Garth arrived at Sam's apartment in five minutes flat. "Okay," he said, walking up to Dean quickly, "Who touched what, and what do we know already?"
"The coffee was spiked, Sam was here about an hour ago, his car is here, his abusive ex-boyfriend was here recently, and Gabriel found out about the coffee by tasting it," Dean said.
Garth hugged Dean tightly without any warning. Dean awkwardly patted his partner's back as he waited for him to stop the hug.
"I'm glad you're back," Garth said.
Dean peeled Garth off of him and said, "Yeah, me too. More important things, Garth."
Garth nodded, "Last time anyone saw the abusive ex?"
Gabriel, still holding his head, said, "I saw him leaving here morning before last."
"Yeah," Dean said, "That's when I saw him here. I must've just missed you, Gabriel."
"Small world," Gabriel said weakly.
Dean walked over to the table and put a hand on Gabriel's shoulder. "You gonna be okay?" he asked.
Gabriel closed his eyes and said, "Not until we find Sam." He took a deep breath and said, "My head feels like someone set off a firecracker in it, but once I get this shit out of my system and we find Sam, in one piece, I should be fine."
Dean patted Gabriel's shoulder and went back over to Garth. "I think we should go scope out Luci's place. If he has Sam, he might have him there," he said.
Garth nodded and said, "You should ride with me, I have some stuff to tell you."
Cas said, "I'll drive Gabriel in the Impala. We'll follow you."
Gabriel got up and headed for the door quickly.
Once Dean got in the passenger seat of Garth's squad car, Garth reached over and punched in Luci's information to the car's computer.
"We couldn't find out who shot you," Garth said as Luci's address popped up. He pulled out onto the street, speeding to their destination.
"Well, it was a mugging in Chicago," Dean said, "Not surprised."
"Yeah, but you're a cop. We don't take something like that lying down. We're going to keep looking," Garth said.
"You don't have to do that."
"What? Of course we—"
"I'm done being a cop, Garth," Dean said.
"What?" Garth asked.
"I've already talked it over with Cas since getting shot in the head was never really part of the plan," Dean said.
"Let's find your brother, and then we can talk about it," Garth said, forcing himself to keep his eyes on the road.
Dean sighed as he watched Cas pull his car to the curb. He said, "There's nothing to talk about. It's my choice."
Garth pulled over the squad car and looked at Dean sadly. "I know," he said, "But I don't want another partner."
Dean ignored him, got out of the car, and asked Gabriel, "You been here before?"
Gabriel nodded and said stiffly, "This is where he lived when he was dating Sam."
"So, which one's Luci's?" Dean asked.
Gabriel headed into the building and up the steps without a word. Dean followed quickly. When they got to the apartment, the door was locked. Sam had better not be in there, or he'd kill Luci the first chance he got.
Dean pounded on the door. No answer.
"Move," Gabriel snapped.
Dean got out of the way. Gabriel went to kick the door in, but Garth blocked him.
"Whoa, Gabriel," Garth said, "I can't let you do that."
"My boyfriend is missing and drugged," Gabriel snapped, holding his head, "Do you think I could give a single flying fuck about Luci's fucking door?"
Garth stared at Gabriel for a moment as Cas reached up above the doorframe.
"It's not breaking and entering if we have a key, right?" Cas asked, holding up a spare key.
Garth sighed. "No touching anything," he said.
Dean checked the first room, which seemed to be the bedroom. He tried to ignore the dildo on the dresser. No one was in there anyway. The next room was a bathroom. Two bloody razors sat in the sink.
"Garth!" Dean called.
Gabriel and Garth rushed to the bathroom.
"Do you think that's Sam's blood?" Garth asked.
Dean looked at Gabriel, worried.
Gabriel sighed, "It's not Sam's. Luci cuts himself, or at least he did when he was with Sam."
"It could still be Sam's, Gabriel," Dean said.
Gabriel stared at Dean fiercely and said, "It is not Sam's blood."
Gabriel's phone rang. He reached for it so fast he almost dropped it.
"Kali?" Gabriel answered, confused. He asked, "What do you mean what am I doing here? How do you know I'm at Luci's?"
Dean walked over to the window. A young woman with dark hair looked up at the building from the street.
"That her?" Dean asked.
Gabriel looked out the window. He waved and said stiffly, "Yeah, Luci has a great view of the street from here."
Gabriel looked at Dean as Kali said something. He visibly paled. "Where did you see his car? Uh huh. Text me the address. Okay, fine. We'll follow you, but we need to go now, Kali," he said.
Kali said something with her hands on her hips, and Dean looked at Gabriel anxiously. If she knew where Sam was, they were wasting time.
"He has Sam," Gabriel said, tight lipped.
Kali got in her sleek, black car, and Gabriel hung up the phone.
"We have to go. Kali saw his car," Gabriel said.
Dean asked, "Where?"
"We're going to follow her," Gabriel said quietly, "But she said it was a storage facility."
"Jesus," Dean said, "Don't these places have video surveillance? You'd think they'd notice a kidnapping."
Gabriel ignored him and ran down to the cars.
Dean grabbed the squad car keys from Garth and hopped in the driver's seat. No one said anything as they followed Kali through the city streets. Dean was endlessly glad Kali stuck to the side streets. It was rush hour, and all of this driving would be absolute hell otherwise.
Slowly, they made their way to the storage place. If they hit one more red light, Dean was going to throttle something. Probably Luci. The second they saw him.
Kali pulled her car to the side of the storage place, and got out, walking quickly to a beige convertible.
Dean and Cas pulled over their respective cars. Dean got out and ran over to Kali.
"This his car?" Dean asked.
Kali nodded slowly.
Cas joined them and said to Kali, "Thank you."
She glanced at Cas and sighed, looking towards the storage facility.
"You wouldn't happen to know which unit is Luci's, would you?" Gabriel asked.
Kali shook her head and said, "I do have other things to do with my life than watch this sociopath picking out storage units."
Gabriel nodded, and started to head for the main building. His steps faltered and Cas caught him before he could completely collapse.
"Maybe you should wait here," Cas said.
Gabriel said, "If Sam is in there being drugged or tortured or whatever's going on, like hell am I waiting in the car."
Cas let the issue drop.
They walked into the main building. A teenager sat at the counter flipping through a magazine.
"We were wondering if you could tell us which of the storage units belongs to someone named Luci," Cas said.
The kid looked up and said, "I can't give out private information. Sorry."
Garth slapped his badge on the counter and snapped, "We don't have time for any malarkey. This is police business. Do any of these units belong to a person named Luci?"
"How do you spell it?" the teenager asked, instantly cooperative.
Dean said quickly, "L-U-C-I."
The kid quickly scrolled through a directory before saying, "Nope. Sorry. I don't have a Luci here."
"How about Lucian?" Gabriel asked.
Dean glanced at Gabriel but didn't question it. He knew a lot more about this whole situation than anyone else.
"Yeah," the kid behind the counter said, "There's a Lucian renting out unit 104."
Dean looked quickly at the map on the wall and ran out the door. Taking a quick right, Dean ran down a row of storage units to the one labeled 104. It had a large metal retractable door but a smaller door stood to the left. He tried the metal door, but it needed a key. Running around to the door to the side, he saw that required a key card.
He turned around to head back to the main office when Garth tossed him a key card.
"It's the master key. It should work," Garth said.
Dean caught it, swiped it, and opened the door.
As he walked inside, he saw Luci slam Sam against a wall. Sam quickly turned around and punched Luci hard in the jaw.
Without thinking, Dean ran up to Luci, grabbed the bastard's shoulder, and ripped him away from Sam. When Luci realized what had happened, Dean punched him as hard as he could in the face.
"Sam, get out of here," Dean said. He tried not to notice that Sam had only boxers on. He tried really hard.
Luci grabbed for Dean's arm, and Dean wrapped a fist in Luci's hair, pulling on his scalp painfully.
"Try that one more time," Dean growled, "I fucking dare you."
Sam ran out the door without much hesitation.
Luci glared at Dean.
Dean flung him to the ground and pulled out his gun, pressing the muzzle to Luci's head.
