A/N: Wowza! Thanks for all the reviews and favs, guys! I couldn't stop smiling when I opened my e-mail the next day to find a bunch of them =D They keep me going =)
A/N2: I was feeling all artsy (aka. bored) and felt like doing a 'title pic' of sorts for this fic. A teeny, squashy version is my profile pic, but a larger one can be found on my Deviant Art page (along with a few other SGA pieces). The link is on my profile.
A/N3: I have absolutely no knowledge of police procedure, so if there's a cop out there reading this, please don't hesitate to point out how wrong I am =P
STATUS: TBC
RATING: K+
SUMMARY: AU and SLASH McKayxSheppard A Halloween fic! Rodney and his niece Madison buy a new (but old and frankly falling down) house in a small town (cliché enough yet?), which the locals believe to be haunted. Which it most definitely is. Inspired by Rose Red.
SPOILERS: Since it's AU, nothing.
WARNINGS: A bit of swearing. Our boys have quite the potty mouth sometimes.
DISCLAIMER: Everything Stargate Atlantis related is property of MGM. I own nothing.
x x x
**Song for this chapter: Full Moon by Black Ghosts**
x x x
Last time:
"Does that mean I'm forgiven?"
There was a pause, Rodney's face sliding into a hesitant but suspicious look.
"That depends. Are you only talking to me and being nice to Madison because of the house?"
His expression fell as John took on a small look of guilt and shame.
"Yes."
x x x
"Yes."
Rodney's heart dropped to his feet, hurt flickering across his face before he threw up a shield in the form of a scowl.
"Well, at least you're honest," he snapped before pushing out of the booth and standing.
John quickly leaned forward and grabbed his wrist.
"Wait, Rodney—that's not what I meant. Well, actually yes it is, but…would you just sit back down? I'll explain everything."
Rodney stared down at John suspiciously as the detective blinked lazily at him. There was an unfamiliar hardness behind John's soft eyes that startled Rodney into actually considering the man's offer.
But did he want to hear the truth?
Ignorance was bliss after all.
x x x
"By, Mom!"
The young, blonde haired girl waved to her mother as she climbed onto her bike, the multicoloured strings hanging from her handle bars blowing in the breeze.
"By, Emily! Have a good day at school!"
Her mother smiled, returning the wave from the porch. It was her daughter's first time going to school on her own. She knew she had no reason to worry about the girl, the school was only a few blocks away after all.
Josephine Stern watched her darling Emily peddle off down the street before finally turning the corner and disappearing from view.
With a heavy heart, she turned away and headed back into the house to seek out her husband. Surely he would tell her she was worrying needlessly.
But a mother's instinct should never be ignored…
x x x
"So what happened to her?" Rodney asked, baby blues fixed on John's dark gaze.
"That's the thing," John replied with a shrug as he leaned back against the booth. "Nobody knows. She just disappeared."
"And that was the first one?"
John nodded, face unusually grim.
There was silence for a few long seconds before Rodney finally shook his head and straightened up.
"Wait, how do you know this again?"
"I already told you," complained the detective with a exasperated sigh.
"Well tell me again!" Rodney insisted, snapping his fingers against the table top.
Behind them, the pinball machine dinged and bleeped away, a constant reassurance that Madison and Jinto were close by.
John leaned forward, his elbow digging into the table as he placed his chin on his hand.
"Like I said, nearly seven kids have gone missing over the past seventy years or so. Normally, the Missing Kids unit would just pack up the files and tuck them away after a certain amount of time without the child showing up—"
"—which they did," Rodney interrupted.
"—which they did, yes. But—"
"—you noticed—"
"Rodney! Who's telling the story here?"
Rodney waved his hands and leaned back.
"Sorry, sorry! Continue…"
"Right. So, seven kids in seventy years. Missing Kids packed away the files. Then I—what, Rodney?"
The scientist opened and closed his mouth a few times before scowling at John.
"Hey, I'm just trying to keep up here. Don't blame me if I have questions."
John smirked slightly.
"What happened to being a genius?"
"Okay, you know what—"
"What's your question, Rodney?" John asked with a sigh.
"Hmph. I was just going to point out the fact that this is a small town. Children probably never go missing here. Wouldn't Missing Kids keep the files constantly on tap because it's so unusual?"
"You'd think so, wouldn't you? But when I said that there was no trace of them, there was no trace of them. Whatsoever. No leads, no nothing. They had no choice but to give up searching."
John slouched back against the booth, left hand curved around a new steaming cup of coffee. He took a sip before adding, "Emily Stern was the first girl to go missing back in 1940 or so. They searched way past the official allotted time, but found nothing. Then, 1950 rolled in."
"Another one went missing," Rodney guessed, expression caught somewhere between curiosity and wariness. Ever since the conversation had started, he had kept shooting Madison glances every five minutes or so, despite the fact that they could hear the pinball machine. John knew Rodney probably didn't even notice he was doing it.
"Yeah. Jessica Parker," John answered, nodding. "1960 was Rachel Hemingway, 1970 was Christina Lucas, 1980 was—"
"I get it," Rodney interrupted again, this time looking slightly sick. "Every ten years or so, a child goes missing."
"A girl. Never a boy."
Silence fell once more. Rodney took the pause in conversation to give John a hopefully subtle look over. The detective seemed to be in his usual lazy and slouchy mood, but Rodney could tell there was a tenseness to him. Like he was ready to spring up at any given moment. Despite the fact that the 'missing kids' debacle happened before he was even on the force—or at least, a large influence in it—he seemed to take the cases personally.
Rodney's eyes narrowed.
"What aren't you telling me?"
John's grim gaze met Rodney's after a beat of hesitation.
"The reason I first talked to you. Why I'm interested in the house."
Rodney scowled. So there had been a reason. It seemed there always was when people talked to him.
Why would John Sheppard be any different?
As if hearing his thoughts, John straightened up and said insistently, "The first time I talked to you. After that, I—"
"Just explain," Rodney interrupted for the fourth time that night, a displeased look on his face. He was already writing an angry e-mail to Elizabeth in his head.
John frowned slightly, clearly wanting to smack Rodney and make the scientist listen, but instead he just shrugged and leaned back once again.
"In 1990, another child went missing. A girl. Her name was Jane Sumner. 'Janey' to her father…"
x x x
"Sheppard, another kid's gone missing. You're on."
Blinking, John raised an eyebrow and leaned back in the old leather chair, springs creaking. He knew he should be grateful for a case, but there were other guys around here with nothing better to do. Granted, he was one of them.
"Why me?" he asked, staring up at his supervisor.
Woolsey rolled his eyes, though without the usual amount of superiority it usually held.
"God help us, you're the only one not on a lunch break. Lucky you." There was a pause before he added grimly, "It was Jane Sumner. She went missing nearly ten minutes ago. Detective Sumner's wife called it in. Marshall is already on his way over to the house."
John frowned. As much as he disliked Detective Marshall Sumner, he never wished for the man's child to go missing…
"What's the address?"
Five minutes later, John was pulling up beside the curb outside Sumner's house. As he climbed out of the car, he spotted the detective holding his sobbing wife tightly, the man's face screwed up in a hardened frown.
John could see right through it. And it was the first time he ever thought of Sumner as human.
"Sir…" he greeted neutrally once he crossed the grass and made it over to the pair.
Sumner's frown deepened when he realized who the station had sent.
John braced himself for a ranting, but all he received was,
"Don't screw this up, Sheppard. That's my daughter out there."
In other words, "I trust you. Don't fail me."
x x x
"…I searched—we searched for months. Once it hit the one year mark, Sumner gave in. Within a week, he and his wife were gone, moved to another town. I guess they couldn't deal with…everything."
"It wasn't your fault," Rodney said quietly.
The words hadn't even fully left his mouth before John straightened and leaned forward, face tense.
"Don't…say that," he ordered lowly, eyes dark. "He trusted me with his kid. His daughter. And I screwed up. That won't happen again."
It took Rodney a few moments to realize what John meant. With his baby blues wide, he said, "Wait—you think…Madison? Why the hell would you think something like that? Is that the reason you've been chumming up to us? Because you think some nut case is going to steal my niece right out from under my nose? Because that's SO not going to hap—"
"Rodney," interrupted John firmly, annoyance flickering across his features. "Would you calm down, buddy? Nothing—"
"Oh, so now we're back to 'buddy'? After what you just said? Not to mention the lying—sorry, withholding information. AND the fact that you said Madison is going to go missing—"
"I didn't say that! I just said—thought even, that there was a slight possibility that Madison might go missing."
"Why?" came the immediate question, the scientist's gaze hard. He folded his arms across his chest, chin tilted up. "And it better be a good reason, Sheppard."
Yowch, back to last names then.
John frowned and nodded.
"Alright. Remember how I said that Missing Kids tossed the cases to the back burner?"
"Yes."
And succinct replies. Dinner was definitely not going as planned.
"Well, after the Sumner…issue, I decided to get them back out. Take a last run through of them."
"And?"
"And I realized that not only did the girls go missing every ten years or so, but that they all had two things in common. They were all blonde, and they all went missing near, around, or directly in Stone Manor."
Rodney stared, expressions flickering across his face at light speed. He finally settled on a cross between freaked and doubtful.
"So you think that…what? My house is eating kids or something?"
"Or something."
Nausea joined the cacophony of Rodney's expressions .
"Sheppard…"
"I know it sounds crazy, Rodney. Really, I do." John's hand twitched on the table top, as if making a move to take the scientist's. "But I did some poking around on the estate—"
"What—stalker!"
John rolled his eyes.
"Before you moved in, Rodney…"
"…oh."
"Anyways, I did some poking around on the estate and found…something. A few somethings actually. And to tell you the truth, I thought I was crazy at first too."
"I think you're crazy now."
"Exactly," the detective agreed with a nod, his lips curving into a grim smile. "Which is why you need to see."
Rodney didn't even bother asking just what it was he was supposed to see.
"Show me."
x x x
A/N: Yow, one chapter right after the other. That probably won't happen again, haha. I just had to get this one down before I forgot all the info I had in mind for it. I'm pretty sure that this was the last 'history lesson' chapter (God, I hope it was!).