Fic: Trestling Under the Influence (Crossover) Chapter 3
Title: Trestling Under the Influence
Chapter: Bloody Bathroom
Rating: T for swearing and whatnot
Disclaimer: Right, I think I may have forgotten to have one of these in my previous chapters. So - I don’t own Skins, nor do I own Sunshine Cleaning. I just like to borrow the character to fulfill my fantasies! :)
This is un-beta’d so yeah… all mistakes are mine.
--
A large bellied hairy man named Larson leads Katie and Effy up a flight of stairs in the apartment building. (He apparently works for the landlady.) Beads of sweat drip down his fat, greasy face as he talks to the girls. “Some sorta domestic disturbance kind of deal. It was the lady who got the last word I guess.”
Katie glances over at Effy, sharing a look. They both look away as they follow the large, sweaty man and listen to him blabber nonstop.
“Course she’s in jail now… I heard one bullet completely shot off his ring finger.”
They follow him out the stairwell exit, and come into a hallway. The first door they see in the hall appears to be their destination. Larson digs around for the keys, as Katie plays with the strap of her duffle bag (which is packed with cleaning products, and gear). She looks up and sees Effy watching her. Her arms are cross, as she wags her eyebrows and gives Katie a half smile. Katie in turn grins right back at her. Larson finds the key that he’s looking for and begins to unlock the door.
“So uh, how long have you gals been doin’ this kind of work?”
The door unlocks swiftly, as he steps aside and let’s the girls walk in.
“A while,” Katie replies.
She takes a look at the apartment; dirty dishes, and clothes clutter the suite at every corner. She figures that if it had been tidied up, it’d actually be a cozy little apartment. Something her parents might’ve been comfortable living in, maybe? She turns back to Larson, and frowns when she catches him checking her out.
“You know Eric pretty well?” he asks, obviously trying to downplay being caught red handed.
Effy shoots her a look, but Katie doesn’t answer as she zips her jacket all the way up, covering her cleavage.
Pervert.
He brushes it off, turns around and makes his way to the door, “Well, just swing by the office when you’re done and we’ll settle up.”
As he leaves, the girls are left staring at one another.
“Well,” Katie starts, “Shall we?” She motions for Effy to lead them to the room. Effy nods and guides them out of the living room-kitchen area. It isn’t until the girls get to the bathroom - the actual room of the murder - that it really hits home. They stand frozen at the threshold, awe struck by the horrible scene in front of them.
Dried blood covers the tile walls in huge splatters. It gathers in sticky, reddish brown lines around the grout. The mirror is shattered, and the blood soaked shower curtain lay half torn on the linoleum floor next to the toilet bowl, which is also stained with blood.
Katie hears Effy swallow hard beside her.
“Think they loved each other?”
Katie really has no idea what to say, clearing her throat. “Uh, yeah.”
--
Katie’s wiping at the dried blood, pooled around the base of the toilet bowl. She glances over at Effy, and quirks her eyebrow. Pinkish foam slides down Effy’s yellow cleaning gloves as she scrubs at the bloodied grout with a toothbrush with one hand, and sprays more cleaner with her other hand.
“A toothbrush, Eff… really?”
“Hey, it’s working,” Effy defends, pointing at the tiny bristle . “It’s very precise… and thorough.”
Katie snorts, as she continues to scrub around the toilet bowl. After a methodical wipe down, the toilet bowl and the surrounding floor around it is finally back to squeaky clean. She gets up and grabs the dirty shower curtain, and takes a deep look at it, debating whether or not to toss it or clean it up. Effy, who’s still diligently scrubbing away at the tile wall notices Katie deep in thought.
“I’d toss it. It’s too much work to clean it.”
“And what, buy a new one? With our disposable income?” Katie says, skeptical at Effy’s suggestion. Effy recognizes the flaw in her plan, as she pauses mid stroke.
“Right.”
Katie exhales, “Well I guess I’ll just soak the curtain in the tub. So hurry up with the damn wall already.”
Effy gives her a look.
“What?”
“This is fucking disgusting. I’d rather go crawling back to my parents, to live my old privileged life.”
“You don’t really mean that, do you?”
Effy groans, “I’m just bitching Katie.”
“Well hurry the fuck up already.”
“I’m hurrying!” Effy exclaims, scrubbing away with her toothbrush. Katie laughs, putting the shower curtain aside before joining Effy in the tub to help her.
“Give me that,” the smaller girl says, as she takes the cleaner from Effy and sprays more onto the wall before scrubbing away.
Hours later, the girls finally finish the bathroom.
“Fuck that took forever,” Effy says, as Katie nods in agreement before bending down to pick up some dirty towels from the floor.
“You should take these towels and stick them in the laundry.”
--
Larson shows up later to take a look at their work. He purses his lips, and nods satisfied with the cleaning job done in the bathroom.
“You gals did a real nice job.”
He whips out his chequebook, signs it and hands it to Katie. As he leads the way out, Katie turns around and flashes the cheque at Effy who’s eyes widen at the amount written on the piece of paper. She pumps her fist in the air, and mouths a silent “cha-ching” as Katie does her best not to giggle too loudly.
--
The job isn’t bad to say the least.
After the initial shock wears off, cleaning up the scene of a murder was just like cleaning up anywhere else. It was just maybe a bit filthier, and yeah okay someone did died. She definitely had to wear clothes she didn’t think twice about burning and rubber gloves were more than essential.
The only thing that left her second-guessing her decision to enter this line of work was how the effects of breathing in all the chemicals from the cleaning products would affect the baby. It still blew her mind when she thinks about how she’s actually knocked up, that she’s going to have a baby. What’s more shocking of course (and not in an alarming sense) is how much she gives a shit. It’s like everyday she cares a bit more, than the previous. It’s exactly the reason why she decides to take a secret trip to the walk-in clinic alone, while Effy is out during their day off.
What threw her off was the familiar face that happened to be her walk-in doctor.
“Naomi?” she feels her cheeks begin to heat up, as the blonde in turn tries to suppress the blush creeping up on her own face. The sudden impromptu reunion, was a bit of a shock to both of them, considering the last time they were in each other’s presence it was most definitely not a defining moment for Katie... Clearing her throat, she wills the awful memory away, and surprisingly it works.
It takes a moment for the blonde to regain her own composure, before she shakes her head waking up from her stupor to finally greet Katie with a smile.
“Katie, it’s been awhile hasn’t it,” Naomi opens her chart, “How have you been?”
“Fine,” Katie replies as she watches Naomi’s eyes bug out while she reads her medical information.
Katie decides to cut to the chase. “Yeah, so like I’m pregnant.”
“Yes you are,” the blonde affirms slowly.
“I’m here because I need to know what I’m fucking doing.”
“Um, well I’m sure you know I’m pro-choice Katie-”
“I know I’m having this baby you idiot. I mean, I wanna know what the pre-cautions are? What do I need to do so that this baby is born healthy?”
“Oh, right,” Naomi says.
They go over a list of the usual things, mainly read off a pamphlet that one of Naomi’s assistants brings in; no alcohol, lots of good nights sleep, healthy eating, and of course daily exercise goes a long way for both the mother and the baby.
Katie subtly asks about how cleaning will be different, which only confuses Naomi. She elaborates in detail specifically asking the blonde about the smell of chemicals, and what touching the substances with her bare skin might cause. Naomi looks at her funny and says, “Well unless you’re a hippy who only prefers to use green, natural or organic products most household cleaning products should be fine. Obviously toxic chemicals found in some of the heavy-duty products are things you should avoid whether or not you’re pregnant or not pregnant. It’s common sense, Katie.”
“What if I wore gloves, or a mask?”
“Well sure, that could help, but I’d advise that it’s best to avoid any toxic chemicals to begin with.” She pauses to think about Katie’s inquiries. “Why are you asking me these questions?”
“Nothing. It’s nothing.”
Naomi scrutinizes her for a moment, before deciding to let it go. They continue their talk.
--
She gets home and calls Eric up again.
“Hey, I went to the clinic today. I found out things like what I need to be doing so that the baby’s born healthy. I don’t even know why I’m telling you this because you obviously don’t give a shit.“
The front door swings open, as Effy slips in and hears the tail end of the conversation.
“Anyway I’ve got to go.” Katie pauses as she contemplates out how to end the phone call. She ends up saying nothing and hanging up - Eric deserves as much.
When she looks up, Effy’s eyes are staring intently into her own, as if trying to figure out what the phone call was about. Whatever questions the other girl had, they disappear as she broke eye contact, and heads to the fridge.
Katie sighs, relieved. She isn’t prepared for the pregnant talk with Effy just yet.
“We have a problem,” Effy states loudly from the kitchen.
“What’s that?”
“We need food. There’s nothing to eat.”
“Well let’s go shopping.”
--
They’re turning into the cereal aisle when Katie sees a flash of red all the way down the other end. The girl turns around giving Katie a better look - confirming that she’s exactly who she doesn’t want to see right now. She turns the cart abruptly, which doesn’t go unnoticed by her tall companion.
“Got some sort of hate on for cereal now?”
“I just forgot that we need more…”
“We need more what?”
They slip into the canned food section. Katie quickly picks out a can of beans.
“Beans,” she proclaims. Effy looks at her as if she’s crazy. She then calls Katie out on her charade. “Are we avoiding someone?”
“Effs, please just give me a break.”
Effy drops it, as they continue to shop.
It’s only when they’re outside that they run into Emily in the parking lot.
“Katie!”
She groans, before she turns and makes a sulking face at her best friend. Effy herself is not pleased, but Katie knows that her anger is actually directed it her, and not at her sister.
The redhead approaches, unaware of the tension between the girls, “Oh hey Effy. How’s it going?”
“It’s all right.”
“I didn’t know you girls still lived together.”
“We do.”
They continue to talk for a moment. Plain old simple small talk that Katie half listens to. She lets her sister carry most of the conversation with Effy, which is a sight to see because Effy doesn’t talk very much to begin with. When she zones back in on the discussion though, she eye rolls when it dawns on her that Emily is trying to talk Effy up.
“You’re looking really good Eff.”
Puh-lease. She stares daggers at her twin, who looks back at her uncaring that Katie has a problem with her hitting on her best friend. Effy meanwhile is charming and polite, as she replies back with a ‘Thanks’.
There’s an awkward pause, before Emily reignites the conversation again.
“So what do you girls do for fun these days?” The question is clearly directed at Effy, as the younger twin gazes at the brunette, waiting for a reply. As luck would have it, Katie’s phone begins to ring. It’s Eric. She answers the phone with a quick, ‘What do you want?’
“Hey babe, it’s me. Look sorry for not picking up earlier I’ve just been super busy at work.”
“Look, I’m just in the middle of something. Can we talk later?” She looks between her sister and Effy.
“Sure, I just wanted to let you know that I do care too. All right? I do. And I’ve got another job for you gals.”
--
The one good thing about Eric’s phone call was that it gave the girls a good reason to cut their mini meet up with Emily short. So with a quick wave, Emily bids the girls farewell, as she heads to her vehicle.
The girls load up their groceries in silence - Effy is obviously still mad at her.
It makes things difficult between them during the extremely quiet ride home. When they come to a stoplight, the burgundy haired twin decides to spark up some conversation.
“So you don’t have any plans, right? ‘Cause Eric’s got us a job again.”
“Yeah whatever,” Effy says quickly, not even looking at her.
“Eff, what’s wrong? Why’re you so mad?”
Effy snorts, but continues to remain quiet.
The light turns green, but Katie isn’t paying attention. She’s too set on making things right with Effy, that she doesn’t hear the horn blaring behind them.
“It’s fucking green, Katie,” Effy says crudely, finally looking over.
Katie frowns, sighing before stepping on the gas.
After a minute Effy finally speaks up: “I hate when you keep things from me.”
A pang of guilt, hits Katie, and she almost feels like telling Effy about the pregnancy. She doesn’t as they continue the drive home in utter silence.
--
After dropping off their groceries and changing their clothes, the girls are back on the road again, heading off to their next job. It’s apparently located at some seedy trailer park in the rough side of town.
Following directions she wrote down on a pad of paper, Katie drives down the highway for quite a bit before turning off at the directed exit. It appears that from the turn off, they’re only a few blocks away from the trailer park, as the sign, ‘Sunnyside Estate’ comes into view. Katie pulls into the park, passing trailer, after trailer, before finally approaching a particularly run down mobile.
“How long is this gonna take?” Effy asks, bored. Sensing no more venom in her voice, Katie hopes that it means Effy’s forgiven her, or moved on from their earlier spat.
“All we have to do is get in, and throw everything out. It’s quite simple.”
Effy nods, but it’s obvious by the look in her eyes that she’s skeptical.
They enter the trailer and the smell of rancid, decayed flesh fills their nostrils. Effy starts gagging, as they both use their t-shirts to cover their noses. Old newspapers are stacked to the ceiling, if not thrown all over the place. Every corner seems to be cluttered with random trash, and crusty dishes.
Out of the corner of her eye, she watches Effy opens the bedroom door and peek her head in. Flies buzz by, as Effy dashes to another room and retches.
“Lovely,” Katie says under her breath. She goes to Effy, “Now we’re gonna have to clean that up too.” She leaves Effy alone, and goes to see the bedroom for herself. The smell alone as she approaches teases her gag reflex, as she blanches. She closes her eyes to maintain focus, before turning around to leave the room. Effy brushes past her heading to the front door.
Alarmed, Katie follows after. The sun is bright and blinding as the smaller girl calls out after the taller one: “Where do you think you’re going?”
A couple neighbors look up from their yards, watching the spectacle.
Effy spins around, not caring that they’re causing a bit of a scene, “There is no way.” She shakes her head.
Katie is desperate as she pleads, “Effs. You promised me.”
Effy continues to shake her head. She turns her back on the shorter girl, staring at the car, wishing she were in it and on the way home.
“Please,” Katie begs. She steps closer, her hand reaches out to try and turn her best friend around to face her but it drops at the last second.
She watches as Effy’s shoulder lift up as the brunette inhales deeply before exhaling very gradually. Without turning around to face her, Effy gives in, “Maybe if you bought me a coffee. And some cigarettes.”
Katie breaks out in the happiest smile ever, as she hugs her from behind.
--
The girls take off both their shirts and wrap it around their faces like scarves. They look like a duo of weird latex gang members, in their tiny tank tops, gumboots, and rubber gloves.
Once they’re ready to go, the girls quickly start cleaning. Maybe it was their frantic need to get the job done as fast as possible because of the repulsive smell, but the hours fly by as the girls get a lot of work done.
Later, with her hands full black garbage bags, Effy stops by the bedroom, and stares at the filthy mattress.
“What do we do with that?”
Katie comes over to see what she’s talking about. She sees the mattress and shrugs.
“Dumpster?”
Effy sets the garage bags down by the front door with the rest of the pile before going back to the bedroom to help Katie pick up the soiled mattress. With their rubber gloves they drag it to the door.
Ignoring the stares from the neighbors, the girls drag the cushion through the compound towards the dumpster. It’s a struggle as they clumsily toss it into the bin. Katie almost falls in with the mattress but Effy catches her, as they both fall backwards onto the ground with Katie on top.
--
Progress has been made as the girls are down to the last remaining stages of cleaning the trailer.
“It seems wrong, doesn’t it?” Effy says, but Katie doesn’t register her words as she sees a tattered fanny pack. She reaches for it and tosses it into the garbage can. Effy plucks it out and examines it. She finds a photo identification card. “I bet this is her.”
Again, her remark falls on deaf ears as Katie continues picking up garbage.
Effy continues to dig deeper into the fanny pack and pulls out a small packet wrapped in satin ribbon. When unwrapped, she discovers that it contains some old school pictures. She flips through seeing photos of young children. She then stops at a picture of a teen girl.
“Jesus Christ Effy, have some respect for the dead and leave their shit alone.”
“And what? Throwing all her belongings out is any better?”
She makes a valid point, but it’s really not their problem.
“Do you think this is her daughter? Shouldn’t we try and find her, and tell her what happened?”
Katie shrugs. “Effy, it’s not our job.” She finishes picking up the remainder of the trash, and moves to grab the broom that’s leaning up against the wall. As she sweeps, Effy stands there, letting Katie’s words sink in. When the smaller girl’s back is turned, she tucks the packet into her back pocket, before proceeding to help Katie finish cleaning.
--
It was after the trailer job that the girls figured out that they were completely out of their league. It appeared that some of the jobs they were going to do weren’t as simple as picking up clutter, and wiping off a day olds blood from the kitchen counter. So, Katie immediately got on the phone with a gentleman named Winston, a local manager of a cleaning supply store. He suggested that they came down to his shop to meet him in person, so that it was much easier for him to help them out with their situation.
When they get to the store, a lanky man with unruly black locks, and scruffy facial hair greets them at the door.
“Hi… Winston?”
“Yes that’s me. Hello there.”
“I spoke with you on the phone earlier. Katie Fitch?”
“Oh yes, I remember, the decomp right?”
“Yes, that’s it.”
He leads the girls through the store, as he lists off and point to the various products that his shop happens to stock.
“We carry both the Winzyme and the DR 450. Disinfectants, stain removers, and shampoos. Steamers, buffers, foggers, which are available for rent or purchase.” He stops at a large bag that looks as if it contains sand, and adds: “Here we have some quick absorbing sawdust, which is great for vomit.”
Katie shares a look with Effy, who reaches up to try and conceal her chuckle, which doesn’t go unnoticed by Winston. He stares at the girls for a moment, before continuing on with his schpeel. The tour ends at the back corner of the store where respirators, safety glasses, heavy duty gloves, and coveralls fill the shelves.
“And here we have all your personal protective gear.”
The door to the backroom opens abruptly as a skinny brown haired girl brushes past the three.
Winston stops mid-conversation and calls out to the waifish girl, “Hey Sophia, you’re back from your break right? Mind hanging out by the till while I help these ladies?”
Sophia nods, before heading off to the counter.
As Katie turns her attention back to Winston’s boring explanation of his products, she notices a weird expression on Effy’s face. It’s as if she’s seen a ghost.
--
Chapter Four
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