The Key (A Skulduggery Pleasant Fanfiction)

Chapter One

  *Beep beep beep beep*

  Valkyrie groggily turned off their alarm. Her husband, Fletcher, turned over and gave her a crooked smile.

"Morning," he said tiredly. Valkyrie kissed his cheek lightly, her long, dark hair tickling his face.

"Morning, Fletch," she crowed back. He rubbed his eyes and got out of bed.

  Valkyrie followed him after a few failed minutes of attempting to go back to sleep.

"Hi, mummy," a little voice crooned from the room next door. Valkyrie lifted her two-year-old son out of his cot.

"Hello, Aaron," Valkyrie said, kissing his nose. Balancing him on her hip, she headed down to the kitchen where Fletcher was making breakfast.

  Valkyrie set Aaron onto a chair, where he waited, kicking his legs. Gordon trotted into the kitchen, his adoring sister Alice at his heels.

"Hey, Mum. Dad." Gordon yawned, sitting at the table. Alice scrabbled to sit beside him, her fine blonde hair sticking up like a dandelion, dressed in her rabbit pajamas.

  Valkyrie began to set the table as Fletcher finished up cooking the waffles.

"Are we going to see Auntie Tanith and Uncle Ghastly today?" Alice asked. Gordon ruffled his dark hair.

"I think we'll have time today after school," Valkyrie said. Fletcher taught teleportation in the local school in Roarhaven. Valkyrie still worked as a detective with Skulduggery.

"How's Never?" Valkyrie asked Fletcher, as he served the waffles to everyone.

"She's getting along really well." Fletcher smiled. Xena bounded into the room, stealing the waffle out of Aaron's outstretched hand. Aaron screwed up his face, about to cry, but Valkyrie quickly gave him her waffle. Aaron giggled and patted Xena's head with his sticky hands.

  Xena trotted over to Valkyrie and buried her head in her lap. Valkyrie stroked her German Shepard under the table.

"How are you getting on with wall-walking?" Valkyrie asked her fourteen year old son Gordon.

"Pretty good," Gordon said. "My teacher makes everything easy."

Their school was a boarding school, but as the Cain-Renn family lived in such close proximity to it, Gordon was a day student.

"I want to be a wall-walker too!" whined Aaron.

"I want to be an elemental," Alice said quietly, which was a bit of a surprise, as she usually copied Gordon.

"Nobody wants to follow in Dad's footsteps, no?" Fletcher asked in his Cockney accent, a pretend pout on his face.

"I'm sorry, Fletch," Valkyrie said. "I'm just way cooler than you."

"Ohhhhhh!" yelled Gordon, Alice and Aaron.

  Valkyrie dabbed, which caused her children to groan.

"Crap, we need to get to school!" Fletcher said suddenly. He bounded out of the room to get dressed, and Gordon strolled upstairs to his own bedroom.

  Valkyrie picked up Aaron out of his highchair and balanced him on her hip once again. Alice trotted after her mother, following her into Aaron's room, before padding off to her own room. Valkyrie dressed Aaron and then checked to see if Alice (who was seven) had gotten dressed yet.

"C'mon, we need to hurry!" Fletcher yelled. Gordon, dressed in his uniform, walked up the wall, scaled the perimeter of the hall and dropped down in front of the kitchen. Fletcher grabbed his shoulder and teleported away.

Valkyrie loaded Alice and Aaron into their car, and drove off into the heart of city, on her way to Ghastly's tailor practice.

  Ghastly stood in the kitchen, making a pot of tea, his small daughter Liz sitting on the floor, sewing a waistcoat, humming the Backyardigans theme song.

"Morning, Ghastly!" Valkyrie chimed, holding the hands of her children.

"Hi, Val!" exclaimed Liz, waving. She accidentally dropped the button she was sewing onto the waistcoat. She crawled around on the floor, searching for it. Ghastly chuckled.

"Hello, Valkyrie." Ghastly grinned. "I'm almost done with Gordon's jacket,"

"Great. Can you look after Aaron for me? Just until two." Valkyrie smiled.

"Yeah, sure," Ghastly said. "Tea?"

"No thanks, I've got to drop off Alice then head to work."

"New case?" Ghastly asked.

"Yeah, someone killed a retired Cleaver. It's the fourth in a series of similar murders." Valkyrie said, kissing Aaron goodbye.

"Cheerful stuff, then. Bye." Ghastly said.

"Bye!" Valkyrie said. She dropped Alice off at her school, the nearest mortal primary school. She was in first class.

Valkyrie headed back into town to the Sanctuary. Grand Mage China welcomed her with a hug.

"Hey, Chi," Valkyrie said, hugging her back.

"Skulduggery is teething and it's driving me mad," China said. There was dark circles under her startling ice blue eyes, but she stilled looked as elegant as ever.

"There's my beautiful wife!" a velvety voice called. China rolled her eyes but still looked very pleased as Skulduggery Pleasant wrapped his arms around her.

"C'mon, we've got to go to work here!" Valkyrie said, hands on hips.

"And aren't you supposed to be looking after our baby?" Skulduggery asked China. China pointed to behind her throne. Valkyrie walked over to it, and saw a baby playing with Skulduggery's gun. Valkyrie snatched the gun from Skulduggery Jr, and held it up over her head.

"You're not very responsible parents!" she remarked. Skulduggery rushed over to pick up his small son, then carefully put his gun in his holster.

"Bad baby," he told the baby.

"How did you even become a parent?" Valkyrie asked, throwing her arms up into the air.

"Well, when a mummy and a daddy love each other very much-" Skulduggery began, but China cut him off, laughing.

"Hey, people," a voice said carelessly from the doorway. Tanith stood with her arms folded, looking Valkyrie up and down.

"Hey, Tanith,"

"Ghastly rang me," she said in her English accent. "Said you dropped off Aaron."

"Yeah," Valkyrie said. "Does your husband phone you if anything eventful happens at all?"

"He does, actually," Tanith grinned. "That's the mark of a good one."

"Let's get started on this case," Skulduggery said, his hands on his skeletal hips.

"But of course," Valkyrie said, following him into the evidence room.