Celia was standing next to the Colonel with a distressed look on her face when Sam walked in. Sensing he was intruding, he turned to leave when the Colonel called out for him to join them. Not knowing what to expect, he walked over to them with a confidence that he did not feel. Now more than ever, he wished he was home with his brothers; getting used to new people's nuances was always difficult for him, he'd seen deception too many times to take anyone's actions at face value. Thinking about that though, made him realize how much he had already come to trust his brother's friends. Not wanting to analyze that at the moment, he pushed the thought away and tried to concentrate on the Colonel.
"Sam, son… please sit down." Terrance knew that this could destroy the boy in front of him, but he couldn't hide the facts from him either. "Sam, as you know your brother, along with the rest of who we affectionately call The Musketeers, was sent on a routine information gathering mission. Normally, there wouldn't be a problem. However, this time… damn, Sam your brother has missed the last two check-ins and there is no way for us to know where he and the others are. We know that they never reached their point of contact, and that right now a very discreet search is going on, but so far we haven't heard anything."
"He's not dead." Sam said, looking at the Colonel.
"We have no…"
"No sir, that wasn't a question. I'm telling you, he's not dead. I would know if he was." Sam told the Colonel firmly, not taking any chances at being misunderstood. "He'll find a way to call in, just give him time."
Looking at Sam, Terrance knew that the kid was sure of what he said, and looking at the boy he found himself believing it too. "You're right, he will. I didn't want you to find out about your brother being missing from some other means, and I hope you trust me to let you know as soon as I hear anything."
Sam looked at the Colonel and nodded, "Yes Sir, thank you, but you need to understand sir, I'm not missing a brother, I'm missing four. If its ok, I'd like to go out for a ride now; I'll be back soon."
Both Terrance and Celia watched as Sam walked out of the room, and shortly afterwards heard the door open and close. They both understood that it was going to be a long night. "How about I make some coffee, and we can sit here and pretend the sun is already up?" Celia asked, already making her way to the kitchen.
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Dean hated days like this, everything that could have gone wrong did, and now they were hiding from the very people that they were supposed to be helping. 'Nope, definitely a day we should have stayed in bed.' He thought wryly as he looked across the roadway to where Taylor and Stephen were hidden behind some crates next to a building. How things got so screwy they all were still trying to figure out, but it wasn't helping that their radio crapped out on them as soon as they had touched the ground.
Looking around he saw Joseph still propped up under an abandoned delivery truck, still in a daze from the knock on the head when a youth mistook him for a thief and proceeded to use his head for batting practice. Shaking his head, Dean knew that he shouldn't laugh, but he couldn't help but find the humor in it. Out of all the people that could have been mistaken for a thief and the kid picks Joseph? Hilarious!
He took a chance to try and get a better view of the street, but what he saw didn't help matters any. This time of day, the street was mostly filled with merchants and people doing their daily shopping, there were still several men armed with rifles looking around and under tables trying to find them. 'How the hell did they know we were here?' he thought, and by the glimpse he saw of Taylor, he knew the other man was thinking the same thing.
Motioning to Taylor that they needed to go, he quietly edged back and collected Joseph before making their way from the area. Hopefully they could get to their emergency rendezvous point, but that was still twelve hours away not to mention the distance may as well have made it on Mars.
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Sam had no idea what he should be doing, he just found out that his brother… no, brothers were missing and there wasn't anything he could do about it. He hadn't meant to be abrupt with the Colonel, but there was no way he would accept that Dean or the others were dead; not unless their cold bodies were presented to him first, and even then he'd be skeptical.
Being out in the night air made him feel better; less trapped. He liked Jenna and the Colonel, but the house even as big and open as it was, still made him feel caged. Not paying attention to where he was going, or for how long he was out, he was surprised to find himself in front of the apartment building. Looking up, he wished for a light or some sort of movement; anything to show that someone was home and that the whole day had been a nightmare. Feeling ridiculous for even thinking something so childish, he turned back around and headed back to the house, taking time to see everything around him on the way back.
The sun was starting to come up and he knew that he had been out longer than expected. Making an effort to hurry back, he put more focus in peddling than sightseeing until something caught his eye. After a few minutes of analyzing what he saw, and making a note of where he was, he hurried back to the house only to wonder how long he really was gone when he saw the police cars in the drive.
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Celia had agreed to stay until Sam returned, just in case he needed to talk or had any trouble while he was out. She smiled thinking of how he set the Colonel straight about how many brothers he had. 'I'll have to be sure to tell the guys when they get back.' She thought, knowing that they would be happy.
Looking at the clock, she was starting to get worried that Sam hadn't returned, and walked into the Colonel's den to ask him about it just as he hung up the phone. Looking up he smiled slightly at her. "The police will be here in a little while for official statements from the kids. Apparently they were able to corroborate that they had been run off the road, and not just lost control." He said bitterly, trying hard to rein in his temper, but the attitude of the officer he just spoke to was really pushing him to the limit.
He turned his attention to the clock and realized just how much time had passed since they let Sam go out on his own, and now he worried that he had made a huge mistake by letting the boy do so. 'Damn it, I was so worried about Jenna I totally forgot that Sam has a stalker of his own.' He thought, disgusted with himself that he couldn't seem to keep everything together for one lousy night.
"Celia, are you sure you can stick around until Jenna wakes up or Sam gets back? I want to go look for him, he left around three and he's still not back, but if Jenna starts one of her roaming streaks…" he knew his daughter, and she could be a handful if she got wound up, but he still didn't want her to wake up alone.
Any answer that was going to be given however was interrupted by the doorbell announcing that the officer had arrived.
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After passing Ed at the front door, Sam walked into the house and what seemed to be an asylum. Jenna was going toe to toe with one officer while the Colonel seemed to be in an argument of his own with another. Standing in the doorway he didn't know whether to join in or run back out while he still had a chance.
"Sam!" Jenna exclaimed, obviously happy to see him, "Would you please tell these officers what happened? Apparantly they think that it's some sort of joke!"
"Miss, we never said…"
"You implied that not only did I not know how to drive, but that I had no business being out after dark, how did you put it officer? Unescorted? Well here's my escort! Any other brilliant notions?" Jenna sneered, daring the man to challenge her further.
Sam knew that Jenna was trying to be imposing, and under any other circumstances it probably would have worked, but apparently the officers were having trouble being intimidated by a teenage girl wearing Kermit the Frog jammies, green fuzzy slippers, and her hair up in pig tails held tight in pink ribbons. Yeah, he was seeing the problem with that too. Shaking his head, he tried really hard not to laugh, but it was becoming increasingly difficult with her curly pig tails bobbing up and down as she continued to rant. Finally having enough of the fiasco that was in front of him, he grabbed Jenna's arm and dragged her upstairs. "Jenna, you yelling at them isn't going to get them to listen, stay here and I'll take care of it. Don't come back downstairs until they're gone." He told her firmly, hoping that she'd listen, but knew that she wouldn't. He could only pray that she would wait until she changed into something a little more…appropriate for browbeating and officer of the law?
By the time he got back downstairs, the Colonels complexion didn't have that interesting shade of maroon to it anymore, and had gone back to a blazing red as the discussion, although not as heated, continued. Looking over at the officer that Jenna was in verbal combat with, he motioned for the man to ask what he needed, he had no idea how he was going to answer without sounding like a complete idiot.
"Ok son, we get that your girlfriend has a license, and that someone ran you two off the road. What we don't know is who, and for what purpose. We also have evidence of the other vehicle but apparently Ms. Erickson doesn't know the difference between a Bug and a Berretta, so if you could shed some light on the subject, we could fill out our reports and try and find out what happened."
Sam didn't like the guy's attitude, and he wasn't even going to touch the girlfriend remark. Looking at the Colonel he hoped the older man knew how to handle this, because he knew with the way things were already going, he'd screw things up even more if he opened his mouth; these guys had armed weapons and the authority to put him in a tiny cell. No, opening his mouth at the moment was probably a really bad idea.
Terrance saw Sam's dilemma, and was wondering how to get him out of it. Finally, he saw the report page in the officer's hand. "Officer, since you have to take down the statement anyway, why don't you let Sam write it out for you?"
Ten minutes later Sam was handing the page back to the officer explaining why they were on the road, what had happened and even included that it was an 80's model Ford sedan that rammed into them. Having what they needed, the officers had no other reason to stay, however advised the Colonel to expect a visit from one of the detectives assigned to the case.
Seeing the men out, Terrance slammed the door behind them in frustration, smiling at the satisfying sound of glass rattling. Turning from the door, he saw Jenna coming down the stairs looking more like herself and less like the six year old he wished she still was. 'I really need to find out how Sam does it.' He thought as he watched his little girl walk right by him, pointedly ignoring him, and then made an obvious snub at Sam as well. "Or maybe not, looks like he's in the doghouse too.'
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Stephen knew that he should be thankful they didn't have to ride camels, God he hated those beasts, but now they were in the back of a truck filled with chickens hoping that the watch that Taylor had given the owner would keep him from calling attention to them for awhile longer. It had been a hell of a day, and the night didn't seem to be giving them a break either. It seemed that just as soon as they had gotten clear of the unofficial army that had taken upon themselves to hunt them down, the bastards would show up again out of the blue. They had their suspicions, and they all had vowed to share them very loudly during the debriefing, assuming they got there. Sighing, he looked up and silently prayed that no matter what, Sammy hadn't been told about them being out of contact yet. 'The kid'll freak.'
Joseph knew he was in trouble the moment the kid hit him the first time with the makeshift bat, he didn't need to be reminded of it the second and third time. Now he had a headache that made his brains feel like marbles rolling around in his head, and just the thought of food made his stomach want to go on strike. So now he was surrounded by chickens, which was foul enough, but the driver of the truck had decided to take out his dinner and eat while driving. It was taking everything he had not to lose it completely, and there were still no guarantees on how long he could last. If they could just get to the chopper that would be waiting, he might feel better. His only worry was how Sammy would take knowing that he got his skull cracked by a kid.
Taylor was still trying to get the radio to work, but it was being stubborn about letting him know what was wrong in the first place. Sighing, he turned off his pen light and looked around, the temperature had dropped considerably since nightfall, but all they could hope was that he man driving them to their destination was honest and had no relationship whatsoever with the person that was supposed to be their initial point of contact. It was a lot to ask for under the circumstances, but they didn't have much of a choice, they had been too far out to make the rendezvous on foot, even if Joseph hadn't been hurt. Now though, they needed all the help they could get because they sure as hell weren't going to leave someone behind. Looking up at the stars, he couldn't help but wonder what their little brother was up to, hopefully just hanging out with Jenna making cow eyes at each other… yeah, that's what they're doing.
All Dean wanted was a) a nice long hot shower preferably with a certain little hottie, b) his brother in one piece, safe and sound, c) all of them home safely and marking this mission to be one never to talk about ever. Not necessarily in that order. Ok, so it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't remotely good either. Now they just needed to get back to hospitable ground, Joseph to a doctor, everyone back home, and make sure that a certain little brother hadn't become a trouble magnet again. Huh, when he thought about it in those terms, it sounded so easy. Looking at his watch he knew they would be cutting it close, but there was no way to hurry without looking suspicious, and God knew they looked suspicious enough. One thing he did know; he was never going to eat another egg again.
AN: Hope you liked it, let me know!