PhyllistheFirst

***

George would be the first to admit that he likes being the life of the party, meeting new people, making friends and all around having a good time. But the best time, he has found lately, is when he’s not really doing any of that. The best time is when he’s driving to a shoot, just him and Joe in Joe’s old truck, crawling along endless highways and backcountry roads because Bill insists that their travel budget doesn’t allow for plane tickets. 

George doesn’t mind, because travelling by car means more time alone with Joe - time not caught on camera, that is. Ever since he and Joe took off as a duo, he’s been incorporating Joe more and more in the episodes, addressing his explanations to him and bouncing theories and impressions off him. Joe is an excellent person to bounce ideas off, although he holds a distinctly different position on ghosts, demons and all things supernatural. It’s what makes for such great tension on video - George the believer trying to convince Joe the sceptic. 

He’s trying his hardest to ignore Bill’s throwaway comment about the other kind of tension they supposedly have, but it’s getting harder and harder to do so. It’s hard not to agree with their viewers when they comment on Joe’s swoonworthy gravelly voice or his rough good looks or the fact that, for all his teasing and grumbling, he never makes fun of George when George really seems to be shaken up by some of their encounters. He makes plenty of gentle jabs, encouraged by both Bill and George because their viewers like their banter, but he also seems to genuinely care for George and respects that sometimes he really does feel like he can sense something in their spooky surroundings. 

In short, he’s the perfect co-host and is quickly turning into a good friend, and it takes everything in George to keep it that way. Because acting on what he’s by now sure is a raging case of attraction would be a bad idea. It would ruin the dynamic that makes their show so successful, and more importantly, it could ruin the friendship that’s been slowly growing between them. Perhaps it’s only because they’re spending so much time together, alone on the road and on shoots, but George feels like Joe… completes him. He's aware that sounds silly, especially since they've only known each other for a year, but it's true. 

Even when they disagree on something, like right now. 

“I know Bill has booked a tour at that haunted mine for us, but that's a tourist trap. We're deep in mining country, I'm sure we can find some abandoned mine to sneak into that would get us way cooler vibes.”

“No,” Joe says in his usual blunt manner. 

“But… the vibes.” George pouts. 

“You know the first rule of investigating abandoned mine shafts?”

George shakes his head, although it sounded like a rhetorical question. 

“Don't investigate abandoned mine shafts.” 

“But…”

“My Dad used to work in a mine, and when they all closed down, he moved to one of the companies that did the closing down. They blew up most of the old shafts, blocked the entrances, everything. People still manage to slip in there, for dares or for clout. And every year they have to drag out bodies. We're not going into an old shaft.”

That's a final announcement if George ever heard one. He might as well focus on a new goal: Dissecting this new bit of personal information that just slipped out of Joe. 

“Your Dad used to be a miner?”

“Coal. I almost became one too, everyone in my family was. But my mom saw the signs when the mines all closed down and made me start working at one of the factories instead. Then they started closing down too, so…”

“So you went into YouTube instead?” 

George can't quite keep his surprise out of his voice. Somehow, he has never heard of this before, but it's just crazy enough to fit Joe, who very often surprises him. 

“No, that only happened when someone decided to drag me in front of the camera.” 

George can hear the smile through Joe's gruff voice, so he only grins. 

“Really, I moved to Philly without a plan. Met Bill, who got me a job as the studio assistant, and then I got into camera work.”

“And then you met me,” George sums up, beaming - Joe has never shared this much about himself. 

Joe looks over at him, just for a moment (but quite a long moment, considering he's driving), and there's something on his face that George can't quite decipher. 

“And then I met you.”

***

The Ghost Ship episode is a rough one for both of them, although for different reasons. George is once again convinced that he’s seeing things, near hysteria due to some toothpaste falling off the edge of a sink, but for once Joe can’t bring himself to sympathise - as he just found out, he gets really seasick, and it’s not exactly a calm night, even though they’re just cruising along a few miles off the coast. 

For the first time that night, they have a real fight - George feeling abandoned and unheard in his panic, and Joe too busy hurling to care much. 

At dawn, when the waves finally die down a little, Joe is slumped outside on one of the chairs on an upper deck, blearily watching the first rays of sun peek over the horizon, when George finds him. 

“I’m sorry,” he says, without preamble, and Joe wonders how someone who loses their mind at a gust of wind can be so brave in a situation like this. “I was out of line.” He looks at Joe tentatively, as if expecting to be sent away, and Joe inclines his head towards the chair next to him, not entirely trusting himself with opening his mouth yet. 

George’s tense shoulders sag a little, with relief perhaps, and he sits down. 

“How are you feeling?” 

Joe only grunts. 

George holds out a bottle of water. When Joe doesn’t immediately react, he nudges his leg with it. 

“Come on, you need to drink something. You must be dehydrated after throwing up all night.” 

He’s right, although Joe is a little hesitant to drink anything - the last time he did that, a few hours ago, it came right back up again. 

With a groan, he reaches out to take the bottle, screw it open, and take a tentative sip. He waits for a few breathless moments, but when nothing happens and he actually does feel a little better, he takes a few longer gulps. Exhausted by the strain of simply lifting his arm, he lets his head flop back, briefly closing his eyes. 

“Did we get any usable footage?”, he asks after a few fortifying breaths, afraid of the answer - he certainly didn’t contribute much to today’s shoot. 

“I think so. I took some footage inside the room, and then I walked around doing some shots of the ship itself. I also recorded a bit of commentary.” 

Joe’s stomach plummets. George had to do all that, basically doing both of their jobs, while scared to death, all because Joe got knocked on his ass by a few waves. 

“I’m sorry. I should have kept it together.” 

“Not your fault you got seasick. Besides, it actually helped me calm down, focus on something other than being scared shitless. I do know how to operate a camera, you know - I used to do this all on my own.” 

Something cramps inside Joe’s stomach at the words, at the knowledge that George doesn’t actually need him. 

“Do you…. Do you want to go back to doing it on your own?”

George’s head whips around.

“What?”

“I mean, I wasn’t much use today. You’re right, you could do all the camerawork on your own. You don’t need me to tag along and make things difficult.” 

George looks at him silently for an unnervingly long moment before he speaks. 

“Now you listen to me Joe Toye. One, it’s not your fault you couldn’t contribute as much today, it was the fault of this goddamn boat. Two, I could do the camerawork but nowhere near as well as you. You’re brilliant behind that camera, and without your gorgeous shots, all our footage would be me tottering about in the dark.” He takes a deep breath, still looking at Joe but now glancing away nervously. “And three: You don’t make things difficult. You challenge me. You make me better. You got that?” 

Something inside Joe feels suddenly all warm and gooey with affection for his co-star. George, brave, smart, funny George, sitting here and telling him all these wonderful things. 

“Got it,” he croaks. George nods, seemingly satisfied, and leans back into his deckchair, wriggling until he’s comfortable and looking determinedly ahead at the horizon, which is slowly turning from pale blue to brilliant gold. 

“Good.” 

***

Two weeks after the Ghost Ship episode has aired, Bill gleefully shows Joe a compilation video of “Most romantic Ghost Troopers-moments” featuring their sunset-watching. 

Joe barely refrains from throwing his laptop out the window. Luckily, George has his editing headphones on and doesn’t notice a thing. 

***

Getting scared out of his mind on a weekly basis is not the worst part of George’s job. In fact, a part of him enjoys it quite a lot - his mother always said he was too reckless for his own good. 

No, the worst part of it is working in close quarters with Joe Toye and keeping his hands off him, his big mouth shut, and his wits about him even though Joe does something insanely attractive about five times an hour. Everything, from the way he casually strolls into the most grotesquely horrifying haunting sites to the way he holds his camera to the concentrated frown on his face when he reviews the footage is just… hot.  

And it’s becoming a problem. Because they have to be in close proximity quite a bit, and they have to do it while filming a show. A show whose main host happens to be George, which means he’s the one who has to present the research and comment their findings, even though Joe pitches in. Which means he absolutely cannot freeze and stumble over his words every time Joe so much as brushes past him. And that, unfortunately, is becoming more and more difficult with each passing day. 

And that’s before the Ouija board thing. 

It’s a stupid idea, something to spice up the middle of the current season a little. It’s ridiculous and unprofessional even for their standards, and Joe’s astonished expression when George pulls it out of his bag says as much. 

Still, Joe gamely goes along with it, because he’s usually okay with anything that doesn’t mean he has to walk around somewhere cold. This night, they’re in a still-working historic hotel, which means it’s warm and clean and blessedly free of bats and bugs. George turns off all the lights except for one dimmable desk lamp, then sets out candles in a circle around them. It’s part of the ritual and provides a lot of atmosphere, but unfortunately, it also makes the whole scene seem rather… romantic. 

Joe sets up the camera so that they’re both in the frame, and they settle down across from each other, each on a chair on either side of an elegant, spindly-legged table. They’d have more space on the floor, but George knows Joe has some mobility problems with his left leg, a remnant of a workplace accident that happened some years ago. 

And then they’re sitting there, bent over the tabletop that’s just big enough to hold the board, and Joe is looking at George inquisitively. 

“What now?”, he asks. 

“Now we place our hands on the table.” 

Joe does, and George stares at his hands for a moment - long, strong fingers, not at all marred by the bandaid wrapped around his left index. If he placed his own hands on the table in the same position, their fingertips would be touching. 

“I mean, on the reader… thingie.” 

Joe looks at him with an expression somewhere between confusion and worry. 

“Planchette!”, he corrects. “Forgot the word for a moment.” He can hear the nervous flutter in his voice and suppresses the urge to cringe. “Anyway, we both place our fingertips on the edges of the planchette and start asking yes or no questions. I’ll be the medium, so I’ll start asking the questions.” 

George is usually a little freaked out when he has to make first contact with a house’s supernatural inhabitants. Today, he welcomes the job - anything to distract him from Joe, sitting just an arm’s length away and watching him with those dark eyes glittering in the light of the candles. 

“Is anyone with us right now?” 

The question is met with utter silence in terms of ghostly activity - no gust of wind, no flicker of the candles, no whispers in his ear an certainly no movement of the Ouija board. Still, George doesn’t give up, repeating the same question and then variations of it.  

And the entire time, Joe is watching him, only occasionally looking around the room or glancing at the camera to make sure the light is still on. His fingertips on the planchette are so close to George’s he imagines he can feel the warmth radiating off Joe’s hands. 

When fifteen minutes have passed by with no activity whatsoever, George calls out some final parting words to the very taciturn ghosts and is about to pack up the planchette and board when Joe’s hand covers his, warm and a little rough. 

“Don’t beat yourself up - you really tried to make contact.” 

George nearly combusts. He blushes so fast he’s sure Joe can tell even in the softly lit room and has to force himself not to jump back. But Joe is being so sincere, looking at him with such genuine support. So George holds still and only breathes: 

“Thanks.” 

Joe’s hand remains on his for two, three more delightful seconds before he pulls back and gets to his feet, nearly knocking the Ouija board off the table. 

“Any other rooms we gotta get to?” he asks briskly, all business again, and George launches into his plans for the other famously haunted areas of the building. 

His hand keeps feeling warm and tingly for a good long while afterwards. 

***

The Ouija board scene pops up in even more compilation videos. George isn't surprised, but at least Joe rarely reads comments or watches fans’ reactions and reviews. 

“As long as they're still watching us, I don't care what they're saying,” is his stance on it, which to George is absolutely unfathomable. He himself has to refrain from checking his phone every hour to read, watch and dissect every new mention of Ghost Troopers. 

Which is why he's all too aware of just how many people are saying the thing Bill mentioned months ago about their presumed sexual tension. There are hundreds of comments about it under every video, there's a portmanteau name for their “ship” (apparently, after the Ouija board episode, #Luztoye was trending) and there's even fanfiction written about them, as he found out on a particularly deep dive into their fanbase’s opinions. Once, sleep-deprived and a little tipsy after they celebrated the wrap of their second season, George made the mistake of looking up said fanfiction. He only got a few paragraphs into the first story before he had to back out again, face flaming. The idea had seemed tempting - a daydream featuring him and his favorite person, typed up for his perusal. But then he remembered that it probably wasn't written out for him, specifically, and it felt weird to keep reading. 

He's been sticking to his own daydreams since, and frankly, those aren't bad either - having a lively imagination might make him extra jumpy at work, but it sure helps with conjuring up mental images of Joe professing his feelings or ravishing him in the haunted Royal Suite of some former grand hotel. 

It does not help with his resolution not to let his feelings interfere with his work. 

***

They do a Christmas special to start their third season, which means they drive to an abandoned ski resort and George walks around with a Santa hat, telling stories about various tragic figures that died around the holidays. 

It's all very The Shining, and yet, George manages to make their stay almost festive, even surprising Joe with a decorated tree and a Christmas gift which he makes him open for the camera. 

Joe first expects it to be a joke, but it turns out to be a set of expensive lens filters he actually has been talking about buying, and for once he's glad about his role as the “strong, silent type” - he doesn't manage to do more than croak out a rough “thanks” because his throat is so tight. 

George beams anyway. 

The Christmas special quickly becomes their most popular episode ever, and for the first time, Joe dares to take a peek into the comments, late at night when he's alone at his apartment. They're all saying the exact thing he's been meaning to say to George, if only he had the guts. 

***

After a record-breaking year, they get sold to an investor and presented with a new boss, one who apparently has the power to meddle in even the tiniest details of their production. Sobel is a micromanaging know-it-all who doesn’t listen to a word they’re saying and demands they pump out more videos faster. In order to do that, he insists they stop trying out new and creative approaches and just repeat what does best, even handing them a list of their best-performing videos and demanding they do the exact same thing over and over again. 

George is seething after their first meeting, ranting all the way to the truck and halfway to their next shooting location. 

“Can you believe him, telling us how to “work the algorithm”?” George makes mocking quotation marks in the air, his voice a creepily accurate impression of their new boss. “I’ve been growing my followers back when he was still doing boring network television, and he’s trying to tell me how to do my job?” 

Joe lets him rant, knowing George just needs to get it all out there, and only interjects occasionally. He’s walking a fine line - he agrees with George of course, but he doesn’t want him to get too focussed on Sobel’s assholery. In fact, he wants them to leave all of that behind as they set out into the wilderness, just the two of them as always, and not worry about what’s going on back at the studio. 

Because he does worry. Sobel made it clear that the only thing that matters to him is their videos performing well, not the wellbeing of his stars or their creative freedom, and Joe has a feeling things are going to change at Easy, and not for the better. 

But for now, it’s him and George on the road, he reminds himself, and that’s all he needs. 

*** 

Joe’s optimism doesn’t last long. His initial impression of Sobel was right: That man would do anything for views, and it seems like George is paying the price. Sobel keeps pushing him to do more videos faster, and he keeps pushing for specific aspects of their videos to be brought to the foreground more often. One thing he seems particularly focussed on is their dynamic, the constant back-and-forth banter and Joe’s sarcastic reactions to George’s enthusiasm. 

But the thing Sobel doesn’t get is that this particular dynamic is carefully balanced. It’s not just sniping and bickering, it’s also Joe listening to George’s ideas and gently encouraging him, pulling him back to reality when he gets too immersed in the atmosphere of a place. Sobel doesn’t want to see any of that. More than once, he’s instructed their editor to take out scenes where they’re working together harmoniously, and before each shoot, he reminds Joe to “really challenge him”. Joe has to grit his teeth whenever he says it, remembering their conversation all those months ago aboard the ghost ship. George said then that Joe challenged him, but Joe has a feeling Sobel means something entirely different when he says the same words, and when his new boss goes on, he knows that feeling was correct. 

“Just… be really mean to him. Hell, make him cry if you can. Viewers love it when George loses his shit.” 

Viewers might love it, but Joe doesn’t. Sure, it’s amusing when George gets all jumpy, but the fun stops whenever he gets really scared. Sobel may not care about that, but Joe certainly does.  

Still, Sobel’s reign continues, and it continues to change their videos, turning them into something Joe barely recognizes and changing their shoots as well, especially when Sobel assigns them an assistant producer - or, as Joe puts it darkly, an overseer. Evans, Sobel’s assistant, keeps egging them on, keeps interfering whenever Joe wants to lighten the mood again after a heated exchange, and keeps sending George into situations he knows will make him nervous and high strung. 

Sobel and Evans introduce a section where each of them has to enter a location alone, which is absolutely terrifying for George. They know this, of course, and are banking on it to produce footage of George “losing his shit”, as Sobel put it, and it puts Joe on edge. 

The first time Evans makes them do it, George has been jumpy from the start of the shoot, informing Joe that it’s supposed to be one of the most haunted locations they’ve ever visited. He’s already flinched so hard at a rustling sound that he hit his knee on a bedframe, and is currently trying to convince Joe that the sounds are not in fact mice in the wall but some kind of Poltergeist. 

And then Evans leads them into a small, almost claustrophobic room and explains that a small child lived and died in here and apparently still appears to visitors. Oh, and that George is supposed to spend ten minutes in here, alone, with the lights off in order to attract the ghost. 

Joe has a bad feeling about it. They've done stuff like this before - turned off the lights, tried to contact the ghosts, even tried to taunt them into appearing. But they've always done it together. The last thing he sees before the door closes is George's terrified face. He hears him say something, timidly, hears him shakily hum a few lines of a children's song that was supposed to be the ghost child's favorite, and then… silence. 

And silence, with George, is just… not a regular thing. During their shoots, he introduces backstory and comments their findings, he yelps and curses and sometimes shrieks when something startles him. Once, during what George still refers to as their spookiest moment, he yelled so loudly all their mics nearly blew out. It's not that George is a coward, it's just that he thrives on drama (thus attracting and entertaining their audience). 

Now, he's completely silent. 

Joe makes it five minutes into Evans's prescribed ten before he yanks open the door. 

George is kneeling on the floor, hands clutched around his neck, trying and failing to take heaving breaths - clearly, he's hyperventilating. 

Joe is by his side in an instant.

“George! Dammit, what happened?” 

Joe wheels around to Evans, standing in the door and watching them with wide eyes. 

“Turn on the fucking lights!”, he snaps, and Evans at least obeys his command without protest. 

Joe turns back to George, and starts rubbing his hands up and down his arms, slow and firm. 

“It's alright George, you're safe. I'm here, okay? Just breathe. We're getting out of here in a second, but first I need you to breathe, okay? Just follow my lead.” 

He starts taking slow, deep breaths, breathing in and out loudly and adjusting the strokes of his hands to the rhythm. 

For several long, terrifying moments George's stuttering, interrupted heaving continues. Then, slowly but surely, he begins to imitate Joe until finally, Joe sees his chest lift properly with his first deep breath, followed by another and another. 

He doesn't know how long they stay like this, kneeling on the dusty floor with Evans hovering behind him, but eventually, George's head flops forward against his shoulder and he murmurs something. 

“What was that, love?” Joe doesn't know how the endearment slips out, but George still seems too caught up in himself to notice it. 

“I'm sorry,” George murmurs, just barely loud enough for Joe to hear it. 

“What are you sorry for? I should never have gone through with this stupid idea!” 

He clambers to his feet, staunchly ignoring the pain in his stiff leg, and gently pulls George up by his arms. 

“Come on, let’s get out of here. We’re done.”

Evans opens his mouth as if to say something, but Joe doesn’t let him. 

“I said we're done.”

Evans doesn’t say another word, and when Sobel calls later to check up on them - something Bill never thought was necessary - Joe lets him go to voicemail. 

***

The final straw comes when Sobel actually decides to put them into danger. 

Their next location is another abandoned mine, but this one isn’t very well-known. It doesn’t have ghost tours, a museum or a gift shop. It’s just an old mine with some local legends popping up on internet forums. 

Joe has a bad feeling about it from the moment their researcher Malarkey presents it at their quarterly meeting, nervously glancing back and forth between George and Sobel. He quickly understands why: Usually, George has a pretty big role in researching possible locations, and always knows what Malarkey will present at the meeting. This time, the idea seems to catch him completely unawares. 

“I didn’t know about that one,” George says tentatively. 

Sobel smiles, which can’t be a good sign. 

“Because it’s an absolute insider. We might be the first show to ever feature it.”

Joe’s unease heightens. 

“What’s the setup there? “, he asks. “Who’s our contact?” If Sobel wants them to do this, he’d better have done his research. 

“You don’t need one. The location is open to the public. Sort of…” Sobel trails off. 

“Sort of?”

“Well, it used to be blocked off, but a bunch of local teenagers managed to sneak in anyway, so it can’t be too secure.” 

“So you want us to sneak in too?” 

Sobel nods. “Shouldn’t be that hard.” 

“Doesn’t exactly sound legal,” George interjects, hesitantly.

Sobel handwaves his concern away. 

“Just take a shot of some clearly unimpeded entrance and you should be good.” 

“So what do you want us to do in there?”

“Just walk around a bit.” Sobel’s eyes are gleaming almost maniacally. “Apparently, there was a bad collapse in one of the shafts in the 1890s, and twelve miners died. Plenty of ghost fodder.” 

Joe can feel his jaw clench as his thoughts go to his Dad, going down risky mine shafts for decades. Would Sobel have considered him ghost fodder as well?

Under the table, George’s foot nudges his, and when he turns his head, he finds George looking at him as if silently asking him if he’s okay. It’s a tiny little moment, but it’s enough. 

He turns back to Sobel and says, loud and clear: 

“No.” 

Sobel looks taken aback. 

“What do you mean, no?”

“I mean we’re not going in there. You’re proposing we sneak into an abandoned mine shaft that has been blocked off, probably because it’s in danger of collapsing. You’re asking us to risk our lives, and I’m telling you we won’t.”

“That’s…. insubordination!” Sobel sputters. 

“Insubordination?” Joe mocks. “This ain’t the military. We don’t take orders from you.” 

“You will if you want to keep your jobs.” 

“So you’re saying you will fire us if we don’t do this shoot?”, George speaks up for the first time since Joe took his stance. 

“You bet your ass I will.” Sobel is positively fuming now, his face so red it’s veering into purple. Joe finds it immensely satisfying, even though he is on the verge of losing his job. 

“Okay,” George says, and Joe whips his head around to stare at him. But George isn’t done. “But you are aware that I own the Intellectual Property rights for Ghost Troopers, right? If we leave, Easy is no longer allowed to produce the show.”

George waits for a moment, letting the words sink in, before he says with a small, triumphant smile: “Your choice.” 

Sobel stares at him, mouth opening and closing soundlessly. Then, apparently unable to find anything else to say, he turns and storms out of the meeting-room, nearly hitting Evans in the face with the door when his trusty assistant rushes after him. 

Joe turns to George. 

“That was incredible! You absolutely owned his ass.” 

George actually blushes at that, looking away shyly. 

“I only did it because you stood up to him. You were the real boss in there, with your… insubordination.” He smirks as he says the words, and next thing Joe knows, they’re laughing their asses off, retelling each other the best moments of their epic showdown. 

“His face when you said No”, George gasps, “like he’d seen an actual ghost!” That comparison makes them collapse against each other, leaning close while they try to catch their breath, and collapsing back into howls of laughter every time one of them tries to say something. George’s head is propped against Joe’s shoulder, his messy hair ticking Joe’s chin, and it’s the sweetest torture he could imagine. 

When their laughter finally dies down, Joe looks up to find Malarkey has snuck out, and they’re alone in the meeting room. 

“Seriously though. You were a total badass.” George blushes, again, and somehow, perhaps fuelled by the adrenaline high from standing up for themselves, the sight makes Joe brave. “It was pretty hot.” 

George’s eye widen in shock. Joe forces himself not to look away. 

“You mean…” George trails off uncertainly, but there’s a glint of hope in his eyes that adds fuel to Joe’s courage once more. In a rom-com, this would probably be the moment for a big speech, a great declaration of love. But this is not a movie and Joe has never been the best with words. 

So instead, he leans forward just the slightest bit more, closes the remaining distance between them, and presses his lips to George’s. 

He tastes like that insanely unhealthy energy drink Joe's been trying to get him away from, and like George, and he feels amazing. And what's best, he only freezes for all of two seconds before he buries his hand in Joe's hair to tug him even closer and Joe nearly loses his mind. 

Joe doesn’t know how much time passes before George slowly draws back - it’s both an eternity and not enough time at all.

“So, that's how it is?” George says with a smirk that suggests the question is a rhetorical one. 

Joe answers it anyway, just to leave no room for misunderstandings. 

“That's how it is.” And just to be on the safe side, he quickly adds: “But I don’t want it to change anything between us. I mean, when we’re filming.” 

“You want to keep doing Ghost Troopers?” 

“Of course I do! But I want to go back to the way we used to do it - just you and me, no handler snooping around.” 

George smiles, warm and bright and delighted, and kisses him once more. 

“You got it.”

***

One month later, Sobel is replaced by a new executive producer, a much more competent guy named Richard Winters who trusts their expertise and lets them do their thing. The company changes hands once more a little after that, but their investor is a bored industrial heir who just enjoys having a youtube show and only comes by to chat and possibly hit on Winters, so it’s all good. 

For Joe and George, things go back to normal: Just the two of them, driving around the country in George’s truck, investigating paranormal occurrences. Only now, once the cameras are off, they’re so much more than they used to be. 

Their viewers figure it out immediately. 

Two months after, George finally gets sick of the speculation filling up the comment sections of all of their videos, and posts a short clip: They’re driving away from a shoot, a glorious desert sunset before them, and George’s hand rests casually on Joe’s thigh while he’s driving. 

“That should clear up the speculation,” he says with a Cheshire-cat grin. Joe doesn’t give a damn about the speculation, but he loves it when George is being mischievous. 

Ghost Troopers continues for two more seasons before they begin to tire of the format and decide to branch out into historic true crime.