Rose Miller: Looking for truth

27 The Crystal Ship

'Dean.' Rose shakes him away.

He groggily opens his eyes and takes her hand: 'Is something wrong?'

He hasn't noticed. She knows how worried he'll be.

'What is it?' He says, more awake now. He is worried when he pushes himself off the bed.

'Sam is gone.' She left to try and find him but found his room empty: 'We're going to find him.' She says, trying to sound confident. They are, but what if they find him in a way they rather not.

Dean is on his cell phone, leaning against his car. He is fidgeting, clearly upset. 'Ellen, it's me again. Any chance you've heard from him?

'No, I haven't.'

'I swear, it's like looking for my dad all over again. I'm losing my mind here.' He tells her.

'Did anything happen? Was he acting strange?'

'No, I've called him a thousand times. There's nothing but voicemail.' He answers. He looks around to see if Rose has come back yet. 'I don't know where he went or why. Sam's just gone.'

'Is Rose still with you? Did she find out anything?'

He sighs: 'She is talking with the owner of the motel. Maybe he saw something?' He probably didn't. 'Hang on.' He says when he gets another call. It's Sam: 'Where the hell are you? Are you okay?'

A few hours later, Dean walks frantically down a narrow hallway, checking door numbers until he reaches room 109. He knocks. 'Sam, it's me. Sam!' He tries the door - it's open. Rose follows; Sam hasn't moved inside, still sitting numbly on one bed. Dean looks at his brother.

'Sam?' Rose asks. She smells blood.

Dean kneels beside his brother: Are you bleeding?'

'I tried to wash it off.' Sam answers.

'It's not his own.' Rose says only seconds after Sam. 'Who's, is it? She asks, sounding a little too calm. What happened?

'Dean. I don't remember anything.' Sam is confused, maybe even scared, because he doesn't remember.

Dean stands up: 'Can you ask around.' He asks her.

Rose nods slowly: 'Of course.'

Sam had lost a few days; he was covered in blood and didn't remember what happened. Rose discovered that he checked in using the name: Richard Sambora. Nobody saw anything strange. The room has been quiet. Dean came up with the idea to retrace his steps. Starting with a bloody fingerprint on the window.

First, they walk towards a garage; Sam digs in his pocket, frowning. He pulls out a key and gives Dean a significant look.

Rose opens the padlock with the key, raising her eyebrows at the brothers. She opens the garage door to reveal a filthy, beat-up VW Beetle.

'Oh, please tell me you didn't steal this.' Dean reacts.

Sam sits down in the car. He picks up a blood-stained knife that sticks to the backseat. He stares at it: 'You think I used this on someone?'

Dean scans the knife: 'I'm not thinking anything.' Sam looks around and rubs the knife handle off on the inside of his jacket. Dean picks up a pack of cigarettes. 'Okay, now this is disturbing. Come on, man, this couldn't have been you. Had to have been someone else, somebody who, uh....' He sniffs the pack: 'smokes menthols.'

Rose looks around; something is off about this. Sam interrupts her thoughts: 'Here. Gas receipt. Few towns over.'

They enter the convenience store; the clerk looks up in shock, then angry: 'You. Out of here now; I'm calling the cops.'

'You're talking to him?' Dean asks.

'Yeah, I'm talking to him. Jerk comes in yesterday, stinking drunk, grabs a forty from the fridge, starts chugging.'

Dean replies in disbelief: 'This guy? You're drinking malt liquor?'

'Not after he whipped the friggin' bottle at my head.'

'This guy?'

'What, am I speaking Urdu?'

Rose looks at the guy and asks, 'Do you want the money he owes you?'

'What do you want?' He asks suspiciously.

'I just want to talk.' She says smoothly

He hesitates: 'They leave, and I'll tell you what you want to know.'

'Come, let's go.' Dean tells Sam, who slowly follow.

'Now, when he took off yesterday, which way did he go?' She asks.

'Why don't you ask him?'

'I'm asking you. Do you know it or not?' She demands and takes her wallet: 'What did he buy?'

'He bought two packs of cigarettes and one bottle.' He answers, taking the money: 'He went north. Route 71, straight out of town.'

Back in the car. 'What's going on with you, Sam? Hm? Cause smoking, throwing bottles at people, I mean, sounds more like me than you.' Dean tells Sam.

'Dean, wait, right here. Turn down that road.'

'Do you have any idea what we'll find?' Rose asks.

Dean turns down a back road and onto private property. It is a large house with plenty of emergency lighting and security cameras outside.

They enter the house; the floor is covered in broken glass and scattered items. In a backroom, they come across a body on the floor.

'Hit the lights.' Dean says.

Rose turns the lights on as Dean kneels behind the body. He places a hand on it and turns it over; it is a middle-aged man with a slashed throat; he is dead, his eyes staring. Dean puts a hand over his own mouth; Sam looks horrified.

Rose types on a computer she found: 'There is a security tape.'

Sam is fighting the same man who lies dead on the floor behind them on the tape. The fight moves off-camera, and Sam drags the man back into the frame; he kneels and slits the man's throat.