Disclaimer: aakd;leilkdjalsduoiweulkdfjowierulkdfj I'm typing to the rhythm of Something's Gotta Give soundtrack, and I have Holding out for a hero stuck in my head, and I am in love with Mason from Dead Like Me. Sadly I own none of those things except for the soundtrack, and as Abberline isn't a soundtrack, I don't him either. There you have it and it sucks.
Really short chapter at least by my standards but hey I can live with that, can you? Hope you like, I gave you more Cass and Abs time.
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"How do yeh do it?" Came the exasperated and somewhat muffled reply from behind me.
"Do what?" I inquired happily, entering the foyer, handing a few boxes to Ellie.
"How do yeh...."
"Hold that thought." I turned and pulled the rest of the boxes out of Abberline's arms so he could speak clearly.
"......do tha'?!" He exclaimed.
"You'll have to do better than that, I'm afraid." I smiled.
"It's no use....I don't even understand it." He muttered.
"And you never will. But I think it's better that way, personally." I informed him cherrily, "Now off to bed. We have to see the you-know-whos tomorrow and the you-know-what."
"Who? Wha'?"
Exactly. Now go. As much as I love your company, dear boy, I need my sleep too."
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A fox crept into my lap and my arms immediately encircled it, feeling it's soft fur prickle my arms. Holding it close, it nuzzled itself into my neck. It's soft, wet nose made a giggle rise out of me. Pulling back, it's cunning pointed face smirked.
A familiar, disquieting smirk.........
And I was no longer sitting but standing, pressed up against a wall, not slammed for the first in a long time. And the fox was Darque.
A finger traced gently along my bottom lip.
"Well, we've already seen what music can come from that lovely mouth of yours. What else can it do," he loomed ahead of me. His proximity was enough to punch the breath right out of me. And he was teasing me. I could tell, because he was drawing this unbearable uncertainty out, making me restless, "I wonder." The sigh of his question stopped me and spurred me into action all at the same time. I pressed into him as he pulled me into his arms. Wrapping around me, his warmth drove me practically up the freaking wall. Driving me to the point where I would have given him anything, more than he was taking at the moment.
But then he was cold. And clammy.......
And I was suddenly kissing a dead girl. Pulling back, I hit the brick wall of an alley, hard, panting, breaths of horror fogging the air. The body dropped to the ground with a sickening, thunk. Blood was pouring out from her, creeping along the ground. I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. When it touched the toe of my shoe, then, and only then, did I start to scream.
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I don't think I would have stopped if I hadn't been seized tightly and jerked against a living, breathing body. I fought against the solid presence for a while before I placed it as someone I knew.
"Shh, shhh, it's alrigh',"
Instead of trying to push myself out of the hold now, I buried myself deeper into Abberline, tremor after tremor running through me.
His grip on my shoulders relaxed as he held me back to look at me.
"Jesus Christ...." Swiping a hand over my face, I suddenly realized I wasn't just shivering from the memory of the dream. I was freezing and his hand felt like it had been on a stove of high 130. I tried to throw myself away from the sting of his hand.
"No, no, no......" He ordered, pulling me back and holding me vise like again, "Stop, stop, stay still........god, Sarah............"
I had long since stopped my screams. I felt as though my mouth had been welded shut. Abberline moved his hands rapidly up and down the length of my arms. I felt the blood rush back into me, and his touch did not burn now, but loosened my throat, and I cried. Great big galloping cries. Sobbed like a baby. Sobbed like I had just seen the Titanic for the first time, after watching all those people who didn't have to die, the old people holding each other on the bed, the mother telling the children the story of Tirnanog, die.
Abberline just held me and waited patiently for the sobs to subside, gently stroking my hair. He murmured things I didn't quite hear or understand because I kept hearing Darque's voice. I shut my eyes tightly and gripped him harder, but I could feel the body and see the.........the blood.
"Wha' is it?" He murmured into my hair.
I shook my head against his neck.
"Wha' happened?'
Again I shook my head against him. Images flickered behind my lids. I just wanted it to stop, and it wasn't going to anytime soon. I needed something to make it stop.
Something as soft as a cat's paw landed on my forehead. And then on my right temple.
I blinked open my eyes and the pictures disappeared. I shook my head once more only this time in confusion. Pulling back, I blinked a few more times looking up at him.
His hair was tousled and his vest was gone. He just wore slacks now and a very worn white shirt.
"Sarah....." He murmured concerned.
"Did......." I began uncertainly , "did you touch me?" Things were still a bit fuzzy for me.
He drew back as well, "I am touching you."
I looked down at his hands on my arms.
"Oh......." My brow furrowed. Of course. "Yeah........"
"Sarah........?"
"Hmmmn?"
"Wha' happened just now?"
I was about to shake my head again when he grasped my chin, "An' don't......just shake yeh head at me."
This time I nodded and he gently removed his hand. I was starting to feel more normal.
"Wha' was it........what scared you?" He asked again.
I ran a hand through my hair, snagging it on some tangles, "A dream."
"A dream?"
"A nightmare." I clarified. Then I thought of the weight of lips on my mouth, demanding," ......well technically."
"I see..." He murmured tiredly, "An' wha' 'appened in this dream......"
"Nightmare."
"...............nightmare, tha' frightened yeh?"
Even now I was beginning to forget the exact color of the blood , or the way the fur of the fox felt in the crook of my neck.
"Well," I sighed, "considering it was a nightmare and as such are supposed to be frightening, I saw what you'd, you know, what you'd regularly see......"
"Such as..........?"
"Stuff."
"Stuff?"
"Well, dead stuff to be specific...."
Oh my god, how Halely Joel Osmond clichéd was that?
"A dead....girl." I completed.
Abberline's hands gripped me again, "A dead girl?" He inquired.
"Yeah, dead, deceased, knocked off, ya know, the soul was gone but the stench remained?"
He dropped his hands from me quickly, "Yer positive."
I pinned him with a look, "If blood is any other color than red, say a puke mutant green, then yes, I'm positive." I snapped.
"Are you sure it was a dream?"
"Nightmare."
"Are. Yeh. Sure?" He asked urgently again.
"What else would it be?"
"A vision." He retorted impaciently.
"A say what?!"
"A premonition. Good god, woman how could yeh forget tha'?! Godley told me you get them too!"
"Why would he tell you a crazy thing.....like......uh oh....."
"Uh oh?" He peered at me, "Uh oh?"
"Spaggettio's."
"Sarah....." He murmured low, severely.
"I might have told a little lie......"
"Might? Little lie?"
"Fabrication, really."
"Sarah." He groaned my name as if I were a child who had just scribbled the F word on newly painted walls with hot pink crayola.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." I muttered, " But I had to meet you somehow! God damn, Abberline!"
Shaking his head he got up, "Goodnight, Sarah."
And he headed toward the door.
"Oh! Oh I get it! You're just like Angel and Wesley, you don't care about my welfare unless it comes with a ready vision. I could be having a heart attack and you wouldn't give a rat's ass as long as I had a vision as well! And that is twelve shades of SUCK, my friend!" I huffed, sitting bolt upright.
His hand dropped from the door knob and he calmly made his way over to me.
"Yeah, that's right," I declared, "I said, Twelve shades of vibrant neon rainbow skittle SUCK!"
He got up right in my face, put the palm of his hand to my forehead as if he were one of those over zealous evangelists and I was blind and deaf, and otherwise injured and he was gonna heal me on national tv, and actually PUSHED me back down to the pillows and said quite simply, "Stop yer whining and go to sleep, Sarah."
And smirking smugly he turned to leave with my mouth hanging open in a "now-I-know-you-sure-as-hell-didn't-just-hit-me-on-the-head-the-Matthew's- Life's-Tough-Get-A-Helmet" way.
I finally regained my wits enough to say, "You're such a fucking asshole," before the door shut behind him.
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Ok coming to a fanfiction near you: Here's a possible way things can go next chappies, I get so steamed at Olivia and pour scolding hot tea on her lap, I push Darque into a broom closet and keep him there for twelve hours as my slave, Abberline shows me what a real party is like, dancing the Time Warp, a little table seduction....I have a number of songs prepared for that but I'd like to know what song you would be most likely to table dance to if you were ya know.....me but......really .......um you. Don't ask. Let me hear it! I like big butts? Lady Marmalade? Naughty girl? You tell me, even if I don't use your idea I'll take your name and make you some of the girls who join in on the dance, Cayote Ugly style.