After a few hours of sleep and a long shower, Gabriella was back at work. The first thing she saw when she walked into headquarters was James on his cell phone. He paced the living room, his back to her as she came inside. “I don’t care,” he snapped, sounding so unlike himself that Gabriella was immediately taken aback as she was kicking off her shoes by the door. “My agent is recovering from surgery. Surgery for an injury she received on the job, can I add? She has the sick time. She’s got months’ worth of vacation time that’s been rolling over since she was, like, seven years old. So she’s more than earned it. Two weeks minimum is what her surgeon said, it’s what Dr. Oliver confirmed, and it’s what she’s taking. At minimum. Paid. The fact that she has to worry about the Foundation bugging her while she recovers is just…” He pinched the bridge of his nose in a surprisingly Bradley-like move. “She’s upset. She’s called me twice, in pain and upset because someone is pressuring her to submit paperwork to switch to an unpaid medical leave of absence.”

As Gabriella crept into the living room, she could hear the sound of someone on the other end, too quiet to understand clearly.

“I understand,” James said. “But that’s not an injured agent’s problem. She has the sick time and I’ve approved all of this. And if there are any problems, you call me, not her. Got it?”

Another murmur of assent on the other end. “Good. Thank you.”

James hung up and sat down on the sofa. “Jesus Christ,” he muttered, rubbing his forehead.

“What happened?” Gabriella asked, cautiously sitting down nearby.

“They’re calling Madelyn again, so I told them off,” he answered. “This is unbelievable.”

“I just emailed you all the paperwork,” Bradley said from behind her. “I’ll take any questions they might have about that.”

She hadn’t even seen Bradley over at the computer bank when she walked in. “Thanks,” James said, standing up with a groan. “Gabs, team meeting when Amelia gets here. We have several things to discuss. Bradley, go eat some pasta.”

“Stop with the fucking pasta,” Bradley muttered, not looking away from what he was typing.

James got up and headed toward his office, while Gabriella pulled out her phone to scroll through her notes from yesterday. She wanted to dig into the Foundation’s history with the Wildwood Hotel before she and Amelia went back to formulate their plan of attack, so hopefully the several things didn’t take that long to discuss.

***

Graham came out of one of the back rooms a few minutes later. He sat down on the couch beside Gabriella, looking like he was trying to wake up a little more before the next shift started.

“Madelyn says hi, by the way,” Gabriella said.

Graham lit up, and she tried not to show that she’d noticed it. Or how happy that made her. “How is she?” he asked. “Did you see her?”

“Tired,” she replied. “And yeah, I stopped by their apartment with Amelia. We were talking to her about the Wildwood case for a little bit this morning. Oh, she says to text her.”

“What about?”

Gabriella shrugged and grinned at him, not even bothering anymore.

Over at the computer bank, Bradley was drinking an energy drink and arguing quietly with James about something on the Powerpoint he was apparently making for the meeting. Fang was asleep on the chair beside him, seemingly unconcerned with anything happening in the room around her.

“Good enough,” James said. “Alright, everyone who’s scheduled is here?”

Amelia was sliding into the chair with a coffee and murmured hello as James glanced at all of them. “Alright,” he said, “First, the cryptid hunt continues. So I’ll be on that tonight. It’s raining and going to continue raining, so I’m very excited about this. Amelia, I read your report about last night at the Wildwood. Gabs, good job keeping your cool. Time bends are scary enough when you know they’re a possibility. I have no idea what triggered it, but we’ll adapt the rounds tonight to try and prevent it from happening again. What are your thoughts for tonight, Amelia?”

“I want to look at whatever was collected today,” Amelia said around a yawn. “But we’re thinking that Sarah Morgan is behind it. Though she may or may not be conscious of it, which is part of what we need to figure out tonight. I think, given that she’s a previously human entity, we might be able to reason with her. But I’d like a few options before we put anything into effect.”

James considered that for a moment as he yawned as well. “Sounds reasonable,” he said finally. “Just be careful.”

He motioned to the Powerpoint displayed on the screen, which had a few new claw marks on the bottom. “Thank you, Fang, for your contribution,” he said, with mock applause toward the sleeping cat. Then he went back to the Powerpoint, which showed a seemingly ordinary squat brick building. “Alright, onto the fun news,” he said. “We’re on a third case today.”

There were groans throughout the room and Gabriella let her head fall back against the back of the couch. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, they’re piling them on,” James said. “But I think we can wrap up some tonight and get things under control. Graham, you’re going to be taking this one. It’s straightforward, just a haunted storage space in an empty building. Today you’ll be interviewing the owners and checking the cellar for any strange readings.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

“I’ll take the forest solo, that should be no big deal.”

Bradley frowned at him from his spot by the computer. “Oh, we need to repair one of the comms sets,” James said. “That’s the other thing I needed to tell you. Mine died yesterday and I wasn’t able to find a spare. I’ll put in a repair request tonight when I get back.”

“So should I go interview and observe the shop now?” Graham asked.

“No, the owner said he won’t be back until tonight,” James said. “Tell you what, you take the comms. I won’t need it, I have my phone.”

“No way.”

Bradley was glaring at James now. “No, it’s fine,” James told him, holding up his cell phone. “I have my phone if you need to reach me. I can just keep it on the call while I’m there.”

“You lost service yesterday.”

“Look, it’s not a big deal,” James said, a touch of tension in his voice now. “We need to get these cases done. I’ve been doing this forever, I’ll be fine.”

Gabriella had so much to do before they left. Did they really need to argue right now? She glanced out the window as a car rolled down the street, the heavy bass of the driver’s music audible from where she sat. The car disappeared and she turned back around, where James and Bradley were staring daggers at each other in front of the now-frozen Powerpoint.

“No, you need to have comms on you when you’re on a case.”

“I can make that decision for myself, Bradley,” James snapped. “I’m the captain, remember? I make those decisions. Why are you so damn insistent about us having comms these days? We spent years doing plenty of cases without them when we had to and we were fine.”

“Yeah! And then Robin pulled Gabriella out of here to go into the forest with no case on the board and no way to reach them!” Bradley yelled, slamming a hand on the table and rattling the computers. Gabriella jumped in her seat, while Fang bolted down the hall toward the bedrooms. “And I watched them leave, and I knew, I fucking knew that something bad was about to happen. But I couldn’t prove it or follow to where they were actually going. All I could do was tell you and hope that she was smart enough to maybe not do anything too stupid.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut, grimacing like an enormous headache had just settled into place. “And then you went into that school alone, because apparently your entire family just can’t fucking help themselves,” he continued, much quieter now. “And we got there and your comm was dead, so we had to look in all the classrooms in that hallway. And we found you on the ground and for a second, I was so sure you weren’t breathing. And we would have found you sooner if your comm hadn’t shut off. And then the van crashed and I know that those were different situations, but could you please, please, just wear the goddamn comm?”

The room was silent as Bradley stopped talking, still pressing a shaking hand to his eyes as though he were in pain. James looked at him for a long moment.

“Alright,” he said quietly. “Alright, I’ll wear the goddamn comm.”

“Thank you.”

Gabriella wasn’t sure what she should be doing here. If there was anything she could do without making things worse. James took the seat next to Bradley, who hadn’t looked up. “Are you okay?” he asked. “Did you get any sleep between shifts?”

“I took a break.”

“Yeah, that’s not what I asked.”

Bradley looked up at the ceiling. “I had a paper to write,” he said. “It’s fine.”

James put a gentle hand on his shoulder and Bradley flinched, finally turning to scowl at him. “That’s all I have,” James said, turning to the rest of them. “Meeting’s done. Brad, can I talk to you in my office?”

He didn’t look angry anymore. Of course he didn’t, it was James. His frustration had melted into concern almost immediately. Meanwhile, Bradley looked like he wanted to get up and leave.

“Come on,” James said, jerking his head toward his office door.

His reluctance obvious, Bradley got up and followed him. James closed the door behind them and the other three looked at each other. “Damn,” Amelia said in a low voice.

It had never occurred to Gabriella that Bradley had been afraid for her that night. She’d suspected he knew something was off about it, but that was as far as it went. Even Gabriella had thought it was weird that Robin was bringing her out without anyone on comms or even an official report, but she was still so new and (overly) trusting of Robin and his position that she assumed it was fine. But apparently after she’d left, her phone call wasn’t quite as much of a surprise as she thought it was.

“I guess I’ll try to get that history on the Foundation’s work with the hotel,” Gabriella said, looking to Amelia for confirmation. “There’s still a few hours until they’re expecting us back there, right?”

“Yeah,” Amelia said, nodding as she looked away from James’s closed office door. “That’s a good plan. I’ll be downstairs.”

She got up and moved quickly down the carpeted staircase toward the basement gym. Gabriella took the seat beside the computer Bradley had been using and turned it on, knowing full well it would take a while to fully boot up.

Graham was still sitting on the sofa, looking out the window. “Are you alright?” Gabriella asked him.

“Yeah,” Graham replied, focused on another car slowly driving down their quiet street. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a tough week here, I guess.”

He groaned, running a hand over his short hair. “They’re really piling it on,” he said. “And this cryptid they have me and James chasing. Why now? I looked into it last night, after James mentioned there might be another case on deck. I haven’t seen anyone reporting it outside of the Foundation. No one’s even mentioned anything weird in the Leominster State Forest recently. Those kittens Bradley mentioned yesterday were from six months ago, and I’m not sure they included that in their initial brief. So they’re clearly pissed off at James and retaliating.”

He shook his head, watching out the window as another car slowly passed by. “Now we’re working doubles every day to get this done and I don’t know what their endgame is. But I’ve worked in academia most of my adult life, I know what retaliation looks like. This is textbook. Is it to turn us against James or something? Like we’ll blame him for it? Or get so worn out by the work that we’ll do something rash?”

“Please don’t stab me in the forest.”

The joke was out before Gabriella could even believe she was saying it. Graham turned and looked at her, then shook his head with a laugh.

“And they’re making it so we can’t do anything else outside of work,” Gabriella said. “How are you possibly working your other job still? And I can’t believe Bradley’s actually doing a degree while he’s working here. I barely have time to eat before I fall asleep after shifts and you guys are just starting your outside work.”

Graham gave her another strange look. “What?” Gabriella asked.

Then it dawned on her. “Wait, is that a secret?” she asked, lowering her voice to a whisper.

“Has he mentioned it to you at all?”

“No, but he is constantly doing homework when he’s here. Obviously he’s in school. I literally saw his calculus textbook on, like, my first day. I didn’t realize it was supposed to be a secret. Did you know?”

Graham shrugged, which clearly meant that he did. “Either way, they’re taking their anger out on us,” he said. “And I know unionizing went awful in the past, but this is just…”

He shook his head in disgust. “Madelyn’s going to come back to this. And you know they’ll have her right back on doubles too. I don’t miss teaching, but at least there were a few protections there.”

He stood up with a groan as she tried to digest his words. “I might as well get my things together for the interview.”

The two of them worked at the computer bank in silence for a little while. Of course there was nothing in the off-site accessible databases, so Gabriella sent in a request to the archives at the Foundation’s main headquarters to pull information from the Wildwood’s address, past hundred years. That felt a little excessive, even as she sent the email. She might need to send whoever was currently in the records office a Dunkin Donuts gift card or something for the information, especially if it wasn’t digitized yet.

About twenty minutes later, James’s office door opened. He walked out alone, closing the door behind him. “Bradley’s going to take a break in there for a little while,” he said.

“Is he okay?” Gabriella asked.

“Yeah, just overworked like the rest of us. And taking five fucking…”

He stopped, realizing he’d been about to slip and give away the worst-kept secret in the world. Gabriella shook her head. “I figured it out,” she said. “Even before he flat out said he was working on a paper.”

James smiled grimly. “Five fucking classes, then. The semester ended in the middle of all this shit, and he had one more paper to submit. But yeah, we just talked for a bit and he’s taking a rest on the couch. I told him I’d come get him before anybody left on a case.”

“Are you going to?”

“Of course,” James replied, looking surprised. “He’d never trust me again if I don’t, and I’m not dealing with that.”

“Just asking,” Gabriella said, “Because I’m still bitter that you didn’t wake me up for the New Year’s Eve ball drop that time.”

James had been on his way into the living room, but he stopped beside the dining room table and looked at her. “You were like four,” he said slowly. “How the hell do you remember that?”

Gabriella shrugged and smiled. “I just do,” she said. “And I’ll hold it against you forever.”

He sat down on the couch. “I feel like we haven’t really talked about it,” he said, fiddling with the pen he was holding in his hand.

“About what?”

“Robin. And what happened.”

That eternal urge to apologize was back, the words bubbling up her throat before she could swallow them back down. Speaking of holding things against someone forever. “We all know what today is,” James continued before the apology could escape. “It’s literally the anniversary. And obviously we haven’t moved past it as much as we thought.”

She remembered catching Bradley’s eye when she left with Robin. She’d been so sure she could trust him. And now she was so angry with her previous self for being so young and stupid. At least James’s situation at the Jarvis Street School hadn’t been his fault, his comm had just died as the ghost connected with him. She’d known that this increased need for communication on cases was due to what happened at the school, but she’d had no clue how her leaving with Robin might have played into it. And now she was blinking back tears that were partially because of that, partially because she’d only gotten a solid four hours of sleep in between double shifts.

“Gabs, it’s alright.”

“I know,” she said, “I’m just…I’m sorry for what I did.”

She looked at Graham. “I messed up really bad when I first started.”

“I know,” he said simply.

She’d never told him. Did the others? Had they sat him down somewhere in the house – or maybe at a bar without her – and told him the whole shameful story? Or was it just floating in the ether of the house, the same way that Bradley’s degree and Graham’s obvious crush on Madelyn were? Just energy absorbed into the 1950s brick of the house to stay here forever?

James looked like he wasn’t sure what to say. Which made sense, none of them quite knew what to say about it. Even Bradley had stopped lobbing poison her way at some point in the past twelve months, about that at least. “It’s over,” James finally said.

“Is it?”

He obviously didn’t have an answer for her. So instead, he just sighed, leaning back against the couch. “They’ve made it so clear they don’t care about us,” he said softly, almost soft enough that she thought maybe she hadn’t been meant to hear it.

It wasn’t a surprise, but it was a jolt to hear it said out loud. Graham didn’t seem as rattled as she was, but James just shook his head and kept talking. “I don’t know, I knew they were retaliating. But they didn’t care about what happened to you, Gabbie. They didn’t care about Robin, they didn’t care about Madelyn. They knew everything and how it affected us. And I guess I knew on some level how little they cared. But I look at all of you and you’re all so good at this and you’re all so dedicated. And they’ll let you kill yourselves for this job.”

She wanted to interrupt and say that the same went for him, but something about the look on James’s face kept her from speaking. “They’re harassing Madelyn to tears and they’re working us all to the fucking bone. Bradley’s doing the degree to keep his job. He just told me they put that into place, that the team admins need bachelor’s degrees within the next three years. Not that they’ve mentioned anything about that to the captains recently. And he doesn’t know how to take a break anyway, I always have to bully him into it. They’ve got Madelyn terrified for her job when even before this she was feeling vulnerable. I’m scared they’re going to chew Amelia up and spit her back out the minute she gets her own crew. Graham, I don’t know, you seem sane. But I pulled you into this mess. And I did the same to you, Gabs.”

“What about you?” Gabriella asked finally.

“Me? I’m the picture of health.”

Graham laughed, shaking his head. “Would Amelia say the same thing?” Gabriella asked.

“Nope.”

He gave them both a grim smile, then got up and headed toward the kitchen.

---

CONTINUE TO CHAPTER 8