Fic: What Was and What Could Have Been

[brightly_lit]

Title: What Was and What Could Have Been
Author: brightly_lit
Rating: PG for language
Genre: gen, angst, h/c, brotherly feels, wee!chesters, teen!chesters
Characters: Sam, Dean, OCs
Word Count: 5,500
Summary: When John doesn't return from a hunt, Sam and Dean, ages 10 and 14, have to find a way to live on their own.

Comments

[caranfindel]

Brightly, I'm not sure if this fic makes me feel happy or sad for the boys! Maybe both. :-/

[brightly_lit]

Me too! :-}

[rirren]

Wow! I really enjoyed this.

It's funny how Sam and Dean actually have a happier childhood with John gone, when all John was trying to do was protect them. I can't help thinking about what will happen when the Yellow Eyed Demon comes for Sam though ... Sam's happy childhood may ultimately doom him. It's hard to see him surviving the battle when he's not been training since he was 10.

So I guess, the fic is about the question: is it better for them to live happier lives or is it better for them to be safe, even at the expense of their happiness? It's obvious what John chose, so this is a really interesting view of what could have happened.
I'm not actually sure what I think. Because John's way may have kept them alive but their childhood was pretty terrible (for Sam at least) and their adult lives are really difficult too. They've never really caught a break. In extremely generalised terms: Happy but short life, or long but unhappy life?

Heh. This fic has really made me think. Great job! :)

[brightly_lit]

That's funny--I wrote the story thinking of the question of family and the boys' relationship, leaving the question of their destinies out of the equation, but I knew people would think of it in those terms, too, so last night my friend and I discussed whether they would really have been better off with more training, only to realize--Sam died anyway at the end of S2, so his training didn't save him there! And it was their love for each other that allowed him to overpower Lucifer, which would only have been stronger in this story's scenario! So, much as I love John for doing everything he thought he had to to protect and train his children to face any eventuality, maybe it didn't do them that much good in the end .... Fun to talk about it and consider, in any case. :-)

Glad you liked the fic!

[brightly_lit]

Aww, that's so cute! I hope they're tears of joy.

brightly-lit pre-series 5.5k

[kalliel]

[AWKWARD "I WANT TO READ THIS BUT IF I DON'T PUT IT IN GMAIL I WILL LOSE TRACK OF IT" BOOKMARKING COMMENT :D]

Re: brightly-lit pre-series 5.5k

[kalliel]

[lol literally months later - thank god for Gmail bookmarking!]

I really love that first image of the alien bed. It's this motif and sensory memory-experience that seems very tied to moments of adolescent transience--whether that transience can be owed to something as charmed as summer camp, or as loaded as very different kinds of familial disruption. Or being a Winchester, which is a whole 'nother beast. The way that Sam first registers this bed, and then goes on to consider it in terms of the fact that it's not like there's a familiar home to contrast it with, and yet, is really effective

[anactoria]

Ohh, this is great. I have no coherency for a better comment right now, but just... aww. My heart.

[brightly_lit]

Oh, yay! :-D I feel like we can all really stand to see a little healing between Sam and Dean these days ...