Summary: In the spring of 1944, the 104th Medical Battalion of the United States Army is disbanded, and its men reassigned to various infantry companies in preparation for their invasion of occupied France. For First Lieutenant Novak, this is less than helpful, as he has so far met his platoon’s designated medic a grand total of twice, and has both times found Sergeant Winchester to be the optimum combination of reckless, arrogant, and downright insufferable so as to make cohesive platoon function near impossible. When the time comes to move out, however, Castiel has to reconcile himself to the fact that men are going to go down and trust that Dean Winchester may well be the only person who can put them back together again. WW2 ETO infantry AU.
Commentary: You know that fanfic you read that for a while felt more real than canon? This happened to me and 91W. I started reading this not knowing it was a fandom classic – I read So Says The Sword, by the same author, fell in love with their writing and wanted more. I don’t usually read AUs, because often the characters are too out of character, but I gave this one a shot. Had to skip some scenes in the beginning to make sure I wanted to read it (to get to Dean and Cas’ scenes), but had to go back to read it after, because this story is AMAZING.
I don’t understand or care much about war, but the author is so good at storytelling that they made me want to go watch war movies.
The fanfic follows Castiel’s POV through WWII – he is a lieutenant and goes to Europe in 1944. Castiel is aware he is queer but hates it about himself – as would be expected of a man in that time. He meets Dean, a medic, who is funny, charming, impulsive, brave and begins showing interest in Cas, which is very dangerous in their context.
The author says in the tags it’s “not a nice story” – and maybe it’s not. As we follow Castiel in the war, he describes many details of what he sees and feels, many times causing the reader feelings and anxiety, fear, sadness and helplessness. He is a queer man in the 40’s, in the war, being a leader. That happens because the author is so so so so good, the way they write is so immersive. You can tell the author did their research about everything they talk about here.
Dean and Castiel’s relationship start as something not physical nor friendly, but…There’s something physical, of course, about what attracts them, that is described beautifully. Watching each other, their relationship also becomes admiration and interest. Cas has a very hard time with it, being scared most of the time. Slowly we see him fall in love with Dean, and Dean fall back.
The characters are incredibly in character, despite of the context. Castiel is very similar to season 5 Cas – lost, confused, angry, lonely. Dean is very similar to pre-hell Dean (and Dean in general) – understanding, laidback, focused, brave, compassionate, nurturing,
Unless you’re a very sensitive person who can’t read about violence, self-hate, death and other war related themes, please please read this story. It’s so good.
91W has two sequels (that are much shorter), called 4-F and At Ease.
