Sammy

9. Into the Mind of Dean

The following weeks were spent on finalizing a plan to rescue Sam and this time, no one was hiding anything.  Bobby and Dean put all research on hold while Melody never stopped drawing up maps and diagrams of the "Hunter's House".

"So this," she said, pointing to a few roughly drawn lines on the left side of her latest diagram, "is where I saw them take Sam.  I think they lead him here," she circled a cell, "but I'm not sure if they moved him or not.  If they did move him, he'd probably be here somewhere," she pointed to a few cells in the top right corner of the map.

"We could go here," said Dean, tracing a possible route with his finger, "turn here, then make a run for this cell and if he's not there, go check the ones up here.  Or we could go around the back, break in, then split up and check for Sam.  You'd take these cells and I'd take those.  But there's also-"

"We could just ask," Bobby butted in.  Dean looked at him like he had just grown a limb on his forehead.

"And do what, buy him back?   Treat him like he's some pawn for rent?  No, we're not doing that.  I'm probably already in trouble for her."

"No you aren't actually," Melody countered.  " You bought me," Dean cringed slightly, "so technically I'm your responsibility.  You can trade me in, keep me around, dump me on the side of the road, use me in a whore house, they don't care."

"Well okay then," Dean said as he took a drink of beer.  "We'll go up, ask for Sam, pay for him, and be on our way."

"It's not that simple either," Melody sighed.  "They don't have the kids in the back up for whatever usually.  Normally, those back rooms are for the virgins and the mentally unstable, which explains why Sam might be back there.  The way he talked sometimes, they might have thought he had the devil in his head or something."

"What do we do then?"

"I don't know!  I just draw the maps and supply information, you're the brains of this thing!" She almost shrieked

"Okay, Melody just calm down."  Melody took a deep breath and nodded.  "Bobby, do you have any ideas?"  

"A diversion might work, but it would have to be really strong.  I don't know how tight security is, but we can bet it's not going to be a ghost town.  Especially around where Sam is, it's probably going to be fairly tight."

"Go back to that diversion thing, what do you have in mind?" Dean asked, now getting significantly more interested in what Bobby had to say.

"I go up to the front desk and ask about something while you and Melody go around the back and try to get Sam out."

"That's-that actually might work," Dean said as he looked over the map.  "There's a door right here tha-"

"That may be a door to another room, I don't know for sure," Melody interrupted.

"Okay, but there is a back door somewhere.  Anakin said there was a door around back."

"Anakin?" Bobby asked incredulously.  "Some fool actually named their kid after a movie villain?"   

"Benny nicknamed him," Dean replied shortly.

"Benny?  Who the h-"

"I'll tell you later.  I think there's another door here, so if all else fails this'll work, right Melody?"

"It should, besides, if all else really does fail, we could just go in with Bobby."  Well there's that.  How did I not think of it in the first place?

"Okay Miss I-know-everything, what happens if they get on our case?"

"Wear disguises, give a fake name, act out of character, they don't care.  They see enough people to get everything mixed up and they wouldn't have any info on you."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"You bought me as bait, so there's no files on you.  Hunters only get files if they rent out a young hunter."

"Okay so..."

"Your files contains all pertinent information; name, age, picture, description, credit card number, license plate number, last known destination, place of residence, anything that they can track you down with if you keep a hunter past their deadline.  Every time a hunter rents a hunter, their information is added to the rented hunter's file."

"How do you know this?"

"Sometimes there isn't a market for bait and they need people to work in the office." 

"Enough with the twenty questions, are we going with the plan or not?" Bobby irritably injected.

"Sounds good to me," Melody said.  "What about you Dean?"

"It's alright, but it's so simple," Dean whined.

"Oh please, you wouldn't be happy until it was too complicated, and then you'd still complain," Bobby grunted.  "The plan is great Melody, when do you want to leave?"

"Um, I don't know?"     

"Does tomorrow sound good?"

"Woah, woah, woah!  That's a little too soon," Dean interjected defensively.

"For you or for me?" Melody asked somewhat harshly.  Dean didn't reply, in fact, he couldn't even look Melody in the eye properly.  He muttered something that sounded very far from understandable and let Melody continue.  "Tomorrow is okay, but will we be ready?"

"I can run out and get a few things tonight and make another run when we get back," Bobby supplied.  Dean and Melody nodded and both rose from their seats.  "Where're you guys goin'?"

"To sleep, it's after ten Bobby and we're gonna need an early start to tomorrow." Dean said as he started towards the stairs with Melody close behind.

"Goodnight then," Bobby said gruffly, shuffling some papers.  

Dean and Melody got into bed quickly, but didn't fall asleep for another hour or two.  Dean was nervous; in less than 24 hours, provided everything went well, he was going to have his brother back.  But what about Melody?  What's she going to do when he comes back and all you're doing is fawning over him?  

She'll be fine, she said that tomorrow would be okay and she wouldn't have said that if she didn't mean it.

Did she though?  Remember when you thought she was getting better, but it was all an act so you would feel okay with her while she suffered in silence.  She's not going to be okay, Dean, and neither are you.  You've been falling away since Sam was taken and you think you can help her?  You think you can help him?  You're drowning, Dean, and you can't ignore it by trying to save other people.

 Okay, I'm not all that great, but I've got to try to help them at least.  I may be falling apart, but I'll do whatever I can do to make sure they stay whole, or as whole as they can be.  They don't deserve this, so I'm gonna give it my all and put them first.  If anyone's going to make it out on top in this world, it's going to be them.