Disclaimer: I will forever be jealous of Kripke for thinking of 'Supernatural' before me; but in the meantime, I am worshipping at his altar. Not mine, to clarify.
A/N: Tag to AHBL2. Companion piece, of a sort, to "Long Time, No See". Approximately 500 wds (530, if you want to be picky.)
HOLY ARMOR
It hit Sam three days after all hell broke loose from its chains, and threw itself at them from an unlocked Devil's Trap. Three days after he'd died and risen and learned the cost of coughing back to awareness on a ripped and bloodstained mattress not far from Bobby's.
Why?
Why, when all the Demon had wanted, all it had ever shown interest in was Sam? Why, when through Jake it had already nearly won? Why, then, had it entered the ranks of cowboy headstones to face off with his brother before anything else?
The Colt.
It was the easy answer. One that just didn't fit after Dean told him, with old bitterness, how easily it had ripped the gun from his older brothers' fingers. One that didn't fit with the yellow-eyed son of a bitch's utter disregard for the shattered gates of hell, and the three fragile humans straining their weight and lives to close them again.
An answer that didn't fit with the demon's determination, beyond trying to use, coerce, or incapacitate Sam, to break his brother. To kill Dean.
Why?
Dean wouldn't tell him the lies – or truths – the Demon had whispered, cracking his heart wide while Sam was pinned to twisting bark, separated by dead grass and headstones and the noise of raging demons. But Hell had illuminated the world enough for Sam, pinioned as he was, to see the pain in Dean's eyes.
And reflect it in his own in the instant he realized that Samuel Colt's gun and final bullet were in the hands of the creature that had killed everyone who had ever loved him, everyone he had ever loved. The gun with bullets that obliterated the essence of any being had pointed at the one person he had left in the world, and Sam knew he could do nothing but watch Dean die.
Against all odds – which were really the best odds for the Winchesters – they had survived the opening of hell; but Sam was still caught on why.
It had flung Dean headfirst against solid granite; stubborn as his brother was, he had been tossed quite firmly out of the way. Dealt with.
But the human shell housing yellow eyes had remained intent upon the older Winchester, not the one the Demon called his 'favorite'.
That memory twisted inside Sam, shivering out over every inch of skin.
And he still didn't know why.
With the gates of Hell gaping wide, his army ripping free to plunder the Earth, Sam with fresh blood on his hands – what was stopping him from raising Cain, and crisping humanity to pitiful ashes? What was stopping him from claiming Sam as his own? Nothing.
Dean.
He had heard the song once, voices of an eclectic choral group at Stanford echoing under gothic stone arches into the summer breeze, and never forgotten the words.
"Oh, Satan is an evil charmer. He's hungry for a soul to hurt. And without your holy armor, he will eat you for dessert."
But Dean was still alive.
And Sam . . . for a year, Sam knew he was safe.
"Nothing bad's gonna happen to you. Not while I'm around."
Fin
A/N2: The song, entitled "Shut de doo" ("Shut the door"), which I've transcribed below, in formal English; it's got Creole behind it more than anything else, so just . . . imagine that accent in there.
Chorus: Shut the door, keep out the devil
Shut the door, keep the devil in the night
Shut the door, keep out the devil
Light the candle everything's all right
Light the candle everything's all right
Verse 1: Oh when I was a baby child
Good and bad was just a game
Many years and many trials
They proved to me they're not the same
Chorus
Verse 2: Oh Satan is an evil charmer
He's hungry for a soul to hurt
And without your holy armor
He will eat you for dessert.
Chorus
Verse 3: My momma used to sing this song
Oh pappa used to sing it too
Jesus called and took them home
And so now I sing this song for you.
Chorus