I Promise to Keep it Safe and Sheltered From the Storm:
"Toni? Angel? When did you get home?"
Toni looked up while she continued grating a brick of cheese and smiled brightly. "Hey Dad… I got in… Umm… Last night… Hope I didn't wake you at all."
The Colonel took another drink from his coffee mug then looked at her skeptically as he replied, "Last night you say… How late was it when you got in?"
She swallowed hard and turned to the stove to add the cheese to the egg that was already in the frying pan. When she didn't answer him right away, her father cleared his throat and then asked in a much more stern tone of voice, "Antonia?"
Before turning around, she fiddled with the meal she was making to ensure that the omelet wouldn't burn then she shyly answered, "Umm… Around oh two hundred Sir."
"Toni… Did you get any sleep at all?" He asked sympathetically as he got up and walked over towards the spot where she was standing.
She let her dad wrap his arms around her in a loving hug without any protests. Then Toni nodded against his chest and pushed back from his embrace so that she could look him in the eye when she answered him.
"Yes Sir I did… I practically passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow… So when I woke up before my alarm and felt totally refreshed, I figured that I could make myself useful by making us breakfast."
He looked over from the stove to the island then kissed her head. "Alright, just so long as you got some rest… Thanks for cooking Angel."
The Colonel retreated to his spot at the table and returned to drinking his coffee while Toni finished cooking the omelet. She plated the hot food then passed it to her dad with an easy smile on her face. He was still watching her with a worried eye and the expression on his face didn't change until he finally pried his eyes from his daughter to look down at his plate.
"Crap! Cheese omelet with tomato and mushroom… That's your favorite, isn't it?" She asked with an almost apologetic tone.
He dad held Toni's hand as he smiled sadly and nodded, "Yes… Yes, it is angel… I just don't remember ever telling you that it was."
She smiled slyly and replied, "You can't rely on what your target tells you… You have to always be observant of their behavior too. That's the only way to be sure that you're getting to the truth…"
Toni was back at the stove by the time her father was able to react to her comment. He didn't speak right away and instead opted to just watch her while she started working on her own meal. The last time they were together, he had noticed that every move that she had made seemed to have been completely preplanned and calculated. She had appeared to be tired, even though she would never have admitted it, so she made sure not to waste any energy needlessly, except for when she was forcing herself to look like she was happy and relaxed when she was with her dad.
But now everything she did seemed to happen so effortlessly that she almost looked like she was floating around the room when she moved. His daughter looked genuinely happy and completely at ease. He didn't recall ever seeing her look like this in the past, so he hoped that he was reading her new demeanor correctly and wasn't just projecting his own hopes and desires onto her.
"I didn't know you paid such close attention to me or what I said back then," he finally answered while trying to keep his tone even.
"Well… To be honest, back then I didn't want you to know that I was paying attention… Remember, I was a teenager and they're pretty stupid… The cool thing to do when you're young is to rebel, so I couldn't ever let you know that I was soaking up everything that you were telling us or trying to teach us."
He chuckled and shook his head then commented, "I'm starting to think that I actually had it pretty easy with you when you were young… I kind of wonder much worse it is for other parents who have teenaged girls…"
Toni nearly choked as she laughed into her coffee mug then replied, "Well if you're willing to wait another twelve years, I'm sure that Vanessa would be happy to enlighten us."
After they both shared another laugh, her dad asked in a slightly more serious tone, "Speaking of… How did Portland treat you?"
"Perfectly," she stated towards her food with a goofy grin on her face. She continued to push her food around her plate as she explained in a blissful haze. "I think that it might now be one of my favorite cities in the country."
"Does that mean that you'll be visiting Vanessa soon… And more frequently?"
Toni finally came out of her daydream and her eyes snapped up away from her food and locked with her dad's. He quirked his head to one side when she hesitated and didn't offer him any reply. Her cheeks started to turn pink, but she remained silent and just chewed on her bottom lip.
"Toni? Is everything okay? Oh… No… Did you work on that case with the girls that were getting kidnapped while you were there? Did… Did that alienate you from Vanessa? Angel…? Angel… What happened?"
He dad was so worried about what may have transpired that he was almost in tears as he frantically questioned her, so Toni reached across the table and grabbed his hand as she spoke.
"No… No Sir… I haven't worked on any cases since… Well… Since Chicago. Things are great between Vanessa and me… Actually I'll probably get into more trouble with her if I wait too long to visit her again."
"So what is it then?" He asked much more calmly. "What happened in Oregon?"
She squeezed his hand gently then said, "I ran into Sam… Oh and Dean…"
"What? Really? And you're happy about this?" He inquired completely perplexed.
"Yeah… It was a good thing… Dad… You've read the book series what…? Three? Four times now?"
He avoided looking her in the eye as he replied, "I just started it for a fifth time."
Toni tried to keep from laughing, but she couldn't help but show how adorable she thought it was that her dad was such a devote fan to the story of the Winchesters' lives.
"Well… Then you should know by now that you should never underestimate Dean Winchester…"
Her dad still wasn't sure what his daughter was trying to tell him, but he hoped that if he gave her time to explain that his patience would be rewarded. Because of this hope and reasoning, he remained silent and just nodded and stared at her with utter confusion clouding his features while he waited for her to continue.
She took in a deep breath then inadvertently blurted out in her excitement, "Dean got Sam's soul back!"
The Colonel was usually able to keep his emotions in check and only let people see what he wanted them to see. In the past the only time that he wasn't able to control that was when he had turned to the bottle for comfort. He barely remembered anything from that period in his life, so he knew that there was no way that he had been able to control his emotions or his tongue. He had thought that he had completely lost the prospect of having a relationship with his only surviving offspring because he had not only spoken his mind during his inebriated state, but he had also been more than happy to let all the lies that had been the root of all of the insecurities in the back of his mind spill out as well.
Since he had sobered up in rehab, the Colonel had allowed himself to be a little less rigid, but he could still fool people whenever he felt there was the need. But right now, he had no over his body. Once Toni's statement hit his ears, he lost control and dropped his mug on the table while he stared at her completely dumbfounded.
"Shit! Dad…! Dad! Are you alright?" Toni called out as she ran over to the cupboards to retrieve a couple tea towels to try to clean up the mess. "Dad? Did you burn yourself?"
The Colonel wanted to take one of the towels from Toni and clean up the mess he had made, but he couldn't get his brain to relay that message to his body. Instead he just watched her in an embarrassed silence as she soaked up the black liquid from the table top.
"Colonel?" Toni tried again feeling slightly panicked. "Please… Dad!"
"Dean did it…" He started to mumble as he patted a towel to his pant legs. "He saved Sam…"
Toni sat down on a chair beside her dad then turned his chin towards her so they were looking at each other. His eyes looked slightly glazed over, but she still tried desperately to get him to respond to her.
"Dad?" She asked yet again while running her thumb over his cheek. "Please, please snap out of it…"
His eyes started to focus on her face as he mumbled, "He… He got you your 'Sam' back… Finally…"
"Yeah," she laughed somewhat relieved. "Yeah, he sure did."
He finally seemed to have processed everything fully then took her hand in his while they maintained a comfortable and unwavering stare. She still frantically searched his eyes for any indication of what might be on his mind, but now that he was back to being his more usual self, she was only able to see the emotions that he allowed her to observe.
His eyes twinkled slightly with mischief before he gently teased, "And I'm guessing that you that you got caught up… Umm… In the excitement of… Uhh… Reuniting with your college pal that you didn't get a chance to ask either of them how Dean managed to put him back together…"
Toni tried to glare at her gad and not to smile by biting her upper lip, but she couldn't fake being mad at him… Not after having been able to re-establish her friendship with Sam so completely just a few days ago.
"Actually…" She started somewhat smugly as she cleared the dishes from the table. "Sam and I have talked on the phone every night since we left Portland… So… Maybe we did cover that topic… But since you have such little faith in me, maybe I'll keep those details to myself."
She turned to face her dad after loading the dishwasher, still flashing him a cheeky grin. The Colonel tried to give her a stern look so that he could regain his position of authority, but he just couldn't force himself to portray a hard exterior.
"Toni… Angel, I am so sorry that I ever doubted your abilities," he apologized nearly begging her to forgive him. "I promise… I will do ANYTHING to prove to you that I have complete and utter faith in you… Just please… Please tell me how Dean did it… Pleeease!"
"Dad?" Toni answered sounding slightly concerned.
"Yes Angel?" He inquired in an overly exaggerated, sickly sweet tone.
"I'll tell you everything, but you HAVE to promise me one thing…"
"Anything Toni, just name it!" He eagerly agreed.
"Don't EVER beg like that again!" She teased. "It's kind of creepy."
He gave her a slightly wounded look as she came around the table to hug him. Then she moved to her seat and started her narration in earnest, "So… Do you remember all of those wicked bad storms and crazy ass weather we had a couple of years ago… You know the ones that everyone was joking about being a sign that the world was coming to an end…?"
The Colonel's face fall as his cheeks started to rouge while he avoided making eye contact. "No… No, I… I don't," he hesitantly started to reply.
Toni caught on quickly to the reason why her dad was so embarrassed. She didn't want to remind him of the years that he spent as a semi-conscious alcoholic so she quickly changed the subject from that topic saying, "Well turns out it WAS the Apocalypse and well… Sam and Dean being… Well Sam and Dean, they were right in the thick of it… And during that time they made some pretty powerful… Umm… Allies…"
Toni paused there to make sure that her dad wasn't too overwhelmed. His coloring had thankfully returned to normal and his look of embarrassment had morphed into a thought-filled scowl while he listened intently. He was just about to ask her what she had meant by the term 'allies', but Toni continued her story before he could do so.
"So apparently they… Umm… Met the Four Horsemen…"
"They what?" The Colonel inadvertently exclaimed.
Toni smiled softly then calmly continued, "They went up against the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse… And Dean must really be quite the charmer because he somehow… Umm… Befriended… Umm… Death… And it was Death that actually got Sam's soul back. Sam still doesn't know what Dean had to do to uphold his end of the deal, but he keeps telling Sam that their debt is paid and that they both are still safe now… Well as safe as a Winchester can be…"
"Death" Her dad echoed sounding slightly overwhelmed. "Death… Went to Hell to retrieve Sam's soul and… And neither of the Winchesters are in harm's way because of it?"
"That's right Sir… Neither of them will be facing the same fate that Dean did at the end of 'No Rest for the Wicked'. Now they just have to worry about demons, ghouls, wraiths, werewolves… Rogue angels… You know… The usual."
Toni had her chin tilted down but her eyes turned up to look at her father's face while she spoke. His expression hadn't changed in nearly five minutes and then he spoke with the same monotone that he had used before as he said, "Don't forget ghosts… The Winchesters always have to fight their share of ghosts too."
The Colonel finally cracked a smile when Toni lifted her chin to look him square in the eye.
"They sure do Dad," Toni replied as she relaxed considerably in her place. "So? What's new with you Colonel?"
He snickered softly then answered, "Well my life isn't quite as exciting as yours, but…" He got up then and went into the living room after motioning for Toni to remain seated at the table in the kitchen.
Toni stood up from her seat at least a half a dozen times because she wanted to follow him and find out what was going on, but she was so perplexed that she just sat back down before her feet could move each of those times. She was in the middle of standing up for a thirteenth time when her father finally reappeared with a file folder in one of his hands. When he saw Toni standing, he quirked his eyebrow cause her to blush as she quickly sat down again.
"So…" He started as he passed her the file folder. "Word has travelled pretty fast about how you helped out the Wagners… Jack has been singing your praises in the Rec Room to anyone who will listen, so a few other people have approached me with some of the strange stories that their families have told them or strange things that have happened to them."
He took a seat beside Toni while she opened the folder. Inside there were a couple of pages with hastily written notes that she could barely make out. As Toni was trying to make heads or tails out of her father's personal version of short-hand, the Colonel sifted through the pile of papers until he found the one piece of paper that he sought.
"This one seemed like the most likely candidate for you… Now you don't HAVE to take it, but…" The Colonel explained as he laid out some of his research for this particular case. "But it seems to be only going after young kids… From a camp close by… And I know that you really aren't much of a 'kid person', but Angel it's already…"
"Dad no worries… It looks pretty straight forward," Toni interrupted while gripping his hand to comfort him. "I think that I should be good to go a little bit later today to take care of it."
The Colonel quickly looked up at Toni when he heard the slightly wounded tone in her voice saying, "Oh no Angel! I wasn't trying… I didn't mean… Toni… Sweetheart you don't have to leave right away, I just… Well it's just that… That's the only exciting news that you've missed… I didn't mean to make it sound like I wanted to get rid of you or anything…"
Toni leaned over and wrapped an arm around her dad's shoulder to give him a hug answering, "I know you weren't Dad…. But Fond du Lac isn't all that far and since you've done all of the hard work, I should be able to get this done quickly then I'll head back here… I think I'll be able to sleep better while I'm here with you if I finish this job now."
He sighed audibly then replied, "So long as you know that I do want you around."
Toni chuckled, squeezed him close again saying, "I know Dad, I know."
That case then started an odd trend for Toni. For the weeks that followed the case in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Toni ended up working cases that were between two to four hundred miles from her dad's complex. On the rarest of occasions, she spent the night in a hotel, but a custom was quickly established whereby Toni would finish a job, return home, debrief her father and then she would sleep in her own bed.
"Shit Sam, I'm so sorry to hear that. How are you holding up?" Toni asked sympathetically as she propped herself up on her pillows so that she was more comfortable on her bed.
"I'm okay Toni, really don't worry about me," Sam replied in an attempt to dismiss her worry. "It's no…"
"Big deal?" Toni interrupted with a knowing tone. "Sam you can't bullshit me, you know that. There's no fucking way that you're good with what happened in Ohio. I mean… You lost your granddad and a friend… I know that you guys have seen more than your fair share, but this has got to suck beyond belief."
She paused there to let him reply, but Sam remained completely mute. They both then stood their ground in a defiant silence with their phone to their ear, waiting for the other to break first. After a couple of minutes, Toni smiled triumphantly at her reflection in the vanity mirror across the room when she heard Sam sigh then cleared his throat.
"Well, you're right… It wasn't fun," he finally conceded. "But casualties are common part of war that we all have to learn to deal with, right?"
Toni pursed her lips trying not to smile at that comment and then she replied, "Hey I thought that we agreed to play nice Sam… No fair throwing my own words of wisdom at me."
Sam snickered softly saying, "Sorry… Sorry… But it's true. We've… We've lost a lot of good people over the years and… Well, we just… We can't let it stop us from continuing on, you know?"
As Sam spoke, Toni sat up off her pillows and swallowed uncomfortably at an image of Jessica that flashed in her mind. Toni had never really been the jealous type, but she had envied Jessica slightly for her relationship with Sam. Although she knew that she would never be the woman Sam would want to settle down with, Toni still wondered what it would be like to be the woman that Sam looked at with such adoring affection like he did whenever she saw him with Jessica. It took more than two semesters for the three of them to be able to hang out and feel somewhat comfortable together whenever they were with their group of mutual friends, but they managed it for a while.
So when Sam spoke about the people he had lost, it was that woman's face that immediate came to Toni's mind as she almost tearfully said, "Oh God Sam, I'm so… I feel like such a… I'm sorry."
They both fell silent again and then Sam caught onto her reasoning and quickly offered, "No Toni… Don't feel guilty… It's fine… I mean, yeah we've had more than our share of, you know… So we've learned how to deal with it."
Toni relaxed against her mound of pillows again replying, "Yeah that may be true, but it doesn't change the fact that I wish that there was something that I could do to help you guys."
This time it was Sam's turn to smile knowingly at his reflection as he answered, "Well… Since you offered…"
Toni sat up slowly again as she retorted with mock anger, "You bastard! You set me up! You've had a job that you wanted to pawn off on me this whole time…! But seriously Sam… You didn't have to butter me up first; you know that I'm always more than happy to help."
"I know," Sam chuckled. "I know, but that was fun… Anyway… Dean and I are heading to Chester, Pennsylvania for… Well for a really strange… We don't even know what it is kind of job…"
"Okay," Toni cut in skeptically when he paused. "You two are heading to PA, but you don't want my help there?"
"No, it's probably best if we keep it to just the two of us until we know exactly what it is that we're dealing with and all," Sam explained apologetically. "But there was this one job that we found in Parker, South Dakota… We thought that Bobby would be up for it, but he's not really ready to take on anything just yet."
While Sam was stumbling to get his words out, Toni had moved over to her computer desk and was mapping out a route from Madison, Wisconsin to Parker, South Dakota.
"Okay so then you thought of me… I'll let it slide that I'm your second choice… So what is that I'm looking for while I'm there?"
"Well… What do you know about vampires?" Sam questioned as a response.
"I know that I'm more than handy with a machete," she commented in a smug yet defensive tone. "But… Umm… How many are there going to be?"
Sam could hear the apprehension that Toni was trying not to show in her voice, so he immediately jumped in saying, "As far as I can tell, it's just the one… But we think that he might be trying to reestablish a coven, so if you run into anything that's too harry…"
"I'll call for back up," Toni cut in softly.
"Good… And you know, Bobby isn't too far from there if you…"
"I'll call for back up Sam… And I'll check in with Bobby too once I'm done," Toni asserted with a quiet laugh. "Quit worrying so much. I'll behave myself. But you have to promise that you and Dean will be careful to."
"We will Toni, we will."
"Okay good. So I'll see you soon."
"Definitely."
As Toni hammered down on the accelerator, she awkwardly gripped her left thigh with her right hand. Her eyes darted from side view mirror to side view mirror to rear view mirror before finally landing on the speedometer and then she repeated the circle again. She silently pleaded to God that he would keep the roads clear and (most importantly) free of any highway patrol officers. She knew it wasn't too much farther that she had to drive, but she still had to get there sooner than later or things could turn from uncomfortable to completely unbearable for her too quickly.
She stopped only once out of pure necessity en route to her final destination. If she didn't take that break, she worried that she might pass out in the middle of the highway and kill herself or worse. To further ensure that her eyes wouldn't drift closed, Toni would notch the belt around her thigh a little bit tighter every five miles. At least she did up until the leather started to dig so far into the skin of her thigh under her jeans that it threatened to draw blood on its own.
"Fuuuuuck… Fuck!" She cursed without letting up the pressure of her right foot or right hand after she sucked in a few quick breaths through her clenched teeth and then coached herself out loud, "Fuck… Just hang on… Not much farther…"
After blinking the fog of pain out of her eyes, she almost frantically sought out a street sign to tell her where she was right now. She figured that she should have hit city limits by now, so she was also looking for the less obvious signs that she had been told to look out for. This was made more difficult as twilight descended, but having that to focus on helped Toni to keep from succumbing completely to the pain radiating from her leg.
"Two… (Deep breath) Three… (Deep breath) Fuck… Four… Shit," she seethed before she finally reached the fifth driveway from the chain saw carving of a grizzly bear with a hub cap hanging from its left paw. "Fuck… Please be it… Please…"
When she finally made it through the arch way that confirmed that she had finally made it, Toni allowed herself to take a deep breath. She then parked her truck and took a couple of minutes to stead her breathing before opening her door. The amount of blood that she had lost had started to affect her coordination and as she poured her weight out of the driver's seat, Toni fell momentarily to her knees. She clawed the side of her pickup truck to force herself to her feet and didn't even bother to brush the dirt off her knees before slowly making her way to the front stairs of the house.
By this point, her left leg was almost completely useless so Toni wrapped the tail of the belt around her left palm as many times as she could to puppeteer her leg up the stairs. At the top, she paused to catch her breath and wiped her sweaty brow with her right hand, smearing blood across her forehead to her right temple. She half expected then front door to fly open, but surprisingly enough, she really hadn't made too much extra noise, so it remained closed.
She swallowed a wave of nausea that hit her and quietly told herself, "Just three more steps Toni…Three… Count them out…" She slowly dragged her left leg, silently counting with her eyes squeezed tightly. Her hand finally hit the door frame when she reached 'five' and Toni once again took a couple of seconds to rest as she slumped against the painted wood under her left shoulder.
Toni had just barely been able to ball her right hand into a fist and knock on the door when it started to open abruptly.
"What do you want?" A gruff voice asked her without moving to offer Toni any aid.
"I'm here to… To see… See…" Toni gritted out painfully as she tried to catch her breath so that she would be able to speak.
"See who?"
Toni answered by sucking in a breath through her teeth, so he retorted in an unimpressed voice, "Look, I think you have the wrong place… Maybe you should just go and be on your way."
He took a step inside and started to close the door, but Toni kicked out her good leg to wedge it open. As she pushed herself up off the house pleading, "No… Please… I just… Need…"
Toni had once again lost her words along with the oxygen in her lungs. Now that she was upright, the man who had opened the door could see why she was in such terrible shape. At first he had thought that she had stumbled upon this porch in a drunken stupor, but now he was able to see the wound that was just above her left knee. Although she had attempted to stem the blood flow from her bullet wound, nearly the entire front side of Toni's pant leg had been turned an almost black color from the blood she had lost.
"I just…" She tried again as she took a step forward and fell into his chest.
He somehow managed to catch her as he huffed out a fairly loud, "Damn it!"
"Bobby?" A voice called out from deeper inside the house. "Bobby? Did you get cleaned up for dinner?"
When Bobby didn't answer right away, Ellen moved into the hallway to try to find her husband. "Bobby…? What the hell? Are you running away?"
Bobby struggled to lift Toni enough that he could carry her into the house because of the angle with which she had fallen into his arms. He roughly dragged the semi-conscious woman over the threshold answering, "If I had any brains I would be… But no…"
Ellen finally caught a glimpse of Toni's hair as if fell over Bobby's arm, so she flung the dishtowel she had in her hands over one shoulder teasingly saying, "Usually you sneak the girl in through the back when I'm not around Bobby."
"Very funny… But if you're done being cute, would you give me a hand?" Bobby griped just as Ellen claimed an arm. "My best guess is that one of the boys is expecting her."
"Sorry," Toni whispered. "I'm… Here… For…"
Most of her face was hidden by her hair and Bobby's chest so neither he or Ellen could really hear what she was trying to say. Toni attempted to walk but was mostly dragged into Bobby's study where the two veteran hunters dumped her weight onto the couch. Ellen immediately saw her blood soaked jeans and shook her head sadly.
She then kneeled down beside her sympathetically asking without expecting to get a response, "Darling how long did you have to drive to get here?"
Toni hissed as Ellen loosened the belt slightly to get a closer look at the wound. Any movement near the vicinity of the bullet hole cause an excruciating and sharp pain to run up and down the full length of Toni's leg from her toes to her hip, so she tried to grab Ellen's intrusive hands to stop her probing touch.
Since Toni wasn't saying anything, Ellen just sat back and moved to pet her head to comfort her saying, "Shh Darling, we're not going to hurt you."
Toni was murmuring something quietly, so Ellen pushed her hair back to lean in and get a better listen. As soon as the patient's face was revealed, Ellen nearly shouted, "Toni! Sweetheart, is that really you?"
Toni's eyes flew open and when her eyes locked with Ellen's compassion filled eyes, she shuddered and repeated, "Ellen… Here to… See Ellen."
"I'm here Sweetheart. Now just lie still so that Bobby and I can fix you up, okay?"
Ellen waited until Toni relaxed back on the couch before leaving the room. She met Bobby in the kitchen and took some of the supplies out of his hands to make them more manageable to carry.
"Am I mistaken or did it sound like you know our mystery woman in there?"
With a soft chuckle, Ellen replied, "Yeah I do. Remember that military brat that I told you about...? The one that helped Jo and I out?" Bobby nodded silently. "Well that's Toni McNamara in there. I told her to find us if she ever got into trouble in the area."
"Looks like she took those orders to heart," Bobby commented before leading his wife back into the study.
At first Toni attempted to be stoic and let them work on her without the aid of any anesthetics. As they cut and peeled away the sticking denim from her flesh, Toni kept her complaints to a minimum, but both pairs of hands hesitated while working on her with every involuntary whimper and his that passed through her lips. Toni's eyes were squeezed shut tightly while she tried to anticipate the pain so she missed their adverse reaction to her involuntary noises.
"Toni? Maybe it would help if you took a little something," Ellen offered as she pressed a bottle the injured woman's palm.
Toni opened her eyes and gripped the bottle to keep from dropping it. She wanted to protest, to proclaim that she could make it through without it, but the look in Ellen's eyes told Toni that the older woman might not be able to finish the job, so Toni started to unscrew the cap instead. As she chugged the bottle, Bobby continued to clean the wound and by the time he was ready to extract the bullet, Toni had completely passed out, much to the Singer's relief.
Toni would have been happy to stay on the couch, sleeping off the pain and booze, but she found it nearly impossible not to react when she overheard, "Okay you two… Listen up. You make sure… Keep those angels from sinking that boat. Do you understand me?"
Whoever is was that Bobby was speaking to may have answered, but Toni couldn't really tell because he hung up the phone so abruptly. Toni was just about to roll over to go back to sleep when she heard Bobby slam the phone down on the desk causing her to instinctively sit straight up on high alert to get a better handle on the situation.
"Toni! Geez, I'm sorry. I didn't wake you, did I?" Bobby called out slightly surprised.
She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes replying, "No Sir… I had a pretty good sleep, so I think that I'm ready for the day."
Her hands touched her legs and then she froze completely in her place. Bobby's eyes quickly flashed to where her hands were then he quietly explained, "I just did the stitching, Ellen changed you into those while I put away the supplies."
Toni swung her legs around so that she was seated facing Bobby and shifted the flannel of her pajama pants to make herself more comfortable.
"Oh… Umm… Thanks for fixing me up," she replied sheepishly. "I really owe you one Sir."
He walked around his desk and passed her a glass of whiskey saying "I think we can consider ourselves even after what you did for Ellen and Jo. My wife and step daughter haven't stopped singing your praises since that job in Idaho."
She took a sip from her drink then quietly said, "That was nothing, really."
"Alright… So… If you don't mind me asking…" Bobby started somewhat hesitantly while looking at her left thigh.
Toni looked down and softly interrupted before he could finish his line of questioning, "I brought a knife to a gun fight." Bobby gave her a quizzical look so she further explained, "The vampire was able to shoot off a couple of rounds before I chopped his head off."
"Ahem," Ellen cleared her throat dramatically to announce her presence. "Toni? My husband isn't getting fresh with you, is he?"
Toni snickered then answered, "No Ma'am, he's been a perfect gentleman."
Bobby was up at his desk as he flashed his wife a wounded look. Ellen gave his a cocky smirk then turned her attention once again to their guest. "Sweetheart, I've made up the guest room, so you don't have to sleep on the couch."
"Oh Ellen this is fine… It's more than comfortable compared to where I've been…"
Toni trailed off when she saw Bobby's shoulders shaking. "Sorry Toni, but you're acting like it's a request… If my wife has set up the guest room then that's where you'll be staying while you're here."
She knew that she was out number and that putting up a fight would be fruitless, so she nodded, finished her drink then wished them both a good night before retreating to her designated room.
When they were alone, Ellen walked up to Bobby and planted a warm kiss on his lips before saying, "I knew I married you for a reason."
The next day, Toni woke up feeling both refreshed and sore beyond belief. There were fresh bandages and peroxide left out on a small table by a window in the room with her duffle bag on a chair, so she took that was Ellen's way of letting her know that she was allowed to take care of her wound from here on out.
She took her time getting ready for the day because it was the first time in months that she didn't have to rush out of a motel room before a maid saw the blood and guts that she left behind in the shower. After her stitches were clean, she took a closer look at them under the lamp on the desk in the guest room.
Although she had worked with Ellen and Jo on a few jobs, Toni really wouldn't have called them 'friends' when she had talked about them because she didn't feel like she knew them well enough to do so. That being said, she knew even less about Ellen's second husband, Bobby, except that he was a seasoned hunter. Looking at his handiwork under a spotlight more than proved that point to her because his stitch work was meticulous and she figured that it would be the wound that would scar the least on her body.
After redressing the wound, she dressed in a pair of jean and a t-shirt then grabbed her favorite hoodie before making her way downstairs. She cringed slightly at how the gauze protruded so much, but she figured that she wouldn't have to pad it so much by the time that she made her way to her father's treatment facility to give them their quarterly check. Then in the back of her mind she calculated how long she thought that it would take for her to be able to walk in heels so that she could earn bigger tips at the club so that she could afford to keep the man who fathered her from killing himself with the bottle by keeping him in that facility.
As she walked down the hallway, she felt a mild unease but when she reached the stairs she nearly fell because her left leg seized up on her. She then slowly made her way down and on more than one occasion she had to keep her left leg completely straight as she moved down one stair at a time. By the time she reached the bottom, she stopped and all that she could do was shake her head. Who would have thought that a piece of metal the size of her pinky nail could cause so much damage?
Since her leg was so touch and go, Toni hoped that Ellen and Bobby would let her stay with them until she was okay enough to drive long distances. She had been working almost completely on her own since her brother William had fallen victim to a vengeful spirit, so she wasn't used to asking for help, but she still hoped that they would offer it so that she wouldn't feel like she was begging.
As she approached the kitchen, Toni heard Ellen and Bobby deep in what she thought sounded like a fairly serious conversation. After she had diverted her course from the kitchen to Bobby's study, Toni heard Ellen hoarsely ask, "So, no just me? But Jo too?"
Toni wasn't about to eavesdrop on their conversation to find out what Ellen meant, so she bee-lined straight to Bobby's desk to familiarize herself with whatever Bobby and Ellen were helping someone fight. She easily made herself comfortable in Bobby's chair to look over his materials, but felt slightly confused about what she found.
She soon became lost in the narration of some Ancient Greek philosopher about 'Fate' that she nearly forgot where she was when she answered the phone that didn't seem to cease ringing.
"Hello? Oh… Umm… Singer residence."
"Who the hell is this!" A male voice asked sharply.
Toni dropped the book that she was reading and pointedly replied, "I'm a guest of Ellen Singer… Who the hell are you?"
"Well I'm…" Suddenly he stopped and Toni heard a slight struggle on the other end of the line with one male admonishing the other for being so rude.
"Hey…? Umm… Hello?" The more polite of the two asked. "Are Bobby and Ellen there by any chance?"
Toni swallowed deeply then less forcefully answered, "Umm… I'm sorry, but… Uhh… They're kind of in the middle of something right now... I don't really think that they want to be interrupted either."
"Oh… Okay… Hey, wait! Toni…? Toni, is that you?"
Toni sat up straight and looked around the room as if the male on the other side of the phone had a camera feed from this room so that he could see her before she replied, "Maybe…"
He chuckled softly then tried to appease her by gently offering, "Toni, it's me… Sam… Sam Winchester."
"Sam? Hey… Wow, so you… Oh… You know Ellen and Bobby and work with them too…" She commented absentmindedly.
Sam whispered something to the other male that was with him and seemed to have had a bit of an argument with his companion before the younger Winchester could say, "Yeah, we do. So is there any chance…?"
"Sorry Sam, but no," Toni cut in. "It's barely 2pm and Ellen's already downing shots of whiskey. If you guys want to come back and interrupt them, then you are more than welcome to be my guest."
Sam laughed quietly, however he didn't do so out of disrespect to Toni, instead it was his reaction to how well she seemed to know their friends and replied, "No, but thanks anyway. Could you just ask Bobby to call us as soon as he can?"
If Toni wasn't still in a state of shock, she probably would have been offended by Sam's laughter, so she just said, "Of course I will." Sam thanked her and then they both fell silent and Sam was just about to hang up Dean's phone when he heard, "Sam? Sam!"
"Sorry, I thought the phone had cut out. What's up Toni?"
Suddenly she felt very shy as she said, "Umm… Well it's been a while… Umm… It was good to hear your voice."
Toni immediately hung up and then Sam tossed Dean his phone with a shrug and had his brother follow him out into the street. Toni forgot to tell Bobby and Ellen about the call because she chose instead to retreat upstairs to hand wash any linens that may have touched her body. She then wrote Ellen a long note thanking her and Bobby for their help and told them that as much as she wanted to stay that she had to get home.
She knew that it was a lie, having to "get home", but she also knew that whatever they were dealing with was probably more serious than a stranger lying to them, so she figured they'd be too distracted to give her too much thought.
You're here There's nothing I fear And I know that My heart will go on…
Sam and Dean woke up in the front seat of the Impala and Dean swiftly turned off the radio before exiting the car. As they tried to one up each other with the whole 'No MY dream was weirder than yours brother', Castiel showed up to confirm that everything that they remembered happening in that time line wasn't a dream. Instead it was the result of a bunch of 'what ifs' that could and should never have happened.
After the Angel had left them with the "moral of the story', Dean looked over at his brother asking, "So I wasn't with Lay and you and Toni weren't together yet… Consensus…?"
Sam smiled softly, "Yeah, this world doesn't completely suck."
They then moved into Bobby's house and found the elder hunter sleeping on the couch in the study.
As they both stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the study, Sam asked, "Guess things are back to normal, huh?"
Dean scoffed then replied, "'Normal'. Awesome."
"Poor bastard," the younger Winchester started with a nod towards Bobby. "Doesn't even know how good he had it."
Dean threw him a cautioning look asserting, "Yeah, well what he doesn't know won't hurt him. I say we keep our mouths shut."
"Yeah, I'm with you. Should we wake him?"
"Nah," Dean answered somewhat earnestly. "Probably the best he's felt all week."
Dean then walked over to Bobby to place a blanket over him. When he tiredly turned and started towards the hallway and the path to their bedrooms, Dean was stopped by Sam who was easily carrying a passed out Toni in his arms.
"What the hell dude?" Dean questioned in a hushed tone as he followed Sam to the kitchen.
"She was shot… Thigh and upper arm…" Sam hastily replied.
When Sam didn't elaborate and just attempted to maneuver around him to get to the bathroom and the First Aid supplies, Dean grabbed his arm and snapped, "By?"
"A vampire," Sam called out over his shoulder. He noticed that his brother wasn't following or trying to help, so Sam added in a hushed yell, "She said she killed it… So do you think we can keep her from bleeding to death now?"
A/N: To make it more clear, here are the differences that existed in this version of the "My Heart Will Go On" Universe:
Dean doesn't have or know about his having as son so he isn't with the mother.
Sam and Toni haven't been romantically involved since college.
Toni and her dad have no relationship. She pays for him to be in a facility but never sees him when she goes there.
Hope you enjoyed!