Prequel: Carry On My Wayward Son.

Ch 2: And then there were two.

"Dad? Are you hurt?" Sam asked, then his dad replied quickly because he moved on. "We’ve been looking for you everywhere. We didn’t know where you were, if you were okay." He looked to Dean, then to me, "We're fine. Where are you?" Then his face fell. "Why not?"

Dean sat up and wiped his face, "Is that dad?"

"You’re after it, aren’t you? The thing that killed Mom," Sam said, matter-of-factly. "It's a demon? You know for sure?"

Dean leaned forward, urging for information. "A demon? What’s he saying?"

"You know where it is? You know what happened to Jessica?" He paused to let his dad answer, "Let us help. Why not?"

Dean grunted, "Give me the phone."

Sam's face twisted up in irritation, "Names? What names, Dad—talk to me, tell me what’s going on.

Dean almost shouted this time, "Give me the phone!" But Sam refused, arguing with his father for a few more moments before Dean grabbed the cellphone. "Dad, it’s me. Where are you?" He stuck his hand in the drawer of the side table between their beds. "Yes, sir. Uh, yeah, I got a pen. What are their names?"

He scribbled something down on his arm, then hung up the phone with a short, "Yes, sir. Goodbye."

"So that's it then?" Sam said, standing and throwing his hands in the air. "We finally get away with him and you just let him go?"

"We'll talk about this later," Dean said, turning away from his brother. "We've gotta get going."

Before Sam could say anything else, I grabbed my bag and hurried off to the bathroom. I took the fastest shower I've ever taken in my life, towel dried my hair so that it was only damp, and pulled on a Jack Daniels t-shirt. Putting on yesterdays jeans, I put on a bit of mascara and exites the bathroom.

The boys were dressed and ready to go as I walked into the room again, but the only thing they each had to say was, "Ready to go?" I nodded, shoving my feet into my boots and slinging my bag over my shoulder. "Let's go."

We loaded back into the car and Sam drove. I stuck my head over the seat to feel involved. "Sooooo, what are we doing?"

"My dad gave us names of a few couples that went on road trips and never made it to their destination. They were all from different places and had no connection to each other," Dean told me, watching the road ahead of him. "But each one’s route took ‘em to the same part of Indiana. Always on the second week of April. One year after another after another."

"Oh wow, okay. So they just go missing?" I said, falling back into the seat. "What do you think is getting them?"

"No idea," He said, trning on the radio. Obviously he didn't want to talk to me.

Sam turned the music down. "This is the second week of April."

"Yep."

"So, your Dad is sending us to Indiana to go hunting for something before another couple vanishes?" I said, twirling a piece of damp hair around my finger.

"Yahtzee. Can you imagine putting together a pattern like this? All the different obits dad had to go through? The man’s a master." Dean smirked, and Sam rolled his eyes and pulled the car over. Dean looked around. "What are you doing?"

"We’re not going to Indiana," Sam said, opening the door and getting out. "We’re going to California. Dad called from a payphone. Sacramento area code. If this demon killed Mom and Jess, and Dad’s closing in, we’ve gotta be there. We’ve gotta help."

"Dad doesn’t want our help," Dean said, following him around the car to the trunk.I got out, too. "He’s given us an order."

Sam grunted firmly, "I don’t care. We don’t always have to do what he says."