A/N: Okay...so not sure how it happened, but this story kind of got tangled in with my other two :S Yeah, I know... It sounded REALLY funny in my head... Anyway SPOILER warning for "The Future Holds A Lion's Heart"
Cut Me Down to Size and Paralyze Me:
Toni put down her mug and questioned them sounding genuinely confused, "You're a what?"
Dean shot her a befuddled look of his own then replied, "A hunter."
"Okay… Not really seeing how that's relevant here," Toni continued. "And Sam… You should know me better than that… I would never kill an animal for sport or amusement."
Sam's hand stopped moving and he seemed frozen for a moment. "No… Not that kind… We… We saw your tattoo and just came to the conclusion that you were a hunter."
She looked from Sam to Dean and then back to Sam. It was as if she thought she would be able to figure out what they were saying just by getting a better look at each of them.
"Sam… That tattoo is to ward off demon possession. I really don't understand what you guys are trying to get at here."
The younger Winchester joined his brother on the opposite side of the table from Toni replying, "Yeah, we know that." He tugged on the collar of his shirt to show her his matching ink. "When Dean says 'hunter', he means that you hunt the supernatural, just like we do."
Toni blushed slightly at her misunderstanding and quietly confessed, "Oh… I didn't know there was a specific name for it."
Dean and Sam shared a soft laugh with her then Dean questioned, "So, what do you call it when people ask you what you do?"
"To be honest, it's never really comes up," She admitted flatly. "The Colonel is the only family that I have left and he doesn't really ask me any questions about what I'm doing anymore."
Dean didn't fully comprehend that explanation, but he didn't press the matter because he noticed that Toni was deliberately avoiding making eye contact with either of them.
"How long have you been doing it?" Sam asked in an attempt to change the subject somewhat.
"Umm… I started just a little while after William passed away," she replied with an unwavering tone, not allowing her true feelings to betray her.
"Ahh… The not so accidental 'accident'," Sam surmised.
"Yeah… That was the first spirit that I vanquished," she commented as she held Sam's steely gaze. She severely disliked talking about her brother's death, so she immediately tried to divert attention away from her history and the focus of the conversation by asking, "What about you guys? How long have you been 'hunting'?"
"Our whole lives," Dean answered immediately.
Toni finally allowed her true feelings to show and stared at them in shocked silence. She tried to recover quickly, but her tone remained unsteady when she asked, "Did… Did Jess know? Because you… You nev… Never mentioned anything to me."
Sam shook his head sadly and before he could say anything else, Toni interjected, "So this werewolf that destroyed one of my favorite tops… Did I hear correctly that you know who it is?"
Dean couldn't have replied to her question if he tried because he was too stunned by Toni's quick change in focus, but Sam remained unfazed and answered, "Yeah, Dean figured that one out. She's a Delta Nu at the University named Valerie Stowe. We were going to head over that way again to check if she's made it back yet or not."
"Alright," Toni answered as she pulled another file folder towards her side of the table. "While you do that, I'll go over everything again. I'll try to see if there's any rhyme or reason for the 'who', 'what' and 'where's of the attacks."
When Toni's eyes remained focused on all of the paperwork as she picked up a pen to map out the locations of the incidences, Dean smiled more easily and tossed his empty bottle into the trash.
"Okay, I guess we'll leave you to that then," Dean answered as he nodded at Sam to follow him out.
Sam put on his tie as he got up and was about to speak, but Toni halted him by handing him a small white business card. "It has my cell number on it in case you need to get a hold of me for any reason."
Sam simply smiled then picked up his blazer and followed his brother out of the room. As he walked towards the Impala he made sure to input the details from the card into his phone's contact list.
As he started the car, Dean once again asked, "Dude! Seriously… Where did you find that girl?"
To answer his brother, Sam only rolled his eyes and shook his head.
While the Winchesters worked at locating their suspect, Toni meticulously marked the map of the city with a small "X" for every attack that had occurred over the last week, along with the date of the assault. She was in the midst of re-reading the police reports, yet again, when the phone sitting to her right started to vibrate.
"Hello?" She answered somewhat absentmindedly.
"Why do you have my dad's cell phone?" The voice on the other side of the line snapped.
"I'm sorry… What did you say?"
"Why do YOU have MY dad's cell phone?" The young boy repeated very sternly.
"I'm sorry, but you must be mistaken. Maybe you have…"
"No I'm not!" He interrupted almost angrily. "I've had his number on speed dial for over a year now, so what did you do to him!"
"Look kid…" Toni started to defend herself with her own tone of indignation, but she stopped suddenly when she heard a bit of a commotion on the other side of the conversation.
"Who is this? And why do you have Dean's cell phone?" A woman's voice questioned with a growl.
Dean's cell? Toni held the phone out in front of her to inspect it. Despite it being the exact same make and model of her own, it was missing the tell-tale nick on the top left side that she had put in it when she dropped it during her last visit with her father.
"Shit… Look… I'm a friend of Sam's and Dean must have picked up my phone off the table by mistake before they left. I'm really sorry… Umm…"
"Really? Well… We'll see about that!" The woman cut-in and then abruptly hung up.
SHIT! Sam! Sam should have his phone!
Toni immediately started to scroll through Dean's contact list to find Sam's number. As she did so, the phone started to vibrate once again. This time she made sure to check the call display. When she saw that the call was coming from the Sheriff's Office, she got her hopes up that it was Sam or Dean calling after they had realized that there had been a mix up.
"Hello? Uhh… Dean's cell phone," she answered somewhat sheepishly.
"Oh… Hello… Clydie? Is that you chéri? We've been worried about you. Are you feeling better? Food poisoning can be so nasty."
Food… Those guys! "Yes Sheriff, I'm feeling much better. Thank you."
"That's good to hear. You're lucky that you have your Agents to help take care of you… Now, would you mind passing on a message to Agent Plante and Agent Page for me?"
"Absolutely not Sheriff. Just give me a second to grab a piece of paper… Okay, go ahead."
"Well after they left today, we got a bit of a break in the case; a new witness. One of the girls' boyfriends came forward to report that he had been with her the night of the incident…"
After taking down the rest of the details, Toni promised to pass the information on to the two 'Agents'. Since this witness had been knocked unconscious during the werewolf's attack, Toni started wondering how many other boyfriends had suffered a similar fate and were now too embarrassed to come forward with what they knew. Or how many thought that they knew too little to be of any assistance.
Toni then went through the list of the victim's next of kin and called each one to enquire about boyfriends or other friends that may have been with the victims the night of their deaths. She was eternally grateful, to no entity in particular, that she already had a rapport with the people that she was calling because it meant that they would hand over that information with much less resistance. As she spoke with them, she felt herself tear up each time one of the fathers burst into tears when she informed them that her call did in fact mean that there had been a break in the case.
After her last call to the families was completed, she chuckled because that was most likely the first time she had been able to be honest when giving good new to the victim's families while working a case. But, Toni was never one to stray off topic for too long, so she quickly started calling the numbers that she had just obtained.
Toni was just finishing her fourth phone call with one of the victim's boyfriends when she heard the distinct rumble of the Impala's engine. Before she could place the noises of the engine shutting off and the bang of the motel room door being thrown open, she felt Dean's hand snatch his phone out of her hand while he slammed its twin onto the table.
She turned to chew Dean out, but he had already turned his back to her while saying, "Hey Lay… No… Look, I can explain…"
Dean then stepped into the bathroom and locked the door to continue his conversation in private. Sam sat across the table from Toni and handed her a new case file that they had retrieved from the Sheriff earlier in the day.
"So… Is your brother's wife pissed off because of me?" She asked very meekly.
"Nah. Once he explains everything about the werewolf attack, she'll be fine. Really, it's no big deal," he replied dismissively as he pulled her notepad towards himself. "Whoa! You've been busy."
"Yeah… Dean's son wasn't the only one who called his phone… The Sheriff had some interesting news that he asked me to pass onto you guys."
She was about to elaborate, but Dean clearing his throat from his spot beside her silenced her.
Then he quietly stated, "She'd like to talk to you for a minute."
Toni tentatively took the phone and nearly whispered, "Hello?"
"Hi Toni… Umm… I'm Addy… I really wanted to apologize for being such a bitch to you earlier. Toby and I were just concerned about Dean… You know life of a hunter and all. But he explained everything and I just feel bloody awful about how rude we were to you. I hope you can forgive us."
"Honestly it's not a problem. I can't say I wouldn't have done the same in your place. He's a very lucky man to have you two looking out for him."
"Ace! Well I don't want to keep you from your work and delay you from killing that damned werewolf. Hopefully we can talk longer in the future."
"Yeah… Okay, sounds good. Here, I'll uhh pass you back to Dean."
Dean reclaimed his phone and quietly ended his conversation saying, "Thank Toby again for emailing that stuff to us… Yeah… I'll call you later, okay? Yeah… Uh huh… I promise… Love you too."
He then stuffed his phone deep into his pocket and softly apologized, "Sorry 'bout that. I wanted to clear things up with her as soon as possible…"
"Yeah, no, I get that… Don't give it another thought," Toni cut in sympathetically with a half-smile.
"So… What interesting information did the Sheriff have for us?" Sam asked in an attempt to get them back on track with solving the case.
Toni's half-smile spread into a warm grin while she explained, "There was a new witness; the last victim's boyfriends… Well second to last. Turns out that she was probably killed before we were attacked, but her body was just found later. And after hearing that, I got to thinking… What if Valerie hasn't made it back to the Sorority House because she physically can't?"
"Huh… That's an interesting thought… You must have hit her with what? Two? Three silver bullets Dean?"
"At least," Dean answered with a slightly smug edge in his voice.
"Did you check for her in any of the hospitals?" Sam inquired with what could have been mistaken for hope in his tone.
"No, not yet… That was the next thing on my list. I was just getting to figuring out the 'why' when you guys got back. Turns out each of them were at a party the night they were attacked and they most likely left with a guy and were on their way for a little… 'amour', if you catch my drift."
"Okay…" The Winchesters replied in unison, neither sounded very convinced about her theory thus far.
"Well that led me to thinking…" Toni clarified as she retrieved a book from one of her bags. "Well there's one old, OLD belief that werewolves would go after you is you were cheating on your mate, or something like that." She passed them a book with a very worn cloth cover that had small Post-Its and other notes sticking out of it. "It's a book on Medieval French literature… Umm, I've found fairy tales can sometimes have useful-ish info… Anyway, my theory here is, uhh, well what if our little Loup-Garou is attacking these… I mean us women because she sees them…Us as competition for… Umm… A little 'amour'?"
"Like the couples' sexual energy is what attracted her to them?" Sam questioned in earnest as he flipped through the pages of the book.
"Yeah… Something like that," Toni replied sounding a little less confident.
Dean snorted through a laugh then commented, "Well for that to be true then that would mean that the two of you would have been on your way for a little 'rendezvous' the other night."
Toni blushed from ear to ear and down to her chest and refused to meet his eyes by flipping through her new set of notes. Alternatively, Sam slammed Toni's book on the table top and glared at his brother and snapped, "Dean! Seriously?"
The color drained from Dean's face as he instantly regretted his insensitivity, but before he could offer any form of an apology, Toni interjected, "So that's what I've come up with so far… I was going to start on the hospital next."
Sam stood up from the table as he replied, "No that's okay Toni, there's only a couple in the city so I'll go and check them out." He turned his attention to his brother and thrust out his right hand and barked, "KEYS!"
Before Dean could produce the keys for the Impala, Toni jingled hers saying, "Why don't you take my truck? You know, just in case 'Agent Page' here has to go and do some follow up interviews. Sorry Dean, I don't know you well enough to trust you with my truck." She tried to finish with a light-hearted joke to ease some of the tension in the room.
Sam took them from her and grunted a 'Thank You' before quickly exiting the room.
Dean was just about to apologize when Toni asked, "So, did you guys bring back any food? I'm STAR-VING."
The smile on Toni's face was nothing but genuine which helped Dean to relax considerably.
"No, sorry we didn't… But the Sheriff's wife sent us home with enough Jambalaya to sink the Titanic… I could heat some up for you if you wanted," he counter-offered.
"Wow something resembling a homemade meal? Now I feel spoiled," she replied as Dean started to dish her a bowl. "So… Your wife and son… They know about your work?"
"My wife?" Dean queried before placing the food on the table. "Oh… Lay… No we're not married… But yeah they do. She actually grew up in the business, but she's taking a break from it right now."
"Huh… Must be nice not having to lie about it. When I first started, I tried talking to my dad about it, but it just made him too upset…" Toni trailed off not wanting to go into any further detail on the topic of her family.
Dean was observant enough to see her discomfort and jumped in. "It has its Pros and Cons… Toby… My son… Wants to start hunting already even though we've decided that research is intense enough for him… At least until he's eighteen," he explained with a proud smile on his face.
Toni let him revel in his pleasant thought while she savored every morsel in her bowl. She felt very confident that Sam was going to find their Loup-Garou admitted in one of the hospitals, so when she was finished she started packing her books away in her bag.
"Umm… I usually just leave the police files in my room when I'm done on a job… What do you and Sam usually do?" She asked while Dean started bundling up all of the research on the table together into piles.
"It all depends on how quickly we have to leave town," he answered without taking his attention his off his task.
Toni shared a laugh with him as she finished repacking her bags. While they both worked, a silence filled the room and it appeared to make Dean uneasy, while Toni remained indifferent. She had been on the road alone for so long that a quiet room felt normal.
"So… You and Sam…" He start to question, but stopped in order to pull his phone out of his pocket. "Hey Sammy, what's up?"
"Get out of the room now! I think the Sheriff saw me."
"Saw you…"
"Let's just say that Valerie Stowe can't change into anything ever again."
"Right… We're on our way."
Dean picked up his jacket and turned to speak to Toni, but she was already stepping out the door with all but one bag slung over her shoulder. He shook his head, laughing quietly to himself then picked up their last bag while quickly surveying the room to ensure that they had all of their belongings then followed Toni out the door.
"Alright… Let's get the hell out of here," Toni commented with a large grin on her face as Dean unlocked her door.