ART OF THE DARK - PART 33
Although they are all looking at precious Evan, gentle, smaller, more delicate baby Evan hanging by his collar in the tight grip of Roseanne…
Todd isn't threatened in the least. He sniffs and makes a grunting sound that's much like a restrained bark a dog might make, glaring at Roseanne. His muscles relax though because now he's dealing with a known enemy which is something he understands, something he can wrap his head around...and Rosie smiles at him.
"Don't be mad, lover. You knew this would happen. And so did YOU," she says, looking at Téa, as Evan's face puckers into the beginnings of a cry.
"Oh god, Roseanne, please…," Téa pleads, hands out in a calming gesture. "Please don't do this...he's just a BABY...PLEASE…please..."
Her terror is palpable and it makes the air thick and heavy. Evan starts squirming more so, crying now from the rain hitting him in the face and Roseanne's uncomfortable grip. Téa shifts around in a panic unlike any she's ever known, not knowing what to do…
… especially when she sees what Roseanne has in her other hand.
"Knife...she's got a knife...she's got a knife," she says, to herself mostly, but Dean hears her and pushes in tighter with the gun, bracing himself against the car. He's so afraid for Téa because he's sensing she's about to run at Roseanne and that could be deadly disastrous.
"Rosie, don't be stupid," he says. "Let the kid go."
"Oh, you're so manly, D...right to the last," she chuckles.
Todd wants to walk over and tear into her, taking his little Evan into his arms. It would be easy, except the boy… he's too fragile. The risk is too great. Todd sighs with composure and he gets that things are swirling around him in a quiet before a frenzied storm. And GOD that storm is coming. He had power over her before. It was, at one point, within his thoughtless grasp. They could transport themselves into a place between reality and nothingness with hardly any effort at all. The ability though is a reach now.
What's happened that he can stand here now and do nothing? He is afraid for Evan, so he talks to him, tries to calm him, wordlessly.
It's okay, kid, nothin' to be afraid of. See the rain? Stick your tongue out, taste how clean it is.
He looks over at Dean, at his apparent taking control of the situation, and looks back at Roseanne, who just shakes her head. And then... he sees a whimpering Evan open his mouth and lift his head to stick the tip of his tongue out.
Yeah, boy, that's right, that's the taste of freedom. Now look at me, look over here… I am your daddy, remember that? So listen to ME, not to anyone else, just me. Whatever she told you, is a lie. You don't have to be scared, though, just DON'T DO what she says.
"This is no fuckin' joke, Roseanne...I WILL PUT YOU DOWN! LET HIM GO!"
Dean's voice booms-a warning that anyone else would take very seriously-but Roseanne just laughs at him.
"You practice that in front of a mirror, baby? That action-movie stance? That threatening voice?" She laughs, the piano staccato echoing across the clearing where she stands. "Think I'm scared of YOU? THINK AGAIN! YOU are powerless, baby...POWER-LESS. ALL OF YOU!"
She drops the knife down in her hand, getting a better grip on the handle, the quick move making Téa scream in fear for Evan, "NO!"
The outburst makes Roseanne laugh. Todd sees the blade, so dangerous there in her hand, and recognizes it..
MY knife… can't even get your own shit.
Chuckling, he says, "If you think you're gonna kill my sons, bitch… you're the one who better think again."
He draws her honestly surprised look.
"Ohhhh, look at YOU, suddenly growing a pair. Well, y'know what? Too late."
She says her words in a sing-songy, mocking way and it irritates Todd… like a mosquito in his boxers. He shakes his head as if to clear her but it's no good because the bitch keeps talking in that same way.
"It's a done deal, baby. You and Téa are DONE, shredded from the inside out. You've blown each other straight to hell with all that pathetic self-involvement, with that back and forth bullshit you've been bathing yourselves in for years." She looks back and forth between them, backing up a bit more, her feet squishing in the wet grass, feeling her arm starting to tire from holding the baby, but she keeps her grip tight. "You both had choices...and THIS is where they led you."
"Oh, what is THIS, my mistress? You teaching us morals now? Is THIS what your purpose is? All THIS… " Todd waves his hand around to point out what she's doing with Evan… "is to teach US morality?"
Roseanne cocks an eyebrow, shrugs.
"I just turned the mirror back on you. I just showed you-BOTH OF YOU-what was REALLY there. The rapist is still alive and well inside of YOU, baby. I'm proof of that." Her last words are purred and she looks at Téa as she says them.
Téa can only shake her head in disbelief and she knows it looks like she's shocked or didn't know but she did. She has no doubts in an instant that the "fucking" RJ believed he knew of… wasn't that at all. What transpired between them… was nothing short of evil. She'd been warned, more than once. And at this moment, she doesn't care.
"Roseanne, please give him back to me… just hand him to me…"
"Oh what… you don't care about what he did to me?"
"Yes, yes… but please… don't put that on Evan!"
"He beat the living shit outta me, Téa … raped me TWICE. See the bruise on my face? Nice and purple...I should be glad my jaw still works. And you knew...you KNEW all along that he was capable of these things, and STILL...you defended him to the world."
Evan cries out again, getting Téa to hold her hand out, reaching for him with a cry that gets Todd to spew a furious diatribe, "Oh GOD, listen to her brilliance. Satan's whore, teaching US a LESSON in… what is it? Oh yeah, morality. Ha! Fuckin' morality…"
He paces now, looking rabid, but nobody sees that his eyes are on Evan and nobody else other than Evan hears his soothing words to him, that he's a powerful little soul, that he's free, that he's to separate himself from his brother. Todd keeps his true intent hidden. That if Evan cannot be saved in time, that if Evan is to die, he'll die alone. He won't take Brendan with him in any kind of psychic twins-thing.
"Yes! Exactly, lover! A lesson in morality because all of you are SO FUCKING IMMORAL!"
Dean finds himself torn as to whom to shoot first, seeing only Todd's rabidity and Roseanne's threats. Téa can only listen to Rosie, thinking maybe if she says what she wants she'll let the boys go because she knows now more than ever, love isn't always enough. The boys could still die… surrounded by so much… LOVE.
"What else did I do, Roseanne?" she pleads. "Huh? Tell me. What else?"
"YOU KNOW WHAT. Good goddamn question. You married him. Had his children, undoubtedly thinking it made you some kind of SAINT. Well, it DOESN'T and it certainly doesn't make you a VICTIM. Y'know what it DOES make you? NOTHING, nothing but a stupid, masochistic whore who used her education and god-given talent as a lawyer to GET HIM OFF! There's a word for that. I believe It's called... ...you enabled HIS behavior and then when you couldn't deal with his shit anymore, you ran to your KIDNAPPER for safety. You're AS FUCKED UP AS HE IS!"
Roseanne's voice is strong, powerful, and Téa breathes like the words actually have form and have just punched her in the gut. But she keeps focused on Evan. "Okay…," she replies, stuttering through tears. "Okay...you're right...you're right. I am an enabler. Okay? I agree with you, Roseanne, now will you PLEASE STOP THIS?"
Roseanne laughs at her, condescendingly. "You're pathetic. And no, I won't stop this. He's mine. They're BOTH mine." She brings Evan close to her, his face right by hers, embracing him in a gentle squeeze. She rubs her cheek against the baby's, nuzzling him as she continues stepping backward.
Téa pounds on the car, screaming, "ROSEANNE...GODDAMN YOU! LET HIM GO!"
Back around the front of the house, RJ hears her yelling, having finally, finally caught up to the house. It had taken him a long while to tread the muddy road and fog and he suspected that Roseanne had put some kinda juju spell on him or into the air because he found the walk exhausting like he was walking through a tunnel that kept getting longer and longer the faster he ran, the more he ran. It finally broke right at the three-quarter mark. God DAMN. Breathing hard, he races around to the back, gun at the ready.
When he sees the standoff he stops a good ways away and just watches.
Ohhhhh god DAMN, he groans inwardly, sick at the sight and oh so worn down.
"Do you see it?" Roseanne asks, her voice rising as she gets farther away. "Do you see where you are in all this?"
Téa looks around, eyes widening and then squinting, as the trees, the grass, the rain-as it all disappears, dissolving into a different place...a beach at sunset. THE beach. She breathes faster, as the sounds change, as the air warms to a gentle breeze…
"No, no, no…," she mutters, while Dean looks at her strangely, unease shooting through him.
"What's she doing?" he asks, but Téa doesn't hear him.
Roseanne smiles big and wide. "Aqui estamos en la playa Hermosa...you hear the chimes? You feel the breeze? Beautiful, isn't it?"
"The fuck is she talking about?" Dean asks again, but Téa's gone...unreachable.
"The dark one is here, mí tía...only it's not who you THOUGHT it was," Roseanne says, raising the knife, placing the blade's edge by Evan's throat.
Téa screams a short hard scream and Dean's eyes widen at Roseanne's move, yelling, "PUT IT DOWN!"
Téa's breathing is panicked and she could go on screaming except she sees a long black coat flapping about her like fearsome wings, feeling the sand starting to pull her down, down, down...oh GOD, the killer wasn't Todd, it never was…
… it was Roseanne all along.
The pictures had been a distorted vision of the facts as they would be. God, God.
"Evan, it's time, angel...time to go," Roseanne whispers to him before she yells across the open space, "Take a good look! Your precious angels are about to fly away...the death of one will bring the other's!"
Don't listen to her...don't be afraid, Evan, you're such a strong, solitary bird...so free, so independent. I love you more than anything. I always will. As a y father should.
RJ aims in, swinging back and forth from Roseanne to Dean to Todd...not sure which one to go for. Then he sees Téa moving with furious purpose and Todd making a motion that he too is going after Roseanne..
"TÉA! NO!" Dean yells, as she tears past him. Everything happens so fast-and so slow- time warping and twisting with chaotic energy. Téa runs straight for Evan, as fast as she can, as Roseanne starts to drag the blade along the baby's skin. Todd hits the dirt as well, going for Rosie. Dean gets a glimpse of a clear shot at Roseanne's chest and decides to take it, and RJ… he sees Dean about to shoot-with Téa in the way-so he fires at Dean knowing it's going to derail everyone.
Two shots echo through the air in quick succession: one as Dean gets hit in the leg, the other as he fires at Roseanne, his aim skewed by the impact. The wayward bullet slices along Téa's upper arm, burning a white-hot trail as it continues on to its final destination: Roseanne, who gets thrown back a good couple of feet.
The force of the hit did what it was supposed to… causes her to let go of Evan who tumbles out of her grip and falls to the ground, a fall softened by grass, air… and maybe even an angel or two. His screams bounce around the clearing, a call for his mother.
But of course, the bullet doesn't hit her center of mass as it was supposed to...instead, it hits her up around the right shoulder, splintering her collarbone just as Todd tackles her with all his weight, the two smashing violently to the ground.
Roseanne coughs up blood as they hit, spewing it right in Todd's face, evoking in him a sudden rush of glee at her breaking apart, breaking into bits, huh, bitch, huh?
But even as her body screams with pain and trauma, she uses every ounce of strength she has left to fight with him, kicking at him, pounding at his head and shoulders with her good arm, scratching his face, but that doesn't seem to lessen his power at keeping her down.
She keeps up the struggle, her grip locked around the knife as he slams her arm repeatedly against the rock-hard ground, trying to force it out of her hand. She screams as he does so, as every hit shifts the pieces of broken bone. But even so, her eyes flash with a mad sort of joy...and she eggs him on, through gritted teeth…
"Yeah, come on, baby...COME ON!"
The knife still not being released, Todd switches tactics and while still holding her arm down, while keeping the blade at bay, he gets partly up onto his knees and reaches back his other arm to knock firm knuckles against the side of Roseanne's head.
He is brutal in his assault of her, using all his power, all the strength he can muster. Once, twice, thinking he hears her skull crack and Roseanne groans loudly, the sound revolting, but then she rallies like the monster who won't die in every horror film.
"Ohhh is that the BEST you got, baby? Think that's gonna stop anything?"
"If it's the last thing I do!"
"MIND GAMES, LOVER! MIND GAMES!"
He then realizes that she's right, just knocking her unconscious will not put an end to her plan.
No… there's only one thing left to do.
She screams with laughter at his realization because she hears and FEELS what it means to him.
The fact that killing her will condemn him.
She knees him hard in the groin, forcing him off of her and causing him to moan in peaked misery.
Roseanne scuttles backwards, the knife still in her grip but Todd rises above the hurt and inches to her, himself being that same unstoppable monster.
"You're NOT getting to them, bitch! I don't care what it takes from me! You'll NEVER get them!"
"TRY ME!"
She swipes the blade, threatening him even though just gripping the handle is killing her, and when he reaches for her, she nicks him good, making him jerk back his hands and yelp in pain.
And she starts chanting madly, fervently, obvious messages in a strange tongue, summoning the worst…
Evan.
Téa breathes as she lies on the ground, cradling Evan, long having rescued him the best she could. She opens her arms to check him. He's screaming his head off from the cut Roseanne managed to make. She almost panics again but as she lifts her baby's head and examines him, she sees it's not deep, he seems fine. She then looks at her arm, at the bloody tear in her coat. She can still move the arm, so she must be okay except it hurts like a sonofabitch, so she just folds back up around the baby and stays down.
She doesn't look towards Todd and Roseanne at the moment, their screams and curses are agonizing enough to hear. She's got Evan in her arms and that's all that matters.
RJ sees Dean lying down by the car, holding the wound in his leg, trying to stop the bleeding. He runs around him as he looks into the car to check on Brendan. The baby is fine...just sitting there in his seat, unharmed, untouched, and quiet. RJ huffs in relief as he approaches Dean, who growls, "What the hell, man! I was trying to hit Roseanne, and you fuckin' shoot ME?"
RJ looks him over quickly, unconcerned. "Yeah, payback's a bitch, ain't it?" he snips, heading towards the nightmare playing out in front of him.
Though he's not religious, he suddenly prays like a crazed zealot that Téa's all right. That the other kid is all right. He sees her curled-up coat, her hair, her feet… and her profusely bleeding arm. He worries at that, wanting to get to her but she's too close to the struggling Todd and Roseanne who've managed to get into a tight tussle again.
RJ stops, watching them wrestle like two wild animals battling for territory. It's fierce and frightening, enough that it makes him take the long way around. The worst part is that he can't tell who's winning. He thinks they'll both lose, hopes it, even. doesn't see that there's any other possible ending. He makes a wide, slow circle around them, and finally hunkers down close to Téa.
"You alright?"
She peeks up and sees him...her eyes widen with shock and tears overflow.
"RJ, oh my god, oh my god...you're okay… I thought you were dead, oh my god. I though he—"
"Thought he what? Todd?"
She can't even say the words and he realized she thought Todd killed him. He shakes his head, "No goddamn way would I ever let that guy get the drop on me." Despite the chaos around them, he ekes out a smile to accompany the assurance. She just grabs his hand and kisses it.
"RJ, RJ…"
"Can you move that arm?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine… I'm okay," she says as he tenderly opens the tear in her coat, getting a better look at the wound. They are actively ignoring the continuing battle beyond them and they react when Todd grunts loudly and Roseanne scream.
RJ nods, pulling the tear in her jacket closed again, huffing, "Yeah, not bad."
"Brendan?" Téa asks.
"He's alright." With his hand, he puts some pressure on the wound, using the jacket sleeve itself to add pressure. She's bleeding, but it's nothing life-threatening.
They both hear the still-warring creatures behind them, they're cursing and growling wordlessly. He shakes his head, as Téa tries to see what's happening.
"What's going on?" she asks, her voice strained with pain. At least Evan has quieted, happy to be in mother's embrace, warmed in her coat.
RJ can see her mixed worries and forces her to look only at him. "DON'T, just don't. Believe me, that is one fight you don't WANNA see."
Across the way, Roseanne chokes out words, curses. She just got one hell of punch in, a hard smash of Todd's throat and he's been thrown back at the force of it and she's scrambling back, incanting, "Cut your ties to the world, little ones, fly home, go on… angels, FLY! YOU HEAR ME?! DO AS I SAY! DIE!"
She's then fighting Todd again who flew at her once more like a fullback on a football field. He felt the softness of her body and felt ribs crush beneath him. He heard her hard grunt. And once she was down, he wrapped his arms around her in a rigid clutch.
Not once did she release that blade.
They now both lie on their sides, her back against him, both gripping the handle of the hunting knife. Their strength seems to be matched despite the difference in weight, height, and Roseanne's injuries. There's no span in power. Roseanne head-butts him several times, drawing blood from above his eye, but the last thump infuriates him just enough to trigger a surge of energy, and with one fast move, Todd gets the best of her, violently wrenching the knife away as she screams, "YOU WILL NEVER WIN! THEY'RE MINE!"
Téa can't help but move until she can see around RJ despite his best efforts. Once he sees her eyes locked onto them, he gives up, turning with her to see for himself. He keeps his hands on her to keep her from getting any closer.
Todd throws his leg over Roseanne's, pinning her to the ground. He then he wraps his arm around her and slams his hand against her forehead, yanking her head back. The knife lies flat against her exposed neck.
He's close to her, intimately close, their heads touch, their bodies perfectly aligned and meshed… torsos together, legs together… any other place, and they'd be in a loving sexual embrace.
But no… this is war, this is the end.
He hisses through a tightened jaw, rasping into her ear, unknowingly loud enough to be heard by others, "We all have choice, Roseanne. You made yours. I made mine. We're here because we CHOSE to be here."
"Nooo, no, no," she groans, unable to move in his hold of her, the steel at her throat, his hand, bloody, mud-encased, hard on her forehead. "You are powerless… to the Dark One…" She laughs, choking, fluids coming up that she can't swallow.
"Naah… nobody else put me here, nobody else made me hurt you, and if I pay, I pay, and I'll do it without a fight because there's nobody else to blame but me. And you… YOU did this to yourself. You get that?"
Breathlessly, she laughs. "Nice try, baby, sooo fucking honorable… but you know tomorrow you'll be back to blaming … everyone else 'cause that's…. just… HOW YOU ARE, what you are… which is a low life piece of SHIT!"
"No," he whispers, holding her to him, squeezing his whole body to hers, molding to her. Keeping her in place.
"I KNOW what I am, and I'll always live with that. But my boys have a right to be something different, they have a RIGHT to survive. THEY have choice, too, and you can't take that away from them."
Roseanne tries to move, only Todd is too strong for her now and when she realizes there's no way out, she spits a strangled directive, "Do what you want. TALK all you want, you're in for one miserable fuckin' life, Todd Manning. You think it ends here? You think killing me will solve all your problems? Stupid sonofabitch."
Todd whispers loudly, squeezing her harder for emphasis.
"Last chance, Roseanne… your choice. GIVE IT ALL UP, the kids, Téa ...everything. Do it, do it…"
But she just laughs again, easily, calmly, there in his death grip. She can hardly breathe, her body in a vice…she shakes with hard coughing laughs… and shouts for all the gods to hear...
"NEVER!"
"Then I'll see you in fuckin' hell."
With that, with a loud agonized groan, Todd slits Roseanne's throat straight across her pretty, bluish veins, deep and true. The blade cuts through the thick jugular, ripping through muscle, blood firing outward, spraying both Roseanne and Todd.
RJ and Téa look on, horrified as Roseanne dies right there in the mud in front of them, seconds or minutes or hours of mindless, life-abandoning thrashing. At last she falls back limply against Todd like a spent lover. He slithers away from her body, a visible jolt going through him, a primal grunt coming from the depths of his throat. Only one or two feet away now, he crouches like a wounded tiger or something much less earthly.
Tea whimpers and clutches Evan to her chest, shivering like a leaf, looking at him, knowing Todd just killed her for the children, for her, took it all onto himself, sacrificing everything in him for his family. He has given everything. He will never find redemption after this.
And as she looks at Roseanne, all she sees-for the first time in a long time-is her niece. Her brother's daughter dead.
It's all gone, Todd.
Pain, shock, and blood loss make everything suddenly hazy and she just closes her weeping eyes to it all. She sinks against RJ, her head dropping onto his broad shoulder and he puts a hand against her cheek, a thumb on her upper lip, and feels her easy breath. He sighs, knowing she's passed out, thankful for it.
He then gazes at lifeless Roseanne again… then at Todd, eyeing him warily. He stares into the man's eyes, seeing him blood-splashed… tribal-looking… a savage. He's still in his long black coat and it's impossible to separate him from the covering-as-animal-skin. He's scary as hell, that's the fuckin' truth. RJ holds Téa closer to him, unconsciously shielding her.
Todd tilts his head slightly, looking at Téa and Evan in RJ's arms as if just noticing them.
Evan is crying again, letting everyone know he's alive, well, and most displeased. But Téa...her eyes are closed… she's limp… pale… and bleeding. She's not the gruesome mess that Roseanne is but she's been hit, hard. Marked forever. Nothing would ever be the same or recaptured. Life as they know it is over.
RJ sees a change in Todd, the sinking of his shoulders, the darkening eyes. His whole being seems to fall under a shadow of after-the-fact consciousness.
RJ pulls Téa tighter to him as Todd turns to look around. He sees Dean sitting up against the car, tending to his leg wound, gun on the ground. Todd's focus narrows, zeroing in...locking on Dean. Without a word, he reacquires his grip on the knife. It's a little toss of the blade, quick, just a second, but when it's back in hand, he's got a good goddamn hold of it. He's got skill with that knife and Roseanne's dead body is proof of it. He gets up like a knocked-down Spanish bull and walks towards the car, only slightly unsteadily… a hulking walk… absolutely looking like he's bearing the colored flagged spears in his back.
RJ watches him, wait wait, what the hell, eyes darting back and forth between the car and Todd.
"Whatcha doin', brother?" RJ snaps.
When Todd doesn't stop advancing, RJ yells out, "Manning?! TODD! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
His voice rumbles through his chest, rousing Téa who's still in RJ's arms. She blinks hard, shaking herself awake. She sees Roseanne again, but not Todd.
"What's happening...?" she whispers, but RJ is still focused on Todd.
"Shhhhhit...stay here, girl."
"Wait...what… RJ!"
"Aww Jesus… he's gonna kill him ...fuckin' IDIOT…"
"What?"
"Enough...ENOUGH of this shit," he mutters, checking his gun.
"RJ...wait!" Téa cries, grasping onto him with a sudden strength. As he looks at her…
...Dean looks over and sees Todd heading straight for him fast as fuck considering how out-of-it he is, how wrecked. It's the blood that really gets Dean's attention. Todd's covered in it.
Dean starts to scramble, cursing under his breath, "Damn it damn it…" because his gun is just far enough away that he has to stretch to grab it but of course, his injury won't let him. He grunts with the sharp pain as he uses his good leg to push himself backwards until finally he's got the gun in his hand. It's a pretty useless move, though, still, and all he can do is fall down on his back and point the gun at the fucking monster standing over him now.
"I got no qualms about putting you down, Manning."
Todd stops, staring into the black barrel, a familiar sight but one that always evokes the same response… pause.
The two men stare each other down for a moment then Todd sniffs, tasting his own blood and a little of Roseanne's probably. He clears his throat, trying to find his voice again, trying to feel something, anything other than a cold, solid intention.
Dean just glares at him, sweating from the pain in his leg and the surge of adrenaline. He spots the knife as Todd wipes the blade back and forth on his coat, cleaning it. Dean snarls at that, gripping the gun tighter. "Stay BACK, Rover."
"Couldn't just leave us alone. You HAD to come back."
Dean makes a confused face at that, but doesn't say anything. Todd slowly shakes his head without releasing Dean from his gaze, wiping his mouth roughly with the back of his hand-the hand with the knife. Dean blinks back the sweat leaking into his eyes. Todd towers over him and even though Dean has the gun, he thinks this is one time he could very well lose to a lesser weapon.
"You don't even care about her," Todd rumbles, "not really...all you want is to make your mark. And you call ME Rover."
"What? The hell are you babbling about?!"
Todd stares at him, talking with the deadest of emotion in his voice. "You marked her the day you first took her from me, marked US. You coulda walked away forever. But then you CHOSE to do this again. Taking her. Not once, but TWICE."
Dean shakes his head at that, knowing there's no explaining, not to him. Not now. So he simply says, "I didn't take her this time—I tried to help her. I'm not gonna apologize for that...especially not to YOU."
Todd just lets that go by with a slight turn of his head like it just brushed past his face. He looks back at Dean, utterly unmoved. "She was my life, Shelton, and you destroyed it. You killed everything. So now I'm gonna kill YOU." He is as quiet and as serious as cancer.
Dean tries to push back again to get away from Todd but he can't move quickly enough and Todd takes a step, pressing a boot down on the wounded leg, Dean screaming in agony. He adjusts the knife in his hand once again, trying so hard to feel something as he looks down on Dean in agony, trying so hard to feel more than the intention to kill this sonofabitch.
To BE more.
But… yeah, that's not happening. He presses down harder and Dean cries out now.
And in that pain, Dean knows he should just SHOOT the bastard. Except despite the pain, the risk, Dean hesitates to act cause God help him, Todd is still Téa's husband, the boys' father. She'd never forgive him for his death, no matter what. So panting with stress and pain Dean aims for the air next to Todd's ear and fires.
The bullet screams by, barely missing, and Todd freezes, somewhat startled and deafened by it. His eyes widen and in that second the world becomes suddenly clearer, sharper, the haze in his brain lifting for a second.
"Next one's going in your chest, man, I shit you not," Dean warns, even though he knows it probably won't make any difference. He knows this battle is lost.
Todd glances to the left, and rubs his head where the bullet went by. Thinks… something's wrong, everything's wrong. It's all so wrong. Dean's pained groans refocus him and he eyes him once more. Grasps the knife in a tight sure grip once more.
I've got nothing left for anyone...for anything.
"If I go, you're going with me," Todd says with that same disturbing quiet calm.
Dean just shakes his head again, refusing to be intimidated as Todd shifts his boot to Dean's abdomen to push him down, to keep him in place. He then drops down, and as he sticks the knife right against the soft tissue of his throat, Dean lifts the gun up and over, pressing into the side of Todd's head. Dean breathes hard, an image of Téa coming to mind, a memory of the boys, of her smile, of her eyes on his in the firelight…
… and he actually grins as he looks into Todd's eyes which flicker with the smallest bit of humanity, even now.
It's going to be okay, Dean suddenly thinks because he'd be taking THESE thoughts with him. They'd both be taking them.
But what neither of them notices is RJ.
Seemingly out of nowhere, he grabs Todd from behind by the hair and slams the butt of his gun down between his neck and shoulder, sending him right to the ground in a boneless heap. RJ watches him for a second, making sure he's out cold… then he raises his eyes to Dean who looks at him confused enough, and suffering enough to let his guard down.
RJ stares at him, waiting for him to lower his gun, and when he does, he takes a deep breath. Dean's eyes widen in shock as RJ raises his weapon.
"What are y-"
"Sorry, man. I really am," RJ says…
… then he fires his weapon.
The shot rings out, much louder than the others before it seems. RJ watches Dean collapse backwards but he keeps the gun up for another moment. Then slowly, his eyes close, his head drops, his arms fall to his sides.
Téa runs over to them and it seems to take forever to get there but she finally finds herself standing beside RJ with an unconscious sprawled bloody Todd at her feet and a lifeless Dean in front of her.
RJ looks over at her and she looks back at him with a silent, horrified expression. She hands Evan over to him, and bends down to Todd, watching him for a moment. She touches his matted hair, gently, putting curled fingers against his face.
Then she looks over at Dean and stands back up, moving to him, circling around him. She kneels down, taking in his damaged body. She'd never seen so much blood in one day. She touches his chest, lightly pressing on it as if to rouse him.
"Dean...?" she whispers but even as she says it, she knows. She just...knows. Everything inside of her pulls tight with tension and she grabs him up into her arms, whispering, "No, no, no...," even with her arm hurting. She pulls him up onto her lap, his head on her legs. She wraps her arms around his neck, puts her forehead down on his and cries.
RJ watches with Evan in his arms as she shakes with her tears, soft cries that gradually become louder, deeper and more heartbreaking. RJ swallows a hard lump of an ache for her, offering a silent apology, knowing this will be the hardest thing.
Hoping she'd understand in time.
Téa rocks Dean in her arms, sorrow taking her over, her cries growing in strength until finally, she has to lift her head and scream with grief that comes up from the bottom of her soul and out of her mouth, radiating out like a shockwave. She holds onto him as if she could keep him from leaving her, as if she could stop death from taking him. But seconds pass and she weakens with the effort so she just hugs him to her, pressing their faces together, selfishly wishing that if he couldn't stay, that he could take her with him. His words repeat in her mind, over and over, she had no idea how true they really were until now.
I would give up EVERYTHING for you, Téa...every damned thing.
To be continued...