Legalities: Supernatural does not belong to me, although I wish it did. I am simply playing in Kripke's sandbox for a bit. All rights and ownership are the property of Kripke and the CW network. I am not making any money from this; it is for my own personal pleasure.

Synopsis: Set at the start of Season One, Dean had been in a wheelchair since his father disappeared more than a year ago and he finally has to tell Sam… There'd been an accident that night and Dean had paid a very high price…one he still doesn't understand.

The story will have hunts from season one and possibly into season two…the brothers will continue their search for their father…there will be alterations to the hunts to accommodate Dean's new situation. I have every intention of returning Dean to good health before this ends…but getting there? Well, it is going to be bumpy.

Please keep in mind that I do not have a Beta, so all-grammatical errors are my own. Not Slash. Brotherly love and Angst only…

Rating: T

NO SLASH/ BROTHERLY LOVE AND FAMILY ANGST ONLY

First: Apologies for leaving the last chapter of this story for so long! I have no excuse other than I was trying to decide where I wanted to take the sequel. It was only recently that I figured out where I wanted to go now. I do hope you'll forgive me and read anyways…

Previous Chapter:

"Sam, I can save him." Sam's tear-filled eyes flashed up to meet the even blue of the angel's gaze. Castiel held up his hands to stop the coming questions. "Though, he will be marked. That is outside of my power to heal."

Sam's eyes shifted back to Dean in confusion, his fingers trembled just above his brother's chest. "What does that mean?" His face screwed into a pained expression that spoke volumes to the angel. "You're an angel. Can't you just fix him?"

He wished he could. For the first time in…well forever, Castiel wished he had the immense power of an archangel. Maybe, they could do what he couldn't, if they all agreed to work together; and that wasn't likely. "I cannot. It is outside my power. But I can bring him back."

The youngest Winchester's gaze flickered between his brother's far too still form and the angel before he finally nodded stiltedly. "Do it."

"You understand he will be—"

Sam's eyes hardened in resolve. "Marked. Yeah, I got it. Bring him back."

"Very well." The angel stepped forward and placed two fingers on Sam's forehead, and then he placed his other hand on Dean's. His eyes started to glow an inhuman blue and power flooded along his very being. Wind whipped through the air, pulling violently at the trenchcoat Castiel had come to like. White-hot fire burned along the connection and he felt the moment he touched it…Dean's lost soul.

Pain raced along the link between the brothers and Sam's head tilted back as a roar of mind-altering pain erupted from his very core. This was more than a simple healing or a resurrection. This was messing the very primal nature of humans and it was something that was forbidden. Even angels have rules they must abide by and Castiel was breaking rule number one. Those who are marked by God himself are not to be altered. Their fate must play out as God has commanded.

But the memories he'd seen inside Dean's head had altered something at the very core of the angel. He'd seen the suffering and the resiliency of humans on the most basic level and he couldn't un-know what he knew to be true. The world was better off with them in it than it was without them. That neither of the Winchester brothers could survive alone. When the time came, and it would come, they would die together. Because that was the way the fates had foreseen their destinies, the demons had tried to alter that. Castiel could feel the tremendous connected between the two souls he now touched. It was pure and clean of all the damage that the brother's bore on the outside. This was what pure love looked like and it was beautiful. Castiel hadn't told Sam that he was going to tap the power of Sam's soul to save Dean, that it was the only way to recover something that the Empty has absorbed.

It was over in a fraction of a second. The black vines retreated from Dean's body, the wounds healing and closing on their own. Sam's enormous frame slumped bonelessly to the ground. They were no long inside Dean's mind, but standing in the field where they had faced the demon Meg. Castiel stumbled forward, his hands now resting on his knees to try and keep his dying vessel on its' feet.

Neither brother moved, they simply breathed. Gabriel stepped from the edge of the forest surrounding the open area, the mud squelching beneath his booted feet. He frowned in irritation at the disgusting sound. His golden eyes blew wide with both understanding and reproach…and a little envy as he took in the scene before him. "You touched his soul?" He asked in shock.

Castiel lifted tired, bloodshot eyes and nodded. His vessel wavered as the muscles threatened to fall; only his strong will and failing angelic grace prevented him from folding to the ground. "I had to." He grunted around the pain of his body.

The archangel shook his head in reproach. "That's forbidden, Castiel." He stepped forward and placed a gentle on hand Castiel's shoulder sending a line of power along the connection. "It's not allowed for a reason."

The dark haired angel straightened and ran his fingers along his sides as the power of the archangel restored what he'd depleted, healing what he'd broken. "I know that. I could not allow them to be separated. We are not done here. They are not done."

Gabriel's shoulders lifted and fell in a steady rhythm as he simply breathed; he turned to look at the brothers. "You realize what you've done?" he walked to Sam's side and leaned over, his fingers drifting along the strong shoulder of the young man that was supposed to end the world. Reset it for the angels to fix what mankind had broken over millennia of fighting in god's name. "You can't go home, brother. Not ever."

A pain greater than he'd ever felt lit up his body when he realized that Gabriel was right. He'd given up his home and his family for these two brothers…he prayed to God that his decision had been the right one. Because he'd just reset the entire playing field and no one angel was supposed to have the ability to do that. In fact, without Gabriel's actions just now, Castiel would have forfeited his life for that one action.

"There is a reason why angels aren't supposed to touch a soul. It binds you to them…to that bloodline…forever Castiel…that's why you're supposed to die if you violate the rules of God. It was the only way to keep angels from interfering with free will." Gabriel revealed information that Castiel had not been privileged to. Archangels knew things that normal angels did not. They had been around since the beginning, the stuff of primordial creation, and they were bound by God himself to keep his secrets.

Realization descended on the angel and he turned his full attention on his older brother. "And because you saved me, just now…you cannot return home either." It wasn't a question; it was an absolutely devastating fact. "Brother…I am so sorry. I did not intend for you to give your place in heaven for me."

Gabriel shrugged. "Ah, I never really liked the place anyway. Too many rooms and glowy white lights." His gaze shifted and he threw his arms wide. "If I gotta be somewhere for eternity? This ain't bad." A breeze drifted across field and the storm that had been raging when this had all started thundered in the distance. The sun was just rising over the horizon; it was throwing soft yellow streams of light across the muddy field that marked their last battle.

"The demon is not gone." Castiel said as he turned toward the brothers again. "They will try again."

Gabriel nodded. "Yup." A smile pulled at his lips. "And the Winchesters will be waiting."

Castiel's gaze drifted to the unmoving form of the man he'd just given up his eternity for. He couldn't explain the connection he felt to the young hunter. The connection he felt for both the brothers was beyond his comprehension and that was truly terrifying for a being that had always known how the world would end. How the angels would end and all of God's work would be destroyed. Because he'd just tied his destiny, if it was possible for an angel to have a destiny, to them…to the Winchesters.

"Do you know what will happen to Dean? What price he will have to pay for being reborn?" It wasn't ideal, raising someone from the dead…no not just the dead, but from the Empty. The place where there is no longer existence; the place where angels go when they die. No human had ever been sent there and so no human had ever been brought back. They shouldn't have been able to bring Dean back. But the connection between Sam and Dean had allowed them to transcend the laws of God…and that would come with a price, a price Dean would be asked to pay.

"Did she succeed?" Castiel finally asked. He knew he didn't want to know the answer to this. But because of his actions he no longer heard the chatter of heaven…but Gabriel would. Archangels couldn't be so easily struck deaf to heaven's words. "Did she unlock the first seal?"

Gabriel's gaze shifted and his golden eyes sparked angrily. "She did."

"Then it is coming? Nothing we did here mattered." He allowed the bitter disappointment to flood through him. Feelings…Castiel wasn't all that sure he could deal with all these feelings.

"It mattered." Gabriel responded simply. He reached out and gently grabbed Castiel's shoulder, shaking his brother lightly. "You gave the world a fighting chance. That's worth something, Castiel. Even if you can't see it right now." His eyes dropped when a low moan of pain escaped from Sam's lips. "You gave them the Winchesters."

End of Previous Chapter…..

Chapter 63

Wrinkles in Time

Sam felt the ground pressing painfully against his body as his mind tried toss his consciousness back into the light. He hurt every-freaking-where, his head felt as though it was splitting open. It felt the same when he had visions. And his entire body radiated an ache like he had the worst case of flu in the history of flu…he hurt in places he was sure shouldn't. Obviously something big had happened, though it was the details of that 'something big' he was a bit fuzzy on. Even without a clear memory, he was fairly certain something insanely scary had happened. The lessons of his childhood rose to the surface and he listened to his surroundings before letting on that he was awake. Sam recognized the voices of two men…no, not men. Angels. He wasn't sure how he knew that, but he did and their words drifted back to him; Sam strained to hear what they were talking about.

It was all garbled and difficult to make out, but he did manage to hear something about broken 'Seals' and that a "she" had been the one to break one of them. He couldn't quite recapture his thoughts enough to pin down just who this she was, but she didn't sound good.

It was the moment he heard Dean's name that he surged back toward awareness. The angels were talking about his brother and Sam needed to know what they were saying. A moan of pain slipped past his generally tight defenses and he shifted. Pain lit up his body and he hissed as he rolled onto his stomach, cradling his head in his hands, before shoving up onto his knees.

"Sam?" A deep gravelly voice cut through his delirium and he found himself forcing his eyelids apart.

A blurry pair of eyes stared down at him. "Are you aware of where you are?"

Sam rolled to his side, grinding his teeth together before finally nodding as he rolled up onto his knees. "Where's Dean?" he forced past the discomfort of his own body, lifting his gaze to meet the eyes of the Angel.

When he didn't immediately answer panic sprang forward inside the young Winchester's expression. His breathing hitched painfully and he twisted to get a better look around them. Not five feet from him was the unmoving body of his older brother. But it wasn't the unmoving body that terrified the young man; it was the grotesquely gnarled form. What he was seeing, it wasn't the way Dean should have looked at twenty-seven. NO, please someone make this a dream. Sam's thoughts seemed to be echoed by the Angel as his celestial eyes blew wide with shock. And damn if it wasn't a bitch to shock an Angel in the first place.

Gabriel stepped forward, his own golden eyes flashing from the mangled human body to the man that remained the only hope of saving them all. "Sam. When he died—"

Sam turned agonized eyes in his direction, "—you mean when he was tortured to death by a demon inside his own mind?"

The Archangel lifted an eyebrow and huffed, "Yes, when the demon got ahold of Dean, what was happening to his body."

Castiel stepped in to answer the question when Sam couldn't find the words to express what they'd seen. "Meg had warped his body with evil."

"Was his body impaled by black vines?" Gabriel's expression was earnest. All of his usual bravado and snarkiness was missing as he sought an answer.

"Yes."

The blonde Angel's eyelids dropped shut and he shook his head in realization. "When Dean was cast out into the empty, it wasn't all of him. Part of your brother remained tethered to his body, to you Sam." The dark-haired angel's eyes widened in understanding. Gabriel continued as Sam stared at him waiting for the punchline. "The Empty is a place outside of time and space. There is no way know for certain what beings exist in there. Not really. Because Dean's soul is only one half of the whole, we know that it has to be his that was called back—"

Sam perked up at that, "Okay, then what's the problem?"

Narrowing his eyes, the Archangel continued, "We don't know what version in time Dean's soul was pulled back from."

"I don't understand."

Castiel stepped forward, "Sam, the soul that now resides within your brother's body could be the one from the moment he was born to the moment he dies. We have no way of knowing until he wakes up. And his body's physical state is a projection of how damaged this version of Dean's soul really is."

He spun toward the silent body and felt the bile burning along his esophagus. "But this looks like a twisted demon soul." His eyebrows cut down and he shook his head on denial. "Are you saying my brother's a demon now?"

Gabriel shrugged, but Cas shook his head. "No. I do not think Dean is a demon. We could not have tapped the light in your soul to reclaim him if he was. But something very bad happens to him in the future Sam. And that damaged soul is what answered our call inside the Empty."

The young hunter turned back as a low moan bathed in pain escaped the split lips of the man that had given everything, including his soul, to save him. Without thinking, Sam dropped to his knees reaching out to claim one of the blood-encrusted hands. "Dean?"

The face below him pinched in pain, the deep furrows between his eyebrows echoing whatever damage he must be feeling. It was several heart-pounding moments until his eyelids peeled back revealing not the inky blackness of demon-eyes, but the jade green that Sam had spent a lifetime learning to read. They whirled around the area before latching onto the worried face of the youngest Winchester. He watched as recognition mixed with surprise seeped into those green depths.

"Sam?" His voice was deep with a gravelly quality that Sam had never heard before. Dean sounded older somehow. And it didn't escape the young hunters notice that his brother hadn't called him Sammy, which had always been Dean's go to way of expressing everything from worry to anger.

Dean's eyes rolled over to where Castiel and Gabriel watched, both Angels stunned into silence by what they were seeing. The older Winchester's mouth dropped open in a small "o" when his eyes landed on the Archangel. "Gabriel?"

"Yeah?" the smaller man answered slowly.

"You're dead." Dean whispered hoarsely. "We saw you die." His gaze flashed to Sam for confirmation.

Castiel pulled his lower lip between his teeth before stepping forward and kneeling beside Sam. "Dean, may check something?"

"As long as it's above the belt, sure." The quip was so like his brother that some of the tension binding Sam's inside loosened a bit.

The dark Angel frowned, "I have no intention of touching you below the belt."

"That…just forget it." Sam started to explain but when Gabriel chortled at Dean's comment and Castiel just looked confused as hell, he decided to just let it go. "Cas do your thing."

Lifting his hands and laying them cautiously on Dan's blonde hair, the Angel allowed his grace to travel along the connection he now shared with the Winchester brothers. It was much easier than the last time he'd gone looking for the essence that was Dean's half of the soul. The moment he saw, Castiel surged out of the older hunter's mind in shock.

He stumbled back and dropped down onto his heels as he stared at Dean like he was the Anti-Christ.

Sam was nearly cast from his brother's side by the unexpected movements of the Angel. "What the hell Castiel." He complained as he resettled himself next to Dean's shoulder. No one had mentioned the older Winchester's physical state yet and he didn't see to have noticed. But none of them could ignore the complete shock on the dark-haired man's face.

"Gabriel?" Cas looked to his older brother for confirmation of what he'd seen. The Archangel closed the distance and touched one finger to Dean's forehead. He'd barely made contact before he jerked his hand back like he'd been burned.

"How the hell did this happen?"

Sam had had just about enough of the cryptic talk, but apparently Dean was done with it. "So do Sam and I need secret decoder rings or are you two going to tell us what the hell is going on?" His eyes flickered down to his legs and he swallowed before continuing in a shaky voice, "Okay, why do my legs look like they got caught in a meat grinder? Oh and fun fact, I can't feel a fucking thing below the waist." His eyes flickered over to Sam, "And why does my brother look like a kid?"

That got Sam's attention in a way nothing else could have. "What do you mean? I look the same as I always do."

Dean shook his head, "No Sam, you don't. You're about ten years shy of where you should be."

Two sets of Winchester eyes lifted to meet their celestial companion's combined gazes, but it was Dean that spoke, "Lucy, I think you got some 'splaining' to do."

Gabriel thinned his lips to hide his smile at the reference and Castiel just look, confused as hell. The Archangel recovered first and sighed before sinking down onto the ground crossing his legs in front of him and leaning his elbows on his knees. "Dean have you seen "Back to the Future"?"

"That's a stupid question, feathers. Everyone's seen that movie."

Castiel raised his hand, "I haven't."

"You haven't seen anything, Cas. You've been on Earth for like two millennia, and you haven't managed to get to one movie in all that time, so you don't count." Dean bemoaned.

Sam's eyebrows drew together as he started to piece together what he was hearing and the fact that his brother seemed to have some weird friendship with both of these Angels that made no sense. "Dean, what year is it?"

It was his brother's turn to look at him like he'd lost his mind, "Two thousand seventeen, Sam."

The young hunter's mouth dropped open and his breath caught somewhere in the vicinity of his heart. He didn't have an answer for his brother. This was someone that had knowledge of what was to come and he had a decade's worth of memories with Sam that they did not share.

"No, it's not. It is currently two thousand seven and you two just stopped the end of the world." Gabriel revealed dramatically.

The End….(sort of)

Author's Note: So yeah, this is the end of "A Different Kind of Deal", but not the end of this story. I have woven in facts from the series and my own special brand of crazy "what-ifs" into the sequel. It occurred to me that when determining what would be heavy enough price to pay for returning from the dead, only one seemed appropriate. Take my twin-destiny theory, wrap it in a future-Dean/soul sandwich, and toss it into the mixer with a Sam from season three and see what sort of cracked-up crap the Winchester can get themselves into.

Now I know I promised to give you all a fully healed Dean, but that didn't end up fitting with where I'm taking the sequel. So instead we're going to get to see how the brother's deal when one of them has all the memories of their greatest victories and their worst defeats, but he's bound by a cosmic "gag order" that can't be broken. Plus, the demons are still out there and they've broken the first Seal. So guess we'll be seeing more intertwining with series canon and original story.

Please Review: Let me know if you're at all interested in seeing a sequel to this story. Thanks for reading.