We Were Twenty by Elohvee (NC-17)

[rachel-martin64.livejournal.com]

My last rec for June 2008.

Fandom: SUPERNATURAL
Pairing: Sam Winchester/Dean Winchester
Length: Novel
Author on LJ: elohvee
Author Website: Writings

Why this must be read:

Sam’s leg gets mangled in a hunt. Without any melodrama, Dean takes one step after another away from the life of a hunter to accommodate Sam’s new limitations.

The author does an excellent job of depicting how Dean slowly accepts the permanency of their situation. A particularly poignant moment is when Sam sees that Dean has registered the Impala to their new local address.

The story describes how the boys create a rewarding life for themselves in the small town where they crash-land after Sam’s injury. The author doesn’t handwave the difficulties they face, and it’s satisfying to watch the guys overcome their poverty, their lack of formal education, and their unconventional past. They become a couple. They become well-liked, respected members of a community. The “road to nowhere” has led the Winchesters to this place, and it feels good to travel along with them.

Toward the end of the novel, the monsters that live in the dark start to intrude on their lives again, and Dean is drawn back into hunting.

You’ll get emotionally involved enough to cry, so don’t read it at work.

We were twenty
for such a short time and always in
the wrong clothes, crusted with dirt
and sweat.

We Were Twenty

Comments

[redheadforever.livejournal.com]

This is one of the most gorgeous, brilliant, heartbreakingly lovely stories I have ever read in any fandom, any level of professionalism.

If you love Sam, this is a marvelous Sam story. If you love Dean, this is a marvelous Dean story. It's a must-read to understand them better with the extraordinary insight *elohvee* has into the Winchester men.

The sadness is woven all through the narrative. The warnings? Read and heed. This is no chortlefest -- but inextricably enmeshed within the sorrow are such happy moments and enough of them so as to keep the heart warm and rooting for Our Boys the whole way through.

The great joy peeps out at you and BEAMS with every little step, every inspired turn of the story.

Both men's voices are true and their reactions gratifyingly authentic to Show.

I'm so greatly pleased to see this long slice of awesome pie find a new audience so others can squirrel it away in their Favorites list as I have.

Red
Deanwoman on Tenterhooks