Chapter 4

Dean smiled when he pulled into the driveway on Friday afternoon. Meredith had driven herself and the kids to school this morning, and he knew she had some errands to run afterward, but it looked like she was already finished with them. He was greasy and sweaty and tired like he always was after a full day at work, but he knew she would still greet him with a hug and a kiss, and that's exactly what he wanted right now.

Jake got out of the Impala, tersely noting that he would see Dean at dinner later, and Dean nodded in response as he headed for the house. He stepped into the kitchen, expecting to find her cooking or cleaning something in preparation for the big family meal, but the room was empty. The lights were on, but none of the appliances were being used other than the freezer and the refrigerator, and it was clear that nothing had been or was being cooked.

Something wasn't right, and Dean was instantly alert as he moved toward the living room, silently pulling out his gun. He quickly and thoroughly checked every room and closet in the house. He checked the garage and the attic above it, and then searched the yard. Meredith wasn't anywhere.

Maybe she's over at Kim's, he thought as he stood in the back yard, trying not to panic. It certainly wasn't unusual for her to run across the street for any number of reasons, so he pulled out his phone and dialed Kim's number.

"Hey Dean." Kim chirped. "What's up?"

"Is your sister over there?" he asked, trying to keep the fear out of his voice.

Kim wasn't fooled. "No. Why?" she sounded suspicious of his question, as if she could guess that something wasn't right simply because he was asking. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know." Dean admitted. "Maybe nothing. Her car's here, but she's not. I was hoping she was with you."

"So, you're saying she's missing?"

"Not necessarily." Dean said, very aware of the rising panic in Kim's voice. "Don't freak out just yet. All I'm saying is that I don't know where she is, but I don't want you to panic. I'm gonna try calling her, but you know I can handle whatever's going on."

"I know." Kim said. "Of course you can, but Dean..."

"I know. She's your sister, and you're worried. So am I, but there's no need to panic until we know something's actually wrong. She may have just taken a walk in the woods."

"I shouldn't mention this to anyone, right?"

"Not until we know for sure."

"What about Travis?"

"No." Dean said firmly at the mention of the sheriff's name. "We definitely don't need the police involved yet. This could be a little out of their league."

In other words, if Meredith had been taken then it was possible that it was by something that Dean was better suited to handle. Kim was already aware of that simply because she knew those things existed, but the fact that Dean seemed to think it was a possibility he needed to look into scared her. Knowing that her sister might have been kidnapped was bad enough, but she would much rather it be by a human that could simply be shot with a normal bullet and didn't require some kind of crazy weapon or elaborate ritual to kill.

"Dean..."

"I'll find her." Dean promised. "I'll call her first, and if I can't get a hold of her I'll call Travis and have him look into it. If the police don't turn up anything I'll call Sam, and we'll figure it out. Right now I need you to try to stay calm. I'm not gonna let anything happen to her if I can help it. Can you do that? Can you try to stay calm for me?"

"Yeah."

"Good girl." Dean said.

He got off the phone with Kim, knowing that even though she was probably sufficiently freaked out she wasn't going to do anything stupid, and tried calling Meredith three times before he searched the entire property again just to make sure she hadn't snuck back in without him noticing. She was still nowhere to be found and she hadn't answered her phone, so the next call he made was to Travis Archer.

Under any other circumstances a person would have to be missing for at least twenty-four hours for the police to start looking into the case, but Travis was a friend of the family and he knew Meredith well enough to know that she wouldn't just disappear like this without letting someone know she was going somewhere or leaving a note or something. So instead of following the rules he put a search team together and got on it immediately. By the time he arrived at Kim's house Dean had given her the go ahead to tell Jake and the kids that Meredith was missing because Travis would need to talk to all of them. The last time any of them had seen her was when she had brought the kids home from school, and Travis' deputies soon determined that no one else in town had seen her since about that time either.

"I know you said you wanted to wait and see what Travis turns up, but I think you should go ahead and call Sam." Kim whispered to Dean while Travis was talking to the rest of the family. "Just in case. That way he'll have a little more time to get here, and if it's not something in your line of work we can just tell everyone he decided to come out for a visit."

Dean nodded, understanding her concern. He was secretly glad she had made the suggestion because he had been thinking the same thing. None of the information they had so far pointed in a good direction, and Dean was growing less and less certain by the second that this wouldn't turn out to be something that required the special set of skills he and Sam possessed.

Part of him almost hoped it would. Monsters were so much easier to deal with than humans. Humans were crazy. At least if it was a monster they would know pretty much exactly what to expect once they figured out what they were dealing with. There was no telling what kind of demented torture a human might come up with, and as much as he hated hurting people, Dean wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger if his girl got hurt.

"Where are you going?" Jake asked, stepping in Dean's path as he was trying to get out the door.

Dean reminded himself as he shook Jake's hand off his arm that the man was probably just worried, but he couldn't help but feel like he was being accused of something. He would love to punch him right in the face for that, but he knew that wouldn't help any, so he reigned in his sudden flare of anger and offense and simply told the truth. "I'm going to call my brother and let him know what's going on."

"What's Sam gonna be able to do?" Jake asked.

Probably a lot more than Travis, Dean thought. "I never said I was expecting him to be able to do anything. I just thought he might want to know that his friend's gone missing, and maybe, since she's my girlfriend, I just needed to talk to my brother for a minute."

Dean was aware that he was starting to show that he didn't appreciate Jake's questions, but he didn't really care. Jake had no business asking them, and if anyone had more of a right to be worried about Meredith it was Dean. She was his girlfriend, and it was his job to keep her safe. He wouldn't have even called Travis except that he had no idea how long this was going to take and someone was bound to notice when she didn't show up at school on Monday. In all honestly the police were just part of the cover story. Human or not, it was his girlfriend out there somewhere, and Dean was going to be the one to save her. Again.

He got Sam's voicemail, which usually meant he was on a hunt, and left a message. Dean hoped he had just missed the call, because he could really use Sam's help on this one, and called Cas. Maybe he could use some kind of angel vision or something and see if he could figure out where she was.

"Dean." the angel's gruff voice said.

"Cas, hey." Dean replied, relieved that his friend had answered. If he hadn't he would've tried praying. "Are you too busy to help me out with something?"

"Of course not." Cas assured him. "What's wrong, Dean?"

"Meredith's missing. Looks like she was taken. The police are asking around, but no one's seen her since about four this afternoon, and I can't get Sam." Dean explained, trying to keep the rising level of fear out of his voice. Panicking wasn't going to help Meredith even though he was downright terrified that something had already killed her and all they would find was her body. But if he let himself think about that he was going to fall apart.

"Do you know what took her?" Cas asked, all business. He wasn't a hunter, but he sure sounded like one right now.

"No. Could be anything." Dean said. "Almost anything. No sulfur, so it's not a demon, and I'm pretty sure it's not any kind of spirit. No ectoplasm, no EMF. But it could be anything from...from a vamp or a shifter to an angel or a human for all I know."

"Well, I don't think it's an angel." Cas said. "But I'll check to make sure no one's unaccounted for. Is there anything else I can do?"

"I don't know. Can you do some sort of angel locator spell or something and track her down?" Dean asked hopefully.

"I wish I could."

"Okay. Well, count your angels, and I'm gonna call Crowley and have him make sure no one's gone missing downstairs just to be on the safe side. And then I guess I'll try calling Sam again."

"We can call Claire."

"No, I don't want to get her involved unless I have to." Dean declined. "She's doing really well with school and not getting totally sucked in to the hunter's life. And don't mention it to her either, because she'll just dive in anyway, and I don't want to risk her getting hurt even though I know she can take care of herself."

"Right. Well, I'll call you after I...count my angels." Cas promised. "Good luck, Dean."

"Thanks buddy." Dean hung up just as Kim joined him on the porch. "Well, Sam didn't answer so I called Cas. He's gonna make sure it's not an angel we're after. I didn't find any traces of sulfur anywhere, but I'm gonna call Crowley and have him check on the demons just to be sure."

Kim nodded. "Then what?"

"Then I'm gonna try calling Sam again, and I guess for now we just have to let Travis do his job and keep our eye out for any hints." Dean said, hating that they didn't have any other options. But until they knew what they were dealing with there wasn't really anything he could do.

"I heard what Jake said to you earlier." Kim said suddenly just as Dean was about to dial Crowley. "He shouldn't have."

Dean shrugged it off as if it hadn't totally pissed him off. "It's over."

"Dean, I don't know why he doesn't like you, but I know my husband, and he practically accused you of doing...something to my sister."

"Yeah, because he doesn't like me." Dean said. "He doesn't trust me. It's not a big deal."

"It is a big deal." she insisted. "I don't care if he doesn't like you or doesn't trust you. You would never do anything to hurt Meredith, and he should know that by now."

"Kim, it's really not a big deal. I don't need to prove myself to your husband. He can think whatever he wants to think about me. I don't care. The rest of us know I didn't do anything. You and I do anyway, and I'm pretty sure the kids don't think I did it. Not so sure about Andy in there, but I didn't do anything, so even if he thinks I did he won't be able to prove it."

"Andy?"

Dean shrugged. "I figured since he's your friend you'd prefer I compare him to Andy Griffith instead of Rosco P. Coltrane. He wasn't really a bad guy, but he wasn't exactly the best sheriff either."

Kim smiled. "Well, no matter which fictional sheriff you compare him to I don't think he thinks you had anything to do with this."

"Good." Dean said and called Crowley.

"Squirrel!" Crowley crowed in what sounded like delight when he answered his phone. "I'm pretty sure this isn't a social call, so what do you need?"

"I need you to check and see if any of your demons are AWOL." Dean said. "I didn't see any sign of them, but my girlfriend's gone missing and I want to be absolutely certain it wasn't one of your guys."

"You have a girlfriend?" Crowley asked, sounding a little surprised and apparently determined to wring some social aspect out of this call. "Good for you, Squirrel. Hate to hear that she's gone missing though, but I'll do what I can to help you find her. Mostly because I don't really have anything else to do, and I'm bored."

"All I need you to do is make sure it wasn't one of your guys that took her."

Crowley sighed to convey his disappointment. "Oh, alright."

Dean didn't give him a chance to say good-bye. "I swear he's the weirdest demon I've ever met." he said as he tried Sam again. "I don't know if it's the human blood Rowena pumped into him, or if he's just bored, but he was practically begging to come help."

"Maybe we should let him." Kim suggested. "Another pair of eyes, another brain, might help."

"Not gonna happen. He's still Crowley." Dean said as he got Sam's voicemail again. He left another message. "Sammy, this is important. Call me back as soon as you get it."

"Now what?" Kim asked.

Dean tried Meredith's number again because he had nothing else to do until someone called him back, and got her voicemail again.

"Now what?" Kim asked again, not sure what else to do.

"Now I guess we wait to hear back from everyone."

They sat down on the steps and by the time the sun had gone down Dean had heard back from both Cas and Crowley, but not Sam, and Travis' deputies had made another report. No angels or demons were missing or unaccounted for, and no one had turned up any traces of Meredith or her kidnapper.

"So, we have nothing." Kim said when Travis relayed the news.

"We'll find something." Dean assured her, earning a weird look from the sheriff. "What? You think I'm just gonna sit this one out? That's my girlfriend you're looking for, Sheriff."

"Yeah, and you're a civilian." Travis said. "Let us do our jobs. We'll find her. All you need to do is let us know if you hear anything."

"I won't get in the way of your investigation, but I'm not about to sit on my ass and do nothing." Dean argued. "I don't work like that."

"Dean." Kim cautioned.

"There's nothing you can do." Travis said.

Dean opened his mouth to argue that he could probably do a lot more than the police could if only he could figure out what they were dealing with, but his phone rang, cutting him off. It was Sam. He answered as soon as he saw the name on the screen. "Sam."

"Hey. Sorry I missed your calls." Sam apologized. "What's up?"

Dean explained the situation, leaving out any reference to the supernatural since Travis was standing right there, and was promptly disappointed by Sam's reply.

"You know I'd be there in a heartbeat, but Garth and I are busy with this huge pack of wolves in California." Sam said, clearly hating that he had to say it.

"Garth's hunting again?" Dean asked, momentarily forgetting about the sheriff, not that what he had said sent up any red flags. "They just had a kid."

"Yeah, but this pack's crazy." Sam said. "I wasn't kidding when I said huge. There's got to be at least fifty wolves that we know of so far, and it's some kind of Charles Manson meets Jim Jones werewolf cult or something. It's freakin' weird, man. Garth found out about it somehow and called me because there's no way he could've handled it on his own. I was actually thinking about calling you to come help us, but it sounds like you've got your hands full already. I might have to call Claire in as much as I don't want to."

"Well, I'd come out and help, but..."

"Yeah. No, you stay there and find Meredith." Sam said. "We've got the wolves. Let me know if there's anything I can help with from here."

"Sure. Just make sure you answer your phone next time I call." Dean said. "Don't do like Dad used to."

They wrapped up the phone call and Dean looked at Travis. "Well, that was my brother. He hasn't heard from her, but he said he'd call if he does."

"Okay. Well, there's not anything else you guys can do tonight, so why don't you all get something to eat and get some sleep." Travis said as he moved toward the steps. "We'll keep looking, and I'll let you know as soon as we find anything."

"Thanks Travis." Kim said as the sheriff got in his car and drove away. She looked back up at Dean. "What else did Sam say?"

Dean sighed. "Basically that I'm on my own with this one. He's tied up with some weird werewolf thing out in California."

"Can you handle this on your own?" she asked.

"First I gotta figure out what I'm supposed to be handling." he said. "And all I know for certain is that it's not a demon or an angel, and probably not any kind of spirit. Other than that, I got nothing."

Kim was beyond upset, but she knew it had to be killing Dean not having any leads like this, so she stepped forward and wrapped him in a hug. He returned the hug, accepting the comfort she was offering and trying to give some back because he knew he wasn't the only one afraid of what might happen.

"We're gonna find her." he said. "I promise you I will find her."

Kim realized that he wasn't just making the promise to her, but to himself and Meredith as well.

I know this story is about Dean and Meredith, but I can't help feeling sorry for Sam and Garth right now. Can you imagine how strange that pack must be? And poor, bored Crowley missing his Deanmon bromance days. I really love these little moments with Cas and Crowley. They're so much fun to write! I would include them more, but I've learned my lesson about involving too many people and plots at one time. I don't want to lose track of anyone here. Anyway, review please because I could use some cheering up today and you guys always make me smile! ~SG