Pilot

Sam opened his eyes to the sound of a window opening. He left the bedroom and looked around the apartment. A window was open. A man walked past the strings of beads at the far end of the hall. Sam moved to another part of the apartment and waited. The man entered the room. Sam lunged forward and grabbed the man at the shoulder. The man knocked Sam's arm away and aimed a strike at Sam, who ducked. The man grabbed Sam's arm, swung him around, and shoved him back. Sam kicked and was blocked, then pushed back into another room. The man elbowed Sam in the face; Sam kicked at his head. The man ducked and swung at and Sam blocked. The man knocked Sam down and pinned him to the floor, one hand at Sam's neck and the other holding Sam's wrist.

"Whoa, easy, tiger," The Man said

Sam breathed hard "Dean?" Dean laughed "You scared the crap out of me!"

"That's 'cause you're out of practice." Sam grabbed Dean's hand and yanked, slamming his heel into Dean's back Dean to the floor "Or not." Sam tapped Dean twice where he was holding him "Get off of me,"

Sam rolled to his feet and pulled Dean up "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Well, I was looking for a beer,"

Dean put his hands on Sam's shoulders, shook once, and let go. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Okay. All right. We gotta talk,"

"Uh, the phone?"

"If I'd'a called, would you have picked up?"Jess turned the light on. She was very short shorts and a cropped Smurfs shirt.

"Sam?" both Sam and Dean turned their heads in unison.

"Jess. Hey. Dean, this is my girlfriend, Jessica," Sam explained

"Wait, your brother Dean?" Sam nodded

"Oh, I love the Smurfs. You know, I gotta tell you. You are completely out of my brother's league,"

"Just let me put something on," Jess handed a blonde two-year-old over to Sam. "She needs her bottle,"

"What are you doing up?" Sam asked the girl. 

Dean looked at the girl confused as Sam took her from Jess, allowing Jess to leave the room.

Dean cleared his throat "So...she's...you're a..."

Sam smiled a bit as he looked at Dean "Tali meet your Uncle Dean. Dean meet Natalia, your niece"

The little girl looked at the older brother and quickly hid her face into her father's shoulder. 

Dean couldn't help but be intrigued but shook his head as he remembered the reason he was there. "Anyway," he looked up as Jess returned to the room, having changed into a more decent looking shirt then her revealing Smurf. "I gotta borrow your boyfriend here, talk about some private family business. But, uh, nice meeting you,"

"No," Sam went over to Jess "No, whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of her,"

"Okay." Dean sighed unsure how to put it in terms "Um. Dad hasn't been home in a few days,"

"So he's working overtime on a Miller Time shift. He'll stumble back in sooner or later,"

"Dad's on a hunting trip. And he hasn't been home in a few days,"

Sam handed Natalie over to Jess "Jess, excuse us. We have to go outside," Sam and Dean headed downstairs. Sam was wearing jeans and a hoodie. "You can't just break in, middle of the night, and expect me to hit the road with you,"

"You're not hearing me, Sammy. Dad's missing. I need you to help me find him,"

"You remember the poltergeist in Amherst? Or the Devil's Gates in Clifton? He was missing then, too. He's always missing, and he's always fine," Dean stopped and turned around. Sam stopped too.

"Not for this long. Now, are you gonna come with me or not?"

"I'm not,"

"Why not?"

"I swore I was done hunting. For good,"

"Come on. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't bad," Dean started downstairs again. 

Sam followed. "Yeah? When I told Dad I was scared of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45," 

Dean stopped at the door to the outside. "Well, what was he supposed to do?"

"I was nine years old! He was supposed to say, don't be afraid of the dark,"

"Don't be afraid of the dark? Are you kidding me? Of course, you should be afraid of the dark. You know what's out there,"

"Yeah, I know, but still. The way we grew up, after Mom was killed, and Dad's obsession to find the thing that killed her." 

Dean glanced outside as Sam continued talking 

"But we still haven't found the damn thing. So we kill everything we can find,"

"We save a lot of people doing it, too,"

"I don't want Natalia to be raised like Dad raised us. You think Mom would have wanted this for us?" Sam asked. 

Dean rolled his eyes and slammed the door open. Dean and Sam climbed the short flight of stairs to the parking lot 

"The weapon training, and melting the silver into bullets? Man, Dean, we were raised like warriors," they crossed the parking lot to the Impala.

"So what are you gonna do? You're just gonna live some normal, apple life? Is that it?"

"No. Not normal. Safe,"

"And that's why you ran away," Dean looked away

"I was just going to college. It was Dad who said if I was gonna go I should stay gone. And that's what I'm doing,"

"Yeah, well, Dad's in real trouble right now. If he's not dead already. I can fell it." 

Sam was silent 

"I can't do this alone,"

"Yes, you can," 

Dean looked down "Yeah, well, I don't want to," 

Sam sighed and looked down, thinking, then up. "What was he hunting?" 

Dean opened the trunk of the Impala, then the spare-tire compartment. It's an arsenal. He propped the compartment open with a shotgun and dug through the clutter. "All right, let's see, where the hell did I put that thing?"

"So when Dad left, why didn't you go with him?"

"I was working my own gig. This, uh, voodoo thing, down in New Orleans,"

"Dad let you go on a hunting trip by yourself?" Dean looked over at Sam.

"I'm twenty-six, dude." Dean pulled some papers out of a folder "All right, here we go. So Dad was checking out this two-lane blacktop just outside of Jericho, California. About a month ago, this guy." Dean handed one of the papers to Sam. "They found his car, but he vanished. Completely MIA," The paper was a printout of an article from the Jericho Herald, headlined 'Centennial Highway Disappearance' and dated September 19th, 2005; it had a man's picture, captioned 'Andrew Carey MISSING'. 

Sam read it and glanced up. "So maybe he was kidnapped,"

"Yeah. Well, here's another one in April. Another one in December 'oh-four, 'oh-three, 'ninety-eight, 'ninety-two, ten of them over the past twenty years. " Dean tossed down another Jericho Herald article for each date he mentioned. Dean took the articles back from Sam and picked up the rest of the stack, putting them back in the folder "All men, all the same, five-mile stretch of road." Dean pulled a bag out of another part of the arsenal "It started happening more and more, so Dad went to go dig around. That was about three weeks ago. I hadn't heard from him since, which is bad enough." Dean grabbed a handheld tape recorder "Then I get this voicemail yesterday," he pressed play. The recording was staticky and the signal was clearly breaking up.

"Dean...something big is starting to happen..." John said on the recording "I need to try and figure out what's going on. It may...Be very carful, Dean. We're all in danger," Dean pressed stop

"You know there's EVP on that?" Sam said

"Not bad, Sammy. Kinda like riding a bike, isn't it?" Dean said impressed as Sam shook his head "All right. I slowed the message down, I ran it through a gold wave, took out the hiss, and this is what I got," he pressed play again.

"I can never go home..." A woman said. Dean pressed stop

"Never go home," Sam muttered. Dean dropped the recorder, put down the shotgun, stood straight, and shut the trunk, then leaned on it.

"You know, in almost two years I've never bothered you, never asked you for a thing," Dean reminded him. Sam looked away and sighed, then looked back.

"All right. I'll go. I'll help you find him," Dean nodded "But I have to get back first thing Monday. Just wait here," Sam turned to go back to the apartment.

"What's first thing Monday?" Dean asked causing Sam to turn back when he spoke.

"I have this...I have an interview,"

"What, a job interview? Skip it,"

"It's a law school interview, and it's my whole future on a plate,"

"Law school?" Dean smirked

"So we got a deal or not?" Dean said nothing

***

Sam was packing a duffel bag. He pulled out a large hook-shaped knife and slid it inside. Jess came into the room. "Wait, you're taking off?" Sam looked up "Is this about your dad? Is he all right?"

"Yeah. You know, just a little family drama," Sam went over to the dresser and turned on the lamp atop it.

"Your brother said he was on some kind of hunting trip." Jess sat on the bed. 

Sam rummaged in one of the drawers and came out with a couple of shirts, which went in the duffel. "Oh, yeah, he's just deer hunting up at the cabin, he's probably got Jim, Jack, and Jose with him. I'm just going to go bring him back,"

"What about the interview? What about Natalia?"

"I'll make the interview. This is only for a couple days," Sam went around the bed. 

Jess got up and followed. "Sam, I mean, please," 

Sam stopped and turned 

"Just stop for a second. You sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine," Sam laughed

"It's just...you won't even talk about your family. And now you're taking off in the middle of the night to spend a weekend with them? And with Monday coming up, which is kind of a huge deal,"

"Hey. Everything's going to be okay. I will be back in time, I promise," Sam kissed her on the cheek and entered Natalia's room, looking at his two-year-old sleeping in bed. He leaned down and kissed her forehead. "See you Monday," he whispered.