Daughter of Heaven (WIP - On Hiatus)

Chapter 14 - Not so happy reunion

A year. That's how long it took for things to get royally screwed again. It hadn't been an easy year, with Sam gone and all, but Dean made the most of it. Lisa welcomed him into her home against his own expectations, and Ben was thrilled he finally had a father figure in his life. And even though Lisa told Dean Ben wasn't his biological son, they were the closest thing to a family he had. It was... normal. Good. But nothing good ever happened to a Winchester, and when it did, it never lasted long. 

Dean never completely buried his Hunter persona. Once a Hunter, always a Hunter, after all. His father and Bobby had drilled that into him. He put up protections and kept his weapons in order, just in case. But nothing, absolutely nothing, could've prepared him for what came knocking on his door that night.
Sam was alive. He had been for that entire year, and to make things really interesting, so was Grandpa Samuel. Whatever, or whoever, brought Sam back brought their mom's dad back, too, for some freakish reason. Samuel rallied the Campbells (relatives on their mother's side whom Dean never even knew of) that were in the Hunting life, and they had all been going after whatever the hell went bump in the night until they stumbled upon a couple of Djinn who were terrorizing Dean's neighborhood.

After recovering from an attack and the shock of finding his brother and grandfather were alive, Dean's priority was getting Lisa and Ben to safety. So when they returned home from a night out, he brought them to Bobby's. That was the only place he knew to be safe and armed to the teeth. But his mentor didn't quite react how Dean had expected when he saw Sam. Meaning only one thing.

"You knew? You knew Sam was alive?"

Bobby sighed.

"Yeah..."

"How long?!"

"All year," admitted Bobby gruffly.

Dean halted his pacing and looked from his brother to his father's friend, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me!"

"And I'd do it again," said Bobby.

"Why?!" demanded Dean.

"Because you got out, Dean! You walked away from the life. And I was so damn grateful; you got no idea."

"Do you have any clue what walking away meant for me?!"

"Yeah, a woman and a kid and not getting your guts ripped out at age 30. That's what it meant."

"That woman and that kid, I went to them because you asked me to."

He pointed at Sam.

"I showed up on their doorstep half out of my head with grief. God knows why they even let me in. I drank too much. I had nightmares. I looked everywhere. I collected hundreds of books, trying to find anything to bust you out."

"You promised you'd leave it alone," said Sam, a little too accusatory.

"Of course, I didn't leave it alone!" snapped Dean. "Sue me!"

He turned back to Bobby.

"A damn year?! You couldn't put me out of my misery?"

"Look, I get it wasn't easy." Bobby looked Dean right in the eyes. "But that's life! And it's as close to happiness as I've ever seen a Hunter get. It ain't like I wanted to lie to you, son. But you were out, Dean."

"Do I look out to you?!"

Bobby fell silent at that. Sam just shrugged his shoulder and sighed as Dean rubbed his temples. He was so sick and tired of this whole mess. His eyes went to the kitchen, hoping to find a bottle of whiskey or just anything with alcohol, really. But what he saw instead made him freeze.