A/N So here's the potential beginning chapter for the expansion of the Only By Seeking Shall Ye Find drabble. I have toyed with who goes missing, but the way I have the story arc in my head it has to be Ren helping to seek. So, to the Ren fans - thank you for your support, I am incredibly grateful to you for welcoming an original character into the mix. For those who don't care for original characters - I apologize and can only assure you she won't be around forever.

Warnings for language - it's Dean and Ren after all.

v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v

I was slipping quietly out the window of the house I had been checking when the accursed thing vibrated in my pocket. Unaccustomed to carrying a cellphone still, I jolted. Losing my grip on the window casing I dropped four feet to the wooden floor below. I landed hard on the point of my left shoulder reawakening the last vestiges of my recent concussion, jarring everything out of focus for a moment and stealing my breath. By the time I could breathe again, the phone had fallen still.

I lay there for another moment wondering what the hell had just happened and the damn thing started vibrating again. I managed an almost normal hello that was not quite normal enough.

"Are you okay? Where are you?" Dean sounded agitated.

"I am just at the end of my list of houses to check. What's going on Dean?" I ignored the first part, working on keeping my breaths even. I was embarrassed and my shoulder and head hurt like hell. He didn't need to know what had happened.

"I can't reach Sam. You're okay?"

"Yeah I'm," a grunt as I hauled myself off the porch floor finally, "fine. What do you mean you can't reach Sam?"

"I mean I called, no answer. I've been calling for twenty minutes. And if you're fine, why didn't you answer your friggin' phone the first time? Isn't that why you got the damn thing, so we could reach you?" Anger masking his worry for Sam, but I was in no mood to play punching bag.

"I fell out a fucking window, Dean. It re-scrambled my brains a bit and I couldn't get enough air into my lungs to say hello the first friggin' time you called."

"You fell - " I knew the teasing would be merciless, I so was not going to let him get that far.

"Stop. You can make fun of me later. Let's meet at the end of Sam's route, we can backtrack and see where it gets us. He might have just stopped for a coffee or something." I knew it was lame, Sam would have to be in a lead bathroom to not have reception, but it was all I had. I ended the call, needing a minute to get the pain and my temper under control.

v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v

They depended heavily on their phones. Navigation, GPS, keeping in contact. I had never had one.

Not until they ganged up on me that is.

A couple of towns before my window pain, we had...lost contact. My concussion was mostly gone by the time I fell out the window and I had planned on removing the stitches in my temple when we got back to the motel the night Sam vanished.

Sam had said I needed a phone so they could find me if needed. I answered that I had not needed to be found, "I knew where I was."

"You don't know where you are now." Dean had growled.

I glared at him, but I guess the effect was somewhat dampened by the bloody rag pressed to my temple and the fact that one of my eyes was crossed at any given time.

So after all that drama and then getting me the phone, I found it impossible to believe that Sam would not answer his.

Not for a moment did I believe that.

v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v

I was almost to him by the time he spotted me and stopped his frantic pacing alongside the Impala. I could feel his stare burning holes in me as I looked up and down the street, looking for anything unusual. Before I could say anything he was reaching out to touch me, I reflexively shied away before his hand could land on my left arm. His eyes narrowed and I knew it was too much to hope that he would have just let it go.

"Dude, what the hell? When did you get so touchy?" I snapped.

"You said you fell out a window and you're not moving right. I wanted to make sure you didn't hurt yourself. Did you hit your head again?" Oh. So that's why he had been staring at me. Self-conscious much?

I took a deep breath. We were working a hunt where people were going missing - never to be seen again - and now Sam was missing. Dean was worried about his brother and all I could do was let my concern for my wounded pride bring out my inner bitch. Nice.

Belatedly I realized he had no intention of making fun of me for my graceless move, either, he was actually concerned about me. I marveled once again at the compassionate heart he tried to hide behind his tough-guy exterior and wondered who had broken him so badly that he felt he needed to. I sighed and shook my head in frustration as guilt wormed its way through my gut.

"I'm sorry, Dean." I looked him in the eyes so he could see I meant it, "I'm fine. I landed on my shoulder and it knocked the wind out of me, that's all. When was the last time you spoke with Sam?"

"You're not moving that arm when you walk, lemme see." Long, strong fingers pushed my shirt sleeve out of the way and started expertly checking the joint integrity, "I talked to him around 2, our last scheduled check-in."

"Shit, three hours is - ow!" I tried to jerk away as his fingers found the bruising from the impact with the porch, but he held my arm in place with one hand while continuing to explore with the other. Green eyes watched me carefully, gauging my reactions to determine if I was hiding a more serious injury. I took a deep breath and bit back a scathing comment about him holding a monopoly on that front, "Three hours is a hell of a head start Dean. What do you want to do?"

"I was thinking if we started on opposite ends and worked our way through, see if we can figure out who saw him last - "

"And if the last place he was in, nobody was at home? No. Besides, that would take too much time. I have an idea, though I'm not crazy about it."

"I'm listening."

"We'll need to make a quick trip to pick up a few things..."

v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v-v