Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Verge of Something Wonderful ❯ Mrs. Billie Louise Alcott ( Chapter 16 )

Authors note: As always, thank you for reading; I hope everyone enjoys this new update. Special thanks to everyone who has commented, especially those of you who I can't reply, each one of you has brought a smile to my face and your generosity in your reviews has encouraged me greatly to see this story through to the end (which is getting closer with each new chapter I put out). I'm very grateful to all of you.

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Two hours later the kitchen had once more been returned to a pristine condition. It was two hours of Dee's life that he sorely wished he could get back because it had not been fun in the least. Dried ketchup does not come up easily and the mayonnaise had started to spoil before they managed to get all of it cleaned up from all the surfaces it had been splattered on. Ellen had cracked a not so humorous joke about the number of times she had spent cleaning up the house this past week and how good she was getting at it what with all the practice she had. Trudging out the house with the last trash bag of destroyed food products Dee thought to his self that they were all getting a little too much practice in when it came to picking up after the resident, habitually pissed off ghost.

Once it was all said and done Lynn bullied and prodded Ellen into riding with her to the grocery store to replace the food and left Dee alone with a sour faced Ryo. Both the Chief and Rose had called to check in on them while they were cleaning and the conversations had left Ryo highly irritated with them and the situation. Ryo wanted to go home and had been incredibly straight forward in saying so to their Chief before Dee had gotten the phone away from him and taken the phone call outside. The Chief just as bluntly asked what the hell had gotten under Randy's skin to make him act like that which had left Dee with the unenviable chore of explaining the highly improbable to a man who most likely did not want to hear it.

Dee had persevered though, being just as blunt right back and telling the Chief in no uncertain terms that what was going on at his friend's house was not a police matter and they could not help. The Chief had finally just sighed and made some huffing noises before accepting Dee's explanation of events. Dee could not however convince their superior to let them come home. Warren was adamant that they see the assignment through and was already working on the obfuscation he was going to tell his friend when next they spoke. Something along the lines of his two best detectives had found nothing whatsoever and couldn't hang around forever. Dee had shrugged when he had finally snapped Ryo's cell phone shut; if the dude didn't listen to all the other people who told him the damn house was haunted it wasn't his problem to change his mind. He'd be back on a plane to New York soon enough and it would no longer be his or Ryo's problem.

He had no more handed the phone back to Ryo when it rang again, this time Rose's number coming up on the display. Ryo had scowled at the phone and seemed to be in some sort of internal struggle with his self before giving in and answering the phone. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he was not happy with whatever Rose was saying to him, Ryo's face getting tighter and sourer by the second. Dee wisely decided that it was an excellent time to get that smoke he had been putting off for the last few hours. Ryo's temper was nothing to play around with and he'd been in a mood all morning long. It cost Dee a lot of his own emotional control to not snatch the phone out of Ryo's hand and tell Rose to piss off. He didn't like the man on the best of days and he absolutely hated the way he tried to move in on Ryo. If he stayed to listen he would only wind up losing his temper his self and that would get him nowhere he wanted to be with Ryo.

Dee took his time with his smoke, dragging on the cigarette as he walked from the front of the house to back of the house letting his gaze slide over the landscape. It was interesting how this place smelled, a far cry from the city, the yard was strewn with pine needles and they crackled under his feet where he walked. These dried out pine needles and pine cones had their own smell to them, it reminded Dee of the rare field trips in his childhood when the orphanage would take the kids out of the city and they'd eat bagged lunches of baloney sandwiches with little bags of potato chip seated out on the grounds of whatever museum or nature preserve they would be at for day. This was the smell of sun drenched days, thin brown pine needles warmed by the heat and sometimes pliable enough for the girls to braid them together in necklaces and bracelets that never quite held up long enough to make it back home again.

The deeper, muskier scent he picked up came from well within the thick woods surrounding the yard and even more heavily from an area of the shed where it perpetually stayed in the shade; pine needles had come up the side of the building in a thick drift. Dee would not have stuck his hand in that mess for anything short of Ryo asking it of him. It smelled rich and decayed, he knew it would be damp underneath, the leaves breaking back down into soil at the bottom of the muck, and no likely filled to the brim with all sorts of beetles, palmetto bugs, and worms. In just getting close to it caused him to have to puff out more and more of his cigarette smoke to keep the buzzing mosquitoes at bay.

A shiver swept down Dee's back as he stood there with smoke swimming about his head as he alternated between blowing it out and waving the hand that held the cigarette about in the air to further disperse the little black blood sucking monsters. It was cooler here by several degrees but it was by no means a pleasant escape from the more pronounced heat in the center of the yard. The place felt seriously off to Dee so he made his way back towards the house taking reassurance from the crunch of the needles and dry grass beneath his feet proving that he was moving steadily away from the area. Not for the last time he thought to himself that this place royally sucked, there was a weird feeling between his shoulder blades like he was being stared at, followed by eyes he could not see and it was giving him the willies the longer it went on. Goosebumps rose up on his neck and arms despite the summer heat. He had the uncanny feeling that if he were to turn around quick enough he would catch a glimpse of a weathered old man standing at the door of the shed. In his mind's eye he could see the grey bristles on the man's cheeks, the awkward line of his mouth hiding ill fitting dentures, the worn out work pants he'd have on over old steel toed work boots and the grubby nature of his t-shirt with a short sleeved button up thrown over it. But Dee had no such inclination to whip his head about and see if it proved true or not and held his sight steady on the house and the back door that would lead him back to Ryo.

Ryo opened the door just as Dee reached it and ushered him back into the house. The air conditioning spilled down onto Dee and he wrinkled his nose, it smelled old too and he wondered how he had missed that the first night they had spent there. The entire place was like an over ripe piece of fruit, sweet and sickly, he could only imagine how it must be clinging to their clothes and skin. Ryo's cell phone had been tossed up on to the kitchen counter, a clear indicator of Ryo's vexation with the place and with Rose. Dee put out a hand and laid it lightly on Ryo's upper arm, holding his attention when Ryo looked up into his eyes.

“You want to tell me about it? Get it off your chest before it gets to you?” Dee asked quietly. He was sure he wasn't going to like it but nothing Rose did ever made Dee's list of joy and happiness. Ryo rolled his eyes and scowled, pulling his arms up to cross over his chest. But then a lower lip was pulled between his teeth and Ryo looked thoughtful for a moment. Mentally Dee urged Ryo, silently encouraging him to continue, to lean on Dee and trust in him the way he trusted and leaned on Ryo. Ryo gave a little shake of his head but then surprised Dee by sliding into his arms and laying his head on Dee's shoulder, their bodies pressed together tight. Dee automatically locked his own arms around Ryo and held him close. The angels in heaven could have heard the soaring bursting of Dee's heart when Ryo relaxed against him and gave out small contented sigh, all the tenseness bleeding out from his body. `Now that's my Ryo.' Dee thought happily to his self, nuzzling the soft waves of Ryo's hair and matching contented sigh for contented sigh.

From the vicinity of Dee's shirt Ryo murmured at him. “Nothing to really tell Dee, same old same old, he makes me feel like a piece of meat he's trying to tenderize for dinner. I don't even think he realizes how much he comes off like a dirty old man. I imagine he thinks he's being quite charming but he's not. I wish he'd just give it a rest and act like a professional for once. The whole conversation was him trying to subtly put you down while trying to hit on me. Just bleah. I feel like I need another shower to get the slime off.” Ryo sighed out again and snuggled into Dee. “This is nice Dee, just being with you like this is really, really nice.”

A brightness threatened behind Dee's eyelids but he blinked them back, happy tears were still tears and he was still a man, so he stifled them and instead nodded in to Ryo's hair. “Yeah, I think so too.” He answered back softly and rubbed his hand up and down Ryo's back in a soothing gesture. It was a wonderful moment; one Dee wanted to last and to remember for ever after when it ended. Ryo hummed appreciatively against his neck sending a gentle vibration into him. Maybe his heart really was going to burst Dee thought because he was sure his body couldn't possibly contain much more joy before it surpassed his ability to hold and spilled out into the universe around him.

They stood this way for quite some time, enough time for the back of Dee's legs to tighten up and it was with great reluctance that he eased out of the embrace enough to coax Ryo to the couch too sit down. Instead of sitting beside him though Ryo slid onto Dee's lap facing him, his knees tucked up against Dee's hips, and his arms loosely about Dee's shoulders. From this position Ryo was slightly above Dee. Dee settled his own arms across the top of Ryo's thighs and then around his backside, grabbing on with both hands. Dee stared up into Ryo's nearly blacked eyed stare and tried to read past the inky darkness, to know for sure what was going on in his partner's often confusing mind. Ryo whispered against his lips. “The girls will be out for a while, right?” Dee could only nod watching his partner raptly. The girls would be out for awhile if he had to bar the door to keep them from coming in. Ryo's mouth touched his and a warm tongue flicked against his lips briefly before sliding inside and slipping across his on tongue. Dee instinctively tightened his hold on Ryo's hips and ass, pulling him hard against his groin and abdomen.

This kiss was different, different than all the kisses he had wrangled from Ryo before, different from even the few sweet ones that Ryo had initiated, different from the ones last night. Ryo didn't do half measures very well, whatever he set about to do he did thoroughly, whether it was cleaning the kitchen or cleaning his gun. Dee had long wondered if Ryo were ever to give into the things they both wanted from each other if he would give Dee all of the attention and intensity he gave everything else. Ryo might move slowly, cautiously, might be easy to spook if Dee overplayed his hand, but Dee had his answer in the here in now in the way Ryo pressed into the kiss with firmness and dedication. Ryo was drinking Dee in and it felt incredible to be on the receiving end of Ryo's love and devotion.

Tongues swept over teeth and played back and forth, pushing and pulling, giving and taking only breaking for little gasps of air before settling into each other once more. Dee had pulled Ryo's shirt from his jeans and finally got his hands on the warm skin of his lovers back, caressing the other man trying to feed into him by touch just how much he was wanted and loved. Ryo's hands were tangled up in Dee's hair, holding his head where he wanted it, pulling Dee up into his mouth, riding up on Dee's body so that his hardening erection was pressed against Dee's upper belly and his sternum. It was good, so good and so right.

They were lost in each other, the first slam of a kitchen cabinet hadn't really registered in either of their minds but by the third one had opened and closed with a bang they had reluctantly broken apart. Ryo looked down into Dee's eyes with sincere regret that the moment was being shattered; one hand was still on Dee's face, fingers pressed into his neck and a thumb carefully brushing over the curves of Dee's cheek. Dee's lips were slightly swollen and delicately parted, his eyes darkened with the pupils blown wide, it was a heady feeling to realize he had this effect on the strong man beneath him. Inside of Ryo anger stirred and breathed even as a smile played about his lips. None of the anger was directed at Dee, of course, Ryo was hardly aware yet that it was anger; sometimes he didn't always recognize the emotion inside himself up until the moment he blew up. He liked to believe he was a gentle soul and for the most part he was but it left him vulnerable to filling up with so much hostility that when it did breach the surface others were often stunned by the velocity of it.

Another cabinet door in the kitchen swung open and slammed shut with enough force that Ryo could hear when it bounced back and tapped against the frame a few times before spilling. A very foul word, one that would have gotten Bikky bopped on the top of his head for using flickered into the forefront of Ryo's mind. He carefully slid off Dee's lap and got to his feet.

“I guess intermission is over Dee.” He said and offered Dee his hand to pull him up from the couch. Ryo resented the interference. Now that he had opened himself to his emotions and to the experience he wanted more of what had transpired last night, he wanted to touch the handsome man who had waited so long for him, commit everything he could to memory to be savored and treasured. Instead he was stuck at this awful home having things thrown at him, life chaotic and out of his control and a myriad of other unpleasant experiences. He had never wanted to be home so badly in his life. In his own apartment, his nice quiet apartment, with Bikky off with Carol somewhere and him settled down into Dee's lap once more.

The kitchen cabinets kept on merrily opening and slamming as both men got to their feet and looked towards the kitchen. Neither one of them wanted to go in there just as neither one of them knew what to do to make the racket stop. Dee scrubbed a hand across the back of his in frustration and then yelled out “Knock it the hell off, Christ already.” Surprisingly the noises became softer and further apart and over the span of a few minutes petered out all together. Dee looked at Ryo, Ryo looked at Dee.

“Well that was unexpected.” Ryo understated with a frown on his face. Carefully the both edged into the kitchen. Nothing but quiet and stillness met them, the kind of dense quiet that settles in before a storm, it made Ryo uneasy and set his nerves on edge. The way Dee was looking back forth, his fingers clutched tightly around Ryo's wrist let him know that Dee felt it too, the inherent wrongness in the room.

They both jumped, Ryo biting back on a shrill scream, when the silence and mounting tension was suddenly broken by one single, but extremely loud, thump came from behind them in the living room. Dee involuntarily yanked Ryo into him hard causing him to lose his balance and stumble into Dee's chest sending both of them crashing back into the refrigerator and nearly to the floor before Dee got his footing back and managed to hold them both upright. Ryo's heart thumped hard in his chest and he knew his eyes were saucer wide, adrenaline pumping wildly in his body.

With more trepidation than what they had entered the kitchen with they made their way back towards the living room. From the entrance they peered back into the living room. Sitting in the middle of the floor was a Holy Bible, as if it had just dropped from the ceiling, certainly it hadn't been in the room before. Ryo straightened his shoulders back and walked towards the book, pulling himself free from Dee's grasp. As he bent down to pick the book up it sprang open and the pages fluttered rapidly before finally coming to rest somewhere in Romans. Ryo picked up the book carefully and looked down at the book his eyes drawn to a passage that had been previously highlighted.

`Romans 1:26-27 - "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

Dee read the passage over his shoulder and started to swear under his breath, Ryo managed to keep in the caustic thoughts burning in his head but couldn't defeat the heat creeping into his face and neck. The anger flickered in him a little more strongly even as his fingers trembled with the force of his emotions. The bible was snapped close and tossed onto a coffee table. Wrong answer he thought to himself. Dee for all his faults and openness was still Catholic at the end of the day, something that had to do greatly with how the woman he considered his mother had raised him. Ryo on the other hand had not been raised in religion and was still holding a pretty solid grudge against even the idea of a higher being that he was supposedly answerable to because of his parents' murder. It was only consideration for Dee that had kept him from violently throwing the book against the far wall.

Ryo wiped at his hands rubbing his thumbs over his fingers where the book had left a residue behind that felt and looked like sand. Ryo showed them to Dee rubbing off a few of the crystals into Dee's open palm whose puzzlement showed openly on his face. Dee picked up the Bible then and wiped off a good bit more sand crusted on the bibles cover, when he shook from the cover, letting the pages swing freely downward, even more sand shook out onto the coffee table and floor.

Dee flipped the book to its front page, a thick piece of paper much heavier than the tissue like layers of the bible, it was a place for a person to write when they had received the bible and to whom it belonged. Written in a stocky handwriting was the day May 28, 1982 and a name, Mrs. Billy Louise Alcott. Dee showed it to Ryo while fishing out his phone from his jeans pocket. He dialed in Tank's number and waited, hoping to get a good connection even if she was inside a grocery store or Wal-mart. The phone rang several times and he was about to give up when Lynn answered with a crisp hello.

“Hey this is Dee, has Ellen got a minute?” He asked.

“Nope `fraid not she's trying to pay for the groceries as we speak. That's why I have the phone. Something I can do for you?” Lynn politely asked.

“Yeah, ask her if she knows anything about a bible, green cover, NIV version, has the name Billie Alcott in the front of it.” Dee told her. Lynn laughed in his ear.

“So that thing's back. Where'd you find it if you don't mind me asking?” She asked.

“We didn't find it; we found it dropped in the middle of the living room floor.” He told her, frowning over at Ryo.

“I'm sure you did, you boys haven't been fornicating while we were gone have you? You know how disappointed El would be if she knew she missed that.” Lynn's voice was distant and marked with dry amusement.

“No, we have not been `fornicating' as you put it, not that I wouldn't mind if we had been. You got any idea why it's covered sand and been highlighted in?” Dee asked with greater irritation bleeding out over the words.

“Yeah, I sure do. El found it one too many times with one passage or another highlighted in it letting her know what an evil and unholy woman she was for kissing other girls. She's thrown it out in the yard maybe a half a dozen times now. Always seems to make its way back in. If she finds it at the house when she gets back she'll chunk it out again. It pisses her off badly.” Lynn explained. “She and the late, great Mrs. Alcott do not see eye to eye on the subject and she's called Tank for reason, she won't be bullied by anybody living or otherwise. Gotta go Dee, the groceries are bagged and loaded in the buggy, see you in a bit.” The phone connection went dead in Dee's hand.

He had had the speaker up on it and Ryo had been able to clearly over hear everything that was said. He didn't look to far from taking a page from Tank's methodology and tossing the book out the back door. Dee closed the bible and put it under his arm for safe keeping. Ryo moved off with a snort whether for the book itself or its former owner, Mrs. Alcott was hard to say.

His mind had drifted so he started and nearly dropped the bible when his phone started ringing again. Dee flipped it back open and spit out a terse hello. Ellen's rich voice poured into his ear with the sound of traffic in the background.

“Hey there honey bunny. I hear you've picked up a new edition to add to your reading list courtesy of the prior lady of the house. I suppose since that's how she wants to play it you and Ryo should take another look underneath the master bed. There is a cardboard box under there; pushed up against the wall, I'm sure you two saw it when you were checking out the house, right?” Dee made a noise in the affirmative. “All right then, I'm sure you know it's full of papers and things. That is the last of the Alcott's in that box, pictures of them as a couple, pictures of them before they became a couple, those types of things. They were married well into their life, his first wife, her third husband, so there is a lot of history crammed into one box. Pulling out into traffic now, I'll catch up with you when we get back. Bye.”

Disconnected once more, Dee went into the master bedroom, Ryo on his heels and dug out the box. They had rifled through it on their first sweep through the house but only to see if there were any devices hidden in it, they hadn't really looked at anything. Dee carefully tipped it over onto the bed. The last thing to come out was a black and white photo of two men standing in front of mountain look out, each with an arm casually slung around the others waste. Dee picked it up and studied it, it was not a picture of good friends or relatives, this was a picture of two lovers, and he'd stake his badge on it. For a moment his mind dipped back to the impression of the old man standing in front of the shed and he wondered if one of these two young men staring back at him, smiling, from the faded photograph had become that old man.

He held it up to Ryo silently who held up a photo of his own, this one framed, of a middle aged woman with hard eyes standing next to a man who for lack of better words looked all manners of whipped, two teenagers, a boy and girl stood off to the woman's other side. As family photos went this was not a good one, the whole vibe was bad, there was no sense of love or connection between any of the people.

Between the pieces of paper and old photos was a tale to be told, one that didn't appear to have been a happy one. Silently the men set about spreading out each piece on the bed rearranging as they went to try and make a cohesive time line and get to the bottom of the mystery of an undistinguished house in the middle of nowhere.