DISCLAIMER: Murder in Suburbia and its characters are the property of ITV. No infringement intended.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Fun With Hex Dolls
By Erin Griffin
Ash tried to see in the darkened office hallways, hoping she could reach for a switch. "Scribbs?" she called out, and waited for a reply. She got none, in fact, the hallway echoed. The brunette ran her hand over the wall where she knew the light switch would be, but her fingertips ran only over the bumps of the wall. Ash heard murmurings, and at one point she heard her own name, but she couldn't tell where it was coming from. "Scribbs? Are you here?" she called again, but only the murmuring could be heard. At one point, Ash could swear the sounds came from one set direction, and she followed it.
Ash walked quickly down the hall, seeing it getting lighter and lighter the further down she went. When she got to her and Scribbs' desk, she stopped and her eyes narrowed at the sight of two hex dolls on top of her monitor. "Okay Scribbs," Ash yelled out in the direction of the murmuring, which hadn't gotten louder or softer since she started following it, "the joke it over. It's not funny!" She grabbed the hex doll that was supposed to be her by the back of the neck with her index and thumb fingers in attempt to remove the dolls from the monitor. Right as she did so, she felt pressure on her neck, which startled her and caused her head to go backwards and her back to tense in attempt to leviate the pressure, but it didn't work. Ash put the doll on the desk and as soon as her hand left the doll, the pressure on her own neck disappeared.
Ash walked around her desk once, her eyes never leaving the hex doll and then she sat down in her chair. "That," she said firmly, "was a coincidence. Hex dolls are rubbish," she told herself, but she also hoped that Scribbs could hear her as well, wherever she was. The DI sat for a moment, wondering about the pressure on her neck and what caused it. When no explaination came to her, she slowly reached out to grab the doll again, but she couldn't. "I must be mad," she said to herself, but she picked up the pen from the mug holding it and many others, and slowly moved to poke it on its left arm.
The sharp pain on her arm was immediate. Ash was about to poke the right arm to know for sure if it was a real doll, but then she realized how messed up it was that she was hexing herself. The brunette reached up for the hex doll of her partner and sat it next to her own doll. 'This'll teach her to pull pranks on me,' she thought to herself as she poked Scribbs' doll on its side, but she didn't hear a yelp from her partner like she'd expected.
The room fell silent around her, and the murmuring slowly but surely left. Looking for the clock, Ash saw that it was ticking, but it was soft, and the second hand never went past the twelve, nor did the time go past nine on the dot. Where was Scribbs? she wondered to herself. She knew that she was there. She could feel her presence just about everywhere. She felt herself getting lonely without Scribbs and wished she was near. She stared at the dolls and then pushed them closer to each other with her pen, not wanting to touch them again with her fingers. Ash looked around quickly, then used the pen to push the blonde hex doll's head to the brunette hex doll, making it look as though they were kissing.
"Hm," Ash let out a small laugh, and then put the pen down with a sigh. Suddenly, she heard quick footsteps, and she jumped to her feet, partially ready to fight. She walked towards the darkness, her hand reaching out for the walls as it got darker around her. Still she could just barely make out the figure that fast approached her. "Scribbs! Thank goodness-"
Before Ash could finish speaking, or even go into a rant about the hex dolls, Scribbs' lips were upon hers, cutting off anything else she might have had to say. Ash took a step back; Scribbs matched her, and soon the brunette's back was against the wall. Scribbs' left hand slid upwards on Ash's neck, her fingertips running along her scalp before grabbing loosely onto some of the DI's hair. The other hand wrapped possessively around Ash's waist and Scribbs didn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. Ash couldn't stop the moan that escaped her throat, and Scribbs seemed to hold her tighter at the sound of it.
"Ash..." The brunette broke away from the kiss quickly when she heard her partner's voice. 'But how could that be?' she wondered. Scribbs was right in front of her, snogging her sensless. How could the blonde have called her name from afar when her lip was between Ash's teeth? "Aaash..." There, she heard it again as she watched her partner's lips. The voice was coming from the desk, from the hex dolls. She pushed Scribbs gently away and took a couple of steps towards the dolls. She stopped when she felt a hand clasp her own, and she looked back at Scribbs. The younger woman looked scared, and the messege on her face was clear: 'Don't go there. Please don't leave.'
Ash didn't want to see Scribbs' eyes look at her like that, but something just wasn't right and the detective in her will always want to know the truth about what is going on. She stared at the blonde. "Why? What's going on?" When a few seconds passed in silence, she asked, "Why won't you speak to me?" Scribbs' hand still held her, but not as much as those pleading eyes did.
"Ash!"
That did it. Ash didn't really want to, but she broke away from Scribbs' hold completely and walked back to the desk, back to the hex dolls. Ash felt her arm get warm, then suddenly the whole left half of her body. Ash tried to look back at Scribbs, but she wasn't there-
"ASH!"
The brunette shook out of her slumber, and tried to raise her left hand to her ear, but found resistance, as Scribbs was practically laying on her entire left half. "Was screaming really neccisary to wake me up?" Ash asked.
Scribbs went back to her side of the car, and Ash missed the warmth right away as she slowly rubbed her ear. "Well, seeing as you didn't respond to the first six times, I'd say yes, it was." Though Ash had snapped at Scribbs, she didn't seem offended or hurt. Instead, she only grinned at her partner.
Noticing that they were at her flat, Ash asked, "How long have I been asleep?"
Scribbs checked the car's clock. " 'Bout forty-five minutes or so."
"But we were on stake out. Scribbs, how could you-"
"You looked like you needed it," Scribbs said with a shrug, cutting the brunette short. "It made us look like weary travelers or something."
"Well," Ash said, leaning a little more into her seat, "thanks then." She yawned.
"So, who's the lucky chap you were dreaming about?" Scribbs asked with a wide grin.
Ash's yawn ended in a cough. When she cleared up again, she said, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh please, Ash. You had the biggest grin on your face, and you moaned!" Scribbs said, and Ash could see she was enjoying this.
"I moaned?" Ash wondered, remembering the kiss. Scribbs nodded.
"Twice."
"Well, I don't remember."
"Liar. I know you better than that, Ash. So, who was it? Sullivan? No, I doubt he'd be good enough to make you grin that widely-"
"Come off it, Scribbs," Ash cut in as she undid her seatbelt. She opened the car door and leaned back in. "I'll see you tomorrow morning. Thanks for the lift as always." Not the best way to switch subjects, not that it'd work with Scribbs.
"You know it,"
"Try not to be late again, okay?"
"I won't be late if you tell me who it is," Scribbs said. Ash rolled her eyes and closed the car door. She heard Scribbs call out goodnight, but it was muffled by the car. Ash walked up to her door, knowing that Scribbs wouldn't drive off until she was safely inside the house because she was a gentleman like that. Once the door was closed, she leaned against it and sighed with relief. That was too close.
The End