Work Text:
The three of them are piled in the Impala, driving to wherever their next destination is when a song comes on the radio after a commercial.
"Carry on my..."
Abruptly, his father shuts it off and also turns the whole radio off too. Dean looks up at Dad with a sad look on his face but no one says anything and they continue on their way.
Carry on my what?
*~*
"Dean?"
"Yeah, Sammy?"
"Do you think we'll ever be able to get any peace?"
Sam heard the sounds of his brother moving around in the bed next to him and then he spoke.
"I don't really know. Haven't really found it yet, so far."
"But, we're still young so it'll come, right? One day, we're gonna stop moving around and go to a real school in a real town and Dad won't leave us in some smelly motel. He'll have a real job and..."
"Sammy, I said I don't know. What brought this all about, anyway?"
Sam turned and looked up at the ceiling.
"Nothing. I just heard a song on the radio today."
*~*
He doesn't really know how she got him out here, tonight, but they're here and he can't go anywhere without looking rude. It's their third date and so far things have been going pretty smoothly. Too smoothly. Sam's really into her and he wished that he could call Dean to tell him but...well, he hadn't really left on the best of terms. Still though...
"Carry on my wayward son. There'll be peace when you are done. Lay your weary head to rest. Don't you cry no more."
Sam looked up and, on the stage and at the microphone was Jess. She looked so nervous and down at her friends in the front cheering her on, probably wishing they were the ones on stage instead of her. Or not.
This was one of the few banned songs from his childhood, the other being 'Hey Jude'.
And there she was, singing it up on a stage in some college bar and doing fantastically.
She caught his eye and Sam grinned, leaning back in his seat.
Maybe she was perfect.
*~*
He was sitting at his laptop when he heard the tell-tale sound of fluttering wings. Sam looked up and there was Castiel looking up and frowning.
"Cas? Everything okay?" Sam asked, booting down the computer and crossing his arms.
"Is Dean...?"
"Food run. Why? Is something up?"
Castiel looked uneasy before finally coming and taking the other empty seat at the table in the room.
"I do not know if I should wait for Dean to return before asking..."
Sam gave the angel an easy smile and said gently, "Hey, whatever it is, I'm sure it's not something too hard if you want to ask Dean about it."
Castiel frowned and bit his lip before nodding. "Very well. I was assisting a child in retrieving her pet from a tree and...."
"You helped a kid with a cat in a tree?"
"Yes."
"I've only ever seen that in old movies or cartoons. I didn't think that stuff actually happened."
"May I speak?"
"Yeah, sorry. Go ahead."
"Anyway, afterwards I brought her to her local establishment for an ice cream in a cone."
"Please tell me that she asked her parents first."
"Of course. Did you think we brought the cat along with us too? Animals are not allowed within eating establishments, Sam. Well, service animals are and -"
"I-I know, Cas. Go on."
"Anyway, there was music playing and, um, if I hum it, could you tell me what it is?"
"Um, yeah sure. Go ahead."
Castiel closed his eyes and began humming out a tune that Sam recognized immediately.
"Yeah, Cas, I know about that song."
"The lyrics..."
"What about them?"
"...I don't know if I can really believe in them, Sam."
Sam looked down at his hands and rubbed his eye. "Me too, Cas. Me too."
*~*
"That was...it was...interesting."
"Yeah."
The brothers stared out the windshield, not really seeing anything but the road ahead of them.
"Do you think...?"
Dean looked back at Sam and then let his eyes drift back to the streets.
"One day. I think one day we'll have some kind of peace. Somehow."
Sam nodded before saying, "Heaven ain't waiting for us though."
Dean let out a chuckle at that, smacked Sam on the shoulder and continued driving.
"Well, some of heaven. Subsets of heaven."
Sam turned on the radio and..."You will always remember. Carry on, nothing equals the splendor..."