Disclaimer: Supernatural. I own DVDs and my imagination. No more, no less. I also worship at Kripke's altar.
A/N: Because everyone has to write a fic about AHBL, and about the Deal, and I'm no different. Hitting 'Faith', 'In My Time of Dying', and the tail end of AHBL2.
Summary: Do not go gentle into that good night.
RAGE AGAINST THE DYING
"I'm not gonna let you die, period. We're goin'."
The first time Dean brushed shoulders with a Reaper, he barely even felt it – overwhelmed instead by the heavy weight of his heart, the tingling numbness in fingers and feet, the darkness encroaching on his vision with every shortened breath. As far as dying went, it sucked. Every scrap of energy was devoted to the next beat of his heart, leaving him nothing for those times he managed to stay awake. He was drained and listless and it hurt.
Dean could see the end coming, one long slow slide to oblivion, and it would almost be a relief to leave the pain behind. Not to leave Sam, but to just lay his burden – the hunting – down.
"We were just starting to be brothers again."
The second time, he can't remember. Not anything beyond a pit in his stomach that reopened whenever he thought about it, threatening to swallow him whole. Then Dad, and the less said about all of it, the better.
Now, though.
"How could you do that?"
And it's not that Dean wants to die. But he knows a little something about debts and tallies and how many times you get to call do over.
And, well.
Third time's the charm.
Fin