Work Text:
For some reason, Dean had always assumed that when he died for the final time-no demon deals, no loopholes, no takesies backsies-he'd be lying down when he entered the afterlife. It was a reasonable guess, but he'd probably just watched too many movies where death got associated with falling asleep.
He'd been wrong. After he died-bleeding out in the backseat of the Impala after a ghoul, a fucking ghoul-took a giant bite out of his insides, he kinda just appeared in the afterlife. Like, poof. Just standing there in his favorite outfit and his nice pair of boots-the ones with the steel toes-looking out at a forest that was way greener than anything he'd ever seen on Earth. Honestly, a little disorienting. He'd like to say he was very mature about the whole dying thing, but that would be lying, because he spent his first five minutes of being dead kicking at a bunch of afterlife rocks and saying 'fuck' in ever combination of words he could think of. Which was a lot. But seriously, a fucking ghoul.
Then, he did what he always did when faced with a weird-ass situation. He started walking. It took all of two minutes for him to stumble onto the Roadhouse, where a much younger Bobby handed him a shit beer and gave him the whole Heaven spiel. He had to admit, this seemed like a pretty sweet set-up; Bobby had never smiled this much when he was alive. Said something about their lives, didn't it. It was almost perfect.
"So, Jack did all that?"
Bobby took a swallow of the shittiest beer ever made, then raised his eyebrows because he really was an old bastard sometimes and apparently got a kick out of this sort of thing. "Well, Cas helped." Dean's face must have done something Sam totally would have made fun of him for, because Bobby-what a bastard-just chuckled. "Go get your angel, boy. We're not going anywhere." He nodded his head towards where the Roadhouse's parking lot had once been, and there she was. Baby, original license plate and all. Damn, it had been too long.
Dean didn't look back as he ran to the car, just shouted "Thanks Bobby!" over his shoulder. He slid into the driver's seat, started her up, and pushed in the mix tape waiting for him. Kansas. Damn, he loved that song.
And he drove. Apparently there was only one road in Heaven, or maybe it was just taking him where he needed to go. He couldn't have told you how long he drove for. Long enough for Kansas to fade into AC/DC and for that to fade into Led Zeppelin and for that to fade into Taylor Swift. The road curved endlessly, and the Impala purred like she was fresh off the line. It was a good drive, peaceful like very few had been on Earth.
The last song on the tape faded out as he pulled up to a bridge. He smiled as he climbed out of the car. He could feel it in the air, the sensation you get right before a lightning strike on a clear blue day. The gut feeling that something good was about to happen. He stood at the edge of the bridge, looking out over the river, and then; "Hello Dean". There he was. Dean turned around, smiling like an absolute fool in love but that's okay because he was one.
"Hey, Cas."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Time was weird in Heaven. It could have been a century or two weeks before the road around Heaven finally lead Dean back to the bridge. Like last time, he had a pretty good idea of who would be waiting for him. It was still pretty awesome to see Sammy standing in front of him, not looking a day over thirty with his hair still stupidly long.
"Eileen finally get sick of your clingy ass?"
"Shut up, jerk. Women live longer, it's been proven."
"Someone cranky they kicked it first?"
"Like you can talk, you got ganked by a ghoul-"
"We do not speak of the ghoul!" Dean's snark fades in a second, and he smiled softly at his baby brother for the first time in a long time. "Good to see you, Sammy."
"It's good to see you too, Dean." Sam joined Dean on the side of the bridge. Being the incredibly mature world-saving monster hunters that they were, they only played one round of 'spit in the river and see who's spit makes it to the other side of the bridge first'. Sam won, because of course he did.
"So what have you been doing this whole time? Waiting for me?"
"Only some of the time. Believe it or not, I got a life up here."
"No shit."
"No shit, Sammy." Dean smiles wide and stupid. He can't seem to stop smiling these days. He pushes off the railing, grabbing Sam's elbow and dragging him back to Baby. "Come on, we've been waiting for you."
It's a short drive back to the Roadhouse, no music on because Sam had always preferred talking. He fills Dean in on forty-three years of life; the hunts, marrying Eileen, rebuilding the hunter network with Jody, the kids-two of them, Diana and Elliot, named after absolutely no one they knew because there were enough ghosts around already-the state of the world and modern music, everything. He's bragging about Diana graduating law school with honors when Dean brings Baby to a stop. Sam sucks in a quiet breath.
"Is that-"
"The Roadhouse? Yeah. Bigger and better than ever." Even when he was dead, Dean had a hard time staying still. He'd bugged Ellen until she'd let him work on some expansions to the place, on the condition that he absolutely never let Ash rig up the sound systems. "We had a feeling you'd be showing up soon. Act surprised when we get in there, will ya?"
"Who's we?"
"You're gonna have to get up and see." Dean practically leaps out of the car, barging into the Roadhouse as he announces their arrival. "You'll never guess who I ran into!"
"Dean, let the boy get in here already!"
Sam's pulled through the door by Jo who hugs him, then punches him solidly in the gut. He's then passed around to Ellen, Bobby, Donna(who had only passed away the year before), Missouri, and Charlie. Ash raises a beer from the corner, still eternally glued to his computer. Sam's not too macho to admit that he's crying by the end of it, even though Jo immediately begins teasing him. "Old man succumbing to emotions?"
"Shut up, I outlived you."
"Hey! Don't drag Hellhound like that!" Jesse makes himself known at the end of the bar. "She died better than you!"
"Yeah I did," Jo snarks.
"Wait, Hellhound?"
"This is a hunter's bar, Sam. We have eternity to make fun of each other for the dumbass ways we died. Hellhound, Bomb, Stabbed, Leviathan Goop-" She points to herself, her mother, Charlie, and Rufus in turn.
"Demon attack!" Ash shouts.
"Vamp nest," Donna adds.
"House fire," Mary cuts through the crowd to hug her son.
"Mom? How are you-"
"It's a long story, I'll tell you later. And for the record, everyone is going to make fun of you for ending up here 'cause you got old."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, almost as much as we make fun of Dean for-"
"Shut up about the ghoul!" Sam laughs, getting the sense that this is a running joke, and that dying has smothered no one's senses of humors. The little welcoming party breaks up, going back to their own corners of the bar. Ellen gets everyone another round of drinks, Jo is back at that simulation hunting game, Missouri chats with Pamela in front of a spread of cards. Dean heads behind the counter, shedding his jacket for an apron as he starts chopping something. The whole scene is so ridiculously strange and incredible that Sam can't speak for a moment. When he finally get his voice back, he's got two questions.
"Hey, Mom?"
"Yeah?"
"Dad isn't...here, is he?"
Dean answered that one with great enthusiasm. "Nope! That rat bastard's rotting in hell!"
"Cheers to that!" Mary raises her glass.
"Okay then, we're all on the same page about that, then. Just one more thing. Dean, where's-"
One of the side doors swings open, and a giant box of vegetables comes through it. Dean immediately groans, "Come on Babe, I told you that this stuff goes in the kitchen-"
"The kitchen is full at the moment, Karen's baking again and she didn't want to be disturbed," the box is finally lowered and Cas brushes dirt off his hoodie.
"Whatever," Dean rolls his eyes and kisses him on the forehead. "We're just going to have real giant shepard's pies then. Go say hi to Sam-"
"Sam's here?"
"Hey Cas." Sam gives a little wave before he's caught up in another large hug. He can't believe he forgot how tall Cas was.
"It's good to see you again, Sam."
"Same, same...how did you end up here?"
"A long story that involves Jack and Dean being incredibly stupid. Essentially, I'm human and I'm staying here."
"So things turned out alright?"
Cas smiles, "Yeah, everything turned out alright."