Hello to anyone reading this. I do realise it has been a few weeks since I updated my other SP fanfiction, but I am a litly lost for ideas of where to take it. I finished Death Bringer today, and inspiration for this little fic pretty much slapped me in the face, so I hope this will Satisfy you for now.

Set: An hour after the end of Death Bringer

WARNING: This is set after Death Bringer, and there may be spoilers involved, so please don't read if you havent finished the book, I dont feel like getting angry reviews from people who havent finished the book yet.

There is no pairing in this fic, just their friendship.

Please read, enjoy and review

Valkyrie gave a low sigh, her hand raised to knock on the wooden door in front of her. Two days, it had been two days since she'd heard from Skulduggery. Usually she would just leave him by himself until he decided he wanted to speak to her again, and then everything would be okay. But not this time, she knew this was different. Skulduggery was hurting, and he was doing alone. She moved her hand, rapping on the door loud enough for him to hear.

While she waited to see if he would answer she did her best to fix her appearance. Her hair was messy from the sea water drying in it, she had a few scrapes on her hands, and there was dried blood on her sleeve. It had only been an hour since her fight with the vampire (whom she refused to think of by name) and she hadn't really had a chance to clean up. She had stayed at the hospital with Fletcher while he got some stiches in his arm, and had a rabies shot. They had told the doctor he had been attacked by a feral dog, and they had decided to give him one just to be safe. As soon as Fletcher was done she'd thanked him and then apologised, telling him there was somewhere she needed to be.

When there was no answer after two minutes she knocked again, louder this time. She knew he was in there. She'd looked through the side window into the garage, and the Bentley was inside, there was a light on upstairs, Skulduggery never left lights on if he went out, and after calling Ghastly he had confirmed that he hadn't seen the skeleton detective. After another few minutes of waiting she tried twisting the door knob, only a little surprised when it turned in her hand.

"Skulduggery," She called into the house as she opened the door. "Are you here? I'm coming in." There was no answer but she let herself in anyway. Although all the lights were off she checked all the rooms downstairs, even the bathroom, although he had no reason to be in there. He had had the bathroom installed specifically for her, for when she came over. Before that he'd had no need for one. There had been one to many times where she had needed to pee so bad she ended up telling him to take her home so she could use the bathroom. They were pretty embarrassing days for both of them.

After she was certain he wasn't downstairs she made her way up the stairs, the silence in the house uncomfortable. He wasn't in his hat room, and he wasn't in the room where he liked to keep his favourite outfits, but she did find him in the third room she checked. She opened the door quietly, peering inside and not expecting to see anything. This was another one of his many living rooms, there was a couch and a nice blue rug, and there was even a TV and a DVD player.

She stopped in the doorway when she saw him. He was sitting on the couch across the room. He was still in the suit he'd worn two days before, the pants and shirt still crumpled and messy. His hat was on the arm of the couch next to him and he was slumped forward, elbows resting on his knees and his white skull held in his gloved hands. He looked terrible, and she felt a pang in her heart as she took in the sight, her heart hurting for her friend, knowing the pain he was undoubtable feeling.

"Skulduggery," She said quietly, stepping into the room slowly.

His skull shot up in surprise, his hollow eye sockets facing her for a few moments as he finally realised she was there. He cleared his throat and shifted, sitting straighter. "Valkyrie, when did you get here?" He asked, and she had force herself not to wince at how empty his voice sounded.

"A few minutes ago," She answered awkwardly, still standing by the door. "I knocked but you didn't answer…" She trailed off, not sure what to say to him. It had seemed like a good idea to come here and check up on her friend, to make sure he was okay, but she realised now that she hadn't expected to find him like this. "I just… I haven't heard from you… neither has Ghastly…"

"And you wanted to make sure I wasn't building up a murderous rage which could cause me to turn into Lord Vile again and seek bloodthirsty revenge?" He finished for her, resting his hands on his knees casually, as though the statement meant nothing, though her sharp eyes didn't miss the way his long slender fingers gripped the fabric of his pants tightly, as though he was trying to stop them from curling into fists.

She looked at him sadly, and by the way he turned his head slightly, looking away, she knew he saw the pity in her eyes. "No Skulduggery." She took a few hesitant steps across the room and sat next to him on the couch, one hand stretching out to rest on his shoulder, which was hard through his shirt. He made no move to shrug it off, which she took as a good sign. "I came to see if you were okay. "

She winced slightly once the words were out of her mouth, and realised how stupid they sounded. "What I mean is, you shouldn't have to be alone to deal with this. You're my best friend, and I just want you to know I'm here for you."

Skulduggery didn't say anything, just slumped forward again, moving back to the same position he was in before, elbows on knee's and skull in hidden in his hands. It hurt her to see him like this. Skulduggery was always so strong, even when things were at their worst he did his best to stay strong. If he was upset he just pushed it away and started joking with Valkyrie, letting her know he was okay, so she wouldn't have to worry. She knew this was different.

She could see past the heel on his gloved hand that his jaw opened, as though he was going to speak, but he didn't, he just took a deep shuddering breathe, despite the fact that he didn't need to breath, and that's when Valkyrie knew for sure just how much he was hurting. If he couldn't even speak, she knew he must be upset, his shuddering breathe was just an attempt to hold back tears that would never fall from his dead eyes.

Without thinking she just leaned over and hugged him tightly, her arms wrapping around his thin, bony frame, holding him against her. She was hugging him sideways, so he couldn't really hug her back, but she could tell by the way that he leant into the hug that appreciated it. She didn't know how long she held him like this for, just hugging him, but she knew it was a fair while.

"I shouldn't be so surprised." He said quietly a little while later, his velvet voice no longer empty, but filled with pain and regret. "China never cared for anyone but herself. Handing my wife to Serpine, I should have realised, it's obvious, now that I think about it." His fingers clench into tight fists beside his head, but she knows its regret not anger that he is feeling.

"I'm so sorry Skulduggery." Valkyrie says eventually, unable to think of anything else to say to him. What could she say? He had just found out that someone who he had been beginning to consider a friend, the woman who flirted with him and fought beside them, was responsible for the death of his wife and child. Valkyrie knew there was nothing she could say to make that better.

He shook his head and she felt his shoulders shake under her arms. Tears filled her eyes as she realised that the shaking of his shoulders was as close as the Skeleton Detective could get to crying, the quiet, shaking intakes of breath the closest he could get to tears. The sound of his dry, tearless sobs drew tears from her own eyes, the pain in his velvet voice to much to bear as he cried in her arms.

Finally Skulduggery was letting himself mourn his lost family, this was not the pure hatred and rage that accompanied their deaths, this was him finally letting himself feel the sadness and the pain of loss and betrayal, and all Valkyrie could do was hold him tightly and let her own silent tears fall as her best friend, her mentor, her hero, broke down and finally allowed himself to let out the sadness that had been building up since the day he had watched them be murdered in front of him.

Valkyrie had cried many times before, when she'd been hurt, when she'd been in a bad fight with her parents, when she'd broken up with fletcher, when she'd watched sad movies, but nothing, none of it, had torn at her heart the way this did, the sound of the broken, agonised sobs escaping the man in her arms. And in that moment that's all he was, he wasn't a sorcerer, he wasn't a detective or a soldier, he was just a man who had lost his family. And Valkyrie knew there was nothing she could do except hug him and let him get it out of his system, something he'd needed to do for a long time.

Eventually the sobs slowed and then stopped; only shaky breathes remaining as Skulduggery slowly tried to get control over himself again. He stayed in her arms for a little longer, just letting her hug him, and when she finally felt him shift to move away, she squeezed him once before she opened her arms and let him move, shifting so she was just sitting next to him, her eyes on her hands which rested in her lap, giving him a chance to compose himself next to her.

She could see from the corner of her eyes as he straightened his shirt carefully, and picked up the hat from the arm of the couch, placing it carefully on his white skull, letting it rest low over his 'face'. If he had a real face this would be an attempt to hide the trace of tears, but there was none on his blank smiling Skull, though she understood his actions, and didn't say anything.

They sat like this for a minute, next to each other, the silence surrounding them comfortably. Valkyrie was sore and tired, it had been a long night, but she was glad she had decided to come and see Skulduggery. After only a minute of silence he rested his hand on her knee and squeezed gently, and he didn't need to use words for her to know he was saying thank you. It was clear to her that he was still upset, and probably very embarrassed, so she made no attempt to start conversation.

She smiled slightly and watched as the last of her tears fell from her face and hit his glove, and though she knew he would be able to feel it through the thin fabric she didn't care. It had taken a lot for him to cry in front of her, something she never thought would have happened, so she couldn't be petty and hide her tears from him. She rested her hand over his and squeezed, leaning sideways to rest her head on his shoulder tiredly.

When he didn't move away from her she let out a small sigh and closed her eyes, the nights stressful events finally catching up with her. She tried feebly to fight it, but soon she felt the familiar hands of sleep dragging her into darkness, and the last thing she felt before she was completely gone was a pair of thin skeletal arms wrapping around her gently.

Valkyrie woke a few hours later to a thin beam of sunlight sliding between the gaps of her curtains and hitting her straight in the eyes. She groaned and shifted forward in the bed so the light was out of her face before she slowly opened her eyes, taking in the familiar sight of her bedroom. It took about ten seconds before the events of the night before came rushing back, and she finally remembered what had happened. How did I get in my bedroom? Was the first thing she asked herself. She couldn't remember getting home the night before, the last thing she remembered was falling asleep on Skulduggery.

She sat up slowly in her bed, surprised to realise that her blood drenched jacket was gone, (she was admittedly glad she hadn't slept in it) and she was instead wearing one of Skulduggery's blue suit jackets. Her shoes and socks were off and so were her dirty jeans, much to her embarrassment. But these thoughts soon left her head and she smiled as she took in what was on her desk across the room.

She climbed out of bed, pulling the jacket tight around her as the cold morning air hit her, and she shuffled across the room. She picked up the small, folded piece of paper, which rested on top of her clean and neatly folded clothes and unfolded it, smiling slightly at the two small words written in Skulduggery's elegant hand writing.

Thank you.

I hope you enjoyed it, I know there wasn't much in it, but I couldn't stop myself from writing it. I felt like leaving the book like that just wasn't right, and there should have been some comfort involved.

I am considering maybe writing a second chapter, if the idea is popular and I get enough reviews. So let me know what you think.