How does he just go back?

How does he just restart the life he'd left behind to go out on the road with his brother?

He didn't have the bonds there to cling to like he had with Dean. He wouldn't be able to transition like he had when his big brother came and got him. He didn't have the real honest connections to love and acceptance, like he had with Dean. All he had back there were lies and deceit. Not to mention he wasn't the same man now that he was when he'd been at Stanford.

How does he just forget the only person he knew ever really understood him, ever really loved him, ever really counted on him and believed in him?

He' hadn't managed to do it before. In two and a half years, he'd not been able to get his brother out of his mind. So, how, knowing his brother died to bring him back to life was he supposed to go back?

No, going back wouldn't be an option. So, what would that leave him?

Staying?

Continuing the family business?

He supposed that he could team up with Bobby. In some ways he was more connected to him than he'd been with his father. But, despite that fact, Bobby was no John Winchester, and he certainly was no Dean. So, that was out.

So, he could what, go out on his own?

That's a laugh. He'd never make it out of the first hunt alive. Sam wasn't the warrior of the pair that was Dean's job. Sam was the obscure knowledge holder, the research geek, the gentle sensitive one who suggested caution when Dean wanted to rush in all gung ho. Sam was the one that got his ass kicked by girls and every evil sucker that they'd ever encountered.

So, that pretty much ruled out hunting.

What was left then?

He couldn't go back to school. He couldn't hunt. His dreams of settling down and having the perfect family would be done. That would never be possible without Dean, and Sam wasn't interested in the people he'd been interested in back when he'd had those dreams.

Now, all he wanted was an old hunting cabin deep in some woods somewhere with his brother. Maybe there would be a garage where they could park the Impala to protect it from harsh winter weather, a hidden cellar where they could hide the weapons when they weren't in use, and an occasional hunt saving some poor family somewhere. Something small, after all neither of them would ever be able to handle the lap of luxury ( or be able to afford it for that matter). Not to mention it would be easier to keep up when the inevitable hunting wounds caught up with them.

No, life without Dean wasn't an option.

Sam gazed out the window of the restaurant, the translation program running quietly on his laptop. He either save Dean or they both died. They were, after all, in this together.

It was all or nothing.

The Winchester way.

The End!