Title: Winchesters They Have Known
Author: Still Waters
Fandom: Supernatural
Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural. Just playing, with love and respect to those who brought these characters to life.
Summary: A series of one-shot outside POVs on the Winchester brothers by episodic characters remembering Sam and Dean in light of the newscasts in 7x06. Open to requests.
Notes: This series stems from my story "It Wasn't Them", which looked at episodic characters in 1x01 - 1x07 comparing the Sam and Dean they had known to the Leviathan!Winchesters on the news in 7x06 (Slash Fiction). I got several requests to do an expanded series, and since I am a sucker for outside POV on the brothers, I decided to give it a shot. Each chapter will be a self-contained one-shot based around one character from one episode, who sees the news in 7x06 and remembers their experience with Sam and Dean. Unlike "It Wasn't Them", I will not be doing as much direct comparison between the actions of the Leviathan!Winchesters and the real Sam and Dean – this series will largely use the news in 7x06 as a springboard to the episodic character recalling their time with the brothers, and how what they saw in Sam and Dean's interactions with the character, and with each other, defined the brothers' relationship and the kind of people they are. I hope I do them all justice. I have yet to determine a length for this series and it is open to requests. If there is a particular character or episode you would like to see, just leave me a note in a review, or send me a PM and I'd be happy to explore it. Dialogue taken from the episodes is presented in full quotes. Thank you for reading and thank you to those reviewers I am unable to respond to personally via private message. I truly appreciate your support.
1x15 (The Benders) – Kathleen, Hibbing County, MN Sheriff's Deputy
Every year, Kathleen marked her brother's birthday by placing a black Mustang on his headstone – a seemingly odd tradition in a graveyard filled with flowers and small stones atop Hebrew-lined marble, but her tradition all the same. Riley had loved that damn car, and so every year she placed a new, shiny toy car on his marker, in memory of the one the Benders had taken when they took Riley from her life. She was on her way to the cemetery that morning when she saw the news, footage of Sam and Dean Winchester shooting up a diner in St. Louis and demanding that the world know what they were capable of. But she had met Sam Winchester and his 'cousin' 'Officer Gregory Washington' several years ago and while she had no doubts the Winchesters could be as deadly as the rifles with which they shared a name, she also knew that they weren't the senseless, exhibitionist killers the TV proclaimed them to be. She may have only been with them for a brief time, but it had been long enough to know that what they were capable of paled in comparison to what they were. That it was what they didn't say that really mattered.
Because it was impossible to watch them together and not know the truth.
Kathleen had her doubts about Officer Washington's identity from the moment she met him, but something about the way he talked about Sam Winchester struck a chord with her, one she wouldn't truly understand until she saw them together and realized who Gregory was. She had always believed that the truth of a person could be found in their eyes and when this 'Gregory' talked about family, his eyes mirrored something Kathleen had seen in her own through years of being a big sister. When Gregory told her, "Officer, look – he's family. I kinda look out for the kid. You've gotta let me go with you", there had been nothing but honesty and raw need in his eyes. And when she hadn't been able to lie in response to Gregory's question about the county's large number of missing persons and whether any of them came back, the young man's resulting, "Sam's my responsibility and he's comin' back. I'm bringin' him back" had been heartbreaking in its firmness – yet there was no sign of bravado in those words.
Only promise.
When the squad car's computer verified that she was indeed not working a case with Officer Washington, Kathleen hadn't really been surprised, yet she also hadn't been particularly worried, even as she found herself alone in the car on the side of a dark road with a man who could have been anyone. Because she had seen something in his eyes back when she first met him, something that steadied her as she went through the motions of proper procedure. When the young man's first concern after being caught on identity theft was to plead with her to let him find Sam first, Kathleen saw a continuation of what had been in his eyes as he talked about family in the office. As she said, "I don't even know who you are", part of her already suspected the truth, and when she finished with an almost blasphemous suggestion that Sam might not even be missing, it was like the young man read her reliance on people's eyes and brought it right into the open, challenging her to, "look into my eyes and tell me if I'm lyin' about this."
And she knew he wasn't.
Kathleen had known a lot of cons, a lot of evil, manipulative people, but she knew eyes, knew truth when she saw it, and while he may have been lying about his name and credentials, she knew that he was far from lying, would never lie, about Sam Winchester being in danger. Then he talked about when he was young, how he pulled Sam from a fire and had felt responsible for keeping him safe ever since, of his fear that if they didn't find Sam soon, they never would, beseeching her, "please, he's my family", his voice breaking, the choked plea of the child he had once been. With those words, she knew she had to help him, that she was going to help him, but she still went through the motions of protocol, of needing to take him in - maybe as a test…..or maybe because it hurt too much to realize what horrific connection she had with this desperate young man's search. So she told him she had to bring him in….. and watched his face fall into a crushing mix of terror, preemptive loss, and unimaginable grief. And it was that moment, as she looked from his face up to the picture of her and Riley, that she knew, without a doubt, that she was sitting next to Dean Winchester, allegedly deceased murderer, and Sam Winchester's protective, terrified big brother.
And she knew which one to believe.
Which one mattered.
Because words couldn't describe the cautious relief that swept through the car when she told Dean that they would find Sam first.
It was in response to Dean's confused question as to why she was helping him, that she told him the truth about their unspoken connection, even as she didn't let on that she knew who he really was. She told him about Riley, how he had disappeared three years ago just like Sam, about how she knew what it was like to feel responsible for someone and for them to be….. 'gone' – a word she had been unable to bring herself to say in front of him. Those green eyes had responded to her confession with understanding, sympathy, and a sort of… renewed respect, a look that she couldn't quite place.
And then she found Sam – after cuffing Dean to her car, being knocked unconscious by inbred lunatics, and waking up in a cage.
Kathleen's first introduction to Sam Winchester was the young man asking if she was all right. The very same young man who had apparently been locked in a cage for as long as he'd been missing, inquiring as to a complete stranger's health as she found herself in the same position. When she confirmed his identity and told him his 'cousin' was looking for him, the relief in his breathy "thank God" was palpable as he immediately transitioned into asking where his 'cousin' was - a natural progression, as if it was always his first question regardless of the situation. When the barn door creaked open soon after, she cowered back, looking fearfully at Sam, not knowing what to expect, but there was no fear in Sam's eyes – at first she thought it was because he had already seen their captors and knew what to expect – but then she realized his eyes were narrowed slightly in concentration, that he was listening to the steps, to the movement, as if recognizing patterns in a familiar presence.
And then she saw them together, and her heart ached for what she had lost. Because when Dean noticed the cages, his "Sam?" as he rushed at the bars was a rough, hopeful prayer. And Sam broke into a youthful, relieved smile, completely relaxed, as if it didn't matter that he was still locked in a cage by crazy backwoods lunatics – his 'cousin', his brother, was there, and everything was all right. When Dean punctuated his "damn, it's good to see you" by banging his hand against Sam's cage, Kathleen watched Dean visibly breathe again, while simultaneously shivering at an unconscious understanding of how different that bang could have been had Dean found Sam anything other than alive and unhurt.
Then came the conversation. When she asked Dean how he got out of the cuffs, she saw some of the dangerous Winchester in his response, and realized that the "tricks" he knew were part of a larger training, something to fear under the right circumstances. Then she listened to him and Sam talking – but the fact that they were talking about this mess like it was a case, as if it was perfectly natural to be in these kinds of situations with potentially non-human perpetrators….it all paled in comparison to the way they smoothly fell into the comfort of each other's presence. She listened to familiar brotherly teasing about Sam getting rusty…and realized that Dean wasn't the only one who had been trained in his last name. Then Dean confirmed Riley's car and by extension, what had happened, and that brotherhood suddenly focused directly on her – she felt the depth of Dean's "I'm sorry" as he realized it was her brother's car, felt Sam's confused, yet sad eyes as he glanced from her to Dean for confirmation, felt Sam and Dean look at each other guiltily in their relief that it hadn't ended the same way for them. And then Dean was off, to get them out, and Sam's "hey, be careful" was soft, practiced, urgent…..and pure worried little brother.
When the final fight began, Kathleen watched Sam live up to his and Dean's name, as he swiftly disarmed the Bender, taking the rifle and handling the weapon like he was born to it. The way he turned the game against the backwoods family – cutting the fuses, separating the men and taking them out one at a time - suggested an unparalleled strategic training. And when he saved her life and stood back to allow her to take up the rifle and guard the injured father, she saw the caring soul underneath all the ingrained militaristic skill. She saw the sadness in Sam's eyes as she told him to go ahead to the house, saw the fleeting hope that she wouldn't kill the injured man, yet also saw an equal understanding, one that said, were their positions reversed, he'd consider doing the same thing. That Dean would likely have done the same thing. And it was that understanding, coupled with the need to find his brother, that sent him to the house.
She looked down her surprisingly steady rifle to that backwoods bastard, who then had the nerve to threaten her for harming his family, only to laugh at the joy he took in destroying her own. Her grief surged, warring with shocked rage. Because this son of a bitch didn't know what family was. His eyes were cold when he said that word; they weren't swimming with need and emotion beyond words like Dean's had when looking for Sam, like Sam's had upon seeing Dean again. This so-called man had delighted in breaking her family when Sam and Dean had mourned her loss, even as they just met her. So, for the first time in her career, she shot an injured, unarmed suspect. Without thought.
And didn't regret a thing.
When she told Sam and Dean that the father had been "shot trying to escape", the two of them looked at each other, sad, yet knowingly, and she knew for sure at that moment they would have done the same, if not worse, for each other. She was touched when Dean paused before starting his walk back to town and apologized for the loss of her brother - it meant more than words could say because she knew that Dean got it; that family meant more to him than anyone would ever know – she had seen the fear in his eyes at the thought that she wouldn't let him continue to search for Sam, had seen the two of them look at each other in joyous relief in the darkened barn – and she knew that they were brothers with a bond far deeper than the one she and Riley had been blessed with. She thanked him for his sympathy and when she told him that it actually didn't hurt any less knowing what had happened, she saw the understanding in his face, saw Dean look to Sam, a hint of mirrored devastation in his eyes, at what could have been. Kathleen read it in every line on Dean's face - that while he had known his chances of finding Sam at all, let alone alive, were minimal, he had never truly prepared himself for either of those ends – and that, had one of those horrors come to be, Kathleen would have seen an entirely different Dean Winchester in that cage-filled barn. One far more dangerous than his name. But then she saw, again, a depth of respect within Dean's sorrow for her and her brother….and suddenly understood what that look had meant earlier that day. Dean was impressed – that she had been able to survive three years of missing brother and no answers, and now that she could go on living knowing her brother was dead. And she felt a shudder at that tacit admission - that this young man, a trained weapon with a weapon's last name, knew he wouldn't have survived the same end with Sam. She watched them walk off in the rain, noted the closeness of their shoulders, the teasing shoves….and her heart both sank for what she had lost and sang for what she saw those two regain.
The memories were gently dispersed by the sun-warmed morning air sweeping past her face as she walked up to Riley's grave, the cool metal of the little black toy car in her hands. It was almost funny how the news hadn't made her fear the Winchesters and what they could be; that instead, it had only reminded her of Sam and Dean and what she had seen that they were. So as she began her birthday ritual for her beloved brother, she thought of two more brothers, ones who had fought the odds and stayed together. Of two sets of eyes filled with love and devotion, two strangers who had mourned her loss even as they celebrated their victory over that very same loss.
She remembered Sam and Dean - everything they said and didn't say; every look and wordless action that made them who they were – to her, and to each other.
Because that was what mattered.