likely_evil | In Which Sam calls his son home...

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In Which Sam calls his son home...

ooc: takes place after this

He waited until the next morning to call his son. Ruby was settled in a warm bubble bath and after he had sat there for awhile, he promised her he would be just in the living room as he went to feed Buster and then pick up the phone.

How was Sam going to explain to Michael that his mother didn't remember him? It was one of the fears he was certain his son had, and now it had come true. But Sam had to be the optimist and could only hope that once she saw her baby boy in flesh and blood in front of her, something would spark and fill in those holes Hell had left in her.

It wasn't too late in Switzerland, so he dialed his son's cell phone and hoped he wasn't interrupting anything important between him and Tara.

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Michael and Tara had been curled up in front of the TV when the phone rang, just spending some time with each other. His first instinct was to ignore it, but when he saw his father's name on the caller ID, he immediately excused himself from his spot next to Tara and made his way towards the bedroom. His father didn't call all that often, which meant that it was most likely important.

"Hey, Dad," he said as he rounded the corner, closing the door behind him. "What's up?"

Sam smiled as he heard his son's voice and the relaxed tone. He leaned against the window and looked out over the city, watching the people far below move around.

He wanted to try and ease his son into this news, so he couldn't just put the cards on the table right away.

"Same stuff, different day. How's the skiing? Still managing not to break any legs?"

"Yeah, I'm all in one piece," he replied, rolling his eyes. "I'm actually better at this than I thought I'd be."

"Good. Then maybe you haven't inherited all of my clumsiness. There are reasons why I don't know how to do some things still after all these years."

Buster jumped up on the chair and pawed at Sam and he scritched the dog behind his ears.

"Buster apparently misses you two. Though I think I've turned him into a couch potato. He insists that we watch certain shows or else he'll whine."

He paused a moment. "You guys planning on coming back soon?"

"Yeah, well, warn Buster that Tara's going to be whipping him back into shape once we get back," Michael sighed, before glancing down at his watch absently. That wouldn't have any information, it was just a force of habit. "Which will probably be some time within the week."

Sam nodded. "Do you think you may be able to speed those plans up?" he asked softly. "Because we need you back here."

He frowned. "Why? Something happen?"

Taking a deep breath, Sam looked over his shoulder towards the bathroom.

"Your mom's back. She woke up around one this morning."

Michael was silent for a long time, just processing all of that information into one place, before running a hand over his face. "Is she okay? I mean -- is she still Mom?"

He knew there was a reason that Sam didn't open with that right away. If everything was hunky dory, then this would have been a much happier phone call than it had started out as. If Sam was taking this long to get around to the news, there was something wrong, and Michael wanted to know what it was.

He pursed his lips. "She's been through Hell, literally. The phrase is like that for a reason. Her senses are off and she's trying to get herself back. But they tore things out of her and she's having a hard time remembering some things."

He closed his eyes. "Some things like what?"

Yeah, there was no way around this.

"Michael... you are the most precious thing in your mother's life, more than even me in her eyes. The demons knew that, and went right for it to cause her the most pain. So that's the area she needs to work on repairing the most, and you being here in person will help her with that."

Michael was quiet again, just trying to keep his breathing even and make it seem as though he was okay, even if he wasn't. Worrying his father who was on another continent wasn't going to help, and he could be fine. He would be fine.

Just another side effect of the life, right?

Taking a deep breath, he ran a hand over his face before responding. "Yeah, of course. I'll see when the next flight is and be home as soon as I can."

"Alright."

Sam could hear the anxiety in his son's voice and took a deep breath.

"Kid, trust your old man on this," he said softly in a tone he had used back when he was training his son on being a hunter. "Your mom fought her way out of hell because she knew there were people waiting for her who loved her. And those demons used you because losing you was the only thing they could even try to go after to break her. You're down deep in her soul, and there's no way they can get rid of you from her. She just needs the time, and needs to see her baby boy and the love you've got for her to start her on the right path to find where she buried it."

"She's home safe and sound. That's the most important thing. We can fix everything else. So this is a good thing. Don't let it eat at you, and instead just get ready for a bit of a battle to help mom get her spunk back. Alright?"

"Yeah," Michael nodded. "Yeah, I know. I'm fine." He took another breath. "I'll probably be in sometime tomorrow or the day after."

"I know you are." Michael was talking to the king of "I'm Fine" but he wouldn't pressure his son on it.

"We'll be here. Maybe Buster will get mom into his favorite show in the meantime."

"Maybe," he said with a nod. "I'll talk to you soon, Dad."

"See you in a few days, son."

He closed his phone and sighed, looking up at the sky a moment as he steeled up his nerve to go back into the bathroom to take care of Ruby until Michael got back.

Michael closed his phone as well, tossing it back on the bed before slumping backwards and stretching back, his hands over his face. As dubious as he knew good news would be, he couldn't stop himself from hoping for it. Hoping that Ruby would be back, and things would just be back to how they were, but there was nothing he could do about it now.

He just had to go home and hope that what his father said would help. Or hope that eventually it wouldn't hurt. Either way, he knew that this was going to be a long process.

Tara waited patiently for Michael to come back. She could hear his voice through the walls, even if she couldn't make our the words. But when he stopped talking and still hadn't come back after a few minutes, she got up and went to go find him.

"Michael?" she asked softly as she knocked on the bedroom door before opening it a crack to look in.

His head picked up slightly, before pushing himself up into a sitting position. "Sorry." He held up the phone in his hand. "My dad."

"Is he ok?" She came into the room and walked over to him. Something was a bit off and it made her want to take care of him.

"He's fine." Ruby remembered him, after all. Closing his eyes as she made her way closer, and one hand reached out to pull her closer. "It's just ... "

For a moment, he was quiet. He wasn't even sure if he could explain it at this point. It would involve far too much that he hadn't told her already and right now he just wanted to hold her and forget about the phone call. " ... He needs me to come home. Work stuff."

"Or maybe he just misses you."

She let him pull her close and she wrapped her arms around him, letting him get comfortable in her arms.

"I guess that means if there's anything I want in the little gift shops, I better go pick them up tonight."

"Yeah, probably be a good idea," he nodded, curling into her a bit as she got closer. "And I might not be around a lot after we get back."

Tara wrinkled her nose. "awww, I'm spoiled now. I don't want to have to share..." She kissed his cheek and let one of her legs warp gently around his to keep him close.

He grinned slightly as he turned in to face her. "I know. But I'll try to be by as much as I can." Especially when dealing with his mom gets to be too much.

"If you have to take over as head honcho again, I should start training to be your secretary. I could buy a bunch of cute flirty outfits and pour your coffee and make all the other hunters really jealous."

She knew she was a ditz sometimes and didn't really understand all that went on. But she felt Michael liked that innocence in her and so she played it up when he was feeling down.

He had a beautiful smile, after all and she liked seeing it.

He gave her a wide smile at that, moving one hand up to brush through her hair as he relaxed next to her. "I would love that, but I don't think that it's that kind of thing. I have a feeling Dad'll be sticking close to home for a while."

"You're dad really needs to get a life," Tara pointed out gently. "Has he been corrupting my poor Buster into sitting around all day watching television?"

"He has," Michael nodded. "You're going to have to whip him back into shape again."

Tara groaned and leaned her head back. "I just got him over his addiction to Dr. Anderson too... he's going to bark at the tv for weeks!"

"Sorry, babe," he said with a sigh. "But it's not like he could really get up and walk him for the first couple weeks."

"I know. But he has enough books..."

"Yeah, but he's read most of them already. He never watches TV."

"Really? That's kinda hard to believe. Not even to watch movies?"

He shook his head. "He's usually too busy to have that kind of time. Like if he needs to fly somewhere, he can read."

Tar bit her lip a moment. "Are you going to become like that if you start taking over more then?"

Her tone was one of worry. She loved her boy, and didn't want to see him turn into some kind of drone like that. She knew it would destroy the parts of him.

Business always took away the best parts of people.

He watched her for a minute, before shaking his head as he leaned in to kiss her softly. "Nope. Not if I got you to keep me in line."

"You'll have me as long as you want me, Michael," she said softly after they broke their kiss. "All you have to do is ask."

Her fingers played in his hair a bit, gentle caresses as she looked into his eyes.

"Thank you," he said softly.

She shifted a bit so that he could snuggle closer and she kept running her fingers through his hair. "You're welcome."

He stayed there quietly for a minute, eyes closed as he tried to relax before starting to pull away from her. "I should check on those flights."

She sighed but let him go. "Alright. Why don't you do that and I will go do some last minute shopping and then maybe I'll bring back something for dinner so we can eat here between packing and enjoying our few last hours?"

"Sounds good to me," he nodded.

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In Which Sam calls his son home...

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