We Start and End with Family - Chapter 6
Title: We Start and End with Family
Summary: Two years after losing his brother, Dean has settled down and started a new family, but he’s never forgotten the family he left behind and his past has not forgotten him.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Violence, ritual abuse and nudity with children present, but not involved. Distorted uses of biblical quotes/Christian doctrine/ceremony.
Spoilers: Through early Season 6
Word Count: 2,000 for this chapter
Author’s Note: Diverges from canon about two minutes before the end of ‘Swan Song’ (no Sam spying on Dean and Lisa).
Written for spn_reversebang . The beautiful art featured along with this story was illustrated by puguita, whose art prompt and bountiful creativity inspired the story. All her illustrations can be found together at the art master post.
A million worlds of thanks to the truly awesome agent_jl36 and ebony_quill for their scene edits and the tremendously kind durtydeefla82 for taking the time to do a read through and edits for the whole shebang on extremely short notice.
The story master post can be found here.
~~~
Continued from Chapter 5
Sam’s car squealed to a stop over the wet asphalt. Following the men from the bar had led him here and there was no need to wonder if it was the right place. The pickup truck from the security camera tape was parked by the curb and had a shattered passenger side window. Across the small lawn, the house’s front door was ajar and the window beside it also broken. He’d found the address, but he’d found it too late.
After a quick check of his gun Sam stepped out of the car, squinting against the wind and rain. He rushed around the side of the house. In the darkness he nearly tripped. When his eyes adjusted he saw a man crouched down protectively over something with a boy at his side.
Urgently the boy tugged at the man’s sleeve. “Dean,” the boy hissed.
When the man looked up the intensity of the pain in his eyes hit Sam before the man’s identity did, but neither the darkness nor the blood could disguise that those agonized eyes belonged to his brother. It wasn’t some guy on a tape that happened to look like Dean. It was his brother huddled bloody on the ground just like he’d left him.
Dean’s panicked eyes grew wide as he stared up at Sam. Confusion melted to sadness and returned to panic in the course of a couple seconds. It wasn’t until Dean shifted his position that Sam saw that it was a baby Dean was protecting from the rain.
Shock gave way to action and Dean transferred the baby into the arms of the boy that Sam slowly recognized as Ben. Dean stood, his movements stiff and wary as he silently ushered the boy behind him. His arms were defensively held out at his side as if Dean was ready to block a charge.
Sam didn’t see the revolver until Dean leveled it at his head. There were a lot of reactions he’d expected from Dean, but having the Colt aimed at him wasn’t one of them. Sam's flat tone carried a hint of surprise when he spoke.
“Dean, it’s me.”
“Like hell it is.” When Sam took a step closer, Dean cocked the gun. “I’m warning you, stay back.”
Sam didn’t stay back and he didn’t try to talk it out because they didn’t have time for this. Instead he rushed forward, knowing Dean wouldn’t pull the trigger, but he did. Sam barely managed to dodge the shot. Shock flashed over his face before he grabbed Dean’s wrist and forced the Colt from his brother’s fingers.
Before Dean could retaliate Sam threw him against the wall of the house, knocking a sharp cry from Dean. The impact shouldn’t have hurt him that much, but by Dean’s sloppy reactions Sam realized his brother was far more injured than he was letting on.
Dean’s arms wrapped around himself and he leaned heavily against the wall. A moment later he recovered and threw himself at Sam. The only thing Dean was going to do was hurt himself more. Easily Sam deflected Dean’s charge and forced him back against the wall, more carefully this time.
His grip tightened over his struggling brother’s shoulders. Dean lashed out in raw desperation, forcing Sam to use his larger size to hold Dean still.
“Look at me,” Sam barked.
“Let him go.”
Sam glanced over his shoulder to see Ben with a firm stance struggling to hold the baby and the Colt. It was beyond Sam how a kid that wasn’t Dean’s could look so much like him.
While Dean still wasn’t looking at Sam, he did stop thrashing. Dean’s startled eyes were on the boy. “Ben, put the gun down.”
“Not until he lets you go,” Ben replied coolly.
Holding Dean down wasn’t helping with the trust building anyway. Slowly Sam released his grip, taking half a step back. He kept his hands in view in case Ben also shared Dean’s trigger-happy tendencies.
“It’s really me, Dean.”
“How...?” Dean’s brow creased as he finally looked up to meet Sam’s eyes.
“Later. We have to get you out of here before more of them show up.”
“Who are they?”
While Dean’s question was aimed towards Sam, his eyes were on the kids. Stepping aside, Sam let Dean return to Ben’s side. Dean grabbed the Colt from the boy, but didn’t holster it.
“I don’t know for sure, but they’re after you and some new vessel.”
After giving Ben’s shoulder a quick squeeze Dean took the baby back into his arms with more care and gentleness than Sam could have imagined Dean possessing. Dean stood back up, holding the baby nestled beneath his over shirt. His ease with holding the baby told Sam this wasn’t some random kid Dean had just saved.
"That's really why they want her?" A horrified look came to Dean's weary features. "To make her Michael's bitch?"
“Lisa?”
“No, Mary...” Pain again shot over Dean’s eyes. “Come on, Ben.”
Dean moved quickly, herding Ben along with him towards the front door. Cautiously he entered the house while continuing to shoot suspicious looks in Sam’s direction. Sam followed closely behind, more concerned about enemies that might still be lurking in the house than Dean’s mistrust of him.
While Dean rushed Ben and the baby upstairs, Sam took a quick look around the downstairs. It was a classic suburbia house just like any other that he and Dean would have stopped by on a case. Almost just like it. The front door’s throw rug had been pushed aside enough to reveal the devil’s trap beneath it. This was unquestionably Dean’s house.
The place was trashed. Things that had been thrown off shelves cluttered the floor. The place had obviously been torn apart in search of something. There was little question what they had been looking for, it was just a question of if they had found it.
Satisfied that the downstairs was clear, Sam jogged up the stairs and checked the rooms until he again found his brother. Dean spun around with the Colt raised, relaxing only slightly when he saw that it was Sam.
“The bodies are still here,” Dean said. The words were spoken beneath his breath, more to himself than to Sam. “Why'd they take Lisa?”
Dean's eyes fixed on a dark pool of smeared blood in the corner. At Dean's words Sam took in the three bodies littering the floor. It took him a moment longer before he noticed the more surprising fact that he and Dean were standing in a fully decked out nursery.
While Sam took in the cuddly animal wallpaper, changing table and assorted toys, his brother rushed around the room. Dean filled a large travel bag with things that to Sam looked completely random, but which Dean seemed to be selecting with care.
Sam couldn’t remember ever seeing Dean so vulnerable. More times than he cared to think Sam had seen his brother beaten, bloody and exhausted. Even the held back tears in Dean’s eyes weren’t as strange as Sam would like them to be. Yet there was something in his movements, something in the way Dean clung to the baby. Dean’s focus was so narrow that he scarcely even acknowledged that Sam was standing in the room with him and nearly jumped out of his skin when Sam spoke.
“Is that Mary?”
Dean grasped a teddy bear from the crib and held it with an odd amount of care before sighing. “Yeah.”
“She’s...?”
“My daughter. She’s the one they came for so why the hell would they take Lisa?” Dean ran his shaky hands over his cheeks. “Why didn’t they take me? I’m the freakin’ failed vessel of Michael.”
Sam listened to Dean’s flustered, bitter words but he was too in shock to reply. He watched the baby laying against Dean’s chest. She was strangely quiet, watching Sam with expressive eyes that might as well have been Dean’s. The tiny hands played with Dean’s shirt, balling up the collar and trying to stick it in her mouth.
When Dean’s free hand moved up to pull the shirt out of the baby’s mouth Sam saw the glint of a ring and not on the hand Dean usually wore one. He’d told Dean to settle down and start a family, but he hadn’t honestly believed that his brother would do it. Part of him hadn’t even believed that Dean could do it.
Stepping past Sam, Dean slung the strap of the travel bag over his shoulder and walked back into the hallway. “Ben, let’s go.”
The boy emerged from the room at the end of the hall with a backpack. Sam heard Dad’s voice after a hunt gone bad. Five minutes to pack whatever would fit in a bag, leave anything else and jump in the car for some new place they’d never see again. But Dean’s face wasn’t stern or annoyed that Ben had taken so long. Dean just looked worried and let out a breath of relief when Ben was again at his side. As they walked Dean kept an arm around the boy, still keeping himself between Ben and Sam.
“Where’s Mom?” Ben asked.
Sam glanced to Dean’s face when the answer didn’t come. “I’m working on it,” Dean replied quietly.
To Sam’s surprise, instead of pushing further for answers, Ben mimicked Dean by putting an arm around him. Dean stopped walking and leaned down to give the boy a lingering hug. When he released Ben, Dean again placed Mary into Ben’s arms. He whispered something into the boy’s ear before Ben shot a glance to Sam and then scurried off with the baby.
“Dean, what’re you doing?” Sam asked.
When Dean stepped towards him his body language and eyes were no longer defined by vulnerability, but a more familiar lethal edge. “I don’t know who or what you are, but I know you can’t be my brother.”
“Dean...”
“Don’t.” Dean’s tone was dangerous enough and he was swinging the Colt around erratically enough that Sam clamped his mouth shut. “If you were behind this, if you even think about touching my kids, about using my brother’s face...I’ll make the cage look like a weekend in paradise.”
While Sam didn’t blame Dean for being cautious, he wasn’t sure who Dean thought he was talking to. Sam had walked over Dean’s devil’s trap to get in here and if he was Lucifer he wouldn’t be walking around watching Dean play with his kids. Maybe the fact that he’d walked through the devil’s trap was one of the reasons Dean hadn’t killed him yet. The more he thought about his brother’s behavior the more he realized that Dean wasn’t acting on commonsense.
“I get that you’re scared, but Dean, it’s really me and I’m just here to help.”
“You just popped up from hell to lend a hand?” Dean’s voice was painfully ragged, his brows raised in obvious disbelief. “Awesome. I’ll meet you at Bobby’s.”
“Meet me? My car’s right outside, let’s just go.”
“Oh, we’re both going, but my kids aren’t going anywhere with you.”
Sam grabbed Dean’s arm when his brother tried to walk away. Without hesitation Dean swung around and landed a fist to Sam’s face. Dean skirted back in preparation for a return strike. It didn’t come.
After rubbing his sore jaw, Sam glared at his brother. “Hit me all you want, but you can barely walk straight and you’re upset. You shouldn’t be driving.”
“Damn right I’m upset!” Dean took another step back. “Sammy, if it’s you, if it’s really you…” He shook his head, biting at his lower lip. “I’m sorry. I can’t deal with this right now. I gotta find my wife.”
“Dean, that was a lot of blood.”
“Nobody’s asking you.” Dean turned his back to Sam as if it could somehow hide the hurt written in every tensed line of his body. “Meet me at Bobby’s or don’t. Just stay out of my way while you do it.”
Continue to Chapter 7
Summary: Two years after losing his brother, Dean has settled down and started a new family, but he’s never forgotten the family he left behind and his past has not forgotten him.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Violence, ritual abuse and nudity with children present, but not involved. Distorted uses of biblical quotes/Christian doctrine/ceremony.
Spoilers: Through early Season 6
Word Count: 2,000 for this chapter
Author’s Note: Diverges from canon about two minutes before the end of ‘Swan Song’ (no Sam spying on Dean and Lisa).
Written for spn_reversebang . The beautiful art featured along with this story was illustrated by puguita, whose art prompt and bountiful creativity inspired the story. All her illustrations can be found together at the art master post.
A million worlds of thanks to the truly awesome agent_jl36 and ebony_quill for their scene edits and the tremendously kind durtydeefla82 for taking the time to do a read through and edits for the whole shebang on extremely short notice.
The story master post can be found here.
~~~
Continued from Chapter 5
Sam’s car squealed to a stop over the wet asphalt. Following the men from the bar had led him here and there was no need to wonder if it was the right place. The pickup truck from the security camera tape was parked by the curb and had a shattered passenger side window. Across the small lawn, the house’s front door was ajar and the window beside it also broken. He’d found the address, but he’d found it too late.
After a quick check of his gun Sam stepped out of the car, squinting against the wind and rain. He rushed around the side of the house. In the darkness he nearly tripped. When his eyes adjusted he saw a man crouched down protectively over something with a boy at his side.
Urgently the boy tugged at the man’s sleeve. “Dean,” the boy hissed.
When the man looked up the intensity of the pain in his eyes hit Sam before the man’s identity did, but neither the darkness nor the blood could disguise that those agonized eyes belonged to his brother. It wasn’t some guy on a tape that happened to look like Dean. It was his brother huddled bloody on the ground just like he’d left him.
Dean’s panicked eyes grew wide as he stared up at Sam. Confusion melted to sadness and returned to panic in the course of a couple seconds. It wasn’t until Dean shifted his position that Sam saw that it was a baby Dean was protecting from the rain.
Shock gave way to action and Dean transferred the baby into the arms of the boy that Sam slowly recognized as Ben. Dean stood, his movements stiff and wary as he silently ushered the boy behind him. His arms were defensively held out at his side as if Dean was ready to block a charge.
Sam didn’t see the revolver until Dean leveled it at his head. There were a lot of reactions he’d expected from Dean, but having the Colt aimed at him wasn’t one of them. Sam's flat tone carried a hint of surprise when he spoke.
“Dean, it’s me.”
“Like hell it is.” When Sam took a step closer, Dean cocked the gun. “I’m warning you, stay back.”
Sam didn’t stay back and he didn’t try to talk it out because they didn’t have time for this. Instead he rushed forward, knowing Dean wouldn’t pull the trigger, but he did. Sam barely managed to dodge the shot. Shock flashed over his face before he grabbed Dean’s wrist and forced the Colt from his brother’s fingers.
Before Dean could retaliate Sam threw him against the wall of the house, knocking a sharp cry from Dean. The impact shouldn’t have hurt him that much, but by Dean’s sloppy reactions Sam realized his brother was far more injured than he was letting on.
Dean’s arms wrapped around himself and he leaned heavily against the wall. A moment later he recovered and threw himself at Sam. The only thing Dean was going to do was hurt himself more. Easily Sam deflected Dean’s charge and forced him back against the wall, more carefully this time.
His grip tightened over his struggling brother’s shoulders. Dean lashed out in raw desperation, forcing Sam to use his larger size to hold Dean still.
“Look at me,” Sam barked.
“Let him go.”
Sam glanced over his shoulder to see Ben with a firm stance struggling to hold the baby and the Colt. It was beyond Sam how a kid that wasn’t Dean’s could look so much like him.
While Dean still wasn’t looking at Sam, he did stop thrashing. Dean’s startled eyes were on the boy. “Ben, put the gun down.”
“Not until he lets you go,” Ben replied coolly.
Holding Dean down wasn’t helping with the trust building anyway. Slowly Sam released his grip, taking half a step back. He kept his hands in view in case Ben also shared Dean’s trigger-happy tendencies.
“It’s really me, Dean.”
“How...?” Dean’s brow creased as he finally looked up to meet Sam’s eyes.
“Later. We have to get you out of here before more of them show up.”
“Who are they?”
While Dean’s question was aimed towards Sam, his eyes were on the kids. Stepping aside, Sam let Dean return to Ben’s side. Dean grabbed the Colt from the boy, but didn’t holster it.
“I don’t know for sure, but they’re after you and some new vessel.”
After giving Ben’s shoulder a quick squeeze Dean took the baby back into his arms with more care and gentleness than Sam could have imagined Dean possessing. Dean stood back up, holding the baby nestled beneath his over shirt. His ease with holding the baby told Sam this wasn’t some random kid Dean had just saved.
"That's really why they want her?" A horrified look came to Dean's weary features. "To make her Michael's bitch?"
“Lisa?”
“No, Mary...” Pain again shot over Dean’s eyes. “Come on, Ben.”
Dean moved quickly, herding Ben along with him towards the front door. Cautiously he entered the house while continuing to shoot suspicious looks in Sam’s direction. Sam followed closely behind, more concerned about enemies that might still be lurking in the house than Dean’s mistrust of him.
While Dean rushed Ben and the baby upstairs, Sam took a quick look around the downstairs. It was a classic suburbia house just like any other that he and Dean would have stopped by on a case. Almost just like it. The front door’s throw rug had been pushed aside enough to reveal the devil’s trap beneath it. This was unquestionably Dean’s house.
The place was trashed. Things that had been thrown off shelves cluttered the floor. The place had obviously been torn apart in search of something. There was little question what they had been looking for, it was just a question of if they had found it.
Satisfied that the downstairs was clear, Sam jogged up the stairs and checked the rooms until he again found his brother. Dean spun around with the Colt raised, relaxing only slightly when he saw that it was Sam.
“The bodies are still here,” Dean said. The words were spoken beneath his breath, more to himself than to Sam. “Why'd they take Lisa?”
Dean's eyes fixed on a dark pool of smeared blood in the corner. At Dean's words Sam took in the three bodies littering the floor. It took him a moment longer before he noticed the more surprising fact that he and Dean were standing in a fully decked out nursery.
While Sam took in the cuddly animal wallpaper, changing table and assorted toys, his brother rushed around the room. Dean filled a large travel bag with things that to Sam looked completely random, but which Dean seemed to be selecting with care.
Sam couldn’t remember ever seeing Dean so vulnerable. More times than he cared to think Sam had seen his brother beaten, bloody and exhausted. Even the held back tears in Dean’s eyes weren’t as strange as Sam would like them to be. Yet there was something in his movements, something in the way Dean clung to the baby. Dean’s focus was so narrow that he scarcely even acknowledged that Sam was standing in the room with him and nearly jumped out of his skin when Sam spoke.
“Is that Mary?”
Dean grasped a teddy bear from the crib and held it with an odd amount of care before sighing. “Yeah.”
“She’s...?”
“My daughter. She’s the one they came for so why the hell would they take Lisa?” Dean ran his shaky hands over his cheeks. “Why didn’t they take me? I’m the freakin’ failed vessel of Michael.”
Sam listened to Dean’s flustered, bitter words but he was too in shock to reply. He watched the baby laying against Dean’s chest. She was strangely quiet, watching Sam with expressive eyes that might as well have been Dean’s. The tiny hands played with Dean’s shirt, balling up the collar and trying to stick it in her mouth.
When Dean’s free hand moved up to pull the shirt out of the baby’s mouth Sam saw the glint of a ring and not on the hand Dean usually wore one. He’d told Dean to settle down and start a family, but he hadn’t honestly believed that his brother would do it. Part of him hadn’t even believed that Dean could do it.
Stepping past Sam, Dean slung the strap of the travel bag over his shoulder and walked back into the hallway. “Ben, let’s go.”
The boy emerged from the room at the end of the hall with a backpack. Sam heard Dad’s voice after a hunt gone bad. Five minutes to pack whatever would fit in a bag, leave anything else and jump in the car for some new place they’d never see again. But Dean’s face wasn’t stern or annoyed that Ben had taken so long. Dean just looked worried and let out a breath of relief when Ben was again at his side. As they walked Dean kept an arm around the boy, still keeping himself between Ben and Sam.
“Where’s Mom?” Ben asked.
Sam glanced to Dean’s face when the answer didn’t come. “I’m working on it,” Dean replied quietly.
To Sam’s surprise, instead of pushing further for answers, Ben mimicked Dean by putting an arm around him. Dean stopped walking and leaned down to give the boy a lingering hug. When he released Ben, Dean again placed Mary into Ben’s arms. He whispered something into the boy’s ear before Ben shot a glance to Sam and then scurried off with the baby.
“Dean, what’re you doing?” Sam asked.
When Dean stepped towards him his body language and eyes were no longer defined by vulnerability, but a more familiar lethal edge. “I don’t know who or what you are, but I know you can’t be my brother.”
“Dean...”
“Don’t.” Dean’s tone was dangerous enough and he was swinging the Colt around erratically enough that Sam clamped his mouth shut. “If you were behind this, if you even think about touching my kids, about using my brother’s face...I’ll make the cage look like a weekend in paradise.”
While Sam didn’t blame Dean for being cautious, he wasn’t sure who Dean thought he was talking to. Sam had walked over Dean’s devil’s trap to get in here and if he was Lucifer he wouldn’t be walking around watching Dean play with his kids. Maybe the fact that he’d walked through the devil’s trap was one of the reasons Dean hadn’t killed him yet. The more he thought about his brother’s behavior the more he realized that Dean wasn’t acting on commonsense.
“I get that you’re scared, but Dean, it’s really me and I’m just here to help.”
“You just popped up from hell to lend a hand?” Dean’s voice was painfully ragged, his brows raised in obvious disbelief. “Awesome. I’ll meet you at Bobby’s.”
“Meet me? My car’s right outside, let’s just go.”
“Oh, we’re both going, but my kids aren’t going anywhere with you.”
Sam grabbed Dean’s arm when his brother tried to walk away. Without hesitation Dean swung around and landed a fist to Sam’s face. Dean skirted back in preparation for a return strike. It didn’t come.
After rubbing his sore jaw, Sam glared at his brother. “Hit me all you want, but you can barely walk straight and you’re upset. You shouldn’t be driving.”
“Damn right I’m upset!” Dean took another step back. “Sammy, if it’s you, if it’s really you…” He shook his head, biting at his lower lip. “I’m sorry. I can’t deal with this right now. I gotta find my wife.”
“Dean, that was a lot of blood.”
“Nobody’s asking you.” Dean turned his back to Sam as if it could somehow hide the hurt written in every tensed line of his body. “Meet me at Bobby’s or don’t. Just stay out of my way while you do it.”
Continue to Chapter 7