14

He got lost. For a few horrible minutes, as he ran wildly through the trees trying to find his way, he felt the fear he had not felt since the hospital, since the fire that started all of this, and then he heard a scream that made him pause and sway, and then shouts had him turning and running determinedly towards the noise.

It wasn't long before he came across the track along, and a small sob of joy escaped now, and he was running, following the trail, following the tyre-tracks and the footprints left by Marcus and himself, only slowing when the house came into view, ducking back into the bushes as he caught the murmur of speech.

The clearing came into view as he crept closer, and for a moment he wondered if he would have to find the trail of Marcus and the small man, and then his eyes found the pair on the edge of the clearing, Marcus on the ground at the clearings edge, the leg of his jeans in tatters and covered in blood, the small man standing over him, Marcus' gun in his hands. The broken bushes behind them showed that the man had dragged Marcus back into the clearing.

Without thinking, without waiting to try and catch the conversation going on between the two of them, without giving the man time to get bored or impatient or angry enough to shoot Marcus, Dean had raised his gun and stepped out of the bushes and back into the clearing.

The man turned, and Marcus' eyes widened as Dean stepped closer

"Dean! Run!" Marcus shouted, and the smaller man echoed him tauntingly, turning the gun on Dean and screaming.

A shot rang out, the scream cut short, and there was a mute thud as the small man collapsed to the ground, and a moment of pure stillness before Marcus kicked out, making the man roll, and Marcus' eyes left the corpse, left the gaping hole in the mans skull that Dean had put there, to meet the wide, terror-filled eyes of the teenager.

Bobby moved quietly through the salvage yard, shielding his eyes against the low glare of the sunset. The yard was silent and dead, and laughably scary to Bobby, who had been chasing demons for a number of years. He slowed his walk, ambling slowly up to a lone rusting car, and leant against the bonnet.

Nothing moved for a moment, and then the shadows within the car shifted, and Dean slowly rose up from where he'd been lying across the front seat, and fixed Bobby with a glare.

"Took your time," he commented lowly, and Bobby raised an eyebrow.

"Thought I'd give you chance to think first." He said, "Knew you'd be here." It was always the first place he'd look for Dean if he were wandering the salvage yard, especially as a child. The car was a badly wrecked Chevrolet, exactly the same as the Winchester family car except that under the rust this one was red, and the rusted heap had been long ago dismantled for parts - one door was in fact being used by the black Chevy round the front of the house – but a free weekend had allowed Bobby to rebuild as much of the frame as possible, and on one visit by Dean - after the family had been separated and the junk car was the closest thing he had as a reminder of his family – had made him replace the front seats, and leave the car clear enough to allow Dean to visit whenever he visit the salvage yard.

"Yeah, well, thanks," Dean said awkwardly, scrubbing at his face with one hand and then punching the car seat "Dammit, Bobby. He doesn't remember anything."

"I know," Bobby replied "He told me after you stormed off."

"I didn't storm off," Dean said hotly "I left to think."

"You didn't say anything to the kid, just up'd and walked off. That counts as 'storming off'."

"Damn idiot surprised me," Dean muttered, and then punched the seat again "Hell Bobby, I expected to have to tell Sam about the hunt, I didn't think I'd have to tell him everything!"

"You need to talk to him Dean," Bobby replied "Let him tell you what he remembers so you can fill in everything else. I don't know anything," he added as Dean opened his mouth "I won't let the kid tell me anything until he's told you. Now stop making me mediate the two of you and talk to your brother."

"Maybe," Dean said, "I don't know what to say to him Bobby, I don't know what to tell him and what to leave out." He stopped there, and grabbed his head "He's turning me into a walking chick-flick!" his head touched against his knees, and then bounced back up, and he pulled a hand from his head to again punch the seat, and Bobby snorted.

"Talk to your brother, Dean," Bobby said, pushing away from the car and starting back towards the house "I ain't feeding either of you until you do."

"I've got my car!" Dean shouted after him, to which Bobby merely held out a hand, a set of keys hanging from his fingers, and he disappeared into the dark as Dean checked his very empty pockets and cursed.

X

Sam was sitting on the hood of Bobby's truck when Dean walked around to the house, Rumsfeld on the bonnet, and the dog looked up first, tongue lolling in acknowledgment before he dropped his head again, and Sam turned his head to watch Dean walk over.

"Hey," Dean said, climbing up onto the and sitting beside Sam

"Hey," Sam responded, "Listen Dean, I'm –"

"This is your last chick-flick moment," Dean replied, holding out a hand to stop Sam from speaking, and then he straightened out his leather jacket "Seriously, I've got a reputation to uphold here." Sam snorted, ducking his head for a moment

"Fine," he said "I'm sorry I dropped that on you earlier."

"You were going to do that eventually," Dean replied with a shrug "There's too much girl in you, Samantha." He smirked as Sam gave him a push, and grabbed the edge of the truck to stop falling off.

"So you really can't remember anything?" he asked eventually

"Not much," Sam said honestly "My name, obviously. And I could remember you and dad." He sighed, and leant backwards, head tipping backwards to stare at the sky

"I can remember being in the car," he said "Remember being up back, and it being dark, and then I woke up in the hospital, and they wouldn't tell me where you and dad were, even though I was scared, terrified that the two of you were dead. And then they released me, and I was sure that you guys were getting me out and instead the Collins' were there, and they took me home with them. The only way they could get me calm enough to get me out of the hospital was to promise that you guys were still alive and you'd get me as soon as everything was sorted and I waited…" he trailed off, sighed, and then turned his head to look at Dean "What happened?"