Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand, Blood and revenge are hammering in my head…Shakespeare - Titus Andronicus

Dean was missing. They'd found Abaddon and Crowley had given Dean the Blade, but then with a snap of his fingers, he'd sent Dean off alone and now Dean was missing.

So now Sam had Crowley tied to a chair.

"Well, well, seems we've been here before. Haven't we, Moose?"

They were at the same church where Sam had tried to 'cure' Crowley the year before, and despite being chained, locked, warded, sigiled and trapped into his chair a dozen different ways, Crowley still managed to be smug and condescending.

Sam didn't care. He circled Crowley slowly, looking at him as though he were trying to understand a new specimen of bug. In his hand, he carried the demon blade.

"Have we been here before?" Sam asked him. "Sure, we've been 'here', before…" He gestured around the decaying church with the blade. "But have we been here before…?" He bent low to be closer to Crowley's face and waved the blade back in forth between them. "Have we?"

"And where is it you think we are?"

Sam smiled, a thin, ugly smile, and pushed the knife under Crowley's chin, hard enough to drive a drop of blood down the blade.

"At the end of our options."

"Oooohhh…" Crowley breathed out. "Acting all tough are we, Moose? Sure, you might be the brains of the outfit, but Dean – " At Dean's name, Sam pushed on the blade and turned it, slowly. The action forced Crowley's head back but he didn't lose the smugness. "Everybody knows that Dean is the balls…"

Sam leaned closer to Crowley, putting more force on the blade. "I want to know where my brother is. If you won't tell me, I don't need you."

"You think you can kill me?"

Sam's lip pulled back in a sneer. "I can make you wish I'd kill you."

Crowley scoffed.

"You think that little blade will have an effect on me? On me?"

Sam's sneer broadened. "I think I have a whole bunker full of ways to make your existence miserable. You think five months stuck alone in our dungeon was boring? Try eternity. In here. In the dark."

Crowley cocked an eyebrow.

"That was good, Moose. Been practicing, have we? I almost, almost, felt a frisson of apprehension there."

Sam stood back. He reached into his duffel bag and brought out a roll of duct tape.

"See this?" He shoved it into Crowley's face. The tape had traps and sigils printed on it. "It'll be the last thing you see. Ever. I'll put this over your eyes and I'll put this over your ears and I'll put this over your mouth. Then I'll use Magnus's spell to make this place invisible. You'll sit here alone in the dark and rot. And every once in a while, I'll be back to try out some new piece of torture on you. A holy water drip over your head for starters. Low level exorcisms on continuous loop, not enough to expel you, just enough to make you want to peel your own skin off. Then every other bit of torture I find at the bunker, I will come back and inflict on you. Over and over and over again, for the rest of eternity. Unless you tell me where my brother is."

Crowley tilted his head, staring at Sam without blinking for a long moment.

"You know what I see when I look at you, Moose? I see a scared little boy who can't cross the street unless he's got Big Brother's hand to hold onto. You forget I saw you that moment Dean went to Purgatory? You forget I saw the look on your face? Big & Bad Sam Winchester, reduced to a blubbing five year old, because he didn't know where his brother was. And where's Dean now? Can't find him? Poor Sammy. Guess you'll just have to go create another dream-life for yourself, won't you?"

Sam drew back and kicked Crowley square in the chest, knocking him backwards onto the floor. He knelt hard on Crowley's elbow and pushed the long edge of the demon blade under his nose.

"You know what I see when I look at you?" Sam asked. His voice was harsh. "I see you tricking my brother into accepting the First Blade and the Mark of Cain. I see you mocking his suffering from their effects and using him for your own ends." He scraped the knife against Crowley's skin. "I see Sarah Blake choking to death on her motel floor because you wanted something you weren't getting. What I don't see is you telling me where my brother is. Big mistake. Because when Dean went to Purgatory, I wasn't pissed."

He yanked Crowley upright then pulled an arm's length of tape off the roll. He ripped it with his teeth and wrapped it around Crowley's eyes, not being too careful with the knife in his hands.

"C'mon, Moose. We can talk about this." Crowley's voice had taken on an audible tremor.

"We can talk," Sam agreed. "I can tell you how the first time we caught up with Abbadon, we put a bullet into her brain that had a devil's trap carved into it so that she couldn't smoke out. I can tell you how I plan to put a bullet like that into your brain and your lungs and your spleen and your nuts and your kneecaps."

Crowley swallowed and fidgeted in the chair.

"You want to know where Dean is? Fine, I'll tell you where Dean is," he babbled. "I just wanted him to have long enough to kill Abbadon."

"Yeah? Without me? Good plan." Sam pulled another length of tape off. "I don't hear you telling," he growled.

"Nebraska! He's in Nebraska!"

"Where in Nebraska?"

"Gothenburg. There's an abandoned Quonset hut near the airfield. He's in there."

Sam hmpf'd and yanked the tape around Crowley's mouth.

"Cas…" he called and Cas appeared instantly. "He says Dean's in an abandoned building near the airfield in Gothenburg, Nebraska. You get Dean and bring him back here."

"What are you going to do?" Cas asked.

Sam grabbed Crowley's hair and pulled his head back and shoved the demon knife against his throat.

"I'm going to plan all the things I'll do if Dean isn't there…"

Cas nodded and winged off. He was back a heartbeat later.

"Sam – you need to go to Dean. Now."

Sam let go of Crowley and pushed the demon blade into Cas's hand.

"Watch him."

Then with a touch, Cas sent Sam to Dean.

To be continued

A/N: yes, I've been whining that schoolwork is keeping me from writing, but this story is stomping all around on my brain and I couldn't get started on my homework until I at least wrote the first chapter. I'll update soon. (Sooner than my usual 'soon'.)