Genre: Gen, AU

Rating: Beer (18+) mainly because of very bad language.

Word count: 82,000+

Warnings/Spoilers: Warnings & Author Notes

Summary:

When Sam Winchester is four years old, a motel explodes and he is assumed dead. Guilt and fear keep the remaining two Winchesters together for a while, then tears them apart. Left behind by John, Dean finds a life with Bobby and Pastor Jim. He goes to college, gets a good job, and is discovered to be one of the country's best shooters. On his way to compete in Shooting at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, he meets swimmer Sam Polanski and finds there are greater prizes than bronze, silver, or even gold. But when have Winchesters ever won anything without sacrifice?

Artist name: Dolimir_K

Link to art: Art Gallery (Caution: Spoilers for the story)

Links to fic:

As usual with my longer stories, you may choose the version that best fits your personal preference:

Relative Gold.html—the internet in all its glory with Dolimir's art to enhance the story. The background and font selelection is the same as this page. Read the whole thing, Relative Gold, or in parts: Part I ◄ ► Part II ◄ ► Part III ◄ ► Part IV ◄ ► Part V ◄ ► Part VI


Relative Gold.pdf—Same as above (or nearly), but compacted in an easily downloadable, one whole hunk, format. Please consider coming back and leaving a comment after reading.


Relative Gold.rtf—See Dolimir's's art here, then download or open the file in your favorite word processor. Adjust the font and other formatting, convert to read on a portable, use with a reading program, print it out, etc. Please consider coming back and leaving a comment after reading.



WARNINGS:

  • Language, language, language.

  • A brief glimpse of underage sex; adult situations.

  • Off-screen animal sacrifice.

  • Spoilers for the first two seasons.

  • There are direct quotes from Dead Man's Blood and All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 1.

NOTES:

  • To my artist—there are not words to express the joy your work has given me. That header. All the internal pics. Sigh. Thank you for indulging my eccentricity of nearly creating picture books with my stories.

  • To my beta—a Texas-size Thank-You.

  • To the moderators/creators of Supernatural/J2 Big Bang—you rock.

  • Oh, thanks to Kripke & Co. as well. You created wonderful characters and unlike you, I can promise I won't do anything permanent to them.

  • Bobby's blue Ford tow-truck had Lawrence County, South Dakota plates, so I put the Salvage Yard there. Alternate canon (Rising Son 3) puts it in Sioux Falls, SD—which is on the other end of the state—but I like the parallel of Lawrence County with Lawrence, Kansas.

  • There is virtually no canon on Pastor Jim Murphy, other than his church is in Blue Earth, Minnesota. Hope my take on him is credible.

  • Everything I Know About The 2004 Olympics And The Country Of Greece I Learned On The Internet.

  • Aurora, Nevada actually exists.

  • This story is a mixture of two thoughts I had running in my brain last summer—1) what if Sam was kidnapped as a kid and 2) Sam and Dean Go To The Olympics. When I considered writing it as a Big Bang, I envisioned 35,000 words max. Major fail with that.

  • Why are all my long stories AU's? Probably so I won't spend the remaining episodes of a season cursing Kripke & Co.

  • There are many, many references to movies and television in this story. And I not only mix my metaphors, I take a potato masher and really have fun. I've found that in real life, people often ignore literary norms and just say what the heck they want.

  • I love every character on Supernatural, but in my heart of hearts, I'm a Dean-girl and sometimes that shows.

  • CAVEAT LECTOR: I totally suck when it comes to replying to comments. I start off really well, then fall further and further behind until I'm ashamed to reply so belatedly. I'm truly sorry. I can say, with all honesty, I READ every single comment and take each to heart.

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