SPN Gen Fiction: "To The Battlefield In Borrowed Armor" (PG-13)

[halfshellvenus]

Title: To The Battlefied In Borrowed Armor
Author: HalfshellVenus
Characters: Dean, John (Gen)
Rating: PG-13
Summary (Pre-Series): The first time Dean went on a solo hunt was eight months after Sam left for Stanford.
Author's Notes: For my switch_25 table ("Strength") and writers_choice ("Independence").

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Comments

[halfshellvenus]

Dean is a mix of "knows better" and "knows better and doesn't care" and "really *doesn't* know better", in how he is around other people, especially women.
:D It's so true! There are times when he's truly clueless, but more often he simply chooses to ignore the path of "wisdom," let us say. ;)

And I agree with you entirely about the differences between Sam and Dean. I've always thought that Dean's losing Mary (and the shocking change in the family's before and after lifestyle) caused unbelievable damage to him that he in many ways worked to spare Sam from. Sam, of course, had it both easier (never knowing what he'd lost) and harder (being less 'prone to please' than Dean, and therefore more often a recipient of John's disapproval-- the outsider in his own family).

I've said for years that Dean was more of a mother to Sam (especially with regard to support and unconditional love) than a father, but that people take that the wrong way and start ranting about apron-wearing Dean baking cookies. *eye roll* But spiritually, Dean knew what it was to have a mother and to lose one, and I think much of the void he tried to fill for Sam was the absence of Mary. The fact that Sam was confident enough to rebel, to believe he could make his own destiny, and to have a loving relationship outside his family, says that what Dean did mattered. It's just too bad he couldn't rescue himself.

*koff* I could really go on in all different directions when it comes to the Winchesters and their psyches, which is what drew me into the show in the first place. I'm so sorry that the show has moved on into (for me) less interesting territory), because the original focus on the family dynamic was rich and fascinating enough to turn over and discuss forever.

And thanks for reading, though it was indeed Gen!

[realpestilence]

Dean very much *is* the wife/mother of the family. Which probably contributes to his problems with women, now I think of it, added to his pretty-boy looks as a kid...let's disregard the boy they picked as young!Dean and picture young!Jensen in the kind of situations he'd have been dragged into via John and uh-huh, defensive, who?

But Dean's the one who supports John damn near unconditionally all his life, because that's his "job". Once he got old enough, he took care of Sam physically; and, in his own rough way, emotionally, as much as he could. Nags him to eat and sleep (and get laid, 'cause that's healthy, too). He tries so hard.

I like Sam and John, but there's something about Dean that makes my heart cry, you know? I can see that poor little lost boy peering out from behind his eyes, all too often. D: