T/W: Minor sexual content. Mentions disembodied voices and cupboards, opening, closing by themselves, along with some faint music.

***

Nolan rolls over and yawns, stretching as he swipes the sleep out of his eyes and glancing over at the sleeping form of Avery, who's burrowed beneath the blankets, sighing softly in her sleep.

After Avery had shown up at the paranormal society, Nolan had called an impromptu meeting and shared the information about the latest case. Once a plan had been made, Nolan contacted the client and then..he and Avery split, heading straight to Nolan's place where they had sweet, yet passionate sex.

When they'd finished, Nolan got up and made Avery some tacos for dinner before they collapsed back in Nolan's bed, screwing once more before they both drifted off to sleep, holding each other.

Nolan smiles to himself as he quietly climbs out of the bed and heading for the bathroom to take a piss. As Nolan's washing his hands, he hears the bed creak and a moment later, Avery appears in the entrance to the bathroom, looking sleepy and rumpled, but also extremely cute.

"'Morning," Avery murmurs, leaning against his doorway frame, just admiring Nolan's fine figure as he turns, grinning.

"Good morning, my lovely." Nolan kisses Avery on the forehead and a smile appears on her face.

"Excuse me," Avery murmurs, slipping past Nolan to use the toilet herself.

"I'll just head downstairs and get some breakfast whipped up," Nolan tells Avery, exiting the bathroom and heading down the hallway.

"Great," Avery calls after him. She quickly uses the toilet, washes her hands, exits the bathroom and pads downstairs, joining Nolan in the kitchen, where he's pulling ingredients out of the fridge.

"Get ready for the best omelet you've ever had in your life," Nolan tells Avery as she leans against the island in the middle of the kitchen and smiles. She adored watching Nolan cook. Of course, Avery was biased and would have enjoyed watching Nolan do just about anything.

"We'll see," Avery teases and Nolan chuckles. Avery slips closer to Nolan, gently wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him. Nolan pauses with his food preparations and gently takes Avery's chin in his fingers, leaning over to kiss her. He feels Avery's body respond to his tender affection and her hands grip Nolan's arms. Nolan groans in frustration.

"Do you realize how difficult you're making this for me?" Nolan complains good naturedly. Avery laughs.

"Yup. Which means my evil plot is progressing quite nicely." Nolan mock grumbles under his breath as Avery steps away from him, wandering around to perch on one of the bar stools.

"When will we be heading out to investigate this new place," Avery asks, watching as Nolan expertly juggles a bottle of olive oil, a frying pan and a spatula.

"This weekend," Nolan responds, setting the frying on on top of the stove and flicking it on before adding a touch of olive oil.

"No offense, but this one sounds a little creepier," Avery comments. Nolan nods, looking a little absent-minded. Avery thinks about how adorable Nolan appears when he's concentrating so hard on a task.

Within a few minutes, Nolan has an omelet prepared for Avery. He quickly gets some coffee brewing and then, gets to work preparing his own omelet.

"Oh my gosh!" Nolan watches with deep satisfaction as Avery closes her eyes, savoring the taste of the omelet. "That is damn excellent, Wright!"

Nolan gives Avery a smug look, as he takes his own omelet out of the pan and places it on his plate.

"Told ya." Nolan can't keep the smugness out of his voice.

"Is there anything you can't do?" Avery gapes at this man standing before her, looking like a Greek God, wearing nothing but his boxer shorts. Nolan shrugs, setting his plate aside and moving to grab the coffee pot.

"It's not polite to give away all of my hidden talents this soon in the game," Nolan teases. Avery hops off of the bar stool, hurrying over to accept the hot mug of coffee from Nolan. She stands on her tip-toes to give him a passionate kiss, while gripping the back of Nolan's head with her free hand.

"Just when I think I've seen it all with you, Nolan Wright," Avery murmurs. "You end up surprising me all over again."

"Anything to be able to impress you, my beautiful girl."

***

Early Saturday afternoon, Avery arrives at the paranormal society, eager to get back to investigating with the team. She's in a stellar mood, excited and ready to go.

Lennox is the first one that Avery sees and she notices that he also appears to be in a stellar mood himself. That means, his and Everly's date night must have went off without a hitch.

"Lennox, hey," Avery greets him as she approaches the cargo van. Lennox's head swivels in Avery's direction and he flashes a bright grin.

"Hey, Avery. You ready to tackle this latest project?" Avery nods.

"Absolutely. You?"

"Damn ready!"

"I'm guessing from your chipper mood, things went well with Everly the other night?" Avery can't resist asking. Lennox actually blushes, looking down for a moment.

"It was, really something," he replies, turning to head inside the society, Avery tagging along behind him.

"That's great," Avery tells Lennox.

"Yup. Everly is wonderful." Avery thumps Lennox on the back and he grins.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Sid comes in from the back, carrying a cardboard box full of equipment and rolling his eyes. "Promise me you aren't gonna be gushing on and on about this chick while we're investigating?"

"No promises," Lennox jokes, going to open up the front door for Sid, who just glares at him as he passes by.

"Avery, hi. Would you mind giving me a hand with these cameras?" Lola asks, entering the room, nearly staggering under the weight of a plastic bin filled with cameras.

"Hey. Sure thing." Avery dashes forward, grabbing one end of the plastic bin and helping Lola carry it out to the van.

Everything is nearly loaded up when Nolan finally emerges from his office to join the team. When he sees Avery, instantly, Nolan's cheeks turn pink.

"About time you joined us, O Fearless Leader," Sid snaps, jabbing Nolan in the ribs. Nolan just chuckles, as he leans in, checking to make certain that everything is loaded up.

"I apologize," Nolan says, stepping back and gripping the doors to slam them closed. "I was on the phone with Paranormal Monthly."

"Oh man." Lennox's eyes brighten. "Are they considering doing a magazine spread on us?" Nolan nods.

"Yup."

"No shit?" Even Sid looks a little starstruck.

"No shit," Nolan confirms.

"Wow, this is huge!" Lola shrieks, moving to throw her arms around Nolan, giving him a quick squeeze.

"It is," Nolan agrees. "But stardom can wait. Right now, we have a client who needs our help."

***

As soon as the team speaks with the client, everyone jumps into their nightly preparations for the first half of the investigation.

"What exactly is Paranormal Monthly?" Avery asks Lola as she assists her in setting up the cameras.

"It's this major magazine, that focuses mostly on, as you can imagine, paranormal groups across the country. It's a big deal to get featured."

"Wow. Sounds incredible," Avery remarks. Lola nods.

"It is. Almost anyone who's in this field is dying to get featured in it."

"How do they choose which groups get featured?" Avery asks.

"Usually by nominations," Lola replies. "But mostly the people in charge of the magazine, will keep tabs on the groups and if they think one of them is doing well, then they'll look into that particular group."

"Seems like they're kinda on the snobby side when it comes to choosing," Avery comments. Lola nods.

"They are extremely particular about who they do a magazine spread on."

"I hope you guys get in," Avery says. "Because you've all worked hard enough to get noticed by a major magazine." Lola smiles.

"Thanks."

***

"Lennox and Avery, in the master bedroom," Lennox says into his voice recorder as he and Avery go investigate together, a few hours later.

"The claims here," Avery says. "Are that the owners hear faint piano music and occasionally, disembodied voices."

"Is there anyone here who'd like to say something?" Lennox asks. Both he and Avery listen quietly for a few minutes.

"Did someone die here?" Avery asks. "That loved piano music?" Suddenly, they hear, what appears to be, faint piano music. Avery frowns thoughtfully at Lennox.

"Do you hear that?" Avery asks in a whisper. Lennox nods.

"We hear you," Lennox says. "Can you say something?" A faint whisper comes out of thin air.

"I'm..Jane." Avery smiles, giving Lennox a thumbs up.

***

"Lola, Sid and Nolan, in the basement," Sid says into his voice recorder.

"This is where the owner claims to hear voices," Nolan says. "And says that this old cupboard back here, the doors will open on their own."

"If anyone is down here with us," Lola says. "Could you open up one of the cupboards for me?"

Nolan has the thermal camera aimed at the cupboard, waiting to see if anything shows up. Slowly, almost delicately, one of the cupboard doors opens up.

"Nolan, are you seeing anything on the thermal?" Sid asks, keeping his eyes on the old fashioned cupboard.

"No. Oh! Yes! Look!" Both Lola and Sid crowd around Nolan, studying the screen of the thermal. There's a small, orange spot that looks like it's directly in front of the cupboard.

"Damn," Sid murmurs.

"Can you open another door?" Lola asks. Almost seven, another door opens.

"Thank you," Lola says. Nolan is grinning. This is why he loves doing this kind of stuff.

☆Seventeen☆

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