I guess it needs the same kind of stretch as many of the pairings, but I imagine it in an AU in which John doesn't die, and they get to continue on some of that bonding that started to show up toward the end of S1.
While John's been hunting with Dean pretty consistently since Sam left, and so has seen Dean gradually change, Sam's been gone for four years (nearly five at the point they get back in contact with him, I think), and the years between 18 and 22-23 make a lot of difference, so the Sam that John meets again is likely to be a very different Sam from the one who left.
They had the same old conflicts for a while, but those dropped off sharply after John started letting Sam and Dean in on the info, and they were connecting pretty well talking about Mary and Jess. Now, obviously in the show, that's a father-son bonding moment of shared grief framed in purely familial terms. But, heck, I've wilfully (mis)interpreted plenty of heartwarming Sam-and-Dean filial moments as (for *fanfic*, not *show*) grounds for incesty fun, so why not with John, too?
I'm theorising that, with the separation and Sam having grown up apart from John and Dean, it might be easier for John to view Sam as something other than his *child*, particularly if they hunt together for a while.
John seeing adult-Sam as a different person also neatly sidesteps hinky awkward feelings I have about the idea that there could have been something when Sam was a kid. Which, to be honest, I'll read in kinkfic, but in that, the squick factor is part of the appeal.
Re: for science: JDM
I guess it needs the same kind of stretch as many of the pairings, but I imagine it in an AU in which John doesn't die, and they get to continue on some of that bonding that started to show up toward the end of S1.
While John's been hunting with Dean pretty consistently since Sam left, and so has seen Dean gradually change, Sam's been gone for four years (nearly five at the point they get back in contact with him, I think), and the years between 18 and 22-23 make a lot of difference, so the Sam that John meets again is likely to be a very different Sam from the one who left.
They had the same old conflicts for a while, but those dropped off sharply after John started letting Sam and Dean in on the info, and they were connecting pretty well talking about Mary and Jess. Now, obviously in the show, that's a father-son bonding moment of shared grief framed in purely familial terms. But, heck, I've wilfully (mis)interpreted plenty of heartwarming Sam-and-Dean filial moments as (for *fanfic*, not *show*) grounds for incesty fun, so why not with John, too?
I'm theorising that, with the separation and Sam having grown up apart from John and Dean, it might be easier for John to view Sam as something other than his *child*, particularly if they hunt together for a while.
John seeing adult-Sam as a different person also neatly sidesteps hinky awkward feelings I have about the idea that there could have been something when Sam was a kid. Which, to be honest, I'll read in kinkfic, but in that, the squick factor is part of the appeal.