I would like to thank spnfanforlife and Guest for their wonderful reviews! You're the best, and as always, please review and if you have any ideas, I'm open. Sort of warning, this is slight ooc since John will actually be a decent father.

The next morning started out peaceful; with a big breakfast and some time spent fixing Deans blistered hands, lips, and gums. Most of the first aid materials were used to fix this, so a trip to the store was required.

It was Dean who first noticed the absence of Sam at the checkout but they had to remain calm. After going through the usual steps to find missing children in the store, John finally thought to use Deans new gift to find Sam. They retraced their steps when Dean suddenly stopped with his father bumping into him. Dean turned around and looked worriedly at John.

"There was someone else here."

"It's a store of course there was" John replied confused why this mattered.

"Yeah, but Sam was afraid. Terrified even. And I can smell some chloroform to."

Both of their hearts dropped and John let out a few choice swears.

"Do you think you can find him?"

"I can try."

They ended at a dead end in the parking lot with no way of knowing where the car could have taken Sam.

They went back to Bobby's with no other leads, trying to see what could have taken Sam. After coming up with nothing after several hours, Dean was getting frustrated. He was growling like the wolf and pacing back and forth.

John immediately turned around in worry when the growling and pacing stopped to be replaced with a yipe.

When he looked where Dean had been, he was still there, but not.

A wolf was there instead. He looked out the window and saw that the sun hadn't even gone down yet. What the heck?

Dean took a step toward him and John immediately took a step back. None of his experiences with the wolf had been good so far, and who knew what it would do when it noticed Sam was missing?

Deans head, ears, and tail drooped and a small whimper escaped him as he took another small step forward.

Now John was even more confused. Dean hadn't acted like this even once, even as a human he wasn't one to show any type of weakness or do any type of begging so what was going on?

John knelt down a slowly reached a hand out toward his son.

"Dean? That you in there?"

Dean walked toward the hand and sniffed it, then made a confused face. John couldn't help but laugh in amusement and relief, the expression was comical on a wolf face and a sure sign it was Dean. He wrapped his arms around the furry neck and a surprised yipe came out of Dean before he tried to subtly lean into the hug. John heart broke a little at the action. When was the last time he hugged his eldest? When was the last time he let him think that the action wasn't weak, wasn't man enough?

Deans not a man, and he wasn't at the young age of six when John became 'sir' instead of 'daddy'.

He promised himself right there that he would start taking care of Dean again, that Dean wouldn't need to miss another meal so Sam wouldn't be hungry, that Dean wouldn't have to worry about money and being strong for everyone.

John just hoped it wasn't too little too late.

He let go of Dean and pat his head before standing up. He started heading upstairs toward his bedroom.

"Come on, you look beat. I'll wake you up before the moon so we have time to get you away."

Dean shook his head and nudged the newspapers in Johns hand. Of course, he still wanted to research.

"Dean, you don't even have hands right now. You can't do any research."

Dean whimpered then immediately stood up straighter and more defiantly and let out a bark.

Did he really break Dean bad enough that he felt this much need to prove himself?

"Hey, it's okay I'm not mad alright? Besides my backs hurting from that chair, the bed will be better anyway." He hoped that making it about him might get Dean moving. He hated that that's what it took. The kid didn't do squat for himself.

Dean look with mistrust and doubt on his face at being told that it was ok and that John wasn't mad; but he made his way after his dad. When he got to the room he lay down on the cold wooden floor and John let out a laugh.

"Dean you don't need sleep on the floor, get up here."

Dean jumped up on the bed and promptly fell over. Man it was hard getting used to backward knees.

As he stared to fall asleep, he could have sworn he felt a pair of hands scratching him between the ears. It was weird, but he hadn't received this much attention or affection in years.

John let out a smile as Dean sleepily put his head on his leg and went back to searching for any clue where Sam might be.