Master Post
The thing about Hell is that nobody tells you what happens after (until the Winchesters, no one knew there was an after).
After Dean grabs his little brother--broken lungs, broken mind, broken soul and all--from the Cage, they're unceremoniously forced into retirement. This is great for Sam, who somehow, to Dean's amazement, manages to find really innocent, genuine pleasure in waffles, cooking show marathons, and curling up with his nebulizer at the end of the day, but metaphorical (everything is metaphorical now) hell for Dean. Without hunting, he's tense, miserable, and drinking himself into blackouts or rages, both of which have him waking up with the itching, biting feeling that he's doing Sam more harm than good.
Sam's struggling to breathe through rape nightmare after rape nightmare until Dean finds him Christa, a therapist who's damn good at what she does, and what she does expands from helping Sam to helping Sam while comforting Dean, and then to helping Sam while comforting Dean and then removing Dean's clothes. So Sam's pretty content, seeing two of his favorite people (God, he loves Christa and God God God he loves when Dean smiles) all over each other, and that's not exactly hindered by Christa's daughter who gives him his meds and he swears sees down to his damn (maybe not so broken) soul, and then there's that angel in the trench coat who holds him at night and lets him cry in Enochian and gives Sam soft kisses down his jawline.
Everything's so much better than it should be, and then one day Sam wakes up and his heart doesn't work.
The thing about Hell is that nobody tells you what happens after.
There are things it can do to a body.
Things it can shut down.
This is a story about when hearts don't fail (and when they fucking do).
So because some of these fics span a lot more time than others, and because a lot of them have pieces of stories that are picked up in different fics from other points of view, it's hard to put these in an exact order, but we wanted to give you at least some help in piecing together the timeline. For ones that span large periods of time, usually we've arranged them here so they're in the last phase they touch on--that way it'll be easier not to get lost, if you're reading in order.
We're dividing the stories into different phases. Right now we're sticking with four phases--about four years, though each one isn't a year exactly--and we're going to do our best to put them in a rough order inside their phase. If we keep going longer after that--and there's a helllll of a lot more we know happens--we'll add more then. For now we're happy to play in these years.
If you're really confused or if you'd would like a more straightforward outline of the first three years Kylie would love to help. Her story covers the whole time.
The others, however:
PHASE ONE somewhere I have never travelled
Spans from the night they break Sam out of the Cage to the night his heart stops.
When It's Time:Sam's back from Hell, but it's hard to see how this is going to get any better.
Just Sam Castiel was never supposed to care about Sam Winchester.
Something There:Cas and Sam are alone for the first time since the Cage. It doesn't go how they expected.
Lost: Sam has bad allergies and they're triggering his hell issues. Castiel is having feelings for the first time and they're giving him heaven issues. Dean's here too. He has problems of his own.
Treebeard: Sam is allergic to cats. Trouble is, he really really wants one.
What I Did for Love Christa is getting pretty attached to Sam, her affectionate trauma patient, and maybe also to that charming, broken asshole of a brother.
The Family Business Dean's falling in love or something, maybe. Demons get involved.
PHASE TWO your intense fragility
Begins and ends when heart failure does. Or, you know. They think.
I Am Never Without It: Sam is happy. His body is not.
On Being Human: Castiel gets human lessons from four of his favorite humans. It's not easy.
A Matter of Timing: Late stage heart failure, and Sam's not doing great. He and Dean have some stuff to talk about.
PHASE THREE life is not a paragraph
Ends in incubators, more or less.
Beautiful Loser Sam goes to group therapy and makes a friend, maybe.
Angel Castiel hasn't been back to heaven in a while. Turns out, that's a problem.
The Things We Don't Discuss: Dean doesn't know how to be in a relationship, unless it's with Sam.
In Packages: in which Dean starts to learn about how to be in a relationship.
When I Return:: Love is complicated, and so are humans. Castiel is making his own choices for the first time in a hundred thousand years. Sometimes he messes it up.
PHASE FOUR we're everanything more than believe
From two until three.
One by One: Kylie is too big and too little for who they want her to be.
At The Ballet Dean goes to the ballet and has feelings.
After Dean grabs his little brother--broken lungs, broken mind, broken soul and all--from the Cage, they're unceremoniously forced into retirement. This is great for Sam, who somehow, to Dean's amazement, manages to find really innocent, genuine pleasure in waffles, cooking show marathons, and curling up with his nebulizer at the end of the day, but metaphorical (everything is metaphorical now) hell for Dean. Without hunting, he's tense, miserable, and drinking himself into blackouts or rages, both of which have him waking up with the itching, biting feeling that he's doing Sam more harm than good.
Sam's struggling to breathe through rape nightmare after rape nightmare until Dean finds him Christa, a therapist who's damn good at what she does, and what she does expands from helping Sam to helping Sam while comforting Dean, and then to helping Sam while comforting Dean and then removing Dean's clothes. So Sam's pretty content, seeing two of his favorite people (God, he loves Christa and God God God he loves when Dean smiles) all over each other, and that's not exactly hindered by Christa's daughter who gives him his meds and he swears sees down to his damn (maybe not so broken) soul, and then there's that angel in the trench coat who holds him at night and lets him cry in Enochian and gives Sam soft kisses down his jawline.
Everything's so much better than it should be, and then one day Sam wakes up and his heart doesn't work.
The thing about Hell is that nobody tells you what happens after.
There are things it can do to a body.
Things it can shut down.
This is a story about when hearts don't fail (and when they fucking do).
So because some of these fics span a lot more time than others, and because a lot of them have pieces of stories that are picked up in different fics from other points of view, it's hard to put these in an exact order, but we wanted to give you at least some help in piecing together the timeline. For ones that span large periods of time, usually we've arranged them here so they're in the last phase they touch on--that way it'll be easier not to get lost, if you're reading in order.
We're dividing the stories into different phases. Right now we're sticking with four phases--about four years, though each one isn't a year exactly--and we're going to do our best to put them in a rough order inside their phase. If we keep going longer after that--and there's a helllll of a lot more we know happens--we'll add more then. For now we're happy to play in these years.
If you're really confused or if you'd would like a more straightforward outline of the first three years Kylie would love to help. Her story covers the whole time.
The others, however:
PHASE ONE somewhere I have never travelled
Spans from the night they break Sam out of the Cage to the night his heart stops.
When It's Time:Sam's back from Hell, but it's hard to see how this is going to get any better.
Just Sam Castiel was never supposed to care about Sam Winchester.
Something There:Cas and Sam are alone for the first time since the Cage. It doesn't go how they expected.
Lost: Sam has bad allergies and they're triggering his hell issues. Castiel is having feelings for the first time and they're giving him heaven issues. Dean's here too. He has problems of his own.
Treebeard: Sam is allergic to cats. Trouble is, he really really wants one.
What I Did for Love Christa is getting pretty attached to Sam, her affectionate trauma patient, and maybe also to that charming, broken asshole of a brother.
The Family Business Dean's falling in love or something, maybe. Demons get involved.
PHASE TWO your intense fragility
Begins and ends when heart failure does. Or, you know. They think.
I Am Never Without It: Sam is happy. His body is not.
On Being Human: Castiel gets human lessons from four of his favorite humans. It's not easy.
A Matter of Timing: Late stage heart failure, and Sam's not doing great. He and Dean have some stuff to talk about.
PHASE THREE life is not a paragraph
Ends in incubators, more or less.
Beautiful Loser Sam goes to group therapy and makes a friend, maybe.
Angel Castiel hasn't been back to heaven in a while. Turns out, that's a problem.
The Things We Don't Discuss: Dean doesn't know how to be in a relationship, unless it's with Sam.
In Packages: in which Dean starts to learn about how to be in a relationship.
When I Return:: Love is complicated, and so are humans. Castiel is making his own choices for the first time in a hundred thousand years. Sometimes he messes it up.
PHASE FOUR we're everanything more than believe
From two until three.
One by One: Kylie is too big and too little for who they want her to be.
At The Ballet Dean goes to the ballet and has feelings.