Sam drove in silence. Three days ago, he'd had yet another argument with his brother. He'd had enough of close quarters, tense situations, Dean's bossiness and his unwillingness to give Sam some slack. He'd been the one to mouth off that if Dean didn't like the attitude Sam was currently presenting, then Dean could just go away. To his surprise, Dean had waved good-bye, tossed his bag at his feet, jumped into the Impala and driven away. He hadn't quite known what to make of that but decided he'd give it a few days before addressing it.

Sam had remained in the same town they'd been in when they'd split up. He was a little thrown that Dean had left town, had left him, and not attempted to contact him. He'd had the time to think about how he felt about that during the drive to track his brother down and he'd come to the conclusion he didn't like it at all.

He'd expected to hear from Dean, as he was the one who always caved and reached out first. Had expected a phone call, even a text with Dean acting like nothing had happened, but he'd received…..nothing. He'd been the one to try calling his brother, but every call went directly to voicemail. He'd gone through the expected range of emotions: annoyance, irritation, anger and finally concern. He wasn't even sure Dean wanted to see him but that no longer mattered, he was going to find his wayward brother whether he wanted to be found or not.

Sam pulled into the parking lot of the motel where the last GPS signal from his brother's cell phone had transmitted. He shut the motor of the stolen car down, and took a visual inventory of the motels parking lot. It wasn't hard to do, the motel was one story and all doors faced the parking lot which meant there was no parking around back. No Impala. Sam climbed from the car and entered the small office.

"Whassup?" was his greeting from a skinny, sky blue mo-hawk haired kid with gauged ear lobes the size of quarters.

"Hi, I'm looking for….." he couldn't speak another word. The kid had piercings everywhere. Lip, chin, nose, eyebrow, every inch of both ears. The kid jingled and jangled and chimed with every movement.

"Heeyaayee dude, cool." he whistled. "Totally cut that do into a mullet! Or sa-ayy, shave the sides, leave the top short and pull the back into a pigtail…..high five!" he held his palm up. "Like dude, totally leaving me hanging here!"

Pigtail? Who the hell called a ponytail a pigtail these days? Three-year old girls wore pigtails and weren't they usually braids? His hair was way too short braid. He shook his head, so not the time to analyze hair styles.

"I'm looking for this man." he held out a picture of his brother. "Drives a classic '67 Impala."

"Oh yeah Dean…wait…who are you? You the fuzz? Cause I don't wanna go getting that cool dude in trouble, not saying I've seen him, mighta though…..cool ass car, you ask me, course you ain't, cause if you were…."

"He's my brother." Sam interrupted. "You've seen him then?"

"Heeeeaaaavvvyyyy! You're joking me, right? You're Sammy? Don't be looking like no little brother I've ever seen." he held a hand out to Sam. Every finger, thumbs included sported more than one ring, his nails were painted black and designs were tattooed onto pierced knuckles. OW! "We hung out last night, said he usually played pool with his little brother Sammy. Name's Pin Cushion."

No kidding, Sam rolled his eyes and fought for patience. "Younger, I'm his younger brother." Sam shook his hand, then wiped his palm on the leg of his jeans. "So, he's checked in?"

"Room 23." nose ring jangled from the vigorous nodding of head. "Your brother is cool for an old dude. Chicks really dig him. I mean, the dude can pick up chicks like…"

"So, aah, Room 23, thanks." odd that the car wasn't in the lot, but then, it was probably in the lot of whatever bar he had staggered out of. Of all things Dean could be stupid about, driving while intoxicated wasn't one of them.

"Oh he ain't there." Pin Cushion called as Sam reached the door. "Be wasting your time dude to go knocking on the door."

"Any idea when he might be back?"

"Hard to say, seeing as he checked out and all." the kid shrugged. "Hey, you got the same way with women he does? Maybe we can hook-up when I'm off and head over to Harkens."

"When did he check out?" gritted teeth made his jaw ache. Why the hell hadn't the kid said so in the first place?

"This morning." he grinned. "We were over to Harkens last night, best bar in town, if you know what I mean. Your brother sure can play a mean game of pool, ain't too bad at darts neither. Guess he got lucky with Cupcake, seeing as she was in the car when he checked out. Come to think of it, guess he did leave the bar with her last night."

"You're saying he brought a girl back to his room?" please god, let him find him at this girls house. He wasn't in the mood to go chasing his brother all over the county. "Checked out this morning and went home with her?"

"That'd be my guess, yeah…lucky dude too, she's smoking hot!" he kissed his fingers and blew their tips. "Get my meaning, heh? She's so outta my league but Dean hooked-up."

"Where can I find, erhm, Cupcake?"

"Can't miss her place; take the second street over at the foot of the hill, bam, right there." he leaned across the counter. "Hey, bring him back this way, will ya? Kinda wish he'd stick around, you know? He's pretty awesome to hang out with."