Once upon a haunted time: a Halloween fic
Author's note: Story to celebrate the approaching holiday. I will try to upload a chapter daily (more or less) until the conclusion in the final episode on the 31st itself. Happy Halloween!
No Nina in this timeline.
Summary: The main team along with Isobel and Jubal is caught in a storm on Halloween night and forced to take shelter in a sinister old mansion.
Chapter 1. Stormy night
The rain was pouring down on the SUV's windshield that last day of October as if they were being hosed down. Jubal had the wipers on full blast and still they weren't able to give him any better visibility. Flashes of lightning repeatedly illuminated the pitch-black sky. The rumble of thunder rolled incessantly all around them.
"We're going to have to stop. It's dangerous to drive in these conditions," said Jubal, the tension obvious in his voice.
"We got lost. I told you it was to the left," Isobel said next to him in the passenger seat, irritated.
"The GPS indicated right," Jubal answered patiently.
"Stopping here, on a hillside, in the middle of nowhere with the rain coming down?" Tiffany interjected from the back seat. "If there's a flood, we'll have nowhere to go."
She had been more surly than usual all day. In the SUV behind them, Maggie followed with OA and Scola. Jubal was surprised Tiffany hadn't preferred to ride in the same car as her partner. Something was going on between those two.
They just returned from a hostage case at a school upstate. Isobel accompanied her field agents to deal with the families of the victims, Jubal as negotiator. The situation had dragged on all morning and much of the afternoon, until they managed to overpower the kidnapper and left him in the custody of the state police. By the time they were able to head home, and before they could even leave the regional roads and reach the highway, they were caught by that unforeseen hellish storm.
The halo of a sign illuminated by spotlights in the distance caught Jubal's attention through the rain. He slowed down. He couldn't see it well, but he made out an arrow and the word 'Lodging'. He put on the turn signal and took the detour when he came to it. He checked his rearview mirror to make sure Maggie was following him.
A short stretch of road led to a large mansion surrounded by tall cedar trees. The lights were off, but a small lantern on the front porch was lit. Jubal parked and went to look. He returned at once saying the door was open. They each grabbed their backpacks or travel bags from the trunks and ran through the cold downpour to take cover.
They entered the wide hall, which was dark, shaking the rain off their clothes. Jubal did so with his hair, for he had given his coat to Isobel, because hers had no hood. They peered into the adjoining living room. It smelled closed and of dusty furniture.
"Hello?" Jubal called, "Is anybody there?"
One of the lightning bolts underscored his powerful voice a split second later. The house emitted a resounding, ominous creaking sound, no doubt suffering under the wind of the storm.
"A perfect night for Halloween, huh?" Maggie commented, exchanging a smile with Isobel.
They both loved Halloween. Scola looked at them with an annoyed face. He hated Halloween with the same fervor. He said it was just an excuse to pull mean pranks.
Footsteps were heard on the floor above. The bulbs in the ceiling lamp buzzed, flickered, and finally came on with a dim light, illuminating both rooms. The decor looked more than a century old.
"Welcome," said a voice so soft at first they barely heard it. "What a night for traveling you have chosen."
A motherly-looking woman in her sixties had materialized at the foot of the wide staircase leading up to the upper floor. She wore severe, unremarkable clothes in various shades of gray. Her hair, of a color difficult to distinguish in that light, was tied back in a neat bun at the nape of her neck. She smiled kindly at them.
"My name is Persephone. How may I be of service?"
The hostess said she had three rooms available. She had a fourth, but they could not use it because the window glass was broken, and it was not habitable.
Tiffany immediately demanded to share a room with Maggie. OA and Scola briefly glanced at Isobel and, before Jubal could say anything, took the second room for themselves. His ASAC cleared his throat and looked at Isobel uncomfortably, who remained perfectly impassive, which seemed to make him even more nervous.
Persephone offered them something to eat before going to bed, but they already had dinner hours ago and it was almost midnight, so they declined, thanking her.
Upstairs on the second floor, as everyone was slipping into their rooms, Maggie flashed a discreet goodnight smile to OA that no one else got to see, while Tiffany shot a frowning reproachful glance at Scola, which Jubal caught out of the corner of his eye as he let Isobel into the room they were to share.
·~·~·
"OA, what do you think about having relationships in the work environment?" asked Scola as they both got ready for bed.
OA paused briefly as he took off his second shoe. He and Maggie had been dating for a little over six months. For a moment, he thought Scola's question was a dig, but quickly recovered. He wouldn't have spent the happiest months of his life with his own coworker if he hadn't been able to keep his tongue out of his mouth at the drop of a hat.
And they had been. From the very first moment. From that first time they kissed on Maggie's couch after yet another night of pizza and movies, to this very morning when they had parted ways to get to work. OA smiled to himself.
"You mean romantic relationships? They shouldn't be a problem if you're able to compartmentalize," he replied ambiguously and in a casual tone.
OA and Maggie were keeping theirs a secret and so far, it was going very well, even if the last step he took had been somewhat of a slip. After several months of practically living together in each other's homes, OA had proposed to Maggie that they rent an apartment together. She didn't say 'no'. Nor did she say 'yes'. She proceeded to apply a slight, one-sided distancing. OA was a little worried. For now, he had not insisted again.
"Ah... Easier said than done, my friend," said Scola.
OA disagreed. Not exactly. It had been a little difficult at first, but they had gotten the hang of it quickly.
Then OA grasped the real meaning of what Scola said.
He raised his face and stared his friend in the eye. "Do you speak from experience?"
Scola looked as a deer in the headlights of a car. "Eeeeh... No. No, I don't. I'm just guessing." And he was silent until he got into bed.
They were turning off the lights when they heard a rustling sound from upstairs.
·~·~·
It hadn't escaped Maggie's notice that Tiffany was grumpy. It worried her. Especially since underneath that apparent irritation, she could sense something else.
"Is everything all right?" Maggie tried as they changed for bed.
"Of course. No problem," Tiff replied without looking at her.
"Great, good. Aaamh... But if you ever need to talk about anything, I'm here for you, okay?"
"Yeah, I know..." Tiffany said, nodding.
She turned to look at Maggie; it seemed as if she was debating with herself whether or not to tell her. But in the end she decided to keep quiet and just gave Maggie a sad smile that very few had ever seen on her face. Despite her silence, it was a rare show of trust on Tiff's part, and Maggie knew she should appreciate it.
She wondered if it had something to do with Stuart. She sensed it did.
Just a few days ago, she had caught him looking at Tiffany in a... not entirely professional manner. And just yesterday, a case had tested them both. Scola had relied too much on an informant. Ian was someone he actually considered a good friend, but who had played him big time during the undercover operation. It had nearly cost Stuart his life. And his friend was going to end up in jail.
For her part, Tiffany had narrowly missed getting there in time to save him. Maggie had seen her quite affected afterwards, when her partner thought she wasn't being watched.
Yeah, Maggie knew well how it felt.
The two of them lay down, although Maggie knew that neither of them was asleep. In her case, because despite the tiredness of the day, her mind was still too alert.
She was still thinking about OA's proposal to move in together. After her bad experience with Nestor, she didn't feel comfortable talking about it, and had been avoiding the subject. At the same time, she felt bad. OA was not Nestor, and she knew she was being unfair to him.
Also, she felt frustrated. OA had promised her a night of candy and scary movies that Halloween, which hadn't happened. To top it all off, she missed having him close by in her bed terribly.
Despite everything, Maggie forced herself to try to sleep. She needed the rest.
The sound of thunder was accompanied by some sounds of something crawling. Maggie pulled the pillow over her head. She didn't like it there. Even if they were very Halloween, she hated old houses. She had been repulsed by them ever since one summer, when she was a little girl, two of her brothers had taken her to an abandoned house, and let her get lost there for hours, scared to death.
·~·~·
You've got to be kidding me, Jubal thought as he closed the door to the room, turned around and instead of two beds he found there was only one bed barely the size of a double bed. It had a very nice canopy, though...
Isobel bit her lips and gave him a sidelong glance amid an awkward silence.
With his hands on his hips, Jubal tapped repeatedly on his belt with his middle finger. "I'll ask Maggie and Tiff to change our room," he proposed.
"No, leave it. I'm tired. I just want to go to bed."
Jubal sighed. "I'll sleep on the floor."
"No way. There is" -to say 'plenty' would have been foolish- "enough room. Don't give it any more thought."
"OK," Jubal muttered without looking at her.
He decided that, if he had to go through this, it was best to look at her as little as possible.
A few weeks ago, at the evening awards ceremony to commemorate the FBI's achievements of the year, Jubal had been seriously struck by Isobel in that dark green satin dress, by the speech she gave to present him the Sustained Distinguished Service Award... They danced together; he escorted her home... At the door, he was sorely tempted to kiss her. He didn't.
Things had been a little strange between them ever since.
Isobel grabbed a towel from the bathroom and held it out to him. He thanked her with a somewhat sheepish smile and dried his rain-soaked head. He forced himself to ignore the fact that, as he did so, she watched him thoughtfully.
Jubal took off his shoes. He was taking his sleeping clothes out of his bag, when he noticed, after taking off his coat, Isobel had sat on the bed and was looking around her as if trying to find the solution to something.
"Is everything all right?"
"I... I didn't bring pajamas. I didn't think I'd be spending the night out, really."
Jubal almost had a dizzy spell at the thought of Isobel climbing into bed with him in her underwear. He reached into his bag and pulled out a T-shirt; he held it out to her without a word.
Isobel hesitantly reached out her hand and accepted it with a murmured 'thank you'. Then she went into the bathroom. Jubal could not have been more grateful they got the only room with a bathroom.
When Isobel came out, she found Jubal sitting on the far side of the bed, his back to her and taking off his watch. He was wearing simple dark-colored pajama pants, but was naked from the waist up. Of course. Why would Jubal bring more than one T-shirt to sleep in?
Trying without much success not to stare, Isobel walked towards the bed, fleeing from the cold air of the room and intending to get under the covers before Jubal could look in her direction even by accident.
Suddenly, scratching noises were heard throughout the room.
The shock made Jubal look around. And he found her there. The worn-out blue Mets T-shirt was too big for her, of course, but it only reached mid-thigh. The sight of Isobel's legs left his jaw hanging. The scratching came again. From inside the wall. Jubal averted his eyes, missing the blush on Isobel's cheeks.
"It looks like we have rats," she said, getting into the bed, which gave off a faint smell of mothballs.
"If those are rats, they must be the biggest ones ever seen."
This made Isobel laugh, and she blessed him for his sense of humor. Jubal lay on his side, facing away from her. She did the same, being careful not to touch each other, although she could feel his warmth.
"Good night, Jubal."
The floral scent of Isobel's perfume reached him. Jubal let out a long silent sigh. It was going to be a very long night.
"Good night, Isobel."
Outside the storm continued to unleash its fury. Some clock in the house struck twelve.
~.~.~.~
