Sam blinked. And blinked again.
And then looked around him.
As they all were.
For they were now standing in a garden. An extremely overgrown garden that overflowed with tangles of ivy and nettles and brambles that masked the way to a ramshackle falling-apart fence that encircled a still so far standing but definitely decaying house… that actually looked strangely familiar…
"Daddy?" Evie broke the momentary silence. "It's our house. What's happened to it?"
"It's the abandoned house." Johnny breathed at the same time. "Look, Sammy! We rode past it that day you took me and M-A out on that bike ride: do you remember! We were joking about it being haunted! We're back!"
"Bike ride…?" Sam began, before he realised that the comment hadn't been intended for him. But then his brain was catching up and it registered that his little niece was quite correct. They were standing in the garden of Dean's house in Lebanon… but it wasn't the same house…
… which meant that it wasn't the same Lebanon…
"Where are we, daddy?" The little girl was gripping hold of his hand tightly.
Dean immediately knelt to reassure her: "It's okay, baby. Our Lady has brought us through to your daddy-Samuel's world… and she'll look after us, so don't be scared. Oh! Hey, you! Our guardian's here as well!"
And indeed, Evie was already burying her head in the soft fur of the nahurac as it purred a hello: her face seeming to momentarily blur as it pressed into the fuzz . Dean absently scratched behind its fluffy ears: "Where have you been hiding, eh?"
"Dean?" Samuel's voice was slightly stunned. "Who… what are you talking to? And what is that sound…?"
The omega glanced up at his mate, noticing the slightly stunned faces on both Sams' and the boy. "You can't see her? Huh. I would have thought you could." He got to his feet and became aware of something else: "Hey, your wings have gone!"
Castiel shook himself out of his reverie of watching the beautiful spirit animal to instead look over his own shoulder."No. They are there." He announced.
"Can't see them then." His friend informed him. "Which is good."
They stood and looked around them a bit more, realising that their small amount of luggage still lay beside all their feet exactly as it had been a moment before in the Bunker. Exactly where it had been. Even down to the way the label on Johnny's brand new holdall had been sticking out.
Strangely, to Sam, that fact made it feel more that they had all remained where they were and the entire universe or whatever had been rotated around them, rather than they had moved an inch in any direction through a portal... (Or dimension. Or where ever they were.)
He glanced at his older brother's face and took in the strange mixture of expressions on the other man's face: the accustomed for unusual circumstances grim determination; definite fierce protectiveness over his daughter who Sam had no doubt that he would not be relinquishing the tightly held grip on any time soon (not that Evie looked likely to want to break the hold of her dad's hand at all for the moment); slight apprehension in his eyes about what might be to come… and yet, as the younger Winchester looked, and as he knew everything about Dean that there was to know… he noticed a calmness as well…
The calmness that comes from trust that it was all somehow going to be alright…
… somehow…
The calmness that can only come from simply having Faith.
Sam couldn't think… seriously, he couldn't think of a time before, that he had even known his disbelieving, cynical, untrusting of anyone and everything brother to have faith in... anything. Dean hadn't even believed in angels and God before Castiel had come along and so explosively opened their eyes to the truth, yet he had returned from that world… this world… with faith and trust in a higher being so much that Sam had often heard him in his room or the kitchen talking to Her out loud in a one-sided narrative about his life…
For probably the first time since all of this had started, those four or so years before, Sam wondered about the power of a being that could seemingly move time and space around them…
… and hadn't Evie just mentioned about seeing the lady smiling in the moon…?
As much as he didn't want to, for the first time… Sam found himself thinking about the goddess without hatred in his heart.
For despite his anger at her, she had looked after his brother through his pregnancy and birth when he hadn't been there. She had given him… them… a home, one that looked normal. One that was normal. They had had friends round; they had had barbecues and parties; Sam had had girls there and felt… normal.
But more important than that. Far more important. She had allowed him to come this time with Dean. And with Evie, who Sam loved beyond everything, even nearly above his brother. He had been so desperate that he was going to be left behind again, but here he was, with his family.
With all his family. Old and new and those he was nervous about meeting again due to… events… and those who he hadn't met yet and might not actually be too happy to see him…
… and somehow, tense even as Sam was about the whole situation…
… he could see that his brother was at peace with it…
… because the goddess was someone that his brother more than trusted…
… so well then.
Sam could somehow force himself to trust her as well. Because Dean's trust had always been good enough for him when it mattered.
(Although, if it did all go pear-shaped, he was fucking well going to say 'I told you so' so very loudly!)
He came back out of his thoughts as he heard his brother speak again: "Samuel? How far are we from your house then? Whereabouts is it?"
"Not far. About five blocks." was the answer. "So this is the house you bought then? I mean… back in your world? Even though you described it to me, I never equated it as being this one. We never got a chance for you to show me…"
"Because of me?" Johnny was instantly upset. "You didn't even leave to go to your other home? Did you really stay with me all the time, Dean?"
"In the Bunker? Yeah." The older omega soothed him. "I remember how rough my first Heat was. Hell, it was only a few years ago so I remember it far too well. There was no way I was leaving you in case you needed me. But don't worry: Samuel and I made time for each other in lots of ways…"
"Enough of that!" Castiel cut in even as Dean's eyebrows wriggled suggestively and his young mate smirked. "Little ears are listening."
"I am not!" Evie was indignant.
"You are, and you shouldn't be." The angel told her firmly and reached to take her free hand. "Now, which way would you suggest we go?"
"I want to see our house!" The little girl was obeyed, as indeed, they all were curious to see what was different, and what was the same.
It was Sam who entered through the busted French Windows first, followed closely by his younger namesake. At first glance the house looked exactly as it did in their world… although far more identical to how it had been the first time that they had seen it, all busted up by the young and extremely violent spirit that had once been a little girl called Julie, than to how their house looked now.
Here, there was peeling wallpaper and a few holes in walls but due to neglect and water damage rather than items and people thrown against them. Here, there were broken windows and shredding paint work but due to age, indifference and possibly a bit of vandalism rather than hatred and tantrums. Here, there was a bit of mould and the dark shadow of damp… ironically, almost exactly as the one when his brother had bought their one…
But the lay out was the same: the large open downstairs area leading to the kitchen and then on to the garage; the staircase leading up into what Sam knew would be the same-sized bedrooms and bathroom… exactly the same, he thought. But different.
"It's smelly." His niece pronounced as she also stepped through the open doors.
"Only from not being lived in." Her newly-found father informed her as the little girl ran across to take his hand. "It's a good, solid built house though. It can be mended and made into a home again…"
"A good home." Castiel agreed as he also entered and looked around. "Just like we did with ours."
"Will it be a safe home?" Johnny piped up from beside him. "That would be all I'd need. Somewhere to be able to lock the entire horrible stupid world out."
"We'd make it safe for you, Squirt." Samuel good-naturedly told him. "Somehow. This world's going to be safe for you someday. I promise. I…!"
He broke off his words and stared.
Everything else stared at him. And then turned to follow what he was looking at…
Only to see Dean, who had been the last of them to actually enter the house.
He was standing in the doorway of the space that should have occupied by the now non-closable French Windows…
Standing framed by them and against the sunlight outside so that he was almost in silhouette…
Should have been in silhouette…
If it weren't for the fact that his eyes were glowing blue.
Bright blue.
Enough to be uncomfortable for all the others who viewed him.
"Dean?" "Babe?" "Daddy!" All the voices, the little one quite panicked, sounded at once.
The omega smiled at them.
But it wasn't Dean's smile.
The shape and shadow of the naruhac crossed in front of him. For the first time, Sam could see the size and almost the dappling colours across the muscles of the large beast as it began to purr loudly and walk through the room with its master.
And as man and beast stepped forward…
Behind them the scene became the dream of the best makeover show made ever… or in a fantasy movie where a spell was cast and the scenery changed with a sweep of an arm from darkness to light… or in an animation where literally a new world could be drawn around the main character as if by magic and imagination…
For as Dean walked through the house, everything behind him adjusted. What was peeling and speckled with black spots of damp became whole and new and bright and… perfect. The open doors became once more fully upright and closed silently together with a perfect seal; furniture appeared exactly where it would have been placed by an interior designer; lamps and ceiling fans appeared and turned on to light the way, subty illuminating all the now pristine and polished original woodwork.
The open plan kitchen became a chef's wet dream, with a perfect island of numerous cupboards and airy space, and pans that lines up perfectly above, and a huge coffee making machine all ready to be set going in the corner by the basin.
Pictures appeared on the walls all around them… family pictures, Sam realised. Of him and Dean. And Dean and Samuel. And of Castiel with both brothers and the little girl. And of all those who were in that room. Laughing and smiling at jokes and events that may or may not have already happened. One in particular caught his eye: a large, free-standing frame seemingly made out of a grey granite-type stone that showed both his barely out of his teens brother and their father together, laughing at the camera and looking so happy...
Sam had seen that photo before, a more faded image of it, in a small frame in Dean's room back at the Bunker. He had never known where it had come from, but now he did. It might not have been of his real brother but it hadn't mattered. And somehow there was now a large picture on the wall of himself and Dean with both their parents… both of them… and it was them, not the duplicates but them… smiling and looking out of the frame as if taken by a photographer in a professional shoot…
By this time, Dean had already walked upstairs: the fraying carpet healing and straightening itself beneath his steps. Every squeaky floorboard tightened up to order. The main bathroom unsoiled itself and became a delight of fragrant candles just waiting to be lit, the others becoming oasis's of calm and squeaky toys ready for warm baths before bedtime.
The bedrooms smartened themselves up quickly to match the rest of the house: the main one decorated in a soft forest green with a large bed and a soft mattress and a crib in the corner. The spare room became a study of black and deep purple, and just a hint of gold. There was even one with a child-size bed with walls painted as if in a forest… "That's my room!" Evie bounced on her toes with delight. "It's mine, daddy! There's your trees and everything! Can I have a tiger as well this time please?"
Sure enough, as the blue light from Dean's eyes passed around the room, there was a painted tiger sitting hidden in the trees to the right beside the doorway. The naruhac snarled. Sam could have sworn that the figure on the wall moved slightly as if in acknowledgement of being handed the honour. Then the large cat beside him that he still couldn't see but could now feel purred in satisfaction.
He had been left standing in with his excited niece in the room as they stared at the new, yet old, decorations. The little people, so defined in Dean's original artwork, seemed to really be flying in this one though, or was it his imagination that he kept catching small movement out of the corner of his eye…? Catching Evie's hand and pulling her along, he hurried to catch them up as his brother headed back downstairs and then to the front of the house and outside into the street beyond…
Even as Sam ran out with his niece to join the angel and his two new brothers-in-law, he could see that the weeds in the lawn were retreating leaving just an expanse of perfect smooth green with neatly clipped edges and colourful flower beds. The broken slates on the roof mended and became moss-free as if newly tiled and all the broken windows repaired and then gleamed as if freshly cleaned. As if on cue, the sprinklers turned on, the droplets creating numerous rainbow effects in the air to bestow bountiful blessings to the house…
At the end of the newly laid driveway, Dean came out of his trance with a little shake and more than slightly wobbled on his feet momentarily: "Woah!"
"Are you alright?" Samuel was there by his side ready to give support: he had been right from the moment that he realised that his lover's body had been momentarily borrowed by the Lady Goddess. "Do you need to sit down? What was it like?"
"What…? What happened…?" But Dean's slight dazement was being distracted by looking down and realising that he was holding keys in his hand. Keys that he had never seen before but knew without question that they belonged to the now immaculate house in front of him. "But. It was all wrecked! I… She…"
"You okay, man?" Sam also wished that he could hug his brother, but for no other reason that he was somewhat stunned about what had just happened and was worried about him.
Somehow, that had been even more incredible than being transported completely to another dimension. But the younger Winchester also knew what it was like to be possessed and not in control of your body's actions even momentarily, even for such a seemingly innocuously good thing, so he couldn't help but wonder how Dean was feeling about it even though he would probably never say.
Not to him, he suddenly reflected. Dean had never much been able to talk to him.
But perhaps he might be able to to his mate.
And that would definitely be a good thing.
By this time, his brother had processed what had just happened and shaken it off: "Wow. You okay, baby?"
This was to his daughter who was looking white-faced with fear at what had just happened. She rushed into his arms with a sob as Dean knelt on the now pristine stonework to meet her. "Nothing to worry about," he whispered into the little girl's ear. "Nothing at all."
And that, Sam reflected ruefully, would probably be the only thing that his older brother would ever say about it.
He was rudely knocked from his thoughts by a sudden jolt against his back that caused him to stumble forward a few steps, almost tripping onto his brother and niece where they were still embracing on the ground: "What the hell...?"
"What's the matter, Alpha? Just for once your omega is down on his knees where he belongs and you're not taking advantage of that?" The coarse hatred and disrespect in the tone caused them all to bristle and look round, to find them now joined by a few grown men… who were looking at Dean, holding his daughter tightly to him now for protection, with such contempt…
… and disgust…
… and violence in their eyes.
Samuel swore and rushed to stand in front of his mate and daughter to try and keep them safe. Sam also steadied himself and turned to face their attackers, tensing in readiness. Castiel hastily grabbed Johnny to pull him back, putting himself bodily between the young man and the definite threat so suddenly posed.
"It's you, isn't it?" The word was emphasised by means of a literal spit of globby gunge to the immaculate driveway. "The bitch omega. You and the other one: starting your new-fangled ideas about being equal. You're not equal. Just a fucking useless omega who needs taking down a peg: look at you on your knees there just where all omegas should always be. You'll never be good enough to stand as a equal…
We heard you lived here somewhere. We've been looking for you… Knew you'd have to come out one day and we'd find you…
You need to be taught your place, omega...
You and your fucking son there." With another glob aimed in Johnny's direction. The boy bit back a sob as it landed by his protective angel's foot. Castiel fought down his fury at the sound and braced himself. "At least he can still be trained. When we've finished with you, we'll take him and we'll train him real good to be a real fucking good slut of an om…!"
The man never finished that last sentence. He was suddenly out cold on the ground. With a fractured cheek and a broken nose that was already gushing a stream of scarlet blood into a puddle around him.
And over him was standing an absolutely furious Dean.
Sam blinked: he had forgotten how fast his brother could move now when he wanted to. And right at that moment, the older man wanted to!
Before any of the other men could react Dean had punched another of them, knocking the taller and stockier man over and punching him in the stomach for good measure even as he went down. Having his head being slammed against the hard dirt definitely made sure that he wasn't going to get up again for a while either…
"You… You're…" The other Alphas were staring in disbelief. "You're the… other…"
"Yeah." Dean snarled at them. "I'm what all omegas are going to be. What they deserve to be. I'm gonna show them how. And you're going to be the nothings. Because that's all shits like you are. Nothings. I'm done hiding!"
Samuel swore under his breath and held Evie tighter. He also hadn't realised momentarily what had just happened. One instant his mate had been crouching slightly behind him: the next, he had somehow found himself holding their daughter in his arms and Dean… well…
It had shot through his head just for an instant that this was still the goddess in the other man's body… but then he had heard the fury in his mate's short clipped tone and knew that this… was pure Dean Winchester.
And by Our Lady, he loved the man just so damned much.
By this time, the other men were already coming into the fight, but far more wary, and with more than a hint of nervousness now that they were facing the infamous omega who had fought off and intentionally slain Alphas…
… but there were vulnerable targets with him as well, and such brave men weren't beyond taking the easier option if it would give them the win… and the bragging rights…
Sam hastily stepped back as one of the Alphas ran at him. His opponent was a good head smaller than him albeit as muscled as a heavy-weight boxer. And he moved fast for such a well-built man, (but nowhere near as fast as his brother had just done)…
The younger Winchester gathered his reflexes, tensed in readiness and swung the perfect punch just as the other got into range…
It felt as if he had just slammed his fist into a brick wall.
Momentarily the memory of Dean's words upon his return from this world went through his head: "They looked human, Sammy, but they weren't. They were all monsters in human form and strong as shit. Even the little ones!" And then the man bodily slammed into him and knocked him on his ass. Really painfully.
Really painfully.
Even as he gasped for breath, his attacker's eyes glittered evilly. "What's this? No wonder a little push nearly knocked you over! You're pathetic, lawyer. All your talking and your books. Proves it's just to hide that you're a weak, useless Alpha. No wonder you've had to hide behind these omegas… they probably only ever needed a good strong hand to…"
His words were cut off as Castiel literally grabbed the man by the back of his neck and hurled him physically across the street to hit a fence opposite head first: "Are you alright, Sam?"
But the three other men were already attacking. Well… Two of them. The third still hesitated.
Sam began to struggle to his feet but the angel had already expertly back-elbowed the first of them in his face, further breaking the previously crooked nose and causing him to fall to his knees covered with an immediate flow of blood. Castiel didn't hold back the kick in the face that knocked him onto his back and out completely.
The other screamed as he didn't even manage to get past a still raging Dean to get to the younger targets: instead he was caught by a death grip in his hair and forced down and backwards with so sudden an angry jolt that his brother swore he could hear the other's back break…
… or at least something broke…
… and then the man's face was being smashed into the concrete of the street once, twice, three times until there was as much blood around him as there was about his friends… all of them were down and bleeding…
… with the exception of the last one: the man that had hesitated. He turned and ran.
"Dean! That's enough! Evie's watching!" Samuel shouted at his mate anxiously. Although he understood the anger, he was concerned for his daughter. And any possible repercussions that might come yet again from an omega beating up an Alpha in public…
"Nah lad." Came another voice from behind him. "They deserved it. Alphas… scum, all of them."
Samuel turned in shock even as his mate released the battered man instantly at his shout and looked to his daughter: Dean staring nervously at her as he calmed enough to realise that he was covered in someone else's blood and that he had done it all in front of her. For one panicked moment he thought that she would already be hating him for it, but…
"Daddy, daddy, daddy!" And Evie was running to her father once again in tears. This time for him. "Daddy, did they hurt you? Why did they do that? I don't like this place: I want to go home!" She clung tightly to him even as she sobbed into his neck where he had swept her up in his arms. Johnny also ran across to the elder omega and wrapped his arms around Dean's waist and the legs of the little girl, desperate to be close enough to scent. Castiel sighed at the sight and wished that he could have done more.
Then they were all staring at the new small group of people that had somehow gathered around them while the fight had been going on, seemingly attracted by the disturbance. There were three youngish women of a type: their clothes utilitarian, slightly thread-bare and unfashionably aged enough to signal that none of them were considered worth wasting money on as they were never to be taken out anywhere or shown off. One of them was even bare-footed, They clung together, giving away their mixture of nervousness about being out in the open without any escorts, but still desperately drawn by the rumpus to see what was happening.
An older woman stood some distance apart from them: years of stress and strain showing on her face. She held back even further than the three younger ones, with the wisdom of always having to be ready to run but painfully aware that she would surely be the slowest of the group should it actually prove necessary.
… "So you're back then?" It was the final person, an elderly man, who was addressing Dean. The same man who had commented just then. A beta with greying hair and a beer-belly only just hidden by his flapping over-shirts. But the young girl slipping silently in beside him was obviously going to be an omega.
In fact, with the inhaling of one deep breath, Dean knew that the other females watching were also omegas. Samuel and Johnny were also scenting and realising what an extraordinary event this was: for them to dare to come out in the street on their own, even for the ones in what should have in any other form of grouping been considered a safe number of three.
"It's about time." The man continued. "Although…" this was with a telling eye at little Evie, now snuffling but staring back at him from the safety of her father's biceps… "I can see why if you had another priority. But…"
"But?" It was Samuel who answered for his mate.
The man gave him a glance, and then peered down at the girl as if he had just noticed her presence. With a gentle tug he pulled her closer to him with a look of fond exasperation: "You shouldn't be out." He went to whisper, but his advanced years and an obvious on-setting of deafness made it a bit more of a low shout.
"I wanted to see," came the stubborn reply. "Is it him?"
Her guardian straightened up to address the Winchesters and their family, all the time with a protective hand curved gently around against the youngster's shoulders. "I found her and hid her a few years ago. She was living in an alley and picking through the trash for scraps. Said they'd dragged her mom into a car and left her. Probably didn't realise that she'd have been just as valuable, if not more…
Never found out who she was. Just another omega and child missing: nothing out of the normal to report.
It's been difficult. Not a way for anyone to live: always having to be ready to run to the attic to hide in case someone should come to the house. Afraid to make a noise, even to laugh, that someone might hear. Listening to the other pups playing outside and know that she can't dare, not even to peep out through the windows in case. Scared to even go into the garden during the night in case someone else should be looking: afraid to even answer the call of Our Lady Moon when she's shining. Because of the consequences should scum like this have found her…
It ain't no way to live.
She deserves to play safe in the sunshine."
"I don't know what you're expecting Dean to do…" Samuel began, somewhat heatedly. In all his dreams every night of having his mate and daughter finally back with him, this was not at all what he had anticipated at all. He seriously began to wish that he'd listened to his little brother about just staying safe forever in the Bunker.
But at the same time, the aforementioned little brother suddenly eagerly spoke up: "Dean will save her!" He exclaimed. "That's why he's here! Our Lady brought us!"
"Johnny!" "I would be very careful with your words…"
"I can't promise to do anything, kiddo." Dean's deep voice cut across the both of them, Alpha and angel alike. "I can only try."
"My daddy can do anything." Evie proudly informed them all from his arms.
Dean sighed. Sam took the chance to recover from the somewhat humiliating landing on his ass, and his definitely broken knuckles, to go and stand beside the older Winchester: he wasn't quite sure what these few new people wanted but they didn't seem threatening.
He would have been quite happy to get off this street though.
Seemingly his brother agreed. "Look." He told the grey-haired man. "I don't know what you want from me…"
"Want? Nothing." They all stared at him in surprise. "You've spoken out against the unfairness of it all and gotten everyone's attention: thank you for that. We don't expect anything more." There was a nod of agreement from the women.
"And. When I saw it was you. Whichever one of you it was, I wanted to help… just in case. Or try to." This time there was a stronger murmur of acknowledgement from around, and a nervous giggle from one of the three. "Not that you needed it. But your fight is our fight: don't you go forgetting that.
You might have started this. But we're all in it to the finish. Everyone of us."
This time there was no sound from the others. Only silence. But there instead was something else.
Sam became aware of all these people, these four obviously down-trodden and knocked-back women, and the man, and his would-be daughter not yet a teen but already suffering simply for what she possibly was, slowly straightening up in their stance where they stood at those words that had just been spoken: their expressions, while agreeing with the man yet still staring at his brother without a single glance away for the last few minutes, now showing defiance and determination and… something…
… he wasn't sure how to describe it, but Sam couldn't help but think of what he imagined the stolid calmness of soldiers would look like, if they were preparing to go into a battle that they knew the odds of them surviving were less than low to zero…
… but they were fucking well going to fight it anyway…
… because somebody had to do it.
Somebody had to do it.
For the first time, it truly struck Sam just how much of an impact his elder brother must have had to this world the first time he was here…
… because these people, it didn't matter that there were only six of them, had come out of the safety of their houses from wherever they were further along the street because they had seen that it was Dean, and they were looking to him…
He stood beside the older Winchester. And was prouder than ever to be standing beside his brother. From the corner of his eye, he could also see Castiel stand tall. And Samuel and Johnny of course.
And Sam knew that this was a moment in this strange world that he would never forget for the rest of his life.
"You better get back to your homes: don't let these assholes see which ones!" Dean as usual was the one to get uncomfortable first. "I'm gonna do what I can, but right now, we're all better not being here in case that coward comes back with friends."
His orders were obeyed instantly. The elderly man gave him a nod of thanks and grabbed for his daughter, who obediently held his hand and was already starting to chatter excitedly even as he pulled her away.
The three younger omega women hastily checked their watches to see if there was time to finish their coffees and gossip before their mates returned home… one stalling slightly even she began to move away upon working out that there was still long enough before the arrival of both reality and her mate returning from work, to reach out a hand of friendship towards the older woman as if having only just realised that they lived behind closed doors together on the same street, and probably always had.
The other was surprised. And then took it with slight disbelief: that she actually, for the first time in possibly all of her life, might have found someone to talk to outside of the confines of her own home. Dean blinked away dust from his eye as the now four of them walked away together arm in arm. Samuel smiled at his mate but sensibly refrained from making any form of comment whatsoever.
"Where do you think we should go?" Castiel began, even as he healed Sam's fractured hand. "Back into the house?"
"Let's get right away from here." Sam agreed with his brother. "But we need to get our stuff. And then where?"
"We know where."
And Samuel and Johnny were grinning at them.
"We've been so looking forward to you meeting mom!"