Warnings and disclaimers: See chapter 1

Many thanks to CorieHall for the beta on this story.

Chapter 8 Missing in action

Sam stood on the sidewalk next to the drop off zone outside his school waiting for his brother. According to his watch, Dean was fifteen minutes late. Dean was never late. Sam paced back and forth for five minutes before deciding it was time to go to the backup plan.

Sam walked to the phone booth down and across the block and called the motel. His dad answered on the first ring.
"Dad, Dean isn't here yet."
"Damn. I'm on my way."
Sam hung the buzzing phone up and walked slowly back to school knowing he had about fifteen minutes until John got there. John had known if Dean wasn't there something must be up. He was never late for Sam and he hadn't called in. Sam sat outside school reading a book trying not to look like he was worrying too much.

John pulled up outside the school and Sam slipped in the passenger side.
"Any news on Dean?"
"No. I know where he was headed today. It shouldn't be too hard to track him down."
Sam was silent as John drove down several back roads heading south. The town to the south of them was the biggest of all the surrounding towns they had been searching and split down the middle by a river. John stayed on the north side of the water and to the west before slowing down to comb streets in a heavy factory area.

They drove around for an hour before Sam spotted the Impala parked between two abandoned looking buildings. It wasn't in an easy place to see from the street and Sam got the feeling Dean may have been trying to hide the vehicle from anyone following him. It seemed Dean's feeling of being followed had still been strong when he had parked there.

John parked the truck behind the Impala and he and Sam inspected the car for clues. Sam noticed empty plastic bottles on the floor that meant Dean had been taking bottles of water with him as he searched the area. There were no maps left in the car or anything else that Dean might have left if he was in a hurry. There were no signs of a struggle or any message Dean might have left behind. John pulled his own maps of the area out and they jumped back in the truck and drove slowly around looking for any sign of Dean.

They finally halted the search as the light faded from the sky. John decided not to leave the Impala in case it was stolen or vandalized even though Dean may find his way back to the car. John knew he could find a phone booth to call the motel if he needed to so he had Sam drive the car back to the motel to regroup.

John grabbed them some takeout and they sat at the table and looked at the maps trying to determine where to start searching for Dean. Sam didn't have much of an appetite as he too worried about his missing sibling.
"Dad, we should call Bobby in to help with this."
"Why?"
"We could use more help with the search. He has a cell phone and we could get the motel to transfer any calls to that while we search. Just in case Dean is able to call for help."
John sighed. "We should wait till morning. Don't worry, we are going out again tonight but I want to wait before dragging Bobby away from what he is doing."

Sam wanted to protest but instead got up and gathered his things to get back to the search. He was glad it was Friday because John would have no reason to stop him from searching for Dean that night. Sam had a gnawing feeling in his gut that something bad had happened to his brother. The feeling was getting worse as the night dragged on. When they were ready, John drove to the place where the Impala had been parked and stopped the truck in the same place. John determined where they should search and as much as Sam wanted to separate and cover more ground, he recognized it to be too dangerous, particularly at night. Sam spread out as far as he could and still keep his dad in sight as they moved slowly looking for anything that might alert them to Dean's whereabouts. John finally called a temporary halt at three am when he saw Sam staggering slightly with tiredness as he peered at the ground. John had to grind his teeth as Sam complained he wanted to keep searching but in the end convinced Sam to take a short break so they could return sharper.

Sam and John slept restlessly for four hours before getting up, showering and dressing, ready for another day of searching. John called Bobby before they left and were relieved when Bobby said he could be there in the afternoon. John picked up takeout for breakfast and bottles of water knowing it was scheduled to be another warm day. Sam was glad they stopped by the car at lunchtime so he could shed his jacket. He was glad Bobby was on the way down and hoped Bobby could convince his dad to get more people to help them search for Dean. He was trying to act like everything was cool but he was feeling as freaked out as he ever had in his life about Dean. There had been hunts when Dean had been late back to motel because of injury but he had always come back. Sam had a very bad feeling about this.

Halfway through the hot and sweaty afternoon, Sam found Dean's sunglasses in a narrow alleyway. Sam held them up for John to see and they concentrated their search around the alleyway for the next half an hour before Sam found Dean's pendant hanging off the broken black string almost behind an old packing box. Dean would never take it off unless he thought he may not get it back or he needed to let them know something bad was happening.

Sam walked a few feet further and found a small dart wedged in the top of a trash bin. Sam pulled it out and saw a smudge of blood on the plastic. He looked down and saw a few dots of blood which he followed for about forty feet. There were other blood dots after the small ones but they were bigger and more splattered like someone had a bloody nose. The dots ended at a wider brick laneway and a wider blood scrape mark like feet had scuffed through it. Dean had obviously been picked up here by a car.

Because it was a brick drive, there were no tracks which meant no sign of where Dean had been taken. The blood marks were tiny but being hunters made them bigger and easier to see. Sam knew that Dean had tried as hard as he could to leave some clue behind what had happened but by the look of it didn't have much time to do much. One thing was certain in Sam's mind and was affirmed by the look in his dad's eye: Dean had been drugged and kidnapped.

TBC