A/N: Continuation of the AU season 3 I started with Just Now. Beta read by the awesome Starrylizard. Any and all mistakes left are my own. Let me know if you'd like to read more fics about Tomas and Mouse on the road:)
Tomas wasn't sure how they made it out of the house in one piece or even how long they spent on the road. The latest case of possession they had managed to sniff out so Tomas could hone his skills was a trap, set up by a small group at the local church which has been infested by demons. Oh, there were possessed people aplenty in that God forsaken town, Mouse and Tomas just didn't know that their assumed victim wasn't one of them.
They were already inside the town and just about to step into the house, when Tomas was hit with a vision.
It was as if someone turned off the sun... everything suddenly looked bleak, almost grey. Tomas was still in front of the house, he could clearly see Mouse next to him, her mouth open in question but no sound coming out. Everything was still, as if someone hit the pause button, even the birds in the sky hung motionless.
Tomas blinked and moved his hand, realizing that at least he wasn't frozen in the moment. Recognizing the vision for what it was, he pushed back the confusion and panic. He also tried to ignore the strange scratching feeling at the back of his mind that was becoming too familiar, but right now it seemed impossible.
He took in a deep breath, grimacing when he noticed the smell of the air, the acrid stench that was emanating from the house.
"What's going on?" he muttered, unsure about the purpose of this vision or what it was even trying to show him. That was until something moved inside the house... Tomas caught sight of a dark shadow behind one of the windows and he felt a presence lurking just behind the front door. Blinking in confusion, Tomas frowned and focused on the house. The colors were off, as with everything else on the street, but there were subtle shadows moving behind the walls and it took Tomas a second to realize that indeed, he knew what was hiding behind those walls.
He stumbled back, startled by the realization and ready to grab Mouse and somehow wake up, when he spotted two more shadows on the street. Rationally he knew they were people, his eyes saw people, but his mind saw only darkness, flowing like fire.
"Dios mio," Tomas uttered, crossing himself in a silent prayer. "I need to wake up. Déjame despertar, por favor!"
A moment later, his milky eyes turned brown again, wide and surprised, even as Mouse caught his arm and stopped him from falling.
"Alright, Tomas?" she asked and Tomas shook his head, swallowing. He looked around, his eyes taking in small details he hadn't noticed before. Like the man lurking at the nearby garage with an axe in his hand... or the lanky boy checking the tire of his bike right next to their parked car. A normal sight perhaps, but their postures were off. They seemed tense, ready to leap. And when Tomas noted another man looking down at them from the front window of the house and saw only white where pupils should've been, he grabbed Mouse by the arm.
"We need to leave," he choked out. "Now! It's a trap." With those words he headed back towards the car, Mouse already reaching for her gun and following him without question. Of course the sudden change in their direction didn't go unnoticed. The front door of the house opened and the man who was upstairs just a moment ago was rushing out, straight at Mouse.
She fired her gun, almost without hesitation, hitting the target square in the chest, but that didn't stop the man's forward motion and seconds later he crashed into Mouse, sending them both sprawling to the ground.
"Mouse!" Tomas shouted and lunged at the man, trying to pull him off before he could harm his partner, when he heard a swishing sound and felt pain shoot through his back. Turning in surprise he saw the young boy charging at him with a bike chain. Cursing, Tomas raised his hands protectively as the chain once again slashed through the air. He hissed when it connected with his left forearm, but it didn't break bone. Using the training Mouse had given him over the last few weeks, Tomas grabbed the chain in his other hand and pulled. The boy who had an unnaturally murderous look on his face stumbled, following the motion of the chain he was still grasping in his hand. Tomas kicked out, catching the boy in the stomach and as he doubled over, Tomas hit him with his elbows on the back for good measure, driving him down to the ground.
Tomas heard a grunt behind him and turned, expecting another attack, but saw Mouse coming his way.
"Get to the car!" she urged and aimed her gun towards another man, the one with the axe, who was just about to throw it at Tomas. She pulled the trigger just as Tomas reached the car door. He instinctively jerked at the sound of the shot and looked back, just to see the man ducking and hiding behind a fence. Mouse cursed but didn't want to lose any more time. She jumped into the car and within seconds they were pulling away from the curb, the tires squealing on the tarmac.
Tomas braced against the dashboard as Mouse swerved the car into the traffic then turned to look out the back window.
"They're not following," he said after a moment, though he really didn't think they would. One of the men was dead, the boy seemed to have only the bike and the third man... well, Tomas hoped it took him some time to get to his car.
"Others might," Mouse said through clenched teeth and Tomas frowned, giving her his full attention. His eyes widened when he saw her face and the front of her jacket sprinkled with red blood.
"Are you hurt?"
Mouse let out an actual growl.
"Nothing worse than bruised ribs. That guy was heavy as hell."
"The blood..." Tomas still wasn't convinced and he touched her shoulder. Mouse spared him a short look and her eyes softened a bit. That's when Tomas realized she wasn't so much hurting as angry.
"Not mine. What about you?" Mouse asked.
"I'm f-" Tomas fell suddenly silent and Mouse glanced at him in concern. His eyes were open and brown, no milky whiteness covering his vision, but he still seemed to be somewhere else.
"Tomas?" Her voice seemed to pull him back inside the car and Tomas shook his head, looking puzzled.
"What was that?"
"I'm... not sure. But we need to get off this street. Turn right... now!" he snapped and Mouse reacted, taking a corner a bit too close. Several pedestrians jumped back on the walkway throwing curses at their car, but she didn't care.
"Talk to me. What's wrong?"
"I don't... it was just a flash. Two cars, ahead of us. We need to go south to be safe..." Tomas muttered and Mouse had had enough. She pulled the car over then grasped Tomas' chin. There was a feverish glint in his eyes, his pupils pinpoint as if he had too much sensory input. Tomas pulled out of her grasp and growled.
"What are you doing? Drive! They'll catch us if we stay here..." Tomas said a bit frantically and Mouse put the car in drive again.
"You can see where they are?" she asked as Tomas focused back on the road, his forehead scrunched up in concentration, a lost look on his face.
"I can... see the darkness… It's... it's like there is darkness... all around us. This town," Tomas shook his head. "They have too many people here."
Mouse nodded, accepting the fact Tomas was suddenly turning into a demon radar without questions.
"Can you lead us away from them?"
Tomas looked at her with some surprise. He would've expected doubt or ridicule... instead there was just trust. Nothing else.
"Let me drive?" he asked, and when he saw the protest on her lips, he added: "It will be easier."
Mouse seemed to actually consider that option, but she quickly shook her head.
"Sorry, but no. I'm not letting you behind the wheel when you can zone out like that."
Tomas opened his mouth to protest, but his brow once again furrowed and he got that lost look in his eyes, proving Mouse's point without meaning to.
"Slow down," he muttered, his hand squeezing Mouse's arm that was holding the wheel. She complied, waiting for more instructions, trying to ignore the slight tremble of the hand on her arm. At least for now. Tomas suddenly tightened his hold and Mouse instinctively stopped the car, just before they reached a juncture.
"Tomas?" she asked, starting to think that maybe there was something else wrong with him, maybe he got knocked on the head and was having hallucinations instead of visions. "Talk to me, Tomas!" she snapped, just as a police car flew down the street they were about to enter. It had its lights on and as it passed, Tomas visibly pulled back in his seat, a look of disgust crossing his face. Once the car was gone, his hold on Mouse eased.
"What was that?" Mouse asked when Tomas blinked and took in a sharp breathe, visibly shaken but back in the present.
"Idon't know. I just saw shadows... heading our way. Were those cops?" he grimaced and Mouse nodded.
"Is it safe now?"
Tomas looked at her and after a moment of thought gave her a small nod.
"I think so. The shadows... they were heading back to the house."
"Good. We really need to get out of this damn town," Mouse said and floored the gas as much as the old car could handle. Tomas gritted his teeth and grabbed the door handle to keep from swishing across his seat when Mouse took anespecially wild turn. They were on the road together for over a month now, but he still couldn't get used to her way of driving.
"Would be nice... not to crash the car," he uttered and earned a disgruntled glance.
"Says the one who wanted to drive caught up in visions."
Tomas, smartly, didn't react.
The ride out of the town was tense and Tomas asked Mouse to change their direction twice more before they were outside of the city limits and he felt a sudden relief flood his body. Tomas sagged in his seat and ran both hands over his face, letting out a deep breath.
"Tomas?" Mouse turned to him with concern and Tomas shook his head.
"I'm fine. I think we're clear." Even as he said it, he looked into the side mirror and saw the shadows converging over the small town. His stomach twisted at the thought of leaving the poor citizens without any protection from the evil that was lurking in their streets, but there was really nothing he could do at the moment, except for getting the hell out of dodge.
"Good," Mouse said and pulled over at the earliest chance. "Hand me the water please," she said, and Tomas handed her the bottle, raising an eyebrow in question.
"You alright?"
"Yes, but I need to wash the blood off my face. If any cop passes us on the road, they would be more likely to pull us over. And I don't want to deal with that can of worms right now."
Tomas nodded in agreement, handing her also a pack of tissues as she wiped the blood specks off her face and neck. He gave her some privacy while she changed out of her bloodied shirt and used the moment to step out of the car and get some air. He looked back towards the town then blinked in confusion. The darkness that seemed to converge above the city just a few minutes earlier was gone... there were no shadow visible, nothing. Only the sun peeking out from behind the clouds and a clear road ahead of them. Frowning, Tomas rubbed at his eyes, but the view didn't change. The relief he felt when leaving the city limits was still there and he knew what happened was real, but whatever came over him was gone now.
"Hey, we ready to drive?" Mouse called at him from the car and Tomas nodded, taking a deep breath of fresh air before returning to his seat. Once he sat down and leaned back, he winced, for the first time realizing the throbbing of his back and in his arm. He rubbed at his forearm still hidden in the jacket and made a fist, testing the damage. There was a twinge running up his arm and towards the shoulder, but nothing he couldn't handle. He was pretty sure there would be an impressive bruise, but no broken bones, so he let the arm fall into his lap and leaned his head back on the seat, even as Mouse pulled off from the roadside.
They rode in silence for a while, Mouse still focused on the road and making sure they weren't being followed. Tomas just felt tired. Too tired to even complain about the steady headache that settled behind his temples. It was becoming somewhat of a regular occurrence after visions, or any time Tomas tried to connect with a possessed person. He could still do it, but each time it was as if his mind was remembering what happened on that island and let him know in a not so subtle way that it didn't appreciate what he was doing. Tomas of course tried to ignore it, ascribing every twitch to the post-concussion syndrome. It wasn't like he could just stop... and anyway, those headaches were nothing compared to the migraine he had when Marcus left. That one, well... he wasn't sure he could deal with having to deal with such pain after each vision. He was really happy he didn't need to, not yet. Still, the thumping behind his eyelids was becoming irritating, so he reached for the bottle of aspirin they had in the glove compartment and shook out one pill. Mouse just shot him a searching look, but didn't comment.
"So... what happened out there?" she asked instead, once Tomas had swallowed the pill and chased it down with water.
"I'm not sure," he admitted and it irked him how lately he wasn't sure about anything that was going on around him. Until Harper and Andy, he was pretty sure about his role, about finding his 'purpose' and being the vessel of God. But after the demon... he felt dirty and no amount of showers or Hail Mary's could get rid him of that feeling. If he closed his eyes, he could still taste the rot on his lips and feel the tendrils of it reaching into his heart, into his soul... before Marcus pulled the trigger, and all the tendrils of evil were jerked out with such force that it would've sent him to his knees if he wasn't already on the ground.
"Tomas, we need to talk about this," he was pulled out of his thoughts and looked over at Mouse who was trying to keep an eye on the road as well as eyeing him with worry. He didn't want to worry her, she was already looking like she was holding the weight of the world on her shoulders.
"I don't know what happened at the house... it was like having a vision, but... different."
"Different how?"
Tomas grimaced, unsure how to explain but knowing he should at least try. So he described the feeling of time slowing down, of feeling the presence of darkness in the house and seeing the shadows over people, over the whole town.
"It was like a warning," he finished, and saw Mouse mulling it over, biting at her lower lip in thought.
"This is new, right? Nothing like this happened before?"
"No. This... was a first," Tomas said with a sigh, wondering just what that meant for their future. Can he expect other 'strange things' popping out of the woodwork? Were his skills getting better, or was he just more sensitive to the evil since he got a taste of it on his own skin? And if so, did that mean there was still some evil lurking inside him as well? Those weren't questions he wanted to ponder right now, or ever.
"Can you still see those shadows?" Mouse spoke again and he saw a glint in her eyes. Yes, that would be a useful skill to have, to be able to discern a possessed person from afar. Sadly, he had a feeling it wasn't a skill he could tap into anytime he wished or without consequences.
"Sorry. It all went away when we left the town."
Mouse seemed to be disappointed by the news, but not as much as Tomas would've expected. He frowned.
"You think I can do it anytime now, don't you?"
She looked at him shortly, then sighed.
"I won't lie Tomas, that would be quite useful. It probably isn't something you can use all the time, but if we could figure out how to turn it on, at the right moment, it could save lives. And not just our own," she added, when she saw Tomas opening his mouth in protest.
"I don'tknowhow to turn it on, or if I even can. Maybe it was just something in the town..."
"Maybe it was God's will. And maybe it will be His will again. No sense in talking about it now," she ended that part of the discussion and Tomas was almost glad for it.
"So what now? This was a trap, which means that your friend was compromised."
Mouse grimaced. "Dmitri wasn't my friend, I barely knew him. But you're right, he must've been compromised. Which is not good. Dmitri was excommunicated five years ago... they shouldn't have came after him. He was... off the radar."
Tomas wanted to ask why he was excommunicated in the first place, but in the end it didn't matter. Whatever his faults, the man was most probably already dead or worse, integrated. Tomas' stomach clenched.
"If they went after someone who's left the church so long ago... what chance does Marcus have?" Tomas asked, voice choked. While he logically knew that Marcus wanted to be left alone, everything inside him was screaming to just turn the car around and try to find his former partner, to make sure he was alive and well. And then convince him that his place was alongside Tomas and Mouse heading straight into war.
Mouse let out a frustrated sigh. This wasn't the first time Tomas mentioned returning for Marcus, always worried about his safety. The dreams he was getting lately weren't helpful in assuaging his fears so it was up to Mouse to be the voice of reason, but frankly, she was getting a bit tired of it herself. The only reason she didn't snap at Tomas each time he mentioned Marcus was because she knew how he felt, knew how long it took her to get over the man and the fact he left. For Tomas it was still early and the situation was different. Now there was a valid reason to be worried.
"I left a message for him," she spoke into the silence and Tomas looked at her in surprise.
"What?"
Mouse rolled her eyes. Of course Tomas would want to know more.
"After we left Spokane... shortly after we got word that Bennett returned to the Vatican. I left a message at a few of my contacts around the Washington state. I warned him about Bennett. He would know what it means."
"And? Did you hear back from him?"
"Not as of yet," Mouse admitted, then when she saw the disappointed look on Tomas' face, she added: "But I didn't expect to. It just means he's keeping away from the church and from the underground. If my friends can't find him, there's a pretty good chance the demons won't either."
She hoped to see relief on Tomas' face, but if anything, he looked only more worried.
"Look, you need to stop worrying about Marcus and start worrying about this war."
Her voice this time lacked the warmth and understanding; instead it had an edge of coldness and strength. Tomas gave her a long, searching look. There was just something about Mouse he couldn't put his finger on. That fire that drove her, that made her friendly and gentle in one moment and cold and calculating in the next. Tomas still didn't know the whole story behind her possession, or what it was like for her during those six months, although sometimes she let something slip out. A feeling, a long lost memory. Never the whole picture and while Tomas felt safe with her, she was just as big of an enigma as Marcus was, at least where their history was concerned.
Never the future. There Tomas knew what he could expect, or rather what the next poor possessed sap could expect if he couldn't do his job... the shape of her gun visible under her jacket. Tomas shuddered, seeing that same gun slipping from Marcus' hand after he woke up and Andy didn't. Shaking off the image before it could bring along other gruesome thoughts and memories, Tomas fidgeted on the seat then grimaced when he felt the bruises on his back protest the movement. He stilled, his forehead scrunching in thought.
"We are not safe here," he muttered, remembering the fleeting feeling of truth that encompassed him during the vision, right before he woke up.
Mouse nodded, surmising as much herself.
"I know. I think we need to adjust our plans a little."
Tomas didn't really like the tone of her voice... he knew it didn't mean anything good.
"I didn't know we even had a plan," Tomas admitted carefully.
So far,they had travelled across the northern part of the States, keeping close to the Canadian borders. Mouse would slip away from their motel room in the middle of night to get in touch with her contacts, while Tomas was caught up in a nightmare or vision, whichever came first.
In the few weeks they spent together, Tomas had a chance to help one possessed girl who they'd encountered mostly by chance. The demon possessing the girl was weak and, together with Mouse, they managed to banish him within a few days. It helped Tomas gain back at least some of his confidence and, later that night when he was enjoying a lukewarm shower (courtesy of Mouse, she was even worse than Marcus in this aspect), he realized that Mouse had planned it all. She'd navigated them towards a case to give Tomas the chance to prove he was still an exorcist, if to no one else than at least to himself. After that however, she once again pulled in the reins and kept him to the sidelines, as if afraid of unleashing him on anything that wasn't important enough for their mission.
Their mission... right now their mission looked to be warning other exorcist that were active in the states, letting them know that the Vatican was compromised and to get into hiding, ignore the call to return to Rome. Mouse was also trying to reach out to an underground circle, which was just a nice word for people who separated from the church years ago for one reason or the other, yet still stayed in the business, so to speak.
'I suppose I'm one of them too, now,' Tomas mused when Mouse told him about it. The only reply he got was a shrug and a smirk.
'You were one of them the moment you left Chicago with Marcus. You just didn't know.'
'What about you?'
'I never really belonged to the church... not after that,' she pointed to her cheek and that was the end of that particular conversation. Tomas learned that if she wanted to, Mouse could be just as stubborn about keeping her past hidden as Marcus. Tomas didn't know if it was because they were both British... or if they were just annoying assholes. Possibly both.
"Our plan was to get to the heart of the dragon and cut it out," Mouse spoke, bringing Tomas back to the present. "That is still the plan. But now we have to go about it a bit differently." She looked at him, as if waiting for a protest or a comment, but Tomas just raised an eyebrow in question.
"I'm listening."
"When you were... seeing things," she started a bit carefully and Tomas barely suppressed the snort at her attempt not to sound like she was calling him crazy. Mouse shot him a glare and Tomas put on a serious face. "You said something about going south. I think... that's where we should go."
Tomas frowned.
"I don't remember that..."
"You said 'we need to go south to be safe'."
"Maybe I meant to get out of town?" Tomas offered, the events in the town were getting a bit hazy in his mind. The more he tried to think back to what happened, the more his head hurt.
Mouse looked dubious at his explanation.
"You sounded pretty adamant. In any case, we head south. I think we've had just about enough unfortunate encounters here. We need a change of locale... and I think you could use some sun," she added with a smirk. "You're turning awfully pale for someone who spent his childhood in Mexico."
The words got the intended reaction and Tomas blushed, but he quickly found his tongue.
"Ever thought my complexion had more to do with your driving style than the current weather?" he asked, all innocent, yet the corner of his lips twitched in a smile. Mouse snorted.
"I'm still not letting you drive. So, buckle up Snow White... it'll be a long ride."