Chapter 2

D

Sam stared at that single letter, suddenly wide awake.

Dean.

Sam hadn't heard a word from Dean since they'd gone their separate ways in Colorado. He'd been trying really hard to live his normal life, away from the looming Apocalypse, and Dean had evidently decided to leave his little brother to it.

Sam had almost dialled Dean's number a few times, usually after a hard night at work or a few too many beers, when he was feeling alone and just wanted to hear his brother's voice. Now, Dean was calling him, and Sam was suddenly afraid to answer the phone.

A shortlist of possible disasters that would make Dean reach out to him flashed through his mind as he pressed the 'answer' button with a shaky finger and put the phone to his ear.

"Sam?"

Sam let out a breath he didn't even know he'd been holding.

"Dean? What's wrong?" Sam asked, softly, all kinds of possible catastrophes still running through his head.

"Nothing's wrong, Sam, don't worry," Dean replied, and he could hear the thinly-veiled anxiety in his brother's voice. Dean was obviously just as edgy as Sam, which made the younger Winchester feel a little better. Nice to know he wasn't the only one.

Sam leaned against the bench and ran a hand through his hair, taking a couple of deep breaths. Here he was, on the phone with Dean - finally - and his mind was racing, full of things he wanted to say to his brother. He just didn't know where to start...

Dean took Sam's silence as a cue to continue. "Look, I'm calling because I'm coming through Missouri on Tuesday. Could we... I don't know, meet up for a beer or something?" The nerves were obvious in Dean's voice now. He was putting himself out there, and he wasn't sure Sam would say yes.

Sam could hardly believe what he was hearing. "Uh - yeah." he answered, after a short pause, when he finally found his voice. "That sounds great." Sam found himself grinning as he thought about having a drink with Dean. He'd missed that - he'd missed having a brother.

"Awesome," Dean breathed, sounding as relieved as Sam felt.

"I'm staying at the Motel 6 off I-70. If I'm not here, I'll probably be at Johnny Blue's - it's a bar, by the highway." Sam told him, well aware that Dean had probably known exactly where to find his baby brother for the last four months.

"Doing a little drinking lately, are we?" Dean asked lightly, although he was only half-joking.

"No, Dean, I work there." Sam rolled his eyes. Two minutes on the phone and it was like they'd never been apart.

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Sam slept better that night than he had in weeks. Knowing he'd see Dean soon seemed to calm his subconscious - his nightmares had even stopped. For the first time since he'd walked away from his brother in Colorado, Sam felt at peace. Hopeful, even.

Sam's bright new outlook wasn't lost on Kate during their next shift together, the night before Dean said he'd get into town.

Kate set her tray of empty beer bottles down on the bar and leaned over, studying Sam closely as he polished a glass tumbler. "What?" he asked finally, a little smile on his face as he put down that glass and picked up the next.

"Who are you and what have you done with Tommy?" Kate asked, wearing her best look of mock concern and trying not to spoil it with the grin threatening to break out across her face.

Sam laughed at that, and Kate looked slightly bewildered; Sam (and consequently 'Tommy') almost never laughed. Certainly not like that, anyway - she was so used to the strained chuckling of 'Tommy' that Sam's easy, lilting laughter caught her by surprise. Sam finished polishing the glass in his hands and picked up a third before he answered.

"My brother's coming into town tomorrow. We're going to do a little catching up." Sam told her, eyes shining. He just couldn't keep the smile off his face. Kate found herself smiling too - this new genuine happiness of Sam's was infectious.

"I'm glad to hear it, honey." she said warmly, as she started emptying her tray. "Oh - speaking of catching up, there were a couple of older guys here looking for you earlier. Said they were old friends of someone called Sam Winchester?" Kate said casually, not seeing the smile vanish from Sam's face as a shiver ran down his spine.

"Huh. Why were they looking for me, then?" Sam asked coolly, after a short pause, though all kinds of alarm bells were ringing in his mind. Nobody he wanted to see would come looking for him under the name 'Sam Winchester'.

"I told them I didn't know anybody called Sam, and they gave me a description of the guy they were looking for - it was weird, 'cause it fit you to a T." Kate continued, eyes focused downward as she wiped her tray clean with a damp cloth. She didn't see the anxiety on Sam's face as he stopped polishing the glass, instead clutching it tightly in his giant hand as he thought this new development through.

Sam was, in fact, having a very discreet panic attack. He had made sure that Dean and Bobby were the only ones that knew he'd gone to Blue Springs, and they sure as hell hadn't spread it around. That meant these two guys, who were almost certainly hunters, had tracked him down: and Sam was not an easy guy to find.

That they'd gone to so much trouble to find him made Sam think that he knew exactly what they wanted to talk to him about. He hadn't thought the fact that he'd single-handedly started the Apocalypse was common knowledge, but this new development certainly seemed to suggest otherwise.

"They said they might come back tonight and ask around again. They seemed really keen to find this guy, whoever he is." Kate shrugged, and picked up her tray.

"Let me know if you see them." Sam replied casually, miraculously managing to keep the anxiety out of his voice.

"Sure." Kate smiled brightly and headed back out onto the floor.

Sam immediately put down the glass and cut through the kitchen to the back of the building, making a quick exit through the deliveries door into the dark alley out back. He couldn't afford to hang around and wait for a pair of hunters to find him, a sitting duck in a stained white apron.

Sam knew he had to get out of Blue Springs, right the hell now: he had absolutely no desire to find out why these hunters had spent so much time and energy tracking him down. The guy that started the Apocalypse mustn't be popular among hunters, and these ones probably weren't in town to give him a fruit basket. Sam figured he'd better head for Bobby's place - he'd be safe there, and South Dakota wasn't all that far away...

First things first, though: put some distance between him and Blue Springs.

Sam hadn't taken more than five steps down the alley when he came face-to-face with an anonymous figure in the shadows. Sam stopped dead in his tracks, eyes drawn the revolver in the man's hand. This had to be one of the hunters in town looking for him.

"Sam Winchester." The stranger had a thick Louisiana accent and a fiendish little smile on his face; like the cat that ate the canary.

Before Sam could say a word he felt a sudden, sharp pain in the side of his neck. Surprised, he turned to look behind him and immediately realised what had happened: a man Sam hadn't even known was there had come up behind him and emptied a syringe into the big muscles of his neck...

Everything suddenly got fuzzy then, and Sam's legs turned to jelly and went from under him. He slumped to the ground, still with just enough control of his limbs that he was able to break his fall. Dazed, he looked up and saw the hunter with the Southern accent standing over him, his revolver pointed directly at Sam's left temple.

"You've been a bad boy, Sam," the man admonished him, that evil little smile still on his face. Sam wanted to tell him this was all a big misunderstanding and that he could explain, but found he couldn't make his mouth work to form the words. That didn't matter much, though; whatever was in that syringe had found its way to his brain and he couldn't think of anything coherent to say anyway.

As Sam lay helpless on the ground at gunpoint, he felt a wave of profound tiredness sweep over him - all he wanted to do was sleep. He knew that sleeping was the last thing he should do, but he was just so tired...

Struggling to stay awake, Sam watched as a beaten-up red pickup stopped in front of him. He finally lost the battle and drifted off into unconsciousness as the two strangers securely bound his wrists and ankles, and was out like a light by the time they began loading him into the back seat.

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Dean rolled into Blue Springs late Tuesday morning, and made a beeline for the Motel 6 off Interstate 70. He'd been driving for days, and he was looking forward to laying eyes on his little brother.

Dean knew it had been the right thing to do, letting Sam walk away after River Pass. Sammy needed to get away from the life, and Dean had no choice but to let him go. In reality, the last thing he'd wanted was for Sam to leave - the thought tied his insides in knots - but the only thing scarier than his baby brother being alone (unprotected, in Dean's mind) was the very real possibility that if they continued on like they were, they'd both end up dead.

Just because it had been the right thing to do didn't mean the last four months hadn't been miserable, though. Dean had stayed on the road, hunting everything he could find - various spirits, a handful of ghouls, a revenant and even a couple of shapeshifters - but it just wasn't the same without Sam. And not only because Dean now had to do all his own research; he missed Sam obsessively cleaning their weapons, sweet-talking witnesses with his damn puppy-dog eyes... God help him, he even missed the kid's salad fetish.

Dean couldn't keep the smile off his face as he pulled up to Sam's room at the Blue Springs Motel 6. If Sam asked he'd deny it, but Dean had missed his baby brother.

Having parked the Impala, Dean went up to Sam's door and knocked. He was surprised when there was no answer - it was 10:30 in the morning, and Sam wasn't a late sleeper. Dean figured he was probably at work, and got back into the Impala for the short drive to Johnny Blue's.

When Dean walked into the bar, he immediately noticed two things: firstly, that there were far more people drinking in Blue Springs than there should be at this hour of the morning. Secondly, he noticed the petite red-headed young waitress standing behind the bar.

Dean smiled to himself and walked over – he leaned on the counter, watching as Kate sorted receipts. She barely even looked up. "What can I get you?" she asked in that faded Southern accent of hers, focused on the last few slips of paper.

"I'm actually looking for my brother," Dean replied, and Kate instantly looked up - that got her attention. Her eyes went wide as she saw what was standing in front of her.

"You must be Dean." She smiled coquettishly, as her eyes took in every detail of this handsome stranger. Dean had on his best flirting smile as he admired her right back. She had the most gorgeous golden brown eyes...

"So you know my brother, huh?" he asked, and Kate nodded. Dean discovered he very much liked the way her red hair rippled when she did that.

"My name's Kate, and I was here when Tommy started about four months back," she told him, receipts forgotten. Dean almost burst out laughing - to him, the name 'Tommy' didn't fit Sam at all.

"So is he around?" Dean kept his composure, though, and got to the point. His desire to see Sam was overpowering the urge to get to know this waitress better - a rare occurrence.

"He was here last night, but he took off early - I didn't see him after about 10pm. He's not rostered on again till tomorrow night," Kate said honestly, unable to take her eyes off him. Dean had tuned out slightly at this point, his mind occupied with where Sam might have got to.

"You know, the last time I saw him was when I told him about the other guys that were looking for him," Kate added, thoughtfully, and she suddenly had Dean's full attention again.

"Other guys?" he asked, brow furrowed as he leaned further over the bar, and Kate nodded again. This time Dean wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to her hair.

"Two older guys - kind of grizzled looking, y'know? - came around yesterday afternoon looking for someone. They said they were friends of a 'Sam Winchester', and their description of the guy they wanted to see fit your brother perfectly." Kate retold her story for the other Winchester brother, as Dean concealed a similar panic attack to the one Sam had experienced about 12 hours earlier.

"I told them I didn't know anyone called Sam, and they said they were going to come back later that night and ask around when the bar was full," she told him, and Dean felt his stomach drop as it dawned on him what had probably happened. He'd thought something wasn't right when Sam hadn't been in either place he'd told Dean to look, but now he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that something was very wrong.

"Did you see them come back?" he asked Kate, seriously, all trace of his smile gone.

"You know, I didn't..." she replied, after a few seconds' thought. That was all Dean needed to hear: he knew exactly what - who - had happened to Sam.

"Thanks, Kate." Dean left the redhead standing at the bar and went straight back outside to the Impala, as Kate wondered what she'd said to make this gorgeous guy take off like that.

As soon as Dean got out the door he tried calling Sam. When the phone rang out and went to voicemail, Dean did the only other thing he could think of: he called Bobby.

Bobby picked up on the eighth ring, sounding like he'd just woken up. "Dean?" he grunted, and Dean could just imagine Bobby waking up at his desk, having only fallen asleep in the small hours before dawn. He'd developed a bad habit of sleeping at his desk since the Apocalypse had taken over their lives.

"Bobby, Sam's missing." Dean got straight to the point, and it took Bobby a second to process that.

"What do you mean, Sam's missing?" Bobby hadn't quite grasped what Dean was trying to tell him - probably because Dean had given him absolutely no details at all.

"I mean I can't find him!" Dean snapped back. He was pacing alongside the Impala, not suppressing his panic attack so well anymore.

"Wait - back up. You're in Blue Springs?" Bobby was wide awake now. Dean stopped pacing, scrunched his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. He took a deep breath, then tried to explain the situation calmly.

"I came to Blue Springs to see Sam. We had a plan to get together, but he's not at his motel room or at work, and there were two other guys here yesterday looking for a 'Sam Winchester'. Now no-one knows where he is and he's not answering his phone." Dean told Bobby, trying not to yell. This wasn't Bobby's fault, and Dean didn't need to be drawing attention to himself by having a one-man screaming match by the side of the highway.

Bobby was silent for a few seconds before he replied. "We're thinking these other two guys are hunters, right?" The older hunter was sure as hell thinking it, and he knew Dean must be thinking it too.

"Well, they have to be, don't they? Who else goes looking for Sam Winchester?" Dean sighed, sitting on the front right corner of the car and running a hand through his hair.

"Hunters looking for Sam is not a good thing. You need to find that boy." Bobby made no attempt to conceal his concern as he told Dean what the elder Winchester already knew.

"I know, Bobby, but I have no clue where to look! I need some help." Dean didn't know where to start - that was why he'd called Bobby in the first place.

The line went silent while Bobby thought. "Well?" Dean demanded, after a short pause; he was in no mood to wait.

"Hold your horses, Dean - I think I know someone that can help us," Bobby replied, and Dean heard him rummaging through some papers.

"Ah - here it is." Bobby had evidently found what he was looking for. "Pamela had a cousin that lived in Kansas City, and she was almost as a good a psychic as Pam was - that girl can find damn near anything." he continued, but Dean's patience had nearly run out.

"You found Lilith just fine, Bobby - why not use the same mojo to find Sam?" Dean didn't understand why Bobby didn't just get out his tripod pendulum thing and track Sam down that way.

"Because the damn Witnesses broke it and I haven't been able to find another one!" Now Bobby was getting irritated: apparently those tripod things were kind of rare, and he was evidently still sore about losing the one he had.

Dean sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face. "Okay. So call this relative of Pam's and fill her in, and let her work her magic," Dean told him, making a conscious effort to calm down. Snapping at Bobby wasn't going to help him find Sam.

Bobby was quiet for a second before he answered. "She's going to need something of Sam's, Dean. You need to go and see her." He broke the news as gently as he could, but Dean still didn't take it well.

"You want me to drive to Kansas City? Seriously?" Despite his best efforts, Dean found himself shouting into the phone. That was not what he'd wanted to hear. He couldn't afford to waste hours driving into Kansas City and then on to wherever Sam was!

"Do you have a better idea?" Bobby asked, simply, and Dean sighed. He knew Bobby was right, and he shouldn't be getting mad at the guy when he was trying to help, but these bastards had a 12-hour head start already... and Dean was trying real hard not to imagine what had happened in those 12 hours.

"Okay - okay, I'm sorry. Just... give me the address and I'll hit the road, all right?" Dean was sorry, but he also wanted to get on the road as soon as he possibly could. Even as he was talking to Bobby, he was unlocking the driver's side door.

"514 Independence Avenue: it's just off I-435, if memory serves. Her name's Mel, and she'll be expecting you." Bobby couldn't blame Dean for being short-tempered: this was Sam they were talking about. His little brother was all Dean had left.

"Thanks, Bobby. I'll call you when I know where he is." Dean grabbed a map from the back seat as he got into the car, and hung up the phone before Bobby had a chance to reply. He'd located Independence Ave in under a minute, and was pulling out onto the highway only seconds later, tyres squealing. Those hunters weren't going to have Sam for a second longer than was absolutely necessary. Dean would make sure of that.


And that's chapter two. :) Stay tuned: more Limp!Sam to follow!

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