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"It's okay." Sam whispered to him, tears choking him up. "You can go now."
Dean placed his own hand over Sam's, clutching it tightly with whatever power he had left inside of him.
His sight turned blurry as he felt Sam press their foreheads together. Tears streaked down his own cheeks. It was one of the last things he could feel.
"Goodbye, Sam." Dean whispered and closed his eyes one last time. The hand that was clutching his brother's fell limp to his side.
Dean Winchester was no more.
"Well, at least I made it to Heaven.' Dean said to himself as his eyes opened and took in what was around him.
The first thing he noticed was that he was surrounded by nature. Big sturdy trees filled the landscape. There was a beautiful blue sky above him. Not even a cloud was in sight. The birds around him were singing a pretty tune. Dean couldn't help but stare. It was all so beautiful.
A sudden thought crossed his mind very quickly.
'I wish Cas was here to share this with me.'
"Yep." A deep voice from his right pulled Dean from his haze.
Dean immediately looked over. His expression grew shocked as he saw a certain someone, Bobby, sitting in a chair in front of a certain building.
His eyes turned cold for a second. This couldn't be true. "What memory is this?" He asked, not trusting the situation.
A chuckle left Bobby as he looked up at Dean. "It ain't, ya idjit." He answered as soft as he could.
"Yeah, it is." Dean replied and took a step towards Bobby. He held out an accusatory finger towards the man as he stepped past him. "Last I heard, you, you were in Heaven's lockup." The younger hunter added.
"Was." Bobby replied as he watched Dean look around himself in awe. "Now I'm not. That kid of yours, before he went... wherever, made some changes here. Busted my ass out. And then he. Well. Set some things right." The older man explained as Dean sat down in the empty chair next to him.
"Tore down all the walls up here. Heaven just ain't reliving your golden oldies anymore. It's what it always should have been." He continued his explanation. Bobby wasn't looking at Dean anymore. Even though he knew the younger was watching him. His eyes were focussed on the dirt before him.
"Everyone happy. Everyone together." The older man said and quickly looked up at Dean before turning to look away again.
"Rufus lives about five miles that way together with Aretha." Bobby continued on. He couldn't help the small smirk as he saw Dean's confused look.
"And your mom and dad." Bobby said, which earned him a shaken look from Dean. "They got a place over yonder." He said and pointed to the hills left of them.
Bobby turned to look at Dean. Staring right into his eyes. "It ain't just heaven, Dean. It's the heaven you deserve. And we've been waiting for ya." He chuckled and turned to the cooler next to him. He grabbed two beers and opened them both up.
Dean quickly accepted the beer from his 'father'. He had to take a moment to let it all sink in for a second. He wiped the condense from the bottle and looked back up at Bobby.
"So Jack did all that?" Dean asked, pulling his eyes away from Bobby again.
A deep sigh left the older man. "Well, he had some help." He answered, purposely withholding Cass name. Dean quickly glanced over. But all Bobby did was give him a knowing look before taking a chug from his bottle.
"It's a big new world out there. You'll see." Bobby said and placed his beer down.
The two men began to reminisce about old times. Dean shared how the beer that Bobby had given him was utter shit. That it tasted like the first one he ever shared with his dad.
The conversation brought forward many topics. The first hunt. How Sammy was going to Stanford but eventually got dragged back into the life again. The yellow-eyes demon. Angels. Lucifer. Leviathans. God and Amara. Mary and Jack. You name it. They talked about it.
The two men sat there for God knows how long. Happy memories, bad memories. It all got brought up.
Dean eventually placed his beer down the table and ran his hand down his face. "But it was fantastic." Dean said with a snort.
Bobby huffed and looked around himself for a second. "Just like this." He muttered.
Dean turned away from him. His eyes were solely focused on his feet for a moment. "It's almost perfect." He answered, voice filled with sadness.
Bobby turned his gaze towards Dean. A soft smile appeared on his face. "He'll be along." He replied back to the young hunter.
Dean didn't say anything. He just stared at the man who practically adopted him.
"I know. I know he'll be here. But he isn't the only one I want here." Dean answered eventually. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees.
"Im guessing this is about the angel, isn't it?" Bobby said and mimicked Dean's actions, elbows resting on his knees.
Dean nodded. There was a sudden lump in his throat. "Yeah..." He said and scraped his throat. His eyes flicked up and back away from Bobby.
"He sacrificed himself. For me. To save me from Death." Dean started his unprompted explanation. He kept his eyes firm to the ground, knowing he would start crying the minute he would meet Bobby's sympathetic gaze.
"Death wanted to kill us. And we were trapped. There was no way from us to go." He started again after a few minutes of silence. "Cas knew that nothing would stop her. Except for one thing. He began to tell me of a deal he made with the Empty to save Jack." He explained, voice wavering and shaking with tears. He took a few deep breaths before he continued.
"The Empty would come and get him when he would experience a true moment of happiness. But he never knew what that would be like. That the one thing he truly wanted is something he couldn't have." Dean continued on with his tale. Tears were rolling down his cheeks freely. But he didn't care. He didn't need to when he was with Bobby.
Dean's breath hitched. "Because the one thing he wanted, Bobby, was me." He added silently. He ran his hands across his cheeks quickly.
"At first, it didn't register to me. He told me how happiness wasn't in the having. It was in the being. It was in saying it." Dean whispered and looked up for a moment. "I didn't understand what he meant. But he just kept talking." He added.
"He told me that he didn't see me like the way I did. That I wasn't this anger filled raging weapon. He told me my actions, the good the bad and the ugly, came from love. Raising Sam. Saving the world." Dean continued, a silent sob escaping him.
Bobby noticed how his son was having a hard time explaining what had happened. He saw how Dean's shoulders shook in pain. How he hid his eyes in his hand to mask the tears.
"He told me some things I hadn't heard before. Like how I was the most caring person on earth. The most selfless, loving human being he would ever know." Dean whispered and gripped his pant leg.
"He told me that meeting me changed him. That because of my care, he began to care. How he cared about Jack, about Sam and the whole world. And about me." Dean continued to explain.
'You changed me.'
"You changed me." Dean said in unison with Cas' voice in his head.
Dean looked up at Bobby. His whole face was red from crying. His bottom lip was quivering as the tears trailed down his cheeks rapidly.
"And then he told me those words, Bobby." Dean cried.
"What words?" Bobby asked.
'I love you'
"I love you"
Dean heard Bobby's breath get stuck in his throat. He looked away again, back to the ground under his feet. He watched as several of his tears splashed to the ground.
"And the worst part is, I didn't get the time to say it back. I was still processing what he had said. And the next thing I knew was that he said goodbye to me. He pushed me to the ground. Out of harms way as the Empty began to consume him." Dean said and wiped his hands across his eyes again.
"I never got to say 'I love you' back. It took him away, Bobby. It took him away from me." Dean cried, not bothering to wipe his tears anymore.
Bobby didn't say anything. He just pressed a comforting hand to Dean's knee and kept it there.
Both men were silent for some time. The only sound between them was the sound of Dean sniffling. It took him some time, but Dean was able to regain his composure. He wiped his eyes one last time before he stood up.
Bobby watched him carefully. He didn't comment on how Dean looked right now. The boy didn't need that. "So..." he started, wanting to change the topic of their conversation. "What do ya wanna do now?" He asked.
Dean gave him a small smile. He was thankful Bobby didn't comment on his tears. He took in a deep breath before pushing it out again. "Honestly, I could go for a drive. But baby..." Dean answered but was interrupted by Bobby nodding his head to the left.
And there she was.
Baby.
"Then why don't ya?" Bobby grinned at him.
Dean grinned at him and immediately walked up to Baby, gently caressing the roof of the car. He was about to step in when Bobby called for his attention.
"Hey, Dean! Why don't ya drive south? There's a pretty lake just past a bridge. You should see it." Bobby said with an all-knowing smile.
Dean just gave him a thumps up as he crawled into his car. He brought her to life with the key before driving off south.
Bobby watched Dean speed off. He leaned back in his chair and smirked to himself. His boy was in or the suprise of a lifetime.
Dean didn't know how long he had been driving for. Bobby had explained how time worked different up in Heaven. But he didn't mind. He was happy.
His mind began to trail off for a moment. Happy moments he experienced with both Sam and Cas began to cloud his mind.
His mind was about to run off further until he saw a bridge coming up. That must've been the bridge Bobby had mentioned.
Baby quickly approached the structure. Dean was right about to drive over the bridge, but something blocking the middle of the bridge made him stop. Dean put Baby in park and slowly crawled out.
The sunlight was glowing around what was in the middle of the road. Dean quickly began to approach it, but had to stop when he finally could see what it was. Or rather, who it was.
His eyes grew as wide as saucers as he saw a certain angel in a tan trench coat before him.
"Cas?" Dean whispered, voice shaking, bit believing that Cas was standing before him.
Cas turned around and looked back at Dean.
And Dean knew.
Those blue eyes.
His blue eyes.
That was his Castiel before him.
"Cas? Is it really you?" Dean asked gently, as if the wrong answer could shatter his opes and dreams.
Cas didn't say anything. He didn't need to. He took big strides towards Dean.
Dean didn't hesitate for a second. He began to take big strides toward his angel.
Soon, both strides turned into running. Running straight into each other's arms.
The two met each other in the middle. Cas wrapped his arms around Dean's neck as the hunter wrapped his arms around the angel's waist. The two held each other for quite some time. They were soaking each other up.
Cas was the first one to slowly pull back a little. His hands were still gripping the hunter's shoulders while Dean still had his own around Cas' wasit.
"Dean..."
"Cas..."
"I miss..." Cas was about to say until Dean pulled a hand back, balled it into a fist, and socked Cas right in his jaw.
Castiel was about to say something until he felt the collar of his jacket being pulled down and soft lips pressed against his own.
Cas eyes widened in shock before they eventually fell closed. He wrapped his arms around Dean's neck again and kissed him with all his might.
Dean was the first one to pull back from their moment. He looked Cas right into his eyes. "Don't you ever, ever, ever do that to me again! Do you understand? Because I swear, I will punch you so hard you will be able to see your own ass." Dean grumbled.
Castiel gave Dean a smile so filled with love, it looked like he was about to burst with it. He leaned back and rested a hand against Dean's jaw. "I promise." He said before pulling Dean down into a deep kiss again.
The two continued their moment until Dean had to pull back. He quickly checked Cas over.
"But I don't understand. How are you here? I thought..." Dean began to ramble, but Cas was quick to interrupt.
"Jack. He pulled me and the other angels out of that place. To be by his side. To fix heaven up." Cas explained, his blue eyes never leaving Dean's green ones.
Dean stared at Cas before chuckling. "Next time I see the kid, I'm going to squeeze the insides out of him." Dean laughed before turning to look back at his angel. "Wait, you said he pulled you guys back to help him. Does that mean you have to leave?" Dean asked, a lone tear rolling down his cheek. Cas was quick to wipe it away.
Castiel shook his head. "No. I don't." Cas said and held Dean's hand between them. "Jack said that I've been through enough. That I get to stay here. To be happy. With you. If you want me to." The angel said, voice getting small.
Dean stared at Cas. His Castiel.
"Dude? Do you really have to ask?" Dean answered and pulled the angel down for their deepest kiss yet. He pulled back and rested his forehead against Cas' while staring into those bright, blue eyes.
Castiel laughed. "Good. Very good. Because there is a house waiting for us. Right between your parents and Bobby's. And one across for Sam." He replied and brought Dean in for another hug.
The two of them fell silent for a while, just enjoying and loving each other's company
"Hey Castiel?" Dean whispered after a while.
"Yeah?"
"I love you"
"I love you to"
A month has passed since their teary and loving reunion. Both men had been attached to the hip.
Cas had dragged Dean with him to visit Bobby and his parents.
Bobby could immediately tell that the two had found each other. Dean had his hand either on Cas waist or the small of his back the whole time. And Castiel kept looking at Dean with all the love he could muster.
It made Bobby gag.
But he was also happy.
His son had found happiness.
The two of them were driving to the bridge where they had reunited. Even tho it was just shy of a month in heaven, years had passed down on earth.
Dean didn't know why, but he had the urge to go back to that place, back to the bridge. So that's where they were. Baby was parked at the same spot as before.
Both Dean and Castiel were standing against the railing of the bridge. They were having a silent conversation between the two of them before both men suddenly perked up.
There was a new presence behind them.
Dean didn't look behind him yet. A soft smile grew on his lips. "Hey Sammy." He said gently and finally turned around.
And there he was.
His baby brother.
Sam looked his brother up and down for a moment, making sure that he was okay. "Dean." He said, voice already choking up.
Dean gave his brother toothy grin before pulling him close for a hug. The youngest hunter immediately hugged his brother back.
Dean pulled back from the hug and wrapped his arm around his brother's shoulder. He guided the younger man to the railing and stood next to him.
Cas appeared on his other side. Dean wasted no time wrapping his arm around Cas' waist.
Dean could see his brother looking, but a smile appeared on Sam's face. And that was all Dean needed.
So there Dean stood, Sam to his right, Cas to his left. His brother and his angel by his side.
All was good now.
Heaven was perfect.