Dean's Not Fine

Turn the Page A Supernatural story by Jennie @DeanIsntFine This story takes place between Season 9's "First Born" and "Sharp Teeth" -- on Dean's 35th birthday. January 24th dawned soot-gray, with sleet spitting from the sky, tick-tacking on the steel and glass of the Impala. Dean was curled into a comma on Baby’s back seat, clutching a thin blanket around his shoulders. He’d spent a fitful night in the car alternately shivering and sweating, the fresh brand on his right arm burning and itching as, presumably, his body rebelled against it.  Long, dark hours, trying to convince himself he wasn’t feeling something -- a change -- coming over him already. He grunted, shifted on the seat, and squinted at the face of his wristwatch in the morning murk. 7:30.  “Happy birthday to me,” Dean muttered. *** On a long and lonesome highway East of Omaha You can listen to the engine moanin' out its one-note song ... D...

My son is a big fan of the metal band Trivium, and we scored tickets to their show a few weeks back...  Taking the boy (he's 13) to his first real metal concert brought some trepidation for his dad and me... but we were quickly surprised -- both by the friendly, caring tone of the band and its frontman, Matt Heafy , and the fun-loving, diversely aged crowd.  My husband and I weren't the oldest people in attendance, and their were far younger kids in the audience than my son. In all it was a massively entertaining good time (we had industrial-strength ear protection), and Trivium gained a couple of ardent new fans. Their song "Beyond Oblivion" is about runaway technological advancement and the peril it could place on humanity, but the more I listened, the more it sounded to me like an excellent parallel to the end of Season 10, and the beginning of 11, when Sam Winchester unleashes the Darkness upon the world to free his brother from the Mark of Cain. Aga...