Chapter Text
‘Shit, I really need this job…’ I thought to myself.
-
“You’re hired.” I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding in. “Welcome to Lockwood and Co.”
-
“Here, this is your room.” The curly haired boy said, gesturing to the empty room on the second floor landing.
-
Looking around the dark, empty, 1940’s Victorian style house, I tried to focus to see if I could hear anything. I couldn’t, so I just walked past Lockwood and Lucy bickering and into the cold living room. For an adorable couple, they sure argued a lot. I glanced around, blinds closed, some furniture covered in plastic wrap. I glanced at the credenza under where a wall mounted TV would normally be, a black and white photo of a happy looking couple, a tall brunette boy, his arm wrapped around the shoulders of a blonde girl, hugging the boy back. The photo looked like it was taken in the 1960s, the girl with beehive styled hair and a light colored A-Line dress. The boy was wearing khakis and a letterman varsity jacket. Hesitantly, I reached a hand out and gently ran my hand down the framed photo, closing my eyes, tuning out Lockwood and Lucy in the next room, and focusing on the photo. I slowly heard two voices grow louder, and eventually I was almost able to make out what they were saying… not quite, but I could feel the tension between the two voices. They were older, one distinctly female, the other distinctly male. I assumed they were the couple from the photo, but the aura coming off the voices didn’t make a very convincing argument that they still loved each other like they did in the photo.
Pulling my hand back from the photo and opening my eyes, I could hear Lucy and Lockwoods voices again, not muffled or tuned out anymore. I swallowed nervously, backing away slightly before walking back to the main room where we came in. Making my way carefully up the stairs, I tried my best to keep a steady sense of the ghost. Reaching the top of the stairs, I spot Lockwood and Lucy peaking their heads into different rooms. “Y/N, did you find anything?” Lockwood says and my gaze snaps from the dank hallway to him. “Not really, just a photo of a couple, probably taken in the 60’s, listened to it and they were arguing. Dunno if that has anything to do with the case.” I say, walking away from the stairs and toward the other two agents. Lockwood nodded. “Good to at least know, just in case it comes up at some point.” I nod and we walk over to the room that Lucy had disappeared into a couple seconds ago. “Luce- Oh, shit…” I freeze in the doorway when I see the transparent ghost of what seemed to be the girl in the photo I had seen downstairs. She seemed to be in distress, floating above Lucy as she attempted to back away slowly, waving her rapier in front of her. I walked into the room slightly, at the same time as Lockwood, edging slowly against the wall to not startle the ghost and get ourselves killed. Not paying attention, I'm smart, I swear, but as I pulled out my rapier, my depth perception of where my left forearm was in relation, was completely off. As I pulled out my rapier, I accidentally cut my left forearm. It really hurt. I swore quietly under my breath, sucking at my teeth, trying to not make a noise. Suddenly there was a crash and I looked over, seeing Lucy on the floor scurrying away from the ghost as fast as possible, stumbling to her feet. I forcefully held my bleeding arm against my stomach to try and stop the bleeding and pain, not that the pain was going to stop for a while, but it helped. I held my rapier out with my right arm, trying to keep the ghost back, Lockwood grabbed a flare from his belt and chucked it at the ghost now floating closer and closer to us. I shielded my face from the sparks flying off the ghost with my good arm, pivoting away. When I turned back around the ghost was closer than it had been a couple seconds ago… had the flare just not done anything? Before I could react, the ghost started forward again, much faster than before. I had to stumble back, falling back, to avoid getting ghost touched. I dropped my rapier and fell on my back, my head slamming into a pile of books on the ground, hearing Lockwood’s and Lucy’s cries before I blacked out.
At some point I woke, eyes fluttering open to see a worried Lucy and Lockwood above me. My head was throbbing and my arm still cut open like a bread roll. “Fuck…” I groaned, raising my good arm and rubbing my forehead. “Are you okay…?” Lucy asked, worried.
“Yeah, besides feeling like I just got hit full force by a truck, yeah, I’m good.” I mutter, sitting up, getting a bit dizzy before taking a deep breath to steady myself.
I found out after we left that, while I was passed out, Lockwood and Lucy had found and contained the source, which didn’t help me feel any more useful than I had over the last few days. I found a discarded shirt in the house's bathroom, using it as a temporary bandage wrap, no one would miss it. Probably. Once we got back to the house, Lucy said her and Lockwood were going to go to the diner down the street to get food. I just nodded and walked inside the house, closing the door behind me. I leaned on it for a minute, sighing and closing my eyes. “Y/N, where are- oh my god, what happened to your arm?” I jumped, eyes shooting open as George came down the stairs, running down the last few steps after seeing the bloodied shirt wrapped around my arm. George muttered a quick ‘sorry’ after seeing me jump. “Oh, hi… Rapier accident.” I said quietly, a stark contrast to my usual smiley and sarcastic demeanor. “Lockwood and Luce went to go get food.” I say, swallowing down my pain and standing up straight, still a couple inches shorter than George, and as my gaze flicked up to his face, he seemed almost worried. Almost. Either that or he was just masking it very well.
After I pulled off my coat, and George questioned me about the ghost and the house a bit, we went down to the kitchen, where George had prepared dinner. The longer I was here, home, with my best friend, the more I felt like myself again, like I wasn’t on the verge of bleeding out and I didn’t have a throbbing headache.
George handed me a plate of delicious looking f/f and I smiled. “This smells amazing, Georgie…” I say, trailing off as I turned away from him, walking to the table. He made a plate of his own, sitting across from me. We talked for a while, I always felt better when I was around him, he got me. Like listening to music on vinyl, reading large books, rereading unsolved murder cases, and more. After dinner, Lockwood and Lucy still weren’t back, and I had a sneaking suspicion they wouldn’t be back for a while.
Me and George ended up on the couch, watching f/s, George leaning against the corner of the couch, my head in his lap. We were closer than we were to the others, best friends, and as I (accidentally) fall asleep, I cannot help but think about what would happen if we were more than friends.