Chapter Text
London, England, 1969.
Miriam Celia Princhek lay on her back in a dark alley. She blinked a few times trying to get a grip on where she was and why.Failing to come up with any acceptable or believable conclusions she pushed herself up into a sitting position pushing against the cool wet ground.
She saw the faces and recoiled.She was surrounded in the dark alley by nearly twenty figures, bending to watch her. The faces could be recognized as many of her dearly departed family members and her first conclusion was that she was dead. However, the figures seemed just as shocked to be looking into her face as she into theirs.
Her paternal grandmother knelt down next to her, reaching up to touch her hair but the fingers moved through Miriam like smoke. Miriam shivered. "Du sehst uns?" She whispered.
Miriam nodded nervously, "ja. I see you." Miriam looked around at the other figures: some were emaciated and pallid who undoubtedly had met their unfortunate ends in a concentration camp. "Oma, where am I?" She looked back to her grandmother.
"You're in the White Chapel district."
Miriam's heart started to race and her head began to spin, her stomach growled, "so I'm not dead."
"Nein, Miriam."
"How did I get here, Oma?" Miriam got to her feet, she felt weak, she wavered but stayed upright.
Her grandmother shook her head, "I don't know. We were drawn to you this evening, we've been here watching over you, it was already dark when we got here. I thought we were here to welcome you to the afterlife. But instead you opened your eyes. It's a miracle. God preserved you."
"If I'm not dead why can I see you?" Miriam bit her lip, looking at all her relatives.
"You've been touched, Miriam. God has touched you and given you this divine ability."
"I..." Miriam looked around, "I have to get home... mum and dad must be worried about me..." She looked around at all her relatives again before taking off running. She spotted a police officer and ran up to him, "can you help-" she reached out to grab his shirt sleeve but she stumbled through him.
She shivered, staring at him in horror.
"You can see me?" The policeman demanded.
"No!" Miriam shouted, taking off again, being persued by the ghost officer and several other ghosts that had been near them. Finally Miriam ran straight into a living police man and fell backwards from the force of the collision.
"Are you alright?" He leaned over, offering her his hand, "what are you doing out so late?"
"I need help," she grabbed his hand, clutching to his tangibility, her heart pounding in her chest as fast as she had ever felt. "Please, help me. I need to get home. I want to go home."
"God in heaven!" The officer watched her face with surprise, "you're Miriam Princhek, aren't you?"
"...yes..."
"You've been missing for two weeks. You were presumed dead. What happened to you?" He couldn't resist reaching out and touching her hair, startled by its blanched state.
"I... I... I don't know... I just... I just woke up in an alley." Miriam shook violently and slowly reached up to her hair, bringing a handful of it into her line of vision. Upon seeing its --lack of-- color she screamed at the top of her lungs.
New York, NY, United States, 2007.
Miranda sat behind her desk reading over her schedule for the day. She crossed out a few meetings and moved a runthrough up by three hours. She glanced into the outer office. She'd promoted Emily to junior fashion editor. She was beginning to think it was a mistake, not because Emily wasn't doing a good job but because none of the assistant replacements that had been sent to her were working out.
No Emily. No Andrea.
There was no one left who really understood her. There was no one left who cared about what she was feeling or what she needed. Miranda was all alone in a city of over eight million people. She sighed.
"Andy?" Someone yelled in the distance. "Andy Sachs!"
Miranda's ears pricked up. She hadn't heard the name said out loud since the week after Paris. She hadn't laid eyes on the girl since two weeks after Paris and now someone in her own office was shouting the name.
Miranda kept her eyes glued to the schedule though she was listening to the voice. She didn't recognize it. She couldn't deny that her curiousity was piqued.
The voice got closer, still calling out for Andy. Miranda's eyes stayed rooted to the paper in front of her, trying to quell her anger at the intrusion into her solitude. Finally, the shouting person stood between the two assistants' desks, yelling again.
Miranda pursed her lips, looked up and glared.
The look that overtook the woman's features was shock, confusion and revelation. Miranda recognized that look, she knew it well. "Fuck." She whispered under her breath, looking back down to the schedule, hoping she would go away.
The woman now stood in front of Miranda's desk. "You can see me, can't you?"
Miranda didn't respond, just picked up her pen and started to make notes.
"Hey!" The ghost was angry now, "I know you can see me! You looked up at me when I yelled my daughter's name! My name is Josephine Sachs! Look at me, damnit!"
Miranda faltered. The beligerant ghost who was attempting to piss her off into looking up was Andrea's mother? "Look at me!!" She screamed, falling into Miranda.
Miranda shivered violently, jumping up and going out into the outer office. Her new first assistant, Tia, looked up at her expectantly. "I'm going home, cancel everything for today."
"But.." she stammered, wide-eyed.
"That's all." Miranda hissed.
Once in the elevator Miranda pushed her fingers into her ears until it hurt, trying to block out the dead angry mother. Once in the car, Miranda wasn't surprised that she followed. "You have to help me."
Miranda put up the privacy screen. "I don't have to help you." She whispered.
"So, you're talking to me now? That was a really shitty job of pretending you couldn't hear me. The fingers in the ear thing was a dead giveaway."
Miranda glared at the ghost.
Josephine laughed, "no pun intended?"
"At least you have a sense of humor..." Miranda rolled her eyes. "I don't have to help you, I don't have any obligation to you. Something bad happened to you -- obviously -- but it is neither my fault nor my concern."
"You have an obligation to her."
Miranda furrowed her brow and turned to the ghost, "to who?"
"To Andy!"
"I have no obligation to Andrea either! She walked away from me!" Miranda's voice faltered and she watched Josephine angrily.
"I see that I struck a nerve..." Josephine grinned triumphantly.
"Go away." Miranda gritted out through clenched teeth.
Josephine snickered and disappeared. Miranda let out a frustrated sigh. She put the privacy screen back down and caught Roy's eye in the mirror. "Are you alright, Ms. Priestly?"
"I have been better, Roy." Miranda admitted, rubbing her eyes.
"Would you like me to pick anything up for you?" He asked.
Miranda smiled a little. "No... I just need to get home and hug my daughters." Miranda was happy to take solace in the fact that Roy seemed to genuinely care for her and she was about to return to her daughters and maybe she would feel a return to normalcy.
What was normal for Miranda was not normal for anyone else. Not just because she had more money than God or because she was a hugely influential figure in the fashion business. It was also because she was missing for three weeks when she was thirteen, spontaneously lost all the melanin in her hair follicles and could see and hear dead people.
Miranda Priestly had no chance for actual normalcy. But that didn't mean that she wasn't going to try her damnedest to get as close as she possibly could.
When they got to the townhouse Miranda got out and let herself in. The girls' nanny, Denise, came in from the sitting room, "Miranda," she said in surprise.
"Hi, Denise." Miranda put her purse in the closet, "you can go home. I've taken the day off." The girls were smack dab in the middle of their summer vacation and Miranda was very grateful of that fact.
"Oh," Denise smiled, "they'll be thrilled. I hope you have a great day, Miranda, just let me say goodbye to the girls."
Denise stuck her head back into the room, "hey kiddos, I'm off. There's a surprise here for you." Denise smiled and winked, "I'll see you tomorrow."
"A surprise?" Caroline grinned, jumping up and running out with her sister to the foyer. "Mom!" They shouted simultaneously and ran to hug Miranda.
"Hello my little monsters." Miranda wrapped her arms around them and kissed their foreheads. Denise slipped out of the townhouse, leaving the happy family to themselves.
**
Miranda walked into the sitting room with a big bowl of popcorn. The girls had already put the Hairspray DVD in and John Travolta in drag was walking across the screen.
"Mom, you missed the opening number!" Cassidy groused, grabbing a handful of popcorn.
"Sweetie, I saw it on Broadway." Miranda settled onto the couch between the girls. "Twice."
"Was it awesome?" Caroline shoved popcorn into her mouth.
"It was so awesome." Miranda smiled, unable to help the warmth that overtook her from sharing time with her children.
"Imagine," a voice whispered from behind her, Miranda jumped, "what would you do if something happened to you? Wouldn't you want someone to tell them?"
Miranda gritted her teeth, having difficulty hearing the movie over Josephine. She was grateful that the girls didn't seem to notice anything amiss. Josephine appeared in front of the screen, effectively blocking Miranda's view. Miranda sighed.
"You okay, mom?" Caroline looked up with concern.
"I'm fine, sweetie," Miranda glanced at Josephine out of the corner of her eye. "I think I may have left the stove on. I'm going to go check."
"Do you want me to pause it?" Cassidy asked, picking up the remote.
"No, no." Miranda shook her head, "it's okay, I'll be right back. And don't eat all the popcorn." She gave each of them a tickle, they giggled and wiggled and promised they wouldn't.
Josephine followed her into the kitchen. "For Christ's sake, Josephine!" Miranda whispered, "I just want to spend the day with my daughters."
"How do you think I feel?" Josephine demanded.
"Look..." Miranda sighed, "I don't have a lot of time with them while they're still young and innocent. They're going to be teenagers next year and I'll lose them to boys and rock and roll and cars. Just let me have this time with them."
Josephine looked sad and pensive for a minute. "I know how you feel," she nodded, "I didn't spend enough time with Andy before she went off to college. I just always thought she'd come back, I thought she'd live at home with us for a couple of years while she repaid some loans and got her foot in the door. I spent her whole childhood waiting for her to grow up so I could relate to her..."
"She's a wonderful person, you should be proud." Miranda said sincerely.
"You know how the rest of the story goes, don't you?" Josephine asked.
Miranda shrugged, "more or less."
"She was so in love with her boyfriend. He was a year older than her and he moved out here first and she moved with him. Then there was you and the job and... I lost her. I lost my chance."
"I'm sure she knows that you loved her." Miranda sighed, "but you're dead, Josephine, there's nothing you can do now, except trust that Andrea is smart and talented enough to have a great life. You need to move on to the next plane."
"Do you know what's on the next plane?"
Miranda shook her head, "no, I don't, but I think I was there once." She admitted. "If I'm right, I can promise you that it's peaceful and it's timeless. Don't you see a light?"
"I'm not ready to move on. No one's found me yet." Josephine insisted, "you have to find me. You have to find my body."
Miranda scoffed, "you're out of your mind! What do you want me to do? Call up hubby in Ohio 'oh hello, I'm your daughter's ex-employer and your wife is dead, collapsed behind the washer and dryer.' That'll go over real big..."
"You have to help me."
"No, I don't. Now, excuse me, my daughters are going to be wondering where I am." Miranda turned to leave.
Josephine appeared in the doorway, Miranda glared. Josephine leaned toward her, "if you don't do this for me," she whispered menacingly, "I'm going to give every ghost I see your home address and tell them that you can see us. Help me... for a week, and you can go back to your life. Don't help me and never know a moment's peace ever again."
Miranda glared, knowing that there was nothing she could threaten Josephine with. She had no leverage with the dead, and that was the most frustrating thing she could imagine in the world. Finally, Miranda sighed heavily. "Tomorrow. Can you give me that? Can I spend today with my girls? As a mother, can you give me that?"
Josephine considered this for a moment. "Sure, not like I'm going anywhere, is it?" Josephine disappeared.
Miranda lingered for a few minutes before deciding that she really was gone and went back into the sitting room in time to hear Michelle Pfeiffer singing Miss Baltimore Crabs.