Stages (Supernatural, Sam)

[sierraplaid]

Title: Stages

Fandom: Supernatural

Characters: Sam, Dean (gen)

Summary: A cold has different stages.

Warnings: None

AN: Written for a prompt (at end of post) by Sen Beret that I dug up from tarotgal’s 2014 meme. Sen Beret, I hope you don’t mind that I went back and filled this older prompt of yours. It just called to me.

Stages

1.

They’re halfway through breakfast on Monday morning when Sam realizes something feels a little off with his throat. Not sore, exactly, just a little… itchy, maybe. Sam really doesn’t like the explanation for this that suggests itself. He swallows once and the itchiness goes away. He swallows again and it comes right back.

He heads to the bathroom while Dean’s at the register paying their bill and now that the restraint of his brother’s presence is temporarily lifted he’s suddenly aware how off the rest of him feels as well. Head’s a bit achy. Shoulders, too. Shirt’s abrasive on his arms, jacket’s making him slightly too warm. Not to mention, now that he’s thinking about it, he feels like he has to sneeze. He sniffs hard and the urge retreats. When it kicks up again he presses a knuckle into the bridge of his nose, and it backs off for a minute. When the itch returns a third time Sam gives up and buries his face in his arm.

“IHXSHHhoo!”

He gives it a second to see if he has to sneeze again, and he doesn’t, and that’s how Sam knows for sure he’s screwed. The only time he ever sneezes once like that is right at the beginning of a cold.

He stuffs a few tissues into a jacket pocket and heads out to the car.

2.

Tuesday morning. Sam’s throat is on fire.

Dean is plowing through a mound of eggs and scarfing down rashers of bacon and talking the case around mouthfuls. Sam is fine with doing an awful lot of listening.

He hasn’t been more than fifteen feet from Dean in the past 24 hours, so he hasn’t sneezed since the first and only sneeze yesterday morning. But it’s getting harder to hold them back, and he can tell as he sits and listens and toys with his fork and watches Dean demolish his breakfast that the particular one he’s fighting right now is going to get away from him. He eases his fork down onto the table and his breath hitches once, but Dean doesn’t seem to notice. Sam twists away and sneezes into his elbow.

“hIXXSHHoo!”

When he straightens up, throat prickling with pain, Dean’s still talking and doesn’t miss a beat, just spears a sausage off Sam’s plate that he hasn’t touched and Sam gladly lets him.

3.

After an hour on the road on Wednesday both Sam and Dean are ready for the drive to be over. And it is, almost. Only eleven more hours to go.

This is always when Sam feels the absolute worst, when the sore throat is lingering, congestion’s settling in, nose is tickly like he has to sneeze pretty much all the time, and when he still feels like he has to hide it all from his brother even though he’s pretty sure Dean already knows. Sam is compensating for not being able to sneeze by being grouchy instead. Dean is compensating for Sam being grouchy by doing fifteen over the speed limit and listening to his music too loud.

The sneeze comes on fast, foo fast for Sam to do anything about it except catch it hurriedly in his sleeve.

“EXXSHHhoo!”

The second one’s not far behind, and Sam doesn’t even try to stop it, figuring there’s no point now.

“hhhERXSHHoo!”

He sniffles thickly and heaves a defeated sigh.

“That sucks,” Dean sympathizes, and he takes the music down a notch and eases off the gas like he’s been waiting to do it.

That night, with three hours left to go, Sam finally agrees to curl up in the back seat, throat raw and red, breathing through his mouth, muffling sneeze after scratchy sneeze in the blanket until at last he dozes off.

4.

“hhEHRRSHhh!”

“Sam.”

“...hhh-hEHXSHHoo!”

“Here.”

Dean drops a replacement tissue box onto the Thursday paper Sam’s trying to read at the table in their motel room, snags the empty one and tosses it into the trash can at Sam’s feet.

“Thagnks,” Sam says, and blows his stuffed-up nose in the last remaining tissue from the old box.

Dean takes a seat and pulls the newspaper out from under the tissues, scanning the headlines. “Anything interesting?”

“Ndo. Ndothig we dond’t already kndow.”

“No new news on the vics?”

Sam pulls a couple of tissues from the box, sniffling as his nose starts to run, and turns aside to sneeze into his elbow.

“hUXXRSHHoo! Ndo. Idvestigative jourdalism is a dyig art, apparendtly…. hhEXXSSHhh!”

“Well, we’ll have to do it ourselves, then. You feel like suiting up?”

“Yeah, why ndot.”

Sam sniffles his way through three interviews, sneezes his way through all the car rides in between.

5.

Sam wakes up on Friday with his nose still alternately blocked up and running in turns, and on top of that he’s got this cough, dry and nagging and pointless, that hardly leaves him alone all day. All morning they comb abadoned warehouses together but after lunch Dean suits up and Sam changes into sweats and climbs into bed with the laptop and the tissue box.

“I’ll bring dinner back for you,” Dean is saying as he stands in front of the mirror tying his tie.

Sam’s coughing again—still—lightly into his sleeve.

“You dond’t have to,” he says, before muffling two stuffy sneezes into a handful of tissues.

“hUHXSHHhoo... huhEXSHHoo!”

“You sound worse,” Dean says, adjusting his collar and giving his brother the once-over in the mirror.

“I’mb ndot, really.”

“You sure about that?”

More coughing. “Yeah, it’s jusdt addoyig.”

So Dean goes out and canvasses the locals and Sam scrolls through the news with one hand and presses tissues to his nose with the other, keeps an ear on the police scanner, and coughs, coughs, coughs.

6.

Over the course of Saturday it settles into his chest and they’re both almost glad because it’s something else to listen to, but it turns into this wet, gravelly cough from the bottom of his lungs and it’s so awful-sounding that the novelty wears off quickly.

By the time Sam is punching the fight out of the monster and Dean is swooping in and skewering it they’re ready for this cold to go out the same way.

“You all right?” Dean asks as he puts a steadying hand on Sam’s shoulder. They’re both panting hard, Sam’s breath crackling in and out.

Sam nods and buries his mouth in his elbow, letting out all the coughs he’s been holding in the better part of the night.

“Take it easy, Sam. Let’s torch the sucker and get gone.”

“Let’s,” Sam agrees hoarsely, and ducks back into his arm with a pair of soggy sneezes. “hhhEXSSHhh… h…huhEXSHHoo!””

7.

On Sunday morning they wake up late, so late it’s almost afternoon. Sam lies there staring at the opposite wall, taking stock of how he feels. A hell of a lot better, is the overall impression. A few more cuts and bruises than he woke up with yesterday, nose still tickly and chest still rattly, but somehow knowing the hunt is over makes it all more bearable.

He cups the blanket over his face and muffles a sneeze.

“hih…hhRRRXSHhoo.”

Dean’s awake already and props himself up on an elbow.

“Morning.”

“Morning,” Sam answers, and sneezes again.

“hrUHXRSHoo!”

“I thought there was a chance you wouldn’t be doing that today,” Dean says, dropping down onto his back.

Sam snuffles. “Nah, I’ll be good tomorrow.”

Dean indulges in a lazy yawn. “Breakfast?”

“Lunch?” Sam counters, yawning as well.

They get dressed, pack up, and go for the best brunch they’ve ever had.

***

End

Prompt: “One of my actual favorite things ever is like, the way that a cold has different stages. The first stage where the throat is a little scratchy, and then it gets really sore (along with that area right in between the nose and throat? nasopharynx?) and then there's the Worst Stage where there's still a lot of pain and soreness accompanied by really terrible congestion. After that, the soreness maybe lets up, but the person's nose is alternating between running and being totally stuffed up, not to mention an annoying cough that starts out dry but ends up sounding really wet and awful when the congestion moves to their chest. Maybe some bronchial or asthmatic complications after that if the person is extra lucky. And lots of sneezing throughout, of course, because what would be the point otherwise? (And hopefully someone to take care of them, or at least check up on them a little. I'm so not picky.)”

[SterlingSilver]

AW THIS WAS SO ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE <3. I'll admit I've never been a Sam girl, but I've been more into reading about him recently, so this was a real treat. You write both Winchesters so perfectly, and as much as I adore Castiel, reading about just the two of them is a nice change . I love the casual, off-handed way the brothers handle one another in this. Dean's not over-bearing or anything, just the right level of concerned but discreet, and Sam doesn't let this thing completely consume him or his work. It's a really accurate, believable take on what would happen if Sam caught a cold during a hunt, I think. Just so well done >w<

[Sawyer]

Woah! I haven't been into the Supernatural fandom for almost a year now, and I haven't been reading any of the fics on here, but the title of yours totally called to me... and I can see why! You filled my prompt! You have no idea how excited I got, and how much it takes to pull me back into a fandom like this... and I'm so happy that you took interest in something I proposed so long ago! This is the coolest!

And you did suuuuuuch a good job with it! Like, oh my god, the fanon of Sam always sneezing in multiples! How cool and great. AND him being able to detect and analyze his own sneezing style and patterns? AAAND keeping track of the last time he sneezd?? Even cooler and greater! And neither of them having to vocalize specifically what's going on with Sam (it's just a cold after all!) and Dean just saying "That sucks" because it does, and neither of them really has to talk about it any further.

Ahhh! Watching the progression of the cold is seriously my favorite thing ever in these sorts of stories, and I love the way you segmented/sectioned them all off, too! Seeing so much attention paid to the stages of a cold is so wonderful, and I know it was my idea to have someone do this, but I never imagined it would be executed so well!

Plus, like, all of the symptoms developing so steadily. Really cool! And Sam describing it as "just annoying"... man, that's my favorite part of a cold, when it doesn't totally knock them down but it's still totally in the way. (Plus, that means he's still working through it all.) Love it! Oh my god, and the paragraph about the novelty of the virus settling into his chest???? SO GREAT! Excellent!

Also Dean referring to Sam sneezing as "doing that". It's so cute and casual. I don't know why I love it so much but I really always have! You characterized them and their relationship so well, too. I'm so happy that you filled this prompt and that I got a chance to read it! Thank you soooo so much!

[Pyrus_Fangmon]

Holy bonkers that was so so so good! Just the perfect amount from both brothers.

I mean, sure. I like the whole 'Big Brother is over the top caring for Little Brother' But this couldn't be more perfect! And whoever thought of a prompt like that, they hit the mark

[Zuki]

This was written so well! Poor Sammy, I'll admit I'm not so much a fan of him, but I like the flow of stories of him. Thanks for sharing!

[blueprint]

One of the most adorable and åperfect Sam cold fic I have ever read. I just love how you let Dean be a big brother who fussed just the right amount. Not to mention that slow build up is my favorite! Thank you!

[HPG]

That was so hot.

[AngelEyes]

This is fantastic! I'd quote my favorite parts but I'm afraid it would end up being all of it! I like that Sam takes stock of how he feels and analyzes it. So Sam. I love how he just sucks it up and pushes through, no big deal. I really love Dean keeping a sympathetic eye on him but not being way overprotective, just letting him get on with things but still taking care of little bro. Fantastic!

[sierraplaid]

AW THIS WAS SO ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE <3. I'll admit I've never been a Sam girl, but I've been more into reading about him recently, so this was a real treat. You write both Winchesters so perfectly, and as much as I adore Castiel, reading about just the two of them is a nice change . I love the casual, off-handed way the brothers handle one another in this. Dean's not over-bearing or anything, just the right level of concerned but discreet, and Sam doesn't let this thing completely consume him or his work. It's a really accurate, believable take on what would happen if Sam caught a cold during a hunt, I think. Just so well done >w<

Thanks so much for saying such kind things! It makes me really, really happy that you felt it was believable. Thank you! (Also, yes, come to the sick!Sam side. We have... sick Sam. And caretaking Dean and/or Cas. )

Woah! I haven't been into the Supernatural fandom for almost a year now, and I haven't been reading any of the fics on here, but the title of yours totally called to me... and I can see why! You filled my prompt! You have no idea how excited I got, and how much it takes to pull me back into a fandom like this... and I'm so happy that you took interest in something I proposed so long ago! This is the coolest!

And you did suuuuuuch a good job with it! Like, oh my god, the fanon of Sam always sneezing in multiples! How cool and great. AND him being able to detect and analyze his own sneezing style and patterns? AAAND keeping track of the last time he sneezd?? Even cooler and greater! And neither of them having to vocalize specifically what's going on with Sam (it's just a cold after all!) and Dean just saying "That sucks" because it does, and neither of them really has to talk about it any further.

Ahhh! Watching the progression of the cold is seriously my favorite thing ever in these sorts of stories, and I love the way you segmented/sectioned them all off, too! Seeing so much attention paid to the stages of a cold is so wonderful, and I know it was my idea to have someone do this, but I never imagined it would be executed so well!

Plus, like, all of the symptoms developing so steadily. Really cool! And Sam describing it as "just annoying"... man, that's my favorite part of a cold, when it doesn't totally knock them down but it's still totally in the way. (Plus, that means he's still working through it all.) Love it! Oh my god, and the paragraph about the novelty of the virus settling into his chest???? SO GREAT! Excellent!

Also Dean referring to Sam sneezing as "doing that". It's so cute and casual. I don't know why I love it so much but I really always have! You characterized them and their relationship so well, too. I'm so happy that you filled this prompt and that I got a chance to read it! Thank you soooo so much!

You found it! Yaaaay! I am so glad you read and liked it, and thank you for all the lovely and thorough comments--that means a lot. Thanks also for providing the AWESOME prompt in the first place. I tried to stick pretty close to the prompt and it practically let this structure itself. Basically your prompt made me really happy and warm and fuzzy and it was a pleasure to fill, so I'm so pleased you liked the fic!

Holy bonkers that was so so so good! Just the perfect amount from both brothers.

I mean, sure. I like the whole 'Big Brother is over the top caring for Little Brother' But this couldn't be more perfect! And whoever thought of a prompt like that, they hit the mark

(Hahahaha I'm totally saying holy bonkers from now on. ) Thank you! Thanks for letting me know you liked the balance of the brothers--much appreciated!

This was written so well! Poor Sammy, I'll admit I'm not so much a fan of him, but I like the flow of stories of him. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for reading! Glad you enjoyed!

One of the most adorable and åperfect Sam cold fic I have ever read. I just love how you let Dean be a big brother who fussed just the right amount. Not to mention that slow build up is my favorite! Thank you!

OMG, wow, thank you! Huge credit to Sen Beret's wonderfully detailed "slow build" prompt. I'm so glad you liked it!

That was so hot.

WHAAAAAAA you are awesome. Thanks!

This is fantastic! I'd quote my favorite parts but I'm afraid it would end up being all of it! I like that Sam takes stock of how he feels and analyzes it. So Sam. I love how he just sucks it up and pushes through, no big deal. I really love Dean keeping a sympathetic eye on him but not being way overprotective, just letting him get on with things but still taking care of little bro. Fantastic!

Thanks so much! I love your phrasing "just letting him get on with things." In fact, I think I may have just seen a plot bunny scamper past. hmmm.