A Page Out of Their Book

Author: Cheryl W.

Disclaimer: I do not own Dean, Sam or any rights to Supernatural, nor am I making any profit from this story.

Author's Note: You guys totally spoil me with your compliments!! In other words..I'm loving every single review! And I so should be getting ready for work now but I wanted to reward such kindness with another update. I'll simply tell my boss that I had to post another chapter to my SN story before….Second Thought….I'll just say I was running late.

Summary: When Dean's taken, Sam realizes that there are no lines that some brothers won't cross for each other. No Slash.

Chapter 3

The sight of the Impala should have dampened some of his worry…would have if the bar wasn't closed and the Impala was the lone vehicle in the parking lot. Exiting the car he had liberated from a convenience store a few yards from their motel, Sam stalked toward the Impala, reached out to open the door, ready for his brother's prize possession to deny him access.

An open door had never felt like a sign of doom before. With a litany of curses, he opened the door, leaned in, swallowed in relief when there was no blood staining the interior or the steering wheel. Being through, he looked over the seat and froze. His brother's wallet, cellphone and keys lay abandoned on the back seat cushions.

Quickly exiting the front seat, he nearly dove into the back, grabbed Dean's possession with cold hands. There were unmistakably Dean's. He went through the process of turning Dean's phone on, making sure it was working, that his brother hadn't tried to call him. Perfect working condition and no calls outgoing in the last two days. The blinking envelope in the corner was a mockery of his worry. Yeah, he knew whose voice was on there, sounding scared and trying to hide it.

Shoving Dean's possessions in his coat pocket, he shut the door, shone the flashlight along the Impala's side panels and doors and in the pavement by the car. No drops of what might be blood, no scratches on the paint or scuff marks on the pavement to indicate a fight. And honestly, he didn't know if that encouraged him or made him ready to lose his supper. Dean being taken without a fight?!? Surrendering his wallet, his phone…the keys to the Impala!?! Leaving the Impala unlocked?!? None of it was good.

Pulling his own phone out of his pocket, he dialed Bobby because he was lost here. They had gotten into town too late to start on the trail of the murders most likely committed by a shapeshifter. Hadn't ticked off any of the locals..yet. Were simply two guys crashing at the Crocodile Motel for the night. And if Dean had roused some of the local boys from the bar into a fighting mood? Them leaving Dean's wallet and keys in the Impala didn't make any sense. Felt someway personal, and yet clinical. Leaving behind the cellphone so it couldn't be tracked. Discarding the wallet proved that whatever this was, it wasn't about money. And tossing the keys into the Impala? That was almost an insult to Dean himself. Like they were dealing with someone who knew what the car meant to his brother. And all of it left here…maybe for him to find. Was like a sign on the Impala, 'I've got your brother and all you're going to be left with is his car.' Written in blood.

Bobby's voice was a balm to his raising panic though it was a half asleep grumble of "What?!"

"Someone's taken Dean," he breathlessly blurted out. Swallowed, knew to say more would be counterproductive if Bobby wasn't on the same page with him.

"Angels?" Bobby hazarded, his sleepiness starkly washed away to concern.

For once Sam wished it was a member of the heavenly host. "Cellphone, wallet and keys were left in the Impala."

"Ah, crap," Bobby sighed, knowing that those signs weren't good. At all. "Start at the beginning," he ordered because he never got in on the jump start on most to the boys' antics, was forced to play backup and then only when everything went awry. And that was before he got himself crippled up and stuck sitting in a chair for the rest of his life. Now he figured he was pretty far down on Sam and Dean's lifeline list. So, as scared as he felt, he was relieved that Sam had called him, that he was allowed to be of some help, especially when one of the wonder twins got themselves kidnapped.

Sam drew in a breath, struggled to not snap back that they were wasting time, time that maybe Dean didn't have. But he trusted Bobby's instincts and insight, needed Bobby to know what he knew. "Got into town, didn't do anything but check in and Dean headed off for a drink at the local bar. I called him…he didn't answer so I checked out the bar, found the Impala unlocked with his stuff inside."

"Any signs of a struggle?" Bobby asked, pointedly didn't want to incite a visual of blood soaking the Impala's interior, like it had for real too many times in the recent past.

"None."

Bobby, having worked himself into an upright position in his bed, leaned heavily against the headboard. "Why does that sound like the bad news. You said the Impala was unlocked?!?" incredulousness in his tone.

"Yeah," Sam replied, felt the ominous flavor of the admission.

For a beat Bobby said nothing and neither did Sam, both trying not to panic. "Where are you?" the older hunter finally asked, had been out of touch with the Winchesters for a few days, didn't know what trail they were on.

"Florida, some small town off I95, Krafton. Was an article about some murders that sounded like a shapeshifter. But we didn't even start looking into it yet."

"I guess Cas is useless," Bobby drawled, was still torn between liking the angel and not after all the crap the angel had been party to. Course him not healing him had nothing to do with any resentment he harbored for the 'holy tax accountant', as Dean had called him in the beginning.

Truth was, Sam had thought about calling Cas too…until he realized Cas wouldn't be able to find Dean. Not since he had concealed Dean and himself from both of the apocalyptic teams. "The rib markings…"
"Yeah, great idea that was," Bobby grumbled, wishing that the angel would have had the foresight to think that he might need to know where his charge was. A guardian angel who couldn't locate the person he was supposed to be protecting?! Genius thinking there.

"Beats the alternative," Sam was compelled to defend. Knew that, if he and Dean were beacons to whatever wanted to kill them…use them, they would have been so much worse off.

"Oh, you mean your brother going missing…" Bobby couldn't help sarcastically drawl, because now didn't seem like a great time for Sam to go all optimistic on them.

Shifting to his full height, hand tightening angrily on the cellphone, Sam shot back, "Bobby if I wanted to sit around panicking I could have done that on my own! I called you for help!"

Immediately Bobby felt shamed. "I know. I know," he contritely began. "I'm sorry, Sam. I'm just tired of this happening."

"Who isn't," Sam snapped back, hand coming to rest on the roof of the Impala, needing, in that moment, to have some kind of tie to his brother, something to ward off the hopelessness that was taking hold.

"Guess the bar's closed, no patrons to question," Bobby stated more than questioned.

"Right. No one and nothing to go on," Sam dejectedly confirmed.

And the kid's tone sliced through Bobby, made him remember how Sam had been after Dean died, how lost he had gotten without his brother. "Least there's no blood.." he offered, drudging up optimism solely for Sam's benefit.

But Bobby's words only ignited Sam's worry, made him think Bobby wasn't paying attention, was suddenly missing the biggest indicator that this was bad, so very bad. "He didn't struggle, Bobby! When is that a good sign?!"

"Hey don't bite my head off!" Bobby growled back, reprimanding himself for saying the wrong thing, for somehow making Sam feel worse.

"Then say something useful," Sam shot back as he climbed into the Impala, felt somehow better being inside the car than out, less vulnerable somehow.

Bobby ran a hand through his hair, wished he was as smart as Sam was counting on him being. His next question was quiet, almost gentle. "You think it was someone he knew? Someone that could have gotten the drop on him?"

"Seems…" Sam nearly choked on the next word, "personal." Boy did they know about personal and it always sucked. "Like they wanted me to find the car and Dean's stuff, to prove that they have him."

"Revenge? Blackmail?"

"Yeah, could be. Course the list is endless of who wants our head on a pike. Supernatural and human alike. As far as blackmail, bunch of hunters wanted me to use my powers to avenge one of their buddies' deaths when I was in Ohio."

Sam's last statement caught Bobby by surprise. "Hunters…"

"Yeah, they thought I would be able to ..I don't know, take out the whole possessed town or something if I got off the wagon," he snorted, wished that were true. That he could somehow undo what he had done. But then something clicked within him. "Wait, you have an idea. Who?" he demanded, a lethal threat unveiled for whoever took his brother.

"It doesn't make any sense…" Bobby said almost to himself, knowing that what he was thinking wasn't logical…even as he realized logic had little to do with grief.

Feeling hope for the first time, Sam pressured, "What doesn't?! Who?! Bobby any leads is better than nothing…"

"Hunter I know…he lost his brother couple weeks back. Was out of his head with grief, came here…I don't know..thought he was looking for a place to …" But he interrupted himself. "He asked if Dean really did a deal to get you back after you died…if it worked. If you came back being…you."

Sam's heart pounded in his chest, not liking the direction this was leading. "He wouldn't need Dean to do a crossroad deal," his breath coming out shallow, nearly panicked.

"Not if he was planning on playing it like Dean had, offering up his own soul for his brother's" Bobby said, hating that it was starting to make sense, hated more that it didn't mean they could stop it. "But Conor, he …" he hesitated, knew this wasn't the right time to open old wounds…wounds that could become fresh if the night didn't turn out like they wanted it to. But it was information Sam needed to know. "He said he saw you…after Dean died. That he had seen more life in a spirit's eyes than in yours. That the woman with you saved your life on the hunt…and you seemed more pissed than grateful for her interference."

At this revelation, Sam tilted his head, tried to recall the times his and Ruby's path had crossed with hunters. "What's this hunter's name again?"

"Conor…don't know his last name. Brother's…."

"Murphy," Sam supplied, remembered running into the brothers on the hunt. Had sat there and watched them laugh together, noted the way they looked at each other as if they didn't need words between them, saw the way they moved on the hunt, like they were an extension of each other, had a bond that couldn't be broken. It had made him ache for Dean so powerfully that it was hard not to put a gun to his head. "His brother's dead?" his words purposefully low, hoping Bobby didn't recognize the choked quality of them.

"Yeah, in a town overrun with possession. Connor watched his brother die in front of him. And those two were close…almost as close as…."

"What? Almost as close as Dean and I used to be?" Sam cut in, indignation there and denial.

"Are, idgit," Bobby heatedly growled back. "Almost as close are you two knuckleheads are. Would-do-just-about-anything-for-each-other close."

Bobby's words eased something in Sam, that the older hunter could still tell how much he loved his older brother, no matter the crap they had gone though..that he had done and said. But then he focused back on the present, on his brother missing and the hunter he had once been so envious of somehow being involved. But the pieces weren't making much sense. "So Connor seeing me means what?"

"Means he's not going to put Murphy through what he saw Dean put you through. He won't barter his own soul away…" Bobby announced, conviction in his words and dread in his heart because he was just as certain that that wasn't the good news.

And Sam put it all together, almost too quickly. "He wants to offer them Dean in exchange for getting his brother back! Where do I find this guy, Bobby," and there was a deadliness in Sam's tone that even Bobby feared.

"He's a hunter, Sam! He's not in the white pages! And if he's taken Dean, he'll have ditched his phone like he did Dean's," Bobby's own frustration rivaling Sam's.

"Bobby I need to find Dean before Connor goes through with the deal! Any contact Connor has in Florida? Any place he holds up when he's here!"

"I don't know him that well, Sam!"

Sam gripped the Impala's steering wheel, was sick with dread. 'God, you got Dean out of hell, don't let him get sent back there. Help me! Just …help me,' he silently pleaded, prayed, surprised how readily it came out of him, that he still had faith that there was a God and that He just might be still taking requests from him.

And then it came to him, a chance, a glimmer of hope: Cas. "Cas can track Connor," he hurriedly announced before he hung up on Bobby, called Castiel. And each ring that Cas didn't answer felt like he was again watching the second hand of that clock in New Harmony do a callus countdown to his brother's death. 'I'll stop it this time, Dean. I will. I have to.'

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TBC

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Thanks for reading! I'll post more as soon as I clean up the slew of mistakes I saw I made on the next chapter and after my trusty Beta works her magic!

And glad there are some Boondock Saints fans out there! I'll PM those who mentioned it in their review to let them know my inside joke/tribute to those particular brothers.

Have a great day!

Cheryl W.