Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

Chapter 42

Tanith and Valkyrie looked at him. He was looking at the book, at the beautiful sketches Nadia had drawn over the double page spread they were on, the ones of Valkyrie's swimming competition.

This was not something she wanted to do today.

"Fletcher?" She said quietly. He stared a moment longer and then looked up at her, obviously trying not to look as disappointed as he obviously was.

"What happened?" He asked, looking back at the text Nadia had written in beautiful cursive.

Valkyrie swallowed. "I was attacked at a swimming competition a few months back, in June. It was a hate crime."

"Because you were, are, dating that girl," he said. "Your friend Nadia."

"My girlfriend, yes," she said quietly. She felt stupid now, wanting to cry. She barely knew the boy, what did it matter if he approved or not? She swallowed and held the emotions back. A moment later she felt better. "We started dating almost as soon as we met each other."

"A year ago," he remembered her saying. "And you didn't say anything."

"Well," she said, letting her temper take over, not wanting to deal with stroppy boys. "I kept telling you not to bother, that I didn't want to date you no matter what, so don't you dare start saying I was leading you along."

"I wasn't," he said seriously, looking her in the eye. She backed down a little, not used to seeing him look so upset and serious. "I was wondering why you didn't tell me."

"Because I didn't want to."

"Why?"

"Because I just didn't! It wasn't your business, then it wasn't the time, then I just didn't care if you knew or not, and then I felt like it was too late to say anything. I wanted you to stop annoying me because I said so, not because I was dating someone else," she finished lamely. Tanith put a hand on her back but said nothing.

Fletcher licked his lips. "No. You were scared."

Valkyrie started, feeling the emotions well up but not wanting to get into that on freaking Christmas, so she turned to her aggression again. "I was not you dolt."

"I wouldn't have cared," he said. "I'm offended you think I would have. At least after everything else. You could have said in the last two weeks."

She shrugged. She didn't have anything to say. It was true, she could and should probably have mentioned something with the amount of time she spent talking about Nadia with absolutely everyone. Then again, she hadn't been entirely subtle about it.

"You didn't trust me to be a good person," he said, his upset coming through more. "Who cares if I was asking you out, you should have still said! You don't trust me."

She could only shrug again.

"But I live with you," he pointed out incredulously. "I haven't done anything. I've annoyed you, but I haven't ever hurt you. I've never said anything that would make you not trust me. Why?"

"I just didn't know you well enough," she said, closing the book. "I didn't want to. Okay?"

Fletcher sighed and they all stood up as Valkyrie got all her stuff together to take to her room. They followed her up the stairs silently and, for the first time, Fletcher came into her room. She put it on her bed and noticed suddenly that the back of the locket, which has slid onto the bed when she put it down, and an engraving of an ice-cream cone on, a silly little tribute to their relationship and it almost made her cry again because she realised although Nadia had found it fun at the time, she might have been upset and offended that Valkyrie made her say nothing about their relationship too.

She was going to start storming around when Fletcher pulled her in for a hug.

She fought it at first but when the tears came, she let herself be held. There were only a few tears, but it was nice to let the frustration out. After, she stepped back from him and he smiled at her.

"You're still my friend," he said. "You always were mine, even if I wasn't yours."

She gave him a wet smile and laughed a little. "Yeah, you were quite annoying. Thank you."

"It's nothing," he said, then glanced at Tanith. "But, err, maybe don't mention it to the others you cried, or I might be killed and stuff."

Both girls laughed properly then because it was probably true, and Fletcher disappeared from her room before someone turned up and found him, while Tanith helped fix her makeup. When they were ready, they joined their family for the meal making.

The day was fast, fun and good after that, they all were amused when Fletcher got a cream pie in Weasel's face and he was the star of the day to Wolf for it. The food was incredible and way more than the eight of them could eat, but Bear had packed it all away into meals for another day before they had even gotten over their food babies after the main meal. They had snacks for the rest of the day. Weasel and Wolf had received several gifts of chocolates from people they wouldn't identify, so they all got to share the chocolates and sat around watching Father Christmas, then The Snowman, followed by The Snowman and the Snowdog. It was tradition to Valkyrie. After that was just blobbing around, nothing interesting happened, just naps, laughs and jokes within them all.

It was a good Christmas overall.

.*****.

The doorbell rang.

Valkyrie looked around the room at everyone lying around. No one made a single move to get up. She sighed and stood. "I guess I'll get it then."

There were grunts around the room. They were all lying on someone else – the most amusing being Panda who was lying with his head in Tanith's lap and legs sprawled over Wolf's in a weave of limbs. Wolf was lying with his head on a pillow, which was lying on Crow's legs. They were all so close none of them so much as questioned it. Bear got out of it by letting Valkyrie lay on him as she often did.

It was an effort to move, and she found she needed to pee too, but she had to go to the door and hoped it was quick. She didn't think there were any carol singers in their areas.

It was knocked again just as she got to it and she opened it before they finished.

"Oh," she said, seeing Crux and Marr on the other side. "You two."

"Hello, Cain," Crux said with a fake smile.

"What?"

"Miss Cain, may we come in?" Marr asked. "We wish to tell your friends a Merry Christmas."

Valkyrie threw her hands up and let them in. Their fault for making her answer the door. "Through there."

They looked around with great interest and Valkyrie know they were looking around the place for exits, entrances, escapes and hiding places, or anything they could hold against them. Mostly things to hold against them.

They went straight to the main living area where her family was sprawled. Crow looked over.

"Oh," he said. "You two."

Marr sighed but only Valkyrie heard it and its frustrated tone. This was already going well. "Detective Pleasant, Dead Men, we just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas," she said in a bored tone.

Crux was looking at the tree. "What did you do?"

Valkyrie stepped further into the room, noting most of her friends had barely opened an eye to see their guests and had immediately closed them again. "We had fun with it," Valkyrie said shortly. "I'm not sure you know what that is though. You can borrow the dictionary if you want."

His lips raised into a snarl and Valkyrie had never seen him look so angry, insane or ugly.

"Just joking," she said, smiling and settling into Bears arms to continue texting Nadia. "You might break it. Is there anything you needed?"

"Detective Pleasant, how is your gift?" Marr asked, looking at him with a strained, fake smile.

He looked over at her from the book he was reading. "I am enjoying it immensely. This is my happy face. Can't you tell?"

Marr looked as if she was going to say something and then realised there was no point and just closed her mouth instead. She changed the subject. "Detective Pleasant, I'm going to be frank – there has been a startling amount of reports coming in recently about Miss Cain running riot in the area, as well as reports of abuse and neglect. We have permission to search your house, interview Miss Cain and you all to find out what has been happening."

Valkyrie and Crow looked at her. The others still didn't bother. "You realise you're being ridiculous right?" Crow said after a moment.

Valkyrie took over before they started arguing. "Look, there is no abuse happening and if it was, all of it is happening to them, not me. They beat each other up regularly. I am happy and healthy. But more than that, what type of permission do you have to conduct any type of search on my home?"

Marr pulled a few sheets of paper out with a flourish and gave them to her, almost taking her eye out. She said nothing, and Valkyrie looked over the sheets. They were not from the Elders but rather the department dealing with minors, orphans, abuse cases and domestic violence. It said that 'Officer Marr and Detective Crux' were entitled to lead the investigation. Unfortunately, that paperwork was official and legitimate. And as a Sanctuary official, she had to lead by example by allowing an investigation into this subject happen to encourage reporting abuse and allowing investigations happen. Even if it wasn't true and, honestly, quite offensive. She hated her job sometimes.

She stood up and gave the papers to Crow. Some of the others were waking up now. "You can interview us and search the grounds," she said, "but he can't."

"Now listen here–" Crux started.

"No, you can shut up. You are on probation for the next two months and a week at least. That is for all and any work. I will be reporting you for coming here at all, let alone trying to trick other departments into thinking you have authority still. Marr can stay but you have to leave. Now."

"Miss Cain, this type of investigation has to be handled in partnerships," she started and started trailing off when she noticed literally everyone in the room was glaring viciously at her.

"He's out. Call someone else if you have to."

It took more arguing but once Fletcher stood up and offered to teleport Crux away, he did go. He stayed in the car too, as Weasel said. Marr, however, ran around the house looking at everything. She was allowed the look in the basement where stuff was, the cellar where wine and more stuff was, cooler where food and more alcohol was and finally the emergency underground cellar all the Christmas stuff was in but at one point had been converted to a bomb shelter, as well as the ground floor without accompaniment. It took hours and Panda really had fallen asleep by then, trapping Crow, Wolf and Tanith. Valkyrie followed her to the first floor.

It was awkward going around the bedrooms. She very, very rarely went into her boys' rooms, so to see her rooting around their draws and under the bed wasn't fun, especially when she made tutting noises every time she found a packet of condoms and threw them to the floor with disgust. She made a note every time, and it was all a little too staged for Valkyrie. She went through Tanith's room more carefully, apparently thinking Tanith was somehow abusing Valkyrie more. Then again, she thought to herself, Tanith did technically punch me more. But with gloves and at the gym.

Her own room was checked even more rigorously, and she had to sit on the bed to avoid being embarrassed. Marr went in every draw. She found the gloves Tanith had got her but thank God she hadn't known what they were for as Valkyrie had sneakily put her medical supplies on top to make them look medical-ish. She'd never be able to touch them again. The rest of the room was mostly embarrassment free, just a few pairs of dirty clothes under the bed and her wash basket overflowing. She followed her through the rest of the house, leaving Gordon's office, quite obviously, for last.

Crow came up the stairs and stood with her and she started rooting through his paperwork and other things. Valkyrie had never tidied it except to send his manuscript off.

It was when Marr dropped a box of awards on the floor that Valkyrie anger was beginning to get too much. She had spent almost all evening going through her house and now she was breaking things. And there was no evidence for any abuse or anything else she said. She barely thought it was worth it anymore. "Be more careful." She snapped.

"This is an investigation Miss Cain," Marr said, inspecting a book with interest and taking evidence pictures. It was a book on cannibalistic tribes. "Do not attempted to interfere."

"No, it's a walkthrough to see if there is evidence suggesting an investigation is needed. You're meant to literally just walk around and talk to me. That's it. I've been very gracious but if you break anything or put a single other thing out of place I swear I will get you fired."

She just smirked and went over to the opposite bookcase and started going through the books. She tried to hide it but Valkyrie did start getting nervous – that bookcase contained the leaver to open it to see the Echo stone and Marr was pulling every book without a name and there wasn't anything Valkyrie could do to stop it.

"Crow, could you get me a drink?" She asked.

He nodded. "Sure," and held up a glass of water he'd brought up for her.

Shit. "Oh, thank you." That hadn't worked at all. Echo-Gordon didn't want anyone to know he existed!

There was ultimately nothing she could do, and Marr found the leaver. Valkyrie stood back as Marr opened the door and found Gordon, and Crow greeted him like the long-lost friend he was. Gordon thanked him for taking Valkyrie and looking after her so well, then insulted Marr.

She was forced to leave by the Dead Men after nearly an hour of her asking them pointless questions, such as, "Why do you all have condoms," and "How often do you sleep in this house." She had to leave as per the terms of the document as she had spent nearly four hours in the house doing as she wanted and hadn't found any reason to stay. Bear and Weasel watched them leave.

Valkyrie snuck away as Gordon and the Dead Men got to know each other, leaving Tanith to sleep so she could be surprised in the morning. She felt bad for his secret to be out but now that it was, she thought Gordon was getting on better with his friends than he expected and didn't mind it so bad. She texted Nadia quickly, telling her a little of what happened and that she loved her and fell asleep on her bed. It had been a good, but tiring day.

Stupid Marr and Crux! Getting in the way of Christmaaaaas! I thought they'd really try anything to annoy the Dead Men and get in their way, and also to spread rumours about them to get them fired, so it was the way to go. For anyone wondering, no Valkyrie's have been harmed in any way by the Dead Men, except maybe emotionally by Crow who is stupid but regretful as we all know. I hope you enjoyed and I'd love to hear some more thoughts, they keep me going! I really want to keep up with a chapter a day, I hope it's working out for you readers :D