Chapter Text
Dewey rolls out of bed to his cell phone ringing. He reaches over to check the alarm clock and is filled with panic when he sees the time.
"Gale! I forgot to set the alarm, I am so late" Dewey says flying out of bed.
"I'm sure it can't be that bad" Gale says as she turns to also face the clock and sees the time.
"Told you" Dewey jokes as he sees the panic in her eyes.
"It will be fine. We will just work together like old times. I'll help Gracie get ready and you get yourself ready" Gale says, slipping on her slippers and bathrobe.
"Sounds like a plan. Meet you downstairs in twenty minutes" Dewey says entering the bathroom.
Gale walks down the long hallway until she reaches a door with a letter G decorated in glitter and pom poms. Gale busts through the door and walks over to the bed. When she gets closer she starts to tiptoe and then pushes down on the bed to scare her daughter.
Her daughter screams awake, "What the hell Mom, I was sleeping!"
"Not anymore time for school, you have eighteen minutes or your walking yourself to school" Gale says
"But it's three miles from our house to the school" Grace whines.
"Then get a ride with Wes' mom. I heard she made her disgusting lemon squares, your favorite" Gale jokes
Gracie pretends to vomit and her mom laughs.
"Oh anything but Ms. Hicks lemon squares" Gracie says dramatically
"Hurry up Gracie, I'm getting calls from the station!" Dewey says from downstairs
Grace quickly gets ready and runs down the stairs tripping on the last stair but is quickly saved by Dewey.
"Careful there, don't want you getting hurt" He says, placing her back on her feet before they both walk out of the house.
The car alarm chirps as Dewey walks over to the car and Grace to her seat behind her dad. As she does, a car speeds down the road, almost hitting Gracie.
Dewey pulls Gracie back, pushing her against the car, "Twenty-five, stay alive!" he yells to the speeding car.
"Shit! Sorry Sheriff!" says the speeding girl.
"Freaking Kirby" Dewey says in disappointment as he and Grace enter the car.
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"Quick detour," Dewey says, turning away from the school road.
"What about school?" Grace questions
"I'll write you a note and if that's not okay they can take it up with the police. Oh wait..." says Dewey joking around.
Gracie looks in the rearview mirror making eye contact with her dad, "I thought we talked about this, no more dad jokes"
"Come on Gracie, I got to. Is in my blood" Dewey laughs as he stops the car.
Outside the car a man on a ladder is lowering ghostface costumes and Ms.Hicks says, "The mayor wants these down before lunch"
"Only twenty-five more to go" says the worker
Dewey walks over to Deputy Hicks as Gracie stares out the back window.
"Morning Sheriff" says Hicks
"Morning Deputy" says Dewey
"Looks like the celebrating has begun" says Dewey looking at the costumes
"High school kids probably" says Hicks
"One generations tragedy is the next one's joke" Dewey says
"Sorry you can never get away from this. You know, I wish I'd been old enough to be a part of the force when you were solving those crimes. It's those intense investigations that really bond relationships." says Hicks
"Yeah, I guess if one good thing came out of it" says Dewey
"Talking about good things, I have some lemon squares in my car if you want one," Hicks says
"I'll actually take one for Gracie. I have her in the car" Dewey says and Hicks waves
He walks it over and passes it in through the unrolled window and whispers, "This is for making fun of my dad jokes"
"Fine," she says reluctantly, grabbing it and taking a bite.
"Sheriff Riley come in, Sheriff Riley come in" It says over the walkie.
Dewey turns towards Hicks, and right when Gracie is out of his vision she spits out the lemon square.
"This is Sheriff Riley. Go ahead" Dewey says
"You have to get over to the Randall house right away, it's bad Sheriff, real bad." the walkie says.
Hicks and Dewey run to their cars and start driving to the Randall house.
"So I'm guessing no school today?" Grace says
"As long as you don't tell your mother" Dewey says making eye contact with her in the rearview mirror.
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Gale walks into the book store and leans against a bookcase as she listens to a young woman speak on a podium to the group of people around her, "...A role for a woman who could leave the walls of fear behind and step back into the sunlight, out of darkness"
The crowd applauded as the young woman smiles, "Thank you"
"Ok, we're going to start the book signing in a second, so buy your copies while they last," her publicist says as the young woman exits the crowd and runs into Gale.
"Gale, I'm glad you came" the young woman says
"Congratulations Sidney. I haven't had a chance to read it yet but..." Gale says
Sidney interrupts her, "I know where you can get one" they both laugh and hug.
Dewey walks in with a quickened pace.
"Dewey! Hey!" Sidney says going over to hug him
"Hey Sid. Gale, you made it." Dewey says hugging Sid and then wiping the sweat off his forehead. Sirens wail in the background.
"What's going on Dewey?" Gale says as the sirens get closer and police cars start to arrive.
"I'm sorry Sid. I gotta do something here. I'm really sorry. Excuse me! This will only take a minute. I need you all to stay where you are and remain silent" Dewey announces.
"Nobody leaves yet. The sheriff thanks you." Hicks says stopping a shopper from leaving.
"Can this wait? I'm running an event here" Sidney's publicist says
"Ma'am this is a police event now" Dewey says
"Come on, another dad joke?" Gracie says, sticking her head outside the cop car window.
"Gracie?" Gale says with anger
"Oh shit!" Gracie says quickly, sticking her head back inside the cop car.
"Dewey, why isn't she in school? Gracie get your butt over here" Gale says angrily.
Grace walks over to them with her head to the ground.
"I thought I trained you better than this Gracie. We had one rule, don't let your mother know" Dewey whispered.
"Excuse me?!" Gale yells obviously hearing their conversation.
"We don't have time for this. There is a phone we believe may have been taken from the scene of a crime. Deputy Hicks has traced its location back to these coordinates. The rest is need-to-know" Dewey says, avoiding eye contact with Gale.
"I'm not need-to-know?" Gale says as Hicks shushes her.
Dewey calls the phone and it starts ringing.
"Sheriff, it's ringing out here!" says a police officer.
Everyone runs and follows the ringing to a silver car.
"It's coming from the trunk" a police officer says
"Dewey, it's my rental" Sidney says as the publicist throws him the keys.
Dewey unlocks the trunk and it slowly raises. Blood is spread all over Sidney's posters and pages of her book with a knife in the center. Gale covers Gracies eyes.
"Ok, it's now an official crime scene. Let's lock it down" Dewey says
"Please tell me this is a prank Dewey" says Sidney
"I'm afraid not Sid" Dewey says.
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Gale pulls into the Greensboro Elementary parking lot, "Now get in there and stay in there my little truant."
"Fine, just promise me you'll stay safe. Whatever is happening with those bloody books is creepy, please just stay away. Promise me" Gracie says, lifting up her pinkie.
"Promise" Gale lied as she linked pinkies with her daughter.
Gracie exited the car and walked in the elementary school. She went to her class and right when she entered the room a brown haired boy began to smile, "Gracie, you're here!"
"Wes! Sorry I was late and missed science." Gracie said, taking her seat next to the boy.
"It's okay, we finished most of the project already" said Wes sitting back down.
After the two had finally settled, a single phone ring from Miranda, the only third grader to have a phone, came out. She read the message and then passed out. Miranda was known for being dramatic but it also filled everyone with intrigue with what the message was about.
The boy next to her named Collin took the phone out of her hand and proceed to read the message aloud, "Jenny Randall and Marnie Cooper were murdered last night"
"What?" said the teacher.
"Stabbed to death" a boy read after grabbing the phone from Collin's hand.
News vans sped past the elementary school, then the middle school, and then parked right in front of the high school. Everyone went to the window to watch.
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