Totally AU, Dean came and went in the pilot, and Sam and Jess stayed home, got hitched, grew normal. Doesn't mean the demon wasn't going to come.

Ha, did Maths HSC today, have a break between exams. So, of course, this is my downtime before my brains snaps back to attention for studying for my next exam.

This chapter will be short and most likely bad. But, I did sit a three hour 2 Unit exam today. My brains HURTS.

Lol.

So, reviews are desperately needed. Come on ppl, I'm doing EXAMS.

(Couldn't for the life of me remember if they were going on the hunt the day after last instalments discussion? Maths has melted my brain. Oh well, if it wasn't the day after last chapter, just, go along…)

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The Impala was parked outside a house that looked eerily similar to the one that they had lived in before the supernatural had entered their lives. It was two storeys, with a pretty green lawn, a gravely path leading to the front door. A few roses were struggling to survive in a garden bed in front of the house, and a tree, that Dean supposed would one day make for a perfect tree house, stood in the middle of the yard. The whole place screamed normal with an intensity that had made the whole family pause when they first arrived.

Now they were sitting in the car, as they had been for the past hour, waiting patiently for the demon to show up so that they, and here Dean had to correct himself, so that John and Sam, could go in and waste the sucker.

Jamie was asleep, lying dead to the world in his car-seat. Sam was there, next to him, eyes bright and dancing, a nervous excitement taking hold of him. There had been some time for a quick brush up on the basics that morning, because Sammy hadn't been hunting since he was 18 years old, and none of the family particularly liked to remember just how badly that hunt had gone. Dean, thinking of it, idly rubbed his hand along the scars that wrapped around his left side.

Hunting, firing a gun, loading rock salt, were all things that one didn't simply forget, no matter how long you'd been out of the game, and Sam had quickly remastered the skills that he had once vowed never to use again. There had been some brief, nostalgic flashes as they'd trained, Dean carefully explaining things just as he had when they'd been children, and Sammy had been learning to aim and fire for the first time. Sam had felt it too, and they had shared a smile between them, and Dean had started to hope, maybe for the first time since Jess had left them, that the old Sammy was still in there somewhere, along with the new Sammy, who was twisted, and broken, and too like John.

It was almost painful that amount of adrenaline that was charging through the enclosed atmosphere inside the car, and Dean was having a hard time ignoring it. John, who he remembered as rarely showing any emotion, except for disappointment and anger, was almost excited, which in itself was shocking. He was tapping his fingers on his thigh, not any tune that Dean knew, just random patterns, his face masked with concentration as he tried to focus on the here and now, rather than the implications of the upcoming hunt.

It was windy, but they were all well trained enough to know the difference between a 'wind through the trees' rustle, and a 'demon in the house' rustle. John tensed instantly, Sam's hand tightened instinctively on the gun he was holding, and Dean's hand did the same, though he loosened his grip almost immediately. If all went to plan, he wasn't going to be using his gun. The thought that he was missing out on the hunt hurt like a crowbar to the gut, but he ignored it, catching his fathers eyes as he moved to get out of the car.

"Be careful." They were simple words, but both he and John knew there was more to them than a simple warning for safety. Don't do anything stupid. Don't get yourself killed. I need you here. Take care of Sammy.

"Always son."

And then he and Sam, who had murmured a few soft words to Jamie, were gone, moving swiftly across the lawn, where the tree that had before been a symbol of normal and tree houses now cast ghostly shadows around the house.

The lights inside began to flash on and off, as though all the bulbs in the house were coincidentally blowing.

John and Sam moved through the front door and out of Dean's sight.

And, for the first time in years, he sent up a quick prayer.

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John felt a pang as he entered the house, there were pictures hanging off the walls in the hallway, wedding shots, pictures on the beach, people smiling at the camera, looking carefree and happy. And, even now, so many years later, he could remember his own hallway, that had been decorated in a very similar way.

It was clear Sam felt a similar recognition, because he stopped upon entering the house, eyes roaming over all the photos in their bright frames. John nudged him, and he snapped out of it, eyes that had gone bright with loss closing, and then opening again filled with concentration and desire.

They would finish this.

The plan was, now that they had lost one of the trio to babysitting duties, that the whole plan would have to be carried out as quietly as possible, in order that the family weren't woken up. Because they would end up running straight into the middle of a fairly ugly scene if they did end up out of bed.

The baby's room was directly opposite the top of the stairs, and as they crept up John felt his heart clench, because there, standing over the crib was a black figure, hooded, evil moving off him in waves.

It was the first time that the oldest Winchester had seen him in true form, because while he had heard the voice when he was possessed, and seen the black cloud move out of his body like ash exits a volcano, those weren't the same as seeing, in the flesh, the creature that had ruined his life.

He could feel the hate and anger building up and up in his body, threatening to erupt out. Almost thirty years worth of pain and desperation and grief and the need for revenge was warring inside his body, a turbulence of emotion that made him feel somewhat akin to an ocean in the middle of a cyclone.

Sam had frozen beside him, waiting for instruction, and despite it all he almost laughed because Sam had never in his life been obedient on a hunt.

He stood up one more step, and aimed the colt at the bastards head, he was going to end it, and John Winchester, the immovable, invincible, untouchable man, felt a tear spring to his eye as he cocked the gun as softly as he could, finger moving to press the trigger and end it all.

"I can bring her back Sammy, I truly can. But I want your son in return."

When the demon spoke it shocked him and Sam so much that they both jumped, and it surprised him enough that the shot he was about to take was abandoned, because he wasn't gonna be able to shoot the damn thing if it knew he was there, though his finger stayed firmly in place on the trigger.

Sam didn't move, and at first it seemed as though he hadn't heard, which was impossible, because the demon had spoken loudly enough, and on a hunt every sense was so heightened that John wouldn't have been surprised if Dean had heard, sitting down in the car.

The demon seemed unperturbed at the lack of movement, and turned his body to face them, yellow eyes striking against the dark backdrop.

There was another moment, an awkwardly silent, yet terribly charged moment, before Sam choked out something that sounded suspiciously like "what?"

"Wouldn't have thought that someone who graduated magna cum laude from law school could be so impossibly dense," the demon stated in a biting conversational tone, that was as so refined he sounded like a Brit, "I said, that I can bring your wife, you know, who I killed, what, a week ago? I can bring her back, from the dead. And all that I ask, for this magnificent gesture, is your son. You know, small, about 9 months old, currently sitting in a car seat in that hunk-of-junk that you classify as a car."

The next words out of Sam's mouth were at least able to be distinguished as English, though John assumed they lacked the power that he had meant to put behind them.

"You're lying."

"No, actually I'm not. I killed her, I can bring her back. But I want your son Sammy-my-boy."

There was a pause, and John, who had expected Sam to reiterate his earlier words, noticed that his son had gone quiet. Could he actually be considering this??

"You see, Sammy, can I call you Sammy? I'll assume so. You see, really, I'd prefer you, but I realise now that wiping Jessie off the planet, might have been a little bit of a mistake, because now you're so angry that you'll never suit. However, still very interested in that whole darkness thing the Winchester bloodline's got going on, and your son, while not as interesting a specimen as you are, which is why I never tried to make a move on him, is still reeking of that whole 'walking the line between good and evil' thing you Winchesters got going on. I can give her back Sammy. All 170cm of blonde bubbly goodness… Surely you can have more children…"

John decided that enough was enough. He hadn't waited 20 something bloody years for his revenge moment to be spoiled by the demon sprouting a last minute out-of-left-field lie that had effectively stopped his back up in his tracks.

He squeezed the trigger and watched the bullet arch towards the creature that had been the bane of his existence for so-damn-long.

Just as Sam shouted out something that sounded suspiciously like a "yes".

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Ok, basically, Sam is getting slowly and slowly more and more out of character. I'm not all that good at writing him. But, meh, I like him my way. Anyone who feels the need to point out that Sammy most likely wouldn't have given up his son, bah.

This is after all an AU story. Please review, I love all people who want to comment on everything BUT the fact that Sam is acting funny. Thankyou.