Author's Notes: I hit a snag in my writing, so that's why this has been delayed. I got sick, and it still hasn't gone completely away, which has shot my focus and made writing chapters eleven and twelve a complete nightmare. But! I'm getting through them. Thus, chapter seven here. ;) I've got the next week and a half off from work, which is exciting, so hopefully I'll be able to get lots more written. The ideas are all there, and it's all laid out...it's just filling it all in!

Thanks for being so patient! I appreciate it. Comments, too, are always appreciated!

Sam returned to his motel room, struggling with a bag from Kentucky Fried Chicken as he tried to open the door with his key. It took a little finagling but after a moment he got it, and he used his booted foot to push the door open. To his surprise, the light was already on in the room, and sitting in the chair, feet up on the table while watching television, was Ruby.

"God, it's about time you got here," she said to him over her shoulder. She turned her attention back to the television and pressed the mute button. She was watching Will and Grace. "Your place is a mess, did you know that? You should clean every once in a while."

"I didn't expect to have company," Sam said to her, walking over to the table and putting the bag down on top of it. And really, to him, it wasn't a mess. There weren't wrappers or rotten food anywhere; it was mostly just clothes, most of which were from today, because he needed to do laundry. Badly.

"Yeah, well, I didn't think we could talk at the library. So I came here and waited for you. I didn't expect you to stay there the entire time it was open, though." Ruby raised an eyebrow, glancing briefly at the bag. "Or make a side trip."

Sam furrowed his brow in irritation. "Sue me, I was hungry. I was busy researching things. Where the hell have you been, by the way? 'Cause, I don't remember seeing you around for, oh, I dunno, the past week or so. I thought you'd"—he used air quotes—"come back sometime soon?"

Ruby shook her head, not looking fazed in the slightest. "I was doing recon, Sam. And sometimes, that takes a little more time than expected. Sorry if I left you all to your lonesome for too long." With a roll of her eyes she moved to stand. "Ugh, the smell of that wannabe chicken is making me sick."

"Suit yourself." The hunter sat himself down and pulled open the bag, tugging out his KFC bowl from inside. It had cooled some since he got it, but that was fine, he thought. They were always too hot anyways. Popping the plastic top off, he then grabbed his fork and dug right in, pulling out a piece of chicken that was covered in cheese, mashed potatoes and speckles of corn. It was heaven in his mouth. As he chewed, he deliberately looked at Ruby with a pleased expression.

"God, grow up," she muttered. In a somewhat different tone, a more business-like one, she said, "So, you were researching things. Good for you. Researching what? Did you manage to find the succubus?"

Sam waited to swallow before he said anything. "It was an incubus, actually. And yeah, I did manage to find it. And I killed it." Though for some reason, he refrained from saying how. He went on to say, "And I was looking up ways of making sure I can recombine Dean's soul with his body. I realized earlier on this week that I hadn't checked up on that." He took another bite and was silent while he chewed and swallowed it. "I couldn't find anything on the Internet, so I had to head to the library. I found a lot of info, but it wasn't until today that I actually got what I needed. Plus, one of the books I read also mentions ways of keeping souls safely protected while you perform the ritual."

Ruby looked impressed. "Wow, Sam. I'm pleasantly surprised by your sudden fervor, here. Sounds like you got more done in the week I was gone than in the entire time we've been at this. Good job on it all." Her tone was mildly sarcastic, but it always was, which was why Sam didn't take it as offensively as he probably would have before.

He ignored it. "I want to save my brother. Tonight, I'm gonna review the info, come up with the best and most plausible ways, then go and grab all of the things I need to do it." He ate another large bite, which took him a moment to finish. "So, you gonna tell me what you mean by recon, or is this some kind of test of my mental powers?"

She snorted. "Well. There's one thing in all of this that you haven't really realized since we started talking about it. Do you remember when I said that you'd need to find a portal, or some kind of gateway, for you to call Dean's soul to?"

Sam's mouth was half full as he mumbled, "Yeah."

Ruby folded her arms over her chest. "That's gonna have to be the Devil's Gate, Sam. I…was investigating the whereabouts of the Colt."

That was enough to catch his attention completely. And oddly enough, it wasn't the mentioning of the gate that did it. What did was that she was trying to find the Colt. He paused.

"Wait." His head tilted forward ever so slightly. "You mean to say that…you tried to find the Colt. The one that Bela sold. The one that's probably overseas."

"It's not anymore," Ruby said flatly. "I did my fair share of research, too, Sam. Word is, when Bela bit the dust, Lilith raided her memory for the location of the Colt and was able to track down the guy she sold it to. I guess she was afraid you were gonna try and find it before her. The only other thing I know is that she's given it to a demon somewhere for safekeeping…a crossroads demon."

"How did you find all this out?" Sam asked incredulously.

"I have my sources. How I got the information isn't important. It's what we do with it that is." She paused again, a disbelieving look appearing on her face. "You know, I expected a bit more of a reaction out of you when I mentioned that we would have to reopen the Devil's Gate."

"Whatever it takes to save Dean," Sam replied without hesitation. He stared at Ruby momentarily, then tore his gaze away from her and focused it on his bowl, from which he took another bite.

"Hm." She watched him eat a few more bites, then made another considering sound. "Well, then I guess the next thing on our list of stuff to do is to find this demon. I couldn't get any more information as to where it is, so…"

"We could probably summon any one we wanted to, anywhere, and threaten them to get the information."

"Oh, Sam." Ruby gave a quiet laugh, almost as if she couldn't believe what he had said. "This shoot first, ask questions later attitude is so not you. Don't be like your brother. Keep your wits about you, huh? Tell you what." She stepped closer. "How about we sleep on it, and then I'll come back tomorrow and we can figure out a plan from there?"

Halfway through his bowl already, the young hunter had to stop, both due to slight indigestion and a need to talk. He didn't really want to, however, given how insulting Ruby had just been to him. He swore, if he didn't need her…

"Sounds good," he settled on saying, keeping any and all irritation out of his voice, which surprised even him. "We can shoot for ten tomorrow morning. How's that sound?"

"Good by me." Ruby pulled away quickly, letting out a disgusted sound from having been so close to the food. With her fingers on the knob, she added, "Night, Sam."

He waved to her good night, waiting for the shutting of the door before he reached over to the other side of the table to grab the remote. He unmuted it just in time to hear the catchy theme to Will and Grace.

. . .

It was warm. Warmer than it should have been, Sam thought, given that he had put on his air conditioner before going to bed that night. When he opened his eyes, he immediately realized that he wasn't in his hotel room like he should have been. He tried to glance around him but his vision seemed to be stuck in place.

He was trapped in a corner of what looked like a run down service station. The light bulb above was dangling by a few cords and had no cover whatsoever. It crackled as it suddenly came to life, illuminating the small space. All the walls, flooring and fixtures in the room were made of a very old wood that was gray in color and rough in texture. Thanks to the light, he could make out the counter in the far right corner, as well as the register, a magazine rack, a map that hung on the wall, and a calendar beside it. But it felt as if someone had blurred his vision, which in turn caused him to see things more blurrily than normal.

From his right came a burst of bright light, more so than from the lamp. His immediate desire was to look to its origin, but he found that he still couldn't. Instead he had to wait for the light to disappear. In its wake came an older looking man. He was about fifty years of age, Sam would guess, and was wearing a pair of blue overalls that hung loosely over a flannel button-up shirt and jeans. He had on a trucker hat and had a can of Coca Cola with him. What was he doing?

Sam watched him go over to the register and do what he assumed was getting it ready. At this point, his view was blacked out. When he regained it, he was closer to the man now, almost beside him, but was facing the large window across from the counter space. The man walked over to it and jerked at the bottom of the large brown screen that covered it, which caused it to fly upward and reveal the warm sunlight from outside. After his eyesight adjusted, Sam soon verified that he was at some kind of gas station—there were two pumps situated outside underneath a large awning.

But what really caught his attention was the fact that he was also staring at a very visible crossroads. The dirt road that ran parallel to the service station was soon intersected by another going perpendicular to it, just to the right of the pumps.

Why couldn't he move, damn it? Why couldn't he turn his head, see his arms? What was this?

Just then, Sam's vision flashed, and he was now looking at the calendar hanging on the wall. There was a woman wearing a bikini sprawled out sensually over a motorcycle in front of what he assumed was some kind of bar. He didn't get to see it for too long, however, because soon the picture was changing to another thanks to the old man. His view slowly lowered, and he saw that the calendar itself now read "June". Then, just below, in the corner, was the name and address of the place that had made it.

For some reason or another he couldn't make out the address, or the name of the company. But one thing stood out visibly to him: the zip code was 63030.

That was the last thing Sam remembered before abruptly waking up. He was lying on his back in his motel room bed, staring up at the ceiling yet again. It was all still so vividly fresh in his mind when he rolled onto his side in order to see what time it was. Sure enough, it was 6:30 AM. But what he hadn't noticed before with all the times he had woken up—including this one—was that it was also thirty seconds past the minute. Had he checked his watch, he would have caught it.

Was that it, he wondered? Was that why he kept waking up from every dream he had at exactly six thirty in the morning? Was he supposed to see that zip code? And what was more, was it because of his power that he saw all that he did? These didn't feel like those waking dreams or visions that he had suffered before. In fact, he didn't even have that aching pain in his head like he did with them.

What did this mean? What was his mind trying to tell him? Was he just making things up? Or was it legit?

There were so many questions that Sam needed to have answered at that moment, but none for which he had anything. It would make sense for him to be having visions. After all, they did come to him passively, and he had had prophetic dreams before. There had to be some connection between his constantly waking up at six-thirty and the fact that the zip code of the place he had seen was 63030. Plus, he had seen a crossroads…all of these didn't add up to coincidence. And Sam didn't believe in coincidences, anyways.

After taking a few moments to fully wake up and recover from his vision, the young hunter rolled to the side of his bed and leaned over it to the floor, snatching up his laptop and bringing it onto the bed with him. He opened it and booted it up, waiting for it to load completely before he brought up his browser so he could do a search.

"What city and state does that zip code belong to…" he murmured to himself, rubbing his still tired eyes with his right index finger. The beginning of the code sounded strangely familiar, but he didn't know why. He soon found out, however, because a search to find the location barely took him a minute. It was a Missouri zip code, and apparently had been assigned to the city of Fletcher. In his mind's eye Sam saw a flash of the calendar again. Even if it had gone by so quickly and was blurry, he could see it, just barely. The name Fletcher rung a bell. He didn't know why, but it just did.

He was just going to have to trust himself on this one.

And Ruby was, too, for that matter.

After the draining experience that was the day before, Sam spent most of his morning lazing about and reading up on Fletcher, Missouri. There really wasn't much to name in the city, which he thought was a smart move. Lilith had probably thought he would check out all of the hotspots for demonic activity around the country before even thinking of checking some quiet town in the middle of nowhere.

Around nine, Sam headed into the bathroom for a shower. He resurfaced about a half hour later, and was just about to dress himself when his phone started to ring. Curious as to who would be calling at the time, he picked it up, looking at the name and feeling his heart drop again.

Bobby. Of course.

Sam swallowed long and hard before pressing the send button to accept the call. When he lifted it to his ear he said, "Yeah, Bobby? What's up?"

Bobby sounded irritable. "What's up? What's up with you, Sam? Why haven't you called? You been too busy?"

"Believe it or not, yeah," Sam said. He sniffed. "This whole ordeal with the succubus took a lot longer than I planned on it taking."

"Have you even found it yet?" Bobby asked incredulously.

"Yeah, yeah, I've found it, Bobby. It just…well, it took me a while to get used to not having Dean to talk to." He hated admitting that, but at the same time, it was Bobby. If he couldn't say it to him, who could he say it to? It took him a second before he said anything else, because the sudden statement had left him feeling open and vulnerable, and so he needed to close himself up again. "So I had to come up with a fool-proof plan that would allow me to kill her without getting trapped by her."

"I told you I woulda helped you, Sam. You should've called."

Bobby sounded disappointed, and that made the young hunter's insides lurch a little. "Listen, Bobby, I needed to do this on my own. How am I gonna learn to do it without Dean if I go crawling for help every time I get stuck?" Granted, in his opinion he hadn't gotten stuck at all. Bobby may have thought otherwise, however.

There was a pause. Then, the older man sighed. "You know you can always call for help, Sam, whenever. Just for future knowledge." Something in his tone of voice told Sam that that specific topic was over. Bobby went on to say, "Anyway. I think I may have a lead on how to get Dean back."

Even though Sam had a plan entirely set out, he felt a swell of sudden hope at Bobby's words. For just the briefest moment, he wished that what Bobby was going to say would be the be-all-end-all, that they could do that instead of him having to drive all over the place for reasons part of him wasn't even sure about. He couldn't help but have that little bit of complete and utter child-like hope.

"What?"

"Well, I caught a demon that recently escaped from Hell, and according to him, whenever somebody makes an agreement with a crossroads demon, an actual document is created that sorta legalizes it. Without that contract, technically, the deal's null, and Dean's soul would have to be returned."

Sam scrunched up his face in confusion. "But…Bobby. Can you really even trust a demon who says something like that? They lie, cheat, steal…you were the one who told us that. How can we even be sure what he's saying isn't all made up?"

"'Cause, Sam, demons may be bad, but they got rules just like everyone else. Without 'em, their world would be complete pandemonium. There'd be no rhyme or reason…just backstabbing, death and chaos. They gotta have order, too."

Bobby seemed pretty convinced of this, but Sam wasn't sure what to think of it. It all sounded entirely too fishy for his liking. "I dunno, Bobby…" he said, uncertain.

"Now, just bear with me, Sam. I'm not puttin' all my eggs in this basket. Like I said, it may be a lead. I'm gonna check into it further. Anything to save Dean, right?"

Sam felt his stomach lurch again. "Yeah," he said quietly. "Anything."

"That's what I wanna hear. So, you get workin' on killin' that succubus, and give me a call when you've done it, all right?" Bobby spoke insistently, if not a little sternly.

"Yeah, Bobby. I'll be sure to call. I promise."

At that, he hung up the phone. He felt somewhat guilty for having lied to Bobby as he did, but it was better for him to think that Sam was still in New York, trying to kill a succubus, instead of knowing what he was truly doing. If this all panned out, then he was going right to Fletcher, Missouri as soon as possible. He just needed to speak with Ruby first and see what she had come up with, if anything.

Tossing his phone onto the bed, Sam got dressed, then headed into the bathroom to brush his teeth and finish getting ready for the day. About the time that he walked back out to grab his electric razor, there came a knock on the door. He looked down at his watch. It wasn't even ten o'clock yet. It couldn't have been her.

He tentatively moved toward the curtains and lifted one up to see who was standing outside. It was Ruby, looking a little agitated. So Sam walked to the door and opened it for her, stepping back as she all but rushed into the room.

"What's up your butt?" Sam asked, although he immediately regretted it, seeing the look on her face.

"Someone took my knife, Sam."

Those words hit him like a ton of bricks. The hunter furrowed his brow immediately, looking completely confused. Not yet another something to stop them in their tracks, he thought. "What?"

"Someone stole my knife. I had it with me, beside me while I slept. It was only for a few minutes anyways, maybe an hour—" Ruby abruptly stopped speaking, setting her jaw tightly. "I don't know who it was, and I have no way of finding out."

"Why?" was all Sam could seem to say at that moment.

"Why what?" Ruby asked. "Why did someone steal it? Or why do I have no way of finding out who? No prints, Sam, of any kind. Nothing. Not a hair, not a drop of spit, not a thumbprint, nothing. Whoever came in took it nice and clean, right out from under my nose. And why wouldn't someone steal it?"

Sam's first thought was that it was someone like Bela—one who procured extremely rare magical items. There was nothing more mystical than a blade that could kill demons. And motive enough was obvious: this blade was very unique. There could have very well been ulterior ones as well. There were so many possibilities that it was hard to even pinpoint just one. Sam lifted a hand to rub at his eyebrows.

"Are you sure you didn't just…misplace it?" he tried, carefully.

"Of course I'm freaking sure I didn't just misplace it," Ruby spat acidly at him.

He chose to ignore that outburst. "Maybe they stole it for…collateral, or leverage, or something. You piss off any other demons lately?" It was a shot in the dark, but Sam had to try.

"I've pissed off a lot of demons since I decided to start helping you and your brother, Sam. But demons don't usually go after other demons. It's bad playground conduct. You play nice with the children you know, and are mean to the ones you don't. You know?" She shook her head. "It's just so damn strange that not a trace of anything was left behind. Not only that, but I should have woken up when they approached. The fact that I didn't hear them or sense them makes me think that it has to be another demon. And that pisses me off."

Sam didn't know what to say to Ruby then, really.

"Can't you…you know, cast a spell, or something? You were a witch." He paused. "Right?"

Ruby gave him a look that made his insides turn. It was sheer anger, but he didn't think it was entirely aimed toward him. It couldn't have been. Still, she continued to stare at him like that for a few more moments before finally looking to the ground. Sam couldn't help but feel relieved when she did so. "In order to find out who it was, I'd need some piece of evidence left behind by them. Anything. But I searched and searched and searched…and came up with nothing."

"I don't know what to tell you," Sam said then.

"I'm not looking for an answer from you, Sam," Ruby grumbled.

An uncomfortable silence filled the room at that point. The two of them stood there, clearly awkwardly, but neither of them did anything to fix it. They stayed that way for about a minute or two before Sam finally cleared his throat and said:

"So I had a vision this morning."

Ruby, although still glaringly upset about what had just happened, turned her attention to Sam, alleviating her anger some. "And what was it about?"

"About some old man and a gas station."

"You have got to be kidding me."

"No, no, just hear me out. Since Dean…died, every night that I've had a dream, I've woken up from it at exactly six-thirty in the morning, right on the dot. Every night. I don't know how many for sure, but it's been at least five or six times." He took a breath. "In the dream this morning, it was like I was…watching, and not exactly participating, which is completely unlike the other dreams I had." Ruby's expression changed slightly, and Sam went on. "There were flashes when what I saw changed before me, and I saw the old man, the gas station, and then a crossroads. But really, the biggest thing was when my vision showed me the calendar on the wall. The zip code for the place was 63030."

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "And you think it's a sign."

"I know it's a sign," Sam insisted. "Why else would I constantly wake up at six-thirty on the dot every time I dream? Why would the zip code be 63030? Why was there a crossroads?" He shook his head. "I don't believe in coincidences. There's something there. I checked it out. It's a town called Fletcher, Missouri."

"That's nearly an entire day's drive away from here," the blond haired demon mumbled. "Would you really be willing to drive that far, and for some eighteen hours, just to check something out?"

"Anything to save Dean," Sam reminded her, almost wearily.

She hesitated momentarily. Then: "That's fine and all, but I've gotta put this on pause, Sam. I have to get my knife back."

"Fine." Sam's answer came so quickly and so unexpectedly flat that Ruby looked at him funny. "Fine," he repeated, arms up briefly. "You go find your knife, and I'll drive to Missouri and see what's going on there. I'll summon you if I need anything."

"You're banking a lot on this vision of yours, Sam."

"So?"

"Don't you know they can be wrong?"

"Mine haven't been yet. And honestly, I'm not willing to take a chance on missing out on this. For all I know, that's the demon that has the Colt. And if it is, then I'm gonna kill it and get it back, and save my brother." Sam's voice lowered as he spoke, becoming more determined and distant. His eyes followed suit.

"You do that, then." Ruby started for the door. "I'm gonna go find my dagger. You…do what you want. Like you said, you can summon me if you need anything."

That was the last thing said between them. Ruby disappeared from the room, after which Sam stared at his bed, at his phone.

He had a long drive ahead of him.