A/N: Okay, so this chapter is another one based on a prompt I received via my other project, "How To Fix A Winchester" requesting a Sam comforts Henry one-shot, but when I had wrote it, I realized it fit better on this project. The prompter was SparkleBattle, so hopefully they forgive me for jumping projects with their prompt!
Reviews are Love!
As Always,
EverReader
Disclaimer: Not my sandbox. Remember, mine's green and shaped like a turtle.
Confessions Of A Boy King – Chapter Four
"Nameless Saviors"
Sam approached Henry cautiously. Dean would probably be upset that he was talking to the man period, but Dean was feeling pretty defensive all around right now.
And Henry looked absolutely miserable.
Henry looked up, meeting Sam's eyes bleakly, shaking his head.
"I can't. I can't just stay here, and not go back. How can I leave them?" Henry asked desperately. "I've paged through this...this journal of your father's. This is John, my son, John, and he had this...horrible, lonely life. You're asking me to just let it happen..."
Sam sighed. "I know. I was there for some of it. I caused some of it. Thing is, I'm pretty certain even if you hadn't been forced to come here, had somehow managed to return, it wouldn't have mattered."
"What do you mean?" Henry asked.
Sam paused, testing his words carefully, tasting them. "Well, for starters, Dean and I exist. Simply put, that means no matter what, Dad meant Mom. The demons wanted it, and so did the angels."
"What do you mean, the angels? No one's seen an angel in a thousand years..." Henry said in disbelief.
"Until about four years ago. Now they're popping up like daisies. It's..." Sam sighed. He hadn't wanted to say it, admit who he was, but he couldn't let Henry suffer under the delusion that John's suffering was his fault.
"Have you heard of the prophecy of the boy king?" He finally asked, meeting his grandfather's eyes.
Henry nodded. "Yes, the one who frees Lucifer, who starts the apocalypse. But that's only a legend."
Sam grimaced, scratching his head awkwardly. "Uh...yeah. About that." He held his hand out to Henry.
"Hi, I''m Sam Winchester, ex-blood junkie, and I jump started the apocalypse."
Supernatural Supernatural Supernatural Supernatural Supernatural Supernatural Supernatural Supernatural Supernatural
It took nearly two hours for Sam to explain everything, but finally, even Henry's curious mind was satisfied.
About what had happened, but not his role in things.
"Sam, I don't understand, you of all people should want me to go back. I can change John's life, YOUR life. I can fix things." Henry argued.
Sam shook his head. "We can't. We change even one thing, and who knows what might happen."
"You might not have to spend two centuries in the cage with Lucifer." Henry pointed out.
"I might give in all together. I might truly turn evil. Dean and I might fail. They angels might target another family all together, but Dean and I might not even exist. Sure, I might not suffer, but everyone else could. I can't condone risking that, and Dad might have been little when you last saw him, but you have to know, that's not what he would want. It's not the action you chose, when you tried to flee from Abaddon. You chose hope over fear, over the potential pain, and I have to do the same."
"John was...so bitter, at the end." Henry said, pacing. "He thought I abandoned him."
"Yes." Sam agreed. "But try to give him some credit. Once he became a hunter, he began to understand just how wrong things can go. I refuse to believe that once he learned about the supernatural, that he never considered that your disappearance might have been forced. Especially once he learned how the demons were targeting me and Dean. Dad was one of the most brilliant and strategic hunters I've ever met. He may not have known you had a good reason, but trust me, once his eyes were opened, I'm sure he at least considered it. He had to make some pretty dark choices in his life. The thing is, Henry, you did good. He was a good Dad, despite everything. Heaven and Hell through am impossible situation at him, and he dealt with it. He died to save Dean, and Dean died to save me."
"And you died to save everyone." Henry replied.
Sam shrugged. "Yeah. But I was only able to do it because Dean came back for me. And Dean learned that from Dad. Dad stressed family over everything. Because he was hurt, when you left. It was all some horrible, intricate chain of events, but somehow, we won. What you did, coming here, set that all in motion. And a cupid once told us how hard they worked to get Mom and Dad together. Mom was a hunter, if Dad had grown up as a legacy Man of Letters, the angels might have taken action against you instead. They were determined, Henry. The deck was stacked against all of us, from the start. But we won."
"At the price of my family, of our family." Henry said bitterly.
Sam sighed. He pulled a photo out of his wallet. It was a smiling dark haired woman. "This is Amelia. I left her, to continue hunting with Dean when he returned. And it haunts me. I can here her voice, in my head, all the time. Laughing, chiding, humming. But I made the right choice."
Sam pulled out a second photo. "Cas, our angel friend, gave this to me, after my soul was returned. I was in a pretty dark place, still hurting over what I'd done, trusting Ruby, using my powers."
Henry studied the photo. It was of a blond woman, holding a little boy on her lap. "Who is this?" He asked.
Sam shook his head. "I don't know her name. I never asked. Cas probably could have told me. I didn't need to know, though. I know the little boy's name, though. It's Jonathan."
"Then, why do you carry her photograph?" Henry asked in bewilderment.
Sam swallowed. "Our demon blade kills demons, but it also kills the host. That was what drew me to using my powers in the first place. Ruby convinced me that using my power saved the host. After she betrayed me, I though perhaps it was all lies, that...I had just wanted power. That in using my abilities, I had failed. Cas brought me this photo. That woman was...had been, possessed. I pulled the demon out of her with my mind. She was in therapy for about two years, but when she came out, she met someone. A man."
"And now they have a child? Jonathan?" Henry guessed.
"Yup." Sam said, standing and shoving his hands into his pockets, feeling awkward. "Cas said, he wouldn't have been born unless I had saved his mother. And some day, she's going to tell him about having a nervous breakdown, how she was delusional, and how she almost killed herself when she was being treated for it. He's going to grow up listening to his mother's stories about her battle with depression and suicide, and..." He trailed off, still feeling weird saying it.
"What?" Henry prompted curiously.
Sam sighed again. "Angel's can see the future, or maybe sense is the better word. He's going to become a doctor. A therapist, and he's going to come up with a treatment that is going to...save a lot of people. A lot of people. And one of those people will become something else, and they're going to save someone, and on and on and on."
"Why would he tell you this? Isn't knowing the future dangerous?" Henry asked.
Sam shrugged with one shoulder. "He wanted me to know...my legacy, I guess. Not just the people I saved when I went to the cage, not just when I was acting as the 'Boy King'. The people I saved when I was just Sam Winchester."
"Why is this supposed to make me feel better?" Henry asked. "Your legacy and your brother's might be impressive, but what does it have to do with me, with John?"
Sam looked at him. "Because it's not just my legacy, or Dean's. It's my father's, and it's yours. Your sacrifice, your leaving your family? That's why this little boy exists. And every person he saves, and every person they help. We're Winchesters. We're always going to have extraordinary lives. But that isn't what makes us extraordinary. Our choices do. People are alive, because of you, Henry. They're going to be born, and go to school and fall in love. They'll become parents and lovers and scientists and writers, because of you. Because you were willing to do the hard thing. That's the Winchester legacy. We're the ones who are willing to do the hard things. And it starts with you. You are the link in the chain where the Winchester legacy goes from being a watcher, a researcher and a librarian to being someone who's willing to give everything to save someone. It starts with you."
"That doesn't change the fact that sixty years ago, a little boy is lying in bed waiting for his father to come home. And now, he never will." Henry said, with one silent tear trickling down his face.
Sam smiled sadly. "That little boy grows up to be a hero. Give him a little credit. He was stronger than you realize, and he got it from you, Henry."
Henry was quiet for a long time. "You think I should just...give up?"
Sam shook his head. "You're not giving up on them. You're letting them go. There's a difference. Winchesters don't give up on family. You and me, right here and now, that proves it. Winchesters are so damned determined to take care of each other that I'm comforting my own grandfather, who came forward in time sixty years just to see me."
Henry laughed a little forlornly. "So, what your saying is, this is right?"
"I know it doesn't feel like it. But yeah, it is. This is the price." Sam said quietly.
Henry sighed. "My father had a saying, I didn't understand it as a child, but I think I'm beginning to. He always said that people had a bad habit of confusing things that were priceless with things that were free."
"You're choosing hope, Henry. And you're choosing to have faith in him, and us. Thank you." Sam said meaningfully, looking Henry directly in the eyes.
"It's gonna be okay."
