Thanks for reading! :-)
Chapter title is from song by Tabache.
49
The Quiet Place - Tabache
This should have been easy, knowing Toby would be safe here, as safe as she could make him. The right thing to do was what she was doing now, setting her duffel down in the Durango, moving on to the next job, and she should have done this yesterday, disregarding Kim's insistence that they stay the night. She'd stayed far too long already.
It should have been simple to take the new wakizashi from Xavier's hand, except Xavier held on to it, cool gray eyes sharp on her face.
He glanced once at the Impala behind them.
"Be careful."
She nodded. She took the replacement short sword from him, and racked it into its place next to the katana. The back of the Durango seemed strangely empty, like it was missing a small backpack. All of Toby's stuff had fit into that backpack easily, and that was no childhood.
She held herself still, keeping one hand on the hatch of the SUV, aware of Toby watching her from where he stood by the white picket fence, Kim's hand reassuringly on his shoulder. All it would take was a tilt of her head and he'd be off, running back up to the house to get his gear, probably all packed up and ready to go, hoping against hope that she'd change her mind. She could set the backpack into that empty space, and they'd be off, diners and fireworks and everything in between, and they could make a go of it while the world crumbled around them, because no place was truly safe anyway, was it?
Slowly she brought the hatch down, closing it with a soft thump.
She turned to find Dean watching her, hands tucked into his pockets, waiting for a cue. He straightened and Xavier shifted warily, and this, this was reality, a tenuous truce at best, one that couldn't last forever. She'd pushed her luck too far already. She met that waiting green-eyed gaze silently.
It's time.
It was Sam that took the first step.
"Hey Toby." Sam crouched down, sober and curiously awkward as he extended his hand. With a glance at Kim for permission, Sam added. "You call us if there's ever anything, anything at all, alright?"
Toby's hand was engulfed in Sam's larger one, but there was nothing childish about Toby's firm handshake or the stern way he met Sam's eyes.
"K."
Sam let go of Toby's hand and stood up as Dean came alongside him, kneeling down on one knee.
"Hey, tiger."
Toby bit his lips inwards, locked down his expression, and stuck out his hand again.
Dean simply pulled Toby in to him, and wrapped him up in a bear hug.
Toby held on desperately, burying his face in Dean's jacket, reluctant to let go. They stayed that way for a moment, the boy and the demon, the most unlikely thing, impossible according to everything she knew, before Toby pulled back as Dean stood, ruffling Toby's hair with a firm nod of encouragement and turning Toby her way.
Toby dragged his feet in the dirt the few short steps from the fence to the rear of the Durango. He stood before her, eyeing the ground with his hands behind him. She knelt down on one knee, as she had done so many times before, so she would be on eye level with him.
Seconds ticked by before Toby looked up. He stuck a fisted hand out at her, a long loop of leather dangling down between his fingers.
"My dad gave me this. He said it would keep me safe." Toby stared at her hard, fierce determination in the set of his face. "I want you to take it."
He opened his hand to reveal the amulet he always wore next to the dog tags around his neck.
"Xavier helped me string it. He said it's the same leather on your sword handle."
She'd never been good with words and she wasn't good at them now. The tightness in her throat would have prevented her from speaking anyway. She bowed her head to control the moisture in her eyes, and Toby looped the leather strap over her bent head and let it slip down around her neck. The small bit of worked metal rested cool against her skin when she tucked it underneath her turtleneck, and she tried to think of something to say but there was nothing, except the tightness of her arms around the kid and the death grip he now had around her neck, clinging on for dear life.
It took a while to let go. She straightened and Toby stepped back with a deep but quaky breath. She managed something that felt like it might be a smile. Toby looked steadily back at her, his shoulders squared and solemn. In that moment she caught a glimpse of the man he would one day become, and she let go of the breath she'd been holding.
He'd be okay.
She stood and smiled more firmly, her fingertips on the amulet beneath her shirt before she turned to go.
It was time to hit the road.