Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or the characters in this story.
Sorry if the story seems to be moving slowly. I promise it'll pick up in the next chapter.
Sam wakes up with a start. Dean looks over at him with concern. "I was just about to wake you. Bad dream?"
Sam looks up at the sky. The pink rays made the woods around him seem innocent, as if the horrors of the previous night didn't happen.
"Sam?" Dean's voice brings Sam out of his thoughts.
"It's nothing. I'm fine." Sam wants to tell Dean what happened, what Azazel told him, but he can't. Lives are on the line. Speaking of lives...
"Where's Bobby?" Sam looks questioningly around the long burnt out fire. Bobby is nowhere to be seen.
"He went back to the truck. We're supposed to meet him there. He doesn't do so well with sleeping on the ground." Dean jokes.
Sam can see right through Dean's façade. Bobby doesn't mind sleeping on the ground. Dean wants to talk to him about what happened, and Bobby is giving them space. Dean doesn't normally do anything relatively close to "chick-flick" moments, so Sam lets Dean play his hand.
Dean finishes packing up as Sam takes his arm out of his makeshift sling. He moves his shoulder, wincing slightly.
Seeing Dean's worried look, Sam smiles. "It's fine, just sore. You did a good job popping it back into place last night. I'll be-"
"Fine, yeah, I got that." Dean looks at Sam, clearly not believing he'll be fine, then starts walking off towards the Impala. "Catch me up to speed. What happened?"
"And that's when you guys showed up."
Dean shakes his head. "That's awful."
"Yeah."
"Poor Andy." Sam cringes. "The demon said he only wanted one of us to walk out alive. Guess he got what he wanted."
Dean stops and looks at Sam. "He told you that?"
Sam can't look Dean in the eyes, so he pretends to tie his shoe. "Yup, appeared in a dream."
"He tell you anything else?"
"No. No, that was it, nothing else." Sam responds almost a little too quickly.
They continue their trek through the woods.
"What I don't get, is if the demon wanted one of you, then why hasn't he taken you yet?" Dean's question makes Sam's blood run cold.
"Let's just be happy he hasn't."
Sam sighs in relief as he spots the Impala. "Let's go catch up with Bobby."
The Impala slows to a halt next to Bobby's car. All three men get out of the car, desperate to stretch their legs.
"We'll meet you at the house, okay Bobby?" Dean pulls the old hunter into a hug, then turns and heads back to his baby.
"You alright, Sam?" Bobby looks at Sam with concern.
"I'm fine, no need to worry." Sam offers a weak smile in return. "See you in a few."
As the two cars pull away, Sam is left wondering how in the world he is going to get away from his brother.
Sam looks out the window as Dean and Bobby talk in the junkyard. Now is his chance to go, to run, but he can't make himself do it. He can't bring himself to leave. Not now, not when his brother just got him back.
Suddenly, the two figures outside tense up and hide behind a car. Sam saw a figure coming up to them. As he saw her face he relaxes. Dean and Bobby see her seconds later, and pull her into a big hug. Sam can't figure out why they look so relieved to see Ellen.
All three of them walk inside. Sam is worried. Ellen looks pretty shook up.
"Are you okay, Ellen?" She looks at Sam, then at Dean, who is helping her into a seat.
"He doesn't know?" Dean shakes his head.
"Here." Bobby slides a shot glass full of holy water to her.
"Bobby, is this necessary?"
"Just holy water. Shouldn't hurt." Eyes bore into Ellen as the implication stood. She downs the shot without batting an eye. "Whiskey now, if you don't mind."
Ellen slides the glass back to Bobby, who begins filling it with the amber liquid.
"Ellen, what happened, how'd you get out?" Dean leans forward on the couch, ready to get the full story.
"Wasn't supposed to. I was supposed to be there with everybody else."
"In where? What happened?" Sam is growing more and more frustrated as his question is ignored.
"But we ran out of pretzels, of all things. Just dumb luck. Anyway, that's when Ash called, panic in his voice. He said to look in the safe. The line cut out, so I didn't get to ask for what. By the time I got back, the flames were sky high."
Sam's voice is barely audible. "The roadhouse burned down?"
Ellen nods. "A lot of good people died in there."
The room falls silent. Bobby is the first to speak. "You mentioned a safe. Did the demons get it?"
Ellen smiles as she pulls out a map. "Nope."
It is a map of Wyoming with five X's marking, well, who knows what?
Dean looks around the room. "What does it mean?"
Sam looks back at Bobby's house one more time. The roadhouse was burned because of him, and there is no way he would allow that to happen to anyone else. Sam starts up Bobby's truck and heads off into town.
Sam pulls into a parking lot at the local bar and parks. No one would suspect anything if Bobby's truck was outside the bar. The man was half alcohol.
Seeing a promising car, Sam scopes out the lot. No witnesses besides the occasional passing car. He unlocks the car and drives off, the map Azazel gave him sitting in the seat next to him.