Title: Close Your Eyes
Rating: K
Summary: Season 10 Episode 23: My Brother's Keeper tag. A little something I thought up to add to the last scene.
Words: 1710
Notes: Second story in this fandom and I am thrilled! Okay, so, this story was inspired by a comment I read on YouTube on a Supernatural season 10 episode 22 reaction video. I read the comment and then this thing popped into my head and here's the result. The flashback takes place a few months after the time Sam learned of the existence of monsters. Enjoy!
Kudos to my friend Melody for doing her best to beta this mess of a story!
They say your life flashes before your eyes when you face certain death. Many people, (writers, critics and disbelievers pop to mind) claim this to be a wives tale, a myth. As with many of the things they face that are called the same, Sam and Dean Winchester can confirm that it is exactly what happens. But it is not your whole life that you relive in a second, no, it is that one moment that this situation most reminds you of.
Flashback
It was probably the worst storm of the decade and every child below the age of ten was with their parents, safe and comfortably snug. As usual, this was not the case for the Winchesters. Their father was away on the latest hunt, leaving Sam and Dean alone in the motel-of-the-week. This meant that nine-year-old Sam had no one to go to as the walls shook with the rattle of thunder, scaring him deeper into the blankets with a whimper.
Normally, this would be where Sam would crawl into bed with Dean and fall asleep knowing that he was safe. But Sam was loath to do it now because Dean was asleep and with how strained and tired the thirteen-year-old had been looking recently, how ragged, Sam simply did not have the heart to wake his older brother. Even though Sam knew Dean wouldn't mind one bit.
Sam had almost solidified the idea that he wouldn't go to sleep when lightning flashed across the sky, throwing the room into creepy shadows. Shadows that looked like monsters. Monsters that Sam had recently come to know existed. Sam swallowed hard.
'Dean wouldn't mind me going to sleep with him or even waking him up. He said so…'
The next rattle of thunder decided it. Sam scurried across the small expanse between the two beds and jumped onto it, just barely managing not to wake Dean. Sam breathed a sigh of relief. He'd be safe in a moment. Just as he was starting to relax, lightning flashed across the sky once more, revealing the shadows that had so scared the young child. Sam whimpered, quivering, and shook his brother.
"Dean, wake up." Sam didn't know why, but he was whispering. He didn't think he could manage a volume louder than that.
Dean remained fast asleep.
"Dean," a pleading tone slipped into Sam's voice. "Please Dean, wake up." He shook his brother once more, voice barely audible, tears in his eyes. "I'm scared."
Sam had just about decided there was something wrong with Dean, due to his lack of a response and had nearly started hyperventilating with panic and fear, when Dean – probably sensing his little brother's distress – woke up, turning to face Sam.
"Sammy?" Dean asked blearily. "What's wrong?"
His alertness was starting to come back quickly, helped along when he noticed his brother's tears that were now flowing freely down his face. "Sammy?" Dean repeated worriedly, sitting up.
Sam, who'd been staring at Dean, dumbstruck until now, let out a sob and dove for his brother's side.
"Hey. Hey, Sam. Sammy, what's wrong?" Sam looked up with wide, wet, scared eyes and Dean's query was answered – not by Sam, who doubted he'd ever speak again – but by lightning and thunder, clanging and clashing, bringing back the monsters Sam couldn't help but be terrified of. Sam keened and flung himself into Dean's arms.
"Sam… what…?" Suddenly Dean understood; his brother was simply afraid. What with his recent knowledge of the dark side of the – his – world, it was no wonder. Dean's whole demeanor abruptly changed from confused and softened into comforting.
"Sammy," Dean said gently. "Look at me." Dean placed his palm underneath Sam's chin and pushed up, with just a hint of pressure. Reluctantly, wide, fear-filled eyes met his. "Sam, it's okay. Really. There's nothing to be afraid of. I won't ever let anything get to you, Sammy. I swear."
"But Dean," Sam protested weakly. As much as Sam wanted it to be real, he couldn't let Dean-
"I swear, Sammy," Dean repeated forcefully. Anything that wanted to get to his brother would have to get though him and it would be damned when it did.
Sam looked into his brother's vivid green eyes and saw the fierce protectiveness that lurked within. And he believed. He believed he was safe and that Dean would protect him till the day they both died, he believed his brother's words, he believed his brother and he believed in his brother. Now if he could only tell Dean that…
But Sam needn't have bothered, because Dean seemed to sense his little brother's distress, again, and read what Sam so badly wanted to tell him in those expressive eyes. He smiled.
"It's okay, Sam," he repeated tenderly. "Ready to go to sleep now?"
Sam shook his frantically. He was nowhere near ready, but he didn't want to keep Dean awake either, especially with how tired Dean was looking even after just waking up… but-
"Sam," Dean interrupted Sam's wild, slightly hysterical thoughts. "Calm down, would you? It's okay if you're not ready to sleep yet."
"Dean, I don't…" And how exactly did Sam intend to tell Dean, without offending his older sibling, that he didn't want to wear Dean down?
Sam was saved from trying to answer that question in his frightened state by Dean, who simply pulled his younger brother into his arms, encompassing the frail, slightly trembling body.
"Shh, Sammy. Don't worry. Tell you what, why don't you close your eyes and breathe, huh?" Dean noticed that his brother had started hyperventilating, just a little bit.
Never one to ignore his brother, Sam immediately snapped his eyes shut and started matching his breathing pattern to that of his brother's. Slowly, he calmed down, breaths evening out and only then realized that he was very, very tired. And then, that he and Dean were horizontal where they'd been vertical only a few minutes ago. Well…
"Dean…?"
"It's okay. Go to sleep, Sam."
"Dean," Sam was insistent. Their father had told them that Sam was old enough to go sleep in his own bed, alone. And as petrifying as that thought was, he didn't want to get Dean into trouble.
"Close your eyes, Sam," Dean commanded softly.
"But-" Before Sam, or Dean, could say anything, thunder and lightning reappeared. Sam let out a sob and dug in even harder into his brothers' arms. Dean cursed softly.
"Sam?-" Lightning flashed once more, drowning out whatever comfort Dean might've given. In a moment of pure terror, Sam pushed himself away from Dean, as far as he could without tumbling off the bed. He looked around the room, eyes wide and horrified, not focusing anywhere just moving from one shadow to another as they faded. Lightning flashed again, throwing the fading shadows into sharp relief and Sam let out a choked sob, positive he was going insane. Suddenly his vision blurred and then completely blackened out. Impossibly more frightened than he was before, Sam tried to lash out, before realizing that his face was buried in flannel that smelled like comfort and home and safety. Dean.
"Sammy, close your eyes," Dean said firmly, holding his little brother close, tight. "Don't look. It'll all be okay once you close your eyes, Sam. Close your eyes and breathe." Clutching his brother, Dean pulled the covers onto them, just stopping at a point above Sam's small head, leaving enough space for Sam to be able to breathe and see the headboard but nothing else.
Sam did what Dean told him to, eventually getting to a state of drowsiness. He was losing the battle to stay awake, lassitude overcoming adrenaline, but he needed one more push…
"I got you," Dean confided in a low tone. "I'll never let anything get to you, Sammy. I swear."
And Sam was fast asleep, his brother protecting him from nightmares he was so sure he would have. In that moment Sam believed his brother completely.
Flashback Ends
Staring in horror at the approaching cloud of evil, Sam and Dean looked into each other's eyes and knew they were remembering the same moment. Reliving the storm.
'See?' Sam's eyes said. 'I tried to tell you, Dean. You can't save me from this.'
And as impossible as it was right then, Dean's eyes, wide and panic-tinged with a sheen of hopelessness in them, got stronger, fiercer, resembling the look he gave nine-year-old Sam all those long years ago. They seemed to say only one thing:
'Watch me.'
Then, as the Darkness converged upon the two brothers, Dean took Sam's hand in his and squeezed, reinforcing the promise he'd made to his little brother.
"It's going to be okay, Sammy. I promise."
END
Author's note: So, what do you think? I am so hyped! I'd love some feedback. Constructive criticism is always welcome, but flames will be given to Lucifer to hurt Adam with. Do you really want to make his… (can't say life, can't say death *sigh* such a dilemma) existence worse? I hope you enjoyed it! If you guys have something you'd like me to write, drop it in a message or a PM!