"It's gone." Dean sat down on the sidewalk and stared at the dry spot on the pavement. "It's gone," he repeated, shaking his head and blinking dramatically.

Sam sighed, leaning against the glass of the empty gas station, "Sitting there are saying it over and over isn't going to bring it back- let's go. We can ask around, see if anyone saw who took it, or if something else happened to it."

Dean stood up and kicked a stone across the desolate parking lot, the wind scattering pebbles and leaves away from him. "Fine- but you should know I'm not leaving this damn town without my Impala."

"Uh huh," Sam nodded, pulling Dean's bitter reflection out of the glass. "C'mon, you stick around here much longer and we'll be paying for a new car and a new window."

"I wouldn't-"

Sam tilted his head, eyebrows raised.

"Let's go. And since we're walking- you have even more time to look through that book."

"You seem really confident that Dad knew something, but I don't see how that makes sense at all- Dean, he never mentioned it. Don't you think something important as this would have come up once or twice? You know, maybe he'd have said something over dinner, maybe mentioned it at breakfast? Maybe?" Sam tightened his eyes skeptically.

"Maybe he was waiting to make sure," Dean shrugged.

"I hate to bring it up Dean-" Sam sighed, and bit his lip, "but he's dead. He's dead and he knew he was going to die. If he did know anything-"

"Shut up Sam," Dean whipped around, his jaw tight as his lip quivered, "It won't kill you to shut your damn trap, or look through a few pages," Dean narrowed his eyes and glared at his brother, "We don't have an unlimited amount of time."

Sam took a few longer strides and caught up to Dean, who was shuffling along angrily, disturbing twigs, rocks, and the dirt itself. He shoved the book savagely at Dean's chest,

"You read it then," he spat, "It's not as though I'm the only one who can open it!"

Dean gripped it tight for a second, then pushed it back at Sam, a trace of dejection in his overcast jade eyes,

"Look-" he began, his brows furrowed, "I don't want to- okay?"

Sam stood still, holding the book loosely as his arm dropped down, "This is about Dad, isn't it?" he called out to Dean, who had already lumbered across several yards of sidewalk. He stopped dead, leaning forward, and shoved his hands in his pockets,

"Doesn't matter."

Sam squeezed his eyes shut, "It's okay, if you can't- I just want you to talk to me about it."

"We gotta get going if-"

"Dean, I know you aren't okay. I'm not okay. But we're in this together. From the moment we lost Mom, we've been in this together."

"I wanna get my car back, let's head out before it ends up out of the state."

Sam sighed and sprinted up to Dean, "We could go back to to the station and ask if-"

"Yes. Because police stations are just where I wanna be," Dean said huffily.

"Just because-"

"It's dangerous Sammy," Dean shook his head, "We can find the Impala on our own anyways, we don't need the help of a bunch of bunch'a dumbass police officers."

"You can't do everything on your own!" Sam said, gripping Dean's shoulder and turning him around.

"Is this even about the car anymore?" Dean gave a bitter laugh as he pushed Sam away.

Sam caught his balance and stood still, fists clenched, "Yes! No- a little! Dean, I can't just stand here and watch you go into a tailspin, if I looked even close to as depressed as you do now, you'd be taking me to Vegas or some shit- I can't do that, but I can listen, so sit the hell down and talk to me for once!"

Dean rolled out his shoulders and continued walking, "First we find the Impala."

Sam sighed, "Fine- but after that you have to promise me that we'll talk."

Dean bit his lip, his eyes fixed on an unimportant portion of gravel, "Yeah," he took a deep breath, "I promise."

"Good," Sam nodded to himself. "If you don't wanna go to the police, we can just ask around."

"Sounds good."
"But could we please stop so I can finish this pie?" Sam said, pulling the styrofoam box out of his jacket pocket.

"Yeah, sure I guess. Where?"

"We could always go back to the restaurant where we ate..." Sam suggested.

"Guess so, now that I don't have a car to park anymore," Dean replied bitterly, turning on his heel.

"I'll buy you a drink- you could use one for sure."

"I can buy it myself."

"Doesn't mean you need to."

Dean sighed, shaking his head slowly, "Yeah."

"Wonder how Abbie's doing," Sam remarked.

"Yeah, she did seem pretty shaken up. Wonder what was wrong."

"I don't know, but the look in her eyes was an awful lot like how you looked just now."

"What, when we noticed the Impala was missing?"

Sam snorted, "No you dumbass. But I guess that's close."

Dean jabbed him in the arm, "The love a man has for his car is unmatched."

"Yeah, really," Sam rolled his eyes.

"Speaking of love, I wonder if that girl from earlier's still there," Dean winked.

The side of Sam's mouth pressed tighter together in a sort of sarcastic smile as his eyebrows forced creases up his forehead. "Thought we were looking for the Impala."

"Obviously that comes first, but there's nothing wrong with a little bit of looking," Dean grinned and tipped his head to the side.

"Well let's hurry it up, just in case my pie can manage to get any colder," Sam said, shoving the box back in his pocket.

"Race you," Dean smirked, taking off running.

"Dean-" Sam stood dejectedly for a second before jogging after him, "I have pie! I can't run you dumbass!"

"Bitch!"

"Jerk!"

The diner was beginning to fill as the breakfast crowd filtered in through the rain patterned glass doors. Dean slid in, his sneakers squeaking on the wet floor as he came to a halt, grabbing the back of a booth. Sam followed several seconds later, panting, hand on his pocket as he made a valiant attempt to keep the pie from falling out.

"Was that really-" Sam paused, catching his breath as he leaned against the booth, "Necessary?" he finished.

Dean shrugged, a sarcastic grin revealing his teeth, "You're the one who wanted to hurry back."

"Damn you," Sam sighed, sliding into the empty seat and tugging open the container. "Look at this-" he said dramatically, pointing at the mess of crust and apple pieces. "It's a mess! This is all your fault."

"'Least you didn't get it al la mode," Dean smirked, resting his arm on the top of the booth.

"Hey- do you see them anywhere?" Sam asked, looking around.

Dean shook his head, "Looks like they left."

"Wait-" Sam stood up and ran over to the counter where Abbie was paying.

"Don't tell me you're here to pay, I already told you-"

"No- it's not that," Sam paused, glancing at Dean, "Uh, we kind of lost our car."

"You- lost a car?" Abbie raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, you know where you found us, in that parking lot, it's- well it isn't there anymore."

"Hm," Abbie started, taking the change and receipt as she walked over with Sam to where Dean sat, "Have you gone to the station yet to report it?"

"Uh- Dean doesn't want to because- we're, not from around here, and-"

"You don't need to lie to me, I'm not in any mood to go arresting the few people who believe a word of this crazy story we've got playing out."

"Okay, the truth is, Dean's kind of, um, well, he's in some trouble with the law, that's all you really need to know. So, will you help us?" Sam asked, his eyes set beneath furrowed brows.

"We're in this together now," Abbie began, "Where you go, I go. Where I go, you damn well better follow, until we figure out what the hell we've fallen into, nobody keeps information from one another, nobody leaves the other to fend for themselves. Let's go, I'll file a report for you. Until we find your car, I can drive you where you need to go."

"But where will we sleep," Dean whispered to Sam.

"Goddamn it Dean, you act as though hotels are legendary beasts, I'm sure we'll find some-"

"My wallet was in the Impala."

"Oh- well-" Sam reached in his jean pocket nervously, "I've got mine. He remarked, but all I have is a couple of dollars."

"I can- I mean, I've got a couch and a couple of sleeping bags..." Abbie offered.

"No, we couldn't-" Sam began.

"Sounds good." Dean interrupted. "Let's head over and get things set up a while."

"Alright," Abbie smiled, standing up, "We better get going before the department starts calling me to bring Ichabod back."

Sam glared at Dean and mouthed, "What the hell?"

Dean just grinned and rushed out the door after Abbie.