Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

Unfinished Business

July 17, 2007 (cont)

Trying to pack turned out to be pretty pointless. The sensible dresses and casual slacks combos of a middle aged housewife didn't offer much that would prove very functional for what lay ahead. Mary abandoned the effort, concluding it made more sense to outfit as she went along, and moved on to placing her call.

She listened to the rhythmic ring of the phone as she pondered that it was all sort of a sad metaphor, nothing left of a hunter's trappings in her life, and not much hunter left in her.

"Mary?" the voice that cut off the ring was that of a man too young to be Robert, "It's Jacob."

"Jacob," she tried to make it sound as if the surprise had been a pleasant one. "I haven't seen you since..."

"We don't have to go down memory lane." the voice interrupted. "No need to pretend this is anything but what it is."

Honesty felt better. Mary really hadn't felt up to playing the role. Returning to the hunt wasn't something she relished. It was just what had to be done. There had been a time that she and her cousin had been close, playing together like any children might do, but also, training together as the fledgling hunters they were. That time was clearly past in Jacob's eyes. "In that case, I was calling for your father. Why are you answering his phone?"

"He's on another line taking a sitrep. Something's brewing in Pasadena."

"Tell me." she said, old instincts kicked in slipping her neatly into hunter mode.

"You're still bound and determined to go through with this, aren't you?" Jacob questioned in lew of answering. "I have to ask, do you know just how crazy you are? You've got to be beyond rusty. By now, there's so much dust on you you're going to end up with getting someone killed."

"I've already discussed all this with your father, Jacob. I know I can't go right back into the field, and I don't plan to, but I have to do something, whatever I can do." She realized that she sounded as if she were explaining to a child and changed up her tone to one that implied there was nothing to discuss. "I have to see this through to the end."

The silence from the other end of the line held more disdain than any words could have.

She pressed on, "What would you do if it had been your son?"

"That wouldn't have happened," he snapped back, "because my son was raised right."

Mary cut off her response before the angry sputters developed into actual words. There was bad blood between herself and the rest of the family after her betrayal of them and their mission. She wasn't going to be welcomed back with open arms. It was only due to the sway Robert held as a respected family patriarch that she had been welcomed back at all. Grudging acceptance, enough for working relationships was the best she was likely to get. It wouldn't do to stir the pot, so she pushed her anger down, allowed him the barb.

"Tell me about Pasadena." she said, her emotions poorly restrained behind a forced calm.

A meaningful pause preceded Jacob's answer as he considered whether or not to pursue the fued. "Demon signs, a lot of them," he eventually supplied, the hunter winning out over the wounded relative. "Near as we can figure, the reservoir's leaking. Dad's got a team out there looking into it."

That gave her cause for thought. The hellgate at Devil's Gate Reservoir had stood cracked slightly open since the 50s, when a pair of wannabe occultists, who knew just enough to be dangerous, had tampered with it. Odd occurrences weren't unheard of in the area, but nothing of any great magnitude. "Do you think there could be a connection?" she asked, the argument forgotten in the face of what could be a promising lead.