For my Sam Giddings obsession

Was disappointed over the lack of Kirby fics so I'm making my own <3 Seriously I'm shocked that she isn't more popular.

Anyway I'm not sure what does better, just posting the full fic here or linking the AO3 page. So I'm doing both :) Thank you for listening!

Warning: LOTS of yearning and a tragic ending. Also it's a Scream fic with no Ghostface, soz.

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Kirby Reed and Noah Besch were partners in the FBI from the very beginning. They stuck close, and got to know each other quite well over the last 6 years, since Kirby joined the FBI.

Kirby and Noah were parked in front of some random local burger restaurant, both sitting in the car and enjoying their food.

"Okay so - remind me, Michael drowned in a lake, got out, and started killing people?" Noah asked.

Kirby scoffed and rolled her eyes playfully. She really admires when he tries to keep up with her interests, even if he's off the mark. She turns to him, leaning on her side, "No, that's Jason. The one with the hockey mask?" Noah's face immediately lights up once he notices his error, and Kirby can't help but laugh as his face contorts into realization. "Ohhhhh! Right, Michael killed his sister," Noah corrects himself.

"There you go," Kirby says with the biggest grin, propping her head up with her hand, leaning on her elbow against the car seat. She looks him over as he takes another fry, placed neatly between them. Noah had medium length, wavy brown hair, brown eyes, and was quite well built, a given since he's regularly in the field. He's also taller than Kirby by a bit, standing at 5'7.

"I think that one needs to be the next one we watch. The one with Jason," Noah adds. Kirby grabs her own fry.

"Friday the 13th? Sure, how about after work this Saturday? My place?"

"Sounds good to me. Should be better than last week's," Noah teases.

Kirby lightly slaps his shoulder. "Hey! I liked the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake."

"Yeah, but after showing me the original? Come onnnnn." They both laugh.

They both sat there, smiling in comfortable silence. They both loved each other's company, but it never went beyond this. There was nothing wrong with that, but taking it further was unexplored territory. Scary territory. Plus being an FBI field agent was a massive time sink, it was hard to justify it. Eventually, Kirby turns the car back on and drives them both to the office.

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They enter the office. While the New York Ghostface attacks have subsided, Kirby’s firm still mentions it to her at every turn, calling her a hero for helping. She smiles through it, fake smiles, mindless thank yous, but she thinks nothing of it ultimately. Just trying to do the right thing, as she does in every assignment she’s given.

Hours pass in the boardroom, as Kirby and Noah look over their next case. Stealth infiltration on a gang hideout, simple recon and a simple out. Files are spread out across the table, various images of people of interest to said gang, exterior images of the warehouse they were stationed in, everything.

Noah looks down at the images, squinting, but he’s not focused on any of it.

“Why didn’t you bring me to New York?” He asks, looking up at Kirby.

Kirby looks up at Noah, almost startled from the completely random question. “What?”

“You went out there alone. I was just- we’re partners. We do everything in this job together.”

Kirby looks back down, clenching her jaw. “It was very last minute. Boss called me to investigate. That’s it,” She doesn’t look at him, but Noah can tell it’s not the whole truth.

“And it has nothing to do with the fact that it was Ghostface?” Noah asks. Kirby takes a second to form her words. The truth was that despite Noah also being a talented agent, she did not want to even risk losing him to Ghostface. She’s lost too many friends to that costume already, she was sure as hell not going to let it have another.

But she still doesn’t tell him that, even with his persistence. She covers the half-truth with another half-truth.

“Ghostface is personal for me, they were using Jill and Charlie’s masks. I had to do this myself.” She answered simply and straight to the point. And he seemed to understand, giving a small nod.

“I’m sorry if I pried-” Noah starts to speak, but Kirby puts a hand on his arm. “You didn’t, it’s fine,” she speaks softly, looking at him. They stare at each other for a moment longer before Noah looks back down at the papers.

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The very next night, Noah and Kirby are scoping out the warehouse. Trucks being loaded up with boxes at the front, already known to stash drugs due to previous stakeouts. What they needed however was an in, as the inside was still uncharted territory.

Both Kirby and Noah had the plan. Previous intel showed that a window from the side had the weakest security, so they slowly infiltrated there. They make their way inside.

They land on a catwalk, trying not to make noise. They look down to see drugs being packaged and loaded. The people doing so looked tired and weak, their clothes dirty and tattered. Armed men patrolling and making their rounds. Gang members counting out the money they’ve been making. Noah pulls out a discreet camera to photograph the incriminating evidence. The two make their way across the catwalk slowly. They enter a small office.

“We should check out these other rooms. There’s more to the warehouse than just that room,” Noah says, Kirby agrees. They very carefully cross through new hallways and rooms, snapping pictures to help memorize the layout.

As they do, Kirby hears rustling from a nearby room. “Hang on,” she whispers, telling Noah not to move far.

She opens the door, to find large cages. The first person she sees is a small boy, starving, dirty, desperate in the cage. She freezes, she goes cold. Every cage was a similar situation, caged people barely hanging on.

Noah enters the room, “Jesus.”

Kirby speaks up after moments of silence. “That’s how they get their workers. They’re trafficked in.”

They both knew this was just meant to be a recon mission. But it felt wrong to just leave these people here for potentially more days as they bring back their new intel.

“We can’t leave them here,” Kirby says. Noah looks at her, but he doesn’t disagree. Noah calls into HQ. Their boss, Wade, picks up.

“Sir, they have people. Trafficked in, in cages. We ask that you fast track the bust to tonight,” Noah explains explicitly and professionally. There’s a small silence on the walkie.

“This was just meant to be a scout mission,” the boss, Wade, explains.

There’s a silence as Noah looks back at Kirby. “We can’t sir, I’m sorry. It’s not right to leave them here.” Kirby smiles at him.

Wade doesn’t fight hard on it. “Very well, I’ll get the team ready. Will be there in 45 minutes.”

“Thank you, sir,” Noah says before putting the walkie away.

“Still too long,” Kirby comments. Noah nods, “Agreed, but at least it’s settled.”

As they’re talking, the door swings open, the guard looks just as shocked to see them as they are when they get caught. The guard looks at them for a moment before pulling out his gun. Both Noah and Kirby pull out their guns fast, two gunshots ring out.

The guard… shot in the head. Dead instantly. The other gunshot however…

Kirby holsters her weapon as she stares at the body, not even realizing yet that her partner has been shot until he collapses onto the floor. Kirby looks over and fear drowns out her eyes, she quickly kneels next to him and tries to plug the bleeding from his stomach.

“No no no, it’s okay. It’s okay,” She whispers as Noah struggles to breathe through the pain. Although she’s also saying this to convince herself that everything will be okay.

Sirens start blaring out, the gunshots heard, and almost certainly the body would be found soon after.

“Shit!” Kirby exclaims as she quickly grabs his arm and drapes it over her shoulders, letting him lean on her as she carries him out of the room. Noah roars in pain as she picks him up off the floor, but Kirby doesn’t slow down.

She moves him to an office room and quickly blockades the door. They don’t know how long they have until they start searching this room. She returns to his side as soon as she finishes with the door and picks up the walkie.

“S-Sir, we’ve been found. Noah’s been shot, we need a medical team now,” She tries to keep her voice steady, not wanting to let the panic leak in, although it only partly works.

“Working on it, will be there in 20 minutes,” Wade answers. Kirby immediately puts the walkie down and puts pressure on Noah’s stomach.

“Hang in there, it’s gonna be okay, just 20 minutes and you’re gonna be okay. Just focus on breathing, please,” She nods and tries to continue her desperate mantras, for both of their sake.

Noah opens his mouth to speak, “Kirby-”

“No.” Kirby says firmly, interrupting him. She knew exactly what he’d try to do. ‘Leave me, I’m just slowing you down.’ Kirby wasn’t having any of it, plus she wants him to focus on breathing, not talking.

She watches the wound as blood seeps through her fingers. “No… no…” Her voice starts to crack more, on the verge of crying.

Noah uses the little of his strength to pick his arm up, he gently cups her cheek, making her look at him. His eyes half-lidded, his skin getting pale. “Go, it’s okay. You can make it without me,” Noah says weakly.

This time Kirby can’t hold it in. Tears flow down her cheeks as she frantically shakes her head. “God fucking dammit, no!” She cups his cheek in return and leans in, resting her forehead on his. “Please, don’t do this…” She whispers against him between sobs, like she’s begging the universe to let him survive.

“I-I wasn’t telling the truth when I was talking about New York. I didn’t want you to come because I was terrified I’d lose you,” The confession comes pouring out in a broken voice. Noah weakly nods, “I understand,” he says in a raspy voice. “I… I love you,” he continues.

She nods fast, “I love you too,” she says through her own tears. She kisses the top of his forehead, before resting her forehead back on his. “I’m so sorry,” she squeaks out.

His hand slowly, weakly, drops from Kirby’s cheek. That causes her to separate to look at him, seeing his eyes closed. “Noah? Noah?” She quickly says, frantic. She checks for his pulse, his neck, his wrist, his chest. Nothing.

“N-no, please, stay with me,” a weak and broken ask rings empty in the room. She slumps next to him, crying to herself as she tries to come to terms with his death.

A few minutes later, she hears yelling. Her team is finally here.

And just then, she looks back over to Noah’s body. She quickly, desperately checks his pulse, 5 times over. “No no no- help is here! PLEASE!” She screams, like she’s coming to terms that he’s dead all over again. She can’t believe Noah is dead this close to help, she just needs to wake him up once for the paramedics.

The loud dispute eventually subsides. The team finds the barricaded room, and it doesn’t take much to push away the weak defenses. Paramedics roll in next to Kirby. She’s gently pulled away from him as they check on him.

Kirby just hugs herself and cries in the corner as the paramedics fail to get a pulse from him.

Kirby is wrapped in a blanket over her shoulders and is walked out of the facility. The mission was a success, the gang apprehended and the trafficked people freed.

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1 DAY LATER

Kirby is sitting in the FBI HQ, outside of Wade’s office. She’s leaning forward, elbows on her knees, staring at the floor. Her arms lay limp, she feels like all of her limbs are too heavy to move. She hasn’t spoken to a single person since being escorted out of the warehouse.

Wade walks out of his office. “Kirby,” he says simply as he calls her into his office. Kirby doesn’t look at him, just gets up and walks inside, the door being shut behind her.

She sits down in a chair in front of Wade’s desk. He looks at her, sympathetic.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” he says with a deep voice. “He was a great agent, we already miss him.”

Kirby doesn’t respond, she just looks up for once at him, her eyes heavy and exhausted.

“I wanted to give you this,” Wade says as he pulls out Noah’s badge, sliding it over the desk to Kirby. She looks down at it and takes it, looking down at it in her hands.

“That was all. Take care of yourself, Kirby,” Wade says quietly. She immediately gets up and walks out.

Right now, she doesn’t beeline to her desk. She goes past it to find a hallway. Any hallway. Any of them with no people.

She turns a corner and looks at both ends of the hallway. Not a single soul.

Hayden's interviews from the remake already heavily implied that Sam would need to find answers on her scar. The only way I see this being untrue in some way is if there was a creative overhaul midway through development that tossed out this plotline. I'll also add that a lot of what Hayden says in these interviews is super weird if she doesn't make an appearance lol, including mentioning her relationship with her parents and as mentioned, her want to find the origin of her scar.

SOMEONE has to be imagining Hill. He could finally be the real Hill, but I really doubt it. I'll also add the red hue for Hill's scene in the trailer is similar to the red hue pouring into Sam's room in the remake ending.

If I'm honest the trailer in general just showed very little. I think it's quite easy for them to have hidden a lot of stuff, especially plot details.

The more I think about it, I think it makes sense to have a new cast we can kill/have survive, with someone like Sam taking on a Stranger role (in the sense of being a guiding hand that has a non-determinant fate, hopefully she isn't killed if she does appear here lol). The biggest reason why a lot of people DIDN'T want an Until Dawn 2 was because they felt it'd ruin the "anyone can die" schtick of the game, since returning original characters would make those deaths non-canon. This solves it (Ik Sam can also die in the original but tbh, her only death comes at the very end not due to a choice being made, but player error. I don't find it super bad if they retcon this single death to not happen).

UNTIL

DAWN