To Fight in the Shade - Post 3

[lovesrain44]

“It’s only for a minute, Sam, but you need to understand what it feels like, you need to get used to it.” The top of Dad’s lip glittered with sweat, and his hair stuck to his forehead, but he looked at Sam as though he didn’t notice, because what he was saying was the most important thing.

Comments

[reggie11]

Fabulous story. I keep getting so damn angry because of John's expectations of Sam. Things really are completely unfair on Sam, he's much younger and smaller but expected to do as well as Dean and that's pretty much impossible. It fits very well with canon; we know John was particularly hard on Sam and also that he never gave him credit where it was due, plus we also know he always found a way to make Dean feel that he was never quite good enough either. I feel like slapping Dean with the way he feels his father can do no wrong but again, very much in line with canon. I think it's why I've always felt far more sympathy toward Sam than Dean. Of course Dean had way too much responsibility put on him to practically be Sam's parent which is heartbreaking, but he always thrived on hunting and thought the sun rose and shone with his dad. Sam never felt good enough, never wanted to hunt and wanted to feel safe more than anything. The line in the show that has always stuck with me is when Dean confronted Sam about wanting 'normal' and Sam replied with, "Not normal...safe." I think people tend to think Sam is selfish for wanting normal, whereas I see someone who just wanted to feel safe and secure but never did.

Truly loving this fic.