Family Ties

[Tara Connoly]

Date: June 12th 2012
City: On the I-90
State: Minnesota
Synopsis: Tara and Sean are on the road to find their father, who’s rumored to be dead in South Dakota.


Tara was never a fan of letting other people drive her car. Her Range Rover was her baby, the only thing she possessed that wasn’t absolute crap, and she treated it with more care than she sometimes treated her own family. She didn’t let her younger siblings eat, drink, or bring muddy shoes into the back seat, and hadn’t even managed to hand over the keys to anyone until Sean had turned nineteen. Whenever she let him drive, she could barely focus on anything other than making sure that he didn’t get a scratch on it. She’d still never let him parallel park.

But after driving until midnight, Tara finally agreed to pull over and let him take a turn at the wheel while she tried to get some sleep. The operative word being ‘tried’. It was kind of hard to take a nap while the idea of her father being dead in a ditch somewhere constantly interrupting her thoughts.

You’d really think she’d be used to this sort of thing by now. They got a call at least once a year from some hunter acquaintance of their father, telling them that Patrick may have gotten himself killed somehow. Obviously, they hadn’t found him dead yet, and Tara told herself every time that he was probably just holed up in a motel somewhere, getting drunk and not answering his phone.

And really, it’s not like she should even care if he was hurt or not. It’s not like Patrick Connoly had done anything for his kids in their entire lives. Hell, maybe he even had some sort of life insurance policy that he hadn’t told her about, and they would actually make some money out of it. Hey, it was morbid, but they had bills to pay.

Even so, she was worried. Every damn time, she got worried. She couldn’t help it, he was her dad. He was a horrible father, but he was also the father that taught her how to shoot a gun and behead a vampire. She might hate him most of the time, but she couldn’t bring herself to hate him all of the time. Maybe about ninety percent of the time. But not when he might be dead.

After half an hour of pretending to be asleep, she yawned and shifted in her seat. She wouldn’t be getting any sleep until she knew for a fact that Patrick was alive. Flipping on the radio, she landed on a classic rock station. As the opening riff of Skynyrd’s Simple Man started to drift from the car speakers, she turned to her brother.

“Where are we at now?” She asked him, glancing at the dashboard clock. They had been driving for a few hours already, which probably put them about a third of the way to Rapid City, where Patrick had last been spotted. A fifteen hour ride was about fourteen hours farther than she liked to be from Chicago, but she trusted Caleb to keep the family safe. Well, at least keep everyone alive until she could get back home. Yeah, she had some trust issues, but really, who could blame her after the life she had?

[Sean Connoly]

Sean fucking hated Patrick. It was bad enough that he fucked up their lives when he was around, but he didn't even have the courtesy to not do it when he was off on a hunt. As far as Sean was concerned their father could wander off and never come back, but he knew it upset the rest of the family when rumor got back that he might be dead. He could tell, even if they didn't like to admit it. Even Dustin, and they were all pretty sure he didn't actually have feelings.

So even though he'd rather be ANYWHERE else than on a road trip looking for their deadbeat father – who was just as likely to be drunk in a gutter some where as he was dead – he'd agreed to come along and help Tara. Even though it was further than either of them liked to be from home at the same time. Besides, if the asshole actually was dead, she was going to need him with her more than she was going to need him at home.

At least he got to drive. That was a pretty rare thing, at least in Tara's car. It was pretty much the only thing that was just hers, so he understood that. Didn't mean he wasn't glad for the chance to, though. He liked driving through the night, his big sister pretending to sleep on the other side of the quiet car. It was peaceful; something their lives definitely weren't 99% of the time.

He glanced over as Tara started moving around and messing with the radio. She hadn't really been faking sleep that long, but he knew telling her to rest wouldn't actually mean she'd do it. “Just passed the turn for Rochester. Probably another nine hours.” He glanced at the clock on the dash. “Should put us in Rapid City about noon, if we don't stop except for gas and coffee.” He shook his head. "Fucking Patrick."

[Tara Connoly]

Tara sighed, trying to get comfortable in her seat. She hadn't been on a drive that long in a while, and had forgotten how obnoxious it was. How most hunters dealt with living on the road was completely beyond her; all she wanted was to sleep in her own bed, in her own tiny room, in her own crappy house. Motels were dirty, her car was cramped, and food on the road wasn't half as good as what Abby could whip up in the kitchen. Living on the road sucked.

"Yeah," She agreed, looking out the window into the darkness. "Fucking Patrick." Her words didn't have the anger behind them like Sean, though. The wasn't the first time their father was rumored to be dead, and she would bet her car it wouldn't be the last, but still she felt like the bottom was about to fall out of her stomach whenever she thought about it. About what may have happened to him. She knew her brother wasn't going to understand, but she couldn't help it. He was family. Family sticks together.

"Are you good to drive for a while?" She asked after a minute. "Need food or coffee or something? I don't want you crashing my car because you're falling asleep at the wheel." She was obviously joking, but her voice sounded strained. She didn't know what she was more worried about, the fact that her father may be dead, or that the rest of her family might get into trouble while she was away. Dustin might be setting fire to the coach at that very second, and none of the Connolys ever seemed to remember where they had left the fire extinguisher.

Or worse, someone, or something might find it's way to the house. Caleb was the best shot in the family, but if something dangerous attacked them, he was all alone. Just thinking about worst-case scenarios made Tara's heart race. With some difficulty, she tried to push it out of her mind. Focus on finding Dad, then get back home. That was all she had to think about for the rest of the ride.

[Sean Connoly]

Sean for once didn't take the opportunity to rage about Patrick. Normally he was the loudest of all the Connolys when it came to their neglectful father. He had a lot of pent up anger directed at the man. He knew Tara had to as well – she was the one who had to give up having any kind of childhood – but she also must have a bigger heart than he did or something. She gave Patrick chances he didn't deserve.

“Yeah, I'm good,” he assured her. “Don't worry, nothing is going to happen to your precious car.” The sarcastic grin he shot in her direction let her know he knew she had been kidding with him and was joking right back. “I'll get some coffee when we stop for gas, though. Which will probably be around the 35 interchange.” That'd be in about an hour or so, the speed he was driving.

Sean glanced over at his sister, catching her expression. “Would you chill out?” he asked her. He wasn't sure who Tara was worrying about more, the kids back home or Patrick, but if he had to guess he'd pick the kids. She never stopped being the mama bear, even when she was on the road.

“Caleb's got the house covered, and you know Dustin will back him up if anything happens. Boy's tougher than the three of us combined. And Abby can run that house in her sleep.” Sean smiled while he talked about his siblings. Abby wasn't Tara by any stretch of the imagination, but there was just something about the Connoly girls that demanded obedience. He loved those little bastards.

“You'll see. We'll go and find Patrick, then drag his ass back home, which will still be standing. The kids will be fine, and life will go on. Until the next time we have to play fetch with Patrick,” he added bitterly.

[Tara Connoly]

Sometimes Tara hated how transparent she was to the other Connolys. It felt like Sean could smell her anxiety a mile away sometimes, and she was supposed to be the fearless leader of the family. It was hard to act tough when everyone around her recognized it for just that, an act. Still, she had to try.

She loved her family more than anything, but jesus, life would be so much simpler if she didn't have to worry about them all the time. If she was just out on her own, like any other hunter, not having to take care of anyone except herself. She no longer wondered why she was one of the only hunters she knew with a family waiting for her back home every night; it was just so hard to do it all, worry about them and protect them and keep them all together. She would be a more effective hunter without them, and they would make a better family if she wasn't a hunter. But she couldn't leave them, and she couldn't stop hunting, and she had been through this very same argument so many times in her head it was becoming second nature.

"Yeah, I know." She snapped, her tone coming out sharper than she had meant it to. Sean was right, they could all take care of themselves. She had taught them how a long time ago, but it didn't mean that she still didn't get nervous every time she drove away. That she didn't worry every time she came back that she would find some monster had beat her home.

Silence lapsed between them as the radio played. Tara stared at the dim outline of the trees they passed, trying to think of something to talk about.

"D'you think he's okay?" She asked after a while, knowing all the while that she shouldn't. No conversation about their father ever ended well, she knew from experience. Still, she had to hear him say that Patrick would be fine. Even if she didn't actually believe him.

[Sean Connoly]

Sean gave her a long, slow, measuring look when she snapped at him. He knew Tara wasn't legitimately annoyed with the fact that their family could mostly function without their presence for a short time. Probably not with him pointing it out either. Likely she just felt that same urge he had to circle the wagons and protect their own at all costs. Sean counted his blessings that he wasn't struck with the same itch to roam and hunt that he knew consumed their father, conflicted Tara, and was blossoming in Caleb. He and probably Abby had the stay put genes – God knew where from because certainly not their parents. He wasn't sure if that made Tara feel relieved or guilty. Didn't ask.

“Good,” he said evenly after several beats, turning his eyes back to the road. “Then stop freaking out.”

There wasn't really much to say after that, so Sean just let the music play as they drove along. He glanced over his shoulder once to change lanes, but otherwise kept his eyes front and center. He wasn't quite surly, but neither was he inviting conversation. Mostly he was just in a mood about Patrick.

Evidently Tara was too. Sean snorted when she asked what he thought. “You're assuming I actually give a fuck about what happens to him,” he fired back without thinking. Because he didn't. Sean honestly believed their lives would be easier if Patrick never came back. Oh, things would be rough emotionally at first, because despite all the shit he put their family through, everyone but Sean still seemed to have some kind of irresistible attachment to the man. But it was Abby that made their house a home, and Tara that gave it strength and stability, and Sean that provided for it, and Caleb that gave it hope, and Dustin that gave it humor. Patrick was a destructive force that wrecked all that and every time he walked away, Sean hoped it would be the last time.

It never was though. And his siblings for some reason needed it to not be. Sean rolled his eyes toward his sister, read her expression, then rolled his eyes back to the road and sighed. “He's fucking fine. He's always fine. Probably drunk or in jail or just being an asshole. Like fucking always. The man lives to be a fucking inconvenience.”