A/N: This scene hasn't been altered at all.

Sam sat on the hood of the Impala with a beer in hand. A last supper, of sorts. When Dean comes walking, he greets him with a tentative "Hey."

Dean helped himself to a beer from the cooler and leaned against the Impala.

"Dean? What's going on?"

"I'm in."

It's short, and too vague for Sam to follow. "In with...?"

"The whole 'up with Satan' thing. I'm on board."

"You're gonna let me say yes?" It's hard to believe. Even harder to say.

"No. That's the thing. It's not on me to let you do anything. You're a grown - well, overgrown - man." There's enough fondness in that remark to fill a lifetime. "If this is what you want, I'll back your play."

"That's the last thing I thought you'd ever say." Maybe the era of miracles isn't past just yet. Maybe they really can cage the Devil.

"Might be. I'm not gonna lie to you, though. It goes against every fiber I got. I mean, truth is... You know, watching out for you... it's kinda been my job, you know? But more than that, it's... it's kinda who I am. You're not a kid anymore, Sam, and I can't keep treating you like one. Maybe I got to grow up a little, too. I don't know if we got a snowball's chance. But... But I do know that if anybody can do it... it's you."

"Thank you." For all his college credits, those were the only words he knew right then.

"If this is what you want... Is this really what you want?"

"I let him out. I gotta put him back in."

"Okay. That's it, then."

It is.

A/N
As stated, this scene is intact original. I wanted to include it because in canon this scene comes after Dean's conversation with Death, and I felt like there was a scene missing between those. While I understand that the meeting with Death changed Dean's mind just fine without Shirou, there is a discrepancy in emotion that I wanted to make something of. In the original, Dean's choice to support Sam came after a scene where all hope was gone, when Death had said there was no other way. It had a slight undertone of "I go along with this because I'm told there's no other way and I have to accept that and also I love you". With the addition of Shirou, I wanted Dean to reach the same end conclusion but from the angle of sympathy. "I go along with this because I see what a horrible situation you're in and even if it's the only thing I can do for you I want you to know we're in this together, as we've always been".

Thank you for reading. =)

Epilogue

A home cooked meal was a luxury Hunters rarely got to enjoy, but eating it with family was practically unheard of. Yet here they were, Sam and Dean and Bobby, blood ties be damned they were family and they deserved these precious moments together.

As if that was actually going to happen.

"Evening, gentlemen." Crowley came sauntering in from Bobby's kitchen as if he owned the place, just as he had so long ago. "No thanks, I'm full. Just came to take a look around. A delivery I expected hasn't turned up, so", he held his arms out, "perhaps it was intercepted."

"The UPS office is 500 miles in that direction." Bobby pointed with his fork.

Crowley pretended not to notice and continued: "A soul."

"Why would we know anything about souls in demon deals? 'Cause I'm assuming this is a deal you were cashing in?"

"I'd say you hold the standing record in rescuing souls of people dear to you."

Anybody still eating stopped.

"Who?"

The air in the room shifted slightly with the distortion of time-space, and Castiel manifested in the room. A confused and somewhat distressed Castiel.

"There has been a-" The angel stopped short when he noticed the dining company. "Are you here for him?"

"He went to Heaven?" For once, Crowley was visibly astonished. "Why would you even want somebody like that?"

"We don't, but he was delivered to the Gates and there was nothing we could do about it. Now we don't know what to do because the code of law says-"

"There is no opting-out clause in deals, he should be sent back to-"

A third entity manifested, and Bobby was silently questioning what he even had wardings for. The black woman with the cloud of hair was an unfamiliar face, but anything that teleported and wore a suit was easy enough to guess.

"Hi everyone, sorry for the mess, just let me through, 'kay...?" The reaper sidled her way past their chairs so she could speak to Crowley and Castiel directly. "Hi, name's Billie, I'm here to clear things up. Uhhh..." She pushed her glasses up and leafed through the stack of papers in her hand. "Yeah, basically it boils down to this: 'screw you, I made my own rules in life and I make my own rules in death'." The papers slapped back together. "Any questions?"

"WHO THE HELL DOES HE THINK HE IS?!" Crowley and Castiel spoke in chorus, though probably the swearing part was Crowley's.

"I thank you for your valuable feedback. This is upsetting to many people involved, and this is exactly why we shouldn't have vertical power structures. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is why I and a group of other reapers have formed a reaper's union as a first step towards abolishing the current structure and moving towards an equal, democratic system."

Sam glanced at Bobby across the table.

"Why are you looking at me...?"

"'Cause I don't know what's going on."

"Well I don't know what's going on."

The one who seemed most savvy about the situation was Billie.

"Look I know, I know. I'd love to take him off your hands and give him back to you, I really would." She was tremendously calm and would have made an excellent retail clerk. "But my hands are tied here, 'kay? Death brought him to Heaven. Yes he had a demon deal, yes he committed suicide, but abuse of power is a thing and Death plays favourites so now he's in Heaven. I don't like it, you don't like it, but that's how things are. If you back my cause we can stage a revolution and depose the current ruling class but otherwise you'll just have to accept the situation as it is."

"S'cuse us, uhh..." Sam managed to catch her attention through the loud complaints. "Who is this we're talking about...? And what does it have to do with us?"

Billie pushed her glasses up again and flipped around in her papers, taking zero notice of the two beings arguing against everything she had said.

"Umm some Hunter guy... famous troublemaker but immensely talented... they don't really include names in these, goes against the privacy policy... Japanese male in his fifties, got possessed by Satan but took control long enough to tell the god of demons to fuck off and leave his kids alone then stabbed himself to death... Was considered the world's best Hunter and also apparently had a good relationship with Death, so now us folks on the factory floor have to do damage control on the shock waves of nepotism." Billie flipped her stack closed again. "And that's the consequences of corporate hierarchy."

The arguing went on in the background, while at the table Sam and Dean exchanged incredulous glances.

"Damn..." Sam murmured.

"Yeah." Dean grinned. "He made it." Then the rest of Billie's words registered. "Wait what - that kid was friends with Death?!"