original thread :
community.livejournal.com/spnquotefic/10284.html (written 1/26/11)
prompt:
Jo: You can't keep me here!
Ellen: Oh, don't you bet on that, sweetie.
Jo: What are you going to do, are you going to chain me up in the basement?
Systema Naturae
"Sam, you coming?" Dean calls back over his shoulder. The hunt had gone well. They'd gotten rid of the poltergeist with minimal fuss all things considered. "Sam? What's the hold-up?"
Dean walks back around the corner to the front of the house and finds Sam standing at the bottom of the house stairs, staring at the ground.
When Dean gets closer, he follows Sam's gaze down and sees a dead robin lying on the flagstone walkway. Its feet are sticking straight up and its left wing is twisted at an odd angle.
Dean puts his hand on Sam's shoulder, "You okay?"
Sam doesn't move, he doesn't blink and for a moment Dean's not even sure he's breathing. He's just standing there, statue-still.
In his mind, Sam remembers Michael mocking him.
"You know what I've always found hilarious? Humans all envy birds. 'Birds are free! Birds can fly! They should not be kept in cages - just look how majestic they are- soaring through the air!' That must seem so amazing when you're an earthbound primate. But really, why would you envy something so small, so fragile and so base." Michael sneers and continues, "They exist to reproduce, that's it. Propagation of the species- like so many of Earth's creatures."
Lucifer has his own take on the subject, as he always does. "Birds are actually quite vicious. Birds eat their young for population control, did you know that Sam? I do like their wings...but they snap so easily." Lucifer whispers to Sam, "Do you remember, Sam, what it felt like to snap angel wings? Do you remember how much fun we had with that little group that showed up to try to stop us before we went to meet with Michael?" Lucifer leans back and grins, "I think you do remember, and I think, given the chance, you'd do it again. You never did admire the birds, did you Sam?"
Dean slaps Sam's cheek gently. "Sammy, come on man. Snap out of it."
Sam doesn't speak, not yet, but a tear escapes and rolls down his cheek and falls and falls until it lands on the robin's breast.