Supernatural Fan Fiction ❯ Zhai'helleva, Ashke ❯ Epilogue ( Chapter 8 )

Epilogue

 

By moonlight many years ago,

My true love did I know.

And by that moon I begged her wait,

But that night did she go.
So, young lovers, heed my words.

Don't squander love away.
The moon is changing ever still.

So comes the light of day.

-Dawson's Creek

 

Sam was…surprised…when the sun rose the next morning.

 

It sounded like a fairly melodramatic thing to admit, even to him, but that didn't change facts, and as long as he didn't say it out loud he figured it didn't really matter.

 

Dean was up and gone by the time he opened his eyes, his bed actually made for once and the room perfectly clean, even the shards of glass gone from the floor. A little puzzled, but still too distant to be really alarmed, Sam started to sit up…

 

And flopped back down with a groan as he found out where all the glass had gone—that is to say, into his head. The pain exploded with the slightest movement, and multiplied when the sunlight struck his eyes.

 

Well, at least there didn't seem to be any need for vomit. Sam wasn't sure he would have been able to handle that.

 

Okay. So. Gotta get up. Gotta find Dean…

 

He was still lying there fifteen minutes later when Dean came in. He'd probably tried to close the door quietly—but not quietly enough, and the pain that had been dying down just a little actually got worse.

 

“Sammy?”

 

“Ugh…”

 

Dean chuckled a little, but somehow it was a sad sound, and his voice was laced with sympathy instead of the expected mockery.

 

“Feel like crap, eh?”

 

“On toast,” Sam agreed. “Where've you been?”

 

A far more welcome sound than an answer came from Dean—the sound of pills rattling out of a bottle. A second later, something cold was pressed into one of his hands, and the painkillers into the other. Then came the sound of Dean retreating to his side of the room, and the creak of bedsprings as he sat.

 

Inch by painful inch, Sam made it into a sitting position and leaned against the headboard, swallowing the pills along with some of the water.

 

“Ow.”

 

Dean smiled sympathetically. “Sorry.”

 

Sam grunted. “Where ya been?”

 

“Talking to the manager,” Dean replied.

 

“About what?”

 

Dean raised his eyebrows and looked around the room, and Sam felt a stab of guilt. “Oh. Yeah. That. Uh…sorry, man.”

 

“Well, at least we didn't check in under our own name. It took quite a story to keep our asses out of jail, but…”

 

“Oh, yeah? What kind of story?”

 

“Uh…I think I'll keep that one to myself. You've had enough trauma lately.”

 

Sam favored him with a chuckle that even came close to sounding sincere, but Dean wasn't laughing, and Sam stopped trying and waited for the question he knew was coming.

 

“How're you feeling?”

 

“Fine,” Sam said automatically, without even trying to make it sound true.

 

“Liar.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

For a few minutes, Sam watched the bedspread while Dean watched him, and then Sam spoke, quietly.

 

“Thanks, man.”

 

Dean shrugged. “Hey, I woulda thought you'd be used to getting my help by now.”

 

“Dean, would you please be serious for two seconds?” Sam snapped, sounding so much like his old self that Dean actually started, visibly.

 

Then he looked over at Sam and said, “You're welcome.”

 

They were silent for a while. Then Sam spoke again.

 

“I'm not all right, Dean.”

 

“No,” Dean agreed.

 

“I don't know if I will be.”

 

“I do.”

 

“How do you know?”

 

“Because I'm your big brother and I said so.”

 

“…Okay.”

 

“Sam, that was a joke.”

 

“Not to me.”

 

And surprisingly enough, Dean didn't seem to have anything to say to that.

 

XXX

 

It took an hour, but Sam was finally able to get out of bed and into his clothes, and he came out of the shower feeling marginally more himself.

 

Dean had retrieved their dad's journal while he was in the shower, and was thumbing through it when he came out, a map spread on the bed in front of him.

 

“So where do the coordinates point?” Sam asked, referring to their dad's last entry.

 

“Uh…a place called Blackwater Ridge, Colorado,” Dean replied, looking a little surprised at his show of interest. “I just wanted to know for…for when I leave.”

 

It was Sam's turn to be surprised. “Whaddya mean, you?”

 

“…Huh?”

 

“You said when I leave. You know I'm coming with you, right?”

 

“Uh…well, I do now.”

 

“It's okay if you don't want me to, though. I get it,” Sam said quickly. “I'm not ready to leave yet, anyway, I wanted to do some digging first, and—”

 

“Sam,” Dean cut him off. “You shouldn't even have to wonder about that, man. I'll stick around as long as you do.”

 

Sam smiled. It was tiny; barely an upward quirking of the lips, but it was also the first attempt he'd made in days.

 

“All right, then. Let's go to work.”

 

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Author's Note: Well, that's it! Thanks so much to all those who read and reviewed. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it, and I'd really appreciate your thoughts on the epilogue! Too long? Too short? Too speedy? Too sudden? Any and all views are welcome, please!