Sam looked at the brightening sun and all it implied. He thought back eleven years, thirty-three years, longer; his life, Dean's life, Mom & Dad's lives, Henry's life. All the pain and sacrifice, the blood and loss and misery. Dad's hell, Dean's hell, his own hell, both the literal hells they suffered and the metaphorical hell their lives had been while heaven and hell pushed, forced, beat, dragged, and shoved them toward an end game none of them wanted, none of them had signed up for, but in which each of them were forced to participate anyway.

And for what? For Chuck to finally get his head out of his ass, step up and be a man? At how many points in the past how many millennia had it never occurred to him to just apologize to his sister? To his son? Why had he let the Apocalypse be thrown on the shoulders of – and at the feet of – the Winchesters? Why was it okay for so many people and angels to die – the very creations Chuck claimed he had locked Amara away to protect in the first place?

So, he finally apologized and everything was sunshine and lollipops.

And the Winchesters' lives of misery and sacrifices were suddenly rendered pointless, unnecessary, a hand-wave, a joke.

Eleven years of commitment, loyalty, struggle, anguish, perseverance, and hope – always hope – were meaningless. They might as well have never happened for the result of it all.

"Hey, Chuck – where's our apology?"

The end.

The absolute end.

A/N: you might guess that Sam's thoughts are my own. For a more detailed rendering of my opinion, see my profile page.

A/N2: if you decide to flame me for my opinion, do have the courage to post it under your username and not as an anonymous guest. (Because nothing says "coward" like an anonymous flame.)

A/N3: if you do flame me, I'd be seriously interested in knowing how in the world my opinion invalidates your enjoyment of the show. What you're afraid will happen if I articulate what I find wrong with show. Why you're allowed to hurl invective at me but I'm not allowed to express how I feel about the show. All of my stories are, after all, commentary of one sort or another on the show.

A/N4: stolen from the Frock Flicks blog:

You feel entitled to critique the food you eat at a restaurant without being a professional chef, right? Well, media is another type of product,that, like food, is subject to critique by those who consume it.

What we write… (is) actually opinion…The success or failure of people's careers are not hanging by a thread based on our opinions… in some cases, our readers' disagreements with our reviews (have) generated lively and interesting discussions. Of course, we always are entertained by the occasional post from someone …thinks we need to be told that we are WrongTM and MeanTM for having an opinion contrary to their own.