Fic: A Different Kind Of Pain
Jun. 1st, 2008 11:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
csi_sanders1129Title: A Different Kind Of Pain
Chapters: 1/1
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
csi_sanders1129
Genre: Drama. Angst. Romance. Crossover.
Ratings: T
Word Count: ~3200
Pairings/Characters: Tommy/Merton. Wincest.
Synopsis: Merton's acting weird, and Tommy might need some back up to find out why.
Comments: This has been in progress forever and I finally finished it. Whoot! Umm... boys aren't mine. Enjoy!
“Merton!” The taller boy growled, slamming his best friend against the nearest wall, hands wrapped tightly around the other’s wrist, held against either side of his head. “What the hell has gotten into you lately?”
“Get off of me!” The black haired boy demanded, struggling against the hold he was trapped in.
Tommy shook his head, pressing his body flush to the others, trying to cease the resistance. “No! Something’s not right. You’re not acting normal.”
“I’m not the one whose pinned their so-called best friend to a wall, am I?” Merton shouted, kicking relentlessly in a further attempt to free himself.
He blinked, ignoring the comment “Tell me what happened to you!”
“Nothing!”
“God, Merton. You tried to beat up T’n’T! You’ve barely spoken to me lately. You’re acting like you don’t give a damn about anything! And you want me to believe that nothing’s happened to you?” Tommy stared in disbelief at the boy he knew so well. “Tell me, what did I do to make you so furious with me?”
The other remained silent, glaring daggers at his captor. “Let. Me. Go.”
Tommy’s grip slackened, his mind reeling for reasons why Merton was acting like this. “You’re different. You’re not -my- Merton. The Merton I know wouldn’t be doing this, wouldn’t be shutting me out.” He released the boy’s wrists, backing away. “Please, just give me my best friend back…”
He didn’t know what he’d been expecting as a response to that, but the snort of amusement was not it. “Your best friend is gone.” It came from Merton’s mouth, but he knew that someone else was speaking. Now that he was listening, this was obviously not Merton. He looked like Merton, sure, but his smell was distorted, and his voice was changed. He realized that this person, whoever the hell they were, was not kidding. Merton wasn’t here. A distinct flash of black eyes seemed to back up his suspicion.
Rage filling his mind, he grabbed the imposter by the collar, the wolf erupting from within. “What did you do with him?” Tommy demanded, fingers curling around his captive’s throat. “Where’s Merton?”
Fingers clawed at his hands, frantically trying to lessen the vice grip Tommy had on him. “If you hurt me, you’re hurting him!” Fake-Merton protested, gasping for air when the taller boy quickly released him, unwilling to do anything to jeopardize the boy he was now so desperate to find.
“God damn it! Where is he?” Tommy fumed, pacing like a caged animal before wheeling around to face the imposter again. “Tell me where -my- Merton is!”
The boy snorted with laughter, bypassing the angered werewolf to flop down in the computer chair, choosing to ignore the disturbance.
“Fuck you.” Tommy growled, retreating from the room. It was nearly two a.m. now and he felt it was safe to run through the park in an attempt to calm down. He had to find Merton! His mind reeled with all of the horrible situations his best friend could be in right now. None of which had pleasant endings… Flashes of Merton lying on the side of the road in some gutter, being held captive, or, the worse of all… dead, he shut his eyes blocking such ideas from his brain as he ran and ran.
Heaving for breath, he collapsed against a tree. “I’ll find you…” He promised aloud, wishing Merton was there to hear it.
***
The next morning, luckily a Saturday, Tommy headed straight for the library, he couldn’t very well use Merton’s book collection to figure out what happened while some imposter was there. However, upon reaching the Occult section that he normally wouldn’t be caught dead in without Merton, he discovered it was very lacking compared to his friends.
“I don’t even know what the hell I’m looking for…” He growled, moving to one of the computers in the back of the room.
He was not computer literate at all. Sure, he knew the basics, like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, but Merton was still trying to teach him how to do all the Internet stuff. Finding Merton’s most used search engine, he typed in ‘cloned best friends’ which, not surprisingly, offered very little in the way of helpful results. Merton made this look so easy…
Tommy groaned, his head hitting the desk in frustration as search after search provided no answers to his current predicament. Imposter… Clone… He’d thought he’d had a lead with Doppelgangers, but that fell through as well. “What do I do?”
Another idea popped into his mind.
It probably wasn’t what Merton would have diverted to this soon, but Tommy didn’t have all the occult knowledge he did. He found one of the chat rooms Merton often used and explained his situation. Minus any details that would cause anyone to be too suspicious.
He stared intently at the screen for what seemed like hours on end until he finally got a reply. It was a link to another website, about a bunch of recent reports of the same thing. There was one as close as Muhlenberg and one as far away as New York. Most of them seemed to be nearby, though.
“Excuse me, sir. The library’s closing for the night.” An older woman politely told him. He let out a sigh and moved away from the computer. With a resigned sigh, Tommy gave up for the night.
***
Sam watched out of the corner of his eye as his brother flirted mercilessly with their waitress, a tall, blonde girl who Sam thought believed that they were together. If anything, Dean’s advances were only making the woman believe that more and more. He was trying way too hard.
“Hey, Dean.” He nudged his brother under the table, still reading over the chat room conversation on his laptop. “I think we’ve got something worth checking out.” He turned the computer screen to show the small town paper. “Might have a demon in Pleasantville.”
Dean just rolled his eyes. “C’mon, Sammy. You‘re on one of those cheesy forums. It’s just a bunch of geeks making stuff up.”
“It’s either the possible demon or alien abductions in Phoenix. Your pick.” Sam knew which his brother would pick. Dean gave a dismissive eye roll at the thought of an alien investigation. “Good, then we’re agreed. If we head out now, we can be there by tomorrow afternoon.”
Casting one last glance at the waitress, Dean stood, going over to pay. “Fine.”
On the way out, Sam made sure to catch Dean’s hand in his own, which prompted a cry of ‘I told you so!’ from one of the waitresses.
***
The next day brought Tommy’s return to the library, only this time he wasn’t alone.
Two guys, one with scraggly brown hair and a shorter one with gelled hair sat at the computer he’d been using yesterday.
“This is definitely the computer that posted in the chat room.” The tall one said, and Tommy could tell he was on the same website he’d been investigating yesterday. “You don’t need a library card to use the computers, so… we can’t track the poster down.”
Tommy was debating on whether to confront them or leave swiftly when the other one noticed him.
“Hey, were you here yesterday?”
He nodded. No sense in lying, the librarian would recognize him. “Yeah.”
“See anyone else?” The tall one questioned, turning to see who they were talking to.
He eyed them closely. “No. Why?”
“We’re trying to help someone out.”
Sill rather hesitant to tell too much to these strangers, he replied with a simple, “Oh? How so?”
Sam shook his head. “Too hard to explain. But we need to find whoever was using this computer yesterday. They might be in trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?” Tommy asked. “Like, supernatural kind of trouble?” Might as well see where they stood on that idea.
The two traded a look. “Umm, yes.” The tall one stood up and approached. “I’m Sam Winchester, and this is my brother, Dean. Are you the one who posted that message in the chat room yesterday about your friend?” Using that magical technique he seemed to have when talking to people, Sam inquired.
“Yeah…” He admitted, shaking the offered hand. “Tommy Dawkins. You can help?”
“It’s sorta what we do.” Dean answered. “You a hunter, too?”
“A what?” He replied, confused. “If you mean, do I go after supernatural stuff, too, then, yeah. Merton and I have dealt with our share of evil. Didn’t know there was anyone else doing it, though.”
Dean looked rather interested now. “What kind of stuff has been around here? You stay in this one place?”
Sam, however, had a more relevant question. “I take it Merton is the one who needs help?”
Tommy nodded in response to Sam and held off on answering Dean for now. “I‘ll take you to him. I can‘t figure out what‘s wrong. He usually handles the research part…” He led them outside, and they motioned to the ‘67 Impala parked around the side of the building. “Nice car.” He complimented, and Dean smirked.
They arrived at the Lair a few moments later. Tommy used his key on the basement door and stepped into the room, Dean and Sam behind him. “He’s… not here.”
Dean looked something like a kid in a candy store when he saw Merton’s vast collection of books and weapons. He pointed to the bookshelf with an impressed look. “Your friend must know an awful lot about the occult.”
A voice in the doorway startles them. “You kind of have to, when you’re keeping a werewolf out of trouble.” Merton’s form is standing calmly in the doorway, leaning against the frame.
“Werewolf?” Sam and Dean didn’t seem to be able to decide who posed the greatest threat anymore.
Tommy felt his stomach sink. Even though he knew that it couldn’t really be Merton blowing that secret, it was still a secret no one else in the room needed to know. He wasn’t sure if these Winchester boys cared about good versus evil or if they just went after any and all things Supernatural.
Sam turned slowly to face him. “You… you’re a werewolf?”
“Sammy, werewolves don’t -know- they’re werewolves. Remember Madison?” Dean scolded his brother, already reaching for his gun.
Tommy’s eyes widened. He could feel the wolf, wanting to come out. “Wait!” He begged. “Wait a minute! I’m not evil!”
“And, we should believe you, why, exactly?” Dean snapped.
“Have I hurt you yet?”
Dean’s finger landed on the trigger. “No, but, it’s daytime.”
Tommy confusion as to the relevance of that statement was not hard to miss. “So? I can transform whenever I want.”
Both brothers looked equally surprised.
“Look, I do what you do. There’s a ton of evil stuff in this town. Merton, well, the real one, and I, we’ve taken down vampires, an evil werewolf syndicate, ghosts, even death a few times. I’ve never hurt anybody human.”
“We’ve seen werewolves before, buddy.” Sam’s expression steeled itself as the words came out of Dean’s mouth. “They’re not like us. They transform at night, hunt, and their hosts don’t know what happens when they’re wolves.”
Tommy held up his hands in surrender. “Hey, I’ll show you if you want. Just… put the gun down, okay?”
Sam looked to Dean for agreement and the elder nodded in reply. Tommy took note of how they needed just about as much conversation as he and Merton did to communicate. The guns lowered, and the wolf was telling him all sorts of other things. “Fine. If you attack, we shoot.”
“Fair enough.” With that, Tommy let the wolf out. “See?” Tommy crossed his arms over his chest. “I got bit by another werewolf like me, a not so friendly one, the last day of summer break before my senior year. Merton was the one who figured it out and he told me what was wrong. For a while he was the only one that knew. After a while we told our friend Lori.” He sighed. “Silver burns, I transform all night on the full moons. I crave chicken a lot. My senses are insane… and, yeah. That’s about it.”
“Sam?”
The younger stared. “I don’t think he’s lying.”
“I don’t really care what you think. I’m not evil. I control the wolf. And, even if I was evil, which I am not, I would hope that wouldn’t stop you from helping Merton. I’d die for him.”
The two brothers shared another look before pocketing their weapons again. “Alright.”
***
“He’s probably possessed.” Sam declared, once they’d spoken with Tommy about Merton’s strange behaviors. “There was kind of an opened portal to hell a few months back. A lot of demons escaped.”
“Almost had an open portal to hell once ourselves. Lesson learned: the school nerd should never be trusted.” Tommy replied. He’d been swapping tales all night with Dean, who seemed interested in the fact that so much supernatural energy was focused in Pleasantville. “We’ve never had a demon like this before. Can you get rid of it?”
Dean nodded, digging through the trunk of the Impala for his tools. “Yeah. We need to trap him, first.”
“Trap him?”
Sam brandished a piece of chalk. “It’s called a devil’s trap. Once a demon enters it, it can’t leave until the circle is broken.” He explained, tracing the beginning patterns of one on the back driveway of Merton’s house.
“It won’t hurt him, will it?” Tommy asked. Merton’s safety was priority number one.
Dean shook his head. “No, not as long as the demon hasn’t jumped out of any buildings or something else that would hut the host since it took over. Any harm done to the host while it’s possessed won’t appear until the demon is gone.”
The werewolf nodded. “How do we get him out here?” He wondered, as Sam continued with his sketching.
“That one’s up to you, wolf boy.” The elder Winchester answered, flipping through the leather-bound journal for the proper exorcism.
“Whenever you’re ready.” Sam echoed, as he finished.
“Can I just pick him up and put him there?” He suggested, knowing Merton wasn’t as much of a fighter as he was a lover.
The brothers exchanged looks. “You can try. Demons tend to make their hosts pretty damn strong, though.” Dean tossed a flask of liquid at him. “Try and get him to drink that. It’ll slow him down and tell us for sure that it’s a demon.”
Tommy went in the front of the house, strange enough in and off itself, as he rarely entered except through the basement. He grabbed a YooHoo out of the fridge and dosed it with the liquid Dean gave him.
“Look. They can’t help me save you. So, peace offering. I’ll leave you alone. Clearly you don’t want my help and there’s nothing I can do. So, goodbye.”
Demon Merton was clearly smarter than that, though. “You really think I’m falling for that?”
“What? It’s a drink.” Tommy said, playing dumb, but now sensing this wasn’t going to be as easy as he’d thought.
“Mhm. Right. So you didn’t dose it with some holy water? Like that stuff in your pocket?” Demon Merton called him on his lie.
Tommy, now running out of plans that led to Merton being in the Devil’s trap, reverted to another idea. He took the flask of holy water out of his pocket and splashed the liquid at Merton. It had the desired effect, assuming the whole smoking and writhing in pain thing meant you were a demon. While the creature inhabiting his best friend’s body was distracted with the holy water, he grabbed the boy’s slender frame and dragged him out the door.
“I got him!” He called to Sam and Dean, and he hauled the boy into the circle. He let go and got out of the chalk lines as quickly as he could.
“Exorcisamus te, omnes in mundus spiritus, omnes satanica potestas, omnes incursio…” Dean began the exorcism, ignoring the protests of the demon.
“Tommy!” Merton wailed. “Tommy make it stop!”
The werewolf wanted to interfere, fearing his mate was being harmed. But, he knew that the demon was still there. “Just hold on, little buddy.”
Then the demon made a different attempt. “He’s in love with you, you know, wolf-boy?” The voice of the demon shone through with that comment, an evil sounding hoarse whisper. “But he’s been afraid to tell you. Afraid you’d leave him. Will you, wolf-boy?”
Having suspected Merton’s feelings for some time now, he stood his ground, holding off the shock of having those feelings confirmed. “Never.”
The last lines of the exorcism echoed in the silence of the night. The demon released a loud scream as it was forced from it’s host, leaving Merton slumped over in the chalk lines a moment later.
“Can I?” Tommy asked, looking to the brothers to make sure it was okay. When they nodded, he moved to Merton’s side and pulled the boy into his lap.
“Mmm… Tommy?” He mumbled, barely conscious. “Ugh… what happened? That thing! What was it?”
“Don’t worry. It’s gone.” Tommy assured him. “It was a demon. Do you know how it got you?”
Merton shook his head. “No, I don’t remember much of anything.” Then he seemed to notice the presence of two other figures. “You’re wolfed out! They… they can see you!”
Dean and Sam just watched them. “Yeah, ugh, you told us.” Dean said, he rubbed the back of his neck in the awkward moment.
“I told?” Merton gasped. “Oh, God. Who are they? Are they going to hurt you? Is this going to turn into The Wolf Man?”
“I dunno, what happened?”
Merton paused. “Well, it was one of Lon Cheney’s most well known roles…”
“In the movie!” Tommy growled. Dean and Sam laughed at the mix up. “He does this every time.”
“Oh, well. The villagers go after the werewolf. What were you expecting. Although, since they don’t have pitchforks or anything, I’m guessing that they’re not going to hurt you.”
Tommy shook his head. “No, they’re hunters, too. Did you know there were other people who do what we do?” He inquired, but didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he pulled Merton to his feet. “Merton, this is Sam and Dean. This is Merton.”
“That’s all well and good, but I wanna ask more questions about stuff you’ve seen.” Dean prodded, after introductions had been made.
***
Once they’d gone through all of the Winchester Brother’s questions and agreed to meet up the next day to talk some more, Tommy took advantage of the time alone to question Merton.
They’d collapsed across Merton’s sofa, with some movie playing on the television. “You know, Merton.” He started, cautiously. “While you were possessed, the demon was, I guess, channeling your feelings or something.”
“It was?” Merton squeaked, looking decidedly concerned.
“Yeah, it said some things. Like, that you might... Like me a little more than you let on.”
Merton gulped, and the wolf’s senses detected the increase in Merton’s heart rate. “Uh… Tommy, I…”
“Don’t worry.” Tommy said, leaning in a bit closer before he pressed his lips to his best friends. “It’s what I wanted to hear.”
Chapters: 1/1
Author:
csi_sanders1129 Genre: Drama. Angst. Romance. Crossover.
Ratings: T
Word Count: ~3200
Pairings/Characters: Tommy/Merton. Wincest.
Synopsis: Merton's acting weird, and Tommy might need some back up to find out why.
Comments: This has been in progress forever and I finally finished it. Whoot! Umm... boys aren't mine. Enjoy!
“Merton!” The taller boy growled, slamming his best friend against the nearest wall, hands wrapped tightly around the other’s wrist, held against either side of his head. “What the hell has gotten into you lately?”
“Get off of me!” The black haired boy demanded, struggling against the hold he was trapped in.
Tommy shook his head, pressing his body flush to the others, trying to cease the resistance. “No! Something’s not right. You’re not acting normal.”
“I’m not the one whose pinned their so-called best friend to a wall, am I?” Merton shouted, kicking relentlessly in a further attempt to free himself.
He blinked, ignoring the comment “Tell me what happened to you!”
“Nothing!”
“God, Merton. You tried to beat up T’n’T! You’ve barely spoken to me lately. You’re acting like you don’t give a damn about anything! And you want me to believe that nothing’s happened to you?” Tommy stared in disbelief at the boy he knew so well. “Tell me, what did I do to make you so furious with me?”
The other remained silent, glaring daggers at his captor. “Let. Me. Go.”
Tommy’s grip slackened, his mind reeling for reasons why Merton was acting like this. “You’re different. You’re not -my- Merton. The Merton I know wouldn’t be doing this, wouldn’t be shutting me out.” He released the boy’s wrists, backing away. “Please, just give me my best friend back…”
He didn’t know what he’d been expecting as a response to that, but the snort of amusement was not it. “Your best friend is gone.” It came from Merton’s mouth, but he knew that someone else was speaking. Now that he was listening, this was obviously not Merton. He looked like Merton, sure, but his smell was distorted, and his voice was changed. He realized that this person, whoever the hell they were, was not kidding. Merton wasn’t here. A distinct flash of black eyes seemed to back up his suspicion.
Rage filling his mind, he grabbed the imposter by the collar, the wolf erupting from within. “What did you do with him?” Tommy demanded, fingers curling around his captive’s throat. “Where’s Merton?”
Fingers clawed at his hands, frantically trying to lessen the vice grip Tommy had on him. “If you hurt me, you’re hurting him!” Fake-Merton protested, gasping for air when the taller boy quickly released him, unwilling to do anything to jeopardize the boy he was now so desperate to find.
“God damn it! Where is he?” Tommy fumed, pacing like a caged animal before wheeling around to face the imposter again. “Tell me where -my- Merton is!”
The boy snorted with laughter, bypassing the angered werewolf to flop down in the computer chair, choosing to ignore the disturbance.
“Fuck you.” Tommy growled, retreating from the room. It was nearly two a.m. now and he felt it was safe to run through the park in an attempt to calm down. He had to find Merton! His mind reeled with all of the horrible situations his best friend could be in right now. None of which had pleasant endings… Flashes of Merton lying on the side of the road in some gutter, being held captive, or, the worse of all… dead, he shut his eyes blocking such ideas from his brain as he ran and ran.
Heaving for breath, he collapsed against a tree. “I’ll find you…” He promised aloud, wishing Merton was there to hear it.
***
The next morning, luckily a Saturday, Tommy headed straight for the library, he couldn’t very well use Merton’s book collection to figure out what happened while some imposter was there. However, upon reaching the Occult section that he normally wouldn’t be caught dead in without Merton, he discovered it was very lacking compared to his friends.
“I don’t even know what the hell I’m looking for…” He growled, moving to one of the computers in the back of the room.
He was not computer literate at all. Sure, he knew the basics, like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, but Merton was still trying to teach him how to do all the Internet stuff. Finding Merton’s most used search engine, he typed in ‘cloned best friends’ which, not surprisingly, offered very little in the way of helpful results. Merton made this look so easy…
Tommy groaned, his head hitting the desk in frustration as search after search provided no answers to his current predicament. Imposter… Clone… He’d thought he’d had a lead with Doppelgangers, but that fell through as well. “What do I do?”
Another idea popped into his mind.
It probably wasn’t what Merton would have diverted to this soon, but Tommy didn’t have all the occult knowledge he did. He found one of the chat rooms Merton often used and explained his situation. Minus any details that would cause anyone to be too suspicious.
He stared intently at the screen for what seemed like hours on end until he finally got a reply. It was a link to another website, about a bunch of recent reports of the same thing. There was one as close as Muhlenberg and one as far away as New York. Most of them seemed to be nearby, though.
“Excuse me, sir. The library’s closing for the night.” An older woman politely told him. He let out a sigh and moved away from the computer. With a resigned sigh, Tommy gave up for the night.
***
Sam watched out of the corner of his eye as his brother flirted mercilessly with their waitress, a tall, blonde girl who Sam thought believed that they were together. If anything, Dean’s advances were only making the woman believe that more and more. He was trying way too hard.
“Hey, Dean.” He nudged his brother under the table, still reading over the chat room conversation on his laptop. “I think we’ve got something worth checking out.” He turned the computer screen to show the small town paper. “Might have a demon in Pleasantville.”
Dean just rolled his eyes. “C’mon, Sammy. You‘re on one of those cheesy forums. It’s just a bunch of geeks making stuff up.”
“It’s either the possible demon or alien abductions in Phoenix. Your pick.” Sam knew which his brother would pick. Dean gave a dismissive eye roll at the thought of an alien investigation. “Good, then we’re agreed. If we head out now, we can be there by tomorrow afternoon.”
Casting one last glance at the waitress, Dean stood, going over to pay. “Fine.”
On the way out, Sam made sure to catch Dean’s hand in his own, which prompted a cry of ‘I told you so!’ from one of the waitresses.
***
The next day brought Tommy’s return to the library, only this time he wasn’t alone.
Two guys, one with scraggly brown hair and a shorter one with gelled hair sat at the computer he’d been using yesterday.
“This is definitely the computer that posted in the chat room.” The tall one said, and Tommy could tell he was on the same website he’d been investigating yesterday. “You don’t need a library card to use the computers, so… we can’t track the poster down.”
Tommy was debating on whether to confront them or leave swiftly when the other one noticed him.
“Hey, were you here yesterday?”
He nodded. No sense in lying, the librarian would recognize him. “Yeah.”
“See anyone else?” The tall one questioned, turning to see who they were talking to.
He eyed them closely. “No. Why?”
“We’re trying to help someone out.”
Sill rather hesitant to tell too much to these strangers, he replied with a simple, “Oh? How so?”
Sam shook his head. “Too hard to explain. But we need to find whoever was using this computer yesterday. They might be in trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?” Tommy asked. “Like, supernatural kind of trouble?” Might as well see where they stood on that idea.
The two traded a look. “Umm, yes.” The tall one stood up and approached. “I’m Sam Winchester, and this is my brother, Dean. Are you the one who posted that message in the chat room yesterday about your friend?” Using that magical technique he seemed to have when talking to people, Sam inquired.
“Yeah…” He admitted, shaking the offered hand. “Tommy Dawkins. You can help?”
“It’s sorta what we do.” Dean answered. “You a hunter, too?”
“A what?” He replied, confused. “If you mean, do I go after supernatural stuff, too, then, yeah. Merton and I have dealt with our share of evil. Didn’t know there was anyone else doing it, though.”
Dean looked rather interested now. “What kind of stuff has been around here? You stay in this one place?”
Sam, however, had a more relevant question. “I take it Merton is the one who needs help?”
Tommy nodded in response to Sam and held off on answering Dean for now. “I‘ll take you to him. I can‘t figure out what‘s wrong. He usually handles the research part…” He led them outside, and they motioned to the ‘67 Impala parked around the side of the building. “Nice car.” He complimented, and Dean smirked.
They arrived at the Lair a few moments later. Tommy used his key on the basement door and stepped into the room, Dean and Sam behind him. “He’s… not here.”
Dean looked something like a kid in a candy store when he saw Merton’s vast collection of books and weapons. He pointed to the bookshelf with an impressed look. “Your friend must know an awful lot about the occult.”
A voice in the doorway startles them. “You kind of have to, when you’re keeping a werewolf out of trouble.” Merton’s form is standing calmly in the doorway, leaning against the frame.
“Werewolf?” Sam and Dean didn’t seem to be able to decide who posed the greatest threat anymore.
Tommy felt his stomach sink. Even though he knew that it couldn’t really be Merton blowing that secret, it was still a secret no one else in the room needed to know. He wasn’t sure if these Winchester boys cared about good versus evil or if they just went after any and all things Supernatural.
Sam turned slowly to face him. “You… you’re a werewolf?”
“Sammy, werewolves don’t -know- they’re werewolves. Remember Madison?” Dean scolded his brother, already reaching for his gun.
Tommy’s eyes widened. He could feel the wolf, wanting to come out. “Wait!” He begged. “Wait a minute! I’m not evil!”
“And, we should believe you, why, exactly?” Dean snapped.
“Have I hurt you yet?”
Dean’s finger landed on the trigger. “No, but, it’s daytime.”
Tommy confusion as to the relevance of that statement was not hard to miss. “So? I can transform whenever I want.”
Both brothers looked equally surprised.
“Look, I do what you do. There’s a ton of evil stuff in this town. Merton, well, the real one, and I, we’ve taken down vampires, an evil werewolf syndicate, ghosts, even death a few times. I’ve never hurt anybody human.”
“We’ve seen werewolves before, buddy.” Sam’s expression steeled itself as the words came out of Dean’s mouth. “They’re not like us. They transform at night, hunt, and their hosts don’t know what happens when they’re wolves.”
Tommy held up his hands in surrender. “Hey, I’ll show you if you want. Just… put the gun down, okay?”
Sam looked to Dean for agreement and the elder nodded in reply. Tommy took note of how they needed just about as much conversation as he and Merton did to communicate. The guns lowered, and the wolf was telling him all sorts of other things. “Fine. If you attack, we shoot.”
“Fair enough.” With that, Tommy let the wolf out. “See?” Tommy crossed his arms over his chest. “I got bit by another werewolf like me, a not so friendly one, the last day of summer break before my senior year. Merton was the one who figured it out and he told me what was wrong. For a while he was the only one that knew. After a while we told our friend Lori.” He sighed. “Silver burns, I transform all night on the full moons. I crave chicken a lot. My senses are insane… and, yeah. That’s about it.”
“Sam?”
The younger stared. “I don’t think he’s lying.”
“I don’t really care what you think. I’m not evil. I control the wolf. And, even if I was evil, which I am not, I would hope that wouldn’t stop you from helping Merton. I’d die for him.”
The two brothers shared another look before pocketing their weapons again. “Alright.”
***
“He’s probably possessed.” Sam declared, once they’d spoken with Tommy about Merton’s strange behaviors. “There was kind of an opened portal to hell a few months back. A lot of demons escaped.”
“Almost had an open portal to hell once ourselves. Lesson learned: the school nerd should never be trusted.” Tommy replied. He’d been swapping tales all night with Dean, who seemed interested in the fact that so much supernatural energy was focused in Pleasantville. “We’ve never had a demon like this before. Can you get rid of it?”
Dean nodded, digging through the trunk of the Impala for his tools. “Yeah. We need to trap him, first.”
“Trap him?”
Sam brandished a piece of chalk. “It’s called a devil’s trap. Once a demon enters it, it can’t leave until the circle is broken.” He explained, tracing the beginning patterns of one on the back driveway of Merton’s house.
“It won’t hurt him, will it?” Tommy asked. Merton’s safety was priority number one.
Dean shook his head. “No, not as long as the demon hasn’t jumped out of any buildings or something else that would hut the host since it took over. Any harm done to the host while it’s possessed won’t appear until the demon is gone.”
The werewolf nodded. “How do we get him out here?” He wondered, as Sam continued with his sketching.
“That one’s up to you, wolf boy.” The elder Winchester answered, flipping through the leather-bound journal for the proper exorcism.
“Whenever you’re ready.” Sam echoed, as he finished.
“Can I just pick him up and put him there?” He suggested, knowing Merton wasn’t as much of a fighter as he was a lover.
The brothers exchanged looks. “You can try. Demons tend to make their hosts pretty damn strong, though.” Dean tossed a flask of liquid at him. “Try and get him to drink that. It’ll slow him down and tell us for sure that it’s a demon.”
Tommy went in the front of the house, strange enough in and off itself, as he rarely entered except through the basement. He grabbed a YooHoo out of the fridge and dosed it with the liquid Dean gave him.
“Look. They can’t help me save you. So, peace offering. I’ll leave you alone. Clearly you don’t want my help and there’s nothing I can do. So, goodbye.”
Demon Merton was clearly smarter than that, though. “You really think I’m falling for that?”
“What? It’s a drink.” Tommy said, playing dumb, but now sensing this wasn’t going to be as easy as he’d thought.
“Mhm. Right. So you didn’t dose it with some holy water? Like that stuff in your pocket?” Demon Merton called him on his lie.
Tommy, now running out of plans that led to Merton being in the Devil’s trap, reverted to another idea. He took the flask of holy water out of his pocket and splashed the liquid at Merton. It had the desired effect, assuming the whole smoking and writhing in pain thing meant you were a demon. While the creature inhabiting his best friend’s body was distracted with the holy water, he grabbed the boy’s slender frame and dragged him out the door.
“I got him!” He called to Sam and Dean, and he hauled the boy into the circle. He let go and got out of the chalk lines as quickly as he could.
“Exorcisamus te, omnes in mundus spiritus, omnes satanica potestas, omnes incursio…” Dean began the exorcism, ignoring the protests of the demon.
“Tommy!” Merton wailed. “Tommy make it stop!”
The werewolf wanted to interfere, fearing his mate was being harmed. But, he knew that the demon was still there. “Just hold on, little buddy.”
Then the demon made a different attempt. “He’s in love with you, you know, wolf-boy?” The voice of the demon shone through with that comment, an evil sounding hoarse whisper. “But he’s been afraid to tell you. Afraid you’d leave him. Will you, wolf-boy?”
Having suspected Merton’s feelings for some time now, he stood his ground, holding off the shock of having those feelings confirmed. “Never.”
The last lines of the exorcism echoed in the silence of the night. The demon released a loud scream as it was forced from it’s host, leaving Merton slumped over in the chalk lines a moment later.
“Can I?” Tommy asked, looking to the brothers to make sure it was okay. When they nodded, he moved to Merton’s side and pulled the boy into his lap.
“Mmm… Tommy?” He mumbled, barely conscious. “Ugh… what happened? That thing! What was it?”
“Don’t worry. It’s gone.” Tommy assured him. “It was a demon. Do you know how it got you?”
Merton shook his head. “No, I don’t remember much of anything.” Then he seemed to notice the presence of two other figures. “You’re wolfed out! They… they can see you!”
Dean and Sam just watched them. “Yeah, ugh, you told us.” Dean said, he rubbed the back of his neck in the awkward moment.
“I told?” Merton gasped. “Oh, God. Who are they? Are they going to hurt you? Is this going to turn into The Wolf Man?”
“I dunno, what happened?”
Merton paused. “Well, it was one of Lon Cheney’s most well known roles…”
“In the movie!” Tommy growled. Dean and Sam laughed at the mix up. “He does this every time.”
“Oh, well. The villagers go after the werewolf. What were you expecting. Although, since they don’t have pitchforks or anything, I’m guessing that they’re not going to hurt you.”
Tommy shook his head. “No, they’re hunters, too. Did you know there were other people who do what we do?” He inquired, but didn’t wait for an answer. Instead, he pulled Merton to his feet. “Merton, this is Sam and Dean. This is Merton.”
“That’s all well and good, but I wanna ask more questions about stuff you’ve seen.” Dean prodded, after introductions had been made.
***
Once they’d gone through all of the Winchester Brother’s questions and agreed to meet up the next day to talk some more, Tommy took advantage of the time alone to question Merton.
They’d collapsed across Merton’s sofa, with some movie playing on the television. “You know, Merton.” He started, cautiously. “While you were possessed, the demon was, I guess, channeling your feelings or something.”
“It was?” Merton squeaked, looking decidedly concerned.
“Yeah, it said some things. Like, that you might... Like me a little more than you let on.”
Merton gulped, and the wolf’s senses detected the increase in Merton’s heart rate. “Uh… Tommy, I…”
“Don’t worry.” Tommy said, leaning in a bit closer before he pressed his lips to his best friends. “It’s what I wanted to hear.”
