Chapter Text
“Trevor, watch out!”
Pete’s panicked warning reaches him a moment too late. He barely has enough time to look over his shoulder and register Jay heading right towards him, his view obstructed by the precariously balanced stack of boxes he’s holding. Trevor has to admit it’s probably his own damn fault for standing right in the middle of the kitchen doorway like this, but still - God, this is gonna stuck. He braces himself for the wave of pain - the nauseating sense of wrongness - that happens whenever one of them gets walked through by a Living, but there’s nothing.
Which is weird.
What happens instead is the unmistakable feeling of colliding with something solid, which is even weirder. Trevor stumbles forward, knocked-off balance. Physically and metaphorically, because there’s no way what he thinks just happened actually happened. Jay makes a little startled noise, the top box of the pile tumbling down and falling to the floor, contents shattering loudly.
“Shit,” Jay swears under his breath. He peers around the side of the boxes. “Sorry, didn’t see-” he stops midway through the sentence, eyes going very wide. “Wait, what did I just run into?”
“Uh, me?” Trevor stares back at him, feeling as dumbfounded as Jay looks. The Living doesn’t show any sign of having heard the comment. Trevor waves a hand in front of his face. Jay doesn’t even blink, just keeps looking right through him, brows furrowed quizzically.
“What’s going on?” Pete reappears through the wall, wandering over to stand next to him.
“You saw that, right?” Trevor hisses at him, pointing at Jay. He’s put the boxes down by now, holding both of his arms out in front of them and waving them through the air. Trevor takes a step back on instinct. “He walked right into me! How is that even possible?”
“Well, no.” Pete sounds sheepish. “I was ducking for cover. I did hear a pretty big crash, though.”
“Yeah, he dropped a box ‘cuz he walked into me.” Trevor repeats it with emphasis, because Pete doesn’t seem to be grasping the enormity of the situation.
His fellow ghost looks doubtful. “Do you think maybe it was just a coincidence and you imagined it? I mean, the Living can’t interact with us. Well, Sam can, but she-”
“I’m not imagining it.” He knows he’s not. He can’t be. It’s been more than two decades since Trevor’s had human contact - warm and solid and alive, not the muffled, pins-and-needles sensation of touching another ghost - but there’s no mistaking it.
This doesn’t make any sense. Yeah, Sam can see and hear them, like Pete had started to point out, but she can’t touch them. So how come Jay can all of a sudden? Trevor doesn’t recall him taking any tumbles down the stairs lately.
“Okay, well, if you’re sure, I believe you.” Sometimes Trevor thinks Pete is too trusting, but he’s glad to have him on his side in this case. Pete puts his hands on his hips, looking thoughtful. “This is a very strange development. Do you think Sam knows about this?”
“She would’ve told us if she did.”
Jay takes a step closer to them, still waving his arms like he’s trying to give the air a pat down. Trevor’s not quite fast enough to dodge this time. He tenses automatically, waiting for it to hurt, but it doesn’t. It’s just a warm - like really, really warm - hand pressed flat against his chest.
“Holy-” Jay jerks back, startled. “Okay, this has to be ghosts, right? Did I walk into one of you guys earlier? How is that even possible?”
“That’s what we’re wondering,” Pete says.
“Would you- hey!” Trevor bats Jay’s hand away when it starts creeping towards him again, pointing at him sternly. “Back off, dude.”
“This is so weird,” Jay mumbles. “I’m, like, ninety-percent sure I felt a tie, though. Is that you, No Pants?”
“Are you serious? I have a name, you know.”
“Is there anyone else with you?” He starts waving again, like he hadn’t heard him.
Which he didn’t, Trevor reminds himself. Jay can touch him and that’s it, apparently. He ducks the Living’s flailing. Getting smacked in the face probably wouldn’t hurt as much as having a hand phase through it, but it’s still not something he wants to deal with right now.
Pete perks up. “Oh, tell him I’m here too! Holy cow, we can finally do our handshake. This is so exciting, I can’t-”
“How am I supposed to do that?” he interrupts, gesturing at Jay. “He still can’t hear us.”
“Oh, yeah.” His expression turns crestfallen, shoulders slumping. Trevor gets the impression of a piece of paper that’s been crumpled up and cast aside, and - okay, it makes him feel a little bad.
He turns back to Jay, a vague idea sparking to life. He reaches out and snags his wrist as it passes by, ignoring the startled yelp Jay makes, yanking the man’s hand towards him and turning it so his palm is facing up. He’s hot to the touch, skin burning with a phantom fever. It’s…kind of nice, actually. Almost comforting. Like holding a cup of coffee on a cold winter day. Trevor ignores the heat and the weird metaphor his mind just conjured up as well, tracing out the letter P onto Jay’s hand.
“Oh, God, that feels so wrong.” He pulls a face in response, fingers flexing slightly. “You are frigid, man. I mean, I guess that’s not surprising, since ghost stories always say you guys are supposed to be cold, but-”
“You’re babbling.” Trevor says it off-handedly, focused on spelling out the rest of Pete’s name. Jay does that sometimes, when he’s excited or freaked out. He’s not entirely sure which emotion the Living is feeling right now. Maybe both?
Jay nods as if he’s agreeing. “I’m babbling. What are you doing, anyway?”
“Oh, come on! It’s not like I’m doing rocket science over here.” He traces the letters out again, slower this time.
“Wait, wait, wait.” Jay holds up his other hand, brows furrowing as he concentrates. “Are you trying to spell something? Is that - hold on. That’s a P, right? Oh!” His eyes widen. “Is Pete here?”
“Took you long enough,” Trevor mutters, dropping his hand.
“Yes!” Pete enthuses, nodding rapidly. “I’m right here.”
Jay raises his arm again, rearing back for a high-five. “Bring it in, buddy.”
“You have no idea how much I’ve wanted to do this,” Pete says back, mimicking him. He has a huge grin on his face.
This is starting to get a bit sappy. Trevor has to resist the urge to roll his eyes, not wanting to rain on Pete’s parade. They really don’t have a lot going on for them in the afterlife if the prospect of a high-five is making him this excited.
He watches as Jay and Pete’s hands phase right through each other and blinks. Okay. That was unexpected.
The other ghost grimaces, shaking his hand and tucking it under his armpit. He shoots Trevor a confused look. “Why didn’t it work?”
“I don’t know! Try it again?”
“Hey, Pete?” Jay also looks confused, still holding his hand in the air. “You there, bud?”
“Okay, let’s give this another shot.” Pete sucks in a breath and squares his shoulders. “A Pinecone Trooper never gives up!”
He tries it again. And again. And again. And-
“Okay, I think you should maybe give up now,” Trevor says after the sixth attempt. He’s starting to get a little concerned. Pete’s posture is tense, face pinched.
“But I really want to do this.”
“I know you do, man, but you’re just hurting yourself.”
Pete sighs, lowering his hand. “Okay. Gosh dang it all.” He says the last bit very softly under his breath, like it’s a swear he doesn’t want Trevor to hear.
“Is Pete actually here or are you just messing with me?” Jay sounds disappointed too. He looks around. “Hey, Trevor? Are you - oh, God!” He jumps when Trevor touches his arm, just to let him know where he is. “I am never going to get used to that.”
“You need to work on your startle reflex.” He turns back to Pete. “I don’t know why he can’t touch you.”
“Do you think we should try with the others?”
“Hey, good idea.” He slaps him on the shoulder and then grabs Jay by the hand again, pulling him out of the room. Pete trails close behind.
“Oh, okay,” Jay mumbles from behind him. “Just being dragged around my house by an invisible man, no biggie.”
-
“Everyone drop what you’re doing and check it out!” Trevor announces, bursting into the room with Jay (and Pete) in tow.
Alberta glances up from where she’s standing by the Alexa, one eyebrow arched. Flower’s next to her, looking like she doesn’t know where she is. She probably doesn’t. Thor’s by her side, arm wrapped around her waist. “What you want?” he rumbles. “Thor having Alberta ask sorcery box for cod information. I know many things, but Flower,” he pats her shoulder and she giggles, “Flower not.”
“Thor, you know this is called an Alexa.” Alberta frowns at him. “You’ve talked to it before.”
“Is sorcery box.”
She shakes her head, turning to Trevor. “I give up. What’s all the commotion?”
He just holds Jay’s hand up in response, pointing at it.
“Aw!” Flower coos. “How romantic.”
Trevor stares at her. “What? No!” Why was that her first thought? “I’m touching a Living, guys!”
Alberta whistles loudly. “Well, well. Now that’s a turn of events. How?”
“I don’t know.” He shakes his head, then gestures at Pete, who’s still looking bummed out. “Him and Jay tried to high-five but it didn’t work, so we came to test it out with you guys. Where’s Sam and the others?”
“Sam’s on a walk with Sass. And Hetty and Isaac moved their pondering up an hour since he’s trying to work on being less strait-laced for Nigel.” Her voice takes on an amused tone at the wordplay.
Right. The whole window-pondering thing. Hetty had invited him once when they were still an item and it’d bored him so much that he’d wished he was dead for real, but hey - it makes her happy, so he’s not going to interrupt it. He can fill them in on the situation later.
Jay reaches out with his free hand, patting it up Trevor’s arm until he reaches his shoulder. “Who’s in here? You’re talking to someone, right?”
There’s no way he’s going to try and spell out everyone’s names, so he just settles for tracing their initials onto Jay’s palm.
He frowns, apparently deep in thought. “Aft? Like the ship thing?”
“What?” Trevor just looks at him, completely baffled. “How did you even - never mind.” He glances over at the others, letting go of Jay. “Who wants to go first?”
Thor barges forward, releasing Flower. “Thorfinn will gladly greet small man as brother.” He reaches out, attempting to grab Jay by the shoulders. His hands pass right through him.
“Well,” Pete says, brightening slightly. “At least it’s not just me.”
“Let me try.” Alberta pushes her way in front of Thor, extending the back of her hand like she’s expecting someone to kiss it. She also fails to make contact.
Flower claps her hands, bouncing up and down slightly. “I want to go next!”
Alberta moves to intercept her, drawing her back with a shake of her head. “Uh-uh, baby. We don’t need the man getting all doped up.”
“Okay.” She visibly wilts, latching onto Thor instead and staring at Trevor with big, sad eyes magnified by her glasses. “How come you get to touch him? This is so not groovy, man. You gotta learn how to share.”
“It’s not like I’m doing it on purpose, okay? I don’t even know how this is happening!”
“You know,” Pete puts in thoughtfully. “Maybe it’s for the best Isaac isn’t here after all.”
They all nod in silent agreement.
The front door opens, announced by the telltale groan of heavy wood being pushed forward. “Oh, Sam’s back!” Jay exclaims, taking off for the entrance. This time it’s Trevor’s turn to be dragged, Jay somehow managing to find his hand with unnerving precision and linking all of their fingers together. Everyone else follows them.
“Babe, you’re not gonna believe this.” Jay stops dead right in front of Sam, nearly running right into Sasappis, who dodges at the last second. “I can touch ghosts!” he continues excitedly, unaware of the glare Sass is giving him.
“What?” Sam blinks, sounding bemused.
“Okay, well, I can touch a ghost,” Jay amends. “But still, how cool is that? Also really weird and freaky, especially since I still can’t see or hear them like you do, but hey! It’s cool, right? Please tell me it’s cool.”
She looks at Jay and then at Trevor and then at their clasped hands and then says “What?” again.
“Okay, I really don’t think we need to be holding hands for this,” Trevor grumbles, trying to tug his away. Jay’s grip is starting to crush his non-existent bones.
“How is - what?” Same gestures at both of them. “Since when?”
“About fifteen minutes ago,” Pete answers helpfully.
“I don’t understand.”
“I think I might have an answer.” Jay finally lets go of Trevor - thank God - and holds both of his hands up. “I didn’t tell you this because I didn’t want you to worry, but I hit my head yesterday in the restaurant ‘cuz one of the construction guys was holding this huge beam of wood and I wasn’t watching where I was going and walked right into it.”
“Jay!”
“It wasn’t that bad! I just had a headache and that went away after I took some ibuprofen.”
“You still should have told me.”
“I know, I know. I’m sorry.” He holds her shoulders. “Also I asked the ghosts not to say anything if any of them saw it because it was embarrassing, in case you were wondering about that.”
“It’s true.” Sasappis nods. “I saw it. It was really funny.”
Sam shoots him a quick disapproving look before turning back to Jay. “That still doesn’t really explain this, babe.”
“No, I’m getting to it. I also hit my head when we fell through the floor, right? So maybe they stack up and I’m, like, three percent dead or something.”
“I…don’t think that’s how it works.” She looks dubious, frown deepening. “Otherwise football players would be seeing ghosts everywhere.”
Jay holds up a finger. “How do we know they don’t?”
Sam opens her mouth and then closes it again. She glances around at all of them. “I guess it doesn’t really matter how it happened.”
“I feel like this is a very reasonable explanation, babe. The one thing I don’t get though is why I can only touch Trevor.”
“Well,” Sam starts, gesturing at him. “His ghost power is interacting with objects, right? So maybe you two are just, I don’t know, meeting each other halfway.”
“You think?” Trevor asks her. She just shrugs back. He mulls it over briefly. Yeah. Guess that makes sense.
“Actually, I’m honestly really curious.” Sam leans in towards Jay. “What does he feel like?” She follows it up with a hard stare at Trevor, preemptively cutting off any innuendo he was about to make.
“Really cold,” Jay answers. “And also like, kinda squishy? Like a water balloon filled with jello.”
Everyone stares at Trevor with varying expressions of disgust.
“Hey!” He goes on the defensive. “I do not feel like that, okay? Don’t listen to him.”
“Well,” Sam smiles at her husband, kissing him lightly. “I think it’s sweet that you get to interact with at least one of the ghosts. Maybe you’ll be able to touch the others too eventually.”
“Do you think it would help if I hit my head again?”
“No,” Sam says, very firmly. “And please be more careful if you’re going to be hanging around the construction crew, okay?”
“Promise.” He nods. “Oh, and uh. I kinda broke one of the china plates.”
“Jay! Those were from my grandma!”
“It’s not his fault.” Trevor jumps in. “He walked into me. It’s not like he knew I was there. Although, dude, if you’re going to be carrying fragile stuff, maybe don’t stack boxes that high.” He looks at Jay, waiting for a comeback, then reminds himself again that the Living can’t hear him. Something about being able to touch him now makes him keep forgetting.
“I’ll fix it, all right?” Jay reassures her. “There’s gotta be plenty of video tutorials for that kind of thing.”
Sam sighs quietly. “All right. I’m gonna go take a shower since I’m all gross and sweaty right now. You two behave yourselves.” She points between Trevor and Jay sternly.
“Since when do I not behave?” Trevor asks, affronted.
She scrunches her nose up in lieu of answering, shaking her head and leaving. The rest of the ghosts start to disperse, Pete cheerfully volunteering to relay today’s events to everyone else (except Crash, because nobody knows where his head is now, and Stephanie, because he doesn’t want to wake her up - which Trevor is more than okay with).
“Well, I’m going back to the kitchen,” Jay announces to a mostly empty room. “In case anyone wants to learn how to repair a china plate with me.”
That’s a hard pass for him. Sounds boring as hell. Trevor turns and goes the opposite direction, heading towards his room. He’s just going to lie down and process things.
-
What he ends up doing is staring at the ceiling, blankly taking in the crumbling plaster and hairlines cracks and emerging spiderwebs. Looking but not really seeing, the same way Livings treat him.
He traces the fading impression of Jay's warm hand against his chest, over his heart, and thinks about being alive.