A Good Man

Author: Cheryl W.

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or any rights to Supernatural, nor am I making any profit from this story.

Summary: Every mother wants her daughter to find a good man and settle down and Lisa Braeden's mother is no different. It doesn't take long for her to see that Dean Winchester, he isn't your ordinary good man.

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Worthy

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When the doorbell chimed, Lisa groaned, swiped at the locks of hair dangling in her eyes and unknowingly smeared chocolate on his cheek in the process. Lindsey had the good grace to hold in her laughter until her daughter stalked for the front door, batter bowl still in hand.

The sound of something crashing had Lindsey darting out of the kitchen.

Unmindful of the pieces of bowl and chocolate batter scattered across the floor, Lisa stood frozen in the doorway. A tall, good looking, brown haired man stood on the stoop offering up a tremulous smile as if he was unsure of his welcome.

"Hello Lisa," the man greeted, his tone gentle, tentative.

"Sam…I don't…understand," Lisa stammered, her wide eyes locked onto his features. "Dean said…he thinks…"

"I know," Sam confessed softly with palpable regret and guilt.

With her protective instincts flaring up, Lindsey edged closer, debated intervening, making her presence known. Whoever the man was, Lisa perceived him as a threat, she knew that the second her daughter's stance morphed from shocked to defiant.

"You let him believe you were dead. Do you know what that did to him?" Lisa hissed with anger and indignation.

Lisa never gave him a chance to speak in his own defense.

Sam's head snapped right as Lisa delivered a resounding slap to his cheek. "He mourned for you, Sam. Hard."

Rooted in place, Lindsey was bombarded with questions, felt tremors of shock at the scene unfolding before her, at Lisa's physical attack, at the thought that somehow this was Dean's brother. She couldn't seem to put the pieces together, to make them fit. It couldn't be Dean's brother. Dean's brother was dead. Dean had said so.

"I stayed away to keep him safe," Sam declared with every mark of earnestness, his eyes pools of anguish and his own stance bowed in supplication.

But Lisa's verbal response was sharper than the slap she had unleashed on him. "You want to keep him safe, walk away right now and never come back."

"Lisa," Sam pleaded, seeking her understanding, some how needing her permission.

Instead of cowering under Sam's 6 foot 4 frame, Lisa stepped closer to him, nearly succeeded in crowding him off the stoop. "He's happy now. He doesn't need you anymore. He has me and Ben. And he sure doesn't deserve to be hurt by you all over again."

Lindsey read the surprised pain in the younger man's eyes. Lisa's words, they were a direct hit.

Bowing his head, Sam shifted his stance but he didn't leave, would not leave. He had come for something that he valued more than his own pride. A lot more. Lifting his eyes to Lisa, he tried again, his voice was still soft, still beseeching, but now it carried in it a hoarse brokenness, "I need to see him…"

"He needed you, where were you?" Lisa charged, her tone harsh, her dark eyes flashing with righteous anger. "If you love him, you'll let him be happy…safe. Right here."

Wrapping her hand around the door, she started to close it in Sam's face.

Stepping forward, Sam caught the door with his hand, stopped its motion. Though his move was aggressive, his expression telegraphed desperation. "Dean can reach me at this number," he announced, lifting his hand from the door and retrieving something from his pocket. When Lisa took the card he offered some of the pain in his eyes faded.

Brutally, Lisa crushed the card in her hand and tossed it back at Sam, didn't bother to watch it flutter to the ground. "He won't call you. Don't ever come back here." Then she slammed the door, left Dean's brother standing on her front door stoop.

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The silence held for a long while. Lindsey was determined to not be the one to break it, though her eyes anxiously catalogued every emotion that scampered across her daughter's features.

"You don't understand. You don't have all the facts," Lisa abruptly proclaimed without meeting her mother's eyes.

"I know. I didn't say anything," Lindsey quietly defended herself. Though the truth was, she wanted to say something, badly.

"But you want to," Lisa snapped, knew her mother too well to not know that. Dropping the spoon in the bowl, she sent a challenging glare toward her mother and waited. She didn't have a long wait until her Mom began to state her case.

Drawing in a steadying breath, uncertain how poorly the upcoming conversation might go, Lindsey started with the most important question of all. "That's really Sam, Dean's brother?"

Lisa gave a tight nod in reply, the tension in her body doubling.

"I expected him to be more…cocky, I guess. Like Dean," Lindsey admitted, was still having trouble associating brash Dean with the nervous, pleading young man that had been at Lisa's door.

"He's nothing like Dean," Lisa sharply countered, reacting as if it were an insult to Dean that anyone would dare make a comparison between the two brothers.

Recognizing that she was on shaky ground, Lindsey relented, said carefully, "Since I don't know Sam, I'll have to take your word on that."

Frustration vibrated through Lisa's retort. "We don't have to know him. Just look what he did to Dean!"

The truth struck Lindsey then: her daughter didn't know Sam very well either.

"He lied to him, let him believe that he was dead. Dean's been carrying that guilt for nothing," Lisa fumed, her voice rising as her resentment grew, was horrified that Dean had suffered that unbearable hurt for seemingly no reason.

"Sam said he did it to keep Dean safe," Lindsey pointed out, did it quietly, wasn't surprised when Lisa's eyes flared and her next words were rapier sharp.
"Don't. Don't play devil's advocate. Not about this."

Lindsey raised her hands in surrender but didn't speak, knew anything she said would come out patronizing. But she couldn't stop herself from asking, "So you're not going to tell Dean that Sam was here?"

"No," Lisa answered without a spark of indecision. "All Sam knows how to do is hurt Dean and I'm not going to let him do it anymore."

Though Lisa's protective instincts were never more evident then in that moment, Lindsey suspected there was something more to Lisa's decision other than keeping Dean safe. "You're going to keep the knowledge that Sam is alive from Dean…to keep Dean safe."

"Yes. Dean always takes care of us. I can do this to take care of him."

Lindsey almost sighed, wished her daughter could see what was so obvious to her. "Lisa, you're doing the same thing Sam did. You both have good intentions. You both just want to keep Dean safe but you're hurting him by your methods. Dean has carried the terrible weight of believing that he failed Sam, that his brother's death was somehow his fault, that he should have been able to save him. And you're furious that Sam let him carry that guilt…for a year. And yet, you're thinking about letting Dean carry that guilt the rest of his life. Needlessly."

"Sam doesn't deserve him!" Lisa's nearly shouted back, her desperation, her true fear coming to the surface.

Then Lindsey put it together, knew the real threat that Sam presented. "You think Dean will leave, will go with Sam?" she quietly inquired, was hard-pressed not to feel a spark of fear ignite within her at that possible outcome. Lisa didn't answer but her mouth was set in a firm line and her eyes…they were filling with tears. "Honey, you don't know Dean will leave, that Sam's arrival means that."

When Lisa spoke, her voice shook, not with anger but anguish. "Yes, yes it does because it means Sam needs Dean. And Dean, he would never let anyone down who needed him, especially his brother."

"Lisa, Dean's left before and he's always come back. He came back and stayed," Lindsey pointed out, remembered all the years that her daughter pined away for the return of the mythical Dean Winchester. A myth, however, that had turned out to be well worth the long wait.

"Dean's got to be alive to come back to me," Lisa choked out, wiping at the tear that slipped free.

The fatalistic statement put a spike of icy fear in Lindsey's own heart. "You think he'll be in danger if he goes with his brother.

"Absolutely. No doubt," Lisa huffed as if she couldn't believe her mother had to ask that.

Though Lindsey didn't know the type of work Dean did with his brother, she had seen cruel evidence of it: the scars on Dean's torso, the pain sometimes reflected in Dean's eyes. "In danger, like he was before when he and Sam were together?"

"Yes," Lisa emphatically agreed, glad that her mother was finally seeing her point, would soon wise up and stop siding with Sam.

"And yet, Dean stayed safe with Sam, survived. Dean said…well, believed that Sam died saving him. If Sam hadn't…done whatever he did, Dean would have been killed."

"What are you saying?" Lisa demanded, uncertain where the conversation was going.

"Honey, devotion like that, Sam willing to give up his life to save Dean, it says a lot about Sam…and Dean. About the bond they have between them."

"Don't turn this around, don't make Sam the good guy!" Lisa fired back, affronted that her mother was taken in by Sam's puppy dog eyes and pleading words. "He lied to Dean, hurt him."

"Yes, I know that. But sometimes what you do for family…out of love…it gets twisted up. Sometimes you hurt the people that you are trying your hardest to protect. I think Sam really thought he was doing the right thing for Dean."

Lisa scoffed, "Yeah right."

"You're forgetting one thing, Lisa. Sam's lie? It let you and Ben have Dean all this time," Lindsey acknowledged, her gratitude for that gift giving her the ability to cut Dean's brother some slack, to give him the benefit of the doubt. And besides that, Dean loved his brother. To Lindsey, that was proof enough that Sam Winchester was a good man, mirrored his big brother in more ways than also being blindingly beautiful.

"So I'm supposed to be grateful that he lied to Dean, ripped his heart out?" Lisa challenged heatedly. "Just allow him to show up now and take Dean away?"

"Lisa.." Lindsey entreated, reaching out but Lisa skittered away from her touch.

"Just stop. This isn't your decision!"

"You're right," Lindsey admitted carefully. "It's not my decision whether or not Dean goes with his brother. But it's not yours either, Lisa. It's Dean's."

When Lisa stilled, Lindsey hoped that she had reached her daughter, had opened her eyes. But then Lisa stalked out of the room without a word, left her standing in the kitchen, alone.

Fighting down an urge to cry, Lindsey reached into her pocket and pulled out the crumpled card that she had scooped off the front door stoop. Straightening it out, she laid it on the open page of Lisa's cookbook.

As she headed for the door, she sorrowfully wondered how things had managed to change so quickly. How Dean, who had always gone out of his way to do things that would strengthen the relationship she and Lisa shared, might prove to be the catalyst to tear their bond apart, worse than ever before.

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Lindsey was at Lisa's house. But she was not there because Lisa had asked for her presence, no, Ben had. It was if the boy sensed the tension between his mother and grandmother, wanted to make it better. And the truth was, Lindsey hadn't talked to her daughter in two days, not since she had left Lisa's house, not since Sam Winchester had made his miraculous reappearance.

Playing soccer with Ben in the front yard, Lindsey only felt slightly guilty for kicking the ball out of the yard so she could have a few minutes rest while Ben retrieved it. She was more than lenient when Ben stopped to pet the neighbor's friendly dog.

She didn't mean to spy on them, on Lisa and Dean, had just looked up and saw them through the front window. But her breath caught at the sight of the crumpled card Lisa held in her hand.

When Lisa laid the card down, Dean went eerily motionless and Lindsey knew…knew that Dean immediately recognized the handwriting. As Lisa spoke, Dean surged from the chair, faced her and then Dean's questions flew. Lisa's stance wasn't defensive, indicated that she wasn't being treated to an accusatory inquisition.

Though Lindsey knew Lisa must be hurting inside, her daughter was gentle, careful with Dean, for Dean. Reaching out, Lisa rested a tentative hand on Dean's chest, turned her face up to his, her every expression radiating love and concern.

And Dean…he was drowning in immeasurable shock.

When he pulled away from Lisa, Lindsey feared the worst, watched as he ran a hand over his mouth, paced the room for a few strides before he came to a stop, right in front of the card lying on the table. Slowly, he sank back down into his seat. His hand nearly shook as he reached out, touched the card with a feather light stroke as if it were something sacred, might disintegrate under his fingers. Then his decision was made and he unfalteringly picked the card up and pulled out his cell phone.

Immediately Lindsey's eyes were drawn to her daughter. Even from her vantage point she could detect the hitch in Lisa's breathing, saw Lisa fold her arms across her chest, both precursors to a breakdown. When Lisa turned away from Dean, the defeated slump of Lisa's shoulders screamed to the mother in Lindsey to intercede, to help Lisa, to not let her daughter's world shatter apart.

But it wasn't Lindsey that righted Lisa's world. It was Dean.

Dean's grip, it gently coiled around Lisa's delicate wrist. And there was no doubt that Lisa would stop, that she would give him anything that he asked of her.

Lindsey was deathly afraid of that, of what Dean would ask, of what Lisa would give.

Dean's beseeching look, it nearly brought Lisa to her knees, had her crouching down at his side, desperate to be close to him, wanting to take some of his fear away, willing to carry some of his load on her shoulders.

From where Lindsey was standing she could read Dean's lips, understood his one word plea, "Stay."

Looking away from the scene before her, allowing Dean and Lisa their privacy, Lindsey wiped a tear away. "Darn you Dean," she cursed but it was an endearment all the same. Because it was a cruel twist of fate that the moment that Dean might well be choosing a different family than her own, that was the moment the last of Lindsey's reserves fell, that she acknowledged just how attached she had become to the young man, realized how much she loved him, like the son she had never been blessed with.

Dean hadn't just proven himself to be a good man. No, he had done something far greater than that. He had proven that he was a man worthy of Lisa's love, of Ben's love. And she prayed that Dean realized that nothing he ever did was going to change that.

Dean Winchester was truly the best man she had ever met.

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The End

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Thanks to every reader out there and a thousand words of gratitude for every single review given to this story. Every step of the way I've been amazed at your willingness to let me spin this AU tale, at your encouragement. It's been a lot of fun sharing this with all of you!

Have a great day! And I hope everyone finds a spot in front of a tv tomorrow for the Sixth Season Premiere!

Cheryl W.