TWO YEARS LATER

"Bobby, did you get more diapers when you went to the store earlier?" Hermione shouted down from upstairs.

"He did!" Dean answered back. "Give me a second, and I'll run them up there to you!"

Dean walked into the kitchen and picked up the box of diapers from the table. Being an uncle was probably one of the best things that had happened to him. He loved being a part of Hermione and his niece's life. He still went out on hunts, but he didn't travel too far from home. He didn't have the luxury of apparition like Hermione did. Now that his niece was over a year old, and Bobby was a lot more comfortable with her, Hermione was planning to start going back out on the road with him occasionally. Staying home and being mom was a nice change for her, but he could tell she was getting antsy to get back out into the field rather than researching. It had been almost two years since she had been on a hunt, having benched herself once she was pregnant, but since she could easily apparate out of danger, she was confident she could start hunting again. And he had to admit, he was anxious to get her back on the road with him.

Since Sam had been gone, it was really lonely out on the road by himself. He tried to give up hunting at the beginning. Live a domestic life with Bobby and Hermione. But he couldn't do it. After a month Hermione was shoving him out the door with cases in hand. He never stayed on the road long, though, always returning back home as soon as possible. And there was a period where Hermione was almost about to pop and then his niece's first couple months where he didn't leave at all. Those were probably some of his favorite times.

His niece was the spitting image of her father, and that at first felt like someone was stabbing him in the chest, but then after a while it became a comfort. To know even though his brother was gone, he could still see an almost carbon copy of his face every day. And when Hermione chose her name, Samantha, that was the icing on the cake.

He was about to head up the stairs when there was a knock on the door. He set the diapers down on the bottom stair and made his way to the front door instead. He threw it open, and grew angry. He reached into his pocket, and threw his flask of Holy Water onto the person in front of him. The man didn't even flinch.

"Dean, it's me."

"Fuck off," Dean said, pulling out his sliver blade.

"Seriously, it's me."

And then Dean lunged forward and sliced the copy of his brother's arm in front of him with the silver blade.

SUPERPOTTER

Sam winced as the blade sliced through his skin. Of course his brother wouldn't believe that he was who he said he was. It had been a long time. He wouldn't fault him for being suspicious.

"Are you done yet?" Sam asked.

"Who are you?"

"It's me, Dean, it's Sam."

Dean stopped and stared at him. Really started at him. It took him a minute. A solid minute before he crumbled before his brother. "Sammy?"

"It's me."

"What? How is this possible?"

Sam shrugged. "I don't know all I know is that I wasn't down there for long."

"What do you mean?"

"I…" Sam cut off, looking around Dean through the wide open door. Standing behind him was a toddler, for lack of a better word, toddling toward them.

"Dee!" the little girl squealed as she made her way toward his brother.

Dean bent down and scooped her up. "Hey, nugget. Did you make it down those stairs all by yourself? You're such a big girl!"

The little girl wrapped her arms around Dean's neck and squeezed. Dean squeezed her back. Sam stood there staring. Then, the girl turned and looked at him, and his heart stopped. There was no mistake. It was like looking at his own baby pictures, what little of them there were. He felt his chest tighten and his throat constrict as tears filled his eyes.

"Where's Hermione?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the little girl.

"Upstairs, I think. Our morning has been a little hectic. They usually are the day or so after I get back from a job. Combine that with Bobby out on a call, and then our routine falls apart."

"Grampa!" the little squealed at the mention of Bobby.

"Yes, Grampa is working today, he'll be back later," Dean said, his voice soft.

"How old is she?" Sam asked.

"Almost a year and a half," Dean answered.

"What's her name?"

Before Dean could answer he could hear Hermione calling from inside.

"Sammy?" he heard, "Love, did you make it down here? Dean have you seen…" she stopped as she came up to the door and caught sight of Sam. She brought her hand to her chest, and exhaled loudly. "Is it…"

"Yes," Dean said.

"You tested him?"

"I did."

"It's really you?" she asked.

"It's really me," Sam answered.

Hermione crumbled in front of him before closing the distance between them and throwing herself into his arms. He immediately wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight to his body, breathing in her scent. It had been too long.

"I must be dreaming," she murmured into his neck.

"Not dreaming, I'm really here."

"C'mon, Sammy," he heard Dean saying in the background, "let's go get some breakfast and leave mommy and daddy to catch up." And then a little louder, "I expect to be caught up on what happened and how you got out later."

Left alone the two pulled apart.

"Why didn't you tell me you were pregnant?" Sam asked.

"I was going to the day," she took a breath, swallowing hard. "They day you…"

"Fuck," Sam said. "I remember seeing you. Just before I…" he trailed off, his voice breaking. "But it was too late."

"Bobby called me and told me where you guys were. He had hoped I would be able to get through Lucifer to you. But I was too late."

"And you've been here? Since…"

Hermione nodded. "Yeah. Bobby insisted. And Dean. They didn't want me to go through this alone. They said I was family. And family sticks together."

"You got Dean to settle down?"

"Well, not exactly settle down. He still goes out on jobs, he just comes back here in between, and doesn't travel too far. In fact, we were just talking about me starting to go out on jobs every once in a while again."

"Wow," Sam said. "If I had known about our…our daughter," he said, "I would have come back sooner."

Hermione stood up straighter, "What do you mean sooner? How long have you been out of the cage?"

Sam pursed his lips. This was the part he had been dreading. "I was actually not in the cage as long as you probably think I was."

"How long?" Hermione repeated.

"It's been two years," Sam said, quietly.

"Two—" Hermione said, closing her eyes. "Two years? That's like since you were put in the cage."

"Yeah, I was brought out almost immediately."

"If you were brought out almost immediately, then why haven't you been around?" Hermione shouted.

"Because there was something not right!" Sam shouted back.

Hermione stared at him. "What?"

"When I got out, there was something not right with me. And it turned out that I was brought back without my soul. So I spent the last two years trying to get it back."

"And did you?" Hermione asked. "Get your soul back?"

Sam nodded. "I did. And as soon as I did, I came right back here, hoping that Bobby would know where you were. So the fact that you're here, and I have a daughter, it's just so much better than I thought it would be."

"Samantha," Hermione said.

"What?" Sam asked.

"Samantha, that's our daughter's name. I named her after you, because you were gone. And I wanted to honor your memory. So…Samantha Mary Winchester. Dean immediately nicknamed her Sammy, and that's what has stuck."

"I like it. I like it a lot. But I thought you couldn't have kids? What happened?"

Hermione smiled. "Well, I could get pregnant, but the pregnancy normally wouldn't progress. Apparently, Castiel got some promotion? So he helped me so that I wouldn't lose the baby this time."

"Wow," Sam said. "Divine intervention."

Hermione nodded. "Yeah, it's truly a blessing. Harder than anything I've ever done, but a blessing."

"Are you mad at me?" Sam asked.

"I should be."

Sam looked crestfallen.

"But," Hermione continued. "I think it would have been worse to have you here, but not have you, which is what I suspect it would have been like if you had come back right away, and so, I understand. I understand what you did. And right now I'm just too fucking happy that you're here."

Sam smiled, and then closed the gap between them, enveloping her in a kiss. Which she returned with a passion. After a few minutes they pulled apart.

"Want to go meet your daughter?" Hermione asked quietly.

"I would love to," Sam answered, just as quietly.

Hermione reached out for his hand, and led Sam into his future. His soul finally whole and renewed.