"Ellen, have you heard from Sam?" Dean practically yelled into the phone.

"Dean?" Ellen asked. She didn't know what it was about hunters that thought they could just call and start talking without ever identifying themselves.

"Yeah. Have you?"

"Have I what?"

"Heard from Sam?" Dean asked in an irritated voice.

"No. What's going on?"

"He took off sometime before I got up yesterday morning and I haven't heard from him. We kind of had a disagreement, but I figured he would call when he cooled off." OK, he didn't think that all, but he knew Sam was on some kind of quest and figured he would go to Ellen, Ash, or Bobby for help at some point. Bobby hadn't heard from him, so he was checking with Ellen.

"Well, I haven't heard from him," Ellen repeated.

"What about Ash or Jo?"

There was a pause.

"Is something wrong?" Dean asked, forgetting his own concern for a moment.

"Jo took off after she worked that last job with you. She wanted to hunt and I said 'not under my roof' and she said fine and left."

"Sorry, Ellen. We never meant for that to happen."

"I know. It's OK. Anyway, Ash has been holed up out back all day. Believe it or not, he doesn't have a cell phone, so there's no way he could have heard from Sam."

"Thanks, Ellen," Dean said again, and hung up. Sam had been gone for almost 48 hours. He would get some sleep, then try his cell in the morning. If he didn't answer, Dean was going to drive back and forth across the country until he found him.

SSS

Dean was woken from his sleep by his phone ringing. He checked the clock, it was 5 a.m. He checked the display hoping it was Sam. It said unavailable. "This better be important," he growled into the phone.

"Well, I guess that depends on if you want to see your little brother," the voice on the other end said.

Dean bolted up, now wide awake. "Who is this?" He most definitely didn't recognize the voice. At all.

"That does seem to be the million dollar question. You got a computer handy?"

"What?" Dean asked. What was going on? Someone called him, insinuated he had his brother and then started asking about computers? This was getting weirder by the second.

"A computer. With internet connection."

"Yeah," Dean said as he opened up his laptop.

"Go to . The password to get in is 'itsalluptodean' one word."

"What?" Dean asked.

"You heard me. Hurry up, Deano."

"Who is this?" Dean asked again as he logged in and typed in the password.

"I'm not here to answer questions."

Dean saw Sam on the screen. It looked like he was sleeping on a floor somewhere. He thought from the way the screen looked that the room was dark and some kind of infrared camera was being used. He needed to get all the clues he could.

"Sam Winchester," he heard the voice on the other end intone.

Sam stirred. OK, he was still alive. This was a good thing

"Stand up."

It looked like Sam said something, but he made no move to get up. "That's my boy," Dean thought. Then, he saw Sam jerk and spasm and his mouth opened in a silent scream.

"Sammy!" Dean shouted.

"Shut up," the voice on the other end said. "Stand up. That was a low setting."

Dean watched Sam struggle to stand.

"Turn towards the red light."

Sam turned so that he was facing him. He had been in profile before.

"Put your hands up."

Sam complied immediately. Whatever that bastard had done to him had clearly hurt. Wait. What was he wearing? A t-shirt that said "I'm just a pawn." Sam was nobody's pawn.

"If you want him to live, you're going to do exactly as I say."

"If you touch him, I will kill you," Dean threatened.

"That's not how this works, Deano." The phone was hung up.

Dean watched the screen as Sam screamed and crumpled to the floor. He watched, waiting for Sam to move for a few seconds before the screen went to black.

"Sammy," Dean whispered as his head fell down into his open hand. Had he just gotten his brother killed?

SSS

Fifteen minutes later, Dean got himself together and got dressed. Before the phone call he had assumed Sam had just taken off. Now he knew he had been taken. Whether from the motel or from somewhere else, he didn't know.

He went to the motel office. "Do you have security cameras?" he asked as he flashed a badge.

"Yeah," came the bored repsonse.

"I need to see 2 nights ago," Dean demanded.

The bored clerk turned the computer towards Dean, typed in something and then handed Dean the mouse, showing him how to go forward and backward.

"Thanks," Dean said. He fast fowarded until he saw Sam exiting their room. OK, he had been pretty sure that nobody would have been able to snatch Sam out of his bed while he was in the room with him. He watched as Sam broke into a car and took off out of the parking lot headed east. Well, he knew that he had left here under his own steam, but what had happened next?

He got into the Impala and headed off in the same direction Sam had gone. A few miles away he came to a gas station next to an interstate on ramp. Sam always liked to get gas before getting on the interstate. Dean pulled in and went inside.

"Have you seen this guy?" Dean asked as he showed the clerk a picture of Sam.

"Yeah, he was in here a couple of days ago, I think."

"What did he do?"

"What did he do? He bought gas, some snacks and I think he used the bathroom."

"Which way did he go after?"

"I don't know. I think maybe the interstate."

"Thanks," Dean said. He got on the interstate headed east. They were in Oregon. There wasn't much west. But, he didn't know how he was going to find him this way. He couldn't possibly know where Sam got off, or where he went after that.

Dean decided to head towards the Roadhouse. He really thought that's what Sam would have done.

SSS

Dean got off the interstate where Sam would have in order to head for Nebraska. A few miles down the road he saw a car parked. "No way," he said as he pulled up behind it. It was definitely the one he had seen Sam stealing on the surveillance camera.