"No for real ... what the fuck was that?" Darcy whispered, her eyes wide and her fingers still gripping the sheets. Neither she or Phil had moved for several moments after the howl shook through their bedroom. Whatever was out there didn't sound like anything she had ever heard. It sounded like a howl mixed with a snarl and something else that Darcy couldn't describe. She could still hear it though in her head; she didn't ever think that she'd ever forget that sound for as long as she lived. "Phil?"
"I don't know," Phil said quietly as he got up out of bed and slipped a pair of pants on. He moved towards the window, pushing the curtain back and opening the window. "Sounded like some kind of animal though," he said as he crouched down and poked his head out the window.
The chilly air made Darcy shiver, and she hugged her arms around herself as she watched Phil. "A big angry animal. A big hungry angry animal," she said. Phil stood up and she watched him walk out the room and return a few seconds later with a rifle and a pair of night vision binoculars.
"What are you doing?" Darcy asked as she tip toed over to Phil and knelt down next to him.
"Going out there. I want to see if I can find out what that was," he said looking through the binoculars out towards the woods.
Darcy glanced down at the gun and then to Phil. A gun probably couldn't protect them from whatever that thing was out there. The thought of him going out there tracking the thing made her stomach twist up. "Like hell you are! That thing out there sounded like it could tear a person to shreds," she said placing her hands on her hips.
Phil smirked and looked up at her. "Darcy, I have to go out there and investigate. I'll be careful. I promise." He stood up and began to walk towards the door.
He was a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, and Darcy was forgetting that. She was a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, and she had forgotten that for a moment as well. It was their job to go out there and figure out what made that noise. It could be the answer to this whole mission they were on. Still, she couldn't help but be a bit scared of Phil going out there. "Can't you just wait? We haven't heard it in a few minutes so maybe it moved off. Lets just go back to bed and if we hear it again, then we can both go out there and play animal tracker." Darcy walked over to Phil and took his hand. "Please?"
He paused for a moment and then sighed. "Okay, Darcy." He squeezed her hand slightly as they both walked back over to the bed and laid down. He rolled over on his side towards the window; straining his hearing for anything out of ordinary. Darcy wrapped her arm around him and placed a kiss on his back. He felt tense; ready to jump up at any given moment, but at least he was here in bed with her and not out there hunting that thing.
There were no more howls or snarls, but neither of them slept at all that night.
Phil had got up at the first sign of dawn to go outside and check out the area where the noise came from. It had taken Darcy a few hours to fall asleep after the howl, so he didn't bother waking her to come out here with him. Honestly, it had taken him a lot to pull himself out of bed this morning as well. It had been a long time since he slept with a woman, and he enjoyed the feeling of them snuggled up together that he didn't want to leave her arms.
He stopped just at the edge of the woods and squinted his eyes, trying to see if there was anything in there before he entered. His gun was in easy access in the top pocket of his vest, ready to be grabbed at an instant. That howl could have been anything, most certainly an animal. There was not a doubt in his mind that it was. He crouched down next to an old stump and brushed his hand over the damp ground moving some dead leaves out of the way. The ground was wet enough so if there was something out here last night it would have left tracks. He stood up when he noticed a large imprint in the ground just near where he was. He pulled his cell phone out and took a picture of it, later he'd do some research on it and see if he could figure out what type of animal made it.
"Bingo," he said quietly as he observed the tracks. It was like a dog paw print but much larger. He stood up and followed the tracks just through the woods until they stopped at the edge of the woods near the Cedar's house. Outside of the woods there was nothing. It was like whatever was here had just disappeared. Phil turned around to head back home, when a small tuft of reddish brown hair caught his eye. He picked it up and rubbed it between his fingers. It was the same hair that he had found down by the logging site.
"Phil, is that you?" Darcy called from the kitchen when she heard the front door open up.
"Yep," Phil said as he entered the kitchen holding the hair up for Darcy to see. "I found more of that same hair out in the woods. This time though they were accompanied by tracks." He sat down at the kitchen table.
"Tracks? What kind of tracks?" Darcy asked, handing Phil a cup of coffee.
"Thanks, sweetie," he took a sip of his coffee and then flipped open his phone. "These tracks."
"Oh shit! Those are huge," Darcy said taking the phone to get a better look at them. "What do you think made that? A bear?"
"Bears don't howl," Phil smirked. "And they look more like dog prints, don't they?"
Darcy nodded. "Yeah, but, dude, that's one big ass dog!" She dumped a pile of scrambled eggs and placed some toast on a plate and handed it to Phil.
"Wolves howl though, right?" Phil said, shoveling a forkful of eggs into his mouth.
Darcy sat down across from him and shrugged, taking a bite of her breakfast. "Yeah, but those are pretty big for a wolf. I suppose it could be though, I mean, it makes the most sense."
Phil nodded. "I think I'll ask Sheriff Dunham today if there has been any wolf sightings in the area."
"And I'll ask Barbara if she and Ken heard anything last night. I mean if we heard it, chances are they heard it too," Darcy said as they both finished up their food. "Remember, I'm going over to the Martin's after camp today, so I might not be back until later."
Phil nodded and then walked over to Darcy and placed a kiss on top of her head. "Have a good day. Call me if you find anything out."
Darcy smiled and pulled on his shirt to pull him closer to her. She kissed him on the lips and grinned. "You too, Agent Hottie."
"Hey, sorry I'm late," Darcy said quietly as she walked into the classroom. All the kids were quietly working on painting milk cartons ... they were being quiet for once, and that was a total shocker to Darcy. She walked over to Barbara and smiled. "Kids are being good. Yay!" she whispered.
Barbara nodded. "I know," she picked up a paintbrush and ran it under the sink to clean it off. "Melissa isn't here today, she called and said she had a migraine. I told her we could handle the kids," she said with a yawn.
"Oh, well, I hope she gets better. Migraines can be a total bitch," Darcy said, wiping up some spilt water with a paper towel. She watched as Barbara yawned again. "So, last night, Phil and I heard a really loud howl outside. In those woods that separate our houses. It freaked us out, and we couldn't fall back asleep. Did you and Ken hear it?"
Barbara shook her head. "No, we didn't hear anything. Ken snores so loud though, so I never hear anything but that," she laughed.
Phil made his way up the gravel walkway to the sheriff's office. It was more like an old house renovated into a sheriff's office, and Phil would bet that it also doubled as Sheriff Dunham's home. He pulled open the door knob and the door opened with a creak as he stepped inside. There was two desks inside, both vacant, and a holding cell off to the side. The whole placed looked like it belonged in an entirely different era, with all the old timey decor inside.
"Hello?" Phil said as he walked up to the front desk and dinged the brass bell. "Sheriff Dunham?" He glanced down at the pile of papers spread across the desk just as Dunham came out the back room eating an apple.
"Mr. Coulson?" he asked with a faint smile. "What brings you in?" He walked over to the desk and set his half eating apple on it before looking up and smiling a bit wider.
Phil nodded and smiled. "Just came here to see how small town law enforcement operated. Just getting some ideas for my book."
"Ah, yes ..." he said sitting down at his desk and then motioned for Phil to take a seat across from him. "Well, what you see here is pretty much it. Luckily this isn't a high crime area. Shady Oaks is a relativity quiet and peaceful. Really the only time I even use that holding cell is if someone get a bit belligerent down at Branson's. Usually one of the logging boys after one too many drinks," he laughed.
Phil chuckled. "Yeah, I know how that can be."
"Don't strike me as a trouble maker, Coulson."
"Not anymore," he laughed, watching Dunham pulled a brown paper lunch bag out from under his desk.
"You don't mind do you?" he asked as he unwrapped his sandwich. "It's just about my lunchtime."
"Not at all," Phil said with a fake yawn. "Sorry," he apologized.
Dunham took a bite of his food. "Didn't sleep well?"
Phil shook his head. "Both Darcy and I didn't sleep well at all. We heard some kind of weird animal noise last night out in the woods between our house and the Cedar's. Sounded like a howl. It kinda shook us up and we just couldn't fall back asleep," Phil said, watching Dunham open a thermos of soup.
"Yeah ..." Dunham said in a long drawn out breath. "We got some predator animals out in the woods. Mountain lions and wolves, sometimes a stray one comes down to town to look for food. Especially over at farmer John's. He's got sheep and chickens - you know ... an easy dinner," he said with a laugh.
"Well, they got a little too close for our comfort last night." At least, Dunham was admitting that there was something out there and not trying to cover it up.
"Probably a wolf if you said it howled." Dunham spooned some soup in his mouth. "I'd just be extra careful going outside in the evenings. Don't want you to go missing," he laughed again.
Phil raised his eyebrow. "Certainly not." He tried to smile but the way Dunham said it made Phil a bit uneasy. He definitely knew a lot more than he was letting on. "Do you think the animals have any connection to the missing men?"
Dunham slurped some soup into his mouth and then smirked. "You a book writer or a reporter, Coulson?" He paused a moment and then grinned. "Just teasing. Actually, I don't know. Maybe. We never found the bodies or any evidence to connect the two together. The men simply just vanished as it would seem. So who told you about the men? Johnny? Carson Orrs?"
"I over heard something at Branson's last week. Not sure who it was from." Phil shrugged. He could tell that the sheriff was starting to tense up a bit because he put down his soup spoon and tapped his fingers against his knee. He was getting up now, walking over to the trash can and tossing his half eaten sandwich in it.
"I'm suspecting that maybe the men just skipped town. They all were outsiders that came to work for Jack Martin over at the logging site." Dunham walked back over to his desk and stood next to it and looked down at Phil. "And you know how Jack can be. He likes to talk big and bark out orders. Not exactly an easy man to work for."
Oh, I know. I spent yesterday at the site working for him. He's a hard man but knows how to get the job done." Phil stood up, he figured since Dunham wasn't sitting back down that it was his cue to leave.
"Well, I'd love to chat some more, Mr. Coulson but I have to make some rounds." He smiled politely and then placed his hands on his hips. "Tell Darcy I said hi."
"I will. Have a good rest of the day, sheriff," Phil said as he headed out the door. Dunham may have not told him much information but it was enough for him to know that those men didn't just skip town. Whatever happened to them, Dunham knew and he wasn't telling.
Darcy hurried to get cleaned up after camp was over to get over to the Martin's house. She hoped that she could talk to Annie and find out how her mom was. She also was going to ask her more about the monster in the woods that she had mentioned before. Could this monster be the same thing that made that horrific howl in the woods last night?
The Martin's lived on Wright Street in a small blue house that looked just as shitty as the one that she and Phil lived in, except worse. Carefully, Darcy opened the small gate and crept through the overgrown grass, being careful not to trip over on any of the old junk and rusty machinery that littered the yard. She felt sad for Annie as she walked up to the door. She was such a sweet little girl and to have to live in this dump really made her heart break. She rang the bell but realized that it didn't work, she knocked on the door instead. Darcy waited there for a few minutes hoping that Annie or someone would come to the door. Anybody but Jack. Every time Darcy saw him she wanted tase him. She blew an impatient breath out and tapped her foot before walking over to the broken front window with the plastic tapped over it. She pressed her face against one of the non broken panes to see if she could get a look of the inside of the house. It didn't look any better than the outside, from the dirty dishes to the laundry baskets filled with junk that sat on the raggedy furniture. Darcy walked back over to the door and knocked one last time. Just as she turned around to leave, Jack's pick up truck pulled into the driveway and Darcy groaned inwardly. Her taser was just under her jacket and she could whip it out at a moments notice if she needed it.
Hopefully, she wouldn't.
Jack got out of his truck and smiled up at Darcy as she came down the steps and into the yard. "Afternoon, Darcy." He walked up to her and gave her a once over with his eyes, which Darcy had to keep herself from kicking him in the balls.
"Hey, Jack," Darcy greeted him as nicely as she could. "I came here to see Annie, but I don't think she's here."
"My stepdaughter went to her friend's house for the night," he said with a grin, still not taking his eyes off her.
Stepdaughter? So Annie wasn't Jack's biological daughter? For some reason that seemed pertinent to the mission, she just wasn't sure why. "Oh okay," Darcy said with a nod, she didn't even want to ask about Lindsey since she wasn't supposed to know anything about that. "I was just going to drop some crayons and paper off for her since she's not in art camp anymore." She pulled out a plastic bag with supplies from her purse and handed it to Jack.
"Thanks, I'll be sure she gets these," he smiled as his eyes flicked up to the house and then back to Darcy. "Would you like to come inside for a drink? It's awfully hot out here."
Inside that dirty dump? No thanks. Actually it wouldn't probably be a bad idea; she could snoop around inside, maybe find out where Lindsey was, but it just didn't feel right to her. She didn't want to go in there alone and she wouldn't think Phil would want her to either. "Um, actually, I better get going home to see what Phil wants for dinner tonight. Thanks though." She started to walk away but Jack caught her by the waist with his hand.
He looked at her hungrily. "Thanks for the art stuff, Darcy. That was so sweet and generous of you, and I'm sure Annie will love it," he said. He let his hand linger on her waist for a moment before he let go.
She wanted to hit him; she wanted to tase his ass and let him drool into the ground while she tap danced all over his back, but she couldn't. Something about the way he was looking at her, paralyzed her with a fear that she never felt before. "I gotta go," she said quickly and then hurried away from Jack as quickly as she could without making it look like she was running away from him.
"Oh my god," Darcy said as she opened the front door and walked inside the house. Phil was sitting on the couch with his laptop, looking through different types of animal tracks.
He looked up at her and took his glasses off. "Darcy? You look shaken, what's wrong?" He shut the top of his computer and set it down on the coffee table. He put his arm around her when she sat down next to him. "What happened?" he asked in a concerned voice.
"I went over to Annie's after camp but she wasn't there. And talk about a dump! There was so much junk and shit all over the place, that it made the trailer that I lived in with my mother and her boyfriend at the time look like the Buckingham Palace," she said with a shake of her head. "Just as I was about to leave Jack pulled into the driveway. I asked him if he knew where Annie was and he said- get this -that his stepdaughter was at a friends house for the night. Stepdaughter. Last time he mentioned her to me she said daughter, now I find out that she's not really his daughter at all. I don't know why this is striking me as odd, but it is for some reason." She paused, not wanting to go into the detail about Jack putting his hand on her waist.
Phil raised his eyebrow. "Is there more?"
"Don't you find that weird?" Darcy could tell that he knew that she was hiding something from him.
"Could be. But lots of people have stepchildren. It's not uncommon." His eyes searched her face. "What else his bothering you, Darcy?"
"I almost tased his ass," she said with a laugh, trying to make it seem like she wasn't bothered at all. "Just as I was getting ready to leave, he asked if I wanted to come in for a drink-"
"You didn't go in did you?" Phil asked.
"No-"
"Good. I have specific orders not to allow you to put yourself in dangerous situations," he said in a stony cold voice just tinged with worry; his eyes narrowed and darkened.
She had planned on telling him that Jack had grabbed her waist but when she saw the look on Phil's face, she decided not to. No sense in getting him all worked up when nothing really happened. It's not like Phil would go tearing out of here all hell-bent on punching Jack for touching her ... at least she didn't think he would. He still looked pissed though, and Darcy thought maybe she should change the subject before he did find out that Jack made a move on her. "So, uh ... no news from S.H.I.E.L.D on the hair analysis? What about the tracks? Did you find anything in the database that matches them?"
Phil shook his head. "Nothing came back yet on the sample." His facial features were softening and returning back to normal. "I talked to Sheriff Dunham this morning. I mentioned that we heard a howl last night and he said that it could have been a mountain lion or a wolf-"
"Which would make sense," Darcy said taking the laptop and opening it back up. There were different types of animal tracks on the page but none of them were exactly like the ones that Phil had taken a picture of. "None of these are it," Darcy said with a frown.
"This one is the closest but smaller." He pointed to the image on the screen.
"A grey wolf?" Darcy asked, looking up at Phil. "I guess that would explain the howl and you said Dunham said there were wolves around here. Ugh, so what are we back to square one? Does this wolf thing have any connection to the case?"
"I also asked Dunham about the missing men," Phil said putting his arm around Darcy, which she happily snuggled into him. "He tensed up and got almost nervous about it. Said that all the men were working at the logging site with Jack, and that they probably skipped town because of how demeaning Jack is towards his employees."
"That sounds like a crock of shit," Darcy said with a snort and a shake of her head. "So, we're supposed to believe that five men left Shady Oaks without telling anyone because they couldn't stand Jack? Did you ask him why all the men were in their forties and had blue eyes?"
"The thought crossed my mind but I didn't want to sound like some sort of nosey spy," he said with a smirk.
Darcy giggled. "Which would be blowing your cover." She closed her eyes and rested her head on his chest while he went back to skimming through animal tracks.
"Did Jack say anything about his wife?" Phil asked.
"Huh?" Darcy said sleepily. She had almost dozed off, which was easy to do when your boyfriend's chest was like the most comfortable 'pillow' ever.
"Jack's wife?"
"Oh ..." Darcy said with a yawn. "Nope, nothing. That's why I was half tempted to go inside the house. I wanted to see if she was in there. Obviously, though, if he invited me in he must not have anything to hide. God, I really wish I knew what the fuck was going on. Nothing is making sense."
"We'll get to the bottom of it," Phil said placing a kiss on her forehead before going back to the computer screen. Darcy snuggled back into him and shut her eyes while he worked. They stayed silent; Darcy sleeping and Phil working for almost two hours until Darcy's stomach growled.
"Hungry ..." she mumbled, eyes still shut.
"What's that, angel-tits?" Phil asked, as he busily typed an update report to send to Director Fury.
Darcy stirred. "I'm hungry, I said." She rubbed her eyes and then furrowed her brows slightly. "Wait ... did you just call me ... angel-tits?"
Phil looked down at her and smirked as he shut the laptop.
"You did!" she giggled. "You are such a nerd." She playfully hit his chest and then bent up to place a little kiss on his jaw.
"Is that a bad thing?" he asked, arching his eyebrow.
"Nope, totally adorkable. Your nerdy side is a total turn on for me. Gets me all hot and makes me want to do terrible things to you!" Her stomach grumbled again and she started to stand up. "But not until after I've been fed. What do you want for dinner? I think we still have some hamburger left. I can do a meatloaf or stuffed peppers," she asked stretching her arms over her head and standing up on her tip toes.
"Or we could go out?" he suggested.
"To Branson's? You want to do some super secret detective work, don't you? Find out from the locals if they've seen or heard anything suspicious?"
"That, and it's ten cent wing night," he grinned.
"Beers and wings?" Darcy smiled back.
"Beers and wings, baby." Phil nodded, still with the same goofy grin on his face.