Dean drove them away from the crime scene until they were far enough that he could pull over. Abby being in trouble didn't mean she couldn't get out and stretch her legs during long road trips, and aside from bathroom breaks, she hadn't left the car since the gas station.

He'd try to find places with playgrounds for her to burn off energy, but traveling with a child was difficult for supervision reasons. With her no longer a toddler, he couldn't exactly bring her into the men's room with him. Having Sam with them, however temporary, made the journey easier. And the less energy the kid had, the less likely his car's interior would be destroyed by her toys and imagination.

It being the desert that they were driving through, the air was hot even with the windows down. Sam had made a comment about how warm it was before reaching over to turn the cool air on. Dean put his hand on his brother's arm to stop him. He looked in the rearview mirror to the little girl who had come out of the trunk and was now in her seat.

"Abs? If one of us turns on the air in here… are we going to like what comes out of these vents?"

A frustrated sigh escapes the little girl before she answers, "Maybe a hundred years from now."

"Alright, that settles it! You… you are cleaning my car. Tonight."

"Okay, DD," she said, raising her finger. The loose mess started to levitate.

"Levitate anything out of this car and I will replace it and make you clean it out by hand anyway… I'll let you use it on the stuff in the vents, but that's it."

Sam choked on air at the mention of levitation. "Dean… I know I've been gone a few years, now… but-"

"The levitating?"

She took the green-light for the hard-to-reach portions of the car, like the air vents. Glitter filed out of the car's air ducts, finding its way out the windows.

"Yeah… Uh… when did that start?"

"The same week you left for college… She asked for you every night for a week until Dad said you weren't coming back."

"Look, Kimo-Sammy," Abby said. Her bottle of juice floated through the air. Sam turned around to see what she was doing. The bottle wasn't below the window. It was where everyone and their mother could see it. He snatched the bottle out of the air.

It was an amazing sight, he had to admit. But this was the kind of thing that might draw a hunter's attention in a very bad way.

"You can only do that in the motel rooms with the curtains closed…"

"That's not-"

"If I hear how unfair you think that is one more time, you won't be using it at all. Anyway… Dad finally told her you wouldn't be coming back. Next thing we knew, stuff she'd never be able to lift at her age, furniture, books, anything that wasn't bolted down. It was all floating. But when everything came crashing to the floor, every light in the room exploded."

Abby tuned her brothers out now that they were talking to each other and not her. Before this road trip had started, she begged Dean for a pet. It was after the New Orleans job. The answer was always the same, but he had broken a little bit. There was no animal yet, but there was a small carrier with clear plastic walls like an aquarium.

"I don't know… at the moment, I wish I had given in and got her a pet. Maybe the car wouldn't have been wrecked out of boredom. A small animal that doesn't move very fast. Like a turtle, or a lizard."

"You hate animals. Especially reptiles."

"Who does like them, Sammy? I don't hate animals. I just… I don't want that kind of responsibility."

"You think letting her have an animal is the way to go? I mean, we never had one. Maybe she just needs some coloring or puzzle books. Engage her mind a little… kids need things that challenge them, Dean. And I'm not so sure a pet is the way to go right now."

"Yeah, maybe. Kid's got her heart- Check it out, Sammy. Missing person posters. Parents or girlfriend?"

Abby peered out the window with her brothers. She didn't notice what they did. Their minds were on the case while Abby's eye were on the diner's sign. And she didn't need words to let them know she was hungry.

"Alright, well. There aren't any posters past the diner yet, so why don't we have some lunch. Shortround could certainly go for a bite if that growl from her belly is anything to go by."

"Yay! Hotdoghotdoghotdog!"

"Hey, does she still like those wi-"

"With chocolate syrup? Yeah. And it's still gross watching her eat it."

Dean shuttered at the thought.

"It's not gross, DD. It's sweet and salty like caramel with a meat center."

Sam knew the way Dean ate so if something grossed him out, it was probably bad. Dean parked the car along the sidewalk, cutting the engine. Sam stepped out of the car, then opened Abby's door. He held her hand like he had the night before as they walked toward the diner.

"After this, I think we should find a motel. Do some research. Then check out the crime scene tonight."

"We'll wait until Abby's asleep and then check out the crime scene."

"We can't leave her alone, De-" Sam was forced to stop talking. Not because Dean made him stop, but because Abby had stopped and started yanking on his arm. "Abby, we're talking."

"DD, Sammy…"

"What!" Dean snapped. He was going to be upset about the car for a while. Abby had been in trouble before regarding the car, but she'd never made a mess that went beyond her portion of the back seat. A drop of barbeque sauce here, smear of chocolate sauce on the seat belt, a splash of apple juice there. Even the first glitter bomb that had gone off was mostly contained in the back seat.

It scared her a little bit. Enough to hide behind Sam's leg. Being as tall as he was, her head came to his hip. Her excitement burned out quickly.

"Do you really think yelling at her is going to work? Abby already feels bad about it… She tried to clean up the scuff marks-"

"And made things a billion times worse. That's why if we could help it, we always did our job after she was asleep. It kept her from getting into trouble or hurting herself while we were gone." He looked down at what he could see of her, which wasn't much more than her legs. "Abby… front and center." He looked up to the sky wondering how he was going to handle this. That was when he saw the sign behind them. "That's why she's doing this. We just walked right by the diner."

"Dean-"

"Sammy, if it were anyone other than you or Abs, I'd murder them."

There was a young woman hanging posters of a missing man. The brothers saw whose name was at the top. Troy Squire.

"You must be Amy," Dean said as he walked up to her. "Troy told us about you. We're his uncles and aunt. I'm Dean, this is Sammy. The little one's Abby… Oofffff." Abby kicked his shin for calling her little. The follow through was that she'd lost her balance and started to fall. "That is gonna cost you later," he told his sister.

Sam was still holding her hand, so he was able to catch her before she made contact with the ground. Once Abby was back on her feet, she hid behind him again, making him laugh.

"He never mentioned you to me," Amy said. She walked away only for the siblings to follow behind. Sam now carrying his sister, and Dean had a slight limp that he was exaggerating.

"Well, that's Troy, I guess. We're not around much, we're up in Modesto," he explained.

"Kid will have the mac & cheese with hotdogs, a side of chocolate sauce and apple juice. Coffee and a bacon double cheeseburger for me, extra barbeque sauce," Dean said before handing his menu over to the waiter. Then Sam placed his order.

Abby sat between her brothers. They hadn't given her much choice. Sam had taken the interior seat and Dean wasn't going to sit down until she did.

She tugged on Dean's sleeve like when she had yanked on Sam's arm outside, reminding him of something else she liked with that order. "Could she get a cup of salsa, too? Medium." The waiter nodded, adding it to the receipt.

Amy and her friend, Rachel, who had met up with her outside, made disgusted faces once they realized the kid's intentions with the chocolate sauce and the salsa.

"So, what can you tell us about how Troy disappeared?" Dean asked.

"I was on the phone with him. He was driving home. Said he would call me right back, and... he never did."

Then Sam asked, "He didn't say anything strange, or out of the ordinary?"

"No. Nothing I can remember," Amy relied.

Abby tuned out the part about Amy's necklace once her food came. The disgusted faces returned as they all watched her spoon the salsa on top of her mac & cheese, dip a piece of hotdog in the chocolate, or mix the two together for both.

"Okay. Thank you, Unsolved Mysteries," Dean said, putting his hand on Sam's arm to silence him. "Here's the deal, ladies. The way Troy disappeared, something's not right. So, if you've heard anything... What is it?"

Rachel told them about the stretch of road where people had gone missing and how others talked. "It's kind of this local legend. This one girl. She got murdered out on Centennial, like decades ago… Well, supposedly she's still out there. Hitchhikes, and whoever picks her up… well, they disappear forever."

Dean started rubbing his chin. "Alright, we'll do some research… see what we're walking into."

"Can't use my laptop. Abby's glitter bomb destroyed it. We can go to the library, though."

Dean liked to take control so the first thing he did was grab a computer and opened a tab for the Jericho Herald. He'd typed Female murder Hitchhiking into the search box. He kept changing words only to get the same results. Big, fat zeroes.

The library they had occupied had a kid's section. There were books, obviously. But there were also toys. This one had a Lego wall. Neither brother was paying attention to her… if they had been, they would have noticed she wasn't by their sides. Or by herself.

Abby knew certain things about her brothers' pasts like the demon. She didn't know about the yellow eyes. At first, the man who had approached her seemed harmless. He didn't really do or say anything, and he wasn't there long, but she had never seen yellow irises before. They didn't stay yellow. It was like a blink and a miss.

"Does that bridge look familiar to you?"

"Yeah, it does. Listen, Constance doted on her kids, like Dad does Abby. Remember how we had to do everything for her so she wouldn't hurt herself?"

"Didn't help any. She still found her way into about four casts… Wait a sec… Abby?" Nothing. Sam had finished reading the article he'd just found when they realized Abby wasn't around. "Sam, where is she?"

They checked every aisle, not even thinking this library had a special spot for kids to play.

"I don't know. I was using the computer… weren't you watching her?"

"I was using it first. You should have been watching her."

"She was sitting on my knee, Dean. What more do you want from me?"

Abby heard them calling for her, so she went back to the computers, but no one was there. She looked up and down the aisles.

"She can't have gone far."

"If she goes missing, Dad will rip me a new one five times over."

"Sounds like when we were kids."

"You were two times over… What? He likes her better. Even if she is an accident waiting to happen," Dean explained. He went off searching again until he found back where their search had begun. "Abs!"

"Front desk didn't see her leave. Gotta be in the building."

"Sammy… over here." Sam came up behind his brother to see Abby looking at the screen. Dean was down on one knee with his arms around her.

At first, she thought it was funny. She did have some of Dean's warped sense of humor. But having his hand on her face, checking her arms and the rest of her exposed skin… There were no marks, so he pulled her in as closed as he could, refusing to let her go.

"DD… you're… crushing… me."

"Which is nothing compared to what Dad will do when he finds out you disappeared on me. Not if. When."

Abby didn't complain about the attention after that. "Sorry, DD."

"It's a start… but it doesn't clean my car or get you out of trouble." Dean tossed a fist over his shoulder, using his thumb to point. "Cleaning supplies are in the trunk as you are well aware. Sun's still up, and that slime is coming off the seats now. Let's roll."

"You're going to make her clean the whole car?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Dean asked. He stood up and turned to face Sam while Abby started leading the way toward the door. "She can learn to clean up after herself. Something Dad never made her do."

"Dean, she's a little kid with no elbow grease… I mean, we've been talking about how accident-prone Abs is. Sh-she'll faceplant on her wa-" Sam didn't get very far with his prediction. They heard a thud. Sam turned to see his sister flat on her face. "-y to the car… Wow! Didn't even make it five feet from us."

"Let's help her up. She's likely to do it again if we don't," Dean said as he pat Sam's shoulder then walked up to the kid.