Vrskaandrea: All will be revealed...

Vallygirl: You are just all over this story! Bobby has a keen eye when it comes to his boys (and girl) and yes, i would love a recipe for bread pudding with Baileys! :)

CHAPTER 55

It wasn't until Sams stomach grumbled that he finally pulled himself away from his book. Looking at his watch he frowned when he realised he'd been reading for over four hours. He got up and glanced out the window he noticed the Impala was still gone. He found Bobby and Caleb sitting at the kitchen table playing gin.

"Hey, have either of you seen Dean?" He asked.

"Nope." Caleb replied.

"He said he was going on a parts run but that was four hours ago."

"Well you know how he is when he gets around other car people, probably just got caught up talkin'" Bobby said rearranging the cards in his hand.

"Maybe he stopped off at a bar?" Caleb suggested.

"No he wouldn't go on his own, not since...he wouldn't go without one of us. Somethings not right." Sam said.

"He probably went straight to the workshop. Why don't you go check there before you start hurting yourself jumping to conclusions." Bobby suggested.

"Yeah, you're right."

Sam walked across Bobby's property hoping to find Dean lost under the hood of the old Pontiac Tempest she was restoring but his worry ramped up when he found the workshop empty with no sign of Dean or the Impala. He ran back to the house.

"He's not there." Sam said bursting through the door.

"I'm telling you Sam, he's probably just caught up somewhere. Go pull that laundry out of the machine before it begins to stink and if he's not back by time you've hung it out we'll start calling around." Bobby said, taking a calm and reassuring tone with Sam.

"Okay." Sam said, taking a breath to calm himself.

"And don't go trackin' dirt through my house, take those dirty clodhoppers of yours off and leave them by the door.

Sam quickly did what he was told and dropped his boots near the shoe rack. He glanced at the shoes there and his hunters brain told him something was amiss but he pushed it aside and headed down stairs.

Bobby looked at Caleb.

"What do you think? Not like Dean to just take of for hours and not let someone know if he's going to be late." He said.

Caleb shrugged.

"Dunno what to tell you. Maybe he's hooked up with someone?"

All of a sudden Sam burst through the basement door and taking the stairs three at a time he ran to their room.

Sam was grumbling to him self all the way down to the laundry. He picked up the basket and began to unload the washer. Half way through he noticed that there were only his clothes in there.

"No." He breathed, pulling items out one by one and tossing them aside. "No!"

He suddenly realised what was wrong with the shoes. Dean always left her running shoes by the door and they were missing, as were her boots. Sam turned and flew up the stairs as quickly as his long legs could carry him, ignoring Bobby and Caleb's calls as he ran through the kitchen. Climbing to the second story, three steps at a time, he raced down the hall and into the room he shared with his brother.

He went straight to the set of drawers beside Deans bed. Because they were staying for a month they had actually unpacked their clothing. Pulling out each drawer he became more desperate as he found each one empty.

"No, no, no!" He almost sobbed.

"Sam, what is it? What's wrong?" A concerned Bobby asked from the door way.

Sam ignored the older man and went to the closet. Yanking the door open he found his clothes and empty hangers where Deans should be hanging.

"NO!" He cried moving the clothing around violently hoping to make Deans possessions magically appear.

He looked down and saw a bag dropped on the floor of the closet, bending he picked it up and walked to his bed. He upended the bag and all their spare cell phones dropped to the comforter.

"FUCK!" Sam screamed.

"Sam!" Bobby yelled from the doorway where he and Caleb were crowded, to worried to enter the room lest they be caught up in Sams whirl wind of destruction. "What's going on?"

"He's gone!" Sam turned to face Bobby, his face a mask of devastation. "He's gone, taken off."

"What?"

"His clothes are gone, he's even taken his running shoes and he's left all the burner phones. He's gone Bobby!" Sam voice cracked on Bobby's name and tears started running down his face as he collapsed onto his bed.

"Why?" Caleb asked. "We only had three more days. Why would he leave now?"

"I don't know but there has to be a reasonable explanation. Has anyone tried to call him?"

They both looked at Sam but he was sitting on his bed staring off into nothing as the tears trailed down.

"I'll do it." Caleb whispered pulling out his phone and walking away.

"Sam son?" Bobby said as he sat beside the younger man. "It's gonna be okay. We'll find him."

"Why Bobby, why would he leave?" Sam asked, broken.

"I have no answer for you Sam, but we'll be sure to ask him when we find him."

"No answer." Caleb said, reentering the room.

"Did you think there would be?" Sam asked.

"Alright, let's get down stairs. I'm pretty sure I've got the ingredients for a tracking spell." Bobby said.

"Tracking..." Sam suddenly stood. "I can track the GPS on his phone!"

He ran back down stairs and to Bobby's study. Booting up his laptop he began to work furiously on the keyboard.

"Well?" Caleb asked.

"Nothing. There's no signal. He must have switched it off." Sam said dejectedly.

"Alright, clear the space." Bobby said as he grabbed a map.

He performed the spell and all three of them watched expectantly as the map burned. Unfortunately all they were left with was a pile of ash as the spell burned the map away completely.

"What happened?" Sam asked.

"Doesn't matter." Bobby pulled out a crystal in a string and opened his atlas to the map of the USA. "This is old school but it should work."

The crystal swung in a lazy loop as Bobby spoke the enchantment. It began to swing faster and faster as it tried to locate Dean but eventually Bobby had to let it go as it's circle became wilder. He watched it fly across the room and bounce off the wall.

"What does that mean? Why couldn't you locate him" Sam asked, desperate.

"I don't know."

They checked the search histories on both Bobby's old computer and Sams laptop only to find they'd both been wiped clean. It was then that Bobby noticed one of his pictures had been moved on the bookcase. He walked over and repositioned it, noticing the marks in the dust where a book had been taken out the put back in again. He read the title then pulled it out.

"What have you got?" Caleb asked.

"Not sure." Bobby sat down and began to flick through the book. "This is a book on wards and sigils but I can't figure out why Dean would read it."

Bobby shifted in his seat, his foot connecting with the waste paper basket that had been pushed under the desk. He pulled it out and looked inside. There were a couple of sheets of paper scrunched up at the bottom. Bobby pulled them out and flattened them.

"They're blank." He said.

"So! What's that got to do with Dean disappearing?" Sam asked.

Bobby took a pencil from the drawer and began rubbing it over the paper, slowly a symbol began to lightly appear. Bobby examined it for a moment then began flicking through the book.

"Clever boy." He cursed to himself.

"What?" Sam demanded.

"This is a cloaking ward." Bobby said holding up the paper. "Whatever the reason he left, he didn't want us to find him. If he's using this, this sigil here will hide him from almost anything."

"So we cant find him using a spell or anything?" Caleb asked.

Bobby shook his head.

"Why! I don't understand! Why would he leave now? We were so close!" Sam began pacing back and forth, his hands tangled in his hair. "If he didn't want to do it all he had to do was say so! We gotta find him Bobby. We gotta go right now and get him back."

Bobby stood and walked to Sam.

"You gotta calm down son." He tried to soothe the upset man.

"No! I gotta find my brother! She's out there all alone! She needs me. I've got to go!" Sam made to leave the room but Bobby put a hand on his arm.

"Let me go Bobby!" Sam threatened, clenching his fist.

"Hey Sam?" Caleb said.

"What!" Sam said whirling on his friend.

Once he was facing him, Caleb unleashed a hell of a right hook taking Sam down instantly. Bobby staggered under Sams unconscious weight. Caleb moved to help him, draping Sam over his shoulder and laying him on the sofa.

"Did you really need to do that? That's really dangerous you know." Bobby said. "A slap would've worked just as well."

"Not against a raging Sam. You were about to lose your arm and I doubt I would have survived if I just slapped him, no, unconscious is better. Besides I'm pretty sure these boys are a little bit Homer Simpson."

"What?"

"You know. Homer Simpson, with the extra brain fluid...surgical two by four? No?" Caleb trailed off when he realised Bobby had no idea what he was talking about. "Any way, I didn't hit him that hard. He won't be out long."

As if on cue Sam began to wake up. Letting out a quiet moan his eyes fluttered open as he tried to focus on the two hunters standing over him.

"What happened?" He asked, sitting up.

"You were getting a little worked up so I pressed the reset button before you short circuited." Caleb said, standing slightly in front of Bobby in case Sam reacted 'badly'.

"Huh?"

"You were about to lose your shit so I punched you."

"Oh." Was all the response Sam managed. "Did Dean...?"

"You've only been out 30 seconds so, no, I'm sorry." Bobby said.

Sam nodded and ran his hand over his face, winching slightly when he touched his jaw. No one said anything for a long time. Nothing seemed enough. Finally Sam broke the silence.

"You got any whiskey?"