So, I caved. Enough people asked (via review or PM) that I write an alternate ending because apparently killing of Meg made them sad. And, well, I'm not really complaining. I like happy endings too.

Dean's POV. Destiel now established.

Disclaimer: don't own anything you recognize.

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"Grace: Alternate Ending"

Three weeks before her one year deadline and half a month since the gates of Hell were closed, Cas gains enough of his grace back to wake up Meg.

Over the past few months, he's coaxed a few stories out of his brother just to see whether or not he'd had his head toyed with again, but it isn't until his not-just-a-friend-anymore says, "Her face is that of a human," that Dean really believes it. Sam's sitting on the edge of her bed when she comes to, and he hangs back with Cas, trying to get a grip on the situation. Meg seems confused for about half a second before the doctor rushes in, proclaiming her a miracle. She'd barely gotten out the sentence "I'm alive?"

Now the three of them are stuck in the waiting room, the only other occupants a man with two broken fingers and some college chick who was dragged here for an ear infection. He hates hospitals and always has. Next to him Sam is twitching and Cas is still, all angelic again. Sometimes it really amazes Dean how lucky he is. Or how typical it was. Meg might not be a demon anymore but she was at one point and he's with an angel and nothing ever seems to change.

"Thank you," Sam says for the hundredth time when they make it back to the hotel room. The doctor said Meg has to stay overnight for tests but they can come back in the morning and pick her up. Since she's supposedly an orphan, Sam as her boyfriend technically counts as next of kin. Boyfriend. That's going to take some getting used to. "Seriously, Cas."

"I have only seen this happen on four other occasions," he says instead of any traditional answers because his people skills still have yet to fully develop. "How did you do it, Sam?"

With a shrug, his brother answers, "I made her happy."

Dean doesn't really understand how this works, but the demon in her is legitimately gone so he doesn't question it.

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For the first few days, Meg keeps falling over. If it was for any other reason than being comatose in a hospital bed for almost a year, he'd definitely laugh. Cas is in and out and the three and a half of them stick in one hotel room for now because all it'll take is one hit to the bad head injury to knock her out again. Sam can't be next to her every time she decides that collapsing it a good idea; it feels weird as fuck because they didn't exactly have the greatest of relationships, but he catches her anyway. She's light and small and hot in a way that's totally out of his brother's league, which is something used to ignore.

She falls asleep a lot too because the medication the hospital has a really strong drowsiness side effect. Seating placement changes depending on who's in the car which is weird as fuck because it used to just be him and Sam. They haven't gone on a hunt since Hell got roped off and as weird as it feels, he starts wondering if the best idea is to finally just stay put. To become like Bobby and stick as part time hunters because there isn't much work to go around. All the Alphas are dead, slowing down reproduction rates, and all the demons are neatly tucked back where they belong. On the night that he and Sam celebrated, he'd vaguely wondered if there was anyone Meg would miss.

Right now it's just the two of them in the car while Sam's making a convenience store provision trip and some high school kid is pumping gas. It's Jersey, which means full service and the cheapest gas prices in America. Hallelujah the Garden State.

Awkwardly, he asks, "So, how're feeling?"

She'd been crashed in the back seat again and one half of her hair is all mussed up. "Like I'm recovering from a gunshot to the spine," she answers dryly. "It's been months, why does it still hurt?"

He grins, wide and normal like he isn't talking to someone who tried to kill him on more than one occasion. "That's called being human, sweetheart," he says.

Unsurprisingly, Meg just rolls her eyes. "Sam calls me that, too, when he decides to be a jackass," she says, quirking a brow.

"Who do you think he learned it from?"

If they were in a hotel room, he'd definitely have a pillow to the head by this point.

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Even though Dean wants to, he saves the big brother speech he's never gotten a chance to give. The hurt-him-and-I-kill-you lecture that made the most sense with this situation than any time before. Because this is Meg and demon or not, she's still a bitch.

But he saves it because she took a bullet for him. The whole idea is mind boggling but he wouldn't have a baby brother anymore if she hadn't thrown herself in front of him, knowing she could die. Having Cas as the voice reason probably helps too. She assisted us in killing the Leviathan, he reminds him. She's not a demon anymore; she has a soul. Dean might have trouble believing it even now but he knows angels can see beyond the meat suits and if he says there's a soul, then there's a soul.

All he can really wonder is where Meggie Blake's soul went now that Meg's has taken over.

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Even though they mostly don't hunt anymore, they keep living in the bunker. It feels weirdly domestic because he has a room with Cas (who comes down more and more and he can't complain) and Sam with Meg and he teaches the demon-turned-human how to cook for if she and his brother are ever left alone. He can't cook, Dean explains and finds it interesting how quick of a learner she is. Then he remembers that in her first life she was a Greek housewife married to a demigod and raising two kids and that explains a lot.

He has no trouble believing she's human anymore. Or so he tells himself.

"I know how to make pancakes now," he hears her say one day as he walks past the library to leave. They need jobs if they don't want to attract suspicion by constantly gambling or playing pool and he's off to go fake credentials. Naturally, it was Sammy who pointed this out which is a good thing because he doesn't think anyone else would've thought of it.

Flustered sounding, his brother answers, "You remember that?"

When Meg laughs, the sound quiet, he feels like he heard too much and leaves.

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There's a high school the town over and Sam has such excellent credentials that he picks up a job teaching Latin. Dean gets a job as a mechanic and Meg is hired as a secretary at a psychiatrist's office, the only one with a real reference on her resume. Cas isn't consistent or human enough to get work, which he's okay with. When Sam finds out he's got the position, this sad look passes over his face for a split second before disappearing, the sort of thing that only he can see because Dean knows his brother better than anyone else in the world.

When he asks about it later in one of those rare moments where he's willing to bend for a chick flick moment, his brother answers, "I don't know. Feels like deja vu or something."

Dean frowns, not sure what he means, but doesn't press because Meg is handing him another beer. She seems content with working, which surprises him. Sam, being a geek, he understands and he's been working on and off as a mechanic since he was sixteen. Though he's stopped being so mistrustful, sometimes she still catches him off guard and the way his brother looks at her reminds him of when he dragged Sam back into this and how his eyes were when he looked at Jess. Since then he's seen a few different girls (included Ruby, unfortunately) but Meg, somehow, is the only one to gain that privilege.

Maybe it's time he stops questioning.

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Kissing Cas isn't like kissing a woman. His lips are perpetually chapped, and even though they've been at this since they freed him from Naomi's control, he's still all tentative and unsure. Dean lost his virginity to someone else in the same state, but that was eighteen years ago and since then there hasn't been much of a repeat. Every time he does something with Cas - who's an angel - he feels like he's ruining innocence that can't be taken back.

Sam's a bastard who finds this hilarious. Dean wants to point out he's the one screwing the ex-demon who once had two kids and husband, but thinks that's too low of a blow even for him.

The two of them are sprawled out on a couch, watching Cas ask her what triggered the change because now that he's no longer controlled, he's curious about everything and suddenly Dean finds himself saying, "We are so fucked."

There's a moment where his brother doesn't saying anything, eyes following Meg as she tries to get a book from the top shelf. "That's one way to put it," he answers, the stack of quizzes in his lap momentarily forgotten. His hair's still wet from the shower he took after their run-turned-race. Dean has a newspaper on his lap because old habits die hard. Since they started this...what it is, they've only hunted a handful of times. "Are you really complaining, though?"

Cas helps her get the book and from this angle he can't see the title of it, though Sam probably knows. His unofficial OCD got to him bad one day and he organized the whole library and Bobby's collection alphabetically. "No," he says, mouth flicking up into a half smile, "I guess not."

His brother makes a noise of agreement in the back of his throat and Dean suddenly knows with absolute certainty that everything is going to be okay.

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Not sure if I like the ending, but whatever. I wanted it to be short.