Joe's pov
After my dreams and reaction, I knew what I had to do, but I did not like it. Shield around my neck and leather jacket over my green shirt, I made my way up to the 14th floor of 1PP, soon entering my Grandfather's office. Turning to his inner circle, he spoke
"Garrett, Sid, Abigail; please give us the room."
They obliged and I sat down, gun and badge next to me on his desk, because I knew it would end with me having to surrender them anyways. My grandfather gave me a soft smile
"What's on your mind?"
I sighed. Here goes nothing...
"Remember how I told you about the Hill side of the family? How I did not have any visions like Sam, or urges like my Aunt and Cousins?"
Knowing it would be more painful for me to admit it, he guessed
"You had one last night?"
Wincing, I replied
"Two. Aunt Nancy and Billy both. Both of them telling me to show what I could really do. When Matt snapped me out of it, I had been going to the second lockpad of my safe to get the knife I inherited from my Mom. The Buck 120. Between the hallucinations and bad sleep, I'm not sure I should be on the field until I figure this out."
Sighing, he spoke
"Unfortunately, you are correct. For the safety of everyone involved, it's best for you to be on modified duty."
Nodding, I surrendered my weapon and badge
"I figured."
Sending a small smile my way, my boss and Grandfather spoke
"I'm sorry. How are you doing since last night? How was meeting Sam?"
I smiled back
"Had to be done, I understand. That's why I came voluntarily. Meeting her was great. She's tough, but amazing and loving at the same time. You would love her."
He smiled
"I'm sure I would. Why don't you invite her, Tara, Chad and Mindy over for Sunday dinner?"
I smiled
"Thank you! And how do you know about the others?"
He smiled back, eyes twinkling, mustache moving
"I'm the police commissioner and your grandfather. The first gives me information, the second the interest to get said information. Besides, you mentioned them at movie night."
Right. I forgot... We shared a laugh at that, and I returned to my squad.
Mindy's pov - at the same time
(A/N: making Annika Ethan's girlfriend AU. Also, messed up the timeline, but not rewriting Quinn's death, leave it where it is)
I was with the rest of my friends. Tara, Sam, Chad, Ethan, Annika and myself were discussing the events that had recently come upon us
"I'm actually glad to explain this because this gives me a chance to redeem myself for not calling the killers last time. Because the way I see it, someone is out to make a sequel to the requel."
Annika piped up, asking about reboot sequels
"Um, what's a requel?"
Not missing a beat, I replied to Ethan's girlfriend
"You're beautiful, sweetie, let's hold the questions til the very end."
Catching on to Mindy, Sam spoke
"Stab 1 took place in Woodsboro, Stab 2 took place in college."
She was, of course, correct. Tara spoke up
"Do we think that the killer is trying to copy the movies?"
I replied
"That is one possibility. Heroes now in college, check. Suspicious new characters brought in to round up the suspect list or body count, check, check and check."
I was of course referring to Annika, Ethan and the departed Quinn, the newbies.
Ethan mumbled
"I don't like this"
Paying him no mind, as I barely tolerated my twin brother's roommate, I went on
"But it can't just be about Stab 2."
Confused, Tara asked
"Why not?"
Continuing my rambling, I spoke
"It would make sense if this was just a sequel. But we're not in a sequel. Because nobody just makes sequels anymore. We're in a franchise! And there are certain rules to continuing franchises. Rule 1, Everything is bigger than last time. Bigger budget, bigger cast, bigger body count. Big sequences, chases, beheadings, you gotta top what came before."
Chad, my twin, asked
"Beheadings?"
I smiled
"Beheadings. Rule 2, whatever happened last time, expect the opposite. Franchises only survive by subverting expectations. If the killers last time were whiny, snowflakes with letterbox accounts instead of personalities, you can bet the opposite will be true here. And rule 3, no one is safe. Legacy characters like Gale, Kirby, even Sidney? Cannon fodder at this point and could die. Think of how many characters had to die just to boost their IPs and their franchises to live. Tony Stark, Luke Skywalker, Laurie Strode, Nancy Thompson... It's not looking good for Sam and Tara, sorry to say, but also, any of us could go at any moment..."
Ethan looked spooked
"Any of us? A-am I IN the friend group?"
Sam said
"Yeah."
He rambled on
"Am I like, one of the targets?"
I nodded
"Mhm."
At this point, Sam spoke
"At east we have Quinn's dad in the NYPD, along with my cousin and his side of the family."
That was a good thing to have.
He STILL went on
"Am I gonna die a virgin?"
I winced
"That was a weird overshare, especially since virgins don't usually die in the movie rules. But it brings us to our suspects. Ethan, the shy, dorky guy who no one suspects because he's so shy and dorky."
He protested being on the list due to in his words randomly being Chad's roommate. I shot back
"Roommate lotteries can be juked. How did Quinn end up with you and Sam, Tara?"
Dangerously, it was an online ad. Suspicious, even if Tara protested it was anonymous. Still... though, she died. She also had a cop in the family, making it easy to bypass any red tape. But again, she was no more. As for Annika, I quoted the perhaps most true rule, eyeing her
"Never trust the love interest."
Sam nodded
"Ok, we have our rules and suspects, so now what?"
Ethan spoke before I had the chance to
"Wait, what about you guys?"
Chad, Sam, Tara and I laughed it off
"We went THROUGH this. Why would we become Ghostface after that?!"
Annika spoke
"What if the trauma you all went through last year caused one or more of you to snap?"
Dangerously, Ethan brought up all the online conspiracy theories about Sam that had been plaguing her since last year
"Or what if you got thirsty for more? To be honest, some of the stuff bout Sam are"
He got interrupted by an irate Tara
"Don't you even dare."
Annika spoke once more
"Ok, but face facts. If we're suspects, you're suspects."
We fell into an uneasy quiet, until it was time for Chad, Tara, Sam and myself to go to the Reagan home for family dinner. The Reagan's were Sam's cousin Joe's family on his deceased father's side. As far as his mother's side, Sam had gathered his permission to tell us about his ties to the Loomis family and Ghostface, but Chad and I couldn't hold his Aunt killing our Uncle against him. He was innocent in all this.
Joe's pov a bit before the dinner
Though I was on modified, I still found myself working on the Ghostface case, to keep m family safe. Of course, it helped that I had worked with the FBI before and was now paired up with Woodsboro survivor Kirby Reed, Special Agent out of Atlanta, having relocated to the New York City office. We worked in perfect sync while engaging in banter over movies and other favorites. I was not going to deny that I was slowly falling for her... Though it kinda seemed like she was looking at me the same way I was looking at her. As they passed through the bullpen of my squad, my Uncles gave me sly little grins, and I knew I was in for it when they said
"We'd offer help, but it seems you two make quite the pair... of law enforcement for this case."
That deliberate little pause and their grins made me glare in their direction. Soon it was time for dinner, and we all gathered at the Bay Ridge Reagan Home.
Sam hugged me as soon as she saw me, and I gladly reciprocated. I had confided in her about the visions/ nightmares, and she had given me the contact of her therapist, Dr. Stone. I, much like Sam, did not give him the actual details, for fear of his reaction. Just that there was family trauma with me hearing and seeing dead family members. All Sam talked about was how Tara wasn't dealing with last year's attacks. When he accidentally found out I was in therapy, my Grandfather was surprisingly... accepting. He smiled
"Good."
I looked at him in surprise
"I thought you said Reagans don't do medicinal drugs or therapy."
He shrugged, small smile under his mustache
"True, but maybe we should."
I was secretly relieved with his approval. Sean and Mindy were talking about movies while the rest of us ate and listened in on conversations until my Uncles spoke
"So, Joe. How's Kirby?"
I spat out my water as all eyes turned to me and my family, Sam included, spoke
"Kirby?!"
My face red, I explained
"We're not dating. She's the FBI agent on the NYPD-FBI hunt for Ghostface. I'm one of the NYPD Detectives, alongside Detective Bailey. Nothing else."
My Uncle Jamie chuckled
"Riight. And your Aunt Eddie and I are just friends."
Rolling my eyes, I shot back, no true malice in my words
"Shut up."
Grandpa chided
"Let's keep it civil."
Thankfully, they dropped it, and the rest of the dinner was just fine.