The Grey Truth

The Grey Truth: Chapter Three

While Josephine was trying to keep herself awake, William and Grell were back at Will's apartment.

"Wonder why the odd one lied to our faces, Will. You'd think one her age would know she wouldn't be able to get away with it," Grell said, and Will nodded in agreement.

"I haven't got the faintest idea how she could even think she could get away with it," Will returned.

"I saw you put something in her pocket, what was it?" Grell asked, childishly curious.

"That will be between myself and Ms. Grey, Sutcliff," William replied. He obviously wasn't going to be giving Grell any information on the subject.

"She might not even read it, you know," Grell told him, though William said nothing in reply. Of course he knew that Josephine may not read his note, but it was worth a shot.

There was something odd about that girl, but William just couldn't put his finger on it. There was obviously something on her mind, and he intended to find out what it was. Even if it didn't look it, Will intended to help the girl any way he could. Even though it wasn't clearly obvious to everyone, there was one shinigami that could always tell what William T. Spears was thinking, and that one shinigami was Grell Sutcliff.

"You'll find a way to figure her out, Will, I just know it," Grell told him, and he left, without a response from his partner.

William sighed a bit to himself, and prepared for bed, putting on his black pajama bottoms and matching collared shirt. As he finished neatly putting some paperwork into a file folder, he was still thinking of Josephine. After a short time, William was lying in bed, reading himself to sleep as always, and after an hour went by, he marked the page, set the book and his glasses aside, and went to sleep.

On the rougher side of town, Josephine was also lying in bed, rereading one of her favorite books. After quite a while, towards the end of the book, Josephine finally gave into her exhaustion, and allowed herself to fall asleep, knowing that it was just a few hours until she would need to get up and go to the academy. Sure enough, a few hours later, Josephine was awoken by the sun coming in through the window, and shining right onto her eyes. The girl sat up, and stretched, still tired, though not as much as she had been hours ago. She put on her glasses, and proceeded to go about her morning routine of getting dressed and brushing her hair and teeth. Josephine was soon out the door, wrapping her coat around her as she walked to the academy.

As Josephine was on her way to the school, William and Grell were preparing for the day's lesson. Well, William was, Grell, on the other hand, was watching out the window for something. Normally this wouldn't have concerned the dark-haired shinigami, but this time was different. Grell wasn't just playfully looking out the window, or daydreaming. He was seriously looking down to the campus walkways below, watching for something, or, could it be someone?

"Sutcliff, what on earth are you watching out that window for?" William asked as he was writing something on the black board.

Grell didn't turn to look at his partner as he answered, "I'm waiting for that odd one, young Ms. Grey. I heard that she always came in early from her former teachers, so it could be the perfect time for us to speak with her," he told Will, still looking out the window.

"You spoke with her past teachers?" William asked, barely believing what he was hearing from the flamboyant shinigami, who was normally anything but serious about things.

The red-haired reaper nodded, saying nothing in reply. After some time of silence, Grell finally spoke. "There she is, coming up the walkway right now!" he shouted, becoming his usual, excited self once more.

"Well, with her coming in early like this, it is going to be a good time to talk with the young lady, you finally did something right, Sutcliff," Will said, earning a wide, sharp smile from Grell.

A few moments later, the girl, dressed in black, with a dark green hair tie, walked into the classroom. Josephine checked her name on the list on the desk at the front of the room, and went over to the hooks on the wall, and hung up her coat. Just then, she noticed the note that had been put into her pocket the night before. Josephine took the note from the pocket, opened the folded paper, and read the note. After making sure she hadn't read it wrong, she turned to her instructors, a very serious look on her face.

"Well?" William stated, simply, and waited for a response.

The girl barely shifted her gaze as she answered William's question. "You really think I would simply give in and tell you I was wrong? I don't show weakness to anyone, Mr. Spears, that's one thing you should learn about me right now. You won't see me show any form of weakness in front of the two of you, that's something you can bet on," she told them, taking the two older shinigami aback from the sternness in her tone.

"We were just wondering if there was anything we could do to help, Ms. Grey. I would urge you to keep that in mind," Will said, just as the other students were entering the room and signing in. The three of them didn't bring up the discussion to anyone that day, the lessons just went on as planned, as if nothing had ever happened.

After classes were finished, Josephine was walking out the classroom door when she was stopped by William. "A word, Ms. Grey," he said, fairly coldly, drawing Josephine back into the room. "Now, Mr. Sutcliff and I have wanted to ask you just what is going on," he told her, sitting behind his desk, while Grell sat on top of it. "Sutcliff, how many times do I need to tell you not to sit on my desk?"

Grell simply shrugged, not moving from his place on his partner's desk. "You had better come clean, girl. You've lied to us once, don't try to do it again," he told her, and the girl pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. She said nothing for several moments.

"Sirs, there is nothing wrong, simply stress and being over worked by two jobs," she said, barely backing down from an opportunity to try to seem like everything was going fairly well for her.

"That façade isn't going to work on us, Ms. Grey. We can tell that there's something going on that you're not telling us," Grell said, turning from his position to face Josephine.

William nodded in agreement. "He's right, Ms. Grey. We won't fall for that act again," he told Josephine.

The girl sighed, knowing that if she stayed too much longer, that she could very well earn herself either thirty lashes of the belt, or even be fired from her job at the diner. "Professors, I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm going to be late to work at the diner".

"We have already taken care of that," Grell told her.

Josephine knew there was no getting out of it now. She was well aware enough that she could figure out that William and Grell had informed the manager at the diner that she wouldn't be in that afternoon. There was no way she would be able to get out of the discussion now.

"Now, why don't we head to the dispatch department where we can have a bit of, privacy?" William said, and Josephine nodded in agreement, though she knew that she didn't have a real choice. The two reapers and the recruit left, going to the dispatch department, and into William's office. "Sutcliff, I want you to go to your office. I'd like to speak to Ms. Grey in private," he said, and Grell, seemingly a bit annoyed, nodded and left, going to his own office.

Josephine could tell that this was going to be a long day, especially when William ushered her to sit down in a chair in front of the desk, and locked the door behind them. 'This couldn't get any better...' she thought, preparing for whatever was about to come.