Fic: 12 Days

[csi_sanders1129]

Title: 12 Days
Chapters: Days 1-4/12
Author: csi_sanders1129 
Genre: AU. Drama. Romance. Mystery.
Ratings: T
Word Count: ~1400
Pairings/Characters: Jason/Spinelli, Spinelli/Other.
Synopsis: Jason and Spinelli suffer through 12 days of complete and total hell at the hands of the Creepy Christmas Stalker out to win over Spinelli.
Comments: Major thanks to suerum on this one as well. Um, the days get long as they get further in, so they’ll be less and less on each one. Last chapter will show up on Christmas Day. Towards the end of the fic, it does go a little AU-ish, but not ridiculously so. Um, boys aren’t mine. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

It had been late and he’d been at the Jackal P.I. offices looking for Spinelli when the phone call had come.

“Stone Cold?” Came the wavering voice on the other end of the line. “The Jackal would like to request that you make haste back to your humble home. Something most alarming seems to have occurred.” The younger rambled, and he could hear strange noises coming from the background. “It’s… quite baffling.”

“Are you okay?” Jason asked just to be sure that his trusty grasshopper was not in imminent danger, already on his way back to his bike.

He heard a door slam shut and that got him moving faster. “Uh, affirmative. But how long that remains true is quite the uncertain aspect.”

“I’ll be there in a few minutes.” The elder assured, ending the call so he could put his helmet on and start home.

He might have broken a couple of minor traffic laws in his pursuit to get back to Spinelli, but he didn’t get caught. He parked the bike quickly, got upstairs quickly, and was contemplating entering the penthouse armed when he made out the same strange noise he’d heard on the phone.

“Spinelli?” Cautiously, he opened the door, peering inside as if something might jump out and attack.

Spinelli was nowhere to be seen in the immediate area, but a large fruit tree had taken up residence in the center of the living room. Nesting in the center of it was a rather vicious looking bird that turned to squawk at him, flapping its wings in a threatening manner. Its eyes zeroed in on him as it puffed itself up and ruffled its feathers.

Jason stared at the sight before him. “The hell…?”

The closet beside the door creaked open, alarming Jason further, up until he realized that it was just Spinelli. “Surely that… thing… is not simply in the Ace of Cyberspace’s imagination, correct?” The hacker questioned, moving along the wall until he was beside and mostly behind Jason.

“Was this here when you came home?” Jason questioned, eyeing the whole thing quite suspiciously. If this hadn’t been Spinelli’s doing – and apparently he hadn’t been responsible because he looked quite upset by the whole thing – it brought up the issue of someone breaking in to do it.

Spinelli nodded. “There was no sign of breaking and entering, aside from the obvious…” He motioned to the still screeching bird in the tree. “What do we do?”

He weighed the pros and cons of dealing with the issue tonight, ultimately deciding that it could wait until morning. “We go upstairs, for now.” He instructed, moving along the wall toward the stairs with Spinelli close behind him, giving the tree and its vicious occupant a wide berth. “I’ll figure out something to do with it in the morning.”

***

The next morning Jason and Spinelli headed downstairs with the hope that it had all been some sort of shared delusion. But, of course, the bad tempered bird in the big fruity tree was still there, as were two smaller – and thankfully less ferocious looking – birds flittering about above them.

Spinelli had already come to the conclusion that someone was mimicking the 12 Days of Christmas the previous night, but this verified it. “Two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree.” He frowned. “This is going to present quite the mystery. First and foremost is the question of whom they are meant for.”

“The only question I care about is who’s getting in here and doing it.” Jason grumbled, watching the homicidal looking bird closely. “Look.” He pointed toward the desk by the front door, where another new aspect to the madness had been added. A clock, set on some sort of countdown. Beside it, in stunning crimson calligraphy, is a note:

~For my beloved, I am counting the hours until you are mine under the mistletoe.

Jason, quite unnerved now, reluctantly passed the creepy note to Spinelli. “Okay, new rules. One, there’s no way I’m letting this go on until Christmas. Two, you’re not going anywhere alone until this is sorted out.”

“No argument here, Stone Cold.” Spinelli agreed quickly.

“Come on, let’s get to work on figuring this out.”

***

They found nothing on the building’s security tapes, nor with any potential witnesses in the building. Whoever was doing this to them was apparently quite stealthy in their work. More importantly, no one with the experience to extricate the birds (specifically the bloodthirsty partridge) from the penthouse seemed to believe their story, and thusly, they had no choice but to leave them in control of the living room.

Everything had still looked fairly normal – as much as it could have with three birds taking up residence – when they’d gone to sleep on the evening of Day 2, but upon venturing back down in the morning, found that it was no longer so.

Three hens – presumably French, Spinelli would verify it online later – were wandering about. An egg or two had already splattered on the hardwood floor.

“I’ll get the locks changed.” Jason decided, ushering Spinelli out of the penthouse. They ended up at the Jackal P.I. office, where Spinelli could check up on non-existent leads without the terrifying birds clucking and squawking at them. Last night’s invasion had left as much evidence as previous days – none at all – and analysis of the note had turned up nothing, as well.

Jason spent most of the time at the office watching the door and the street below for any sign of trouble. Whoever was doing this was clearly a few cards short of a whole deck and Jason knew that meant that the culprit’s behavior would be unpredictable as a result. Assuming the target of this chaos was Spinelli – he doubted it was himself, and in the event that it was, then Spinelli would be at risk anyway, since he was the closest person to Jason – he had to be careful.

When they returned to Casa de Stone Cold, now fitted with new locks, which only Jason and Spinelli have the keys to, they seemed a bit more relaxed by the prospect.

“Think these security measures will keep our Christmas Stalker at bay this evening?” Spinelli questions, as they slink their way into the kitchen for some dinner.

“It better.” Jason answered, scraping eggshells from his shoe upon reaching the sanctity of the kitchen.

***

Day 4 did not start out well, in fact, it started out at 4 in the morning.

Music was playing. Loudly.

Jason and Spinelli met up in the hallway, both still clad in pajamas and looking decidedly irritated at being woken up at such an early hour. Surely their nighttime trespasser had not gotten past their new locks. There was no way.

But, on top of the malevolent bird in the pear tree, the two turtle doves, the three messy and, indeed, French, hens that resided in the living room there were now four rather vocal birds perched about the previous haven of the kitchen.

More disconcerting than that, Spinelli’s laptop was up and running on the kitchen counter. It was within the main interface, which meant that their stalker had gotten through his passwords without much trouble - as it had a shutdown failsafe system installed – and music playing. The playlist included such creepy and stalker-ish hits as ‘You Belong to Me,’ ‘You Might Think…,’ ‘Every Breath You Take,’ ‘I Will Possess Your Heart,’ ‘One Way or Another,’ and ‘I Put a Spell on You.’

The younger quickly stopped the disturbing music. It was also Spinelli who saw the note first today, this time stuck to the refrigerator, written in the same blood red script. He pulled it off of its magnetic clip and reluctantly read the words aloud.

~ Soon, my love, in a matter of mere hours, the truest sign of my undying affection shall descend upon thee.

The words send a chill down Spinelli’s spine, and he passes the paper to Jason.

“The culprit got through the brand new locks protecting Casa de Stone Cold.” Spinelli realized as he collected his hacked laptop. “And navigated a course through the series of complex passwords the Jackal had in place.”

“I know, I know.” Jason frowned, dragging a hand through his hair. “We’ll figure this out.” He ushered Spinelli out of the kitchen and they carefully maneuvered themselves past the tree with the malicious beast residing in it and back upstairs. “I’ll stay up tonight and end this.” He left Spinelli at the door to the pink room. “For now, try and get back to sleep.”