A/NOkay so this is more of a filler chapter than the previous ones but I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Listener, I never will. If I did, well, Craig – I mean, Toby would be put through a lot more suffering.
Spoilers: For the last episode of Season One, but you don't have to have seen it, I'll explain it all at a later date; it helps but it's not necessary.
Rating:Strong T
Chapter Two
Toby awoke on the hardwood floor of his apartment. His nose was covered with cracked, dried blood; he felt as if he had not slept at all. The sun was filtering through his blinds, and the broken laptop was digging into his chest creating painfully deep indentations on his skin. He sat up, inspecting the room. The black writing on the wall had gone and the ceiling was un-burnt, looking the same as it did every morning. Toby glanced at the kitchen wall: the clock read seven a.m. He stood up and wandered towards the bathroom to have a shower and clean up before Oz came to pick him up for work.
Toby stood in the shower letting the hot water stream over him, soothing his muscles, and allowing himself to relax. He could see the next door neighbours waking up and the two teenage children having a furious but silent fight over the TV remote; he watched through their weary father. Above him, the newlyweds were having morning sex – he quickly left their minds. Toby spiked his hair up in the wetness before letting the water flatten it back down again.
William, are you going to be a good boy?
The voice hit Toby like a tonne of bricks. He felt the prominent sensation of dizziness, and of blood trickling out of his nose and down his wet body. "What do you want?" His voice cracked slightly.
Answer my question.
Toby nodded and slid down the tiled wall. He put his head between his knees trying to regain consciousness.
Good decision.
The strange buzzing sound that seemed to accompany the voice was gone and he sat under the stream of now cold water and waited. He was staring at the water going down the drain, the thoughts of the apartment buildings just a low hum in his mind. Toby made no effort to shut the voices up, waiting for the other one to come back. A few weeks ago, the rational part of Toby's brain would have told him to go to Ray. However, after five weeks of constant disturbing dreams with the detrimental attacks when he wasn't in a state of unconsciousness, Toby thought that he shouldn't. Toby was so sleep deprived that his brain was frazzled; he could hardly tell if he were dead or alive, and he wouldn't mind either one.
"Toby, dude, are you ready? Hurry up, man, we gotta go." Toby didn't move at the sound of Oz's voice. The water was now so cold he had begun to shiver slightly, but somehow this was a very peaceful experience.
Toby's nose began to bleed again and the buzzing noise which signalled another attack returned with a fiery vengeance.
Get rid of Oz, he's getting in the way of our plan.
"What? No!" Toby shouted and jumped out of the shower shaking his head furiously and clenching his fist, trying to shut the voice up.
"Toby! Are you alright in there?" Toby curled up into the foetal position on the floor. "Toby!" Oz started banging on the door.
Toby stood up and, breathing deeply, pulled on his EMS uniform and slid out of the bathroom. "Hey, Oz." Toby smiled meekly, hoping to reassure Oz that he was ok.
What the hell is going on with him?
"Nothing, I'm fine," Toby wiped his nose and the blood stuck to his hand.
"Don't lie to me, I thought there were no more secrets between us." Anymore,he added silently.
"It's hard to explain, but I will, okay? I promise. I've got to call Ray first, though, and try to figure out what's going on with me."
How can I trust you if you can't trust me?
"You can trust me and I do trust you, I just don't want to freak you out. Let's get to work, come on."
Great, you changed the topic. "Whatever, man, let's go." Oz stared at Toby. I know you can hear me, just tell me what's going on.
Toby grabbed a cereal bar off the counter and followed Oz out of the apartment; the voice inside his head was silent but he felt as if it was the quiet before the storm. His nose had stopped bleeding, but he still held a bloodied tissue to wipe away the rest of the blood before work. The ride to the hospital was silent apart from the noise of the engine.
When they got there, they found Ray standing in the ambulance bay waiting for Toby.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" Toby asked, walking towards him.
"Just checking up on you," Ray said. "Has anything happened, Toby?" he asked in a questioning tone.
"It set my apartment on fire but it wasn't on fire, wrote 'William, I'm coming for you' in flames, then black writing appeared on the walls saying 'will you do as I say?'. I said I would, Ray." Toby's voice cracked slightly and he said the whole sentence very fast.
"Then what happened?"
"In the shower it came back, told me to wait, so I did, I don't know how long for, but when Oz came in it… it… it told me to kill him, Ray." Toby's eyes were scared.
"But you didn't."
"Obviously." Toby smiled slightly but it did not reach his eyes.
Ray seemed satisfied but it was clear he could sense that Toby had left some information out. Toby's pager started buzzing and he called to Oz from across the room, "Fire downtown, come on, Oz."
LSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLS
The heat was intense and Toby was instantly reminded of the day previous in his apartment. Images of how the flames had licked and burned his skin, how they had sucked the oxygen out of the air filled his mind. Toby shook his head slightly as one of the fire-fighters was carrying a young woman out of the building and he had to get back to work.
The girl was so badly burnt you couldn't determine her age. Her hair had been burnt off, and there were burns that were covering her scalp and face. Her chest and arms were also burnt and the blood vessels close to the skin had burst, making her body slick with blood. Her legs looked as if a burning piece of wood had landed on her causing a thick black line of horrific burns across both thighs to her kneecaps. However, the worst was her eyes: the eyelids had been burnt off, they were red and bleeding; however, the blue of her irises remained, a permanent gaping stare.
"I've got no pulse, start the CPR," Toby said. Oz ran to her other side and while Toby held the bag valve mask over her mouth, squeezing it at the appropriate times, Oz pulled a defibrillator out of the red first aid bag.
"Clear," Oz said and Toby pulled the mask away from her face for a second. "Still no pulse," Oz said after checking again. "Clear." Oz put his hand on the un-burnt part of her neck and checked for a pulse, "We got her."
Toby and Oz grinned at each other and attached the neck brace before putting her on the gurney and placing her in the ambulance. Toby continued to force air into her mouth while he attempted to attach an IV to her severely burnt hand.
FLASH a flaming match held in a hand with red nail polish FLASH needles FLASH Will you be good?
Toby fell back into the cabinet behind him and medical equipment crashed onto the floor. He stared at the girl in shock, gasping slightly after the hit. Toby wondered if she had heard the voice, too. Did she do as it said?
LSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLS
Toby stood outside the room where the woman with the horrific burns was now resting. It had been eighteen hours since they had brought her in; Toby had stayed awake for the entire time, keeping his mental barriers up, not wanting to risk another unwanted intrusion into his mind.
"You look terrible." Toby turned to see Charlie, who had sneaked up behind him.
He turned around, faking a smile, because he didn't just look awful, he felt awful. "Hello to you, too."
"Have you slept at all?" Charlie seemed genuinely concerned about his welfare. Behind her the homeless guy from when he had left the ER a couple of days ago sat muttering to himself about the voices that only appeared in his head. "Hello? Are you okay?" Charlie waved her hand in front of Toby's face in a bid to get his attention.
"Yes, I'm fine. I think the two cases are related," Toby said.
"What two cases?" Charlie looked perplexed.
"Sarah Donnelly and our Jane Doe over there," Toby pointed vaguely in the burnt woman's direction.
"And what gave you that idea? Did you get a hit?"
"Sort of. Who ever did it had red nail polish."
"Well that's going to look great on my report: 'a paramedic had a vision of red nail polish at both scenes'. Come back with something more substantial and I'll look into it. And, Toby, go to bed – when was the last time you slept?"
Toby cocked his head to the side, mentally figuring out how long it had been since he had last slept. "Bout twenty one hours ago, and my next shift starts in a couple of hours, but I'm fine, don't worry."
"If I got a dollar every time you said that to me when it obviously wasn't true I would be a millionaire. Go to bed." Charlie turned and went to go talk to one of the night shift doctors, presumably about their Jane Doe.
Toby, on the other hand, turned and went to the ambulance bay, intending to do some research on the case. In the break room, he turned on one of the ancient laptops and while he was waiting for it to load he thought about his mother and how she had burnt down the trailer and then dragged Toby away. He was desperately trying to remember if anyone had been following them, but Toby could only remember his mother pulling him through the woods and to the cliff edge.
Once the computer had turned on, Toby typed 'Sarah Donnelly' into the Patient Finder.
Mother:
Christine Donnelly – Deceased
Father: Unknown
DOB:
Unknown
Next of Kin:
Unknown
Expected Discharge Date: 11/09/09,
into the care of Dexter Paolini
Toby stopped reading, guessing that Sarah was going into care. He minimised the Patient Finder, opened Google, and typed in 'Christine Donnelly'. Unfortunately, he found no mention of her on any of the usual websites, so he opened up the Patient Finder again and searched for her records, hoping for a clue as to any remaining family members.
Mother:
Unknown
Father: Unknown
DOB: 03/11/1979
Next of Kin:
Unknown
Previous Hospital stays: 1983-1989 – Rockford
Asylum
1993-2003 – Hollydew Schizophrenic Clinic
Toby stared at the summary. He clicked over for the full records and discovered that she had been in and out of day clinics and had been given so many drugs over her lifetime she had enough to open a drug store.
Suffers from delusions of grandeur, unwillingness to touch objects that have recently been touched by another person, OCD, visions, unwillingness to touch other people, believes can access recent memories, unresponsive to conventional treatment, EST showed significant results over a period of three to four months.
Toby stopped reading. Could it be that Christine was telepathic like himself but instead accessed memories via touch? Toby hit the print button and the old Epson printer came to life, printing page after page of Christine's psychiatric history. Toby glanced down at the little clock at the side of the screen; it read 8.15. Toby stood up and exited out of Google and Patient Finder. He stretched and yawned, realising that he had now been awake for over twenty-five hours.
The ambulance bay came to life as the night shift finished and the day shift rolled to life. Toby, however, missed this as he was taking a cold shower; he did not want to relax for fear of letting down his mental barriers. With his hair still wet, he was back in the main bay waiting for Oz and leaning against the wall watching Ryder yell at one of the other paramedics for scratching the paintwork of one of his babies.
Finally, Oz came running in at 9.15 and straight into Ryder.
"Why are you late?" Ryder asked, looking down at Oz.
"Erm… overslept." Oz seemed to regret his decision to tell the truth almost immediately after it escaped his mouth.
"So while you were catching up on your beauty sleep, your esteemed colleagues were out saving lives."
"Erm… yes." Oz looked extremely awkward. 'Help me out here, buddy,' he sent out the silent plea.
"Sir, he was late because of me." Ryder turned to look at him. "I broke his phone, so he didn't have an alarm." Toby wasn't a praying man but when he heard a phone ringing in the vicinity of Oz and Ryder he was ready to start, but unless Ryder was a big Young Thrilla fan it was more likely that it was Oz's phone.
Ryder raised his eyebrows as he said, "Don't you want to get that as your phone is miraculously fixed?"
Oz pulled out a black cell phone from his pocket. "Ray? Toby, it's for you." Oz threw the phone about three feet to Toby's left and he had to jump to prevent it from crashing on the floor.
"Hello? Ray, why are you phoning Oz?" he whispered into Oz's phone. This was fruitless, however, as Ryder had started shouting at Oz to the point that it felt like he must have had a 300-watt speaker in his voice box.
"You didn't pick up." Toby glanced at his cell and saw that he had missed three calls. "I've had a breakthrough, can you come to the university? Bring Oz and Liv if you want; it concerns them too."
"I suppose so, but I'mwe are working now. Maybe around six o'clock."
"Great. Look, I've got to go, I have to go teach, uh, I will see you around six," Ray said, and the line went dead, leaving Toby with the annoying noise of the dial tone ringing in his ears.. He glanced up. Ryder was walking towards the lockers with his hands behind his back muttering about insolence, whereas Oz was wandering in his direction.
"Thanks for trying, man, I appreciate it." Oz said as he held out his hand for the phone and Toby dropped it in his hand with his usual cocky grin.
Then they both automatically moved towards their belts as their pagers started beeping. "Suspected cardiac arrest in St Clair Ave E." Toby was the first to get to his pager and they both ran towards their ambulance. Oz turned on the sirens and they pulled out of the garage and onto the road.
LSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLS
Toby walked into the police department and started to head towards Detective Marks' desk. She was engrossed in her paper work and didn't see him until he was right above her.
"TOBY!" she exclaimed, jumping a little. "Don't do that."
"I have a theory," Toby said pulling a chair from an empty desk and sitting next to her.
"You got any evidence?" she asked, despite already knowing that the mind-reader rarely came to her with anything substantial, evidence-wise.
"They were telepaths," Toby said.
"Are you seriously expecting me to believe that there are at least three telepaths running around Toronto? Maybe if this was a US TV show I might believe it, but in real life this doesn't really happen."
Toby pulled out Christine's medical file. "Look," he said, pointing at the psychiatric summary. "It says she could get memories from objects."
"No, Toby, it says she thought she could." Charlie looked at Toby, a more sympathetic expression on her face "I know you don't want to be alone in this, but you can't assume everyone who hears voices is a telepath, the world isn't that special."
"It's not just that. I got a hit off that burn victim: she was hearing the same voice I am. We find the voice, we find the killer."
"What voice?" Toby's eyes widened; he hadn't wanted anyone but Ray to know about the mysterious voice.
"It doesn't matter. Look, Ray has a theory, but before I go see him I need to figure out who out Jane Doe is, see if she's telepathic too."
"Do you think this person is after telepaths?"
"Maybe – look, do you have any leads on the burn victim?" Toby said, dismissing her question.
"She doesn't live in the building. We scanned her through the criminal database, but her fingers were so badly burnt we only could get partial prints."
"And?" Toby asked.
"Ten possible matches." Toby's face fell; how he was meant to narrow that down before six o'clock was anyone's guess. "However," Charlie started to type into the computer, "only one of them has ever been put into psychiatric care: Lucy Evans." She turned the screen so Toby could see it better. "Breakdown at a stadium. She was screaming that she couldn't take the voices, but after seventy-two hours she was released from Hollydew Schizophrenic Clinic,"
"Hollydew, I've heard that name before. Christine Donnelly went there and maybe that's the connection. Try to get patient lists, I have to go meet Ray."
"Do you think his theory will have something to do with the case?" Charlie asked, looking hopeful.
"Possibly." Toby waved goodbye and ran down the stairs.
LSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLSLS
Toby sat in the back of the tram, which was full fit to bursting. A small baby was crying at the front of the tram; her mother cooed softly to calm her down.
FLASH "Do you like your little brother?" FLASH "Run. Hide."
Toby shook slightly. The memory had broken through the mental barriers that he had been keeping up for almost thirty-six hours, and now this single memory opened the floodgates as 2.5 million people's thoughts raced through his brain. He put his head in his arms and concentrated on not hearing and slowly the throng of voices reduced until he could barely hear them.
The tram stopped and people got off, and Toby saw the man from the park the other day get on. Sarah's father shuffled into a seat looking even more exhausted than Toby did.
"Hello?" Toby said quietly to the man.
"It's you, the paramedic!" The man seemed shocked and slightly afraid. Toby fought against his instinct to read his mind and find out what he had been thinking.
"Yes, it's Toby Logan." Toby smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring manner.
"Robert Wilson," the man said before turning to look out of the tram window at the people in the street.
"Do you know who killed Christine?" Toby said. Robert looked surprised and the hint of fear returned to his face.
"No."
Hollydew. I should have done as she said. The thought burst through Toby's defences.
FLASH Fingers with red nail polish typing on a key board.
FLASH Get me your daughter.
FLASH Blood dripping down the red nails and splashing onto the leaves below. "Are you okay?" Robert asked, seemingly unaware of what had just happened.
"Who is she? The lady with red nail polish." If Robert had looked afraid before, it was nothing to how he looked now; he jumped up out of his seat, off the tram and into the traffic. Toby followed, weaving between the cars to get to the sidewalk, but Robert was ahead of him and he dived into an alley and scaled a fence. Toby jumped up to follow but he was so exhausted from lack of sleep that not even the adrenalin coursing through his veins gave him enough energy to follow.
"DAMMIT!" Toby returned to the main road and decided to walk the rest of the way to the university despite the fact that his legs were beginning to feel like lead beneath him.
A/N I know he doesn't get on a tram in the TV Show but Toronto does have them and he can't get Taxis all the time it would be more expensive than a car. Oh and lots of action next chapter so review. But I won't get the next chapter out until I return from Sweden, I'll probably write it out here, this place is so beautiful and inspiring but I won't post until I return to England.
Oh and review
