As soon as Mary walked through the door, she heard screaming from her two sons.
"Can't you go even a minute without acting like a dick?!" Sam asked angrily.
"Oh, yeah, go for it, Sammy. Defend your asshole lover and his siblings!" Dean yelled angrily.
"Would you two idjits knock it off?" Bobby asked. He was present for the whole thing, and found himself less than thrilled. They had enough to deal with without two morons going at each other.
"You calling anyone an asshole is rich right now! You've been nothing but an asshole for months!" Sam continued as if the alternate version of his surrogate father never spoke.
"Yeah, well, maybe if my brother didn't stick up for killers, I wouldn't be such an asshole. But that seems to be your MO, Sam. You always trust the wrong people!" Dean yelled.
Sam laughed loudly. "Oh, wow! Can you say the pot calling the kettle black?! Should I start with Crowley or your vampire BFF?"
Dean immediately threw a punch at his brother, hitting him square in the jaw.
Sam recovered quickly enough from the blow and followed up with a punch of his own.
Mary had seen enough. She immediately got in between her two sons before it could go any further. "Hey! Stop it! What is wrong with the two of you?!"
"There's nothing wrong with me. He's the one whose lost his freaking mind. Go ahead, Sammy. Tell her about your new archangel boyfriend," Dean goaded.
"How about I tell her how I can't wait to never have to see you again?!" Sam asked angrily. Okay, he didn't totally mean that. He wasn't at the point where he never wanted to see his brother again, but he was getting closer to that point every day.
Dean felt a pain to his chest at his brother's words, but he ignored it, and continued to glare at his brother. "Too bad I'm not letting you leave with those asshats!"
"Okay, that's enough! Dean, go outside!" Mary ordered. She needed to get to the bottom of this, and she had to do it by speaking to her boys separately. It was the only way to have a conversation without biting remarks and punches thrown. She decided to start with Sam because it was going to be easier to get information out of him right now.
"Fine," Dean said before storming out of the house.
Mary looked at Bobby. "Would you give us a couple of minutes?"
"Gladly. I'm glad I never had siblings," Bobby said before walking outside.
Once he was gone, Mary turned to her son and pointed to the beat-up couch behind him. "Let's sit down."
Sam nodded and sat down on the couch.
Mary sat next to him. "How long have things been like this?"
"Well, they haven't been exactly like this. I've been trying to avoid it coming to this. But things have been tense for months," Sam said.
"Was what Dean said about an archangel boyfriend a metaphor?" Mary asked.
"Um...I guess that I should start by telling you that I've never had a sexual preference when it comes to gender. I hope you're okay with that. I know that in your time, things were much less tolerable on that," Sam said with more than a little bit of nervousness in his voice.
"Sam, I've known plenty of people who were gay or bisexual. It doesn't bother me," Mary assured him.
Sam let out the breath he didn't know he was holding in. "Thanks."
"It's Lucifer, I take it?" Mary asked. That part sort of bothered her. He might or might not be evil, but all Mary could picture was the bastard she'd gotten trapped here with. Plus, she had all the stories about the Devil in her head. How could she not worry about it?
"No. Why does everyone jump to that conclusion?" Sam asked in frustration.
"Calm down. I assumed because Cas told me things started to go bad between you and Dean when Lucifer showed up," Mary told him.
"That's because Dean jumped to the conclusion that I wanted to be with him. He didn't even ask me. He just assumed, and when I said no, he basically accused me of lying," Sam said.
"Why did Dean think you wanted to be with Lucifer?"
"Because I didn't hate Lucifer. I confided in him. He's been a good friend to me, even an older brother, with the added bonus that he doesn't judge me," Sam said. He couldn't help but add that last part bitterly.
With that last comment, Mary got the feeling that this whole thing had very little to do with archangels. Sam was angry with Dean because of something he did. "Tell me what's been going on with you and your brother."
"I don't even know where to start, Mom. Dean does nothing but judge me. You saw him do it just now. When he said I trust the wrong people. I made a mistake in trusting a demon, and, yeah, it nearly ended the world, but I have done everything I can to make up for that. It's not enough for him. It never will be! He will never forgive me for what I did," Sam said. There were tears threatening to fall from his eyes when he was done.
"Did he tell you that?" Mary asked. She was hoping that Sam was assuming this, and that Dean hadn't actually said that. If it was misunderstanding, she could fix it. If not, she really wasn't sure.
"He finally admitted to me he's never gotten over it. He doesn't trust me, and he hasn't forgiven me. It's been eight years. If he hasn't gotten past it yet, he never will. I can't live with that anymore, Mom. I can't be around someone who will never look at me as anything other than the guy no one can trust," Sam said.
Mary pinched the bridge of her nose. This was worse than she thought. She hadn't really believed Cas when he said this couldn't be fixed, but it sounded like it was definitely going to be difficult. Sam had reached his limit, and Mary couldn't blame him. He shouldn't have to live with Dean's judgements, no matter what mistakes he may have made. "I...I'll talk to Dean. We can fix this."
Sam shook his head. "No. It's too late. It's only gotten worse since Dean finally admitted the truth. I can't do this anymore. The archangel I'm with is Gabriel. He'd already planned to move to LA with Lucifer when this is over. I'm gonna go with them," Sam told her.
"Okay, I think you should slow down. Don't give up on fixing this yet," Mary said. She couldn't bare to see it end this way. She didn't want to see her kids hate each other to the point where they never spoke again.
"Mom, I've been trying to fix it for years. Dean doesn't want it to be fixed. He wants to pretend there isn't a problem. I can't anymore. I'm done. I don't want to be miserable anymore. I deserve to be happy," Sam said firmly.
Mary nodded. That much was true. Her son deserved happiness. "Leaving will make you happy?"
"Yeah. I love Gabriel. I want a life with him that doesn't include hunting. And if I don't get away from Dean, I will hate him. I'm already close to that now," Sam said.
Mary closed her eyes sadly. She wouldn't be able to change his mind, because even without the rift between the two brothers, Sam would still want to go. Dean was the push, but Sam would likely still leave to be with the person he loved. Mary had been there. She could understand it. "I want you to be happy. If you really believe this will make you happy, I will stand by you."
Sam immediately hugged her, glad to finally have a member of his family on his side. "Thanks, Mom."
~
Dean sat outside on the porch grumbling to himself. He was still pissed about the fight with Sam. The only plus was that now his mother would know. She'd help him make Sam see he was acting like an idiot. They would stop him from leaving.
Dean heard the door open and turned to see his mother.
"Let's go talk in the back," Mary said.
Dean nodded and led the way towards the back of the house. "He tell you he thinks he's leaving with these dick angels?"
"He told me everything that's been going on lately. He said you've been fighting for a while, to the point where he can't be around you anyone. I can't exactly blame him for that," Mary said.
Dean stopped walking and gave his mother a shocked and betrayed look. He couldn't believe she was taking Sam's side. How could she not see that he was the one screwing up?
"Would you want to be around someone who constantly judges you? Who has point blank said he can't trust you?" Mary asked as she stood in front of him.
Dean looked away. He couldn't deny that he'd said it, or that it was wrong. He couldn't help how he felt. He tried, but it was how he felt. He didn't trust Sam's judgement. But in his defence, Sam's choices lately backed up his lack of trust. "Maybe I'm wrong for not letting the apocalypse thing go, but he really doesn't make great decisions."
"Who are you to judge his decisions? You don't know what decisions are right for him," Mary said.
"I know screwing an archangel isn't? You think he should be with that dude?" Dean asked.
"I don't know Gabriel," Mary said. She planned to rectify that soon. She wasn't just going to watch her son leave without having at least one private conversation with him.
"Well, I do. He's a dick. He's hurt Sam," Dean said.
"People hurt each other sometimes, even those they love. Mistakes happen," Mary said.
"This isn't like that. He..."
"It doesn't matter what Gabriel's done. This isn't about him. Whatever Gabriel has or hasn't done, Sam has chosen to forgive him for," Mary said.
"Yeah, which proves he doesn't make good decisions," Dean argued.
"No, it proves he's a decent person. Forgiveness isn't a flaw, Dean."
"I'm not just gonna let my brother take off with the Devil and his brother," Dean said firmly.
"You have no right to let Sam do anything. He is not a child. Right or wrong, he has the right to make his own choices, and you don't get a say in them," Mary said just as firmly.
Dean opened his mouth to argue, but he was cut off.
"Dean, I know you've spent your life looking out for Sam. For the most part, you did a great job. You've been the only real parent he had. But even a parent has to take a step back eventually," Mary told him.
"I can't just let him make the biggest mistake of his life," Dean said.
"If you try to stop him, you'll be making the biggest mistake of yours. Sam is leaving. There's nothing you can do about it. The only say you have is in how he sees you when he goes. Will he see you as the brother he looked after him his whole life? Will he look forward to seeing you again, or will he hope to never see you again? That's your only choice," Mary told him. She really hoped he heard her because if not, he was going to lose Sam, and not just by him moving away.
"And what if they hurt him? How can I just let him go off, knowing what they could do to him?" Dean asked.
"You're not afraid they're going to hurt him. You're afraid they're not. You're afraid he'll be happy, and that will mean you've lost him. But I have to tell you Dean, you have a better shot at losing him by acting the way you are. Sam told me if he doesn't leave, he's gonna end up hating you. Is that what you want?" Mary asked.
"No," Dean said quietly.
"Then you need to think very carefully before you do anything else," Mary told him before walking away. She'd said all she could. She could only hope that Dean listened to her.