Kisses fell on my shoulders. Slowly, they travelled up my neck and I sighed.
"So much for not waking up like this anymore," he whispered in my ear.
I stretched and smiled widely. "I have no idea what you're talking about," I chuckled.
"No, obviously, you don't,"
I felt a chill and turned around to be faced with Lockwood's frowning face.
Then Lockwood's face turned more wrinkled and transparent.
"Marissa! Bring her to me! Do you want your donut's with or without filling?"
I woke up with a jolt.
"Already?" Quill groaned and turned around.
I sat up and looked at the clock as well.
"It's only been forty-five minutes. We can say two hours from now, right?" He whined.
"No, because you need to phone your mum. If you wait an extra forty-five minutes, it'll be too late, and she'll be cross with you." I pointed out and wrinkled my nose. Why did I know Quill's working hours anyway?
"Right," he grunted. "Come on. Back to sleep." He patted the spot next to him where I'd just been lying.
I laid down with a sigh and turned my back to Quill. His arm wound around my waist and I lifted my head almost automatically to let him slip his other arm under it.
He pulled me closer, so my back was against his chest. I felt his nose at the base of my neck. "Sleep," he whispered against my skin.
I couldn't help the smile that spread on my face in spite of the small pit that was forming in my stomach.
I slowly fell back asleep with Lockwood's frown in my mind.
…
"Mum? Yeah, it's me. I'm not… No. I'm… I'm not… mum! Okay, but I'm not…" Quill huffed and looked at the phone with a frown.
"Mum! I'mnotcomingtoworktoday" he rushed out.
"Why?" he winced. "I had a bit of an uh – accident last… Yes I was. I'm sorry but I couldn't just…" he sighed. "I know… I know. Tony needed… I know," he frowned at the phone again. "Mum… mum… Mum! No! no, no, no, you don't need to come over… Yes, I can still be proper sick and not need for you to care for me, I'm not five years old… Yes... I know… I know. I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that… No, I just meant that I got a little bit hurt… The eardrum I think, and a concussion… No, I'm fine, it just needs to heal on its own… No, I don't need soup,"
He made a face and I let out an accidental giggle. He hurried to put a hand in front of my mouth. My eyes widened in outrage.
"I don't know, maybe it came from the television," he looked at me pointedly. "Yes, I know I shouldn't watch television when I have a concussion. I'll turn it off."
He didn't remove his hand from my mouth, but with a wide, obnoxious smile, he used the tip of his pinkie to press at my nose in the same way one would press a button.
I licked his hand and he quickly removed it, looking at me funnily. I winked at him and went to put the kettle on in the kitchen with a headshake, while he continued bickering with his mother.
"Why don't we just stay here?"
I stopped short in the hallway. "What?"
"Seriously. We could stay here. No more Cubbins looking at me like he's wondering how I'll react to liquid nitrogen. No more Holly trying to polish the jar. No more… storage rooms and salt bags."
I slowly walked into the living room and sat on the sofa in front of the half-latent skull.
The television was still on, but only showing static. Snow. I quirked a half-smile at a childhood memory that wasn't entirely horrible.
"That's silly, skull. We can't stay here."
"Why the hell not?"
The face in the plasm; pale now that it was day, turned towards me with a raised eyebrow.
"Uh – because we don't live here. Quill lives here."
"That doesn't mean that we couldn't".
I shook my head. "That's exactly what it means. We're just visiting. That doesn't mean he wants us to move in."
"Well, you didn't hear what I heard last night," the skull sing-songed.
I stretched my neck a bit to see if Quill was still in the bedroom. "What did you hear?" I asked lowly.
"Nope, I don't kiss and tell."
With that, the plasm was sucked into the skull and the jar was completely dormant.
I let out a growl of frustration.
"Lucy, are you okay?" Quill called out in a whisper.
"I'm fine," I yelled back.
"Shhhhh!" he hissed loudly, and I slowly walked back in the bedroom. Where he was standing with his hand over the receiver.
Quill gestured at me to stay put and stay quiet. I put a hand up next to my mouth, mimicking a bullhorn, making him shake his head frantically.
"What? No one. No, mum. No, it was just the television… Yeah, I still haven't turned it off… I know I should… No. No, mum… No, don't… that's unnecessary…"
I bit my lip and slowly stalked over to him. I poked him in the side to see him squirm. He tried to grab me, but I quickly jumped out of his reach. The phone wire only stretched so far.
He looked at me with narrowed eyes. "Can't I just call you tomorrow with an update? No... No, no, no, no, no. Don't bring William into this… Can't we just… Fine… Yeah, I will. Promise… Yeah, bye… Okay, bye… Bye mum… Yeah, I know… Bye… I will... Bye... Yeah, bye... Mum... Mum! Okay! Bye, mum... Bye."
He put the receiver back on the phone and turned his head towards the ceiling with closed eyes.
"You know, if it didn't feel like my brain might be spilling out of my nose every time I move, you'd be on the floor right now, screaming because I would be playing piano on your ribs."
I made a face at the rather gruesome visual.
He looked at me and rolled his eyes. "Tickling, Lucy. I would be tickling you. God, how messed up are we that we automatically go to the most macabre option?"
I felt my cheeks warming a bit. "Sorry."
"No worries, darling," he groaned as he stretched.
I nearly choked on my tongue. "Come again?"
"Sorry what? Couldn't hear properly 'because I was stretching."
"Nothing," I squeaked.
"Sure? I need coffee. And paracetamol." He rubbed his forehead.
"And some breakfast, maybe?" I suggested.
He smiled sheepishly and walked over, taking both my hands in his. "Thank you for staying."
"Of course, I did." I waved him off.
His face went a bit pink. "Yes, well. Thank you for staying, staying. You didn't have to stay in bed with me."
"You asked me to," I shrugged.
He took a step closer, so our feet were almost touching. "I'm sorry about that. I just…" he trailed off, looking straight at me. His thumbs were gently running over my knuckles. With the green in his eyes and the scent coming off him from yesterday's shower, I was more than ever reminded of that little clearing near where I used to live. Where I came to just be me. Where I could breathe. Where I could tell myself that maybe ghosts weren't all there was to the world.
For a second or two, I thought he might kiss me again.
Then he sighed and looked at his feet. "We better go get that breakfast."
I nodded numbly. "Need more sleep too."
Then the phone rang again, and Quill went to get it with an eyeroll. "Hello? No… What? But it's not even... Are you shitting me?" he huffed and looked at the phone as if he was contemplating whether the satisfaction of throwing it out of the window would be worth the cost of buying a new phone. "… Fine, but not until later," he ground out and slammed the receiver down hard.
"What is it?"
"It was Tony. He wants us to come to Portland Row. Something about a big case."
I frowned. "Already?"
Quill sighed heavily. "He was rather adamant."
I scoffed. "Well, first, food and then more rest. Surely it can wait a little."
Apparently it couldn't. Lockwood called us at two in the afternoon and demanded we came there immediately. A matter of life or death he said, so we packed up and made our way to Marylebone.
…
"Can you believe it; he had the poor young man on a lead. Like a dog!" Holly told us in outrage.
Quill put his legs on the table. "Are you sure it wasn't just a kinky thing?" he asked casually and ate a couple of grapes.
"Dammit. That was my line."
Holly blanched and I slapped Quill in the gut, making him wince.
"So, let me get this straight; the client wants this done tonight, or else this boy is going to croak it?" I asked.
Lockwood nodded. "I believe him. The bloke was completely out of it. We're packing up and leaving in an hour."
Quill scoffed. "We? Didn't you just say that this ghost specifically targets young men?"
Lockwood huffed. "Yes, but –"
"Then we obviously aren't all going."
"Of course, we're all going!"
"Don't be stupid. You're not going. Unless you don't trust the girls can handle themselves of course," Quill goaded.
"Oooh."
Holly and I looked expectantly at Lockwood whose face turned redder by the second.
"It's not that I don't– I just – It's – I think that it's a lot of ground for them to cover by themselves!" he spluttered.
Quill shrugged. "Then get help."
"Ah yes, because people are lined up on the doorstep wanting to collaborate with us," Lockwood snarked.
"Have you asked Florence? I could ask Kate if she has time. I think she has the night off," Quill suggested.
George shrugged. "I could track down Flo."
Lockwood looked like he was about to strangle someone. "Okay, if you don't want to go, that's up to you, but I'm going."
"Wouldn't it just be easier if he just jumped off a bridge if he wants to die so badly?"
I scowled at the skull.
Quill rolled his eyes. "Of course, you aren't. Besides, you've got other plans."
Lockwood looked at him with a nose wrinkle. "I do?"
"Yup. You and I are going to have dinner with my parents tonight. You're welcome too if you'd like, Cubbins." Quill smirked and crossed his arms over his chest.
"I would rather eat my own socks," George snorted.
Lockwood swept Quill's feet off the table. "I don't recall making such plans," he said through gritted teeth and looked accusingly at Holly who gave him a deadpan look in return.
"I just book the clients, Lockwood. I'm not your personal assistant."
"Well, you've been known to conspire," he grumbled. He ran his hand through his hair and rubbed his neck. Then he gave Quill an odd look.
"Can I talk to you outside?"
Quill shrugged. "Of course."
Together, they walked out of the kitchen door.
"If you throw me out there past the iron line in the door, I could eavesdrop for you if you'd like. You risk turning into a giraffe the way you're craning your neck to spy on them through the window,"
I scoffed. "I'm not spy –" I cut myself off to look at Holly who smirked at me and George who pretended not to have heard.
"I hope Quill convinces him," Holly remarked, and casually stretched backwards.
George sighed heavily. "I just wished he hadn't hidden it."
Holly lifted an eyebrow towards him. "Well, did you ever ask him about his past?"
He frowned. "No."
I snorted. "Do you remember when I first came here and questioned why Jessica's room was off limits? And you told me to bugger off and mind my own business?"
He sighed again. "That's not the same –"
"Isn't it though?"
George rolled his eyes. "I've known Lockwood longer than you have, and then you come along and flip everything on its head and skeletons are flying out of the closet, left, right, and centre, doing the Macarena."
I lifted an eyebrow at him.
"Without you it would just be status quo."
I shook my head. "I'm afraid that without me, they would be getting along much better."
George huffed a small laugh. "Without you, they wouldn't even be speaking. Trust me."
I craned my neck just a little more and spotted them, standing in front of each other, both with their arms crossed. Lockwood was looking at his shoes. Then Quill put a hand on Lockwood's shoulder and Lockwood gave him a sheepish smile.
When they came back in, Quill went directly down to the offices. Probably to call Kate.
"Right," Lockwood blew out his cheeks and clapped his hands. "Change of plans apparently. George, could you perhaps find Flo? Quill is calling… Kate. That's going to be interesting, eh?"
I felt my stomach drop.
Kate Godwin and I had been rivals. She was everything I wasn't. Always perfect, always beautiful. In that aspect, she was actually a bit like Holly, only colder and harder.
Except, the last few times I'd met her, she'd seemed completely different and I had no idea how to handle that.
George left shortly after and after a quick change of clothes, I went downstairs to pack whatever we might need.
Just as I was packing the salt bombs, I heard a throat clearing behind me.
Lockwood stood, staring at me. He shifted his weight from one leg to another.
"So..." he trailed off. "How were things at Quill's last night?"
I sighed heavily, remembering the last discussion we had down here, surrounding the exact same person.
"It was fine. Uneventful. I had a nightmare at one point with the ghost from last night."
A small smile crossed his face, and he took a step forward.
"I had a hard time falling asleep, knowing that you weren't here," he told me softly.
I didn't know what to say about that.
"Lockwood, I -"
"No, don't say anything. I just wanted to tell you that I missed you,"
He shrugged and put his hands in his pockets. A small hint of pink dusted his cheeks.
I dropped the bag of salt I was holding scattering quite a lot of it.
"Oh dear," Lockwood chuckled. "That's bad luck, you know."
I rolled my eyes. "Considering how much salt we waste on a daily basis, we ought to have the worst luck in the world.
He rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I always throw salt over my shoulder."
I giggled. "You actually believe in that superstitious rubbish?"
He grinned. "Well, don't we specialise in superstition?"
"No. We specialise in the supernatural,"
He chuckled. "Well, superstition is a supernatural tangent,"
"It so isn't." I shook my head in exasperation.
Lockwood chuckled and soon broke into a full laugh.
"What's so funny?"
"Well, part of the superstition when spilling salt is that you have to throw some over your left shoulder to keep evil spirits at bay."
He nodded towards the shelf behind me.
"Oh, how hilarious. Really, the act of true comedy," the skull deadpanned.
I looked over my shoulder to see it rolling its spectral eyes.
I snorted a small laugh myself. "I'm not sprinkling salt on the skull, don't be ridiculous."
Lockwood shrugged. Small clinks rang when he threw the rough salt on the jar.
"Hey!"
"Don't, Lockwood." I frowned.
Lockwood rolled his eyes. "I honestly think that once this whole thing with Fittes is over and done with, we should take it to the furnaces."
I shifted a bit to cover the skull. "No."
He huffed. "I know you've… bonded with it or whatever and that it's supposedly Quill's new best friend but it's unnatural. And it's evil. We have our use for it now, but once it's all over, we'll incinerate it."
I scoffed. "You know, you're really not giving it any incentive to help."
"Whatever. I just don't like having it around. It's a risk."
"Since when do you care about risks?" I blurted and he raised an eyebrow at me. "No, that was rude of me. You know what? If you don't want to have it around, I can just ask Quill if he would like to keep it there." I shrugged.
"And you?"
"What do you mean, me?"
"Where will you stay?" he asked quietly. He looked at me with a sad smile.
I frowned at him. "Are you threatening to throw me out again?"
His eyes widened. "No! No, God no. I just. I really just want you to stay."
He put his hand on my arm.
I grinned at him. "Good. Because I can't afford another deposit for a flat."
"Good to know. Remind me to cut you pay so you can't leave," he chuckled.
I laughed and chucked a bit of salt at him.
Then his lips were on mine.
I made a small sound of surprise, but then my eyes closed. I put my hands on his shoulders to push him away, but he was the one who broke the kiss and when I opened my eyes, he was frowning.
"Wha –"
"Um, Cubbins is back. He couldn't find Florence and uh – Kate is here," Quill sighed and looked anywhere but at me and Lockwood. I hadn't heard him enter.
Lockwood jumped up. "Right! Yes! I'll better – yeah. See you upstairs." And with that, he was gone.
"Quill, I –"
He sighed. "It's okay, Lucy. Don't worry about it."
He smiled sadly at me and left too.
I leaned back, sitting in the salt leaning against the wall, almost crying even if I didn't quite know why.
"Well, it's official –"
"Don't say it." I cut off the skull.
"You'd really let me go live with Quill?"
I sighed and chuckled a bit. "I don't know. The incineration-bit is still an option, but if anyone is going to incinerate you, it's going to be me," I told it, trying, and failing at a menacing tone.
I wiped away a tear that had managed to escape and sniffled a bit, trying to pull myself together.
If I was going to be face to face with Kate Godwin, I wasn't going in with red eyes and a swollen face. I might not have lots in the looks department, but I ought to at least protect what little I had.
I got up and dusted myself off, checking myself in one of the large mirrors Lockwood had hung in the rapier room.
There were dark circles around my eyes, but no redness and my hair wasn't looking too bad for once. I nodded in satisfaction and went towards the stairs.
"Hey!"
I winced and backtracked. "Sorry."
I took the jar under my arm but hesitated in going upstairs with it. I didn't know what Quill had told Kate. I didn't know how safe I felt with a double agent knowing about the skull or me being able to speak to Type Threes but in the end I supposed it all came down to whether or not I trusted Quill's judgement.
Slowly, I went upstairs.
When I came up, Kate was seated at the table, daintily drinking a cup of tea. I almost didn't recognise her with the long, light brown hair with the gentle curls. God, she looked amazing. The others were gathered around her in a way that reminded me of when Holly had first been hired. Except for George. He had changed and was sitting at the end of the table, wearing his ugliest, dirtiest sweat-suit with his eyes fixed on her in some sort of one-sided staring contest.
"Lucy!" Kate's eyes lit up when she saw me, and she stood to greet me with a one-armed hug and air-kisses on either side of my face. I was completely caught off guard and could only imagine what my face might have looked like.
Quill was completely pink in the face from trying to keep his laughter inside.
I gave him a pointed look and lifted the jar a little.
His eyebrows went high on his forehead and he raised his hands a bit in the universal 'that's none of my business'- gesture.
Kate sat back down, and I sat down in front of her. I set the jar heavily down on the table. She jerked back a little. Lockwood's eyes widened when he realised what I was doing.
"Well, that's… interesting." Kate said when I remained silent.
I leaned forward a bit. "This is a Type Three spirit."
Her eyes widened and went from the jar, to me and back again. "That's… unlikely."
"I can talk with it."
She chuckled insecurely as if she was uncertain if this was a badly played off joke. She looked around at the others in the room, who all looked serious. When she reached Quill, he nodded.
"Skull, is Lucy telling the truth? One blink for yes, two for no, please."
"Wouldn't it be fun if I didn't do it and she just thought you were all nutters?"
I sighed and rolled my eyes. "And Quill does that. Just do it, skull. Please? My patience is running a bit thin at the moment."
The skull made a single clear blink in the green plasm.
Kate gave a small jump in surprise. She put her fingers on the jar but quickly withdrew them when the skull appeared to be licking them.
"Well, that's… remarkable. I suppose there really never was any competition between us." She gave me a weak smile.
I gave her a warm one in return. "If it's any consolation, I think you're the only one that really gave me a run for my money."
Her smile widened, revealing perfectly straight white teeth and a delicate dust of rosy pink showed up on her cheeks.
How the hell anyone would ever believe me capable of stealing her boyfriend was beyond me.
…
So – What would you like next? Dinner with Quills parents or ghost-busting with the girls?
Leave a review and let me know
