Disclaimer: I own nothing that has anything to do with Supernatural or the characters, unless you count the DVDs. This is just for fun.

Thanks for all the great reviews! Sorry for the delay, I couldn't figure out hows to continue the story, and isn't it better to wait a while than to read a crap story.

Enjoy!

Chapter 3

It was inevitable that soon John and Dean were sitting in the cafeteria, opposite the senior Winchesters, Fred and Cecilia hadn't yet told them that they were aware of their aliases, but they were, and they were going to find out why.

Dean and John knew they couldn't reveal hunting to the couple, and they did what they had to get out of what could have been a sticky situation. It may have been his parents, but John couldn't have cared less as he spun off a very convincing series of lies, which to the oblivious elderly couple made sense.

Late that night, John woke from his light sleep, Dean was still sound asleep in the next bed. John quickly dressed, and he retrieved his bag from beside his bed, he loved his boys, but he rationalised leaving as protecting them from the demon, but in reality he just couldn't cope with seeing his baby boy lying in that hospital bed with no chance of recovering.

John would never return, and Dean would never forgive him for leaving them when Sam needed him, when he needed him.

Unfortunately Sam's condition did not improve, as the doctors had warned Dean would most likely be the case, and two weeks after the accident their fears were confirmed, Sam was brain dead.

Dean had been in the room, as always refusing to leave when they performed an apnea test, seeing if without the ventilator Sam's brain would trigger his body to breathe, they waited with baited breath for five long minutes before Dr Moore ended the test, Sam never took a breath.

Dean knew what this meant, and he was distraught, "Please, please just give him another minute, he'll breathe, please, give him a chance, he has to breathe, he can't be gone."

"I'm very sorry, Dean, but Sam's EEG and this test confirm that Sam's brain is no longer functioning even at the most basic level."

"There has to be something, please, please you have to help him, he has to breathe."

"I'm sorry, Dean, but Sam is gone. The earlier scans led us to believe that his brain injury wasn't as severe as we can now see it is, his respiratory system has fully recovered from the accident, it would function without any problems, but it appears that his brain is unable to tell his body to breathe. Dean, that indicates that Sam is brain dead. You may wish to think about whether or not to continue the life supportive measures."

Needless to say Dean did not take the news well; he had wheeled himself from the room, and gone back to Sam's side, where, once he was out of sight of everyone except his brother, Dean broke down. Dean had been trying so hard to hold things together as best he could when his world was crumbling around him.

It was too much. How could the doctor even suggest that Dean should turn off the life support, that he should in essence kill his baby brother? There was no way Dean could ever do that, even if the doctors told him that Sam was gone, and that was still an if, Dean would look after his brother no matter what.

But the news wasn't as bad as it could have been, there was still some activity in Sam's brain, more than the doctor had feared, the doctor had distastefully described it to Dean as a battery that was nearly dead, only offering brief spurts of activity.

That thought horrified Dean, what the doctor was trying to express was that if Dean made the choice to continue his brother's life, he would only truly be keeping Sam's body alive, his mind was already gone according to the doctor, but the doctor didn't know the things Dean knew.

Dean had already starting searching his father's journal, which Dean had asked his grandparents to retrieve, chancing that they might take a look at it, to him it was a risk worth taking, and making calls to his father's contacts in search of someone, anyone who might be able to help Sam, who might be able to give Dean his brother back. So far he hadn't had any luck, but this was his brother, and Dean was not going to rest until he had found something, and if that meant that he would be caring for his brother for years to come, so be it.

"I'll get you through this, Sammy, I'll get you through this," Dean fervently told his comatose brother, and as he spoke, Dean could have sworn he felt his brother squeeze his hand.

Dean would barely leave Sam's side after that day, the more time passed, seemingly the less attention the hospital staff paid to Sam's care, of course he was being properly cared for, but they were only keeping him alive, no longer trying whatsoever to rehabilitate Sam. Dean needed to be with his brother, just in case, he just had to. Dean still felt guilt over the accident, though it was just that, an accident, he kept going over the accident in his mind, seeing the deer standing in the middle of the wet, slippery road, swerving to avoid the deer, trying to stop the car, the car spinning, slamming into the guardrail, flying through the air, landing upside down, hitting that tree, hearing his brother moaning, thinking that they were both going to die. Maybe, Dean used that word many times in the months after the accident, maybe he could done this, or that, anything other than what he did, maybe if he never had of swerved, maybe he could have saved Sam.

One late afternoon, nearly three months after the accident, Cecilia came in to visit; she and her husband had gone back to their home in Lawrence several weeks earlier, to start making arrangements for Sam to leave the hospital.

Cecilia placed a gentle hand on her grandson's shoulder as she greeted him, "Dean, how are you dear?"

Dean turned his attention away from his brother, to his grandmother, "Fine."

Cecilia sat herself lightly on the end of the hospital bed, so she was facing Dean. They exchanged polite discussion for some time before Cecilia moved on to a more important topic. "Does Dr Moore still intend to discharge Sam next week?"

"Yeah, that's the plan. Is whatever you're organising in Lawrence for Sam done? If it's not... I know you have a life, and if you want out, I can work something out..." Dean began to ramble, he was struggling to accept help from his family, for years he had only been able to depend on himself, and now... He was struggling.

"Everything is ready, waiting for Sam. Ray and Meredith, that's his wife, they have a couple of rooms all set up at their house for you boys, their kids have all grown up and moved out, so they have plenty of room, and they are more than happy to help. You know that if your grandfather and I could have taken you and Sam in, we would have, but our unit is much, much too small, I think you'll like Ray's home, and it's got a downstairs study that they've converted for Sam's room, you can see out to the hills from the window, and in the morning the sun in there is so nice."

"Are you sure that we're not going to get in the way? Honestly if it's any trouble, then I can figure something else out, maybe it would just be better if I looked for somewhere else for us to stay."

Dean had never truly known what it was to be part of a family, he had been ripped from normality at such a young age, and growing up all he had seen was evil, pain, suffering, there was no love, he remembered his birthdays and Christmas' not for presents and cakes and family gatherings, but rather for being out of school for the day to go on a hunt, patching up his father, again, waking up in a motel room that in a week would be forgotten. It was going to take him some time to adjust.

Speaking of taking time to adjust, in contrast Meredith Winchester and her husband Ray had taken the change in their stride, for years Ray's brother and his sons had been missing, they hadn't even known if they were still alive, and then Cecilia called several months ago, telling them that she and Fred were with the boys in Denver. They hadn't hesitated to offer up the spare space they had at their house, Sam and Dean were their children's cousins, and though they had not seen them in years, they were family, and Meredith and Ray, honestly the whole Winchester clan believed that family means taking care of each other, being there no matter how bad things seem.

Meredith worked as a receptionist at Lawrence Real Estate, while Ray was in the same position he had been for eighteen years, working as a foreman for AAA+ Construction.

The large downstairs study of their family home had been converted into an almost hospital like room, the desk and two bookshelves had been shifted against one wall, while the arm chair and TV that stood in a corner were left, a hospital bed along with assorted medical equipment had been delivered, and arranged in the room, Meredith was placing the final touches on the room, making the bed, placing a new set of pyjamas on the foot of the bed, and arranging a vase of yellow daffodils from their garden for the side table, when Ray came home from work.

"Meredith, honey I'm home."

"I'm in the study," Meredith called out in response to her husband as she worked.

Ray walked into the study, to his wife, and he kissed her lightly before he said, "It's looking great in here, honey, you've done so much work, you should take a break, the boys won't be here til tomorrow afternoon."

"I know, Ray, but I just want everything to be right. I still have to make the bed upstairs, clean the bathrooms, and get the last of Joel's clothes out of the wardrobe, and I was thinking of making a batch of blueberry muffins for afternoon tea."

"You work too hard," Ray said in response, but in truth he was grateful, he was nervous as anything about the arrival of his nephews, and he knew that his wife felt the same, but in a good way, though the idea of having someone so severely disabled living with them was hard to fathom at times.

"I just want everything to be perfect," Meredith said tiredly, as she sat down in the arm chair, before her husband gently sat on her lap.

Ray stroked her hair as he said, "I wonder what they look like these days, I always thought that Dean would take after Mary... And Sam, he was just a baby. Mom said that Sam's really tall, or at least that's what Dean said, 6'4 I think she said."

"Like Matty, he's always been a bean pole," Meredith reflected.

"We have to call the boys, tell them what is happening."
"They've never even met Dean, or Sam, I was pregnant with Matt when they disappeared, and..." Meredith was worried that the news might upset her sons, and that was the last thing she wanted, especially during exam time, "Maybe if they could really have a relationship with Sam and Dean, but Sam... And Dean from what your mom has said, he's probably going to be pretty much focused on Sam, which of course is understandable, but..."

Their conversation went well into the night, and ended with a long phone conversation to their eldest son, who had been surprised to say the least that he had cousins who he'd never even met, one of whom had been permanently injured by a car accident, and finally that both men would be moving in with his parents the next day.

TBC...

Hopefully I won't keep you waiting so long this time! And please if there's anything you want to see in this story, just put it in a review, and I will endevour to make it happen.

Thanks for reading.