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britomart_isEpilogue.
There are two stocky, no-nonsense women drinking antique Coronas in the booth by the door when the kid walks in, making this officially their busiest night since opening.
"Dude," Dean says. "We're cool. We're like a happening spot. We're legitimate business owners."
Sam rolls his eyes and sips from a can of Tab they found in the back closet next to a bag of pork rinds with a pull-date from 1982. "Pillars of the community. Sure they'll give us the key to the city as soon as they're through with the paperwork." Dean punches Sam in the arm. Sam grins till his cheeks hurt.
The young man is standing in front of the bar, staring at Sam. Dean doesn't like it when people stare at Sam. Sam watches Dean's hand casually drifting to rest under the bar where the shotgun is. "I'd ask you for ID," Dean says mildly, "but I'm pretty sure you were a glimmer in the long-haul trucker's eye the last time anyone was issuing government ID. I can hook you up with a grape Fanta. It's a 1995, good vintage."
Sam wishes Dean wouldn't insult people's parentage, particularly since most people's parents are dead these days.
The kid visibly shakes his head as he snaps out of it. "Sorry. I came because I heard a rumor. Wow."
Dean stiffens. He doesn't like it when people hear whispers and come to try to shoot Sam in the back when he turns around to pour their drinks, either. Sam watches Dean's hand curling tighter around the shotgun and jostles him warningly with a knee. The kid's young, swimming in a coat three sizes too big for him, oughta be at some college party, or dragging all his laundry home over break to use his parents' washer. Sam leans over the bar, tries to look non-terrifying. "What can we help you with?"
"Actually, I've got something for you." When the kid reaches into his coat pocket, Sam's afraid Dean'll shoot him, but the kid produces a harmless scrap of paper. A photo. He hands it to Sam. "I thought you'd want this back."
By the time Sam breaks out of his trance, the kid's gone.
"What is it?" Dean asks suspiciously.
"I don't know," Sam says, handing the snapshot over. "I don't remember it."
Sam watches Dean take in the photo, bites his lip at the softening of Dean's facial expression. Dean looks up suddenly. "Where'd that guy get this?"
Sam shrugs. "Don't know. Glad he gave it back. I like it." Sam takes the picture back, lovingly straightening its dogeared edges. "We look happy."
Dean wraps his arms around Sam's waist from behind as Sam turns to face the back of the bar. "We're happy now."
Sam smiles broadly as he tucks the snapshot into the frame of the mirror that spans the wall behind dusty whiskey bottles. "There."
In the photograph, a garish monument looms with styrofoam solemnity in a grassy field. A man, young and momentarily untroubled, smiles bashfully. There's a sun in the sky, and a bird perched on the Welcome to Foamhenge sign. And there are two brothers, together.
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Date: 2010-07-12 08:09 pm (UTC)A quick question, how did you get your story to be formatted like that, with the wider margins? I like the look of it a lot, which is kind of a silly thing to comment on, but I think I'd like to use it with my own stories. I thought it made it much more read-able on my wide monitor. Thanks.
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Date: 2010-07-12 08:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-12 08:12 pm (UTC)Re: Wonderful Fic
Date: 2010-07-12 08:13 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-07-12 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-12 08:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-12 08:31 pm (UTC)I feel like you have an advantage from knowing me so well! You don't have to be too nervous, because you know that even if I'm starting from somewhere really dark, I don't really want to go to a place of "And no progress was possible, everything sucked without the slightest glimmer of hope, and they were sad forever and ever. THE END."
One of my fonder memories, too! I'm gonna save that email thread FOREVER.
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Date: 2010-07-12 08:31 pm (UTC)Re: Dictionary for a Dead Language
Date: 2010-07-12 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-07-12 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-12 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-13 12:12 am (UTC)This is a sucker punch and a half. Love the sense of length the lack of time indicators gives it - just one event bleeding into the next until you can't imagine that things were ever different. Watching Sam find out what's left of himself makes my heart clench, especially when he's so desperate to remember for Dean's sake even when he can't.
Like the circular structure with the kid and the photo and the way that the people in the photo aren't named, because that's not really who they are any more. Sort of like Dean calling Sam 'it' for so long until he had proof that he wasn't just a body (and how much does it break my heart that Dean still couldn't bring himself to do harm to Sam even then? Gah).
Cas on the radio was a neat little addition (oh, Dean, protecting Sam from everything he can), and it makes a great deal of sense in this world that they're never going to go back to what and who they were before.
This story is going to stay with me, I'm very certain. Thank you for sharing it with us!
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Date: 2010-07-13 01:02 am (UTC)This was perfect, from the sad beginning, to the bittersweet end, with Sam being Sam still, but not being Sam and Dean still loving him. I just. No words. Just love. <3
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Date: 2010-07-13 10:38 am (UTC)Oh.
This was just so beautiful. Horrible and heart-wrending, but beautiful, too. I love that Dean couldn't kill Sam, no matter what he'd done, that there was apparently nothing Sam could do that would kill Dean's love for him. I love that Sam tried to give Dean Sam, when he couldn't remember on his own. And I love the way you tied the prologue and the epilogue together with the picture. Absolutely gorgeous.
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Date: 2010-07-13 05:46 pm (UTC)no subject
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