One Call Closer

Who: Amy and Billy
Where: Over the phone
When: Evening-ish

Amy was sitting in the kitchen with one of her aroma therapy candles (it smelled like fresh laundry) and tracing the shape of the coffin, thinking. After her little tantrum (boo for tantrums, PS) and her subsequent nap (Reiz was good for snuggles, she'd have to keep that in mind for future reference) she had realized she hadn't done anything today to solve the Robbie problem. Her fingers followed the swirls on the inside of the, what was it called? shroud. It was beautiful writing. But it was also writing that could hurt her poor Baby Robbie.

Peering into her room to check and see if Reiz was still asleep (he was all curled up and kinda adorable in a little kid way) she picked up her cell and the business card before going to sit in the kitchen. She needed to do this, it was important. It was as hard to explain as the pull that kept her inexorably coming back to Marquette even when everyone she loved, except Baby Robbie of course, had left. Maybe she just had Marquette in her blood. She dialed the number and waited patiently while it rung.

Billy had just finished getting changed to go out into town with oz, though he wasn't due there for a while yet. He had dinner to eat at some point and things to do and there was still that girl that he'd decided he was going to call. Decided, that was, until his cell rang and he answered it as he sat down on the edge of the bed, propping it up under his chin as he tied his laces. "Billy Gardiner - how may i help you?" he asked in his best professional voice, since he didn't recognise the number.

"Um, hello Mr. Gardiner, my name is Amy Gustufson, I was told that your a bit of an expert on spirits, and I was wondering if you could help me with something," Amy said politely.

"Amy, hello. Yes, Maddie mentioned you might call, but I didn't expect you to call so soon," Billy said, sitting back up again and holding the phone properly. "But that's fine - I was going to call you in a little while anyway." he stood and walked to the window to look out over the snow. "Maddie told me some things, but why don't you explain just what's going on," he said, wanting to ensure he knew exactly what the situation was before doing anything.

"Um," Amy watched her socks go back and forth, "my family used to live here. I think we've lived here forever practically. And a couple years back my parents had a another baby, his name was Robbie. Only when he was born he was all... messed up inside, stuff wasn't built right or something and he died. Afterward, my mom, she kinda went a little upset. She thought Baby Robbie was still around. We didn't think... we didn't believe her. But after I came back to Marquette. Things were a little funny, you know what I mean, and with the Living Dawn. I just want Baby Robbie to be safe."

"I talked with your wife, or like your fiancée, and she said that I should talk to you. That I can help Robbie pass on. I found a blueprint for a coffin, that's supposed to protect spirits, but your fiancée... wife said that was a really bad idea. So here I am, metaphorically speaking. Asking for help."

"Fiancée," Billy confirmed, since that was technically correct until tomorrow. "We're getting married tomorrow," Billy told her, in his usual way not thinking twice about sharing personal information with a complete stranger. "Okay - so your baby brother stayed around after he died? Do you know why?" he asked, trying to tone that sensitively, since she could still be upset about her brother's death. "How much do you actually know about spirits?"

"Congratulations!" Amy said in a tone of voice that was usually reserved for preschool teachers and cartoon animals. "I love weddings! Your fiancée mentioned that you were getting married soon, but I didn't realize it was this soon." She had a lot of practice being cheerful when she wanted to cry, and smiling when she was feeling awful. It wasn't that the question about her brother went over her head, or had no affect on her, quite the opposite, she wouldn't have been nearly that excited about the Gardiner wedding if the question didn't pick at an awfully sore place inside her. It wasn't so much avoidance as... well yes, it was avoidance, but at least she was good at it.

The determination that she used to force herself cheerful she forced herself to answer the questions, "I have no idea, to be honest most of what I know about spirits I learned from ghost stories, there are some pretty cool ones about Marquette. But as far as real, true knowledge, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to say no, not much. And why Baby Robbie stuck around, I don't know. Maddie said babies were happy and stuff, so he couldn't have stuck around. I just want what's best for him, the left over Gustufsons have to stick together, only a few of us left." she tried to make that sound more cheerful than morbid. Wasn't sure she succeeded.

"Thanks," Billy said, accepting her congratulations. "Okay, I can give you a potted guide to spirits over the phone, something to think about, really. You need to know what you're doing to be able to make decisions," he told her. There wasn't a whole lot that he could do tonight, but at least he could start the ball rolling. "There are various types of spirits. I know most about one type, but I know enough about the others. The starting point you already know - ghosts and spirits are people who have died, but not passed on. They actually exist in the spirit realm, but they can project an image into this dimension, which until recently, only certain people could see. Some spirits can also manifest, for a maximum amount of time a day, but that takes a lot of energy and it's not maintainable - it used to be the manifestations of a spirit that people saw when they swore they saw a ghost, and when they weren't people who could normally see spirits.

He took a breath and continued, trying to keep the pace steady and not to overload the girl with information. "Most people, when they die, don't become spirits. I don't know where they go, and I've never met a spirit who knows where people go if they don't become spirits. When people do become spirits, there's a reason for that. Most people become spirits because they have some kind of unfinished business. That's what Maddie was talking about - if your brother was a baby, it's hard to think that he would have unfinished business to keep him around. Some people end up as a slightly different type of spirit - a bound spirit. What keeps a bound spirit here is, well, exactly what it sounds like. They're bound here by something - they don't have unfinished business, or anything like that. They just cannot leave unless their binding is broken. I would recommend that the first thing you need to find out is why your brother is still here, because if you're going to be messing around with his existence on this plane, then you need to know what you're dealing with and whether you would interfere with what is already there." Billy also knew that there was a lot of other things to think about, but that was a starting point.

Amy processed, then was ready to go again, "How do I find the binding, how do I break it?"

"If your brother is a bound spirit, then to do anything about that, you need to know what he's bound to. Spirits can be bound to almost anything - a geographical area, a person, an item... Anything. And it's magic that binds them, so it's magic that undoes the binding. And undoing the binding will move the spirit on, unless you rebind them elsewhere," Billy explained, answering her question.

"Okay, okay," Amy said. "And I'm guessing there's no magic little binding-meter that'll help me find it. That would probably be too easy wouldn't it?" she said mostly to herself. "It couldn't be my parents, they both left. Couldn't be the old farmhouse, they sold that, and besides it was my apartment that got messed up. But it couldn't be me either," Amy said in something as close to despair that she got when she wasn't in the throes of a migraine. "I left for school, I came back as soon as I could, not that there was much left for me, but I mean its Marquette. I couldn't just stay away, not forever. It wouldn't be right. But while I was gone Mom was still thought the ghost was there, with her." She felt a sudden bought of nausea again, for Baby Robbie. He had just wanted his Mommy. "I don't know what it could be. There's no more family left, I'm the last of the line so to speak. No one else to hold Baby Robbie. How do I find it?"

"It could be the area," Billy said, since he'd listed that as well. "It doesn't have to be an object. Or it could be something small - like, something of your mom's jewellery, or a picture? Or it could be he's not bound at all - but in your circumstance, I think that's the likeliest thing. But, it's also the type of spirits I know most about," he admitted. He hadn't concentrated so much on the other types in his research. Bound spirits, though, that he knew about. "But, to find it? That depends how the binding was created in the first place. There's different types of magic in the world. Or, well, two major types: witch magic and willworker magic. A witch would be able to help you with witch magic, if it was originally willworker magic, then you'll need a willworker. Or, you could try talking to a spirit elemental, but I don't know if they would even be able to help you with something like this," Billy admitted. he'd known the type of magic involved with Maddie - it had just been a case of finding someone powerful enough to do the spells. He hadn't been starting from scratch as much as this girl was.

"Oh! Awesome! I thought it would be a whole lot harder than that, I mean if its not one its the other, right?" Amy hopped off the kitchen counter and headed to the kitchen table, leafing through the plans. It comforted her. "How do I find them, the witch or the willworker, I have a feeling its not exactly something you can find in the yellow pages."

Billy chuckled slightly. "Yeah - actually, it is a while lot harder than that," he advised her. "Just because magic breaks down into two basic types, doesn't mean that every witch or willworker will be able to just do what you want them to do. What you're calling for is pretty high flying magic, and you've got to find someone who has the right skills. Last time I needed someone to help with spirit binding, it took me about three years to find them," he warned her, turning more serious. "And that side of things, I can't help you with as much. The guy I dealt with, that was a while ago and I know he's left town - don't know where he went. You want witch magic, and Maddie might be able to help you. Willworkers I can't help you with. Generally, I'm just a guy who knows an awful lot about spirits, but magic? That's not my area."

Amy stuck her courage to the sticking point, flustering up like a chickadee, even though Billy couldn't see her, it was the thought that counted, "I don't care if it takes fifty years, nothing is more important to me than my brother. Would I be able to schedule some time with your fiancée? After the two of you have had appropriate honeymooning time of course."

Billy knew they couldn't actually afford a honeymoon, and they wouldn't be going anywhere. He was taking some time off work, however. That said, this was a subject close to his heart. Maddie would understand that. "I know what's it's like to have something that important," he told her. "Can I ask you a question?" he added. "What do you want out of this? Maddie told me that you had found some kind of box, to seal a spirit into? Personally, I think it's too early to talk about that. I think you need to know more about what you're dealing with before you get into all of that, but... What do you want? And why do you want it?" He knew they were vastly open questions - but he expected to be able to tell a lot from her answers.

Amy fiddled with her dress with one hand while she tried to put her feelings into words, they were so big, so broad, so instinctive, that it was hard to stick them in a sentence. "He's my brother and I love him," she tried for a start. "I got to hold him before he died, and he was so small and precious. It... it was was like realizing this big huge truth about yourself that you never knew before. That I had a little baby brother and he was so amazing and I loved him. And the thought," she had to stop to collect herself a little, "that he tried to contact us, tried to get closer to his Mommy like all babies do, and she moved away. Babies don't understand stuff like that. He must be so lonely. I just want my baby brother to be safe. I just want him to be happy and safe."

"What makes you think that trapping him in a box, alone, for all eternity is any better?" Billy asked her, trying to sound kindly. Maybe she had a good answer to that, but he knew his own prejudices and instincts on the subject hated the very concept of that. "Sealing him away, all alone?"

"I can't do that," Amy said, sounding a little horrified, not anymore. "Not when I can break the binding set him free. I was just trying to find some way to help him, some way to keep him safe. Now I know better, I'll put the plans back where I found them. You have to understand, I didn't know, I did the best I could. The journal said it would keep a spirit safe, that's all I ever wanted. It was the only choice I had. Now I know better. Now I know what to do to help him."

Billy considered this, thoughtfully. "I'd like to see the plans - if I could," he requested. he'd like to know what they were, would like to judge for himself what they did. Maddie may be alive now, but he was still left with those protective remnants. He still wanted to know what kinds of things could be done, if someone decided to. And now that he knew that there as a box that could affect spirits, or the possibility that there could be one. Well, he wanted to know what it possibly could do. Whether that be something good, or something not so good. Knowledge was power, after all.

"Um, alright. But I'd like them back. They're not mine, and I'd like to return them when you're done. When should I bring them to you?" Amy said. Fiddling with the sheets of paper.

"I'll give you them back," Billy promised her. "I'd just like to look them over - I've never come across anything like that before and as you may be able to tell, spirits interest me," he added, sounding reasonable and merely interested from a scientific point of view.

There couldn't be any harm in it right? He sounded like a nice guy, not as nice as Reiz of course, but pretty nice all the same. And he said he'd give them back. "Okay," she said, starting to carefully tuck the big sturdy sheets of paper back into the old leather portfolio. "Um, when will your honeymoon be over, I don't want to interrupt the time you'll have to just spend with your wife, once she's your wife I mean."

"Well, could I give you a call sometime next week?" Billy suggested, not wanting to put too certain a finger on it, just in case. Keeping things vague seemed sensible at this juncture.

"Alright," said Amy, her voice getting back all of its sunshine and rainbows, she was positively, levitating with glee and good cheer. "Next week then, thanks! This is a super huge help!"