"I hate this hospital."
Rosa sighed, looking up from the book she was reading. "Oh, good. I was getting worried. You hadn't said that in the last five minutes." It'd been two days since he'd been admitted, and he was already complaining her ears off.
"Why'd it have to be this place? First your grandmother, then your aunt, and now-"
"You?"
"Yes! I've spent enough time in this damn hospital for three lifetimes."
"Well, maybe you shouldn't get shot, then." She looked back down, flipping a page. "Honestly, though, with the way you talk, I'm not surprised."
Joey rolled his eyes and resumed staring at the ceiling, and Rosa looked back down at her book. It wasn't anything she was particularly interested in, to be honest. Just some pulpy thing she'd grabbed from the lobby. But it made it look like she was doing something, at least.
She just couldn't stop thinking about that last encounter. About the man that had shot Joey. Judging by how he'd been dressed, he was a priest? Why on earth would a priest shoot Joey? Sure, it wasn't like he was religious or anything, but even so, it didn't exactly warrant shooting him.
On top of that, she'd never seen that man in her life. Yet... He clearly knew who she was. He even called her by name. Last name, anyway.
"Who was the man at the school? The one who shot you?"
One of Joey's eyes twitched. "No one you should be concerned about."
"He knew who I was," she pointed out. "He knew who you were." She paused, studying his expression. And Joey knew who the man had been, too. The way he was hiding things, she was starting to think it was someone she knew as well. Despite the fact that she'd never seen the man before.
Unless the man hadn't been the one speaking at all.
"That was Madeline, wasn't it?" Sure, it was a bit of a logical leap, but...
"Huh?" Joey blinked, looking back at her.
"The person we met at the school," Rosa repeated. "That was Madeline."
"How..?" He sighed, finally relenting. "Yeah. It was."
"So, the man was..."
"Father Michael. He's her new Bestower."
Another Bestower? That was incredible. She could've met another person who was... well, she supposed not like her, after all. Not anymore, at least. "But Madeline was controlling him."
"Yep. Like a puppet on a string."
Possession? Was that something all spirit guides could do? "Does that mean you could've-"
"No," he interjected before she could finish the question. "No, I couldn't. And even if I could, I never would have. Just like you would never..." He trailed off, frowning.
"Joey?"
He shook his head. "Forget it. It's nothing."
"Is this about..?" When she'd abandoned him in the void.
"That never happened. I know what you're thinking, and that never happened."
"If you insist."
"And insist I do, darling."
"Hmph." She put the book to the side, sighing. "Why didn't you tell me any of this before?"
He averted his gaze, brow furrowing. "I thought I could keep you out of it."
"Why? And how did you know all these things, anyway?"
He looked back at her, expression clouded. "Before I answer that, I need to ask you something."
"What is it, Joey?"
He was grabbing handfuls of his sheets again, frown deepening. "Do you trust me?"
"What?" What kind of a question was that?
"I need to know, Red. What I'm about to tell you, it's not easily digestible stuff. So before I do, I gotta know."
"I-" She stopped, looking at him. "Of course I do." She sincerely hoped she wasn't lying. The problem was, she wasn't sure herself.
But the answer seemed to appease him, and he seemed to relax a bit, fingers uncurling as he gave a little nod. He took a deep breath before speaking. "I'm not... I'm not the same Joey you were with a week ago."
She frowned, trying to process this. "Right, because you're alive now."
"No, not just that. I- I don't really know why I'm here right now. You wanna know how I suddenly seem to know so much, even though I couldn't leave your side? I know about Madeline and everyone else involved because I've seen it before. You and I, we went through it together. Doing what we do."
Time travel? Was that a thing now? She supposed she'd seen some pretty insane things, but bending time itself was still a little out there. "That still doesn't explain why you're... well, you know."
He was looking back down again, now. "I don't think I'm ready to answer that one yet. Don't know if I'll ever be."
"What could be so-"
"Don't push it, Red."
And they were back at the wall. She sighed, adjusting her glasses. "Fine. I've got another question for you, then."
"Yeah?"
"Why did Madeline shoot you? I thought she was on our side. Didn't she help you out of the void?"
He scoffed. "Yeah, I learned pretty quick that 'our side' only consists of you and me."
"And yet you were trying to leave me behind."
He pressed his lips together, looking away. When he spoke again, his voice had softened. "Madeline's stealing spiritual energy. Like Gavin did. But she doesn't just kill her victims, she rips their souls apart."
Hm. She'd seen something like that. "When I was on the other side of the portal with Lisa and Gavin, his ghost, it- it dissolved."
Joey shook his head. "Try a little more violently. Drawn-and-quartered kind of violent." He involuntarily shuddered at the mental image. "We saw it happen four times. Right in front of us."
Four. Four times. And they hadn't been able to stop it? "Who were they?"
"Members of a group who used to meet at Grace Church. Ran by a guy named Benjiro, another one of those spiritual vampires. Whatever he did to them left their souls weak. And chock full of energy. Energy Madeline wanted so she could... so she could come back to life."
He'd hesitated there. Was that a partial truth? Not the truth at all? "Why would she want that? I thought she liked being a spirit guide."
"Keyword liked. She was trapped in that damn void for decades. As long as I've been- I was dead. She wanted out of existence. And she thought the only way was to destroy other people to get it. A lot of people, Red. A whole damn lot. I wasn't about to let her do it all over again."
Rosa stopped to let it all sink in. She'd hoped... she'd really hoped that after all this time there would be someone who could teach her the ropes. Someone who'd been through it all, someone who had the experience that she hadn't had yet. Someone who could teach her all the intricacies of saving ghosts. But she guessed some things were a bit too good to be true.
"So, what's our next step, then? And don't try to leave me out again."
Joey chuckled bitterly. "I don't know. I guess I've finally changed enough things that I've got no clue what happens next." He leaned back against the headboard of his bed. "So we do what we always do."
"Wing it?"
He caught her eye, grinning. "That's my girl."
She was asleep when he woke up, slumped in that uncomfortable looking chair. He should've asked her to go home. He'd been about to, but the words had never left his mouth. It was selfish, probably, but... he didn't really want her to leave.
He supposed he was still tied to her after all. Maybe not the 'bonded at the soul' kind of tied, but emotionally?
Jesus, when had he become such a sap? And yet here he was. Staring. It wasn't like there was anything more interesting in the room. He could make a bet on how many cracks were in that ceiling. If it was anything like the room Lauren had been stuck in, he already knew the answer.
He supposed that Red was in this whether he liked it or not. It was always going to be this way. He knew that. It wasn't like Madeline didn't know she existed.
But even so, he had to try. He had to do something, anything to prevent-
There'd been a moment that day when he'd realized there had been nothing he could've done for her. That the only thing left had been to float at her side and watch her fall to her knees, hands clutching her head as the universe flooded in, drowning her. Knowing that she'd been about to die, and it had been his fault. Not directly, of course.
He'd just made one too many mistakes. And he didn't-
He didn't want it to happen again. God, he'd take all the bullets in the world if he thought it would do something. Anything . His vision blurred with tears, and he blinked them away, frustrated. He couldn't-
"...Joey?"
Her voice cut into the silence, snapping him out of his train of thought. He didn't need to see her face to know what she was doing, her curious green eyes searching around. It was the same face she made whenever they started an investigation, except this time he was the mystery. He set his jaw, trying to will the tears away in vain.
Please don't, Red. Don't look at me. I don't think I can keep this up anymore.
The chair creaked softly as she stood up, footsteps drawing nearer. He could feel her place a tentative hand on his back like she was afraid of how he'd react. "Something happened, didn't it? With Madeline." She paused for a moment. "Something happened to me."
He couldn't answer. If he did, his voice would break, and-
"I'm sorry," she whispered, wrapping her arms around him, and at that moment he broke down, sobbing into the embrace.
An hour later, things had settled down a bit. She'd ended up pulling the chair over, resting her head on his chest as he absentmindedly ran his fingers through her hair. It was weird, to say the least. They'd never actually touched one another before this, not that they could've anyway. But the contact was comforting, and since neither of them acknowledged it, they never moved apart. Not that he had a problem with that.
"We're going to have to go shopping after this," she said, half mumbling. Seemed like the lack of sleep was getting to her.
"You really need another gadget to play with?"
"Not for me. I'm not..." She yawned before settling her head back down. "...the one who ruined the only shirt they own."
"It was a nice shirt," he mused. "Lasted me nearly a century."
"That doesn't count. You were dead for most of that."
"You just have to ruin everything, don't you?"
"I'm just saying," she mumbled, eyelids drooping shut. Okay, she'd definitely had enough.
He hated to break it up. He was happy. Genuinely happy. But his conscience was getting the better of him. "Red?"
"Yes, Joey?"
"You should go home. Get some sleep. I'm not dealing with you catching another cold because you decided to stick it out too long."
She sighed. "You're probably right."
"Of course I am, darling." He nudged her gently, gritting his teeth a bit as the motion caused pain to ricochet from the area of the gunshot wound.
She got up reluctantly, lifting her glasses to rub her eyes. "You'll be okay without me, right?"
"Yeah. All bets are off if I see Dr. Quentin, though," he said, wiggling his eyebrows.
"Don't you dare," she warned, not breaking eye contact as she moved the chair back.
He scoffed, wincing again. Ow. "You think I wanna get locked up in the loony bin? Drop a few words about your aunt to the quack and you'd never see me again."
She paused on her way to the door, looking back. "Shut up."
"Well, if I did that, you'd have no one left to talk to."
She shook her head, trying to stifle her smile. "Goodnight, Joey."
And despite everything that had happened these past few days, he found himself smiling back. "Goodnight, Red." He watched as she left, the door swinging shut behind her.
A/N: Finally, some proper banter. Fun fact, one of the lines at the start was an inadvertent quote call back. (There used to be a link here, but I'll just put it in quotation marks for this site. "First your grandmother got stuck with me, then your aunt, and now you.")
Makes me feel more clever than I actually am.