I transferred my weight to my front foot, pushed off with my other foot and thrust my arm forward, driving the tip of my rapier deeply into the straw body of Floating Joe. The practice dummy swung back with the blow, and I had to step in to avoid losing my balance.

"Your starting stance is too wide, Lucy," Lockwood called from behind me. He, Holly and I were down in the rapier room, practicing a lunge Lockwood liked to use on Cold Maidens. He had been correcting Holly's grip on her rapier while I went through the movements, but had apparently looked up just in time to see me make a mistake.

"What do you mean?" I asked, looking back at him over my shoulder before turning back to tug my sword out of Floating Joe. Leaving Holly to her own devices for the moment, Lockwood walked over to me in a few quick strides.

"Take the starting position again," He told me, holding out an arm to stop the practice dummy from swinging into us. I did as he asked, copying the way he stood when he first showed us the move.

"You're actually standing better already, but…" Without warning, Lockwood placed a hand on my shoulder and gave a sharp push. It wasn't a particularly hard shove, but the unexpected force was enough to throw me off balance, and I almost toppled over.

"If your stance is too wide, you'll lose your balance faster," he explained. "Even in the if it's just in the first position, it will affect the entire attack."

I nodded and took the stance again. While Lockwood helped me adjust my position, the phone in the office area started to ring. Holly was about to go pick it up when it stopped, which meant George had picked it up in the library.

A few strands of hair stuck to my temple with sweat, and I wiped them back before repeating the exercise under Lockwood's supervision. It was surprising how graceful he managed to look in his exercise clothes. We had all been working out for roughly an hour, but you wouldn't have guessed it by looking at him. His forehead gleamed with the hint of sweat, but that was about the only hint he had actually been exerting himself too. Compared to my dishevelled appearance he looked like a model, and that while even Holly was starting to look overheated.

Lockwood took a step back and watched my stance appraisingly before nodding, apparently satisfied with the adjustments.

"Alright, show me the lunge."

I did as he asked, lunging at Floating Joe in the manner he'd shown us. This time I managed to keep my balance better when the dummy moved with my blow.

"Perfect!" Lockwood exclaimed, a smile growing on his face. "Well done Luce! How are you holding up Holly?"

While Lockwood returned his attention to Holly, I repeated the exercise a few more times until my arms grew heavy and my T-shirt stuck to my back with sweat. I lowered my rapier. Ever since Lockwood and I had returned from the Other Side, there was a lingering weariness in my body. It was going away ever so slowly, but even a month after returning to London, I still tired out faster than I used to before we walked through that frozen world.

I put my rapier back in the rack with the other practice swords and stretched.

"I'm calling it quits for today," I announced as I walked towards the spiral stairs leading to the kitchen. "Going to take a shower."

"Don't take too long," Holly said, "I want to shower soon too!"

"You'll just have to wait, I'm calling dibs," I called back. Holly only showered here after exercising or gruelling cases, but she had a tendency to take long. Whatever she did to get her hair so shiny, it took a long time.

And while there were two bathrooms, it was impossible for two people to shower at the same time. If you tried, at least one person was guaranteed a cold surprise. We had found that out the hard way when I was washing my hair upstairs and Holly jumped under the shower on the first floor after exercising.

We had been exercising a lot, lately. After Penelope Fittes had waltzed into our festive breakfast a few days after we had returned to London, the swing of things had changed. The large cases we used to drag in before Aldbury Castle would be snagged up by her agency, and we were stuck with the small fries. In the past few weeks we had only seen Stone Knockers, Cold Maidens and Shades and those cases were easy to prepare for, leaving us with ample time to focus on other things.

Now that Fittes had control over the two largest agencies in London, she was asserting her power. Smaller agencies were encouraged to merge, or better yet become a part of the Fittes Agency. The official reason was that joining resources would keep the agents safe. The unofficial one? It was easier to seize control of a few larger agencies and keep an eye on the little ones that remained.

Her influence was even starting to seep into DEPRAC, and we had been the subject of a surprise 'routine inspection' already. That was not to mention the few times we'd spotted people following us on the streets. The message was clear: stay in line and keep your attention to your small cases.

Of course, we did have an investigation running on the down low. The moment after Penelope Fittes and her lapdog Sir Rupert Gale had left after laying down their new rules, the skull in the jar had let it slip that Penelope and Marissa Fittes were one and the same. George had thrown himself into researching the issue with a passion we had last seen of him during the Chelsea Outbreak.

I was halfway up the staircase when the door to the kitchen opened to reveal George.

"Ah, right on time Luce. The phone's for you," he said.

"Oh? Who is it then?" I asked curiously. There weren't a lot of people who called us for anything besides cases, and even fewer who would call me in particular.

"Mary," George replied. He took off his glasses and gave them a quick rub on his t-shirt. "I'm assuming it's important, but I couldn't get a lot of sense out of her. She's a tad upset if you ask me, took me two whole minutes to get her name."

"Right, thanks George," I said, brushing past him. I hurried through our small kitchen, through the hall and then entered the library. It was rare for Mary to call, most of our communication went through letters, and she had called me twice since I left home at the most. She was content with our letter correspondence, and I couldn't think of a reason for her to change it so suddenly. She wasn't fond of change.

"Lucy Carlyle speaking," I said after sinking down into the leather armchair next to the phone and picking up the horn from the side table. There was a shuffling sound on the other end of the line as if Mary had sat up sharply.

"Oh thank God, finally," she sighed. I heard a little sniffle, which immediately piqued my concern.

"Is everything all right, Mary?"

"I've been trying te reach you for hours!" She replied sharply. Both her tone and the thickening of her accent caught me off guard, and for a moment I didn't know how to reply to her.

"I called yer place in Tooting, and some weirdo picked up the phone. I thought ye had been kidnapped!"

"Mary, I-

"What are ye even doing at Lockwood & Co.'s? I thought ye were a freelancer now, like? Did they hire ye for a case or something?"

"Didn't you get-"

But Mary really was getting herself worked up now, and I couldn't get a word in edgeways.

"It's important that I can reach ye, Lucy! Instead, I wasted half the afternoon trying to track down yer phone number-"

"MARY!" I cut her off, "Did you not get my letter? The one explaining that I'm back with Lockwood and co.? It should've reached you two weeks ago!"

There was a moment of silence, and then the sound of rustling paper as if she were looking through a stack of papers. In the silence, I heard the creaking of pipes and the rush of water and hoped it was Lockwood who'd jumped into the shower because if it were Holly, I'd be waiting for my turn for at least half an hour after this phone call ended. Mary muttered to herself, and I heard another sniffle.

"You're right," she said, her voice soft and cracking. "That was my mistake, I…"

"Mary, why are you calling? Is someone sick? Has Margaret had a miscarriage?"

"No, no… The babe's fine, Benedict gave a full health report when I called them-" she gave a watery giggle- "He was telling all about the first kicks they felt yesterday…"

"What did you need to speak to me about so badly then, Mary?" I interrupted. My sister had a tendency to go off on a tangent, and if what she needed to tell me was important enough to call, I would rather she got to the point.

"…Mam h-has been Ghost Touched…"

I heard the words, but it took a while for them to register. As they did, the blood in my veins seemed to freeze, as if I had been the one who had a too close meeting with a ghost.

"Ghost Touched?" I repeated, my voice rising about half an octave, "What-what happened? Will she be okay?"

A deep sigh and another sniffle on the other end, and when Mary spoke again, it was so softly I could barely hear her.

"…No. Probably not Lucy, she- the doctor's given her a day or two at the most..."

"She's going to- but… How did this happen? Was she out at night, or…" The rest of the question died in my mouth. It was hard to comprehend that my mother, who was so strict about all precautions, who'd even prefer to stay in during the day for fear of ghosts, had been out late enough to get caught by a deadly touch of ectoplasm.

"She was out after the bells toiled," Mary answered after a shuddering inhale, "Agent Jacobs found her, because apparently one of his boys saw what happened while he was doing his rounds-" Mary's voice cracked, and I had to swallow down the lump that lodged itself in my throat at the sound.

"That's- that's awful," I whispered.

"Yeah… Rebecca, Grace and I thought it would be best te call everybody home before she… before she passes away. Do ye think ye could be here by tomorrow?"

I nodded immediately, before remembering Mary wouldn't be able so that through the phone.

"I think I missed the last train going up north for today, but I'll take the first one in the morning, Mary."

"And it won't be a problem with yer work?"

"I doubt it, it's family matters, Lockwood wouldn't ask me to stay."

"Maybe ye should ask him to come too," Mary said after a short pause.

"What? Mary-"

"Him and your other colleagues and take yer gear…"

"My gear?" I repeated. It was an odd request for Mary to make. Despite the fact that I had been pushed into the agency profession as a child, nobody in my family particularly liked seeing me walk around with my equipment. The chains and my rapier made them uneasy, perhaps because it forced them to acknowledge that the Problem still was everywhere despite the fact that they had lost their talents.

"It's a strong ghost, according to Agent Jacobs. It's been seen last night too, by multiple children."

"Can't his kids take it?" I asked, trying to keep my voice level. The fact that that man was still running psychic investigations after the Wythburn Mill incident made my stomach turn, but he was still a respected resident of the small town, and I wasn't looking forward to running one myself either.

"I- Well, it's-" Mary stuttered, "They found Mam near- near the station, Lucy." A cold feeling wound itself around my heart, as if I was experiencing creeping fear even though the sun was still out. I had an idea where she was going with that line of thought and I didn't like it one bit.

"From the description the boy gave… Well, it might have been Da, Lucy..."

I had no memory of how that phone call ended, the next thing I know is that Lockwood and George found me sitting in the armchair next to the phone sometime later, knees drawn up with my forehead resting on them, still clutching the horn. A pounding headache was forming behind my eyes. Whether because of dehydration after all the exercise or because of all the thoughts running through my head, I didn't know. It had been ages since I last thought about my father, and he'd been dead for even longer. All the proper precautions had been taken, and now he was coming back to haunt my family after all? What had we done to deserve that?

"Is everything alright, Luce?" Lockwood asked carefully.

"No," I spoke into my knees. Taking a deep breath, I lifted my head and looked at them. I don't know what the boys had been expecting, red and puffy eyes perhaps, or maybe tear tracks. Either way, my dry eyes seemed to take them by surprise.

"Me ma-" I stopped, realising I'd slipped back into my old accent during the phone call, and tried again. "My mother has been ghost touched."

Both Lockwood and George made appalled sounds and were full of sympathy, telling me how sorry they were, and assuring I could get all the time off I needed. I listened to them verbally trip all over themselves to support me for a while, feeling strangely numb.

"Mary asked me to come home tomorrow," I interrupted them. My voice sounded monotonous to my own ears. "Mam's still alive, if just barely, but she doesn't have long... It might… it might have been my father, who Ghost Touched her."

Lockwood and George exchanged a look.

"Your father?" George asked, "He died a long time ago, right?"

I nodded in response. "When I was five, fell under a train during work. Seems like he came back."

Holly entered the library then, probably looking for us. She was smiling that sweet smile of hers that used to get on my nerves when she first started working for Lockwood and Co., Her dark hair was slightly damp from the shower which immediately made me wonder if there had been more than a few minutes between the end of the phone call and Lockwood and George entering the library.

Her smile slipped off her face when she read the atmosphere of the room though, as if somebody had washed it away. She didn't speak up, allowing us to continue the conversation without asking for an explanation.

"Lockwood," I started softly, "Could we take this on as a case?"

A/N: Thanks for reading this first chapter! I'm afraid it will be a long time before the second chapter will be uploaded, right now I am working on my bachelor thesis, so the next month and a half I will be writing very little. I hope you enjoyed this chapter anyway, please let me know what you think!