BSGC secret santa for sweetsamofmine--merry christmas! :D
“Dude, you haven’t watched a full season of anything since 2005?”
 Sam shrugs. “There’s just always been other stuff going on, you know?” He shifts in his chair, muffling a cough with the back of his hand. He looks horribly pale, eyes a little too bright from the low-grade fever he’s been running since the whole thing with the djinn a few days before, but he’s promised her he feels fine. It’s a total lie, of course, but Charlie lets it drop. She’s read enough of the books to know where he’s coming from.
 She pointedly ignores his coughing, and keeps scrolling. “I don’t even know where to start. I mean, you’re so behind on everything it’s like starting with a blank slate.”
 “Hey!”
 “Have you even seen the new Star Trek? I mean, Abrams took some liberties with the source material, but Dean’s obviously a Trekkie, so I’m guessing that one would be on his list.”
 "We actually caught that one,” Sam says. “Movies are easier to do than TV, if we have the cash.”
 “Oh! Okay, good to know.” Charlie leans over to draw a line through several of the items on the makeshift list she’d started before Dean had headed to town. It had started as a way to take her mind off of her mom, but now it’s a mission. She will bring the Winchesters’ pop culture into the modern day; 2005 is practically the Dark Ages—there’d only been one season of Lost, for heaven’s sake! “So, Avengers is off the list?”
 Sam nods. “I liked it.”
 “You know,” she says, “There’s talk on the message boards. I guess a movie studio has tried to get in contact with Edlund. I mean, it hasn’t gone anywhere, but apparently they even hired a private detective or something to find him.”
 Sam groans. “That’s the last thing we need.”
 “The fan casting people have for you and Dean is terrible, though. I blame the book covers. They are not accurate.”
 “Yeah, I kinda noticed that,” Sam says drily, reaching on to the nightstand for his water.
 Charlie stops scrolling. She hasn’t thought of that fancast post in ages—because seriously, Zac Efron as Dean?—but it brings back an image, the pretty blonde (Natalie Dormer, if she recalls correctly) who’d been badly photoshopped next to the TV extra actor cast as “Sam” whose name she couldn’t remember.
 “Hey Sam,” she says slowly, “What I said a couple of days ago, about not having any luck with the ladies?”
 She can feel the shift in Sam, the way he tenses next to her. “Yeah?” It’s careful, like he’s not really sure if he wants to hear the rest.
 Charlie makes a face. “Look, I’m sorry about that. Everything you’ve gone through—I can’t imagine.”
 Sam doesn’t respond, but he relaxes a little.
 “You’ve never really got a chance to talk about all this with anyone, have you?” Charlie twists to face him. He’s looking almost lost, thumb rubbing absently through the condensation on his water glass. “Everything that’s happened, all the “chosen one” stuff, losing all those people you loved, everything.”
 He shrugs, and Charlie isn’t sure if it’s a little helpless, or if he’s just tired. “It’s fine, you know. We manage.”
 “Yeah. I read all the books, you know.” Charlie says gently. “I know how you boys roll. Just want to let you know, though—you can talk to me. I don’t really know where I fit in into this story, but if you need a Hermione to your Harry, I’ve got your back.”
 Sam smiles, warm even through the weariness the Trials have left. “Thanks Charlie, I—I appreciate it.” He gestures at the computer. “So, what have you got for us?”
“Battlestar Galactica?”Â
“Sounds good.”
In the distance, there’s the sound of doors slamming, and Dean’s off-key singing.
“Just call me some time, or something,” Charlie says softly. “Hey, I’m always online. You’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders. Just because you’re carrying the One Ring doesn’t mean that you’re alone.”
“I'll call,” Sam promises, and smiles.Â
Charlie even thinks she believes him.Â
