Glass & Roses (BBC Ghosts)

|xxi|

No ep basis

A/N - I'm sorry

The knocking had surprised Alison. She wasn't expecting anyone; the post man had already been today, Mike was working in the library study and she had double - no triple - checked that there were no visitors in terms of the B&B in the Gatehouse or of the event planning variety. The ghosts were all off doing their own things, they had a club scheduled for 13:00 but it was currently 11:23 if her watch was right (and it was). 

The house had gathered a stale kind of energy to it, everyone knew what date was coming up and were still rather tense about the whole thing. After last year's... more than upsetting events, Alison was trying her hardest to keep (excuse the pun) spirits up by offering to join in their clubs and even been more lax on the TV schedule. It worked for the majority of the ghosts, of course it wasn't their death day after all, but Lucille was clearly struggling. She had started slipping into these trances from the start of the week and you'd have to be an idiot not to realise why. The first time it happened, they were talking and Lucille just... froze. Alison had been scared and rushed to get the nearest ghost she could find. It had been the Captain, and as soon as Lucille's name fell from her lips amongst her panicked rambles, he marched off to where Alison had left her. She wasn't quite sure what the Captain had said to Lucille, but the ghost had come round later that day with a smile and apologised to Alison for scaring her so.

The man on the other side of the door was easily in his fifties, his dark hair slowly being taken over by grey and the hint of a tattoo poking over the collar of his coat. A big grey thing it was, slightly tacky looking and held together near his waist with a single button as the others had all but been lost over the years. He seemed familiar to Alison, but she couldn't place him. It were not until he said his name when Alison seemed to remember why he was so familiar. The chill that went up Alison's spine made her freeze in place as her hand itched to slam the door in his face and tell him to never step foot on the property again.

Lucille's ex boyfriend, her murderer, was stood at her door with a sheepish grin and wondering to be let in. Alison almost laughed at the request, hand tightening around the edge of the door. She felt some of the ghosts wandering up behind her to the door, wanting to see who it was that was letting the cold in.

"I see my name is familiar to you." James spoke. Alison hadn't even realised that her face had turned into a deep frown as she had figured out the dots.

"Why are you here?"

"I wanted to see the place. I heard about Heather."

"Heather died over a year ago. I own the place, with my husband." 

"Alison, who's at the door? It's rude to let guests stand on the-" Fanny cut herself off as she recognised the man standing there. "You? What gall you have to return to this fine establishment-"

"Yes, I know. I- I um... well... I only just got out of prison and-"

The rest of his sentence was drowned out by Fanny's complaining and Lucille turning up at the door. "Hey, why are we all stood around here- wait, is that?"

"Alison was just telling him to leave." Thomas told her, clutching gently onto her sleeve to stop her from stepping closer to him. "He has gall turning up here, after everything he did."

"You needn't see him." Pat added, taking her other arm. "We can go back to the common room and let Alison sort it all out."

Lucille stared at the man stood on the front door, still speaking, running a reasoning for why he was here. Pat and Thomas shared a concerned look either side of her as she remained silent, rooted to the spot.