Roads Untraveled ~ Sam Winchester

Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Nine - One Last Meal

The dinner table was quiet. Sam and Dean sat on one side, Mary and John on the other with Eden at the head between Sam and Mary. No one really knew what to say. The elephant in the room loomed over their heads in an awkward silence.
"Alright." John spoke up, clearly bored of the atmosphere. "Near as I can tell, we have two choices. We can think about what's coming or we can be grateful for this time that we have together. Now, me..." He trailed off, grabbing Mary's hand to bring to his lips. "I choose grateful... So, to whatever brought us together, we owe you one. Amen."
"Amen." Dean, Mary, Sam and Eden uttered in turn.
The oldest son raised his whiskey glass, prompting the others to do the same, clinking them together.
"I say we get drunk and tell stupid stories. How's that sound?" Dean gave a childish grin.
"Sounds good to me. It's been far too long since I've babysat a drunk John Winchester." Eden smirked, sipping the blood in her wine glass as she leaned back in her chair.
"Oh, now that I've gotta hear." Mary laughed.
"Oh, God, no..." John chuckled, shaking his head. "I haven't had a hangover that bad since I was a freshman."
"You were puking for three days. I almost threw you in my car and drove you to get your stomach pumped." The Dark Angel threw her head back in her laughter. "Bobby was so pissed about that Lincoln."
"Oh crap, I forgot about the Lincoln." The oldest Winchester snorted, seeing all of the amused, curious faces. "Okay... So, after a hunt, Eden and I went to the nearest bar, she was egging me on, I was just rollin' with it. We end up going to back to Bobby's to pick you boys up and Bobby and I drink some more. Then Eden tells us about this drinking game that Samuel Colt and his buddies used to play back in the frontier days. Bobby and I decide to play it. We got so wasted, get into this fight about which car's better - the Impala or the Continental he had at the time. We end up going out to his salvage yard and totally wrecked this car for no reason. Eden's there handing me everything she could find that resembled a weapon even a little bit, I'm smashin' the ever-loving crap out of every inch of this car and Bobby's too drunk to think this is anything other than hilarious. Boy, did he change his mind by the next day, though. I'm not sure there was much of that thing left."
"It looked like it'd been put through the crusher at least three times." Eden added. "Do you remember what he said?"
"'If I didn't feel like I'd been turned inside out and made into beer jerky, I'd slap the crap outta you, Winchester." The pair shouted together through their laughter, sharing their best Bobby impressions.
"Oh, man... That was a night." John chortled, sighing reminiscently.
"Us three always did have the best drinking nights, though." Eden cocked a brow.
"I'm just thinking how much funnier it could've been if you could drink." The Winchester hummed.
"Oh, crap. You've never seen her drunk! Guys, you remember the alternate world?" Dean grinned, looking to Eden and Sam.
"Oh, God, that was so chaotic." Eden put her head in her hands.
Dean turned to John and Mary, placing his whiskey glass down.
"Okay, so we got mixed up in some Angel stuff, end up in this alternate world where our lives are a TV show. Long story short, Eden could eat and drink normal food in this world. First thing she did? Get wasted. She was absolutely hilarious. I swear, I haven't laughed that hard in a long time." Dean cracked up, causing Sam to do the same.
"Man, that was before we were even dating." He shook his head, looking to Eden, who took his hand resting on the table.
"Your lives were a TV show?" John frowned.
"Yeah. Everything that's happened here also happened there, but on a show called Supernatural. It was weird. But, of course, with Eden being able to eat and drink Human food in that world, she got stupid drunk and Dean wasn't exactly helping the situation." Sam threw a playful glare to his older brother, who smirked.
"I'd say I helped just fine, thanks." He shrugged.
"Wasn't life so much simpler back then?" Eden reminisced. "The worst thing coming our way was the apocalypse and we were actually able to have a little bit of fun every once in a while. Now it's all Archangels, Nephilim and God him-bloody-self."
"We had Archangels back then, too." Sam narrowed his eyes.
"Sure. But they look like metaphorical Angels compared to the arsehole crammed inside Dean's head." Eden countered.
"Yeah." Dean huffed a humourless laugh aftersipping his whiskey. "Give me Lucifer and this world's Michael any day."
"Come on, guys. Some cheerier thoughts. I wanna hear all about the last fifteen years for you guys." John cut in eagerly.
"Well, the first five of those was pretty Winchester-less for me." Eden thought out loud. "Until Bobby called and said he needed help finding the King of Hell. I've been hanging around like a bad smell ever since."
"Not like a bad anything." Sam chuckled, squeezing her hand slightly. "You're family. You deserve to be here just as much as the rest of us."
The Dark Angel hummed her contentment at his words, her head wracking itself in search for a happier memory.
"I think it's a case of us having happy moments, rather than actually happier times." She frowned to herself, realising she'd said it out loud. "Sorry, I've just had a bit of an epiphone. We really don't have any solid happy memories that last longer than two seconds."
"I think you might be right..." Dean mimicked her expression. "I mean... When was the last time we were all this happy? When we didn't have to worry about what was coming next or where the next attack or problem was coming from? I think it might've been when Sammy stuck a ring on it."
"Such a way with words, Dean." Mary smiled, shaking her head.
"Sad thing is, I think they've got a point." Sam spoke up. "Having said that, I think our lives being so screwedup means that we have time to appreciate the little happy moments that we do have. Like me proposing to Eden, yeah, or finding Jack and mom in Apocalypse world-"
"I'd hardly call that happy." Eden scoffed. "You were dead when we found them. It was happy for all of two seconds when you found us and then Lucifer showed up behind you."
"Yeah, I suppose..." Sam sighed.
"What about that road trip you and I went on after you came back from Heaven's jail?" Dean suggested, looking to the Dark Angel. "I mean, sure it was under crappy circumstances, but we had fun, right?"
"Yeah, we did." Eden smiled, sipping the blood from her wine glass. "Getting Mary back was a serious happy moment, of course."
"Definitely." Dean agreed. "Getting Cas back from the Empty. Watching you so in your element when we went back to eighteen sixty-one... Me and you working out your teleportation powers before you became Eden again."
"That time you got turned into a teenager." Eden smirked.
"That was not fun, okay? That was annoying as hell." Dean retorted, pointing a finger at her that came accompanied with a smile he was unable to hide.
"Are you joking? That was hilarious." The Dark Angel sniggered. "And we haven't even spoken about that time Baby got beaten by the Mystery Machine in a drag race."
"Okay, this is gunna need some context." Mary frowned through a smile.
"Alright, so we helped this guy in a pawn shop with a cursed object, this was a fair few months back. Thought it was a huge seven foot dinosaur, but nope. Anyway, he gives us a TV as a thank you, we get it back here and then it zaps the three of us into an episode of Scooby freakin' Doo." Dean explained.
"We met the Scooby gang, Dean wanted to bang Daphne, Eden was all googly eyes for Velma, Velma had this weird obsession with my shoulders." Sam continued.
"They are very nice shoulders." Eden commented.
"Anyway..." Sam gave her a playful smirk with his side-eye. "Dean hates Fred, challenges him to a drag race at some traffic lights. The Mystery Machine smokes us good."
"Friggin' cartoon logic..." Dean grumbled, slumping down in his chair. "I think that adventure might be the last one we went on before crap hit the fan. We went to Apocalypse world, got mom and Jack back and then, you know... Lucifer made Eden an evil bitch and I said yes to Michael."
"Our lives are so bloody weird..." Eden sighed. "None taken, by the way."
"Eden was evil?" John frowned.
"Yeah, kinda. We only got her back a couple weeks ago." Sam replied. He looked over to her, seeing her slouching in on herself a little in her seat. "We don't need to get into that right now. She's back and that's all that matters."
"Right." The rest of them agreed.
"Sounds like you three have had one hell of a ride." The father commented.
"That's one way to put it..." Eden mumbled into her glass. "Now, John. Tell us where you're at in your timeline. You never said much about it to me at the time. I'm interested."