James had intended to go home at nine that night, but when midnight rolled around, he was still at work. The safety modules were stupid and he knew it, but it beat missing something that might put someone on the team in danger on a case. So once he had tonight’s paperwork done for McGovern and had finally managed to stop imagining the many ways that things could have gone worse at the school, he kept going to finish those. 

Amelia had left as soon as they got back. James apologized to her, but she admitted that it beat being at home alone right then. But now she wanted to be at home sleeping, so she’d gladly leave and see them all tomorrow. And they could figure out when to get her car from Providence tomorrow, because there was no way they were going tonight. 

Then, when Gabriella arrived for the overnight shift, apparently the family communications chain had already been buzzing, because she came into James’s office immediately.

“Did she seriously summon a ghost in her middle school auditorium?” she asked as she dropped an insulated lunch bag on James’s desk. “That’s cabbage soup, by the way. Let me know what you think.”

James looked at it skeptically. Gabriella’s soups had all been hits so far, but if any was going to go wrong, he figured it was the cabbage one. But he was hungry, so he opened the bag and pulled out the little container. Once the screw top was open, the cabbage smell was pungent, but not as bad as he might expect. He took a cautious sip, then another.

“She did,” he said. “How did you find out?”

“Celia told Auntie Jules, who was with both our moms and Uncle Tommy when she called.”

James winced as he took another bite of soup. “Yeah,” Gabriella said, correctly interpreting the wince as having nothing to do with the soup. “He was on his way over to talk to Penny too.”

“I’m pretty sure I traumatized her,” James said. “And ruined any chance of her coming to me with any secrets ever again. But all three of those kids could have died tonight. And I took a trombone to the chest and fell off the stage, so I’m not feeling particularly gentle.”

“I’m glad it was you and not me,” Gabriella admitted. “If she’d begged me to keep it a secret from Celia, I wouldn’t. But it would be a lot harder.”

James shrugged. “I’ve had more time to practice.”

“You’d be a good dad, you’re better at being mean than me.”

He laughed, taking another sip of soup. “Not happening, but I get plenty of practice being mean here. Become a captain someday and you’ll be mean before you know it.”

She looked sad for a second, just long enough for him to want to take it back. But then she laughed. “No way,” she said. “I’ll leave that to you and Amelia, I’m happy in research. No, when I have kids I’ll learn to be mean that way. What are you doing?”

“Captain’s training for new safety modules,” James said. “I put it off longer than I should’ve.”

“So you’re here doing them at midnight after rescuing a bunch of kids from an angry ghost?”

“It’s fine,” he said, internally waving off his irritation. “They’re almost done. It’s important.”

She looked at him strangely. “I’m fine,” he said. “I’ll head out soon.”

Gabriella didn’t appear to be leaving. “You’re heading home now, right?” she asked.

Fine. They’d be fine if they got them eight hours later than he would have sent them. As he closed out of the module, James looked down and realized he’d finished the cabbage soup without realizing it. And now, as he packed up and said goodnight to Gabs, he wasn’t sure that that hadn’t been her plan all along.

***

James was back the next morning and he had to rearrange the entire day. The approval from McGovern was already in his inbox when he got there at seven-thirty, timestamped at one that morning, so at least everything would be official. 

But it meant that the entire day was a mess. And as he looked at the requirements for the day, he realized it was a different mess than he’d anticipated. His original plan to have Graham over at the school wasn’t going to work, he was needed over at Creature Containment today. Madelyn was on, she could do it. But it was hot and humid, more so than the day before, and James knew she was already overdoing it, so he wanted her to stay at headquarters as much as possible today. Gabriella could do it, but she was off for the next eight hours and it would put her in a very uncomfortable situation when she got back. So James would put himself in that situation instead. And blow up all of Bradley’s work plans for the day too, just thirty-six hours after blowing up all of Bradley’s personal plans.

Typing was slow and awkward around the elastic bandage he was still wearing around his wrist. It felt better than it had last night, so maybe it was just twisted. But Celia had said to keep it on at least until he came over today and he hadn’t emailed Dr. Hillard about it yet. It was on the list, he’d do that in a little while if he really had to.

Especially because he couldn’t really get his glove on around the bandage, so one hand felt completely exposed as he tried to finish the modules. If he could just get the elastic bandage off and put his glove back on, he’d feel much better.

The door opened at eight and Bradley was the first one in. “I’m going to be out back most of the day,” he said in greeting as he hung his bag neatly on the coat rack. “I’ve got so much admin work to do that it’s not even funny, and I barely fucking slept last night. I kept having school nightmares, which better be nothing more than that or I’ll kill someone, so-”

He stopped as he came into the living room and immediately noticed James’s hand. “What the hell happened to you?”

“School nightmare,” James replied, both surprised and happy to hear Bradley openly reference the psychic abilities he’d been in complete denial about until about three months earlier. “Go get some coffee, we need to talk. You’re about to hate me.”

Bradley sighed and turned abruptly toward the kitchen. He came back with two mugs a moment later and set one on the coffee table in front of James, nudging the empty one aside. Then he sat down and watched James expectantly.

“Is it sprained?” he asked.

“I think it’s just twisted, but Celia said to get it checked. I will.”

“Right.”

He laid out the events of the night before and Bradley listened silently, his face neutral in a way that, same as Celia last night, almost made James nervous. “So the auditorium is shut down for today,” James finished. “And you and I are reassigned to this case.”

“Ah.”

“I’m really sorry, I will take any of that paperwork you were going to do today and do it tonight. No, wait, I have to drive Amelia to get her car. Um, after that, though. I’ll come back after and do it.”

“No, don’t,” Bradley said. “I don’t care. What are we doing?”

“We’re doing interviews,” James said. “The three kids, the teacher, um, I’m debating whether we should talk to any of the administrators? Or the principal or something?”

“Unless they have information about the history of the building, they’re not going to be helpful,” Bradley said. “Is your cousin on today?”

“She was overnight, so you just missed her. But she’s back at three.”

“We’ll have to get as much history on the building as we can. If she can’t, then I can go to City Hall or whatever later.”

“Thanks,” James said. “Yeah, that’d be great.”

Bradley nodded and took a sip of his coffee. “You make weak fucking coffee,” he said.

“No, I make coffee that’s safe for humans to consume,” James retorted. “Okay, let me check with Celia when we should go over. She said she talked to the other parents, who are obviously pissed too. But they’re going to bring their kids over so we can interview them all at once.”

“You don’t want to do this separately?”

“I thought about it,” James said. “But I don’t know. They’re kids, they made a stupid decision and summoned something. I don’t think there’s a conspiracy here. Penny’s a good kid, but she’s twelve and she wants to be a ghost hunter. I was like that too. Except I just set up ghost traps at Gran’s house.”

Bradley looked at him for a moment. “Ghost traps?” he repeated.

“Yeah,” James said. “Like, I’d take one of her wicker laundry baskets and set it at the bottom of the attic stairs with salt in it.”

“And the ghost would, what, fall down the stairs and get stuck? Then dehydrate?”

“You never know,” James said with a shrug.

“No, I’m pretty sure I do.”

“You say that now,” James teased as he stood up with his empty coffee cup and started moving toward the kitchen. “But one of these days, you’ll be at some house, looking at your data and wishing for that wicker basket.”