Sam stood
in the laboratory, the words of Crowley still echoing off the walls. A look of shock, sorrow, and utter confusion
showed on the hunter’s face.
Dean and
Castiel were gone. He didn’t know where,
but he figured they were dead. Killing a
creature like the head Leviathan had to have consequences. He understood it now.
He looked
around him. There were others and he
didn’t think he had it in him to do anything about them. There was no one left. Meg and Kevin were gone.
Sam walked
outside and managed to get the Impala out of the sign where Meg had driven
it. The keys were still in the car. He sat inside and stared out the window in a
daze. Suddenly, Sam Winchester zoned
out.
He spent
the next year with Amelia, a veterinarian he met when he ran over a dog. She had lost her husband. It took some time for them to connect, but
Sam found himself taking a serious interest in the woman. He was building a new life and new memories.
After a
year of normalcy, the hunter had packed his duffle. He rose late at night and drove to Whitefish,
Montana. It was here his problems with
Dean began.
Sam
believed the lies he told his brother and grew angry at the hurt and bitterness
Dean seemed to show. The two men hunted
together but were not acting like brothers.
The older hunter wanted to hunt and he did not believe that Sam wanted
to go to college and back to Amelia.
After the
hunt that brought them into cartoon land, Sam kept thinking back on what he had
told the man about just fading out of reality.
He started having dreams where Amelia found that her husband was
alive. If this was true, why was he still
with her?
After
several months of confusion, Sam woke his brother and told him he had to talk
to him.
“Okay,
Sam,” Dean yawned.
“Dean, I
think I have something wrong with me inside.”
“What kind
of wrong, Sammy?”
“I need to
explain some things to you about the year you were gone,” Sam said quickly,
watching his brother’s face harden. “I
think I zoned out….left reality behind.”
“You what?”
“I drove
for months, Dean. I know I stopped at
places, but I don’t remember any of it, except for the dog and Amelia. Memories started happening that make no
sense. I don’t think any of it was real,”
Sam’s voice broke on the realization.
“Hold on a
minute, Sam. You don’t think it was
real? Where the hell were you for a
year?”
“I don’t
know. Dean, I’m sorry. I don’t know.”
Sam fell
to the floor by Dean’s bed, his body shaking and the tears of horror at what
had happened to him wracked his body.
Dean turned on the light and reached down to pull his baby
brother into his arms. He finally had
him on his bed and held him.
“Sammy,
that could happen to any of us,” the older Winchester whispered. “I love you, Man. I changed because mine was real. I think I still have some humanity here. I know you do. You couldn’t deal? Your mind just gave notice? Okay, that I can understand. You’ve had more than your share of addictions
and mental breaks due to our life.”
Sam just shook his head, not accepting what his brother was
saying.
“Sammy,
there’s nothing wrong with losing the ability to cope and trying to hide from
reality. The important thing is you
realize it and you face reality now. Can
you do that?”
“I’m gonna
have those memories. I created
them. They’ll never leave me, Dean.”
“Well, I
hope you’ll share them with me. I want
to know how you lived that year. Even if
it was in your mind. I’ll make a deal
with you. My life was worse than Hell,
Sammy, but I’ll share with you the things that happened during that year. I just want you to share yours. We deal with them together.”
Sam
Winchester looked up into the green eyes of the man who raised him. Dean’s eyes were wet with tears. More important, there was forgiveness.
The
Winchesters were a team once more, each knowing there was a port in their
storm, and it was each other.
No comments:
Post a Comment