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fannishlisstitle: The Real Monsters
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fannishliss
spoilers: 9.2 Devil May Care
Summary: Dean may not agree with Sam, but he can't stand by when someone else badmouths his brother.
===
Author's Note: ostensibly this ficlet should be about young Hunter Tracy Bell, but there was not much to work with. I get the impression that the demons who killed her family let her go in a Book of Job style "I alone am escaped to tell thee" because to demons, the possibility of undercutting Winchesters later is always good. But I decided to go with Dean's pov, instead of Tracy's, because I think there's more meat there. Maybe she will come back again sometime later and be more interesting.
===
All his life Dean had only lived for two things: protect his family, and do the job.
Doing the job had some satisfaction in it, because, a, it was part of protecting his family, and b, he was protecting human beings from monsters, and clearly humans were closer to being family than monsters were, no matter how sympathetic they became. Dean had survived in Purgatory by killing all the sons of bitches before they killed him. It was clean, black and white, and he felt like that purity had done him some good.
Sam, with his shit ton of gray matter, dwelt on all the gray areas, hated the job, and for the longest time he'd been all right with letting his family fend for themselves. This, frankly, ate at Dean. Because like it or not, Dean respected Sam's opinion. And Sam's opinion of Dean was obviously pretty low, since Sam turned tail on Family and the Job as soon as he possibly could. Inside, he'd proven time after time, he was always aching to get out. Dean couldn't understand it, and it took extra work on his part to try and respect it, so despite his best intentions he usually just reverted to his baseline misery over his basic disagreement with Sam over Family and the Job and why they were important.
But when this wee green slip of a Hunter showed up to badmouth Sam, Dean wouldn't stand for it. All his own misery flew out the window, because Dean, in his heart, knew Sam better than anyone.
Dean saw Sam's horror the minute the girl started spitting accusations. Dean saw the possibility flash in Sam's eyes, that he personally had slaughtered this girl's family while he was soulless. He saw the circles turning as Sam tried to pull himself out of the downward spiral of all the countless horrors Lucifer had made Sam believe he'd done. Dean knew how Sam felt about Azazel and the tournament of kids who'd been tainted, all the lives Azazel had ruined testing who'd be Lucifer's ideal vessel -- knowing all along Sam was destined for the job.
Sam hadn't had anything to do with the girl's family getting ganked. That very day they'd just seen demons that had been in bodies, ten, twenty years -- nothing they were responsible for, even taking into account their involuntary involvement in the Apocalypse and Azazel's opening of the hell gate.
Being a Hunter, being Human -- to Dean, it was one and the same: to protect his family, and other humans, from everything out there trying to take them down. Dean's number one duty was to Sam, no matter what. He'd let the gates of Hell stand open, when he could have let Sam slam them closed. He'd made that choice, and he'd bear that burden.
But he wouldn't let some green kid accuse Sam of doing wrong, when Sam had all along done the best he could.
Dean knew better than anyone how, when you think you're doing right, it all goes to Hell.
author:
fannishlissspoilers: 9.2 Devil May Care
Summary: Dean may not agree with Sam, but he can't stand by when someone else badmouths his brother.
===
Author's Note: ostensibly this ficlet should be about young Hunter Tracy Bell, but there was not much to work with. I get the impression that the demons who killed her family let her go in a Book of Job style "I alone am escaped to tell thee" because to demons, the possibility of undercutting Winchesters later is always good. But I decided to go with Dean's pov, instead of Tracy's, because I think there's more meat there. Maybe she will come back again sometime later and be more interesting.
===
All his life Dean had only lived for two things: protect his family, and do the job.
Doing the job had some satisfaction in it, because, a, it was part of protecting his family, and b, he was protecting human beings from monsters, and clearly humans were closer to being family than monsters were, no matter how sympathetic they became. Dean had survived in Purgatory by killing all the sons of bitches before they killed him. It was clean, black and white, and he felt like that purity had done him some good.
Sam, with his shit ton of gray matter, dwelt on all the gray areas, hated the job, and for the longest time he'd been all right with letting his family fend for themselves. This, frankly, ate at Dean. Because like it or not, Dean respected Sam's opinion. And Sam's opinion of Dean was obviously pretty low, since Sam turned tail on Family and the Job as soon as he possibly could. Inside, he'd proven time after time, he was always aching to get out. Dean couldn't understand it, and it took extra work on his part to try and respect it, so despite his best intentions he usually just reverted to his baseline misery over his basic disagreement with Sam over Family and the Job and why they were important.
But when this wee green slip of a Hunter showed up to badmouth Sam, Dean wouldn't stand for it. All his own misery flew out the window, because Dean, in his heart, knew Sam better than anyone.
Dean saw Sam's horror the minute the girl started spitting accusations. Dean saw the possibility flash in Sam's eyes, that he personally had slaughtered this girl's family while he was soulless. He saw the circles turning as Sam tried to pull himself out of the downward spiral of all the countless horrors Lucifer had made Sam believe he'd done. Dean knew how Sam felt about Azazel and the tournament of kids who'd been tainted, all the lives Azazel had ruined testing who'd be Lucifer's ideal vessel -- knowing all along Sam was destined for the job.
Sam hadn't had anything to do with the girl's family getting ganked. That very day they'd just seen demons that had been in bodies, ten, twenty years -- nothing they were responsible for, even taking into account their involuntary involvement in the Apocalypse and Azazel's opening of the hell gate.
Being a Hunter, being Human -- to Dean, it was one and the same: to protect his family, and other humans, from everything out there trying to take them down. Dean's number one duty was to Sam, no matter what. He'd let the gates of Hell stand open, when he could have let Sam slam them closed. He'd made that choice, and he'd bear that burden.
But he wouldn't let some green kid accuse Sam of doing wrong, when Sam had all along done the best he could.
Dean knew better than anyone how, when you think you're doing right, it all goes to Hell.
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no subject
Date: 2013-10-22 10:09 pm (UTC)That feels very true to Dean.
Clearly this episode inspired you--4 stories from it!
no subject
Date: 2013-10-23 12:01 am (UTC)I still have to write about Abaddon and her vessel, Josie Sands, but since they originated last season, I'll give myself some extra time. :)