When Gabriella climbed into bed in the pink bedroom at Headquarters, lights on and the door wide open to the hallway, she didn’t think there was any way she would sleep that night. But before she knew it, the sun was streaming in an unfamiliar window and she was staring up at the ceiling, trying to shake off vaguely remembered nightmares.

Right, the monster under her bed. That part had been real, she thought as the pain radiating through her arm caught her attention. The doctors had given her cream and medicine for it, but right now it was searing hot against the bandages.

The thing had been in her house. Her. House. She should have protected herself better, should have been able to avoid it altogether. How had she been here a week already and not realized she needed to protect herself at home too?

She glanced over at her phone on the bedside table and saw that it was seven in the morning. So she’d gotten a few hours of sleep, but it still felt like maybe she should try to sleep a little more. The room was peaceful and comfortable, which took away some of the weirdness of the fact that she was technically at work right now.

Like the rest of the house, this bedroom still held a lot of the signs that it was previously part of someone’s family home at one point. There were paintings on the pale pink walls and ivy borders around the tops of the walls. She was in one of the two twin beds while the other was neatly made beside her. The decorations and bedding were charmingly mismatched, and she wondered vaguely if that had been intentional or if they’d just ended up this way.

Gabriella could hear someone moving around down the hall. James had told her that he and Madelyn were on the overnight shift, so it was probably one of them. James had offered to stay in the room with her, but she told him she was alright. This place had more security – paranormal and otherwise – than she’d ever seen in her life. So while she was still nervous, she didn’t want him to feel like he had to babysit her.

After tossing and turning for a little longer, Gabriella surrendered and sat up. She wasn’t getting back to sleep, no matter how tired she was. So she stood up and walked over to one of the small dressers, where the change of clothes James had suggested she leave here were neatly folded. She wished for a toothbrush and something a little more comfortable than jeans, but at least she wasn’t putting back on the dirty, bloody clothes she’d arrived in.

She decided to shower before doing anything, since no one except James and maybe Madelyn seemed to be there. Gathering up her clothes and a towel, she opened the bedroom door and walked out.

Robin was walking down the hall as soon as she stepped out. His thin face winced in sympathy as he took in her injury.

“Gabriella, I am so sorry.”

He looked genuinely upset as he looked first at the injury, then into her eyes. “This should never have happened, especially right after your first case.”

“I’m alright,” she said, shifting a little on her feet.

She was in borrowed pajamas in front of her boss. No matter how kind he was being right now, she really just wanted to get in the shower and try to wash away the grime and the pounding headache that was forming behind her forehead.

“I mean it,” he continued, voice still warm and sad. “This should not have happened. James should have been more prepared and paid better attention to what was going on.”

Gabriella frowned, her whole body suddenly cold. “What do you mean?”

“That creature was able to latch on to you and come home to your apartment without anyone knowing,” Robin explained, his voice soft. “If James had done the recitations properly and actually followed procedure, you wouldn’t have been hurt.”

“What? No, James-”

“It was the same creature, Gabriella,” he said, barreling over her protests. “It got out because James cut corners. I know he didn’t mean to hurt you, but he did. And that is inexcusable.”

Could Robin be serious right now? He didn’t have any reason to lie to her about this, so why would he? She trusted James, but sometimes he didn’t think things through, right? Hadn’t Gran said that?

And Robin hadn’t given her any reason not to trust him. He was the team leader. His whole job was to keep them safe. It wasn’t like he was out to get James or anything like that.

“He didn’t mean to hurt you,” Robin continued as Gabriella’s stomach sank. “Obviously, we all know how much he loves you. But if he hadn’t gotten lazy with the ritual, none of this would have happened.”

She felt tears pricking her eyes and she tried to blink them away. Even after a few hours of sleep, Gabriella still felt off-kilter as she looked at Robin and that headache was just growing. “I’ll be talking to him today,” Robin said. “It’s inexcusable that you got hurt.”

“Thanks,” she breathed.

She didn’t know the ritual James had done. All she knew was that she’d left that house and gone home to a monster under her bed. So for all she knew, Robin was right. And like he said, James would never intentionally hurt her. She knew that. But she was so sore and so rattled by everything that had happened, and there was no other reasonable explanation for how the entity had made its way from the case to her apartment.

“Alright, go take a shower and get some breakfast,” Robin said, voice still warm. “The rest of the team is coming in for a meeting at eight.”

He clapped her on her good shoulder, then walked past her and back out toward the living room.

In a daze, Gabriella walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. Once the water was set as hot as it would go, she gave it a moment to warm up as she gingerly got undressed. As she climbed in, she realized there was no comfortable way to wash her hair without getting her bandages wet. So she awkwardly scrubbed it with one hand as she let the other bandaged arm dangle out from behind the shower curtain.

She tilted her head back into the stream and thought back to last night as the shampoo ran down her long hair. They’d gone in and done the incense, bells, and prayer. Was there something else that they were supposed to do? Some kind of protection that they’d missed? No one on the team had mentioned anything, but there had been a point when James went off by himself. Maybe something had happened then? Or maybe he’d just forgotten something. When they were at the house, Bradley had told him to do his job for once. Was there something more to that than Bradley just being a prick?

It took about twenty minutes under the hot spray until she felt a little more human and finally clean. By the time she got out, her head felt a little clearer than it had since last night. She slowly got dressed and realized she was dreading this team meeting.

How could James have been so careless? Obviously, he didn’t mean to get her hurt, but that was what had happened. What other explanation was there? That they’d taken care of the monster and then an identical one coincidentally ended up in her apartment immediately after? The most obvious solution was the simplest one. And the most obvious solution here was that James had messed up on the case. And whether he’d done it deliberately or whether he’d been careless didn’t matter. Robin was right, he’d gotten her into danger.

She didn’t like this feeling of sick anger that was bleeding through her, but especially when it was directed at James. She’d never been mad at James before, had she? She’d known him literally her entire life, yet she couldn’t think of another time they’d done anything more than bicker. But this was different. He could have gotten her killed. And she was brand new to this. What had he been thinking?

Shaking with anger, Gabriella carefully pulled on her clothes and brushed her teeth. Now the rest of the team was going to think she was useless at this job, and it was all because of James. They were going to think she was always scared and always needed to be rescued and that would be it for any respect she might get from them. And it wasn’t like she could quit. She had to pay her bills.

By the time she was cleaned up and ready for breakfast, she wasn’t hungry anymore. But she went out to the kitchen for some coffee anyway. There wasn’t any brewed yet, Robin must not have been a coffee drinker. Gabriella pulled out a can of grocery store brand ground coffee and started up a batch. As it was beginning to brew, she heard voices coming from Robin’s office.

“You need to get your head in the game!” she heard clearly through the door. “James, Gabriella could have been killed last night. What the hell were you playing at, not sealing the gateway?”

She heard James answer, but his voice was too quiet to hear clearly through the door. But it didn’t matter, because Robin’s response was even louder.

“‘I could have sworn’ isn’t good enough!” he yelled. “You need to do it every single time. And if you think you did it, you need to redo it. This was an amateur mistake and I expect better from you.”

Again, muffled sound from James. That sick feeling flared back up, but was tamped down by anger. He didn’t seal something? That’s how it got out? And what, she was just never supposed to find out unless she happened to be making coffee right here, right now?

The office door opened as Robin was saying, “We’ll discuss this later. Team meeting in twenty minutes, you will be there and you will take responsibility for your mistakes.”

James walked out of the office, face pale and expression haunted. He caught sight of Gabriella in the kitchen immediately.

“Gab-” he started helplessly.

No, she wasn’t dealing with this right now. Her arm hurt, she was traumatized, and apparently it was all because he was careless on a case. So she just shook her head.

“Leave me alone,” she said, then turned to pour her coffee.

***

The rest of the team was quiet as they all filed into the living room for the team meeting. The anger crackling off of Robin was apparently evident to everybody who hadn’t been there this morning, since there was no joking or chatting as they filed in. Instead, Gabriella stayed in the chair while James sat miserably across the room on one of the sofas. Amelia and Madelyn sat down on the couch next to Gabriella’s chair, both looking apprehensive as Robin glowered in the corner. Bradley came in last and sat next to James in the last open seat.

“Last night was unacceptable,” Robin began in a low voice as they were all finally seated.

Gabriella couldn’t help feeling a little grateful for his anger. It felt protective and fierce and after being so scared, the idea of someone protecting her felt good. Still, she felt a little bad that it was being directed at the whole group, and not just James.

“James was in charge, so obviously a lot of the blame falls on him and his own mistakes, but you all messed up last night,” Robin continued. “You were supposed to do your jobs, you slacked on that, and Gabriella was hurt as a result. Instead of protecting her on her first job, you put her in even more danger.”

Gabriella sneaked a glance around the room. Amelia looked like she was close to tears, while Madelyn looked down at her hands. James kept looking in Gabriella’s direction, not daring to make eye contact. And Bradley just watched Robin with his expression closed.

“This is the best team in Massachusetts, according to the Foundation,” Robin continued. “I take pride in that. And you should too. But if you’re cutting corners on a case, you’re clearly not taking any sort of pride in this work.”

He stepped closer to James, who cringed just a little. “The creature you were fighting last night, the one that you were supposed to neutralize safely? That creature followed your teammate home and attacked her in her own bed. How is she supposed to trust any of you now?”

Now Gabriella could feel the eyes on her as she looked down at the shabby blue carpet. She was grateful for Robin’s support, but he was laying it on a little thick, wasn’t he?

“James.”

James’s head snapped up at Robin’s call.

“You’re suspended from fieldwork,” Robin continued. “You’ll be taking over Bradley’s support role.”

Bradley opened his mouth to protest, and Robin glared at him. “That’s an order,” he snapped.

Bradley closed his mouth and glared at Robin, who glared back. Then he turned to James. “You’ll stay in headquarters, on support, until you’ve proven to me that you’re capable of being a leader in the field. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” James answered softly.

He looked crushed in a way Gabriella had never seen before. Not even during Gran’s funeral or when his mother had been in the hospital years ago. It was like every trace of humor had left him.

Good, thought a nasty little part of her mind. It still horrified her that he would get her into this situation to, what, shave a few minutes off of an investigation? She honestly didn’t know.

Robin finally looked away from James and at Bradley. “Bradley,” he said. “God help me, but you’re my second in command for the time being. You’ll be taking over field cases when I’m not available.”

Rather than be pleased at the promotion, Bradley looked like he’d swallowed a lemon. But he said nothing and just nodded as his gaze flicked toward Amelia and Madelyn for a split second.

“Don’t fuck it up.”

She could almost see the snarky response trying to force its way out of Bradley’s mouth. Instead, he looked Robin in the eye and nodded.

Robin looked around the room at all of them. “Shape up,” he warned. “Dismissed.”

Bradley got up and immediately walked out of the room, disappearing down the stairs into the basement. Amelia shot a tearful glance at Gabriella, but hurried out of the room before saying anything. Madelyn’s expression was cagey as she passed Gabriella and Gabriella quickly looked away.

She couldn’t help stealing a glance at James, but he didn’t look at her, just stared blankly at the floor. She wasn’t about to start any conversations so instead, she got up and walked back toward the bedroom.

---

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 12