darkhavens: text icon: 15 m/m pairings in dk purple, with paler txt darkhavens and even paler txt multifandom ho. (Default)
[personal profile] darkhavens
OMG WORDS!

I finally managed to put words together with some kind of coherency... I hope. (Please, tell me if I'm wrong, k? I'm so totally unable to do more than squee, because OMG WORDS!)

Author: darkhavens
Title: Mary's Smile
Pairing/Fandom: Supernatural - John, Sam/Dean
Rating: PG
Words: 550
Feedback/Concrit: darkhavens @ slashverse.com
Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. No harm, no foul, no money made.
Warnings/Squicks: Implied Wincest, implied het.
Summary: John recognises one of Dean's smiles and what it means
Notes: Written for [livejournal.com profile] summercon's Hodgepodge Challenge - here.
Also for [livejournal.com profile] drvsilla, who requested #048 - 'Discover' on my SPN [livejournal.com profile] 100_situations BDT, wanting 'John discovers Sam/Dean'.


Mary's Smile

He can't quite remember when he first realized what was going on. It was no great bolt of lightning revelation, no horrified gasp of discovery from an open bedroom doorway. He never actually saw anything he could point to and say, "See that? There - right in front of me, my own flesh and blood!" In fact, for a pair of Winchester brats, they're amazingly discreet.

The small things speak the loudest.

They used to argue or wrestle or throw knives to decide who got stuck with the grocery run each week, but after a three-day hunting trip that stretched to three weeks, he comes home to hear them say they'll go together. He's too tired right then to do much more than nod, but it keeps happening.

Dean puts on a good show - always ready to point out that Sam never gets the chips Dean likes, the right brand of beans or the freshest loaf of bread. And Sam just rolls his eyes and starts explaining vegetables to Dean until Dean hauls off and hits him and then drags him to the car.

When they go together, they're gone for twice the time it took when only one of them would go, but John doesn't question them. Not even when they come back rumpled, smudged and out of breath, eyes bright, Sam's mop of hair clumped into sweat slick curls at his nape. He trusts them to tell him if they get into trouble.

Then they start visiting the Laundromat together, without him having to threaten to burn their clothes or make them sleep outside. Sam voluntarily joins Dean on his endurance-building runs, foregoing the usual evil eye at John for forcing him to take time away from his studies.

He's so sure that this is all about Sammy coming to terms with how his life has to be - the hunt, vengeance, always being prepared - that it takes a while for him to recognise the smile that Dean sometimes wears when they come back from wherever they've been gone to.

It's Mary's smile. The smile she always wore in bed after they'd spent some time messing up the sheets, getting hot and sweaty, intimate. It almost makes his heart stop.

After that, he can't not look. Obsessively, he catalogs every tiny touch, each sideways glance, the time they're not right there in front of him. He keeps seeing that smile and it nearly breaks him.

But he doesn't say a word, because he knows that smile. He knows that Mary didn't wear it from the start; he didn't see it until their second year of marriage, once they'd gone from being in love to simply loving. It's a smile that says 'I know your feet smell and that you wouldn't floss if I didn't make you. I know you'd rather be messing around under the hood of someone's car than taking me to the movies. I know you think I'm being paranoid when I say that the look in the eyes of the guy you hired last week makes my skin crawl. But I love everything about you, even the bits you hate yourself.'

It's a smile that says, whatever he's seeing now, it's not a new thing.

He wonders just how long he's been blind.


Page 1 of 4 << [1] [2] [3] [4] >>

on 2006-09-21 07:02 pm (UTC)
ext_11979: (Mckay not a yo yo by shadowserenity)
Posted by [identity profile] suki-blue.livejournal.com
Ooh, naughty bois!

Very well written, my darling. You've found your words! Yay!!

on 2006-09-21 07:07 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] katbcoll.livejournal.com
*\o/* Words! Good words! Great words strung together... uh greatly! Yeah! That's it!

Seriously, welcome back to the muses and this was wonderful!

on 2006-09-21 07:26 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] ataniell93.livejournal.com
I love this bit of gorgeousity :D and what you are saying here about love.

on 2006-09-21 07:27 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] darkhavens.livejournal.com
*squees at your icon* :D

Thank you, darlin'! I have to admit that most of this was scribbled weeks ago during a break at work, but I managed to add to it and tweak it and I still feel damn proud of finally being able to string words together again. I was really starting to worry.

on 2006-09-21 07:31 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] darkhavens.livejournal.com
Thank you! :D

Losing my words is the scariest thing that's ever happened to me. I spent most of my 20s not writing and it was a very depressing time. YAY WORDS!

on 2006-09-21 07:38 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] thismaz.livejournal.com
Strange, wonderfully comfortable story. Kind of weird, very nice. I love the memory of Mary's smile and the emotions it brings to the surface of John's memory.

on 2006-09-21 07:40 pm (UTC)
tabaqui: (s&dwcarbyliterati)
Posted by [personal profile] tabaqui
*smooooooooch*
Wheeeeeee! Hi!

And ooh, luff. Poor John - no clue what to do! Luff this:
And Sam just rolls his eyes and starts explaining vegetables to Dean until Dean hauls off and hits him and then drags him to the car.

Heeee!

Hope you don't mind a teeny thing...'messing about under the hood' would prolly be 'messing around'. About's just not used that way here much. *Some*, but not much.

on 2006-09-21 07:55 pm (UTC)
ext_16473: (SN going to hell by noway-icons)
Posted by [identity profile] ellel.livejournal.com
Wow.Simply stunning fic...read it twice and love it:)
Dean has Mary's smile and this kinda makes my heart break for John.

Obsessively,he catalogs every tiny touch,each sideways glance,the time they're not right there in front of him. He keeps seeing that smile and it nearly breaks him.
yeah,right here.

on 2006-09-21 08:11 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] darkhavens.livejournal.com
Thank you. :D

I think true love is when you see the stinky socks in the corner, and you see the stubble in the sink, and you smile, because it's their socks, and their stubble. ;)

on 2006-09-21 08:14 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] darkhavens.livejournal.com
Thanks!

I think John must have (eventually) got used to seeing little flashes of Mary in both of his boys, but that smile would stand out as special, as theirs.

on 2006-09-21 08:19 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] darkhavens.livejournal.com
You know Sam's spent time following Dean around at the grocery store 'explaining' bananas and broccoli until Dean threatens to stuff a watermelon in his mouth, sideways, if he doesn't shut the fuck up. *g*

Thanks for the tweak! (Always, always appreciated.)

on 2006-09-21 08:49 pm (UTC)
tigriswolf: (howling wolf 1)
Posted by [personal profile] tigriswolf
Wow. Well done.

on 2006-09-21 09:06 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] darkhavens.livejournal.com
Thank you!

I think, between the two of them, Sam and Dean must have at least a couple of Mary's mannerisms and quirks. Every new one probably takes John by surprise, but this one would be a real shocker.

on 2006-09-21 09:06 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] darkhavens.livejournal.com
Thank you. :D

on 2006-09-21 09:47 pm (UTC)
ext_16473: (SN sammy red by lalla32)
Posted by [identity profile] ellel.livejournal.com
Agree!Children are supposed to have some of their parents quirks and characteristics.I always thought Sam would have a lot of John in him and Dean must have some of Mary's qualities.

Every new one probably takes John by surprise,but this one would be a real shocker.
That must've scared him a bit,but also maybe stopped him from freaking out and ending their relationship?
:)

on 2006-09-21 10:08 pm (UTC)
tabaqui: (deangunporn)
Posted by [personal profile] tabaqui
Heeeeeee.
Well, I can bananas and maybe...corn. Or carrots. But broccoli?
*squints at you*

:)

on 2006-09-21 10:37 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] blazeorfade.livejournal.com
*Squees* I love JohnFindsOut fics. This is definately one of my favorites thus far.

on 2006-09-21 11:22 pm (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] literati.livejournal.com
words! ...and what words! :D

This is so beautiful, babe. Just gorgeous!

on 2006-09-22 12:16 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] eboniorchid.livejournal.com
Ya know, I totally came over here mostly for the Spander initially, but I really like the way you write the Winchesters.

I mean, the fact that John is clueless, then gets a clue and freaks out a bit, but then gets a deeper clue and chooses not to freak out in front of the boys, it all just seems really true to John as I understand his character. I mean, the Sam/Dean squicks him a bit, but he's not going to stop the boys from finding love and joy in each other.

on 2006-09-22 12:18 am (UTC)
mf_luder_xf: (SPN lost w/o you)
Posted by [personal profile] mf_luder_xf
Beautiful. I always love your fics.

It's Mary's smile. The smile she always wore in bed after they'd spent some time messing up the sheets, getting hot and sweaty, intimate. It almost makes his heart stop.

It makes my heart break for John, and feel so happy for Dean.

on 2006-09-22 12:54 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] destina.livejournal.com
Wow. I crave stories where John figures it out, and this is a particularly hard-hitting way for him to realize it. Really well-done.

on 2006-09-22 12:57 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] moveablehistory.livejournal.com
I adore what you're saying about love in this little piece. ♥

on 2006-09-22 04:28 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] harley85.livejournal.com
Beautiful...a job well done. :)

on 2006-09-22 07:19 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] anakin415.livejournal.com
love this

on 2006-09-22 10:18 am (UTC)
Posted by [identity profile] nixwilliams.livejournal.com
it's all been said before, but this fic is really gorgeous, and has a lovely symmetry to it - going forwards, looking back.
Page 1 of 4 << [1] [2] [3] [4] >>

Profile

darkhavens: text icon: 15 m/m pairings in dk purple, with paler txt darkhavens and even paler txt multifandom ho. (Default)
darkhavens

November 2009

S M T W T F S
123 45 67
8 91011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Feb. 7th, 2026 11:49 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios