Chapter 129

Early the next morning, Valkyrie was woken by her phone. Reaching over, she grabbed it and pressed answer.

"Hello?" She grumbled, sitting up.

"Detective Cain," Corrival said through the phone loud and clear. "Your team came to me this morning."

Valkyrie looked at her alarm clock as Nadia moaned and rolled over. "It's seven thirty."

"Well, they got here at seven sharp," he snapped. "Get here quickly. Do you know where Roarhaven is?"

"Of course."

"Get here quickly."

Corrival hung up on her and after a moment, Valkyrie put her phone down on the bed.

"What was that?" Nadia asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Pa called me. Apparently, the other detectives just finished talking about me to him."

"They're not very nice," she said quietly.

"Some of them are alright, but my brothers were choosing mostly the overpaid henchmen and follow-along henchmen type of people for the team, not actually competent people," Valkyrie told her, getting out of bed. "Where's my trousers?"

"You threw them in the wash," she groaned.

"Oh yeah." Valkyrie went into the overstuffed walk-in wardrobe, which was barely walk in because she could only just pull the door closed behind her. For modesty reasons. "I have to go into work and deal with them now. I'm cutting most of them from the team."

"Okay," Nadia said back. "Will we still be able to get my stuff from my parents tonight?"

"Yeah," Valkyrie said, trying to sound confident. "If not, Dexter and Saracen will take you, don't worry. We'll work it all out."

"Uh-hu."

Valkyrie finished getting dressed in the tiny wardrobe and pushed her way back out. "Will you tell the others I've gone to the Sanctuary when you see them?"

"Sure. Don't forget breakfast," Nadia smiled, kissing Valkyrie lightly when she went over to her sleepy girlfriend.

"I'll get coffee at work, don't worry. See you later!"

Valkyrie was quick to leave the house, knowing it was long overdue that she went to see her team and figure out a real plan. She had done her personal tasks, or at least enough of them that it barely mattered anymore, but now it was time to deal with the Sanctuary section.

It almost felt stupid, she mused as she pulled out of the garage on the motorbike, that she had to deal with a complaint within her team when there was a war brewing. Didn't they have better things to do? Corrival was an Elder dealing with enough rubbish in their world without her team being idiots, especially when they already had a meeting planned for today.

Roarhaven was a good forty minutes from her house, so she knew Corrival would be in a bad mood. The town itself was disgusting with dirty streets, dingy houses and broken up roads Valkyrie had to swerve around. She'd been there before, of course, as it was a mage town and where there were mages, there was usually some type of trouble. That called for her and Skulduggery, or it did in the past. Now it was just her and she didn't know how to feel about all that still.

Pushing that from her head before she went down that rabbit hole of emotions, she pulled up to the short, stout, box building that made up the Sanctuary. There were guards outside, Sanctuary workers rather than Cleavers, but they didn't question if she was allowed in. Still, she had a few wary looks from the odd few. Skulduggery's actions affected them all. Idiot. But, being the kind-of-granddaughter coupled with being the outright favourite of Elder Deuce and probably the Grand Mage also had its uses. She got into the nasty building easily.

Cleavers, workers, busybodies and anyone who was someone was milling in and out of rooms, tunnels, tiny holes that acted as corridors and stairs always leading further down. It all looked dodgy and dark to say the least. Within the throngs were workmen brought in to do the job of making the place habitable and it was instantly amusing because the logo was of her own family business. Corrival didn't know it, nor did many others, but the company the Sanctuary hired to fit their new heating, electric, floorboards, banisters and plaster and paint the place was her own. All the people wary of the Dead Men would hate this, that was for sure. Not only did one of them help blow up the last place, but a company run by another fitted out the new place? How fun. Valkyrie knew she needed to keep that even quieter than she already was unless she wanted a lot of angry complaints.

After looking around and being pointed in the right direction by Tipstaff, Valkyrie went to the new 'Detective and Investigators Department', D.I.D for short. This was hers now; she was only sixteen.

The walls had already been done up in a light blue inside, and the floors were an orange-brown and there were tons of lights up above, but it didn't quite remove the feeling of it being dark in there. People looked at her when she entered and she made sure to stand tall. First on the list: find her office.

She found it alongside mission number two. Her team was outside it like children sent to the Head Teachers office. Time to get to work.

"Wait here," she ordered immediately before they could even open their mouths. They scowled, but the ones that looked more inconvenienced than angry where the ones she was interested in. Of the team of twelve, only five of them looked like that. They were the five she was likely to be keeping. They were the ones keeping their heads down and doing their damn job, the ones that wanted to keep doing that job instead of waiting around outside her office. And now she felt like Corrival might have rubbed off on her a bit much.

Inside, she put her helmet on a cabinet and looked over the large space. There was a large desk with a chair, a plant, filing cabinets, and a long table that took up the other side of the room that looked like a meeting table but Valkyrie knew was meant more for her family.

She supposed this meant they weren't getting their Dead Man office back.

She sat at the desk and looked over the mess. This was all that remained. Papers, some barely held together from the blast, others newly printed. She had to do all her paperwork again. And to the side was all of the Pleasant investigation papers. It was thin and when she looked through it, not very detailed. As she got through it to the present day, she saw how ridiculous the details were and how personal judgements against people in the office as well as towards those they interviewed had affected the writing. It wasn't even hidden, they had just written outright that they thought a witness was "an idiot that couldn't spell the word 'Pleasant' correctly".

Valkyrie scowled and moved the other papers she had to deal with onto the side cabinet and brought the Pleasant Investigation to the meeting table. She opened the door and stood back. "In."

The fifteen teammates came in and Valkyrie got them to stand and sit at the meeting table. Sickle, the one that was constantly mad at her and seemed to be the ringleader, sat at the head and smirked at her. She slammed the door closed and it made a thunderous slam. He lost his smile pretty quickly when she slammed the papers into the table.

"I would love to say it's good to see you since I woke up from my coma," she started in a deep, angry voice, looking them all in the eyes, "but unfortunately, you've all made that rather difficult for me. I think we should start by letting you all tell me why these papers are unprofessional, incomplete and riddled with personal drama. Did the Dead Men tell you to do this? Or did you just decide to throw all protocol and professionalism out the window by yourself?"

The room was quiet, but slowly, all the pathetic idiots glanced over at Sickle who was rather pale but also gritting his teeth angrily. "You cannot talk to your elders like this, kid," Sickle let out after a forty second silence. Valkyrie was almost impressed he lasted so long.

"May I remind you, I am Head of this department and also First Detective, Sickle. Age isn't the only status in life. Tell me, was this your idea?"

"My – Cain, you cannot seriously think we're going to simply listen to you and follow along?" He laughed incredulously. "You're a child!"

"Yes, Sickle, a parentless child with no experience whatsoever, too stupid to know right from wrong or, I don't know, read through the paperwork that will eventually have to be presented to the Elders. Is that right?"

Sickle glared. "I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to. I can see your hatred. You might hate Skulduggery now, but you did before too. You hated me as well. You know, we were already preparing for you to snap, but I hadn't expected Skulduggery to break before you. We're meant to be joining together to find him and deal with all of this, not fighting within ourselves. But it looks as if you don't know how to behave."

"Now see here!" He started, going red with rage.

"You've been removed from this team," Valkyrie told him with a deadly calm. He spluttered all over the table. "Get out of my office. You can take over paperwork from the other detectives that are actually trying to keep the peace in our country."

It took some spluttering, but when he realised his allies had abandoned him, he growled, stood up hard enough for the chair to clatter to the floor, and stormed out.

Valkyrie let him leave the door open. With deliberate slowness, she picked up each paper and read out the name of the ones she was keeping. "Amanda. Nathanael. Kinsey. Tuppence. Grant. You can stay. The rest of you can get back to your regular work. I don't want to hear a peep from you unless it's a real problem. Consider all your work to be on review until such a time as I deem to be up to standard. I will be considering all of this-" she stabbed her finger on top of the pile "-as a part of that review. Get out."

The others left quickly, and when the last had shut the door behind them, Valkyrie sighed. "Right," she said slowly, looking over her five remaining members of the team. "I believe we've all met before but we haven't directly worked together. To make this easier, I should say this. I don't want any nonsense. I don't want gossip. If I see, hear, or even think that your about to start any of that crap, you will be removed. I want this case considered dealt with by the end of this month, so we have a week and a half left. Is that understood?"

They nodded.

"Good. To make it clear, we are not attempting to kill, or double kill, Skulduggery. We must all be incredibly cautious and if possible let me deal with him, I know how to talk him down. I realise it probably feels a bit weird, but I don't think he'd try to kill me, whereas I don't know if I trust his mental state to not kill anyone else right now. Right, so, tell me what you've done so far."

.*****.

Nadia's POV

Four o'clock had come and gone by the time Nadia got a message from Valkyrie. It was short: 'Going to be here till I die. Dex and Sar with take you to get your things. Sorry I can't help baby. Don't know when I'll be home but I love you.'

Smiling a little sadly, Nadia texted Valkyrie back not to worry and went to find Dexter and Saracen who had been in the kitchen with Anton baring down their backs cooking dinner while the entire kitchen was white with flour. "Um, hi," Nadia said quietly. Anton didn't look any less scary, but he did give her a small smile.

"Hey Nadia," Dexter grinned broadly. "Heard from Val?"

"She asked if you could help me get my things from my parents' house if it's okay with you?"

Anton shrugged and waved the two big-eyed men away. "You can clean when you get back."

Dexter and Saracen shuffled quickly from the room without another word and pushed Nadia along with them to the garage. "What did you do?" Nadia asked.

"Flour fight," Dexter grinned, kissing Saracen's cheek.

"I won," Saracen claimed with an easy grin, starting up the oldest car there. Well, the oldest car was Skulduggery's, but that wasn't here and wasn't the same as the beginning-to-rust box they were using. This one was Echo-Gordon's from when he was alive, whom she's spent the afternoon with working on some magic while he instructed her.

"You did not!"

The drive to her old house was filled with bickering and when they arrived, Saracen parked them a few streets away from where her old friends used to live. She sighed quietly and unbuckled her seatbelt.

"Hey, Nadia," Dexter said quietly, turning around in his seat to face her. "What's up?"

"Nothing, I'm fine," she smiled as convincingly as she could. "I just want this to be all done, you know?"

"I do," he nodded, looking at her in a way she didn't know how to describe but had seen Valkyrie do a few times. "I know we've had a rough patch recently, and that you said you forgave us and all but I want to let you know that we're here for you. We've dealt with all of this in the stupidest way we could. But now we've worked out how stupid we are, we want to be there for you. Just like we are for Val."

Nadia smiled at them, feeling her heart swell with how nice he was being. "Thanks," she told him, hoping he knew she meant it.

"It's alright. It just means you have to say what's going on," he pressed.

Nadia hesitated and shook her head. "It's nothing. I miss Valkyrie when she's at work I guess, and I want to get on with the things me and Valkyrie have been talking about, but I'm fine."

"I feel like there's something else."

"No. Well, I spoke to some old friends today, and they all got back in touch. I didn't think they would do that."

"Something bad."

"Nothing recent."

"What about a long term badness that we could talk about?"

"That just sounds dreary."

"Nadia," Saracen cut in in his serious voice. Her stomach dropped. He knew something. "As Valkyrie's brothers, we take care of you. I know we've been pricks, but we want to change that. So if you want to tell us why you've been hurting yourself, we'd like to help you."

Nadia's heart and stomach might have switched places when he said that. Her whole body broke out in a cold sweat and her head started spinning. "I don't know what you mean," she said in a forced voice. "I don't do that."

"Hey," Saracen said softly, "don't panic. It's just me and Dexter. With my magic, I've known for a while, but I didn't want to force you out, so to speak."

"I don't," she said again.

"We haven't told anyone. It's only us. I swear." Nadia nodded without meaning to. "I – we – want to help you. Even if you just talk to us a bit. Can you do that?"

"I – I need to get my stuff," she said quickly going for the door handle.

"Your parents are in the back garden, we can't go yet."

"Oh," she said, setting her arse back down despondently.

"Come on," Dexter said, climbing awkwardly into the back of the car. He sat down and the whole car shook. "Show big brother Dexter."

Nadia let out a small laugh despite her fears and pulled the arm of one sleeve up. "See? Nothing."

"It's healed up then," Dexter nodded. "Did you get those handy healing stones?"

"Yeah," she said quietly. "Once they heal enough to be safe, I use the stone and it doesn't even scar. I haven't done it in a while. I'm trying."

"We know," Saracen softly.

"How about these eating habits of yours?" Dexter asked.

"I spoke to Valkyrie about my weight last night," Nadia told them before they made any assumptions. "I've already put some weight on, and I'm going to put on more. I was just too stressed and upset to eat before. So please don't make it into something it isn't. I'm not crazy or anything."

"Hey, it's alright," Dexter grinned. She smiled back. "We're not accusing you. Just trying to help. And for the record, even if you were having issues with eating, you wouldn't be crazy."

"Well, I'm fine. I just need time to be happy. I just want all this over and for us to – for me and Valkyrie to be settled."

"Wait, what was that? All of us? You want us to be friends?" Dexter grinned, knocking their shoulders together. Nadia smiled. "Aww, that's a pretty smile. Saracen, doesn't she have a pretty smile?"

"Yes."

"She wants us to be family!"

"We are family."

"Yeah but she likes us!"

"I already liked you," Nadia said, rolling her eyes. "I just would like to have more time with Valkyrie and maybe everyone else. I feel like there's a lot of, I don't know what to call it, but kind of like… unbalance in the house? I'm not sure if that's the right word."

"No, actually I've thought it too," Dexter said, serious suddenly. "There's been a lot of change but with everything looking the same, it feels wrong."

"Exactly! Me and Valkyrie were talking about doing up the place and making it more of a home for all of us rather than what it was before. I mean, it was Gordon's house before, even though Valkyrie lived in it, and nothing has really changed since he fitted it out. We could do it all up like we like it. Then we could all be there, maybe even Ghastly if he wants, but without us all on top of each other. And more white, light stuff. It gets so dark in there."

"You're not wrong," Saracen agreed.

"And then we could all have a whole section of the house to ourselves," Nadia said quickly, hoping inwardly for their approval. "Tanith and baby will have an area of they can be a little family, and you two can be together, and me and Valkyrie, but we could still get together downstairs when we want to. I just feel like we all want more space to adjust and deal with things but we're forced into a single room to do that. We all need a little apartment to relax in when we're not spending time together."

"Sounds like a done deal to me," Dexter said, clapping his hands together and leaning back. "You'll have to ask Anton for making the apartment rooms, and Erskine is the decorator. I will smash walls, and Saracen will eat the kitchen to make room for a new one."

"You think it's a good idea?" She asked.

"Yes," Saracen said. "I think we'll all agree with this plan. But I don't think Valkyrie will have much time."

"I can do it," Nadia grinned excitedly. "And the kitchen is fine, you just got a new one."

"Aww, your so cute when you're excited," Dexter grinned. "Saracen, isn't she adorable?"

"She's going to Shock you."

"Please don't Shock me."

Nadia glared at him. "I'm not adorable."

Dexter grinned. "You are."

Nadia gave him a Shock while Saracen laughed.

Plans are coming together! I remember writing this and feeling as if the story was coming it to neatly begin fixing itself into a nice finished line bow that I just had to keep at - and then I kept adding things and remembering other things I mentioned before and now it's not quite as finished as I thought it was. Lots to go of course, but I thought I had less than I thought. But its okay, I have it written down so I can't forget again ;)

Hope you enjoyed this and I'd love a message on what you think of the story and direction, I love hearing from you guys, even if it's just a few words :)