Flowers For McGee

16 - You Called the Cops?

Rose sits with her back against the door. She and Johnny were quite literally locked in their rooms. Maggie was sure they'd gone nuts, but Rose wasn't so sure Maggie was acting on her own emotions.

Rose banged her head back against the door and let out a loud groan. She was angry about being ignored. Rose felt like they were so close, but it had to be ruined. "McGee, answer me!" She yells and bangs her fists on the ground the ground like a child trying to get attention. Rose felt close to tears and she had no way to prevent it. "Gwen! Rosaline!" She screams, but not even they answer her. Rose stands and faces the door. "Answer me!" She yells and kicks the door and it rattles the second floor. She presses her ear to the door as she hears pounding feet, but not the ones she wanted.

The door is thrown open and Maggie stands in the doorway. "What is your problem? Why are you crying?" She asked Rose, who furiously wipes her eyes with her sleeve. Rose felt like a baby for crying, but she couldn't help it. Maggie was going to ruin everything and McGee was nowhere to be found.

"Because I need to do this! I promised!" Rose wails and Maggie doesn't understand.

"Promsied who? You can't just bust holes in whatever you want." Maggie says and puts her hands on her hips.

"You never trust me. Can't you just assume I'm not gonna mess everything up? That I might know what I'm doing?" Rose asks her mom, but she knows the answer.

Maggie sighs and pushes the dark hair out of her face as she crosses her arms. "You do mess things up. You messed up the wall, you messed up your own face. You sabotage yourself, Rosanna, no one else." She says and Rose shakes her head.

"See, this is why I lived with dad. He actually listened to me. He cared about me and not what I do. He would understand. My friend needs me and you are being unreasonable." Rose says.

"Rosanna, I care about you." Maggie says to the dejected girl. Rose looked just like a younger Maggie, the two mirroring each other in appearance, but Rose got her personality and sensitivity from her father, John.

Maggie knew Rose hardly cried or showed actual emotions towards anything, so she didn't know how to approach the girl as Rose's tear stained face morphed from sad to blank in no time.

"No, you don't. Leave me alone." Rose says and Maggie slams the door on her way out, frustrated.

Rose sits on her bed and stares at the ground. She felt like she was letting McGee down, even if he was nowhere to be found.

Her head snaps up at the tapping on the window and she quickly walks over and struggels to open the window. After several minutes of Rose feeling completely weak, it slides open and she looks out.

"No offense, but you are not who I wanted at all." Rose says as she sees Cameron standing down there.

"Thanks, I guess," He says and chuckles. "Come down."

"I'm locked in." Rose says. "McGee left and I can't find him." She says.

"One at a time, why are you locked in?" He asks and Rose dives into the story of the wall, her mother losing her mind over it, and the disappearance of her friend.

"Okay... I can sorta make sense if that. You did turn into the Hulk in her wall." Cameron says and she scowls.

"Why are you here?" She asks him.

"I felt as if I needed to see you. I parked outside the gate in the road, I didn't know if I should have pulled into the driveway." He says and Rose thanks every divine force for the cliché of this predicament playing out in her favor.

"That's actually great. I need your help." She says and she goes back into her room and grabs shoes, two flashlights, and a jacket. "We are going grave robbing." She says and Cameron doesmt even flinch, he just agrees to her plan.

She climbs down slowly, her foot carefully placed on each brick and she happens to glance down and see the shadow of the little girl beside Cameron. "Gwen." She says with an airy laugh and climbs down a little faster, but she is soon stopped by the lack of brick to place her feet.

"Drop, I will catch you." Cameron says and Rose laughs.

"Once again, no offense, but now way in hell." She says and she looks back down. Gwen also holds her little arms, motioning for her to fall. The image of her falling from the balcony inside is the only thing keeping her from trusting the two at the bottom.

"Rose I swear you won't fall, trust me." Cameron says and her fingers begin to ache.

"Please don't drop me." Rose whispers as she closes her eyes and falls back.

She is caught and she heaves a small gasp and she is set on her feet. "Come on, she is going to help us." Rose says and takes Cameron's hand and takes the flashlights out of her pocket and hands one to him.

"Who is?" He asks and she looks over to Gwen, who is furiously pointing to a pair of shovels and Rose smiles. This was perfect.

"The good guy." Rose says and Gwen continues to lead them to the trees after they get the shovels

-

Rose stops outside the area Gwen disappeared to and she holds tightly to Cameron and he does the same. The headstones were really just sloppily placed... well, stones. Names were carved into the rock and Rose sees the one Johnny mentioned.

"Johnny said this one is McGee." Rose says and they both stand over the grave with shovels.

"Johnny knows?" Cameron asks and Rose shakes her head as they begin digging into the soft dirt.

"Yeah, but McGee didn't want him to know. McGee doesn't want to sabotage anything, but I had to tell Johnny if I wanted him to pry my floor open." She says and she feels hurt and fear settle in her chest.

Rose was hurt that Gwen was guiding her and not McGee and she was afraid that he was in danger.

"Thank you, Cameron." Rose thanks him softly and the grateful emotion she feels in a foreign feeling.

"Of course. I won't lie, digging up graves isn't how I usually spend my night, but I'm glad to be here with you." He say and they both laugh.

"I've been slowly piecing everything together. Rosaline apparently was so in love with Hodge Bowsky and they wrote love letters to each other, but McGee was giving him money for a child. Do you know what that means?" Rose asks Cameron as they dig.

"Um, the first form of child support?" Cameron says and she rolls her eyes, even if it is pretty much true.

"Well, yeah, I guess. But I think McGee got one of the Bowsky girls pregnant and he was taking care of the kid in his own way. Rosaline obviously wanted a family, but the man she loved either didn't want one or they couldn't have one." Rose says and she struggles to piece it together, but it was hard.

"Rosaline was the one who got them all killed, then." Cameron says and then frowns. "But she was killed, too, so that doesn't make any sense."

They reach the bottom when the shovels bounce of the wood and Rose nearly panics. She shines her flashlight down at the thin later of dirt that cobered the box.

"This could be it and I don't want to do it without him. I don't know how this works. I'm scared." Rose admits out loud and she looks up at Cameron. He nods to her and places his shovel on the ground above them.

"On three, okay?" He says. they both reach down and put their hands on the lip of the casket. "One... Two... Three!" They say together and open it to reveal an empty box.

"No!" Rose shouts. "No, that's not fair. Gwen! Gwen, he isn't here!" Rose shouts and she looks behind Cameron and shines her light on a face similar to his and she freezes.

"What is it?" Cameron goes to turn but she stops him.

"Look at me, keep your eyes on me." She says and the guy, Calvin, Cameron's brother grins wickedly and reaches down. "Duck!" She yells and Cameron drops and she swings her shovel up and hits Calvin. The actual impact guarantees her and she doesn't move. Cameron is what gets her to move and they scramble out of the grave.

"Who was that?" Cameron asks as they run. Rose couldn't say anything, she was kept quiet out of fear. The shrieking behind them caused her to speed up and she had to rapidly blink her eyes to keep from crying.

"It's Calvin," She says and Cameron immediately stops. "Cameron, please we need to keep going." She begs him and grabs his arm.

"But it's my brother, how do you know?" He asks her and she sees Calvin walking through the trees and she whimpers and pulls on his sleeve again.

"Please, it's not really him. Please." She begs him and the closer Calvin gets, the worse it gets. Cameron shines the light in his brother's face and Calvin twitches and his mouth opens. Water and screams fall from his lips and he reaches out as his face splits apart, revealing the inside of his skull and all of his teeth.

This time, it's Cameron pulling Rose.

They run as fast as they can and neither of them are sure if they are still being followed.

When they reach the house, they both run around to the front of the house. Red and blue lights cause them to stop and Maggie and two police officers stand there.

"Where the hell were you?" Maggie asks her daughter as she stalks over to them.

"You called the cops?" Rose asks with wide eyes as she and Cameron are both put in handcuffs.