Purpose - Dean Winchester ¹

Scarecrow

~THEN~

Riley woke up to the sound of cell phone ringing. She groaned, still dead tired. An arm was loosely around her waist and she froze. Dean was much closer to her than he had been a few hours ago, his arm around her waist. He was still asleep. "Dean." Sam muttered when he still didn't answer his cell phone. "Still sleeping," Riley whispered. Sam looked at them with a grin before he picked up the phone. "Hello?" He sat up, startled, which got Riley's attention. "Dad?" Sam asked.

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~NOW~

Riley sat up so that Dean's arm fell across her lap and looked at Sam in shock. "John?" she whispered. He nodded, then said, "Are you hurt?" Riley didn't hear the answer, but Sam's features relaxed a little. "We've been looking all over for you." Sam looked briefly at Dean and Riley. Dean slowly woke up. "We didn't know where you were, if you were okay." Dean stretched, then looked at Riley with a smile before staring at Sam in shock when he heard him talking on the phone. "We're fine. Dad, where are you?" Dean sat up. "Dad?" Riley nodded and took Dean's hand, squeezing it lightly. "What? Why not?" Sam asked angrily. Sam didn't say anything for a while, just stared open-mouthed. "You're after it, aren't you? The thing that killed mom?" Dean and Riley stared at Sam. "A demon? You know for sure?" Sam asked in shock. "A demon? What's he saying?" Dean asked now, quickly pulling on a t-shirt. Riley could see a few tears in Sam's eyes. What did John say? "You know where it is?" Sam asked now. "Let us help." Dean reached for the phone, having had enough of listening. Sam ignored him. "Why not?" "Give me the phone," Dean demanded. "Names? What names? Dad, wha...? Talk to me. Tell me what's going on." Sam was getting more and more agitated while Dean was still sitting on the bed with his arm outstretched. "No, okay? No way." "Give me the phone!" Dean demanded louder now. Sam still ignored Dean, only getting angrier until Dean snatched the phone out of his hand. "Dad, it's me. Where are you?" Dean looked at Sam, Riley knew for sure that John was giving him an order because he straightened his back as if John was standing in front of him. "Yes, sir," he said then. "Uh... a pen?" Dean looked at Riley, who reached into her bag and pulled out a pen and paper. "What are the names?" Sam looked down at his lap, obviously hurt and sad. Riley stood up and sat down beside him, resting her head on his shoulder. Sam wanted answers, but as so often, John just gave orders.

Dean immediately packed his things, Riley followed and after some persuasion, Sam did the same. Now they were on their way again to fulfill one of John's orders. "All right, so the names dad gave us, are they all couples?" asked Sam, who was driving this time. Dean beside him continued his research. Riley had also opened the laptop in the back seat to find out more about the case. She didn't like John's orders, but a job was a job. "Three different couples, all missing," Dean replied. "From different cities, different states?" asked Sam. "That's right, yeah. Washington, New York, Colorado." Riley continued, "Each couple took a road trip across the country. None arrived at their destination or were ever seen again." "It's a big country. They could have disappeared anywhere," Sam countered. "Could be," Dean replied, "but each of their routes went through the same part of Indiana. Always the second week of April, year after year, year after year." "That's the second week of April," Sam realized. "Yep." was all Dean said. Sam sighed. "So Dad's sending us to Indiana to hunt something before another couple disappears?" "Yahtzee." Dean replied. "Can you imagine setting up a pattern like that? The various obituaries Dad had to go through?" Dean shook his head in disbelief. "The man's a master." Riley sighed. Dean was once again putting John on a podium he didn't deserve. Sam stopped suddenly, causing Dean to look at him in confusion. "What are you doing?"