Before: Not wanting to get caught by the cops, Sam quickly ran back into the room he and Dean shared, threw their meager belongings into bags, and then ran back out to the parking lot. Tossing the bags into the trunk, Sam dove into the driver's seat and revved up the engine, tires squealing as he wheeled out of the parking lot. After the ordeal with the shape shifter in St. Louis, Dean was a wanted felon; having the cops finding his belongings at the scene of an apparent mugging was not ideal. That woman probably had told the police a description of him. He needed to find his brother and get the hell out of Dodge before the law caught up with them.

Chapter Six

The wheels of the Impala skidded on ice as Sam sped down the road, the wind biting his face through the broken window. He didn't care, however. All he could think about was finding his brother as soon as possible. He absently noted the flashing blue and red lights of a police car speeding down the road in the opposite direction. There was no way he could go back to the motel now.

Pulling into the bar parking lot, he swerved the muscle car into an open parking spot, barely waiting long enough to kill the engine before bursting out of the car and into the bar. Looking around the nearly empty room, he didn't see any sign of his brother or Jo. Sam recognized the bartender as the same one who had worked the shift last night and rushed over to him.

"Hey, have you seen the people I was with last night?"

"Who was that?"

"A tall guy and a blonde chick."

"Ah, them. I tossed 'em out about 1ish for disrup'in the peace."

"Disrupting the peace?"

"They done start a fight."

Sam groaned. Leave it to Dean to find trouble the moment he was out of his sight. "Do you know where they went?"

"Nope. Didn't much care where they went so long as it wasn't here."

"Right. Thanks." Sam tossed the guy a few bills for his trouble then hurried back out of the deserted bar.

Running his hands through his hair, Sam tried to think of what to do. He had to find them, there was no question about it. Looking around, Sam noticed that a light snow had started. That's it.

Kneeling down, Sam examined the snow in front of the bar. This was the first snowfall since last night, so the other hunter's tracks might not have been covered up yet with fresh snow. He would have to work fast, though, before this new snowfall covered up any sign of them. As he examined the ground, however, Sam realized snow wasn't the problem. The ground was a mess of footprints from the bar's patrons. It was difficult to tell one imprint from another. Sam didn't give up that easily, however. He continued scouring the entire parking lot, praying to find a footprint he recognized.

His diligence paid off when he spotted the familiar tread of a large boot, an indentation of a smaller boot next to it. Eagerly, he followed the trail. It was difficult to follow at times due to other footprints and the falling snow, but he never lost the trail thanks to years of tracking in the woods.

The footprints veered off down an alleyway not too far from the bar. Following, he noticed more prints joining them. Judging by the markings in the snow, it looked like there had been some sort of scuffle. He examined the white-covered ground, trying to figure out what happened. His blood ran cold when his eyes fell on an object off to the side. Dean's amulet.

His brother never took that necklace off. Ever. Seeing it discarded on the ground told Sam that his brother was in some serious shit. Sam pocketed the amulet and redoubled his efforts.

Sam found several sets of footprints that led away from the scene of the crime. They were sunk lower into the snow, as though they were carrying something. Following the tracks down the rest of the alley, he saw that they let out on the other side, then stopped a few yards down the sidewalk. Those SOB's must have gotten into a car. There was no way to track them now.

Realizing this, Sam fought to keep a grip on himself. He couldn't lose his brother like this, he couldn't! He had to find where they were. Desperately looking around, he tried to think. Security cameras could have gotten video of the captors and their car. But there were no security cameras in this small town. A passerby might have saw. But they probably would have been drunk. Besides, how would Sam find a witness in a reasonable amount of time anyway? He could track the GPS on their phones. But Dean, and probably Jo, always kept the GPS turned off. He could, maybe…he could…what? What else can I do?

For the first time in a very long time, Sam was losing his cool. He didn't know what to do, and he didn't have his big brother there to help.

Sam was on the verge of breaking down when he felt a comforting hand on his shoulder. He turned, surprised to see the face of a concerned woman looking up at him.

"Are you ok darling?" She asked worriedly.

Sam straightened his shoulders and nodded, a little ashamed to have broken down so much that a complete stranger was showing concern. He knew better than that. He would find them. Even though he had no viable leads right now, he would find one. It might require all of the skills that he had acquired over the years, but he would find them.

"Yes, I'm ok, thank you," he smiled down at her.

"All right darling. Do you need help getting anywhere?"

"No, I'm fine, thanks. My car is just around the corner."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Thank you," Sam started to turn away when a glint of silver caught his eyes. Instinct kicked in and he shot his arm out, ramming into her hand and knocking the weapon to the ground. He was forced back a few steps when her other fist crashed into his head. This woman might be small, but whoever she was, she was strong. A little unnaturally strong…

Sam cursed under his breath when the woman smiled at him and blinked, her dark blue eyes turning pitch-black for a moment before switching back to normal. She was a goddamned demon.

He dodged a series of quick, successive punches, then threw his elbow out to ram into her face, hard. Now it was her turn to step back, dazed. Not waiting for her to recover, Sam punched her several more times, the last one finally knocking her to the ground, unconscious.

Sam stood there for a moment, panting, taking in what had just happened. Getting attacked not just once, but twice, in the same day, and once by a demon no less, could not be a coincidence. Especially not on the day that Dean and Jo went missing. Sam smiled to himself. Looks like he just found his lead.

Glancing at the discarded weapon, Sam was surprised to see not a knife or a gun, but a syringe. She had tried to drug him. Sam moved to the unconscious demon, throwing her over his shoulder, and ran back to the Impala. He needed to get her somewhere secure before she came to. But where? The motel was out, since it was probably crawling with cops looking for him. He couldn't drive to Ellen's or Bobby's, they were too far away. As Sam threw the demon into the trunk, making sure no one was watching, he tried to figure out what to do next.