Just for a moment time seemed to stand still in the Bunker.
Dean breathed in deeply… the scent… that scent. The one he had dreamt of. The one he just missed so much…
He was here… Samuel was here…
With that scent… and that body…
And those lips that just knew seemed to know where he was soooo sensitive…
Dean wanted those lips…
He started to tilt his head up, stretching up towards his younger but taller mate, breathing in as he did…
And Samuel bent forwards in return, leaning down with seemingly the same intent, inhaling his beloved and much missed omega's aroma as he did…
But then the both of them were distracted as the perfection of that moment was blurred suddenly by the intrusion of two other scents…
Dean's attention was caught by an almost overpowering sickly-sweet aroma… but even that scent was being overwhelmed by the stench of sweat, exhaustion and unadulterated terror. "Johnny?" And the omega was pulling away from his mate to instead hurry forward to wrap comforting arms around the young man. "Oh my god, you're in Heat!"
"I just presented!" The other suddenly burst out as a whole afternoon of emotions threatened to swamp him. "It came out of the blue! I tried to get home from school but three Alphas caught the scent and nearly… and then Samuel had heard the message I desperately left on the home phone and he got there in time to pull them away enough that I could snatch myself from their grasp and then he grabbed my hand and we ran and we ran and then there was just this bright blue light…!"
It had all been too much. Johnny burst into tears and buried his face into Dean's shirts, soaking the man's clothes through to the chest in moments. "It's okay, hey, it's okay," He said soothingly and rubbed gently at the brand new omega's back…
And at exactly the same time, Samuel had taken that breath and scented… the sweetest aroma that he had ever known… a mixture of his beautiful soul mate and the slightest musk of… himself…
He didn't need to look around to know that it was his daughter.
"Evie", he breathed and went to his knees even as the little girl raced into his arms.
"Daddy Samuel! You're finally here!" And then they were both crying as well.
Sam and the Angel stared at the scene, then glanced at each other in consternation: neither knowing what to do or say… or even if they should be there at all…
But then Dean was recovering from his shock and taking charge. "Johnny, you're going to need supplies. Cas? Can you go and get…" He paused and thought about who he was asking. "No, actually… Sammy? Please can you go and get similar items to those you … erm…. you bought for me? To see me though my Heat, I mean?
Cas, can you help me set up a room for Johnny? Like now please? Before the Heat gets too much for him again?
And Samuel?" He couldn't help his voice from cracking slightly as he spoke the name… his name. Sam felt his eyes well up at his big brother's obvious emotion. "You just… you just get to know our daughter."
Samuel carefully stood up with the little girl in his arms… not that Evie would have let go of him even if he had wanted her to, so tightly was she wrapped round him with all her limbs… and smiled at his beautiful mate. "She's as perfect as she has been in my dreams. And you? You're amazing. I'm never leaving either of you again!"
Dean grinned back at him. The air in the Bunker got charged with sudden extremely sexual tension… Castiel got ready to grab the younger Winchester and the two children and get them out of there before their brains all got scarred and memories needed to be bleached away… and then the moment was gone.
"Sam! What are you waiting for? Go and get the stuff! Come on, Johnny, let's get you sorted out! Cas? We need clean sheets and covers, and bring some bottles of water…"
"On it!"
And they were all hastening to obey immediately.
It took Johnny four days before he was able to come out of the room that had hastily been made up for him. Four days where only Dean had gone in to see him, bearing trays of food and bottles of water and clean bedding… and bringing out lots of drenched and stinking sheets that all went immediately into the washing machine.
And for nearly the whole four days, Castiel had found himself either lingering in the adjacent room or sitting right outside Johnny's room, listening to the desperate moans and cries with the same helpless feeling as he had had with Dean's first Heat.
He was an Angel of the Lord for goodness sake – why couldn't he do anything to help the suffering young man? How the angel wished that he could somehow take the pain away. He felt so inadequate, despite his best friend's assurances that this was apparently going well. He just hated to hear the young man's distress: just the sound of it felt like almost physical blows to the listener outside.
But finally it had passed.
The rest were all sitting around the table in the kitchen area when Dean led the freshly showered, still tired and somewhat embarrassed young man in to join them: "Scoot up, Sammy! Give us some room!"
His brother duly did, good-naturedly pushing the laptop out of the way that he and Samuel had been looking at together on.
He had been nervous about talking to Dean's Alpha at first. Not only had he been worried that he might say or do something that might cause friction between them… and for probably the first time ever in his life, Sam Winchester was acutely aware that his needs wouldn't be the priority concern for Dean and that rather… probably… definitely… the older man would put his mate and daughter first… but also… Sam really hadn't known what to say, or what he and Samuel might have in common with the exception of the afore-mentioned mate and daughter…
But he had quickly realised that the younger man was incredibly intelligent, very well educated, and also wanted to know everything about the world that he and Johnny had just managed to get to!
Samuel was already a fully-qualified teacher in the parallel world. He had switched from wanting to become a lawyer like his father when he realised that it might be better to try to educate the youth of the world (or at least America) in how to respect omega's more and treat them as equals, than to fight for years for legislation that would possibly go over the heads of the still mostly uninterested masses.
When Sam had marvelled (genuinely) at Samuel's achievements despite his still relatively young age, the Alpha had simply pointed out that the act of Presenting in itself always led to a sudden rapid maturing of that world's men and women which was only increased by the act of finding and mating, especially if there was a large age difference between the two new spouses. Although he was only just coming up to his twenty-second birthday, he looked (and acted) as mature as a twenty-six or twenty-seven year old… (and in Sam's silent opinion, was far more mature already than Dean would probably ever be!)
But more importantly… the genuine love that shone in Samuel's eyes when he looked at or spoke about his mate or their daughter had immediately endeared him to the younger Winchester… and seeing the same look in the Dean's face and his uncharacteristic almost shy, slight blushes and genuine smile and warmth whenever his Alpha turned in his direction… suffice it to say that Sam very much approved. His big brother should always have been allowed to be this happy.
He was less sure about how he himself should be acting around Dean. Sam was the first to admit that he had gotten far too close to his brother in the last few years when it came to physical contact. Although he told himself that initiating small touches had been only in the name of 'helping' the older man adapt to accepting what he now was, the younger brother was uncomfortably aware that the benefits had been as much for himself as well.
And now? With Samuel there?
Sam found himself reaching out distractedly to stroke Dean's hair when they were sitting next to each other at the table; to lightly keep the hand at the back of the older Winchester's neck or at the small of his back when they were walking together or standing close; to put his arms around his big brother and pull him close at the slightest hint of unhappiness, or tiredness, or excitement, or laughter, or… well… to put it bluntly, it was really taking a conscious effort for Sam to keep his hands to himself!
Dean wasn't his to touch.
Not anymore.
(Not that he ever was…)
But definitely not now that Samuel was here.
And he would never do anything to lessen his brother's happiness at that fact in any way. Nor to cause any friction between his new brother-in-law and himself for any reason: Sam loved both Dean and Evie far too much to risk not being allowed to be in their lives.
So he fought down every instinct to even point in Dean's direction. Just in case.
He saw Castiel having the same problem: the angel's fingers twitched every time Dean was near to him.
And both of them, man and angel, were very aware of the young Alpha's sharp eyes noting it all.
"Here." Sam moved himself to the corner of the table to make room. "Good to see you up and about, Johnny."
"Yeah Squirt!" Samuel grinned at his little brother. "How are you feeling?"
"Shut up." The new omega grumbled. But his eyes lit up at the sight of the chicken and chorizo lasagne that Dean was now taking out of the oven: "My favourite! You remembered! The only thing better was your… Oh our Lady! You made chocolate chip muffins as well! I'm in heaven!"
And, just as the omega had planned, the traumatic last four days was forgotten with every forkful of food.
The conversation was kept light as they ate, and for the next couple of days as well while Johnny recovered fully. All the adults felt that a serious conversation would be coming, and coming soon… but there was an unspoken agreement that it could wait just a little while longer…
Besides, Samuel wanted to escape the Bunker at least once and take his daughter to the park, and to get ice cream, and to buy her a new dress (to Evie's genuine disgust: she wanted some trendy new denims and a jacket to match her dad's, and her new-found father was taken aback the first time he got the full focus of her wrath!) and take his beautiful mate out on a date to show him off… which Dean was very nervous and anxious about, to be seen out in the streets with a handsome younger man who simply wanted to hold his hand, but also, he had to go and ask his boss if he could have some short notice time off as something unexpected had come up and could he have his pay packet please… and then he was dumbfounded as all his friends at work simply laughed, exchanged monies that they had won from each other re the information that he was with a man amidst numerous jokes about that they 'knew he had been over-compensating for something' and then had promptly bought the both of them numerous drinks…
… and then upon them eventually leaving the bar to head to get a meal, they had accidently run into the elderly lady from the Post Office that Dean had always good-naturedly flirted with for the last few years, and her friends, all of whom he had good-naturedly flirted with for the last few years… and instead of being horrified at the male omega (not that they knew he was a male omega), they had rather gushed over how gorgeous Samuel was, and how they made such an good-looking couple, and how did he manage to snag such a sexy man (this was said to both of them!), and where had Dean been hiding him all this time?
And why?
And were they staying around?
And more importantly, where could all the ladies find an equivalent handsome young man for themselves?
Sam couldn't help but laughing as his somewhat shell-shocked brother brought the rather intoxicated young Alpha back to the Bunker, (although strangely Dean himself not only seemed completely sober for once but even didn't have the slightest whiff of alcohol on his breath), complaining bitterly of his horror and embarrassment that, as even though he had finally been brave enough to dare to start to admit that there might be… maybe… the slightest possibility of him being… perhaps… bisexual… it had only actually been greeted as proof positive for everyone else in the town's seemingly previously held opinion!
(And, luckily unknown to Dean, the subject, and sighting of the two of them together, was to become just about the whole topic of conversation discussed around Lebanon for the next few days at least.)
The younger Winchester had enjoyed the look of abject horror on his elder brother's face so much that he had nearly forgotten himself and had laughingly moved to hug the increasingly grumpy-looking omega tightly… only to realise at the last moment that that was probably not the most sensible thing to do. Especially with a drunk, very strong and probably possessive Samuel standing right there beside him (although swaying slightly on his feet where he stood).
Sam had instead patted him on the shoulder instead and suggested that they all turn in for the night… although it took him a long time to drop off as his arms felt so empty. He missed holding Dean, even if it were just a simple hug to say goodnight. He didn't realise how much he had done it these last few years without even being aware. Even though nothing sexual had ever happened between them, he and his brother (and Castiel) had somehow become a very tactile family group.
'Chick-flick', his mind supplied and Sam snorted despite himself even as he finally felt sleep overtaking him. If Dean realised, he would hate that even more!
The next morning dawned bright and clear and they all met in the kitchen for breakfast as has already become their habit.
It was then that Dean's smile suddenly turned serious as he knew that he had to finally face asking the question he most dreaded:
"So. How's it been going in your world?"