Looking back, Dean could hardly believe that it took him until the age of twenty two to realise just how laughably naive and childish he'd been as a sixteen year old. Dean wasn't like most kids, and his unusual upbringing had given him a view of the world that other kids couldn't even begin to understand, but still, he believed his dad when he said things were going to be different. To be fair to the old man, though, things had been different, at least for a little while...

It took a couple of days for things to be finalised but at last, two and a half weeks after first being admitted, Dean was discharged from the hospital. He had the feeling that Dr Roberts might have wanted to keep him in a little longer, just to be sure that he was really was back to himself, but the matter couldn't be helped. Several gruelling sessions of physical therapy later and Dean was an expert on the crutches and the promise that the leg brace would be removed in a couple of weeks only served as an extra motivation for the sessions that would continue even after he left the hospital. His arm was still encased in the heavy plaster cast which was annoying to say the least and his arm itched like hell but it would be removed soon too and he would just have to put up with it until then. His other injuries were nothing; the cracked ribs were healing nicely, according to Dr Roberts, and the rest was just bruising which would clear up in its own time. Dean was actually pretty proud of the thin scar on his forehead that ran up into his hairline, he knew from experience just how much girls were into that sort of thing and he had plenty of ground to make up on that score after being confined to a hospital for so long.

Even better than the details of his recovery, and how much better he felt and how he felt strong enough not to fall asleep all the time, were the details that came trickling in of the new life that was waiting for them just outside the hospital doors. Every afternoon, while he recovered from another day of stretching his aching muscles and feeling better all the while, Dean would wait for the news that Sam and Dad were so eager to deliver. Pastor Jim's house had, of course, passed the inspection that Child Services had carried out with flying colours. Dad had told them in a low whisper, after checking that there were no nosy doctors or nurses in the nearby vicinity, how Pastor Jim had gone to extreme lengths to hide every weapon and supernatural artefact he had. As far as Child Services were concerned, Jim Murphy was simply a kindly pastor who'd stepped in to help solve this difficult situation, ably assisted by his good colleague Pastor Bob Singer. Dad also told them how Bobby had decided to close up the salvage yard for a couple of weeks so he could be around to lend a hand. Perhaps even better again was Sam's reaction to the whole thing, not since he was a very little kid had Dean seen his little brother so excited and happy about anything. That glimmer of hope in his eyes and the way his entire face would split into a grin at the slightest provocation was more than enough to dispel any lingering doubts Dean might have had. Just like Dad promised, things were going to be different.

Dean wasn't sorry to leave the hospital behind, not in the slightest, and he happily sat in the back seat of Dad's old pickup truck, not even bothering to look back as they drove off into the distance. He and Sam settled into Pastor Jim's place like they'd lived there all their lives and even Dad seemed at ease. He took a job, an actual legit job, with the mechanic in town; the hours were long and the pay wasn't great, but it was real hard earned money and besides, it gave him a chance to work on fixing up the twisted wreck that was the Impala. Sam was enrolled in the local middle school right away and he was soon happily up to his eyes in textbooks and class tests again, which suited him just fine. Geek Boy or not, he remained Dean's ever trusty sidekick and was more than willing to help Dean out when he got home in those few days Dr Roberts had advised Dean to stay off school.

When he was well enough to start school again, Dad would drive both of them there in the morning, and Pastor Jim would swing by to pick them up at the end of the day. In the evenings, after the boys' homework had been supervised and completed and after the dinner things had been cleared away, they would watch movies on Jim's old black and white TV, or the pastor would tell them stories about some of the things he'd hunted, with Dad and Bobby chiming in whenever they were around. It was the closest thing to normality, and indeed happiness, that anyone in their family had experienced in a very long time. Dean had a few hazy memories of his life before everything had fallen apart, and he was sure that Dad had even more vivid recollections than he did, but Sammy had nothing at all. That was why it was so important to Dean to see Sam settled and happy and the kid took to 'normality' like a duck to water. Dean had never pictured his future like this, but he was more than willing to immerse himself fully into it if it meant that Sammy could be happy.

By the time Dean's plaster cast and leg brace were removed, however, things had begun to fall apart again, just like things were prone to do in their family. Dad got a lead on the thing he believed had killed Mom, and Dean couldn't blame him for dropping everything and driving across three states in the newly repaired Impala. He'd probably have insisted on accompanying Dad if he was up to it. The trouble was, nobody else seemed to share Dean's sentiments. Dad's boss at the garage certainly didn't appreciate his mechanic taking off without a moment's notice and leaving him in the lurch, and it was soon made clear that Dad no longer had a job there. Pastor Jim and Bobby weren't too pleased either; several angry phone calls and a rather heated discussion when Dad eventually returned a week and a half later, since he had no job to tie him down now, proved as much. It was Sam, however, who took it the hardest, especially now he was growing into a teenager and had all sorts of teenage angst bottled up inside him, just looking for a release. The little boy with the wide eyes who Dean could placate with a few well chosen words was gone and replaced with a feisty young man who made his opinions on the subject extremely clear when Dad returned. And if Dean was annoyed that Dad had so easily slipped into their old lifestyle, well it didn't matter and he didn't need to express it since he was so busy acting as a buffer between Sam and Dad.

And then, just like that, they left Pastor Jim's behind since Dad had a definite lead in Montana that he had to follow up on, and he was taking his sons with him. Nothing that either Jim or Bobby could say could persuade him otherwise and now that Dean's outpatient appointments in the local hospital had come to an end, there was nothing tying the Winchesters to Blue Earth, Minnesota. Nothing except the three months of normality that Dean had sadly concluded was nothing more than a failed experiment. Three months of packed lunches and homework and home cooked meals had been nice when they lasted, but Dean felt he ought have known that it was only ever going to be a temporary arrangement.

Dad had been right, in a way, when he said that things were going to be different. Those three months at Pastor Jim's, which soon faded away as though they'd never existed, had certainly been different, and when they picked up their old hunter's lifestyle, they found it too was different than before. For one thing, Sam was almost like a completely different kid. Dean supposed it was because he'd had a taste of what life could be like that he struggled so much to pick up where they'd left up. He was less compliant than ever before, less willing to do what Dad said and Dean found, to his horror, that his little brother was even pulling away from him. Sometimes he wondered if Sam ever regretted not going with that foster family when he had the chance because sometimes he would catch something in his little brother's eyes that suggested he would rather be anywhere else in the world than with his family.

Dean gave up worrying about school and homework because that shit just wasn't important or worthwhile anymore and instead threw himself whole heartedly into helping Dad, because his father needed him more than ever when things with Bobby came to blows and they could no longer count on Singer for support or backup. Sam, as though to be deliberately contrary, did the exact opposite. He buried himself in his school work and fought with Dad, almost on a daily basis about how he wasn't coming to hunt a werewolf with them, he was studying for a pop quiz instead.

All Dean could do was watch as his family fell apart, the incident with Child Services apparently completely forgotten. It was extremely difficult to reconcile the image of the three Winchester men gripping onto each other in Dr Roberts' office with the fractured, broken family that had become their new reality. They were never bothered by Child Services again, because Dean was careful that they shouldn't get tripped up and risk getting separated again. What he had no control over, however, was Sam announcing, at the age of eighteen, that he was leaving them to go to college.

In that seemingly innocent and normal action, a smart kid announcing he had a full ride to a top university, everything Dean had ever known or believed in had come crashing to the ground. Family didn't mean anything at all, Dad could be horrendously wrong about everything, and worst of all, Dean was forced to come to the realisation that not only could he not protect his little brother anymore but Sammy didn't want him to. Sam wanted his own life away from Dad and hunting and Dean.

Looking back, Dean wished his sixteen year old self hadn't been quite so optimistic that things were going to be different and everything was going to be ok, because a slightly hardened outlook might have made the harsh reality a bit more bearable. However, a rare moment of childish optimism had just paved the way for more hurt and upset and an acute sense of betrayal in the years to come.

Things were going to be anything but different, except of course, that Sammy was now, almost definitely, gone for good. The future was going to be filled with more hunts and probably even more hospital visits and, not that Dean knew it yet, but another situation where in his life lay in the balance and Sam, hunched desperately over a phone, would call and call Dad over and over to no avail.

Things are going to be different from now on.

It was about the furthest thing from the truth that Dean could possibly imagine and it was almost laughable how much his teenaged self had believed in his Dad and his ability to protect his sons.

A/N: Well, here we are, the final chapter of Protected! It's been almost six months since the first chapter was posted and a huge thank you to all those who took the time to read this, especially those kind enough to review, favourite and follow! I hope you're pleased (is that the right word?) with this epilogue; it might be the shortest chapter but it was definitely the hardest to write but I think I'm happy with it (I can't lie, angsty and hurt!Dean is what I live for) especially since it is my first, long piece of Supernatural fanfiction! I only ever intended it to be a few chapters at most but the story took on a life of its own, helped, of course, but the generous feedback I received. In the immortal words of Chuck Shurley, 'No doubt - endings are hard. But then again...nothing ever really ends, does it?'