I don't think either Sam or Dean really understand family life -- of the kind they imagine to be normal, even though of course there is no such thing -- as anything other than a fantasy. It shows in the way they both view their parents in the trips to the past, especially Mary, who was as messed up and prone to do horrible things out of personal devotion as any Winchester. It shows in the way that family comes up in dream/vision situations -- WIAWNSB, DALDOM. I'm not sure that either of them truly grasps that the people they see or imagine in those mother, father, children families are fully real. The world is turned around for them from what it is for most people. For them the monsters and angels and urban legends and demons are real, and the few people -- overwhelmingly each other and their honorary family -- who are part of that world are real, but I suspect they see actual, 'normal' people as almost fictional. It's one of the things that make outsider POV fics so interesting, and yours is a lovely example.

On the selfishness and selflessness of Sam and Dean I have things to say, but not here and now. I think they are both an absolutely fascinating mixture of unbelievably selfless and unbelievably selfish, and not with the neat dichotomy of selfless Dean and selfish Sam (or occasionally vice versa) that they sometimes get reduced to.

Sorry, I'm metaspamming your comments, but I really liked the story, and I'm sorry it's nuances didn't go over at ff.net.