Flowers For McGee

12 - It Wasn't You

"I don't know you well enough to say, but I'm almost certain that something is bugging you." Cameron says as they walk down the street after the movie. He parked a block away from their destination. Rose was grateful for the fresh air and the open proximity. If anything pops out here, she has plenty of space to run.

"What sets it off?" She asks him as he shrugs off his jacket and passes it it to her. She smiles gratefully and puts it on.

"I picked you up and you flew out of your house. You don't have a jacket or a cellphone. We get here and you refused to watch a movie with any form of scary stuff in it." Cameron says an Rose has to agree. It does sound a bit weird.

"I just was in a rush and don't like scary things that much. I said I was realistic, not stupid." Rose says with hopes that he takes it and leaves it alone.

"Okay, sure." He says and they pass an alley and Rose stops and looks through the darkness, and invisible tug pulling her toward it.

"You lied to us, Rose. You said he wouldn't be able to come up with the money. I don't take well to liars, girl." The angry male voice echoes and Rose takes a small step back as the girly whimper echo through the alley.

"I'll fix it Hodge, I will. I'll figure out something." She says.

"You have a week before I choose what I want." The man growls.

"Anything!" The girl says.

"Rose?" She turns to Cameron and then back to an alley and a stray dog runs out of it. "Were you looking at the dog?" Cameron asks and chuckles.

"I thought it was hurt, but apparently not. Let's go." She says and Cameron reaches down and takes her hand.

-

Cameron walks Rose to the door and it's pulled open to reveal Johnny and McGee and Rose can't help but smile.

Johnny raises his eyebrows at the two and leans on the doorframe. "Johnny." Cameron says with a small smirk and her brother doesn't say anything, he just leaves the door open and leaves.

"You're welcome. Oh, as Johnny as going to say, polite people do not kiss on the first date. Especially if there is no intentions of marriage." McGee says and follows Johnny. Rose has to keep a straight face as she looks at Cameron.

"Well, your brother is a bit... " Cameron doesn't finish the sentence and Rose knows what he means.

"Johnny is a bit protective since our father died. He tried to step up for me, but he has trouble with that." Rose says and Cameron nods.

"I understand that," Cameron says. "I'll see you tomorrow, Rose." He says and walks back to his car.

Rose walks inside and none of her family can be found, so she goes to Johnny's room. She throws open the door and he sits with a book in his hand and McGee leaning over his shoulder. Johnny was oblivious to McGee, but it looked as if they were both waiting together.

"What the heck," She says and they both casually glance at her and then back to the page. "Johnathan Michael Carson."

"Yes?" Johnny asks and looks at her. McGee walks over to Johnny's bed and lays across it.

"Why did you have be all dramatic when I got here?" She asks him and he shrugs.

"I'm just looking out for you. Don't make it weird Rose. I'm sorry I don't want a jerk to break your stupid little heart." Johnny says and rolls his eyes.

"A bit harsh, this guy is." McGee says with a nod and she sighs.

"Whatever. I have stuff to do." Rose says.

"Wait, what did you guys do for four hours? I thought you went to watch-" She cuts johnny off as she shuts the door and McGee pops through the wall right beside her.

"What did you guys do?" He asks.

"We went to an arcade afterwards." She says and McGee frowns. "It's this place were you play games and stuff like that and there was a pizza place." She says and McGee nods like he understands, but Rose wasn't sure if he did.

"You said you had a lead." McGee says and she turns to him quickly.

"Yes!" She should and drags him quickly up the stairs. "Gwen write that you spent a lot of time in the basement and that you always came back up dirty. You wrote that you had a chest hidden here somewhere. I have a pretty good idea where it might be." She says.

"I... I can't remember that." McGee says and he growls. "This is stupid. I need to remember."

"Don't be angry. Let me change and then let's go wreck stuff." Rose says and he nods, letting her go until her room alone to change.

She exits the room not too long later with her hair up and old clothes on and she sees McGee with a tool box.

"I am ready to wreck." He says and she smiles. She takes the tool box and they both go to the basement.

The dim lights flickers on and Rose smirks at expected outcome of the basement. "Of course the lights suck. New light bulb please," She asks McGee and he hands it to her. She replaces the light and the brighter, much more reliable light fills the basement and she smiles proudly. "You still have backup flash lights?"

"Yes, how do you know all of this?" He asks her and she shrugs.

"Because I'm not stupid, but it always goes wrong somehow, so be ready for that." She says and lugs the big box to the middle of the basement.

"I'm confused. Everything is bricked up." He says and looks around. Rose picks up the crowbar.

"Mom said back in the early nineties they had to fix things up, do you remember that?" Rose asks him and she taps the crowbar along the wall, trying to find any spot that might seem hollow.

"I remember a lot of men coming and going around the time Anne was born. the walls used to be dirt and beams. The floor has always been stone." He says.

"Sounds about right," Rose says. She points to a tool I'm the box. "Start tapping, we have a long way to go."

-

Rose sits in an old chair and McGee sits across from her on a coffee table. They are both tired and sweaty.

"I was thinking... Well, actually, I saw it, but maybe it wasn't you who did the bad thing, McGee." Rose says and he perks up at this.

"What?" He asks with excitement.

"When I was leaving the theater, I heard the Hodge guy and Rosaline in the alley. Obviously not them, but I guess a lingering memory. I couldn't see them, but I heard them. He was angry and she promised to give him anything. She is sketchy."

"Maybe you're right, maybe it wasn't me." McGee says with a hopeful expression. "Thank you, Rose." He say and she smiles.

"Anytime," She says and stands. "I'm tired, let's go." She says and they leave everything and go upstairs.

On the way up the stairs, he stops her in the hallway and pulls her into a room she hasn't been in before. It was dark and she had to stare at the ground to see where she was walking.

"This is the office," McGee says and throws open the curtains and it reveals a garden. "This is the happy place.

"How long has this been here?" She asks and then rolls her eyes at the stuoid question. "Don't answer that, but why didn't I know it was here?"

"You haven't ever been outside, really. There are lots of things outside you don't know about." McGee says.

Statues stood at the end of the newly done stone walkway. Stone benches curve around the garden and rose bushes line the entire place. Small trees and gnomes decorated the area. It wasn't anything too special, but it amazed Rose nonetheless. She had always lived in an apartments, so this was new and cool to her.

"Everything that dies on this land, stays on this land," McGee says and she notices birds and other animals around the garden and then the people started to reveal themselves. They sit on the benches and chatter to each other. "This their hour to be free from whatever power is held over us." He says and Rose looks at the clock. It reads three in the morning.

She recognizes Gwen and Rosaline from the pictures. A grown man and two old woman and a teen boy who sits alone. He looks just like Cameron. They all look content and peaceful, not scary and dead.

"That's Cameron's brother. but I don't remember his name." Rose says.

"Calvin. His name is Calvin." McGee says and sighs. "Those are my sisters, my mother and, my brother. That is my Anne." McGee says and Rose looks at him and he appears sad.

"Your Anne?" She asks.

"I was with your great grandmother her whole life. When she went on her first date, a supervised date, I'll add. When she married and became a mother, and when she left home for a while. I was there when she came back and she became a grandmother, then a great grandmother. I was there to comfort her when her husband died and her daughter died, but not when she died," He says and shuts the curtains. "I couldn't be there, then. I could only stand back and watch."

Rose places a hand on his arms and he pats it with his own. Rose could tell that McGee considered Rose to be his own child, and that losing her hurt him as much as it hurt to lose everything else.

"I'll fix this for you. I promise." Rose says to McGee and he smiles softly.

"I sure hope so, my sweet Rose, I hope so." He says and Rose swells with happiness at the name. "Can you go out there with them?" She asks and he sadly shakes his head.

"I am not welcomed there. That is their place. My place is here, in the house." McGee says and Rose sighs.