bigtitch | Cross Spirit (1/1) (Reply)

Title: Cross Spirit
Author:

bigtitch
Rating: GEN
Characters/Pairing: Cutter, Lester, Ryan, Connor, Lorraine, Abby, Danny, Becker, Norman, OCs
Author notes It's Halloween and the veil between the worlds grows thin. Thin enough for a dead Scotsman to pass through. Cutter is not happy about it, neither is Lester, who has to deal with an unexpectedly persistent haunting.

Unbeta'd. I'm afraid this is a flash fic and you're just going to have to cope with my typos!

It had taken quite a lot of persuasion for Lester to grant permission to have a Halloween party at the ARC. Some of that persuasion was Lorraine reminding him of the damage bill from the Bonfire Night party the year before when the SF troopers had taken the gunpowder element of the festivities a little too literally. At least a Halloween celebration didn't bring the promise of so many blown out windows over such a wide area.

Lorraine had also promised him plenty of traditional British games such as bobbing for apples and spin the bottle rather than anything too American.

'Very well,' was his grudging response. 'Try not to set the fire alarms off. Again.'

Now he walked through the corridors around the break area with a glass of punch in his hand trying to look accepting if not enthusiastic. As usual the women had put some effort into the fancy dress with Abby, Sarah and Lorraine making a creditable coven of witches. Becker and Danny had gone for the zombie look and Lester supposed Connor was going for the mad scientist, but frankly he merely achieved mentally disturbed. If you held his feet to the fire and applied thumbscrews, Lester would admit that the quite enjoyed the double-takes his vampire fangs were receiving when he smiled.

The party had been going on for an hour and Lester gave it fifteen more minutes and another circuit of the break area before he could creditably leave the crew to their party. He was aware enough that they would probably enjoy themselves better with the boss out of the way.

He scooped another ladle of punch out of the bowl and picked up a dead man's finger from one of the plates. The catering, at least, was good from the chocolate cake that oozed raspberry 'blood' to the biscuits iced with spiders webs and bloodshot eyeballs. The candles flickering in the jack o'lanterns were electronic he noted with approval even if the traditionalist in him would have preferred turnip lanterns rather than pumpkins.

Sarah stuck her head round the door.

'Have you seen Connor?'

'Talking to Danny by the armoury door. Why?'

'We're going to start the ouija board. Do you want to play?'

'No, thank you. Lorraine will tell you I spend too much time conversing with the undead at the ministry.'

Sarah gave that the short laugh it deserved and disappeared off.

Lester took that as his cue to start his final round of the party before leaving. He went from room to room, making sure he was seen and that he chatted to at least a couple of people in each. The last room was darkened, lit only by flickering led candles. Sarah, Connor, Danny and a couple of lab technicians were seated around a ouija board with their fingers on the planchette.

Lester beat a hasty retreat. His aim was to get out of the building before whatever mischief Danny could manage in that situation started.

He had got his coat on and had his car keys in his hand when the screaming started. He sauntered out of his office when he noticed that the screaming had a real edge of panic. This wasn't people enjoying ghostly thrills this was real.

The view down into the atrium gave him the reason for the screams.

A slightly transparent Nick Cutter was standing beside the anomaly device.
#
Sarah, Lorraine, Connor, Abby, Danny and Becker stood in front of Lester's desk. Cutter stood behind them and to one side. He looked a little bewildered.

'Well?' Lester barked.

'It was a joke. We were just messing about,' Sarah said. 'We didn't mean to ... ' She glanced apologetically at the figure of Cutter.

'I don't suppose there's any chance that this is a mass hallucination brought on by a gas leak from one of the labs?' Lester asked.

'All environmentals are perfectly normal,' Lorraine said.

'Of course, that would be too easy.' Lester turned to Cutter. 'Can't you just leave?'

Cutter mouth moved and he was clearly venting on Lester, but no sound could be heard.

'We can't hear, you Nick,' Lester said. 'Can you hear us?'

Cutter nodded and held up his thumb.

'That doesn't make sense,' Connor said.

'Can you find any part of this that make sense?'

Connor looked hurt.

'How did you get here?' Lester asked Cutter.

Cutter shrugged and then mimed being asleep and waking up.

'Do you have any idea of how you can get back?'

It looked like Cutter thought for a minute and then he held his hands up in despair.

Lester waved his hand in dismissal. 'Sorry, that's too complicated to answer by playing charades.'

'What about interpretative dance?' Danny asked with a grin on his face.

Lester scowled at him.

'Look,' Sarah said with the air of a woman stopping a fight before it starts, 'it's Halloween. When the borders between the living and the dead are thinner. Nick should go back at midnight or at dawn.'

'Very well,' Lester said, grasping the lifeline. 'We'll just have to wait. What time is it?'

'Nine twenty-five,' Becker said.

'It's going to be a long night.'
#
For some reason it seemed appropriate to wait out the rest of Halloween in the atrium by the anomaly detection device. They sat and Cutter stood. Conversation was sparse and quiet. Occasionally one of the night shift technicians would appear in the doorway to the break area, check to see if Cutter was still there and then disappear again.

At about ten minutes to midnight Cutter suddenly stood in front of Lester and waved his hands to get his attention.

'Yes, Cutter?'

Cutter mouthed two words exaggeratedly. Lester mimicked them. 'Clootyo Brun?' He thought a moment. 'Claudia Brown? Jenny Lewis is fine. Cutter. She left not long after you died. She set up her own public relationships consultancy firm. She's doing very nicely advising some of the more sensitive government departments on how to handle disasters of their own making. She's got half of Fleet Street on the run by the sounds of it.'

Cutter nodded and put his thumb up.

Lester smiled. 'She deserves every success.' He looked at the clock. 'Looks like it's just about time for you to leave us. Nice of you to drop in. Don't let us keep you.'

The clock on the anomaly device ticked over from 11:59 to 00:00 then 00:01. Cutter was still there.

Lester sighed. 'Of course it was never going to be that easy. Take a seat, Cutter, please, it's a long time until dawn.'
#
It was six hours and fifty-two minutes to be precise. And dawn breaking was just as successful in removing dead Scotsmen as midnight had been.

'Great. Just great,' Lester said. 'First order of business, Sarah, find a way to get Cutter back to where he belongs. Second, Lorraine, find a way for Cutter to communicate with us. Third, someone get me a couple of paracetamol or failing that a bacon butty.'

Lorraine stood up. 'I've got an idea, wait there.' She dashed off up the ramp to her office beside Lester's. She was back a couple of minutes later with paracetamol and a glass of water for Lester and two sheets of paper. She held them up. They were covered in symbols.

Lester leaned forward to read them. 'Semaphore?'

He looked at Cutter. Even if he'd been unable to read his lips, the look on Cutter's face said 'Are you fucking kidding me?' clearer than any sign language.

'If you've got any other ideas I'm open to suggestions.' Lester immediately held up his finger in a warding gesture. 'Not you, Danny.'

Becker shrugged. 'Unless Cutter has poltergeist abilities and can move things about, then this is as good a way as any other. No reason to reinvent the wheel.'

Lorraine smiled at the encouragement.

'Right then,' Lester stood. 'That only leaves how to get rid of you, Cutter. Don't take it the wrong way.'

Cutter's gesture back was definitely not semaphore but completely understandable despite that.
#
Lester found Sarah in the kitchen area stirring something brown in a tupperware box. It didn't look or smell appetising.

'Not your usual standard for lunch.'

'It's an ancient Egyptian ghost repellent.'

'Really?'

'Yes, it's from the 16th century BC. One of the medical papyruses.'

'What's in it?'

'Lettuce, onion, honey and three types of fish.' Sarah gave the mixture a stir.

'That explains the smell. What do you do with it?'

'That's where the text gets a little vague. Scholarship is divided between rubbing it on the child or person to be protected or them eating it.'

'We all have to eat this?' Lester wrinkled his nose.

'I'm doing a test with Nick to see if we can keep him away from a small area by rubbing the mixture on a door frame. If that works we can try it throughout the ARC.'

'Well the experimentation aspect should appeal to Cutter.'

Lester followed Sarah out into the corridor. Cutter was standing in one of the small labs. Sarah took out the mixture and started spreading it on the doorframe while saying a spell. 'Run out, thou who comest in darkness, who enterest in stealth, his nose behind him, his face turned backward, who loses that for which he came.' The mixture was sticky but bits of were falling off the frame and landing on the floor. Sarah persisted. 'I have made his protection against thee out of Efet-herb, it makes pain; out of onions, which harm thee; out of honey which is sweet to living men and bitter to those who are yonder.'

Eventually she finished. She stood back from the doorway.

'OK, Nick. Let's see if you can come through.'

Cutter walked forward warily, but passed through the doorway unscathed. The waiting crowd sighed in disappointment.

'Bugger,' Sarah said. 'Looks like I'm back to the books. Sorry Nick.'

Cutter patted her on the shoulder and walked off down the corridor.
#
The next day Lester was startled when walking down a corridor to see Lorraine coming towards him with tears streaming down her face. He didn't think she saw him as she dashed into the ladies' toilets on the left. Lester hesitated in front of the door, but her cries made the decision for him and he went in.

Lorraine was by the sinks, holding on to the porcelain for support.

'Lorraine, are you all right? What's wrong?'

Lorraine turned her face towards him and Lester saw that she was crying with laughter. She tried to speak but the only words that Lester could make out were 'Cutter', 'Holy' and 'Danny'. It sounded ominous so Lester waited patiently while Lorraine got her breathing under control.

'What happened?'

'Danny thought that we might try holy water to get rid of Nick. Apparently he's got an Irish mate who goes on pilgrimages and had brought back a bottle of holy water from Knock. For some reason he decided it would be better if it was in a spray bottle. He didn't tell Nick he was doing it, he just showed up and squirted him.'

Lester closed his eyes as he imagined the scene. 'I take it success was less than total?'

'Went straight through him. But it was the look on Nick's face when he realised what was happening. It was just like my aunt's cat looked when she squirted him with water when he was going to scratch the sofa!' Lorraine started laughing again. 'It was just this offended surprise!' She imitated it and then leaned back and held her sides.

Lester smiled and then sobered up. 'I'll have a word with Danny. This might be a game to him, but it isn't to Cutter. The man's a nuisance, but he deserves some respect.'
#
There was a progress meeting in Lester's office. Or, as Lester said, a lack of progress meeting.

'The problem is,' Sarah said, 'that there are plenty of charms and spells to keep ghosts away, but not much guidance about what to do once one is in residence.'

Cutter waved for attention and started a semaphore message.

'B.E.L.L.,' Becker read. 'B.O.O.K.'

'Bell, book and candle?' Sarah asked.

Cutter nodded and held up a thumb.

'Actually that's for excommunication from the Catholic church, not exorcism.'

'I feel you may already have achieved that status, Professor,' Lester said.

Cutter scowled.

'W.H.A.T.E.L.S.E,' Becker spelled.

'The most common way of laying a ghost I've read about is called "Reading it Down". A priest would read from the Bible by the light of candles and the ghost would shrink in size. Eventually it would be small enough to be put in a bottle or jar. The bottle would be sealed and then thrown into a river or lake.'

'I can see how that would benefit us,' Lester said. 'But I think Cutter might just object to spending the rest of his afterlife in a small, watery cage.'

Cutter nodded vigorously.

'Well, what about a priest?' Danny said. 'I know my attempt with the holy water didn't work, but maybe you need an official holy water sprinkler to do it.'

'They'd need to have security clearance,' Lorraine said.

Lester looked at Becker. 'Do you think the SAS chaplain could be prevailed upon to do a little, light exorcism.'

Becker looked doubtful. 'I can ask.'

'Do so, please. Maybe divine intervention will help. Nothing else seems to be.'

Cutter scowled at them.
#
Lester was at his desk allegedly going through the latest batch of expenses, but in reality he was trying to think about how they handled the situation with Cutter's ghost. It was a position no one wanted to be in and yet it was slowly becoming normal. Cutter wasn't leading the team, that was still Danny's job, but he was advising them. The scientists and technicians were falling back into the old ways of showing him their results. And if peer review by semaphore was slow and tedious, more than one scientist had said it was better than had been getting recently.

It was a mad set up, but it was starting to become normal. And that was wrong.

Lorraine broke into his musings.

'The gate guard says the minister is on his way. Snap inspection!'

'Shit!'

'Don't worry, everyone knows the routine. But better put the semaphore sheets away. I take it we don't want to explain about our revenant member of staff!'

'Good thinking!'

Lester had just shut his desk drawer when the Right Honourable Derek Calderwood, MP, Home Secretary and Olympic standard arsehole walked into his office. He shook Lester's hand and then sat down without being invited. Lester followed suit wondering what the complaint was going to be this time. Travel expenses, scientific expenses or

'I am dismayed to learn that you have still not found a way to reduce your dependence on the Special Forces.'

'As you know Home Secretary, we have tried reducing the number of special force personnel as well as downgrading the calibre of troops deployed with the team. Both of your suggestions, as I recall, and both with disastrous consequences not only for team members, but also members of the public.'

Calderwood waved the consequences and his responsibility for them with a languid gesture of his hand. 'The theory is correct, I'm sure it's just a question of striking the right balance.'

Lester looked past the politician to see Cutter calmly walking into his office. He was about to say something when Cutter shook his head. Lester concentrated on the Home Secretary and so was in the perfect position to see the man's reaction to the ghost of the previous leader of the team walk through the desk and stand behind Lester's left shoulder. Calderwood's squeal of shock was a sound he was going to treasure for many months to come.

'Home Secretary? Is there something wrong?'

Calderdale was staring, white-faced at Cutter. He raised a trembling hand. 'You don't see him?'

Lester made a point of looking over the wrong shoulder.

'See what?'

'There, man! It's Professor Cutter. The one who died, who was shot here!'

Lester looked over his left shoulder. Cutter was just standing there. 'I'm sorry I don't see anyone. There's no one there.'

'But, but...'

Lester dropped his voice into concerned colleague mode. 'Have you been feeling all right? Are you sure you haven't been working too hard. I know the new justice bill has been tremendously stressful for all concerned.'

Calderwood forced himself to look away from Cutter and back to Lester. 'May ... maybe you're right. I think I should go.'

Lester smiled. 'I'll get Lorraine to call you driver.'

'Good. I'll walk down to meet him.'

Calderdale stood up, grabbed the edge of Lester's desk for support and then nearly sprinted for the door.

Lester watched him go dispassionately.

'You are a bad man, Cutter. I knew there was a reason to have you around.'
#
Lester looked at the shapes Cutter was making with his arms and then at the chart he was holding in his hand.

'N.O.S.O.U.R. No sour?'

Cutter shook his head and then looked down at the chart on the bench beside him. He tried again.

'N.O.S.O.U.L. No soul?' Lester was surprised. 'You're saying you have no soul?'

Cutter nodded vigorously.

'And you don't think your current situation gives you any grounds to reconsider that position?'

Cutter started spelling out the same message.

'No soul. I get you. I just don't know what the padre will make of it.'
#
Lester knew the exorcism was a non-starter the moment Becker ushered the Reverend Peter Forbes into his office.

'This is the new padre,' Becker said, with a slight emphasis on the word 'new'.

Lester, who had liked Dunstan, the SAS's previous chaplain, squashed his disappointment and held out his hand.

'James Lester,' he said, hoping that the Forbes' greasy hair and full, wet lower lip were not signs of incompetence.

'Call me Peter,' Forbes took his hand in a damp handshake that lingered a little too long.

Lester gestured to a seat and Forbes took it.

'I take it Captain Becker has briefed you on our situation here?'

'Yes. I believe there have been sightings of a man who died here earlier this year?' Forbes had a soft, slow voice as though he was in contact with deeper spiritual matters than his company.

'More than sightings,' Lester said. 'Becker could you ask Cutter to come up here please?'

Becker nodded but his expression gave Lester to understand that he took no responsibility for the chaplain.

Lester had taken an instant dislike to the Reverend Forbes, but he had to give the man his due, he took the arrival of a slightly transparent, dead biologist with no more than a slight jump and a sharp intake of breath.

'Oh my! This is unusual!'

'This is Professor Nick Cutter,' said Becker. 'Nick, this is the Reverend Forbes.'

Cutter nodded a greeting and then stood with his arms folded waiting to see what was going to happen.

'Professor Cutter can hear us, Peter, but we can't hear him.'

'Then how have you been communicating?'

Lester held up one of the laminated sheets. 'How's your semaphore, Padre?'

Forbes looked a little wild about the eyes. 'Rather rusty, I'm afraid.'

Lester smiled at Becker who was edging towards the door. 'That's all right, Peter, I'm sure Becker can provide translations when needed.

Looking back at the event, Lester thought that things probably wouldn't have worked in any case. However the Reverend Peter Forbes (CF) pretty much guaranteed their failure by offering to say a prayer, clasping his hands and bowing his head before starting in the most unctuous of spiritual voices, 'Dear Lord, we just want to raise before you this lost soul...'

Lester risked a glance at Cutter who was staring at the praying man with appalled dislike and quickly bowed his head but not before he'd seen Cutter make a backwards and forwards motion with his circled fist. Becker didn't need to translate that sign. Cutter was calling Forbes a wanker.

Forbes prayer was earnest, detailed and interminable. When it seemed like the man was finally getting to the end, Lester risked looking up again. Cutter was now flicking the v-sign with both hands and a lot of vigour at Forbes back. Becker was staring into the middle distance with a pinched look about his mouth that indicated he was drawing upon years of experience ceremonial duties not to give any sign of reaction.

Forbes stopped and looked up. Cutter glowered at him and walked out of the room.

Forbes smiled. 'Oh, it looks like that may have helped.'

Lester avoided catching Becker's eyes. 'I think we'll have to wait and see, Peter, but thank you for your time and efforts.'

'Not at all,' Forbes clasped his hands together. 'I'm only here to help.'
#
Lester came into the break room to find Abby and Connor sitting at one of the tables and Norman fiddling with the water boiler. He poured himself a cup of coffee and opened the fridge to find milk. He became aware that Connor was looking very disconsolate and Abby had her arm around his shoulder.

'I just keep thinking this is my fault,' Connor said.

'I didn't know you had occult powers, Temple?'

'Well, it was just when we started the ouija thing I just thought how nice it would be to talk to Nick again. I missed him. And now he's here and trapped.'

Lester was about to speak something vaguely soothing, but Norman put a spanner down on the draining board and the clang made everyone turn to look at him.

'You might have brought him here, lad, but you're not keeping him here. Cutter's here because he wants to be.'

'Have you spoken to him? He hates it here,' Lester said.

Norman chuckled. 'Read the old tales. Ghosts pester the living because they can't get something where they were and they're looking for it here. He's missing something. He may not know what it is, but if you can't find it he'll go.'

'But he knows Jenny is safe. Lester told him on Halloween night.'

Norman tilted his head and gave Abby a look of amused pity that Lester hadn't seen since the Secretary to the Cabinet Office responded to a press officer worried that a public enquiry might uncover the real truth of the matter.

'Cutter knows where she is and hasn't gone there,' Norman said and gave a huff of amusement. 'For all his degrees he never did know what he really wanted. Even when it was in front of his nose for years.'

Abby and Connor looked puzzled, but Lester met Norman's look and the beginning of an idea began to form.
#
The little room was set up exactly as it had been on Halloween. The same lab technicians who had been at the original seance were sitting by at the table with the ouija board and looking nervously at Cutter who was standing by the wall with his arms folded. His face shouted scepticism.

Danny and Sarah came into the room and Lester tapped Connor on the arm.

'You're clear about what you have to do?'

Connor nodded. 'Yes, but why me?'

'I'd do it, but A) I wasn't part of the original setup and B) we weren't exactly on good terms. Just think clearly that this is what he needs.'

Connor nodded again, squared his shoulders in determination and sat down at the table.

'Is everyone where they were before?' Lester asked. They nodded. 'Good, let's begin. And no, Cutter, I don't know if this will work, but it's got as good a chance as anything else.'

The seance participants each put a finger on the little planchette on the ouija board. Connor's brow furrowed in concentration.

'Is there anybody there?' Sarah asked.

For a few moments there was only stillness and an almost tangible anticipation.

'Is there...,' Sarah started again.

Then there were screams from the atrium and Lester felt a sense of relief.
#
They all rushed to the atrium. The screaming had stopped but the source of it was still there. Beside the ADD, paler and more transparent than Cutter, but easily recognisable stood the figure of Stephen Hart.

The seance participants skidded to a halt a few metres away from Stephen. Cutter walked a few paces closer.

Stephen saw him and smiled. He jerked his head back in a clear 'Come on' gesture and held out a hand. Cutter walked towards him, held out his own hand and took hold of Stephen's. Then without so much as a glance at the living they were gone.

A slight ripple of applause went through the room.

'Thank fuck for that!' said Lester.

The End