Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Supernatural or Doctor Who or any of the related rights.

...

Sam kept looking at him.

Dean repositioned his hands on the steering wheel, drummed his fingers, then finally turned to his brother. "What?" he demanded.

"Nothing."

That was a lie.

They drove in silence a little while longer. Dean knew Sam was walking on eggshells around him, and he hated it. But Dean didn't know what to say to fix it. And how was he supposed to fix it? How was he supposed to forgive Sam for trading his life for someone else's? He was supposed to go down in the line of duty. No shame in it. Now some guy had a heart attack, Dean was up and walking, and he couldn't shake the feeling that he was running on borrowed time.

"You want some music?" Sam said at last. He didn't say anything clever about how he should update his casette tapes, and that's how Dean knew he was really in it deep with his little brother.

"Sure," he said.

Sam flipped through some channels on the radio, but they all seemed to be playing commercials for the moment.

"Hey," Dean said suddenly.

"What?" Sam turned, eyes wide, expecting.

Dean snorted at the look on his brother's face. Like he was just gonna start chick-flicking for no reason. "Thanks for having my back. Back there, I mean," he said. "That reaper woulda had me."

"Yeah."

They both knew it was an empty thank you. Sam must have been dying to ask, and Dean knew he couldn't answer, if Dean didn't wish the reaper had gone ahead and killed him. At least then he'd have died for someone who deserved to live. They'd both liked Layla.

But Dean didn't have an answer for questions like that.

"So this case," Sam said hesitantly as a lead-in.

Dean grinned, glad to have something to distract him. "So get this," he said. "This one just started happening, so Dad must have been there pretty recently."

"And?" Sam asked, but his gaze was more excited than usual.

"Looks like people are going missing. Maybe for only a few hours, or sometimes for a few days. And then when they come back, they're different."

"Different how?"

"Not sure," Dean said. "Most of the eyewitnesses are under the age of twelve."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Weird."

"Our kind of weird, maybe?" Dean said.

Sam leaned back with a sigh. "Your kind."

Dean frowned. He hated when Sam did that, when Sam distanced himself from the life. Was it so much to ask for Sam to be happy to be back in the saddle with his brother?

"Anyway, figure it's worth taking a look around," Dean said.

It was another long stretch of silence between them before they reached the small fishing town. It wasn't much to look at, but then, most of the towns they found their way into weren't. They weren't here for sightseeing, no matter what they told people.

"Feels deserted," Sam noted as they drove through.

"Not quite," Dean said. He pulled into a space in front of a small, eat-in place and pointed: there was a little girl in yellow rain boots skipping down the sidewalk.

Dean got out of the car and heard the click of the passenger side door as Sam followed his lead. He heard the nervous humming and realized then that the little girls wasn't as carefree as her skipping suggested, and when she saw Dean, she practically froze.

And then, the moment passed, and she put her hands on her hips. "Who are you? You don't belong here."

Dean laughed. "No, we're just visiting."

"From where?"

"Everywhere!" Dean said. He crouched down so he could be closer to her eye level. "Me and my brother Sammy are from all over the place. We like to go to new places all the time, like having adventures." He smiled. "What about you? What kind of adventures are you going on?"

She looked dubiously at him. "Only the kind of adventures where grown-ups get in trouble," she said at last.

"Oh, good," Dean said. "That's the kind me and Sammy like. We're good at saving grown-ups."

She didn't look like she believed him.

He sighed and tried a different approach. "What's your name?"

"Abbie."

He gave her one of his crooked smiles. "Well, Abbie, me and my brother haven't been here before, so we're kind of lost. Can you tell us where we can find an adventure?"

She sniffed, but she looked a little more relaxed. "All the grown-ups go to the saloon," she said.

He laughed. "Is that normal, or is this new?"

She didn't get the joke, so she put her hands on her hips again. "It's not funny. They go there all the time, and they think that us kids don't notice!"

She looked pretty insistent, so Dean stopped smiling. "Right. Yeah. Of course," he said quickly. "Do you know where it is?"

At that, Abbie stepped back. "Why?" Then, her frown deepened. "You don't want to go there too, do you?"

"Only so we can find the other grown-ups," Sam said.

Abbie turned and glared at Sam, and Dean couldn't help but laugh. She could be pretty intimidating if she wanted to be.

"Listen, Abbie," Dean said, turning her attention back his way. "Do you know if there are other kids around? Maybe we could talk to them and find out where their parents are?"

Abbie's gaze flickered toward the eat-in place, but then, hesitating, she said, "Tommy likes to go to the beach with his big sister sometimes."

Dean and Sam shared a look. They'd both seen the hesitation, and they didn't want to go on a wild goose chase, but it was worth chasing all leads, even if it came from a scared little girl. He jerked his head toward the beach, and Sam nodded and headed off to investigate. Dean turned his attention back to Abbie. "Hey," he said quietly, carefully. "We're not here to hurt you."

"You're a grown-up," she said as if that was all the explanation in the world.

"That's debatable," he said with a smile. "My brother says I'm five years old."

"You don't look five."

"Yeah, but he says I act like it," he said with a smile.

"Why?"

"Because life's no fun if you're not gluing your brother's toothbrush to the sink," Dean said.

She giggled.

"Are you headed in there?" Dean asked.

She nodded.

"Good food?"

"My best friend," she said. "He's funny. You'd like him."

"Can I meet him?"

She looked him over, then shook her head. "You're a grown-up," she said again.

"Yeah, I got that," he laughed.

"So you're going to disappear," she said. "I don't want you to do that."

"I'll try my best not to," he said.

She scrunched her nose at him, then sighed. "Tammy's parents were the first ones to disappear," she said, pointing at a little yellow house down the street. "If you want an adventure, maybe you should try there first?"

Dean grinned, glad that at last he was getting somewhere. "Think it'll be a scary adventure?"

She shuddered. "I hope not."

He stood up and brushed off his knees. "Thanks for your help."

"Don't get eated by anything, okay?" she said.

He laughed again.

He headed for the little yellow house for a while, then doubled back as soon as he thought it was probably safe. He ducked behind the Impala and watched as Abbie disappeared into the eat-in place.

"What're you up to?" he muttered. He figured he'd wait a little bit longer to see if she came back out with her best friend. Or maybe it was an imaginary friend. That could be worse. Sometimes imaginary friends were real.

He waited for a little bit longer before he saw someone come out. Someone tall enough to be an adult. Someone blonde.

"Rose," he breathed. The Doctor was here? Now? "Rose!" he called out, coming out from behind the Impala.

Rose turned toward him, and she saw the faint recognition blossom just behind her eyes. "Dean?"

He nodded, grinned, and fully intended to be there in two strides to wrap her in a hug. But someone else was faster than him. Out of nowhere, one of the adults from the town came around the corner, and then the guy had his hand on Rose's mouth and was dragging her away!

Dean started forward to go after her, but then something hit him, and he went down. Hard.