ht_murray | Something Golden, 1-4/4, R, Sam/Dean

Title: Something Golden (Conversations from the End)
Author:

bittersweet_art, She did an amazing job. I hope the story lives up to her art.
Rating: R (I fail)
Pairing: Sam/Dean
Warnings: Language, m/m sex, incest
Words: ~43,000
Summary: In the end, Dean and Sam take on Hell together, and when it falls, they climb out together, worse for wear, but whole, which is more than can be said for the rest of the world. The landscape's marred, sepia-toned with black clouds above, no sun, no moon, winter, or spring, just the endless road and red-lightning overhead. But it's all theirs. Months of driving, dodging the daily bouts of acid rain and eating out of cans and convenience stores, and Sam's ready for more. He's just not sure what more is until Dean stops breathing on the floor of a motel room in Texas. The world they can lose, but never each other. If Dean can handle a Sam that wants to hold tight when no one's dying and there's nowhere to go, then Sam can deal with a Dean who paints rainbows in a sky with no sun. And maybe what's gold will stay this time around.
Disclaimer: Don' t own anything you recognize. Making no moneys, or money either.
Betas: My darling

ysbail,

feather_touch, and

rejeneration
A/N:Written for

spn_j2_bigbang challenge. This story is written purposely on the fringes of believability for reasons I name in the extended author notes at the end of the story. If you're one of those people who stops reading the second something seems unlikely or improbable, I only ask that you have a little faith and hang out for the end. Or, you know, read the author notes first, but that will spoil the story.
Master Art Post: Amazing Art

sgbanner

|Art|Soundtrack|Part One|Part Two| Part Three| Part Four--The End|DVD extras aka Author notes|

The title is semi-gakked from the Robert Frost Poem, Nothing Gold Can Stay. If you don't know it, you should look it up.

When I started writing this story, I was about fifty pages into Cormac McCarthy's amazing novel, The Road. I started to realize early on that it was best if I stop reading that in order to keep myself from slipping into his world rather than creating my own, but if you notice any similarities, that's definitely the reason. Now that I'm finished with this story, I will definitely finish the book.

bittersweet_art...oh, honey. LOL. Few people, other than the others on this list know how much this story stressed me out. She got so many emails from me that said, "Uh, never mind. I'm dropping out. This story sucks." And she sent me art, and the art inspired me to keep working. She's amazing, and if you don't leave her a comment on her art, I'll hunt you down.

I need to give some credit to my cheerleaders, namely

3rd_leg and

9thof9. These girls read the story in all its bits and pieces as I wrote it, and

9thof9, bless her heart, believes in inspiration and creative genius, thought it was all perfect the first time around. Despite her threats to beat me with a horse whip, I proceeded with a massive rewrite, and when it was finished, she gave it her stamp of approval, "pretty great." I know I made her crazy rewriting every scene and rearranging things. But I am just so darned finicky. *bangs head*

And

3rd_leg... without her, there would be no soundtrack. If I'm honest, the soundtrack is my favorite part of this story. Until just a couple months ago, I still had dialup and never downloaded music. When I started asking her for songs that might work for this story, she sent me sooo many, I was in seventh Heaven. Most of these songs I never would have heard if not for her, and I feel really privileged to share them, because each one is a gem, even the cheesy '80's songs. She's a treasure.

And

ysbail... somehow she managed not to read the rough draft at all. She knew I would rewrite it a hundred times. I must have driven her mad a hundred times sending her stuff and then saying..."ooops, never mind, that sucks. I'm gonna change it." She somehow manages to always, ALWAYS get exactly what I'm saying even when I don't say it, and I can't love her enough for that.

feather_touch kicked my grammatical ass and finally said, "it's a wonderful story", which I know, coming from her, is not light praise. I know I did some things that are not her specific preference, but she didn't hate it, and I worked all the harder to keep it friendly for all readers knowing that she was going to be reading.

rejeneration didn't know what she was getting into when she offered to do a "read-through" of my rough draft. She sent it back, not just read through, but completely betaed. She saw all the faults I already knew were there and put my mind at ease about a few things I thought were too dull. She also has a knack for reading between the lines. I have this terrible habit of making people work for the story. She doesn't mind. And she's never seen the end of this story, so if it sucks, she's not at fault in the least.

spn_goes_pop is actually responsible for the prompt that spawned this story. I was writing another story for this challenge, was hung up on something, saw that prompt and snagged it. Then, when it blew out of proportion and surpassed the word count of the original fic I'd started for this, I decided to use it as my bigbang instead. The mods were gracious enough to tell me I could still post there, too. The prompt was the song, "The Way" by Fastball. It's on the soundtrack.

Finally, thanks to

spn_j2_bigbang for hosting the challenge. I'd be lying if I said I will ever do it again, but its the perfect forum for a swan song, and I'm proud to post this story because of all their work.