Chapter Text
“Dad?”
“Dean?”
Dean couldn’t help but walk across the cemetery and putting both arms around his father. Slowly, he felt two strong arms make their way around his back. John pushed him back, but continued to hold him by his shoulders, getting a good look at his oldest son.
“You look older.” John said.
Dean let out a choke of a laugh.
“You don’t.”
John closed his eyes momentarily.
“How long has it been?”
“Eleven years, give or take a couple months.”
John shook his head, stepping back and ran his hand through his beard.
“That’s not possible.”
Dean sighed.
“Trust me Dad, it happens more than you think. Follow me, gotta find a ride.”
John walked beside Dean in silence for a moment.
“What do you mean it happens more than I think?”
Dean stalled his pace for barely a moment before continuing towards a Honda Civic that was sitting in the cemetery parking lot.
“Coming back from the dead is kind of a Winchester curse. I don’t even remember how many times it happened to me and Sam.”
John grabbed his sons arm and turned him back around to face him.
“Sam’s alive?”
“Sam’s fine. That’s where we are headed.”
Dean bent down to unlock the vehicle in front of him, John stood silently not saying anything until they were both in the car heading towards the bunker.
“So, you saved him?”
Dean swallowed harshly.
It’s not like Dean had forgotten the last thing his father has said to him in the hospital. Of course he remembered. It was just so long ago… a lifetime ago really. Before his father’s return he couldn’t even remember the last time, he had thought about it.
“We saved each other. So many times.”
This was not the soldier John had left behind all those years ago. There was something different in Dean's eyes now. Pride, certainly. Anger too. John just wasn't sure where the anger was directed—or what had put it there.
“I remember Heaven, being with Mary… why am I here Dean? How am I here?”
Dean kept his eyes on the road, but his hands tightened around the steering wheel.
“Some big players thought I needed a reward for saving the world. Guess you are the prize.”
“Was it a demon deal?”
Dean laughed.
“We are so beyond demon deals nowadays Dad. No deals, no souls on the hook. Just another day at the office. I promise.”
John wasn’t sure what to make of the statement, so he spent the rest of the ride relatively silent.
The world didn’t look that much different than when he left it.
As they neared their destination, John couldn’t help but recognize the towns on the signs they flew past.
“Kansas?” John whispered.
Dean side-eyed his father and nodded his head.
“Sammy and I settled down here a few years ago. In Lebanon. That’s where we are headed. I’m hoping he headed home.”
John thought about that word.
Home.
Something he had deprived his boys of growing up.
Something they obviously found.
It scared him, the idea that they had settled down in one place.
At least until they pulled up to what appeared to be an empty warehouse.
John was confused.
He stepped out of the car and turned to his son.
“I thought we were going to your house?”
Dean smiled a little, just one side of his mouth creeping up.
“We are, let me introduce you to the bunker.”
John followed Dean down a set of stairs and through a large metal door.
He heard Dean call out for Sam and spared a glance around the large space.
It was incredible, a hunters paradise.
But he was interrupted when Dean stopped suddenly bringing John’s attention back to him. Dean was staring down at the floor at obvious blood stains.
John automatically reached for his gun and swore when it wasn’t there. Dean had obviously caught the movement.
“Under the table 2nd chair from the left.” Dean stated.
Dean had his own gun out in front him, bullet in the chamber.
Dean signaled John to stay put, which annoyed John.
But this was the tactical decision.
Dean knew his way around the bunker, John didn’t.
John found a pillar to stand behind, giving himself an advantage over any opponent.
A few minutes later, he heard the door open again, and came face to face with a trenchcoated stranger.
“Don’t move.”
The stranger turned and looked straight at John.
“Your gun has no effect on me, where is Sam?”
John was about to answer when Dean came back, putting himself between the stranger and his father.
“It’s okay, this is Cas he’s a friend.”
John lowered his gun but kept his finger on the trigger. He watched as Dean gave a quick hug to the other man.
“Dean, we thought you were dead.”
“I know Cas, I’ll tell you all about it later I promise, but where is Sam. There is blood all over the floor.”
“There was a woman here when we got back, blasted me away. She must have taken Sam.”
“Taken him where?” John cut it.
Dean shoulder twitched and he looked at his father, as if he just remembered he was there.
“Oh yeah, this is Cas. Cas this is John Winchester.”
Cas tilted his head to the side and frowned.
“Your father?”
“Yeah.”
“Your dead father?”
Uh… yeah.”
Cas scoffed.
“Winchesters.”
John rolled his eyes, not caring at the moment to hear about the Winchesters and their ability to dodge death.
“Do you know where Sam is?” John asked.
“Obviously not. If I did, I would be there retrieving him.” Cas answered.
“Are you a hunter?” John asked.
Dean looked at his father.
“Not exactly. He is an angel.”
John faltered.
“I’m sorry, you want to run that by me again?”
“Look Dad, we don’t have time for this right now. What time did all this happen Cas?”
“2:12 AM.”
“Okay I’m gonna check the traffic cams… you too just… chat and try not to kill each other.”
Dean walked over to Sam’s laptop and began to search.
Castiel and John stood there for a moment, but John got the impression it was much more awkward for him then Castiel himself.
Slowly Castiel turned toward John, eyeing him with curiosity.
“You have a beautiful heaven.”
John blinked for a moment.
“Excuse me?”
Cas smiled softly.
“I was there when it was built for you. Before I left heaven.”
“Why would you want to leave heaven.”
Castiel’s pinched eyebrows told him there was a story there, but the angel just shook his head.
“That’s not my story to tell. Maybe when we get Sam back, your son’s will tell you that story.”
Cas looked over to Dean.
“They are good men. Despite your faults as a parent.”
John scoffed.
“You are not one to beat around the bush are you.”
“I don’t know what any bush has to do with this. I just know some things about absent fathers.”
John looked at the side of Castiel’s head.
“Are you talking about God?”
Castiel looked back over to John.
“Of course.”
John opened his mouth to say more, when Dean called them over to him.
“Only one car headed away from the bunker between 2:12 and 3 AM.”
“Do you think it’s them?” Cas asked.
“It’s worth a shot.”
John noticed Castiel following Dean through the halls of the bunker and began to follow himself. Walking past doorways, hallways and a kitchen eventually they made their way to the garage.
He paused as a car came into view.
The last time he had seen it, was before the accident.
He knew it should be in pieces.
But here she was, sitting there. Almost as if waiting for them.
He placed his hands on the hood.
Remembering years of road trips with his children.
The first years with Mary herself.
“You fixed her.”
Dean paused where he was and leaned his arms on the roof with the door open.
It took Dean a moment to remember.
“More than once. Sometimes it felt like the only thing I could fix for us was this car. But she was the only home we knew for a long time.”
Dean slid into the driver’s seat, and Cas got in the back. It took John a moment to force himself to sit in the passenger seat.
It felt wrong.
For years, this car has carried his family.
Him at the wheel, Dean in the passenger seat, Sammy stretched out in the back.
But this spot has become Sam’s years ago.
Long before John had died.
And John felt wrong sitting there, looking in the back at the strange angel who was friends with his sons.
Sam nowhere to be seen.
The Impala started with a rumble and headed out the steel doors leading to the outside.
John just leaned back and hoped the road would lead to Sam.
It wasn’t long before they pulled into a lot where Dean said the vehicle was registered.
John was impressed with the angel.
It was obvious that he was just as keen to find their youngest as Dean himself was.
It was weird to watch, a stranger who was so attached to his sons. Willing to help fight to find Sam.
There were few people that John had trusted with his kids.
But within moments Castiel has the information they needed, and they were once again on the road to find Sam.
They paused for coffee while Dean made some phone calls.
John looked around at how cell phones and technology had changed in the past eleven years.
Castiel walked over to hand John his own cup.
“I know this must be difficult for you. Resurrection can be jarring.”
John laughed into his coffee cup.
“Yeah, you could say that.”
John looked over to Dean who was pacing as he spoke to whoever on his phone.
“He’s different.”
Cas looked over to Dean as well.
“I didn’t know him when you knew him… But it was only a couple years later. He is different, but then aren’t we all?”
John had no answer for that.
Was he different?
Or was he still the same man he was when he died?
Did his sons grow up while he stayed the same?
Dean wandered back over.
“I can’t get the flight plans. They are sealed.”
“So now what? Dead end?” John asked.
Castiel tapped Dean on the arm and nodded to a sign driving by that said “Veterinarian.”
“Good way to stay off the radar.”
They followed the signs to the office and sat the owner down for a chat.
Dean pulled a faded picture from his wallet and put it in front of the vets face.
“Do you know this kid?”
The Vet scoffed.
“Kid?”
Dean’s eyes turned dark.
“Yes, asshole. He’s my brother. Do you know him?”
The veterinarian eyed the gun in Dean’s other hand and nodded.
“Yeah, okay. He was here. Had a bullet in his leg. I dug it out. The people who had him paid me a hundred grand and they left.”
Dean crossed his arms.
“So you dug a bullet out of his leg, no questions asked?”
The vet shrugged.
“Student loans are a bitch.”
“And that’s everything you know?” John asked.
“Yep.”
John turned to Cas and nodded his head toward the vet.
“Hurt him.”
Castiel stepped forward and grabbed the man who instantly surrendered.
“Okay I have a phone number, she called asking about the sedative I gave the guy. I’ll give it to you.”
John smirked.
“Much better.”
They released him and he handed the phone number to John who gave it to Dean.
Dean took a deep breath before dialing the number.
A woman answered the phone.
“Doctor?”
“Nope, Dean Winchester.”
“Well, news of your demise has obviously been overstated.”
“Usually is. Now you listen bitch. You have my brother, and I want him back. I’m only going to ask once.”
“Not possible, Sam is a little tied up at the moment.”
“Listen lady, bigger beasts then you have tried this. You can’t run from me. When I find you, if he is not in one piece I will rip you apart.”
The phone disconnected.
Dean took a deep breath and snapped the phone in half.
He said nothing as he made his way back to the Impala.
John didn’t know much about his sons anymore.
But he knew that look on Dean’s face.
It was the same one that he gave school yard bullies.
The same one that followed him on every hunt, as he watched his little brother grow up.
It was the same one that was on any father’s face whenever something happened to their children.
It was a look that made John sick after all these years.
He never meant for that.
He never meant to put that look of fear on his child’s face.
Dean cleared his throat.
“I got her phone number. I can put a trace on it, but we gotta head back to the bunker to do that.”
Dean did not wait for an answer, he simply got back in the driver’s seat and started the car, waiting for the two other men to enter.
When they did, he began to drive away.
John licked his lips.
“Where did you learn all that? Tracing phone numbers? Hacking Surveillance?”
Dean glanced at his father.
“Sammy taught me.”
John’s ability to notice everything around him was obviously intact as he noticed a vehicle speeding towards them through the intersection.
“Dean speed up!”
Dean didn’t question it, he sped up as he saw the car coming towards them, the vehicle only catching the tail lights of his car.
The Impala spun around and landed on the edge of the grass.
John watched as Dean did a quick triage on the other two people in the car before getting out. John and Castiel following close.
A woman climbed out of the vehicle, to stand in the middle of the road.
“Dean Winchester I presume? That would make you the angel Castiel.”
She then looked at John with an inquisitive frown.
“And which one would you be?”
John eyed the woman carefully.
“John Winchester.”
The woman smiled.
“Really? Head office is going to love this. We know all about the dynamic duo’s resurrections, but Winchester senior? Amazing.”
John smirked.
“So, you are one of them? You have my son?”
“We do.”
“That was a mistake.”
Cas dove for the woman.
She quickly brought her hands from behind her back, slugging Cas in the face with her brass knuckles. Knocking him to the ground.
Dean was shocked but ran towards her. Trying to grab her hands to get rid of the weapon. He joined Cas on the ground.
Dean reached for his gun, but it was gone.
Then he noticed his father, several feet away.
And with a single shot the fight was over.
Dean helped Cas up and went over to his father, who returned his gun with a shrug.
“I hoped that I still knew you well enough. I figured you would try to get up close and personal with Sam’s bully. Sorry for snatching your gun.”
Dean blinked.
“She wasn’t a bully.”
John shrugged.
“I know. But… She wasn’t a monster either. You always had a way of handling humans who hurt your brother. Even as a teenager. And guns weren’t your style.”
Dean nodded.
“Yeah, I guess.”
John frowned.
“You okay Dean?”
“Yeah, Dad I’m okay… its just… been awhile since I could talk about someone who knew me that young. Who watched me grow up.”
Dean walked back to the car with John and Castiel on his tail.
John took a moment to understand exactly what Dean meant.
Nobody was left of their past.
He looked at his son as they drove toward the bunker.
It was 2017.
John died in 2006.
He had left his kids when they were 23 and 27.
It had been a time in their life where they really could have used a father.
Dean was now 38.
Sam was now 33.
The life they had led was clear on Dean’s face.
He had suffered.
John couldn’t help but wonder, when they got Sam back, would they still need their father at all.