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laniew1The third story in my Supernatural/SG-1/SGA crossover, though you only need to read this one first in order to understand what's going on: Journey's End 1.
TITLE: Journey's End
AUTHOR: Melanie
SUMMARY: Sam brings Dean home, but he can't make him stay
RATING: PG-13
PAIRINGS: Dean/Daniel, Dean/Ronon, hinted at Dean/Ronon/Daniel.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own them, I'm only playing.
FEEDBACK: Always welcome.
Journey's End 3
It takes 14 years for Dean to finally come home to them, and then it takes 3 days after Dean comes home for Dean and Dad to almost come to blows.
Luckily Dean doesn't react the way that Sam or Dad expect him to. Dad flinches, he knows he's in the wrong, knows that Dean is defensive of the decision that he made 14 years prior that led to him leaving them.
Before he might have taken a swing, seen Dad as a threat. Now he takes a walk, or a run if the way he comes back dripping sweat is any indication.
When Sam says something, he just shrugs and says that he's working on his impulse control. Sam tells dad to back off, but dad can't help but pick at those wounds.
He wants to understand why his oldest son had made the decision to walk away. He doesn't know, doesn't understand why his oldest boy thought he didn't love him.
He loves his boys equally, Sam knows this. Dad knows this.
Dean doesn't know this, doesn't see this and neither of them know of any way to show him that fact.
Dean is supposed to be with them for 2 weeks, a forced vacation. He knows this because he overheard that Colonel Sheppard telling Dean that before they got on the Daedelus to come home. He remembers Dean sputtering when Colonel Sheppard told him that he would not be allowed back on the Daedelus until the end of those 14 days.
Sam had thought 14 days wasn't nearly long enough to try and reconnect with his big brother. To re-establish the missing bond that he'd once had with Dean.
Now he wonders if 14 days is possibly too much time.
Either Dad or Dean could be dead, slain by the hand of the other in less time then that.
It is a far cry from the excitement, the exhilaration that he'd felt when they first got the letter years before.
******************************************************************************
"What's that?" Sam asked. Dad had been staring at the same sheet of paper since he'd walked in the door.
"Your brother," John said simply. Still staring at the letter.
Sam didn't understand, not until his Dad started reading it to him.
Dean was in the military, in the Air Force. Sam hadn't thought he'd see the day where Dean would answer to commands issued from other people besides Dad.
His brother was part of that Stargate project that had been making the news since it was de-classified. Sam could feel the excitement rising up within him, they knew where Dean was, where he had most likely been.
Ironically they'd been to Nevada, three different hunters had sighted Dean there, Sam and dad had checked out each one and each time had come up empty handed.
The motels had no one staying with them that looked like Dean; they visited each bar and the bartenders took their money but had told them they'd never seen Dean. Not ever.
And since Dean had never understood the concept of keeping a low profile Sam and dad had gone away empty handed. They should have dug deeper, but with Dean not in any of the places that he would typically have been found they'd called each trip there a bust and returned home.
They waited for Dean to contact them, they knew where he was, Dean had to know that they now knew. So they waited and there was no contact, no letter explaining why he'd left, no data burst telling them that he was okay.
There was nothing but the realization that Dean wasn't coming home. That in order to bring him home one of them would probably have to go get him.
They started working on that almost immediately.
******************************************************************************
Sam remembers days, weeks bordering on months spent in Nevada trying to convince people to help them get in touch with Dean. When General O'Neill arrived at the door of their hotel room they were only slightly surprised.
They had been making an incredible nuisance of themselves.
******************************************************************************
The General had just looked them over, smiled a wide smile.
And introduced them to the man that he'd brought with him. Dr. Daniel Jackson studied them as if they were bugs, no wide smile. Just pursed lips and narrowed eyes.
"What do you want with Dean Winchester?" he'd asked in a tone that led Sam to believe that these men had no idea who they were. Had no clue that Dean was his brother and their family.
"Dean is my brother," Sam had said simply. His dad had simply stood there, back ramrod straight and it had dawned on Sam then that his dad was a former military man and Jack O'Neill was a General in the US Military.
Air Force yes and he'd muttered and grumbled about Dean choosing the Air Force over the Marines, but still the military.
"Brother?" Dr. Jackson had glanced over at General O'Neill. "Dean's never mentioned any family before."
"You know my brother?" Sam asked eagerly. Dean having never mentioned them stung a little, but the fact that Dr. Jackson's tone indicated that this was knowledge that Dean should, would have shared with him took priority.
"Jack brought him into the program as my bodyguard," Dr. Jackson said with amusement. General O'Neill looked startled for only a second, then sheepish.
"Knew about that did you."
"Well he knows 4 languages, more now of course," Dr. Jackson added, probably for their benefit. Sam glanced over at dad to see if he looked as stunned as Sam felt. He'd known that Dean wasn't stupid, but the fact that he knew languages. That he'd probably gone out of his way to learn languages was not something that Sam would have foreseen.
Dean had hated learning the Latin that dad had forced them to learn.
"Originally he was brought on to help me with translations; it took a while to figure out that he was really a bodyguard that just happened to have an affinity for languages. That as long as he had a starting point he could learn them fairly simply," Dr. Jackson smiled slightly. "He probably figured it out long before I did."
"About six months in," General O'Neill supplied helpfully. The expression that Dr. Jackson shot him indicated that he thought it not so helpful. "He thought someone should tell you, I told him that when you figured it out was soon enough."
"Told him?"
"Ordered him."
"So you do know my brother then?"
"Yes, I thought that was fairly obvious," Dr. Jackson eyed him as if he thought him not intelligent at all. Sam had always been smarter then Dean so that was kind of annoying.
"When can we see him?" his Dad asked. Cutting right to the chase, getting to the point of what he hoped was the reason that the General and Dr. Jackson were at their hotel room.
"See that's kind of the problem," the General scratched his head and shot a look at Dr. Jackson.
"When the project was de-classified there was mention made of an outpost on Atlantis," Dr. Jackson started, pushing his glasses further up on his nose.
And that was how Sam and John had learned that while they may have found Dean, getting to him was going to be a bit harder then just hopping on a plane.
******************************************************************************
Dean starts running first thing in the morning. Sam thinks that the miles his brother's running is the distance he's trying to get away from them, he tries not to think that this might be Dean's one and only visit home.
Dad doesn't know how to bridge the gulf between them, doesn't know how to show Dean that he loves him without it denigrating into an order that Dean won't follow any longer.
In the morning, after breakfast which he thanks Jessica for profusely every single time, he pulls papers out of his bag and spreads them out on the dining room table.
Sam and John both have seen the papers, neither can make head or tail of them. They can tell when Dean gets frustrated at something he can't decipher because he'll take Michael out into the back yard and work off some of his annoyance.
He's gentle with his nephew, and Michael looks up at him with wide, worshipful eyes while Dean treats him as if he's a prized possession. Sam can remember looking at his older brother like that once and wishes that Dean still looked at him as if he was a prized possession.
He thinks that being jealous of his son's relationship with his brother is insane and tells Jessica that it might be time to get himself committed.
Jessica calls him an idiot and tells him that he and Dad need to fix things with Dean before he leaves. Sam wonders if Jess feels the same thing that he does.
That if they don't fix things Dean might never return to them again.
It might be taken out of their hands sooner then Sam thinks because on Dean's seventh day home Dr. Jackson appears on their doorstep.
"Dean's not here," Sam says, he wants to tell Dr. Jackson to go away, because he's not ready to give his brother back over to these people.
Dr. Jackson smiles at him, "I'll wait for him then, he called me about a translation he was having problems with."
Jess pushes him aside and allows Dr. Jackson into their home, Sam tries not to feel betrayed at that movement. Dad appears in the doorway to the kitchen, hand resting on Michael's shoulder as they all stand there staring at each other.
"Well this is awkward," Dr. Jackson murmurs.
Dean shows up then, he'd been off for his morning five mile jog. Sam had gone with him once and wanted to die at about the two mile mark. He's horribly out of shape compared to Dean at the moment but he thinks that he at least made it further then Dr. Jackson would have.
Dean grins at Dr. Jackson, a wide happy smile that Sam hasn't seen but a handful of times since they brought Dean home. A smile which Dr. Jackson returns.
"Daniel," Dean makes a move as if to hug the other man and Dr. Jackson raises his arms as if to ward him off. Dean smirks at him and Sam realizes that each move had been expected, an air of ritual to it. Dean had moved to hug him and Dr. Jackson had warded him off and they trade private smiles.
They know each very well and Sam thinks that Dr. Jackson wasn't the sort of person that Dean would have been friends with before.
"I didn't think you were coming in until tomorrow."
"Jack got me on an earlier flight, I think I was driving him a bit crazy."
Dean grins again. "I'll go shower and then I'll show you what I've been working on."
******************************************************************************
Dean and Dr. Jackson, call me Daniel and do I smell coffee, lean over the table, heads bent together and they work together so easily that it hurts something inside Sam.
He feels as if he's been replaced, there's an easy give and take in Dean's responses to Daniel. They don't even talk in full sentences, half sentences and sometimes a word, are all it takes for one to lead the other in their direction of thinking.
Dad hovers at the end of the table, Sam sits in one of the chairs. He's ostensibly brought out his own paperwork he should be working on, he has two cases that he's the primary on, and he's lost enough time going to Atlantis and bringing Dean home.
But the way Dean and Daniel work together keeps drawing his interest.
He has no idea what they're trying to decipher, thinks that sometimes they're not even talking about the translation that has been driving Dean insane since he began working on it days earlier.
He hears Daniel mention Ronon and his ears perk up, Ronon had been one of those people on Atlantis. Sam remembers seeing Dean talking to him, he'd thought they might have been arguing but when Dean's team and Colonel Sheppard's team had shown up to see Dean off they'd seemed all right.
He suddenly wonders if Daniel is here to help Dean with the translation or to bring him news of Atlantis.
******************************************************************************
Daniel stays with them; Dean gives up his room and sleeps on the couch.
"I've slept in worse places." Dean won't elaborate. And no matter how they push Daniel won't either.
They work on translations for two days, and it takes that long for Sam to realize that Daniel is something other then a friend to Dean.
It takes hearing voices in the room that had been set aside as Dean's years before and Sam peeking in to find out what is going on.
He doesn't expect to see Daniel kissing his big brother, doesn't expect to see Dean kissing him back, hands tight on Daniel's hips.
Sam walks away and thinks that maybe his brain has leaked out his ears between the door to Dean's room and his bedroom, because nothing makes sense.
Daniel has been here for days and Sam has never thought that maybe the reason he stays, the reason that he plays the role of buffer between Dean and Dad and Sam is because he has a vested interest in the outcome of this visit.
It takes him another day to approach Daniel, and it's not because he doesn't know what to say (why are you kissing my brother? Why are you here? Why are you taking him away from us?) but because Dean doesn't ever leave Daniel alone around them.
Except when Daniel leaves the table to get coffee, Sam has been waiting, watching the coffee in the cup drop further and further and he knows that he'll have the opportunity to corner Daniel if he times it just right.
Daniel has been waiting for the same thing it seems. Because when Sam walks into the kitchen he smiles at him.
"Dean has never really gotten over the whole bodyguard thing."
******************************************************************************
Dean is not at all amused about the turn of events that have Sam and Daniel talking. Sam knows this because he hears Dean tell Daniel so.
Daniel laughs at him.
"They're your family, Dean," Daniel says. Sam is unashamedly eavesdropping.
"On four worlds they're your in-laws," Dean mutters. Daniel laughs again.
"And on two more they're Ronon's."
"You're sure he's okay?" Dean sounds worried and Sam knows that besides helping Dean with translations that Daniel has been bringing Dean updates from home.
"They're superficial wounds, he'll be fine. By the time you get back he'll be on his feet again and complaining because Colonel Sheppard has grounded him for the interim."
Dean hums at that.
"Dean…" Daniel sighs, a long suffering, 'you're being a jackass sigh' that Sam recognizes as such because it's the same one that Jess sighs when she thinks Sam is being a moron.
He thinks that Daniel and Dean must have been together for a very long time and doesn't understand how Ronon fits into all this.
Do they share him? When Dean's on Earth he's Daniel's, when he's on Atlantis he's Ronon's? He wonders what happens during those times when Ronon is on Earth or Daniel is on Atlantis.
Then decides that he doesn't want to know, he already has way more information about Dean's love life then he really wants and much more then Dean wants him to have.
The door flies open and Dean is staring at him, Daniel shaking his head and staring at the floor.
"Are you eavesdropping?" Dean demands.
"No?" Sam shakes his head, though he doesn't sound convinced and Dean doesn't believe him from the skepticism on his face.
"Look you don't talk to us, you're my brother. My big brother, I just want to know that you're okay, I just want to… I want to know you, like a brother is supposed to," Sam says in a rush of air. Dean looks at him then over his shoulder at Daniel.
"Sammy…"
"I mean I don't even know who he is to you, is he a friend, a boyfriend, should I have been letting you sleep in the same room and finding a way to break it to dad in some way that won't make him have a heart attack."
"Daniel is my…" Dean looks over that other man, who appears to be nothing but supportive with a mild touch of 'I wish I was anywhere but here'.
"I'm his… well I guess we're kind of like lovers, sometimes."
"Sometimes? I don't…"
"I'm not on Earth all that often Sammy, Daniel's got responsibilities here that he can't just abandon to come be my kept man on Atlantis."
"Besides the fact that I would get bored and since you're running the linguistics team with an iron fist I don't want to impose."
"An iron fist? I let them have holidays off, the first two years I worked with you I didn't even get Christmas off."
"That wasn't my fault," Daniel shakes his head, Dean smirks at him.
"Ronon?" Sam asks, because he has a feeling if he lets them that they'll go off on a tangent and he doesn't think he can ask these questions again.
"Ronon is my…"
"Ronon is his partner," Daniel says firmly.
"Daniel…"
"He is Dean, he shares you with me when I'm on Atlantis but 362 days of the year you are his, it's not fair to slight him like that because you think that I'll get upset."
"I was yours first," Dean says softly, Sam pretends not to hear and looks at the floor, trying to give them some semblance of privacy without leaving the room. He still manages to see Daniel move up beside him, place his hand low on Dean's back and lean into him.
"Got what you need Sammy?" Dean asks, Sam coughs and nods and continues looking at the floor.
"You can, you know…" he coughs again. "Share the room, or… whatever."
"Sam it's okay."
"I'm just gonna…" Sam gestures at the door.
"Go before you stroke out, I know CPR man, but I'm not performing it on you," when Sam looks up he can see the smirk on Dean's face, Daniel is standing next to him, hand still on his back.
Sam thinks they look right together and he wonders if were to see Dean and Ronon together like this if they would look just as right.
"Right," Sam backs away, and closes the door behind him.
"You didn't tell him that when I'm on Atlantis it's more Ronon and I sharing you between the two of us, then Ronon giving over his time to me," he can still hear Daniel say with amusement.
"Did you see his face; I didn't want to have to call 911. My dad would never forgive me if I killed Sammy off."
******************************************************************************
Dean has two days left; and now that Sam knows about him and Daniel he makes no effort to hide his relationship with the other man.
He even kisses Daniel lightly when dad is in the room and he wonders if he was the last one to actually know about them.
Daniel leaves on Dean's last morning with them, a tight hug in the foyer and 'I'll see you at the SGC,' before he waves at them and departs.
Dean looks a little lost at being alone with them.
They have twelve hours before they have to drive Dean to the airport and Sam had thought to have a quiet day just the five of them at home.
Instead Dean has a list of things he needs to take back with him so they go shopping and then out to lunch and then Dean helps Jess do the four loads of laundry that he has and before he knows it their time has run out.
Dean puts his uniform back on, puts his bags in the trunk and he hugs Jessica and Michael, he speaks in low tones to dad and then hugs him too. Dad holding him tightly, eyes closed and Sam looks away.
He'd said that he would bring Dean home, and he had. He hadn't been able to say that he would be able to keep Dean there and he feels like he's failed dad by having to take Dean back to the airport and send him back to his life without them.
When they're in the car Dean looks over at him, hat in his lap.
"You'll let me know how things are going?"
Sam nods, there's a knot in his throat that he can't speak around and he thinks if he tries to, he might end up attempting to beg Dean to stay.
And he can't, Sam knows this.
He has a life, that is far away from the one that they would have, should have lived and it's filled with people and friends and family that aren't him and dad and Jessica and Michael.
He's not going in to the airport with him, he can't and they sit outside the terminal for long seconds before Dean starts shifting and Sam decides that if he's going to say something, anything it needs to be now.
"You could, you know, send pictures… Jess, she does, has these family photo albums that she puts pictures and stuff in… We don't have any of you," the last picture that is of Dean is when he was eighteen, he's scowling and his eyes are unhappy. Sam thinks that whatever pictures Dean deigns to send them he'll definitely not be scowling and his eyes won't be unhappy and he might actually be smiling.
"Okay… take care of the family, Sam," Dean says softly.
"Always do."
******************************************************************************
Six weeks after Dean leaves a packet shows up. Jessica is at work, Michael at school, John is volunteering with a local Youth organization. Sam is the only one home and he signs for the packet, the young man in uniform, who can't be more the fourteen nods and thanks him.
There are pictures inside.
Pictures of Dean with his team and his team and him with Colonel Sheppard's team. Pictures of what looks to be a birthday party for Dean, since he's the one blowing the candles out on the cake.
He gives them all to Jess and she puts them in the spaces reserved for Dean and his life and his family in their albums.
There are two pictures, one each of Dean and Daniel and Dean and Ronon, on the back of them, in Dean's scrawl he's written 'me and the mr' and Sam laughs to himself because he can hear Dean being sarcastic even with written words.
The last picture he keeps to himself, he puts it in a nice frame and displays it on his desk at work.
Dean looks happiest in that picture, Daniel and Ronon on either side of him, both leaning into him, like he's the sun and they're trying to get closer to warm themselves.
They're all smiling and happy and they look right.
******************************************************************************
TITLE: Journey's End
AUTHOR: Melanie
SUMMARY: Sam brings Dean home, but he can't make him stay
RATING: PG-13
PAIRINGS: Dean/Daniel, Dean/Ronon, hinted at Dean/Ronon/Daniel.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own them, I'm only playing.
FEEDBACK: Always welcome.
Journey's End 3
It takes 14 years for Dean to finally come home to them, and then it takes 3 days after Dean comes home for Dean and Dad to almost come to blows.
Luckily Dean doesn't react the way that Sam or Dad expect him to. Dad flinches, he knows he's in the wrong, knows that Dean is defensive of the decision that he made 14 years prior that led to him leaving them.
Before he might have taken a swing, seen Dad as a threat. Now he takes a walk, or a run if the way he comes back dripping sweat is any indication.
When Sam says something, he just shrugs and says that he's working on his impulse control. Sam tells dad to back off, but dad can't help but pick at those wounds.
He wants to understand why his oldest son had made the decision to walk away. He doesn't know, doesn't understand why his oldest boy thought he didn't love him.
He loves his boys equally, Sam knows this. Dad knows this.
Dean doesn't know this, doesn't see this and neither of them know of any way to show him that fact.
Dean is supposed to be with them for 2 weeks, a forced vacation. He knows this because he overheard that Colonel Sheppard telling Dean that before they got on the Daedelus to come home. He remembers Dean sputtering when Colonel Sheppard told him that he would not be allowed back on the Daedelus until the end of those 14 days.
Sam had thought 14 days wasn't nearly long enough to try and reconnect with his big brother. To re-establish the missing bond that he'd once had with Dean.
Now he wonders if 14 days is possibly too much time.
Either Dad or Dean could be dead, slain by the hand of the other in less time then that.
It is a far cry from the excitement, the exhilaration that he'd felt when they first got the letter years before.
"What's that?" Sam asked. Dad had been staring at the same sheet of paper since he'd walked in the door.
"Your brother," John said simply. Still staring at the letter.
Sam didn't understand, not until his Dad started reading it to him.
Dean was in the military, in the Air Force. Sam hadn't thought he'd see the day where Dean would answer to commands issued from other people besides Dad.
His brother was part of that Stargate project that had been making the news since it was de-classified. Sam could feel the excitement rising up within him, they knew where Dean was, where he had most likely been.
Ironically they'd been to Nevada, three different hunters had sighted Dean there, Sam and dad had checked out each one and each time had come up empty handed.
The motels had no one staying with them that looked like Dean; they visited each bar and the bartenders took their money but had told them they'd never seen Dean. Not ever.
And since Dean had never understood the concept of keeping a low profile Sam and dad had gone away empty handed. They should have dug deeper, but with Dean not in any of the places that he would typically have been found they'd called each trip there a bust and returned home.
They waited for Dean to contact them, they knew where he was, Dean had to know that they now knew. So they waited and there was no contact, no letter explaining why he'd left, no data burst telling them that he was okay.
There was nothing but the realization that Dean wasn't coming home. That in order to bring him home one of them would probably have to go get him.
They started working on that almost immediately.
Sam remembers days, weeks bordering on months spent in Nevada trying to convince people to help them get in touch with Dean. When General O'Neill arrived at the door of their hotel room they were only slightly surprised.
They had been making an incredible nuisance of themselves.
The General had just looked them over, smiled a wide smile.
And introduced them to the man that he'd brought with him. Dr. Daniel Jackson studied them as if they were bugs, no wide smile. Just pursed lips and narrowed eyes.
"What do you want with Dean Winchester?" he'd asked in a tone that led Sam to believe that these men had no idea who they were. Had no clue that Dean was his brother and their family.
"Dean is my brother," Sam had said simply. His dad had simply stood there, back ramrod straight and it had dawned on Sam then that his dad was a former military man and Jack O'Neill was a General in the US Military.
Air Force yes and he'd muttered and grumbled about Dean choosing the Air Force over the Marines, but still the military.
"Brother?" Dr. Jackson had glanced over at General O'Neill. "Dean's never mentioned any family before."
"You know my brother?" Sam asked eagerly. Dean having never mentioned them stung a little, but the fact that Dr. Jackson's tone indicated that this was knowledge that Dean should, would have shared with him took priority.
"Jack brought him into the program as my bodyguard," Dr. Jackson said with amusement. General O'Neill looked startled for only a second, then sheepish.
"Knew about that did you."
"Well he knows 4 languages, more now of course," Dr. Jackson added, probably for their benefit. Sam glanced over at dad to see if he looked as stunned as Sam felt. He'd known that Dean wasn't stupid, but the fact that he knew languages. That he'd probably gone out of his way to learn languages was not something that Sam would have foreseen.
Dean had hated learning the Latin that dad had forced them to learn.
"Originally he was brought on to help me with translations; it took a while to figure out that he was really a bodyguard that just happened to have an affinity for languages. That as long as he had a starting point he could learn them fairly simply," Dr. Jackson smiled slightly. "He probably figured it out long before I did."
"About six months in," General O'Neill supplied helpfully. The expression that Dr. Jackson shot him indicated that he thought it not so helpful. "He thought someone should tell you, I told him that when you figured it out was soon enough."
"Told him?"
"Ordered him."
"So you do know my brother then?"
"Yes, I thought that was fairly obvious," Dr. Jackson eyed him as if he thought him not intelligent at all. Sam had always been smarter then Dean so that was kind of annoying.
"When can we see him?" his Dad asked. Cutting right to the chase, getting to the point of what he hoped was the reason that the General and Dr. Jackson were at their hotel room.
"See that's kind of the problem," the General scratched his head and shot a look at Dr. Jackson.
"When the project was de-classified there was mention made of an outpost on Atlantis," Dr. Jackson started, pushing his glasses further up on his nose.
And that was how Sam and John had learned that while they may have found Dean, getting to him was going to be a bit harder then just hopping on a plane.
Dean starts running first thing in the morning. Sam thinks that the miles his brother's running is the distance he's trying to get away from them, he tries not to think that this might be Dean's one and only visit home.
Dad doesn't know how to bridge the gulf between them, doesn't know how to show Dean that he loves him without it denigrating into an order that Dean won't follow any longer.
In the morning, after breakfast which he thanks Jessica for profusely every single time, he pulls papers out of his bag and spreads them out on the dining room table.
Sam and John both have seen the papers, neither can make head or tail of them. They can tell when Dean gets frustrated at something he can't decipher because he'll take Michael out into the back yard and work off some of his annoyance.
He's gentle with his nephew, and Michael looks up at him with wide, worshipful eyes while Dean treats him as if he's a prized possession. Sam can remember looking at his older brother like that once and wishes that Dean still looked at him as if he was a prized possession.
He thinks that being jealous of his son's relationship with his brother is insane and tells Jessica that it might be time to get himself committed.
Jessica calls him an idiot and tells him that he and Dad need to fix things with Dean before he leaves. Sam wonders if Jess feels the same thing that he does.
That if they don't fix things Dean might never return to them again.
It might be taken out of their hands sooner then Sam thinks because on Dean's seventh day home Dr. Jackson appears on their doorstep.
"Dean's not here," Sam says, he wants to tell Dr. Jackson to go away, because he's not ready to give his brother back over to these people.
Dr. Jackson smiles at him, "I'll wait for him then, he called me about a translation he was having problems with."
Jess pushes him aside and allows Dr. Jackson into their home, Sam tries not to feel betrayed at that movement. Dad appears in the doorway to the kitchen, hand resting on Michael's shoulder as they all stand there staring at each other.
"Well this is awkward," Dr. Jackson murmurs.
Dean shows up then, he'd been off for his morning five mile jog. Sam had gone with him once and wanted to die at about the two mile mark. He's horribly out of shape compared to Dean at the moment but he thinks that he at least made it further then Dr. Jackson would have.
Dean grins at Dr. Jackson, a wide happy smile that Sam hasn't seen but a handful of times since they brought Dean home. A smile which Dr. Jackson returns.
"Daniel," Dean makes a move as if to hug the other man and Dr. Jackson raises his arms as if to ward him off. Dean smirks at him and Sam realizes that each move had been expected, an air of ritual to it. Dean had moved to hug him and Dr. Jackson had warded him off and they trade private smiles.
They know each very well and Sam thinks that Dr. Jackson wasn't the sort of person that Dean would have been friends with before.
"I didn't think you were coming in until tomorrow."
"Jack got me on an earlier flight, I think I was driving him a bit crazy."
Dean grins again. "I'll go shower and then I'll show you what I've been working on."
Dean and Dr. Jackson, call me Daniel and do I smell coffee, lean over the table, heads bent together and they work together so easily that it hurts something inside Sam.
He feels as if he's been replaced, there's an easy give and take in Dean's responses to Daniel. They don't even talk in full sentences, half sentences and sometimes a word, are all it takes for one to lead the other in their direction of thinking.
Dad hovers at the end of the table, Sam sits in one of the chairs. He's ostensibly brought out his own paperwork he should be working on, he has two cases that he's the primary on, and he's lost enough time going to Atlantis and bringing Dean home.
But the way Dean and Daniel work together keeps drawing his interest.
He has no idea what they're trying to decipher, thinks that sometimes they're not even talking about the translation that has been driving Dean insane since he began working on it days earlier.
He hears Daniel mention Ronon and his ears perk up, Ronon had been one of those people on Atlantis. Sam remembers seeing Dean talking to him, he'd thought they might have been arguing but when Dean's team and Colonel Sheppard's team had shown up to see Dean off they'd seemed all right.
He suddenly wonders if Daniel is here to help Dean with the translation or to bring him news of Atlantis.
Daniel stays with them; Dean gives up his room and sleeps on the couch.
"I've slept in worse places." Dean won't elaborate. And no matter how they push Daniel won't either.
They work on translations for two days, and it takes that long for Sam to realize that Daniel is something other then a friend to Dean.
It takes hearing voices in the room that had been set aside as Dean's years before and Sam peeking in to find out what is going on.
He doesn't expect to see Daniel kissing his big brother, doesn't expect to see Dean kissing him back, hands tight on Daniel's hips.
Sam walks away and thinks that maybe his brain has leaked out his ears between the door to Dean's room and his bedroom, because nothing makes sense.
Daniel has been here for days and Sam has never thought that maybe the reason he stays, the reason that he plays the role of buffer between Dean and Dad and Sam is because he has a vested interest in the outcome of this visit.
It takes him another day to approach Daniel, and it's not because he doesn't know what to say (why are you kissing my brother? Why are you here? Why are you taking him away from us?) but because Dean doesn't ever leave Daniel alone around them.
Except when Daniel leaves the table to get coffee, Sam has been waiting, watching the coffee in the cup drop further and further and he knows that he'll have the opportunity to corner Daniel if he times it just right.
Daniel has been waiting for the same thing it seems. Because when Sam walks into the kitchen he smiles at him.
"Dean has never really gotten over the whole bodyguard thing."
Dean is not at all amused about the turn of events that have Sam and Daniel talking. Sam knows this because he hears Dean tell Daniel so.
Daniel laughs at him.
"They're your family, Dean," Daniel says. Sam is unashamedly eavesdropping.
"On four worlds they're your in-laws," Dean mutters. Daniel laughs again.
"And on two more they're Ronon's."
"You're sure he's okay?" Dean sounds worried and Sam knows that besides helping Dean with translations that Daniel has been bringing Dean updates from home.
"They're superficial wounds, he'll be fine. By the time you get back he'll be on his feet again and complaining because Colonel Sheppard has grounded him for the interim."
Dean hums at that.
"Dean…" Daniel sighs, a long suffering, 'you're being a jackass sigh' that Sam recognizes as such because it's the same one that Jess sighs when she thinks Sam is being a moron.
He thinks that Daniel and Dean must have been together for a very long time and doesn't understand how Ronon fits into all this.
Do they share him? When Dean's on Earth he's Daniel's, when he's on Atlantis he's Ronon's? He wonders what happens during those times when Ronon is on Earth or Daniel is on Atlantis.
Then decides that he doesn't want to know, he already has way more information about Dean's love life then he really wants and much more then Dean wants him to have.
The door flies open and Dean is staring at him, Daniel shaking his head and staring at the floor.
"Are you eavesdropping?" Dean demands.
"No?" Sam shakes his head, though he doesn't sound convinced and Dean doesn't believe him from the skepticism on his face.
"Look you don't talk to us, you're my brother. My big brother, I just want to know that you're okay, I just want to… I want to know you, like a brother is supposed to," Sam says in a rush of air. Dean looks at him then over his shoulder at Daniel.
"Sammy…"
"I mean I don't even know who he is to you, is he a friend, a boyfriend, should I have been letting you sleep in the same room and finding a way to break it to dad in some way that won't make him have a heart attack."
"Daniel is my…" Dean looks over that other man, who appears to be nothing but supportive with a mild touch of 'I wish I was anywhere but here'.
"I'm his… well I guess we're kind of like lovers, sometimes."
"Sometimes? I don't…"
"I'm not on Earth all that often Sammy, Daniel's got responsibilities here that he can't just abandon to come be my kept man on Atlantis."
"Besides the fact that I would get bored and since you're running the linguistics team with an iron fist I don't want to impose."
"An iron fist? I let them have holidays off, the first two years I worked with you I didn't even get Christmas off."
"That wasn't my fault," Daniel shakes his head, Dean smirks at him.
"Ronon?" Sam asks, because he has a feeling if he lets them that they'll go off on a tangent and he doesn't think he can ask these questions again.
"Ronon is my…"
"Ronon is his partner," Daniel says firmly.
"Daniel…"
"He is Dean, he shares you with me when I'm on Atlantis but 362 days of the year you are his, it's not fair to slight him like that because you think that I'll get upset."
"I was yours first," Dean says softly, Sam pretends not to hear and looks at the floor, trying to give them some semblance of privacy without leaving the room. He still manages to see Daniel move up beside him, place his hand low on Dean's back and lean into him.
"Got what you need Sammy?" Dean asks, Sam coughs and nods and continues looking at the floor.
"You can, you know…" he coughs again. "Share the room, or… whatever."
"Sam it's okay."
"I'm just gonna…" Sam gestures at the door.
"Go before you stroke out, I know CPR man, but I'm not performing it on you," when Sam looks up he can see the smirk on Dean's face, Daniel is standing next to him, hand still on his back.
Sam thinks they look right together and he wonders if were to see Dean and Ronon together like this if they would look just as right.
"Right," Sam backs away, and closes the door behind him.
"You didn't tell him that when I'm on Atlantis it's more Ronon and I sharing you between the two of us, then Ronon giving over his time to me," he can still hear Daniel say with amusement.
"Did you see his face; I didn't want to have to call 911. My dad would never forgive me if I killed Sammy off."
Dean has two days left; and now that Sam knows about him and Daniel he makes no effort to hide his relationship with the other man.
He even kisses Daniel lightly when dad is in the room and he wonders if he was the last one to actually know about them.
Daniel leaves on Dean's last morning with them, a tight hug in the foyer and 'I'll see you at the SGC,' before he waves at them and departs.
Dean looks a little lost at being alone with them.
They have twelve hours before they have to drive Dean to the airport and Sam had thought to have a quiet day just the five of them at home.
Instead Dean has a list of things he needs to take back with him so they go shopping and then out to lunch and then Dean helps Jess do the four loads of laundry that he has and before he knows it their time has run out.
Dean puts his uniform back on, puts his bags in the trunk and he hugs Jessica and Michael, he speaks in low tones to dad and then hugs him too. Dad holding him tightly, eyes closed and Sam looks away.
He'd said that he would bring Dean home, and he had. He hadn't been able to say that he would be able to keep Dean there and he feels like he's failed dad by having to take Dean back to the airport and send him back to his life without them.
When they're in the car Dean looks over at him, hat in his lap.
"You'll let me know how things are going?"
Sam nods, there's a knot in his throat that he can't speak around and he thinks if he tries to, he might end up attempting to beg Dean to stay.
And he can't, Sam knows this.
He has a life, that is far away from the one that they would have, should have lived and it's filled with people and friends and family that aren't him and dad and Jessica and Michael.
He's not going in to the airport with him, he can't and they sit outside the terminal for long seconds before Dean starts shifting and Sam decides that if he's going to say something, anything it needs to be now.
"You could, you know, send pictures… Jess, she does, has these family photo albums that she puts pictures and stuff in… We don't have any of you," the last picture that is of Dean is when he was eighteen, he's scowling and his eyes are unhappy. Sam thinks that whatever pictures Dean deigns to send them he'll definitely not be scowling and his eyes won't be unhappy and he might actually be smiling.
"Okay… take care of the family, Sam," Dean says softly.
"Always do."
Six weeks after Dean leaves a packet shows up. Jessica is at work, Michael at school, John is volunteering with a local Youth organization. Sam is the only one home and he signs for the packet, the young man in uniform, who can't be more the fourteen nods and thanks him.
There are pictures inside.
Pictures of Dean with his team and his team and him with Colonel Sheppard's team. Pictures of what looks to be a birthday party for Dean, since he's the one blowing the candles out on the cake.
He gives them all to Jess and she puts them in the spaces reserved for Dean and his life and his family in their albums.
There are two pictures, one each of Dean and Daniel and Dean and Ronon, on the back of them, in Dean's scrawl he's written 'me and the mr' and Sam laughs to himself because he can hear Dean being sarcastic even with written words.
The last picture he keeps to himself, he puts it in a nice frame and displays it on his desk at work.
Dean looks happiest in that picture, Daniel and Ronon on either side of him, both leaning into him, like he's the sun and they're trying to get closer to warm themselves.
They're all smiling and happy and they look right.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-13 05:37 pm (UTC)This is so painful. I wanted him and Sam to find each other again. I know that was a lot to expect but it's SamandDean, you know? I think this was a very realistic portrayal of this situation.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-11-25 01:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-18 01:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-26 10:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-26 11:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-26 12:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-11-17 02:30 am (UTC)Thanks for posting!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-13 08:46 pm (UTC)So happy with his two lovers - such a bright star that people would *of course* want him. Makes me want more of this SG1/SGA world where Dean is loved and cherished - feel free to write many more installments. ;p
And his family - not understanding they hurt him, not apologising, not making moves to fix the problem - just to bring him back - then berating Dean for leaving ... D: ... No empathy at all. And no excuse for not trying. Poor Dean. Back to Atlantis, and happiness!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-22 02:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-16 09:37 am (UTC)Rodney is just so...Rodney. Totally love him in this crossover.
Thank you!
(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-08 05:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-01-15 09:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-13 12:48 am (UTC)MJ
(no subject)
Date: 2011-10-28 03:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-11-09 01:49 am (UTC)Smart!Dean. I love Smart!Dean. Why don't more people write Smart!Dean?!!
Thank you so much for this.