Chapter 18: All Good Things

AN1: I hate to be the bearer of bad news, guys… this is the final chapter. I know, I know, I'm sad that it's ending too, but I hope everything closes up to your liking! It's pretty short, but that's all I needed. So enjoy! And don't forget to R&R!

-GNS-

"I promised you." Dean says, breaking the cover of silence that had fallen over us. He's standing a few feet away, rubbing the side of his head as if a headache was forming there.

"Promised me what?" I question, and he pauses to look up at me.

"I promised you that I wouldn't forget what happened. I told you that I would save you from—from this!" He cries, throwing his arm out towards me as he does.

"That wasn't on you Dean. You were a kid. You couldn't have just—forgotten, alright? Something had to make you. I know you didn't just neglect to remember everything you saw, I know you didn't just give up on me." I tell him, stepping up to him and resting a comforting hand on his shoulder. Staring into his eyes I continue, "I don't blame you, so don't blame yourself. It was always going to end up like this, right? We're alright. We can move past this mess or we can dwell on it for the rest of our miserable lives. I'd rather it not be the latter, okay?"

"Okay." Dean nods, sharply, before pulling away and turning his back to me, "I just don't know how I could have forgotten."

-GNS-

"Who the hell are you?" John asks sternly, standing still in front of his sons, who are passed out on the motel beds, like a shield.

The man with the cold blue eyes opens his mouth to speak, "I am Castiel, Angel of the Lord, I have been assigned with the task of erasing all of your memories of the past few days." He's standing there, rigid like a statue. No real life in him at all. He's possessing some poor soul by the name of Christopher Novak, if his nametag was any explanation. He had black, salt and pepper hair, and stood a half a head under John himself.

"You aren't going to do anything of the kind." John growls, sliding his colt out of the belt of his jeans.

"I am sorry to say that will be of no help to you." Castiel replies, disappearing before John's eyes. Suddenly he shows up again by the boy's bedsides.

"Sam will not remember any of this. It is damaging to know one's future world as he has." Castiel says, before placing two fingers on Sam's forehead. The sleeping figure shifts, but otherwise shows no indication on what has been done to him.

"Don't touch him!" John exclaims, firing a round through the Angel's back.

"I told you, that won't be of any help." Then he turns to Dean, and does the same. "Dean will remember, but not until much later in life, when he needs the memories again. He must not attempt to change their fate." Castiel explains. "I will go now."

"What about me?" John wonders, "won't you make me forget everything as well?"

"No." The angel states simply, tilting his head to the side. "It is imperative you remember these last days, and tonight also. It is what you have learned about your son and his fate from all of this that sets him on the path to get there. It is the cause of his resentment, his anger, his leaving. If I took your memory away, there would be no point in taking theirs. I know you will try to change what happens because of what you know, but remember: What we fight to control is most usually the thing that defeats us. Goodbye, John Winchester."

A flutter of wings and he is gone. John is left standing in the middle of the quiet room, more alone than he has ever been, with the weight of a secret he can never share.

-GNS-

"Do you think Dad knew?" I ask one day, as we're driving down the road. The sun is shining, the air is hot but the breeze is cool, and my arm is hanging out of the window as the world flies past us. It's a question I've thought about a lot since getting back, only now deciding to ask. Kansas is blearing out of the speakers and Dean cranks the music down so he can hear me.

"What'd you say?" He asks, cocking his head towards me.

"Do you think Dad knew? About those days I was there, everything I told him about our lives? Do you think he knew?"

"Probably, Sam. I remember noticing a difference in him after, I just never knew why. So yeah, I guess he probably knew something we didn't." Dean decides, tapping his fingers along to the beat against the steering wheel. He doesn't seem too bothered by the knowledge.

"D'ya think it would have changed anything? Had he not known, or had we all known, or something?" I breathe, staring out into the horizon as if I'm going to find my answer in the sunset.

"I think the real question you should be asking yourself, Sam, is does it matter? Would it really make a difference in how you felt about the life, or about the man himself?" Dean responds, glancing over at me.

"No," I say, "No, probably not."

"Then you shouldn't get hung up on wondering, Sammy. You can't go back and change things, so you just have to let it go." Dean advises, cranking the music back up.

We're driving toward the horizon, not another pair of souls in sight, and I've come to the conclusion that all good things must end. Even though it's not a sunset kind of day, I can't help thinking driving off the face of the Earth towards this particular sunset, would be a pretty good way to end.

-GNS-

Closing Remarks:

Throughout this story I've been both inspired to write more, and simultaneously been slapped in the face with the knowledge that all the world truly is a critic. I hope that everyone who read this story enjoyed it! Finally, I'd like to thank everyone who has commented on the previous chapter including: GingerTyPerior, sunshine102897, LeeMarieJack, and Eruthiawen Luin. I loved hearing from you all. Also, I'd like to give one final thanks to everyone who has read my story! Thank you all so much.