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Epilogue.




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.




the end

Date: 2010-07-07 05:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mickeym.livejournal.com
Oh, man. This is simultaneously just as good as I remember, and so much better. :)

I'm not sure if I can single out any one bit as a part that made me go "OHHH!" or as being spectacularly awesome, because I think the whole thing is spectacularly awesome. Okay, I lied. A run-down of some of my favorite bits of the story, in no particular order: The moment with Sam being all orgasmic over the dental floss was hysterical. When Dean gets a kitten for them. Dean with his head in Sam's lap, drunk, while Sam tells him he's not going to do anything he likes be alive, and being with Dean. The moment when Dean realizes Sam's dreaming/having nightmares. Dean telling Sam yes, he'd wanted this before.

I really liked how there were a couple of mirrored moments (and I have no idea if you did it intentionally, or it just happened that way), the way the narrative flowed, the words used: when Sam says yes, and there's that rush and jumble of words and thoughts, and then Sam hits the water., balanced against when Sam asks Dean if he wanted this (them) 'before', and Here at the end of the world, Dean hurls himself over the edge. "Yes."


I love the slow, gentle progression from Dean's hopelessness to "we're happy now" at the end. Because whatever went down that they may (or may not) be responsible for, they've suffered enough. They've made their penance, and they deserve to be happy, to be at peace.

The style you chose to write this in rocks so hard. It's conversational, and it sounds so like Dean -- a blend of the Dean we know, as well as the Dean from The End. I ached for him through the whole story, not only for what he's suffered/dealt with his whole life, but for his grieving his brother, wanting Sam to remember him. It hit hard when he realizes Sam doesn't actually remember stuff, that he'd read the journals so he could try to give Dean back the brother he lost. I ached for Sam then, too, because whatever he doesn't remember, the love he has for Dean -- a whole lifetime of it -- is still so obviously there. It's the cornerstone, the foundation, of who he is.

I really could go on and on about this. I adore this story ridiculous amounts, and I am beyond thrilled that you finished it :) That I got to see it along the way, in its various stages, makes me all kinds of happy. And the day/night we spent cheering each other on through never-ending emails while feverishly working to finish our first drafts? That's one of my fonder memories :) *hugs you tight*

Date: 2010-07-12 08:31 pm (UTC)
ext_21612: (duos :: mama's boy)
From: [identity profile] britomart-is.livejournal.com
You're making me MIST UP here, dude. You handheld me through the whole writing of this and you still have energy to spare to analyze? Impressive. :D

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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