Fanfic Short Stories

Supernatural & Doctor Who: Time After Time Lord

Story Description: When Dean Winchester is stranded outside his timeline, he and the Tenth Doctor bond over their love of their vehicles: Baby and the TARDIS. They take a few detours before returning Dean to 2012.

A/N: Alternate ending for Supernatural episode Time After Time (S7E12). From the Doctor's perspective, it's right after the 50th Anniversary episode (The Day of the Doctor). Slightly AU, of course. Inspired by an AO3 Chocolate Box exchange prompt.

Canton, Ohio. 1944.

The good news was that they'd stopped Chronos. He'd been zapped back to the present along with the olive stake that could destroy him. Through the brief fissure in time, Dean Winchester saw his brother Sam stab Chronos with the stake. One more monster bit the dust, thanks to the Winchesters.

The bad news was that Chronos had tossed Dean away with supernatural strength, far enough that the window between 1944 and 2012 closed before Dean could reach it.

"Now what?" Eliot Ness asked. Yes, the Eliot Ness.

Dean shrugged. The plan had been to hitch a ride back through time with Chronos. There weren't a lot of other options. He'd traveled to the past before, but Castiel wasn't around to return him home this time. "I think I'm stuck here."

Ness got him a hotel room and said something about putting him to work tomorrow.

The legendary FBI agent had also recognized that a night like this called for drowning your sorrows, and left Dean with a bottle of Scotch.

Dean was nearly halfway through the bottle now. He'd started out bemoaning the fact that he was stuck in the 1940s. No pizza delivery. That hurt. No Baby. His beloved car wouldn't even be manufactured for another twenty-three years. And he'd been sent too far back in time to attend any concerts by his favorite rock groups. All the best music was from the 1970s and 1980s. By then he'd be an old man.

That just sucked.

Fortunately Ness knew about monsters and the need to hunt them. He'd mentioned dealing with an infestation of vampires, so he knew what he was talking about. It felt weird though, thinking about hunting without his brother. They'd called it the family business.

Family.

He pushed aside the Scotch and grabbed a sheet of paper to start outlining a plan. When he'd gone back in time to 1973, he learned his grandfather was a hunter, too. How old would Samuel Campbell be in 1944?

What if Dean could find Samuel and start working with him now? Could he change the future?

He'd tried before and failed, but he'd only had a few days in 1973 with no warning that he'd be making the trip. He hadn't had a chance to prepare. But now he had nearly thirty years until the yellow-eyed demon approached his mother with the deal that would lead to her death. If he befriended the family now, there would be plenty of time to influence Mary Campbell and keep her away from that demon.

It crossed his mind that if he changed his parents' lives – saving his mom's life and therefore stopping his dad from becoming a hunter – then Sam and Dean probably wouldn't have been in Canton hunting Chronos in 2012. Dean wouldn't have been pulled into 1944 to kick off these changes to his own past. If Sam were here he'd probably warn that this scenario was a paradox they should try to avoid. But what's the worst that could happen?

In fact, if the stories he'd heard as a kid had been true, causing a paradox might be his best move.

The TARDIS.