Our Ghost Adventures

“Hey baby?” I asked walking into the bathroom. Zak was standing and looking in the mirror-fixing his hair in the hotel bathroom, it was early maybe about seven and today there was a lockdown at an old jailhouse that I wasn’t allowed to go on. He turned and looked at me with a ‘hm’. I ran my fingers down his bare back. We were in San Antonio, Texas. There wasn’t a place that we trusted to park the RV and sleep in it, so we’d given in and decided to stay at a hotel for the night. “So, I was thinkin’ this morning.” His back was so warm and my hand was so cold…

“What were you thinking about? Me?” he smiled, and I bit my lip.

“Well, that and…What if I went back to Vegas for a while? I love being on the road with you and the guys but…Florida’s a long drive from here and all of this traveling is kind of stressful. I think I could better focus on our baby’s wellbeing if I wasn’t on the road…” It wasn’t that I wanted to leave his side. I loved Zak, he was a fantastic man, but they had two more weeks and two more lockdowns. They’d be home in two and a half. It wasn’t like we hadn’t been apart for longer.

“Is that what you want? We can try and make the RV more comfortable…or?”

“It’s what I want…Besides, maybe I should have some bonding time with your mom,” his eyes lit up when I said that. He loved his family so much and I wanted to respect that. If I was going to be his wife, I wanted to get along with his mother. Stephanie and I were good, but I needed to completely win over Elise.

“That’s what you really want to do?” he asked, looking over at me. I nodded, my fingers mindlessly tracing the tattoo at the top of his back.

“Yeah, and if we’re going to be staying at your place, I would like to do some baby proofing…”

“You want to stay at my place?” I could tell that he was happy about that too.

“Why not? You have family there, besides my friends can be called…That’s not the same as having an actual family member. And your house is bigger…Roomier.”

“I love you, so much,” he turned and gave me a loving kiss. We hadn’t been arguing about where we wanted to stay-taking not arguing, but I didn’t want to ask him to give up his home and his family for me. I couldn’t ask that. Things would be different if I had any living family. “I’m gonna call you everyday though,” he said. “And we’re going to talk for hours like teenagers.”

“I’ll hold you to that, being in that big haunted house all by myself.” He slightly tensed at the word haunted by shook it off and touched my stomach.

“And I expect to talk to our daughter too,” he pressed a sweet kiss to my lips.

“Of course,” I replied. He had had many one sided conversations with my belly. It only made me that much more excited. “I’m going to go call an Enterprise or something so I can drive back…”

“Lemme do it, you can go eat breakfast with the guys in the lobby.”

“You sure?”

“It’s the least I can do. Besides I’ll be a minute anyway,” he said, still putting gel in his hair.

“Alright, I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Okay baby. I love you.”

“Love you too.”

***

“Where’s your other half?” Aaron asked sitting at a table when I walked into the eating area.

“Fixing his hair,” I replied, knowing that they would understand. I headed off to go get breakfast. I had to be careful about what I got because it could make me ill otherwise. I decided eggs would be nice this morning, I picked up some scrambled eggs, two sausage links, scattered hash browns, and two halves of toast with strawberry jelly; I grabbed a glass of orange juice and went back to the table with Nick, Aaron, and Billy.

“Usually you wait on him,” Nick pointed out. “Trouble in paradise?”

“No,” I replied, taking a bite of my eggs. “I was just hungry and I knew that he would be a few minutes.”

“Hm,” Aaron said, eyeing me suspiciously. “So are you excited for Florida?”

“I’m not going,” I said. “I’m gonna head back to Vegas-Zak’s calling a car rental place for me…”

“So there is trouble,” the bald man concluded.

“It’s not like that. The traveling is just stressful and in another two weeks I’ll be almost eight months along. That’s a little far to be traveling.”

“It makes sense,” Nick said. “My wife didn’t want to move when she was pregnant.”

“See, Aaron?” I said with an eye roll. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

Apparently we’d missed Zak walking through so we were all surprised when he came and took a seat-kissing my head in the process. “What’re we talking about, guys?” he asked. He had a plate of waffles with strawberries and whipped cream on top-along with syrup of course.

“Aaron thinks we’re having problems,” I said. We were all open with each other; I didn’t see a point in waiting until Zak and I were alone before telling him.

“We’re not,” Zak assured them before eating some of his breakfast. I stuck my tongue out at the man across the table from me, Aaron did the same.

***

“If you need anything, call me,” Zak said. He had his lockdown today and I didn’t want his mind on me the whole time, but I knew that I couldn’t prevent that. It was inevitable.

“I will. Don’t stress too much and have fun tonight,” I told him, opening the car door. He nodded and dipped his head down to kiss me again. He had been kissing me every chance he got since we ended breakfast. Now we were at the Enterprise and I were about to part ways.

“I’ll try, but I’ll miss you at the lockdown,” he said. I got into the car and rolled down my window. He leaned in the gap and kissed me once again. “I love you.”

I giggled at how often he had said that today. “I love you too, babe.”

***Zak’s POV***

We hadn’t gotten any good evidence-not like we usually had when Adrina was with us…I truly wondered if she had an affect on the evidence we got. Maybe she was a ghost magnet. We did start getting better evidence when she joined us and now that she was gone, things were slower. Maybe it was just last night’s lockdown, we’d have to see after tonight. I checked my phone for the twelfth time in an hour. She still hadn’t called me to say that she had made it home yet. She took Muffin with her and I just had Gracie. I was temped to call her, but I didn’t want to distract her from driving…But what if something was wrong? Maybe I was worrying myself a little bit too much but it had been along time! Screw it, I dialed her number and let it ring.

“Hello?” Adrina picked up.

“Hey babe, where are you?”

“Oh I’m at home. I’m so sorry! I just woke up. I came back and went to sleep…” she trailed off. I knew she hadn’t done it on purpose, so I let out a breath of relief.

“I just wanted to check in on you.”

“I’m fine. How did last night go?”

“We got almost nothing. A couple of knocks and like two disembodied voices…I don’t think we’re even going to air that episode…”

“I’m sorry,” she said. I could tell that she was doing something else at the same time, there was background noise.

“It’s not your fault, I just had higher hopes for that place, y’know?”

“I know. But it happens sometimes, doesn’t it? You can’t expect every location to be haunted.”

“I know, but I guess it just hasn’t happened in a while. Not since you’ve been with us.”

She chuckled on the other end. “My friends did always call me the ghost magnet.”

“No kidding. You know, it’s probably pointless for us to even go on the next two lockdowns. Maybe I should just come home early…” I said with a grin. I knew I couldn’t do that, she wouldn’t let me anyway, so it didn’t matter.

“Nope. I just got rid of you,” she joked. “You’ve got a job to do, just because I’m pregnant and here doesn’t mean that you need to be. Nick and Aaron need you.”

“Nah, you need me too,” he said.

“Nope, nope, nope. I’m fine.”

“I do feel bad that you’re there without me because of my job…” I admitted.

“Don’t,” she replied. “I’m agreeing to marry you and everything that comes with it. That includes the work you do.” I smiled, I had never gotten that response before. “Baby, I’m gonna go eat something and watch Dracula,” she meant Bram Stoker’s Dracula, my favorite movie. This only made my smile grow. The first time she’d ever watched it was on my birthday and ever since she’d fallen in love with it.

“Alright, I love you.”

“I love you too.”

***Adrina’s POV***

I turned the TV on to switch it to the DVD setting, but I nearly started laughing when I noticed what was on TV. Ghost Adventures. It was a rerun, but still! When I saw my blonde self on TV with the Eiffel Tower in the background, I knew it was the King’s Island episode. I hadn’t actually watched it, and I kind of wanted to. I hadn’t seen the footage from Molly, Ariel, or Ellie yet and that could be kind of nice to watch.

“My name is Zak Bagans, lead investigator of the Ghost adventures crew. I never believed in Ghosts until I came face to face with one. I set out on a quest to capture what I once saw onto video. With no big camera crews following us around, I am joined only by my fellow investigators Nick Groff, Aaron Goodwin, and Adrina McMurphy. Together we will investigate some of the most highly active paranormal locations,” Zak’s voice said. I had noticed that this season, I was in even more of the title sequence. “Raw,” he said. “Extreme,” It then showed the famous scene from Bobby Mackey’s all those years ago when Nick was running from the bathroom and Zak was shouting at him to ‘stop running’. “These are our Ghost Adventures,” It was still the four of us on Poveglia Island at the very end.

It was so weird watching this! Somehow, I couldn’t help but think about how I would soon be Adrina Bagans and he’d have to change the intro-again. It started out with the history of the place and me standing awkwardly-as usual. Zak was talking to Tim and doing what ever. I was half mesmerized by seeing Zak…I missed him so much, but I’d just have to wait until he came back. Once it got to the actual lockdown, I paid more attention.

“Being as Adrina was born in Ohio and had even grown up around here-working here even; she led this investigation once we arrived. We called in three of her friends-because we had a lot of ground to cover to assist us.”

It flashed to when we were standing inside of the park and I was directing everyone where to go.

After actually watching the episode, I turned on Dracula and spent two hours watching it with Muffin at my side.