The Benders. // Sam //

Dean was picking at the burger on his plate, waiting for Kathleen to get back to him with results. She had promised to meet him at this diner after poking around and that had been over an hour ago. "Well I got a lead on your cousin's disappearance." Kathleen's voice broke into Dean's trance-like state. A few photocopied images were plopped down onto his plate, covering the half-eaten burger. "Surveillance cameras pick up much of that area of town" Kathleen was explaining while Dean flipped through the photos. "Your cousin was seen outside the bar. Then this big black truck blocks our view of him and when the truck leaves, no more Sam."

Dean looked up from the last of the pictures in his hand. "Where's the truck go? Did you get that on camera too?" Kathleen nodded confidently. "Highway cams pick up everything in three second intervals. We have footage of the truck passing one cam a few miles out but it never passes the next one. I assume therefore that"- "It turned off down some side road" Dean finished. "Well, let's go." Kathleen gave him a funny look as he got to his feet. "WE aren't going anywhere. I'm going to head back to the station and fill out a report with everything I've just discovered. Then I'll head out to look for your cousin by myself. I can't bring a civilian along."

Dean was desperate. "You know what...this just slipped my mind, but I probably should have mentioned it earlier...I'm an officer too. Officer Gregory Washington from out of state. Michigan to be exact." He gave her a convincing smile. "I didn't want to say anything earlier because I didn't want to receive special treatment or anything, but there is no way I am not coming with you to find Sam." Kathleen studied him for an agonizingly long minute before relenting. "Alright fine, you can come. Let's go."
~~~

The police cruiser hadn't been driving for more than fifteen minutes before Kathleen took a call in her radio unit, had a low volume conversation and then pulled the car over to the side of the road and cut the engine. She was giving Dean a look of upmost confusion and lack of trust. "So...I had your badge run "officer"...turns out, it was stolen. Months ago. And they sent me a picture." Dean's heart sank like a stone in the river as Kathleen spun the small computer between them around, giving Dean a full view of the 300 pound black man staring back at them. Dean coughed and scratched at his neck with an awkward smile. "See...I can explain that..." But Kathleen didn't give him a chance to fabricate any lies...not that it would be easy to come up with a believable one in that short of a time period. She simply reached across the seats with lightening speed and handcuffed Dean's wrists. "We're going back to the station" she announced harshly.

"Wait" Dean pleaded, shifting in his seat so that he was facing her. "Here's the thing. When we were little, I basically saved Sam's life by pulling him out of a fire. And ever since then, I don't know...I just feel like it's my JOB to keep him safe no matter what. Now, I've failed at a lot of things already in life, but I can't fail at this too. I need to find him. Can't you please, just...just let me find him and then I promise you can take me in without a fight." Kathleen inhaled, a slight hitch in her breath as her eyes traveled from Dean's tortured expression to a picture of two young kids hugging which was taped to the dashboard of her cruiser. After another agonizingly long stretch of silence, she started up the car's ignition again and pulled back onto the road. "As SOON as we find him, you're mine." Dean sagged back against the passenger-seat, his cuffed wrists resting in his lap, a relieved expression flooding his face.

"I promise."

There was silence in the squad car as Kathleen drove towards the last highway cam to have picked up the truck that abducted Sam. Finally, Dean couldn't help but ask, "ok, don't take this the wrong way, because I am incredibly grateful that you aren't arresting me on the spot and abandoning this search, but I was just wondering...why? Why did you agree to help me?" He wondered if maybe he was pushing his luck by asking this question but after the space of a heartbeat, Kathleen gestured with her eyes towards the picture she had stared at earlier. "I know what it's like to feel responsible for a family member" she explained woodenly. "I know what it's like to have them disappear and not know where they are or if they are even still alive. My brother Riley...he disappeared much like Sam did. Over 20 years ago. I still don't know what happened to him."

"Oh." Dean fell silent, not sure what else to say. "I'm sorry" didn't seem to cover it, but he said it anyway. "Yeah. Me too." She gave a solemn nod as she turned the steering wheel hard, bringing them to the entrance of a long dirt road. "This is the only road between the two cams" she explained, checking to make sure her gun was loaded and in its holster. Dean nodded understandingly and slid out of the car awkwardly, his wrists still cuffed together. She came around to his side of the car and he held them out to be freed. Kathleen took out her key, unlocked them and then promptly proceeded to cuff one of his wrists to the door of her car. "This is for your own good" she informed him. "I'll bring your cousin back. I promise." And she was gone.

Dean yanked and tugged on his cuffed wrist, trying to break free. It didn't yield. "Oh you've got to be kidding me" he shouted at her retreating back.

She didn't answer.

Everything happened so fast. The man rushed Dean, keeping a butcher's knife at his throat in case he was thinking about making a run for it. And then the two guys from the side of the road appeared and helped who Dean assumed was their father to shove Dean into a chair and tie him there with heavy rope. The brothers and the young girl stood in the background while the father circled Dean, snarling. "So you're with the pretty cop. How many more of you cops do I have to worry about sniffing around my land?" Dean remained calm and unbothered by his capture, as was par for the course with either Winchester...it happened a lot unfortunately. He looked up at the man and spoke with a completely straight face. "If I tell you, will you promise not to make me into an ashtray?"

The man nodded and one of his sons punched Dean hard in the face. His head snapped backwards and then forwards again like whiplash. He opened and shut his mouth a few time, swiveling his jaw to test it. Nothing felt broken. "You've got quite a mouth on you" the man announced, reaching for a fire poker, its tip still red hot from the flames. "So I've been told" replied Dean, rewarded with another punch to the face. He groaned from the impact, shaking out his head and testing his jaw again. "Just tell us if anyone will know if you're missing or not and I'll end your life quick. I promise." Dean looked calmly up into the man's twisted, angry face. "Eat me" he returned flatly before hastening to add in heavily sarcastic tones, "oh no wait, you freaks actually might."

This time his reward for mouthing off was the white-hot poker tip being pressed against the skin of his exposed forearm. Dean ground his teeth together from the pain, refusing to make any sounds. When the poker was removed, the old man studied Dean for a minute and then grabbed a shot gun. Dean tensed, but all that happened was that the gun was tossed to one of the sons. "We'll clean up this mess and move on. It was time anyway. Jared, go take care of the prisoners." Dean struggled against the binding ropes. "No! No, wait. No one knows we're missing. No one will come looking for us, you don't have to clean up anything. I promise." Jared paused, halfway to the door. The old man considered this for a minute and then smiled, showing all of his yellow teeth. "Jared, I think it's time for another hunt." "Hunt?" Realization dawned on Dean's face. "You hunt people?! Oh you sick bastards." "Why not?" The man continued grinning in satisfaction. "They're smarter than animals. Give us a good chase. We like the chase." He gestured and the other son grabbed a fistful of Dean's hair, locking his head in place. The poker hovered dangerous close to his left eye. "Now I want you to pick one. The cop or the guy. And then I want you to pick an eye." He chuckled and his sons joined in. As the poker moved closer and sweat began to break out on Dean's face, his struggling useless, he finally shouted out, "ok, ok! The guy. Take the guy." He knew Sam was a faster runner and better hunter than Kathleen. He could make it out.

But then, the plans changed. The man nodded at Jared, tossed him a small silver key, and gave him instructions. "Shoot him in the cage. Then take out the bitch too." "I thought you said you liked the chase!" Dean's panic was evident, his struggling becoming more intense.

"Not this time."