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tigriswolfTitle: arise, arise from death, you numberless infinities
Fandom: “Supernatural”
Disclaimer: only Robert is mine; title from Donne.
Warnings: spoilers for season four
Pairings: Layla/OMC
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 640
Point of view: third
Notes: to this prompt
She should have been dead months ago. Instead, the tumor has shrunk to operable size. Mom says it’s a miracle.
Layla wonders how to live when you’ve already prepared yourself to move on, when you’re so tired you just want to sleep until the end of time.
o0o
The surgery is on a Thursday. They shave her head and put her under and she dreams of endless fields and azure skies.
She wakes feeling sluggish and loopy, with a headache the size of a planet.
She wakes healthy for the first time years.
o0o
In her dreams, during those first months after her miracle, she sees Dean. He’s a vague presence; she mostly remembers his sad eyes and tired voice, and the sorrow on his face as they said goodbye. They’d both been dying and now they’re both healed, and she dreams of him on the edge of a canyon, his brother at his side, face tilted toward the sun.
You have been gifted, Layla Rourke, a deep, reverberating tells her once, on the edge of waking. Your prayers—and his—have been answered. Do well with this second chance.
She wakes thinking, I will.
o0o
Robert is a good, kind man. He’s a nurse at the hospital where she made her recovery. He proposes to her five months after her miracle and they’re married a year to the day the doctor told her surgery was an option again.
Layla is happy and Robert kisses her as if she’s everything he ever wanted.
Mom smiles every day.
(Layla still dreams of Dean, of those sad eyes and rough hands, of his desperation and despair. His brother is there, praying on his knees for a miracle. Dean stares down into the abyss and then the voice says, There is always an answer, even if the answer is no.)
o0o
She had been ready to die. She had resigned herself. She grew up on the Bible, on God’s forgiveness and love. She prayed every morning before forcing herself out of bed and every night as she pulled the covers up to her chin to ward away the chill. She prayed for Mom to get past it one day and for the kids who’d never get better and for the soldiers to come home and then for Dean, whatever haunted him, and at last for herself. That when it finally came, her death would be quick.
She had been ready to die. And then Mom’s prayers were answered, and she met Robert, and a voice told her You have been gifted, Layla Rourke. Gifted, it said.
Who are you? she asks when she wakes in the morning, after dreaming of wings and an infinite, stretching sky.
As she presses a soft kiss to Robert’s forehead, the voice says, I am Castiel, an angel of the Lord. We will have work for you in the days to come.
Layla has been given a second chance. I’ll do my best, she promises, leaning down to kiss Robert again.
(Mom smiles every day, and in Layla’s dreams, every now and again, Dean says, I’m not a prayin’ man, but I’ll pray for you. Layla touches his face, and he turns to ash and a puddle of blood and a shadow laughs, and the shadow reaches for her. So you’re what Deano would pray for when he’d never pray for himself, it cackles. I can’t wait to meet you, sweetheart.
Sometimes, in the dream, instead of turning to ash and blood, Dean looks at her and his eyes go pure black, before leaching into white. And there is no shadow—there’s just Dean, his beautiful face cold and cruel.
And sometimes, not very often, Sam is by his side, a lit match in his hand. And he shares a smile with Dean before letting the match fall and saying, Let’s burn this world down.)
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-20 06:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-20 01:53 pm (UTC)Thank you for reading!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-20 03:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-20 03:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-21 11:22 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-21 01:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-21 05:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-21 11:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-21 10:29 pm (UTC)I do not get a good feeling from this fic!
But it's so well written!
Love, Robin
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-21 11:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-22 12:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-22 01:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-16 12:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-16 01:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-26 03:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-08-26 04:55 pm (UTC)Thank you for reading!