Ghosts Are Not Real

"I don't think I've ever been this tired in my whole life." Carisi yawned and stretched his legs out underneath his desk. It had been a long day for everyone at the precinct but, unfortunately for the two male detectives, it wasn't over yet. "Rollins, would you do my paperwork for me and I'll cook you dinner every day next week?"

Snorting at his request Amanda switched her computer off. "Yeah, and I'll get stuck cleaning up the mess you make when you show off your culinary art skills? No thanks." she stood up and grabbed her purse. "Nice try though." she smirked and headed down the corridor to the elevator.

"Pssst! Rollins!?" the blonde stopped as she heard her name being mentioned and saw her boss secretly hiding in one of the supply closets. "Get in here."

Amanda turned her head to see if anyone was watching but the coast was clear and she quickly scurried into the small room. "It's a nice spot you picked, sergeant. Kind of cozy." she wiggled her eyebrows and snickered.

Liv slapped her arm playfully. "You wish!" the older woman chuckled and closed the door. "I have an idea. You ready for payback, Rollins?" Liv had that playful but devious glimmer in her eye and the corner of her lips turned to an evil grin.

"You bet I am. What did you have in mind?"

"Maybe if you had offered two weeks of cooking and cleaning up she would've agreed." Fin stated while his head was burried in folders and files, catching up on the past weeks work.

"No one says no to Sonny's cooking. I've never had a woman turning down my food before."

"Until now." Fin muttered, not bothering to lift his head to make eye contact with his coworker. "There's a first for everything, Carisi. Don't take it too personal."

"I just don't understand!" he raised his arms into the air to indicate that he had no clue what so ever why a woman would turn his excellent home made cooking down. It made no sense to him and it made him confused and puzzled. "Am I losing my touch?"

"Shut up and finish your papers. The quicker you get it done, the quicker you get to go home and wallow in your sadness."

Carisi frowned. "I'm not sad, I'm hurt."

"Same thing, now get it done so we can get out of this joint." the senior detective snarled back at his partner, getting more frustrated by the second.

Sighing, Carisi sat up straight and dug into his own massive pile of files. Suddenly, all the lights went out, the stationary phones died and the heating switched itself off, leaving the room dark and dead silent you could hear a needle drop. "What the... what happened?" Carisi questioned, shock evident in his slightly shaky voice.

"Well, except for the obvious, there must be something going on with the fuse box. I'll check it out. You got a flashlight?" Fin asked as he fumbled his way towards Carisi's desk.

"Yeah, in my back pocket." the youger Italian man responded sarcastically.

Fin grunted, fished around in his pocket for his phone and used the light from the screen to guide him. "I'll be right back."

Carisi immediately stood up. "What! You can't leave me here."

Fin frowned and looked at his partner's clearly petrified facial expression. "What? You afraid of the boogeyman?" he chuckled.

"You... you said it yourself. A ma killed himself upstairs. I'm not hanging around here while you go off checking things out. I might be dead by the time you get back, or worse."

"What's worse than dying? Come on, man up will ya! I'll be back in a a few minutes. If anything were to happen, you have your gun, right?"

Carisi stuttered before he could manage to squeeze out anything audible and understandable at all. "A... a gun is not gonna work on a... on a ghost." silence. "Fin?" the silence continued. "FIN?"

"Oh my god, this is awesome, Liv. It actually looks like a real person." Amanda whispered as her eyes wandered over the fake man hanging from the ceiling in awe. "Wow, I can feel the goosebumps on my skin already. He looks really scary." the blonde shivered from the lack of warmth, since the heating was not on, the drop in temperature was significantly dropping.

"It took me a while but it's gonna be so worth it. I found and old shirt, a pair of pants, a pillow case as the head and some old cushions to use for stuffing the clothes. I think I did pretty damn good." she stated with satisfaction.

"I'm really impressed, Liv. Couldn't have done i better myself. Now, let's make some noise."

"Fin? Where the hell are you man?" Carisi felt his heart thump against his chest and he had started to break out in a cold sweat. "Fin, it ain't funny anymore! Fin!?"

"Boo!" Fin whispered in his ear, causing the young man to jump to the side with a shriek.

"Come on, man! That's not cool!"

Fin chuckled and laid a hand on his partner's shoulder for support. "Sorry, but I couldn't help it. The fuse box is acting up. I don't know why it's not working. I guess we should just call it a night." as they walked back towards their desks Fin stopped and sniffed the air, wrinkling his nose. "Did you by any chance let out a SBV?"

Carisi looked confused. "What's a SBV?"

"Silent But Violent."

The young detective still looked puzzled and Fin sighed. "A smelly fart, dude! A stinky winky, pass gas, flatulence, a ripper, whatever you wanna call it."

It suddenly dawned on Carisi what Fin was talking about and he blushed slightly. "Well, I... I have a very sensitive stomach and when I'm stressed or under a lot of pressure or..."

"Scared?" Fin interrupted with a smirk, still wrinkling his nose due to the lingering smell.

"Or scared, yes." Carisi finally stated, a bit embarrassed for letting one slip in the presence of his colleague. "Sorry." he mumbled and followed Fin back to the pullpen to gather their belongings together. Then, a loud bang pierced the silent room and Carisi instantly jumped high into the air and quickly scurried over to Fin's right hand side, pressing his body into his.

"Get off me, man! It's probably just a rat or something. Maybe the pipes are making noises. Get a grip, don't be such a pussy."

Reluctantly Carisi took a small step back, slightly ashamed for reacting the way he did. "Must be one hell of a rat to make that much noise. It came from upstairs, from the cribs. What if... what if it's the... the hanging man? The ghost you told us about? He's here!"

The young Italian man was clearly in an upset state of mind but Fin just snorted, amused by his partners irrational fears. "Come on, you actually believed that story? It's not real Carisi. I was just trying to scare Rollins. It's not true."

Just as Fin finished his sentence, the loud bang reappeared but with a greater force than the last, followed by some kind of a hissing noise. "Then what the hell was that?" Carisi said in a shaky voice, taking a step closer to Fin, who didn't seem to mind this time. "Is that a rat too?"

Even Fin jumped at the unexpected sound this time and, out of instinct, grabbed his gun. "I'm gonna check it out. Wait here." he said, gun ready in hand as he slowly made his way to the stairs.

"Hell no." Carisi stated and quickly got behind his partner, grabbing onto his shirt from behind.

"Let go of me, man. Don't push it. Just stay behind me if you're so scared. It's probably nothing anyway." Fin whispered, not wanting to admit that he was quite puzzled and bewildered as to what was creating the banging noise. Or who?

Slowly and as quietly as they could they climbed the steep steps with Carisi so close, Fin could feel him breathing down his neck. They stopped just outside the door that led to the cribs, Fin bracing himself to bust the door in, ignoring Carisi's pleading words, telling him that they should just get out of there.

Just as the younger detective let out a small whimper, Fin used all his strength and kicked the door open, creating a loud bang that scared Carisi even more.

As soon as his eyes focused on the dark figure dangling from the room, Fin stiffled a scream. However, Carisi was already half way down the stairs, crying like a baby who didn't get his bottle on time and hid himself under his desk, hands covering his ears.

Fin was not far behind and ran down the stairs, almost tripping over his own feet a few times, gun still in hand ready to fight off any threat that might come his way. He stopped in the middle of the bullpen, holding his gun out and did a 360. "Show yourself!" he yelled, sweat dripping down his temples and back, his heart pounding profusely in his ears.

Then, a few seconds later, giggles and laughter echoed through the walls and he instantly knew who they belonged to. Looking up, while lowering his gun, he saw Olivia and Amanda hunched over from laughter, staggering out the room, too caught up in the funny situation to even utter a word, holding their arms around their stomachs for support as they continued to squeal in laughter.

"Very funny." Fin stated, annoyed that he had actually fallen for the prank but also relieved that there wasn't an actual ghost trying to haunt them down.

The two female detective's fumbled their way down the wooden stairs, still roaring laughing from what they had just witnessed, wiping the tears from their cheeks as they fell. "You... you should've... seen your faces!" Amanda managed to say between fits of giggles, grabbing onto Liv's arm for support. "Well done, Liv." she chuckled.

Carisi slowly emerged from under his desk, white as a sheet and trembling like a leaf. He looked awful. "It... it was you... all along?" he questioned, wanting to get some answers. Both women nodded as they were still too busy laughing to be able to verbally respond. "Man, I fell for it." the young male detective ran a shaky hand across his face, trying to get his breathing back to normal.

"I'll turn the lights back on." Liv chuckled and made her way to the fuse box.

Amanda was wiping the last of her tears as she watched Fin taking a few deep breaths. "You okay there, Fin? You look like you've seen a ghost too." she snickered.

Grinning sarcastically, the older man holstered his gun and sighed. "You're such a comedian, Rollins but yes, I must admit that things got a bit intense towards the end. Didn't really have time to get too scared since Carisi kept whining like a baby."

"I was not whining." he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Was too." Fin said.

"Was not."

"Was too."

"Was n..."

"Okay, okay!" Olivia interrupted as she approached her subordinates as the lights flickered back on, leaving the room in a bright glow. Everybody's eyes turned towards Carisi's pale pasty features.

"You don't look too good, man." Fin said and took a step closer to his partner. "You okay?"

Carisi was just about to wave it off as nothing but suddenly, out of nowhere, his stomach churned, making a growling bubbling noise that caught everyone's attention. Then, half a second later, he hunched over, clutched at his stomach and bolted towards the bathroom as fast as his legs could carry him, leaving the two female detectives startled and puzzled.

"Sensitive stomach." Fin simply stated, scratching the back of his neck. A loud moan of relief could be heard from the men's bathroom stalls, followed by a muffled mumbling.

Fin frowned in slight disgust. "A very sensitive stomach."

The End