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fandomweekly2020-03-22 04:45 pm
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Entry tags:
[#045] My Need is Such; I Pretend Too Much (Supernatural)
Theme Prompt: #045 – Fall from Grace
Title: My Need is Such; I Pretend Too Much
Fandom: Supernatural
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 || SPOILERS for Season 4
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 600
Summary: Ruby begins her work in trying to tip Sam to the dark side.
She always wondered why Sam was the choice until she met him.
Sure, she can acknowledge he’s practically trained for it. John Winchester did a fantastic job of turning children into soldiers, and Sam is no exception. If they wanted a soldier, they should have chosen Dean. But they chose Sam. Soft-hearted, stubborn, compassionate Sam.
Ruby has come to realize that compassion isn’t necessarily Sam’s strength. It’s more his Achilles heel.
She sits on the edge of the bed one night, letting Sam towel dry his hair. He’s just cleaned up after their latest demon-killing spree. She’s been good at directing his anger and rage towards the right targets, but she knows it weighs on him. He won’t be able to lead anything if he’s depressed and resigned to the choices that he’s making. The ends, the means, that’s all well and good.
Ruby’s spent enough time with him at this point to care. And she knows he’s not going to take the next step she needs into the deep end, where the greater temptations lie unless he’s given enough of a push. It merely has to be the right push.
She makes her way closer, resting one hand on his shoulders. “You’re doing well, Sam. We’ve made so much progress.”
“I know. I know we have.” He pauses long enough to run a hand over his face, before glancing over to her again. “I can’t help thinking about all those people.”
“What do you mean?” She tips her head to the side curiously. “They’re demons, Sam.”
“Yeah, but the bodies they’re riding in aren’t. Killing the demons with the knife kills them too, exorcisms are risky – I wish there were a way that I had more control over it. That I could save the people, they’re harboring.”
“Are you sure that’s something they’re going to want to live with?” She puts up the adequate amount of protest, but the wheels in her head are already turning, knowing exactly how to turn this to her advantage. “People who are possessed don’t exactly come out of it with the best life expectancy. You know that.”
“That doesn’t mean they deserve to lose their life. They need to be able to make that decision for themselves – this isn’t a situation where death is the best they can hope for, like some kind of terminal illness.”
Ruby waits, because she’s looking to sell, and she’s not going to be able to sell him on it if she pushes him too hard. If there’s anything she’s learned about Winchester men, Ruby needs to make them think it’s their idea. But she puts just enough of a reflective quality in the silence that he can’t help but ask.
“What is it?”
“What is what?”
“What do you know?”
Ruby shrugs, before turning to face him more. “I heard rumors downstairs that that psychic mojo you have? Well, honed properly, you could use it to force demons out of meat suits, without all the messy thrashing and writhing of a real exorcism.”
He watches her back, eyes taking in the statement with a healthy dose of skepticism, before turning back to the wall. With all Sam’s experience, he knows that there’s power sitting in his blood. He just has to be willing to tap it.
The silence stretches even longer between them, until finally his shoulders cave, and he takes that first, slippery step on his fall from grace.
“Where do we begin?”
Ruby can’t help the smile that crosses her features, though she turns slightly to hide it from view. “I know just the place.”
Title: My Need is Such; I Pretend Too Much
Fandom: Supernatural
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 || SPOILERS for Season 4
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 600
Summary: Ruby begins her work in trying to tip Sam to the dark side.
She always wondered why Sam was the choice until she met him.
Sure, she can acknowledge he’s practically trained for it. John Winchester did a fantastic job of turning children into soldiers, and Sam is no exception. If they wanted a soldier, they should have chosen Dean. But they chose Sam. Soft-hearted, stubborn, compassionate Sam.
Ruby has come to realize that compassion isn’t necessarily Sam’s strength. It’s more his Achilles heel.
She sits on the edge of the bed one night, letting Sam towel dry his hair. He’s just cleaned up after their latest demon-killing spree. She’s been good at directing his anger and rage towards the right targets, but she knows it weighs on him. He won’t be able to lead anything if he’s depressed and resigned to the choices that he’s making. The ends, the means, that’s all well and good.
Ruby’s spent enough time with him at this point to care. And she knows he’s not going to take the next step she needs into the deep end, where the greater temptations lie unless he’s given enough of a push. It merely has to be the right push.
She makes her way closer, resting one hand on his shoulders. “You’re doing well, Sam. We’ve made so much progress.”
“I know. I know we have.” He pauses long enough to run a hand over his face, before glancing over to her again. “I can’t help thinking about all those people.”
“What do you mean?” She tips her head to the side curiously. “They’re demons, Sam.”
“Yeah, but the bodies they’re riding in aren’t. Killing the demons with the knife kills them too, exorcisms are risky – I wish there were a way that I had more control over it. That I could save the people, they’re harboring.”
“Are you sure that’s something they’re going to want to live with?” She puts up the adequate amount of protest, but the wheels in her head are already turning, knowing exactly how to turn this to her advantage. “People who are possessed don’t exactly come out of it with the best life expectancy. You know that.”
“That doesn’t mean they deserve to lose their life. They need to be able to make that decision for themselves – this isn’t a situation where death is the best they can hope for, like some kind of terminal illness.”
Ruby waits, because she’s looking to sell, and she’s not going to be able to sell him on it if she pushes him too hard. If there’s anything she’s learned about Winchester men, Ruby needs to make them think it’s their idea. But she puts just enough of a reflective quality in the silence that he can’t help but ask.
“What is it?”
“What is what?”
“What do you know?”
Ruby shrugs, before turning to face him more. “I heard rumors downstairs that that psychic mojo you have? Well, honed properly, you could use it to force demons out of meat suits, without all the messy thrashing and writhing of a real exorcism.”
He watches her back, eyes taking in the statement with a healthy dose of skepticism, before turning back to the wall. With all Sam’s experience, he knows that there’s power sitting in his blood. He just has to be willing to tap it.
The silence stretches even longer between them, until finally his shoulders cave, and he takes that first, slippery step on his fall from grace.
“Where do we begin?”
Ruby can’t help the smile that crosses her features, though she turns slightly to hide it from view. “I know just the place.”