Coda

Disclaimer: Don't own Supernatural

Dean sat up when instead of coming out with Sam, John came out with their bags haphazardly packed. He leaned out the window as John went past to open the trunk.

"Uh, hello? You forget something?" Dean peered back at the motel room door, but it remained closed.

John slammed the trunk harder than necessary, "Sam's not here."

"Not here?" Dean was half out of his seat to go look for himself when John slid into the driver's seat, tossed a ripped envelope at Dean and started up the car. CPS were the only letters he needed to see for his stomach to drop, his heart following rapidly. "Where did they take him?" Dean demanded, even as he skimmed it for himself.

"You know they aren't going to tell us that," John peeled out of the parking lot, headed back into town, "Not right away."

Dean ran a hand through his hair, "We weren't gone that long." It was muttered more to himself but John heard it anyway.

"It shouldn't have happened," John agreed, "Just a misunderstanding, and then we'll put this place in our rearview."

Dean gave a tight nod. Sam may have suddenly turned into a pain in the ass at the same time he'd turned 13, but as much as he'd threatened to over the last year and a half, he wasn't leaving Sam behind.

John pulled into the office and jumped out with only a gruff "wait here." Dean bristled a bit but stayed put. They'd already learned it didn't help when Dean threatened to punch a social worker.

It was barely fifteen minutes later when John strode out, looking angrier than Dean had seen him in years. He slammed the door harder than necessary.

"No record of a case. No record of him at the school. Receptionist, case workers, blank looks all around. Not something they could have faked."

Dean stared at him like he'd grown a second head, "How the hell did that happen? I enrolled him myself!"

"I know." John let out a sigh. "There were sulfur traces in that office."

"Why are we just sitting here then!"

"It's gone, I checked." John backed the Impala out slowly, "We need to get talk to Bobby or Pastor Jim, Caleb if he's close enough."

Dean slouched in his seat, "Why now?"

John glanced over at him, but Dean just stared out the windshield.

"We've left him alone before. Why here? Why now?"

John shook his head. There was no way to answer that. There was no way to know where they'd taken Sammy or even if he was still alive. John had to assume he was. There wouldn't have been much of a reason for them to keep the body.

Caleb was down in Florida and he would start making his way up but there was no way he'd be around if anything were to go down in the next few days. Bobby was already looking but there wasn't much to go on yet. Pastor Jim was getting in touch with anyone he could think of to keep an eye out for Sam. John hated to say it, but until there was something else to go on… Damn he hated waiting.

It would be four years before they got a lead that panned out.

"Bobby, it's me, Sam…"