Chapter Text
When Gabe arrived at the airport this morning, he was feeling much more calm than he had been the day before. He was no longer alone – trailing behind him in close company was his new acquaintance of sorts, who had one bag slung over his shoulder and another dragging along noisily behind him.
His companion, William, was considerably less composed than he was. While Gabe walked casually and spoke effortlessly with the people at the flight desk, William fidgeted nervously behind him, fretting over every little thing he could possibly find. William hesitated in the security line, and took far longer than Gabe would have preferred as he unloaded his things onto the belt to be scanned. Gabe had already been through the metal detectors, received an additional pat down, and had just finished slipping his shoes back on before William was even halfway through his process, and Gabe made sure to make only a slight show of his annoyance. In truth, it was a little refreshing to see William so flustered, when yesterday he’d been so stubborn.
The two had known each other less than twenty-four hours, and Gabe can’t seem to make heads or tails of where they’re at, work-wise or otherwise. William was incredibly cold at first, refusing to entertain the idea of helping them out, but he was too powerful to ignore how badly they needed his help. He knew before Gabe said it that things in New York were serious, and regardless of Gabe’s feelings, William was friendly with Pete and Patrick. Even if he didn’t want to help Gabe in particular, he seemed willing to help the people he knew well.
Gabe, for his part, couldn’t help but have a little respect for William’s clear ability. They spent yesterday afternoon explaining their work to each other, and after only a few hours of close contact Gabe could see William was on a caliber far above most others of his status. Empaths are rare as it is – true empaths, anyways, ones who can read auras and feel others' feelings like they’re their own. William wasn’t just any empath, he was so visibly affected by whatever he saw that it often looked like he lost himself entirely. Gabe could understand why someone like Pete, himself highly skilled, could want a person of William’s ability in their network.
The problem with William’s high sensitivity was that he couldn’t exactly turn it off. At least, that’s how he’d explained it to Gabe, who had been desperate to know more about it while they talked back and forth about their case work in their respective fields.
“It must be amazing, all the things you can see and feel,” Gabe said wistfully, watching as William moved to sit down across from him once again, setting down two mugs of tea in the process.
“I’d hardly call it amazing,” he replied, crossing one leg over the other and taking the mug in one hand. “It’s more exhausting than anything else, honestly.”
“Are you kidding me? You have to be one of the most sensitive empaths in the world, if everything I’ve heard about them is true. I think that’s incredible.” Gabe could easily ask William about it all day, wanting to pick apart every detail he possibly could. He always wanted to know more.
“That’s the problem – I’m high-sensitivity.” William pointed out, shaking the pointer finger on his free hand in Gabe’s direction before taking a sip of his drink.
“I don’t see how that’s a problem, you seem well put together.” Aside from the chaotic apartment and the sort of wild look in his eyes when he talked about it, William seemed remarkably normal. Intelligent, a little cocky even, he didn’t seem unstable at all. Eccentric, sure, but he wasn’t dangerous.
“You’ve seen how far away I get,” William said, meeting Gabe’s eyes.
“It’s incredible, I’ve never seen anything like it before. Besides, you come back to yourself pretty easily.”
“You haven’t seen it happen enough, you don’t know what it’s like.” William averted his gaze and stared instead down at the floor, and the subtle change repaints his expression entirely. He seems distant again, but this isn’t supernatural, it’s decidedly human. “It’s like that, all the time. At any moment I can be just…overcome with emotions that aren’t mine. I see memories and dreams of people rooms away, people I don’t even know. People on the streets, on the train, everywhere I go. It never stops.”
Gabe paused for a moment, pondering over what he knew about people like William. “You can’t tune it out?”
“There’s no off-button. I can tune out background noise, sure…but when emotions are strong, it’s impossible for me to ignore. I’m not in the driver’s seat anymore.” It was then that Gabe understood William’s tone – haunted.
Gabe was unable to do well on the memory any longer, as William finally came through the metal detectors and moved to collect his things. He took more effort to slide his shoes back on, and when he finally turned to face Gabe, there was a hazy look in his eyes. Gabe didn’t need to ask to understand what was happening, and moved to gently grab William’s arm and guide him along towards their gate. He didn’t know if he should’ve asked before doing so, but he wasn’t going to walk off without William if he was feeling too much, and he wasn’t going to wait around until it was over. They were cutting it close enough to their flight, and Gabe was eager to get home.
William was silent for the rest of the walk from security to their gate, that same glazed over look present in his eyes. He let Gabe guide him along without putting up a fuss, and he managed to keep whatever was haunting him under some level of control; he wasn’t making faces or reacting to things that weren’t there, which seemed like a good thing.
“You gonna be alright?” Gabe asked in a low voice, swinging his bag over his shoulder as their section of seats was called. William seemed to have returned to himself, he was no longer sitting rigidly or staring off into space.
“Yeah, sorry.” William took a second to stand, and when he did he ran a hand through his hair, clearly looking for something to fret over. “A couple of people in line are having a bit of a tearful goodbye right now…I tuned in and couldn’t tune back out.” he explained as they got in their designated line.
“But you’re gonna be alright?” Gabe repeated, wanting to hear William say as much. This was quite literally their very last chance for things to go poorly – once they were on the plane and the doors were shut, William would be coming to New York whether he liked it or not.
William took one slow, controlled breath, in and out, then nodded his head resolutely. “Yeah, I’m gonna be just fine.”
Gabe didn’t have a chance to ask anything else before the line began to move, and he thought it might be good to leave that as it was.
Boarding was uneventful, and everything started to move more quickly from there. William took the window seat and Gabe the center seat at his side, passing the time until takeoff by responding to a few final messages on his phone and going through his own mental checklists for when they got home.
William tensed right before takeoff, and it was then that Gabe realized there must be at least a few people on this flight that were anxious fliers, and he wondered if William was feeling all that fear at once. His hands were balled into white-knuckled fists in his lap, trembling softly, and Gabe silently took one hand into his own in attempts to soothe the shaking. He didn’t really think about the action at first – just sort of instinctively reaching out to comfort, until he remembered that the two of them were hardly acquaintances and William wasn’t entirely in his body right now. A rush of heat ran through his whole body, but William’s shaking seemed to ease a little, so he kept his hand there until the plane was in the air and the seatbelt lights were off.
From there, things were much easier. William had brought ample amounts of entertainment to distract himself – he slid a pair of headphones on sometime between boarding and takeoff, and he’d brought a journal to write in and a book to read, amongst who knows what else. Gabe was fine just relaxing for the most part, and had headphones if he grew particularly bored, but he might have been thinking too loudly – maybe twenty minutes in, William had wordlessly passed him his book and wouldn’t take it back when Gabe tried to deflect. It was a mystery novella about a disgraced detective – just in case William wasn’t in deep enough on this whole crime solving thing.
William seemed to calm once Gabe had something to occupy himself with, and he only seemed to lose himself a little upon descent. Gabe wordlessly held his hand until the plane had stopped at their gate, when William stopped shaking. From the airport they’d catch a taxi back to his apartment, where everyone should hopefully be congregated for something of a team meeting.
-
William hadn’t ever been to New York City before, and he’d always assumed it’d be an overwhelming place to be in – after all, it was overwhelming to totally normal, unburdened people. So when he’d boarded that plane he thought he knew what he was getting into, and he thought he knew how he’d be able to handle it.
The problem, as it turned out, was a lot less in the people surrounding him than he was expecting – there were simply so many other bodies surrounding theirs everywhere they went that it all felt like white noise. His body tingled with the unique sensation that he wasn’t entirely himself, but every emotion he felt was light, and they all happened in quick succession, too quick for him to dwell on. He clung physically to Gabe, not because he felt emotionally unmoored in these open waters, but because he was physically unable to navigate the streets otherwise. Gabe walked these streets with the learned pace of someone who’d lived on them for most of his life, and his clear head was a great one to focus on in the sea of noise.
They took a taxi from the airport but didn’t take it straight to Gabe’s apartment – instead Gabe had them dropped off a few blocks away, and they were walking the rest of the way. William could have scoured his thoughts to understand why that might be, but the streets were so busy with people that he was mostly just focusing on staying out of the way and not losing Gabe in the process.
William knew when Gabe was going to turn, and the two easily bounded up the front steps of the apartment building before Gabe entered the code to get inside. William tailed closely behind him, dragging along his bags as they ascended the steps up to the third floor and turned down the hallway until they reached the right door. Gabe’s aura, which had been a calm and consistent halo of deep blue most of the day, was now glowing with near intensity. William had found over the years that a glow that bright was a near universal sign of excitement or relief.
Before the door was even all the way open William was being bombarded with new colors and voices in the corners of his vision and the back of his mind. The apartment was buzzing with activity, and William could pick out no less than three distinct auras as Gabe led him inside and towards the kitchen.
“I’m home!” Gabe sang with a joking lilt, opening up his arms to soak in the attention as everyone’s eyes fell on him. Despite his clearly sarcastic entrance, the room erupted into genuine cheers and greetings, and William counted four bodies congregated in the kitchen.
“Gabey babey,” one voice purred, someone William immediately recognized – Pete Wentz. William may not remember the last time he saw him in real life, but he was incredibly hard to forget.
“Hey babe,” Gabe purred right back, toeing the line between sarcasm and genuine flirtation so closely that even William couldn’t completely decipher it. “I brought you a present.”
That was when he turned and motioned to William, urging him to step forward, so everyone could get a good look at him. William could feel the shift in the energy around him and grew just a little shy, stepping forward into the kitchen and offering the group a tight-lipped smile.
“Good to see you again, Bill,” one voice commented, and when William looked over at him, he smiled. Patrick. William knew of Pete more than he really knew him, but Patrick was closer in age to him and the two had grown up in a very similar circle. Once, in their youth, they’d been something akin to close. Patrick knew more about William’s gift than most, through sheer virtue of late night adolescent confessions.
“Yeah, it’s good to see you too.” William could agree to that, smile growing a little more genuine. Gabe swung a long arm around William’s shoulder and pulled him in close, something that genuinely took him by surprise, because he’d been so locked in on Patrick.
“Yeah, we had a pretty good talk yesterday, I think he’s looking forward to helping out…” Gabe began, flashing the group a blinding smile. William rolled his eyes at that easily.
“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t say you did much of the convincing. I’m here to help my friends out.”
“What, and I’m not included in that?” Gabe asked, smile twisting into a devilish little smirk.
“Hardly,” William replied, turning up his nose in a gesture that was only mostly serious.
Gabe laughed at that, but released William from his grasp, giving him the opportunity to both dramatically dust himself off and actually set his bag on the ground. His poor shoulders were aching, lugging around all of his things like that.
“Seriously, though,” Pete began, smiling his own wicked little smirk at Gabe. “Thanks for heading out there for us, Gabe. And Bill, thank you so much for coming out here. I’m sure you can already tell…but we could really use it. Here, shit, why don’t you come meet up with everyone? Did you guys eat? Once we do introductions, Gabe, I’m gonna need you for something…”
“No worries, I’m all good. Here, William, make yourself at home. You boys take good care of him, alright?” Gabe directed, motioning William towards an unoccupied kitchen chair and the rest of the group, who were watching them expectantly.
As soon as William moved, Gabe motioned for Pete, and the two walked off together into one of the rooms down the hall. The door closed softly behind them when they went, and though William could’ve easily tuned into them through the paper thin walls, he had neither the energy nor the interest to want to bother.
Unfortunately, when Pete and Gabe were gone, that left only Patrick – and the two men who William was completely unfamiliar with. One was dutifully writing things down in some kind of journal, notes on some kind of incantation that William didn’t really understand. He radiated a serene, green energy – calm, focused, dedicated to his craft. William knew enough to know that whatever he was doing involved some kind of magic work, but he didn’t know anything beyond that.
Patrick had a laptop open and a half finished snack laid out in front of himself, though he seemed to be able to mostly drop his activities to give William an ounce of attention. “I’m seriously glad to see you again, Bill, it’s been way too long,” Patrick said, voice dripping in sincerity, though it was really his warm energy that gave him away. “I hope Gabe didn’t give you too much trouble on the way over…?”
“He wasn’t so bad, once we got past introductions,” William laughed. “Besides, I could tell there was…something serious going on. I’m, uh, glad to help out.” He still didn’t know what exactly he was helping out with, but hopefully he’d have some answers soon.
“Shit, speaking of introductions–” Patrick sighed, frustrated with himself, before motioning to the two men sitting at the table with them. “These are two of the most important members of the core team. Of course, you’ll meet the rest of the team soon I’m sure…but–”
Patrick has just started motioning to the man writing in his notebook when he stopped and interjected. “Travis McCoy, you can call me Travie.” He introduced, reaching out a long tattooed arm for William to shake, which he reciprocated naturally. Before William could get a word in, Travie smiled a casanova sort of smile, the kind that instantly made William’s face grow warm and butterflies flutter in his stomach. Having clearly noticed, Travie threw him a last playful wink before looking back down at his work.
“Nice to meet you.” William stumbled over his words a little bit, moving a hand up to tuck a strand of hair behind his ear awkwardly.
“I’ve heard good things about you from these guys, I’m excited to see what you can do,” Travie complimented, and now William was certain he was beet red. “Normally shit’s not this boring, but right now I’m working on some things…protection on the field, you know how it is.”
William most certainly did not know how it is, but he nodded his head and giggled as if he did. The one good thing about being out of his depth: at least he could play cute until he felt a little more comfortable. He was pretty good at it, in a pinch. Travie certainly seemed to find it endearing, if the sudden warmth around his aura and the few saucy thoughts he was thinking were any indicator. William took auras and internal monologues at their face value as a general rule of thumb, so he’d count this as a success.
Patrick either didn’t notice or didn’t care that William and Travie were making eyes at each other, and instead turned his attention back to William like nothing had happened at all. “Yeah, unfortunately, you caught us in the middle of our work day, so we’re all mostly busy. Most of the guys are out working on things around the city for us, but everyone’s supposed to be around tonight to meet up and talk about a game plan for tomorrow.”
“What’s tomorrow?” William asked immediately, despite knowing he could easily dig around in the thoughts of anyone around him to figure it out. William found unnecessarily digging into people’s heads both incredibly rude and often more trouble than it was worth, and anyway, he was too tired from the morning’s events to want to do any deep dives. Besides, he’d rather just ask his friends like a normal person would.
“Tomorrow night we’re going to do a routine cleansing,” Patrick answered, as if William knew how a routine cleansing worked, as if he knew what it was that they were cleansing. He gave Patrick a look, encouraging him subtly to elaborate, but Patrick’s eyes had fallen back to his keyboard as he started typing away at a half-written email. William averted his third eye at that – Patrick’s mail was his own business.
William sat there in uncomfortable silence for a moment, as Patrick typed furiously and Travie scribbled diligently away on his paper. Only then, when both the other dominant bodies in the room were focused on their respective tasks, could he notice the one ball of energy that was practically mentally screaming out to him.
Sitting closest to him, in the next available seat, was a boy even younger than himself. If William had to guess he’d say he was just barely out of high school, if he was out at all – he sat all huddled up in the chair with his knees drawn up to his chest. He had dark hair that was half stuck up with bangs shagging over his eyes, and…those eyes were giving him a stare so intense that he was honestly mesmerized. His expression was totally blank, and yet, it felt like it was challenging him to something. The most fascinating thing about this boy was how hard to decipher his aura was, his energy tainting the corners of William’s peripheral vision with fuzzy shades of gray and off-white.
“Sorry about that,” Patrick interjected, causing William to jump slightly, eyes never leaving the boy. He didn’t react to Patrick’s voice at all, instead keeping those eyes locked on William like a predator stalking its prey. “I’m communicating with a lot of people simultaneously, sometimes I get a little distracted. But–”
Patrick was about to continue rambling as normal, but immediately stopped when he noticed what was happening between William and this kid. “Hey! Ryan, stop it, whatever you’re doing,” Patrick commanded, though it hardly sounded threatening. When Ryan continued to sit and stare, he huffed out, “Gabe will kill you if you set anything else on fire in this apartment.”
That made a hell of a lot more sense. This Ryan kid must be gifted. That would explain the aura, though William wasn’t sure why he had to stare at him so creepily.
“Bill, this is Ryan. He’s… well, Pete’s kind of mentoring him right now. Showing him the ropes.” Patrick explained, watching curiously as William and Ryan once again made direct eye contact.
“You know they’ve all been talking about you, right?” Came through in William’s mind clear as day, sending a shock of electricity down his spine, though nobody said a word out loud. He was speaking to him directly through his mind – and though William couldn’t communicate directly back internally, he made a mental acknowledgement of him.
The two locked eyes for an extended moment of silence before there was a distant sound of something rolling off a kitchen counter and clanking loudly on the kitchen tiles, urging Patrick to intercept once again. “Ryan! Use your voice please, you’re going to make a mess.”
Ryan tapped out at that, with a deeply satisfied little smirk now lining his lips. “Fine.” He replied flatly, breaking eye contact at long last to look away, every subtle movement he made oozing with drama.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Ryan,” William said, not commenting on their staring contest in favor of just moving on with his day. Tuning into Ryan’s frequency proved mostly fruitless – as soon as he connected and started reading him, Ryan was already fixating on a random spot on the wall by the door. His thoughts were vivid in clarity but the concepts were incredibly abstract, and William only needed to tune in for a moment before averting his mental gaze.
“Ryan’s got a lot of skill, he’s just learning…” Patrick hesitated for a moment, but William already knew where he was going with this. “Self control,” Patrick finished after a moment, with both his and William’s eyes trailing momentarily back to Ryan, who was still watching that spot on the wall. If William was reading this correctly – and he found himself to be mostly reliable – Ryan had a really powerful head and a dubious off-switch.
The two could have pondered over it longer, but Ryan and William’s heads both swiveled around a second before they heard the door down the hall open. Pete and Gabe came sauntering back into the kitchen, arms around each other’s shoulders, chuckling between each other about something. William had tuned out the beginning of their conversation, so all he caught was something about some spirit, and without any additional context decided not to linger on it any longer.
“Sorry about that, William,” Pete apologized, releasing Gabe from their loose embrace so he could go dig around in the fridge. Pete stood proudly on the edge of the kitchen tiles, smiling a true businessman’s grin in William’s direction, which he easily reciprocated. Even though William had only spoken to Pete a few times in person, it hadn’t stopped Pete from calling him a dozen times over the last few years, ever since William had graduated high school.
“We just had to take care of some business, you know how it is,” Pete explained, leaning up against the open doorway. “But I’m really glad that you reconsidered all this, and decided to come our way and hear us out a little. I promise you won’t be going home empty handed, considering how last minute this was. It’s just…well, it’s a pretty serious situation. How much did Gabe fill you in on?”
Despite Pete asking the question, William knew that Gabe must have already told him everything that had happened, because Pete was already calculating an inner monologue about their operations. His thoughts were so fast that it was a little dizzying to listen to, and William wasn’t in the business of being terribly rude, so he answered after a breath of silence between them. “Just the basics, really. He told me about what kind of cases you guys take on, the kinds of people you work with.”
“So then,” Pete said with an impish smile, “You know a little about what we do and why.”
“You’re helping people that can’t find help anywhere else.”
“Exactly. There are a lot of people who would be turned away by more conventional programs, you know? People like you and I need different things than normal people do.”
In theory, the idea was incredibly appealing. As someone who had spent his entire life feeling like a freak in his own skin because of his gifts, he should be sold immediately. “But it’s hard work. And how many of these problems can you actually solve?”
“We’re not solving people’s problems for them, not completely. We offer solutions, services.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“You and I both know it does,” Pete said, lips curling mischievously at the corners. “Come on Beckett, I know you want to do this. Be honest with yourself, you do all that work by yourself back in Chicago, and you don’t even get any thanks for it, any support.”
“I don’t need recognition, I’m just trying to do what I can with what I’ve been given,” William answered flatly. “And I don’t need any support, I can handle things just fine on my own.”
Pete chuckled dryly, “As if, I know you’re itching for some thanks. Anybody would be, if they were half as good at what they do as you are. And whether or not you want to admit it, you and I both know doing all this work is so much easier with a team to fall back on.”
William was cornered, because regardless of his flat tone and his unimpressed facial expression, everyone knew Pete was right. William did want to be recognized as someone doing something good, instead of being treated like an oddball. And there was some allure to working with people who’d understand his situation, though that was something he’d certainly be taking to his grave. Worse than anything else, though, was the fact that Pete knew he was right, he could see right through William.
“I’m just saying, you wouldn’t have agreed to come out here if you weren’t planning on saying yes. You don’t have any problem saying no when you mean it,” Pete was right again, because he’d personally called William so many times asking for his help, and William had always stood his ground and said no. “Unless you’re just here because of Gabey, I know he can be a charmer.” Pete teased, shooting a wink back at Gabe, unable to hide a laugh as William rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, right,” William scoffed. Gabe had hardly been a charmer, he was just a messenger, and William wasn’t going to even entertain that idea any further. Admittedly though, now that he was aware of it, he could feel Gabe’s eyes on him and it was impossible to ignore. “I’m here because it sounds like things are getting really intense, and at the end of the day, what we do isn’t dissimilar. I won’t pretend like I believe in everything you guys are doing, but I understand where it’s coming from, and I can respect that. Alright?”
So, those were his terms, laid out for everyone in the room to see. Patrick and Travie had both long abandoned their work and were instead watching the conversation closely, while Gabe listened in much more casually, as he fixed himself a bowl of cereal.
“As of right now, you can consider yourself an unofficial partner of The Decaydance Network. We can call this the trial period, if you’d like. Don’t worry, I won’t make you sign any paperwork just yet.” Pete pushed himself off the doorway and stepped closer to William, reaching out a hand for him to shake, a movement William reciprocated willingly. “Off the books, I’d like to congratulate you – welcome to the team!”
Pete beamed with pride, and William’s lips quirked up into a half smile himself, as they released their handshake and gave each other an approving nod of their heads. “Don’t welcome me to the team just yet, Pete. I haven’t agreed to anything binding yet.” For now, at least, he was mostly joking.
“With that settled,” Gabe interrupted at long last, digging his spoon into his bowl idly as he talked. “Can we get back to business? We’ve got lots of shit to prep for. Tomorrow night we’re heading out to do a cleansing of a building that’s been reporting lots of activity, and we need to make sure we’ve got everything we need,” Gabe explained, mostly just to fill William in.
William really didn’t know what the hell he was getting into with all this, did he? Before he could ask a question or voice a concern out loud, Travie chimed in. “Maybe we could bring you along, show you how we do shit around here?”
“I was just gonna suggest the same thing. Let’s do it – William, we’re gonna bring you along with us, get you some field experience. I know you’re more of a research guy, but I think you could be a huge asset out there.” Pete said, eyes already starry at the thought of bringing William along. Someone of William’s sensitivity might be really good at communicating with spirits – it’s a big part of why Pete wanted him on the team to begin with.
William gave a resigned expression, knowing he couldn’t turn down the offer when he’d just arrived for this exact purpose. “Alright, I guess I’m going ghost hunting-”
“Woah, not hunting, this isn’t some reality show,” Gabe said, seeming almost wounded at the mere idea of hunting the dead. “We’re just helping–”
There was a sudden flash of light on the table, and everyone turned to see the corner of Travie’s notes having spontaneously lit ablaze. Travie, unbothered, merely sighed before blowing on the edge of the page gently. “Ryan, stop fucking around,” He scolded gently, causing the otherwise sullen and spacey Ryan to shrug, cheeks having gone pink.
“Sorry, I was spacing out,” he apologized flatly, before resting his head atop his knees in his huddled up position. Based on everyone’s muted reactions, it would seem Ryan had a penchant for starting fires – it was no wonder then that he was Pete’s personal little protege.
As William settled back in and listened to Gabe continue where he’d left off, he realized just how completely out of his depths he was. What the hell was he thinking, agreeing to this?