Ohmigod, I'm commenting on a Sam/Deasn fic publicly and without shame. This is a first for me: mostly because this is the first Sam/Dean fic I've read that I've believed the build-up to the Wincest. Seriously, I was so shocked that I turned around immediately and read the whole thing over again, and it works, emotionally and in-character. A profound achievement. Thank you.

(There is this one little thing: it seems I'm the first sports fan to read through this. In chapter eight, you write, "It was like watching Mickey Mantle throw a curveball. Just like that, and just as perfect." Mickey Mantle was an outfielder/first baseman, and never threw a pitch in his entire professional career, so probably not the owner of a sublime curveball. It threw me right out of the fic both times I read it, not to mention that you've put so much care into the rest of the research, I figured you'd be interested in this kind of detail. I'd replace Mickey with Tom Gordon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Gordon), who's been playing since Dean was about 9 years old, played the first few years of his career in Kansas, has good name recognition (thanks to Stephen King's "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon") and owns a serious curveball.)