Hello everyone! Here is the new story I promised. This one takes place in the middle of season 6 (some time after 6x14). It's also going to have some flashbacks from pre-series stuff. While this isn't technically AU, you'll notice there's some events mentioned in season 9's Bad Boys that I've changed a bit. Nothing major, though, and I'll explain why in the notes at the end.

I hope you'll enjoy. I know I'm having great fun with this one.

Chapter 1

"Come away, oh human child

To the waters and the wild

With a fairy hand in hand

For the world's more full of weeping than ye can understand."

W.B. Yeats – Stolen Child

Kelsey Blackstone was an unhappy child. Everyone could tell that. People in town saw it as a fact of life. Small towns were like that, they had their own facts to cling to. Judge Moore's personal assistant was actually his secret daughter. Lisa from the corner store collected cats like some people collected stamps. And doctor Blackstone's twelve-year-old Kelsey was the most sullen child in town.

Then Kelsey Blackstone disappeared. She went to bed one night and, the next morning, when the doctor went to wake her up for school, he found the window open and no Kelsey. He went to the sheriff station that evening – and tongues would forever be wagging as to why he had waited that long; when a father discovered his twelve year old missing, he went to the police immediately, he did not wait around – and gave them some story about hearing flute music the previous night and something that sounded very much like footsteps on the stairs – in retrospect, Kelsey sneaking out of the house. No, he had not gone to check. He had been half-asleep by then.

Two weeks after the disappearance, the postman said the pharmacist told him that her daughter – Kelsey's best friend – had known Kelsey would leave. That she had been talking for a month about this person who had come from the woods one day and had been interested in her drawings much more than her father and stepmother had been. That this figure had said he would take her somewhere. It was surprising, though. Like all children in town, Kelsey knew everything about stranger danger and the like. She would not have gone with some random drifter she had never seen before. The town was baffled about that.

And then, the day Kelsey was found – or, at least, when the thing that was supposed to be Kelsey came back to town – some of the people dared to voice out loud what most of them thought about but kept hidden, afraid of it being true. This was not the first time it had happened.

xxxxXXXXXXxxxxx

Sam stepped into Bobby's library, not surprised to find Dean already there, engrossed in his coffee and breakfast. Sam went to make his own coffee and looked warily at the pie on the kitchen table. Bobby often got those kinds of gifts from neighbors. Sometimes it was hopeful widows thinking Bobby might have an eye for them. At other times, it was a thank you for a hunt well done and a person saved. More often than any of them wanted, it was someone with a grudge sending Bobby poisoned pie – or, on one memorable occasion they had all agreed never to mention – cursed pie. Sam wondered if this was not one of those memorable occasions. But Dean looked to be on his third slice already and did not seem about to drop dead, so Sam figured a small slice was safe. He did not often go for things like pie, preferring a healthy breakfast, but there weren't many options for that at Bobby's. Pie would have to do.

Sam took his food and coffee to the library and sat down opposite Dean. He sensed his brother's eyes on him, even though Dean was trying to be subtle. Sam cleared his throat.

"Where's Bobby?" he asked.

"Gone to see a Hunter friend of his in the hospital," Dean said. "He called me from there, he might have something for us, and he'll fill us in when he gets back in an hour or so. You up for a case?"

Sam nodded quickly. In truth, he was starting to get cabin fever. Not to mention that Bobby was still wary of him sometimes, acting as if Sam was a bomb that could explode at any moment. Sam, on the other hand, was busy doing penance for what he had done to Bobby while soulless – to the point that he had even offered to do Bobby's grocery runs several times. Dean was getting exasperated. Sam was sure his brother was about to knock his and Bobby's heads together just to teach them sone sense.

"So," Dean went on and his would-be casual tone had Sam immediately on alert. "Last night. I heard you. Nightmares, right? What were they about?"

Sam shrugged, avoiding his brother's assessing gaze.

"I mean – with our kind of job, nightmares are normal, you know?"

He did not need to look at Dean to know his face was full of exasperation.

"I didn't ask you if it was normal, Sam. I asked what it was about."

Sam sighed. He thought he had gotten better at resisting Dean's inquiries. Apparently, his re-souling seemed to have lowered his defenses when it came to his brother. He scratched the back of his neck.

"It was the night I set Lucifer free. The church. I was dreaming about…that."

He chanced a glance at Dean, then his eyes flitted to the ground again. His brother's face was closed-off.

"Sam, that's the past," Dean said at length. "You don't dwell on the past. You stuff it in a box labelled "useless crap" and move on."

Sam was about to make a quip regarding unhealthy coping mechanisms, when he heard the front door opening, followed by Bobby's heavy footsteps.

"Hey, Bobby," Sam greeted, relieved to have a chance to change the subject. "Dean said you might have a case for us?"

Bobby nodded.

"Something about kids disappearing from a group of small towns," he said. "Karl Greenberg told me about them. He's gotten into some trouble on his last hunt and won't be getting out of the hospital soon. But I said I'll have someone take care of this case."

"Karl Greenberg?" Sam repeated. "Name sounds vaguely familiar."

"That's because your father teamed up with him once. I think it was during that time you were supposed to stay at my place, remember, Sam?"

"Why are you asking him and not me?" Dean demanded, suspicion evident in his voice. "Where was I supposed to be?"

"According to your Daddy, lost on a hunt," Bobby said, snorting to show he had never bought the excuse. "The Boys' Home, wasn't it?"

Sam glanced at Dean to see how he would react. It was not exactly a time they liked to talk about, Dean most of all. However, his brother seemed to be focused on one thing now.

"So, what was Dad doing taking Sam with him on a hunt with some random dude? I thought he was staying with you?"

Bobby snorted, rolling his eyes.

"Ask your brother. He had a case of itchy feet. Didn't seem to like my place for some reason."

Sam felt Dean's sharp eyes on him. Right. He had never mentioned that detail to his brother.

"What the hell, Sam? You were twelve. Why were you thinking of running anyway? Where were you thinking of running?"

Sam bit his lips.

"Look, man, you were gone," he said at length. "And Dad wasn't giving me any straight answer. Bobby wasn't, either. They just kept saying you were lost on a hunt, which was damned suspicious, since the last time I'd seen you, you were going to grab something for dinner. Something had happened to you, and no one was telling me anything that mattered. So, yeah, I was running away. I was going to look for you."

Sam noticed the emotions crossing Dean's face – understanding, sadness, guilt. He looked away. In truth, he had not thought about that time in years. Instead, he had buried all of it away, because it had been difficult, suddenly navigating the world without Dean.

xxxxXXXXxxxxx

Sam had been relegated to the back of the Impala, while John and Bobby were arguing outside. Sam huffed. The two had a knack at arguing with each other, but they had been going at it more frequently of late. Ever since John had showed up on Bobby's doorstep with only Sam in tow.

He shifted, feeling suddenly much too small in the big space of the car. He did not feel right, riding inside it without Dean. Gazing at his father, he wondered if that was what he was arguing with Bobby about. Maybe Sam trying to run away had finally done something good. Maybe Bobby was trying to convince John to go find Dean.

Bobby and John were now close enough that Sam could catch the words. Sam tried to pretend he was not listening.

"…and now you want to go where Greenberg points" Bobby was saying. "Greenberg's one step away from full on psychopath and taking into account all the Hunters that have been in my house, that's saying a lot."

"Greenberg can help me," John snapped, cutting Bobby off. "He said he thinks he knows of a death that was similar to what happened to Mary, of course I'm gonna help him with this case, if he's going to reward me with valuable information…"

Sam fought hard to keep the scowl off his face. Of course, his father would care more about information on whatever had killed Mom. Sometimes, Sam was sure that was all their father cared about. It was as if all he had was the memory of his wife – as if he did not have children at all. As if one of his sons was not missing.

A thought entered his mind, the same thought that came to him when he was about to fall asleep, that caused him to feel there was not enough air left in the room: what if Dean wasn't missing? What if he was dead? What if his father and Bobby were thinking about the best way to tell Sam he had lost his brother for good?

Sam bowed his head and clenched his fists trying to hide how hard his hands had started to shake. Whenever the thought entered his mind, it took several breathless moments before he could convince himself it was not true. It couldn't be true. If Dean was dead, Sam would have felt it. Somehow, he would have known. But his father had once said it did not work that way, and people could lose loved ones without realizing it had happened until someone came and broke the news to them. Sam dug his nails into his palms to distract himself from the breathless feeling that was threatening to overwhelm him.

He did not look up when he heard the door to the driver's side opening. He remained with his head down, even though he could feel his father's eyes on him.

"You've got no right to be cranky," John said sharply. "I was willing to let you stay with Bobby. Not my fault you decided to go on a fieldtrip."

"Are we going to find Dean?" Sam asked, even though he knew that was not where they were headed.

"I have a Hunt," John stated curtly. "Children are going missing."

Your own child is missing, too.Sam did not say it, though. He knew how such arguments usually went.

"Where's Dean?" he asked instead.

Sam was hoping that, if he kept asking the question over and over again, his father would one day be caught off guard and answer. Unfortunately, today was not that day.

"Asking the same question at random intervals isn't going to make me give you the answer anytime soon, Sammy," John said, starting the car.

Sam did not say anything else. His father's answer confirmed something Sam had suspected all along. John knew where Dean was. Even if he was not telling Sam, he knew.

The voice was back again, asking him, if Dean was alive, then why was John hiding it from Sam? Why wasn't he going to get his son? Why had he spent two weeks without mentioning Dean even once?

xxxXXXXXXXxxxxxxx

Sam shook himself out of his thoughts, returning to the present. He hoped Dean and Bobby hadn't picked up his trip down memory lane.

"So, this case?" he asked Bobby. "You were saying something about kids?"

"In a group of small towns in Pennsylvania. They seem to center around a middle-of-nowhere town called Rattigan. That's where John and Greenberg hunted a boogeyman. Remember?"

Sam shrugged.

"I mean, I remember leaving here. I don't think I remember a town called Rattigan though. Why, do you think Dad didn't catch the boogeyman?"

"No, I know he did. But Greenberg now thinks that only some of the kids had actually been taken by the boogeyman. There was something else there and it was taking children, too, using the boogeyman as his cover. Four children disappeared in the past two weeks. All apparently gone during the night. All good kids, too. Quiet, impressionable, but not the kind to just up and leave."

"So, what makes you think this is our kind of weird and not just a run-of-the-mill backwoods pervert?" Dean wanted to know

Bobby's face turned grim.

"Because one of the vanished kids, Kasey Blackstone, came back two weeks after her disappearance. Or, at least, something claiming to be Kasey did. See, Kasey was twelve when she vanished. What came back was a woman that had to be over ninety. Of course, the police are saying it's not her. Except that she knows everything Kasey knows and has Kasey's speech patterns."

Sam and Dean exchanged surprised looks.

"Has she said what happened to her?" Sam asked.

"Police are calling her delusional," Booby replied, then scowled. "Of course, that could be because she's claiming she's a twelve year old or maybe trying to tell them what took her in the first place."

"Well, she's going to be the first person we talk to when we get there," Dean decided.

His determination faltered when he saw Bobby shaking his head.

"You'll need a Ouija Board for that. Kasey – or whatever she was – died last night. Old age and exhaustion, apparently."

Dean whistled.

"Well, that's new. We should get going then. See what kind of crazy we're dealing with."

Sam got up. A hunt sounded good right now. It would keep him distracted from his nightmares and, hopefully, it would also keep Dean distracted from his nightmares as well.

"I'll go pack the car, then."

He left Dean and Bobby to some very serious discussion about a burger joint that was close to Rattigan. Sam shook his head chuckling. Some things never changed.

To be continued

Notes:

-Right, as I've said I'm playing a bit with season 9's Bad Boys. I'm not going to go into my relationship of selective denial with Supernatural's later seasons, but a lot of things in this episode rubbed me the wrong way. So, for the sake of the story, the events are a little different. As in, Dean did eventually tell Sam where he had been, because I'm sure Sam would have never bought the lost on the hunt deal. Sam also did not simply accept Dean's disappearance. Oh, and Dean's stay at Sonny was definitely not the clichéd Hallmark coming of age stuff we saw in the episode. You're not going to tell me Dean was having the time of his life when he had been separated from his family. I mean, I get what they were trying to do with the episode, but, speaking as someone who's been watching the show since its very first episode, there are a lot of things I found out of character.

-Far as I know, there is no town called Rattigan in Pennsylvania. I chose the name and the location for a reason, though, which will be seen in later chapters.

-I've decided to focus a lot on the small-town atmosphere in this one. There's nothing with more potential for creepiness than a place where everyone knows everybody else.

I hope you enjoyed and don't forget to drop a line or two. Stay safe out there.