I do think that being buried alive and fighting his way out of the grave would have affected Dean. I think it's very likely that he would suffer from claustrophobia and I even wrote a fic about it a while back. I like yours much better than mine; great job!

Love Sam to the very fast absolutely horrified concern rescue !

Poor my(?!) Dean...
I never thought about this fear before...

and to think in Canon now he already dig himself twice.

Wow...

I guess as long as he think by dig himself from earth would make him come back to life and to Sam, it would be understandable fear ever !

Yeah, Dean would definitely have nightmares about being buried alive again... good story, even if it was hard to read. Sometimes, those are the better stories.

Ack. Dean being buried again after all that, putting him back into that panic even though Sam was right there and got him out in just a couple minutes and it wasn't hell and oh just seeing him flip out so completely was really powerful. He's never done that before. Not on the plane, not even really in Yellow Fever and when he did it was under ghostly influence. This was all him and all hell and it was horrible to see.

I loved this story; I really think that waking up in a coffin is a much bigger deal than the CW made of it! As always I am blown away by your attention to detail and your ability to infuse such meaning into specific sentences within your writing. Awesome job!

Love it. They both have so many things to work through. I love how calm and assured Sam is here, once he got Dean out.

I think my laugh at the end was a bit hysterical, too...*lol*

This story is great! When I watched 4x01 for the first time (not the first five minutes on youtube but the real whole episode) I was like 'Oh crap, that must have sucked, digging yourself outta that grave, Dean' I felt so sorry for him back then (well, I felt sorry for him throughout the whole season *sighs*) and I was wondering why it didn't seem to be a big being buried alive?Man, one of my biggest fears *shudders*But I don't think that will ever happen to me (because I'm not part of the Supernatural-universe *lol*)

I loved how you described the angst and Dean's also captured season4!boys very and the brotherly love...*sighs*

Great story, love it!

Kritty

I really wish that they would have mentioned Dean's being buried alive in Season 4. He should have said something like...

Thanks for pulling me out of Hell just so I could suffocate 6ft under.

Good job though. I liked it.

I think that's my worst fear, being buried alive. Really can't think of anything worse than that...claustrophobic is my middle name.

My whole being was clenching for Dean while reading here. Sam was awesome, tho; jumping in there and working fiercely to get his brother out.

Nice brother moment, too. Great fic.

Being buried alive has to be one of the creepiest things ever! I can't even imagine how Dean must have felt when he woke up. Then, to have a cave in during a hunt?

Loved the way Sam tried to compare his freak factor with Deans on a lesser scale, then, after the moment has passed, the snark unveils their 'shove it under the rug and deal with it' attitude. Nicely done!

:D

I liked reading that short story

That was really good. I love the way that Sam tried to relate to Dean's terror by sharing his fear, yet at the same time telling Dean it was nowhere close to what he must have gone through. I love that Dean understood what Sam was trying to do, and that it really helped him. They have this incredible unspoken bond that you write so incredibly well. Great piece of work!

Yikes - I read this on Sunday and again each day since and just realized I hadn't reviewed any of the times. This was beautiful, concise, and packed a wonderful S4 emotion punch. Thanks!

Phoebe

Oh my, this hunt was truly a beyond than tough experience on either Winchester. Sometimes you are really mean to them, you know.

For Dean, reliving those memories of waking up buried alive... I completely understand why he would freak out like that. And Sammy, I bet he would have gladly skipped being forced to listen to his brother's panicked screams and pounding of fists in the coffin underneath his feet. How terrible and convincing!

Their talk about Doc Benton and the helpless situation Sam had found himself in back then, fit well with Dean slowly coming to terms with his recent 'weakness' - and I love how the younger man admitted that he was already freaking out, despite not even remotely going through what Dean must have suffered at either time in the grave.

The brotherly moment between them in the end was so lovely, it made my heart ache, because I so would have loked to see them in "companionable silence" and "bumping each other's shoulder fondly" at any given time during this season. *sniff*

Still, I struggle a little with the mention of Doc Benton in combination with this adventure in the light of their actually burying Benton alive as well - for good, as I might add.

Awesome story with an imaginative and plausible plot line; one I never really gave much thought before.

People say everyone has the fear of being buried alive and if something triggers this fear, it becomes a phobia. That scene, when Dean woke up in a dark grave by himself in 'Lazarus Rising'...that was too scaring, the worst kind of loneliness. Like you said, "so much for a simple little hunt."

Amazing fic as always. It was so heartbreaking when Dean whispered "I'm sorry", humiliated. Despite all the angst, the end comes to lighten things up. It'd be easy to tend to overly dramatic, but you just get it right. I guess very feel people write it. Maybe only you. Brilliantly well done.

It's impossible to choose favourite lines here, but I loved Sam when he said: "I've never been there. Not even close."

Anmd this: "Maybe the demons weren’t the real challenges. Not the kind Sam could exorcise, anyway."; "Maybe Dean wasn’t the only one who needed to find his stride again."

Thank you!

the end is overly dramatic and the least interesting and most predicable part