Sam's mind had been racing non-stop since he put Dee back in her car seat and started down the road again. He knew he needed to stay off the main roads because he had no doubt that an Amber Alert had been issued for Dee, even though the Feds had no idea who she was, and the Impala was pretty distinctive. The more that he thought about it, the more he wanted to shoot something – preferably Agent Hendrickson for being such a pain in the ass.
It was dark, and he continued to drive while Dee slept still holding on to the hound for dear life. Knowing that he was going to have to get gas soon, he prayed that he could find a small station who hadn't received the news yet of an attempted murderer and kidnapper was on the loose. A thought struck him hard and he had to force himself to breathe again – his picture would be plastered everywhere in less than a week, Hendrickson would see to that. He had to wonder if someone had taken a picture of Dee without him knowing it, he hoped not; it would complicate things even more.
He knew that if this had happened a couple of years ago, he would have had more options and probably would have found the humor in it. As it was, he knew that there were both hunters and demons alike that would love to see him dead, and the nuisance of the cops didn't help matters either. Knowing that he was expected to head out of the state as soon as possible, he had taken the risk of going deeper into the state; praying that somehow he could find a place to ditch the Impala until someone could come for her, and come up with a plan that didn't involve getting himself strung up and his little girl thrown into a home.
Suddenly Sam laughed, he couldn't help himself. The thought that a state agency would take his little girl from him, put her in a foster home, and then in a couple of weeks suddenly have a confused Dean instead of a Dee on their hands was morbidly amusing. Now he knew he was tired, stray thoughts that he thought were amusing were usually a pretty good sign that he needed caffeine, and lots of it. Seeing a small gas station off to the side, he quickly pulled in and kept the car as much in the shadows as possible.
Grabbing some cash from the stash they had from Bella, he quickly filled up the tank thankful that it wasn't a prepay pump, and then took a still very sleepy Dee into the station to find a bathroom and some much needed food. It didn't take long to realize that there wasn't going to be much selection in the food category, and they had to settle on some chips, peanut butter crackers, and beef sticks before reaching over and checking the expiration date on some chocolate milk. The clerk had only been a little curious about them when he rang them up, and hadn't even commented about the car which was fine by Sam; he was going to need a little luck to pull this off. Leaving the station Sam looked at Dee and noticed that she was looking at him with wide eyes while chewing on a piece of her beef stick.
"Hey there… you ok?" he asked, knowing that it was an idiotic question, but the only one he could think of.
"Daddy, bad men lie, righ'?" Dee asked, working a thought through her tired mind.
Nodding, Sam agreed, "Yes, bad men lie."
Satisfied, Dee nodded back. "I taught so… you not bad man, they lie!" Dee said firmly, set in the idea that her Daddy was still everything that she knew him to be. "Daddy, what my doggie name?"
Puzzled, Sam wasn't sure what brought on the change, but felt relief just the same. "Uh, I don't know Dee, what do you want to name it?"
After thinking about the question, Dee finally shouted, "PAGE!"
So startled by the name as much as her outburst, it took him a moment to recover so he wouldn't run off the road. Somehow he knew that it was in reference to Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and that just scared the hell out of him. He knew that Lillian told him Dean wasn't aware of the transformation, but how in the world would a three year old know the name of the guitarist. Making a mental note to call Lillian as soon as possible, he just smiled at Dee and continued driving in the night.
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Sam had been listening to the news and it quickly became obvious that the consensus was he had run towards West Virginia, which was lucky for him considering he had actually managed to go the other direction with plans of going into Maryland, maybe even crossing through Washington D.C.; Hendrickson wouldn't think of that – right?
Sighing, he knew he had his work cut out for him, and in order to get Dee to Bobby, he was going to have to come up with something quick because he knew the FBI wasn't going to just forget about him so easily this time. 'Yeah, threatening and kidnapping an agent has a tendency to tick them off.' He thought wryly.
Morning was dawning which meant he needed to find a place to stop and eat before more people were out. Suddenly something hit him – hard! They would look for a tall man, with long dark hair with a scared little girl in tow. The thought that kept ricocheting in his brain made him cringe. 'Man, Dean is going to laugh his ass off when he gets back.'
Pulling off the side of the road he looked at a map and determined that they were in between Charlottesville and Fredericksburg; perfect! He knew that a lot of people out in rural areas were more inclined to help strangers, and he hoped that he wouldn't be let down now. Determined to find someplace safe for a little while, Sam pulled down a side road and looked for something in particular.
Finding an abandoned barn, he drove in and made sure that they couldn't be seen from the road. Sighing in relief, he watched Dee for a moment before he pulled out his cell phone.
"Hello?"
"Lillian, I need to ask you something."
There was a slight pause before "Sure Sam, anything I can help with."
Sam resisted the urge to remind her that she helped enough already, instead jumping into his question. "How sure are you that Dean isn't aware?"
"Positive Sam, why?" Lillian asked, and then listened to Sam as he explained what happed and why he was worried. "Sam, I'm sorry. I obviously didn't make myself clear to you. When I said that Dean is your little girl, I meant that he is your little girl. She has memories of her time with you and her Uncle Dean because she's Dee- your daughter."
It took everything he had not to drop the phone, "What?!?" he croaked out, sure that he misunderstood.
Lillian sighed, "We could talk about temporal physics vs. mystic science till the cows came home Sam, but it boils down to one thing. Dee is your daughter; it doesn't matter where she came from or why, but think of her as a place keeper for your brother Dean. When Dean's deal is done, she'll go back to where she belongs. Until then, I'm sorry Sam… this is going to hurt…but enjoy the time you have with your baby."
Sam continued to sit in the driver's seat after he cut the call, things suddenly clearer. It wasn't that Dee was a miniature Mary, but the child that he and Jessica should have had; did have someplace else apparently. Dean was either in limbo or his essence was still here just not aware, and probably wouldn't ever be. Now he knew why Lillian had apologized for not making herself clear; now he understood that he wasn't Daddy for awhile to his brother turned daughter, but that he was truly a father and was given a glimpse about what he had really missed. The burden of knowing that two souls, not just one hung heavy on him and he wasn't aware of the tears until he felt a tiny hand brush them away.
"Don' cry Daddy, I not goin' anywhere!" Dee said as she looked at Sam.
Smiling, Sam pulled her into his arms and held her close knowing that he had a short amount of time with her, and he wasn't going to waste in on self pity. "Hey sweetheart, how about we play a game. What do you say?" he asked, then watched as she nodded her head enthusiastically. "Alright, we're going to play a real live version of hide and seek. How does that sound"
"Yay!" Dee squealed, ready to get started.
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It hadn't taken too long for Sam to change Dee into a plain t-shirt, a solid color pair of shorts, and her sandals after he took the flowers off them. He hadn't the heart to cut her hair but was relieved that he had bought the denim cap for her when they were planning on a zoo trip. Clothing wise she looked more boyish, and he couldn't help but wonder about the mulish look she was giving him for it. What took the longest was him. He had no idea why it pained him so much, but finally after looking at his little girl and reminding himself of what would happen if they got caught; he did what he had to do. Dee cried for the both of them as he took the first aid kit out, and used the scissors and peroxide to change his appearance. Glancing only a moment in the Impala's window to make sure he didn't miss a spot, he grabbed Dean's sunglasses from the glovebox, put some money in his wallet and picked Dee up in his arms. "Come on sweetheart; let's see if we can find a ride."
They had walked back to the road they had come from and started in the direction they were initially heading. "Dee baby, I need you to know that in order to hide from the bad men, we might have to say things we don't really mean. Ok?" Seeing that she was listening, he continued, "We need to come up with a story as to why we don't have a car, and are walking when we don't live around here."
Thinking hard, Dee finally nodded. "How 'bout we say mommy mad an' we hav t' walk?"
Stunned for a moment, he finally asked, "Does mommy get mad a lot?"
Dee started to giggle, "No Daddy, this pr'tnd! Mommy not mad!"
Feeling more than a little relieved, he had to wonder about his little girl who somehow in the great cosmic comedy was currently both his daughter and brother. He was about to answer when a car pulled up next to them with a young woman with a baby in the backseat inside.
"Hey, you know, you'll get to where you're going a lot faster if you get in here." She said with a smile.
"Uh, thanks! I appreciate it."
The woman smiled and nodded, "Don't worry; I've had more than my fair share of car troubles lately. I'll take you into town and you can find someone to help you fix it."
Sam wasn't sure what to say, he knew that the more people who saw them the more he risked ruining the plan of getting out of there in one piece. "Daddy need new car, don' you Daddy?" Dee asked looking into his eyes conveying the same type of message that Dean would have 'just play along'.
"Yeah, it looks like it. Every time I turn around we're breaking down." Sam said with a sad smile, hoping that Dean would forgive him for disparaging his baby.
The woman looked at him and nodded in understanding. "You know, there are a few cars for sale in town. They're not much, but I know the owners and they wouldn't sell someone a lemon if they could help it."
It had taken a little over three hours to get into town, feed everyone a late breakfast, and find something that met Julie Lynn's expectations of what she thought Sam needed. He knew that Dean would have thought the whole thing amusing, but at the moment he felt as if he was going to burst. It was as if some invisible vise was gripping him and making feel as if all the air was being pressed out of him; time was running out, he could feel it.
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Hendrickson was in a foul mood and he didn't care who he took it out on. In his opinion his people had fallen down on the job – again – and it was unforgivable. He had one job at the moment in the Bureau; bring in the Winchester brothers – period. His bosses knew them for the danger to public safety that they are, and he was going to make sure that both brothers paid for their crimes. Now though, he was surrounded by incompetence and it reflected badly on him.
Not only had Sam Winchester escaped, but had taken a little girl that no one knew about with him. If that wasn't frustrating enough, the lead that got them to this god forsaken town had been a bust; just some punk wanting to make a name for himself. So now, according to the profilers that had been rushing around with this new information, Sam Winchester was 'possibly more dangerous than his brother if for no other reason than his obvious desire to express his autonomy' from Dean who had been getting the most attention. 'Great, not only do I have two lunatics running around, but now little brother wants to prove a point.' He thought as he threw the rest of the coffee across the room.
"Sir, there haven't been any validated sightings anywhere." An agent said as he walked up handing Hendrickson a stack of reports.
"Well he couldn't have just disappeared, now could he?" Hendrickson yelled, and then noticed something. "Where are the reports from the East?" he asked, sure that he missed them.
"Uh, the ones we have say the same thing…"
"What do you mean 'the ones we have'? Don't tell me that we didn't block off all routes.
"Sir, we were ordered to make sure all routes that would lead out of state were covered. It would be insane to go deeper into a dragnet, so it would be a waste..."
Hendrickson had heard enough. After bringing all the agents together he yelled, "For those of you who haven't figured it out, the Winchester's aren't your normal psychopaths. They do not follow the standard rules; therefore we need to throw 'the book' away! Is that understood? Good! Now get the other routes covered and extend that Amber Alert to all bordering states!"
After seeing that his orders were being followed, Hendrickson started to go over the file again, seeing all the places that they had been sighted in hopes that he could figure out where Sam might go now; he knew that the answer had to be in there somewhere.
AN: It'll grow back!!!!!