Lost Without A Way (Dean, Sam, Ellen. PG)
A random drabble written while watching Everybody Loves a Clown with spoilers for the season finale.
Sam holds his head down, eyes red as though he's been crying. Vulnerable like no man Ellen's ever seen. He's bruised and battered, maybe broken one time too many, and it isn't until they've successfully gotten rid of the clown that Ellen sees the hunter in him. Too sensitive to what others think, still not used to not having a comfortable bed every night and always moving.
Dean holds his head high, stares Ellen dead in the eye and daring her to do and say anything, everything. There's unshed tears, unknown horrors lurking in his eyes that makes Ellen look away or stare right back, as though all the demons in their lives will suddenly appear. Dean's a hunter, a runner and everything in between.
Most of all what Ellen sees in them, gun pointed at Sam while Jo holds her rifle at Dean, is two boys abandoned suddenly without a clear route to follow. It makes her wonder later, when Jo and Ash and her saloon is lost, if they ever really found that path again.