taxonomites | 01: [HOLO] ARRIVAL

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01: [HOLO] ARRIVAL

It felt like a dream.

A frightening, horrible dream that was similar to her recurring nightmare of Dean wandering off in the grocery store. Only moments ago she had pushed herself out of bed to check on Sam after hearing noises coming from his room through his baby monitor. She'd started down the hall, barely conscious enough to make out John's form over her son's crib, and then found him sleeping with the television on in the living room.

Her little boy needed her, but she wasn't there. She didn't know where she was, or how to get out. It had to be a dream. Places like this didn't exist. Cold metal rooms with God only knew what on the ceiling. John watched movies with things like this in them. She hoped that had triggered this, because if it wasn't her imagination, she had to get back home to Sam. He needed her to protect him.

"What on earth..." Mary noticed the bracelet on her wrist and touched it carefully, finding no way to remove it. Then she found a small device on the pedestal next to her and picked it up, studying it. She'd never seen anything like it. When she held the tablet close to her opposite wrist, she watched it attach to the bracelet.

She pressed a few buttons before realizing she had no idea what she was doing, and started down the stairs.

"Hello?" She started walking a little faster. It didn't feel like a dream anymore. Everything was foreign, but it seemed more and more real as she moved through the room. Almost too real, like she'd just walked into some kind of trap. "Hello?" Mary tried again, hoping that she wasn't the only person around. If she could just get back to her family, everything would be okay.

There had to be a way out, and she was going to find it.

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For a second, his heart leaps into his throat at the familiar voice.

It can't be. It just can't be.

He shoots a glance toward his tablet and his stomach nearly turns over at the sight.

"... Mom?"

Mary watched the image of a young man pop up and stepped back, alarmed. When she realized that he was probably seeing her the same way, she shook her head, embarrassed to be standing in the middle of this place in her nightgown. "No, I'm..." She didn't know who he was, but decided to give him her name in the hope that it might get her some information. "My name is Mary Winchester."

It couldn't be. Was it really her? Or was it some demon who was using her, or maybe he was sleeping and just imagining that this whole thing was happening. Either way, she didn't seem to recognize him, which he didn't blame her for.

"I know," he whispers.

"My name is Sam. Sam Winchester."

"Sam," she echoes, afraid to let her mind make the leap that it wants to. If she's in the future, her son is still in his nursery unprotected, and she has no way of telling John he needs him. Her son, no. This is some kind of cruel joke. It has to be.

"I don't believe you."

"I don't know how to--"

He stops and tries to clear his head, tries to make the words make sense that are coming out. He needs to figure out a way to prove it to her.

"My name is Samuel Winchester. I was born on May 2nd, 1983. My father is John Winchester, my mother is Mary. I have an older brother - Dean."

She nods at the details he gives her, which are all things that she already knows. Something more concrete would help, but her Sam is six months old. She can't possibly know him as well as he knows her, not at this point. It's hard to know what to ask him. "You're six months old where I'm from. What am I doing here?"

"I - I'm not entirely sure," he admits. "I don't know why you're here, or how - but I know that it has something to do with aliens."

He looks down at the tablet, almost squinting.

"I can't believe it's you."

"Aliens," Mary wants to laugh, and almost feels like she should, but she can tell that he's serious. She doesn't want Sam to get the wrong idea and think that she's laughing at him; it's too strange a situation to begin with. Whatever opinions he's starting to form of her, she wants them to be good ones.

"I can't believe you're my baby boy. I was just going to check on you."

Dean can't even believe it. At all.

At first, he figures it has to be some kind of demented joke. Like that shape-shifter chick that was wandering around had found out how his mother looked and was copying her form. But that didn't make sense at all, and Dean spends a good ten minutes debating what he should do before finally responding:

"... Mom?"

She isn't able to answer him at first, because this is the second time she's heard this, and she doesn't know what to make of it. "Mary Winchester," she offers, afraid to say much else until she figures out what's going on here. "And you are?"

Silence for another moment, because she's exactly how he remembers her. Not the one from the past, when Castiel had sent him back-- the one he'd had as a kid.

"Dean. I'm Dean," is all he can manage.

Mary is aware that he's responding to her the same way that the other - that Sam - did, but it worries her. She isn't sure what to say to either of them, or how much of this she should believe. Is she supposed to listen to her instincts or try work with logic? She's on her own and afraid that these are her children, because they seem as shocked as she is.

"You think you're my Dean," she answers, not as a question, but as a statement. "My Dean is a little boy."

Dean's not sure how to react himself. Every bone in his body is telling him this can't be real, that his mother can't actually be here, that she'd died. People who had died didn't come to Taxon, did they? He can't remember.

"You look the same," Dean tries to explain. "You're-- I'm not, anymore. A he-- a lot of things have changed since then."

"Looks like," Mary sighs. She knows that the way he's talking should be a concern, but it's not one that she wants to address at the moment. There are more important things to discuss, like where they are, and why she got pulled out of their home. "If you're - " she stops, unsure of what to say. It's all more frustrating than she can explain, and she wishes John were here to help her deal with this.

She's only glad he's not because it means he's still with the boys. "I just tucked you in a little while ago."

You just keep on thinking that, Mary, because Dean's going to take as long as possible to tell Mary about John. Instead, he just stares down at the tablet, watching the holo image blankly.

"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't fit now," Dean jokes weakly, giving her a quick flash of a grin. "Hey, look, uh. Stay where you are, I'll come get you."

He so does not want his mother wandering around Taxon alone, especially while there's a crapload of vampires also wandering around.

She thinks to ask him where he's coming from and where he plans on taking her, and decides to let it go instead. He's as confused as she is, and trying to help her at the same time. It's not unlike her Dean to rush into action, so she takes that thought for what little comfort it provides her. "I'll be right here," she agrees, instantly starting to wonder how he knows where to find her.

Edited 2009-10-06 18:13 (UTC)

As he's walking, Dean fiddles with his tablet, looking over the map to see if she's where he thinks she is. Once he's sure of her location, he plays with it a little more, setting it up to leave Toby a message.

He figures Sam already knows. And there's still something that makes him uncomfortable about talking to his brother. Mary won't be happy, but Dean's more concerned about her right now. It doesn't even occur to him to take his car.

"Hey. Toby, dude, my mom-- she's here, and hell if I know how, but I'm not complaining. Just-- get your ass down here, I gotta make sure I'm not hallucinating."

Because even if she's on the tablets and he heard Sam talking to her and she is there, Dean needs an outside party to confirm it. He clicks the message off just as he's coming up on the Sanctuary, looking around for Mary.

Mary decides to attempt finding her way out of the building so that she can meet him in front of it. She fumbles with the tablet first, trying to turn it off and assuming that it's off when the screen darkens. Then she wanders the halls for a while, moving toward the exit just as someone walks in.

She breathes a sigh of relief when she sees that it's Dean. "There you are," she says softly, smiling in spite of the fact that she's not sure what there is to smile about. "Thank you for coming so quickly."

Dean stops dead in his tracks.

She's smiling at him. And Dean really has no idea what he's supposed to do or how he's supposed to act. It's his mother, and somewhere, he knows he wants to cling, but that's not what he's going to do. His pride won't let him.

So instead, he just stands there sort of dumbly.

"Uh. No problem."

"Do you want to tell me what's going on?" Mary takes a few steps in his direction, noticing that he appears to be too stunned to move. At first she just studies him, trying to match the features of this grown man with the little boy she has at home. She has to be crazy for believing him, but she does, because the more she looks at him, the harder it is to think that he could be anyone but who he says he is. "What's the matter, sweetheart?"

"... Nothing, it's just. It's you." Dean still looks stunned, but he's shaking it off. Just go with it, don't worry about it, just say something.

He doesn't know what else to say, though, so he ends up taking a few steps towards her, and hesitantly reaches out a hand to put on her shoulder. She's real.

"We're... in Taxon. It's this weird city full of weird people, like--" Dean stops there, because he'd been about to explain about vampires, and it occurs to him that he's not supposed to know about those. Quick topic change! "Sam's here, too. You talked to him, right?"

"I did," Mary nods, reaching up to cover his hand with hers. "You haven't seen me in a while." She says it, not to hurt him, but so that he doesn't have to. What she assumes at this point is that she's dead, and has been for a while. He's surprised to see her in general, not just at this age.

She's so confused by what's going on that it distracts her from being upset about that. "What do you mean by 'weird people'?"

~~As if on cue,~~ Toby slowly approaches the two of them after getting here as quickly as possible. Dean said his mom was here, and the tablet said that a Mary Winchester was here, but Dean still needed him there regardless - and to be honest, even though Toby feels like he's trespassing on something he has absolutely no involvement in aside from friendship, he's... almost excited.

As he gets closer, he walks more slowly, not sure how to approach, or if he's interrupting. So he doesn't say anything just yet.

"... Yeah. Haven't seen you in years," Dean nearly chokes on that sentence, and hell no, he wasn't going to cry. He knows Toby's supposed to be coming and like hell he was going to cry in front of Toby. Or, y'know, anyone.

He's about to answer the weird people question, but he's saved by Toby walking in. Dean can't help the look of relief that crosses his face.

"Nothing, I don't-- this is Toby," Dean says, beckoning Toby closer. "He's a good friend of mine."

More than a good friend, and obviously Toby knows that, and Mary will too eventually, but Dean doesn't say smooshy things like that.

She swallows hard when he admits that it's been years, but nods, and immediately directs her attention to Toby when he enters. She smiles at the introduction, almost the same way she did when Dean came in, and extends her hand to him. "It's nice to meet you, Toby. I'm Mary, Dean's mother."

Seeing her son all grown up, with adult friends, is weird. It's the last thing she would have ever expected to happen to her, so she's still a little shocked. This shouldn't be possible, and yet they both look so amazed that she's here. She doesn't want them to be disappointed by her already.

It's almost surreal to have Dean's mother introducing herself to him. Toby comes closer (glad he's looking significantly less beat up than he did a few days ago), smiles and politely shakes Mary's hand, trying not to pay too much attention to the extremely rare, warm-fuzzy thoughts he's picking up from Dean. He'll tease him about it later. Maybe.

"It's... really nice to meet you too, ma'am." His vague smile turns a little more genuine. "I've been keeping Dean out of trouble."

Dean's actually sort of glad Toby's looking better too; not only does it mean he's probably feeling better as well, but Dean doesn't want his mother to ask. And he's also not meaning to think those warm-fuzzy thoughts around Toby, but he can't help it-- the guy is there for him when Sam's not, and Dean appreciates it.

"I don't get into that much trouble," Dean protests lightly, nudging Toby with his elbow. Also, as an afterthought, literally, directed toward Toby: Don't mention the supernatural stuff, she doesn't know.

"You're my son, I know you get into trouble," Mary argues, amused at his protest. "It doesn't matter how long I've been gone, Dean. I know you." She wasn't sure that she could say the same for Sam. He was so much younger, and had just started developing a personality of his own.

"I'm glad he has someone to keep him out of it," she tells Toby. "Now what are the two of you trying to keep from me?" She couldn't read minds, but she hadn't heard a word about this city yet, which meant they must have had a lot that they were trying not to say.

The interaction between Mary and Dean is making him grin for some reason he can't explain. It's nice to see him this close to happy for once, especially after everything that's happened lately.

Toby's just catching the tail end of Dean's direct thought when Mary asks that question, and with that timing, he doesn't think right off that she's talking about anything else. He looks back at her, mouth opening hesitantly, and glances at Dean.

"... Ah..."

Dean snorts in response to Mary's argument, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his jeans. Alright, so it was true, Dean's an idiot when it comes to staying out of trouble, but in his defense, trouble really likes him.

Also, his mother is perceptive, apparently. For a moment there's a mental flail and some quick debate on what to say, but it's only for a second. And then Dean's replying, sheepishly, and it's smooth, like he meant to say this all along.

"Okay, you got us. I wasn't gonna tell you, but since I figure you'd get it sooner or later..." Dean shrugs. "The running theory about this place is aliens. Yeah, I know, hard to believe, right?"

Politely demanding information out of the two of them isn't much different than catching Dean trying to sneak snickerdoodles out of the cookie jar, but the truth is more ridiculous than anything she has heard in years. Aliens. They think she was abducted and taken to the future by aliens.

"That's one way of putting it," she shakes her head, making a conscious effort not to think about anything from her past that might have explained what was going on. An unbelievable situation in his time didn't necessarily mean the same thing that it had in hers. "What else?"

It still sounds crazy, even after four months, Toby finds. He awkwardly slides his hands into his pockets, glancing between the two, and finds himself putting a general block on incoming thoughts. He seems to be doing that a lot around Dean, out of habit -- and, well, doing it for Mary is probably a good idea. Just because not doing it seems weird.

"Uh... basically, the..." Aliens. "... Whoever's causing all this, above all they like messing around with us." Yes, Toby, way to be positive. "On the plus side, everything's free. And you bring something with you from home, too."

It's a good habit to keep, to be honest. Sometimes Dean forgets, being so used to having Toby as one of those constant presences. Obviously, Dean is not going to be telling Mary about the mind reading thing, so he skips on ahead, going with Toby's further explanation.

"Yeah. I got no idea what you coulda brought, though," Dean says, shifting. Oh, man. When Toby leaves, Dean is going to be way less composed than this. Which is a thought he makes sure to keep to himself, thanks.

"Clothes would be nice," Mary mumbles, still getting over the fact that she was pulled out of their home in the middle of the night. It makes her recall exactly what she was doing when she appeared in this place, and she panics a little at the thought that Sam could have gotten hurt. "Is your brother alright? There was someone in his room, I thought it was your father at first, but..."

Either Dean will know what she's talking about now that he's older, or he won't. She's hoping for the latter, because if he doesn't remember, then everything must be fine. "It's hard to believe that the two of you are grown men. I feel like I missed everything." Obviously, she had.

Oh, crap, right, clothes. Dean's about to move forward and help her go find one of the hatches when she asks about Sam. Flashes of running, carrying a little Sam, John's voice 'Dean, take your brother as fast as you can. Don't look back. Now Dean, go!'-- Dean shakes his head and takes his mother's arm, somewhat awkwardly.

"Come on, let's go. There's these hatches, they can get you real clothes. We can figure out what you brought, too," Dean says, glancing at Toby, beckoning him to come with them. "Sammy's fine."

At her last statement, though, Dean pauses, and then smiles at her.

"Yeah, well, you being here's good, then. You can catch up."

It's not his situation, so Toby stands on the sidelines, seeing and hearing faint shadows of Dean's sudden, unexpected memory. Dead. Mary would've been dead in a few minutes, and Dean's life down this road would've started.

Toby clears his throat lightly, bringing himself back, following Dean and staying silent.

Relief washes over her as soon as she hears that Sam is fine. She returns the smile and starts walking with him, pausing to give Toby a moment to catch up. It's obvious that Dean wanted his friend to be here, wants him to stay even now, so Mary takes that to mean he's important to her son. "Why don't you boys tell me about yourselves while we walk?" Mary asks, waiting for one of them to start talking.

Edited 2009-10-11 03:43 (UTC)

Very important. Mary will probably end up seeing that along the way, what with one, her being his mother, and two, it being sort of obvious. Dean leads them out of the Sanctuary, towards the nearest hatch.

When Mary speaks, Dean glances over at Toby, bemused. "Like what? There's not exactly much to tell."

Toby rolls his eyes somewhat, wondering how Dean manages to function in society, even though he knows why he's holding back. Toby knows he has an answer for her question, at least, because he realises he's a complete stranger to Mary aside from being her son's friend.

"I'm a paramedic, from Toronto. Been here about... four months."

Mary turns to stare at Toby, a little disappointed that he's been in the city for so long. "That's a long time to be away from home," she comments, letting Dean lead her wherever they need to be going. "The two of you look like you've been in a fight. Is it safe to assume that you weren't fighting each other?" She could see Toby backing Dean up faster than she could see him slugging her son.

Dean glances at Toby. Wow. Only four months? It seems like so much longer. In fact, it takes a moment for him to remember how long he's been here; seven months? So much has happened.

Pause for Mary's question. Oops. Dean has a few bruises left over from various things, including Cassie, and Toby was still pretty scratched up.

"Nah, we weren't. See, there's this thing that happens here," Dean starts to explain, stopping them in front of a hatch. "We've been calling 'em glitches. They do weird things, like turning people into monsters, things like that. Friend of mine went psycho the other night, mauled a few people."

That might be a glance to Toby and a look of irritation that flashes across his face. He also hadn't told Toby he'd found Cassie. No bad injuries, really, but.

Toby leans against the wall by the hatch, just in time for Dean to finish his explanation. Toby hadn't forgot about telling Dean to tell him if he'd been hurt by Cassie, although the look he gives him at that is somewhat indescernible. They'll talk later. Maybe. Since Dean isn't exactly dying.

"Doesn't happen that often, though." Shift, shift. "Oh, for these things - you put your hand on and think about what you want. Sounds crazy, and it kinda is, but..."

"The one with the bracelet on it?" Mary reaches out, not waiting for an answer. She looks at the hatch as if she expects it to bite her, but thinks up the outfit she was wearing earlier in the day. When she takes the clothes out of the hatch, she is surprised to see them, in spite of what the boys have been saying. "Sounds crazy, gets results," she summarizes.

"And you make friends with women who maul you," she states, more as a complaint than anything else. She'd like it if he stayed away from psychotic girls. "This is some city."

Dean was halfway expecting Toby to give him one of those looks he's so famous for, but there's nothing exactly Mom-ish about Toby's expression. Dean is surprised.

Either way, he watches as Mary summon up the clothes, grinning a bit. It's always fun to see the newcomers go 'wtf' over the hatches.

"She wasn't mauling people before," Dean protests. "Cassie's not a bad chick. And not all the girls I know maul things."

Only about half of them maul things. It's not a complete lie.

Toby's kind of quietly amused by the whole mom/son exchange, and it almost makes him forget about what really happened. It also makes him a little bit jealous, but there's no way he's telling Dean that. Besides, he tells himself, he'll find his mom one day.

"If it helps, he's been mauled a lot less in the last... four months?" Glaaance, smirk. As much as it irritates Dean, safety-Toby promotes anti-mauling behaviour.

Edited 2009-10-12 04:39 (UTC)

Mary doesn't like the defense that not all of the girls he knows maul things. It makes her wonder how many girls he knows, and how many of them maul things regularly, but she hasn't been around long enough to start interrogating him about his friendships. She can see that he has at least one good friend here, which is nice. God knows he probably needs it.

"I'll take that." She smiles to Toby, and holds up her clothes. "Now all I need is a place to change." And her family the way she knew it a little while ago. One thing at a time.

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01: [HOLO] ARRIVAL

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