Theodora slammed the hallow motel door shut and dropped her torn backpack in the corner on her way to the bathroom.

"Don't…" John Constantine tried to prevent the inevitable, but Theodora slammed the bathroom door to add to the disruption.

"What?" Theodora's muffled voice asked from behind the shaking door.

"I was going to ask you to not slam the door."

"Oh, sorry." She shouted over the flushing toilet as she emerged.

"Did you wash your hands?" Constantine asked without looking up from his notes concerning the Harrison residence. He heard Theodora emit a slight hiss as she backtracked into the bathroom. Beneath his breath he chuckled to himself, to think they had only been together a few days and already his paternal instinct was becoming evident. Theodora returned wiping her wet hands across her pants with annoyance plastered across her face.

"And before you ask, no I wasn't followed." Theodora said sarcastically as she collected her book-bag and set it next to her on the bed. Tearing open the zipper she threw a bag across the dimly lit room where it hit Constantine on the shoulder before landing on the stained carpet. Without so much as a flinch Constantine reached over from where he sat perched on the couch and retrieved his dinner. His eyes still on the notes he'd taken before the murder of the Harrison's he unrolled the slightly damp Wendy's bag and dug into his now-cold fries. Theodora spread her burger and fries across the wrapper, bit open a ketchup packet and sprayed it across her food.

"You were gone for some time." Constantine interrupted the silence with his parentally comment of the day. Theodora rolled her eyes and glared at his hunched figure, still intent on the scribbled notes.

"I was busy."

"Where?" Constantine followed up.

"A crack house." Constantine stopped squinting down at his handwriting to eye his teenage daughter. "Where do you think I was? The only place you ever let me go beside Wendys, I was at the library."

"You could have called."

"You can't afford the phone bill and I didn't have any loose change." Theodora answered as she took a bite from her burger.

"Point taken." Constantine returned to his work, flipping pages in a reference book beside him as he kept his other hand to mark a place in his notes.

"Actually I was going to go back there after dinner." Constantine looked at his wristwatch and then back down to his work.

"The library has already closed."

"Well that's just it, the librarian there- she, or he, I can't quite place it- likes me a ton and said if I ever needed it I could stay past closing. She thinks I'm a college student working on a term paper."

"Sounds like the basis for a horror movie."

"Constantine, it's a library!" Constantine looked up at her and smiled. "No, no, no. No more tales of horrible things happening where I'd least suspect it, so you battled in a library once. I doubt the one time I walk into one past closing time it'll turn into Ghostbusters."

"It's not a good idea." Constantine said carefully, all too aware that Theodora didn't quite trust his authority yet and not wanting her to rebel.

"Look, besides the point that you have no say over what I do or do not do, your protection is boring me to tears! If things keep playing out as they have boredom'll kill me before any monster does."

"We'll both go then." Constantine said, gathering up his books and scraps of paper.

"If you haven't noticed I kinda go there to get away from you," Constantine flinched at her words but continued to pack up his work. "Ugh. Fine, come and ruin my escape." Theodora crumpled up the remnants of her dinner and shot for the garbage can across the room, missing only by an inch. "Damn."

I know, a little short but after a huge break from writing fanfic I need to start slowly.