The last of the sunlight fades away, and the train stops for a crew change. Aiden and I wait until it coasts to a halt, then hop down from the freight container, landing with a crunch on the gravel.

We’re about twenty steps away from the train when someone calls out to us.

“Hey! You two!”

We both twist to squint through the darkness. I briefly consider running, but I can’t think of a more suspicious thing to do, so. I end up holding perfectly still as a figure emerges from around the side of the train.

He comes closer, wiping his hands on his smudgy uniform. The glowing point of the cigarette he’s smoking casts just enough light for us to make out his face.

“You guys better not be thinking about hopping my train.” He takes the cigarette from his mouth, pinches it out, and flicks it away. “S’illegal, you know. Judge will make an example out of you.”

“We’re not,” Aiden says, and the newcomer tips his head to the side, taking a better look at our outfits.

“Two runaway grooms at once?” He smirks, pulling a pack out of his pocket. “Don’t often see that.”

He takes himself another cigarette, then offers the pack around; Aiden surprises me by accepting one. The guy lights up, and Aiden bends forward to borrow the flame. They both lean back, breathing out long furls of smoke.

“It’s nothing, man, we’re just a lil’ fucked up, and we got lost,” Aiden explains. “Wandered off from a wedding, yeah, but neither of us is the groom. Party’s happening up at the Three Pines Inn, you know it?”

“No, but I don’t care, so long as you don’t get back to the wedding on my train. Or end up passed out on the tracks in front of it.”

“Wouldn’t think of it,” Aiden answers, little puffs of smoke escaping his mouth with every word.

The man nods sharply, and heads off. “Fine. You boys stay out of trouble.”

I have a stolen piece of jewelry hidden in my fist, so I have to bite back a hysterical laugh as Aiden calls back: “We always do!”

“So what?” I ask, when the man disappears. “You’re like your aunt, you have celebration cigs? This is your - we successfully robbed a museum smoke?”

“No, this is my we should dispose of the rest of this evidence smoke.” Aiden extracts the remaining ghost-note from his suit jacket. “Here, gimme the camera, too.”

I find the tiny, broken camera in my pocket and hand it to him. Aiden wraps it up in the note, then uses the tip of his cigarette to set the little bundle on fire. He drops it onto the concrete, and we watch the flames lick over it. When it’s a pile of burnt nothing, Aiden stomps on it, stubs out the cigarette, and reaches for my hand.

“C’mon, let’s go.”

We walk the rest of the way back to the hotel. It only takes us about half an hour, but by the time we get there, we’re both half-asleep. For the first time in days, my body isn’t running on pure adrenaline, and my anxiety isn’t forcing me to stay alert. Now that I know I can sleep without worrying, I can hardly keep my eyes open.

Aiden clearly feels the same way. We barely even manage to get out of our suits.

Just to be safe, we decide to hide the locket for the night. Aiden tucks it between the pages of the dusty Bible on the dresser.

“We should really have some anti-tarnish paper tabs to wrap it in,” he says, crawling into bed. “To preserve it properly. And an anti-corrosion sleeve.”

“Archivist,” I murmur. He smiles, gathering me up into his arms.

“Thief,” he says, against the back of my neck.

“Co-conspirator,” I mumble, and Aiden laughs.

It’s the last sound I hear before I finally fall into deep, dreamless sleep.

~~~~

The next morning, Aiden sits on the bed, relaxing in a pool of sunlight, watching me speedily fold up my suit.

“You know,” he says, “This hotel made a bad first impression, but it’s grown on me. Has it grown on you, too?”

“What?” I’m distracted, busy stuffing clothes into my bag. “Hurry up, man. Get your shit packed so that we can get out of this hell hotel before I lose my mind.”

Aiden lets out a low, affectionate chuckle. “Well, I guess that’s an answer.”

“Disaster place,” I tell him, zipping up my backpack. “This is testament to how much I like you, I hope you know. I would never stay in a hotel like this for anyone else. Not Roger, or Cole, or Dominic…”

“Don’t ask me why, because I don’t know,” Aiden muses, “But I automatically feel the most threatened by Dominic. Just seems like a name a very hot guy would have. Is that dumb?”

I stop just long enough to tap Aiden’s nose.

“What’s dumb is that you’d feel threatened by any of them.”

He smiles brightly, then hops up from the bed to wrap his sun-warmed arms around me.

“Cute,” he says, into my neck.

“Dude! No time to snuggle, not while I’m trying to get us out of a murder hotel!”

“Why is it a murder hotel, exactly? Oh, right, because of the d-”

“Because of the dolls!”

Aiden chuckles again. He lets me go, then leans an elbow on the dresser.

“Should I take them out of the drawer? You want to say goodbye, before we leave?”

“Okay, you know what, Callahan?” I stop packing again, this time to glare at him. “I’ve had enough of you. Think I’m just gonna date someone else.”

Aiden nods, like he suspected this was coming. “You want Dominic back, don’t you? I knew it.”

“Aiden!” My scowl breaks, and I burst into a laugh. “Come on. We need to go get my car back, and then double-check that there are no ducks inside.” I shoot him a helpless look. “God, the number of ridiculous sentences I’ve spoken this weekend. If one more ridiculous thing happens before we leave this hotel, I’m going to have a meltdown.”

“Hey, we’re checking out,” Aiden says, a few minutes later.

Maud doesn’t look up from her book. It’s the same one she’s been reading at the desk all weekend. She’s made a lot of progress through it.

“Gimme the key.” She holds out a hand, her eyes still fixed to the page. Aiden complies. “Did you enjoy your stay? That’s good. Be sure to leave us a review online, or whatever. But don’t get too critical. I’ve got nothing to do all damn day, I have no hesitations about wasting hours arguing with you on the internet.”

“You’re a perfect angel, Maud,” Aiden tells her. “Why would we say anything else?”

“Oh, am I?” She licks her finger to turn a page. Aiden and I head for the door, and she adds, without looking up, “By the way, tall one. You and me? I’d let that happen. You too, ginger spice. Whichever, I don’t care. Come back any time, either of you.” She glances up, and winks. “Or both.”

I don’t even hear what Aiden answers, because I’m trying so hard not to absolutely lose my shit.

We manage to get about a block away from the hotel before we both break down. I sag against Aiden’s arm, groaning, and he bursts out laughing.

“Good thing we made it out of the hotel before one more ridiculous thing happened, huh? Ginger spice.”

“Don’t even!” I laugh, so hard that tears start welling in my eyes. “One last absurdity for the road, I guess! Now I really hope we don’t have to come back to drop off a duck. She’s gonna think we’re taking her up on her offer.”

“Well, I think arriving with the duck would probably send a clear message about why we’re back,” Aiden answers, and I let out another groan, which turns into another laugh. "Kasey did tell us to play it straight at the hotel, so - I guess we succeeded?"

“Apparently!" I press a hand to my chest. "Maud! She’s fearless. And she said it even though I’m wearing a fucking wedding ring!”

“Yeah, why are you still wearing that?” Aiden sets off down the sidewalk again, and I fall into step at his side. “I was wondering.”

“I - don’t know.” I look down at it, then twist it off and put it on the ring finger of my right hand, instead. “I kind of like it?”

The truth is, after Aiden put it on me, I just - don’t want to take it off.

Aiden laces his fingers through mine.

“So you-” he begins, and stops. “You like gold, then? Over silver?”

“What?” I glance over at him, and he nods to the ring. “Oh - you mean for jewelry? I don’t know. I don’t wear any, normally.” I look down at my hand again. “But I guess now that I see it, gold looks nice.”

“I think so, too.” Aiden lifts our intertwined hands and takes another look at the ring, a small smile on his face. He clears his throat, then drops my fingers to adjust his backpack. “Anyways, pick it up, ginger spice. We’ve got a long walk ahead of us.”

~~~~

“Oh, buddy!” I rush to the car and drape my arms over its bright blue hood. “I missed you!”

Aiden has the keys; he tosses them to me as I straighten up. We get our stuff into the backseat, then do a quick duck-check.

Aiden takes out the locket as I start driving us back towards the paved road. He turns it over in his fingers, his blue eyes thoughtful. It looks so tiny in his giant hands.

“How does this all fit together?” he says, after a moment. “If this really is a token of Will’s love, and assuming we did get the right thing from the museum… does that mean... Ariana… and Will?”

In all the chaos, I had almost forgotten about this aspect of things.

“You think?” I ask, and then - “Wait. Aiden. That explains - Ariana must be the ancestor of yours who turned Will into a ghost! She’s the one who made him! She was in love with him, so that makes sense, doesn’t it? And Will was never married, so - I guess he - died before they could actually get together?”

“Shit.” Aiden stares down at the locket, wide-eyed. “Oh, my fucking god. You realize this means that - if Will hadn’t died when he did - he would have been my like - great-great-great-grandfather. What the fuck!”

“What a weird thing to find out. Ghost hunting is a wild business.”

Aiden starts to laugh, but then falls silent again. He holds the locket up to the light, clearly working through a thought.

“So it - it must have been an accident.” He looks over at me. “If Ariana loved Will, she wouldn’t want him trapped here, incorporeal, indefinitely… she…”

He fades off, and I catch a glimpse of his expression in the rearview.

“Aiden? What’s wrong?”

“She made one mistake with her magic, probably in a moment of panic, and she trapped someone in stasis for two hundred years. Maybe she… maybe she didn’t even know that she did it.”

Aiden is suddenly breathing like he’s not getting any actual air. Alarmed, I stop the car and put it in park. He stares straight out through the windshield, his chest rising and falling too quickly.

When he speaks again, his voice is hoarse.

“She did a terrible thing to someone she loved, completely by accident, because she lost control of her magic.”

The look on Aiden's face hits me like a punch to the stomach. I turn off the car and get out.

We haven’t even made it to the main road yet, but that’s a good thing. It's obvious that Aiden needs a minute. He gets out, too. Closes the door and slumps back against it, running a hand over his beard.

“Listen.” I reach up and take his face in my hands. He looks down at me, his eyes filled with distress. “You are not Ariana.”

“No, but I’m capable of what she was capable of.” He closes his eyes. “Jamie… if I ever did anything to hurt you, even by accident, I... What if, by being with you...?”

He doesn't finish his thought. My heart drops.

“Aiden, will you please look at me?” It takes him a moment, but he opens his eyes again. I look right into them while I speak. I want him to know how serious I am. “It’s actually safer, to have the full Ghost Office team supporting you. Kasey and I - and Will, when we get him - we can help you. If you do something bad by accident, we can help you fix it. Think of what we’ve already done! We got the glasses to work. We found a buried cemetery in the middle of a massive forest. We’ve communicated with an incorporeal ghost. We’ve now successfully executed like, two entire robberies, and you and I - we haven’t missed saving anyone, since you came home.”

“That’s…” Aiden hesitates, then nods slowly. “That’s true…”

“And,” I forge ahead desperately, “You made Kasey from thousands of miles away, didn’t you? Just because you were thinking of me? You staying away, to try and keep me safe - that would make us both miserable, and it wouldn’t help with anything. Unless you would stop thinking about me, if we were apart?”

“Stop-?” He lets out a ragged laugh, then shakes his head. “No. Believe me, I wouldn’t.”

“So…” I take Aiden’s hands, then let out a soft, relieved breath when he doesn’t pull them away. He tips towards me, presses his forehead to mine.

“How do you do that?” he murmurs.

“Do what?”

“Whenever I feel - you always...” He shakes his head again, moving mine with it. “Nothing. Just - thank you.”

I lean up, bringing our faces closer together, stroking my fingers down his cheek.

“And - don’t - you - go - sneaking - off. You - dummy.” I punctuate each word with a kiss. “I will track you down and kill you, if you do that.”

“I won’t.” Aiden locks his arms around my back. “I promise. I’m not going anywhere. Not unless you’re going with me.”

~~~~

Kasey swings around the second I open my apartment door.

“Yes! Oh, thank fucking god!”

She sprints right for us. At the last second, she realizes that she’s about to go flying straight through me, and she skids to a stop, flapping her hands wildly.

“Goddamnit! This is the worst time to not be able to hug you two! I’ve been terrified, what the hell happened to the camera? The laptop feed cut out the first fucking day you guys were there! Are you okay? Did you get the locket?”

“Oh, god, Jamie,” Aiden sighs. “How do we tell her?”

I wince. “Don’t know. It's gonna be tough."

“Tell me what? Did you get the locket or not? Someone start talking! Aiden! Tell me what happened or I’m gonna scream!”

“That’s really only going to bother Jamie, I can just take the glasses off.”

“For fuck’s sake!” Kasey seizes two handfuls of her hair. “One of you assholes had better-!”

I hold up the locket by its delicate chain. Aiden and I break out into matching grins when we see the look on Kasey’s face.

“Oh my god!” She flings her arms up over her head. “Are you serious? Fuck yes! This team can do anything!”

“You hear that, Aiden?” I elbow his ribs. “Anything.”

“Yes, dude.” He ruffles my hair, smiling. “I’m sorry I freaked out for a sec. I’m okay, I promise.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Kasey groans. “This is torture! Tell me everything that happened, please! How did the plan go? Any hiccups?”

“Well, it went mostly to plan," I begin, "Except, like you said, we broke the camera."

Her eyebrows shoot up. “You guys were the ones who broke the camera?”

“Yes,” Aiden says, apologetically. “I think it’s not supposed to get that cold. And Jamie dropped the stopwatch onto Coburn’s feet, basically, but it was my fault-”

“What!” Kasey gasps.

“And we did have to use the train plan, after all,” I tell her. “And we set off the fire alarm!”

“Albert Bratton showed up in a helicopter!” Aiden chimes in. “There was also a thing with some ducks-”

“And somebody tried to have a threesome with us!”

Kasey gapes at us for a moment, then presses her fingers to her temples.

“Okay. Boys? Sit down. Take a breath. Then tell me everything, and this time, start from the beginning.”