Bourbon Nights: Losing a Brother
“You have a brother?” The stranger asked, eyes filled with pain, glinting with unshed tears, just bloodshot enough to tell Cordell that the guy probably drank himself to sleep most nights.
“Yeah, I do.” Cordell replied, tamping down a surge of irritation. He had picked this bar so he could be anonymous, and damned if he wasn’t getting pulled into something anyhow.
“Don’t take him for granted,” the stranger said, with an urgency that sent a chill down Cordell’s spine. “Forgive him. Don’t waste precious time being angry. You never know when the clock’s going to run out.”
Cordell’s mind flashed to Liam, shot by the Rodeo Kings. Tortured by Gray Flag. I could have lost him. We still haven’t talked things out. Things are better than they were, but not where they should be.
“Let him know you’re proud of him,” the stranger said, and his voice caught. “Things were good between us, at the end,” he went on, talking to himself more than to Cordell. “But we wasted so damn much time along the way, over nothing that mattered.”
They didn’t know each other, and they certainly weren’t related despite the passing resemblance, but Cordell felt like he was seeing a reflection of someone he could have been, if things had gone differently.
“Cordi. There you are. Been looking for you. C’mon home,” Liam’s voice sounded behind Cordell. He’d found him—of course he had.
The stranger looked up. “That your brother?”
Cordell saw the well of grief in the other man’s gaze. “Yeah, he is.”
“You’re a lucky man,” the stranger said, with too many emotions tangled up in his voice for Cordell to parse out. “Don’t forget what I told you.” He turned away.
“You got someplace safe to sleep it off?” Cordell asked, worried for this broken man he’d just met.
“Yeah. Wouldn’t be the first time I’ve spent the night in the Impala; won’t be the last. I’ll be as okay as I ever am without him. I promised I would be. Just, not tonight.” A glint of bronze caught the light from the amulet the man wore on a leather strap before he closed his large hand around it like a talisman.
Cordell had spotted that black muscle car in the parking lot and wondered about its owner.
“Come on, Cordi. Time to go,” Liam urged.
Cordell followed Liam, and paused at the door for a backward glance toward the man at the bar, whose hunched shoulders and lowered head suggested a long night yet to come.
Brothers and unbreakable bonds. Knowing what you’ve got before it’s gone. I paid for the bourbon, but I got more than my money’s worth. I just hope that guy finds his peace before he’s done.
~
Author’s Note: If you’re wondering about the birthday comment, Sam died at Cold Oak on his birthday, Dean was killed by the hellhound on Sam’s birthday, and Sam went into the Cage with Lucifer at Stull Cemetery on his birthday. That makes the date emotionally fraught, so Sam’s basically saying he’s in a worse place mentally than usual because of the emotional weight of the upcoming birthday.
Story illustrated by Nightsky.
Enjoy Gail and Cat’s other stories of Sam and Dean’s adventures: “Just Another Weekend in the Bunker” and “Amethyst Dreams: A Supernatural Hunt”
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Get to know CatCurl, the artist behind these vignettes, and see her incredible Supernatural drawings, in WFB’s artist profile: Inspired by Supernatural!
Read more of Bestselling author Gail Z. Martin’s Fantasy Novels and Supernatural Reviews! Links on The WFB’s Writer’s Page.
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