I'm so glad you've continued with this deeply compelling story. Your first two installments already presented such multi-dimensional portraits of these three characters, and now you've gone and added even more dimension. Before Sammy was acting selfishly in a pretty typically childish manner, but now we see him try to do something selfless for Dean by "throwing" the crossbow match, and, poor kid, it completely backfires on him.

In the last chapter we saw how Dean internalizes everything to his own detriment -- he takes a pure accident for which the blame, if any, lies in Sammy's bratty behavior, but he decides it's his own fault because he failed to have a hunter's patience. And now we see him take Sammy's success at the crossbow and internalize it into his own failure. I'm pleased to see Dean act like a jerk toward Sammy sometimes; there's way too much Saint Dean in pre-series fiction. Your Dean seems so much more like a realistic teenager, albeit one with an unhealthy need to please his father at all times.

As for John, I love the complex portrait you've drawn. The glimpses of tenderness, little moments like his alertness to Sammy's growling stomach, his swallowed-back chuckles, a warm hand resting against the back of a neck -- all this juxtaposed against his gruff manner, his inflexible commands and his brutal disclipline -- it all works together to convince me that this is a father who loves his children desperately and is terrified for their safety. When he trains them so hard, it's like he's running for their lives. It's so frustrating for him that he just cannot make Sammy understand why this is important. And Sammy won't, (a) because he's a child, but (b) because he's just not wired that way.

Please carry on with this. You've got a winner here.