And! And! And now I'm just being ridiculously long-winded, but what else is new?
I was trying to show with Dean, written as this was mid-season 2, what the burden of protecting Sam does to him. Losing Sam is something that he dreads, so if Sam died, he would be released from that incredible burden of fear and responsibility. It's sort of like talking about the sugar-coating on a cyanide pill, but I think his grief would be complicated and worsened by relief that at least, now that the worst had come to pass, he no longer had anything to fear.
The corollary to that is that when Sam turns up alive, Dean has to shoulder that burden again. I don't know how, but a sequel to this fic would have to show how much harder it was for Dean to take on that dread again after being free of it.
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I was trying to show with Dean, written as this was mid-season 2, what the burden of protecting Sam does to him. Losing Sam is something that he dreads, so if Sam died, he would be released from that incredible burden of fear and responsibility. It's sort of like talking about the sugar-coating on a cyanide pill, but I think his grief would be complicated and worsened by relief that at least, now that the worst had come to pass, he no longer had anything to fear.
The corollary to that is that when Sam turns up alive, Dean has to shoulder that burden again. I don't know how, but a sequel to this fic would have to show how much harder it was for Dean to take on that dread again after being free of it.