12 Tennyson

Tennyson had a cookie hangover. Not only were his feet hurting from the hours he'd spent in the kitchen baking, but his stomach felt a bit off from all the samples he'd eaten. Jude had insisted, several times, that there was nothing more important than quality control. Between the two of them, Ten would guess he and Jude ate an entire dozen cookies themselves.

Thankfully, he had a quiet day scheduled at West Side Magick. There were only two readings on the books, both scheduled for after lunch. Ten had a feeling that once had some real food, like a salad or a turkey sandwich, he'd be back to feeling like his old self again.

"Hey, Ten!"

Cope popped his head into his office. "I've got something for you."

"Please tell me its not more cookies."

Just the thought of more sugar made his stomach turn.

"No, it's not more cookies. It's Spencer Stephens."

Cope's face broke into a devious grin.

"What?"

Ten studied his friend. It wasn't like Cope to revel in anyone's pain, but he seemed to be pretty pleased with the reason for Spencer darkening their doorstep yet again.

"I'll let him explain, but I'm sitting in on this meeting with you. I wouldn't miss it for the world."

With an even brighter grin than before, Cope left the room.

Ten wanted nothing more than to do a quick read on the man, but decided against it, wanting to hear the entire story from the horse's mouth. He didn't have long to wait. A few seconds later Cope came back into the room followed by a downcast Spencer Stephens, who took a seat opposite from Ten, who took a minute to take his measure. The young man's usually bright eyes were dull and lifeless. He was wearing the same shirt and jeans he'd had on the day before. When Cope shut the door behind him, Spencer yelped and jumped a mile. "Hey, Spencer. How are you?"

"Fucking awful, Tennyson. You're the only one who can help me."

Instead of his usual cocky bearing, Spencer reeked of desperation.

"Help you with what?"

Christ, had he misplaced Effy Lou for the second time? It was hard, but Ten refrained from using his gift to figure out what was going on with the man. He usually enjoyed having the upper hand in situations like this, but he wanted Spencer to clue him in on what was going on.

"Don't you already know?"

Spencer asked, with none of yesterday's bravado.

Ten gave his head a little shake. "My gift isn't all encompassing. You look like you've barely slept."

"I didn't sleep at all,"

Spencer agreed. "I couldn't, because every time I shut my eyes, Aunt Effy Lou started talking to me."

"What?"

Ten asked, his eyes widening in shock. He opened his gift to see if Effy Lou had come along with her nephew, but he didn't sense her spirit.

Spencer turned to look behind himself, as if he expected his aunt to be standing there. Getting up from his seat, he opened the door to Ten's office and peaked outside, looking both ways before shutting the door and taking his seat. "Aunt Effy Lou is haunting me."

Ten didn't need his gift to see the man was serious and dead scared. "Tell me what happened."

"When I left here yesterday, I set Aunt Effy Lou on the passenger seat of my car. Her car,"

Spencer was quick to add. "I had my music cranking and thought I could hear someone saying my name. I turned down the volume and there was nothing. I grabbed nugs and fries at McDonalds and when I gave my order at the drive-thru I could have sworn I heard someone talking to me. I assumed I was hearing chatter from the employees inside the restaurant. When I got home, I sat in the living room and ate a mouthful of fries. I didn't have a napkin, so I wiped my hand on the sofa and Aunt Effy Lou shouted at me."

"What did she say?"

Ten was absolutely fascinated with the story Spencer was telling. He knew sometimes people got their gifts later in life, like Carson and Cole, but he also wondered if Effy Lou had figured out how to communicate with her nephew in a way that didn't require mediumistic abilities.

"She told me to stop being a troglodyte and get a napkin. That she paid good money for the sofa and would be damned if she sat around and watched me destroy it."

"Well, that definitely sounds like something your aunt would say. Are you sure your friends aren't messing around with you? Using a speaker or something to taunt you?"

Ten had a feeling Spencer didn't have the kind of friends who'd be smart enough to pull a prank like that.

"It was her voice. I swear to God, Tennyson it was my aunt's voice. She's the only person I know who uses the word ‘troglodyte.' You believe me, don't you."

Spencer's tone sounded worried.

"I do believe you, Spencer."

Ten might have found the young man and his attitude toward his deceased aunt to be repugnant, but he had no doubt he'd heard his aunt speak to him last night. "Can you hear other spirits or just Effy Lou? There are three in the room with us right now."

Two of them were ghosts related to the appointments he had this afternoon and the third was wasn't giving any clue to her identity or her reason for visiting Ten.

"There are other spirits in the room?"

Spencer asked, looking aghast. He wrapped his arms around himself and rocked in his chair, as if he thought the motion would soothe him.

Spencer's non-answer was an answer. Ten heard two of the three spirits loud and clear. Based on the look on Cope's face, he did too, but it was obvious Spencer couldn't hear them. "Yeah, not to freak you out any more than you already are, but there are spirits all around us. I see several per day."

"How are you not off your rocker?"

Spencer asked. "I've only been hearing Aunt Effy Lou for one day and I'm ready to check myself into a rubber room."

"Spoiler alert,"

Cope began. "If you can hear her speak to you at home, you'll hear her in a psychiatric facility as well."

Ten shivered. He knew exactly what would happen if Spencer started talking to psychiatric staff about being able to hear the voice of his dead aunt.

"She can follow me where ever I go?"

Spencer paled, looking truly frightened. "Oh my God. What am I going to do?"

Panic was evident in his voice and his eyes.

Ten thought the man was ready to bolt out of the room. He held his hands out to Spencer and was surprised when he took them and held on for dear life. "You're going to be okay,"

Ten said gently. "The most important thing at the moment is to try to calm down, so that we can think through this together. Okay?"

Spencer nodded.

"It's good that you can't hear any other spirits,"

Ten began, wondering if Bertha Craig had something to do with Effy Lou's newfound power. Something had obviously changed between that meeting and last night.

"Yeah, but why can I hear Effy Lou? I couldn't hear her yesterday when I was with you and neither could your husband."

Spencer looked more confused now than when he'd come into the room.

"I'm guessing there's something she needs to tell you."

It was also possible that Effy Lou was simply messing around with her nephew. From what he'd seen, Spencer wasn't saddened by his aunt's loss and seemed more interested in his inheritance than in mourning Effy Lou's passing. Not that Ten was going to say any of this to the rattled young man. "Was there a message she was trying to send your or did you just hear her speak to you about using a napkin?"

"All she did was complain about me, for the entire night. She told me in no uncertain terms that I was a waste of space and needed to get my head out of my ass and grow up. Effy Lou said I was a horrible little shit who didn't deserve her hard earned money. That she was going to make me work for every penny. Is there something you can do to make her stop? I feel like I'm losing my mind. I can't go another night without sleeping. I've got an appointment with the lawyer this afternoon and I'm so tired that I don't think I'll be able to understand anything he'll tell me."

"What time is the appointment?"

Ten asked, starting to formulate a plan of action.

"Half past two,"

Spencer said. "So I've got four hours to maybe catch a nap. If Aunt Effy Lou lets me sleep."

"Here's what I want you to do. Go home and try to get some sleep. I'll try to contact Effy Lou to see what's going on. I'll have Ronan pick you up at two and drive you to the lawyer's office. If you haven't slept in twenty-four hours, the last thing you should be doing is driving."

Ten remembered what Effy Lou had said the day before about Spencer needed a trustee, of sorts, when it came to getting his inheritance. After hearing what his aunt had been up to, Ten had no doubt that she was going to make him jump through some hoops before the money was paid out.

"What do I do if she starts in on me again? I know I sound like a whiney little boy, but I'm not as awful as Aunt Effy Lou thinks I am either."

Spencer's eyes filled with tears. He dashed his sleeve over his eyes to keep them from falling.

"Tell your aunt that you're going to do everything in your power to make her proud and that you need some sleep. Cope and I will do our best to reach her and find out what she's thinking."

Ten knew what Effy Lou was thinking, that Spencer was a whiney brat with no redeeming qualities. He'd seen evidence of that himself, but what Effy Lou needed to understand was that Spencer wouldn't be able to make all the changes she wanted in a day.

"Okay,"

Spencer said, sounding downcast. "I want to apologize for the way I acted yesterday. I was a jerk and I'm so sorry I treated you and your friends the way I did."

"I appreciate you saying that, Spencer. Now go on home and we'll take it from here."

Ten got out of his seat and opened the office door. He watched as Spencer made his way out of the shop with his head down, as if he were afraid of what he'd see if he held his head high.

"Damn, that was quite a story,"

Cope said when Ten took his seat.

"Effy Lou? Are you here with us?"

Ten asked the quiet room. He didn't sense the spirit. "If you are here with us, give Spencer a bit of a break, would you. I get that he's an irritating such and such, but why don't we give him a chance to bloom into the kind of man you want him to be instead of beating him down?"

"Come see us,"

Cope continued. "If there's anything we can do to help you, we're willing to do it."

After a few minutes of silence, Ten knew Effy Lou had nothing to say to either of them. He hoped that if she had been listening that she'd take his advice to heart. Yes, Spencer was a selfish pain in the ass, but Ten believed wholeheartedly that he was capable of growth and change. Hopefully, Spencer would take the opportunity he was being given and turn it into something worthwhile.