FIC: The Way Things Were 1/?
Title: The Way Things Were 1/?
Rating: R
Pairing: Dean/Sam
Disclaimer: I don't own them and I'm not making any money off this. Don't sue.
Summary: The war is over, and the Demons have won. Sammy's in hiding, and Dean's determined to find him, and bring him back where he belongs. On their side.
A/N: Sorry guys, that this took me so long to get out. RL as I'm discovering, can be a bitch, and it has the worst possible timing too.
It started when someone began organizing the supernatural, coordinating their movements. Someone smart. Making alliances and making them work. Imagine fighting off a werewolf and a vampire at the same time. It was damn near impossible, especially when the two creatures were working together, towards a common goal.
That was the first clue that something had changed within the supernatural ranks.
The second and third tied in together. Rumor had it one of the best of the good guys had been contracted by the demons as an assassin. He knew the ways of the hunters, could predict their actions. He fought it tooth and nail in the beginning, they said, but his demon masters were just too powerful.
Not long after this rumor made the circuits, hunters suddenly began to die. Not many, but enough to cause a small sensation in the hunting community. At the beginning it was just thought they had died on hunts. They were mostly loners, only contacting other hunters when they needed something; information or ammunitions. Someone or something was intelligent enough to pick off the loners and still make it look like a hunting accident until there were too many for it to be anything but. The rumors were given more thought.
The good guys were slowly being cut down.
***
Zack Warren was not a chicken. He had no problems fighting, and he certainly wasn’t a scaredy-cat.
But when he opened up the door to his home, and saw Dean Winchester and a little girl standing on the porch, he had never been more frightened in his life. Not even after that deal with the shapeshifter.
“Hey Zack, how have you been, man?” Dean greeted him, grinning, and for a second, even though he’d heard the rumors that Dean wasn’t on their side anymore, Zack thought it might all be ok.
“Hey. I’m good, thanks. You?” he glanced at the girl, “And who’s this?”
“I’m good. And this is my daughter, Rosie,” Dean said, looking down at her affectionately as Rosie waved shyly, half-hiding behind Dean’s leg. Dean looked back up at Zack, “Is Sammy in?”
“Sam?”
“Yeah, Missouri told us he was here, with you and the kids.”
“But…” Relief swept over him. If Missouri told Dean where Sam was, then Dean had to be good, because Missouri wouldn’t betray them like that.
“Listen, Zack,” Dean said, mistaking Zack’s hesitation for apprehension, “Thank you for taking care of my brother, especially when I wasn’t able to,” Dean’s voice and face were sincere, but still Zack was unsure, “But Sammy’s my brother and now that I’ve finally found him, I’m not letting him go again.” There was a tone in Dean’s voice that told Zack there was no way he was going to win this; no way he could keep Dean from taking Sam. It was rather frightening, this feeling of helplessness, of being unable to do anything to help one of the most important people in his life.
But there’s still the problem of Dean actually taking Sam. Or Dean’s reaction when he found out.
“Dean, what did Missouri tell you about Sam?” he asked quietly, resigning himself to letting the Winchesters into his home. He opened the door wider, allowing them inside.
“Just that Sammy was here. Where is he?” Dean replied, frowning, leading Rosie into the house.
“Damn,” Zack said, sighing as he rubbed a hand across his face. “I had hoped she would have had the sense to tell you before sending you here.”
“What’s wrong, Zack?” Dean’s voice was tightening, bordering on anger with a good deal of fear mixed in, or at least Zack hoped it was fear.
“Dean, after that last battle, the one everyone thought Sam died in,” the hand crossed Zack’s face again. “He was in a coma, Dean.”
“But… he woke up, didn’t he?” Suddenly, Dean’s voice was small and his hand tightened on Rosie’s, clasped tightly in his.
"Yeah, Dean, he woke up. It took a couple of months, but he's ... lost some of his memory."
TBC