"I'm telling you, man, without leads, I'm stumped," Dean lamented into his phone. "Well, just say the word and I'm there to help, brother," Benny replied. "No. No," Dean shook his head, running his free hand through his hair. "We made a deal, Benny. You keep your nose clean and do your thing, I do mine." It had been nearly two months since Dean parted ways with Sam to search for Mack. Part of him was tempted to go crawling back in defeat. He hadn't bothered getting details from Sam about where he and Mack had been when she ran away. The last place he knew she was for sure was the Sucrocorp headquarters before he and Cas landed in Purgatory.

That lead had been a dead end, though. The headquarters had been shut down shortly after Dick Roman vanished 'under mysterious circumstances'. So, at this point he was just avoiding running back to his brother. "Dean, I ain't stupid. I know how much that little girl means to ya," Benny said. "I'm serious. Just tell me where to meet you and I'll do what I can." Dean hung his head, closing his eyes against the onslaught of tears. He was so sick of always being on the verge of a mental breakdown. He'd shed way too many damn tears since getting back to Earth. "I-" he tried, unable to continue as his voice broke. "Okay, okay. Breathe, brother. Deep breaths."

"C-can't…" he choked out around the lump in his throat. "Yes, you can," Benny told him. "In through your nose, out through your mouth. Slowly." Right. Right, he knew that. Shakily, he inhaled deeply and then let it out through his mouth. "Good. Again." He did, repeating the process until he calmed down. "Where are you now?" Benny asked. "Benny, you don't-"

"Shut up, Dean. Where are you?"

"Uh… Missouri. Just outside of Kansas City," he replied. "Alright. Here's what you do. Get into town, text me a motel to meet you at and stay there until I arrive. We're gonna find her, Dean." Dean nodded, swallowing around the lump that was still stuck in his throat. "Thanks, Benny," he whispered. "What are friends for? Text me when you get to the motel."

It took two and a half days, but Dean finally heard a knock at his door. Standing up on shaky legs, he made his way over, peeking through the hole in the door before letting Benny in. As soon as the vampire was over the threshold he brought Dean in for a crushing hug. Dean gasped, allowing more tears to fall as he buried his face in Benny's shoulder. "You seriously didn't have to come, Benny," he mumbled. "Shut up," Benny told him, pulling back. "I told you. This is what friends are for. Now, what do you know?"

"I already told you everything," Dean shook his head, scrubbing a hand over his face. "After the Sucrocorp lead went cold, the trail stopped. Sammy's the one who's good at this stuff, not me. All I can do is GPS. Outside of that, I don't know what I'm doing." Benny smirked, "Well, lucky for you, you got me now. So let's figure this out."

May 2013

Sam and Mack had stayed holed up in a motel for four days while Sam tried to figure out what to do next. Mack wanted to start looking for her father and Cas right away, but Sam had yelled at her, saying they were dead. "They're not dead!" she screamed. "They can't be dead!" Sam glared at his niece, tired of having the same old argument. "Yes, they are, Kinley. When they killed Dick, they died, too." Mack shook her head, refusing to believe it. "No! We gotta go back! We gotta find them!"

"There's nothing we can do!" Sam yelled. "They're dead, Mckinley! The sooner you accept that, the sooner we can move on!" Mack stared at her uncle with tears in her eyes. "No," she continued to shake her head. "No." She started to back up toward the motel room door. "Where are you going?" Sam asked. "Kinley, you can't go out there alone."

"If you aren't gonna help me find Daddy and Cas, I'll find them myself," she said, grabbing her bag and turning to head out the door. "Kinley, wait! You can't go by yourself. Dean would kill me!" She glanced over her shoulder at him, anger flashing in her green eyes that matched Dean's. "I thought you said he was dead." Sam's jaw dropped as she opened the door, slamming it on her way out.

July 2014

Dean and Benny had headed back to the old Sucrocorp building. "Why are we here, man?" Dean complained. "It's the only lead you got, right?" Benny asked. "So we look again, try to find something you missed the first time." Dean huffed, leaning against the Impala. "This is pointless, Benny." The vampire glared over at Dean. "No, it ain't. We're not stopping until we find your kid. I owe you that much for getting me topside. Now, what do you remember from your first time searching this place?" Dean sighed, looking up at the abandoned old building. "They shut down Sucrocorp after Dick died. They never found out what really happened to him. I couldn't get access to the old security footage from back then, so I got no idea where Sammy and Mack went when they got out."

"Did you ask around town?" Benny asked. "Yeah, but no one was helpful," Dean shrugged. "But things were crazy back then, man. Everyone was drugged up with that stuff the Leviathans made to make people stupid." Benny nodded. "How many motels in town?" he asked. "Uh… two or three, why?" Dean could see Benny's brain working overtime. "Did you check them out?"

"No, I didn't think I needed to. Figured Sammy would'a wanted to ditch town as soon as they could."

"Alright, let's start there. We split up, each take one. If we don't get anything, we meet up at the third. Otherwise, we call to meet up at one of the others. Sound like a plan?" Dean blinked. "You gonna pretend to be a cop?" he raised an eyebrow. "I got my tactics, you got yours," Benny replied. "You can't-"

"Relax, brother. Don't drink humans, remember? Let's get going. We're burning daylight."

Dean called Benny to meet him at the motel he'd gone to. After flashing a badge and asking to see the security footage archives from around the time Mack went missing, claiming he needed it to apprehend a fugitive, he found evidence that Sam and Mack had stopped at the motel for a few days. "Found them?" Benny asked, joining him outside the motel. "Yeah, they holed up in this joint for about four days after they left Sucrocorp. Looks like Mack ran off from here around that time."

"So, what's next?" Benny queried. "Head to the local bus station. See if we can figure out how she ditched out of here." The vamp nodded, "Alright." They climbed into the Impala, heading off in that direction. Dean flashed his badge again, giving the same excuse to gain access to the security footage. "Nothing," Dean groaned after they'd gone through the tapes three times. "Maybe she hitchhiked somewhere," Benny suggested. "No, she wouldn't," Dean shook his head. "Not after last time."

"What last time?" Benny quirked an eyebrow curiously. "Doesn't matter. Point is, she wouldn't hitch a ride with a stranger. No way." Dean swallowed, staring at the screen playing the useless security footage. He wished Cas was around. The angel always knew exactly what to say to make him feel better. He'd done it countless times over the months in Purgatory whenever Dean got overwhelmed and finally broke down thinking about Mack on Earth without him. He hadn't prayed to the angel after that night when he and Sam had first reunited. Cas probably couldn't even hear him since they were in totally different dimensions.

"Well, we know she didn't take a bus out of town, so what other option does that leave?" Benny asked. Dean shook his head. "I don't… I don't know." His shoulders slumped in defeat as he fell back in his chair. Benny glanced at him sidelong. He wasn't used to seeing Dean act like this. He'd only witnessed a few moments of vulnerability from the hunter in Purgatory, and those had mostly been after they'd found Cas. The angel was the only person Benny knew of that Dean allowed himself to let down all his defenses with. It just proved to Benny how much Dean cared about his daughter, beyond what he'd picked up from all the prayers to the angel.

"Alright, here's the plan," Benny took charge before Dean could break down again. "I'm going to stick around here, keep looking and let you know if I find out anything useful. You do us both a favor and go back to that brother of yours."

"But-"

"Don't argue with me, Dean. You need a break. Let me look for your kid for you while you get back to Sam." Dean had to admit, he was tempted by the offer. Chasing a shit lead that wasn't getting them anywhere was driving him insane and Sam had tried contacting him multiple times. He'd been screening his calls. "Are you sure? I mean-"

"Let me do this for you, brother. Go."

Dean nodded, and after bidding a final goodbye, left to go back to Sam, entrusting Benny with the task of finding his daughter.