There's A Lock, Someone's Stolen The Key:
Toni looked up from her notebook trying her best not to show the confusion she felt as she authoritatively asked, "So when all of this good fortune started, she had just met, and I quote, literally the man of her dreams, end quote? Did I hear that right Jackie?"
The distraught university freshman removed her glasses to wipe a tissue over her eyes as she answered, "Yes… And I swear Agent that she uses that exact same phrase all of the time too. She comes home all of the time after being with him gushing about how she swears that she dreamed him into being or something." Toni nodded thoughtfully and jotted down a couple of notes causing Jackie to quickly put on her glasses as she added, "I know it normally doesn't sound strange for a freshman girl to say stuff like that, but you have to know Dayna to completely understand why it's really weird. Dayna… She… She's like the most practical person I know. All she ever talks about is finishing her degree and getting her Masters… I mean she did before meeting Seth and before… Before… Oh dear I mean all she used to… Oh man…"
When her interviewee broke down again, Toni placed her notebook on the coffee table to pluck out a couple of tissues from the box. As she passed them to Jackie, Toni took one of the college student's hands sympathetically replying, "I know that this is a really hard time for you and I'm so sorry that I had to have you go over all of this with me again right now, but it truly is a huge help to me and my investigation." Jackie nodded as she blew her nose and Toni added with a soft chuckle, "And to be honest, Dayna sounds like a kindred spirit to me. I was the same way when I was in college."
Jackie laughed quietly through her tears saying, "My mom wishes I was more focused on my studies and less about parties and that Dayna will… I mean would have rubbed off on me." She shuddered out a sob and then forced herself to take a deep breath as she set her shoulders and tried to compose herself. "I'm sorry I'm such a mess. It's just… Just…"
Toni squeezed her arm then countered Jackie's self-deprecating statement, "I was worse when I lost one of my friends, so please don't worry about apologizing to me. And thank you again for answering my questions. If I find out anything, I promise that I'll let you know."
Toni pulled out another card, placed it on the coffee table beside the box of tissues and said, "Your school actually has some excellent counseling services, so you should really give them a call, okay?" Jackie's tears seemed to fall harder and faster as Toni spoke, so she stood up quickly offering, "I'll see myself out. Again… I'm so sorry… And… You have my number as well so please call if you need anything from me, alright?"
Jackie just nodded into the wad of tissues she had pressed to her face as Toni gathered her things and quietly left the room. The hallways were busy with the usual after class crowd and Toni easily fell into the flow of the foot traffic until she made it outside. There had been three suspicious deaths on campus of the past month and after talking with the roommates of all three victims, she thought that she had found a vague pattern, but still didn't have a solid theory of what she was hunting just yet.
As she walked she double checked that she had her other notebooks in her bag before she found somewhere that she could go over all of the information that she had gathered thus far. She decided to find a semi-quiet table at a small café because she had skipped lunch and knew that sooner than later her hunger pains would override her ability to think clearly. During her time at Stanford, more than one assignment had needed to be completely re-written because she had neglected to eat which had led to awkward tangents that had taken her from talking about a specific aspect of law to her describing, in vivid detail, her favorite meals from different restaurants.
After she had her meal ordered Toni started reading through the notes she had taken during her interviews and jotted down the similarities on a separate notepad. She was so focused on trying to connect the dots of this latest case that she barely thanked her server for bringing her order to her table and began to eat her meal absentmindedly.
"Excuse me Miss?" A deeply masculine voice questioned to finally bring Toni out of her thoughts.
Toni checked over her shoulder, but only saw a broad chest so she sat up straight and turned fully around. That didn't help her to look at the intruder in the face because he was so tall that she had to tilt her head back to find his face. He smiled softly which made his ice blue eyes twinkle brightly. When she finally met his eyes, he dipped his chin slightly causing his jet black bangs to fall across his forehead which gave him the air of the same boyish charm that had made Toni's heart melt for Sam from day one.
By some miracle Toni managed not to blush even though she felt her heart beat quicker as she calmly asked, "Yes? Can I help you with something?"
"I'm sorry to disturb you while you're working so hard, but…" He gestured vaguely to the busy café behind him. "There's been a bit of a rush, so I was wondering if you'd mind sharing your booth."
Toni looked beyond his bulky frame at the now completely full room and she finally did blush. When she had first come in, the café had been practically empty so she had claimed a roomy booth to spread out her notes to make studying them easier. Since she was still on the campus of the college, she hoped that she would just look like she was a well-dressed student who was pouring over class notes for an assignment so that she wouldn't stick out too much.
As she tried to clear a spot on the table, Toni slid over to one side of the booth shyly saying, "Of course I wouldn't mind."
He grinned happily, dropped his backpack on the floor and sat down. "Thanks. And again I'm sorry that I interrupted you while you were working so hard and all, but I just…"
Toni caught him eyeing her notebooks so she quickly closed them answering, "No, no it's fine. I think I just got so caught up in my work that I forgot that other people… Like students who actually pay to go to school here might need to eat too."
He gave the server that had almost magically appeared at the table his order before turning his attention back to Toni. "Oh well that makes it sound like you aren't a student here."
Toni laughed softly and shook her head replying, "No sorry those days are so far behind in my rear view mirror that they're beyond blurry." Her new companion didn't seem to completely understand her joke, so Toni extended her right hand over the table saying, "Let me introduce myself. I'm Special Agent Clydie Anderson."
"Special… Agent…" He mumbled as his grip on her hand slackened slightly. "Umm… Well I'm Sophomore History Major Tom Kent."
"Good to meet you Tom," Toni replied before she could laugh out loud at the thought that just popped into her head. Tom Kent? Seriously? You take over someone that's the spitting image of Tom Welling and THAT'S the best alias you could come up with?
Toni noticed that her new companion was still eyeing up her paperwork, so she tried to close that last few notebooks that remained open as discretely as possible while he asked, "Are you here looking into the recent student deaths? Because I had heard that they were all suicides, weren't they?"
"Well," Toni replied with a sly smile. "No one will know for sure if someone doesn't double check, now will we?"
He sat up straight and looked around the still busy café and somewhat worriedly asked, "Oh are you expecting your partner? Did…? Did I steal their seat?"
"No," she replied with a confused look on her face. "I don't have anybody meeting me."
"Oh, I thought that on these kinds of cases that you guys always work in pairs. Safety in numbers and all, you know?"
Tom raised a challenging eyebrow to Toni as he started to eat his meal. Toni hadn't been ready for anyone that would be questioning her credentials since she hadn't run into it up until now, but she managed not to let her face betray her. To cover up that she was trying to come up with a plausible excuse for traveling alone, Toni took a long drink of her water and just shrugged.
"You know how it is with budget cuts these days. They send in the rookie to do all of the preliminary interviews and everything." She shrugged again. "That way they don't have to waste the Senior Agents time if it's nothing, but they can still steal all of the glory if it does turn out to be something big."
He jutted his chin towards her notebooks and asked with his mouth still partially full of food, "And this situation would be something? Nothing? Or…?"
"It's under investigation so I'm not at liberty to discuss the details of it at this time," Toni replied with what she hoped was a good imitation of Dean's self-satisfied smirk that she had seen him wear in similar situations.
Toni then stood up and pulled out her wallet saying, "Well Mr. Kent I should leave you to your meal and your studies." Their server appeared with Toni's bill so she quickly pulled out a few bills and handed them to her. As she put on her jacket, Toni flashed Tom a warm smile saying, "And it was an honor to share my table with you."
While Toni was buttoning up her knee length, black trench style jacket, Tom gripped her wrist tightly causing a quick shiver to run down Toni's spine. She tried to cover up the fact that his touch made her skin crawl by smiling sweetly to try to make it look like she was attracted to and not repulsed by him.
It seemed to work because he returned her smile and started slowly stroking her wrist with this thumb as he replied, "No Special Agent Anderson, the pleasure was ALL mine."
Toni slipped her hand out of his hold and just nodded before making her somewhat hasty retreat. It took her another full day before she felt like she had enough confirmation of where she would find her latest foe. Tom seemed to stick to his class schedule, that she as an officer of the law had 'legally' obtained, and she was able to easily follow him back to his apartment building. Since it was practically on campus, it looked like the security of the building was as lax as any of the dormitories, so she was feeling fairly confident and mentally patted herself on the back while she finished her final preparations because she was going to finish this job without having had to call either Winchester or Bobby.
Since she now knew that she was hunting a shape shifter, Toni made sure that her largest silver knife was the easiest for her to access from her underarm sheath, but she wasn't stupid so she made sure that that wasn't the only weapon she had with her. She could almost hear her dad (and Bobby and Sam AND Dean) mocking her for not being properly prepared in case of any worse case scenarios, so she slipped the custom made iron knife that her dad had given to her recently for 'no apparent reason' into its sheath in her right boot. (His exact words were that he had just found it 'laying around the townhouse' and thought that Toni could use it, but the smile on his face told her that he was particularly proud of the purchase so she made sure to always carry it with her.) In a small duffle bag she packed up her two flasks of Holy Water, a canister of rock salt and a box of chalk (not that she truly foresaw needing to or having the time to trace out any rendition of the picture of the Devil's Trap she had stuffed into the box of chalk, but she figured it couldn't hurt to have it with her anyway.)
At the apartment building, Toni joined a group of party goers and had to stifle a scornful laugh at the fact that none of them seemed to care that their classmates were dropping like flies while they just celebrated whatever random achievement they felt deserved getting blackout drunk. Well maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but she still thought that they should have been more aware of the random girl in jeans and form fitting black sweater and faux leather bomber jacket that they had just handed a cold, unopened beer to on their way into the building. She rode the elevator with all eight of them to their floor, but lingered in the back corner until the doors closed again so that she could ride it back down to 'Tom's' floor.
He was supposed to be in class right then so Toni was able to relax somewhat while she picked his lock because she had planned so that she would have more than enough time to get situated inside in order to execute her ambush. She said a brief prayer of thanksgiving that she heard the lock pop open before anyone could wander down the hallway and catch her in the act. As she slipped through the door, Toni mentally noted that she owed Sam an extra special 'Thank You' for spending some of their spare time together working with her after she and Dean had found him in Montana because he had helped her so much to perfect her lock picking technique.
Once she was in his apartment, Toni set her duffle bag down under a table immediately to the right of the door and then set herself checking out each of the rooms. Toni wasn't sure which one would be the best to execute her plan, but her quest to choose the perfect locale was quickly cut short by the sound of a key in the door lock. Since practically the entire length of the living room and all of its furniture separated Toni from her duffle bag, she opted to duck behind the bar that separated the living room from the small kitchen area of his one bedroom apartment hoping it wouldn't tip him off that she was there.
Fuck! FUCK! I had an hour! Toni thought frantically as she tried to keep herself from panicking and pulled her sleeve back to check the time on her watch. Bastard! He's supposed to be in his… Oh… Right, shape shifter… Guess they don't need a B.A. Damn it! Damn it! Okay… Okay… Think… Think….
Toni tried to track Tom's movements the best that she could and instinctively held her breath when she realized that his footsteps were walking towards her.
"Agent Anderson? Is that you?" Tom called out in a sing-song voice from the other side of the island. Toni pressed her back against the cabinets as she took in a shallow breath hoping he wouldn't hear her. "Oh don't be like that… I could smell your intoxicating scent on the elevator ride up and… Mmm it just got stronger as I came home. Please? Pretty please? Come out come out wherever you are."
Shifters…? Sense of smell…? Toni thought to herself. She couldn't immediately recall anything that said that shape shifters had an acute sense of smell, but then again a silver knife through the heart would kill a werewolf all the same. Alright, deep breath. You can still do this. Nothing has changed. She coached herself as she slowly stood up with her hands tucked behind her back.
"Ah… There you are… And what brings you to my humble abode Special Agent Clydie Anderson?" He questioned calmly as he gestured for her to come closer.
"I… Uhh… I really… Umm…" Toni said as she moved out of the kitchen. "I was… Umm… Hoping that you could maybe help me with this case…"
Tom smiled snidely in his place but didn't move at all as Toni stepped closer, but she made sure to keep a wide berth with the wall of the living room to her right at her back. "Help? Me? What could a humble undergraduate like me do to help a big strong SPECIAL Agent of the FBI like you?"
Even though she tried to stop herself, Toni couldn't help but issue a snort of derision as she replied, "Right you're JUST a college student… Well then I guess I'm the fucking Queen of England. I know what you are and you fucking know why I'm here."
Tom moved at the speed of light and Toni had no time to react before he had her pinned against the wall with his body. She did however have just enough time to take in a deep breath before Tom's right hand gripped her tightly around the neck. Toni knew she shouldn't show her fear but he started to squeeze her throat saying, "Such language Miss Anderson. You could easily corrupt a boy like me using words like that."
"Fuck… You…" Toni huffed out with the little bits of air that she could take in around his crushing grasp.
Tom leaned his face in so close that their cheeks touched as he breathed in her scent then whispered, "Mmm… You smell like heaven… But you aren't going to tell me your real name, are you Beautiful?"
Toni had already pulled her silver knife out of its sheath and kept it behind her back during her entrance, so she slowly moved her hand as he spoke until the blade was raised up and above the back of his left shoulder area as she replied, "I'm fucking Lara Croft."
Even before she was finished her statement, Toni was plunging her knife into Tom's back with all of the strength that she could muster in the moment. She hadn't had a chance to use this knife yet, so it was as razor sharp as the day that she had bought it which meant I sliced easily through his flesh. She let out a long sigh of relief when the blade when in almost to the hilt because she was confident that she had been able to reach his heart and may have even punctured it. If that was accomplished than everything was still actually going according to plan.
Toni had just barely started to allow herself to relax when she realized that Tom's grip on her throat hadn't slackened in the least. She slowly turned her eyes from his chest up to his face and was met with a smile so sinister that it made her almost physically ill. He tried to reach the hilt of the knife with his left hand so that he wouldn't have to release her neck, but it was too high up on his back for him to do so. Toni was starting to lose the color from her face so Tom felt assured that he had sapped most of the fight out of her and he released her to let her drop like a dead weight down the six inches he had been holding her above the ground. Toni figured that this thing thought that she had blanched from a lack of oxygen as opposed to the sheer panic she was feeling, so she happily played the part of an oxygen deprived victim while she crumpled into a ball on the floor.
Tom took a few steps away from her while he worked the blade out of his back commenting with an overly (and out of place) humorous tone, "Now that kind of tickled… What is this knife made of Agent Anderson?" Toni was already crawling over to the couch so that she could use it to pull herself to her feet once again. While she tried to catch her breath, Ton had pulled the blade out and ran it under his nose as if he was taking in the scent of a long lost loved off of one of their pieces of clothing. "Mmm… Silver…" He locked his eyes on Toni where she appeared to be holding onto the couch for dear life. "Silly, silly girl… You thought I was a shifter, didn't you?"
Toni continued to try to play up the defeated victim vibe she had going on for her and bit her quivering lip as she nodded rapidly. To her surprise, Tom was completely eating up the aura of fear that appeared to be emanating from Toni as he slowly approached her. When he got within a foot of Toni, Tom nonchalantly tossed the knife towards his door while still smiling brightly all the while.
"You must be new at all of this," he observed with a chuckle. He then reached out to Toni and stepped even closer saying, "Too bad you…"
Toni easily cut him off by thrusting her iron knife deep into his heart. As she pulled it out, Tom fell to his knees and gasped out, "Iron…"
Toni didn't wait to see if Tom was down for a count before turned around to swipe her silver knife off the floor with her right hand and simultaneously pulled her duffle bag out with her left. She had just finished slipping the two bloody knives into the bag and was pulling out a bottle of Holy Water when Tom body checked her, full force, into the door. As a result of the impact, Toni dropped her duffle bag, but managed to hold onto the flask of Holy Water.
Tom thrust his body against Toni's back to keep her pinned against the door as he whispered, "No that actually hurt… But then again all it truly accomplished was putting an end the life of this overly handsome specimen." Toni shuddered out a breath as Tom flipped her around so he could look her in the face. She had a vivid flash back to the last time she had a run in with a with some demons when she was fighting alongside the Winchesters and Bobby, so she tried to evoke those emotions the best that she could while he pet her face saying sweetly, "Oh Beautiful don't feel bad about doing that for me… Another soul ripe for the taking? That's all I've wanted while I was here."
Toni squeezed her eyes closed tightly and started to whisper the exorcism Sam had helped her to memorize, but her thoughts were racing so fast that she stumbled over her words. Tom gripped her by the throat again to silence her when he realized what she was trying to do and warned her in a low, sinister voice, "Don't you even think about finishing that you worthless little whore... Yeah, that's right; I can smell the impurity on you… It's intoxicating."
"What…?" Toni started in wide-eyed surprise. She had never taken to being called a 'slut' or a 'whore' in the past and in all honesty nothing had changed for her since high school or college. As her anger overtook any other emotion that she had been feeling, she wrenched his hand off of her throat then kicked him as hard as she could with her right foot. Before she could take in his reaction, Toni whipped the top off her bottle in her right hand and tossed the Holy Water over his face and every available inch of exposed flesh that it could find.
While Tom was trying to dry the acid-like liquid from his face, Toni recovered as quickly as anyone ever could. She threw the now empty flask into her bag and then pulled out her canister of salt. After she pulled open the door she thought about checking on Tom but decided that she couldn't afford to revel in her triumph just yet. Instead she stepped into the hallway and just barely caught the image of the advancing wall of a man as she shook out a wide line of salt as quickly as it would pour for her.
Tom seemed to be running full speed towards her until he hit the invisible wall that the salt had created in the doorway. Toni jumped back until her back hit the wall on the opposite side of his door. As she watched him struggle against the invisible barrier, she finally realized that she was safe so she took a few slow breaths to calm herself so that she could try to keep from hyperventilating. As she pressed herself against the wall, Toni somehow remembered that she had a recipe card with the lines that Sam had taken so much time to help her to memorize.
Toni looked down at the card and then back up at the now beyond angry demon. When she saw Tom's reaction to being trapped in the apartment, Toni was able to finally gain some confidence as she recited through painfully strained vocal chords, "Exorizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica protestas, omnis incursion infenndis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregation et decta diabolica. Ergo, draco maledicte. Ecclesiam tuam secure tibi facias libertate servire, te rogimus, audi nos."
As soon as Toni finished her recitation Tom froze in his place. Embarrassingly enough, Toni almost fell back onto her behind as she watched him in horrified fascination while Tom expelled a long plume of black smoke before his body flopped to the ground. Toni ended up just sitting against the wall staring into the apartment for a few moments gaping at the now still corpse and immediately realized what she now needed to do.
For no apparent reason, Toni's dad had convinced her to never leave home without at least one canister of 'Lysol Disinfectant Wipes', so Toni checked for that plastic container in her bag before doing anything else. After she found it, Toni pulled out no less than five wipes before she moved to check Tom's corpse for any signs of life. When she had confirmation that he had no pulse, Toni quickly worked to wipe down anything that she thought that she could have potentially touched. After that was done, Toni cleaned up any trails of blood she found on the hardwood floor of the apartment while she pray earnestly and with all her heart for God to forgive her for taking a life (inadvertently) of an innocent person during the pursuit to expel evil from Earth.
When Toni felt confident that she had covered her tracks, she closed the door to the suite and wiped down the knob with a new cleanser wipe. As she stuffed that mound of white semi-moist cloths back into her duffle bag, Toni quadruple checked that she had everything she had arrived with before facing Tom, while also forcing herself to walk calmly to the elevator. She knew that ultimately it was the job of any police department to find a killer, but she still hated having to do anything that might impede an investigation for the local PD even if it was necessary. But then she reminded herself of a simple fact: How do you prove to people that don't believe in demons that it was one of them to blame for all of the carnage that the city and campus had encountered and that she really hadn't meant to kill a human while she exorcised a demon?
Toni had made it all the way to the main entrance before she jumped at the sensation of her cell phone vibrating. As she exited the apartment building into the fresh outdoor air, Toni hoarsely answered her phone, "Hey… Sam… How goes it?"
"I'm fine, but are you sure that you're okay? I hate to say it Toni but I have to admit that your voice sounds more than a little off," Sam answered sounding both winded and concerned.
She had finally made it to the sanctuary of her truck and had been able to catch her breath and clear her throat to reply (although her voice still sounded more rough and gravelly than she had hoped it would), "It's nothing. I think that I might have caught something while working a case on a college campus. You know students and their germs and all…"
"Huh that I do… Sorry just give me two seconds."
Suddenly Toni found herself going from a good natured 'macho-match' conversation with Sam to an overly earnest conversation with Dean and she tried her best to end it as soon as possible until he brought up a topic that she couldn't ignore even if she tried harder. Toni had been meaning to bring up some of Sam's concerns to his brother, but she had hoped that she would have been able to do it on a day that a demon hadn't tried to choke the life out of her. But since the opportunity arose on its own, she rallied the best that she could to get through everything she had been planning to say for months and hadn't had the guts to until he vaguely broached the subject first.
Toni was able to hold her own with Dean because she could easily hide the severity of the damage done to her larynx through using laughter and genuine tears while they talked. She even managed to hide her relief when she heard him say, "Sam'll call you later, okay?"
"Yeah… Sure…" She replied into the dial-tone emanating from her phone.
Now that she didn't have to be 'okay' anymore, Toni dropped her cell onto her passenger seat with a loud grateful side. Neither brother seemed to catch onto her current predicament due to her artful deflection, so she took this time to catch her breath and to survey the surface of the damage. Toni had expected her injury to be quite severe based on the amount of pain she was feeling, but when she checked her reflection in the rear view mirror, all she saw were some prominent pink spots clustered around her neck. She of course knew that they were more than a promise of the dark bruises to come, but she figured that she didn't have to worry much about them since she had no plausible leads for a job on the immediate horizon which would give her time to heal.
"Okay… Relax," she told herself out loud as she tried to keep herself from starting to panic because right now even breathing hurt her throat. She was just starting to riffle through her glove box to try to find a mint or a cough candy or at least a pain killer to try to soothe her throat when she heard her phone vibrating again. She couldn't help but cringe when she heard how strained her voice sounded when she answered, "Hey Dad."
The Colonel could hear the troubles Toni was having when she swallowed and allowed his worry to show in his tone when he spoke. "Angel? What was it? What did it do to you? How bad are you hurt?"
"Demon… It was a demon and he choked me. But I'm fine Dad, it's nothing some ice and a cup of tea can't fix."
"A demon? Really? And you were able to exorcise it on your own?"
Toni laughed softly, which immediately turned into a painful cough. She just barely breathed out an 'Ow' before she was able to recover and reply, "Don't sound so surprised Dad. Sam taught me everything I needed to know so, yes I did manage to do it all on my own."
"Oh Toni I… I didn't mean it like that… I just… Angel I'm just so… I'm impressed that you did so well your first time going up against a demon on your own. I'm not at all surprised that you beat it, I'm just in awe of how amazing my daughter is."
"Dad… Stop. You're making me blush."
"It's all true Toni," he insisted in a soft, firm tone. "But since you asked so nicely I'll stop."
"Thanks Dad I appreciate it. But since it was my turn to call you, what did you need to tell me?"
Toni's dad chuckled as he was with a bit of a tease, "I keep forgetting how smart you are… Well I wanted to check into see how you were doing on this last job…"
When he trailed off, Toni prompted her dad saying, "Because…"
"Well it really doesn't matter because you'll need to rest so you can heal. Don't worry about it at all. Oh and just ignore the last email I sent you."
"Email?" Toni quickly grabbed her laptop out of its hiding place and booted it up to log into her email. "Dad I'm not that badly injured. See? Even talking is easier. Plus now that you've piqued my curiosity, it really wouldn't be fair for you not to share."
"Alright, but if you aren't feeling up to it, I don't want you to push and do anything that could get you hurt even worse than you normally might." He paused until Toni softly said "I promise I won't Sir." "Okay… Well the email spells everything out including the pattern I've been able to put together."
"Yeah looks like you've done all of the hard work for me. I should be able to get there before nightfall. I'll call you when I reach Prosperity."
"I think you mean the 'boring' stuff. The hard work is out there in the field, which is why your old man is staying home. Now you drive safe and I'll talk to you later. I love you Angel."
Toni was glad that she could blame the hoarseness of her tone on her injury instead of the tears that caused a lump to form in her throat. "I love you too Dad… And I WILL talk to you soon."
As soon as Toni had disconnected the call, she went to let out a sigh that ended up coming out as a sputtered sob. She tried her best to just breathe through the desire to cry, but her tears overtook her too quickly for her to stop them. In the past she had been hurt much worse than what this demon had done to her, but back then it been mostly because of her carelessness, not because the thing she was hunting couldn't be killed by a well-placed blade or bullet or lit match. Back then she also didn't have anyone that was waiting for her to come home alive either. But now she had to fight demons that laughed off her skills with weapons and hand to hand combat while her dad sat at home waiting for her to return. Before it didn't seem to matter to anyone, including herself if she lived or died (and on the rarest of occasions she was happy to be doing this job because something might kill her and then she could have finally been reunited with her mother and brothers whom she missed so much it hurt), but now she had finally found her calling and had two men who loved her dearly and with whom she wanted to spend time with whenever it was possible. She just recently admitted to herself that she wanted nothing more than to live for them, to live with them, but she was starting to fight things she couldn't out finesse and those two conflicting notions completely terrified her.
After allowing herself a not so brief moment of weakness to acknowledge how deeply she truly did fear dying now, Toni dried her cheeks with her sleeves then told her reflection, "Alright, fine… Still doesn't mean that you don't go out and do the fucking job." She stared herself in the eyes then added, "But there's no rule saying that you have to keep hunting demons. From now on you will just be leaving that shit alone."
Toni was awoken by the sound of the motel room door opening slowly. She had started to move her hand under her pillow to get a grip on her gun but as soon as her palm touched the metal she let her hand fall back onto the mattress. If that thing that Don Stark had bound with magic had friends in town with him then she knew that her gun was more than useless. She opted instead to just play possum and pretend to be dead or sleeping in the hopes that it would realize that she wasn't one of the Winchester brothers and would just leave her alone.
Wheels creaked behind the sound of soft footsteps and Toni held her breath until she heard a woman gasp with surprise. "Oh! I'm so sorry, I was told that this room would be empty."
Toni sat up to face the door and laughed nervously at the sight of the worried face of the motel' maid. "Really Miss I didn't mean to disturb you… I'm so sorry… I was just…"
"It's fine," Toni replied with a dismissive wave. "You're just doing your job and I can be out of your hair in like five minute so that you can finish it."
The maid was already retreating out the door as she countered, "No, please don't rush on my account. You have two hours until check-out, I'll just come back to clean the room then."
The door was closed before Toni could say 'Thank you'. Even though she'd been told that she didn't have to rush, Toni suddenly wanted nothing more than to see her dad and give him a rib crushing hug. While the sink filled in the bathroom, Toni caught a glimpse of her reflection which answered the question of why the maid had looked so spooked during her hasty retreat. The previously pink markings around her neck now stood out like a dark purple and brownish-green necklace of bruises. With her bed head, blood-shot, sleep deprived eye and the bruises that continued to grow, Toni could only imagine what the maid thought had happened to her in this room.
After washing her face, Toni changed quickly and rushed out of the room to her truck as fast as she could with her luggage in hand. Sam had already told her that he and Dean had paid for the room, but Toni still made sure to leave a sizeable tip behind on the table as a form of apology for nearly traumatizing the maid who had walked in on her sleeping. She knew that the damage on her neck looked worse today than it had in the previous forty-eight hours, but she tried not to pay them much mind because they weren't feeling any worse today.
When she stopped for gas and a quick lunch, Toni tried her best to cover her neck with her hair and the collar of her hoody. She thought that he had done a good job of covering up, but then he noticed that the woman behind the deli counter was eyeing her up and down as covertly as she could while she sliced fresh veggies, meat and cheese for Toni's meal. Toni didn't really think much of it, but then their eyes met and the deli owner blushed darkly and she immediately diverted her eyes back to her hands as she put the finishing touches on Toni's meal. Even though she knew that she had nothing to be embarrassed about, Toni still felt herself sub-consciously shrink back a bit in her spot while she waited for her order.
As she paid for her food, Toni avoided making eye contact with the middle aged woman standing behind the till on the opposite side of the counter in the hopes of continuing on her way a quickly as possible. Once the transaction was complete, Toni mumbled a 'Thank you' as she grabbed the brown paper bag on the counter. When she turned to walk away she was stopped by a hand gripping her wrist tightly.
"I know it really isn't any of my business," Toni heard as she slowly raised her eye to the other woman's face. "But I just can't let you leave without saying something..."
The deli worker looked completely uncomfortable and Toni could tell that the older woman really didn't want to be discussing the elephant in the room which in turn made her relax a tiny bit. She gave the middle aged woman a warm, sincere smile and said, "I know what it looks like and it is very sweet of you to be so concerned for a perfect stranger, but let me put your mind at ease…" Toni pushed her hair off of her shoulders so that her bruises were no longer hidden. "This wasn't done by my boyfriend or a friend and I made sure that the bastard that did this won't be hurting anyone else any time soon."
The look on Toni's face matched the forcefulness in her tone so well that it caused the other woman to release her hand so that she could take a step back. Toni smiled satisfactorily to herself because she hadn't meant to shock the woman so much, but she was happy with the reaction all the same. She picked up her lunch bag and left with the deli worker wondering what Toni had meant when she said that the 'bastard couldn't hurt anyone anytime soon'.
The last leg of her trip home went fairly quickly because Toni avoided having to stop again at all costs, even though her stomach had been growling hungrily for the last hour. She couldn't help but sigh with relief that darken had fallen by the time she reached her dad's townhouse because that mean that she could rest before getting into any details about this last job with her dad. She couldn't see any lights on as she made her way up the walkway so she assumed that the Colonel had already turned in for the night but he still thought that she would be able to make herself something to eat without disturbing him at all.
She left her bag at the bottom of the stairs before heading into the kitchen. Toni figured that any meal that required the use of pot, pans or the microwave would be too noisy so she decided that today would be sandwich day for her, despite her incredible hunger that made her crave something more substantial. Toni then pulled open the fridge and she instantly aw some leftover cuts of a pot roast that she pulled out with a bottle of gourmet Dijon mustard that she had bought the last time she was in town with her dad. Before she closed the door, Toni made sure to also pull out an onion and a head of lettuce to finish off her sandwich as well as a couple of bags of random vegetable that were within reach.
Toni didn't want to leave any dirty dishes (as minimal as they were) out for her dad to worry about in the morning, o she made sure to wash all of them by hand before sitting down to eat her sandwich and fresh cut vegetables.
The silence in the house was slightly unnerving, which caused Toni to jump slightly when the sound of her chewing was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening. She knew that the gated community where her dad had retired to was virtually crime free, but she still put her hand on the butt of her gun at the small of her back because she also knew that there was a first time for everything and she didn't want to be caught unprepared. She continued to eat her carrot sticks slowly and quietly while she waited for the intruder to pass by the kitchen because it was on the only route to go deeper into the house.
The Colonel had seen Toni's truck parked out front when he got home, but he hadn't noticed any lights on either so he too had assumed that his daughter had already turned in for the night. She saw her dad before he noticed that the kitchen light was on. She bit her lip to stifle a soft laugh when he continued to tip toe towards the stairs while holding his shoes in his right hand and looked like a teenager trying not to get caught sneaking in after curfew.
Toni cleared her throat loudly and tried her best to imitate the tone of voice her father had used the one and only time he had caught her coming home after curfew. "And just what do you think you're doing young man? When I give you a time to be home, you best be home before then or maybe next time you won't be going out at all."
The Colonel started at the sound of her voice breaking through the silence. Once she came into view he was shaking his head as he entered the room and replied, "That sounds like a pretty persuasive threat." Once he was beside Toni, he had already dropped his shoes to the floor so that he could tilt her chin and kiss her forehead. "It's good to see you Angel."
Toni was smiling brightly but she lost her words when she caught the sad look on her dad's face. He tilted her chin up further so that he could fully see the bruising that had blossomed further around her neck since the last time she had checked her reflection in a mirror. Toni wanted nothing more than to hide the damage from her dad but resisted that urge and just squeezed her eyes shut as he continued to run his thumb gently over the damaged flesh.
"You said that a demon did this?" He finally questioned with a slight warble in his voice. "He did this much…? All this with his bare hands?"
Toni stilled the motion of her dad's fingers and nudged him towards one of the chairs. "Yeah, demons are pretty damn strong." They shared a sad look then Toni started to turn to show her dad the bruising on her arm. She paused for a second and then reminded herself that she had promised him total and complete honesty so she finished twisting her body so that he could see her upper right arm clearly. "And these new things… I think that the Angel called them 'Leviathans'… Are even stronger. It didn't flinch at anything Sam and Dean threw at it."
"Oh dear," the Colonel mumbled as he gripped Toni's wrist tightly before he pulled her towards him so that he could get a closer look. "But I thought that you said that you were hunting a witch… Well witches while you were in Indiana."
"We were," Toni responded in a soft, meek tone. "Actually it was one of the witches that stopped the thing for us."
After she finished her statement, Toni's dad dropped her hand and sat back in his seat. As they sat there in silence, they both avoided looking at each other. After what felt like an hour, Toni had completely lost her formerly ravenous appetite and she pushed her plate away while she stole a quick glance at her dad. He remained motionless with a concerned, pensive look on his face that caused tears to spring up into her eyes.
"Dad? Could I maybe ask you something?" Toni asked without being able to hide the tears in her voice even though she hadn't let any fall out of her eyes yet.
The Colonel's eyes shot up to her face the moment he heard her open her mouth. When he saw the glisten of tears in her eyes, his face softened and he took her hand as he lovingly replied, "Of course you can Angel, you know that."
She gave her dad a tight smile and slowly took her hand back so that she could rip apart a napkin as she said, "Well Sir… Umm it's like this. When that thing showed up at the guys' room I… Uhh… I… I kind of… I completely froze on them…" She paused just long enough for her dad to sigh out a concerned "Angel" before she continued, "I know… I know… But that isn't what I… Anyway what I wanted to ask you was… Umm… How did you do it? I… Umm… I don't mean to insinuate that you would ever be scared, but I… Well… You had to be on the front lines more than once and… Umm…"
Her dad could tell that he was going to lose her to her nervous rambling, so he squeezed her forearm and cut-in sympathetically, "Toni I was scared shitless when I was told that I was going to be shipped overseas."
Toni's jaw dropped open in surprise, but it wasn't at her dad's admission of his having been afraid, it was because she had never heard him openly swear in front of her before. He smirked because he understood what had caused her reaction. "It's more than high time that I acknowledge that you aren't an impressionable teenager anymore and that you are an accomplished woman, so I can speak openly, freely and plainly with you. But just don't abuse this privilege, you hear?" He cautioned with a teasing tone.
"Yes sir," Toni agreed with a soft smile. "But seriously? You were scared to go to war overseas? How…? How'd you…? You know… How'd you do it then?"
"Well," he started as he moved his chair closer to his daughter and took hold of one of her hands. "At first I did what I had to do in order to make my father proud. He was never shy to constantly remind me that I was a McNamara and that I could never do anything that would bring shame to the family name." As her dad spoke, Toni realized that she had been openly gaping at him so she quickly shut her mouth and looked away. The Colonel smiled to himself and turned Toni by the chin to force her to once again make eye contact with him. "Sounds like a familiar speech, doesn't it? Turns out you can inherit more than a name and hair line from your parents. Again I'm so sorry for not actually seeing 'you' while you were growing up."
Toni leaned over to hug him then leaned back to say, "Dad enough of that. We've gone over this already, I don't begrudge my youth at all. We're good on that subject, okay?" He nodded softly, but still had a look in his eye that said that he wasn't finished with that topic so Toni quickly added, "Now you said, 'At first', what came next?"
The Colonel's face softened as his eyes took on a faraway look while he answered, "Next I met your mother. Boy was she a tough one to win over too. Did…? Did I ever tell you that she turned me down the first few times I asked her out?" He paused and chuckled at the look on Toni's face because he knew that she had absolutely no previous knowledge about his early years with her mother. "You know the more I think about it the more I see your mother in you." He brushed away a tear that escape Toni's eyes as she sighed out an embarrassed "Dad". "It's the truth Angel. She was so strong, stubborn, beautiful, resourceful and… Well she wouldn't go out with me unless I proved myself to her, so I had to get over my fears to do just that. So I made sure that any story that could get back to her would do nothing less than impress her."
Toni smiled then teasingly replied, "And lucky for me it seems to have worked."
"It did Angel, it did. And then the day we married, my world completely changed. Instead of doing everything I could to prove my love to her, I was fighting to help change the world so that we could start our family in safety and later no matter where I was I just wanted to make sure that I got home in one piece to you all… Even if I never really told you kids how important you were to me, everything I did was to try to get home to you and to try to make this world a better place for you to live so that you wouldn't have to take up the fight after us."
"Us? You made it through all of the fighting and hell because of us?"
Toni's dad squeezed her hand just before she lunged forward and hugged his neck. She knew she didn't have to hide her reaction, so Toni didn't even try to hide her falling tears as she said, "And I really don't want to die because of you. I really really don't…"
The Colonel hugged Toni tight as he hoarsely replied, "Angel that is quite literally the nicest thing you could say to an old man like me."
"Well it's true," Toni said resolutely after she dried her cheeks on her sleeves. "So that's it? Keep my eyes on the prize and I make it home alive?"
He smoothed down her hair and brushed away a few lingering tears as he tried to reassure her saying, "Sorry Angel, but that's the best advice I have to give you. Now if I may impart one more piece of wisdom?"
Toni chuckled and nodded. "Of course you can Dad."
"No soldier is worth their salt if they don't get all the sleep that they can when the opportunity arises," he replied as he took her by the hand and started to lead her out of the kitchen.
"Yeah, that sounds good, but Dad…"
Toni's dad continued to the stairs without pausing as he interrupted her, "The rest of the cleanup can wait until the morning. Now you go to your room, get ready for bed and I'll be right up with the ice packs."
He saw her hesitate at the bottom of the stairs so the Colonel gave her a gentle shove and somewhat forcefully said, "That's an order soldier."
Toni laughed softly then hugged him again replying, "I just wanted to say thank you Dad… And good night… And I love you."
"I love you too Angel. Now upstairs with you."
It was late in the afternoon before Toni finally awoke of her own accord. She cuddled in tight under her covers while relishing in the feeling of warmth and security that continued to surround her in the moment. Every visit she had with her dad seemed to solidify their relationship by leaps and bounds and she once again cursed herself for not having made it back here sooner. And she once again told herself that she would be making these pit stops more frequent and this time she meant it.
After washing up quickly, Toni made her way downstairs with the primary objective of finding a large, hot cup of coffee. Luckily for her, the coffee pot was still three quarters full and was still steaming hot. She didn't think that she had made much noise, but as she started to savor her first cup of coffee she was taken out of her thoughts by the sound of her dad calling for her.
"Toni? Are you up? If you are, then there's something you really need to see so get your butt in here!" He called out from the living room.
Toni was still sipping her coffee when she entered the room and light-heartedly asked, "Where's the fire Colonel?"
His only answer for his daughter was to nod at a program that was playing on the T.V. Toni sat down on the couch at the end closest to her dad's Lay-Z-Boy recliner. She was just about to ask him what was so fascinating when the last commercial ended and a still frame from a bank's surveillance took up the screen with Sam and Dean smiling sadistically into the camera.
"AGAIN OUR TOP STORY IS OF THE MASS MURDERING BROTHER DUO, DEAN AND SAM WINCHESTER, WHO WERE LAST SEEN IN JERICHO, CALIFORNIA WHERE THIS FOOTAGE WAS CAPTURED," a male's voice narrated over more still photos from surveillance.
"Angel? Where did you say that the boys were heading to after they left you in Indiana?" Her dad asked without taking his eyes off of the television.
Toni was already on her feet and was heading back to the kitchen to retrieve her cell phone. She tried to ignore the fact that her hands were violently shaking while he tried to dial Sam's number and forced her voice to remain steady when she heard Sam's voice on the other end of the line.
"Hey Sam… So last time we talked you and Dean were heading back to Montana with your newest prisoner to see what Bobby could tell you about that thing that attacked us in your room. Umm… Has there been a change of plans? Do you need to talk to me about something?" She asked as calmly as she could while she re-entered the living room.
"I take it that you've been watching one of the National New channels with your dad," Sam replied without missing a beat. "Turns out they can shape shift easily too."
"Holy shit," Toni gasped as she sat back down on the couch. "So they're stronger than demons and they can shape shift at will? Did I hear that right?"
The Colonel must have overheard the panic that wanted to overtake Toni's forced calm demeanor because he reached over and gripped her arm softly. The comforting motion helped to ground her and kept her from completely freaking out while Sam replied.
"Okay," she said more calmly. "So Leviathans… I guess that means that we need to learn everything we can about them."
"Pretty much," Sam replied somewhat flatly in the hopes that it would help to keep from upsetting her again.
Toni forced in a slow breath through her nose then let it out slowly through her lips before replying, "Okay… The Colonel and I will get on that right away. But… Umm… What are you and Dean going to do? I mean they've killed so many people while wearing your faces and all…"
Sam let out a tension easing laugh then replied, "You know us too well. Bobby's got a guy that's going to set us up with new fake identities and then we're going to try to find them… Well 'us'… Err… You know what I mean."
"Yeah I do… Make sure you guys are extra careful okay? Don't get your head blow off by any newbie cops you might freak out. And call if we can help with anything else, okay?"
"Okay, I will."
Toni paused for a second then lowered her voice as she said, "Alright. And… Don't forget that I love you."
She could hear the smile on Sam's face when he replied, "I'll try not to… And I love you too Toni."
When she hung up her phone, Toni found her dad watching her in a patient silence. Toni gave him an uneasy smile and asked, "So…? Do you have any books on Leviathans here?"
Her dad got up and kissed the top of her head before he replied, "I'm not sure, but we won't know until we check."
When he seemed to linger uncomfortably in his spot by the bookshelf, Toni got up to wrap an arm around his waist and said, "Dad I promise I'll fill you in on the details while we research."