Fic: The Deserving Son
Title: The Deserving Son
Fandom: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, pre-series
Rating: PG-13
Beta: trollmela - thank you!
Word Count: 566
Summary: John checks on Sam at Stanford. Written for a prompt by cordy69 here
The Impala feels empty. There are no feet up there on the dash, no gentle snoring coming from the back of the car. There’s just John and Robert Plant, a constant reminder of his eldest son.
John can still remember a time when Mary had sat in the seat next to him, arm hanging loosely out of the window as she sang along to the radio, soft hair tied back in a casual ponytail. Every so often she’d turn to look in the back to check on their boys. Dean, staring out of the window or playing with his latest game as they drove to the swimming pool. Sammy in his baby seat, his innocence not yet tainted by fire and blood. And now Dean is seven towns away, researching into the death of a woman and Sam is as far removed from his family as he had been able to get.
Shutting the music off, John winds the Impala’s window down a little further to get a better view of his youngest son. Taller than he had been the last time John had seen him, Sam is standing talking to a girl in front of the building where he goes to school. He looks at home here, laughing and walking confidently amongst his friends. John can’t remember ever seeing his youngest looking like this, knows that he’ll never see his eldest this carefree again.
John knows that it’s his own doing.
Plenty of men lose wives and don’t become hunters, don’t move their kids from place to place, school to school. He doesn’t regret it. All the things they’ve killed, the people they’ve saved - it’s been worth it. But he wishes his sons could have been kept out of it all, should have stopped them being a part of it while he still could. He had been too selfish to let them go. But Sam had taken the choice out of his hands and walked.
As he watches, Sam follows the girl into a coffee store and, on an impulse, he moves the window back up, gets out and crosses over the road to look through the glass at his son. It’s stupid; Sam could see him and he’d promised himself the day Sam left that he wouldn’t do it. Even after two years, Sam would still be blaming himself for leaving. Things would be easier on him here at Stanford if he thought there was no-one to go back to.
It’s hard on Dean; stopping by here every so often and not making contact with Sam. That’s why he left his eldest far away in the library; making him be so close to Sam and not be able to talk to him was cruel. This is what he’s reduced his family to; one son wanting to be as far away as possible, the other existing with too much pressure on his shoulders and two brothers who haven’t seen each other in two years.
Inside the store, Sam takes a drink of his coffee and John wonders whether the kid still takes it with too much sugar or whether he drinks it black now, like his brother. The store’s door opens and a woman walks out. John almost does it, almost grabs the door to keep it open, walks inside and over to his son. But he stops himself. Sam deserves this chance at a normal life.
After everything his sons have sacrificed for him, Sam deserves anything he wants.