Ficlet: The Tipping Point (a drabble)
Author: sandymg
Summary: Watching one of your parents die isn't something you just get over.
Spoilers: Through S2x01 In the Time of My Dying
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or any of its characters. They belong to the CW and Eric Kripke – who'd best treat them well
A/N: Written for the Canon Quotes Comment!fic Meme at LiveJournal's spnquotefic community
The Tipping Point
Sam sees the coffee. Landed straight. Doesn't seem possible, does it, that it would land that way? Shouldn't it tip?
He tells Dean this. "The coffee didn't tip."
"What?"
"Before ... When Dad … He made me buy him coffee and when I saw … I dropped it. Landed straight. Not normal."
Dean looks at him with a sarcastic twist to his lips. "Wasn't the coffee that killed him."
"I know this. I mean, he didn't even drink it." Which is ridiculous. Absurd. And why is he thinking about this now? They need to sneak into the morgue and steal their father's body and … It didn't fall.
But Dad did.
"Did he seem okay? I mean, when he spoke with you?"
Dean meets Sam's eyes before quickly looking away. "He was the same. He was … Dad."
And if that didn't tell Sam everything, nothing would.
"It's just … I mean, one minute we're all talking. Sort of … and then he … "
"Yeah. I know, Sammy."
Sam and Dean stand in front of the morgue door. Neither goes to open it.
"It's just weird, you know. How it all just changed. I saw … he was just lying there." And the coffee didn't tip.
Dean grips Sam's shoulder. "We have to do this."
Dead green eyes meet Sam's and Sam thinks, shit, this is the second time Dean's had to do this. Well, not this exactly. But live through this. Feel this. Except Sam doesn't know what this feels like. Because it hasn't fallen down yet. It's just suspended in time like the coffee cup.
fin