Chapter 10

The days were long and the nights longer. The first big fight happened during one of those long nights. Caleb woke from a nap and they were gone. An hour later, Claire walked back in with Erica in her arms and she was smiling. Claire stared at him when she realized he was breathing hard. "We were chasing fireflies."

"How do you know they were fireflies?" His skin still itched with panic and he couldn't stand her smiling at him while the blood was rushing around his brain.

"Because they were. What else would they have been?" She shifted her weight from one foot from the other as she tried to read him but she hadn't seen this on him before.

"Could have been faerie light or will o' the wisp or …" His brain threw all sorts of supernatural creatures at his mouth that could make lights like fireflies.

"They were fireflies." She shoved passed him to put Erica in the cradle.

"You couldn't leave a note?"

"We were outside."

"Far enough out that I couldn't see you."

"Did you leave the porch?" She whirled on him, green eyes glittering with anger.

"That's not the point."

"If you had come around the side of the shed, you would have seen us."

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

"And have you stop me from taking my daughter out to play?"

"Our daughter."

"That's what I said."

"No, it isn't. You said she was your daughter. Like I don't matter."

"Why are you so mad?"

"I didn't know where you were!"

"We didn't go anywhere. We never go anywhere."

"You know what? Forget it." Caleb stormed away. He stomped down the basement and started hacking away at some packing foam. Claire fed Erica and he still hadn't come up when they both went down for the night. When she got up to change the baby, Caleb was gone. Basement was void of life and his shitty little car was gone.

Claire spent a week watching the doors. She went about her business and got Erica out and about but Caleb hadn't made an appearance in his own house. He stumbled in on Sunday with a week's worth of stubble everywhere and bandages on his arms. She slapped him across the face before she wrapped her arms around him. He smelled like a sewer but she wasn't about to let go.

Caleb got a look at her. "Where's my kid?"

"Taking a nap. You can't touch her until you shower."

"Okay." He nodded into his chest.

"Where did you go?"

"I was just going to the office for the night. I got swept up in a hunt. It was an emergency. I left everything here… I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry… we have half an hour to get you sanitized and for some grown up fun before she's awake."

"She's good?"

"I think she knew you were gone."

After a shower, shave and a tumble in the bed, Caleb got his daughter holding his hand as she tried to lock eyes with any object in view. She cooed the whole while. He got her fed and let her try to put his hand in her mouth while he explained what happened. "I was just going to get my head together because you were right… and I was going to come right back in the morning… I talked to Dean. He and Sam had stepped into some nasty business with someone trying to wrangle a daeva. I gave them what they needed and I was locking up when John pulled up. Said he was tracking a demon and he could use a hand. I went with, fully intending to call in the morning...

"So, John and I get to talking and I was telling him that I had just talked to Dean and telling him what was happening with their hunt. Then John gets a voicemail from Dean. He drops me off to handle this creature while he goes up to help with their hunt. I got in over my head." He gestured with his stitched up arms. "I got it, though."

"And what happened with the others?"

"John swung back by. He was tore up. I got him patched and the thing that was following him caught up to us and did a bit more damage but that's my wheelhouse. Daevas. He told me how he got away and at first light, we were gold. Then we went chasing the signs. I got caught up. Then beat up. We got some clues but not any damn closer. Then he dropped me off at the office this morning."

"Caleb…" She touched his smooth skin, rubbed at a scabbed over nick. "Why didn't you call?"

"At first… cause I was still mad. Then… we were so busy… I just didn't want to ruin myself worrying about you. Then I didn't want to get to talking about you in front of him because he always makes it about himself." He stared at her. "This is my story and I'm tired of him being in it."

"Okay." She nodded. "But you're okay?"

"I'm home and I got my girls. I'm okay."

"You tired?"

"No. Not a bit." He shook his head. "Me and the baby are gonna play. Can you get me something from town?"

"What do you want? Chicken fried steak?"

"Hmmm." He kissed her mouth. "And okra."

"And a vat of mashed potatoes."

"Sounds good." He nodded.

Claire took her time to breathe out the last of her panic that she hadn't burned in the bed with him. She got to the diner and placed the order. She picked up some twinkies and ate three while she waited at a red light. Ate two more on the road back to the house. She bought a pie off a stand along the way. She was composed when she made it back into the house and found both of them on the floor playing parachute with a sheet. Erica's giggles filled the air.

Claire set dinner out. They got Erica in a bassinet with a bottle. Claire ate some chicken while Caleb devoured his chicken fried steak. She picked at her green beans. Her eyes kept coming back to the cuts on his arms. Bandages over everything but he didn't seem to be in any pain. He seemed very calm. When night fell, he was weeding the yard. Weeding the yard in the dark.

Claire put Erica to bed with a bottle. She put protection symbols on the inside of the nursery door, along with a barrier of salt before going back downstairs to watch him some more. The more she watched him, the more she was sure and the more her horror had grown at the thought she'd left him alone with the baby while she'd gone to town. Her mind kept going back to Sebastien and that damned spirit. Kept going back to John's story about what might have been done to his Sammy.

She rigged the house; salt at the doors and windows, holy water in her pockets, gun on her belt. She couldn't find any books. Caleb had taken them all to his office. Her journal was buried under a pile of books in the study. Then she stilled. She and Caleb had made love after his shower. She didn't know anything. She felt so lost. Her world tilted and then she rushed downstairs to watch him as he began trying the doors. His eyes. Dark as pitch and wild. He was smiling.

Her hands found a phone. She started dialing but stopped. She couldn't do that. She couldn't call him here. She made a trap. Salted the foyer before she broke the line at the door and let him in. His mouth was harsh on hers. His hands hurt her as she struggled to finish what she'd started. She managed to break away and reconnect the salt line before leaping to safety in the kitchen. He talked fast and furious, using all kinds of words on her that were just enough truth to hurt and just enough wrong to fuel her fire as she ran through her paces with the exorcism. He shrieked when the holy water hit his flesh. She could hear the baby screaming and she'd have to push past him to get to the stairs but she made herself stay put and keep reading the words she'd written on the pages. When his head was thrown back and the scream seemed to be endless, she knew it was done but she still stared.

Caleb sobbed on the floor. Blood filled his bandages as if the wounds had just happened. There it was. The scabs on his arms had not looked right. When he lifted his blue eyes to her, Claire scooted to the salt line. Claire had to ask. "Did that thing do anything to our baby?"

He shook his head and looked up at the ceiling. She was still screaming. Claire leapt over him and ran up the stairs. The salt line was undisturbed. Erica was red-faced and her bottle was on the floor. Claire picked her up and calmed her down. She got her bottle and settled once more. Claire looked up when Caleb stood in the doorway. "She's okay."

"Claire…" Caleb stepped over the salt line. "I'm sorry."

"What did it want?"

"Erica." Caleb's eyes were on the ground.

"Why didn't it take her when I was in town?" Claire asked softly.

"I think it was waiting for something." He shook his head. "Maybe for someone to come… I…"

"How long?"

"When John and I fought off that Daeva… something got in. It rode me for days."

"Come on. Let's go to bed." Claire took them all to the bedroom. She got Caleb's arms stitched up properly and rebandaged. He was so quiet. She kissed his shoulders and held him but he wouldn't relax. "I should have known sooner."

"It was good. Real good. John didn't know and he… he's obsessive about his protections. Uses them even when he's just traveling around." Caleb took a breath. "Took all my strength to take off on him so it wouldn't learn too much about what he knows. I…"

"Caleb…" She gently laid her head on his shoulder.

"We just need to be careful. Vigilant." He told her. "It could still be coming. I don't know when."

"Then we shouldn't be here when it comes." She agreed.

"We can't roam around with a baby." He shook his head and turned his head to look at where their daughter slept on the bed. "She's still so little."

"We'll make it work."

"You…" Caleb shut his eyes. "You're gonna have to go without me. I need to call John and tell him what's happened. This… this could be it. It's gonna have to be now or never and I promised him I'd help."

"Okay." She nodded and cupped his face. "You're going to be okay. We're going to be okay. I'm gonna…"

"Don't tell me where you're going and do not go to see Sebastien. Go somewhere else. Don't go to any place you've ever been before. You got it? Until I call you."

"Okay." She nodded.

TBC