Title: Kansas City Shuffle Part 6 of 6

Rating: PG13 I suppose, for minor swearing

Characters: Dean, Sam, John, Mary

Notes: Thanks http://michelle2007. for the great beta job! No real episode warnings, but is AU in that Dean isn't really in Kansas anymore…It's finished, YAY! Thanks to all you wonderful people who reviewed! You're reviews kept my muse going! I'm glad you all liked it so far and I hope you enjoy the ending as well!

Disclaimers: I own nothing, I just like to play with what's not mine.

Summary: I suck at summaries but here goes. Dean ends up in a parallel world, only he doesn't know that this is what happened. To make matters worse, his 'Parents' begin to question his sanity.

Kansas City Shuffle Chapter 6

After his talk with Missouri, Dean drove around the town for a while. He wanted to think about what she had said. Whatever he did here, like spend three days in the psychiatric ward, his counterpart would have to deal with. He thought it might be smart to leave himself a message somehow, maybe on his laptop. That way, when he got back to his own time, his other self would have a clue what all had happened.

When he finally found himself pulling up to the house, it was a little after four. He parked the car in the driveway, then headed into the house. He had a feeling he wouldn't get very far, and he was right.

"Dean, why didn't you answer my call?" Sam stopped him at the foot of the stairs.

"I was driving Sammy, playing the music loud, trying to relax. I didn't even hear the phone ring."

"Oh." Dean grinned at Sam, then took the stairs 2 at a time. Sam followed him up.

"Hey, I'm actually leaving tomorrow. I forgot I had a test Monday morning, so I should get back and do some studying before then."

"Ok." Dean stretched out on his bed, shoes and all. Sam frowned but didn't say anything.

"If you need anything though, I want you to call me, ok? No matter what time. Like I said before, you and I used to be able to talk about anything. I don't want to lose that."

Dean nodded. "Don't worry, if I gotta talk to someone, you'll be the first person I call Sammy."

Sam sighed and headed to his own room, closing the door behind him.

Dean opened his computer, and typed up a message to his other self.

"Dear me...

Well I know you know I've been here, so there are some things you need to know. One, no one believes you when you tell them they aren't real. Bad things happen. But you were lucky. I'm good at lying so you were released from the psych ward. Um...oh you should probably apologize to that cop, Bill I think his name was. You punched him, twice. And kicked him. And kinda knocked him out. So yeah, you should probably apologize. I'd do it but I don't like cops. Oh, and you should definitely work on your muscles! Pushups, 50 of them a night to start! And sit ups. And try running or something! Get in shape dude!

So...you can talk to Missouri Mosely, she knows what's going on, she's a psychic, and she could probably fill in some blanks. So yeah uh, hope you didn't screw things up on my end and uh...have a nice life...

Dean"

Shrugging, he saved the file to the desktop so that it would be there when he...er...his other self opened the computer. It may not be good but it got the point across. He heard a knock at his door and swore that when he was back in his own body, he'd take a week to live somewhere where there were no doors for people to knock on, nor any people to ask how you were doing.

"Yeah?"

"Dean, it's mom, can I come in?"

No, you can't, I don't really feel like trying to swallow my heart back down to where it belongs...

"Yeah."

The door opened and his mom stepped into the room.

"I just wanted to tell you that we're having the left over pot roast for dinner tonight. So if you wanted to maybe eat early, since you missed breakfast, and lunch, you could come down now and fix yourself a plate."

Dean must have looked surprised because she smiled and said, "It's ok, I understand that you're still a little embarrassed by the whole situation. So if you would prefer to eat up here, that would be ok with me."

He found himself smiling back as he got up and followed her into the kitchen. He made himself a plate of food, which Mary heated for him, then took it back up to his room to eat. Once the door was closed, Dean sat down and proceeded to savor every bite. It was the most delicious food he had ever eaten. It beat all the fast food joints and mom and pop places all to hell. Because it was made by his mom, for him. Dean wondered briefly what it would be like if he stayed. If for some reason Sammy couldn't get him back. Then he shook his head. No, he couldn't stay here, he'd go crazy. Plus he knew what was out there, and if he stayed, something might happen to this family and he didn't think he could handle that. It was better to believe that Sam would get him back, and that this Dean would be able to live a long healthy life with his family. After finishing he took his plate downstairs and left it in the kitchen. He wasn't really sure where everyone was, but was glad that at least for the moment the house was empty.

Upon returning to his room, he opened the laptop and added a few more lines to his letter to his other self. Dean seriously needed to update his wardrobe. These clothes were really bad!

Once he was done with that, he did his pushups, then some crunches, then he sat back down on the bed. He debated doing more research, but settled instead on sleeping. If he was asleep, then they couldn't bother him. But as he laid there he tossed and turned thinking about how his Sam was doing, and how he was going to get back. Finally remembering what Sam had said about the prescription, he decided one wouldn't hurt him. He popped open the bottle, took out one of the little tablets, and swallowed it down. He lay back down, and waited for sleep to arrive. It didn't take long.

Sammy was excited. He had figured out what had happened. Now they were waiting on the solution to arrive. No estimates on how long that might be though. Dean heard Sam explaining about what had happened and it all came flooding back to him.

Yes that was right! There had been a statue, that was rather ugly, and Dean had told it as such. It had writing on it that had looked like Latin, and he tried to translate it. There was some dirt covering a word, so he reached up to brush it off, and that was when it had happened. A flash of light and boom, he had woken up in hell.

Dean heard knocking but Sam wasn't going towards the door. The knocking continued, followed by his name being called out. Dean drug his eyes open and found sunlight streaming into his room. He groaned and buried his head in his pillow.

"g'way," came his muffled reply. The door swung open.

"Hey Dean, I'm headed to the airport, and wanted to say goodbye. Dad's driving me. He totaled your car by the way..." Dean shoved himself upright when he heard that.

"He did what to my car!?!"

Sam started laughing. "I knew that'd get you up, it always does. Listen, I'm off to the airport but I just wanted to say bye, and remind you that if you need anything to give me a call."

Dean nodded and buried his head back in the pillow. Sam was pretty sure he heard a few choice words coming from the general direction of the lump that was his brother. He grinned and closed the door.

Dean lay there while he tried to get the fog to clear from his mind. If what he was seeing was real, then Sam had it all figured out, and in no time he would be home. If he could only figure out why he had seen Sam last night, but not the two nights before. What was different? He rubbed at his eyes and his stomach growled.

"Well I suppose I should feed you," he commented as he got out of bed. A short time later he found himself downstairs, rummaging around in the kitchen. Not knowing where anything was, it took him a while to find what he wanted. Just as he was about to pour a bowl of cereal he heard his mom come in the room.

"Good morning, sweetheart. Did you sleep well?" She asked as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

He nodded and sat down with his cereal. "Do you want anything else? I could make you waffles or pancakes. Maybe some bacon?"

Dean shook his head. Mary sighed and sat down at the table.

"Dean, I have to ask you something, and I want you to be completely honest with me."

Dean looked up and met his mother's serious eyes.

"Are you, or aren't you my son?"

Dean choked on the spoonful of cereal he was eating.

"Uh, yeah mom, of course I am!" he stumbled the words together.

"I don't think you are. You look like my son, you act like my son, but deep down I don't think you are my son. Remember back at the hospital, what you said? You said you weren't my son, and that I had to see it. And I do see it. I didn't want to at first, but now I do. The way you are always calling your brother 'Sammy' and the way it seems to make you almost sick to eat with us. What's going on, and please tell me the truth."

And he did. Lord help him, Dean Winchester caved under the look on his mother's face.

"Somehow, your son and I got switched, I think it has something to do with this object I touched. My brother, Sammy, my Sam, he's working on solving it, and I don't think it will be long before I'm back to where I belong, and you'll have your son back. And you're right, it hurts to see you and dad because where I'm from...you..." Dean suddenly realized what he was about to say and shut up. He jumped from the table and made a dash for his bedroom. But Mary followed close behind him.

"No Dean, tell me. Please? I want to know."

Dean stopped halfway up the stairs and put his head down. He put a hand to his face and groaned.

That's when it struck Mary. What he said now made sense. "I died, didn't I? Your real mother, she died, and your father too? It's just you and Sam, and that's why it was so difficult for you to sit with us, and that's why you said what you did that first morning."

Dean's shoulders slumped and he slowly slid to the floor until he was sitting on one of the steps. He buried his face in his hand, not wanting to look at her. Mary sat down next to him.

"Oh Dean, I'm sorry. I don't really understand how it happened, but I see it now, and I'm sorry that I didn't see it sooner. I should have listened to you and to myself, but I didn't want to. And I made you suffer because of it."

Mary tentatively put her arm around Dean's shoulder. He visibly flinched but didn't pull away.

"Mom, she died when I was 4. 6 months to the day after Sammy was born. There was a fire, and Dad put Sammy in my arms, and told me to take him outside as fast as I could. And I did, but once I got outside I saw the fire and I froze. That was when Dad came out, and he picked up me and Sammy and he ran with us away from the house. Mom never came out." He leaned into Mary, his mother only not. She gave him a squeeze, silently encouraging him to go on. Dean had held it all in for so long. She may not be his mother, but in a way she was, and that was enough to open the flood gates.

"Dad said she had died pinned to the ceiling, but everyone called him crazy except this one lady who told him about what's out there, in the dark. And after that Dad learned more, and he started hunting that stuff. Sammy and I, we grew up hunting evil things. But then Sammy wanted to go to college he didn't understand so he left us, he left me. And then Dad went missing, so I went and drug Sammy back into the hunt. But he refused, wanted to go back to school, so he went back. But then his girlfriend was killed, same way as mom. And Sammy came back and we started hunting again. And then the demon that killed mom and Jess, it got our dad too. He traded his life for mine. I was supposed to die but he took my place. And now it's me and Sammy, then I wake up, and I see this picture, and it's me, and Sammy and you and dad and I thought I was in hell. I thought this must be what hell was like, because I was in this place, and it was home, it was the home I had never had. Except everyone knew things and I was missing information, and you thought I was crazy. I just want to go back to Sam, and get away from here. It's too normal and I'm not cut out for that. I wouldn't survive here, even if I could get used to looking at you without feeling sad." Dean raised his head and froze. It wasn't his mom sitting next to him anymore. It was Sam. And he wasn't on the stairs of a house, he was in a field.

"Sammy?"

Sam gave him a sad small smile. "It worked. Welcome back, Dean."

"How much...of that, did you hear?"

Sam shook his head. "Not much..." but Dean could tell by the look on his face, that he was lying.

"Spill it, at what part did I return here?" Dean was mad. He had opened up to his mother, only to have it end up being Sammy who heard it. Sammy wasn't meant to hear it. He was supposed to be strong in front of Sam.

"Only from the part where you described what you saw when you woke up there. I'm sorry Dean, I really am."

Dean pushed himself to his feet and turned away from Sam.

"Don't ok? Just don't. Let's go, I'm sure my other self wasn't very helpful in getting rid of whatever it is that haunts this place and I sure could stand to kill something." And just like that the mask that Sam was getting so tired of was back in it's place. He sighed as he followed his brother to their car to retrieve the needed weapons.

"So how did you fix it anyway?" Dean asked as he rummaged around in the trunk.

Sam sighed. "I sent pictures of the statue and writing to a guy Ellen recommended. He translated it as a curse. He put together a way to reverse it. Something your counter-part had to read, while touching the statue. That had been fun to convince him to do! So next time you find a statue in a field that has writing on it, DON'T TOUCH IT!" Sam said, giving his brother a playful smack on the back of the head.

"...took my place. I told you Sam this isn't going to work. See nothing hap...mom? MOM!" Mary looked at her son and knew instantly that he was her Dean. She felt a pang of loss though that she hadn't gotten to say goodbye to the other Dean. She wrapped her arms around her son's neck and hugged him close.

"Oh Dean it's good to have you back. I know about what happened, the other Dean told me. And there are some things I need to tell you about..."

As Dean hugged her back, Mary swore that she would never let her sons suffer like the other Dean had. She couldn't fix anything for him, but she would make sure her sons didn't suffer such loss. And she was thankful for the however brief time she had spent with him. She hoped she had given him some closure even if it was just a small amount.