I hate to do an "Oh, yes" post, but I am still a bit incoherent about the possibilities. I think that is what makes the show so fannish, really. It hits the narrative kinks, of course, and it says out loud what we say here--Dean, suffering, is VERY pretty. Sam suffering is okay, but really, you get the pretty from Sam when he is suffering because he's lost so much because his brother brought him back in, but still it makes him suffer to see his brother in that much angst.

But the stories open out with possibilities, so you are always left with lots of might-happen's that don't even require bending canon to work