Disclaimer: I do not own or make any inference that I own Being Human UK or any of its characters.

Here you are…

Annie looked up in surprise. She had been so deep in thought she hadn't heard any foot-steps approaching….

"George, what are you doing here?"

"I've been looking for you, of course."

"Why, is something wrong? Are Nina and the baby ok?"

"They're fine. Annie, you haven't been home for two days."

"Oh…"

"Oh, George dragged out the word with his voice raising, is that all you have to say? Oh?"

Annie got up from her knees and gave George a hug.

"Technically, Annie responded, it's only been one night and half a day."

Enveloping her into his arms, George asked, "Annie, what's going on?"

"Nothing..."

"Believe me, George said as he was still holding her, if you think that is going to be enough of an answer…"

"Well, I hoped…"

"Well, you hoped wrong."

"I was just visiting. I must have lost the track of time."

Looking down at the two head-stones, George read aloud the etched names, dates and for each the simple epitaphs, "John Mitchell 1893 – 2011 and Anna Clare Sawyer 1985 – 2007…Loving Friend. I still chuckle thinking about the stone carver's face when he asked for Mitchell's year of birth."

"Now, I'm buried in two places, back home and this empty ground here in Wales." Annie said.

"You and Mitchell, a matching set, his is empty as well… I come here too you know."

"I know George, each time I visit; there's a new stone."

"Hmmm," George breathed out.

"I see you, and I wait until you leave.

"Why?"

"Just as I want my time with Mitchell, I know you need yours as well. I would never want to interrupt you, but I have shaken a tree or two, hoping to scare you off."

"Me, scared, George exclaimed, never."

"Oh, Really, Annie said with a smile in her voice, I could have swore you quickened your pace a few times."

"I was just afraid I would be late for work, I'll have you know." George said.

Annie let out a little chuckle of her own and sank back down to the ground. George sat beside her and listened as she began to openly speak about missing Mitchell.

"I had to pretend George. He asked me to be strong and for him, I had to pretend."

George interrupted, "You are strong Annie."

"I know, you're right but before that night, it was easy to act otherwise. I miss him so much George. Now, that's he's really gone. I can't get him out of my mind. I know we did the right thing, but sometimes when I'm feeling lonely, I have regrets."

"Annie, you never said…I'm so sorry, but we saved Mitchell from a fate much worse than his death."

"I know, believe me, I know, but it still doesn't stop me from crying."

"Nina and I, we can hear you crying. We know you don't go out rent-a-ghosting every night."

"You can hear me?"

"Yeah, we've…I've wanted to say something but Nina thought it wasn't a good idea. She said she asked if you were alright and you just brushed her off."

"I am alright."

"Oh what, so crying all night in Mitchell's locked bedroom, nearly every night is normal to you?"

"Yes, George, it's the most normal thing I do all day."

"Annie, I didn't mean to sound …"

George stopped himself and let his voice fade away.

"Don't worry about it George. I don't think I'll be doing that too much longer. I like coming here better. "

"To Cry…" George asked.

"No, not to cry, well not all the time, I just really like talking to Mitchell. You and Nina are at work at night and sleep most of the day. Tom pretty much is the best baby-sitter but we don't have too much in common, so I come here and talk to Mitchell."

"Annie, we don't mean to leave you out."

"I know, but here Mitchell can't get away from me, Annie laughed. He's my captive audience."

"You will be coming home won't you?"

"I'm a big girl George. I'll be alright."

"What does that mean?"

"Of course, I'll be coming home, but I don't want you to worry about me if I don't come home tonight."

"Annie, it's just that right now, with Wyndham around and Mitchell gone. We all need to stay close together. We were lucky that we could convince Tom to come stay with us. I'd just worry too much if you were out here roaming on your own."

George looked up at Annie but before he could utter another word, Annie grabbed his wrist.

"Annie..." George exclaimed with some really concern.

"George, Annie screamed, it's Mitchell!"

George whipped his head around to follow Annie's gaze, sure enough there was a young man coming up the hill. He was dark like Mitchell, about the same height as well, but of course, it wasn't Mitchell, George did have to admit there was a resemblance from what he could see at this distance. He turned back to Annie only to find she had popped away and when next he looked up, she was running along side the guy. Not only was she running, but she was laughing and waving her arms in the air in George's direction.

"George…George, Annie screamed, It's Mitchell…It's Mitchell!"

George was rooted to the spot; he didn't know what to do with himself. The guy couldn't see or hear Annie, but still George was mortified by her actions. He wanted to call out to her, tell her to stop it and to come back up the hill, but he knew if he did the guy would think he was screaming at him. It was amazing though to realize even-though Mitchell had only been gone a month, how much George missed Annie's smile and exuberance when she was excited. This last month, she hadn't been around much, much less been smiling about anything.

The guy and Annie were now heading in the opposite direction from George. They seemed to be on the same row but just one or two levels below. He could see the guy had an arm full of flowers and even-though Annie was chirping on about who knows what around him, he went about the business of placing flowers on the grave, it wasn't until he began to pray that Annie quieted down and imitated the guy as he crossed himself. George was just ready to join them as Annie popped back next to him.

"George!"

"Annie!"

They both exclaimed at the same time. Annie grabbed George up in a hug and was twirling him around with her as she was screaming out loud. George didn't know where she got the strength to nearly pick him up…but she did. Annie was so excited she could hardly contain herself.

"George, it's Mitchell, I mean, it's not Mitchell, but he looks exactly like Mitchell! You've got to go down there and speak to him."

"Hello."

George immediately stopped jumping around. He could only imagine what he looked like twirling around on a grave…on two graves actually, especially when he appeared to any passer-by as if he were alone.

"Alright…"

"You see, he's Mitchell" Annie whispered.

Before acknowledging the speaker George gave Annie another mortified look. While Annie was still smiling, George turned and greeted the person they were just now joyously discussing. To say that George was given a shock would be an understatement. There before him was Mitchell, a cleaned up Mitchell, but Mitchell none the less. This Mitchell, was the same height, had the same black curly hair but cut shorter, he didn't have any stubble on his face, which is what Mitchell used to sport all the time, and he was dressed in a very stylish grey tailored suit, crisp white shirt, under a black over-coat.

"Oh Hello," George said as he calmed himself down.

"Are you ok"

"Yeah, I'm fine. You're probably wondering why I'm jumping around and…"

"Well, I was wondering if you were ok, and I was also going to ask if it these were relations of yours."

"Relations…" George asked?

"Yes, family of yours…"

"Family of mine…"George responded.

"You know, I'm really sorry. I'm asking you questions and haven't introduced myself. My name's Michael Barry."

Michael extended his hand as he was stating his name. Annie had to prompt George to return Michael's handshake.

"I was down below visiting my Mum's grave a few weeks back and I saw the care-takers installing the head-stones. I think I must have missed the funeral procession but I had a look at the names and I've been curious about them ever since."

"Cu…Curious…" George lightly stammered.

"Well, yeah, it takes an awful long time to get into this section up top this hill. I never heard of these people and lucky them, they've got one of the prime locations. After I had a look at this John Mitchell's birth year, I figured it was some special placement or something considering how old he was…"

"You know what, George responded, you're absolutely correct. Being 117 years old gets a person some perks. "

"What about the girl, Anna?"

"The girl…"

"Well, yes, that's a significant age difference. Was she his great great grand-daughter or something? He's 117 and she was what, 22 years old when she died."

"Oh, I see, no, they were…friends," George said as he peeked over at Annie.

"Well, the strange thing is that I got a real shock when I first took a look at the head-stone."

"Oh Yes, George interrupted, why is that?"

"I know this is going to sound crazy. I mean, you don't know me, but I think, or rather, I thought perhaps this John Mitchell was related to me."

In this moment, George was so glad that Michael couldn't see or hear Annie. She began once again, jumping up and down, and yelling, "I knew it…I knew it." She was screaming so much with laughter that he had to really hold himself together not to take off and join her in her revelry.

"And, why do you think that?" George asked in the calmest voice that he could manage.

"In my family, I'm from Ireland by the way, we had a John Mitchell, I know that's a really common name, but our John was born in that same year, 1893, he was a soldier during The Great War, and he went missing. He was an only child and his mother, so the family says, died of a broken heart."

"Aww, I'm so sorry to hear that. It could be your John honestly. I was just a friend and never knew about his family."

"Were you one of his care-takers? What about the girl? How did they come to be buried at the same time? She died four years ago according to her head-stone."

"Ah, yes, four years apart…"

"Tell him they died in a fire, Annie interjected excitedly, well she died in a fire and he lingered and died…four…years….later, Annie paused in her enthusiasm, not only because of the face George was making at her but also because she could hear how absurd that explanation sounded even to herself…"

"Michael, George said, you may not believe me, but John here and Anna, they weren't just friends, they were in love with one another."

"In love," Michael asked skeptically.

"Yeah, in love," said George.

"But he was 114 years old when she died, how could they possibly have been in love?"

"Stranger things have happened Michael, said George, stranger things have happened."

"Well, I guess you're right."

As if he had forgotten he had been holding flowers in his arms, Michael asked George if it was ok for him to lay them at the base of the 2 head-stones.

"I don't know if he's related to me, Michael said, but I know my mum would have loved to put some flowers down if she were here. Michael smiled at George as he stepped aside and said, anyway, three cheers for love, eh?"

"Hip Hip Hooray, screamed Annie. Come on George, three cheers for Love…"

"Hip Hip Hooray George said at nearly a squeak.

Michael smiled and finished, "yeah, why not, Hip Hip Hooray."

"Well, I don't want to be taking up anymore of your time. I just wanted to lay the flowers down for my mum. It was nice talking to ya."

As George watched Michael turn and walk away, both he and Annie were finally lost for words. Watching the lone figure disappear down the steps and out of view they each sank back on the ground and gave each other a lingering hug.

"I've got to go with him George."

"What? Annie, no…"

"I can't let him disappear out of my life again George."

"Annie, he's not Mitchell. He looks like him, hell, he may even be related to him, but it's not him. We should leave him alone and get back to the house."

"No." Annie says as she was getting up from the ground.

"No?" George squealed with his face scrunched up, following her up.

"Yes…No. I can see that's not Mitchell, but I just can't let him disappear."

"Annie, he's human, we should just let him get on with his peaceful life, we've got monsters to prepare for and hide from, or don't you remember?"

Annie bends down and retrieves a card from the ground.

"Oh Look George, Annie says excitedly It's a business card."

"Hmmm, what does it say?"

"Michael Barry, Loan Clerk, Bank of Wales Cardiff. It's his business card. I've always wanted to work in a bank."

"Annie, No." George said in a defeated tone.

"George," Annie said very determinedly.

"Well, if you're going to go snooping at the bank, come home first. You haven't been home all night and now you've had me up this hill most of the day. Come home and you can take off haunting Michael tomorrow. Ok?"

Annie took pity on George and gave him a light squeeze. "Ok."

To be continued….