SPN fic: To Know a Man
Title: To Know a Man
Author: drabblewriter
Fandom: Supernatural
Wordcount: 484
Rating: PG
Characters: Nick, Sam (gen, but could be viewed as preslash)
Summary: The Winchesters and Bobby Singer know about Nick what they think is important, but they don't really know him.
The Winchesters and Bobby Singer know about Nick what they think is important. They know how he lost his wife and son and said yes to Lucifer for the promise of revenge. They know he never got it and that now, with the devil gone, he’s a shadow of a man, not quite sure what he wants from life anymore, if anything.
The four of them have been living together at Bobby’s for the last few weeks while each of them works through the aftermath of the failed apocalypse, and that’s given them the opportunity to learn a few more things. Like the fact that he likes sleeping in, then having a long shower and a light breakfast to start his day and that he has a hard time falling asleep at night.
But they still don’t know him, the little things that make Nick who he is. They don’t know that his parents died in a car crash when he was fifteen, and leukemia took his baby sister five years later. How he dropped out of school near the end to help take care of her and couldn’t bring himself to go back, missing out on his dream of becoming a veterinarian and instead ending up in an office job he hated.
They don’t understand how Sarah came along and with her by his side, everything suddenly had meaning again. They can’t possibly know how she and Matthew were his whole world, how he could barely function when they were taken from him. The harsh looks Dean still gives him tell Nick that the older Winchester has never experienced that kind of pain - enough that if he hadn’t said yes to Satan, he would have ended up taking his own life sooner rather than later.
Then there are the little things, the things a friend would know that his fellow boarders just putting up with him don’t bother with. That his favorite television show before all this happened was The Deadliest Catch. That he loved watching chick flicks with Sarah and always cried with her at the end as they teased each other about being so soft. What he did in his free time, the kind of music he listened to, or even his full name or birthday.
Just then, a soft knock at the door tears his attention away from where he’s been staring out the window and shoos away his dark thoughts. “Come in.”
The door cracks open and Sam pokes his head around it. “Dinner’s read. It’s spaghetti - that’s your favorite, right?” Without waiting for an answer, he disappears again, leaving the door open.
Nick can’t help but smile. So maybe he’s not completely right. They’re not like that all the time. Sam’s wrong (Nick’s favorite food is lasagna, particularly the scrumptious concoction Sarah used to make), but at least he’s trying.
And that makes all the difference.