"Oh, I know you will," she said with a grin. "Go on, pretty yourself up for the returning heroine." From upstairs, they could hear the cheerful barking of an over-excited puppy who was possibly being lifted out of the bath to be dried by now.

Sam grinned at his mother's remark before heading for the door. He could tell from the racket upstairs that his father had his hands full. "Tell Dad I'll talk to him soon!" he said, snagging his coat before heading out the door to rendezvous with his wife.

"Will do!" Jo chuckled to herself as Sam closed the door behind him, but the smile faded as she considered again what he had told her. Stroking her belly absently, she murmured, "Looks like your first years are going to be action-packed, kiddo."

The sound of a thump from somewhere upstairs signaled the fact that the dog's bath was officially over. The sound of paws thumping down the stairs was further proof, a ball of fluffy, wet fur with Dean in pursuit.

"Bandit, get back here! I haven't dried you off yet!" he called after the dog.

Rolling her eyes, Jo laughed, snagging a towel from the laundry pile and crouching to catch the wet puppy as she bounded into the kitchen and into her arms. "Look at you, all smelling of soap!" she crowed, letting the little dog lick her nose even as she rubbed the towel over the wet fur.

Dean came skidding into the kitchen after her, clothes soaked from the bath. He blew out an exasperated breath, hands on hips, but failing to look very stern. "There you are, you little troublemaker!"

Bandit gave him a rather wicked look from her towel-hug in Jo's arms, barking cheerfully in answer. Jo snorted. "Look at the state of you," she said in amusement. "Did you get in with her?"

"You don't want to see the bathroom," Dean grumbled. Summer couldn't come soon enough so he could give the dog a bath outside, where he didn't have to worry about her making a mess. "Where's Sam?" he asked, deciding Jo had Bandit well in hand and moving to pour himself a cup of coffee before he headed back upstairs to set the bathroom - and himself - to rights.

Chuckling, Jo lifted Bandit up and sat down at the table, drying the exuberant little puppy on her lap. "He's gone home to get his head on right before Becky gets home," she told her husband. "They've got some stuff to talk about."

Dean winced as he took a sip of his coffee, but not because the coffee wasn't to his liking. "That doesn't sound good," he said as he took a lean against the counter, perfectly happy to let Jo take over puppy duty.

"It was mostly good, but it sounds like something big is coming," she said, proceeding to fill Dean in with the pertinent details.

"Son of a bitch," Dean murmured, once Jo had filled him in. "Freaking Poseidon. Probably still jealous he didn't get to be King s*** of Turd Island," he said, putting it bluntly. "Why does it always seem like we get rid of one problem only to have to deal with another?"

"That's life?" she suggested, with a half shrug, gently lifting Bandit down onto the floor. "Go on, trouble, find a toy and have a nap." The little dog wagged her tail happily, trotting off into the living room to amuse herself. "Thing is, I think only Sam and Becky, and maybe Ayden, are going to be able to get any kind of hint about what's going on here. We're going to have to wait."

"That's not life, Jo," Dean disagreed. "That our life ... lives," he corrected. He watched as the furry, little troublemaker waddled off. "I don't like waiting," he grumbled, predictably. He was not the type to take a wait and see approach. He was much more accustomed to charging into action and letting the chips fall where they may, but this was Sam and Becky they were talking about. "Did he at least seem more confident about his place here?"

"He did," she nodded, leaning onto her arms. "You know, we're going to have grandkids in a few years' time. And our kids are going to go their own, by their own choice."

An unintentional grin flashed across Dean's face, followed by a more characteristic groan. "I'm too young to be a grandpa," he said, clearly referring to himself, not Jo. He knew it wasn't the little ones who would be giving them grandchildren any time soon so much as Sam and Becky. "Kid's gonna give me gray hair, I swear."

"Speak for yourself," she countered. "I'm looking forward to being a young gramma. He's kind of freaked out at the thought of not getting his kids, though. Like you were when you came back from your little sight-seeing trip."

Dean slid onto a chair across from her, fingers wrapped around the half-finished cup of coffee in his hand. "What do you mean?" he asked, brows furrowed. "Freaked out that something will change things and he won't be a father?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "He's worried that Becky's not going to survive whatever's coming."

"Well, we're just gonna have to make sure that doesn't happen," Dean said, as if that much went without saying. "Anyway, he didn't see what I saw. I saw a version of the future where the whole world was going to hell. Literally. Sounds like everything turned out okay in his version. That's a good sign, I think."

"I agree. And we know that something or someone is going to go after Becky, unlike last time. We can put some additional protections on her." Jo seemed fairly confident that everything was going to be fine.

"We will," Dean said, leaving no room for argument, even if Becky didn't like it. "You think anyone knows Sam took a peek at the future?" he asked. Anyone besides them, anyway. He wasn't even sure if Ayden would tell Ares, but they had no choice but to trust him. The God of War was his brother-in-law now.

"I would assume that Ayden has told Ares, but she is kind of the personification of seeing the future right now," Jo pointed out. "He's honorable enough that he wouldn't pass on anything without her say-so."

"He knows she'd kick his ass if he did," Dean murmured. Not literally maybe, but she certainly wouldn't be happy with him. Another thought occurred to Dean, but he was pretty sure he was over-reacting. "You think she's safe with him?" he asked, not for the first time. His sister was as good as immortal these days, but he worried what might happen if Poseidon found out Ayden was poking her nose into the future.

"Unexpectedly?" Sam echoed, unsure what she meant by that. "You're not peeking at my love life, are you?" he asked, nudging her playfully. He and Ayden had always been close, and that closeness seemed to have transcended to this timeline.

She snorted with laughter. "Hey, you don't like knowing that your wife is so impatient to be home with you that she's coming home a day early?"

"Oh," Sam mumbled, chuckling at his own misunderstanding. "So much for the surprise, I guess," he said, though he hardly minded. He'd missed her and getting a peek at their future had only made him miss her all the more.

"You're a good actor, you can convince her." Ayden grinned, glancing to the back door just as it burst open, and Bandit erupted into the kitchen, splattering muddy footprints across the floor to bounce up onto Sam's lap with a happy bark.

Sam laughed at the dog's antics. "Looks like I'll be changing my clothes, too!" he declared, his expression much brighter than it had been a short while ago. He'd gone on this journey to figure out what his place was in the family and had come back with far more.

Jo entered, sighing through a resigned smile. "I guess we're giving her a bath tonight, then," she said, looking at the paw prints on the floor. Her eyes scanned over to Sam, some tension in her relaxing to see him smiling easily. "Hey, little man. Welcome back."

Dean chuckled as he followed his wife into the kitchen. There wasn't much point in reminding her that their firstborn from the future was at least six feet tall. "How'd it go?" he asked, assuming Sam's little peek at the future was finished.

Ayden looked at Sam, smiling fondly. "I'll let you fill them in," she told him, moving to her feet. "I have a baby girl and an insane small boy to get back to before they drive their father through a wall."

"I'm pretty sure Ares can handle it," Sam remarked, a warm smile for Ayden as he moved closer to give her a hug. "Thanks again," he murmured. "We'll talk again soon." Very soon.

She hugged him in return. "I'll see if I can find anything," she murmured in answer, a promise to at least do a little searching of her own. Stepping back, she bounced over to Dean, planting a loud wet kiss on his cheek. "Any messages for the great beyond, Big Bird?"

Sam gave her a small nod of his head, just enough to acknowledge he'd heard her and understood, smiling in amusement as she bounced over to his father.

"Jesus, Ay ... I'm not a kid!" Dean scolded his sister mildly for the smooch, but was secretly enjoying the attention and affection. "If I have any messages, you'll be the first to know, okay?"

"I better be," Ayden teased her brother, hugging him briefly before spinning about to hug Jo as well. "You need me, you yell, okay? See ya, family peeps!" And just like that, she was gone.

Jo blinked, looking at her husband. "Still prefer her to Adam?" she asked in a teasing tone of her own.

"Absolutely!" Dean was quick to reply. He sighed, hands on his hips as he looked to the puppy who'd plopped down at his feet. "This little troublemaker needs a bath. Can you two hold down the fort without me for a while?" he asked of Jo and Sam.

"We'll just have to manage without you, somehow," Jo said, exaggerating her sigh. "However will we cope, little man? We'll be desolate without them, won't we?"

"Simply lost," Sam said, playing along.

Dean rolled his eyes at the two of them. "Try to stay out of trouble. I won't be long," he said, leaning over to scoop the sleepy puppy up in his arms. "We really should have named you Trouble," he murmured as he wandered off to clean the dog up.

Jo laughed, waving her husband away with the muddy dog as she pulled her coat off to hang it up. Her eyes flickered to Sam affectionately. "So?"

Sam's expression turned serious. "It's complicated," he said, turning to check the coffee pot, making himself right at home. "You want a cup?" he asked, assuming this might take a while.

"I am always at home to coffee," she said with a smile, though her eyes were serious in answer to his expression. "Milky, though. I shouldn't be having too much caffeine, apparently.

"I saw Johnny," Sam told her, regarding the child his mother was currently carrying inside her. Of course, it wasn't the first time he'd made mention of Johnny. He and Hope had left their little brother behind when they'd traveled back to the past, and this was the first time Sam had seen his brother since he'd left. Anna, on the other hand, was another matter.

Her hand went to the gentle curve of her three-month bump. "Really?" she asked, delighted to hear this. "How did he look? Did you see the girls and Bertie, too? What about you? Oh, and your dad, and Becky?"

"Yeah, I saw everyone," Sam remarked, frowning a little to himself as he poured them each a cup of coffee. Almost everyone anyway. "It was about twelve years into the future ... give or take," he told her.

"What was it like?" Jo asked, easing down into a seat at the table. "Were they happy?"

"Yeah, they were happy," Sam started. For the most part anyway. He went on to tell her everything he'd witnessed, leaving nothing out. He knew she wasn't going to like some of what she was going to hear, and it was kind of cheating telling her some of it, but he had never kept any secrets from his mother, and he wasn't about to start now.

If nothing else, Jo was a good listener. She let him tell it all, trying not to react too excitedly or concernedly at what she was hearing. When he came to the conclusion, though, she was smiling faintly. "Never stays peaceful for long, does it?" she mused, resting one elbow on the table to prop her chin on her hand. "So we need to do a little asking around, find out discreetly if anything weird is happening in the wider world."

"You don't think asking Becky to forget about Atlantis is an answer, do you?" Sam asked, already knowing the answer to that question. Whether this new threat was about Atlantis or not, they couldn't risk ignoring it and hoping it would just go away, all by itself.

She stared into his eyes, curling her hands to his face. "I love you," she said fervently. "If you hadn't decided to stay behind all those years ago, I'd be dead. Everyone I love would be dead. The whole world would be under water. And hardly anyone knows that it's all because of you."

"I have no regrets, Becky," Sam assured her. "If I hadn't stayed, I wouldn't have met you. I wouldn't have two great kids and another on the way," he said, laying a gentle hand against her belly, as if to prove his point. "My life would have been very different without you in it," he told her, leaning close to kiss her lips.

She smiled as he kissed her, the last of her remembered terror fading as she hugged him close. "I should go and reassure the kids," she said with a rueful cast to her smile. "I didn't mean to frighten them. Will you make sure Hope knows she's not to blame?"

"Yeah, I'll make sure," he told her, reluctant to let her go, his hand in a gentle caress of her belly before moving to her cheek with another soft kiss to her lips. "Love you, Becky," he whispered against her lips.

"Love you back," she whispered in return, breathing him in for a long moment. "You going to need to help me up, though. I think I sank down to the springs in this chair."

He chuckled as he helped her to her feet, one arm around her waist, as he escorted her into the kitchen to rejoin the family, leaving the watcher alone to contemplate what he'd just witnessed.

Whatever had happened, Becky clearly believed that if Sam hadn't been there, she would have perished - the whole world would have perished. It had to have something to do with her search for Atlantis, but he wasn't sure what had gone wrong. His future counterpart certainly didn't have any regrets about staying behind. It was almost as if he and Becky were meant to be together, and suddenly it hit him - Becky was the key. Staying behind had never really been about his parents or Hope at all. It had always been about Becky, even before he'd met her. As much as he loved his family, Becky was his reason for being. It was Becky who'd been his destiny all along.

As he came to this realisation, the room around him began to turn misty once more, his present reaching out to gather him back from this glimpse he had been given of the future ahead of him. His last sight was of Hannah and Matthew meeting his older self and Becky at the door to the kitchen, sharing a many-limbed hug, before fading from view entirely. He became aware of hands holding his, and slowly reality - his reality - returned to him. There was Ayden, holding his hands and looking into his eyes, both of them stood in the middle of the kitchen once more.

She smiled as he came back to himself. "Did you see what you needed to see?"

"No, no, no!" Sam groaned in obvious distress, feeling a little disoriented as the room came back into focus around him. "Ayden, it's too soon! You have to send me back," he pleaded, his eyes wild with panic.

Her grip on his hands tightened, her smile falling in concern. "Sam ... I can't, not for at least a day," she told him carefully. "You came back because you'd seen what you needed to see. It can't be that bad, surely?"

"Yes, it can," Sam said, looking worried - distraught even. He let go of Ayden's hands and started to pace the floor, as he tried to sort things out in his head. "Okay, no need to panic. Nothing's happened yet."

"Sam." Her voice was wary; of all the people he knew, Ayden was the one who might be able to spin the threads together and work out what was coming. "You need to tell me if the world has gone to s*** ten years from now."

"No," Sam replied. "We stopped it. I stopped it. Somebody stopped it." He turned back to Ayden, still looking worried, but not nearly as panicked. "I need to go back and find out what happened."

She shook her head. "No, you don't," she said, calm as always. "Because then it won't happen, but something else will, and there'll be no warning about it."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked, brows furrowed. He knew Ayden was an oracle. That was how she'd been able to give him a glimpse at the future. He also knew the future wasn't set in stone. He had proved them for himself when he and Hope had ventured to the past to help their parents defeat Hades, but he hadn't known Becky then. It wasn't his life that worried him, so much as hers and that of their future children. "Look, I know it all works out. At least, that's how I saw it, but what if it doesn't? What if something changes?"

"You remember how I told you that the future is fluid, but the container stays the same?" she reminded him in her gentle way. "That container holds the bad with the good. If you take away the bad, then there's not enough in the container. Something else has to fill it up."

"How can I take away the bad when I don't even know what the bad is yet?" Sam asked, a little flustered. He understood how it all worked, up to a point. It was in good part due to Ayden that he was here in this time period in the first place.

"You don't have to know right now," she told him, moving to guide him down into a seat. "The fact that it's over and dealt with in the moments you got to see? That means that you are on the path to finding it and dealing with it already. Okay?"

"Yeah, but ..." Sam started, still frowning for some reason.  "Becky's life is at stake, and if we don't do this exactly right, the whole world is gonna go to hell again," he told her. "Ayden, tell me ... We didn't screw things up by getting rid of Hades, did we? We didn't ... How did you put it? Take away one bad thing, only to let something else take its place?"

She held his gaze for a long moment. "You know I can't tell you that," she said quietly. "When I took the ambrosia, I Saw ... everything. Everything that might happen. I saw the best and the worst, and all I can do is hope that we follow the middle ground somehow. I don't know how it all connects, and I don't know what to tell you. I can't look and See what I'm expecting to find. It doesn't work like that."

Sam sighed, dragging a hand through his hair in frustration. He couldn't just sit and wait to see if the future played out the way it was supposed to or not. "There must be something we can do."

Ayden held his gaze in silence, almost stern in her expression. "Is that really all you've taken away from what you saw?" she asked, perhaps even a little offended that he had nothing but demands for more and anger at what none of them could change yet. "Look at who we are, the lives we lead. There is always something coming, Sam. Don't you dare tell me that you are going to use this as an excuse to keep holding yourself at arms' length from the family."

"You're not mad?" Hope asked, biting her lip as she looked at her father. Evidently Jo was the easier sell on hunting, or perhaps she was just waiting to get scolded by her mother later, in private. Right now, Dean was the focus of her concern.

"If I get mad, would you stop?" Dean asked his daughter.

"We're Winchesters, Dad. It's in our blood. It's in Mom's, too. For what it's worth, I don't think you have to worry about Anna," Sam told his parents. "Maybe not Johnny either."

"I don't want to disappoint you," Hope said quietly. "But I'm not going to college. I'm not going to be smart like Anna and Johnny and Rob. I'm good at hunting. It comes easy, and ... well, it makes the world safer, right?"

Jo sighed. "Well, I'm not going to say I'm happy about it, but I understand, probably better than you think. No more secrets, okay?"

"You could never disappoint me," Dean assured his daughter, moving over to give her a hug, despite the engine grease. "You are your father's daughter," he said, with a proud smile. Or her mother's. It hardly mattered which.

"Okay." Hope went into Dean's hug with obvious relief, smiling over at her mother as well.

Jo's smile was a little resigned, but she nodded, nudging the older Sam. "Same goes for you, by the way," she added. "You're not supposed to be keeping secrets from me. I always find out."

"Should I tell you what I'm getting you for your birthday then?" Sam teased even though her birthday was a long way off yet. The smirk on his face that was a little too reminiscent of his father.

Dean smooched Hope's cheek before pulling away. "And I expect you to keep her safe," he warned, waggling a finger at Sam.

"Dad, I can keep myself safe," Hope grumbled. "Didn't I just tell you I'm good at this?"

Jo snorted with laughter, smacking at Sam with her wooden spoon. "You two are incorrigible."

"Uh huh ... What's the first rule of hunting?" Dean asked his daughter.

Sam smirked as he drew his hand away, shrugging. "Runs in the family," he said, reaching around his mother to snag a snack, just like his younger counterpart had done a few minutes earlier.

"Saving people, hunting things," Hope answered with a grin. "Sam's a good teacher. Besides, Bertie-boy always has my back."

"He'll kill you if he hears you call him that, you know," Jo pointed out in amusement.

Dean chuckled at his daughter's answer. "Okay, what's the second rule of hunting?"

"Never hunt alone," Sam volunteered, with a pointed look at Hope.

"I was asking Hope!" Dean said, exhaling in exasperation. "Okay, this has been fun, but I gotta go wash up before your mom kicks my ass."

"And it's such a lovely ass, it would be a shame to kick it," Jo added.

Hope, predictably, pulled a disgusted face as she headed out of the kitchen to go and say hi to her cousins, once again leaving Jo and the older Sam alone in the kitchen with their unseen observer.

"The feeling is mutual," Dean remarked, waggling his brows at his wife before heading for the bathroom to wash up.

The invisible watcher that was Sam smiled at the flirtatious banter going on between his parents. Nothing much had changed there anyway. It was no surprise to him that his older counterpart been teaching Hope and Bertie to hunt. Nothing that he'd seen so far had been much of a surprise except for one thing and that had more to do with Hope than anyone else. Sam made his way to the living room, where the rest of the family had gone to get out of Jo's way.

It seemed as though Becky was holding court, or had been forcibly sat down, laughing as the youngest boy in the group poked at her pregnant belly just to feel the baby within kick back.

"You should be gentle with your Mom, you know," Anna was saying, though she was smiling, absently looping intricate braids through the hair of the youngest girl.

"I am bein' gentle," the youngest whose name was Matthew insisted, a little defensively. "Sometimes the baby kicks me back, don't he, Mama?"

Johnny was quietly sitting to the side and watching the interplay between the small family. "What's it feel like when he kicks you?" he asked, a little shyly.

"It doesn't hurt," Becky assured him, patting her belly gently. "You wanna come feel?"

Now he got a better look at her, Sam could see that this older Becky had a scar along the back of her neck, as though something long and thin had burned her skin so badly some years ago that the mark would never fade.

"Can I?" Johnny asked hopefully. He'd been the youngest born to Dean and Jo and his only experience with babies was with Becky and Ayden.

The watcher who was Sam had not only noticed the scar on the back of Becky's neck, but the fact that she was no longer wearing the red pendant around her neck that she was never without.

"I wouldn't offer if you couldn't," Becky told the boy with a grin. "C'mere." She reached out to take his hand, guiding his palm to the best place to feel the baby kicking inside her.

"Do I look pretty now?" the youngest girl asked, and Anna grinned at her.

"Hannah, you're the prettiest girl in the room."

Johnny followed Becky's instructions, allowing her to guide his hand to her belly, looking very solemn as he waited to feel something. Meanwhile, Matthew giggled at something Anna had said.

"She's the only girl in the room!" he pointed out, not counting the grown girls anyway.

"Sorry, it was kinda spur of the moment," Rob explained, reaching over to snag some vegetable or other she was chopping up to munch on. "I didn't forget. You know Mr. Edwards in town? He asked if I want to apprentice with him this summer."

She smacked his hand with the flat of the blade she was using to chop, smiling at the cheeky grab for food. "At least wash your hands before you start stealing food," she informed her eldest born. "Do you want to apprentice with him? You haven't managed to hold down even a weekend job yet, and this would be every day in summer."

Rob smirked as his mother smacked his hand, but didn't look very apologetic. "I know what I don't want," the teen replied, moving over to scrub his hands in the kitchen sink. "I don't want to go to college, and I don't want to join the Men of Letters," he said, proving he was more like his father than his elder counterpart.

"I still say you should talk to Becky and Sam about that," Jo told him. "They negotiated a way for Becky to be a part of the Men of Letters without being stuck in that bunker for the rest of her life, after all." Evidently she wasn't going to push for college, though. "What can you tell me about Colin Harrington?"

Rob scowled a little, but didn't bother to contradict his mother. "Colin Harrington?" he echoed. "The varsity high school quarterback? He's a dick, why?" he asked, as he went to the fridge to rummage around for a soda.

"See?" Hope commented from the table, but Anna was ignoring the entire conversation by this point, released from her scolding by Dean to go and start her homework with her siblings.

Jo rolled her eyes. "Good to know," she said, nodding to Rob. "So what are your plans for this evening?"

"No plans," he replied. "Just having dinner with the family," he told her, with a cheesy grin as he cracked open a soda. "Why the questions about Harrington?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at his sisters. "Did he make a move on you?" he asked.

"He asked Anna on a date!" Johnny was quick to inform his elder brother.

"Did he?" Rob echoed, looking to Anna. "Tell him no. He's a dick. He's got a list of conquests longer than Ghengis Khan."

"Whozzat?" Johnny asked.

"He's been really nice to me," Anna said defensively. "And you can't tell me who to date, not after you dated that skin-changer."

Hope choked on a mouthful of her soda, fighting not to spray it all over her homework as she laughed at her twin's comeback to their big brother's orders.

"He was a very famous conqueror centuries ago who had a lot of wives," Jo told Johnny, carefully skimming around how the Khan got those wives.

"I didn't know she was a skin-changer when I asked her out," Rob replied in his own defense. "And of course, he's gonna be nice to you. You wouldn't go out with him if he was mean, would you? That doesn't mean he won't try and take advantage," he reasoned.

"What's that mean? Take advantage?" Johnny asked, further. He was the baby in the family, after all.

"It means he wants to add Anna to his list of conquests," Rob explained, though from the look on Johnny's face, he still didn't quite understand.

"It means he doesn't keep a girlfriend for more than a week," Jo told Johnny, sending a warning look to Rob and the girls. "And I think that's enough of this conversation, anyway. Rob, can you get the extra chairs out for me please? Hope, go find your dad. Sam will be here any second."

Rob frowned almost apologetically at his sister. "Sorry, Anna," he murmured, before going off to wash up for dinner and procure some extra chairs. Johnny got up from his chair, too, gathering up his books and papers so they could set the table for dinner.

"Sure, Mom." Hope got up to go and find Dean, leaving Anna at the table to help Johnny tidy up and set the places.

"Hey, Mom?" she asked suddenly. "Did you see Hope's t-shirt last night?"

Jo frowned, looking over at her daughter. "What do you mean, sweetie?"

Johnny cringed at Anna's question, but added nothing to the conversation. He only went about feeding the small menagerie of Winchester pets while his sister helped set the table.

"It was kinda bloody," Anna said, looking awkward as she glanced at Johnny, finding no help from that quarter. "She came to bed kinda late, too. I don't know, I think maybe she got hurt yesterday."

"I'll talk to her later," Jo told Anna, offering her a reassuring smile. Only the unseen watcher could tell that smile was disguising a sudden spike of worry.

If Johnny had noticed anything, he wasn't saying. The watcher that was Sam noticed the look on his mother's face and immediately knew what was going on. Whether this was his Hope or not, he knew her better than anyone and knew she must be hunting, probably without her parents' knowledge. Before he could contemplate that further, another car pulled up outside, car lights shining in the window.

"They're here!" Johnny exclaimed excitedly.

"Well, you better go and greet them like the fine host you are, then!" Jo told her youngest son, waiting until he was out of the kitchen before resting a hand on Anna's arm. "Don't worry too much, okay? I think I know who I can ask who will give me an honest answer. Thank you for telling me, though."

"Yay!" Johnny shouted as he hurried to the door to greet their guests.

It wasn't long before Sam was looking at his own face again - this time a little older. Becky, too, was a little older and round with pregnancy. Johnny was chattering excitedly with his cousins - a girl and a boy who looked a few years younger than the Winchesters' youngest.

"Unless something world-changing happens, the broad strokes will stay the same," she told him with confidence. "Trust me on this. The future is fluid, but so long as nothing happens to crack the container, it stays recognisable."

"Okay, so what do I need to do?" he asked, feeling a little awkward standing there and not knowing what was expected of him. Was he supposed to lie down and go into a trance of some sort or what?

She smiled. "Just trust me. And don't worry about getting back - all that takes is you deciding to return." Taking both his hands into hers, she concentrated, feeling her way through the spell she and Clotho had worked on together to make this happen as seamlessly as possible.

For Sam, the world seemed to change, growing misty all around him until the familiar kitchen was obscured by shifting smoke and vague figures. Slowly, Ayden's hands faded from his grasp, and eventually, the mists began to clear as well. He found himself in his parents' kitchen still, looking almost the same but for a few changes here and there, and at the kitchen table was a boy he hadn't seen in several years, scowling at homework spread out on the table in front of him.

Sam watched with rapt attention and more than a little wonder as the kitchen faded from view and then reappeared again as he seemed to travel through the mists of time. He couldn't explain how the spell worked or how he found himself there, but there was no denying what he was seeing and hearing.

"Johnny?" he said, upon seeing his little brother there before him. He hadn't realized until that very moment just how much he'd missed him.

The boy didn't react to Sam's inquiry, but just kept scribbling in a notebook, as if he wasn't there. He looked no more than eleven or twelve, focusing hard on the work in front of him as he scrawled notes to write up more neatly later. A sleek black cat jumped up onto the table to rub against his hand as he wrote, heralding the arrival of another familiar face - Jo, older, a little rounder perhaps, but looking more like the mother Sam himself remembered.

"Hey, little man, how's it going?" she asked the boy, absently ruffling his hair as she walked past to put grocery bags on the counter.

"I hate math," the boy grumbled, scowling at the way his mother ruffled his hair, even though he privately liked the way she showed her affection for him. It was his homework he was frustrated with, not his mother. "Neo, come on! I'm trying to do my homework!" he told the cat, though he really wasn't too upset about the interruption.

"You and me both," Jo agreed easily enough. "But you need it to pass the year and move up, so suck it up. If you need help, we can get Becky over to cheat you through it." She paused in unpacking the groceries. "Where are your sisters?"

"They took Bandit for a walk," the boy explained, setting his pencil down on the table and looking up at his mother. "They said it's getting harder for her to walk now. Is she gonna be okay?" he asked, obviously worried about the aging family pet. Bandit had been part of the family for as long as he could remember. The dog was even older than he was.

Jo looked sad for a moment. "She's an old lady, Johnny," she explained sadly. "It's not going to be long before we have to say goodbye to her. But she's been a very good friend. When it comes to it, we'll give her the best last day ever. Okay?"

"But I don't want to say goodbye," Johnny said, blinking back tears. Everyone in the family knew how much Johnny adored that dog and how close they'd become, but it was Dean who was probably going to have the hardest time saying goodbye.

"What are we talking about?" Dean said, as he stepped into view, moving to help Jo unload groceries. Like Jo, Dean looked a little older, with a little gray at his temples, but he still had a full head of hair and was sporting a short beard.

"Bandit," Jo told Dean, leaving the counter to go and sit down next to Johnny. "Baby ... death is a part of living. Without it, we wouldn't live the lives we're given. All we can do is the best that we can, with the time that we have. Bandit's had a good life; a longer life than a lot of other dogs get. And she's given us pups to raise and keep, too. I know it hurts. I'll miss her when she's gone. But it would be cruel of us to keep her when she's ready to go, too."

"I don't want her to be in pain," Johnny admitted, his expression betraying the sadness he must be feeling.

Dean looked sad, too, as he unpacked the groceries, but remained silent for the moment.

"Exactly." Jo gently stroked Johnny's hair out of his eyes. "She's given us a lot of happiness over the years, and that's what we'll remember when she's gone. Okay?"

"Can I go with you, when the time comes?" Johnny asked, that sad look still in his eyes.

Dean looked over at his wife and son, brows arching upwards in surprise. "If you really want to," he said, "but it won't be easy."

"But Bandit would like it," Jo pointed out to Dean. "The three of you are very close. I think she'd like to have both of you there when she goes to sleep for the last time."

Johnny's bottom lip wobbled, looking like he was trying very hard not to burst into tears. Dean abandoned the groceries joined Jo beside their son.

"It's okay to be upset," Dean assured him. "You're allowed to be sad. It's part of being human."

"But she won't be leaving us alone," Jo added. "We've got Helios, and Star, and Cas, as well as Neo. It's okay to be sad, baby. We're all going to be sad together for a while."

Johnny nodded, sniffling back tears. Was it really the homework that was bothering him or the worries he had about Bandit's aging?

"How about I make us some hot cocoa?" Dean suggested. "And then, we'll work on your homework together."

"That sounds like a great idea," Jo agreed with a smile, leaning in to stage whisper to Johnny, "And I won't let him burn it this time, I promise."

If the future went the way Sam expected - which it didn't always do - the baby his mother was now carrying inside her would be his little brother Johnny. He didn't need a peek at the future to know that.

"How are you feeling?" he asked of his mother.

She looked over at him, glancing down at her bump for a moment before looking back to meet his eyes with a warm smile. "Tired, but that's par for the course," she told him. "I'll perk up a bit in the next month or so. And then I get the joy of heartburn!"

"Thank God men can't get pregnant," Sam remarked with a grin, hoping he wasn't jinxing himself with that thought. Nothing was ever certain, so long as there were supernatural beings around who might be tempted to toy with the laws of nature.

"Just you wait until you and Becky decide to go through it," his mother warned in amusement. "If your dad is anything to go by, you're going to feel every second of it yourself while she's going through it."

"Let's hope I don't feel the morning sickness," Sam said, before pausing to drain his coffee and take it over to the sink. "What do you think I'm gonna see?" he asked, sounding just a little fearful about the future.

Jo considered this for a moment, resting her hip against the counter as she watched him. "I think you're going to see ..." She sighed. "The family you should have had, with both your parents, and your siblings, intact and getting on with their lives. And I think you're going to see where you fit in those lives, because right now I think you still see yourself as an outsider looking in. I'm certain you won't be that."

Sam blinked, obviously surprised at the astute response from his mother, but then what had he expected? Other than Becky, she knew him best - even this version of Jo, it seemed. "You know what? I had great parents. Brave parents. I had a brother and sister I adored. Not a day goes by that I don't miss them, but they're right here. They're just ... different."

Her smile was a little bittersweet in answer. "I know what you mean," she said quietly. This Ellen wasn't her mother, and never would be, but she was still Mom in a way that transcended all the differences.

But his siblings were different because they were growing up in a world that no longer had Hades in it and where the various factions were not at each other's throats - at least for now.

"That doesn't mean I don't love them," Sam was quick to point out. "I'm just saying they're different." He wasn't growing up with them either, as he was already grown. "I knew what I was doing when I decided to stay," he assured her. "I just thought maybe I'd be of more use here," he added with an uncertain shrug.

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe this peace you have is a reward?" she suggested gently. "A new kind of training, maybe? Teaching you to embrace the peace, and be ready, but not to live your life caught up in violence and death?"

"Maybe," Sam admitted, though he'd never really thought of it that way. He paused a moment as he tried to find the words to explain something else that he was only really just starting to realize himself. "I didn't want to forget," he confessed. He didn't want to go back to his place in time and risk forgetting all of this and all of them. He didn't want to forget everything they'd gone through to win the fight either, even though that's what changing the future had probably done.

"There's nothing wrong with that, baby," she told him, gently touching his arm. "You don't need to feel guilty for it, either. Hope knew. She probably would have stayed too, if you had asked her to. But it's better for her that she went back, and got to forget it all. You did the right thing."

"I miss her every day, but ..." Sam paused a moment. It wasn't the first time they'd discussed this, and he was pretty sure his mother knew how he felt already. "I wanted her to be happy," he said. It wasn't that Hope wouldn't be happy here, but they'd never planned to stay. She wanted to go home, and he didn't want to ask her to stay just because of him.

"I think she is," Jo said quietly. "She won't be exactly as you remember her, but she's still Hope. She's still a Daddy's girl through and through, and I'm willing to bet she and you will have a pretty close relationship, too."

"You mean Bertie or me?" Sam asked, needing clarification. They'd taken to referring to his younger self as Bertie, instead of Sam in order to distinguish between the two. Though they were essentially the same person, they'd grow up with entirely different experiences.

"I mean you," she clarified, still speaking gently. "I think Anna is more likely to be Bertie's best friend in the family. I think Hope is going to struggle to find where she fits, and I think you are going to be the one who helps her with that."

"Why do you say that?" Sam asked, looking suddenly concerned. This was something he hadn't considered when he'd decided to stay in this time period, but the future had already changed. For one thing, Hope had not been a twin in his time line, and he'd never had a sister named Anna.

"It's just a feeling," she said. "I can't really explain it. Maybe it's wishful thinking, who knows?" She shrugged, unable to make sense of just why she believed as she did.

"Well, I guess we're going to find out," he said, a faint smile on his face. After all, he assumed he was going to be asked to share what he'd seen of the future - the good, as well as the bad.

"If you want to tell me, yeah," she agreed, her smile returning at the sight of his. She glanced toward the window. "How long do you think it takes for one small dog to widdle?"

Sam chuckled. "Knowing Dad, it could take all day," he said, though he assumed his father was more than likely detained because he was busy catching up with Ayden.

"Well, it's his loss," she said, bending to open the oven and reveal the pie she had been teasing his father with, freshly baked and steaming. "Want a slice while we wait?"

Sam smiled. It was a tempting offer, but he was a good son. "Nah, it's okay. I can wait for Dad," he told her, glancing toward the window and wondering just how long they were going to take. He couldn't help but feel a little nervous at what he was going to find in the future.

To be fair, it was only a couple of minutes before the door opened and they were joined by Dean and Ayden, and a very bouncy Bandit. Ayden was grinning as she entered. "Anyone want to tell me why I got summoned to watch a dog do her business?" she asked cheerfully, doling out kisses and hugs to Sam and Jo even as she spoke.