Better Is Worse

by Giacinta2

Sam thinks back on his experience in The French Mistake's reality. Would his life really have been better there? A short one-shot.

Better Is Worse.

X

Sam opened the boot of the Impala.

He had taken to browsing around second-hand shops recently whenever he got the chance,

and although much of the stuff on sale was rubbish, now and then he would discover a little pearl like this old book on Chinese

water spirits. He added it to the slowly-growing cache of books that he kept in the back corner of the Impala's trunk, anticipating a

quiet moment when he could give it his undivided attention.

X

His eyes fell unbidden on one of those weird Supernatural books by Carver Edlund that Dean had insisted on keeping.

" You never know when they might come in useful, Sammy," Dean had admonished, wagging a finger at him.

"Right!" Sam had just huffed and shaken his head at his brother in disbelief. God, their lives were weird.

Being hunters was already something completely alien to any normal person, but to have been designated as vessels for Michael

and Lucifer and have had a friggin' Gospel written about you into the bargain, well…..What the Hell….!

X

The book brought to mind their brief visit to that other universe wher they were actors on a televised version of the stories.

He and Dean had never really talked about that experience again, and Sam still wasn't quite sure if that world really existed at all

or if Balthazar had been powerful enough to have created some temporary dream world like the Jinn's.

Well, it didn't matter anyway!

They were Sam and Dean Winchester, brothers and not two douche-bag actors who had their self-same faces and bodies and

who didn't even speak to each other!

X

However, he mused, that universe hadn't been without its perks; big house, plenty of money and weirdest of all, an actress who

was a twin to the last incarnation of the Ruby demon, and his double–Padalecki's wife.

He wondered curiously if there was some lesson to be taken from that.

Did it mean that he too had felt some sort of sentimental attachment to this world's Ruby, other than the

addiction to her blood, he grimaced?

X

He tried to analyse the whole thing unemotionally. Would he have been attracted to the woman if she hadn't been possessed by

Ruby? He knew he had a weakness for a certain typology of girl, nearly always preferring attractive brunettes; women who were

intelligent and could hold a conversation on any subject.

There was no denying that the Ruby host had fitted his parameters as far as beauty was concerned, and he wondered what she

had been like as a woman before she had fallen into an irreversible coma and been possessed by the demon.

X

Yes, he concluded, he could possibly have fallen for the original woman; so he supposed that the other-world Jared, if

he had his self-same tastes, could conceivably have married her human double.

He remembered when she had mistaken him for the actor; she had dragged him upstairs to bed but he hadn't laid a finger on her;

for perhaps to the Jared-Sam of that world she was just his actress wife, but she reminded him far too much of that bitch Ruby

who had initiated him into a spiralling world of drugs, treachery and pain, to ever contemplate touching her.

X

He had been rather proud of the fact that he had managed to keep his horror under control when he had first seen her.

It had been great acting on his part and he laughed thinking back on the way he and Dean had performed so awkwardly when

actually asked to perform on a set!

X

Then Dean had generously offered to stay in that reality and let Sam live that comfortable existence.

A world without magic, demons or anything supernatural could have compensated for the life of fear and suffering that his little

brother had had to endure, but Sam hadn't even paused to consider it.

X

In that world, he would have been Jared Padalecki and Dean, Jensen Ackles and although they would certainly have "talked" to

each other, they wouldn't have been brothers, shared the same blood-line or have been real Winchesters, and all the money,

fame, attractive actress wives or easy living could ever substitute that!

X

He closed the trunk, a feeling of contentment in his soul and he watched as Dean confidently made his way to the driver's door.

There was nothing he could desire more than having Dean for his brother, and his heart was light as he took his place in the

Impala next to him.

X

XXXX The enD XXXX