Chapter 5: If I Could Turn Back Time
As the realization set in, and the Winchesters became aware of the familiar surroundings, different things started to stand out at them. The tree beside the house wasn't nearly as large as it had been. The driveway was newer and well kept. The house on the corner wasn't even build yet.
Chuck walked around, separate from the Winchesters as they explored, but still within the tableau of the world he was showing off.
The snowflakes fells slowly, the lamp light glistened in the street, and the house that a much younger John shared with his new wife Mary blended in to the quiet suburban life that she had always wanted. The Impala had traveled with them, and so, for the first time Baby was parked on the street in front of the house and in the driveway as well, and somehow Dean could feel which was his and which was his father's.
"It's a beautiful night, isn't it?" Chuck asked to pull the attention back to himself. "There were many like this, I imagine, in those early day in Laurence. Dean's first snow angels, knowing in December of 1982 that Sam would make a screaming entrance into this world and that little Dean wished for nothing more than a brother in the new year, didn't you Dean?" He asked.
"I don't remember that," Dean stated harshly and with a little embarrassment.
"Sure you do. You asked Santa, at the mall, that year for a toy truck and for momma to have a baby boy because girls were gross," John countered. "At least I remember that."
"What else do you remember, John?" Chuck asked.
"I remember coming home early from work and Mary being rubbish at wrapping gifts but trying her best, as pregnant as she was; both times. I did all the heavy lifting. Sometimes I wondered why Mary was so bad at being domestic but so determined to do it."
"Why do we need to know that?" Dean asked impatiently.
"Because it was the way things were meant to be on those Christmases," Chuck said. "You had 3 of them as an only child, Dean, and that fourth one was spent in excitement because your parents hadn't told you until that season. You were more impatient than your father about the prospects of another baby, or at least that's how John felt."
"Yeah it was," John laughed. "You were so excited, Dean. You wanted to know everything about babies, and I mean everything, at five. That christmas in the mall you'd walk up to perfect strangers and tell them you were going to have a baby brother, even though we didn't know it was a boy, and then you'd ask all kinds of questions of people with babies. I'm sure you freaked a bunch of them out."
"I had no idea you were so excited," Sam said and smiled at his brother.
"It's all he really wanted," Chuck added. "And Dean has always been so devoted and proud of you Sam."
"That's not news," Dean said and rolled his eyes. "Everyone knows it, and everyone takes of advantage of it."
"It was meant to be this way, but in those early days, before you knew what it meant to be a hunter, you were like so many other little children dreaming of their siblings," Chuck said. "And that was the point. Your father was an only child, so was your mother, but that was never going to be the way for you. Sam and Dean Winchester; it was meant to be."
"Yeah, I know, and Michael and Azazel were meant to meet on the street," Dean retorted with anger and frustration. "Just like mom was meant to make a deal to save dad, the night that Samuel died, and Sammy was cursed. She dies on the ceiling on fire, and we headed down a path of everything that leads us to this, the Men of Letters, and entertaining God's whims on a night that isn't even Christmas yet. We get it! It was all meant to be!"
"A demon deal?" John asked.
"Sure, but you didn't remember it. Azazel snapped your neck and stabbed Grand-dad, and then made a deal with mom to save one of you and all she had to do was let Azazel visit 6 months after Sam was born. That night she died, she knew it was coming," Dean huffed.
"She didn't remember it either," Chuck said and shook his head. "Not all of it at least. She was too happy with her boys and worried about her marriage to worry too much about something that happened years before. I mean she'd almost forgotten what it was like to be a hunter," he added. "Although, in that tumultuous time of arguing and doubt, she went back to it."
"What pulled her back?" Sam asked.
"I realized what I was doing. How unhappy I was making her," John said. "That's kinda how she got pregnant again, and why it took so long between you and Sam."
"Five years isn't that long," Dean said and shrugged.
"Most people do it in two," Chuck said. "They want their babies to be close enough in age to one another that they get it out of the way. Also, pregnancy isn't really fun, and most women don't have a good time of it. They try to get it over with."
"Also your fault?" Dean accused.
"Well, it was a moment a wrath. I can have a bit of a temper, but I have mellowed out a lot in the last million years or so," Chuck answered.
"You're an ass," Dean stated and walked off toward the house.
"Come back, we're not done. We have so much still to get caught up on. The Men of Letters, the Mark of Cane, the Leviathan, and travels to other worlds. John needs to be caught up before we dive into the past."
"Men of Letters?" John asked in an aside to his second son.
"Long story," Sam said.
"Tell it Sam and get it over with," Dean said. "Henry Winchester didn't just disappear in August of 1958, he jumped through time and died in 2013. He never abandoned you, he was trying to save the world."
"What?" John asked in shock.
"Your father was a member of a secret organization known as the Men of Letters. He learned his craft from his father and his father before him. It is a legacy. They are preceptors, observers, beholders, chroniclers of the supernatural and all that which man does not understand," Sam began his speech.
"So hunters?" John asked. "I was supposed to be a hunter?"
"No, not exactly. They were more like librarians. We get the hunter gene from mom. The Campbells are a generations old hunting family," Sam corrected. "The Men of Letter have chapters all over the world but the American branch was eradicated by Abaddon in 1958. They use hunters when they need them, but for the most part, they use magic and sorcery to combat the supernatural."
"Who is Abaddon?" John asked in confusion.
"A knight of hell, created by Cane," Dean blurted out his answer.
"Azazel was a prince of hell, they were created by Lucifer," Sam added.
"They?" John asked.
"There were four of them. They are all dead now, thanks to your boys, and all the knights of hell are gone too. Dean killed Abaddon," Chuck jumped in. "Took on the Mark of Cane; tricked into it rather but the King of the Crossroads, later the king of Hell Crowley. He then released the Darkness onto this world when Sam, Castiel, Charlie, and Rowena broke the code in the Book of the Damned. The Darkness is my sister, Amara, and we are now on good terms because of Dean. So you know, all worked out for the best."
"Well in this world at least," Dean huffed.
"Right, there is that," Chuck chuckled.
"So I should have been a member of the Men of Letters?" John asked.
"Yes, and technically, as your son's have resurrected the practice, or maybe redefined it in this time, you would be one now," Chuck said.
"No, the Men of Letters are assholes and dicks and can stay in their own countries. We are not that, we are hunters with an expanded knowledge of all things supernatural, but at the core we're just hunters. And we do have a hunt to get back to, so can we get through Christmas Eve 1978 and off to Minnesota?" Dean jumped in to bring things back around to where they needed to be. "You wanted me to go inside. So let's go inside."
"Now hang on a second, Michael and Azazel haven't had their meeting yet," Chuck said and motioned to the trench coat clad, newsboy capped, Angel coming down the street at a sauntered pace.
"Old news, Chuck. I've already seen this bit," Dean said and walked off toward the house.
"But we haven't," Sam said and stayed in place.
The scene played out before Sam and John as Dean had told his brother it would. The conversation, the beam of light, and the flight of both supernatural beings. And then John and Sam walked up the drive to where Dean was waiting.
"So who's vessel am I?" John asked as they stopped in front of the door. "I have no brothers, only sons, but if it's a bloodline, how does that work?"
"That is a good question John, and the answer is this, technically you could act as vessel to all archangels, but none of them really, because it is not your time, nor your place. The man you saw under the lamp light, was in fact a cousin of Mary's and only a temporary vessel for the angel to be on this earth. As Sam and Dean could tell you, you have taken on the archangel Michael once in your history and you do not remember it," Chuck explained.
"It was another time jump," Sam said.
"So you do this often?" John asked sceptically.
"More often than we would like," Dean sighed in response and rolled his eyes.
"Okay, I can wrap my head around that, but why Sam and Dean?" John asked.
"Because it was the predestined time," Chuck answered.
"Then why would Azazel put us through the trials?" Sam asked. "Why were there so many children like me?"
"That was Lucifer's plan, which was my plan but I knew he'd try and go against me, so no one really knew about that plan, not even Metatron. I knew that John would sacrifice himself for Dean, and Dean for you, and you for Dean."
"Wait, what?" Dean asked. "Sammy?"
"Sam has put everything, and I mean everything, out on the line to save you from Michael," Chuck said. "That's why you should have let the poor guy sleep."
"Sam?" Dean asked again.
"It wasn't a deal, and it wasn't death," Sam said. "But it was...everything."
"It was death," Chuck said. "The vamps in the cave, you were dead."
"And Lucifer saved me," Sam said. "I didn't sell my soul, or make a deal."
"You walked into camp with Lucifer," Dean said.
"I didn't ask to come back," Sam protested. "He told me he was coming."
"You never do, because you don't have to. It's implied Samuel, and if it came to it, you would do anything, including ask for the deal. You just haven't had to speak the words because your job isn't done and I need you here. Your stint in hell was also the sacrifice you made for Dean."
"It was the only way to put Lucifer back in the cage and end the apocalypse," Sam said.
"Yes, a path that began this night, on this spot, with that light and this family. The night the vessels were chosen for Michael and Lucifer. You say you did it for the greater good, but your scope only goes as far as Dean," Chuck spoke with finality.
"But Azazel made a deal with mom to save dad in 1973. Sam's fate was sealed then!" Dean countered.
"Azazel, knew nothing of my plan," Chuck corrected. "And had gathered many deals to visit babies in the hopes that one of them would turn out to be the vessel of Lucifer in the coming apocalypse. What he didn't know what that the end of the apocalypse would be by brothers, and so Michael was only told of the future in a vision that I placed upon him."
"Then why was Azazel here tonight?" Dean asked.
"Because the princes of hell; Azazel, Ramiel, Dagon and Asmodeus were tasked by Lucifer to watch his brothers. Azazel was the oldest and so he was paired with Michael, and any time that angel found himself on earth, Azazel felt him and went to him to torment him."
"There are four archangels and four princes of hell, but Lucifer was always in the cage," Sam said to question the word of God.
"Asmodeus was tasked with remaining near to his angel at all time, he did not leave hell until the cage was opened on the night Azazel was killed by Dean. Lucifer knew that he would be freed and Asmodeus was now the angel in charge of Michael, while Lilith worked to free Lucifer," Chuck explained. "Dagon was paired with Gabriel, that's why she was always so mad, he knows very well how to keep himself hidden from everything supernatural. I admire that. And Raphael was Ramiel's responsibility. I think Lucifer did that for the alliteration, but you killed Raphael so early that he was able to live out his life in a quiet way without orders."
"Wait, Gabriel is dead," Dean said.
"Is he?" Chuck asked and winked.
"For fuck sakes," Dean cursed. "What else don't we know?"
"Oh, so many things," Chuck said. "And you'll never know them all, but this christmas you will come to know many revelations."
"Can we get it over with then?" Dean asked.
"Well I suppose it is time to go inside," Chuck said.
"But I'm still confused," John said.
"Things will make themselves clear, but first, it is time to take you back to the happiest time of your life," Chuck said as they moved toward the house and he opened the door to let the Winchesters pass through it.