The Caretaker

Note: This is a bit of a twist on the Tall Tales episode. Charlie flees the scene before Dean and Sam can get to him, but he feels that he has to square things away with his new friend at Crawford Hall first.

May shoved the door of her office open, rushing to dump the pile of precariously balanced books she'd been carrying on her desk. She wasn't surprised to find the box of chocolates, nestled amongst the papers in her in-tray. Charlie always left her something after he tidied her room each night. May had only recently moved into Crawford Hall and the young caretaker was the friendliest person she'd met so far. The professors and senior lectures who frequented the other offices seemed to look down their noses at her as they passed her in the corridors. Although Charlie was doing nothing for her waist-line at least he spoke to her.

She absentmindedly leafed through the papers in her tray as the computer loaded up. The building was eerily quiet that morning and the hum and whir of the computer seemed louder than usual. Opening her emails she trawled through the endless administrative notices asking politely that she not walk on the grass outside the Weyland building, as new turf had been laid, amongst other things. Someone in HR needed to borrow a ruler, apparently. The last unread message was from the Dean, which was unusual in and of itself. She clicked and read:

It is with great sadness that I write to inform you all of the recent death of Professor Cox. He was found, following what appears to have been a tragic accident, on the steps of Crawford Hall late last night by the caretaker. A service will be held on 15th October at 7pm in the chapel.

May, despite her best efforts, was struggling to drum up much sadness. The man had been a complete ass, and, considering that her office was right next door to his he had said no more than three words to her since she'd moved into the building. Sighing she stood up and made her way to the door, walking silently down the staircase listening intently for the sound of Charlie whistling as he cleaned the hallways. She found him in the basement, slamming his locker shut; he grinned at her as he turned around. "Hello, Doc. What are you doing here so early? Couldn't sleep, huh, guess you must have had a wild night too?"

May shook her head as the caretaker grabbed his broom, preparing to move past her and start the day, "I got the email about Professor Cox. It said you found him. I just wanted to see if you were ok."

Charlie placed a hand over his heart, "You were worried about me? I'm touched, Doc."

She rolled her eyes and turned, heading towards the door that lead back to the stairwell. "I'll take that as an 'I'm absolutely fine' then, shall I?"

Before she could figure out how he had moved so fast he was walking backwards up the stairs in front of her, arms spread wide in surrender, "No, I'm not fine at all. I'm deeply traumatised and I need a shoulder to cry on. Please don't leave me in my time of need, Doc." She tried to push past him, but he moved ahead of her, still moving up the stairs, "How about lunch? You can listen to the whole horrible story then."

May looked at her watch; she needed to get back to her office. "I can't really today, Charlie."

"Yes, you can. You don't eat enough, you'll fade away. I'll see you at your office at about 12; I'll bring food. Deal?" He was already moving swiftly away down the corridor.

She shouted after him, "Yes, ok. But Charlie, please don't just bring cake!"

(later)

May stared at the half-finished research paper in front of her. She wasn't sure whether it was a work of genius or whether it made no sense whatsoever and she would be a laughing stock if she even thought about showing it to anyone. She glanced at her watch; 12:05, her stomach grumbled in frustration and hunger. Suddenly there was a sharp knock at the door. "Come in Charlie, you're five whole minutes late. "

It was not Charlie who stuck his head round the door. Instead two men entered. The first, dark-haired with boyish good looks, said nothing instead just moving into the room and throwing her his best charming grin. May stared at him and smiled back, "Yes, is there something I can help you with?"

It was the taller one who answered, "Hi, yeah, the building's due to be rewired soon, and we're just checking things out. Do you mind if we take a look round the office?"

May's attention had already been drawn back towards the words on the screen in front of her, she waved her hand absentmindedly, "Yeah sure, be my guest." From time to time she glanced up at what the two men were doing; the taller of the two seemed to be checking the power points with some kind of weird device that made very strange noises. The other one didn't really appear to be doing much of anything, just standing with his hands in his pockets and looking around the room. He smiled at her again as she caught his eye. May frowned, "Y'know if you guys want to know where all the power points are you can just go speak to Charlie. He's the caretaker. He'll have blueprints for the building. It might make your job a bit quicker."

"Did someone mention my name?" Charlie popped his head round the door, "Oh, hey guys." He glanced at the two men and smiled. "Good to see you're managing to find your way around."

May relaxed slightly once it was obvious that Charlie knew them, she'd been starting to think that they were just casing the joint. She peered into the white paper bags that Charlie had placed down on her desk, "Wow Charlie, I'm impressed. There is not a single cake in sight."

The shorter man stepped forwards and grinned at her, pointing at the wall, "So, you're in the office next door to that guy who died, right? Charlie was telling us about it earlier. Creepy, huh?"

May stared at him, "I didn't know him that well". She glanced at the other man, "Would you mind coming back a bit later? We're having lunch." She watched the two men make a swift retreat from the room. Charlie was staring at her, looking a bit confused.

The rest of the meal continued in silence, which was unusual. Charlie could see that something was bothering May, and he didn't want to push his luck with his usual jokes. May kept thinking back to the rust coloured stain she'd noticed on the steps that morning as she entered the building; she'd only just linked the Professor's death and the stain in her mind, and she shuddered visibly. When Charlie stood to leave she barely acknowledged him; he placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a quick squeeze and left the office. May typed distractedly for the rest of the afternoon, and it was only when the room darkened and she heard the last office door close on her floor that she packed up her own things.

Standing on the entrance steps of Crawford Hall, May pulled her coat more tightly around her and began to make her way in the general direction of home, being careful not to look at the stain on the stone steps as she descended. She jumped slightly when she heard a bang behind her, but when she turned to look it was just Charlie locking the building up. He smiled at her as he shoved his keys in his pocket and came to stand beside her. "Hey Doc, can I walk you home?" She stared at him, he'd never offered before and she was on the verge of saying no when she realised that she desperately did not want to walk back across campus on her own. "That would be great, Charlie. But, only if it's not too far out of your way."

He held a hand out in front of him, "Lead the way."

Feeling relieved she took a step towards the postgraduate centre, beyond that was a little path that led onto a residential street and beyond that was her small terraced house. She smiled when she felt Charlie fall in step beside her and link his arm through her own.

(later)

"There you go, Doc. Delivered safe and sound, right to your front door." May looked up at the caretaker and smiled. Suddenly, she was reminded of that awkward teenage moment when a boy had just walked you home and you were unsure of whether that meant you should kiss him. Luckily for her it was Charlie who stepped away from her first, he moved away slowly, walking backwards.

"Listen, Doc. You probably won't see me at work tomorrow, or well, you probably won't see me at work again at all."

May stared at him, half-smiling, "What do you mean?"

Charlie stopped, looking down at his feet and then back up at her shiftily, "Today was my last day. I'm moving on."

"Why?" It was all she could think of to say.

The man smiled and laughed slightly, stepping back towards her, "I've been cleaning floors for a long time now, May. I think it's time for a change."

May suddenly felt like bursting into tears, but she knew that would be ridiculous and Charlie would find it hilarious and would probably laugh at her, which would be even worse than what she was feeling now. How had she managed to get so attached to him in only a month?

As she'd expected Charlie attempted to make light of the situation, again he placed a hand over his heart and laughed, "You do care, Doc. I never realised you felt like this..."

May shook her head as a tear rolled down her face, "Don't you dare laugh at me." For the first time Charlie looked a little unsure of himself. He frowned at her. "I hope you're happy wherever you end up, Charlie."

"Oh come on, May. Don't be like this. You're a friend, I just want to say goodbye. Come for a drink with me." He stepped towards her, hand stretched out as if to grab her arm.

Before he could reach her, May had opened her front door and slammed it again in his face, leaning heavily against it as the tears freely rolled down her face.

Charlie leaned his head against the door, speaking softly, "Please May, open the door and speak to me." There was no answer and he rolled his eyes, "May, open the door. I just want to talk. Don't make me come in there." When he received no answer he moved back from the door and glared at it. He did not like being ignored. Realising that he was probably about to make a terrible mistake he sighed and clicked his fingers once.

He was standing in the hallway behind her. Her back was to him and her head was against the door. Her shoulders were moving up and down as she cried softly. Charlie stepped forwards cautiously, "Listen Kiddo, when you turn around I'm really gonna need you to not panic."

May stiffened and slowly turned until she was facing him. Sensing what was about to happen Charlie moved quickly towards her, putting a hand over her mouth to stifle her scream. "Shh, shh, please, May. I can explain everything but I just need you to promise not to scream for five minutes." Her eyes were wide, but she nodded her head and he let his hand drop.

"How did you get in?" Her voice was a quiet whisper as she stared at him.

"Good question. Well, I can go wherever I want really. I'll show you, where do you want to go?"

"Take me back to Crawford Hall." Charlie looked at her incredulously.

"You can go anywhere in the world and you want to go back to work. You're a strange woman."

"At the moment I think you're insane and possibly very dangerous. Let's start small." May spat back. Charlie smiled at that and raised his hand, "Crawford Hall it is." He clicked once.

May took a quick look at her surroundings, but it was obvious they were standing in her shadow filled office. She noticed the fresh box of chocolates in the tray on her desk. She looked back at Charlie, who looked quite smug, "Not insane then." She murmured. "Talk."

"Well, basically, I like to play pranks on people, y'know tricks. Do you remember all those strange things that kept happening on campus, before Professor Cox died?" May nodded. "Well, that was me."

"And Professor Cox?" May stared at him. "Was that you too?"

"Yes, that was me." Charlie did not meet her eye when he said it.

"Murder is not a prank, Charlie. What the hell are you?" May moved away from him slightly, backing up towards her desk.

He glared at her then, a look she'd never seen before, "I'm not human, that's all you need to know." He started moving towards her.

"Then why have you been so kind to me?" Her question seemed to stop him in his tracks.

Slowly he began to move towards her again, pushing her back against the desk and running a hand through her hair. May felt the desk dig painfully into the small of her back and she winced. "You're a good person, May. I never meant for you to get mixed up in all of this."

"Charlie, you're scaring me." Her breathing was shallow; she'd never been this close to him before and she didn't feel entirely uncomfortable, which scared her.

He moved away from her slightly, moving a hand around to place between her back and the desk. He rested his head against her forehead and sighed, "Those men who were in your office today. They know about me. They're here to kill me." He continued to stroke the side of her face, gently.

"We won't let them, Charlie. We'll just call the police." She knew that was insane. Knew the whole situation was insane.

He smiled and shook his head, forehead still leaning against hers, "They're very good at their job, May. They'll get to me eventually."

She realised that fresh tears were rolling down her cheeks again, "Then you should go. I won't tell them anything."

He grazed his lips against her cheek, softly before stepping away from her, "Thanks May." He backed away, eyes still locked on hers, "Don't be too sad, Doc. I'll see you again someday. You know I can't stay away." With that he raised his hand, clicked once, and was gone.