a smoking chick who should be married to me." said Rob. He was a cocky 25 year old. He kinda reminded Dean of himself.

"You wanna go clean the toilets, Sanchez? Cause our custodian would love a morning off."

"No sir." the smirk was wiped off his face.

"Stop checking out my wife. She's 11 years older than you."

"I don't think any other guy is strong enough to say no to Lydia." Cal said.

Lydia was pretty. Most guys compared her to a playmate. 15 years ago, Dean would've hopped into bed with the petite blonde and given her a night to remember. Although 15 years ago, she was about seven, so maybe not.

"You know you've got something good with your girl when you turn that down." Rob said.

"I'm not going to fuck up 10 years of marriage and great sex for ten minutes with Lydia." Dean said.

"Damn, it's been 10 years?"

"At the end of April."

"I can barely do ten days." Rob said.

"That's because you can't keep your pants zipped." Dean turned to Cal, "Try to keep him outta trouble."

"Sure. You should get to that paperwork. Make sure Lydia isn't doing any voodoo spell to make you her love slave or something."

"Yeah." Dean gave an uneasy laugh. 'Just a joke, Dean, it's just a joke.' he thought.

"Oh, hi Dean!" Lydia said as he walked into his office.

"Hey Lydia. Did you draw up that paperwork I asked for?"

"Yeah, it's all right here."

Dean walked behind his desk. Before he looked at the paperwork he picked up a frame of Lizzie and Katie that had been face down. He knew that if he mentioned it, Lydia would stammer about it being like that when she came in.

"So I'm not gonna see you for two weeks? How is the fire house gonna survive without you?"

"Cal will take care of everything."

"How am I goinna survive without you?" Lydia played with the collar of his leather jacket.

He swatted her hand away. "You'll get by."

Lydia pouted and turned away. She was about to leave his office when Dean said "Lydia?"

"Yeah?"

"One more pass at me and you're fired." She huffed and stomped out.

"Hey Dean, while you're here I've got another contract for you to sign.

"Sure, bring it here."

Cal walked in and glanced at the other papers on his desk. "You're finalizing your will?"

"Yep." Dean signed the contracts.

"Why?"

"I just want to be sure that everything is okay before I leave."

"Ya know, if you went deer hunting it might be less stressful. Bears aren't exactly cute and cuddly."

"Yeah, I know." Dean had said that he hunted grizzly bears when he'd come back from his last hunt. He's shown up at work with four huge scratches across his face. A ghost with a rake wasn't an acceptable explanation. They'd put him in an institution (though even if they did understand, he didn't really want to admit that he got his ass beat by a girl with a rake). "Look man, if for some reason I'm not back in two weeks, can you make sure Lizzie gets this? It'll be in my top drawer here."

"Shouldn't your lawyer be handling that?"

"He's coming with me. Can you do it?"

"Yeah, absolutely. You okay Dean?"

"I'm fine. Keep the boys in line, Cal."

"You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I"m good. Best of luck, man."

"Yeah, you too." Cal furrowed his brow, but didn't ask Dean what was wrong as he watched him walk out of the firehouse.

Dean saw Sarah's car sitting in his driveway as he pulled up to his house.

"Hey." he greeted Liz as he walked in the door.

"Hi." she put down the broom she'd been using and walked over to him. Dean picked her up by the waist and kissed her.

"You should come with us." he said.

"Dean..."

"C'mon you used to be a hunter."

"Katie, Dean. She needs parents. It's bad enough that she knows about demons." Liz sighed. She wanted to protect her daughter from these things.

Dean also let out a heavy sigh. "We still might have to call you to come out."

"Excuse me?" Liz was taken aback.

"You can still use your powers."

"You don't know that."

"Yeah, I do." Dean said firmly. "I've seen you reach for the top shelf of the pantry before."

"I...It happens unconsciously sometimes."

"I know. And I know that you hate admitting that your powers are still in tact, but we have to look at all of our options here. We might need your powers at some point. Sam can't access his the way you can access yours."

"And she shouldn't have to." Sam came out to the living room. "She isn't using her powers for anything."

"Sammy, if we run out of options, we won't have a choice."

"Using her powers will make her more susceptible to Azazel's influence!"

"You don't know that! Sam we don't know anything."

"It doesn't matter!" Liz shouted. "Stop talking about me as if I'm not here. It's my powers, I'll make the decision...I'll go if you need me."

"Liz–" Sam started.

"Maybe it has to be one of us that kills him, Sam. We still don't know why I was never in the Psychic Kid Deathmatch that you were in. We don't know why he isn't still dead. We don't know that it was their powers that made Jake and Ava evil. We know nothing. When you find Azazel, you call me if you need me. Got it?"

"Fine." Sam sighed. He didn't like any of this.

"Thank you." Dean held her hand.

"What's going on?" Sarah appeared from the hallway.

"It isn't important." Sam said.

"Did you two seriously just have sex in my house?" Dean asked.

"I told you he'd be able to tell." Sarah smacked Sam's arm.

"C'mon, you think I don't know the look of two people who just had sex in their brother's house? Please, I've had that look on my face enough times to know." Dean smirked.

"You two are like freaking rabbits." Sam shook his head.

"The pot just called the kettle black."

"Are you ready to go?" Sam asked.

"In just a minute." he pulled Liz into the kitchen. He poured himself a paper cup full of coffee. "Last edible cup of coffee I'll have for a while."

Liz smiled. "Well no one can ever do it as well as I do." Liz's eyes narrowed and Dean suddenly realized she wasn't talking about coffee.

"Trust me."

"I do, but we haven't been apart for any significant amount of time since we got married."

Dean went to the fridge. "Can I take this?" Dean took off a picture held by magnets. It showed Liz and Katie painting flower pots. More paint of them than the pots. Both were giggling as Dean took the photo.

"Sure."

"Good." he pressed his forehead to hers. "Whenever I want to do something stupid, I'll have this to remind me why I'm not going to do it. My family." he kissed her.

"I love you." She whispered.

"I know." he said.

Liz smacked him. "No!"

"Ow! What?"

"You don't get to pull a Han Solo right now! You don't get to say 'I know.' You have to–"

Dean kissed her. "I'm not fin–"

"I love you too, Lizzie."

"Better."

They went out to the impala as Sam and Sarah were saying their goodbyes.

There were no goodbyes between Liz and Dean. He simply pushed he up against the side of the car and kissed her. It wasn't a soft kiss like the one in the kitchen. It was a end of the world kiss. Dean remembered the only other time they kissed like that in front of everyone was when Dean's deal was up. They finally broke apart.

"I fully intend on doing that many more times, so don't get your ass killed." Liz said.

"That's the plan." Dean smiled and kissed her forehead. "Let's go Sammy."

Sam slid into the passenger seat after giving Liz a hug.

"Call." Liz said.

"I'll try."

"That wasn't a request." Dean kissed her one last time before before slamming the trunk down.

"I'll call you Lizzie." Dean got into the car.

Both of the women of the Winchester family stood on the porch steps as they watched their spouses drive away.

"What now?" Sarah asked.

"Nothing. Nothing has changed. They might be back in two weeks."

"You believe that?"

"I have to." Liz said.

A/N: Alright, once again, very sorry that i don't update this more. we're getting to the end now, so provided my life remains clam and uneventful, this story should be finished before the season finale of supernatural. anyway, let me know what you think!