1×01 Pilot Fan Fiction

[briarwood]

For my last post on the pilot, here’s some of my favourite fan fiction based on the pilot episode.

A Life Less Ordinary by marinarusalka (Gen, John-centric)

A look at how John coped with life after Mary’s death; the story begins shortly after the fire and ends with Sam at Stanford. This is the John Winchester I love: tough-as-nails but only on the outside, protective, a man who adores his kids but doesn’t know how to show it, and above all a man whose life was shattered by loss, doing the best he can in a world gone mad.

By the time Sam is six and Dean is ten, John’s got the practical aspect of their life pretty well figured out. He’s become an expert in exorcisms, homemade explosives, French toast, and fourth-grade math. He knows how to time their frequent moves in a way that minimizes the impact on Dean’s school performance. He knows twenty-three protection charms against werewolves and eleven ways to kill a vampire. He knows exactly how long the boys can be left alone, and how to find a reliable baby-sitter for times when a hunting trip is likely to run longer than that. What he doesn’t know is how to keep himself from falling apart when he actually has time to think.

Wasn’t Born For The Rose and Pearl by allthelivesofme (Het, John/Mary)

A short Mary-centric story, about her early romance with John, but also an interesting perspective on what happened the night she died. I love the characterisation of Mary in this story: she’s broken in some ways, but still fiercely protective of those she loves.

All through their beginning relationship, she’d kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The war, she thought, wasn’t just a shoe. It was a big damned boot.

She’d written John, but made sure to do so only about every other letter of his, if that. She hadn’t joined in with the half-worried, half-proud conversations with the other girlfriends at the diner. Barely mentioned him at all, to the point where Lisa pulled her aside one day and hesitantly asked if she and John had broken things off.

No, she said, but hadn’t explained further. She knew it’d sound crazy to the other woman if she explained that if she wrote every day, if she talked about him and openly missed him that the world would hone in on that and then this would be ruined, too.

Straight On Till Morning by trollprincess (Gen, Mary-centric)

I have no words for how awesome Mary Winchester is in this story. It’s an AU of the pilot in which she was saved from the fire. This is a Mary who is every bit as strong as her husband, who sees what must be done at once when John discovers other, similar fires. The story gives the Winchester family a different path to the same destination and the ending, which brings the tale full circle, is perfect.

The first day she’s able to think straight between the agony and the drugs, she asks him, “Did you see?”

She doesn’t need to mention yellow eyes or a dark empty spot in the shape of a man standing next to Sammy’s crib. John caresses her ankle with gentle, insistent circles of his thumb, raises an even gaze to her own and nods. “Yeah, I saw it, too.”

After that, the burns feel like a badge of honor, a shield carrying the proud scars of war. Can’t fight me, I’m still here.

Words Like Violence by Bella Temple (Het, Sam/Jess)

Another AU of the pilot this one is about Sam, Dean and Jessica. Both John and Mary died in the fire and the brothers were adopted together by new parents. Now Sam is at Stanford and dating Jessica. Dean hasn’t spoken a word since that night. He lives with Sam but he has a life Sam knows nothing about. Told from Jessica’s point of view, this is a very different view of the Winchesters building up to a fantastic climax.

“He, uh.” Sam flushed. “Says he wants to give us some space.” Dean’s wicked grin-and-wink returned, and Jess knew that the actual words being signed had been far dirtier than what Sam was reporting. Sam lowered his chin and glared without rancor at his brother. “Good night, Dean.”

Dean nodded, then held his hand out to Jess. She took it and smiled. “It was nice meeting you, Dean.” Another nod, and he bent to brush his lips against her knuckles, none of Sam’s awkwardness around old-fashioned gentlemanliness in his actions. Then he let her go, stepped around the coffee table, and clapped a hand to Sam’s shoulder, hands flickering. Sam blushed again, and Dean’s shoulders shook in a silent laugh as he went back into the kitchen.

Jess raised an eyebrow at Sam, resting her elbows on her knees. “What’d he say?”

“He asked if I had condoms.”

The Crow on the Cradle by kroki_refur (Gen, AU)

A long story, effectively an AU of the whole of SPN season one, though it focusses most vividly on the first few episodes. The premise is it’s not John who disappears in Jericho. It’s Sam who goes missing a month before Jessica would have died, and Dean and John who are left with the task of searching for him. That simple premise leads into an incredibly complex story. Jessica is wonderfully written, a far more rounded and real character than she ever was in canon and her point of view of Dean and John is spot-on. They aren’t heroes to her: they’re scary guys keeping secrets from her. The way the relationship between the three of them develops slowly from mistrust to total dependency is lovely. And I love that when they finally find Sam, the story is just beginning.

“You never gave the police the phone,” she says. “That’s evidence. That could help them find Sam. They stopped fucking looking for him.”

Dean glances back at John, but John doesn’t move. “They were never going to find him,” he says.

“You don’t know that,” she says, and people are looking now, but she doesn’t care, because this bastard is standing there coolly telling her that his son, her Sam, is gone forever, and acting like he couldn’t give a shit. “No wonder he never talked about you,” she hisses, and Dean flinches. “He never wanted you here. I don’t want you here.”

If you know of more great fanfic based on the Pilot, please comment and let me know!

Crossposted from my blog at Devil's Trap. You can comment here or on the blog.