I had fun with this chapter. And it's longer. Yay! Enjoy, my lovelys. Enjoy.


I angrily shoved a file into the cabinet. I was pretty miserable and pissed. I hadn't even wanted to come into work this morning – I was still working at the Mission, until our private practice was open. Not only was I still sick, but I hadn't gone to bed until nearly four in the morning. So I was angry, sick, and tired. Not a good combination.

Stupid NCDP.

Mr. Thomas Clarke had been furious. Jesse and I had tried to talk him out of his rage, but he hadn't exactly been talkative. He'd been too busy trying to kill my husband to stop and listen to us.

"Susannah!"

I looked up to see Father Dominic staring at me. Or, more specifically, staring at my face. I did have a nasty bruise on my chin. Thomas had one hell of a right hook. "What in the world happened to your face?"

I scowled. Luckily, Father D. was the only other person in the office at the moment, so I didn't have to worry about anybody else hearing our conversation. I didn't need somebody else not believing my lies. "I had a little run-in with an extremely non-compliant NCDP." But that wasn't even the worst of it. Oh no, what came after the run-in with Thomas was ten times worse than dealing with the actual NCDP.

"You were attacked? By a spirit?"

I sighed and explained, "Thomas Clarke died on Sunday. He got into a car accident and got himself killed. Luckily, everybody in the other car survived. He was driving drunk because he was grieving. His daughter, Chloe, died on Saturday. She had pancreatic cancer."

"How terrible," he said, as he sank into one of the office chairs, wincing. Even though he'd fully healed from his surgery last year, I could tell that his hips were almost always in pain. He moved much slower than he used to, and he tended to use a cane to help him walk. I was kind of surprised that he hadn't retired yet. Then again, he was a stubborn old man. He probably wouldn't actually retire until he died.

I nodded. "It is horrible, especially since she was only six."

"But why would her father attack you?"

"Not me. He wanted to kill Jesse. I just got in his way."

Father Dominic looked shocked. "Jesse? Why would he want to kill Jesse?"

Jesse was such a good guy, it was hard to imagine anyone wanting him dead – except Paul, but Paul had some serious issues. "Thomas blames Jesse for Chloe's death. Jesse and the cancer specialist who worked with Chloe. They were the two main doctors to work with his daughter, so he's decided that it's their fault she died. He already killed the cancer specialist, Dr. Martin. Jesse had been Chloe's primary care provider before she was diagnosed. As if Jesse doesn't blame himself enough for missing the symptoms. I mean, do you have any idea just how difficult pancreatic cancer is to diagnose in time? It's practically impossible. And I get that Thomas is upset, I really do. I would be, too, if my daughter died. But that didn't give him the right to kill Dr. Martin, or to try to kill my husband."

Jesse and I had both gotten a quite a beating. Jesse had tried talking to Thomas, but the only thing it'd gotten him was a bruised tailbone - Thomas had kicked his stomach and sent him flying across the roof. It had taken us a while to tire him out enough that he left. He was still new at the whole undead thing, so he had no idea just how powerful he could be.

Which was fortunate for us, because I hadn't been sure how much more physical abuse my body could take.

I was sure it was only a matter of time, though, before he figured out all that he was capable of. And then he'd be back. And we'd be in major trouble.

"I think we're going to have to do an exorcism on him," I said.

"Susannah." Father Dom sounded horrified at the suggestion. He hated exorcisms. But I knew I couldn't afford many more beatings like the one I got last night, not without some serious damage. And Father Dominic couldn't take on this guy. The last time he'd tried to reason with an angry ghost, he'd shattered his hip.

"I know," I said with a sigh. "I don't like it, either. But Father Dom, we already tried speaking to him. He's too upset to listen to reason. I honestly think an exorcism is going to be our only option with this one."

He shook his head. "There must be another way," he muttered.

Yeah, right. There wasn't, I was sure of it.

"We'll have to try to think of another solution, Susannah. I don't like the idea of an exorcism. Other than Mr. Clarke's less-than-friendly appearance, how was your weekend? It was your anniversary, wasn't it?"

I just shrugged. No way was I telling Father Dom about what happened after the fight with the NCDP, which was the fact that the cops showed up.

Well, just two cops, partners.

One of whom just happened to be my stepbrother.

Yeah, you read that right. Brad showed up at my house at about two-fifteen in the morning.

Jesse and I had just crawled into bed after our exhausting battle with a member of the undead, when the doorbell rang.

Jesse sighed and started to get out of bed. "No," I told him. "I'll get it. You have to be at work way earlier than me tomorrow."

So I pulled a sweatshirt over my tee-shirt and boxer shorts, and rushed down the stairs. I threw open the door. "What the hell do…" I trailed off when I saw the uniform. "Oh. Officer. What do you…Wait. Brad?" I still wasn't quite used to seeing him in a police uniform, and he'd been on the force for several months now.

My stepbrother smiled awkwardly. "Hey, Suze."

"What are you doing here? Aren't you working?"

"Yeah. That's kind of why I'm here, actually. Can we come in?" He gestured to his partner, Officer Troy Packer.

I nodded woodenly and let them inside. We all sat in the front parlor. "What's going on?" I was totally confused.

Brad looked around. "Where's Jesse? We need to talk to him, too."

I frowned. "He's in bed. I'd really rather not go wake him up. He has to work at six-thirty tomorrow, and we didn't exactly get to bed early tonight." I was sure he hadn't fallen asleep yet, but I still didn't want to go bother him. Maybe, if I could keep this conversation quiet enough, he'd be able to fall asleep. "Can't this wait?"

"Not really," Brad said.

"It's all right, Susannah, I'm awake." Jesse came into the room and sat beside me, wincing as he did so. His tailbone was definitely going to be bruised. He was lucky it hadn't been broken. "What is this all about, Brad?"

My stepbrother sighed, exchanging a look with his partner. "Well, we're here for two reasons. Did something happen here earlier tonight? Did you two get into a fight? Maybe somebody stopped by and tried to hurt you guys in any way?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Why?"

"Mrs. de Silva," Packer said. Yes, I decided to take my husband's last name. It was a little easier that way. Everybody assumed it was my name anyway. And I kind of liked the sound of Susannah de Silva. "We received a phone call from one of your neighbors a little while ago. They said that they heard yelling and banging coming from your house. They were worried that there was some kind of fight happening here, that someone was getting hurt."

I laughed, even though I didn't really find it funny. Damn Thomas Clarke. "That's ridiculous. We're a married couple. We argue. It happens. That doesn't mean that anybody got hurt."

"And the bruise?" Brad nodded at my chin, where Thomas had punched me. Damn. It was already bruising? Brad didn't ask about any of Jesse's bruises, probably because Jesse hadn't gotten punched anywhere as noticeable as the face.

"Brad. You lived with me for how long? I'm a klutz." I really wasn't, but since my family didn't know about the ghosts, that was the most logical explanation for all the injuries I'd sustained over the years.

The look he gave me said that he didn't fully believe me. When had Brad gotten to the point that he didn't believe my excuses? Was he actually...getting smarter? Whoa.

"You said there were two reasons. What was the other reason?" I asked.

"There were two deaths at the hospital where you work, Mr. de Silva," Packer explained. "Thomas Clarke had been involved in a car accident earlier today. He was heavily intoxicated when the ambulance brought him in. We understand that he had a daughter who recently died from cancer?"

Jesse nodded. "Chloe Clarke. She died on Saturday."

Packer nodded. "Mr. Clarke died only minutes after being brought in. His injuries were rather extensive. Merely half an hour later, the cancer specialist who cared for his daughter, Dr. Martin, was found dead in a rarely used storage room of the hospital. We believe he'd been murdered, by Mr. Clarke."

"But you found his body after Mr. Clarke died," I pointed out.

"Yes, but the time of death was fifty minutes before the accident that killed Mr. Clarke. We believe he blamed Dr. Martin for his daughter's death, and killed him for it. We were on our way here when we got the call from your neighbor."

That didn't surprise me, actually. He had tried to kill Jesse almost as soon as he'd become a ghost. But there was something I didn't understand. "So why did you have to rush over here in the middle of the night to tell us? It sounds like a pretty straight-forward case."

"Suze," Brad said. "His car had your address programmed into the GPS when he got into the accident. We think he was going to try to kill Jesse, too."

I stared at Brad. It wasn't that I didn't believe him – I knew for a fact that Thomas Clarke wanted to kill Jesse – I just wasn't sure why the police were so worried. As far as they knew, Thomas was no longer a threat since he was dead. They had no idea that he could still harm people.

"Jesse was Chloe's physician, wasn't he?" Brad asked gently.

"I was," Jesse whispered. "Mr. Clarke was very angry with me as well. He also blamed me for Chloe's death."

I shook my head. "But now he's dead, Brad. Are you saying you think he can still try to kill Jesse? From beyond the grave?" I asked sarcastically. I knew that he could, of course. But Brad, as far as I knew, had no clue that ghosts were real. "This isn't an episode of Ghost Mediator. Come on, Brad. There's no reason to worry about Jesse."

He shook his head. "Of course we don't think Mr. Clarke can still try to kill Jesse. But we don't know if he had any help, or if he has a friend or family member who would be willing to do it for him." Brad sighed. "Look, Suze, why don't you and I go talk in the kitchen? Troy will stay out here with Jesse."

"But –"

"Come on."

I couldn't exactly argue with him while he was in uniform, even if he was my stepbrother. I mean, I could, but I didn't think it would look good. So I let him steer me into the kitchen.

Once there, he lowered his voice. "Suze, are you all right?"

I looked at him like he was crazy. "What? Yeah. Look, I appreciate your concern, but Mr. Clarke is dead, right? He can't hurt Jesse."

"That's not what I meant."

I was lost. "What?"

"How did you get the bruise? Really?"

"I tripped. I already told you this." Of course, I tripped with a little help from a member of the undead. But Brad didn't need to know that.

He sighed and lowered his voice even more. "Did Jesse hit you? Is he being abusive with you at all?"

I recoiled away from my stepbrother. "What?" Was he serious? How could anyone think that Jesse was beating me?

"Suze, you can tell me if that's what's going on. I can help. We can get a restraining ord-"

"No!" I couldn't believe this. "Are you serious? How could you even think that he would hurt me? Jesse is not a violent guy." Not towards me, anyway. He could get pretty aggressive when it came to nasty NCDPs, child molesters, and Paul Slater. But never me. Even when Jesse was furious with me, he would never hurt me. I couldn't believe that Brad was even suggesting it. I couldn't believe that Brad had even thought it.

"He got arrested for assault last year, Suze."

I shook my head. "That's totally…Paul was being an asshole. He deserved to get beat up. I would have done it myself if Jesse hadn't gotten to it first. But this is Jesse we're talking about, Brad. He would never –"

"You don't have to be afraid. If something's going on, you can tell me. I can –"

I laughed at that. Me? Afraid of Jesse? "No. I'm not afraid, because I have no reason to be afraid. My husband has never hurt me and he never would. I'm just a klutz, Brad. I trip over things. You know that. And, on top of all that, I bruise easily." Again, I didn't. It actually took a lot to bruise me, which is why I was so surprised that I was already bruising from Thomas's punch. But it would be better if Brad thought that I bruised easily. It shouldn't have been that difficult to believe, not after all the times I got bruised up in high school. "It looks way worse than it actually is. Besides, you know that I can hold my own in a fight," I reminded him. He knew better than just about anyone what I was capable of.

"I'd kick Jesse's ass if he ever tried to do anything to me, Brad. But do you honestly think he would?"

Brad sighed. "Not really, no. I can't see Jesse doing anything to you. But I don't believe that you're that big of a klutz, Suze. You honestly expect me to believe that you got a bruise like that just from tripping? You need to tell me what's really going on."

"Nothing. I am that big of a klutz," I told him. Then I went back to the front parlor. Brad and his partner left a while later, promising that there would be a cop watching the house in case Thomas did have any accomplices who might try to hurt Jesse. I tried to talk them out of that, but they wouldn't listen. Finally, we went back to our bed, but it took me quite a while to finally fall asleep after all of that. My nausea hadn't helped, either.

I looked at Father Dominic. He didn't need to know about my weekend drama. So I just said, "Just another weekend. We had a nice dinner to celebrate last night, but nothing fancy or extravagant. I really do think an exorcism is our only choice at this point. Thomas has already killed one person. We need to stop him before he kills anyone else."

Father Dominic shook his head. "I don't like it. An exorcism should be our very last resort. Not –"

He didn't get to finish his sentence, though I knew exactly what he was going to say, because that was when I lost my lunch to the nearest trash can.


I hope you guys are enjoying it. Let me know what you think.