We agreed that they would come to us Friday night instead of Sunday as Dean didn't have class on Friday's and it would easy for him to meet Sam in the city and come over to us for dinner in the evening. This then left them the weekend for catching up on the course work that they had to do before the next week.
The next two months went by fast, Dean and Sam had settled into their routines at their universities and Friday night dinners were still going strong. It was Thanksgiving and Sam and Dean were due any minute, I had been cooking since early this morning and Will had taken the boys for a walk to get them out of the house for a while. I heard the front door opened and yelled "Will, you're back early I thought that you were going to be gone for another 30 minutes." I heard Dean yell back "Guys, you there. I've got a surprise for you." I walked into the hallway to see Will, Sam and Dean standing there looking likes 'cats that ate the cream'. I looked up as they all moved to one side and standing behind them was Bobby with a smile on his face "Surprise". I rushed forward and pulled him into a hug and said "It's great to see you. You've been missed around here. My boys need to see their grandpa." I asked Will "Did you know about this?" He said "Yes. We figured that it would be a great idea to have all the family here for Aidan and Cole's first Thanksgiving." I asked Dean and Sam "How did you manage to organise all this with your workloads. You've both been so busy with school and setting up the farm." Dean said "We borrowed the company jet and flew up to Sioux City and picked Bobby up and he has been hiding out at the farm since Sunday. It's been really helpful because he has been able to help with the research centre, he's catalogued and organised the books and has started creating a library of helpful websites as well. When you phoned earlier this week and asked about bringing the twins by I felt guilty about turning you down, but we didn't want to ruin the surprise."
By now everyone had taken their coats off, Will and I started to get the twins out of the stroller and Bobby and Sam asked "Can we help", I looked at them and said "Of course, you can." With that Bobby picked up Aidan, and Sam picked up Cole. We then walked into the dining room, where I had been in the middle of laying the table. Will and Dean asked "Is there anything we can do?" I looked at both of them and said "Can you finish laying the table and check what people want to drink; I need to go check on the turkey." Dean and I headed into the kitchen, so that I could check the turkey and start on the other parts of the meal to go with it. Dean grabbed drinks for everyone and headed back to the dining room to hand them around.
I put the water on for the vegetables and as I started to chop the carrots I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around to see John standing there. I dropped the carrot that I was holding and exclaimed, "John, what are you doing here? Last time I saw you I was unconscious and on the verge of dying. My aneurysm isn't about to burst is it?" John walked towards me and pulled me into a hug and I melted into his arms and broke down. Even when I had been on the verge of death, I hadn't felt his arms around me, and this brought all my memories back of my big brother and how close we were with none of the anger there from the last time. I stepped backwards away from John and I heard a gasp from the doorway, we both turned around to be confronted by Dean standing there with a look of complete disbelief on his face. I thought that he was concerned as he had overheard my conversation and thought that I was talking to myself, I was wrong.
Dean turned from looking at me to look at the place where John was standing. I could see a look of unease and hopefulness come across his face. I could sense that he wasn't sure that he was seeing was real but deep down wanting to believe it. Dean's hunter instincts were kicking in and both John and I could see that he was torn between leaving me alone in the kitchen with a 'ghost', staying there and finding out what was going on or going to get help. I picked up on his uncertainty and said "It's ok Dean. It's really John. I thought that I was dreaming it at first but it's really him." Dean walked towards John and grabbed him into an all encompassing Winchester hug. "Dad, what's going on? What are you doing here? Is someone in danger?" and he continued with a barrage of questions. John turned to him and said "I'll explain everything. Just give me a minute with your Aunt, will you. Can you go let Bobby, Sam and Will that there will be someone else at dinner." Dean left the kitchen and walked to the dining room fighting back his instincts to stay and find out what was going on.
After Dean left I walked back to the sink and continued preparing the vegetables for dinner, I needed to do something to calm myself down otherwise I feared that my powers would start to get out of control. After all the Winchester powers are linked to our emotions, it was a lesson I learnt at an early age and had taught Sam during our stay as Bobby's. John walked up beside me reached over and grabbed a carrot and started to chop it up as though it was the most natural thing in the world. The knife he was cutting the carrot with started to float away from him and he looked at me and said "Toni, I know you're upset with me but could you please give me back the knife. If you keep taking away the cutlery we'll never get dinner on the table."
I finished the vegetables, and put them on to cook and then I looked at him and said "Sorry, it's just you're here and last time I saw you I was close to death how can I not be emotional about that. And, how do you know it's me that's taking away the knife anyway!! You disappeared on me 26 years ago and haven't been in contact with me since then. Before you disappeared, I seem to remember you telling me that I was crazy and I was responsible for Mary's death. You never gave me the opportunity to explain what was happening and what I had found out from Dad and Uncle Sam."
John looked at me and took hold of my hand and said let's sit for a while I need to talk to you without the rest of the family around. He started with "I know I abandoned you and I've regretted that decision ever since. I did keep a track on you, I knew that you had been spending time with Uncle Sam and did some investigating to try and work out why. Once I found out why you were spending time with Uncle Sam I didn't know how to apologise to you. I kept track of you, I knew when you graduated and I even left the boys with Bobby for the weekend and came down to watch the ceremony. I was there in the back ground at Mum's and then Dad's funeral. You don't know how much I wanted to be there to support you for that. I just thought that I couldn't add the extra stress of dealing with me and our background at the same time as you were dealing with Mum and Dad's death. I even kept track of the men in your life, I did background checks on all of them and would have been there to protect you should anything ever of happened to you. I know that doesn't excuse me for leaving you or for blaming you for Mary. I love you and I love the fact that you have been able to provide my boys something that I never could a normal life. Sam tried to get away and get his normal but he was dragged back into it. Dean never managed that as I left him to look after Sam whilst I chased down the thing that took Mary. I then left them both on their own to deal with it and every other evil out there. I never meant for any of that to happen to them. I love my boys with everything that I have and I only ever wanted for them to be happy."
As John finished the statement I looked up and saw Dean and Sam standing in the doorway. John hadn't seen them yet I got up and walked towards the counter as Sam said "You were tracking Toni all this time and you didn't think to tell us we had relatives. When Dean told you in Manning, Colorado that I was having visions you didn't think to tell me that this is a family thing, all this time I've been thinking that this was linked to the thing that killed Jess and Mum. It wasn't, we still don't know why Azazel was coming after all of the children with gifts and why the Winchesters have been cursed like this." As Sam finished Dean turned to him and said "Sam, I've told you and so has Toni that the powers that you have are not a curse they are a gift and what you do with them is what will turn them into a curse." Sam looked at this brother and said "I know I'm sorry." Dean turned to John and said "We need to talk about all of this, but I can't do this now. Toni is there anything you need to do to get dinner on the table. The boys are starting to get hungry and so are Will and Bobby." I looked at him and said "the vegetables should be done in a couple of minutes, can you please pull out the turkey and put in on the tray to cool down ready for carving." Dean said "No problem", he headed for the oven, pulled the turkey out and put on a carving tray. Whilst he was doing that Sam headed to the stove to check the vegetables, pulled out a pan and started to make the gravy with the left over juices from the turkey pan. John looked at his boys with pride in his eyes and said "Ok, we'll continue this discussion over dinner and I'll let you know why I'm here."
Sam finished making the gravy, drained the vegetables into dishes which were taken into the dining room where we all sat down for a long overdue family conversation and a happy Thanksgiving.
