A/N: Haha-- I'm in an awesome mood right now... mainly because school is over for this semester, and so I have nothing to worry about for a couple of weeks. Anyways, sorry it took me a bit to write another one shot... and this one is one that I just wrote today a couple of hours ago. It's sort of like my 'Funkytown' one, where I explain something that they said on the show. In this case it's the background story for Sam and Dean using the name Jim Rockford and the first hotel in the phonebook to find each other. It was just an idea I thought up last night driving through the park trying to miss Bullwinkle... enjoy!
Title: Jim Rockford
Genre: Kindda angsty I guess.
Summary: Just perfect!-- Sam is gone, and Dean has no clue as to how to find him... it's a good thing his little brother was a weird child...
Dean stared down at his hands and laughed in desperate disbelief. In his right hand was his phone; black, sleek and a flip-open. In his left hand was Sammy's phone; a phone which was large screened and could do more things than Dean could count. Dean held the phones, and Sam had taken the bag; holding the chargers for the phones.
The phones were dead.
Sam was missing.
Dean shook the cold feeling that was forming inside him; Sam wasn't really missing. The two brother's had just become separated from each other in a less than friendly manner. Whenever they were on a hunt, the Winchester's made a point of staying with each other, or knowing exactly where the other person was. The large warehouse proved to be a difficult place to do this in as while on the fourth floor, Sam's six foot four body fell through the floorboards.
"Sammy!"
Dean remembered the frantic few moments after seeing his little brother's amazing disappearing act.
"Sammy!"
"Dean…" Sam's pain-filled moan echoed up from the grounds bellow.
"Sam, are you ok?!" Dean fell to his stomach to try and inch closer to the gapping hole.
"I think so," Sam's voice showed different than his words, "Just keep going! I have the gun still; I'll meet you outside!"
Dean's flashlight had thrown Sam into view, and Dean had seen him get to his feet and hobble away. Just to be sure, Dean had gone down to that floor, and found nothing but Sam's phone laying on the ground. Dean continued to find nothing as he had toured the building; even the shadow ghost they'd been after was gone.
Unfortunately so was Sam. And even more achingly, all the events happened over twenty-four hours ago, and Dean had yet to hear from Sam. Choosing to stay in the same town, Dean had traveled around during the day, slowly, in hopes of spotting Sam somewhere. All was to no avail, and Dean was seriously considering reliving the nightmare from that which the Bender's had caused, and call the police. The elder brother had long ago called the hospitals and morgues; the most nerve wracking calls of his life, and neither had anybody with Sam's description.
"The hotels," Dean sighed walking out of his own hotel room, "If this doesn't work Sammy, then I give up."
The idea to look through all the hotels wasn't an new one. In fact, Dean had called each and every one of them, but knowing that Sam wouldn't use his real name if he did check in, made it near impossible to find out anything. Even with Dean's smooth talking. If he could look at the list of names, Dean prayed, maybe he'd be able to find an alias that they used…
"Hi gorgeous," Dean flashed his million dollar smile to the far less than gorgeous lady behind the counter.
It was the fourth hotel that Dean had been to, and it was the most Dean had to bite his tongue on seducing the person working behind the counter. And that was including the forty-something year old guy at the last place.
"Hiya," the 'pleasantly plump' lady grinned a yellow smile back at Dean, "What can I do for ya?"
'Shower!' Dean choked back.
"You see," Dean stole a look at her nametag, "…Babes? Umm-- I'm looking for my brother. Little twerp ran off, and I've been looking for him for a while now."
Babes leaned onto the counter; her sagging chest resting against the grimy linoleum countertop, "And how can I help you there darl'n?"
Dean took a deep breath, "I know my brother-- he's just playing games, and our parent's anniversary is today, and I need to get him there. If I could just have a look at your check-in list, I'm sure I could figure out what name he's using this time to check into the hotel."
Babes stared at Dean a long, luscious minute before whispering out, "Speaking of names…"
Dean forced his smile back on, "My name is Sam, and I swear, if you let me look at that list of yours, I'll give you my name, number, and--" Dean shivered internally, "…anything else you want."
Wordlessly Babes pushed over the coil bound booklet and Dean eagerly began to scan down the names.
"C'mon Sammy…" Dean whispered out, his heart thumping as he read through the names, "Tyler, Frank… Smith, Johnson… Rockford, Jim."
Dean's heart leapt into this throat at the last name he read. A PI show buff when he was younger, Sam had always loved watching the shoot-em up good guy and bad guy shows, and the 'Rockford Files' was one in particular the youngest brother would watch. Dean would tease him, and make fun of his little brother to no end, but now it was the most beautiful thing in the world to see the name on the piece of paper.
"Room B-12," Dean breathed out before rushing frantically to the door.
"Wait!" Babes yelled, "What about your number?"
"Right!" Dean skidded to a stop, and went back to Babes. Quickly he wrote a number on a piece of paper, shoved it at her, and bolted out the door, "Thanks!"
The hotel was two stories, and it didn't take a genius to figure out that the B's would be on the second one. Dean couldn't remember the last time he moved so fast when something wasn't chasing him, but within seconds the elder brother had made it to the door with the small marking 'B-12' on it.
"Please Sam," Dean whispered pausing outside the door, "Please be in there…"
With a shaking hand, Dean banged hard on the door.
"Sammy!?"
There was a large crash inside, then a thump before Dean heard the door being unlocked. The door flew open, and Dean immediately closed his eyes and felt his body weaken at the sight of Sam's anxious face staring at him.
"Dean!" Sam cried out, his eyes, in contrast to Dean's, were wide.
"Dude, I hate you," Dean breathed out in barely a whisper.
His first instinct was to clock Sam upside the head; the Winchester family version of a hug. He backed away from this idea, however, as he took in Sam's appearance. The younger had a large bruise covering not only his whole left eye, but most of the left size of his face. There was a bandage clearly covering the lower part of his right arm, and Dean was willing to bet that when Sam moved, it wouldn't be without some sort of hobble or limp.
"What happened?" Dean's voice cracked out.
Sam glanced around before grabbing Dean's arm, and pulling him inside, "Come on."
Inside, Dean immediately went to the closest seat and collapsed down, forcing the emotions which had been surging through him for the past thirty hours not to come out in a way that would show how truly worried and scared he'd been. It was obvious that Sam knew as he pulled up his own chair and sat in front of Dean.
"Dean, are you ok?" Sam asked softly.
Dean looked up at his brother's dark eyes and took another deep breath, "Yeah, I'll be ok. How 'bout you?"
Sam nodded, "Yeah."
"What the hell happened?" Dean asked the question again.
"The shadow demon we were after?"
"Uh huh?" Dean nodded.
"It found me," Sam grinned at the same time Dean grimaced, "Son of a bitch was strong, so it took me a while to get rid of it, and get away. By the time I got back outside, the car was gone."
Guilt rushed through Dean, "God… I'm sorry Sammy."
Sam shook his head, "It's not your fault."
"I shouldn't have left," Dean mumbled.
"Shut up," Sam laughed, "If you're going to feel guilty about something, feel guilty about the fact that you never made a back-up plan about what the hell to do if this ever happened. Instead I've been sitting here for the past day and a half wondering were the hell you are."
This got a smile out of Dean, "Dude, what the hell do you think I've been doing the whole time?"
Sam avoided his eye contact and forced himself not to laugh at the immature thoughts bouncing around in his head.
"Grow up," Dean rolled his eyes, and got to his feet; smacking Sam on the back as he walked by, "Just be glad that you were a weird kid, or I'd have never found you."
"I just went to the first hotel in the phone book," Sam explained his method as he followed Dean into the kitchenette, "I was thinking that if you were the least bit systematical, then you'd start there."
"You know me well," Dean spoke sarcastically, pouring himself some coffee.
Sam took a long breath and looked at Dean's paled face, "You sure you're alright?"
Dean nodded, "I'm fine, but I swear I need to get a leash for you."
"Hilarious," Sam spoke dryly before continuing, "Oh right. Next card we get needs to buy me a new phone. I lost mine somewhere in the warehouse."
Wordlessly Dean pulled his brother's phone out of his pocket, and handed it to Sam; all the while guzzling down the liquid gold from a no doubt dirty cup.
"Nice," Sam grinned, inspecting it, "Thanks."
Dean laughed as he placed the cup back on the counter, "Just a heads up Sammy… you're probably gonna get a call on there from some chick named Babes…"