Fic: Life is but a dream
Title: Life is but a dream
Fandom: Supernatural
Disclaimer: None you know are belong to us.
Characters: Sam, Dean
Rating: Gen
Summary: Written long before 3x11, but fits that episode.
Warnings: can be considered spoilerious for 3x11; character death multiple times
A/N: Title from a nursery rhyme.
Sam's seen Dean die.
He's witnessed his brother's demise in myriad ways, been afraid of its closeness another multitude more.
Sometimes it's been weird, in a silly sort of way, like getting throttled by an army of zombie Jell-Os.
Sometimes it's been creepy, in a puke-your-guts-out sort of way, like getting flayed alive by particularly nasty spirits.
Sometimes it's been plausible, in a memory sort of way, like getting your brains blown out.
Waking up has usually worked, the lingering touches of those terrors banished once and for all when he's found Dean alive even if not necessarily well close-by.
Or at least a phone call away.
They've had so many brushes with Death that, in a morbid way, Sam finds himself considering them to be on a first-name basis by now. They've always fooled Death, fled the reapers. They've always found loopholes, struck deals, hustled the Dark Angel with equal ease as everyone else they've ever come across.
So when it really happens, when Dean truly dies, Sam merely waits for the dream to end, denial dancing at the edges of his psyche.
It takes him a good while to realize there's no waking up from some dreams.
...as mentioned in my episode reaction post to 3x11...