Haunting Hathaway

Howlynn

Summary:

A Story just for Halloween! Heart-ripping fluff!

Robbie plans a surprise for James and they have a falling out over it. James is visited by the ghost of Robbie Lewis and sees Halloween through Dickensesque eyes. How much of his dream will come true? Post series 8

Notes:

I am playing in Colin Dexter's world, But I don't own any of it.

Chapter 1

"You what?" James glared with brows dipped down in horror.

"I accepted for both of us," Lewis repeated as calmly as possible.

"No." Hathaway swiped the invitation from Lewis' hand. He read it and looked up from it as if Robbie had just agreed to oversee James' execution personally. "It's fancy dress! You can't be serious!"

"Why not? So we get a couple togas and go as Romans. It will be fun," Robbie deadpanned.

"I will not appear in public with a nefarious bed-sheet attempting to maintain surreptitiousness of my bits, thank you," James said with an indignant lift of his chin.

"Fine and what would the clever clogs section of the room prefer to be seen in public as, then?" Robbie swallowed the smile trying to erupt on his face.

"I would prefer to be seen…Not at all?" James stated.

"Well that's too late. So pick something or it's bed sheet city. Oh, we could do ghosts!"

"You are obsessed with bed sheets," James groused.

Now Robbie did smile, wolfish and mocking, "The better to get you out of them, my dear."

That stopped James in his tracks. His face went pink and his ears bright red as his voice lowered, "Robert."

"Are you feverish, lad? Your color just went all funny?" Robbie asked innocently.

Hathaway's face blanked and he said, "You're mocking me." There was genuine hurt in his eyes now. "Sorry. Sir, checking my calendar, I regret to inform you that I have a previous engagement. Perhaps another time."

James stormed out of the office, leaving Robbie confused. Robbie knew where to find him and he followed out to the smokers area. "Course I was mocking you, daft sod. It's what we do. I was just taking the piss. What is all this? It's just a party. Supposed to be fun. You need some of that. You have been biting everyone's head off for three days. Talk to me."

Hathaway glared into the distance, exhaling smoke as if he hadn't heard. Robbie waited for a while, then sighed deeply. "Okay. I didn't mean to…never mind." He swallowed and turned away. "I'll pass on your regrets then," He said over his shoulder.

James ignored Robbie the rest of the day. Robbie ignored that he was being ignored. Robbie was not at work the next day, or the next.

DI Hathaway walked into the morgue with his sergeant two steps behind. They needed the Toxicology screen results of their latest victim. "Oh, hey, tell Robbie I have his things boxed up. Whenever he'd like to pick them up."

James turned in confusion. "Why would you ask me to pass on that message?"

Laura started as if completely unable to comprehend his question. "Well, You see him a hundred times a day."

"Well, you live with him!" James threw back.

Laura cocked her head, "He didn't tell you."

"Tell me what?" James asked. He handed Liz the results and sent her back to the nick.

"But, I thought. It isn't my place. He doesn't live with me any longer. We…split up."

James chewed the inside of his lip and clenched his jaw, "Sorry to hear that. Where is he staying then?"

Laura sighed, her mouth open and puzzled, "I…well…I thought he was staying with you!"

James burst one loud laugh as if that was the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard. "Not me. Why would he stay with me?"

"I am confused, James. Robbie gave me the impression that he intended to pursue a relationship…"She sighed at his blank look, "with you," she whispered.

Now James was confused, and shook his head as if it never crossed his mind. "Me? What on earth gave you that idea?"

Laura rolled her eyes. "The last time I saw Robbie, he had gone out and spent a bomb on some tickets to some charity gala down in London. He intended to ask you. Said you would love this sort of thing. He and I love each other dearly, but there is just no spark. We decided that…and he has known he was mad about you for a very long time. I encouraged him to take a chance. If I was wrong, then I am so very sorry. I should have never meddled. Go talk to him. You will get it sorted."

"He hasn't been at work the last two days," James admitted, worry creasing his face. "I thought he was taking the piss. I turned him down."

"Oh. That is a shame. I hope he's not ill?" Laura questioned.

James kissed her on the cheek and headed back to his office. Innocent was no help at all. "I promised him flexible hours. We have nothing on but the Nelson-Warley suicide. He asked to be off for a few days, I agreed. Have you called him?"

The look she gave him when he admitted that he hadn't would have melted diamond.

He spent the rest of the night sending texts and leaving voice mails. He even sent two from Lizzy's phone. When he finally went to sleep, his dreams were far from comforting.

"Sir, what are you doing in my bedroom?" Hathaway asked tired and surprised.

"I am the ghost of Halloweens past," Robbie said dramatically.

"Fantastic, "James groaned with annoyance. He sat up and rubbed his face as if Robbie suddenly showing up in his room in the middle of the night were perfectly normal and yet bothersome. He added with a deep exhale, " I'm not a fan of Dickens, Robert."

He stretched and swung his feet to the floor. Looking up at his silent companion, he asked, " Where have you been? I tried calling. Is this what you plan to wear to the fancy dress thing? It's not bad actually. Much better set up than I expected and not a bed sheet at least. Did you hire it?"

Robbie sighed and looked down at him as if he were very sad and ashamed. "I won't be going to any more parties, lad."

James got out of bed and bent close to his visitor. "The makeup is fantastic. Is it airbrush? Oh, this is bloody brilliant, I could almost…"James reached up to touch Robbie's face and when his hand passed through he stopped and looked on in shock.

"Yeah, I have been meaning to get to that bit. Went down to London alone after you made it clear you didn't want anything to do with me. Kinda broke me old heart. I went for a walk in the park when I couldn't sleep. They haven't found me yet. Three blokes and a wee lass not but sixteen. I'm in The Long Water. Sorry to disturb your sleep, but we have places to go. You know how this works." Robbie snapped his fingers.

James didn't seem to notice they had moved. His eyes were fixed on Robbie Lewis with an expression that conveyed that his whole world had just come to an end. "Your dead then?"

Robbie sighed. He looked down at himself and up at James as if it were obvious.

"You can't be dead. I won't let you be," James pleaded.

"I don't mind. Wasn't much use to anyone anymore," Robbie said in the same tone he would to say his coffee was cold.

"No. This is a dream. It's stupid. It is nothing but guilt and imagination. Nothing more. You are fine," James ordered.

"Look. Quit worrying about things you can't change and take your looky-loo at your past. Haven't got all night here."

"It's not real anyway. So who cares. Fine. What have we got, Sir?" James asked with his indulgent crime scene patience barley masking his surety that Robbie was not actually any more than a bad dream.

Robbie motioned for him to look around.

James glanced at himself, much younger and praying diligently in his room. He quietly stepped forward and grinned at first. "God, is that me? I was a twig. I didn't know I had such a cowlick. Does my head look like an egg to you?"

"Well, this is boring," Robbie said with a grumble. "This is what you did for Halloween?"

James stiffened and replied, "I was going to be a Priest. Celebrating pagan custom is frowned upon."

"Moving on then," Lewis said, glancing at Hathaway with a single shoulder shrug.

"Wait, does that mean you will be leaving?"

"Nope. On to the present then?" Robbie started to snap his fingers.

"Why wasn't my Mother my ghost of Christmas past? Are there not meant to be three ghosts?" James demanded while they were still in in the past.

"Because it's Halloween. And, there have been cutbacks in the budget. Pay attention. This was us, three days ago." Robbie pointed and there was Robbie fidgeting and humming and putting the tickets into the Gala card with a euphoric grin on his face. Liz Maddox kept looking up from her computer and sharing secret smiles with Lewis. His Sergeant genuinely liked DI Lewis and Robbie thought the world of her. Robbie had literally saved both James' and Lizzy's life and yet he had no idea how extraordinary he was.

James had never seen Robbie so excited and happy. He couldn't help but look over at his ghost and fold his arms in accusation. "You never looked that happy. Ever. This whole set up is fake."

"I was happy. Best moment I'd had in ten years, that. I was in love." There were tears in the ghost's eyes.

James rolled his eyes. "It's all fake."

James watched himself enter the office and Robbie put on his gruff act. But from this angle, he could see the twinkle of playfulness in Robbie as plain as day. He could also see that James Hathaway was an utter arse-hole. He watched himself storm out and saw the look of dismayed hurt on his friend's face.

Still, Robbie followed him outside and without the sound, James could pay more attention to what he didn't see before. Robbie looked at him with hope and almost a quiet joy, and then something crossed his face as the Hathaway wanker ignored him.

"There." Robbie stopped the action as if it were just a film. "Look at me. What a stupid old fool. That moment, giving up on life. Gave up on everything right there."

"God, I'm sorry." James came over and looked closely. He reached out to touch the past Robbie. "I didn't mean it." His fingers never quite came in contact.

"Not your fault, James."

"How is that look on your face and the way you got old right before my eyes, not my fault? I didn't even notice. I just didn't understand. I thought you were making fun of me. That you had figured out how I felt about you and thought it was comical. I didn't know, that you meant it."

Ghost-Robbie snaps his fingers.

Past-Robbie goes back inside, defeated and miserable looking. DS Maddox looks his way breaking into an immediate smile then it falters and disappears. Robbie smiles in embarrassment and shakes his head. He offers the tickets to her and she makes a show of thanking him but points at the schedule. Robbie nods and she gets him a steaming cup of coffee, just the way he likes it.

"I used to do that for you," James says as if in pain.

He sees himself enter the room again and half the nick goes stiff and cast fearful side glances his way. James watches as he scatters constables hither and yon and grumbles and acts disapprovingly above everyone.

"God, I'm a dick. Why do you love me again?"

"I don't. I don't do anything now. I just play the films."

"What is my future then?"

"We have a bit more of this first. "

"Where are we? It's gone dark."

"London. I am about to enter what I had hoped to be our hotel room. There wasn't any sense wasting it," Robbie whispers.

The door opens and the light flips on to reveal a beautiful room. There are three bottles of champagne, pastries, sweets with fruit and cheeses set out. Robbie smiles and nods his approval. As soon as the door closes, he walks over to the table and looks at it all like he hates it.

"You did all this for me? I have never been anywhere this nice. Have you seen this loo? There is a bidet! My God, this place must cost 500 quid a night!" James asks in amazement. "Nobody has ever done anything like this for me."

"It was supposed to be a once in a lifetime sort of thing. I wanted it to be special. Didn't work out so pretty, did it?"

"Sir? Three bottles of champagne? Were you planning on getting me drunk and taking advantage of me?" James flirts.

"Amazing detective work there, lad," Robbie says softly.

James grins and then he spins back to past Robbie and realization dawns on his face. "Oh, God. You were bladdered. You drank it all alone, didn't you? You went out…for a walk. Oh, Robbie. No."

"Time to go, James. You don't have to watch this next bit. Just turn away if you want."

"Where are we?"

"Hyde Park. That's The Serpentine." Robbie points toward the dark glittering water beside the footpath the other Lewis is attempting to navigate as if it were lurching sand. " I fought them, but there wasn't much bottle left in me. Too old and stupid. Up a height and mortal. They didn't even know I was a copper."

"Make it stop," James growls.

"You don't have to watch."

"Make it stop!" he shouts again as the attackers toy with their victim with increasing brutality. They have his money, now they are just enjoying their cruelty. James tries to intercede but he's just fighting ghosts. It gives him a three dimensional view of every suffering Robbie endures though.

"He's a bloody Pork-pie! Take a booker at this!" One said as they all peer at the wallet in their possession. Hathaway is at first relieved that they have reason to run now, but it soon becomes apparent that the badge and warrant card are not going to protect the unconscious man at their feet.

When the thieves fill his pockets and the back of Lewis' shirt with stones and dump him in the shallow river with no more consideration than fish bait, James falls to his knees and screams in frustration and anger. He recovers somewhat after a few moments and glares up at Robbie. Robbie just looks as if he's studying a suspect line up, trying to decide if there are signs of guilt on a strangers face. James shouts at his silent watcher-spirit, "You were still breathing! Dammit. You were alive. No. I can't. I will stop this. This cannot, must not happen!"

Robbie looks at him sad and resolved. "It already has. You just don't know about it yet." He raises his hand and snaps his fingers.

"Fuck," Hathaway curses. He reads the name on his desk. Chief Superintendent James Hathaway. There is a picture of he and Robbie on the desk. "I have just watched you be murdered. None of this matters to me."

"It will. It should," Robbie tells him.

He looks out the office window and sees pure panic. People are scrabbling and diving behind desks and tucking away files and all manner of odd electronic devices. "What is going on? What's happening? Is it an emergency?"

"Not exactly," Robbie snorts his disapproval after speaking.

A hard eyed rotund man strolls into the room and everyone plasters fake smiles and greets him. "That can't be me. Oh god, no. And my ears! They are full of hair. It migrated from my head. Not aging well at all, At-a-way old chap!" He grimaces and looks around the room. "Look at them all. They bloody hate me. "

"Worse. They are terrified of you," Robbie adds helpfully.

"Why?"

"You thought you were a dick when I knew you? Twenty years of bitter regret can do a lot to a man."

There are files in future-fat-Hathaway's hand and he slams them on someone's desk, and furiously bangs his hand repeatedly to emphasis his words. He takes out a marker and draws a circle with a tail right in the middle of a glass suspect board. "No Misplaced Apostrophes!"

He sees the looks that pass between his staff. "I am a joke and a monster," Sleeping James says quietly.

Robbie holds his fingers up ready to snap. "Wait. Don't. Does this mean you will be leaving me? If you are dead over there, I will never see you again?"

"You are the supposed expert on if we will meet again," Robbie says kindly.

"No. Stay with me. Haunt me or something," James begs, choking on emotion.

"You know it doesn't work that way."

"Please don't leave me. Don't go. Sir. Robbie. Please…"James pleaded.

"Take care of yourself, soft lad." Robbie winked at him and snapped his fingers.