I want to live. I want to love. I think I am ready.

just take me home

J A C K

Too caught up in each other, eyes and ears only for the other man, the world around them disappears for Dean and Cas the moment their lips find each other. They don't hear the faint flutter of quiet wings in the hallway beside them. They don't see the figure appearing behind them, Jack with their light and messy hair, dressed in a faded red and black plaid shirt, grinning at them with a goofy smile as they kiss each other softly, leaning against the wall.

Jack takes in the sight of their fathers for a moment before they turn around and heads in a different direction, disappearing unnoticed around a corner. Jack is still smiling as they reach the living room, joining Eileen and Sam in front of the television in their living room. And as they sit down, Miracle comes running over from his resting place by the fire. He jumps onto Jack's lap, getting comfortable. His beautiful dark eyes staring up at theirs as he waits for Jack to hug and cuddle him.

The living room had been empty and not used all the while the Winchesters had lived there, as had many of the other rooms in the bunker. Until they had defeated Chuck. That's when they had started to live their lives. That's when they had time to finally just be. Just exist. Just live. So they had cleaned the room, set up a huge cornered-couch against one wall, and a large flat-screen television against the opposite wall. They'd brought in two cozy armchairs in the far corner, with some small bookshelves decorating the wall behind them. It felt like home in here. Like a home where people lived. They had finally made a home.

It might just look like an ordinary living room, but this particular one was the Winchester's private sanctuary. The other hunters who lived in the bunker sometimes joined them, yes, but they kept mostly to one of the two other living rooms they had renovated at the other end of the bunker. But this one. This one was theirs. With the other hunters roaming the halls of the bunker, they all shared a kitchen, library and the biggest living room was used as some sort of common room for everyone. But some nights, nights like these, the Winchesters would retreat to their own private living room, the one close to the hallway of bedrooms.

Jack had not been around when they started renovating the living room, but they had also left their touches on it. Above the fireplace along the longest wall stands several framed pictures that they had taken recently. It turns out Dean really loves to take pictures, especially in moments where he is the happiest, so there are lots of pictures of Cas, Sam, Eileen, Jack, Claire, Charlie, and the others he considered family. But on the sideboards besides the fireplace, stands lots of pictures not taken with any camera. It was Jack's gift to their family this Christmas.

The pictures aren't really pictures, but memories made of glass. They'd 'stolen' them from the brothers, Eileen and Cas while they were sleeping. Jack hadn't poked around in their head uninvited, of course not. They had only stolen the feelings their family had dreamt of.

Feelings of memories, and memories of feelings.

The largest of the pictures, the one on the left, showed them all gathered around the kitchen table in the bunker. It was a simple moment, nothing special really. But it was a memory that for all three of them, and even Eileen, represented true happiness and peace. Jack had seen the memory within all of them, and Jack himself remembers the happiness they had felt that night when all five of them were gathered, so they had framed it and sat it there.

A smaller one showed Dean holding Cas tightly on a dark street, beside a payphone in the middle of a sleeping town, his smile wide and loving, but also pained. With one hand Dean cups the angel's face, as the other holds them close in a longing embrace. He'd taken the memory from Dean, the memory of him finding Cas alive, having been thrown out of the empty. Sam was present in the picture too, but he was only a blurry presence in the background. The memory felt like love when Jack held it to make the picture.

Another was seeing a memory from the side of the road, that showed Dean and Cas in the front-seat of the impala, Sam, and Jack in the backseat. Cas was smiling softly as he watched Dean driving, Dean, closest to the 'camera', clearly at peace behind the wheel. Sam sat behind Dean, resting his head against the window, deep in sleep, lulled by the roar of the engine. Jack was directly behind Cas, head turned to the forest passing by, looking at something the picture did not catch. Cas had held the memory of watching Dean driving the impala, peacefully without a worry on his face, close to his heart.

One showed Sam and Eileen, faces turned away, Sam leaning against her car, staring out at a beautiful valley from the hill, the sunset colored the valley with a golden glow. The view, and the feeling of Sam holding Eileen, her back against his chest, embossed the memory with joy and love.

Three others showed Dean and Cas, on the brightest one they were sitting together at a cafe. Dean was eating a burger, smiling and watching Cas, while Cas was seated beside him, watching him with a longing look. Jack wasn't sure which of the two had held the memory, but Jack remembers that the memory was made of longing for something neither thought they could have, and yet it was filled with love. As was every moment between the two. Even the awful memories, or the memories where they were fighting. There was always love woven into them. Not that he had been looking for it, but they knew that if they'd searched them both, deep, they would not find a single memory where their love did not shine or did not appear. The other one showed them walking together along a dark street, Dean's arm slung across Cas's shoulders, and both looking at the other with love bleeding from their eyes. The third was the most recent memory that they had held on to. It was simple. Joyful. Happy. It was a picture of one of their first kisses. Sometime after Dean had gotten Cas out. Cas was dressed in Dean's clothes, leaning heavily against the other man, arms locked around his neck. It was a sweet and loving kiss, and they were both smiling into it. It had been the one memory of all that Jack had held, that radiated the most love. It was one of Jack's favorites.

There were several other pictures too, of Dean and Cas. Dean and Sam. Of Sam and Eileen. Sam and Cas. Cas and Jack. Dean and Jack. Cas, Dean, and Claire. Sam, Dean, and Bobby. Jack hadn't counted how many decorated the long sideboard, or hung on the wall above it, but there were lots of happy memories from their life, showing that even though they had been hard, their lives had held love and happiness too.

All these memories were taken from them as they slept. As they slept peacefully and safe, Dean in Cas's arms, and Eileen in Sam's arm. They were all safe, happy, and loved, and that's when their mind raced through these happy memories. Jack just happened to be standing outside their rooms, harvesting the loved and treasured memories of feelings, and feelings of memories.

Sam had smiled so wide when Jack showed it to them in the morning, that the smile would have reached all the way around his head if possible.

Eileen had been beaming with joy and admiration as she studied every single one of them.

Dean had been just standing in the middle of the room, frozen, eyes flying over each and every picture that Jack had made. Eyes lingering on the ones of him and Cas, until it finally rested on the one that showed them kissing. It wasn't until Cas walked over from where he stood beside Sam, that Dean had moved. Cas put his arm around Dean's waist, gently kissing away the tear that had fallen from Dean's eye. And then Dean had hidden his face in the space between the former angel's neck and shoulder, while Cas rested a hand in Dean's hair, gently stroking it.

«We made it, love. We made it.» Cas had whispered. Sam and Eileen were too caught up in admiring the memories turned to pictures to register what was happening behind them, but Jack heard him. Cas smiled at them over Dean's head. «It's real, Dean. It's real. We are real.»

// AN //

Thank you so much for reading and thank you so much for all your amazing comments!!<3

I feel like I'm kinda finished with this story now, it already turned out waaaay longer than I had planned, but I really enjoyed writing it and I really needed to forget about the finale and just write my own... But, I have this really sad but happy (ending) epilogue idea, where Dean and Cas have lived a happy life together and dies of old age (because that is what they deserved!!), so I might write that...