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Jody Mills called Dean's cell phone. When it got shunted to voice mail, she hung up and called Singer's Salvage. Bobby Singer answered gruffly, "Singer."

"Amber Alert," Jody skipped any pleasantries. "Where's Dean? The trail leads into the woods. I want him on a search team."

"Who? Where?" and surprisingly, that was not a civilian flailing but an officer cutting to the chase to get only pertinent details.

"Little Zina Doran –Dean found her bracelet a while ago- and her best friend Machala vanished from the Doran backyard."

"I'll send Sam and Dean immediately." He hung up and Jody wondered what good Dean's younger brother would do, but then she was occupied with organizing different search parties and trying to keep Beth and Roger Doran and Carine and Michael Gray calm and checking all of the registered sex offenders in the area and keeping the news media out of the way and…

She got a text from Dean. 'Found them. On our way to Dorans. Will need 1 ambulance for broken leg.'

She stopped and stared and…

Dean had never lied to her before and Jody couldn't imagine his starting now, when emotions were so high. Still, it was too easy. How had they found the girls so fast? She didn't tell the Dorans or the Grays, just in case something went wrong, but she did send for an ambulance crew.

Dean and Sam walked out of the woods about the same time that Jimmy and his young EMT partner, Susan, arrived. Zina was asleep in Sam's arms and Machala was crying in Dean's. Her leg was splinted up, experience was obvious despite the rags.

Machala wailed the truth to her parents as soon as they grabbed her. The two had wandered off, gotten lost, Machala had fallen and broken her leg and then Zina had refused to leave her. Two silly little girls that could have been killed. It could have been so much worse. Dean had some tracking skills, Sam was proud to point out and it wasn't like the girls had been hiding. The children had responded as soon as Dean and Sam had gotten close enough that their voices could be heard. Sam was eager to inform the parents that they had two very smart and good little girls. Staying together had helped them get found sooner. The parents only wanted to hold their little girls tight. Jody had to work a bit to get them to let go so that Jim Wedge could do his job.

Jody turned around to question Dean and Sam extensively on their perspective but they were gone, slipped away in the chaos.

Jody comforted herself that Sam would probably have as front page news on the Sioux Falls Sentinel webpage. She could read what happened with the rest of town.

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Jody stared blankly at her computer screen. The Sentinel didn't have Zina and Machala's adventures as front page news. Instead it was a tiny blip in the police blotter section, with no mention of the brothers that had found the girls. The omission was glaring. She hadn't thought that either of the Singer boys were humble. But what other explanation was there?

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Knowing what she knew about the Singer boys, Jody skipped the middle man and called up Sam Wesson at the Sioux Falls newspaper.

He answered on the second ring. "Sioux Falls Sentinel. This is Sam."

"This is Sheriff Mills. Where's Dean?"

"He's out running Sheriff." Miraculously, Sam wasn't sounding patronizing. Instead it was closer to a 'calm the witness/victim' voice Jody had used on countless.

"He's been using an iPhone for music," Jody said. Granted Dean's earbuds had been tied around his neck rather than in his ears, but it counted. Jody could understand someone with PTSD not want to block out sound. Jody knew from her background search that Dean had never been in the military. He had never claimed it, everyone had merely assumed, but the PTSD was unmistakable. The disorder happened for many more people than soldiers. "He once said that if he ran with his phone you would track him like an animal during migration. We have another Amber Alert, Toby Inoue, seven years old. I need Dean at the elementary school immediately."

"We'll be there in twenty," Sam promised before he hung up.

A very grimly amused voice in Jody's head pointed out that Sam hadn't denied tracking his brother.

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Dean looked at Masaharu Inoue, the visibly worried father of the missing boy, and asked Jody. "Where's the mom?"

"Bitter divorce," Jody explained. "Norio left town months ago."

"Find her," Dean growled.

"We're looking." Jody knew how to do her job.

"Look harder," Sam said compassionately. "We both know that in the real world as opposed to TV crime dramas, the vast majority of child abductions are carried out by the non-custodial parent."

Yes, Jody knew that. She hurried over to her squad car and demanded and update on the last known location of Norio Inoue immediately, purportedly as the parent of an abducted child. Yes, until they confirmed otherwise, it was to inform her of the kidnapping but everyone in the office knew as Sam and Jody: odds were good that Norio was the kidnapper.

Dean and Sam appeared beside her. "Can we see the kid's lunchbox," Dean pointed to the Ninja Turtles box in Mr. Inaue's hands. "See if he ate anything."

It was a good idea, knowing how soon Norio would have to stop to feed him. She hadn't been one for planning ahead, as Jody remembered. Very impulsive, and an irresponsible shopaholic. She had a temper and would hit when she didn't get her way. The Inaue household had been frequently visited by the police for domestic violence before the divorce.

Mr. Inaue handed over lunchbox without protest. Jody searched it and found the sandwich gone and most of the carrot sticks still there. No surprise, nothing to indicate that Toby knew she was coming. She handed it over to Dean and he looked it over and was disappointed.

"Check the thermos," Sam suggested.

Dean did, stuck his nose it and seemed satisfied.

"Empty or full?" Jody asked.

"Empty. It was lemonade, real and not a lot of sugar," Dean announced.

"So he likes things tart," Sam murmured.

Dean put the lunch box back together and handed it to Jody. Jody returned it to Mr. Inaue. When she returned to the Singer boys, Dean was saying, "The mom was definitely here." He took a deep breath and gagged a little.

Sam braced him. "You're doing fine," he murmured.

"She tempted him with sour Skittles. It's his favorite, I think, and she knew that. That's how she got him in the car." Dean made face; a little bit sick and a little bit wistful.

"Which way did she go?"

Dean pointed down the side street; the opposite direction from the freeway. Not the direction that Jody would have guessed.

"Let's go that way."

"They're in a car," Dean protested. "Moving too fast."

"You're doing fine," Sam encouraged. "We'll keep on going until you can't sense them anymore and then we'll do old-fashioned grunt work."

Sam didn't act surprised at Dean's pronouncements, simply accepted them as fact.

Jody had never seen Dean work, but if this was how he got his results… (and she had to face the fact that somehow Dean had found stolen jewelry in a bird's nest).

If Dean just knew the answers…

If Dean knew…

Dean was a psychic. That was the only logical explanation. He was definitely a tracker in the physical realm as well as the… psychic, but Dean Smith was a psychic (those apparently existed outside of sci-fi novels). That was how he had managed such smooth matchmaking. Jody knew a moment of pure fury when she put it together with Dean's complete lack of military background. Dean had used his talents for the military, some part that didn't exist on paper and when he burnt out, they mercilessly kicked him out. They didn't make up some benign lie just in case Dean claimed to be a psychic later on, they didn't want anyone getting a hint of the government's psychic unit. They had thrown Dean out into the cold without even VA benefits, probably because they didn't want him to be honest with a shrink. That was why Jody couldn't find any military in Dean's background; someone had made sure to wipe it clean. Jody decided that she wouldn't let it continue to be a stumbling block in getting Dean's PI license. Jody was going to make that happen… as soon as Dean found Toby.

Dean would find Toby, though Jody acknowledged that there had to be limitations to Dean's talent. Dean was so fragile when he thought no one was looking. He hadn't been running every day, all day for his health or because he was training for a marathon, but because he couldn't sit still with his own thoughts… or whatever he was picking up from the world around him.

"Go," Jody ordered.

Both the Singer boys jumped and looked frightened. They thought that she had heard too much and…

"Go," Jody ordered, again. "Find Toby. Call or text me when you get close and I'll come and take care of Norio. You don't want in the police reports."

Sam understood first and the smile he blessed her with was brilliant. "We'll be in contact soon."

Dean smiled, but his was hesitant, painful. Jody didn't know what to say so that he would trust her. She already knew too many of his secrets. "Go," she ordered. "Get Toby before Norio gets him out of town."

Dean nodded once and then took off like a shot down the residential street.

Jody went back to Masaharu Inaue (he was insisting that everyone call him Masa to prevent mangling his name) and asked for a list of Toby's favorite places. She was relieved that by the time all of the searchers had convened and received their search grid, Dean was calling and telling her to come to the ice cream/custard shop on the edge of town.

She went by herself; no one else needed to know Dean's secret. She used her sirens to get near, but turned them off two streets early as Dean as suggested.

Toby and Norio were sitting at a picnic table outside of the ice cream place. Sam was standing behind Norio, his hands firmly on her shoulders. He was not letting her move and she looked furious. Sam wasn't letting twist enough to hit him. Dean was next to Toby and the two were cheerfully debating the merits of various custard flavors. Toby had no idea how close he had been from cutting off ties with all he knew.

Jody called for back-up and sat on the other side of Toby, to shelter the kid. When the other sheriffs arrived, along with Masa, Toby was thrilled to see his father and to share his lime custard. They arrested Norio out of sight of her son.

This time, Jody wasn't surprised that the Singer boys had vanished. She would catch up with them later.

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The Sioux Falls Sentinel reported that Toby had been found because of an anonymous tip in response to the Amber Alert. Jody expected that now.

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Jody visited Bobby Singer's scrapyard to get her story straight with the Singer boys. According to the paperwork, Dean and Sam had never been at the school. They had heard the Amber Alert on the radio and had happened to see Toby at the ice cream parlor. The parlor was on the road from the Sentinel newspaper office to the elementary school so it wasn't that much of a reach. From there, the story was the absolute truth.

"This is two for two on you finding missing kids." Jody handed Dean and Sam paperwork for being police consultants. Somewhere she had figured out that Dean needed Sam to work. "We want to put you on the payroll."

Dean was the most surprised, Sam not far behind. Bobby looked downright smug.

"You need to fill these out."

Sam immediately started, but Dean handed over his paperwork to his brother. Sam accepted it with an eye roll and seemed to expect it.

Jody handed another folder of paperwork to Dean.

"What's this?" he asked suspiciously.

"For your Private Detective license."

"You want me to be a private dick," Dean said gleefully.

"I'd rather you join the department, but you're not ready for that. This way you can set your hours according to your needs and you have a title that people expect when I send them your way because the police can't help them. I already in the background check for you."

Dean and Sam froze, knowing that it wouldn't match up.

"Everything was fine," she reassured them. "Nothing out of the ordinary." Nothing that would raise flags, at least.

Dean found that amusing.

"So you have talents, Dean," Jody said. All the men around her had 'Oh, Shit!' expressions on their faces. Sam stopped writing and shifted his hold on the pen to something defensive. "You're a psychic and I understand that it's a big secret. It's safe with me."

Jody apparently was better at appearing trustworthy than she thought because all of the men relaxed in increments. Dean first (did he Iknow/I that she was being honest?), then Sam and Bobby last.

"What do you need to work best?" she asked.

"Unfettered access to the scene before anyone else," Sam immediately told her. "If other people are there, they… layer on top and it's hard for Dean to… know."

Jody thought about it. "That's why you needed the lunchbox, but everyone else had touched it, but no one had opened the thermos."

Dean nodded. "That was pure Toby. I needed that to… focus to start." They had completely lucked out that Toby had forgotten his lunchbox on that day.

"What did you use for Zina and Machala?" Dean hadn't gone anywhere near the house as far she knew, not until after he had found the girls.

Dean shrugged. "I remembered Zina from the bracelet in the bird's nest. The bird was easier than another human to… filter out."

Jody had no idea how the psychic thing worked but that had to be impressive. She also figured that it must be very hard to explain such talents with words that didn't account for such a reality. "That was weeks earlier."

Dean shrugged again.

"In the future, can you use the dirty clothes we collect for the sniffer dogs? I could probably get that to you for a minute, or would the collection of the clothes make them unusable?"

"That would work."

"Do you need Sam there?"

"Yes," Sam answered.

Dean shrugged yet again. "Sam works best by far, but I do need someone so that I don't get lost in the input."

"Do they have to know what they're doing?"

"No, not unless it's a really complicated trail. The more complicated it is, the more I need Sam over everyone else."

"Okay," Jody decided. "We'll figure something out." Jody also had to figure out how not to tell Lauren. She had promised to keep the secret and she would 'till her dying breath.

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