AN: You know the drill. Not mine at all.
Mitchell was still pondering upon her choice of words when George came into his room tapping lightly on the door.
"Hey mate, are you busy?"
"What? No, of course not, you want to talk about something?" He replied noticing George's improved demeanor. "Everything alright with Nina? You look… Content."
"Yeah… I guess I am… We talked and I think it's going to be okay."
"I'm glad George." He was in all honesty happy for his friend.
"Where's Annie? Is she in the kitchen? I didn't see her coming in." He took a moment and looked around the room. "What were you doing anyways?" He said focusing on the bed as something seemed to click. "Did you have somebody stay over?" He said finally with a smirk.
"Were you looking for me George? I heard you say my name." Annie said appearing in the room and avoiding Mitchell's stare.
"Ah! Annie. I was wondering where you were. Did Mitchell kept you up all night?" He said nonchalantly.
"What? Why? What did you say?" Annie mumbled panicking and looking at Mitchell who looked truly innocent.
"She doesn't sleep George! Remember?" Mitchell said to his friend, preoccupied that the misunderstanding was going to put it all out in the open before they had had time to figure out exactly what had just happened.
"I meant that he probably bothered you with all that banging!" George clarified to Annie unaware of what it sounded like to his two house mates.
"Mitchell!" She yelled now livid at what she thought George meant.
"George, what the hell are you talking about man?" said Mitchell worried and trying to avoid Annie's murdering eyes.
"Well, it is obvious that you had someone stay over. This room is a mess! Did you see the lady in question Annie?" He said bending over attracted by something slightly hidden under the bed.
Annie figured out what George was thinking and sighed relieved looking at Mitchell who was giving her a tiny complicit smile.
"No! It's not messy…er than usual. It's always like this. What makes you think I had someone over?" Mitchell asked turning back to George.
"Well, it is not the normal Mitchell's mess. It's more the 'I had a fabulous shag' sort of disarray, and there's of course this little number over here". He said picking up a small piece of grey cotton.
"Somebody seems to have left her knickers behind. Unless there is some news you've been meaning to tell us Mitchell. I guess these pants could fit you."
It was now Mitchell's turn to be livid.
"No I don't! Give me that!" And he ripped the offending garment from his hands and stuffed it in his pocket. Annie was looking away trying to conceal her absolute panic.
"Oh Mitchell. Such a gentleman! Somewhere down the street is a poor girl doing the walk of shame in last night's clothes and no knickers on!" He said barely containing his laughter.
"George! How can you say that to Annie!" Mitchell was visibly upset now, as he got closer to George.
"I beg your pardon?" Said his friend confused as Annie yelled horrified.
"Mitchell!
"I, I, I… I mean…" His hand was going through his hair trying to backpedal. "I mean… Annie has to wear the same clothes all the time. That was insensitive George!" He finally said feigning indignity.
"I'm sorry Annie" George said to her.
"It's okay. Don't mention it." Annie said relieved once more.
"I was just trying to make a joke. I don't know why you are both so gloomy today when I am ecstatic."
"I guess you had sex then. You are only this giddy when you do." Mitchell said.
"Yeah." Annie agreed. "And it normally it doesn't last that long."
"What? The giddiness or George?" Mitchell asked entertained now that the tables had turned. "I guess that would be a question for Nina."
Annie giggled.
"See! You are always teasing me about it and when I do that to you, you act all offended. But now that you have turned it back at me it's all shits and giggles! Wait. What's that on your back?"
"What? What do you mean?" Mitchell said as he turned a little trying to get a glance of his back and revealing a few fresh red marks on it.
Annie was mortified, but as she looked at the floor she thanked god for her inability to blush.
"You got yourself a feisty one, didn't you?" It was George's turn to tease. Annie didn't miss a slight smug lopsided grin in Mitchell's face.
"What is it with you men and comparing notes of your sexual adventures? And it's not about you making the women… happy… It's just who's better at it!"
"Oh Annie… I'm sorry. It was very insensitive of me to talk about my and Mitchell's sex like when you… um…" George said trying to appease her.
"When I what?" replied Annie walking menacingly to George.
"When, it's been … a while… right?" He said unsure.
"George!" Both Mitchell and Annie yelled in unison.
"I'm sure you have your… needs… I don't know if ghosts get PMT but lately you make me think ghost ovulating is possible. That reminds me… Mitchell, can ghosts have sex?"
Mitchell doubled over in a nervous coughing fit.
"Argh! I really can't take this anymore. I'm not talking about my sex life in front of you!" Annie was now furious.
"Of all the people that could have rented this place! Why, oh why couldn't I have gotten a fairy and a witch? It could have been corseted period dramas with Colin Firth 24/7! And I would never ever have to watch The Real Hustle!" She yelled as she stormed out of the bedroom.
"I'll be in the kitchen making tea when all the male stupidity wears off! And I'm not having PMT George so don't even go there."
"Mitchell... Are there?"
"No." His friend quickly noted.
"Now you've done it George." Said Mitchell putting on a shirt and leaving the room making sure to pat George's back as he walked by.
"Though" he added turning around right at the threshold. "Colin Firth in a corset. I'd watch that even if just because of my morbid curiosity."
Annie was busy making tea and trying to avoid thinking of anything that had happened in the last 12 hours when both boys entered the kitchen with equal sheepish stares.
"Here you go George. Mitchell." She said handing the cups over. She couldn't look directly at Mitchell and neither could he.
"I'm sorry Annie. Really. I'll just stop talking altogether about sex." George told her.
"Good. So how's Nina?" Annie replied accepting the olive branch.
"Brilliant. I think we're good... I think we're really good as a matter of fact."
"I got the idea from all the giddiness." Annie said with a wide honest smile.
"How about you. How was the fair? I know you were planning to go and do your usual people watching. You had it marked on the calendar and everything."
"Ah, it was… okay."
"Really? That's it? Okay? You normally have so much more to say about it. You have all those observations about how people looked."
"They looked… Okay… Happy… Alive." Mitchell coughed up his tea nervously at the word. George looked back suspiciously.
"I mean that they were all fantastic." Annie said with her silly smile, the one she put on when she tried to lie unsuccessfully.
"Oh no Annie!" George complained shaking his head.
"What? Annie asked half confused and half annoyed.
"If you are giving me that smile it means that you have some sort of Annie shenanigans going on and we'll be up to our eyeballs with you trying to play matchmaker with the neighbors or with a litter of stray cats for a week."
"First of all George, my father's name is Frank Sawyer, not George Sands. And second, there's nothing going on. No brilliant ideas, no projects, no nothing. Last night was just boring. People watching was boring! Only that and nothing else."
"Okay, once more. I'm sorry."
"Well that's good." Annie said dropping the issue when she noticed something sticking out of Mitchell's pocket and looked back at him horrified. He caught her stare and her not so subtle indication at it just as George was telling them something trivial.
"Are you listening?" He asked annoyed at his friends for ignoring him.
"What? Yeah of course… Lovely weather." Mitchell said.
"What? I wasn't saying anything about the weather." George said offended turning around and opening the fridge to get the milk. Mitchell took the opportunity to fumble with the underwear and pass it to Annie who promptly stuffed it in her sleeve.
"Argh… We're out of milk again. Couldn't anybody else bother to do the shop once in a while?" He asked looking at them and shaking the almost empty carton.
"Well… I'm dead" Annie replied.
"I guess that is the last bit of giddy George." Mitchell joked infuriating his mate.
"Whatever. I'm going to have a shower." Said George as he went upstairs leaving Annie and Mitchell in an awkward silence.
After a while Mitchell cleared his throat and attempted a conversation.
"Annie… I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have…" He started to say.
"What? Spare the life of our neighbors?" Annie interrupted raising an eyebrow.
"No! Of course I'm glad they are all alive!"
"Good. Then there's nothing to worry about. No one got hurt."
"No one?" He asked in a transparent code.
"I'm alright. Not a vampire and… wait… I AM dead, but the good news is you didn't do it." She replied over acting and checking her neck for wounds and a non-existent pulse.
"But I did do something, didn't I?" Mitchell asked getting closer to her and holding at the sleeve of her grey cardigan.
"WE did something Mitchell. Please don't start with the vampire guilt. I'm not in the mood." She turned around to place the empty mugs in the sink
"Annie this is serious."
"It is. You needed something last night that I was happy to give. I was there to help you and it was good to be able to save someone for once. It's nice to feel useful and… needed."
"Annie… You cannot define yourself by what you do for others. I don't want to do that to you." There was a twinge of fear in his voice now.
"It was a conscious decision Mitchell. End of discussion. And it was a good thing too."
"Was it?" He said slightly pleased.
"No!" She replied annoyed.
"No?" He said a little hurt.
"I mean, yes it was bloody good. But that is not what I meant. I meant that it was good to feel more in charge of myself, of my body. I was always so passive about everything in my life before. I never really lived. I never even had a one-night stand. I was so bloody naïve!"
"That is not necessarily a bad thing" He said brushing her hair behind her ear.
"And besides, it is good to know that the last person I've slept with is not a murderer." She said without thinking but suddenly the implication became clear to her. He looked pained knowing her statement wasn't true and he abruptly let go of her hair.
"I mean, MY murderer." She said now touching his cheek and reassuring him.
"Good save." He said with a sad smile.
"It's just that I don't think of you in that way." She tried to make him feel better.
"But that is what I am Annie."
"That is what you WERE. And thanks to me, that is still in your past." She added.
"Yes. And I'm forever grateful. I really am." He was now very close to her and they both could feel something igniting. The feeling was so overwhelming that Annie felt the need to lighten the mood.
"On the other hand… I'm the slag with no underpants."
That made him laugh.
"You, Annie Sawyer, are no slag. And I should know. Those are not the pants of a slag."
"They're not?" She asked playfully.
"No, those are very nice. Very you by the way" He said pointing at her sleeve where the dark grey panties rested. They were cotton and simple. Boy-short cut with two pink lace vertical lines that ended in two tiny bows.
"Very me?" She asked with suspicion. "Because they're grey?"
"No! Because they are simple, and comfortable, and feminine, and sexy without trying too hard."
Annie was flattered.
"Well, at least I don't have to live for eternity in the thong I was killed for." She said smiling.
"No. These are much better." He said kissing her forehead and leaving her with her all-so-confusing thoughts in the kitchen.
Annie thought, maybe for the first time, that it was a good thing she didn't sleep at night while the boys did because she anticipated she'd have plenty of things to ponder upon.