Title: Whatever It Takes [8/?]
Author: alakewood
Warnings: Spoilers for When the Levee Breaks.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1400+
Summary: Sam's been let loose from the panic room and Dean and Adam find Bobby unconscious in the salvage yard. When the car that Sam had stolen is found a state away, Dean asks Adam to go with him to retrieve their wayward brother.
Disclaimer: As always, I own nothing.

oxoxo

Adam was up in his room, lying across his bed unable to fall asleep with thoughts of Sam now on the run and worrying about Dean's reaction – how pissed off his brother would be that Sam had somehow managed to escape from his demon-proof cage. He heard a rumbling chug of a car out in the salvage yard and knew Sam was soon to be gone. Then there was a sudden noise downstairs – Dean's booted feet hitting the wood floor – and Dean calling for Bobby. Adam climbed out of bed and headed down to the first floor.

Adam met Dean outside the door to the basement. "What's going on?"

"Don't know," Dean said, wiping blearily at his eyes as he suppressed a yawn. "Heard a car and Bobby's not here."

Adam glanced at the basement door. "I heard your argument earlier. You don't think..."

"That's what I'm going to find out." He led his youngest brother down the creaky stairs and to the iron door of the panic room where he peered through the small viewing window cast into the metal. "Son of a bitch," he muttered.

Adam took a step back as Dean moved to open the door. "What?" he asked, as though he didn't already know the answer.

"I don't see him." He wrenched the door open on rusty hinges and quickly took stock of the room, the cot in the middle of the room with handcuffs dangling open from the springs beneath the mattress. His gaze swept about the rest of the room, fell on the broken devil's trap on the floor. "What the hell?"

Adam looked towards the part of the devil's trap near the door, partially obscured by shadow in the room's dimness. The black iron of the outside edge of the trap was buckled and bent. "Who- who do you think let him out?"

Dean crouched down to inspect the damage, glanced over his shoulder up at Adam. "Don't know. Wasn't Bobby. That's for damn sure."

"A demon? Ruby?"

"Probably." Dean stood up, faced Adam, surveyed the room once more.

"So if it wasn't Bobby that let him out...then where'd Bobby go?"

"Good question."

oxo

Dean and Adam found Bobby lying out in the salvage yard, his shotgun beside him, deep ruts in the dirt from where the car that had been parked there sped away from the scene. Dean knelt next to Bobby, prodded the older man gently. "Bobby. Hey. C'mon, man."

"He okay?"

"I think so. Just looks like Sam knocked him unconscious is all," Dean spat out contemptuously. "When I find him..."

Bobby started to come to at that point, rolling over on his side and coughing. He reached for Dean and let the younger man help him sit. "Where is he?"

"Sam? Gone. What happened?"

Bobby shook his head, gingerly touched his nose. "Caught him out here tryin' to jimmy open this car door and we exchanged some words." He shook his head again. "Let my guard down, let 'im get the better of me."

"Can you get up?" Dean asked, fitting a hand beneath Bobby's elbow.

Bobby wrenched his arm away. "Do I look like an invalid? He hit me in the face, he didn't break my knees." He pushed himself up off the ground, swatting away the hand Dean still offered, then, with Dean's watchful eyes on him the whole time, led the eldest and youngest of the Winchester boys back into the house. "So, how'd he get out?" he asked, leaning against the edge of his desk while he slowly nursed a beer.

"I don't know," Dean said. "Devil's traps downstairs are all broken."

"He didn't say anything to you when you tried to stop him?" Adam asked.

"No. Not a word. Kid was just pretty hell-bent on getting out of here."

"Don't doubt it. He's probably jonesin' for his next dose of that hell-bitch's blood." Dean scoffed then stalked back off towards the kitchen for another beer.

"I know you don't agree with it either," Adam said quietly to Bobby. "The way Dean locked Sam up down there. Sam's only been trying to help."

"That may be, but..." Bobby shrugged his shoulder.

Adam pushed off the couch and walked over towards Bobby. "I just- I don't think he understands what Sam's doing. Why he's doing it."

"Damn right, I don't understand," Dean said from the doorway where he'd been eavesdropping. "And I don't ever want to. There is no way Sam can justify drinking demon blood."

"He's saving people."

"Yeah, and he's losing himself. If that's the price of his little psychic superpower, it's not worth it."

"He's not-"

"Yeah, he is. You don't know him like-" Dean abruptly broke off, dropped his gaze from Adam's face. "Look, I didn't mean-"

"Yes, you did." He started towards the door.

"Adam."

"Dean," Bobby said gently. "Just give him a couple minutes. Now, Sam...you've gotta get him to come back willingly. You can't force him. The more you try to make him do things your way, the more he's gonna fight you."

"I know," Dean said. "Bobby, I know."

oxo

The following afternoon, Bobby had some info for Dean to get started on his search for Sam. Bobby's car had been found in Jamestown, North Dakota, and there had been two cars stolen: a Civic and an Escalade. Dean knew Sam like nobody else, knew how Sam would try to avoid being found by doing the exact opposite as was expected, and that was how Dean would find him. "So now I know where to start," Dean said, heading for the staircase. "Adam!" he called. "Let's go find Sam."

Adam appeared at the top of the stairs, eyed Dean warily as he started down and shared a glance with Bobby when he reached the first floor. "You sure you want to take me along?"

"Yeah. Now, come on."

Adam followed Dean out to the Impala, climbed into the seat that had been molded to Sam's body over the past three and a half years that he and Dean had been hunting together. It was just another reminder that he'd never have the same relationship with either of his brothers as they had with each other, no matter how much Dean or Sam might pretend otherwise. They just didn't have the history, the connection. Adam suddenly felt uncertain of his decision to let Sam out of the panic room – even though he probably would've escaped anyway. He didn't know if he'd helped or hurt the situation by attempting to seek Sam's trust.

Dean stared at Adam intently from the driver's seat, keys in the ignition, but he hadn't yet started the car. "What?"

Adam turned his eyes towards Dean, unexpectedly feeling the urge to admit to Dean what he'd done. "Nothing. Just...Do you think we'll find Sam before- before he finds Lilith?" Adam hadn't been completely filled in on every detail of the story, but he'd gotten the Cliff's Notes version from Bobby shorty after they'd gotten back from Pontiac.

"Yeah, of course," Dean replied quickly, turning the key in the ignition, the radio blaring the only classic-rock radio station in Sioux Falls.

Melancholy piano and the lyrics "Oh freedom - well, that's just some people talkin'. Your prison is walking through this world all alone."

Dean pushed the tape in the deck back in. "'Desperado,'" he muttered. "Damn depressing." Zeppelin started filtering through the speakers. "That's more like it."

Adam settled back into Sam's seat, glancing over at Dean. He tried to reassure himself that Sam would've found a way out of the panic room even if he hadn't been the one to open the door for him – somebody'd broken those devil's traps, and it hadn't been him. "So, what now?"

"Head for Jamestown. Hopefully Bobby's got more for us by the time we get there. It's about a four- or five-hour drive, so..." Dean reached for the volume knob and turned it up, drowning out the sound of the tires on the highway, and focused his eyes on the road.

Adam didn't know what was going to happen, he just hoped he hadn't screwed up his chances of becoming a part of the only family he had left.