Where Do We Go From Here? ↳ Dean Winchester

Fourteen

Back in the hotel room, Adam shows his brothers a picture of himself alongside John Winchester at a baseball game.

"He took you to a baseball game?" Dean asks a little sadly, glancing up from the picture to look at Adam. Pity fills my stomach.

"Yeah, when I turned fourteen," he says, a slight smile on his face. "Dad was around for a few of my birthdays."

"September 29th, 2004," Sam reads from something. "One word: Minnesota."

Dean clenches his jaw and closes his eyes for a second. "He took you to a freaking baseball game?" He asks, slightly irritated. Little does Adam know that Dean and Sam didn't go to baseball games with their father.

"Yeah," Adam replies politely. He reaches his hand forward and calmly takes the picture back. "Why? What did dad do with you on your birthday?" Dean doesn't answer. Adam's smile is wiped from his face when Dean's expression changes drastically.

"Adam, you said you called dad because your mom was missing?" Sam interrupts, trying to break the tension between them.

"Yeah."

"How long has she been gone?"

"Three days."

"Who was the last person to see her?" Dean asks. Adam shrugs.

"Mr. Abbinanti, our neighbor. He saw her come home Tuesday night but she never showed up to work Wednesday."

"Did you call the police?" Sam asks.

"Mom's supervisor at the hospital did. And then I drive down there as fast as I could." He's quiet for a moment, flickering his watery eyes across the floor, as if he's searching for something. "I should have been here."

"What'd the, uh-- what'd the cops say?" Dean asks.

"They searched the house. They didn't find anything." His voice starts to break as he speaks. He's quiet again for a few moments, the water building up in his eyes. "She wouldn't leave without telling anybody. It's like she just dropped off the face of the Earth, you know?"

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"Like Adam said, no leads on his mom," Sam says as we arrive back at Adam's house. Him and I just got back from talking to the cops.

"Hmm. Shocker there." Dean points out sarcastically.

"But we did find this." Sam interjects, holding up his index finger. He holds up a piece of newspaper that is way outdated, titled Missing Bodies Found. "Here. In 1990, there were seventeen grave robberies in Windom." Dean's eyes flicker over the page. Without looking up at Sam, he asks, "Think that's why dad came through here?"

"I'd say so," Sam says quietly. "Check this out." He points to a black and white picture in the ripped out article that is still in Dean's hand. I don't have to look at the article twice to tell that that is John Winchester in the background of the crime scene, where the death probably took place. Dean takes a moment to take in the news. "Alright, so he was hunting something. What?" He asks.

"No idea." Sam replies. "Those were the pages he tore out. But last month, the corpse snatching started again. Three bodies from the local cemetery."

"So, whatever he was after, he didn't kill it. It's back." Dean replies, finally looking up from the paper in his hands.

"What, it stepped up its game to fresh meat?" I question. Sam takes the paper from his brother's hands and interrupts me, "I mean, Kate's missing..." He holds up a different ripped out newspaper article and puts it in Dean's hands. "...and so is the local bartender. A guy named Joe Barton." The older Winchester has an almost confused look on his face as he walks back into the bedroom, holding the picture up for Adam to see as he steps into the room, Sam and I trailing behind him.