A/N- Disclaimer:
This fic is heavily inspired by the book/movie The Best of Me.
Some quotes are also taken from both, so credit to the rightful owners.
Anyway, I have most of this fic already written, so hopefully the gap between chapters won't be long and I hope you all enjoy it.
-
Dean Winchester never thought his life was worth much.
But, when he survived the explosion on the logging site he began to wonder if there was some purpose to his life. That maybe he was on a destined path, even if he couldn't see it yet.
He'd been working at The Purgatory Logging Site for 14 years and thought he had seen it all.
From forest fires to loaded trucks losing control and crashing on the muddy terrain. He'd seen more broken bones than he could count, along with the everyday cuts and bruises from the job, but the explosion was something different.
The day started out like every other Thursday. Dean had been sawing away at wooden logs that had already been cut down by the river bed. Making sure they were the correct sizes to fit into the back of the semi-trucks.
Benny Lafitte and a few others were nearby using the crane to lift the freshly cut logs into piles.
And that's when it all went to hell.
The crane tipped, crashing into the log pile. The iron droppers set up to keep the logs in place pierced through the fuel tank sending fuel spraying out the crane.
Dean barely had a second to process everything before fire began to spark from the engine of the crane. All the workers began to run away, knowing that fire and leaking fuel wasn't a good combination.
He was about at join them before he spotted a bunch of workers including, Benny, stuck underneath the logs with his leg pinned.
Without hesitation, Dean grabbed the axe sticking out a wooden stump beside him and rushed over to Benny.
He didn't really know the other man that well, but considered him a work friend. Dean knew he had a wife and daughter waiting for him at home and like hell he was going to leave Benny here.
Dean wasn't sure how he did it, but he managed to use the axe as some kind of leaver and lifted the log just enough for Benny to get his leg free.
At just a quick glance, Dean could tell that the leg was broken, although he wasn't sure how bad it was and he didn't have time to worry about it now.
He quickly grabbed Benny's arm, slinging it over his shoulders as he practically dragged his friend away from the ticking time bomb of a crane.
One of the other workers quickly took Benny from him before Dean ran back to help the others stuck under the logs and that's when the explosion happened.
The flames finally reached the leaking fuel causing the entire crane to erupt.
The force of the explosion launched him into the air, metal debris hitting him in the face in the process before he landed in the river. The quick current sent him downstream towards the waterfall.
He had vague memories of falling from the edge of the waterfall. A fall that should have killed him in an instant, but the next thing he knew he was floating in the water.
For a moment, he wasn't entirely sure if he was dead or alive as he closed his eyes and that's when he saw him.
Castiel Novak.
He hadn't seen Cas for over 20 years, but for some reason his mind began to hallucinate the man he fell in love with all those years ago.
Cas was walking towards him through a garden bed of tulips, wearing his usual trench coat and a warm smile. But, Dean knew it wasn't real.
Castiel wasn't 18 anymore. He'd look different now, taller, more muscular maybe, he wasn't sure, but he wouldn't look like a kid anymore. Although, Dean hadn't seen him since they were teenagers, so maybe Cas still looked exactly the same, he wouldn't know.
"Time to wake up, Dean. It's not your time yet." Cas whispered, reaching a hand out towards him.
Before Dean could grab his hand, Cas began to disappear as Dean slowly opened his eyes to find himself lying on a hospital bed.
"Glad to see you awake, Mr Winchester. My name is Tessa and I'm your nurse."
Dean practically jumped at the unexpected voice, spotting a dark haired woman standing beside his hospital bed.
"The hell am I?" He questioned, hating how rough his voice sounded as he sat up and glanced around the room.
He could feel the pull of stitches along his cheek and his entire body was a little stiff and sore, but other than that he seemed to be fine. But, he was in the water last he could remember, how'd he get to the hospital?
"You're at the UNC hospital in North Carolina." Tessa answered with a gentle smile.
Dean nodded, trying to process everything that had happened at the logging site. How someone even found him at the bottom of the waterfall to begin with was beyond him.
"When can I leave?" He asked a few seconds later, looking back at the nurse who was now holding a clipboard.
"If your vitals stay stable, you can go home tonight. You're gonna have a nasty scar along your cheek, but that's it. It's incredible. You were in the water for almost four hours, no evidence of hypothermia. The fall alone should have killed you. It's a miracle that you're alive, Mr Winchester. There's just no other word for it."
He should be dead, how'd he survive? Why'd he survive?
"Is there anyone we can call to come get you?" Tessa asked, but Dean shook his head.
"No, I'm good."
-
That night he arrived home to his caravan on the outskirts of the woods.
His boss visited him before he was discharged and said the company had shut down after the accident. Something about the logging site being too dangerous after what happened, but Dean didn't ask any questions.
She offered him a settlement, so he wouldn't file a lawsuit against them and he took it. And his boss wrote the check then and there.
Dean cashed the check on the way home, posting most of the money to a house in Lawrence, Kansas, leaving himself with just enough for fuel and other expenses.
He didn't need much and he didn't want much either. He hunted his own meat and didn't venture into town much unless he needed something. He spent most his free time in the woods when he wasn't working. The woods was more of a home than his caravan was, his caravan was just a place where he ate, slept and showered.
For the first month after the accident he just tinkered around the caravan and hunted in the woods, not really sure what else to do with himself since he didn't have a job anymore.
He went for jogs, lifted weights and worked on his 1967 Chevy Impala that he had been trying to get up and running for the past year.
It was his fathers old car that he'd managed to track down and buy from a man in Dallas. But, the man had crashed it only weeks earlier and completely wrecked it.
He had been working on the Impala ever since and had finally gotten her in a driveable condition.
Dean went for long drives in the Impala and went fishing in the small creek a few miles from his caravan. He read old mechanic and car books every night and wrote the occasional letter to Bobby Singer, but that was it.
He never went to the local bar or to the movies, he never went to a friend's house to watch the football or to have a beer. Hell, he hadn't been on a date since he was teenager.
To most, his life probably seemed boring, but he liked it that way.
It was a peaceful life and far from what his life used to be when he was a kid, growing up in a shitty little town with an even shittier family.
He tried not think about the past, but then he received a phone call one afternoon and all those memories came flooding back.
Now, for the first time in over 20 years he was going back home.
The thought of stepping foot in that town again made him uneasy, but, Bobby had been like a father to him. He had been a better father than what his old man ever was and Dean would do anything for the man who had turned his life around.
-
Castiel Novak didn't think much of his phone ringing from inside as he watched his daughter, Claire, and her friends mess around by the pool.
It was Claire's 17th birthday and whoever was calling him, could wait. It was his daughters birthday and he was going to enjoy it and take as many photos as he could.
He knew Claire wasn't a fan of how many photos he would take of the family with his camera. But, after losing his son at just 2-years-old due to cancer, and only having a handful of photos to remember him by, Cas made an effort to take more photos so he could always keep the memories with him.
"Hey, have you thought about what you want to study in collage yet?" His mother-in-law, asked grabbing Claire's arm gently as she walked past her.
Claire chuckled and shook her head, making her way towards the veranda were Cas was standing while his wife, Kelly, sat on the porch chair with her friends.
"She's thinking about finance." Kelly spoke up, looking over at her mother causing Cas to roll his eyes.
Kelly had been pushing Claire to do something around finance because she thought it would be her best option. But, Cas knew his daughter and he knew she didn't like that idea. So, he just kept telling her to pick whatever she wanted to do.
"What?" Kelly questioned, looking over her shoulder towards him.
Cas must have had a disapproving expression on his face as he glanced over at his wife and smiled, although he was pretty sure she knew it was fake.
"I didn't say anything." He replied.
"Look, it's tough out there and it's getting tougher. Finance makes the most sense." Kelly tried to reason as Claire walked past her towards the cooler on the table and grabbed a can of sprite.
"Whoa, whoa, top me up." She quickly instructed, holding her now empty glass of wine up towards Claire before she could walk away.
Cas watched as his daughter grabbed the half empty bottle of Shiraz and filled up her mothers glass.
"She doesn't have to do finance. She can do whatever major she likes and if she doesn't like it, then she can simply swap." Cas responded, trying to keep his tone gentle, not wanting to spark another argument with Kelly while the whole family and Claire's friends were here.
"All I said was that she was thinking about it." Kelly said defensively.
Claire just rolled her eyes, walking past Cas and patting him in the shoulder as she began making her way back to the pool with her friends.
"You know, mom, honestly, all I'm thinking about is the beach and what the guys and girls on the beach will or will not be wearing this summer." Claire admitted causing Cas to chuckle as Kelly raised her eyebrows at her.
Claire didn't seem to care as she cracked open her can of sprite and took a sip before Alex called out to her from in the pool. His daughter quickly put her drink on the table and ran over to the pool, jumping in with her friends.
Cas smiled watching Claire splash her friends before his phone began ringing again from inside.
Could this person not take a hint that he was busy?
It was probably just one of his work colleagues from the office asking to swap shifts with him or something. But this was the third time the person had called and he figured he should probably answer it in case it was Gabriel or someone who really needed to talk to him.
He began to make his way back inside, closing the glass sliding door behind him as he walked into the kitchen and picked up his phone from the bench. He couldn't recognise the phone number flashing on the screen as he answered the call.
"Castiel Novak speaking."
He held the phone to his ear as he began to get the paper plates and plastic spoons out the cupboard ready for Claire's birthday cake.
"Castiel, my name is Missouri Mosley and I'm the estate attorney for Bobby Singer. I'm afraid I have some bad news. Mr. Singer died in his sleep last night. He was 92." The woman -Missouri– informed.
Cas had to grab hold of the bench in front of him to steady himself as he took in the news. He could feel tears starting to rise in his eyes as he stared at the wall opposite him in complete shock.
-
That night after the guests had left and the yard had been cleaned of all the rubbish, Cas told Kelly and Claire that an old family friend had passed away, and that he was going back to his hometown on the weekend for the funeral.
Claire had been really understanding. She gave him a hug and asked if he wanted her to go with him for support. Cas appreciated the offer, but kindly declined. Kelly, however, was not as supportive.
"Look I'm sorry about your friend, I really am. But, we've got stuff going on here. I got to be at Amy's on Saturday for her Tupperware party thing. Monday night we've got dinner with the lady from my work and her husband-" Kelly began to say before he cut her off.
"Next time someone I know dies, I'll call your secretary first."
Kelly didn't say anything in response, but looked a little guilty as he went back to packing his suitcase in the bedroom.
He glanced over his shoulder at his wife who was still standing in the doorway watching him.
"I'm sorry." He apologised.
"Yeah." She sighed and walked out the room.
Their marriage never used to like this, it used to be happy and loving, but it hadn't been like that for years. They argued more often than not, but it was never violent, neither of them were like that. But, it occasionally got loud and they'd shout at each other before one of them walked off, allowing them both to cool down.
Losing their son, Jack, had changed them. That's when their marriage had started to come apart and over the years it had started to get worse.
Neither of them wanted a divorce or to break up the family, they couldn't do that to Claire, not after everything the girl had been through.
Although, it couldn't be much worse than having to witness her parents arguing all the time. But, as strained as their marriage was, he still believed in his vows. He loved the woman Kelly had been, and he loved the woman he knew she could be.
But, as he fell asleep that night, his alarm set early for his drive back home, he couldn't help wondering how his life had come to this.
Castiel began to think of Bobby and how close the two of them had gotten over the years. It was with Bobby that he shared his pain and sadness over Jacks death, because his wife refused to talk about it with him.
It was with Bobby that Cas could unleash his rage at Kelly and he was the first and only person he ever told about his worries with his marriage and his worries for Claire's future. But, he never spoke or bought up the topic of Dean Winchester, and Bobby never spoke about him either because he knew Cas didn't want to.
Although, Castiel frequently wondered, despite how pointless it was, but he still wondered how different his life might have been if him and Dean had stayed together.
Dean was the only person in the whole world that truely understood him. Cas remembered just how deeply he had loved him and how Dean loved him back just as much.
In his own quiet way, Dean made him feel like anything was possible. He wondered whether Dean had found someone to make him feel that way again, but life for an ex-con was never easy.
He hoped Dean wasn't back in jail or hooked on drugs or alcohol. For all he knew he could be dead, but he figured if that was the case then Bobby would've told him. He assumed Dean still kept in touch with the older man, but again he couldn't be sure.
-
*21 Years Ago*
Dean was sitting at one of the small tables with Lee outside of the Roadhouse, the towns best and only café.
It was their usual after school hangout, mainly because Jo had afternoon shifts there.
Although, most of the popular jocks from school hung around the café too, but Dean would rather deal with stuck up teenagers from school then deal with his family at home.
He leant back in his chair as Lee ranted about some History assignment, but Dean was more focused on Castiel Novak.
Cas was sitting at the benches on the porch of the café, talking and laughing amongst his friends.
Dean had seen Castiel around school and in classes ever since they were kids. There was only one main school in town, so of course they had gone to the same school, but they had never spoken more than a word to each other.
Castiel was the rich popular guy, whereas Dean was the total opposite. The Novak's were practically royalty in their town and everyone knew and respected them. Although, everyone knew about the Winchester's, they definitely did not respect them. Everyone tried to stay clear of the Winchester's knowing they were nothing but trouble, which was why Dean always tried to keep a low profile.
He knew a guy like Castiel Novak was way out of his league. Hell, he was almost certain the guy was straight, although in this town it wasn't really an option to be gay.
So, maybe Castiel was in the closet like he was, but it wasn't like he'd act on his attraction to the guy even if he was gay too, because no way would Castiel Novak go for someone like him.
"Hey, are you even listening to me or you too busy eyeballing Castiel?" Lee suddenly questioned, snapping Dean out of his thoughts realising he had been staring directly at the guy.
To his relief Castiel was too focused on whatever his brother, Gabriel, was saying beside him.
Dean looked over at Lee who tried to look annoyed, but failed miserably when a grin slowly began to take over his face causing Dean to roll his eyes.
Lee and his girlfriend, Jo, were his only friends and the only people who knew he was bisexual.
For most of his schooling, Dean never really had any friends. Everyone was too ashamed and didn't want to be seen talking to a Winchester. But, him and Lee got put together for lab partners a couple years ago and for whatever reason Lee befriended Dean almost instantly and they had been best friends ever since.
Lee and Jo had started dating not long after and at first she was a bit cautious around him which he understood.
Dean knew all about the rumours that got whispered around town about the Winchester's, but Jo had quickly warmed to him. She realised that he wasn't like the rest of his family and now he considered her one of his closest friends.
"Shut up." Dean muttered, focusing back on Lee who opened his mouth about to say something, but Dean shook his head knowing exactly what his friend was thinking. "I'm not gonna talk to him, so don't even bother."
"Well if what Gabriel was saying in class when I over heard him talking, Castiel apparently has a crush on you." Lee responded.
No way would Castiel even be remotely interest him. He was one of the most popular guys at school, he could have whoever he wanted, so why would he want him?
"Foods here." Jo's voice suddenly called and Dean welcomed the distraction.
Jo walked over to their table with a large bowl of wedges and two cokes. She was smiling happily at them and seemed to be in good health, but Dean had seen her earlier this morning at school and she looked a bit pale.
"Thanks, Jo. How are you feeling?" He asked, watching as she placed the bowl on the table between the two of them.
He knew she was about eight weeks pregnant. He had woken up to a phone call in the middle of the night from her crying happily while freaking out. Dean had to calm her down without waking his father sleeping in the room across the hall.
"She was throwing up a lot." Lee informed and Dean gave her a sympathetic look.
So far, Jo had taken the pregnancy in her stride and although she wasn't showing yet, it was only a matter of time before she did. But, she didn't seem worried about being pregnant at school, hell, she wouldn't be the first one anyway.
"But I'm not now, so that's good." She replied with a bright smile as she leant down to Lee and kissed him causing Dean to smile softly as he took a drink of his coke. "I'll catch you guys in 20, after my shift." She said, pulling away from Lee before she walked off to continue work.
"She's so pretty." Lee commented and Dean chuckled, but nodded in agreement. "It's going to be tough, I know it's crazy and we're young, but... her mother is really good to us. She doesn't judge us, she's so supportive."
"You two are gonna be great parents." Dean replied.
The two of them ate the wedges while they waited for Jo's shift to end and Dean definitely wasn't checking Castiel out when the guy had his back turned.
Nope, not at all.