Prompt 06: "I love this plan! I'm excited to be a part of it!" (WC: 586)
A/N: Alternate title - In which Lee is manipulative and Tucker is gullible
ChillyIce - Yeah that is a big aspect of Danny's character that is going to keep showing up. He's very black and white but Lee exists mostly in the grey. Haha, I'm glad you like them together! It's going to be a long rocky road for the two of them.
"True friendship ought never to conceal what it thinks."
~ St. Jerome
There was a new exhibit in Amity Park's museum of ancient history, and because it was in Amity Park, of course it was cursed. Lee always kept a sharp eye out on new museum exhibits. She had learned her lesson ago when she encountered her first haunted museum exhibit during a lock in. The exhibit hadn't even been fully moved into the museum and Lee had already been elbow deep in research.
The exhibit was haunted. It was so haunted that had the exhibit's third stop not been Amity Park, some other hunter would have dealt with it (Lee was more than a little sore about her misfortune). Lee was skeptical about some legends about haunted museum exhibits, especially Egyptian exhibits (which were only ever haunted in every movie ever and not real life), but the legends about this Chinese exhibit were too detailed and too numerous (so early on) for Lee to not take them seriously. Still, Lee went to the exhibit just to be sure and ended up out seven dollars, in need of some eyedrops, but with a confirmation. The thing was so haunted it had been searing to her eyes.
Of course, that meant that Lee was going to have to get in and do a cleansing before something happened. These things tended to slowly escalate as the curse or haunt grew in power, so every day she waited the bigger the problem grew. Not only did she have little time to prepare, but she couldn't even spend the time she had preparing. Because the exhibit was new, the supernatural community was silent on information about it. Lee was going in mostly blind. It was in her territory though, and therefore her responsibility.
So she needed a plan to get into the museum and she needed allies - or an ally. That was why she had confronted Tucker in one of the few moments he was away from his friends, after IT club.
"So, you're saying there's a ghost in the new China exhibit?" Tucker asked.
Historically speaking lying to get allies was a very effective strategy. There might been a ghost, Lee didn't know, she hadn't seen it but it could have been hiding. A curse didn't always mean there was a ghost present, but it didn't mean there wasn't. Tucker didn't know that curses were a thing - as far as Lee knew. He, Danny, and Sam seemed to exclusively deal with ghosts.
"And you just need me to turn off the alarm system so you can get in and then turn it back on?"
There was the truth bit that made her lies so effective.
"Basically."
"Why don't you just tell Danny and let him handle it?"
Internally Lee scowled, externally she just shrugged, "Honestly, it's not really something that he needs to bother with," she half lied, "I have it covered and doesn't he have a big test?" In truth, Lee didn't want Danny involved because it would involve revealing things about herself that she didn't want him to know, and honestly, she was sure she could handle it.
Tucker bit his lip.
"His grades are slipping aren't they?" She asked with concern that sounded so genuine she almost bought it, "We can handle this. You won't be in any danger, you won't even be on site."
"What about you?"
Lee shrugged, "Honestly, I've dealt with worse. The two of us can handle it. I just need you."
Tucker gave her a flirty grin at that confession, "Well I like this plan! I'm excited to be a part of it!"
Hook. Line. Sinker.
Annnnd we git a little bit of world building here. Yay!
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