Loved this so much! Spnlady

Love it!

I LOVED this! Perfection and I laughed a few times. Hated the "Sam never bothered to look" storyline. Love your explanation. Again, perfection. Thank you

Gah! If only Show would deliver scenes like this! My three major disappointments with the boys (which have never been properly resolved on screen) are 1. The tampered voicemail before Sam kills Lilith; 2. The setting for this story, where Dean persecutes Sam for not trying to find/retrieve him in Purgatory; and 3. The fallout after Gadreel resulting in "let's not be brothers" and the Mark of Cain.

At least you are helping me choke down the patty of my angst burger with stories like this. LOL Thanks for your service to the fandom! ;)

Beautifully done. This is one of the things in the series that always bothered me. Sam's apparent abandonmen of Dean which he never really defends himself for and for which Dean never wants the real explanation. Your interaction between them is spot on.

Oh, you guys. I love the set-up of this, the pool game they both start throwing rather than win what they don't want. And the conversation which we all want to hear but didn't get to.

8th season is actually one of my favorites even if the first half is so painful, because they're both equally being idiots and jerks. Dean's an idiot for thinking Sam not looking for him means Sam didn't care, but then Sam could just say that he was grieving and struggling just to get by and that he's sorry for not saving him, and he doesn't. And Sam's equally idiotic for thinking Benny could actually replace him, but Dean could just tell him that outright, and could've introduced Benny to him in any way than how he actually did. I like the symmetry of it, and liked seeing all of that explored here. Am not sure I can actually fit it into my reading of canon (I'd like to think if they actually had talked things out to this extent, at this point in the season, they would've been a little better off) but if they had talked, I think it would've gone very like this, and I wish it had happened (not the least of which because I'd love to see their pool hustling skills on display, how good they are at playing that badly, hee!)

Now why didn't the show address this issue like this? That Sam was afraid that he would fall into some trap the demons had for him again. That he couldn't do that again and survive. That it wasn't that he didn't want to look for Dean, but that he was afraid of what would come after if he couldn't find him.

Thank you for this wonderful tag. You understand these brothers so much better than some of our show writers.

This story is SO Winchester.

Wonderful scene.
I love that brothers worked out their anger and hurt over a game of pool that neither one wanted to win.
I wonder if the bunker has a pool table?

This is really beautiful :) thanks again, really look forward to new stories of you each week!

Superb, as always. :)

Why do these two not carry a pool table with them!?

(I may have accidentally posted this twice due to a login error, sorry if I did)

I always wanted this talk to happen on the show. Having them both try to lose was the best way to show how much they cared- I always feel like you get their personalities perfectly in your stories. Although, I am still feeling like I never got Sam's explanation of why he didn't look for Dean. I guess I just need Sam to say it outright. I would really love a follow up with Sam saying exactly what happened or his thought process (maybe he needs to be drunk to say it), I still feel Dean deserves to hear it stated, not hinted at. I was so mad at Sam all season for not looking for Dean (even though he tends to be my favorite- oh, who am I kidding I love them both!). The season 8 finale was my favorite episode of all, due primarily to the speech between Sam and Dean in the church. Sam finally put it in words how he messed up and let Dean know how he felt. Dean returned with heartfelt acceptance. I just need more detail earlier! Can you continue to fix my aggravation with Sam? Please?

It's always great to read a new story of yours! Especially when the boys bury the hatchet, so to speak. I absolutely love your use of them playing pool for stakes and then purposely losing to each other so they can have a discussion. Spot on!

Oh my great job