"There's a cop car outside," Sam says, looking out the window.
"You think it's for us?" I ask as I try to lean over far enough to see through the window. Damn gimp leg! I didn't have the hard cast anymore but the doctor had required me to wear this soft boot-like cast. It's removable for showers and baths and for that I am grateful. But what it also determined was for the next 6 weeks, I'm on research duty. Dean has been adamant about that and I can't help but agree. How can I fight and confront demons and monsters when I am still injured. Simple, I can't.
"I don't know," Sam replies, watching.
Dean speaks through the phone, which is on speaker, "I don't see how. I mean we ditched the plates, the credit cards."
The cop car drives away.
Sam sighs. "They're leaving. False alarm."
"Well, see you guys. Nothing to worry about."
"Yeah, being fugitives? Frigging dance party."
"Hey man, chicks dig the danger vibe."
"I heard that!" I say with a small smile on my face.
"Sorry," Dean apologizes, sheepishly.
I turn my attention back to the books about the demon, a Djinn. Sam picks up John's journal, open to the same subject.
"So you got anything yet?" Sam asks his brother.
"Are you kidding me? How could I? You two have me sifting through like 50 square miles of real estate here," Dean responds.
"Well, that's where all the victims disappeared," I tell him.
"Yeah well, I got diddly-squat. What about you?"
"Just one thing. We're pretty sure of it now." I pull one of the books closer. "We're hunting a Djinn," I tell him and Sam nods in agreement.
"A freaking genie?" Dean asks, laughter in his tone.
"Yeah."
"What? You think these suckers can really grant wishes?"
"I don't know. I guess they're powerful enough. But not exactly like Barbara Eden in harem pants. I mean, Djinn have been feeding off people for centuries. They're all over the Koran," Sam tells his brother.
"My God. Barbara Eden was hot, wasn't she? Way hotter than that Bewitched chick," Dean's voice is laced with desire.
"Now you're just trying to piss me off," I tell Dean, agitation heavy in my voice.
"Are you even listening to us?" Sam says, agitated also.
Dean clears his throat. "Yeah. So uh, where do the Djinns lair up?"
"Ruins usually. Uh. Bigger the better – more places to hide," I tell him getting back to the case.
"You know, I think I saw a place a couple miles back. I'm gonna go check it out."
"Wait – no, no, no, no, no. Come pick me up first," Sam pleads with his brother.
"Naw, I'm sure it's nothing. I just wanna take a look around.
"Dean, the only way to kill a djinn is a silver knife dipped in lamb's blood!"I tell him, trying to alert in to the danger of going after the djinn unprepared. "You got one of those just lying around?" I ask sarcastically.
"It'll be okay. I'm just going to look around," he tells me and hangs up the phone.
Sam lowers his hand with the phone in it and sighs.
"He just has to go in guns blazing, doesn't he?" I ask Sam.
"All the damn time," he chuckles
Dean's P.O.V.
I grab a flashlight from the trunk of the Impala and enter the deserted warehouse, swinging open the creaky door. There is what appears to be an abandoned office, with a typewriter, file cabinets, etc. There's a dripping water sound, but otherwise the building appears empty.
I look back and forth a few times, and then start walking back the same direction I came from but this time in the hall. On my left I a wall of clouded glass.
Suddenly something attacks me, pinning me against the wall of windows. I drops the flashlight when my attacker slams my right hand up against the wall. I get a clear look at the djinn; a bald man with curling blue tattoos all over its face. The djinn opens its left hand and it begins to glow in blue, at the same time that his eyes begin glowing. The djinn puts its glowing hand on my forehead and everything goes black.
I slowly open my eyes and the sight before me is foreign to me. The room is bathed in bright sunlight showing me the pale blue walls. I sit up and begin trying to figure out where I am. A sleeping figure shifts beside me and I can tell it's Nic and we must have had sex because what is not covered with the sheet is nude. I glance down and notice I'm naked too. Yep, sexy times. Wait, why can't I remember that? I always remember making love to Nic!
A noise in the opposite corner grabs my attention and that's when I notice, wait what? A baby crib? Whose baby is in the room with us? And where are we? I don't recognize my surroundings at all.
Nic begins moving more as the noises coming from the corner turn into piercing cries.
"I'm up. I'm up," Nic says sleepily. "Come on, DJ would it kill you to sleep past 7?" She continues as she slips a robe on and steps over to the cradle. Turning around she has a little boy with wide eyes, green in color same as mine and sandy blonde hair. The baby looks almost identical to what pictures of myself as a baby I remember before the fire. Nic notices me then.
"'m sorry, De. Did he wake you?"
"Uh, no. I was already awake," I tell her, looking between her and the kid.
"Good. You wanna go start the coffee or you want to be on diaper duty? And Julie will probably soon be up."
I grabbed the boxers that were in the floor on my side and pull them on. "Julie?" I ask, getting more confused.
"Your daughter, you dork," Nic answers me, handing the little boy to me. "I'll go start the coffee. Dad'll be here soon so get him changed and I'll feed them before they leave." She walks out of the room, slowly shutting the door behind her.
I have a daughter? Nic's dad is alive? This is apparently my son. Where the hell am I? What the fuck kind of prank is this?
I grab a diaper out of the diaper bag sitting beside the baby bed and lay him down on our bed.
"Ok, kid, I'm going to need you to work with me. I've never changed a diaper before." The little type looks up at me and blows bubbles. I open the snap on his clothing and gently pull his legs out.
I paid close attention to my movements as I removed the wet diaper, knowing I would have to reverse the process to get a dry one back on. As soon as I letter the front of the tail end, though the kid let go and pissed right on me, hitting me in the chest.
"Oh come on dude, really?! You peed on me!" I grabbed the edge of the bed sheet and wiped myself down, hurrying to put a diaper back on him before the geyser erupts again.
In the kitchen, Nic was pouring cereal into a bowl in front of a little girl with brown pigtails and green eyes identical to mine. Seeing me, she put her hands over her eyes and giggles. "Daddy's naked." I look down and yep, I'm still in just my boxers.
"Dean, will you please go get dressed. My dad will be here any minute and I know he doesn't want to see you in your skivvies," Nic tells me, taking the kid from my arms and putting him in a high chair. "I don't mind it though," she whispers and winks at me.
"Uh, yea okay," I say, turning to go the way I had just come from. "Oh, you might want to change the sheets. Little man got me good this morning."
Nic and Julie both laughed loudly as I retreated to the room to get dressed.
"Dean!" I heard Nic yelling my name as I pull a shirt over my head. "Dad's here. Can you bring the diaper bag down when you come?"
I pick up the bag and notice it's embroidered with the name Dean on it. So DJ is Dean Junior, I think to myself. Dean Winchester, Jr. "Oh, dear lord tell me I didnt let her give that child my middle name," I whisper to myself.
The man standing in the entryway was no doubt Nic's father. They had the same color hair and eyes the same color and shape. He was a well-dressed man, medium build wearing wire-rimmed glasses.
"Hey there Dean." He greets me while Julie is hanging onto his pant leg.
"We going to the park today, Papa Gary?"
"We sure are. You can swing on the big girl swing again," he tells her, running his hand over her hair. "Papa Gary will even push you if you want."
"YES!" Julie cheers and runs to put her shoes on.
"So, Dean, what are you and Nic gonna do with a house all to yourselves?" her dad asks me, catching me off guard. I don't know what the plan is. Is this a one-time thing. Do we not get time to ourselves much?
All the questions that go through my mind begin to give me a headache so I just shrug and answer, "We'll see."
Apparently Nic had plans of doing absolutely nothing, as she put it, while we were lounging on the couch, "No little terrors to chase and keep up with. I'm going to relax and enjoy the peace and quiet."
I sit on the other end of the couch where she places her feet in my lap. I begin rubbing from her toes to her heel and she moaned.
"De, as much as I'd love to let you continue pampering me but don't you need to meet your parents and brother?"
I jerk my head towards her. My parents? My parents are alive? Both of them? "Uh, yea, I guess I should go to the, uh-"
"Your childhood home Dean. What has gotten into you?" She asks me sitting up and dragging her feet out of my lap. "The party isn't going to plan itself, you know."
Now, I'm confused again. "Party?"
"Sam and Jess' graduation party, duh!"
"Oh yea, that. Right." I pretend to know what she's talking about. "Wait, you aren't coming?"
"Dean," she says, exacerbated. "How many times do I have to tell you. Sam does not want me there."
I am completely caught off guard. Sammy and Nic get along. I've witnessed it. Sammy has told her that she's like the sister he never had.
"Oh, okay. Well, I guess I should head over then," I say. The thought of Sam and Nic not getting along shocks me, making me feel ill. She's the mother of my children, his niece and nephew. How can Sam not want her around?
The whole time I'm with my family at house I apparently grew up in, I can't seem to get what Nic told me out of my head. Yes, seeing my mom and dad together, as a loving couple is calming but as I look at Sam I can't help but wonder what is it that he has against her. I glance down at my hands and see a gold band on my left ring finger. Nic is my wife. Not only do we have kids together, we are married so why do she and Sam not get along?
"Dean, honey?" Mom says, bringing my attention back to the table. "I asked you if you wanted some pie. I got cherry," she tells me, knowing I can't resist pie.
"Yea, sure Mom." That sounded crazy, calling my mom Mom to her face. I haven't talked to her in 23 years yet here she was offering me pie as we discussed Sammy's college graduation.
"How's my Jules?" Dad asks me as mom heads to the kitchen. I smile at the apparent nickname my dad has for my daughter, his granddaughter.
"A firecracker, as usual," I tell him, hoping that's the right answer seeing as I don't really know my own daughter all that well.
"That's my girl," John Winchester laughs, taking a sip of his now lukewarm coffee. I see Sam roll his eyes and that does it. I have to know why my own brother dislikes my wife.
"What is your problem dude?" I ask him. "What do you have against Nic?"
"Ugh, not this again Dean," Sam says, irritation thick in his voice.
"Oh please enlighten me again. Why do you despise my wife,Sam? My. Wife!" By this time, I am livid.
"You know why, Dean!" He yells at me across the table. "She wouldn't be your wife if you had just listened to me! She used you but you're so blindly 'in love'." He uses air quotes when he says in love. His admission startles me. What the hell is he talking about? How the fuck did she use me? What for, I'm just a measly hunter with hardly anything to my name.
"That's enough!" Mary Winchester states from the doorway. "Sam, she is your brother's wife and the mother of his children. You might not care for her but you will show some respect for her while under my roof."
Sam huffs and sits back, crossing his arms.
The discussion of why my baby brother has such hostility towards my wife is tabled for the time being. But I plan to bring it up again once we are away from Mom and Dad. I just can't fathom a world where Sam and Nic don't get along. One where Sam loathes the actual idea that I could not be in love with Nic.
That logic has my thought process skidding to a stop. I'm in love with Nic? Yea, okay she is damn hot and yea, we have been sleeping together. And it's true, I haven't went out looking for a release since she came into our lives. Hmmm, well I couldn't do any better, that's for damn sure. Hot, sexy as hell, great in bed, and a badass hunter who knows the life. Yea, she is the girl of my dreams.
After the party planning was complete, I left and headed toward my home with Nic. I couldn't wait to tell her I love her; that I was in love with her. Thoughts of her reaction to my declaration filled my head so that I almost rammed the car in front of me as it came to a stop at the light. I sat there surveying my surroundings while images of making love to my wife while confession my love for her permeated my brain. The people walking by on the street, the man on the bicycle, the drivers of the passing vehicles they were all faceless; all that I could see was Nicole Winchester. My wife; my lover; my friend. I smiled at the realization that I was happy with that reality. Nic was my best friend.
I didn't even realize I was staring until it was almost too late. But the girl's dull eyes caught my attention and brought me back to the present. Standing there at the corner, she was dressed in a flowing off-white dress but her skin had an ashy pallor to it and her hair was knotted and tangled. She couldn't be no more than 20 years old. Pulling to the curb, I quickly parked and jumped out to check to see if she needed help. A speeding vehicle passing by, blasting their horn causes me to look away from her to the obnoxious driver. When I return my attention to the young woman, she is no longer there. I glance around, trying to find her with no luck. Thinking maybe I just imagined it, I retreat to my car and head home.
At home, Nic is washing bottles and dancing in spot at the sink to the radio. I lean against the door jamb and watch. Her body hasn't changed much, even after two kids. Her hips are a bit wider but only someone who intimately her body, like me, would notice. Her curves are just as pronounced as before and the muscles in her calves...Mmm, call me crazy but those muscles turn me on. Feeling them squeeze around me as I'm pumping into her, yea ok let's not go there. I still have to find out what is going on with my parents being alive, Nic's dad alive, and what the hell went down between her and Sam.
She turns and is startled by me but she tries to hide it with a smile. Damn, she is beautiful; her smile lights up her whole face. I return the smile and push myself from the frame toward her. "You know how beautiful you are right now?" I ask her, watching her cheeks blush pink. She approaches me after drying her hands on a towel and tiptoes up to kiss me. "You're biased," she tells me with a giggle.
"Nope, just telling the truth," I reply, swatting her ass as she walks past me.
"Dean, what has gotten into you?"
"Just enjoying what's mine."
I follow her to the bedroom as she begins stripping off her clothes. She glances back at me as she walks, naked toward our bedroom.
I awake with a start. Laying in the same bed, I woke in earlier, I hear voices coming from inside the house; kid voices, my children. I get up and get dressed, excited to see my daughter and son again. I open the closet to get another flannel. I can't find the one from before; Nic is probably wearing it. She likes wearing my shirts, I know this because she's told me before.
The scene before me stuns me. Instead of clothes and shoes that I expect to find behind the door, I see two female corpses, tied up with ropes, hanging by their wrists. A sound causes me to turn around and I am face to face with the young girl I saw on the street earlier. Except this time she has a bleeding gash on her head. She opens her mouth to speak but suddenly she flashes and disappears. I return to the sight in my closet only to be met with the view of a normal closet. Am I losing my mind? I grab a shirt and head out to find my family, hoping that whatever is going on doesn't touch their innocent little lives.
"Honey, you sure you'll be okay watching the kids while Dad and I go to the memorial?" Nic asked me as she was cleaning up DJ's high chair. Julie was off somewhere playing quietly and my son was sitting happily on my lap, jabbering and blowing spit bubbles.
"Uh, yea definitely," I answer her but have no idea what she is talking about. "They're my kids too, ya know." I grin at her but she just stares at me in disbelief.
"I know that, Dean but today I just want to be able to mourn without worrying about my children."
"Nic, we will be fine. I promise." I internally hope that we'll be fine. I've never dealt with kids, except for Sammy when we were growing up. And that was a long time ago though.
The doorbell rings causing her to look at the time. "Geez, there's dad and I'm not even close to being ready," she says, running out of the kitchen. "Can you let him in?"
I pick my son up and place him on my to the front door, I look into the living room to see Julie engrossed in some kids program on the t.v., oblivious to anyone or anything.
I open the door to let Gary in. "Hey there, Gare. She's running a bit behind. Come on in."
"Thanks, Dean."
From the pitch in his voice and the red-rimmed eyes, I can tell he's already been grieving, but what I don't know.
"I appreciate you doing this for us, Dean," Gary tells me. "I can't believe it's already been a year. Feels just like yesterday. They still haven't figured out what caused the plane to crash. I still see Irene as she walked to her gate to board. You don't know how many times I've wished I would've told her not to go. I never thought I'd lose my wife to a plane crash. A flight she had taken numerous times!"
Oh God, Nic's mom died in a plane crash. How terrible! "Yea, yea, sure. No problem at all, " I tell him, trying to sound comforting.
"Before I forget, here's the information where well be at if you need to get in touch with us for some reason," he tells me, handing me a postcard size leaflet. I take it and look down to read it but before I can DJ begins whimpering, alerting me that he was ready for a bottle and nap.
I'm feeding our son when Nic leaves, kissing each of us and promising to be back as soon as she can. I get DJ down for a nap and Julie settled with a Disney movie I have never heard of when I remember the information sheet Gary had given me.
Picking it up the first thing I notice is the title line: United Brittania Flight 424 Remembered. Underneath is a list of names; 108 to be exact. No, no, this isn't right! Sam and I stopped that crash. It had been a phantom traveler but we exorcise it and saved the flight!
I rush to the office and flip open the laptop to begin my search.
Nine Children Comatose... Mystery illness baffles doctors at Dane County Hospital.
Parents mutilated in bed ...Brutal double homicide in quiet residential area causes shock.
Girl Drowns in Hotel Pool...Mother devastated after discovering daughter drowned.
Everyone of them! Everyone Dad saved; everyone Sam and I saved. Every single case we have worked for the last year and every single soul we saved gone. Just gone, like we were never there. Like we never saved them. I now knew something was up. This was not the reality I knew. This fucked up existence wasn't real. As much as I adored the fact that I was married to Nic and our children; as much as I enjoyed having my parents together, alive and well I knew I couldn't stay in this life. I had to get back to the real one. The one where Nic and I were just dating; Nic and Sam were as thick as thieves when it came to hunting and research and keeping each other, including me, safe.
I knew what I had to do. I searched all the drawers in the kitchen, finding a wooden box of silver flatware, a large knife safely tucked away. Getting lamb blood was going to be a task but there was that butcher shop right down the street, maybe I could come up with a reason to need lamb's blood.
Okay, so the butcher now thinks I'm some type of Satanist and I'm sure will warn people to stay away but if this works, I won't be here to deal with that. A niggling thought of leaving my wife and kids crosses my mind but I remind myself that Nic is back there in the real world and she's waiting for me. She's mine already and maybe one day, Julie and little DJ can exist there too.
I dip the knife into the jar of lamb's blood and watch as the excess drips off the end. There is an old wives tell that goes something like: "If you are about to die in your sleep, your body will wake you up in reaction". I just hope and pray that it's true.
I'm about to plunge the knife into my chest when my phone rings. The caller id shows Sam is calling. I put the knife on top of the refrigerator and answer.
"Hey Sammy."
He sighs in my ear. "It's Sam. Sammy is the fat kid who gets his lunch money stolen and gets stuffed in his locker," he deadpans.
I chuckle at his analogy. "Ok. Sup?"
"I was gonna head over to talk to you, if that's okay?"
"Sure. DJ's down and Julie is infatuated with some Disney movie, so come on over."
"Be there in ten."
Sam enters when I open the door and follows me to the kitchen. "So, what ya need to talk about?"
"I want to apologize," he begins. "Mom reemed me good after you left. Seems I got all my information about Nic wrong. I thought she used you to get rid of that ex who was stalking her. I thought you killed him, bro."
I'm shocked at this revelation. Even in my world, I wouldn't kill another human. Not purposefully anyways. Sure there have been the ones who were rode so hard by demons that once the evil entity fogged out, their bodies couldn't handle the stress of what had happened. But that wasn't my fault!
"Mom told me Patrick had actually been arrested and put away for stalking Nic and a few of his other exes. I'm sorry, Dean. If I made your life hell for not trusting your wife."
I am relieved to hear his confession. But it still didn't make what I had to do any easier.
"Sam, I forgive you." I tell him. "But this isn't real. This life we're living here, it's not the truth. Our lives are nothing like this. We are hunters; you and me and Nic. We hunt the things that aren't supposed to exist. We put our lives on the line daily to save people. To save the world."
"Have you been drinking Dean?" Sam looks at me bewildered. "What the hell are you talking about? We've never been hunting a day in our lives."
" 'm sorry, Sammy. I can't stay here. " I move to the fridge and grab the knife. I thrust the blade into my chest as Sam screams my name. "Dean!"
Sam screams my name again. I try to open my eyes but it takes so much energy. My shoulders are aching and there is a pinprick in the side of my neck.
"Oh God. Come on," I hear him exclaim and then feel him shaking my body. "Hey. Wake up. Wake up, damn it! Don't you dare die. Don't you leave me and Nic!"
I grunt a little, forcing my eyes to open and to focus on Sam.
"Hey," Sam says, then notices I'm awake. "Hey." He smiles at me.
"Ahh... Auntie Em. There's no place like home."
"Thank God," Sam sighs. "I thought we lost you for a second. He reaches and pulls a tube from the side of my neck.
"You almost did," I wheeze out, my body starting to come to and feel the ache and pain in it.
"Oh god," he breathing heavily. "Let's get you down."
Sam reaches up and starts to cut through the rope as I wince due to the pain and grunt a little. I see two bright blue eyes next to Sam in the shadows, and the djinn approaches him.
" Sam! Watch out!"
He turns around, going after the djinn with a knife. The djinn grabs Sam and gets him to drop the weapon . I try to pull myself loose, pulling on the rope that Sam had begun cutting. The djinn gets the upper hand on my baby brother and is holding him by the throat. The demon's hand is glowing blue, and he is moving it toward Sam's forehead, but Sam is struggling, pushing against his wrist and trying to stop him. The djinn opens his fist and blue light begins to appear around his hand. I fight to break the cords binding me up; I have to save Sam!
The frayed strands finally break and I grab the knife Sam dropped.
The djinn's blue-glowing palm is incredibly close to Sam's forehead as I grip the blade handle and thrust it into the back of the demon. The glow fades out and the djinns chin drops to its chest. I pull the knife out and watch the body drop to the ground, dead.
Sam is having a hard time taking in breaths from being strangled and I'm sure I look close to death myself. I turn around and see the girl from my vision in my dream-state.
I walk up to the girl amd check for a pulse. A tear rolls down one of her cheeks.
"She's still alive! )" I tell to Sam, who finally has joined me. I hand the knife over to him and pull out the tube in her neck as Sam cuts her rope. I catch her as she comes down.
"I gotcha. I gotcha. We're gonna get you out of here, OK? I gotcha," I try to comfort her as she makes small wheezing sounds. "I got you."
END DEAN'S P.O.V
I'm sitting on the bed with my ankle propped up when the boys return. Dean's walks in and makes a beeline straight to me. He sits back against the headboard and grabs my hand, lacing our fingers. "Missed you sweetheart, " he says, kissing my knuckles.
"Missed you too Dean," I look over at him. The way he is staring overwhelms me. The emotions in his eyes, staggering. I can see adoration, respect and dare I say, love, in those jade green orbs.
Sam walks into the room a few minutes later, on the phone. "OK, uh, thank you so much for the update. OK, bye." He hangs up.
"That was the hospital. Girl's been stabilized. Good chance she's gonna pull through," he tells us.
"That's good.," Dean confirms.
"Yeah," he pauses, noticing us on the bed, cuddled together now "How 'bout you? You all right?"
Dean clears his throat before answering. "Yeah, I'm all right. You should have seen it, Sam. Our lives. You were graduating college with Jess; Mom and Dad alive, still living in our house," he pauses and looks at me. "Your dad was alive."
My eyes bug out of my head, "Really?" He nods and then pulls me tighter to him when he notices the tears.
"So we didn't get along then, huh? Me and Nic?"
"Nah," I can tell he is holding something back, but no clue what it could be.
"I thought it was supposed to, to be this perfect fantasy?" Sam asks, sitting on the other bed.
"It wasn't. It was just a wish. I wished for Mom to live. That Mom never died, we never went hunting and you and me just never uh... you know."
"Well how did I got in on your wish. If you never started hunting, how'd we meet? How'd we know one another?"
"Um I don't know. You were just there," he tells me but don't make eye contact. He is actually looking at Sam, having one of their silent brotherly conversations.
"Yeah. Well, I'm glad we do. And I'm glad you dug yourself out, Dean. Most people wouldn't've had the strength, would have just stayed."
"Yeah. Lucky me," Dean says, almost sounding reluctant. "I gotta tell you though, man. You know, you had Jess. Mom and Dad had..." he doesn't finish his sentence as he glances at me.
"Yeah, but... Dean. It wasn't real," Sam attempts to assuage his brother.
"I know. But I wanted to stay," he says, looking sad and lost. "I wanted to stay so bad. I mean, ever since Dad. All I c– all I can think about is how much this job's cost us." He pauses. "We've lost so much. We've...sacrificed so much."
"But people are alive because of you. Dean scoffs as I tell him this. "It's worth it, Dean. It is. It's not fair, and you know, it hurts like hell, but it's worth it." I tell him, thinking of my own dad, missing him. Wondering why he was in Dean's dream life. Dean never even knew my dad, only pictures I'd shown him.
Dean and Sam share another look and then Dean shakes his head, pensively, looking down. I consider asking what all the looks and private conversations were about but decide against it. I'm just happy to have Dean safe and sound, back in my arms again.