the bones of our past - Lockwood x Lucy

The Battle of Wythburn Mill

A/N: Oh God this chapter's length got SO out of control, but I felt as if splitting it up would've been criminal, so you're getting the whole Wythburn Mill experience right now. Hope you enjoy!

Quick TW: Just letting you know that in this chapter, Graphic Depictions of Violence and Blood/Gore will come into play more than usual.

Other than that, this chapter is honestly a ROLLERCOASTER, so sit back, grab a snack, and enjoy! (If you actually grab a snack though I would advise you to have it finished by the time we get to the end. There are a few lines there relating to gore that surely could be seen as kind of out of pocket.)

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It spoke to their high level of professionalism that after Lockwood's explanation of the plan, it took the agents only ten more minutes to get ready. Three of those were spent getting all the walkie-talkies on the same frequency, and the other seven on desperately trying to explain to Ned how to use a walkie-talkie.

"No, you daft idiot," Lucy heard George curse before he got Ned to release the one he had been holding onto. "That's not how you press to speak. That's how you break it-"

A short silence followed, then a sigh. "Kipps, your employee broke one of your walkie-talkies. I don't even know how because these are military-grade ones, but..."

"He can take mine," Lockwood, who had been standing right next to Lucy, checking their gear kits one last time, offered. "Strictly speaking, we only need one per team anyway."

"What if we split up?" Lucy protested, but Lockwood had already given his over to Ned.

He looked at her, corners of his mouth turned up. "We won't. You'd be deaf without me, remember?"

"And you'd be even more blind without me."

His face lit up. "You see? What a great team we make."

Lucy frowned then as another thought entered her head. "Don't we have another two perfectly fine working walkie-talkies, anyway? The ones we stole from Jacobs for Mary and George? I remember packing those into your bag for when we left for the antique store."

Lockwood's face took on that special kind of default smile that always, without fail, told her he had done something. "Lockwood," she began, assuming nothing good, "what happened to them?"

"I may have placed one of those near the store's entrance when Barnes dragged us outside."

"But why-" she broke herself off as it hit her. "You taped the Push-To-Talk Button shut, didn't you?" she asked him, honest admiration in her voice.

His smile brightened as he nodded and rummaged through his bag to show her the other walkie-talkie still on the same channel, emitting a constant low noise of static straight from the other end. "These are supposed to have a range of five kilometres, far enough for our purposes. And the batteries should still last us for a few hours, so..."

"We'll hear if something's happening in the store," Lucy finished, mirroring his grin.

"If anyone is coming or going through that door, we'll know about it. We can't have more than one maniac hunting us down at once, after all," Lockwood winked at her. "Way too hard to keep up with."

At that moment, George joined them on the sidelines, looking more exhausted by trying to teach Ned how to use a walkie-talkie than he had after a long night of hunting down shades in a forest.

"God, that wanker is useless," he started cursing almost immediately after he arrived. "Who breaks a walkie-talkie like that? I wouldn't be surprised if he accidentally switches the channel the second we go in there. If Ned and Kat split up, we might as well just scream for him rather than use our devices."