When Dean first notices that Sam's absence, it assumes that he was probably just staying late at the university studying. The giant nerd does that sometimes, it isn't unusual, but for whatever reason tonight it was giving Dean a bad feeling. Afterall, the last time the kid had disappeared, he had been possessed by a demon and it had taken almost a week for Dean to find him. So, sooner than he would have normally, and feeling a bit foolish, Dean calls his brother's cell, just to check. No answer. No answer the next three times either. Dean now understands all to well why Sam was pissed when it took off to Milwaukee. Sure, it doesn't actually think Sam would go evil, like he had insultingly seemed to believe about Dean, but the not knowing what's going on still sucks.
The first move, it decides, should be to check some of the spots where Sam is most likely to be: the library, his favourite café, places like that. As it's making the short drive to the university, not wanting to waste any time by walking, it scans through the radio in an attempt to distract itself and a breaking news story captures its' attention.
"We're getting reports on multiple students found dead at Stanford University. The cause of the deaths has not yet been determined, but foul play is suspected. Details, including the names of the victims, have not yet been released. . . ."
Dean presses down on the gas pedal and practically leaps out of the Impala as he pulls into lot. Stanford has a big campus, but it has pretty good hearing and the lights and sirens from the multiple police vehicles pulled up in front of the main library aren't exactly subtle.
Some of those police have been given the job of herding away the public, so it can't get too close, but it still manages to push its way through the crowd of gawking students to get close enough hear one of the cop's making a report to his superior.
"Two of the victims apparently worked part time in the stacks and were there working. The third a student presumably there to study . . ." Dean draws in a breath, "she was found slumped over a desk . . ." and lets it out. None of them are Sam.
It hangs around for a few minutes, hoping to get lucky again and pick up on some more info, and its as they're carrying out the bodies on stretchers that it gets it's wish. The police have covered their faces in an attempt to preserve the privacy of the victims, but a tattoo or the arm of the female victim remains exposed. Dean only gets a quick look at the wild horse running up the girl's forearm but it knows that it's seen it before.
Sam has spent most of the year tutoring a freshman named Angela in English and though they'd never really met, Dean has seen her several times, and even with that brief exposure, Dean could tell that she was majorly crushing on its brother. Now she's dead, Sam is missing, and the whole thing is too much of a coincidence for Dean not to guess that Sam had probably been at the library with her when the whole thing went down. Which must mean, if he's not here now, that something took him, and Dean has a pretty good idea what. In the spring air, underneath all of the pollen, it picks up the pungent smell of sulfur.
Dean tries the who cell phone tracking thing that Sam used on it, but without any luck. It spends the next few minutes pacing back and forth in the apartment trying to think of a way to find Sam before those damn demons do whatever it is they've been planning to him. Maybe he could find a witch to do a tracking spell? Or summon a demon and get it to talk somehow? But he knows that any of those things will take too long.
When the answer comes to it, the idea is so ridiculously simple that it wonders why it's never tried this before. Sam will be pissed off when he finds out but that's hardly what's important right now. Besides Sam's the one who made this loophole possible so it will be his own fault in a way. It grabs it's cell phone and selects Bobby's name from the contacts.
"Hello?" the old man answers.
"Hey Bobby, its Dean."
"Dean boy, what is it now? Seems you idjits only bother to call when you're up the damn creek."
"Sorry Bobby, we can grab a beer some other time, but right now Sam is in trouble."
"What do you need from me?" Bobby asks.
"Nothing major, I just need you to say something for me. Repeat it back exactly as I say it okay?"
"Why?" Bobby asks.
"I don't have time to explain right now. Just . . .please." Dean holds its breath waiting for Bobby's go ahead. It's far too used to not being trusted, but at least Bobby doesn't know the secret, which might give it a chance.
"Okay, fine. What is it you need me to say?"
"You have permission to shift forms" Dean recites.
There's a long pause during which Dean knows that Bobby must be fighting back a million questions, but finally he says the words. "You have permission to shift forms" Bobby growls, clearly unhappy with being in the dark.
"Thank you, Bobby" Dean hangs up before Bobby can ask it something that it can't bring itself to answer.
Dean heads into the bathroom and slips out of it's clothes. Whenever possible, it prefers to do this in the shower; it makes the cleanup a lot easier. It turns on the water, steps in, and pictures in it's mind who it wants to be. It feels it's skin start to loosen and it rubs It's hands over it's body like a human would with a bar of soap. It tries not to watch as the detached skin turns to sludge and eventually dissolves and makes its way down the drain. Sam hadn't been wrong when he said it was gross. The first step done, it feels it's bones shift and writhe as they elongate to their new shapes. Dean knows that it's going to be starving after this, always is when shifting from a smaller form to a larger one, like his body needs to make up all that extra biomass somehow.
Next, it regrows new skin over it's muscles. Unfortunately, the new skin won't be as strong as it's old covering, it seems to take a few days to fully anchor itself. That's why shifters who've changed recently sometimes have their skin pull off in a fight. And it's very likely that it's going to have to fight. Finally, it puts on the finishing touches, willing the girly hair to sprout from it's head, adding dimples and moles, and blinking it's eyes into the correct colour. When it steps out of the shower, and rubs out a clear patch of mirror, it sees it's brother starring back at it. Yep, Sam is going to be pissed.
Dean lets itself into Sam's room and gets dressed in some of Sam's clothes. Then, it sits on the bed and tries to clear it's mind. It focuses and finds that part of it's brain that doesn't really belong to itself, the part that's only active when it's copying a living person. Right now, that part is connected to Sam. It tries to be as discrete as it can, not looking at Sam's memories, only focusing on the now, but it's hard to navigate thoughts that belong to someone else. Dean catches glimpses of kid Sam with his friends, student Sam in classes, and a few of hunter Sam polishing weapons. It tries not to dwell on the sadness that tinges so many of the memories.
Finally, it gets to something from the present: an image of a bell with a tree engraved on it. There should have been more to go on normally, but Dean was in Sam's thoughts and apparently Sam didn't know where he was either. Rubbing it's temples, it sits down at Sam's desk and fires up his laptop. Dean isn't as practiced as Sam is at research and just now it's kicking itself for it. It takes a few hours of internet searching before he it finds a picture of the bell, and after that it finds the town that the bell is connected to. The place is called Cold Oak and it's famous for supposedly being so haunted that all of the residents just packed up and left, but somehow Dean doubts that it's ghosts that are behind their current problem. If what it's thinking is right, something far worse has taken up residence in the abandoned town.
Dean considers calling Bobby again for backup before it heads after Sam, but if it's going to find it's brother, it needs to stay connected to it's brother's mind and in his brother's body. That wouldn't exactly be an easy one to explain to Bobby and if Bobby decides to shoot it for being a shapeshifter then neither of them will be able to find Sam, so it sets out alone. It's a full day's drive from California to South Dakota and Dean resents every minute of it but at least now it's on the move. It also helps that it's able to keep tabs on Sam to a certain extent. Right now, it can tell that Sam is scared but also that he's alive and not in any pain.
Suddenly, that changes and Dean is hit with a wave of distress welling up from the Sam corner of it's mind. It pulls the Impala over and wades into it. Sam isn't in physical pain it realizes but something that's just happened has him badly upset. It dives even deeper into it's brother's mind and what it sees there makes it's own revulsion rises up in the wake of Sam's.
Dean sees Sam as a baby being fed demon blood by the yellow-eyed demon. The contrast between the innocent infant and the inherent evil being forced upon him makes Dean's skin crawl and it's more glad than ever that it ganked the son of a bitch. How Sam is seeing this himself, Dean doesn't know, but whatever's going on, it can't be good. Dean pulls back onto the road and steps on the gas.