Hey there, chapter 2 is up. Just a reminder, this takes place in season 6, but has some references to events from the flashbacks from an episode in season 9 (Bad Boys). However, it also assumes that Dean already told Sam that he was at the Sonny's and not lost on a Hunt (because, really, come on) and that Sam did not find out about the Boys' Home in season 9, he knew already knew about it. Therefore, the story does not take place in season 9 (which, isn't one of my favorites anyway), but 6, somewhere after 6x 13

Chapter 2

Stuck in the night

Ancient power will strike

Feel the fire

Burn inside

Run into my arms

Leave your shelter behind

Epica-Once upon a Nightmare

Loretta Bracegirdle had once planned to get out of Rattigan and become a doctor in a big city, where the money would be good and the life her parents had carefully planned for her was far behind. But that had been before the handsome man who had promised to marry her and sweep her off to a better life had turned out to be already married with two kids. Two days after that discovery Loretta found out he had been using her to get her parents to sell the family hotel to him. Loretta had stayed put, and when her parents had died, she had taken over the hotel as an act of revenge she herself could not explain. For twenty years, the place had been hers, and she had learned to recognize the most common types of guests that found their way – mostly by accident – to Rattigan.

There were the large game hunters, travelling in groups, boisterous and loud. They broke things in the rooms and got into trouble on their nights out, but they paid well, so Loretta never turned them away. There was the occasional misguided family thinking Rattigan could offer the typical town on the edge of the wilderness experience, only in their minds that experience did not include the bat accidentally getting in through the bathroom window or the postman's dog barking at all hours. They usually left in a hurry and filled every single travel website with bad reviews. Not that Loretta ever cared for reviews. Then there were the runaways, teenagers trying to escape a bad situation, or young women fleeing a dangerous relationship. Loretta did what she could for them. She had contacts in other towns that could help. And, of course, there was the judge's escapades with whoever was his flavor of the month.

The two young men that stood in front of the reception desk now were, however, not part of Loretta's usual set of guests. She did not know how to place them and wondered what they were doing so far close to nowhere. The taller one was blinking slowly, as if he had just woken up, while the shorter one had that tense, on edge look of someone who had driven through the night. They both looked beat.

"You boys are in need of my best room," she greeted. "Lucky for you, it's free."

The shorter one smiled tiredly.

"Just make it a room with two queens and we won't be complaining."

Loretta sniggered.

"Yeah, I never wanted to share a bed with my sister, either. She was the sweetest thing, but what she did with the blankets, God rest her soul. Her husband told me once he was thinking he would have to cut her hand completely, if he wanted to have at least a small part of the blanket for himself."

"How did you know?" the taller one asked. "Usually, when people see me and Dean, they assume something else."

Loretta rolled her eyes.

"Well, not everyone has owned a hotel for twenty years, like I did, sweetheart. You get to know people in my line of work."

She handed them the key to her best room, making a mental note to send them some coffee and pie later.

"You boys go get some rest now. And watch yourselves when you go out. This town – sometimes it's not safe."

She noticed the eagerness in their faces.

"Oh?" Dean asked, trying to appear casual. "I thought this was a quiet, nothing ever happens place."

Loretta hesitated. She did not want to discuss Kelsey Blackstone with a couple of strangers she had just met.

"Sometimes things are not what they seem," she said. "This town has its dark spots, just like all places. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some invoices to go over. A hotel does not run itself, you know. Your room is up the stairs and at the end of the corridor. It's quiet this time of year. You'll like it."

xxxXXXXXXxxxxx

The room was indeed worthy of being called "the best". It was clean, with soft rugs and even an armchair close to the window. The beds were large enough, separated by two nightstands. The sheets were clean and there were even extra blankets in the cupboard. Not that it looked like they would need them this time. The heating system seemed to work fine.

Dean finished his quick shower and came out to find Sam at the desk, hunched over his laptop. Loretta had apparently brought them coffee and food.

"Didn't she seem a bit cagey to you?" Dean asked as he dug into what was probably the best peach cobbler he had ever tasted.

Sam was sipping his coffee thoughtfully.

"Kids disappearing always leave people cagey. And she doesn't know us, so, I suppose she's justified."

Dean grunted.

"So, what have you been looking at?" he asked, pointing to the laptop.

"Just researching the town. Rattigan was founded in the 1800. It was originally a town of German immigrants. I can't find any conflicts with Native American tribes, though. The town was definitely not built on sacred ground, there were no battles here, nothing bloody. Maybe someone's got some cursed object in their possession, but I'm not going to find that by looking at the town's official site."

"Maybe it's another boogeyman," Dean said, drawing another chair and sitting down close to Sam. "Man, I can't believe you got to hunt one without me."

Sam looked uneasy.

"I didn't hunt a boogeyman. At least, I don't remember there being any hunting. I was just here with dad."

The more Sam said it, the more suspicious Dean got.

"It's weird, you know? You remember the name of your second kindergarten teacher, but the boogeyman hunt you had without me is a blank for you."

Sam pushed his chair away from the table. He scrubbed at his face tiredly.

"It wasn't a good time, Dean," he admitted. "While you were away. You know I was a little messed up, after."

Dean nodded. He remembered that part well enough.

xxxXXXXXXXxxxxxxxx

Their Dad had rented them a small motel room then headed off to back up Caleb on some hunt close by. He had not offered to take Dean with him, and it was clear that he had no intention of taking Sam.

"I'm sure you two have a lot to catch up on," John had said before leaving.

Dean did not know if that was Dad's way of making it up to him for leaving him at the Boys' Home so long, or if John had finally realized Dean could manage Sam much better than anyone else. Either way, it was just him and Sam now – and Dean wasn't complaining.

Sam wasn't complaining either. In fact, Sam wasn't saying much of anything. When Dean had gotten into the car at Sonny's, his brother had muttered a subdued "glad you're back, Dean" and that was that. Dean had been expecting something different. The Sam of two months ago would have talked Dean's ear off about all the things he had done, all the classes he had taken and kids he had met. But this Sam was silent and…not necessarily sullen, but a bit too moody for Dean's liking.

Dean said nothing for a while, ordering food with some of the money Dad left them, making sure he got Sam's favorites for once. This earned him a small smile from Sam, but really, Dean had expected more. Sam had not seen him in two months. How come there wasn't more enthusiasm now?

"So," Dean asked after Sam had eaten and had made his way to the bed. "You were at Bobby's, right?"

Sam's head jerked once in what Dean assumed was approval.

"A while, yeah," he muttered.

Dean nodded, feeling suddenly uncharacteristically awkward. He could not believe all it took was two months for him to lose his connection to Sam. He half debated going to bed and allowing Sam to sleep through whatever this was, when Sam finally spoke.

"You weren't on a hunt," he said almost accusingly.

Dean raised his eyebrows. What exactly had their father told Sam?

"No. I wasn't."

Since John had not briefed him on how much Sam knew, Dean had no idea how to handle the situation. One thing was certain, though. He had no intention of lying to Sam.

"You weren't lost, either," Sam said.

They weren't exactly questions. It wasn't a request for confirmation, either. Sam was just stating what he already knew.

"I wasn't," Dean admitted. "Not really."

He watched Sam's face carefully, his alarm growing when he saw Sam's lips starting to quiver.

"And…did you want to be found?"

Dean's heart broke. He had not really imagined how a kid Sam's age would feel. A kid whose life was already so unstable, to have his one element of stability taken from him for two months. What was he going to think? That he would never see Dean again? That Dean didn't want to see him? Well, screw that

"Sammy…" he began. "I wanted nothing more than to come back."

Which was the truth, no matter how much he had appreciated Sonny and kind of got what the man had been trying to do. But Sonny had not known Dean, and while Dean had played along, worried that not doing so might lead to an even worse situation, he had been painfully aware that Sonny had misunderstood his situation. Maybe his lessons about responsibility worked on the other kids. But what more could anyone teach about responsibility to someone who had practically become a parent at the age of four?

"Promise?" Sam asked uncertainly.

Without warning, he grabbed Dean's hand. Dean frowned. True, it had been two months since he had been anywhere near Sam, but he did not remember the kid being that cold.

"Are you sick?" he asked sharply, moving his fingers up and down Sam's hand in an attempt to warm it.

Sam shrugged.

"Was," he admitted reluctantly. "Not anymore. Dean, do you promise?"

Dean bit his lips. If Sam was not feeling well – which partly explained his strange mood – then he would need medicine and such. Dean was itching to start solving whatever the problem was, but Sam's desperate question proved that he needed his doubts put to rest more. He dipped his head to look his brother in the eye.

"Yeah, Sammy," he said with as much conviction as he could muster. "Yeah, I promise."

And, even though he had been telling Sam for years that stuff like holding hands was for girls and they had no business doing it now that they were growing up, it was about five more minutes before Dean let go of Sam's hand – and he allowed Sam to be the one to pull away first."

xxxXXXXXxxxxxx

Dean shook his head, returning back to the present, unable to stop thinking about that night, about the kid Sam had been and the man he had become, and he wondered in the darkest corners of his mind if he and Dad and, to some extent, Bobby, had not failed Sam during that time. John and Bobby had told a twelve year old his brother was lost for two months. And Dean – Dean had stayed lost for two months.

He had a sudden desire to leave the room, but he tried to overcome it. He walked to the window and once more turned to face Sam, who was watching him, his eyebrows raised.

"Are you OK?" Sam asked in that would-be casual way of his he used when he was trying not to show he was worried about Dean.

Dean waved the question aside.

"When am I not OK?" he asked smirking, completely ignoring Sam's snort of disbelief.

"Right. So – we're looking for something that kidnaps kids and then…ages them?"

"Could it be some energy sucking thing?" Dean asked. "I mean, like shrtriga, but instead of weakening you and making you sick it ages you?"

Sam nodded thoughtfully.

"Maybe. Or maybe Kelsey really did age. I mean, there are stories of people being taken away to the fairy world or whatever and time moving differently there."

Dean's nose wrinkled in disgust.

"We're not back to fairies again, are we?"

"Or maybe it's another plane of existence that functions like that. Stories of people disappearing and then returning to discover time has passed differently for them crop up all over the place."

"Isn't it usually backwards, though?" Dean asked. "Someone is taken to another world, thinks they spend several days there, return to find everyone they knew has been dead and buried a long time ago?"

Dean regretted the way he phrased it when he saw Sam flinch. Right, if that was not triggering every abandonment issue they both had…He cleared his throat.

"I think a talk with the coroner might be in order. See what really happened to Kelsey."

Sam straightened his shoulders.

"You go," he said. "I'll talk to the father and stepmom. There's something about them that doesn't sit right with me."

Dean nodded. He got where Sam was coming from. The most messed up thing about the entire situation was that the father of a twelve year old heard someone sneaking out in the middle of the night and had simply gone back to sleep. There was something shady about the good doctor Blackstone and, in such cases, he might have more chances of accidentally giving something away if he was confronted by only one person instead of two. And, since Sam had his soul back, Dean could once more pass witness-talking duty on to him. At least, now he could safely send Sam and knew he would not try to make a move on the stepmother.

xxxXXXxxx

Kelsey's body was stored at the sheriff station in the small basement that served as a morgue whenever it was needed. Apparently, it was not often in use. As Dean walked out after his rather dissatisfying talk with the shell-shocked doctor, he suddenly had the feeling he was being watched. He froze, but then he realized his pursuer was a brown haired- girl that could not have been older than ten. Her clothes were bright with all sort of swirling patterns. Someone had tried to comb her hair into two pigtails, but now strands of it stood in every direction. He dark eyes were fixed on Dean in that uncomfortable, unapologetic way children often surveyed people. Dean drew several steps closer to her.

"Hello," he said.

The girl blinked at him.

"I don't know you," she stated.

Dean shook his head.

"No…I don't think you do. But you can, if you want to. See, I'm Dean. What about you?"

He probably should not have been encouraging her to talk to strangers. But kids were always the best witnesses. They did not have the inhibitions adults had. If they saw a monster, they said it.

"I'm Lara," she said. "I live in this town."

"Did you know Kelsey?"

Lara nodded, avoiding Dean's gaze.

"We were best friends. Is it true she won't be coming back?"

Dean knelt down, so he was level with Lara.

"No," he said honestly. "No, she isn't. I'm sorry."

Lara did not react to his attempt at sympathy.

"My Dad said it always happens the same way," she told Dean. "Once every few years children go missing. The ones who want to run away in the first place, so he says."

Dean tilted his head.

"Did Kelsey want to run away? Why? Was she unhappy at home?"

Lara rolled her eyes, as if the state of Kelsey Blackstone's unhappiness at home was common knowledge.

"Her Dad got married again this year. For the third time. Kelsey said his new wife was like the wicked queen from Snow White had a baby with Cruella DeVil and the stepmom from Cinderella."

Dean raised his eyebrows. He could bet anything Sam was going to get a different version from the Blackstones.

"So, where was she going to go?"

Lara shrugged.

"The evening before she left, she told me she would go to the woods and wait for the music to start playing."

"The music?" Dean repeated blankly. "What like someone singing somewhere?"

"I don't know. But she said there was someone who could help her get lost. She said all she needed to do was not want to be found."

Dean froze. Did you want to be found? Lara's words so soon after he remembered Sam asking him that very question had alarms ringing in his head. Sam had been here all those years ago, in the same place children were disappearing regularly. What had he seen? What did he know? He acted as if he did not remember much and, true, after so many hunts it was natural for some to fade in the background. But what if there was more to this? What if there had always been more to this, and Dean just had not noticed?

"Do you think it really works that way?" Lara asked, distracting Dean from his thoughts. "If I don't want to be found, could I do what Kelsey did?"

Dean frowned. She did not look neglected or abused, but he had long since learned not to judge only by appearance.

"Are you in any kind of trouble back home?"

Lara shook her head. She looked miserable, though.

"Mum's having another baby," she said. "And Jim Hayes from fifth grade says that's when parents no longer pay attention to you 'cause the new baby takes up all their time and cries a lot and you can't sleep at night at all."

Oh. Oh. That was surprisingly easy for Dean to fix. And, if he could stop Lara from heading off into the woods like Kelsey apparently did, then he would consider it a win.

"Hey, look, I'm not gonna lie to you," he began. "Things at home will change. And I'll be the first to admit that younger siblings can be an irritating pain in the…uhhh…well, neck. But you get a whole lot out of them, too"

Lara tilted her head curiously.

"Like what?" she challenged.

Like watching them grow into the person they're supposed to be. Watching them work so hard to atone for their mistake and try to do good all the time. Knowing you had a part in who they are now. But, of course, that was not something he could say to a kid.

"I have a little brother," he said at length. "And I know he always has my back. Always. And when we were kids and our Dad hauled us places, I never felt alone. Because Sammy was there. And sometimes he's annoying as…uhh…as heck, but I know I always got him, you know?"

Lara listened to him thoughtfully. Her face seemed to clear.

"That doesn't sound so bad," she said.

Dean took out a card from his pocket and handed it to Lara.

"It really doesn't," he said. "Hey, listen, if you think anything's strange, give me a call, ok? If you hear that music Kelsey was talking about, don't go to it, just call me, right? And stay away from the woods."

xxxxxxXXXXxxxxx

It took Sam less than a minute to determine that he did not like Robert and Cindy Blackstone. Robert was curt and brusque, and that could have been explained by his daughter being missing, but there was a kind of contempt that got on Sam's nerves. It might have been his slightly unconventional look. Although he was wearing his Fed suit, it probably was not expensive enough to pass Doctor Blackstone's standards and besides, Sam still had his long hair. Robert Blackstone acted all prim and proper, it took only the narrowed look he directed at Sam the first time he saw him to show that to him a respectable guy had no business wearing their hair that long.

Robert was slightly older than Sam had expected – he must have been Bobby's age. Cindy was younger. She looked bored with the whole proceedings and refused to believe anything was wrong with Kelsey going missing.

"Kelsey's not missing," she said. "She's hiding. She ran away."

"Why would she do that, Mrs. Blackstone?" Sam asked.

Robert coughed as if to show he did not approve of Sam contradicting his wife's opinions. Sam put on his most patient expression and counted to ten in his mind. In Latin.

"Kelsey never liked me," Cindy said. "Half the time she's trying to compare me to her mother, the other times she gets angry that I don't pay her enough attention."

"Agent, how is this relevant?" Robert asked. "I mean, if you guys had been doing your jobs properly, we wouldn't have to worry about our children falling victims to every creep that passes through here. This isn't even the first time. And you guys were there that one time, too."

Sam tensed. He suspected he knew what Robert was talking about.

"That was more than twenty years ago."

Robert nodded.

"I'd just gotten this practice, you know. Then kids started disappearing and these two weirdo Feds roll into town…one of them dragging a kid with him…"

Sam kept his face deliberately blank. He was in no danger of being recognized. He had not even hit his growth spurt back then. Robert would never connect him with the twelve year old he'd probably seen only briefly.

But what bothered Sam more was that he could not remember. Robert's face was not in the least bit familiar, nor was the town itself. Of course, much could have changed in over twenty years. But he still should have remembered something.

"So, did you meet this kid?" he asked.

It was a dangerous line of questioning. If something really had happened when he and John Winchester had been there the last time, perhaps it was not smart to remind the locals of that. Still, he could not leave it alone.

"Oh, I treated him," Robert said carelessly. "That's how I knew the Fed had brought his kid in the first place. Kid came in with a high fever. Was a bit out of it. Kept asking for someone…Don? Dan?...Something like that."

The conversation was getting more and more disturbing. Sam did not enjoy the idea that he had been so delirious he could not remember what happened…and that he was so out of it he kept asking for Dean…Fortunately, Robert did not seem to notice his distress.

"They said he'd been sleepwalking the night before. Left his father's hotel room and all. Walked all the way to the woods."

Sam felt his blood run cold. As far as he knew, he had never sleepwalked in his life – he was pretty sure Dean would have told him if he had when he was a kid. So what had really happened to him when he had been in Rattigan that last time? And why couldn't he remember anything?