I can't believe it! I was so focused on finishing homework and planning a Supernatural DVD party and updating that I forgot to mention that this is the final chapter of "Flux." Oops. Anyway, I really hope you guys enjoy it, and I want to thank you for reviewing like you have. I know I say it a lot, but it really does mean so much to me.
As far as I know, there isn't going to be another sequel to "The Change," but if you love the mental image this story gave you, you might want to keep your eyes open for my next story, a shortie called "Man's Best Friend." Just a suggestion!
"Couldn't find it," Sam announced as he walked through the door to the motel room after sunrise, "and I looked everywhere in that park. You guys get…" He trailed off as he noticed the figure lying prone in the bed that his father had inhabited the day before. He fell back against the door in shock, staring at the body, his mouth open, heart racing, eyes beginning to water with the truth of what he saw.
Dean was lying in the bed, his head and face and chest and shoulders drenched in drying blood. The sheets, which had been splattered in most places and nearly soaked through in others, were pulled up to his hips. His hands lay limply beside him, his eyes closed, lips barely parted.
Sam forced himself to tear his eyes from his brother and look around the room. The ropes that had bound his father to the bed were still there, but frayed, broken, useless. The knife Dean made Sam keep under his pillow was lying on the floor, coated in tacky blood, lying in the middle of a puddle of the crimson liquid that had soaked into the carpet.
Everything hit him at once, and he had to fight to hold back the tears, to stay reasonable. His father had killed Dean. His father had murdered Dean. Dean, who had always followed John's orders and been a perfect soldier, who had sacrificed everything to save his killer's life, who was covered with blood because Sam had left him alone with someone who thought he was a monster.
The sound of the toilet flushing barely reached him, only made a small blip on his radar. His father was still there. The murderer was still there, but what did it matter? Dean was dead. He was dead and he wasn't coming back and John had killed him, had stabbed with a silver knife, had covered him in blood and then moved him to the bed after the deed was done and he was human once again.
The bathroom door opened and John walked out, wiping his hands on his pants and smiling as if everything was all right, as if he hadn't murdered his oldest son, as if Sam was going to see it as a good thing, an escape, an excuse to leave again.
"Oh, you're back," John said, smiling at his youngest son, "guess what?"
Sam was off the floor before he even realized that he was moving. He crossed the room in record time and pinned his father to the wall, crushing the older man's throat with his forearm. "You killed him," Sam screamed, covering his father's face with flecks of spit, "after everything he did for you, you killed him!"
"You're wrong," John choked, his face turning red, eyes bulging as Sam leaned farther into him, pushing him painfully into the wall, relishing the way he struggled for freedom the same way Dean had struggled for love.
"No, I'm not," he yelled, "Dean was still Dean. He wasn't an it, dad. If you had bothered-"
"What's going on?"
Sam spun around at the sound of his brother's voice, dropping his father to the floor, all anger melting from his body. "Dean?"
"I'm out for a couple of hours and you guys are already at it?"
Sammy took full advantage of his long legs when it came to getting to his brother. He practically collapsed at the end of older man's bed. "You're not dead?"
"Don't think so."
"What happened?"
"Let me answer that," John rasped, rubbing at his throat as he slid up into a standing position, using the wall for support. "Last night, the vampire came after me again. Your brother cut me free and then started fighting it. It started to drain him, and I cut its head off using that knife of yours. Dean had passed out, so I moved him from the floor to the bed, burnt the vamp's body, and washed up. Then you came in."
Sam looked from his father to his brother and back again. "You… moved him to the bed?"
"Thought it would be more comfortable," his father shrugged.
"You saved him from the vampire?"
"You don't have to sound so shocked."
"Yeah, dad, I think I do. After all, yesterday you wanted to kill him."
John shrugged again. "Things change."
Sam blinked. He wanted to know what was different, he really did, but couldn't bring himself to ask. He looked back at Dean, who had pulled the covers up farther over his body and rolled over on the bed to fall back to sleep. Maybe he didn't need to know. Maybe all that was important was that the family was back together. For the time being, at least. "When you leaving?" He saw Dean open one eye.
John sighed, sitting down on the other bed and running a hand through his graying hair. "Don't think I am."
Sam's mouth dropped open and Dean shot up in bed. "What?" they asked together.
Their father shook his head, looking down at his feet. "I realized something last night. You boys… you both grew up. I don't even know when it happened. Just… poof and you were taller than me." He looked back up at them. "I missed too much, and I don't want to miss anything else."
"You mean it?" Dean asked, his voice soft, eyes hopeful. Sam recognized the expression. It was the same one his brother had fixed him with at the room in Chicago, the same one he'd used when begging Sam to stay and be a family.
"Yeah," John nodded, "I mean it."
"Same here," Sam added, turning to his brother and smiling slightly.
"You sure?" Dean asked, lying back down on the bed, unable to keep his own smile at bay, "because it's not gonna be a cakewalk. There's more to worry about now."
"I trust you," John said.
"Yeah, I figured that out. I'm not talking about that, though. I'm talking about rabies vaccines and fleas and ticks and heartworm. That stuff costs money."
"I think we'll survive," Sam grinned, looking over at his father as Dean drifted off again. Something had happened the night before, something to make everything all right, to finally get Dean everything he'd ever really wanted: a family. And all it took was him getting turned into a monster. It really was funny how things worked out.
And there it is. The end. Feels good, right? Yeah. Just soak it in. Now, go to your local superstore and pick up the season 2 DVDs. You know you want to...