Title: Our Normal

Author: Obi the Kid

Summary: Season 6. Dean POV. Takes place in the middle of that scene in "The French Mistake" when Dean tells Sam that Sam might not be too unhappy if they were permanently stuck in the Balthazar-created alternate universe.

No Hell. No nightmares. No collapsing wall. No friggin' angels.

Sam could have the good life here. Money. Marriage. Fame.

A good life.

A sane life.

And other than a random alpaca grazing the backyard of his McMansion, dare I say a normal life?

The type he's always wanted. One free of the ABC's of supernatural creatures standing in line for an opportunity to manipulate, turn or kill him.

It's right there, within the reach of his extraordinarily long fingertips. If we can't get home – if the bum in the alley was wrong about what he heard when fake Cas was killed – this world officially becomes 'This is Your Life'.

No more being chased by demons. No more being tricked by friggin' angels. No more of that unbearable weight that comes with having to save the damn planet every other week.

And…no more being brothers.

How's that for a stab in the heart?

After everything we've been through in the name of family, we would become part of a world where we held no relation at all to each other. Hell, according to these studio people, forget relation, we don't even talk to each other!

I've gotta wonder though, would it be worth it? To allow Sam the peace he's always craved – by taking away that one thing – the only thing – that we've always had?

For Sam and me, we've been through the bickering and the betrayal, the secrets and underhandedness. But it's never kept us apart for long. And really, none of it ultimately mattered when it came down to the bare bones. Underneath all that surrounding crap, we were brothers. It's that one thing that's mattered so much more than anything Heaven or Hell could ever throw at us.

And to lose that…

Well…

But his way out was here, right here! Smacking him dead in the face. Sitting here on a shiny gold platter. What he'd have if our lives remained trapped in this bizarro version of earth that Balthazar zapped us into. It was everything and more.

I've gotta wonder though, could Sam even imagine a world where the grand adventure of the day consists of going to work, putting in the hours and then just…going home? I mean just picture it. Going days, months, even years without the threat of being eaten by a demon, carved up by a ghoul or tossed into the actual pit of Hell.

I know, hard to fathom, right? But yeah, he could imagine that. Sam could.

Deep down, it's what he's always longed for. It's what caused the majority of those verbal and emotional battles between him and Dad. It's what drove him to college and away from his family. That frantic attempt to live and breathe what everyone else already had.

Normal.

Just flat-out day-by-day normal.

It's right here. Right here in front of us.

I watched Sam's eyes as I put it out there – the idea that we might be stuck here forever. I looked for those signs of him accepting that desperate need for normal that I know has always been a part of him.

Sam though, he just shrugged and said something about our friends being back there -back home in our own world.

Yeah, okay. And we have just so many friends waiting for us, don't we? I can count a total of two. After Bobby and Cas, well the rest of them, they're out there, right? Waiting with hugs and kisses when we come back safe? Oh and all those friends of ours, they hadlined right up, fight-club ready and willing to help us kick Lucifer's ass, huh?

Yeah, we've got little more than squat back home.

Nice try, brother, but you ain't convincing me with that line. Gotta sell it harder than that, Sammy.

Funny though - seconds later, he did sell me.

He said what I hadn't really expected – words that surprised me, though they shouldn't have. After all, he was just as exhaustingly co-dependent to this whole damn thing as I was. I gotta admit, Zachariah – friggin' angel that he was – he'd been spot on about that.

But - in the past, it was always me preaching the family thing and dragging Sam along.

This time…hell, I guess even I can be astounded now and then.

Hands in pockets, Sam turned towards me, leaning against the set wall, and looked me dead in the eye.

"We're not even brothers here, man."

I stared at him for long seconds, recognizing, not his need for normal, but his acceptance and need for our normal; rejecting the easy way out in favor of family - in favor of us.

Huh!

Hell. Who needs normal anyway!

In the grand scheme of things, normal really is overrated. I mean normal isn't sleeping with combat knives and loaded revolvers under pillows, right? Normal isn't driving from cheap ass motel to cheap ass motel in a 44 year old car that gets 14 miles to the gallon, right? Normal isn't spending 24/7 hunting evil with your Bigfoot-sized pain-in-the-ass little brother, right?

I had to shrug at that thought. I guess it's all a matter of perspective.

Sam and me – our normal – our normal is us.

It's all we have.

It's all I have.

I tried for a year to do that other version of normal – the one everyone is so high on. It only drew me back to the life that I knew best. One that I briefly and painfully lost. The life I've always shared with my brother. The Winchester version of normal.

Now I just have to keep it.

I finished staring at Sam and replied with a, "Okay then. Let's get our crazy show back home."

And that was that. The game plan was in place to get us home.

Now all we needed was enough luck to fill the entire Grand Canyon – which, by the way I still have yet to visit - and the reappearance of yet another friggin' angel.

The end