A Disclaimer: Believe me, if I owned the Winchester boys, I so would not share!

A/Nı:AHBL2 continues to make waves! Yet another "what if" story. Dean made the Deal and he honored his part of the bargain—but that's as far as he goes. (After seeing "The Magnificent Seven", I just wanted to note that this story was plotted out and mostly written before that ep aired. I mention that because something that comes into the story much later on, resembles something in the season opener. I truly had no idea that would happen!)

While this is a WIP, it's mostly done. I have a couple of chapters yet to write (and some sections written but not typed up), as well as some heavy editing of the end section, which is what happens when you write the end before the middle! I hope to have the whole story printed within a month.

Please read and review.

THAT WHICH DOES NOT KILL YOU

Prologue: The End

Dean Winchester slipped silently out the motel room door. Not that it mattered much. Considering how potent a mickey he had slipped Sam, he could have left preceded by a marching band and his brother would have continued to snore. Still, force of habit and all that.

Before closing the door behind him, he glanced at his brother, unconscious on one bed, then at the small nightstand between the two lumpy double beds the room contained. Sitting in plain view, so that even groggy Sammy wouldn't miss them, were his ring, his amulet and the keys to his baby, sitting on the registration. Dad had left her to him and now he was passing the Impala on to Sam. Not that the bitch would appreciate her; Sam continued to insist she was just a car. Some days, Dean wondered if they were really related.

The one thing he kept was the anti-possession charm Bobby had given him after Sam had been possessed by Meg, what now seemed to be a lifetime ago. Hell was going to get his soul, but he'd be damned (okay, yeah, he was, but…) if he would give himself up to be possessed and used against Sam or other hunters or innocent people.

Behind the objects left on the nightstand, leaning against the small table lamp, was an envelope. Dean hadn't addressed it; Sam would know the contents had been meant for him. The short note had taken Dean forever to compose; he had been working on it for the last six weeks. Then again, saying that stuff did not come easily to him and he had written and ripped up a dozen prior attempts.

Sam would be pissed about Dean's spiking his drink, but there was no way Dean was letting Sam come along. Sam had become a man possessed as Dean's due date had drawn closer, driving himself mercilessly to find a way out for his brother and ignoring every attempt by Dean to get him to stop. Sam would just stare at him with burning, haunted eyes and go back to his research. This was what Dean had hoped to avoid. Damn Jake and his big mouth. Dean hoped he had a chance to do something nasty to the former soldier when he met the bastard in Hell.

If Sam came along, Dean knew without question his idiot younger brother would try something, anything, to keep Dean from being taken to Hell. And Sam would probably get himself killed in the process, which would make it all for nothing. So Dean had drugged Sam's food, had hauled his brother's oversized ass to a bed and had carefully tucked the soon-to-be last Winchester standing into bed.

And since this would be the only right time for a chick-flick moment—and his last chance to say something with words that Dean had tried to say with actions for twenty-four years now—Dean had leaned over his baby brother, brushed the damn emo bangs aside and whispered, "I love you, Sammy; I have from the minute Mom and Dad told me I was going to be a big brother. Now, move on, damn you, and live! For me, if you won't do it for yourself."

He closed the door with a barely discernible click, then crossed the parking lot toward the small, dirt road leading into the darkness. He stopped briefly to place a hand on the Impala and stroke her gently.

"You take care of him for me, sweetheart, okay?" he whispered. Swallowing a sudden lump in this throat, he continued walking.

There was a crossroads about two miles down the road. It was his goal. He would not run or hide; he would meet her on her territory. A few minutes into his walk, he passed a small country church. Unbeknownst to Sam, he had stopped there earlier in the day. He still didn't believe—his life, and now his death, had given him no reason to—but he figured it couldn't hurt, either. He could still see himself, seated in one of the wooden pews, trying to decide what to say:

He had been honest about it. "I'm not going to tell you I've changed my mind. I still don't think you're out there, and if you are, I want to know where the He—heck, you've been. Why I've seen and fought demons, but never met an angel on the battlefield. Why you let all this cr—uh, stuff happen to good people.

"But just in case, I want to ask two favors. I've never asked for anything from you before, so it's not like I've used up my turn. I, uh, I want you to make Sammy forget. About me and the Deal and everything. He deserves a good life, a happy life, a fucking—um, sorry—normal one. And a family, and all that other good stuff. He's killing himself over this Deal and I didn't want that. Blaming himself. It wasn't his fault, it was mine. I failed, not him! I didn't protect him, I didn't do the job Dad left me. I shouldn't even have been here, Dad should have been and he would have done the job right. So, if Sam's forgetting me is what it takes to help him move on, then...it's okay with me."

He had taken a deep breath then and gripped the back of the pew in front of him. "And I won't try to say I'm not scared. I am. Eternity's a long time. But Dad went without wimping out and, uh, well, um, just don't let me dishonor myself, okay?"

The church faded behind him, cloaked in the night. No light or music or sign acknowledged either his plea earlier or his passing tonight.

Another half hour brought him to the crossroads. He turned slowly, to be met by darkness everywhere. He listened, but there were no sounds, no baying of hellhounds, nothing. Which told him something was coming, since there should have been at least night birds and insects.

Then he became aware of a section of the night slowly turning the color of flame. As he stared at it, a rip appeared, which opened slowly becoming a great mouth. A figure, monstrous, black-scaled and winged stepped from the fiery maw.

A taloned hand waved at him. "Dean Winchester, are you here to honor your part of the bargain?"

Dean squared his shoulders, nodded and met the beast's eyes. Not inky black, or gem red or flaring yellow, they were two pools of fire that burned and danced and flickered. Dean swallowed once and wondered briefly just how highly ranked this thing was; he suspected even Azazel would have stepped aside.

"The demon you dealt with was but an unimportant minion of mine. Most deals humans make are with it, as most of these bargains are also of no particular importance, merely one more soul for us to play with." The beast moved closer to Dean, wings flaring; Dean stood his ground. "But you, Dean Winchester, are different. This dealmattered." There was a rumble in the demon's chest that Dean thought was supposed to be laughter.

Dean shrugged. "A Winchester, and all that."

The laughter was obvious now. "No. Your father's bargain was personal to that incompetent Azazel—there will be no extra punishment, by the way, for killing it; it was stupid and deserved what it got—but of no special importance to Hell, save that it kept you alive." The demon came to its full height—which, Dean conceded, was quite impressive—and laughed again. "It amuses me to take you alive, not just your soul but your mortal form as well. More to play with."

The beast gestured with one arm, and Dean felt himself grabbed as if by a huge hand and he was pulled, soul and body, into the maw. Oddly, his final words were "What the hell was it talking about?"

He sort of wished they had been something more memorable.

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A/N: Future chapters should be longer, with two sections each, a Sammy section and a Dean section. Please let me know what you think so far.