Home to My Heart

[ratherastory]

Title: Home to My Heart
Summary: Part of the Fusion 'verse. Written for the Hug Time Now comment-fic meme. Dean has to go away for a few days, and leaves Sam in the care of a friend. Original prompt by the lovely and talented de_nugis is here.
Characters: Sam, Dean, OFC
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 3,824
Disclaimer: If they were mine, they would hug a LOT MORE

Comments

[phx69]

LOL! I think the first thing Dean would have to do is train the dog to help him look after Sam :)

[ratherastory]

That's pretty much what he did! I'm writing these a bit out of order, so in my last story I had him telling the dog to "find Sam." :)

[phx69]

I don't think I saw that one... I had been thinking it was Sam who was getting a dog, so I was surprised to find out that Dean went to a center to see about getting one for himself :)

[ratherastory]

Well, it would sort of make sense, except that Sam doesn't so much need a dog as he needs maybe a leash and one of those microchips. ;)

Weirdly enough, the 'verse started out as a one-shot that was meant to be entirely about Dean. I have no idea, but it took on a life of its own.

Anyway, if you check out the last story, Dean now has a helper dog named Perry. :)

[phx69]

Cool :)

And yeah, a leash and microchips might be good - or a built in GPS maybe :)

[neonchica]

Just thought I would add my two cents to this. I work with an organization that trains companion dogs for vets with PTSD and depression - very similar to Sam. We've had amazing results with bringing these guys comfort for their anxiety as well as nightmares. Some of our guys were practically homebound before, but now go out to stores and restaurants & stuff with their dogs, and give public speeches to our newbies. And the dogs are trained to wake them (safely for dog and person) from nightmares. Just some thoughts for Perry's future training! Great story. Love this verse!

[ratherastory]

I gave a LOT of thought to having a dog for Sam, actually, because I love the idea of what you just said above, and I know that there *are* dogs for that and that they are wonderful... but the original idea was for the dog to be Dean's, and so I stuck with that.

I've been chatting with someone who has a service dog, and she has assured me that Perry would likely be able to do a little bit of work for Sam, although her main priority would still be Dean.

I'm really curious about how a dog goes about "safely" waking a human from a nightmare. Can you elaborate? :)

And thank you for stopping by!

[ratherastory]

That's pretty much how I saw it too. Not that Sam wouldn't love the hell out of the dog too, but weirdly enough I think Dean needs her more right now. Perry can help Sam when she needs to, but she's Dean's dog. :)

[neonchica]

Wow! I opened up a can of worms, didn't I?! Just to elaborate - I'm in no means saying Sam should be the one to have a dog - just making the point that dogs for PTSD do exist. I just love the fact that you incorporated one in the first place. And absolutely, the dogs can definitely be multifaceted - working for both Dean and Sam. My organization actually trains for both vets with PTSD and for children and adults with physical disabilities, like Dean (and as much as I really REALLY want to plug the org, that's just too close to linking personal life with fanfiction "kink" life

[ratherastory]

That's really great! Thank you so much. I have to run out to an appointment, but I may take you up on this in the future.

And don't worry about the can of worms. They're friendly and they help the soil! ;)

[neonchica]

Anytime! Good luck with future writing. Happy to help:-)