Author's Note: Thank you so much to Bree Chub, Julefor, and DaughterOfPoseidon333 for the wonderful reviews. And thanks to everyone who has favorited or story alerted this. I'm glad you are enjoying the ride. If you haven't figured it out, each chapter will have two parts: Our Dean in the AU followed by AU Dean in the real world. Hope it's not too confusing. Well... enjoy!

Chapter Three: More Questions Than Answers

Dean Winchester stepped out of the shower and wrapped the soft light blue towel around his waist. He couldn't remember the last time he'd taken such a wonderful shower. The water had been the perfect temperature and the pressure combined with the massage setting on the showerhead made for an awesome experience. And now, to top it all off, he got to dry himself off with one of the softest towels known to man. Maybe getting so excited about a shower was kinda chick-like, but damn it, he just didn't care. He had even been tempted to put on one of the cozy-looking bathrobes he'd found in the bathroom closet, but the thought that they belonged to someone else (even if that someone was sorta himself) made it a little too weird. On the other hand, he was gonna have to get over that since he was going to need something to wear. And speaking of which…

Dean stepped out of the bathroom and walked back down the hall to other-Dean's bedroom. Once inside, he closed the door and walked to the dresser. Pulling out the top drawer he saw neatly folded boxers on the right side and woman's underwear and bras on the left. Pulling out a pair of gray boxers, he shut the drawer and opened the next. Socks… both men's and women's. He chuckled when he noticed that while the guy had plain white or gray socks, his wife had obviously preferred printed ones. More than two thirds of the drawer was stuffed with holiday socks, and ones with cats, dogs, lizards, ladybugs, hearts, stars, and an assortment of other odd patterns. The next drawer had a variety of printed t-shirts. Dean grabbed a black Metallica shirt, then realized that it was actually one of Melissa's. He was beginning to like this chick. Putting it back, he pulled out the dude's version of the same shirt and snatched a pair of jeans from the bottom drawer. After getting dressed he stared at himself in the full length mirror. The head wound didn't look too bad now that the blood was cleaned up. He opened the closet and was disappointed that he didn't see that there weren't any flannel over-shirts. There were a few nice button down shirts, half-a-dozen ties, one gray blazer, and two hooded sweat-shirts (one black, one blue). On the plus side, it appeared that other-Dean didn't own any douche-y suits like the one Sam had on.

After pulling on his boots, Dean left the room and walked downstairs. He carefully took in his surroundings. If he had to pretend to be other-Dean he would need as much information as he could get. Lining the stairwell wall on the right were framed photos. A wedding photo of other-Dean and Melissa (she was a petite brunette with shoulder length hair, brown eyes, and an amazing smile), a picture of the two of them on a cruise ship all smiles and wind-ruffled hair, other-Dean with his arms around his obviously pregnant wife, a professional photograph of them smiling while a chubby six-month old sat in other-Dean's lap, the same little baby girl sitting in a high chair wearing a party hat with the number one on it, a newborn baby boy fast asleep in a bassinette, another professional photo but with the now two-year old girl in other-Dean's lap and a six-month old boy in Melissa's, and finally a picture of the two children taken approximately one year later. If it was recent, that put the children at about three and a year and a half. Which made sense if Jess was out picking up diapers.

The stairs led into the living room. The front door was about a dozen feet in front of him and a doorway on his left led into a spacious, well-lit kitchen. Dean stepped in just as Sam placed a platter of scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast on the table.

"Damn, that smells good!" Dean grinned as he took a seat and started filling up his plate. "Can I get a cup of coffee?"

"Sure." Sam replied, looking pleased as he filled a mug from the coffee pot. "I'm glad you decided not to skip breakfast again."

"See, told ya I was listening to you." Dean said around a mouthful of food.

"And thank you for that. I was really concerned about you. Speaking of which, how's your head doing? Do you need a doctor?"

"Nah, it'll be fine."

"Do you remember how that happened? Because if you don't, that might be a sign of a concussion."

"Uh, got up to pee last night and tripped. Hit my head on the corner of the night stand."

"Dude, that seriously makes you the world's biggest klutz."

"It was dark." Dean defended.

"Maybe you should borrow Nick's nightlight." Sam teased him.

Nick. That must be other-Dean's son. "Shut up."

Sam laughed as he sat down opposite of Dean and began to spread some jam on a piece of toast. "Oh, don't forget, Jess and I are going out tonight so you don't have to worry about making extra food for us. Actually, I think you promised the kids pizza and you know Rebecca will hold you to that. We'll be back late, so don't feel like you gotta wait up or anything." He paused, looking concerned. "You know what, we can stay in if you want us to. If you're not feeling well."

"Dude, go. Have fun, show the girl a good time. Or, you know, your lame version of a good time."

"You're a jerk, Dean."

"Yeah, and you're a bitch."

"What? Did you just call me a bitch?"

"Never mind." Dean replied quickly. For a moment he'd forgotten that this wasn't his Sam. "But, seriously, you should get out tonight. I'll be fine." Sam's absence would give him much needed alone time to try and figure out what had happened and how the hell he was going to fix it.

Before Sam had an opportunity to reply, the front door opened and Jess walked in carrying a small boy in one arm and holding a little girl's hand with the other. Seeing Dean, the girl (who was wearing purple jeans and a Hello Kitty t-shirt) pulled away from Jess and ran towards him, short brown pigtails bobbing with every step.

"Daddy!" she jumped up into his lap and threw her arms around his neck. She kissed his cheek enthusiastically before settling down in his lap. "Aunt Jess took us to the store. We got diapers for Nick, and milk, and bread cause I want a pea-butter samitch, and apples, and food, and I got these for you to make you happy." She held her hand out to Jess, who pulled a bag of M&Ms from her purse and handed them to the three-year old. The girl (Rebecca was the name Sam had mentioned) then gave them to Dean.

"Thanks." Dean smiled. "I feel happy already. And they'll be even better if you and your brother share them with me."

"Yeah!" She immediately agreed.

"After breakfast." Sam insisted.

"Aw, Unca Sammy, I want them now."

"Yeah, Uncle Sammy we want then now." Dean joined in.

"Yeah, great role model you are." Sam muttered.

Jess put the little boy down and he ran to Dean as well. "Up." He requested.

Dean pulled him into his lap, ruffling the little guy's spikey blonde hair. The boy (Nick) giggled, put him fingers into his mouth and began chewing on them.

"Hey, little dude, food's on the table. You don't gotta eat yourself." Dean was rewarded with more giggles.

When breakfast was done, Sam retrieved his briefcase, kissed his wife and headed out the door. Dean had managed to find out that Sam was a lawyer, Jess worked from home doing some kind of computer programming crap or something, Becca (as Dean learned other-Dean affectionately called his daughter) loved Disney channel and was quite proud that she had just finished potty training, Nick ate almost as much as his father and only spoke a few words, and that other-Dean was sorely missed at Lawrence High School, where he taught an automotive shop class. It was rather difficult to get information out of the others while not sounding like all of this was new to him. But he eventually came to the realization that, dead wife or not, other-Dean's life had turned out so much better than his own. It kinda hurt to think that all of this could've been his if only that yellow-eyed bastard had never darkened their doorstep.

The kids rushed into the living-room to watch a cartoon about four children flying around in a sentient rocket-ship. Jess started washing the dishes, telling him to take some time to relax while the little ones were busy. Dean gratefully accepted the offer and went back upstairs to other-Dean's bedroom. Sitting down at the desk, he turned on the computer and began searching the web for any of the classic signs that might indicate a demon had ever been in Kansas. He found nothing. As a matter of fact, he got the same results when doing a nationwide search. It seemed that either there weren't any demons hanging around this dimension or they just knew how to keep low profile. And there certainly had been no apocalypses in the last few years. But from what he could tell by articles and websites, there definitely were ghosts and other paranormal creatures out wrecking havoc. Which was good. Because that meant that maybe he could track down some kind of information on how he got here so that he could get to work on getting home. Because as awesome as this life was, it wasn't his. And his life, his brother, was waiting for him somewhere.

…

…supernatural…supernatural…supernatural…supernatural…supernatural…

…

Dean stared at Sam trying to figure out what the hell was going on. He wasn't sure how or why his brother had taken him to this crappy motel, but there was no way he was staying here. He had to get back to his children. They had just recently lost their mother and who knew how they would react when they found out that their daddy was missing. Sam had gone silent and appeared to be deep in thought, so with a shrug, Dean walked to the door, prepared to leave.

"Dude, where are you going?"

"Home, Sammy."

"You gonna walk there with no shoes?"

Dean looked down at his bare feet and sighed. "Are you offering me a ride?"

"Yeah, just give me a sec to pack up."

Half an hour later Dean sat in the passenger seat of a pretty sweet looking '67 Impala that Sam claimed he owned even though he had to hotwire it (and where the hell had he learned how to do that?). He wasn't sure where exactly they were and he was getting angrier at his brother and more worried about his kids by the minute. A cell phone rang and Sam answered it, holding it up to his ear. Dean wondered if he'd lost yet another blue-tooth device.

"Yeah? Bobby, hey, I need to talk to you but not right now…Look I'll explain later…uh, he's the problem…nope, not dead again…I said I'll explain later…no, look, we can't take a job right now…are there any other hunters around the area?...look, we really can't…kids? Oh, man...yeah, okay. We're on it. I'll call you later. Bye."

Dean didn't understand most of what the call was about, but he knew they had talked about him being some sort of problem and some job involving hunting and kids. "So, who was that?"

"That was Bobby."

"Yeah, I heard his name. Not deaf, you know. So who is he? A client of yours?"

"Uh, yeah."

"For a lawyer, you suck at lying, dude."

"Look, he wants me to look into a…ah, some kids that may need help."

"Help with what? And what does it have to do with hunting?"

"I'll get the details when I get there."

Dean knew he was getting the brush-off, but he was unsure how to get more information out of his little brother. And what the hell was going on with him anyway. Nothing was making sense. "Well, just drop me off at home and you can do whatever you like."

"Sorry, but we're closer to the job than your house."

Dean decided to try a new tactic. Asking nicely. "Sam, please tell me what's going on. Why did you bring me to that motel? Where are we? What kind of job are you taking on outside of your office? This just isn't making sense."

"I can't tell you right now, Dean. Trust me, you wouldn't even believe me."

"What the hell does that mean? Look, at least let me call home and assure Becca and Nick that I'm okay. They can't take anymore trauma right now. Please."

"I'm sorry, but I can't. We're here anyways."

As the car pulled up to the curb, Dean looked out the window at an old abandoned-looking apartment building. "This is the place? What are we doing here again?" He was getting tired of asking question that would most likely not be answered truthfully.

"We aren't doing anything. I'm going inside and you are going to wait here until I return."

"But…"

"I mean it, Dean. Don't move from this car." With that, the younger man got out of the Impala.

Dean watched him disappear into the building. Part of him was ready to leave Sam to whatever fate had in store for him. But the big brother part of him wouldn't allow it. He'd always looked out for his little brother and even Sammy's new found insanity couldn't change that. Growing up, Dean had taken self-defense classes and had learned from his ex-marine father so that he'd be able to protect his brother. Sam, on the other hand didn't want anything to do with fighting and was more that content to leave the rough stuff to Dean. So, if anything bad were to happen in that apartment building (and judging by the condition of both it and the neighborhood that was a real possibility) he'd need his big brother for backup.

Dean opened the door and climbed out, remembering not to lock it due to Sam's lack of keys. As he approached the door, he heard what sounded like children screaming, fear evident in their young voices. Without hesitation, Dean threw open the door and went inside. He was following the sounds of the children down the dilapidated hallway, when he heard his brother cry out in pain. Dean picked up an old piece of pipe that lay on the ground. He hadn't been there to save his wife, but he'd be damned if he'd let another beloved family member get killed.

Dean reached the door that the noises were coming from, kicked it open, ignoring the pain in his foot that reminded him that he was shoeless, and raised the pipe for attack. But he was completely unprepared for the sight that met his eyes. Six young kids were huddled in a corner staring in fear while Sam was being pinned to the wall by a grayish, humanoid creature. Parts of its skin that were visible (which was most of it's body as it was only wearing a pair of torn, dirty pants) were peeling off and its fingers looked more like claws. When it turned to face Dean he saw red eyes and a huge mouth filled with sharp teeth. Obviously deciding that the new person was more a threat than the injured one in its grasp, the creature threw Sam to the floor, hunched down low to the ground and sprung across the room to land only two feet from Dean, who was frozen in fear and disbelief.

Author's Note part two: So sorry for the cliff-hanger. Next chapter should be up soon. Please review.