Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or any of the characters associated with the show
Stanford University
Present Day
"Sam! Get a move on, would ya? We were supposed to be there about 15 minutes ago," a woman in her early twenties with long, wavy blonde hair said as she walked into one of the rooms of Sam's house wearing a sexy nurse's costume that she paired with red platform heels. "Sam! You coming or what?" She called impatiently when she didn't hear a reply.
"Do I have to?" Sam asked, poking his head in the room his girlfriend was in.
"Yes," she said laughing. "It'll be fun," she promised. Sam rolled his eyes and walked into the room. "And where is your costume?" She asked when she saw that he was still wearing the same blue shirt, jeans jacket and jeans he had worn to class.
Sam let out an airy laugh and shook his head. "You know how I feel about Halloween," he told her.
"Come on, Sam. I've already agreed that we'll be there," shet tried to convince him.
"I think I'm just gonna go to bed. I'm pretty tired," he told her.
"No way! I promised I would be there with you. Now come on," she told him and grabbed his hand.
Sam laughed. "You're lucky I love you," he told her and pulled her back so that he could press his lips to hers'.
"Lucky me," she replied smiling and deepened the kiss before she pulled away. "Now let's go," she said.
-.-
The bar was filled with college students varying different levels of drunk. The music they were playing was awful and too loud, but Sam didn't seem to mind too much, especially as he got a couple of drinks into him.
"So here's to Sam and his awesome LSAT victory," the blonde said as she held up her shot. The couple's mutual friend, who was dressed as a zombie, held his glass up to clunk it with hers, while Sam raised his hesitantly.
"Alright, alright. It's not that big a deal," he said embarrassed.
The blonde rolled her eyes. "He acts all humble, but he scored a 175," she said as their friend downed his drink immediately.
"Mh, is that good?" He asked after he slammed his glass on the table.
"Scary good," she said laughing as she finally downed her shot.
"So there you go. You are a first round draft pick," he said as he walked behind Sam to sit in the chair on his other side. "You can go to any law school you want," he told him.
Sam looked down at the old table. "Actually, I got an interview here Monday," he told them. "If it goes okay, I think I got a shot at a full ride next year," he said, although he sounded like it wouldn't happen.
"Hey, it's gonna go great," his girlfriend assured him.
"It better," he said with a hopeful smile.
"How does it feel to be the golden boy in your family?" The zombie asked.
Sam quickly looked down. "Ah, they don't know," he said quickly. The blonde made her lips into a thin line. She had tried to convince him multiple times to at least talk to his family and tell them, but he refused each time.
"Oh no, I would be gloating!" Their friend as he got up from the chair. Sam shrugged his shoulders. "So why not?" He asked him.
"'Cause we're not exactly the Brady's," he said and threw a peanut at him.
"I'm not exactly the Huxtable's," he replied with a roll of his dark eyes. "More shots?" He asked.
"No," the blonde and Sam said at the same time. "No," Sam said when their friend ignored them and went to the bar anyway.
"Seriously, I'm proud of you," his girlfriend said when she saw that Sam was about to get up and drag their zombie friend back to the table. "And you're gonna knock them dead on Monday, and you're gonna get that full ride. I know it," she told him smiling.
Sam shook his head and looked at her. "What would I do without you?" He asked her.
She shrugged her shoulders. "Crash and burn," she said said laughing and reached out to pulled his face to hers' so that she could kiss him.
-.-
Later that night, the couple were both sleeping peacefully when a sound of something falling woke Sam up. He immediately got up and quietly walked to the room where he heard the crash. He hid behind the doorway to the dining room so that he wouldn't be seen. He peeked into the room and saw that the window was open. For a second Sam thought that he had forgotten to close it or that his girlfriend had opened it some time during the night, but the sound of the floorboard creeping let him know that there was someone else in the house
Sam narrowed his eyes as he tried to listen for a sound, when he suddenly saw a shadow and then it's owner walk in front of the doorway to his kitchen. Sam took a deep breath before he walked into the room as quietly as he could so that he wouldn't make too much noise. He hid again the wall so that when the intruder walked into the room, Sam could attack him. After a couple of seconds, the door creaked loudly as it opened and a dark figure entered the room. Sam immediately grabbed the person from behind, but the intruder held his arm and turned around to punch him. Sam managed to block his punch and tried to punch the person, but it quickly pushed him away. The intruder ran after him, but Sam kicked him. The person grabbed Sam's leg and pushed him into the living room. 'Son of a bitch,' Sam thought. His father had made him and his older brother and sister fight and train for hours everyday. By the time be was nine he could have easily beaten up a man three times his size, but the uninvited houseguest seemed to be a good fighter, too.
While the two continued to fight, Sam was able to see with the small amount of light coming in through the windows that the intruder was a man, but something seemed familiar about him. He tried to figure out why that was. The man, seeing that Sam was distracted, quickly punched him two times before he flipped him over and pushed him onto the ground.
"Woah. Easy, tiger," the man said as he held him down.
Sam stared at the man before it finally clicked. "Dean?" He asked confused and out of breath. The man laughed down at his little brother. "You scared the crap out of me!" He told him, still breathing hard.
"That's 'cause you're out of practice," he replied with a smug smile. Sam lifted up his leg and kicked his older brother in the back of his head. At the same time, he flipped him over, so that Dean was the one of the floor, and held him down with his leg. "Or not," he said laughing and tapped his brother's leg. "Get off me," he said and grabbed his brother's hand so that he could help him up.
"Dean, what the Hell are you doing here?" Sam asked.
"Well, I was looking for a beer," he replied as he patted his brother to make sure that he was alright. The light suddenly turned on and Sam's girlfriend, wearing nothing but a grey Smurfs crop top and a pair or pink boy shorts with colorful stripes, was standing in the doorway.
"Sam?" She asked, wanting to know what all the commotion was.
Both brother's turned to her. "Jess, hey," Sam greeted her and turned to his brother, who was still staring at the woman. "Dean, this is my girlfriend Jessica," he introduced her to his brother.
Jess furrowed her eyebrows. "Wait," she said and walked into the room. "Your brother 'Dean'?" She asked.
Dean smirked at her. "I love the Smurfs," he said and pointed at her shirt. Jess looked at him unamused "You know, I gotta tell you: you are completely out of my brother's league," he told her and stepped closer towards her.
Jess raised her eyebrows and looked over at her boyfriend in an 'is he serious?' way. "Just, let me put something on," she said and began to turn around to walk out of the room.
"No, no, no," he said quickly and he shook his head. "I wouldn't dream of it," he told her. "Seriously," he added as he looked directly into her eyes, hoping to convince her. Jess gave him an 'are you serious?' look. When Dean realized that what he was doing wasn't working, he quickly turned away from her. "Anyway, I gotta borrow your boyfriend here and talk to him about some private family business, but, ah, nice meeting you," he said and pointed at her in a way that would probably make any girl start giggling like a little school girl. Jess, however, only gave him a tight lipped smile.
"No," Sam said and walked towards her. "No, whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of her," he told him.
"Okay," Dean said and turned towards the couple. "Um," he said, trying to think of what to say and not say in front of Jess. "Dad hasn't been home in a few days," he said. Jess looked up at Sam worried, but the youngest Winchester didn't seem worried or concerned at all.
"So he's working over time of a 'Miller time' shift. He'll stumble back in sooner or later," he said, knowing his father all too well. Dean looked down and burst his lips, contemplating if he should say what he wanted to say. He finally nodded and looked back up.
"Dad's on a hunting trip and he hasn't been home in a few days," he said. Sam froze, realizing what that could mean.
"Jess, excuse us," he said.
Jess nodded her head. "I'm gonna go downstairs," she said and got up on her tip toes to give him a quick kiss. "It was nice meeting you, Dean," she said with a tight smile before she turned around and walked out of the room.
"Oh, my pleasure," he said as he watched her walk out. "Nice ass," he said out loud.
"Dude," Sam said and held his arms out in a 'I'm right here' way. Dean held his hands up, showing him that he meant no harm.
"So, let's go," he said and clapped his hands together.
"Dad's been missing before, Dean, and he's always been alright," he told him.
"It's never been like this," he told him. "We have to find him."
"I can't go. I have classes on Monday and an interview," he told him.
"Sam, dad's missing. We have to find him," he repeated himself.
"And what about Mill?" He asked.
"I already called her. She's on her way," he told him. "Now let's go," he repeated himself and walked out of the room. Sam shook his head and grabbed his green sweater jacket that was laying on the couch and put it on.
"This is ridiculous, Dean," Sam said as he followed his brother out of the living room. "I mean, come on. You can't just break in, in the middle of the night, and expect me to hit the road with you," Sam said as he and his brother walked down the stairs.
"You're not hearing me, Sammy," Dean said. "Dad's missing. I need you to help me find him," he told him for the hundredth time.
"Do you remember the poltergeist in Amherst? Or the Devil's Gates in Clifton? He was missing then too," he told him. "He's always missing and he's always fine," he said annoyed.
Dean turned around when he got to the bottom of the stairs. "Not for this long," he told him. "Now, are you gonna come with me or not?" He asked him.
"I'm not," Sam said.
Dean looked at him shocked. "Why not?!"
"I swore that I was done hunting for good," he reminded him.
"Come on," Dean said and rolled his eyes. "It wasn't easy, but it wasn't that bad," he told him and turned around.
"Yeah?" Sam asked with a laugh and followed his brother. "When I told dad I was scared of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45," he reminded him.
"Well, what was he supposed to do?" Dean asked.
"I was nine-years-old!" He told him. "He was supposed to say 'don't be afraid of the dark'," he told him.
"'Don't be afraid of the dark'?! Are you kidding me? Of course you should be afraid! You know what's out there," he told him.
"Yeah, I know. But still - the way we grew up after mom was killed, and dad's obsession of to find the thing that killed her, but we still haven't found the damn thing," he reminded him. "So we kill everything we can find."
"Save a lot of people doing it, too," he said, causing Sam to scoff.
"What about when Mill got scared after having a nightmare when she was five?" Sam asked him, but Dean didn't reply. "He told her that the real monsters weren't in her dreams, but outside in the real world and then telling her all about the different monsters and how to kill them," he told him. Dean kept quiet. "You think Mom would have wanted this for us?" He asked him. His brother looked away before he slammed his hand against the door and walked out to get away from his brother, but Sam followed him. "The weapon training and melting the silver into bullets? Man, Dean, we were raised like warriors," he told him.
"So what are you gonna do?" Dean asked bored, having heard this way too many times growing up. "Are you just gonna live some normal, apple-pie life? Is that it?" He asked him and turned towards his brother.
"No, not normal - safe," he corrected him.
"And that's why you ran away," he said and scoffed.
"I was just going to college. It was dad who said if I was gonna go I should stay gone," he reminded him. "And that's what I'm doing," he reminded him.
"Yeah, well, dad's in real trouble right now, if he's not dead already. I can feel it," he told him. Sam didn't reply. "I can't do this alone," he told him.
"You won't be alone. You'll have Mill," he told her. "And besides, you've gone on hunt's alone before, even when dad was missing, so how is this any different?" He asked him.
"I don't want to do this with Mill alone. I need you, too," he told him.
Sam sighed in frustration and shook his head. "What was he hunting?" He asked, regretting the question as soon as it left his mouth. Dean fought a smile as he walked to the trunk of his 1967 Chevrolet Impala. He opened it and lifted up the bottom of the trunk, revealing rows and piles of various weapons while he informed Sam on everything he knew.
"Alright, let's see... Where the Hell did I put that thing?" Dean asked himself as he glanced over all of the weapons.
"So, when dad left, why didn't you go with him?" Sam asked.
"I was working my own gig - this voodoo thing down in New Orleans," he told him without looking up.
"Dad let you go on a hunting trip by yourself?" He asked surprised.
Dean turned his head to look at his brother. "I'm twenty-six, dude," he reminded him and turned his attention back to the trunk. "Alright, here we go," he said when he finally found what he wad looking for and pulled out two news articles from a folder. "So dad was checking out this two-lane backtop just outside of Jericho, California," he told him and handed him the article. "About a month ago, this guy - they found his car but he'd vanished. Completely M.I.A.," he told him while Sam skimmed over the article.
"So maybe he was kidnapped?" Sam suggested.
"Yeah, well, here's another one in April, another in December '04, '03, '98, '92 - 10 of them over the past twenty years," he said as he showed him all of the articles. "All men, all same five mile stretch of road," he said and put all of the paper back into the folder. "It started happening more and more, so dad went to dig around. That was about three weeks ago. I hadn't heard from him since, which is bad enough, and then I get this voicemail yesterday," he said and grabbed a recorder and hit play.
"Dean," the muffled voice of John Winchester said. "Something is starting to happen. I think it's serious. I need to try to figure out what's going on," he said before static noises made what he was saying impossible to understand. "Be very careful, Dean. We're all in danger," he said before it stopped.
"You know if there's E.V.P. on that?" Sam asked.
"Not bad, Sammy," Dean praised him. "Kind of like riding a bike, isn't it?" He asked him smiling and hit rewind on the recorder. "Alright. I slowed the message down and ran it through a GoldWave. Took out the hiss and this is what I got," he said and hit play.
"I can never go home," a female whispered.
"'Never go home'," Sam repeated with furrowed eyebrows. "Does Mill know?" He asked.
"I told her, but I didn't play her the tape. I'll play it to her when we see her," he told him and put the recorder back into the trunk and closed it. "You know, in almost two years I've never bothered you, never asked you for a thing. You're the only person I did that with," he told him. "I've asked Mill for help more times than I can think of in the last six months alone. She even told me that I should just suck it up and talk to you, but I didn't because I knew that you were done, or that you thought so at least," he told him.
Sam sighed heavily before he nodded his head. "Alright, I'll go. I'll help you find him," he said. "But I have to be back first thing Monday," he told him. Dean nodded his head. "Just wait here," he told him and turned around to walk back into the house to tell Jess goodbye.
"What's first thing Monday?" Dean asked.
"I have an interview," Sam replied and turned around.
"What? A job interview? Skip it," he told him.
"It's a law school interview, and it's my whole future on a plate," he told him.
"Law school?" He asked confused.
"So we got a deal or not?" He asked, ignoring his brother's question.
"Yeah," Dean said reluctantly.
"Alright," Sam said and nodded his head. "Let me just say bye to Jess and pack a bag," he said and walked into his house.
"Is everything alright? Where's Dean?" Jess asked and followed her boyfriend up the stairs and into their room.
"I have to go," he told her and pulled out a bag.
"Wait, you're taking off?" She asked as he began to pack. "Is this about your dad? Is he alright?" She asked him worried.
"Yeah. You know, just a little family drama," he told her.
"But your brother said he was on some kind of hunting trip," she said.
"Ah yeah. He's just deer hunting up at the cabin, and he's probably got Jim, Jack and José with him," he told her. Knowing his father, he would never go on a hunt without any kind of alcohol with him. "We're just gonna go bring him back," he told her.
"What about the interview?" She asked.
"I'll make the interview," he assured her. "This is only for a couple of days," he told her and zipped up his bag.
"Sam, pleas, just stop for a second," she pleaded. "You doing sure you're okay?" She asked him worried.
"Hey, everything's gonna be okay. I promise," he told her and kissed her cheek.
"Is it just gonna be you and Dean?" She asked him.
"No, Mill will be there too," he told her.
"Your sister? When was the last time you talked to her?" She asked him.
"It'll be alright," he promised her and gave her another kiss before he turned around to walk out of the room.
"At least tell me where you're going,"' she asked him, but Sam didn't hear her.
"Ready to go?" Dean asked when his brother walked out.
"I'm ready," he replied as he got into the passenger side and threw his bag in the backseat.
"Then let's go," he said and started the car. AC/DC blasted through the speakers causing Sam to groan.
"Dude, seriously?" He asked.
"Just go with it, Sammy," he said and began to drive.
