Heart's Desire - Chapter 23 - Epilogue
Fandom: Supernatural
Title: Heart’s Desire
Chapter: 23/23
Rating: Teen and Up Audiences
Author's Notes: Thanks to VegasGranny and Ncsupnatfan for pre-reading.
Summary: Jack wants to help Sam after overhearing a nightmare which results in a rift being opened. Jessica is brought from a world in which Lilith was never killed and now she and the demons reign while they work to break Sam in Hell. Unable to leave her to that life and pain, Sam and his family go to her world to save it.
Epilogue
“Sam is gone.”
“He’s dead?” Mary clapped a hand over her mouth as the words left her. She stood wide-eyed for a moment and then shook her head. “No. He can’t be dead. He can’t.”
Dean began to cry, tears streaking down his cheeks and his chest juddering. “He’s worse than dead.”
Mary looked at him blankly. “What’s worse than dead?”
“Hell,” Castiel said. “He is trapped there.”
Unable to bear seeing the devastation in his mother’s face, Dean turned away, wiping at the tears on his face that were quickly replaced by new ones. He felt raw and exposed. His pain was a physical thing. He couldn’t believe it had happened. It felt more like a nightmare than life.
Sam was trapped in Hell and he was never getting out.
“What happened?” Mary asked.
“Jack was trying to help Sam feel better,” Castiel said. “He brought Jessica here from another world, a world which was a nightmare, overrun by demons, and Sam wanted to go back to save her Sam for her and to save the desperate people of that place. There was a version of Sam and Dean there. Their Sam was in Hell and had been for years. Sam thought that we could rescue him and perform the trials that were never finished here to close hell. We got that Sam out, but then we were separated. We didn’t know what was happening until it was too late. Somehow Sam had been taken to Hell and the trials were finished with Sam trapped inside by John. He was the one that did the trials.”
Mary made a moaning sound in her throat. “How do we get him back?”
“I don’t think we can,” Castiel said. “We were dragged back here when we were trying. I believe it was Billie. I don’t think she’ll let us open another rift to go back.”
“But we can’t leave him there!” Mary said.
Something broke through Dean’s fresh grief and he looked up. Someone was knocking at the outer door of the bunker. He considered going to see who it was for a moment, but he couldn’t find the will. He didn’t care who was out there or what they wanted.
He walked to the cabinet where they kept the liquor and poured himself a glass of whiskey. He drained it and gasped as it burned his throat. It was still burning when he poured a second glass.
The knocking came again, more insistent now, and Jack made to the war room to answer it.
“Leave it,” Dean said dully.
Jack hesitated and then continued away from him. Dean had no will to call him back again, but he didn’t want to stay and see whoever had decided to break into their grief. He filled the glass to the top and made for his bedroom, coming to a dead stop when he heard Jack’s awed voice.
“Sam?”
There was a chuckle in response that made Dean’s fingers slacken and the glass fall from his hand and smash on the floor. He took a breath and then heard the cry of shock from his mother that made him sprint back across the library and into the war room.
Sam stood at the top of the stairs, Jack behind him, shocked and speechless. Sam was looking down at Dean with a smile.
Dean started towards the stairs at the same moment Sam started walking down them. Dean was almost at him when Castiel caught his arm and said, “Be careful, Dean. His soul…”
Dean stopped and looked at Sam who was standing at the bottom of the stairs with a quirked eyebrow.
“Is it really you?” he breathed.
“Yes. Doesn’t it seem like me?” Sam asked.
Dean wanted to say yes, and he thought he saw some emotion flickering in his eyes that wouldn’t have been there if he’d been soulless, but his feet were frozen to the floor by the possibility it wasn’t him.
“It’s him,” a female voice said. “And he’s fine.”
Dean spun and saw Amara standing behind him. She was smiling and looking between Sam and Dean with an expectant look.
“Amara?”
She smiled warmly. “Hello, Dean.”
“You brought him back to us? You saved him?” Mary asked.
“Not me,” Amara replied. “It was my brother.”
“I figured I owed you one,” Chuck said, and all eyes moved to the top of the stairs where he stood, looking down at them with an amused look in his eyes. “It’s really him, Dean. Soul and mind intact.”
Dean’s eyes moved back to Sam who nodded and half-raised his hands. Dean’s feet unfroze from the floor and he took an unsteady step forward.
With a small smile, Sam strode towards him and caught him as Dean lurched at him. Sam wrapped his arms around him, supporting him as Dean’s legs weakened.
“Sammy,” he whispered, his eyes squeezing shut.
“I’m here,” Sam said. “I’m okay.”
Dean felt new arms joining them and then Mary’s voice spoke and he knew it was her, “Sam…”
They clung to each other for a long time and then Dean released Sam and looked up at Chuck. “Thank you. Seriously, thank you so much.”
Chuck smiled. “I couldn’t let it end there, not like that.”
Sam cleared his throat and said, his voice tense, “Jessica?”
“She’s fine,” Chuck said. “They were all a little… shaken… but they are taking care of what they need to in their world. Things will be better for them now.”
Sam nodded, his tense shoulders relaxing. “Good,” he said, his voice heavy with relief.
“Are you going to tell them about Sam?” Dean asked.
As angry as he had been, as willing as he’d been to hurt them before, he didn’t want Jessica tormenting herself forever about what had happened to his Sam.
“Already done,” Chuck said. “That was quite the conversation. Their Dean had a lot to say to me when he knew who I was.”
Dean huffed a laugh. “Yeah, I’ll bet.”
“But they’re okay,” Chuck said. “Their world really will be a better one now. They will settle into an even better kind of peace than you have here now. This world still has demons”
“Peace,” Sam said with a sound of longing. “That'd be good.”
“It will,” Mary said, taking Sam’s hand and squeezing it.
Dean nodded. He’d been scared of what would happen when they came back to this world and Sam was left to grieve Jessica again, but he seemed happy. Perhaps knowing that Jessica would be happy too was enough for him.
It was enough for Dean. They’d done what they went there to do, and now they were all back and together. They had the most peaceful world they’d ever had.
He thought things might be good enough now to actually rest awhile.