Road Trip 4/5
Jericho, California was a three-hour drive from Palo Alto. Dean drove while Sam dozed a little in the front seat.
They pulled up at the town's lone hotel and went to check in. As Sam was asking for a room, Dean suddenly grabbed his arm.
Sam looked over, and Dean tapped a name on the register, written in precise, military-like handwriting. "Sam. It's Dad."
"You're sure?" Sam asked, and Dean nodded.
"Yeah," the clerk said, "paid for the whole month. You want the connecting room?"
"That'd be great," Sam smiled.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Fifteen minutes later, they entered their father's room through a connecting door -- and Dean immediately gagged.
Seeing this, Sam's eyes scanned the room until he saw the half-eaten sandwich sitting beside the unmade bed. He scooped it into the trash and put the can into the hall. "Better?"
"Uugh," was Dean's response. He had visibly paled and was swallowing hard. He clapped both hands over his nose and mouth, and his eyes squeezed shut.
Sam winced. "Crap. Sensory spike?"
A miserable nod.
"Need a minute?"
Another nod.
"Water?"
A third nod, and Dean turned toward the bathroom. Muffled by his hands and the water running, he slurred, "Not a good place to puke."
"Not in Dad's motel room, no." Sam passed him a glass, and Dean drank. The action seemed to break the spike.
Colour flooded into his cheeks and he swallowed hard a few more times. "Sorry."
"Hey." Sam's large hand curled around the back of his neck. "Never, ever apologise when one of those things hit. You can't control them."
"I can't control when they hit," Dean agreed. "I learned to control the mild ones on a Hunt." His lips pursed as he frowned. "That wasn't a mild one. What was that?"
"Half-eaten ham and cheese sandwich. About four days old, I'd bet."
Dean blinked at that. "That's.... That's not like Dad. He was clearly intending to return," Dean mused.
Sam wandered over to the walls, looking at the notes pinned up there. "Same way he's always done. Thinks visually."
"'Woman in White'?" Dean read. "He thinks this -- Constance Welch -- could be a Woman in White..." Dean opened the journal and studied it.
"Yeah," Sam nodded. "Bobby said Dad had left you his journal."
"More like he left it behind and never came back," Dean grumped. "For it or for me."
"Dean..."
"No, Sammy." He shook his head. "Dad may have thought you abandoned him for school, but he did abandon me. When we find him, I need to ask him why."
On to the conclusion!