Rather a Story

Title: The Burning Bridge
Summary: Written for spn_j2_bigbang. Season 6 AU. With no end in sight on their quest to restore Sam's soul or to figure out just what Crowley is up to in his search for Purgatory, Sam and Dean break off in order to investigate a string of mysterious deaths in which the victims exhibited all the signs of radiation poisoning with no apparent cause before their deaths. The case takes a darker turn, however, when soon after they begin investigating Sam begins to exhibit the same symptoms as the victims. Suddenly Dean finds himself facing the disturbing dilemma of whether it might not be easier to let go of this empty-shell version of his brother and simply let the illness take its course...
Artist: The brilliant and awesomely talented tripoli
Link to Art: http://tripoli.livejournal.com/492758.html
Characters: Dean, Sam, Cas, Bobby, OCs
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 21,403
Disclaimer: All recognizable belongs to the CW.
Warnings: Levels of violence commensurate with the show.
Neurotic Author's Note #1: There are several people to thank for this! First off, my fantastically talented artist, tripoli, who illustrated this story in such an imaginative way. I am in awe, because she touched on all the important notes of the story in incredibly creative ways that would never even have occurred to me. There's also rainylemons, who not only beta'd the crap out of this story, but did the usual hand-holding she always does when I wailed unendingly to her about my writing, and once again served as my own personal medical encyclopedia without ever once complaining or balking. I love you, darling! Any mistakes concerning the subject matter found herein should of course be attributed to my lack of understanding, and any remaining grammar/spelling/syntactical mishaps are also all mine. And last but not least, wendy and thehighwaywoman for the herculean task of running the spn_j2_bigbang.
Neurotic Author's Note #2: So this fic has gone through about a million permutations before it ended up here. A long, long time ago, there were conversations with a few people, de_nugis included, about a story about Sam with radiation poisoning. I kept meaning to write it, and even signed up for a prompt by poor shangrilada in order to try to get this done, but it never happened. Instead, I started writing it for the hc_bigbang, but when that challenge didn't work out, I gave myself one last push in order to get it done for the main Big Bang, and here it is!
Neurotic Author's Note #3: Okay, confession time. This story is actually a shameless fix-it attempt on my part. No, seriously, this is the story in which I attempt to fix ALL the things about S6, and a couple of earlier things too. Yeah, I got nothing. On a purely storytelling front, this was a surprisingly difficult story to write, mostly because Soulless!Sam was and continues to be a bit of a mystery to me. That being said, I am quite pleased with how it turned out, in the end. I hope you'll all enjoy it!

( The Burning Bridge )

Title: Save Me From the Dark
Summary: Season 5 AU. After the events of 'The End' Castiel manages to get Dean away from Zachariah, but when Dean returns he finds that nine months have gone by and, more importantly, that Sam has all but disappeared from the face of the planet. When he does find him, he discovers that Sam has been permanently altered during his absence.
Characters: Dean, Sam, OCs, minor appearance by Bobby.
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 9,829
Disclaimer: I'm waiting for the show to end so I can get 'em on sale.
Warnings: Permanent injury. Swearing.
Neurotic Author's Note: Yeah, I'm not sure where this came from, but it wanted to be written. I'm not 100% happy with it, but short of a total re-write I think it's as good as it's going to get.

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( Save Me From the Dark )

Title: Fear Not That Ye Have Died for Naught
Summary: Fusion 'verse. Mrs. O'Keefe finds that she has more in common with her new neighbours than she thought.
Characters: Sam, OFC, brief appearances by Dean and Bobby
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 3,537
Disclaimer: I still maintain they would be better off with me. Alas, the CW disagrees and won't let me have them.
Warnings: mentions of suicide
Neurotic Author's Note #1: I haven't done an outsider POV for Fusion in a while, and I've been wanting to get into Mrs. O'Keefe's head for a really long time. So this is as much about her as it is about Sam and Dean.
Neurotic Author's Note #2: Every time I worry that I might be getting near the end of this 'verse, three more ideas pop into my head. At this rate, I will be writing them for years. It's like the plot bunnies are really trying to live up to their names and reproducing like it's going out of style.
Neurotic Author's Note #3: The title is taken from a poem by Moina Michael called We Shall Keep the Faith, which was a response to the famous poem In Flanders' Fields by John McCrae.

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( Fear Not That Ye Have Died for Naught )

Title: The Best We Can With What We've Got
Summary: Sam gets sick, and somehow that's the least of their problems.
Characters: Sam, Dean, Bobby, OC
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 6,513
Disclaimer: After the latest PCA fiasco, the networks don't deserve them. Come live with me, Sam and Dean! I will take very good care of you, I promise! ¬_¬
Warnings: Spoilers up to 7.09, but more heavily focused on early Season 7
Neurotic Author's Note #1: This is an attempt at a prompt by the lovely and talented vail_kagami for the Sam-focused h/c challenge at ohsam. The prompt ran thus: Sam got hurt or sick or has another Hell-related breakdown. The Leviathans are on the lookout for them, they are officially-dead serial killers, and so Dean and Bobby deal with it the usual way: The panic room may be gone, but the new place has a basement and that'll do just fine. Eventually they have no other choice but to get a doctor, though - and that doctor is more than shocked to find someone in that state stored in a basement. He's even more shocked when he learns that it's not the first time. I don't really care how it happens, I just want someone to chew Dean and Bobby out for their way of dealing with Sam when he should be in a hospital.
Neurotic Author's Note #2: I'm not super happy with how this turned out, but I think I've been staring at it for so long I've gone cross-eyed and I am no longer able to be objective about it, so I'm just going to post and hope for the best.
Neurotic Author's Note #3: This isn't actually an outsider POV, but there is an OC. That's about as close as I got to the original prompt. /o\

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( The Best We Can With What We've Got )

But I just watched the last episode of Show and ( Cut for... IDEK )

Summergen reveals are up!

Title: The Blood of the Wicked
Summary: Written for spn_summergen for a prompt by the lovely and talented. chiiyo86. Profiler!AU. Still struggling with the guilt resulting from the accidental death of his father two years ago, FBI profiler Dean Winchester takes on the case of a spree killer who thinks he's on a mission from God. Not even his brother Sam's best attempts to help can prevent him from letting the case consume him until he runs the very real risk of losing himself entirely.
Characters: Dean, Sam, Castiel/Jimmy Novak, with appearances by Ellen, Bobby and Ash.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Religious subject matter (i.e. very loose interpretations of Judeo-Christian scripture). Show-levels of violence. Major character death.
Author’s Notes: chiiyo86 asked for an AU in which Cas is an assassin and Dean (and possibly Sam too) is a cop. This is as close as I got.
Many, many thanks to the wonderful yasminke for the beta and for her tireless help with the massive amounts of research into scripture this took. She is a rockstar and this story would not be what it is without her.

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( The Blood of the Wicked )

Title: Panic
Summary: From a prompt at the ohsam comment-fic meme by the lovely and talented de_nugis, which went thus: What with detoxes and resoulings, Sam's memories of the panic room can't be good. So it's unfortunate that they are under some supernatural siege at Bobby's and retreating into the panic room and closing the door is the only way to be safe. Full prompt can be found here.
Characters: Sam, Dean, mentions of Bobby, Sheriff Mills and Marcy Ward.
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 2,182
Disclaimer: So they renewed SPN, which means all hopes I had of spiriting the whole thing away and keeping it in my closet have been dashed.
Warnings: Eh, none this time around.
Neurotic Author's Note #1: I ended up cutting this short, because it's comment-fic and otherwise it would have ended up five times as long and probably not very good. Also, I couldn't really think of a title, so this is what you get.
Neurotic Author's Note #2: Yes, I am procrastinating on my Big Bang even though I don't have enough time to really do that. But it's Sam, so how could I resist whumping him a bit?

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( Panic )

Title: Wake Me Up Inside
Prompt/Summary: Sam gets his soul back, and Dean is afraid. Written for the Hug Time Now comment-fic meme. Original prompt by the lovely and talented kate_mct can be found here.
Characters: Dean, Sam, Bobby
Rating: PG13
Wordcount: 2,379
Disclaimer: This is the very true story of how Sam Winchester might have gotten his soul back. Except that it never happened, which makes it fiction, and thus not real.
Warnings: Swearing. Aaaaaaaaaaangst! And manpain! Spoilers up to 6.11.
Neurotic Author's Note #1: Okay, so the prompt asked for schmoop and cuddles, and instead poor kate_mct got angst and tears. But there is a hug, so I guess all isn't lost.
Neurotic Author's Note #2: Comment-fic. No beta, no nothing. You know the drill. Please be forgiving of typos and occasionally wacky syntax.
Neurotic Author's Note #3: I'm sorry about the title. Truly. But it works in this context, I swear! No, I promise. Plus, I like the song. (Shh!)

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( Wake Me Up Inside )

After far too long a delay, I am back in the swing of things. I think there are maybe one or two chapters left in this thing, and then there will be a sequel. Stay tuned!

Master Post

Chapter 11

( Chapter 12 )

Chapter 13

Title: In Roaring He Shall Rise
Prompt/Summary: Written for pyrebi for Novakfest. Her prompt was for a high seas AU in which Jimmy gets press-ganged into the Royal Navy.
Characters: Jimmy, Sam, Dean, Castiel with guest appearances by Crowley and Bobby
Rating: PG-13
Wordcount: 16,625
Disclaimer: Nothing recognizable in this fic belongs to me.
Warnings: Complete disregard for canon. Misuse of 18th-century ships. Minor character death.
Neurotic Author's Note #1: I veered away from the prompt a little bit, but I'm hoping I at least got the spirit of the thing right. This thing was evil and ate my brain and caused me no amount of trouble because of how I chose to tackle it, but I think it turned out pretty decently, overall.
Neurotic Author's Note #2: So you will notice that none of the characters come close to talking the way they do in the Show. I waffled about this for the longest time, but eventually I decided I couldn't stomach that many anachronisms in my fic. I like to think that I kept them at least a little bit in character, bearing in mind that this is an AU and that therefore there is a whole lot less angst than current canon has established, and also that almost none of them are actually of the same nationality as they are in the show.
Neurotic Author's Note #3: Writing this was probably the worst idea of my life, because know nothing about eighteenth-century sailing ships. Anyone who knows anything about it, I apologize deeply for every heresy I have committed in this fic, because all of it is stuff gleaned from the internet and/or pulled directly from my ass. I am so sorry. /o\
Neurotic Author's Note #4: Furthermore, I will beg the indulgence of my readers, as there are holes in the plot big enough for a Kraken to swim through. Let’s just all pretend we can’t see them, m’kay?
Neurotic Author's Note #5: Speaking of stuff I know nothing about, I will also apologize for the likely entirely Canadian diction of characters who are meant to be British. I've tried very hard to keep it reasonably neutral-sounding, but I'm sure there are instances of massive fail.
Neurotic Author's Note #6: (Yes, I can totally have six A/Ns if I want!) All my thanks and adoration to the awesome mods of Novakfest for putting this together and for being super understanding with me and giving me the necessary extensions to get this thing done and beta'd. You guys rock! Furthermore, I would like to extend my thanks to pkwench, beta and all-around rockstar, who helped me brainstorm this monster and gave me some of the best ideas in here. Mwah!



[Part I]
[Part II]
[Part III]
[Part IV]
[Part V]