SLAM.

Arthur groaned, limping into the living room and collapsing onto the couch. Vivi peeked out from the kitchen.

"Welcome back, Squire. Lance still mad?"

"Yyyyyyep." Arthur tried to pretend he was a blanket. Blankets didn't have to move, they didn't ache, they weren't covered in grime, they just lay draped over things until called on for use. That sounded wonderful. He cracked an eye open, catching sight of Mystery curled up with Callie in the recliner. "Mysteryyyy, make me a blanket."

Mystery lifted his head and snorted, barking once, before laying his head back down. Callie murmured sleepy protests at the shift, before settling again.

"She still adjusting to needing sleep?" Arthur asked. Mystery wrinkled his nose. "Well what do you expect, she's never been attached to anything that needed rest before. But is she doing okay?"

In answer, Mystery turned his head slightly and nuzzled the side of Callie's face.

Arthur rolled his eyes and bit his tongue. Some days it was really hard to not tease his friend.

"So how many junkers did Lance make you work on today?" Vivi called, withdrawing to the kitchen again.

Arthur held up his fingers, groaning when he missed her. "Six."

"Six, huh? Sounds like he's cooling down. That makes over thirty junker fixes this week."

He sighed. Uncle Lance's welcome-home-tirade still rang in his ears.

"Kid, I couldn't be happier you got yerself fixed up, new arm, and girlie seems a mite happier. Fabulous. But I said get a GOOD cover story for yer sudden hospital discharge, what the hell was that? You think you can go check yerself out by just sayin' 'I wanna recover at home' and come back three days later with NO scarrin' from the thorns and a whole new arm? Kid! Yer mental! Whole town knows about it, nobody knows what t'make of you now!"

"We got any ghost busts requested, Vivi?" Arthur asked, bracing himself for the response.

"Nope, sorry Squire. Nobody's emailing us, and even when I send out, they don't wanna touch us. Everyone's pretty sure our team is tainted."

Arthur closed his eyes. Some kind of supernatural interaction was the only way people could explain his miraculous recovery, and how could a ghost busting team be trusted if they were consorting with the supernatural themselves? Nobody would touch them now.

Yes, Uncle Lance was angry, but working Arthur harder gave him an excuse to raise his nephew's pay. It would keep things from getting too tight now that ghost hunting was becoming less and less of a viable income option.

"The manager said I could pull some weekend shifts at the bookstore." Vivi walked over to Arthur, a plate of spaghetti in her hands. "Here, eat up." She set it on his chest and dragged a stool over from the counter.

"Where's Lewis?" Arthur grabbed the plate and eased himself up slowly.

"Still in the kitchen, trying to follow a cookie recipe. Says he wants to try helping out with the meals." Vivi's fingers dug into her scarf. "I thought I'd start him out with something easy."

"Deep breaths, Vivi."

"I'm perfectly calm. He can handle cookies."

"Absolutely."

"Nothing can go wrong. It's the simplest pastry."

"Mhmm."

"He's got the recipe and all the steps laid out for him."

Arthur caught sight of smoke curling out from the kitchen. "Mhmmmm…"

Vivi took a deep breath. "You know, I really should relax. I've been out of the kitchen for two minutes. There's no reason to think Lewis can't handle this by himse-LEWIS IS THAT SMOKE I SMELL?"

"No!" came the panicked response. "Not real smoke, um… it's my hair! Just stay out there, I've got this!" Something shattered loudly, and the smoke detector began to wail. "EVERYTHING'S FINE!"

Vivi turned to head back, but Arthur grabbed her hand. "C'mon Vivi. Let him handle it. You can let go for once, yeah? Give him a chance."

At the sound of the kitchen window opening, she nodded reluctantly. "I guess."

"Magic lessons go okay today?"

"Yeah, they're finally teaching me useful things. It's almost like they figured out having as many people equipped to fight properly as possible is, I dunno, useful?" She stared pointedly at Mystery, who rolled his eyes. "But yeah, going a lot better."

"Hopefully we won't get in a situation where we'll need those skills again, but I won't make any bets on that anymore." He shoveled in a mouthful of spaghetti.

Lewis drifted out of the kitchen, straightening his suit and coughing. "Fire's out. Um. Second batch is in the oven… you don't want the first batch. Ten minutes, right?"

"Right." Vivi grabbed his hand, pulling him closer. "Just don't forget."

A soft knock sounded at the door. Vivi raised an eyebrow at Arthur. "We expecting Lance?"

Arthur shook his head, setting the spaghetti down. Lewis grabbed a blanket, draping it over Callie and Mystery while Vivi crossed to the door, opening it.

"Excuse me, is this the home of the Mystery Skulls?"

"Sure is." Vivi glanced over her shoulder, checking Lewis, who ducked back into the kitchen to fix his appearance. "Come on in, won't you?"

She stepped aside, allowing a heavily cloaked figure to enter. Mystery's snout poked out from the blanket, sniffing, and a low growl rose in his throat. The figure cringed, stumbling to its knees and raising its hands. "Please, I mean no harm!"

Callie slid out from under the blanket, approaching the figure curiously.

"Callie!" Arthur hissed. "We don't know who this is, why'd you-?"

Callie reached up, gingerly tugging the cloak back to reveal the face of a young woman. Her eyes flashed gold, and her hair gave off a soft, yellow glow.

"It's alright, Arthur." Callie touched the ghost's face in greeting. "She's one of us. Mystery, please. She hasn't even told us why she's here."

Mystery growled again.

"Just because recent experiences haven't been kind is no reason to treat a guest like an intruder," Callie reprimanded him. She turned back to the woman, smiling. "He's much kinder than he acts. Just very protective."

Mystery whuffed heavily, crossing his paws and laying his chin back down on them in a sulk.

"Well, hello." Arthur scratched the back of his head. "What can we do for you? And who are you?"

She turned her head, scanning the room carefully. "I don't know who I am. I would like to know, I think it would let me pass on. I have heard of your group and the great feats you have performed. I'm sure you have many asking for your help, but could you spare some time for me?"

Vivi blinked. "Ma'am, no offense, but are you kidding? Nobody's banging down our door, in fact nobody wants to hire us."

"You must be mistaken," the lady insisted. "Your names are on the lips of every spirit, dark or light, that I've come across in recent days! Several have made mention of approaching you for help as well. Though," she glanced back at Mystery and Callie, "all are aware of your powerful protectors. But I am desperate."

Lewis exited the kitchen, holding a tray of cookies. "No need to be desperate. As long as you're not attacking, we're friendly."

"Lewis, how did half the cookies on this ONE SHEET get to be charcoal and half ended up perfect?" Vivi picked up a decent-looking cookie, biting into it. Her eyes unfocused for a moment. "Oh that's a good cookie… BUT HOW?"

"I don't know! I just need more practice?" Lewis pleaded.

"Well duh you need more practice. What, did you think I was giving up on you? I just wanna know how the pickled rock-lilies this happened."

"I see," the lady murmured, still watching Mystery uneasily.

Arthur leveraged himself off the couch carefully, shuffling over. "Hey, really. He's not gonna hurt you. I'm Arthur. Guess I can't ask your name, but we can try to find out, yeah? Might take awhile though, Vivi and I have to pull extra on our jobs to cover expenses."

Her eyes flashed up to his. "I can pay! I don't remember very much, but I remember there's a lockbox. If you can help me, I'll tell you where the key is, and which bank it's at. You can have whatever's inside if you can help."

"So lemme get this straight," Vivi said, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "We can't get hired for ghost busts by the living, but we're getting hired for ghost busts… by ghosts?"

"Why not?" Arthur shrugged. "Not all ghosts want to stick around, but not all of them know how to move on. Sounds good to me." He bent down, pulling the ghost to her feet. "We'll take the job. Do us a favor, though, and pass the word that we're friendly? We could do with some business."

"You're not at all like I pictured you," she admitted, subdued. "I heard of monstrous beasts and humans that could tear a god apart with their bare hands."

Vivi snorted. "Yeah, well, tall tales run on both sides of the death line, and details get blown way out of proportion. I'm sure this situation won't merit that kind of reaction."

"So why don't you come have a seat." Arthur led her over to the kitchen table, pulling out a chair. "Tell us what you know, and we can go from there."

…..

Note: The End of the Thicker Than Water series… AS FAR AS I KNOW SO FAR. My brain DOES STUFF sometimes years down the line. Going to switch gears and start working on a new MSA fic as soon as I have a title for it, so keep eyes peeled! There may also be a few chapters added to Where The Heart Is, we'll see. Thanks for joining on this crazy ride! ALSO as I may be going back to do some revisions/fixes, I'd appreciate any general/specific feedback you may have on this story, the series as a whole, etc!