Chapter 7

Sam directed Bobby to the empty parking lot of the bar and to where the Impala had been parked. Bobby stopped and cut the engine so they could get out and look around.

"The Impala was here, and I found the keys laying on the ground beside it," Sam explained as he walked over to the parking space. "Whoever attacked him did it here and took him that way to an alley." Sam pointed down the sidewalk toward the other businesses.

"Dean's not a puny weakling; he would have put up a fight, I'm sure," Bobby surmised as he studied the area and tried to picture it at night. "Someone would have seen that and called the local cops."

"He was incapacitated in some way is the only explanation. And you're right Dean wouldn't go down without putting up a fight and there wasn't a mark on him. I really don't think the lump on his head was enough to have knocked him out."

Bobby knelt for a moment to study the pavement at Sam's feet. He pressed his hand to the surface and looked at it seeing what looked like small granules of red sand.

"Did you find something Bobby?"

"Not sure, it looks like something red was spilled here, not much but enough to leave a trace."

"That's funny, I found what looked like red sand on Dean's shirt when I took it off."

"I'm thinking a spell was cast on Dean so he couldn't resist."

"Damn! He had no control of what happened. He wasn't able to fight back," Sam spat in disgust.

"Show me where you found him," Bobby told Sam. He took a scrap of paper and tried to save some of the red granules in case they needed to further investigate it. He followed Sam past several buildings before he turned down a dimly lit alley. The sun wasn't at the right angle to allow much light to penetrate it yet.

"He was about halfway down curled up next to the dumpster," Sam said. Now that he could see better, Sam scanned the area as he walked slowly to the place where he found Dean. He started doing a more thorough search of the area, kneeling to look under the dumpster.

Bobby moved farther down to look around and noticed something white wadded up against the wall. He reached and picked it up carefully unfolding it seeing it was a receipt.

"I don't see anything," Sam fretted with a snort. He was starting to get impatient at running into dead ends.

"I don't know if this is anything, but it's a receipt from a convenience store probably somewhere around here. It's worth a shot to see who made the purchases."

"Okay, you want to check that out while I go into the businesses that have outside security cameras and get a copy of their footage from last night. Maybe they caught someone. You can pick me back up in front of the bar when you're done. We came in as CDC if you want to use that cover."

"Alright but you be careful since we don't know who we're dealing with yet. It could be anyone."

"I'll be on high alert Bobby. Don't worry," Sam tried to assure him. "Bobby, be honest with me. Do we have a chance of finding the person responsible for this?"

Bobby looked at Sam's worried, yet hopeful face knowing he couldn't give him false hope. He could only be honest with him. There was no use sugar coating it.

"I don't know son. We can only do our best and hope it's enough."

Sam studied Bobby for a moment before nodding his understanding and turned to walk back down the alley to the end. Bobby followed him and went to his car while Sam looked at the businesses to see which ones had security cameras. He headed to the first one as Bobby pulled from the parking lot to go find the convenience store.

spn

"My name is Cas," Castiel told Dean in his gravely voice. "Cas." He figured Castiel would be too hard for him.

Dean looked at Castiel and listened to his voice. He watched his mouth as he formed the word and started to imitate him.

"'as," Dean tried. "'as."

"You're missing a letter," Castiel told him. "C-C-Cas," he tried again.

Dean frowned and tried to make the sound like Castiel. He grunted his anger and glared at him. He still had the trench coat gripped in one hand, fingering the material absently.

"It's okay. How about this, bed," Castiel tried patting the bed as he said it. "Bed."

"B-B-B'd," Dean stumbled over. "B'd," he said again and smiled shyly.

"Not bad, good work," Castiel praised him. "Are you thirsty? Drink?" Castiel picked up a bottle of Gatorade and offered it to Dean. He showed him how to grip it and bring it to his mouth. Dean was a little spastic and tilted the bottle too much letting the liquid run out on both sides of his mouth. "Don't tilt so high," Castiel quickly said pushing the bottle down some so only a little ran into Dean's mouth. He snapped his fingers and dried Dean's shirt making him grunt in surprise as he pulled the shirt from his neck to try and look at it.

"Maybe I can help with your speech," Castiel decided reaching to place a hand on Dean's head. He closed his eyes and let his grace flow into Dean. He was careful with what he allowed into Dean's mind. A blue glow filtered out from under his hand and Dean trembled slightly as his eyes slowly closed. After a moment, he removed his hand and looked at Dean as he opened his eyes. They stared at each other as Castiel cocked his head to see what Dean was going to do.

"Cas," Dean said carefully. "Dean," he continued pointing to his chest.

"That's right Dean. You're getting it. This is a…" he encouraged patting the bed.

"Bed."

"Yes. Shall we try some other words." He got up and Dean followed, wavering slightly as he got his balance. "This is a chair, and this is a table. Chair, table."

Dean looked at the furniture and wet his lips as he worked on forming the words.

"Ch-hair…T-Ta-Ta-ble…Table."

"Good. Why don't you put on your boots, and we'll go outside? We can get some fresh air." Castiel guided Dean to the bed to sit and picked up a boot. "Boot, it goes on your foot. Watch," Castiel told him taking the boot to slip onto his foot. He handed Dean the other one and let him examine it for a moment before trying to put it on his foot. It took a couple of tries but he finally got it on. Castiel pulled the laces and loosely tied them before standing again.

Dean stood with him and let him take his arm to walk to the door. Castiel opened the door allowing sunlight to shine brightly inside. Dean shielded his eyes and pulled back because it hurt. He blinked rapidly and whined softly for a moment as he tried to pull the lapel of the trench coat over his face.

"It's okay, it's sunlight," Castiel told him not letting go of his arm. He walked slowly and carefully from the room being sure Dean was steady and not about to fall.

Dean blinked and let his eyes adjust to the bright light as he stepped from the room. He looked around at all the stimulation around them and jumped slightly from a car backfiring on the street. Everything was so bright, and the colors seemed to stand out too much.

Castiel led them to a grassy area off to the side of the motel. There were a couple of picnic tables sitting under the trees and he sat at one of them. He noticed Dean grabbed the belt on his trench coat and wrapped it around his hand to hold. He sat there and let Dean look around at everything. He continued to tell him names of objects that were around him, like grass, trees, leaf, birds, squirrels, fingers, hand, foot, eye, head, and so on.

Dean was learning quickly and seemed to want to know more. He never strayed far from Cas and his security blanket, his trench coat. His mind was absorbing everything it could and wanted more. He didn't remember anything, but something told him it was important for him to learn.

A/N: Dean is slowly learning with Castiel's help. Bobby and Sam are getting closer to the one responsible. Thank you for coming along for the ride. I do like reviews/comments. NC