Henry's Condo, Vancouver, Wednesday Morning

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After escaping from the house, Tony had to deal with a couple of metaphysically confused Mounties, an EMT and a sexually confused actor. There wasn't time for Henry to get back to his condo safely, so the vampire wrapped himself in a blackout curtain and tucked himself away in the trunk of his BMW. Tony drove the car back to Henry's condo and parked it safely in the underground lot. Then he left a message for Dinah and crashed out in the room that used to be his.

He woke up a few hours later, his branded left hand throbbing with pain. He took a few Tylenol and managed a brief shower. He wavered for a few seconds over ordering takeout, since he knew Henry hated the smell of food in his condo. But the only stuff in the fridge was bottled water and he didn't have the energy to go out for anything, so he decided Henry could suck it up and deal.

Once he had some food in his stomach, he picked up his phone again and dialed Dinah. He had some 'splaining to do.

[For blondecanary. Previous parts: one, two and three.

ETA: And with the Dinah thread, plot is done! Thanks to oops_mbad for her Henry and huge thanks to blondecanary for all her help. This is the highly condensed version of Tony's adventure; you can read Smoke and Mirrors by Tanya Huff for the full story, since the deviations from canon are pretty minor.]

Comments

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah had gone back to bed after Tony left his phone message. Still clutching the cell phone, so when it rang again, she answered it instantly.

"'Lo?" Blink, blink. "Tony? What happened to you?!"

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"Evil waxy buildup tried to assimilate me," Tony said. Okay, he wasn't fully awake yet.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Blink. Stare at the phone.

"Tony? Wake. Up. 'Splain!"

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"Hokay." Tony rubbed his eyes and took a long drink of his Thai iced tea. The caffeine could kick in any time now, thanks. "We're doing a location shoot for a haunted house episode. Turns out the place is actually haunted. It was owned by a guy named Creighton Caulfield 'round the turn of the century. He collected evil magic stuff, which I don't recommend as a hobby."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Oh, ugh. Are you really okay?" Dinah sat up, putting that in perspective of her dream. "That sounds nasty. Was that why there were so many ghosts there?"

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"I'm fine," Tony assured her. Which he was. Sore, but fine. "Yeah, Caulfield put this rune all over the place to keep the energy trapped." He looked down at the burn on his left palm and stretched his fingers. Yeah, that'd leave a scar. Though given that a few hours earlier, he hadn't been sure if he'd ever use the hand again, he wasn't going to bitch about a little scarring. "He brought in all this nasty stuff and the energy kept piling up. Evil waxy buildup. Then Caulfield did this spell which was supposed to make him some kind of Lovecraftian god only he didn't have enough power and he got stuck in the house, too. So he and this evil waxy buildup - which was a full malevolence now - worked on the people in the house. Tried to get them to kill other people and themselves and fed off the power of their deaths. And kept feeding off their ghosts. But it had been starving for a while, like, thirty years now. Until we woke it up."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Holy crap," Dinah blurted in dismay. "How'd you do that? Just walking into the house? And how the heck did you get out?" Another thought occurred, and while Dinah kind of thought Tony would have lead off with this, or been more bummed if it wasn't the case, she still asked, "Is Lee okay? And that little girl you were trying to save?"

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"Blood," Tony said. "Someone bled on the house. Which apparently the caretaker knew could be a problem but says it's our fault anyway. Fifty people going in and out over a week's time - what are the odds that there won't be a scrapped knee or a paper cut or something?" He scowled at his Thai iced tea. "Lee's okay, Brianna's okay, and for how we got out, I'm getting to that."

He sat down on Henry's couch. "It trapped us and it thought it had a feast of energy to feed from." He swallowed. "Three people died in there, Dinah. Tom, the electrician - he threw himself against a window trying to break out. It crushed him instead. Hartley, the boom operator - he got drunk. Got possessed. He," Tony flinched, remembering, "he slashed Brenda's throat. Brenda was the wardrobe assistant." He paused for a second, then added, "She and Lee kind of had a thing."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah shuddered. "I saw that, the three of them, asking you to join them in the ballroom. God, Tony," her voice softened. "What an awful, awful night. I wish the caretaker had said something." She was quiet, then added, "But you probably would've been the only one to believe him."

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Tony shook his head. "No. CB knows about last summer. He'd've believed it. I told him the place was haunted - I saw a couple of the ghosts early in the day - but I couldn't convince him it was dangerous. Hell, I couldn't convince me it was dangerous and I should know better."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"You are not blaming yourself for this, are you?" Dinah demanded. "Because seriously. You told CB, and everything else you didn't know about until the place went crazy. You're a PA, not a producer! You got out of there, that's the important thing."

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"Yeah, I know that," Tony said defensively. As for believing it, well, he'd get there. "Caulfield wanted me," he said, continuing with the story. "Once he realized his roach motel o'evil had caught a wizard, he figured I was the key to getting free. He possessed Lee. He-" Tony bit his lip. "He hurt Lee. To force me to merge with him." He ran a hand through his hair. "By the way, everyone knows about my crush. From the evil dead guy down to the eight-year-old. Everyone."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Is Lee going to be okay? Well. As okay as you get after that," Dinah asked, wincing. "And owwww." She sighed. No teasing Tony about Lee for the foreseeable future, then. "That really, really sucks. I'm so sorry."

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"I think so," Tony said. "He kissed me," he added suddenly. "Before the possession. But he was freaking out over Brenda's death and I have no idea what it means, if it means anything at all. And it's like, the least important thing that happened tonight but I can't stop wondering about it."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah couldn't help the "Ooo," that escaped, but kept her reaction to only that. "It's also the only semi-nice thing that happened, and you've wondered about him forever. He kissed you? Really kissed you? Not just -- okay, there is no friend-kiss there between you and a nominally straight guy, I guess." Lee liked Tony? Yay! Which didn't negate the awfulness of all of it, but... "You still haven't said how you guys got out of there."

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"Definitely not a friend-kiss," Tony said, remembering the feel of Lee's body pressed against his. "Um." Right, the house. "Caulfield kept a journal. We figured out he was tied to the house because of the symbols drawn on the basement walls in blood. We had this badass cleaner stuff because of all the fake blood we were using for the shoot, so Zev - the music director - brought down a bottle of the stuff and broke up the writing at the same time I threw a ghost ax at Caulfield where he was stuck to the wall. Turns out the malevolence wasn't all that thrilled at sharing space with Caulfield for a hundred years. Then we just had to get the ghosts to go into the light so they couldn't feed the house any more."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

An overwhelmed "Whoa," came out during this explanation, then Dinah gave a sigh of relief. "So you saved them. And they saved themselves too, sounds like. The ghosts as well as the people. Go you guys, Team Vancouver."

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"Yeah," Tony said. He was quiet for a moment, then said, "So how's Fandom? Any interesting newbies?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I've only met a couple so far, I only got back Monday night," Dinah said. "Elle something, from California, and Bobby, whose new-girl roommate turned into a cat nearly as soon as they got here. He seems to be taking it pretty well." She shook her head. "Are you sure you're okay? I was there, Tony. From the second you went in the ballroom 'til you got out, and they said Lee was missing. Tell me they're at least giving you a couple days off after that. The show must go on, my ass."

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"We're off today," Tony said.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Good." Although she was still worried about him. "You realize this means that if you get in trouble again this summer, I'm going to have nightmares again. I guess you qualify for protected status like Barb and Helena now."

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"I'm sorry," Tony said. "I'm really sorry. If I knew how to block you out, I would."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I don't want you to," Dinah said, fierce again. "I want to know if you're in trouble. I couldn't help, all I could do was call Henry and freak out, but I still want to know if you're in danger." She paused to take a breath. "I know you can't help some stuff, like this time. Just, be careful, okay?"

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"I will," Tony said. "But you too, okay?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Okay. I will." Dinah sighed, then yawned, and checked the clock. "I've got my first class in Practical Weaponry in a couple hours. And Driver's Ed tomorrow. And I'm going to the Reserves meeting. I'll let you know how Karla does with it."

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"She'll be great," Tony said. "Uh, you seen Jack lately?" He figured he didn't have to specify which Jack.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah grinned. "He miiiiissed you," she said. "Wanted to know how you were when I saw him at Rehearsal yesterday. You should call him." Especially if the whole thing with Lee had him confused. Jack might not be anything more than a friend with benefits, but at least it'd reassure Tony that he wasn't the one with issues.

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"Yeah?" Tony smiled. "I will. Probably not 'til Sunday, though. I'm too damn tired today and I'll be working the rest of the week. Tell him I say hi?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I will," Dinah promised. "You should get back to sleep. When did you actually get out of there? And you're at Henry's place, right? He's taking care of you?"

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"He always looks out for me," Tony said. "I got back here just after sunrise. I'm at Henry's place now, but I'm subletting an apartment from friends who are on location for a couple of months. I'll head back there tonight."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Okay," Dinah said, mostly satisfied. "Good. E-mail me the address." She sighed. "Geoffrey was a beaver yesterday. And Zack was freaking out about being interim stage manager."

Look, saying "I wish you were here" wouldn't be fair, but anything he inferred was up to him.

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"I'm sorry I missed it," Tony said. "Talk to you soon, okay?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Soon. Say hi and 'sorry for the freakout' to Henry for me, will you?" Dinah smiled. "Bye, Tony."

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"I will. Bye, Dinah."