Fic Post: Unraveling [Shelter/Without a Trace crossover]
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Title: Unraveling, Chapter 11
Author: dragontatt
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: Neither Shelter nor Without a Trace belong to me. No profit is being made from this work of fiction, and no disrespect is intended.
Word Count: 1846
A/N: Many thanks to rilestar for her awesome beta-powers!
Shaun stood next to his Volvo, waving one last time at Cody who was safely ensconced in the back seat of Larry’s Lincoln Town Car. A sudden thought crossed his mind - God, I hope Cody washed his hands after breakfast - and in his mind’s eye he saw tiny syrup-sticky fingers running across the fine leather interior, and he let out a tiny snort. Larry could deal with the mess later.
Larry turned left out of the parking lot and Shaun watched as a black SUV followed a discreet distance behind, but he knew the driver would be anything but discreet if the need arose. He’d seen both the muscles that made the sleeves of the man’s casual jacket bulge and the weapon in the shoulder holster to prove it. One quick phone call had been all Larry had needed to arrange protection both at the beach house and on the road.
Shaun watched as the champagne-colored sedan rounded the curve out of sight before unlocking the door to his own car. He’d tried calling Martin earlier but the call had gone straight to voice mail. So he’d left a curt message saying not to worry, Cody was safe with his parents (and it was a testament to just how worried he was about Zach that he’d said parents and not ‘mom and Larry’) and that he was going to try to meet up with some of Jeanne’s old friends, to see if they had any clue where she might be.
He took a sip from his travel mug of strong black coffee before backing out of his parking space. He punched the button for the radio and scanned through the stations till he found one with the usual inane morning chatter, the kind of stuff he usually hated - anything to keep his mind off Zach.
---
Zach risked a glance as Wes opened the front door to the cabin, and he saw pine trees and mountains silhouetted against the skyline far away, and he sighed. He’d hoped somehow to be out of this place, these mountains no matter how beautiful they were, hoped to be somewhere closer to home. He closed his eyes and rolled over as well as he could still zip-tied to the bed and stretched his free arm over his head.
He’d woken in a panic a few minutes ago, free arm flailing wildly until he’d finally remembered where he was. Or at least the predicament he was in, cause while he still had no real idea where he was, he knew he was still in big fucking trouble.
To his surprise, he’d dreamed about Jeanne last night - not the Jeanne he’d seen last, at Christmas when she and Alan had finally shown up, half-wasted and four hours late. Cody had sworn he didn’t mind that they didn’t bring him his long promised K’NEX Roller Coaster but when they skipped out two hours later to go party with some friends, he’d had an unexpected tantrum and ended up crying himself to sleep that night.
It wasn’t even the Jeanne he remembered so well from the night their mother died, the one who’d held him tight as he slumped against her, crying tears he thought would never end, and all the while her own back remained straight and her tears unshed.
No, he dreamed of a Jeanne from long ago, when they were young, a Jeanne who whispered to him from the top bunk of the tiny room they shared on the night after their father’s accident on the docks. A crane had malfunctioned and a heavy crate of frozen fish came crashing to the ground, crushing his left hip and shattering his femur. The doctors weren’t sure if he would ever be able to walk again, but Jeanne had no doubt.
“It’ll be alright Zachy, you’ll see. Dad’ll get better soon and he’ll get that promotion he’s up for and then we’ll be able to move out of here, just like we been talking about.”
Zach remembered nodding in the darkness, but some small part of him wasn’t reassured. Some part of him knew it always started like this, the beginning of the end. One small mistake - over-looked maintenance - or a tiny misstep - slipping and falling when everyone else was running - could so easily bring the life he knew to a screeching halt, and that scared him.
Maybe it hadn’t been much of a life, by his friend Gabe’s standards at least, but he’d had two parents and a sister that loved him and shouldn’t that have been enough? He hadn’t wanted to be too greedy, to ask for too much because well, who could possibly know what might happen then, who knew what lay beyond this life he knew so well?
He sighed again and rolled onto his side, wondering if he’d ever manage to make it back to the new life he lived now, the life he loved, with Shaun and Cody, or would it all end here in this stinking little cabin on some unknown mountainside, somewhere far away from home?
---
Shaun waited at the wooden picnic table outside the Oceanette. He’d already been inside and spoken to Ellen, ended up practically begging her to come outside and talk to him about Jeanne. At first she refused, saying her shift wouldn’t be over for another three hours. But then her manager piped up from down the aisle, saying she could take her break early as long as she was back in fifteen minutes. She rolled her eyes at him behind his back but called out, “Thanks, Mr. Davis,” cheerily enough.
So Shaun went outside and waited while she clocked out and grabbed her smokes, and he sat there and traced the weather-beaten lines of two miniature Thomas Vincent bridges, both drawn in Sharpie, one a bit more skillfully than the other.
The door to the grocery store swung open and Ellen came out, pulling her pink smock over her head with a groan before lighting a Marlboro. She walked reluctantly towards Shaun, her face unreadable.
He gave her a friendly smile, trying to put her at ease. It didn’t really seem to work though.
“So, what’s this all about anyway? Why do you want to ask me about Jeanne?”
Shaun grimaced, jaw clenching momentarily. He’d been hoping she wouldn’t ask that, and hadn’t really decided yet how to respond if she did.
“Well…” he started.
She stared at him expectantly before inhaling deeply on her cigarette, casually flicking the ashes to the wind.
Shaun leaned closer and lowered his voice. “It’s just that the last time Zach talked to her, she seemed pretty down. Not herself, you know? He’s worried about her, she is pretty much all the family he’s got besides Cody.” He swallowed abruptly, wondering if she could hear the lie in his voice.
“Huh, well…truth is, I don’t really know what’s going on with her lately. She hasn’t called in a while, and the last time I saw her was a few weeks ago ago, same as you guys.” She took another drag on her cigarette and glanced at her watch.
“What do you mean; we haven’t seen her since last Christmas. When was she down here?”
“Must have been September…” She drew out the word and crinkled her nose as she thought. “September 26th, that was it. They drove down on a Saturday, hung out for a while, then they said they had somewhere to go. I just assumed Jeanne wanted to see Cody before they drove all the way back to Portland.”
The 26th was just a few weeks after Cody had started first grade, Shaun thought. She was in LA and never even came to see her own son. His lips pressed into a straight line and the skin around his eyes tightened briefly but he gave a tiny shake of his head and said lightly, “No, she never came to see us. So you have no idea where they went?”
Ellen crushed her cigarette out on the bottom of her sneaker before tossing the butt into the gutter. “No,” she said indignantly, shaking her head. “But she did say that new friend of hers was in town for the weekend, made a call from my new phone,” and Shaun could practically see the air quotes around “friend.”
“New friend?” he asked, trying for a touch of sympathy.
“Yeah, somebody from Portland, lives a few apartments over or something. Last time we talked on the phone, all Jeanne could talk about was how awesome Jerry was, what clubs they went to, how much fun they had. Nice, huh? I couldn’t really tell if she was screwing him or not though.” Ellen stood up from the bench abruptly and pulled her work smock back over her head, smoothing her hair carefully afterwards. She shoved her cigarettes in the front pocket and looked at Shaun. “Listen, I gotta get back to work, my manager’s a bastard about watching the clock.” She headed back towards the front door of the Oceanette.
“Sure thing, Ellen. Thanks for the help. Hey, you didn’t happen to catch Jerry’s last name, did you?” he called as he pushed himself up off the bench with one hand.
Ellen paused, one hand on the handle of the door and thought for a moment. “I think it was Crawford.”
“You think?”
“You know, like that actress? With the coat hangers?” And with that she pulled the door open and walked inside. As the door closed behind her, Shaun could hear her manager’s voice - “It’s about time you got back, go clock in.”
Shaun was headed toward his car, opening his cell phone out with one hand while digging for his keys with the other when the door behind him swung open again and Ellen came running out.
“Hey, wait!”
He turned with a start, and flipped his phone closed. He could see the grocery store manager at the door, face red with anger. Ellen moved closer and put her hand on his arm as if to prevent him from leaving.
“What is it?”
“Listen, last time I saw Jeanne, she didn’t seem right. I know I seemed kind of bitchy because of all her talk about Jerry, but something was wrong. When they first got to my place, every time Alan would touch her, or even talk to her, she’d flinch. Wasn’t till she’d had a bit to drink that she calmed down. I don’t know if they’d had a fight in the car, or if it was something more serious than that, but she seemed scared, submissive even. And you and I both know that’s not like Jeanne at all.” She looked at him for a second and then turned around and headed back to the store.
Shaun stood there and watched as she went inside, and while the door was closing, he could hear, “Oh, give me a break, it’s not like this place has any damn customers any more anyway. Why don’t they just close it down?”