Fic: Lucky Lucky (Sam/Dean, NC-17) Part 1 of 2
Title: Lucky Lucky
Author: Smalltrolven
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Rating: NC-17
Wordcount: 5,160
Warnings: None, except for tooth rotting amounts of fluff.
Author’s Note: Not my characters, only my words. Written for the spn-meanttobe 2019, prompt #34: Lucky Charm.
Long ago, as revenge on a Corwin who stole her son's fiancee, a witch proclaimed an eternal curse that every Corwin male who married for love would be destined to lose his woman and his fortune...Derek thought he could outsmart the long-standing Corwin curse by breaking up with Gabrielle, his first love - and marrying someone else. Now, divorced and broke, all he has left is his teenage daughter and a healthy respect for ancient sorcery. But then Gabrielle returns, determined to defeat the curse and rekindle their passion. But will her stubborn streak and her unwavering love be the lucky charm Derek so desperately needs?
Summary: It’s an eternal curse, born of revenge that the Winchester family has always had to bear. It’s love lost and an even greater love found.
Read it over on AO3 right here.
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When Sam had left Dean to go off to college at Stanford all those years ago, he hadn’t meant to move on to someone new. But college changed a person. And besides their family curse had always said that they couldn’t be happy in love or successful in life if they married their first love. For Sam, that had been Dean (it would always be Dean). Sam hadn’t meant to ever get married or to have a kid either, but that had happened too. Jess hadn’t stuck by him as he’d gone up the corporate ladder at the big law firm. She hadn’t been there when he’d branched out and started his own firm.
Sam hadn’t planned for most of those things to happen, especially the divorce. Jess had blithely written herself out of their lives almost completely, going off to find herself and write a series of self-help books that set Sam’s teeth on edge. At least he had Cora, she made the pain of his wife’s complete rejection a bit easier to take. The kid had been along for the ride the whole time though, helping him write his first Ted talk, finding new recipes for kale and generally being pretty damn awesome.
Sam had never let himself take time for a relationship after Jess. Partly out of self-protection and also because he didn’t want to mess Cora up even more. Besides, there had always been the love he still held in his heart for Dean. That first fierce, all-encompassing love had never changed or gone away, he’d pretty much managed to keep it hidden from himself for all this time. But your first love is your first love, even if it’s your brother. That had been one of the reasons Jess had left him, she’d known instinctively that she didn’t truly reign in Sam’s heart, even if she didn’t know a thing about Dean. And when Cora had arrived, it’d been even more clear to Jess that she didn’t have a chance at being Sam’s number one.
Sam remembered when Brady, his first college roommate had come back from Thanksgiving break their freshman year of college…god…so many long years ago, he’d been a totally different guy, 180 degrees different. But Sam had stuck by him, and hell, the guy had been the one who introduced him to Jess. So he wouldn’t have Cora if not for Brady. It had sucked (no more than sucked) to find out that it had all been part of a long running plan by the devil himself, Lucifer. Especially since the end of that plan had brought Dean crashing back into his life.
That had been the worst part of it all, getting to have Dean there, back in his life, ever so briefly, and then *poof* gone again after they’d hunted down Azazel together. Also, Cora not ever getting a chance to know her grandfather because he’d died pretty much the moment she laid eyes on him was on Sam’s list of the worst things ever. Maybe she would have been better off not knowing that she had an uncle Dean out there somewhere risking his life as a solo hunter. He hated that she knew about any of the hunting shit, even though she’d been so young, she remembered it all so clearly with the vivid recollection of her five year old self. He wished she hadn’t had to see any of it, especially her grandfather sacrificing himself to save them all.
Dean had returned them back to Palo Alto, driving them in the big black beauty of a car that had always felt like home to Sam. But when they’d reached Sam’s house, he refused to come in, the unsaid need to make a clean break of it broke something in Sam that night. Dean hadn’t even stuck around long enough to come in and meet Jess, as Sam had asked him to. He’d been out of there in a flash, like he had a wendigo hot on his heels. Then Sam had come in the house with Cora in that state, and Jess had immediately freaked out seeing the both of them. Cora’s clothes all tattered and torn, both of their faces still smudged with the ash from the hunter’s funeral they’d given Sam’s dad. Sam had nothing to say, no explanation he could give her that would make sense, so he’d said nothing, and that had been the final straw.
When his dad had shown up knocking at the door of his house, Jess had been off on some retreat incommunicado. His Dad had been possessed of course, but Sam hadn’t known, he hadn’t seen him or talked to him in so many years it didn’t even cross his mind to notice the strange way he was behaving. His dad insisted that Sam had to come with him, right then and there, that he had to come along to save Dean from a demon who had him captive. His father had insisted that it was the only way, the only thing that would work, it had to be Sam. This had all happened in the middle of the night, so Sam had had no choice but to take Cora along with them.
Jess had no idea that Sam and Cora had been gone on a quest to save Dean from a demon. She would never know what had actually gone down, Cora and Sam had promised each other never to tell her. Even though Jess had been unknowingly a part of the whole manipulation set in motion by Azazel via Brady’s intervention back in their freshman year of college, or was it unknowing? Sam wasn’t sure he could ever trust her again though because she was even tangentially involved.
Sam hadn’t even gotten a chance to reconsider his life and what he wanted after the whole debacle. If he had, he’d probably have stopped Dean from leaving. But instead he threw himself back into the law and worked hard at making a success out of himself. He was so driven, so focused on making more out of himself to compensate for the lack of having Dean or Jess in his life. He focused all of his energy that wasn’t devoted to work into Cora, making sure she had the best possible life, nothing at all like he’d had.
Jess had always told Sam that he had a hole deep inside that she felt like she could never come close to filling. She’d been right, more right than she’d realized. She’d never even met Dean until the day their divorce was finalized. He’d seen a flash of recognition, of the pieces falling into place, but then she was gone, and the child custody arrangement was one hundred percent iron-clad. Cora was his, and for that he was glad, it turned out that Jess had only been in it for the money anyway. And now a lot of Sam’s income was going to be gone to the alimony payments he’d agreed to in order to gain full custody. He didn’t care about the money, at least he still had Cora. That was a price he’d gladly pay over and over. She was worth it.
Sam had always wondered why or how Dean had known to come that day, because Sam had needed the backup just to be able to physically stand up in court. With Cora and Dean at his side he made it through the whole ordeal without crying or screaming. Jess made a lot of demands, for ongoing support, even though Sam would be responsible for raising Cora. He felt a bit stupid for giving in so easily, but he just wanted her gone, and Cora out of the emotional crossfire. Dean had raised an eyebrow at the dollar totals of his assets and income read out in court, but hadn’t said a thing. Sam didn’t think he was being judged, but his brother probably hadn’t realized how much money he’d managed to make already. All that hard work and focus added up to a lot of wealth.
Dean disappeared again, right after the divorce proceedings ended, not even sticking around long enough to properly say goodbye. Cora had looked to Sam with tear-filled eyes when she’d realized her Uncle Dean was gone again, she just didn’t understand. Sam’s eyes had filled at his precious daughter’s pain, and then overfilled when he considered his own losses. He would have done anything to keep Dean there with him just a little longer. Dean had left so quickly afterwards, like he couldn’t stand to see the wreckage of Sam’s life laid bare.
***
Five years later, Dean arrived on Sam’s doorstep, out of the blue again, but this time he was badly injured. His wounds looked so bad, Sam wondered how he’d managed to drive to Palo Alto all the way from Reno. There was so much blood.
“How did you even make it here, Dean? Shit this is really bad, I think we might need to go to the ER,” Sam said.
“No…no doctors, got all the stuff in my bag, ’s all in the front seat,” Dean slurred, falling from Sam’s control down to a chair in the kitchen. “You can do it for me, Sammy, trust you-” Dean slumped over at the waist, his eyes closed and lips gone slack.
Sam did what his brother asked, and took care of him that night, stitched him back together with his very own trembling hands. He was glad Dean was passed out because he’d have been even more nervous. He was so out of practice with doing stitches it wasn’t even a bit funny. He cleaned the blood and werewolf fur from Dean’s skin with a warm washcloth, fingers pausing to run over each new scar he didn’t recognize. He just barely stopped himself from kissing Dean’s forehead when he was done, trying instead to be content with having gotten to have his hands all over his brother’s skin after all these years.
***
Between court dates and client meetings, Sam nursed Dean all the way back to health. The shadows under Dean’s eyes receded as he got the rest he had been putting off for years. His skin healed until the stitches could be removed and he was making it up and down the stairs in Sam’s house more easily. Dean knew he was really not going to be ready for hunting anytime soon, but he felt like he had overstayed his welcome. He knew he shouldn’t have burdened Sam with taking care of him like he had. And he knew he probably shouldn’t stay even longer and screw their lives up even more than he already had.
It had taken Dean almost two months to slowly get better, and during that time, Cora finally got her chance to get to know him. She had already stopped him from leaving twice, both times calling out for him as he was unlocking the door of his car. Because he’d still been so injured on that last hunt in Reno, he’d turned around and come back inside both times. Pretending with her that he wasn’t actually taking off. Turned out eleven year olds still like to play pretend. He tried to leave again once he was completely mobile, this time he really meant to leave-for real and for good. But again, Cora stopped him on the way out the door.
“You’re supposed to be here, with us, Dean. I need an uncle, and my dad needs you,” Cora said, arms crossed in front of her, her hazel eyes ablaze with certainty.
“I know honey, I know that, but your dad and I have history, and it’s complicated. It’ll be better for him if I’m not here,” Dean said.
“You mean how you were his first and only real love?” Cora asked.
Dean wasn’t sure how to respond, so he didn’t. He and Sam hadn’t talked about what Cora knew and didn’t know about their tangled history together…and not together.
“Yeah, I know all about it, and I just don’t care. It’s obvious you two belong together and I wish you’d get over it and make a move already. He’s waiting for it, you know? In my opinion, you both deserve to be happy.”
“You’re telling me you really don’t care that we’re brothers?” Dean asked, wondering if an eleven year old kid was even supposed to know about all this stuff these days.
“I don’t think that should be the thing that keeps you both from being happy. I know you know ways to get around that, all those fake ids I found in the Impala tell me that. So, I think you should just change your name or whatever, and then stick around and be with us. I wouldn’t say no to a ‘my two dads’ kind of situation. It’d make me even cooler at school.” She raised her chin at him, eyes flashing with pre-teen certainty again.
Dean raised one eyebrow at that idea. But it was probably true here in the liberal suburbs of Palo Alto. “Tell you what, I’ll think about it, sugar, I promise,” Dean said. “But I still have to go, there’s a case I need to finish up.”
“You mean the one that you nearly got killed on a couple months ago? Is someone else going with you this time?” Cora asked.
“I’m meeting a friend there, yeah,” Dean lied. “Thanks for looking out for me kid, tell your dad I said bye and I’ll be back when I’m done, hopefully by the end of the month.”
“You mean right after the full moon, so it’s a werewolf?” Cora asked.
“Kiddo, you know way too much for your own good,” Dean said, he pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her curly blond hair. “I really wish you didn’t know about any of this shit.”
Cora hugged him back and whispered into his chest, “Come home safe, Dean.”
She watched him as he packed up the Impala and backed out of their driveway. He could see her waving goodbye from the porch in his rear view mirror and waved out the window to her. It was harder than it should have been to drive away. There it was-all of a sudden he had someone and somewhere to come back to, for the first time in a long time. And maybe the possibility of working things out with Sam. Dean was pretty sure that since they apparently had Cora’s blessing, that it would go a long way towards persuading his brother to take another chance on being with him.
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To Part Two