Part 10.

Dean and Sam are laid out over the couch, practically in each other's laps just this side of snoozing. The sun is sinking slowly towards the horizon and evening is approaching. Dean nudges Sam with the knee his little brother is currently laying on jostling him out of his nice, warm haze.

"Whassit?" Sam asks lazily, pushing back with his shoulder weakly.

"Didja' find one?" Dean asks, in a hushed voice.

Sam nods softly. "Yeah, Michigan."

"Nice and close." Dean hums.

Sam nods, "Think it's a poltergeist, but we can cover that on the way."

"Awesome," Dean yawns shifting, causing Sam to resettle as well. "We should go soon."

Sam hums not moving, "Aren't you supposed to have an after dinner nap?"

"Christmas is different from Sundays, Sammy." Dean mumbles, "Sunday afternoon naps are a necessity, Christmas is all presents, hot chocolate and sugar highs."

Sam chuckles, shaking his body and therefore jostling Dean who whines in complaint. Jody pads into the room in her socks, and folds herself into the recliner, covering up with a blanket warmly.

"We're gonna be heading out here soon, Jody." Sam mumbles.

"Mhm," Dean agrees.

"Yeah, ya'll look like it." She chuckles taking in their cuddling position.

Dean nudges Sam again, "Stop cuddling me." He demands half heartedly.

"You stop cuddling me," Sam returns without missing a beat, neither of them budging an inch.

"Where you boys running off to in such a hurry?" Jody asks. Somewhere along the way, Sam's not sure when, but somehow Jody had gotten to know them too well. Dean just gives her an annoyed look and Sam thinks they've probably already talked about Jody's uncanny ability to guess what's going on with Sam and Dean.

"Michigan," Dean mumbles, still not moving from his comfortable position, curling cold toes into the small of Sam's back who jabs him with his elbow. "Poltergeist, we think."

"Work off steam, work out these last two days?" Jody asks with an arched smile.

Dean rolls his eyes exasperatedly, "Yeah exactly." He says flatly.

Jody gives him a sunny smile in return, "Y'all boys want some left overs?"

Sam perks up at that, "Yes please." He says giving his best and sweetest dimpled smile.

"Okay okay," Jody says rolling her eyes, "No need to turn on the charm Winchester." She heaves herself back up and disappears into the kitchen. Dean finally sits up and uses his foot to try and push Sam's mass upwards too.

"C'mon Sasquatch," he grumbles, and slips out from under his younger brother and stands. Sam is still limp and just falls right back to the couch. Dean growls under his breath and takes Sam's hand, wrapping his other hand around him forearm. He gives a great pull and dumps Sam in the floor.

"Ow!" Sam says, eyes flying open in surprise.

"Told you to c'mon." Dean says grinning.

Sam sulks, "Gonna have to drag me."

"That's just fine with me," Dean says with mischievous smile. He grabs Sam's other hand and throws his body weight into his effort. He's slowly pulling Sam up the hallway nearly breathless in laughter rumbling up from his chest when Alex and Claire put their heads out their door to see what the commotion was about.

"Alex, Claire!" Dean says sounding innocent enough as he watches Sam's face carefully. "Tickle him!" He yells preparing to have to restrain Sam's brute strength.

Claire and Alex are on Sam in a second, fingers digging into all the ticklish parts of his body and soon Sam's a gasping, laughing mess on the floor with tears running from his eyes. He tries to twist over so he can stand and run to make his escape but Dean is holding his arms captive above his head.

"Dean," he gasps out, "Call 'em off," he pleads, and the breaks off into high pitched giggles, "C'mon Dean."

"Think he's learned his lesson girls?" Dean asks, giving Sam a studious look.

"No, definitely not," Claire says with an evil grin.

Sam groans. Dean just smiles, "Help me pull him in here girls, he said I had to drag him."

"You lazy bastard." Claire says laughing as she gives a final tickle to Sam's extremely sensitive sides. He twists away from her laughing and she and Alex each grab a hold of one of Sam's arms and drag him the rest of the way into the bedroom.

"My revenge shall be more than you can survive," Sam spits out once he catches his breath and stops laughing.

"Yeah, yeah okay Inigo Montoya." Dean mocks as he begins gathering pieces of clothing he'd somehow discarded over the entire room over the forty–eight hours they'd been there.

"Y'all dicks," Sam splutters with an unusual lack of words as he picks himself up from the floor and brushes off his clothes giving Dean a hard look.

"Sammy," Dean tuts, "That ain't no way to speak to ladies."

Sam just rolls his eyes and starts throwing his belongings back into his duffle.

"You guys heading out?" Alex asks, her and Claire taking a seat on the bed to watch the boys extremely relaxed packing process. She understands now why sometimes they come around looking like a wrinkled nightmare. If you stuff your clothes unfolded into a duffle bag they're going to be a wrinkled mess.

"Yeah," Dean says zipping his duffle up quickly and gathering his wallet and keys off the top of the dresser. "Job in Michigan."

Claire smirks. "Well, don't wait so long to come see us next time."

"We were here a few months ago, came to see y'all, but you weren't here." Sam says, being slightly neater in his packing.

"Yeah Jody told us, so I guess you did try." Claire concedes and Dean grins pulling her close in a hug and leaving a kiss under her eye on her cheekbone.

"Never change Claire," he says, winking and walking out the door.

Sam alternately wraps his arms around Alex and Claire, "Thanks for having us girls and sharing your rooms and you know...brutally torturing me just now."

"You're welcome." They answer sunnily, he waves them off and throws his duffle to the floor in the living room to join Dean and Jody but stops catching sight of Mary looking at the two duffle bags by the door. He can hear Dean talking to Jody in the kitchen, the low timbre of his voice carrying to his ear how he was programmed to always hear it. Knows he hadn't seen their mom just now, but knows Mary had been watching him.

"You guys leaving?" She asks, looking surprised.

"Yeah, gig in Michigan." Dean says, standing in the doorway. Mary nods, her hands in the pockets of her coat.

"Alrighty, here y'all go." Jody says coming into the room with two containers and a plastic bag filled with stuffing.

"Awesome," Sam says smiling and not minding the food between them he hugs Jody hard. "Thank your so much," he mumbles and takes the food from her. And she knows he doesn't mean just for the food.

"You're more than welcome Sam." She responds, hugging him back just as tightly. He doesn't look back, grabs his duffle and disappears out the front door.

Dean wraps Jody up in a hug and leaves a dusted kiss on her cheekbone too, "Don't know what I would've done without you." He whispers into her ear.

She smiles and places a kiss on his cheek too, "You would've done just fine Dean Winchester," she hugs him back tightly and squeezes her eyes shut, "But I'm glad I got to be a part of it anyways."

He gives her a happy grin but she can see the grateful wetness in his eyes.

"Come back soon," she says following him out the door and she sees Mary is already out and waiting to speak with her son's privately. She waves to them both one last time from the front stoop. They smile and wave too and Jody shuts her front door certain of one thing, those boys would be okay with or without her. But she's glad as hell they do have her, that she has them.

...

Dean throws his duffle in the back seat and turns back to where Sam is standing beside him and their mom stands across from them. He can see the hurt and confusion rushing over her face in waves, knows no matter how hard this Christmas had been for he and Sam it hadn't been as hard as his mom's had been.

He gives her a soft smile, "We do actually have a present for you," he says simply, and pulls a small wooden box from his pocket and hands it her. She slowly takes it in her hand knowing exactly what it is before she opens it. Feels tears stinging in her eyes. Her mouth hangs a little open, doesn't know what to say because god, how could two people be as good as her sons?

"Don't say anything," Dean urges softly. "Just remember...even if we're not there you still have a home. Come back to it, mom."

Mary looks down at her gift. A thick brown key...a key to the bunker. She can't speak past the lump in her throat, is so terrified of this edge she's standing on. She's going to fall off the fence she's riding between hunting and normality. And once she chooses one there is no going back.

Part of her wants to jump into the impala and never leave her boys again, to strive to be somewhere close to as good as they are someday. But the other part of her is aching, alone, is screaming that she doesn't belong and god help her, but she's still mourning John. She's just not sure if she can let go of all that...how can she let go of her happy home, her John, and her Sam and Dean who had by this time already supplied her with grandchildren?

She's frozen and alone and miserable in this cruel world, this reality. Damn the angels for letting her believe it was real. In heaven she was the perfect mom, here she was a mess, her sons didn't need her, they were better than her and at the same time...they were people she had prayed they would never grow up to be.

Dean gives her a sympathetic smile at her 'deer in the headlights' look and folds himself into the impala cranking her up and turning the heater on high, he smiles back to her as she looks at him over Sam's shoulder where he's giving her a hug.

He waits as Sam rounds the impala and gets in beside him, getting situated. They drive away from the best Christmas they ever had, both looking back in the rear view mirror a few times. They leave the gold haired woman that is their mother standing alone...for once they leave her, leave her at her crossroads.

They're done letting her decisions dictate their lives and the way they feel. Mary must come to them, and must become a part of their lives not the other way around. And it's a huge risk because if she decides she doesn't want her second chance the boys will have lost their second chance with their mom as well.

They've made their peace with that, they are prepared to sacrifice that for their belief that their job, their life purpose is saving people and hunting things.

"Do you think she'll be there when we get back?" Sam asks softly, not even looking at Dean, the hope so fragile between them that they ignore it for fear it will shatter and disappear into thin air.

Dean keeps his gaze straight ahead too, "I don't know Sammy, I honestly don't know."

...

Four days later; New Years Eve, 2016

Sam is down in the grave digging it out, sweating even in the frigid winter weather. The hunt had proved to be a poltergeist and it had been throwing the boys around for the last four days with annoying ease. They were preparing to finally end the whole thing right now.

Dean stands above him with a shotgun and iron crowbar, his sharp profile cut against the twinkling stars. The cold air so clear it looked as if you could reach and touch them and their white fire. Dean is humming something under his breath, not Christmas, and somewhere far off a dog barks and an owl answers. It's peaceful.

Sam jumps out of the freshly dug grave and casts salt and light fluid into it. Dean lets a salt round into the suddenly appearing poltergeist with a boom just as Sam lets fall a flaming match into the dark hole. Their nemesis goes up flames and a shriek of defeat before everything falls silent and still again.

Dean fills in the grave while Sam gathers up their tools. They're both comfortably sore and tired, a job well done setting their veins aglow with happiness and contentedness. They wander slowly back to the impala and throw shovels and shotguns into the trunk rubbing and clapping their hands together to warm them up.

Their breath clouds in front of them in the cold and Sam welcomes the sound of Dean cracking open a beer. He accepts it happily drinking down half of it right away, watching as Dean opens his and slowly sips it, savoring the taste and coolness of it on his tongue.

They lean against baby, both unconsciously tipping back their heads as they drink taking in the beauty and mystery of the stars and their galaxies. Dean slowly looks at his watch, finds it just a few minutes before midnight and the new year. He looks back to the night sky and thinks that this next year their future is much like the stars and the galaxies. Beautiful and a mystery.

Both exhilaration and fear coat his insides thinking of it. He and Sam side by side against the world for yet another year. What they may face is intimidating, but the endless possibilities of the good things they will certainly experience as they grow closer and closer together fill Dean's mind and heart achingly full.

He looks over to his little brother, the star light shining and sparkling in his eyes, his familiar, loved features softened in the dark shadows of night. He looks down to his watch to find it midnight exactly.

"Happy New Years, Sammy." He says softly.

"Happy New Years, Dean."

the end.

OMG THE END! I'm so happy but sad too. Loved this story so much!

THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER please please please LEAVE ME A REVIEW! to all those readers out there who don't usually review...if u like this story leave me a review on the last chapter! Love y'all:):)

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(Something for 12.08 coming soon, I promise)