Boilerplate Disclaimer: The various characters from the Kim Possible series are all owned by Disney.

Not Seeing Is Believing

Several weeks later Rachel Stoppable didn't now why Hana wanted her to babysit Jane O'Ceallaigh, but agreed and even offered to bake cookies with the little redhead.

Kasy dragged a scooter out of the garage, "I'm not sure what to tell Eemah," she complained.

"Better think of something," Sheki warned her. "This whole stupid plan was your idea. Tell her you're confused about your sexual identity. That should sound believable." Kasy glared at her sister. "Hey, she may even take you out to dinner while you talk."

The vans pulled into the Possible driveway on schedule and cameramen began unloading equipment while photographers took still photos of the house and grounds to be edited into the final program.

Jerry Billings, the show's producer, got out of his car and looked around. "Where is Sharon O'Ceallaigh?" he asked the two teenagers.

The girl with an odd skin tone answered, "She's working. She's a lawyer. She said Hana and I could show you around the house."

"I really should meet her," Jerry protested.

"I don't think you want to pay for her billable hours," Sheki threatened. "Here's her cell number."

In the parking lot of the Middleton Public Library Kasy flipped open her cell phone, "Hello?"

"Ms. O'Ceallaigh?"

"Yes?"

"My name is Jerry Billings. We-"

"Oh, yes - the television program. Is there a problem?"

"Well, I really should see you in person."

"Sorry, tied up in a major case here. I had hoped to meet you, I'll try to leave the office early this afternoon so we can meet before you leave. Is there a problem with my daughter and her friend showing you around?"

"I guess not," he sighed.

Mike and Yvonne got their makeup applied in the kitchen. They said nothing as Helen joined the teenagers.

Kasy looked at her watch. Eemah shouldn't get off work for an hour and a half, plenty of time to stop and see Jason and Jessica first.

Jerry turned to Sheki, "I'd especially like to look the basement over before we start. That's where the skeleton was found, right?"

"Yes, the door is right here." A cold wind hit Sheki as she opened the door, in the basement a seal barked in terror and dove off an ice flow. The polar bear went into the water after it with a loud splash and little chance of catching it.

"What was that?" the producer asked as Sheki quickly closed the door.

"I think it was the dryer shutting down." Sheki opened the door again, fortunately this time on the basement. "We've got to get this door fixed someday."

"I'll stay up here," Helen said as Sheki and the producer went down.

"Panic room?" he asked as he looked over the space.

"Yeah. My parents put it in years ago. Her bones were found in the remodeling. Please don't mention the panic room thing."

"No problem," he assured her. "With the right camera angles we can hide a lot of details. Can we do a fast walk through the rest of the house before we start taping?"

Hana and Helen stayed in the kitchen to watch the stars getting ready, while Sheki and the producer walked through the house and down to the garage. "This is great looking old place," he remarked as they stood outside and he looked the house over, "there won't be any trouble selling it as haunted on the show."

Kasy, meanwhile, sat in the Mankey living room in front of the television, going head to head with Jason in a new video game while Jessica watched.

After his guided tour the producer went back to the kitchen to talk the camera crew and stars through the route he wanted. The gaffer, best boy, and grips went to figure out what they could run off electric cables and where they'd need to use battery packs.

"You never see any of these people on the screen, do you." Hana observed.

Helen remarked, "I think there are enough people around to scare a ghost off."

Hana and Sheki both giggled and Jerry looked over, disapprovingly. "Try and keep it down, okay? You'll ruin the mood."

They began taping Yvonne and Mike walking in the front door. In the grand entryway they discussed some of the history of the house and the Kringle brewery. They wore small mikes which only picked their voices up, allowing the crew to make a little noise and kept whispered directions from the producer from being captured on tape.

"They've really done their research," Sheki whispered. "I didn't know most of that stuff."

"I didn't even know it, and my father built the house," Helen added.

"Tragedy first touched the mansion in nineteen twenty-two," Yvonne explained to the camera. "That was the year Helen Kringle, Adolf's daughter, disappeared."

Mike continued, "It remained a complete mystery until her skeletal remains were found in the basement a few years ago. The same year she vanished Albert Lemkin, a World War One vet who worked for the Kringles, disappeared also. He was mentioned at the time as a possible suspect in Helen's disappearance."

Hana felt a searing cold on her wrist, as did Sheki. The two looked down and found Helen had grabbed their wrists. "Please," Hana requested, "that is most painful."

Startled, Helen dropped her hands to her sides, "Sorry," she apologized.

"What's going on?" Sheki asked.

"Albert! They know about Albert."

"Who is Albert?"

Jerry looked back at Sheki and put his finger to his lips, then pointed to the camera to remind them that taping was going on.

The stars moved into the kitchen, and through the propped open door down to the basement. The trio stayed in the entryway.

"Who was Albert?" Sheki demanded. "I thought your father killed you."

"I really don't know how I died," Helen reminded her. "My last memories of life were arguing with my father on the stairs. Maybe I fell by accident and broke my neck."

Hana, who had not heard the story before, pointed out, "But if you died in an accident would your father not have called the hospital or police?"

"Everyone knew we'd been fighting. The police might not have believed it was an accident. Or at least he might have thought they wouldn't believe him. He might have gotten scared."

Sheki looked at Hana and shook her head, telling the Japanese girl not to continue the conversation. If the idea of an accident was easier for Helen to accept than the possibility her father might have struck her in anger she saw no reason to upset the ghost further.

Helen turned to Sheki, "I never mentioned Albert. My father and I had been fighting about him." Her body made the motion of a sigh, although Helen had not drawn breath for more than ninety years. "We were in love. I knew we were in love. My father said Albert only wanted to elope with me because my family had money. On the night I… On that night I was going to meet him. My father stopped me on the stairs, told me that I would never see Albert again. We argued there. I know I slapped him… I think anger is my last living memory. The actors said Albert disappeared also… Could my father have killed him?"

"Perhaps your father paid him some amount of money to go away," Hana suggested.

"Great idea," Sheki told Hana, "give her a choice, her father really was a murderer or her boyfriend didn't really love her."

Helen tried to smile, "Perhaps there is some other possibility. I fear there is little that can be done now to change the past."

They heard Mike and Yvonne speaking to the camera as they came up from the basement. "… very strongly," came the voice of the male star of the program.

"Yes, the presence of the murdered Helen Kringle was almost electric in the basement," Yvonne agreed. "I'm not certain I've ever felt a life presence as strongly as I felt hers. I think it is safe to conclude she haunts her old home."

The trio looked on them in amazement.

"The dead travel fast," Helen mused. "I appear to have been two places at once."

The laughter from Sheki and Hana drew another angry glare from Jerry Billings and a reminder that taping was going on. Sheki pinched her lips between a finger and thumb to tell the producer she would try and do better.

"After the family sold the home the buyer converted it into many small apartments for students at the nearby university," Mike explained to the camera. "In nineteen eighty-two an unfortunate student disappeared from the house."

"The student, Donald Utterbridge, rented space in what is once again the library, but at the time three students shared the space," Yvonne said, opening the door to the library. The two walked in, followed by the camera crew. "Perhaps some day his remains, like those of Helen Kringle, will be discovered."

"I very much doubt that," Helen told the other two.

"Why?"

"Well, if he is the young man I think they are talking about his disappearance is no mystery. At least his disappearance from this house. He spent all his time smoking odd looking cigarettes in his room instead of going to class. He had not paid his rent and he simply packed up his belongings and moved away one night to avoid the landlord."

"Odd looking cigarettes?" Hana repeated.

Helen looked puzzled as Sheki and Hana burst out laughing.

Jerry came out of the library and moved back towards them, "Look, I appreciate you letting us shoot in your house, but you two laughing in the background really messes up the mood for Yvonne and Mike in there even if the microphones don't pick it up. They're getting a strong sense that there's a second ghost in there."

"We can't allow laughter to ruin the mood," Helen remarked ironically, "not when their search for ghosts is doing so very well."

Sheki's face purpled from suppressed laughter and she ran for the front door. She got outside and almost collapsed on the porch, laughing hysterically. Hana joined her on the front porch a minute later.

When she finally got herself under control Sheki gasped, "Did Helen stay inside to watch?"

"Yes. She believes she could stand in front of Mike and Yvonne and make faces at them, but they would not respond."

"But she won't, of course. She is a very well brought up dead lady."

"She lived in a time when good manners were considered more important than they are in the present."

Sheki took one of the old Adirondack chairs, and Hana the other. "You know," Sheki confessed, "I feel kind of sad about finding out the show is fake. I doubt if I can like it as much any more."

"The show will not have changed," Hana argued philosophically. "They will still tell stories which will be of interest."

"But it won't be the same… You know, you and I should have a television program like Spook Chasers."

"I do not believe that would be a practical idea."

"Why not?" Sheki demanded, then paused and thought for a minute. "I can see and hear Helen, but would I be able to see other ghosts? Is that the problem?"

The Japanese girl shook her head no.

"Helen is the only ghost I've ever seen. Maybe there aren't many more out there. I think I decided today they aren't as common as Spook Chasers made me think."

"There are other ghosts in the world. They are not all as well-mannered as Miss Helen. The hungry ghosts…" Hana fell silent.

"Hungry ghosts? Are you saying a TV program wouldn't be a good idea because there are some really scary ghosts out there?"

"No, that was not what I meant, but it is true. I raise the question of whether our television show could be any better than Spook Chasers. Would it not look to the viewer as if you and I were talking to thin air?"

Sheki thought for a minute, "Yeah. I don't think we could do the real thing as good as they can fake it."

"As well as they fake it."

"Okay. Point taken, we probably couldn't do a show as well as-"

"As good as," Hana laughed. "I think you do this to try and confuse me."

"Does it bother you? We tease each other a lot in my family."

Hana thought before answering, "My mother and father do not tease. But I see it with Ron and his family."

"What are those hungry ghosts? Are they around here or just in Japan? You made it sound like they are really scary."

"They are, as you say, really scary. And it is difficult to destroy that which is no longer alive."

"And that's how you spend your summer vacations? Sounds way cooler than camp."

Hana laughed, "I was born for my life. If you think my work sounds attractive you should ask your parents to allow you to accompany me this summer. You have the gift to see and hear ghosts, but I do not know if you have the heart and stomach for my work."

"Just one question, any cute boys? I'm tired of Kasy having first dibs on any boy she wants."

Hana laughed again, "You accuse your sister of being boy crazy. I think that you are just as crazy."

"I'm not the same. And you didn't answer my question."

"I think there are cute boys."

"Then I'll ask Mom and Eemah."

Meanwhile, in the offices of Armstrong, Bennett, Dashwood and Zinski a junior partner gathered up her belongings before returning home.

And, in the Mankey living room Jessica noticed the time, "Hey, Kasy, didn't you say you had to be somewhere at five?"

"Yeah," the red head grunted as she 'accidentally' bumped into Jason on the couch, trying to distract him from the game.

"Well, it's ten after now."

Startled, Jessica looked over at the clock as the undistracted Jason blew up her character on the screen.

"Do you need to leave now?" Jason asked.

Kasy hesitated. Eemah would already have left her law office and there was no good way to intercept her on the way home. "Nah, I think I'll play another game here, can I take on Jessica this time?"

Author's Note: I can't recall if I invented the broken basement door or the honor goes A. Markov. It premiered in Follow the Queen II: Deuces Wild, a story we wrote together. I also know the whole story behind the malfunctioning door, but haven't written it yet.