Warnings: Spoilers, mainly if you haven't seen season 8

Dean burst into the motel without a care in the world. He had a small piece of hope that Sam was in the motel. That maybe he just got zapped back there. But all that laid in front of him was a motel room minus his brother. Dean had checked everywhere, just in case Sam was hiding, even under the bed, but there was nothing.

"Son of a bitch." Dean hissed behind clenched teeth. He wanted to hit something. Sam said this was going to be a nice hunt to get their mind off of things. But all Dean had to show for it was a ghost of a dead musician who couldn't move on and no brother. Dean tossed his bag onto his bed and headed for Sam's laptop that set on the yellowed table in the corner. He opened the screen to turn it on.

But nothing happened.

"Oh come on." Dean growled. He made sure it was plugged in and the battery was okay before trying it again. He heard it warming up, the fan running.

Then it died again.

"You have got to be kidding me." Dean took deep, calming breaths. Why was this happening now? He just wanted to research more about Ritchie and the others. Maybe he could find out something that he could use to break the poor kid's curse, and maybe that would bring Sam back from wherever he was. But with the Winchester luck, when it rained, it poured.

Dean tried for a little while, trying to fix the computer to the best of his ability. Had Sam been complaining about it recently? With all this trial crap going on, Dean had been focusing more on Sam's health and not what Sam was saying. He had been focusing more on Kevin and trying to get those tablets translated before Crowley got his meat hooks in him.

He probably would've ended up throwing that damn laptop across the room if his stomach hadn't told him to fuel up before doing anything rash. Dean sighed, knowing that it had been awhile since he had eaten and he knew what starvation could do to your brain.

Thankfully, on his way over to the little diner a couple streets over, he saw a library, unfortunately, they didn't open for another hour or so.

That time was spent waiting for the waitress who was flirting with another girl sitting at counter. Once she realized Dean was there, she reluctantly took his order. It seemed to take forever for her to realize that his food was sitting on the rack to be delivered. And he forced himself to not just inhale the food. But once he was done, he headed to the library. He had never been so glad to see an open sign before.

The sweet librarian at the desk, playing solitaire on the computer, smiled at Dean when he came in. And she showed him to the archived newspapers when he asked, calling him sonny and hun the whole time. Dean set down with the newspapers and started looking through them. He had remembered seeing the headline before, a long time ago on some video on Youtube or something like that. Four killed in the plane crash. The three musicians and the pilot. He just wanted to see if there was something hidden in the story that he missed.

But when he found the newspaper he wanted, something didn't seem right.

Five killed in plane crash.

"I don't have time for this Mandela Effect crap." Dean groaned. He started to read through the headline story, but something made him freeze and go back up. The five pictures.

Buddy Holly; musician.

Ritchie Valens; musician.

JP "The Big Bopper" Richardson; musician.

Roger Peterson; pilot.

Sam Winchester; road crew.

A picture of Sam, standing with another man, was there in clear black and white for Dean to see. The caption said Winchester (left) and Waylon Jennings (right), right before the plane crash.

What the hell was going on?

But it wasn't just the New York Times that said those five names. All of the ones that were right there had the same names listed among the dead. Dean couldn't feel anything. All he could do was just stare at the newspaper.

Sam was going to die in that plane crash and he didn't know how to save him.

"I know where he is then." Dean said, standing up. The nice librarian let him use a computer. He had access to everything that he needed. The shock of finding out that, not only had Sam been sent to the past, but he was dead, was fueling Dean's researching. He had to find out everything. That was the only way he was going to be able to save Sam.

He read through articles, looked at pictures. According to his research, Sam had joined Buddy Holly's band in November of 1958. Right before the Winter Dance Party Tour. Eyewitness accounts said that they didn't see Sam get on the plane with the three other musicians. Waylon Jennings was supposed to be on the plane, but he gave it up to the Big Bopper since he had the flu and needed to rest. Ritchie Valens had won a coin toss to get on the flight.

According to the limited biography about Sam that he found, Waylon took custody of his body after his death and buried him in the Jennings family plot. Well, according to some accounts. Others say that the musician had him cremated, claiming that was what Sam wanted. So Dean wasn't sure what to believe. But one thing he did know was he had a time machine with wings within calling distance.

"Cas." Dean said into his phone as he left the library with copies of everything he could fine, as well as some instructions on how to possibly fix Sam's laptop. "Cas, come on, I need your help. Call me or get your feathery ass over here. Now."

"Dean's calling for me." Cas said as he set in the chair across from Naomi. "I need to go help him."

"Ignore it Castiel." Naomi warned. "We have more important matters to worry about right now.

"But…" Cas started to argue, but Naomi glared him down.

"Ignore. Him." She hissed. Cas nodded and closed his eyes, blocking out the worried voice in his head. "Good." She smiled and reached for something in her desk. "Just relax Castiel. We have a lot of things to discuss." She grabbed out her drill and made her way to the angel.