Work Text:
Now
“And...action!”
“We’re bringing you an extra special episode this week on Oh! Cult Unsolved!” said Maya, facing the camera and clapping her hands. “It’s our season two finale, and so we thought, what better way to end the season with a bang than to go to the one place everyone’s been asking about. That’s right—it’s the haunted Hazakura Temple!”
“Who’s this ‘everybody’ you’re talking about?” asked Ema, crunching on a handful of Snackoos. Apparently they had a sponsorship with Snackoos now, as a result of Ema eating them all over set when they filmed season one. That was pretty cool, cause having to go down to the vending machine to get them was always a real pain. “I’ve never heard of this temple.”
That obviously wasn’t true, as they’d planned out their location shoots for the season months in advance. But the banter was part of their gimmick now. Where Maya was enthusiastic, Ema was laconic. Where Maya was fascinated by the paranormal, Ema was skeptical and scientific.
On cue, Maya huffed.
“Well, just because you’ve never heard of it doesn’t mean it’s not important,” she said, and flipped open her folder with a flourish. “Let me tell you a little about it.”
She straightened her kimono jacket and slipped into her narrator voice, which Ema privately recognized as an attempt to mimic Mr. Edgeworth. The people in post would go back and add in a voiceover over some graphics, but they usually got at least one reaction shot of them at the desk.
“Hazakura Temple is a secluded temple located on Eagle Mountain, two hours north of Los Angeles,” said Maya. “As well as being a popular retreat for spirit mediums, it was also the site of a kidnapping plot that ended in murder. Since then, many claim that restless spirits roam the grounds of the temple, preying on unsuspecting visitors.”
“Wait, if it was only one murder, how many restless spirits can there be?” asked Ema. “Clearly these spirit mediums can’t be doing that great of a job.”
“It takes a great deal of training to channel spirits properly,” said Maya mock sternly. “And some forces are simply beyond mortal control…”
She segued neatly into the story of the murder of Valerie Hawthorne and the subsequent suicide of Terry Fawles. It was a familiar story, though Ema had done her own research into the case, so she knew what Maya was leaving out. Turned out Mia Fey had been a real firecracker back in the day. If Terry Fawles had lived, Mr. Edgeworth’s undefeated record would have been over before it had a chance to start. Maya also didn’t mention that Dahlia Hawthorne’s body count had climbed to three—including a defense attorney—before she was finally brought to justice.
Ema didn’t blame her. They tended to stay away from cases with personal connections to either of them on the show, which was harder than it might sound, given...everything. She wondered what exactly made Maya to agree to go back to the godforsaken place after all this time.
::
Then
A career in television had never really been on Ema’s radar and honestly it was pretty much the furthest thing from her mind on the chilly afternoon in February when she got the call. She was in her dorm, ostensibly studying for her O-chem exam but actually scrolling through true crime blogs. She was halfway through a fascinating post about advances in blood typing when her phone rang.
“Hello?” she asked, shoving the phone between her cheek and shoulder and leaning back in her desk chair.
“Hi, Ema?” a voice on the other end chirped. “It’s Maya Fey!”
Ema nearly dropped the phone.
“Uh, hi,” she said, biting back the urge to follow it up with something dumb like “sorry about your sister.” It had been years, and it’s not like they really knew each other in the first place. “What’s up?”
“Well, I had a question for you, and Nick gave me your number,” began Maya.
“Nick?” interrupted Ema. She didn’t know a Nick.
“You know, Nick,” said Maya. “Spiky hair, blue suit, likes to show off his badge…”
“Oh,” said Ema. “You mean Mr. Wright.”
Maya giggled.
“Mr. Wright,” she said. “That’s funny. I’m so used to thinking of him as Nick I forget he’s Mr. Wright to other people. But then again, he practically raised me and Pearly when my sister died and Pearly’s mom went to jail. He’s totally an honorary Fey now.” Before Ema could force an awkward platitude past her tongue, Maya was rattling on. “But anyway, Nick gave me your number so I could ask you about this thing. So, you know Will Powers, right? From the Steel Samurai?”
Ema didn’t have a chance to respond to this either, but it seemed that Maya didn’t need a response.
“Well, Nick and I know him from back in the day and it turns out he’s thinking of branching into directing. And he was at this party with one of the publishers of Oh! Cult magazine—” Ema could hear the exclamation point in the middle “—and he was telling them that he knew me and they mentioned that they were developing a TV show and—” she took a great gasp of breath “—they’ve asked me to host it!”
“Wow,” said Ema, because at this point she felt she had to say something. “Cool!”
“Isn’t it?” said Maya brightly. “Anyway, so Will is going to direct and we’re getting our friend Adrian to produce it. And I’m going to talk about spirit channeling and different haunted places and stuff and it’ll be totally cool. But the thing is, the team thinks we need another host, someone to provide a different view of things. And I asked Nick but he said he doesn’t mess with ghosts anymore and he’s busy with Trucy. But then I remembered how you helped him out that one time and you know all about fingerprints and blood and stuff. So we were thinking if you want to, you could be like the scientific advisor. It’d be really cool!”
Ema felt vaguely like she’d been slapped in the face. Not in a bad way necessarily, just more like she didn’t know what had just happened to her.
“Uhhhhh,” she said, not sure which thought to voice first. “The thing is, I’m in school right now. I’m in Europe ,” she added, that being the more pressing point.
“You are? Cool!” exclaimed Maya. “Actually, that’s no problem. We’re hoping to do most of the filming over the summer to air the next fall. The studio would pay for your travel and you would get a salary.”
The word shot through Ema’s half-formed protestations like a bullet through ballistics gel. Visions of being able to quit her crappy job at the university cafeteria swam appealingly into view.
“Oh yeah?” she asked. “Would the salary be enough to pay off my tuition costs, scientifically speaking?”
“Probably,” said Maya cheerily, and told her a number.
“Damn,” said Ema. “I’m in.”
::
Now
They rarely shot the episodes in chronological order, but as it turned out the location shoot for Hazakura Temple was one of the last things they did for the season, probably because it was one of the closest locations to their home base. It was nearing the end of summer so at least it wasn’t freezing up in the mountains. In fact, it was actually quite pleasant in the thick forests near the temple. Ema was perfectly ready to kick back, spout off some witty comments, and pretend to hunt some ghosts.
Except.
Except that with every step they took into the place, Maya’s shoulders had climbed a little closer towards her ears, her voice unnaturally high-pitched and tight with false cheer. Ema waited till she was off camera and hung back to glare at the producers. Will, who was on location with them, gave her a nervous shrug and gestured to Maya with “what can I do” written in his movements. Ema rolled her eyes. The man was such a pushover sometimes.
They walked all the way through the main temple, stopping to get some footage with the giant magatama in the main hall, and continued on towards the inner temple. They stopped filming so they could set up a scene on the seriously rickety old suspension bridge ahead of them. Ema took the chance to grab a water bottle for Maya and one for herself and bent down to where Maya was sitting on a rock.
“Hey,” she said softly, out of earshot of the rest of the crew. “You okay?”
“Yeah!” said Maya, as chipper as ever. It felt cloying and artificial against the back of Ema’s mouth. “Why would I not be okay?” She chugged some water and bounced back to her feet. “Back at it!”
Ema watched her go, absently twisting the water bottle cap. The thing was, when you met her, Maya seemed like an unnaturally open and cheerful person—and she was. But she could turn that cheerfulness into a stone wall when she wanted to, and Ema wasn’t sure how to get past it.
“This is the famous Dusky Bridge,” said Maya, gesturing to the bridge behind her. “The scene of not one, but two crimes that ended in death and betrayal. It’s from this bridge that Dahlia Hawthorne faked her death in 2008, framing Terry Fawles for her murder, and where she killed her own sister Valerie in 2013.” Her tone was businesslike but her eyes were darting about like a trapped animal. “Dahlia Hawthorne was executed in prison several years ago, but many say her spirit haunts this bridge, claiming it as her own.”
“Hold on a minute,” said Ema, who was now getting irritated in a way she wasn’t sure how to place. “Just cause she committed one or two crimes on the bridge doesn’t make it her bridge. That’s stupid. We may as well say that cause we filmed here, it’s our bridge.”
That got a small twitching smile out of Maya, more genuine than Ema had seen all day.
“I’m not sure that’s how it works,” she began, but Ema interrupted.
“Oh yeah? Who’s gonna stop us? Dahlia?” Ema cupped both hands around her mouth and hollered into the distance: “Hey, Dahlia, we’re on your bridge! Come out here and show yourself!”
“Ema,” said Maya, with a shocked giggle, looking around as if a ghost might pop up behind them.
“What?” said Ema, having well and truly hit her stride. She was aware that, scientifically speaking, she was being completely irrational but she couldn’t help it. Anger was ballooning in her chest at this stupid cow Dahlia Hawthorne. As if it wasn’t enough to be murdering people left and right, she had to go on hanging around after death like a dark cloud making people unhappy. People like Mr. Wright and Maya, who didn’t deserve to be unhappy in the least.
“She’s dead,” continued Ema. “She died in prison. She can’t hurt us now. Isn’t that right, Dahlia,” she yelled. “We’re on your bridge and you can’t do anything about it!” She hopped from foot to foot. “I’m dancing on your bridge, Dahlia!”
Maya burst out in gasps of delighted laughter, and Ema couldn’t help but grin at her.
“See, even Maya thinks you’re ridiculous,” said Ema theatrically to the air. “Can’t even defend one lousy bridge!”
“Yeah!” chimed in Maya through her laughter. Her eyes were bright and alive again. “Take that, Dahlia!”
“You tell her!” said Ema gleefully, and flung her arms wide. “Fuck you, Dahlia!”
They would have to bleep out the last bit, but it was worth it for the look on Maya’s face.
::
Then
Maya Fey was a lot prettier than Ema had imagined. Kind of ridiculously pretty. Seeing her gave Ema a weird sense of deja vu, and it took her a moment to realize that she was remembering the pictures she’d seen of Mia Fey.
It was funny. The bubbly, cheerful girl having her makeup done across from Ema seemed nothing like the determined, steely woman Lana had described, but Ema couldn’t help but search for traces of Mia in Maya’s face. Searching for the woman who had been Lana’s last hope, whose death had lain so heavy across Mr. Wright’s shoulders.
Maya was looking back at her curiously, and Ema realized she was staring. She looked away, towards the back wall of the makeup trailer.
“So, this will just a be a screen test,” said Adrian, the sleek blonde who was producing the show. She checked her clipboard. “We’d like to get some footage of you two together to make sure you’re compatible.
“Intellectually compatible, of course,” said Ema. “If we’re going to be co-hosts.”
This made Maya giggle, even though Ema hadn’t been intending to make a joke. Adrian blinked at her owlishly.
“Yes, of course,” she said. “Anyway, if you two would come with me…”
The set they were shooting on looked more like an abandoned warehouse full of junk, but there was at least a table they could film at. Still, they had to sit for another fifteen minutes while the camera and lighting crew got set up and Adrian conferred with Will, the director. They had to get fitted with microphones and tested for sound. Ema did her best to sit still and remind herself how much Luminol this money would buy her.
“I wonder what all this stuff was used for,” said Maya, swinging her legs and looking around. “Woah,” she said suddenly. “Wow, is that the Crystal Spear from episode thirteen of the Steel Samurai?”
Ema didn’t know what she was talking about it.
“Where?” she asked, squinting through the lights at the clutter in the corners of the warehouse.
“Don’t you see, over there! Right by the ladder.”
“By the ladder—oh,” said Ema, spotting it. “You mean the stepladder?”
Maya wrinkled her nose.
“You sound just like Nick! Ladder, stepladder, what’s the difference?”
Ema adjusted her glasses, which were still perched on top of her head.
“Well, scientifically speaking, they’re different tools,” she said.
“Ema, you’ve got to stop putting things in such narrow categories,” scolded Maya.
“Putting things in narrow categories is literally my job, ” said Ema. “That’s, like...science.”
“Science, schmience,” said Maya dismissively. “Come on, you’ve got to have to have some fun with it, or else you’re just a robot.”
“Designation: fun—rejected,” said Ema in her most robotic voice, gesturing stiffly with her forearms. “Does—not—compute.”
Maya burst out laughing and Ema only lasted a couple more seconds before her poker face cracked. Maya’s eyes were twinkling at her like they were in on the same joke.
When they looked up, Adrian and the rest of the production crew were all looking at them.
“What?” asked Ema, a little annoyed. Weren’t they supposed to be working?
Adrian looked around.
“Was anybody filming that?” she asked.
::
Now
It was dark by the time they loaded up all their equipment and got back on the bus back to the city. Maya was sitting in the back staring absently out the window, and after a moment of internal struggle Ema moved to the seat next to her.
“Hey,” she said, gently bumping their shoulders together. “Wanna talk about it?”
Maya was silent, then in a small voice she said: “Dahlia hated my sister.” Ema kept her mouth shut and waited. “Like, really hated her,” Maya continued, rubbing her hands up and down her arms like she was cold. “She never got over that Mia was the one to finally catch her. Even at the end, she blamed her for everything. And—” her voice faltered “—she hated me too. There were things she said, in prison. She wanted to be the one to kill Mia but then, well. I guess I was the next best thing.”
She fell quiet again.
“We’ve never even met and she hated me,” she said finally.
Ema, for once, didn’t think.
“I don’t know how anyone could hate you,” she said honestly. “You’re amazing.”
Maya turned her her, wide-eyed.
“Me?” she asked incredulously. “But— you’re the one who’s amazing! You know so much, and you went all the way to Europe to study scientific investigation, and you’re so determined and smart. You’re actually useful at crime scenes.” Her head drooped. “The only thing I can do is spirit channeling and I’m not even that good at it.”
“That’s not true,” said Ema urgently. It was very important that Maya understood this. “Listen, that’s not true. Haven’t you noticed that everyone in the crew loves you? It’s because you make everything—brighter—when you’re around. You inspire people, Maya.” She looked down at her lap. “You inspire me. To do things I wouldn’t do otherwise. Sure, in the beginning I agreed to do the show for the money, but the reason I stayed is because of you.”
Maya’s eyes got even bigger, luminous in the dim light.
“Really?”
Ema found her courage and took Maya’s hand.
“Really.”
Maya bit her lip and bent towards Ema to murmur in her ear.
“Ema, I think I like you a lot,” she said, like it was a secret to be kept and treasured between the two of them. Ema leaned forward so their foreheads were touching.
“I think I like you a lot too,” she said breathlessly.
Their hands stayed intertwined all the way back.
::
Then
Ema went back to Europe and school and heard very little from Maya for several months. “My phone bill doesn’t include international calls,” she had said with a frown. “I had to borrow money from Nick to call you the last time.” In the meantime, apparently, there was a whole process of editing a pilot and shopping it around to networks, getting funding and rights and things that Ema didn’t really understand.
So she mostly went to classes and to her cafeteria job, wistfully thinking of the day she would be able to quit, but she half-believed the whole thing would fall through and that would be the end of her brief, strange association with Maya Fey. It wasn’t as if they really had much in common besides, well, dead relatives and a larger than normal amount of time spent around crime scenes.
They might have been friends in some other life, growing up together in the visitor’s section of the courtroom. If things have been different.
Then, of all things, she actually did get a call. She was studying in the library, and the ring of her phone nearly startled her out of her seat.
“Ema!” yelled Maya from the other end of the phone. Her voice seemed to be echoing from far away and there was a lot of noise in the background. “Ema, listen, they did a screening of the pilot, and guess what? They love it! Ema, we’re going to be on TV! ”
“What?” said Ema, only half-hearing her. She was getting dirty looks from the other students. Maya was clearly audible even from where they were sitting. “Hold on a sec, I need to go outside—”
“ We’re gonna be on TV, ” repeated Maya, and gave a scream that made Ema flinch, holding the phone away from her ear as she pushed through the library doors.
“Wait,” she said. “So you mean...it’s happening?”
“Yeah!” said Maya, and Ema could practically see her bouncing up and down. “Isn’t it exciting?” She was cut off by a burst of noise and then Adrian’s breathless voice came through the speaker.
“Miss Skye?”
“Yeah, it’s me,” said Ema.
“Oh good,” said Adrian. “Sorry, we should have given you a more official notice, but Maya—I mean, Miss Fey—wanted to be the one to let you know.”
“That’s okay,” said Ema. “But it’s really true?” She could hear the doubtful lilt in her own voice.
“Oh yes,” said Adrian immediately. “Apparently test audiences loved your chemistry. The network executives are very impressed, and we’ve been greenlit for a full season. It’s quite extraordinary. You should be getting some paperwork soon—” She was cut off again by Maya snatching the phone back.
“Ema, we’ve got our own TV show!” she said, as if there were nothing else she would rather do but film a dumb reality show with Ema. “It’s going to be so much fun!”
Ema began to smile, despite herself.
“Yeah,” she said. “It will.”
::