Just Dead

An alternate ending to the Being Human series finale - Hal and Tom may have been cursed by the devil, but Alex was just dead. HalxAlex and TomxAllison

Chapter One - Aftermath

"Is everyone okay?" Hal asked tensely. He had heard Tom gasp and cough dryly from where he knelt on the other side of the table. "Alex?" he inquired of the silence from where he remembered her falling. As the noiselessness continued another beat, Hal's eyes grew wide. "Alex!" he barked as Tom shot up and spun around as though he thought had been unknowingly sitting on her.

"ALE-" "-ALEX!" the two shouted in disjointed unison. "Where is she?" Tom asked desperately, forgetting to be angry with the friend from whom he had come to expect all the answers.

Words broke through the fog of unconsciousness: something the ghost had not experienced for far too long and was reveling in, before she was so rudely disrupted. "Is everyone okay?" he had said. "Oh yeah; nothing like saving the world and taking my first power nap in months to put a little spring in my step!" she grumbled, feeling sure enough that the answer to Hal's question was 'yes' to be sarcastic.

"Alex?" she noted a strange urgency in his voice. Thinking that perhaps her snappy remark was too muffled by the carpet to be audible, she pulled herself up to respond more clearly. The words died on her lips and the expression of survived-the-apocalypse smugness on her face was abruptly replaced by one of horror.

He was staring right through her.

For nearly half an hour Hal had been uncharacteristically upending the house in search of Alex. It made no sense. Could her door have appeared while they were unconscious? No, she would have waited to say goodbye. Wouldn't she? The wrongs he had done her swam through the stormy seas of his panicked mind: lies, cruelty, manipulation. Even if she hated him, she would always love Tom. Alex would never abandon him without a word, the way her mother had abandoned her. She had to be here somewhere; why couldn't he find her?

The pacing figure abruptly froze, let out a wounded howl and slumped against the wall, sliding into a squat with his head in his hands, oblivious to her comforting embrace.

Even though she still hadn't fully forgiven Hal, she couldn't bear to see him like this: so distraught, so full of pain. Apparently neither could Tom, Alex thought distractedly as the young man mirrored her invisible pose, crouched beside the broken form of his friend.

It reminded her of the time her brother had tripped and broken his wrist while running away with her diary: she was going to get him good…as soon as he was feeling better. The only way that Hal was going to feel better would be if she found some way to communicate with him.

Suddenly feeling like an idiot, Alex smacked her forehead and leapt up to search the kitchen for a pen and a pad of paper. Right there by the telephone where she left it! Figured that it would be the one thing still in place after that evil-devil-tornado fiasco. Honestly, how Hal hadn't already broken out all of the cleaning supplies they owned - there were quite a lot of them because of him - was beyond her. Alex snorted.

She reached for the pen and was surprised to see her hand disappear into the tile countertop. Taking a deep breath and scrunching her nose in concentration, she made a second attempt, this time succeeding only in rolling the writing instrument about forty-five degrees. She was getting frustrated and more than a little scared.

What if, as she knew Hal worried, the ritual HAD taken more out of her than it had them? Suddenly the lamp flickered. It lasted less than a second, but was enough to attract Hal's attention. He was in the kitchen quicker than she could have imagined possible. "Alex?" he whispered softly, as though he feared that his words would blow her away. "I'm here!" she cried. "Why can't you see me?"

Tom, with eyebrows somehow even more sad-looking than normal, appeared in the doorway and crossed to where she was in order to both command Hal's attention and block his exit. Tom's coincidentally precise positioning would have made her laugh, if it weren't for the terrifying fact that he had intersected her so easily: neither of them had felt a thing – not even the usual shiver.

"Since you're so worried about Alex…" he began carefully. "…Does that mean that you're the good Hal again and I don't have to kill you?" He looked so pitifully hopeful at the thought of not having to lose another friend Alex could have cried.

"No."

"So you're bad Hal, then?" Tom's gaze remained locked on the vampire's while his fingers searched the inside of his heavily armed jacket and his jaw clenched.

"Both. Neither. I can't explain it." Tom looked simultaneously relieved and confused.

Alex was in shock. She no longer heard her friends' discussion just inches from her. She swore she had seen Hal's reflection in the window, but that was impossible, wasn't it? If he were human again, that would explain why he couldn't see her.

He had told her that vampires' existence was made possible by a deal with the devil - immortality in exchange for souls - and so that they would never forget it, he took their reflections as well. Was it possible that Hal's deal had been called off; that he had been given his humanity, as some sort of reward? He had to know!

She tried to rent-a-ghost into the bathroom, and, as with the pen incident earlier, was surprisingly incapable of it, opting to run up the stairs and down the narrow hallway instead. She had to make some sort of noise to get him up here, get him to see what she saw downstairs. Her hands kept slipping through everything solid that she grasped at.

Before, her fear and frustration had caused an electrical disturbance, but now, even though she was just as upset, nothing happened. Back in the kitchen, the boys finally discovered for themselves what she had been trying to tell them. "The wolf is gone!" shouted Tom in amazement. Hal, still greatly distraught over Alex's disappearance, even though he now knew the most likely reason for it, was having a much quieter celebration.

That night they slept in the living room, afraid that they might miss a miraculous reappearance of the ghost they hoped was still around. Seeing the pained expression on Hal's face by the moonlight, Tom gave up all pretense of trying to sleep. "I'm sure she's fine. We just can't see her right now. We'll see her again soon. We'll figure something out."

"Why hasn't she given us some sort of signal then, some message, hmm?" Hal asked, more cruelly than he had intended to. Softening at the young former-wolf's hurt glance, he said, "I am just concerned. The last time one of these rituals was performed, all of the participants perished. I still cannot explain the... unique elements of the aftermath of this attempt."

"You mean us being human again?" Tom asked. "I wonder if all of the vampires and werewolves get to be humans or just us because we're the ones who beat 'im. I'm wondering about Allison."

"You should call her in the morning." Hal suggested. "That way, if she is human, great, congratulations. If not, she can help us find Alex." Tom grinned. "Sounds good." He murmured, sinking comfortably into the couch at the thought of being with her. His newfound light-hearted mood prompted a cheeky remark. "You should really try this sleeping thing, Hal. I know you're out of practice, but loads of people think it's just swell." With that, he drifted off, totally unaware of the nightmare unfolding invisibly only feet away.

A.N. Ooh cliffhanger! Let me know what you think so far. It would make my day to know that someone took the time to read this. Do any of you know whether Allison has seen Alex as a ghost yet? If nobody tells me, I will just have to re-watch my favorite Being Human episode ever: Puppy Love! What a bother. ;)