A/N

Hey guys! Thanks so much for reading! Okay, so this chapter might be kind of sad, though I tried to lighten it up a bit. Just a fair warning. Also, just to clarify, this is technically set in season 11, and Rowena exists but she did not put the attack dog spell on Cas. As always, review, check out my other stories, and enjoy!

Ch. 2

Meet Me in St. Louis

One hour later, they were on the highway.

Two hours later, they were in Topeka. That shouldn't have been possible, but Dean was being very generous with the speed limit, driving with white knuckles and dead-set eyes. Sam, next to him, was eyeing him warily in between glancing down at his notes and scoffing at the rock music blaring. Adam was in the back seat, leaning forward so that his shoulders were practically on top of the front seat, staring at a printed out copy of the article. When "Highway to Hell" played for the 17th time, he barely registered it. He hadn't even heard it play the first time, he was so focused.

"Hey, we're going to be near Lawrence soon, right?" Adam said rather suddenly, having to shout to be heard over the music. Sam and Dean jumped at randomly hearing his voice in what had previously been an entirely silent two-hour car ride.

"Yeah." Dean said after clearing his throat, his voice scratchy from disuse. He turned down the radio slightly, and Sam rolled his eyes in relief. "Yeah, it's about 30 minutes away. Why do you want to know?" Dean said while shooting Sam an unappreciated look.

"The locations." Adam said cryptically. "We're supposed to meet this person in Chicago, right? But that's not the only place in the article. The other locations have to mean something, too."

"What locations?" Dean asked, confused.

"The places where the family members, where 'we' turned up." Sam said patiently, wincing as he switched pronouns. "Adam's right. Everything in this article was significant. Lawrence is nearby, and two others are on the way to Chicago. It's worth checking out."

"These locations where each family member was found, they were all graveyards?" Dean asked.

"Yes." Adam said.

"Ok so the first one. Lawrence, Kansas. Stull Cemetery. I mean the significance there is kind of obvious. Who was found there?"

"Mary." Adam said at the same time Sam said "Mom." The two shared an awkward glance.

"She was found at Deanna's grave." Sam said. "Our grandmother." he said to Adam.

"What about Samuel?" Dean asked.

Sam shook his head. "Just Deanna's. I guess whoever wrote that article knows that Samuel got resurrected."

Dean shivered, unsettled. "Omniscience, man. They always freak me out. Alright, the next one is Normal, right? Normal, Illinois?"

"Yep." Sam said, popping the 'p' sound. "John Winchester."

Adam winced slightly. "What's so special about there?" he asked. "I mean, it's literally called 'normal.'"

"That's where Dad was born." Dean said, and his hands seemed to tighten a little more around the steering wheel. "And uncoincidentally, where the Men of Letters were based, the ones who built the bunker. So who's grave was he found at?"

"Both of his parents'. Henry and Mildred Winchester." Adam said. It was weird to think of two disembodied names as his supposed grandparents. And it was sad to think that the only reason his brothers could put faces to the names was because of time travel.

"It makes sense." Sam said. "We did bury Henry in that cemetery, even if it was 50 years after he disappeared."

"Palo Alto, California." Dean said. "Significance: Azazel's attack. The death goes without saying. And that's where you popped up, Sammy."

Sam, for once, was silent, looking downward with an odd revernance.

"Which leaves Pontiac, Illinois." Dean said. "Where I was found. Who died there?"

Sam jerked upright, and turned around and shot Adam an alarmed look.

"You did." They said in unison.

"That's where you were buried and resurrected." Sam continued. "Where Cas found his vessel."

"Speaking of which, he and Hannah are going to be at the bunker soon, and they might freak out if we're not there." Adam said.

"I would not worry about that." A voice said to Adam's left.

Adam jumped out of his skin as suddenly he was surrounded by angels, Cas to his right and Hannah to his left, the three kind of squished in the Impala's backseat.

"What the hell?" Adam exclaimed. "Every time!"

"Sam, Dean, good to see you." Cas said, ignoring Adam's put out expression. "Though I wish it weren't under such strange circumstances."

"Yeah, you're preaching to the choir." Dean grumbled, unfazed by the angles' sudden appearance. "What do you know about this? Anything?"

"No I'm afraid not." Cas said sadly. "Though I do recommend proceeding with extreme caution. There are few people who know the truth behind you and your family. It should be kept that way."

"I think you are right to investigate other locations." Hannah chimed in. "Particularly ones of such significance. Castiel and I could travel to California to assist you."

"Sure, that'd be great." Sam said, looking relieved, and Adam wondered if Sam had ever been back to Palo Alto since Jessica's death.

"Very well." Hannah said, and she and Castiel were gone. Adam relaxed in relief. Being squished between two ancient supernatural beings in the backseat of a car was not exactly fun.

The road they took to Lawrence was very familiar to Adam. Through his mind's eye, he saw how it looked a year before. They passed a street where Cas' car had been parked. They passed a street that Adam had traversed on foot, half dazed in his first sunlight in 5 years. Eventually, though, they reached their destination. The wrought iron gates were black and spindly, but nowhere near intimidating to the Winchesters. They knew there were worse things to fear than the resting dead.

Dean parked the car right outside the closed gates, and together, Sam, Dean, and Adam left the sanctuary of the car and approached the cemetery with trepidation.

"Ready?" Dean asked his brothers. "We're not sure what we'll find, or if there's anything to find at all."

"We're ready." Adam said. Sam nodded.

"Okay." Dean said. He opened the gate with a creak!, and the three stepped inside, looking around the cemetery with careful eyes. As they walked around, all three avoided the almost perfect circle where several graves used to stand.

"Over there!" Sam exclaimed, pointing to a plot labeled 'Campbell.' Adam and Dean followed him in earnest, and then the three stood over two forty-year-old graves.

"'Here lies Samuel Eugene Campbell, 1930-1972.'" Dean quoted as he read the slightly larger headstone. "Guess they didn't inscribe how he was a dick to his grandsons."

Sam shot him a bitchface.

"'Here lies Deanna Michelle Campbell, née Williams.'" Adam read. "'1933-1972.'"

Sam and Dean were silent for a moment, heads bowed for the grandparents that had been met under the oddest circumstances.

"You would've liked Deanna." Dean said to Sam. "She was tough. She went down swinging."

"Well you are named after her." Sam said with a sad smile. "I guess I got lucky. Eugene would have been a terrible middle name."

"What are you talking about?" Adam asked in confusion.

"Dean's full name is Dean Michael Winchester." Sam said with a teasing smile.

Adam cracked a grin. "As in-"

"As in Deanna Michelle." Sam said.

"Well what's yours?" Adam asked.

Sam's grin slipped slightly. "Samuel Henry."

"Oh." Adam said.

Dean cleared his throat. "Mom was found here." he said, stumbling over the words. "So look for something- anything- out of place." Sam, Dean, and Adam scoured the surface Deanna's grave, ignoring all previous respect for the dead. Then Adam noticed something glimmering from the ground.

"Look!" he said, holding a metallic object in the afternoon sunlight. It caught the light, and Sam and Dean gasped.

"Is that-"

"No way-"

"What?" Adam asked, as he held the object out in the palm of his hand. It was a ring, a simple gold band, big enough to fit a grown man. Adam winced slightly as he held it in his hand. It almost seemed to burn. "What is it."

'It's a ring." Sam said, astonished, stepping forward and grasping Adam's hand and raising it so he could get a better look at the object.

"No duh." Adam said. "One of you planning on proposing?" He shot a pointed look at Dean.

Dean cleared his throat, his ears turning red. "No, jackass." he said. "It's not just any old ring. It's War's ring."

"War?" Adam asked quizzically. "As in 'what is it good for', War?"

"The horseman, War." Sam clarified. "But Dean, I thought you hid all the rings."

"I did." Dean said, snatching the ring from Adam's hand, and turning it over in his hands as he examined it. "This isn't supposed to be here. I planted it in River Pass, Colorado."

"Isn't that-" Sam began.

"Yeah, it's a little obvious, but I wasn't in the best emotional state at the time." Dean said. "But no one knew where it was. Not even Cas. So how did someone dig it up and put it at the grave of our grandmother?"

"A better question would be why." Adam pointed out.

"A better question would be 'what the hell?'" Dean exclaimed. "But trust me, that's been answered enough!"

Sam and Adam were silent for a moment as Dean stewed, one hand clutching the ring, the other running through his hair as he stared at his deceased grandparents, possibly picturing the scene described in the article of Mary being found there. Finally, Sam cleared his throat.

"Dean, we need to get going." he said. "We've got a long way to Chicago."

"Yeah." Dean muttered. "Yeah, okay." With one last tortured look at the graves, he turned and followed Sam and Adam out of the cemetery, once more making a wide berth around a mysterious circle where all the graves were gone and the plants had died.

Dean didn't play any rock music as they drove away from his hometown. Instead, the three brothers sat in silence as a myriad of emotions washed over them. Sam and Dean, Adam guessed, were grieving. After all, they had just visited their grandparent's graves, and their parents were probably buried there too. Adam, though, felt kind of empty. They weren't his grandparents, or his parents, really. He wasn't even related to Mary, nor had he met any of them. He had nothing to grieve for. Stull Cemetery didn't scare Adam anymore, not after the transfer of the Mark, but Adam felt a special kind of unsettled as they drove away. He turned War's ring over in his hands, having received it from Dean. Once again, he could feel the power surging through it, and wondered how he ever could have mistaken it for a regular wedding band. And suddenly, Adam felt a curious need to put it on.

No. Adam chided himself. That would be bad. Don't wear the weird mystical object you know nothing about. Have you learned nothing? Apparently so.

"Adam, you okay back there?" Sam said, jarring Adam from his thoughts. Adam jumped and looked at the clock on the dashboard, horrified to find that he had been staring at the ring for close to an hour.

"Yeah, I'm good." he said.

Sam shot him a look like he didn't quite believe him, but didn't pursue the topic. "I was just telling Dean that we're in Missouri, now, and that we should stop for gas in St. Louis before heading up to Normal."

"Okay." Adam mumbled. Adios, Kansas.

Thirty minutes later, Sam and Adam were leaning against the car at a gas station in downtown St. Louis, while Dean filled it up.

"Hey Adam, I know this is all kind of weird." Sam said as he stared at the silver arch in the distance. "What with the horseman rings and all. But I want you to know-"

"-It's all right, Sam." Adam interrupted, rather bitterly. "I understand. You didn't want me to come on this case, and now I see why. It's a family thing."

"No, that's not what I meant-" Sam began, looking hurt, but he was interrupted again, this time by Dean coming over.

"Everything okay over here?" Dean asked. Adam nodded vigorously. "Okay, well I say it's high time we called Cas. He's probably done searching Palo Alto by now."

"Yeah, okay." Sam said, gesturing for Dean to start praying, which he did, closing his eyes and mumbling. "I have a feeling this may be a little out of our league, anyway."

"Your league is better than you realize." A voice said to Adam's right, and he once again found himself sandwiched in between Cas and Hannah.

"Son of a BITCH!" Adam exclaimed as his hammering heart began to slow down. "Don't DO that!"

"Heya Cas." Dean said through a smirk while Sam was bent over in laughter. "How was Cali?"

"Dry." Cas said, well, dryly. "And unfruitful, I'm afraid. Sam, your girlfriend's grave is by no means suspicious, though you will be very happy to know that several flowers are beginning to grow there."

"Uh, thanks, Cas." Sam said, sounding like he wasn't happy to know that at all.

"Have you found anything at the site of the prizefight?" Hannah asked inquisitively, tilting her head to the side as she analyzed the brothers.

"Um, yeah, actually." Dean said. "Adam, you want to show 'em?" Reluctantly, Adam opened his palm and showed the plain gold ring glimmering there.

Cas and Hannah analyzed it in amazement. "But that's impossible." Cas said. "Dean, you told me you buried it in an 'undisclosed location.'" Sam smiled at the correct use of air quotes. "How did it end up in Lawrence?"

"Get in line, Cas, cause we got no fricking clue." Dean said resentfully. "Just that our next stop is Normal, Illinois, and I've got a feeling we'll find another ring, too."

"Is there anything we can do, Dean?" Hannah asked with a kind smile.

"I don't think so." Dean said. "I mean, Rowena's still missing and Crowley's off doing whatever, but I think for once the world isn't broken. We should try to keep it that way."

The five were silent for a moment as they stared at the St. Louis arch.

"You know, I've been in there, once." Adam said. "Mom and I came down here on vacation."

"Us, too." Sam said with a small smile. "1990. Of course, that was before the shapeshifter."

"That was before a lot of things." Dean said disgruntledly. He shot the arch a sour look. "Let's go."

"Let me know if you find anything." Cas said as he watched the WInchesters get in the car with worried eyes.

"Yeah, yeah." Dean said, slamming the door just as Cas and Hannah vanished.

One hour later they were in Illinois, and this time, ACDC was blasting at full volume.