Forging New Paths

Luca started to relax as Garrett talked to him very calmly, with explanations that made him feel a little better. His eyes drifted down towards the slightly damp carpet as he considered the idea that messes weren't necessarily bad. It felt familiar. He was sure his family had told him similar things when he was little, and had helped him clean up instead of yelling at him for dropping things on accident. It was just, the times where he'd been yelled at and punished had covered it over, like putting paint on Watson's house. Maybe, some day, the fear would wash way like it had off the carpet.

His attention floated back towards Garrett as the man kept talking, in a happier, more excited tone, and he watched the paintbrush moving in the older man's hand as he listened. ". . . Forensic . . . research?" It wasn't a term he'd heard very often, and he wasn't sure if he knew exactly what it meant, but he could understand the general idea. Like science experiments, lots of them. "I can help?"

Evelyn made a face at the idea of so much mess, and just very calmly and carefully started to paint her side of the house, working neatly from top to bottom. "That sounds like a nightmare." She murmured, but with humor in her voice. "It can be fun, sometimes, making a mess." She paused, considering, and gave Luca a little smile. "When we're done painting the house, we should put our handprints on the roof. Like an artist's autograph." Making messes on purpose could, theoretically, be a sort of therapy for Luca, so he wouldn't be so worried about the idea of potentially doing 'bad'.
 
Garrett laughed. "You don't have to join if you don't want, Evelyn. But Luca, if you'd like to help, you are very much more than welcome to. I'd just advise we both change into clothes we don't mind getting dirty. Well, for me that's all my clothes, but you know what I mean."

His eyes sparkled at Evelyn's suggestion of handprints on the roof. "That sounds like a wonderful idea. And maybe while this house is drying, Luca and I could head into the lower apartment and do some forensic research." He smiled and added a few more paint strokes to his side of the house. "What do you say, Luca?"
 
Evelyn held her hands up, careful with her paintbrush so as not to flick paint anywhere. "I will not be participating in any mess making, thank you. I'll stand by and observe so no one does anything foolish." And to keep an eye on Luca and his mood. There was no telling yet if he would have fun or just get overwhelmed.

Luca glanced between them, thoughtful and hesitant, then nodded slowly. "Okay. . . I want to help." He wasn't sure if he would really be helping with anything or if he would just be watching Garrett and listening to him, but he liked to be with them both, and as long as they were with him it didn't really matter what they were doing. A plan in mind, he set about very carefully painting the front of the house.

Evelyn glanced at Watson when he ran past again, finishing up with his zoomies no doubt, and looked pointedly at the paint they dipped their brushes in. "It might be best to put this in a locked room while it dries, if we're going to be gone. Don't want Watson to play too early and get himself covered in wet paint." It could be washed off, but again. Why clean up disaster when one could prevent it?
 
"Thank you, Evelyn. Maybe you could take a few pictures, too! It's quite a fun room, I think," Garrett said cheerfully.

Once the house had been painted, it was time to add their handprints. Garrett thought it would be a great test run to see how Luca might react to getting anything on himself; that would give him a better idea of how to guide the forensic research session. "All right, Luca! Handprint time," he announced. "Just pick the color you like, paint it on your hands, and stamp it on like this," he explained.

He painted his hands in white and carefully stamped them onto the roof. Then he headed for the sink. "And when you're done, just wash your hands over here. Easy as pie," he said happily. "And once we're all finished adding our handprints, we can put the house in the office and close the door so Watson won't get paint in his fur. He can't wash his own fur out, so it's easier if he doesn't paint," Garrett added.
 
Pictures would be a must, Garrett was right. As much as she usually only ever took pictures of scenery, Evelyn had decided that their time together needed to be documented more thoroughly. She wanted to hold onto these memories, even if, somehow, at some point in the future, they went sour.

When the house was done, Evelyn set her paint brush where it was safe and reached over to gently fold Luca's sleeves back so he wouldn't be afraid of getting them dirty. "There you are. Do you want to do your right hand, or your left?"

Luca had to think about it, considering, but his right was his dominant hand and he wanted to be careful, so he decided on that one. Once he'd chosen green as his color, he waited to watch Garrett and Evelyn painting their own hands, then finally thought that he wanted to join them. He did shudder a little at the feeling of painting his own skin, though it wasn't unpleasant. It felt strange, doing something like that on purpose, but he liked it. An artist's autograph, like Evelyn and said.

She smiled when all their handprints were done, gently taking Luca's paintbrush from him and letting him go to the sink first to wash his hands. "Perfect." She said with a little nod at their work, and when her hands were clean did return to take a few pictures of their house before Watson could chew on it. "I'll help you carry it to the office."
 
Garrett watched Luca carefully as he painted his hand. He seemed slightly uncomfortable for a brief moment, but it might have been just the sensation was so foreign to him he didn't know how to react. He continued painting his hand and then added a print to the house.

That seemed to be a good sign.

Once all three of them had put the house somewhere safe, Garrett nodded and clapped his hands together. "All right. I think it's just about time to do some forensic research! I'd advise everyone to dress in clothes that can get messy. And don't worry, I have eye protection available to wear once we go down there."

After everyone had gotten changed, Garrett locked the main apartment behind them, and then went downstairs. The forensic research apartment was one of only four apartments that were usable in the complex. And as they walked inside, Garrett gave Luca and Evelyn a brief tour of all the rooms. Then he went to the fresh evidence room, and pulled three pairs of eye protection goggles off some hooks. "All right. Everyone take a pair of goggles," he instructed. "Just in case."

He opened the door to reveal a room that was currently fairly clean, save for colorful splatters of wall paint that Garrett had kept there for decoration. Boxes and containers lined the edges of the room, filled with different supplies. Half the floor was carpet, and half was wood. There was also a bucket filled with tools to spread things, like rakes, large spoons, and dusters.

"All right. Any questions before I give a demonstration?" Garrett asked.
 
Most clothing could be washed or replaced, and Evelyn wasn't going to fuss over what she was currently wearing, so all she did was ask Luca to leave his jacket behind. They could wash the clothes he was wearing, or he could change into the spares they kept in Garrett's house later on, if need be.

When they got to the apartment, Luca looked around at all the mess with a sort of growing fascination, unbothered since it wasn't as if he was going to live there. It was a strange feeling, though, seeing a place so torn up. It looked like some of the places he had been sent to as the Ghost.

"I'll just stand over here," Evelyn said with a little shake of her head, putting the goggles on but moving away to simply lean in the doorway, hopefully out of range of whatever it was Garrett was doing.

Luca blinked at the goggles, wondering if he'd ever used them before, and put them on as he looked around the room. ". . . What are we doing?" Was something going to break, or splash? He wasn't sure why his eyes would be in danger, but then, no parts of his body were usually in danger of things as long as he and Garrett didn't touch.
 
Garrett grinned and put his own goggles on. "We're going to make messes, break things, and observe how things react. Here, I'll show you and example." He reached into a bucket of dirt. "Let's say I've got a handful of dirt, right?" He chucked one handful at the wall and dropped one handful gently beside him. "Now, these two handfuls of dirt look different. The one I threw is scattered everywhere with tiny pieces, and the one I dropped is mostly in the same place. So now when I go to a case in real life, I might be able to tell what happened in a scene based on how dirt has been moved."

He skidded a foot through both dirt areas. "Same thing with my shoe. This is what the dirt looks like when it's been skidded through with a shoe . . ." He stepped carefully in the piles next. "Versus when it's been stepped in."

Garrett's eyes sparkled. "Although sometimes when I come in here . . . I just make a mess for fun. Which reminds me! Don't worry about getting any stuff on me. I came in here planning to get dirty."

He tapped each of the buckets. "Help yourself to any of the materials! We've got dirt, paint, sand, glue, gelatin, cardboard - all sorts of stuff!"
 
Evelyn wanted to ask in a very skeptical tone how throwing dirt could possibly help solve cases, but no matter how strange she found his training, she couldn't argue with his results. Besides that, even, she didn't want to stop a potentially helpful sort of 'exposure therapy' for Luca. He was watching Garrett with a confused sort of interest, hands fidgeting close to his stomach in a hesitant sort of posture, but he was still paying attention. That in itself was a good sign.

When he looked back at her, Evelyn only held up her hands as if in surrender. "I'm not joining in, but I'm certainly not going to stop you," she said with a little smile. "This is what the room is meant for. I'll just learn by observing." She was not sticking her hands in dirt for anything that wasn't planting flowers.

He frowned a little at that, but it faded away as he finally moved to crouch down next to the bucket of dirt. There was hesitation still, and then finally Evelyn watched as he gathered a little pile of dirt into his hands, and for a moment just stayed there holding it, closing his fingers over it or rubbing it between them with a quiet, subdued sort of focus. Like the way he ran his fingers through the grass when they went to park. It made her wonder just how long it had been since he'd been able to freely touch the earth, without anyone around to tell him not to.

After a minute or two of just fiddling with the dirt in his hands, he put it back in the bucket and brushed his hands off as best he could, moving over to sit on his knees next to the container of glue. Ever curious, he very carefully poured a small puddle onto the floor, then went back to the dirt and piled some on top. He watched how they mixed together for a moment, then scooted aside to let it dry and investigate the sand in much the same way he had the dirt.

It wasn't throwing things, and to Evelyn it felt like playing than learning how to investigate things, but it was a start. Regardless, she thought he deserved to play anyway.
 
But Garrett was rather impressed. Instead of only investigating one thing at a time, Luca had skipped right ahead to combining different materials and observing how they interacted. And it was clear to him that Luca was also getting familiar with the materials one at a time, running his hands through them and exploring through the way they felt on his skin.

He imagined Luca hadn't been allowed to have many things come in contact with his skin before. Especially with his shadow power.

The detective copied Luca's energy to try and help him feel more comfortable, even though he would have rather been flinging materials around. But Luca's sort of research was also important, and he knew that. So he knelt beside the boy, pulled out some sand, and combined it with some nearby water. "Say. I don't suppose you've ever made a sand castle?" he asked with a smile, patting the sand into a pile on the carpet.
 
Gluing dirt to the floor, putting wet sand in the carpet - Evelyn hated it on principle despite knowing it would be cleaned eventually, and she made small but clearly disgusted faces every time Garrett glanced her way, if only to amuse him. After a little while, seeing they were fine and calm for now, she just pulled out her phone to continue her research.

Luca looked up when Garrett came over, and only watched in a sort of muted fascination as it mixed, watching the way it moved under the other man's hands. Like the sand at the parts of a beach closest to the water. Had he been to a beach before? It felt familiar, but he couldn't pin down the exact memories and he wasn't sure he wanted to. He was out of the bad place now, and he was allowed to do things and make messes and eat when he wanted, but memories were still just memories. He couldn't have them back.

"When I was little . . ." He said, looking back at the sand he'd held in his hands to watch it trickle slowly back into the bucket. ". . . I think." Those things were unclear, sometimes, and he didn't want to feel like he had at the diner. It was easier to just not to remember.
 
The soft words and Luca's expression were enough to make Garrett decide that maybe making a sand castle wasn't the best idea at the moment. ". . . Ah," he said at last. He scooped the wet sand up and put it back into the bucket. Then he went over to the other buckets, searching for another material to make a mess with. "Oh, I know! How about we research some charcoal?"

He stuck his hand into a bucket of charcoal and pulled it out with a smile. "This stuff is fun because you can draw with it. Watch this," he added, drawing a smiley face on the wall with his charcoal dusted hand. "Just don't breathe it in too much. It can make you cough and things."
 
Luca blinked slowly a few times, and as the sand in his hands ran out and Garrett plopped wet sand back in the bucket, he lingered a moment to see how they mixed. Would the dry sand soak up the water and make everything dry? Or would the wet sand make the rest wet? He didn't stay long enough to find out, after Garrett called him somewhere else.

"Charcoal . . . for drawing?" He asked, crouching down next to the new bucket and hesitating a moment before reaching for some. He pulled his hand back at first to look at it in surprise, when just barely touching it had already made his skin a bit black, then just reached in to take a piece again. It was dry, and the color transferred easily, and moving it around did make little puffs of black smoke in the bucket so he tried not to move it much.

"They make a less dusty kind of charcoal for drawing, yes," Evelyn spoke up from the doorway, listening even while scrolling through her phone. "But it's similar enough."

Luca glanced at her, tilted his head a bit as if in thought, then reached out and made a small line on the wall with the piece in his hand. It almost worked the same, he thought, as the videos he'd seen of people drawing with charcoals. Like the paint handprints they'd made in the upper apartment, he rubbed his fingers over the charcoal to turn them black, then used his hand to start making attempts at drawing a vaguely circular shape first. If it was okay to use the walls as a canvas, and the tool he had was just black, maybe he could draw Watson.
 
Garrett smiled when his instinct seemed to have been correct for once. Luca was still calm, still invested, and even drawing on the wall. Garrett was learning. "That's a nice circle there, Luca! What are you going to draw?" he asked.

He drew two more smiley faces. Then he attempted to make outfits, hair, and hands. Slowly, he and Luca and Evelyn appeared on the wall, all of them smiling. Somehow Garrett pictured Luca as smiling more often even though he didn't physically smile much. Luca just seemed happier these days.

And so was Garrett. He wiped one hand off on his shirt and pulled out his phone. Do you think now would be a good time to ask Luca about investigating the abandoned house? I was going to ask something like, "Luca, how would you feel about using your newfound research skills to practice investigating an abandoned house?"
 
"Watson," Luca murmured, focused on getting the shape of his ears right, and the placement of his eyes and nose. It wasn't a very accurate drawing, given the medium he worked with, but it wasn't horrible either. When he finally stopped after using just the edge of his thumb to make thin, straight lines for whiskers, he stood back to look at it, then finally over at what Garrett was doing. Rather than making a mess, he found that the other man had been drawing, too.

". . . Can I . . .?" He asked very timidly, after staring at it for a while, a blackened hand held out towards the drawing. When he had permission, he very carefully drew an umbrella over her head, and stood back to study it before looking for Garrett's approval. It was Evelyn, wasn't it? And the two of them? She always had her umbrella when they were outside.

Evelyn glanced at Garrett when his message popped up. First of all, I can't believe you just wiped that on your shirt instead of bringing a rag. And second, that was the cutest thing I've ever seen and I've already been taking pictures. But that should be fine, I think. If you ask if he wants to practice on an empty house, or to help you do it, I'm sure he'll want to come. She was sure if it by now. Anywhere they went, he would follow.
 
"You certainly can, Luca. I'd be honored," Garrett said, beaming and stepping back to let Luca complete the drawing. His eyes sparkled when Luca glanced over to look at him. ". . . It looks wonderful," he murmured at last. "All four of us, together."

The detective blinked as his phone buzzed again. "Oh. One moment, let me check this." Then he giggled lightly at Evelyn's text. That's why I bring clothes I intend to get dirty in, Evelyn. Sometimes a shirt is more accessible than a rag. And yes, I'm very glad to see Luca enjoying himself. I'll go ahead and ask him.

"Evelyn said she couldn't believe I just wiped my charcoal hand on my shirt instead of a rag," he told Luca, still laughing. "Anyway, I wanted to ask - how would you like to bring your detective kit from Watson and try it out in an abandoned house? It would be perfectly safe, and then I could show you how to apply some of the things we've just learned here," he added.
 
Luca only gave a little tilt of his head when Garrett repeated things Evelyn hadn't said out loud, amused at the older man laughing but unsure why he had shared. He had figured out already that they often texted each other rather than saying things he could hear, and sometimes wondered what they were saying but assumed it just wasn't meant for him to hear, even if he thought it might be about him sometimes. He had gotten used to people talking about him, or talking near him like he wasn't present at all. Evelyn and Garrett wouldn't do anything bad to him, so it didn't bother him.

When Garrett asked him to go to an abandoned house, he paused to consider, lost in thought about why exactly the abandoned house might need to be investigated, but nodded all the same, eyes drifting over to Evelyn as if to ask permission.

"We can go get it from home." She said calmly, ignoring the way Garrett's feelings about the differences between shirt and rag made her want to roll her eyes or laugh in equal measure. "Garrett says it's safe, so it's fine to go and look around." She trusted he wouldn't lead them to an active crime scene - at least, not without appropriate permission.
 
Garrett finally relaxed and nodded, sighing happily. "Yep. It's perfectly safe. My thought is we can close this room up and I'll clean it later tonight. Then we can go get washed, drive over to your and Evelyn's house to get your detective kit, go investigate the abandoned house, and come back here to show Watson his new house. It should be dry by then. How's that sound?" he asked Luca.

He was already planning on staying near just the first floor and making it a shorter trip; he didn't want Luca to get overwhelmed. Maybe he'd suggest one or two particular tasks for Luca to try out, such as figuring out how certain piles of dirt had been moved or even what direction people had walked in. But he was going to take it slow, and easy, with the knowledge that they might have to cut their trip short for any reason.

If only he knew who they'd meet there.
 
Luca looked at his dirty hands, then back at the puddle of glue and dirt he'd left on the floor, then finally nodded his agreement. By the time they came back to clean the mess, he could see how it dried. He was careful in putting the charcoal back in the bucket, though the point of the room had been to stop being careful, and followed them out so they could lock up and go get clean.

"Watson will be okay by himself?" He asked as they made their way back up, trying not to get anything messy by holding his hands carefully as they walked.

Evelyn smiled and gave him a reassuring pat on the back, quietly ushering him back into Garrett's apartment and towards the kitchen sink. "Watson will be just fine. He'll have a nice nap while it's quiet, and then he'll be happy to see you when you come back. We'll clean up in here while you get changed, Garrett." She said, then paused and looked at him. "Unless you think you need to wear your 'making a mess' clothes at the empty house, too."
 
Watson did meow and trot over to greet the group as they arrived, but the sound was soon followed by a tiny yawn. He was already getting tired. Garrett smiled and scooped him up, kissing his forehead and carrying him gently to the couch. "I'm with Evelyn. It's actually about nap time for him. He likes to be up high while he sleeps sometimes," he added. He set the kitten gently down on the couch and smiled when Watson curled up and closed his eyes. "Evelyn? Luca? Want to come give him goodnight hugs, kisses, or pets?"

His eyes sparkled when Evelyn suggested just staying in their dirty clothes. "Oh! You've got a wonderful point, Evelyn. We may as well our messy clothes to the house just in case."

Once everyone had said their goodbyes to Watson, Garrett locked up the apartment and headed for his car. Then he drove the group over to Evelyn's house to get Luca's detective kit. Finally, the group drove over to the abandoned building. Garrett pulled his car into the backyard and parked it.

Even the yard was a bit imposing. There was a wire fence that was broken and missing in places. The shingles on the house's roof were worn. Clearly the house hadn't been painted in years, and several of the windows were cracked or open. The back door barely held on to its one hinge.

"Now," Garrett said calmly, "It'll be dark in there. No power or electricity. What's the first tool you think you'll need, Luca?"
 
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