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Being honest? Dean thought Amara was just going to send him back to Sam and Cas, and he was grateful for that. That’s what he thought he needed, at the moment.
Standing in a clearing full of people who should, by all accounts, be dead, he was harshly reminded of why you should never expect a higher being to do anything less than pure insanity.
——
“So, let me get this straight: It’s been 33 years, I have been dead all this time but something bought me back, alongside everyone here, and you boys grew up as hunters?”
Mary hadn’t let go of his wrist since he started explaining that he was who had been, only a few seconds ago to her, her four year old son. She’d gasped at his very brief explanation of his life so far, her eyes had darted towards John in an indescribable mix of awe and sorrow, but her hands remained locked around his wrist, like she feared he’d disappear if she didn’t have a firm grasp on him.
He understood.
He thought he’d died, after all, when he’d seen her face, specially when everyone else’s started to pop up around her: Dad and Bobby and Charlie and Jo and Ellen and Adam, all looking confused and suspicious.
But no, this was real, this was happening.
Jo pulls her jacket tighter around herself. She looks confused, like her brain can’t process that she went from dying in the middle of a ghost town to alive in a clearing years later (he didn’t blame her). Adam looks at her and his eyes go wide.
“Are you Jo?”
She nods at him, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.
“I think… Yeah, I think this Amara talked to me. In heaven, before she pulled me out, she told me to ask Jo’s mom for an explanation why we are both family to Dean…” He’s the least used to the whimsical and horrifying things that existed on this earth, but his tone was almost relaxed. Anger would come, abandonment and sadness would follow, but right now he had a message to convey.
At that, Dean raises his eyebrows. He darts his eyes between Ellen, who looks at the ground like she wants it to open and shallow her whole, and his father, whose eyes have gone round as he stares at Mary, like he’s coming up with an excuse. Jo looks just as confused as he is.
“I’m assuming you’re both John’s kids?” Mary is the one to break the silence. It’s not a pleasant thought, per say, but it’s not like she expected her husband to have been a monk while she was dead, and it was clearly better to get this over with.
“No! I’m… My dad’s name is William, he’s dead, and has stayed that way for a long time!” Jo replies, almost accusing her mom with her words.
“Your dad’s your dad no matter what, Jo… But biologically, yes, you’re John’s. I got pregnant and he was a wreck” after loosing you she tells Mary with her eyes and hopes she gets it “ So I couldn’t tell him. And your daddy… He was my best friend, and he stepped up coz you deserved a father, we fell in love… And the rest is story.” Ellen tries to reach out a hand for Jo, who allows it, even if her world seems like it’s just crumbled. She and Dean share a look and quickly look away, both disgusted by the fact they had kissed, even if there was no way they could have known.
Dean cleans his throat.
“Any other messages from the beyond?”
Adam shakes his head.
“Great. I’m gonna… I’m gonna call Cas. There’s not enough space in my car for everyone.”
——
Sam still looks like he can’t quite believe what he is seeing.
For one, his brother is alive, which is already a monumental win after everything. He barely lets go of him for long enough for Dean to tell him “Dude, look” and then he had to pick his jaw off the floor.
His parents, Bobby, Charlie, Ellen, Jo and Adam.
“Dean? Is that… Is that Sammy?” Mary asks, in disbelief. Her tiny, chubby baby was this man?
Dean nods, and she pulls Sam down for a hug, both with tears in their eyes.
——
They’re having dinner, like they’re just a normal big blended family getting together for a meal.
They couldn’t be further apart from that, but Dean still feels happy. No one’s dead or dying right at this moment, they had one big win after a series of epic losses, and his mom really loves his cooking, asked for seconds and thirds of the huge bowl of lasagna (as had done most people, to be fair). Which is neither here nor there, really, but it does make him smile bigger and bigger with every delighted noise she makes after.
Sam had barely eaten, entranced in the story of how his brother managed to save the world and remain in it, still looking at their mom every five seconds in case she disappeared, but he had choked on his drink when the truth about Jo’s parentage was brought up.
“Oh… That’s, well, that’s good?” He tries for a casual tone, but Jo shoots daggers at him with her eyes and John looks just about ready to kill someone, so he finally dugs into his already cold plate.
“You know, I don’t think it’ll be so bad here with some extra company…” Dean tells him when they’re about to go to their respective bedrooms, visitors properly settled already in the Bunker’s many empty rooms.
Sam nods.