“I’ll grab them,” Doc says and then disappears, returning with our bags and handing them out to all of us.
“Thanks, man,” Coen says as we all grab our bags and then head toward House finally.
The shutters all flap wildly as we walk up the steps.
“House looks fine. I could have sworn that I saw him get damaged,” Raiden says with a frown.
“I saw one of his shutters get pulled off, at least I was sure that’s what I saw,” I add, as I study the now perfectly looking shutter. “Are you okay, House?”
His shutters slam happily, and the front door bursts open, a warm, welcoming glow spilling across the porch.
“Is it me, or does the porch look in far better condition than it did the last time that we were here?” Ransom asks as we all head through the door and into the warmth of House.
“It’s not just the outside,” Reed says as he steps inside. “It looks great in here.”
The fires flare suddenly, and I’m pretty sure that it’s because House is happy with the compliment.
“House has been busy,” Ethel calls from the kitchen. “Hurry now.”
We all dump the bags that we brought with us in the hallway, ready to take them upstairs later on, and follow our noses into the kitchen.
“Wow, this looks great,” Coen compliments as we all take seats.
“Thank you, Coen, dear,” Ethel replies.
“You know my name?” He asks.
“Of course I do,” she replies gently. “Now eat.”
We all share a look. We have some pretty big questions to ask her, but I highly doubt that Ethel is going to answer any of them before we’ve eaten. Hell, she might not even answer after we’ve eaten. She’s not always that forthcoming with information after all.
“We may as well eat,” I say. “Ethel won't speak to us about what happened outside until we do.”
“She’s right,” Ethel agrees.
To be fair, none of us take that much convincing to eat. Ethel and House, because I’m not entirely sure which one actually makes the food, make the best meals ever.
After a while, everyone has finished eating, and I look over to where Ethel is perched in her usual space on the counter.
“Alright, you two,” I start. “What the hell was that about? Why were you getting attacked by ghosts?”
A cupboard door slams.
“It happens occasionally, certain members of the Other Side get ballsy and decide that they’re going to try their hands at stealing it, even though countless people have tried before them and no one has succeeded,” Ethel replies rather flippantly, and of course vaguely as well.
I narrow my eyes. “That still didn’t answer the question, Ethel.”
She sighs, and House bangs the cupboard doors closest to her a couple of times.
“Alright, alright,” she snaps at House. “Quit nagging me.”
“Ethel?” I ask.
“How long are you all staying for?” She asks, avoiding the question.
I decide to answer despite the fact that she is changing the subject, “We’re staying indefinitely. The Blue Fucker, who I told you about last time, well, he’s actually called Casimir, and has been controlling Dimitri. It’s a whole thing that I don’t want to get into now because you still haven’t answered my question, Ethel.”
She chuckles, “We can catch up on that later. I suppose that since you are going to be here for a while, you should probably know. It’s about time that you did anyway. House has thought so for a while.”
