The Runt of the Litter

Sanguine

Note: This was a request from animal10101. It's a heavy chapter so if you're feeling good, wait until the next time you're craving sadness to read this. This one is also unusual in that it's based around an episode of the show so there are chunks of it that are heavy on dialogue I didn't write. I'm sure you'll recognize them. The episode is 13.21 so if you haven't seen that far in the show, consider this a spoiler alert.
Also, this chapter became a way for me to pay some homage to the beautifully imperfect character that is Sam Winchester. Hopefully you all enjoy it. And hopefully this is something like what you were looking for, animal10101. I've never written for a request before, but I tried my best to create something worth reading.

Anna is nineteen.

Sanguine

Dean likes to joke that when I was a baby, I hated him and Dad. Sam, I loved.

Part of that, I deduced as I grew older and learned more about what their lives used to be like- Part of that was because Dean and Dad were the hunters extraordinaire. Sam, on the other hand, was always home with me. I knew him best as an infant because he was there unceasingly. He took care of me in my most helpless stage of life.

()()()

I watched with pride as Sam talked down to the devil. Bound by magic and sitting, as Dean put it, like a stuck pig in our library, bleeding archangel grace into the spell that would keep the door between worlds open, Lucifer looked positively miserable. It was a beautiful sight.

Sam was the first to step through the rift, followed by Cas and Gabriel, then Dean. I stepped up behind my oldest brother and looked Lucifer dead in the eyes. I felt my lips twitch in a smile as I stared at him for a moment. He stared bitterly up at me and I stuck my tongue out at him just because I could. Then I turned and stepped through the rift.

The world darkened rapidly. Beneath my feet leaves and branches crunched. I lifted my head and saw Sam looking uncomfortably between Castiel and Gabriel who both appeared slightly flustered.

"What'd I miss?" I asked him.

"Nothing," Gabriel answered before Sam could say anything. "Nothing," he repeated. "I could've used a heads up about this landing site," he said, disgruntled.

I turned a confused smile over to Dean, but he looked serious. He was in hunter mode and not in the mood for nonsense. "Yeah. Thought we'd get spit out in the same spot, but this isn't it," he said. "Alright, well, Charlie-- the other Charlie-- said that Mary and Jack have an outpost in Dayton."

"Okay," Sam said. "Let's get out bearings and head that way. Cas, where are we?"

I watched Cas close his eyes and concentrate. It would be awesome to be able to do even half the things Cas can do with his angel mojo. "Uh, Kentucky. Northeast Kentucky. Or what used to be Kentucky."

I grinned, wondering if it would ever get less cool watching Cas do stuff like that.

Dean looked up and pointed in one direction. "Which means that's north. Okay, so Dayton's that way. Roughly." I thought maybe it would be just as cool to be able to do what Dean could do with his human knowledge. Dean looked around at each of us. "Two days by foot," he said. "But... that way."

I bobbed my eyebrows, feeling a little less excited. Long walks... nothing like 'em. "Alright, cool," I said. Beneath our moving feet, there was the rustling of leaves and the snapping of twigs.

()()()

I was almost three when Sam left for Stanford. The details of that night are fuzzy now. All I remember is the way Sam's eyes were so bloodshot, his words so sharp, and the way Dad just kept cutting him down every step of the way.