Because I soooo hope Benny is a good guy….And because I don't understand the reason for the Sam/Amelia storyline, I'm ignoring it….And because I don't know the complete history/lore of vampires on the show…And because somewhere among the seasons, I got confused how the boys summon Cas….

It was twilight, nearly dark, the moon not yet up when Sam reached where they had left the car. She sat exactly as they'd left her and Dean was neither in her nor anywhere to be seen. Using his key to pop the trunk, Sam packed a backpack with rope, a blanket, a first aid kit, several bottles of water, a lantern, extra batteries, extra rounds of rock salt for the shotgun and extra rounds of silver for the .9mm in his pocket. He checked his cell which was receiving a strong signal and dialed his brother's number. Once again, it went directly to voicemail.

"Fuck." Sam shouldered the backpack and set off in the direction they'd been headed on Wednesday, hoping when the moon finally rose; it wouldn't be obscured by clouds. He tipped his head back in an attempt to look up at the sky, but the motion made him nauseous and he had to rest against a tree until he'd regained control of both his stomach and his equilibrium.

He lost track of time. It wasn't easy hiking in unfamiliar territory in the dark while distraught and scared and feeling like he'd been thrown into a tree by a strong force. Indeed! He stumbled along, relying on an inadequate beam from a flashlight and his inner terror over his brother, to guide him. He shouted himself hoarse calling Dean's name but by the time dawn broke the horizon, all he'd gained was holes in his jeans at both knees from tripping one too many times. He was wet and cold, tired and hungry; his head hurt, both knees stung from scrapes and cuts and he was shaking and light-headed.

He twisted an ankle on a tree root and went down. His knees took the brunt of the fall and this time, he stayed down, falling to his side, head cradled by a pile of leafs. He wasn't anywhere near recovered from his unconscious stay at the hospital and though he didn't want to, his body demanded rest. His last thought before sleep overcame him was he hoped this time; some Good Samaritan didn't come along and find him.

When Dean's ringing spare cellphone woke him, the sun was up, drying the dew from the grass and leafs. He startled awake, flailing for his gun or knife until he realized it was a ringing phone that had awakened him. By the time he was able to pull it from his pocket, it had ceased to ring. He sat up and drank from a bottle of water before picking the phone up with the intent to redial the last missed call.

He didn't get the opportunity to do so, for the phone once again started ringing. This time, he answered it. His voice was hoarse and he had to clear his throat to even get the simple word, 'what' out.

"I'm in Cowley."

Sam switched hands holding the phone to his ear to check his watch. Just after 9:00 a.m. Jesus, he'd called Benny around 6:00 p.m. He had no idea where Benny had been and didn't care but if the vampire had left after hanging up from his phone call with Sam, he'd had a minimum fourteen hour drive, straight through, with stops only for gas.

"Where?"

"Gas Mart off 14."

Sam gave him directions to where he'd parked his car next to the Impala where they'd meet and hung up. He'd kept his meandering stroll through the night to roughly a two-mile circle from where the cars were and had found nothing. With Benny's heightened senses and it being daylight, Sam would be willing to veer off course and hike further into the woods. And if it took all day….well, Benny could see very well in the dark. He wasn't leaving these woods without his brother.

Sam retraced his way back to the cars then went off in search of water with which to wash and when he returned, Benny had arrived. He was casually lounging against the hood of his truck and while he stood up straight upon Sam's arrival, he made no move to greet him.

"Sam." he said finally. He said no more, keeping to himself his opinion that Sam looked like shit. "You look like you've been out here all night."

Sam shrugged, walked over to the Impala, put the bottle of mouthwash, soap and rag in the trunk and picked up his backpack.

"So, you were." Benny stated with a shake of his head. Well, Sam had never said he'd wait for him and really, had Benny expected him to? "Did you…?"

"Look, I know you have abilities I don't and I'm not above using whoever I need to, to find him. I ain't too proud to beg when it comes to my brother." Sam cast a longing look at the trunk of the Impala. He hadn't selected his machete to take with him and he briefly considered that perhaps he'd erred in leaving it behind. "But that's it. Keep the chit-chat to yourself."

"I wouldn't know where to begin looking and I wouldn't've known he was missing." Benny was rather relieved to find most of the trail would be under the canopy of foliage and tree cover. Sunshine wasn't his friend but if he must endure it to find the one man whose loyalty and trust he treasured above all others, he'd gladly suffer the inconvenience of sunburn.

"That's right." Sam ground out through gritted teeth. "His life isn't with you."

"But I'm a part of it."

"Yeah." he turned his back and paused, an uneasy feeling slithering across his shoulders. Not only was he asking for and accepting help from a vampire, he had to trust and depend on one because he was desperate to find his brother. "Let's go."

***000***

Fire.

His feet – foot – was on fire. Odd, to feel the warmth of a fire so close to his foot yet still be so cold. He moved his foot away but the heat remained hot and steady. The discomfort became strong enough it broke through his veil of delirium and caused him to rouse. Dean stirred, tongue darting out to lick at his lips, desperate for some moisture, only able to emit a whimper when none was forthcoming.

Water. He needed water. His body demanded it. Without it…..he wouldn't live.

In some distant corner of his mind came the memory of slurping water from his hands and he struggled to bring forth that moment of clarity. His eyes blinked opened and he fought hard to concentrate on the here and now.

Reality came upon him slowly but remained vague. He was sprawled on his back, in the dark. There was no fire, his foot burned and throbbed and ached and…dammit….made him cry but he didn't know why and no amount of hard thinking caused him to remember so he let it go. Pushed it aside and willed the headache he'd brought on with his failed attempt at remembering to subside.

Riiiighhtt. He was in hell and he was going to break out. He'd crawl and dig and scratch his way out, 'cause it was dark and cold down here and he was alone and he wasn't going to remain in misery. That's right. He didn't know the meaning of death, he wasn't giving in, he was giving it all that he had and that meant….water.

He attempted to sit up but had neither the strength nor the coordination to force his muscles to comply with his demand for obedience and after several minutes of fighting his rebellious body, somehow ended up on his belly. Fine, if he couldn't walk, he'd crawl.

Two arms and one leg cooperated. He hung his head and peeked under his armpit to give his traitorous left leg a look of disgust. His foot – 'cause, hey, it was on fire - he could understand, but his leg? Why wasn't it doing what he wanted it to? It refused to allow him to bend his knee and wouldn't willingly join forces with his hip. It was as if his thigh was no longer attached to his hip.

Fine. If he couldn't crawl, he'd slither. He dropped to his elbows and began the slow, torturous trek across the mud - and it was mud - for he refused to allow himself to consider that it might be something else he was actually laying in, on his belly and elbows with one knee pushing him along. He dragged his left leg, alternating between cursing and crying when his foot hit a bump or was pulled across a rock on the uneven ground.

His head smacked against a wall hard enough to knock him stupid. He slumped to the ground, his long, hard-fought trip to the trickle of water accomplished but unfinished. He passed out from exertion and shock, fever and infection running rampant through his body before he could drink any water.

***000***

"Care to fill me in?" Benny slung a sack over one shoulder and fell in behind Sam. He didn't expect a friendly conversation but he wanted to know what danger they might be walking into.

"Came out here to find a grave from the early 1800's. Far as we could tell, there was an old mining settlement out here and people buried their dead on their homesteads."

"Did you find the grave you were looking for?"

"No, but we musta been close for the spirit showed up. I remember distracting it so Dean could get away from the edge of a cliff….I was thrown in to a tree and woke up in the hospital." Sam fell silent. Benny continued to plod along behind him, giving him the time and opportunity to carry on. Eventually he did, continuing with all that happened since he'd woken up in the hospital to when Benny had joined him that morning.

"Is there someone who….could've taken him?"

Sam shook his head, pausing to drink some water. "No."

"Crowley or….?"

"So, you know about him, huh?" Sam capped the bottle and set forth once more. "Figures."

"I know a little about a lot but not all about everything."

"Yeah, well, keep the Winchester's greatest hits to yourself; I'm not in the mood to listen."

Benny nodded though he knew Sam couldn't see him. They soon veered from the well-worn path they'd been on to one that wasn't as often trod upon. The hike became increasingly inclined; Benny, having been deprived of sleep and not knowing when he'd be able to – ah – receive his next meal, wondered how Sam managed to keep going at such a fast past.

Sam hadn't been to bed the previous night either, had been inactive and unconscious for three days, receiving only IV nutrition while in the hospital and had spent the night wandering through the woods. He'd said he'd stopped to rest but Benny pretty much guessed Sam had passed out from complete exhaustion and it hadn't been in the relative comfort and safety of the car.

"How did you expect to find the grave?" Benny asked.

"We have a crude map from the town hall archives."

"So…we need to dig and…what…salt and burn?"

"Yeah…sure." Sam muttered dismissively. "That's right on top of my list of things I need to do."

"Don't we….aah, you know, need a shovel?"

Sam whirled on him and Benny, while trying to step back in anticipation of a swing coming at him, went down hard on his ass. He tensed but sat still, willing to take on the attack should one come.

"I'm not out here to salt and burn anything. I'm here to find my brother; you got a problem with that?"

"No, I don't." Benny relaxed when it became apparent Sam wasn't looking for anything more than a verbal fight. "But your spirit might. Will it recognize you? Will it come after us for the same reason it was going after other humans?"

"I don't know." Sam seethed. "And I don't care." he supported his weight with his hand against a tree. "If it does, I'll deal with whatever I need to, when I have to."

Benny didn't expect a hand getting up and sat where he was to let Sam get ahead of him. He needed a snack and he didn't need to see Sam's disgust. He had patience and understanding and anyone could see Sam was neither mentally nor physically ok.

"So, what about Cas?" Benny asked, catching up with Sam who continued his brisk, but slightly slower pace.

"What about him?"

"Have you called him?"

"You don't call him, you call for him." Sam said absently, thoughts elsewhere. Yeah, sure, right….Cas.

"Right, well…anyway…..why call me to help you and not Cas?"

"I didn't call you to help me! I called you to help Dean." Sam stressed. "And we're hidden from angels, Cas included. They can't find us unless we for call for them."

"I don't see."

Sam stopped and turned to face Benny. His eyes were shadowed and his exhaustion was apparent from the lines and furrows of tension around his mouth and across his forehead and in the tense way he held himself.

"Dean would have already called for Cas were he able to do so."

"And you're sure Cas would've come?"

"Aren't you?"

Benny nodded and Sam spun around and continued on. "Cas can invade our dreams to talk to us…..but Dean would need to be asleep naturally."

"And you don't believe he is." Benny said. Still, Benny thought Sam should have tried calling for the angel. Well, maybe he had, Sam wasn't exactly all caring and sharing and Benny wasn't about to go there even if made sense to him that Cas would've been able to find Dean and zap him home.

"We're not far." Sam stumbled. Benny instinctively reached out to support his weight but his gesture went unseen and he dropped his hand before he made physical contact. "Besides, Cas can't always hear us, he's been turned out of heaven and he hasn't been right since he…..uh, got back."

Benny didn't ask, back from where. He was damn sure, had Cas been an option, Sam would have taken advantage of the angel's powers. "And the rangers found you near here?"

"Don't know. Apparently they found me on some hiking path."

Yeah, four days ago, Benny thought. It wasn't Sam's fault the trail had gone cold. He shouldn't even be out of the hospital. He wasn't doing himself any favors being out in the cold, hiking through the woods with no rest or decent food. The kid kept going on determination and fear and sooner or later, it would cease to be enough and he would crash.

"This spirit, could it have taken Dean somewhere?"

"I don't see how." Sam snapped, then. "To where? There's nothing out here."

"Rather a strange place for a town. Mining settlement you said? So, homes, then…"

"Mining settlements were mostly tents." Sam stopped to catch his breath. He and Dean had already reasoned this all out. "Most homesteads weren't up here. There were three marked on the map and while we know the names of the families, we don't know who lived where and though only one had a graveyard, we don't which of the three it was."

"Towns were usually within a few miles of a productive mine." Benny said. "But it wouldn't be unusual for a house or cabin to be built closer to the mines than the town. A boss or owner would want his family nearby." he stretched. "So, would make sense to look for the mine."

Sam swung his backpack to the ground and dug through his pockets in the hope the map had remained with him. It was crumpled and creased but intact and he spread it out on a nearby rock.

"We were headed here…..here's the cliff…..here's a popular hiking path, probably where they found me…and here's a river…we're right about here." his finger tapped the map. "This should be the main entrance to the mine…so anyone with sense would build above the mine to have clean water…."

"And if they built on a cliff, they'd have one less side to defend. No one could come upon the property from the back." Benny stood on tiptoe to peer over Sam's shoulder.

"But the graves wouldn't be in someone's front yard. The church records indicated there was a hand-made marker identifying the small graveyard with each of the five graves bearing a rock engraved with the occupant's names."

"And you'd found the homestead with the graveyard, then?" Benny questioned.

"Don't know. I'm guessing so cause the spirit showed up."

"Then, we head to where your head met a tree."

It took another hour before they reached where the spirit had materialized and though they searched extensively, they found neither graveyard nor any signs that the ground had recently been disturbed. The fact that the map wasn't accurate, with most if not all the landmarks the map boasted no longer visible or altered, made their search all the more difficult .

By three o'clock, Sam was discouraged and both sick at heart and sick to his stomach. They'd yet to find the graveyard or any viable location where someone may have once built a cabin. In fact, they'd found nothing, not a trace, not a clue, nothing and the spirit didn't show. It was as if Dean had just up and disappeared off the face of the earth.

"Sam…we need a break." Benny said finally. "Least, I do. Let's find a spot, outta the sun and have a bite to eat."

"Poor choice of words." but he didn't argue, cupcakes and cola did not a meal make. His throat was dry and swollen from repeated shouting and he was grateful for the opportunity to ease his backpack off his shoulders and splash through the stream to the opposite side where Benny had moved to settle under a copse of trees.

"You drink water?" Sam held a bottle out to him, frowning when Benny raised a hand to warn him off, not accept the bottle. "What?"

"I…..be quiet." his head cocked to one side, then the other and his eyes closed. "Sam…hold your tongue."

"What? IF you think I'M…" he sputtered angrily. "I'd just as soon kill you, you know. I've done it before."

"You mean Gordon? Yeah, I know." Benny's attention was elsewhere or he'd have known it wise to keep the grin from playing about his mouth. "I meant, hold your breath."

"Dean has a big mouth."

"Gordon was a new vampire, hours old, right? Sorry Sam, I've got years under my belt…not to mention purgatory. I won't be as easy to defeat as poor Gordon was."

"Yeah, let's ask Martin about that. Oh wait…."

"Sshh." Benny put a hand up to silence Sam's rant. "Shush….sssh…be quiet and hold your breath."

"Stop telling me what to do." Sam slapped Benny's hand out of the air. "I don't answer to…"

"You don't have to like me Sam, you don't have to trust me but what you need to do...is shut up and hold your breath." Benny pushed to his feet. "I can….I think….it's faint and yours is pounding, like roaring in my ear…but yeah…yeah, I hear two heartbeats."

"Human?" Sam asked thickly, half eaten protein power bar and his anger and ire with Benny forgotten.

"Yeah, yes….human." there was no guarantee it was Dean and Benny wasn't about to share how faint and slow the heart beat was. They hadn't encountered another person all day nor had Benny heard or smelled another human since meeting up with Sam.

"Smell anything?" Sam got out, unable to voice the word, 'blood'.

"No." he shook his head. "You good to go?"

"Lead the way."