Here Comes The Son (Ghost Band / Papa Emeritus fic)

All Your Faith, All Your Rage, All Your Pain

"Damn it!" Amanda cursed again as she was kicked out of a connection once more. "What is wrong with your wifi?" She swung her head to glare expectantly at Ethan.
"I er..."

Ethan began only to become aware of red eyes upon him once more and the sound of a claw tapping for his ears only filtered through his nervous haze.

"Well?" Amanda pressed. "I need to keep a constant connection or I get pushed back a stage. I'm not far off finding him but it keeps disconnecting."
"That's Mr Reynolds' fault. Upstairs," he replied, fidgeting with a coaster, refusing to look up.
"Where is this Reynolds?" Swiss asked, his face stern and unyielding - a far cry from the happy, smiling, shimmying ghoul Amanda was familiar with. "I'll make it not his fault."
"He's in 759," Ethan replied without any further information.
"Right," Swiss began to head out but Amanda narrowed her eyes at the expression she had seen many times before.
"Hang on," she caught hold of Swiss's arm as he moved past. "Why is it his fault exactly?"

Ethan sighed heavily at the question - why did she have to know him so well?

"Because it's his wifi but he hasn't worked out how to put a password on it. When he notices I'm on it, he kicks me off."
"You idiot! So your fault entirely? Why didn't you tell me?" She snapped. "There's much better wifi here I can hack into!"

Ethan turned to look at her in surprise, but his glance went unseen as she turned back to the screen.

"Once you're in, is there any way you could leave me connected?" Ethan asked.

Swiss crouched down in front of him momentarily and flashed an unnervingly wide smile at him.

"If your astonishing selfishness or anything you've done stops us finding Papa in time, your head won't remain in connection with your body. Do you understand?"

Ethan nodded slowly, paling at the words.

"Good talk," Swiss offered a menacing, sharp toothed smile once more.
"Okay, I need to know."

Amanda cut in; simultaneously irritated, angry and curious about the threats and mistrust Ethan was receiving, as opposed to the trust and encouragement aimed her way. Was their treatment of her only surface pleasantries? He genuinely seemed to be in danger from them. Was she in danger too?

"Why are you threatening him?" She asked with concern. "Am I next if I can't find Papa?"

The room fell silent apart from the continued clacking of the keyboard as she connected to a better wifi than the one coming from Reynolds' apartment.

"Are you telling her or am I?" Dew demanded.

Time was of the essence and Amanda, despite wanting to simply stop and listen, knew she had to keep going for Papa's safety. Besides, if they were going to threaten her, it seemed less likely if she continued.

Ethan remained firmly tight-lipped, refusing to even acknowledge the ghoul's question.

"Looks like it's me then?" Dew began, his tone scathing. "So, this is the guy who let Papa's kidnappers just walk in and take him"
"He did what!"

Amanda's eyes widened and despite her resolve to keep searching found herself turning in her chair and staring open mouthed at Ethan.

"Tell me you didn't do that," she said, her voice cracking as she formed the words.
"It wasn't like that!" He cried, the stress of everyone glaring at him making him want to simply disappear.
"No?" Dew scowled. "Why don't you tell us what it was like then? Let's start with, did you know they wanted to kidnap him?"

Ethan lowered his eyes refusing to answer.

"Well?" Dew growled and hammered a fist down on the arm of the chair, breaking it immediately with a resounding crack. "Did you?"
"Yes," Ethan whispered, still unable to make eye contact. "But I... I thought that was all it was! I mean, I assumed he would just be ransomed back, no harm done."
"No harm done?" Amanda gasped at the unfeeling words, almost forgetting her task. "Have you no sense of how terrifying it must be to be kidnapped? To be taken away from the people you love, kept isolated somewhere and not know what's going to happen to you?"
"Tell her everything!" Dew spat.
"What? Oh, Ethan, what did you do?" Her voice dropped to a whisper but again Ethan refused to answer.
"There were death threats against Papa and he knew about them and still helped!" Dew explained.
"Ethan?" Amanda prompted.
"I... I didn't believe it. I'd convinced myself it was just the record company trying to make extra sales. Then when I realised I told them didn't want to help. I didn't want to be involved in a murder but they said if I didn't help they would have killed me!"