AN: Because the last chapter was so short, I give you two for one today! Enjoy and please review and let me know what you think.

A few weeks ago, just before Joy had been born, Lynn had told him the story. Stuck on bedrest after a medical scare, he'd visited her and asked about her version of the Winchester family. He remembered what she had told him vividly.

Lynn had been born between the two brothers and was less than a year younger than her brother Dean. When their mother had died in Sam's nursery fire, their father had left all three of his children in the care of his own mother before heading into a life of hunting and revenge. It wasn't until Grandma Millie had died that John had returned for his kids. After that, the life of the small Winchester family of this dimension had been similar in many respects with how Dean and Sam had been raised in their world. His counterpart Dean had been almost 10 when the three kids had joined John on the road. The stories Lynn had shared of living in crappy motels, cheap rentals and abandoned houses was very familiar to Dean. But it was the family dynamics that had been very different for Lynn's version of the family. Apparently John had left Lynn to care for and protect Sam while he took her Dean on hunts. He'd trained all three kids to be hunters, but Lynn was able to shield Sam from a lot more, for a lot longer. With two older siblings to pick up the slack and do their father's bidding, her version of Sam had lived an easier life than Dean's own little brother.

Dean had to laugh when Lynn described how stubborn and determined her Sam was. Apparently that trait was one that stayed true in both versions of their brother. But while Dean's brother had fought to escape hunting and had gone to Stanford in an ill-fated desire to have a normal life, Lynn had taken the initiative to get her kid brother out of the life. She had told Dean that she was worried that Sam would become like her Dean, hard and uncaring. He'd been skeptical, after all, the version of him from this world couldn't be that different from himself. And he was many screwed up things, but not uncaring towards his brother.

"I wish I could explain. The three of us had been pretty close. But when my Dean was almost 14, he went on a hunt with Dad while Sammy and I stayed back at the motel. I don't know what they were hunting or what happened, but when they came back, Dee was different. He stopped playing with Sammy and me, stopped joking and laughing, and barely talked to us. He barely talked at all. I tried to get him to tell me what was going on, but he denied that he had changed in any way. After that, he became obsessed with hunting. He trained for hours every day and Sam and I seldom saw him, except for meals. Dad was so proud, but I was really worried about Dean and Sammy. Sam was 10 and had really looked up to his big brother, but now he felt shut out and was hurt that Dean didn't seem to have time for him anymore. And Dad didn't help. He was always telling Sam that he needed to be more like Dean - but they were always very different, even before Dee changed." Lynn had sighed at this point, tears in her eyes as her shared her story.

"By 17, Dean was hunting full-time and spent weeks, then months away on jobs with Dad and other hunters. I tried hard to make it up to Sam, to provide him with a good life. Even though I was just 16, I was able to get a job with a fake ID at that point, and convinced Dad to let us stay in one city so that Sammy could go to school. Eventually, as I got older, I was able to get a better job, and I got us a real apartment. Sam got accepted into Kansas State to study Psychology. I'd finally built a stable life for Sam and I, and it was pretty good." Lynn had stopped then, a sad smile on her face.

Dean could only imagine how happy he and his Sam could have been if he'd been able to do that for the two of them. He had loved his Dad too much to leave him alone, knowing that the man would have self-destructed if his sons had both left him. But Lynn had had a different option. With her Dean hunting with their father, she was free to make a life for Sam and herself. Dean pushed aside the twinge of jealousy and what-might-have been. "What happened then," he asked, knowing from current circumstances that the Winchester curse had affected her family as much, if not more than it had his.

"It was 2005 Sam was just starting the final year of his degree. I had been in a relationship with Alex for a while by that point and we were talking marriage. Then Dad and Dee showed up with some wild story about Sammy being cursed by demons and destined for evil. We had a huge fight with Dad. He wanted us back on the road with him and Dean, but I put my foot down. Dad said that if we didn't go with him, that we were not his children anymore and to never contact him again." Dean could see the remembered pain in her eyes and wondered if her John Winchester was as volatile and as bad at talking about feelings as his own version of their father.

"After Dad stormed out, Dee pulled me aside and told me to keep an eye on Sammy and to be prepared to…" she had swallowed hard at this point. "To kill him when he started to turn evil. The whole experience really shook Sam. He was always such a sensitive kid and Dad's rejection and Dee's warning really hurt and frightened him." She sighed heavily. "I know I should have spent more time with him then, to help him cope, but I was young and in love. I was too selfish and blind to see that Sam was struggling. Alex and I got married in 2006 and moved in together. I wanted to believe that Sam was fine, enjoying his independence and being on his own for the first time without me taking care of him. It wasn't until he started having these massive, debilitating headaches that I realized something was wrong. Then Sammy dropped out of school, he broke up with his boyfriend, he started reading everything he could get his hands on about demons and Hell. Then he started hunting again and joined Dee on the road."

Dean could see Lynn struggle to lock down her emotions before she continued with what was obviously the worst part of her family history. Dean was sympathetic. If the timelines of their lives paralleled each other, it would only be few more years before she lost both her brothers. He studied his fingernails, giving the woman a moment to gather herself before she continued. Lynn rubbed her hand over her swollen belly and began again.

"Alex and I were so happy. We'd been trying for a baby, and we had a house. Alex's photography business was doing well. I dived right into normal - the only contact I had with my brothers was the occasional email or phone call. Then Dee showed up at the house." Lynn's pregnancy hormones had to have been playing havoc with her emotions, but Dean recognized in her face the deliberate stoicism that he'd seen in the mirror during his own dark times. She continued to speak.

"He told me that Sammy had murdered Dad and that Sam was coming to kill me too. Alex was out of town at a photoshoot, so I grabbed a few things and left with Dee. He took me to the house of an old hunter named Bobby Singer. Bobby's house was supposedly warded so that Sam couldn't find me, but after a day or two, he found us anyway." Lynn shifted in the bed, whether uncomfortable from the memories or the baby, Dean didn't know, but he was captivated by her story.

"Sammy told me that an angel had taught him to control the demon curse that had been put on him as as a baby. That the demon who killed Mom had possessed Dad and that was why he'd killed our father. Sam said that he was purified now and was that it was his destiny to be the vessel of a powerful angel. I thought he was in the middle of a mental breakdown until Dee tried to shoot him, and Sam was able to simply stop the bullet in mid air. Then Sammy flung Dee across the room into Bobby knocking them both out. As much as I loved my little brother, I didn't know what to think. He begged me to come with him, that together we could rule Heaven and Hell. He told me that his life at last had purpose and that he could finally take care of me and repay me for all the years that I took care of him." Dean could tell that she was lost in her memories, questioning her choices. Everyone wonders at some point if they made the right decision, but Dean had to reassure his quasi-sister.

"Hey, don't blame yourself. There were forces beyond your control at play here. What he was offering wasn't real." Lynn refocused on him and patted Dean's hand where it rested on the bed between them.

"I know." She gave him one of her warm smiles as she continued in a firmer voice. "As much as I wanted to go with Sammy to protect him, or save him or whatever, I knew things with Sam were out of control. He not only had these new powers, he seemed so confident, so full of purpose. But he'd killed our father, attacked our brother, and I couldn't be sure that he wasn't the puppet of some stronger force. Plus, I loved Alex and I couldn't leave the life we'd started together. I told Sammy that I loved him, but that I wanted no part in whatever he was doing." She sighed softly and her eyes grew soft and sparkled with unshed tears. "I remember that he smiled at me and caressed my cheek. Then he told me he was sad that it had to be that way, but that if either Dean or I tried to stop him, he would be forced to kill us. Then he got back in his car and left. That was the last time I saw him - well when he was still mostly himself." Lynn shook her head as if clearing away the bitter memory and patted Dean's hand again.

Dean had to ask, "So did Sam kill Dee?" Using Lynn's pet name for her older brother helped him to get some distance from the dead man who shared his name. It was hard enough to think of her version of Sam happily joining forces with Lucifer, but to think of Sam killing his brother...well it wasn't something he wanted to think about. He shook his head slightly to clear away that dark thought. Taking another deep breath, Lynn met his eyes and held them in her gaze. Her eyes had the same puppy-dog trick that Sam's did, they practically oozed love and affection.

"Yeah," she said sadly. "Dean called me just before he and Bobby went to try and stop Lucifer. He told me that Sam had agreed to let Lucifer possess him and that there was going to be this apocalyptic angel showdown at Stull cemetery. Dee thought that Sammy was beyond saving and that his only choice was to kill him before the angels destroyed the world. At the time, I didn't give a crap about the apocalypse or the angels. I only cared that my brothers were going to try and kill each other. So Alex and I jumped in the car to race there, but we didn't get within 10 miles of the cemetery. There was this crazy black smoke everywhere and people with oil black eyes running around. I know now that they were demons, but up until then, I'd never seen a possessed person. A few of them were starting to attack us when an angel showed up and killed them. He told us that his name was Castiel and that it was too late. Lucifer had already killed Dee and Bobby and we couldn't interfere in his fight with Michael. Then he put his fingers on our foreheads and poof - we were home again."

She looked tired, both emotionally and physically. Dean felt bad that he had asked her to share such painful memories when she was supposed to be resting. A soft knock on the door and Katie had stuck her head into the room. "Hey Lynn, how you holding up?," she had asked as she took her stethoscope from around her neck. Without waiting for a reply, she began to take Lynn's blood pressure. The redhead frowned as she took the reading and had given Dean a stern look. "Dean, Lynn really needs to rest right now." She softened her tone, "Melody has been driving me crazy, asking for one of your piggyback rides, do you think you could go amuse her for a few moments for me?" The hunter knew he was being shooed out of the room and given a gentle way out, so he smiled at both women.

"Sure Katie, I'll let you do your doctor thing and go find Mel." Looking at the woman in the bed, he could see that Lynn was already getting drowsy, the emotions of the last hour burning through her reserves. With a gentle squeeze of her hand, Dean said "You rest up Lynn, I want my sorta niece or nephew to be fully cooked before I meet 'em." He had left the room with a last saucy wink at the two woman, and wandered down the hall of the makeshift infirmary with way too much on his mind.

xxxxxxx

"Dean! Have you been listening." He dragged his thoughts back to the present, to find Nancy shooting him a pissed off look from across the table, while Max looked amused and Lynn looked concerned. Apparently he had zoned out while taking his trip down memory lane.

"Sorry, what?," he asked, not even sure who had called him back. Lynn repeated her question while Alex plunked a cup of coffee in front of him and laid a warm hand on his shoulder.

"Here, I think you need this. It's been a long night," Alex said quietly, his warm brown eyes crinkling at the corners. Dean had learned to appreciate his sort-of brother in law. The man was a deep thinker, intelligent, quiet and he seemed to notice everything. Alex was able to focus on the big picture and help get their rag-tag leadership team back on track when things got heated. His words were few but were thoughtful and his calm demeanor helped Dean manage his own impatience and frustration. For the hundredth time today, Dean missed Sam who also had the ability to calm him down and to think logically under pressure.

With that, Dean turned his attention back to the discussion, offering his thoughts on the strategies being debated. There would be time after this meeting to think about his family and worry about his brother in the privacy of his bunk.