When Dean finally dies, the no coming back dying, he dies with a chaste kiss on the forehead from Cas, his brother's hand on his shoulder, and a hospital room full of unshed tears.

Dean never expected to go the way he did, with family and with no pain and without worry of crossroad deals, he always expect a quicker death- during heat of the moment, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or even a fatal car crash- not wasting away from a failing liver. But Dean didn't feel like he wasted away. Dean felt like he finally had a reason to live. He was told he had 12 months to live and Dean didn't waste a single second.

Things changed after the news. Dean moved in with Sam and his family- his wife Kate and their two young children Johnathon and Mary Grace- Sam thought Dean lived too far away to be alone, even though Cas was always watching Dean. Dean still kept the remodeled Singer house. Cas spent even more time on Earth with Dean than he usually did. It was easy for Cas to slip down for a week or two at a time now that Heaven was in order. Dean was just glad that he had the balls to admit his feelings for the angel long before he found out he was sick. Dean also started to go to church, but no one questioned him about it.

In the beginning Dean denied the inevitable, but after dealing with angels for too long and being a Hunter for too many years, Dean realized that everything has it's time and you could only cheat Death so many times.

Time kept ticking. Dean kept getting sicker and sicker, his niece and nephew started questioning the adults, but nobody ever brought up Dean's illness directly. The clocks kept moving.

Sometimes Dean would wake up from a nightmare- being tortured in Hell after he died- and Cas would be there assuring Dean that he was going to Heaven. He would tell Dean that all his sins were atoned for, that a man with a soul a pure as his would never have to go to a place like that again. That's when their game of What to Do When We Both Get to Heaven started. Every day Dean added a new idea to the list, his own after-life bucket list. And at the top- Introduce Cas to Mom. The angel played along and in the end he even added some of his own suggestions to the ever growing list.

When Dean's time on Earth was up, he recited the list over and over in his head. It seemed to make dying easier, as if he was making a mental list of things to do when he woke up from a nap.

During the year Dean had left, he finalized his will. It wasn't very long and didn't have very many requirements. A proper Hunter funeral. The remainder of his savings was to start a college fund for Sam's children. Bobby's house and his car were to be signed over to his brother. Some other small details. Mostly everything went to Sam; it wasn't like they had anyone else in their lives.

In the middle of six months of living and six months of dying, and a few days after his niece's third birthday, Dean found out Sam and Kate were expecting their third child. It was a happy time for the Winchester family, everyone's mood had changed. A couple weeks later Dean pulled Sam aside and told him he was sorry that he would most likely miss the birth of his niece or nephew. Dean also told Sam that if he had a boy and named the baby after Dean that he would find a way to haunt him for the rest of his life. A small part of Dean was hoping his brother wouldn't listen to him.

He had heard from many people over the years to cut back on the alcohol. The next time he saw any of those people, wherever he may be, Dean would tell them that he wished he would have listened a bit sooner.

Dean took his last breath late in the afternoon. Everyone had left except for Sam and Cas. All three knew Dean wouldn't be waking up in the morning. So the infamous Dean Winchester died for the last time at age 49, not that old to the rest of the world, but most likely a record for a Winchester, surrounded by the two people that cared the most about him.

Two months later Dean Samuel Winchester was welcomed into the world on January 24 and somewhere in Heaven, Dean was waiting for Cas to come back home so he could finally meet his mom.

Notes:

Mary Grace is three and Johnathon Henry is around five at the time of Dean's death.

Title from "You Can Finally Meet My Mom" by Train

Comment and reviews would be really nice. I haven't written a major character death fic in a really long time.