T/W: Mentions death, full bodied apparitions, bring touched by ynsern forces and minor innuendo. Also disembodied voices.

***

After the team has some much needed sleep, everyone is back at the jail, eager to see if they catch anymore evidence. Nolan decides to send Sid and Lennox together, while he goes with Lola and Avery.

"You better be on your best behavior, man," Lennox says seriously to Nolan, who merely shrugs, smiling.

"Yeah," Sid echoes. "No screwing around with your girlfriend or mine."

"I promise, Sid," Nolan says solemnly. Sid grins, punching Nolan in the shoulder. Avery smiles, turning to Lola, who's also smiling.

"Aww, aren't they cute when they're beating each other up?" Avery asks. Lola nods.

"They sure are!" Sid immediately takes offense and scowls.

"We're not cute!" Avery can't hold in her laughter and bursts out. Lola follows, both women cracking up.

"We need to get away from them," Lennox says. "Before they're weirdness rubs off on us."

"Haha." Lola flips Lennox off. He just gives her a wink.

"All right," Nolan says. "Let's get started on round two of this investigation."

***

"We should get them back," Lennox tells Sid as they're wandering down to what was the prison morgue.

"No," Sid says. "Now come on. We have to start investigating." Lennox sighs heavily.

"Fine. Lennox and Sid in the morgue." Lennox looks around. Damn. It's frickin' freezing down here.

"Are there any prisoners left behind who want to say anything?" Sid asks. They wait a few minutes.

"If there's anything you want to get out there, now is the time," Lennox adds. A cold breeze ruffles Sid and Lennox's clothes and hair. Lennox stiffens as he feels like someone touched his arm.

"Dude," Lennox whispers. "Someone just touched me."

"For real?" Sid is holding up the thermal camera. He notices a slight change on the screen.

"Yeah." Sid moves to Lennox, pointing out the small orange spot that the thermal camera is picking up.

"There's definitely something here," Sid says.

"We just want to talk with you," Lennox says. "We're not going to hurt or punish you in any way."

There's a faint knock on back wall. Lennox and Sid share a look.

"If that was you, can you do that again?" Lennox asks. They listen but nothing else happens.

"Let's go down this tunnel," Lennox suggests and Sid just nods.

"We're stay down here for a few more minutes, than we'll check in with the others," Sid says. Lennox nods.

"Sounds good to me."

***

"Avery, Lola and Nolan in the gas chamber area," Avery says into her voice recorder. Although both Nolan and Lola had already investigated this particular spot, Nolan had wanted to try again. He had a good feeling that something was here.

"I know you might have seen us before," Nolan says. "But we'd really love to hear from you."

"Are you trapped here?" Avery asks. A rustling noise emits from the gas chamber itself and Avery nearly comes unglued.

"We know that many of you probably were mistreated in several ways," Lola says. "And we're sorry that happened. No one deserves to mistreated."

Another rustling noise. Avery reaches out, grasping at Nolan's shirt sleeve. He turns, noting how pale she looks, her eyes wide.

"You doing okay?" Nolan asks softly. Avery twists her lips into a tiny, forced smile.

"I'm managing."

"Anytime you wanna leave, just let me know," Nolan murmurs.

"I'll be okay." Nolan nods. He's not sure he believes Avery, but he'll let it slide this time.

"If you want to communicate with us," Lola adds. "Knock on something. Or try to speak, even."

They wait, and...Nolan thinks he hears a male voice coming from somewhere.

"Can you speak again?" Nolan requests. Again, the voice comes through. Lola's eyes go wide.

"I heard it. It's on here. Listen." She hands Nolan the voice recorder, rewinding it so he can hear. Nolan slips on the headphones to listen. It sounds like: thank you.

"Wow. That's awesome." Nolan grins, slipping off the headphones. Lola nods, grinning.

"Very cool," Lola agrees.

"We appreciate you speaking with us," Nolan says quietly. "We'd love to hear more, if you have anything else to add."

The voice sounds again, but none of them can make out any legible words.

"Could you try once more?" Nolan asks. "We're having trouble understanding you."

There's a faint black mass which appears in front of all three investigators, hovering just above. Avery has to pinch herself to make sure she's actually not hallucinating. This is beyond belief. She can't hardly wrap her mind around this.

"We see you," Lola says. Avery's shocked at how calm Lola sounds. Especially since she herself is about ready to bolt.

The mass hovers for a few seconds longer than slowly fades away. Nobody says a word. Avery glances over at Nolan, who's grinning, like he just won the lottery.

Lola's walkie-talkie crackles and Lennox's voice comes through, breaking the spell. Lola grabs her walkie-talkie.

"Go for Lola," she says.

"Hey," Lennox says. "Just checking in with you all. How's it going?"

"We just saw an apparition," Lola replies.

"Nice! We just saw something on the thermal camera and something touched me," Lennox reports.

"Very cool," Lola saysa, smiling.

"We're taking a quick look through this tunnel, then we'll check in with you all again in about twenty minutes," Lennox says.

"Great. Be safe," Lola says.

"Will do!" The walkie-talkie crackles again and Lennox is out.

"Let's go upstairs and see if we catch anything on the second floor," Nolan tells Avery and Lola.

"Onward and upward." Avery gives Nolan a tight lipped smile and follows him and Lola up.

***

"I think it's sufficient to say," Nolan tells his team. "That there's some strong paranormal activity in this place."

"For real," Lennox agrees. "We caught a lot of great footage."

"We did," Sid adds. "I think the people who called us in will be pleased when they see everything we caught."

"Absolutely," Nolan says. He looks over at Avery, who hasn't said much since they started on the second half of the investigation. She obviously has something heavy on her mind.

"All right. I'll let them know we're leaving and then, it's back to the motel to review our footage," Nolan says.

While Nolan heads back into the main office, Avery goes to climb into the van, buckling herself in. Lola climbs in beside Avery.

"Everything okay, sweetie?" She asks. Avery pastes a smile on her face.

"Yup. Just tired and eager to return home."

"Have you spoken with your friend?" Lola asks. Avery shakes her head. She prefers to do that in person as soon as she can when they return.

"I'll do that after we get back," Avery replies, stifling a yawn.

"It's probably best to handle it that way," Lola concedes. Sid leans in, grabbing Lola's ass, causing her to yelp in surprise.

"Hey!" Lola squawks. "Watch it!" Sid just smirks, reaching for Lola again. She shifts around, leaning away from Sid, grinning.

"How's about you pay some attention to me?"

"How's about you don't get so grabby?" Lola retorts. Sid chuckles.

"Can I help it if you have such a perky little ass that just begs me to touch it?"

"Here comes Nolan!" Lennox announces. Sid immediately leans back out, moving to get up into the passenger side seat.

"Saved by the boss!" Lola says, laughing. Avery chuckles.

"Let's go," Nolan says. "I'd like to get this done before a week has passed."

***

After several hours, everything has been reviewed. Nolan decides that he and Sid will return to the jail and present the footage they have.

Avery is relieved to hear this news. Although she didn't totally hate this particular investigation, it rattled her somewhat.

Also even though Avery had thought it'd be better for her to speak with Everly in person, she decides to at least try giving her a phone call.

It rings several times before going to voicemail. Avery pictures Everly sitting on her couch, wearing her bathrobe and pj's, stuffing her face with nachos and chocolate mint ice cream, while a trashy soap opera plays in the background.

"Everly, hey. It's me. Please call me back, okay? We really need to talk." Avery tosses the phone to the other side of the bed, sliding down and rolling over, burying her face in the pillow that Nolan slept on. She can still smell a faint trace of his cologne.

Her phone buzzes and immediately, Avery rolls back over, grabbing it and looking at the screen. It's Everly.

"Hey!" Avery struggles to a sitting position, sliding closer to the edge of the bed. "How's it going?"

"Poorly," Everly responds. "Very poorly." Avery sighs softly.

"I'm sorry," she murmurs.

"No you're not," Everly argues.

"Everly, could you stop bring such a bitch for two minutes and let me explain?" Avery snaps in frustration.

"What's to explain?" Everly's tone is wounded. "You threw me over for some guy with a nice ass."

"Okay. Now you're just being bitchy to be bitchy. I haven't throw you over for Nolan. You're still my bestie and always will be. I'm not moving away from you. We'll still be friends and hang out."

"Have you asked Nolan if I could tag along yet?" Everly asks abruptly.

"Not yet," Avery replies.

"Shocking."

"Everly, we've been investigating for the last several hours," Avery says crisply. "We're not on vacation, just lying around."

"Fine! But you'd better ask him!"

"I will," Avery assures her friend.

"Whatever. I'll see you later." Avery opens her mouth to reply, but before she can, the line goes dead.

☆Thirteen☆

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