It was really rather late when Halston made her way down to the kitchen for some water. The light wasn't even switched on before she greeted Robin. Sure enough when the light did go on there was Robin stood beside the large table looking as though he had just been meandering around all night. Most people jumped when they saw him but Halston just seemed to always know when he was there and that actually pleased the caveman; sometimes making people jump got boring.

"What are you doing down here in the dark all alone, Robin?" The American asked.

Robin shrugged. "Kim Wilde asked no turn light on when moonah out."

Translation: I'm not meant to go around switching on all the lights at two in the morning and cranking up the electricity bill.

"Oh, okay."

Halston went to the sink and picked up a recently washed glass that she filled up and took a deep gulp of water. Robin just watched her in that curious way of his.

"Thank you for going to see Jemima earlier."

"She scary but shadow goddess welcome." Replied the caveman as Halston turned to face him.

She smiled at him from behind her glass. Since arriving at Button House Halston had gotten to understand the ghosts rather well. They all had things that made them tick, and, if she was being truly honest, the Captain really was her favourite simply because she'd had such a bond with her grandfather so her knowledge of the Second World War was rather extensive. Well, that and the fact she could relate when it came to his sexuality worries. However, Robin had been there the longest, he'd seen countless houses and settlements come and go and he'd done it all alone. Robin had been so alone for so long that deep down the only thing he let himself be truly attached to was chess; even if the board vanished chess couldn't leave him. He cared about the other ghosts and wanted them to remain but he couldn't shake the feeling that one day they'd pass on and leave him behind as well. They may have been dead for hundreds of years but that was only the blink of an eye for Robin.

"Robin, sweetheart, you can call me Halston." She refilled the glass. "It is my name after all. Or you could call me Hals." She paused a moment as she took a long gulp. "Robin, I've been wondering, how did you get named Robin? Not really a caveman name."

Robin shrugged. "Mary. She next ghost. We in garden and she saw bird. Been name since."

"You've been alone here a very long time, haven't you."

It wasn't a question, just a mournful statement but still Robin nodded.

"Not now."

Halston couldn't help but flash him a smile. "No, not anymore." The American medium finished off her water and made to leave. "I'll see you in the morning, Robin."

"Wait." Robin reached out a hand to stop her and Hals turned to face him. "Can I watch pain face?"

Halston's brow furrowed. "Why do you like watching me do my make-up so much?" Robin shrugged. "Okay, yeah, sure. You can watch me do my make-up in the morning. Night, Robin."

"Nighty night."

The medium headed back to her and Matt's room without seeing any other ghosts while Robin remained in the kitchen darkness. He stood there quietly, wasn't like he had anywhere to be. Or at least he stood there until someone slipped through the wall.

"She still not happy with me?"

Robin turned to face Julian who had the courtesy to looks somewhat ashamed of himself. His tie had been loosened again and his collar button opened. No one had seen much of Julian since his little outburst at the Captain.

"Does bear live in cave?"

Julian's brow furrowed. "Bear?"

"No pushy!"

With that Robin wandered off to find another dark corner to haunt.

~X~

The day finally came where Halston would be leaving the next afternoon and Cap would surely go back to being miserable. He didn't know if he could carry on tip-toeing out of his shell without the young medium by his side for encouragement. Fanny and Mary didn't seem overly concerned nor worried or anything even remotely similar to the news that Halston would soon return to Nevada. Robin, Pat and Kitty appeared a upset since they'd made a friend in Halston while Thomas and Julian would only miss her beauty no matter how much they argued otherwise. The Captain though, he felt as though he were loosing a part of himself. He didn't want the medium to go back to America. She'd promised she'd come back and he believed her; didn't make him feel any better though.

All day Kitty had followed Halston around Button House like a puppy who didn't want their owner to go to work. Matt had seemed particularly irritated as well. He'd had no idea the Captain could see him but still the man grumbled as he packed away his mass of equipment for the flight.

"Are you alright, Captain?"

Alison's voice knocked him out of his trance, how long he'd been in it the military man didn't know and frankly didn't much care. He looked up at the new Lady Button from where he sat on the stairs; most unusual a sitting place for him.

"I'm fine, thank you, Alison." He told her assuredly but she didn't seem convinced.

Alison sat down beside him looking vaguely concerned.

"It's because Hals is leaving, isn't it?" The Captain went stiff; grip tight on his swagger stick. "It's okay, it is kind of obvious you like her." She breathed out a laugh. "Fortunately your version of like isn't as pervy as Julian's is. But Halston is my cousin so of course she'll come back to visit."

The moustached man glanced at Alison out the corner of his eye. "When did you become so conversational with us?" His voice wasn't harsh or insulting, just a confused question.

Alison shrugged. "Hals made me see you guys in a new light and made me realise that I didn't do communication with you all very well. Even Fanny has stopped complaining about her so I think Halston has done us all some good." Alison chuckled. "Fanny stopping complaining, that's like an honour around here."

The Captain nodded in agreement. "Most certainly."

"All the complaining you lot did when I asked her out here and now you don't want her to go either."

Cap's brow furrowed. "Either?"

Alison was quiet a moment as she stared down at her hands in her lap.

"Hals is my only blood family, all I have is her and Mike. Same for her, well, she's got some distant great aunt that she's only met once when she was like six. Obviously neither of us have siblings." The brunette woman sighed. "Yep, it's just us and I'd not seen her in ages. I've loved these last two weeks with her. Don't like Matt though, there's something not right there."

"Oh, you can say that again. Stranger than a polite Jerry that one."

"Racism aside, you know what he's hiding?" Alison was suddenly very interested.

The Cap nodded slightly. "Halston told me. He wants to fake the footage he's been recording so he can get something called a paranormal investigation show on television. He seems quite insistent despite Halston's vehement refusal."

Alison rolled her eyes. "No wonder he got all weird when Mike asked to see the film he'd recorded. He's really faking all of it? Wouldn't that be easy to prove?"

"I have no idea. Halston won't let him do it though. She won't lie, it's why Matthew is always irritated with her."

"That dude is a dick."

Cap couldn't argue with that, in fact he agreed wholeheartedly.

"She said she plans on ending their relationship once they get back to America. Apparently she would have done so before coming here but she never got the chance."

The sooner Halston was free of Matthew Olsen the better in the Captain's mind. That man was a wild card and the military man didn't want him around Halston longer than was necessary.

"Alright, okay, I'd better not add him to the Christmas card list then." Alison sighed. "Hals and I may not have seen each other in a while but she's basically my little sister, I should know these things." Her full of life eyes turned up at the uniformed officer. "Why are you so taken with her? Kitty, Thomas and Julian I understand. Pat is nice to everyone, so is Robin, but I didn't think you'd like her so much."

The Captain cleared his throat. "Halston has … grown on me." Was that the best he could do? "She reminds me of someone I knew as a young man. Also, she has a good heart."

Alison and the ghost were silent for a time until the living woman took a breath.

"Do you know what happened when she was a kid? At the pool?"

Yes, the Captain remembered that story well; the thought of a child feeling themselves drown still disturbed him.

"She died." Was all he said.

"Yeah. I wasn't there but when I found out I thought they meant she'd been playing with Mermaids." The Captain raised an eyebrow at her. "I was only little and I certainly didn't understand death. She was different the next time I saw her, I was only a kid but even then I knew something was different. My parents always thought Hals was weird."

"I would say more aware than weird." He told Alison feeling an odd need to defend the American.

"Frankly, I would too."

"Alison?!" Mike suddenly called down the stairs and his wife's head tilted upwards instantly.

"Yeah, Mike, what is it?"

"What are we doing about the crown moulding in here?!"

Alison sighed; no rest for the wicked. She rose to her feet and started to make her way upstairs without so much as a good-day to the Army Captain.

"In where?!" Was the last thing Cap heard Alison say.

For the rest of the day Matt packed up his cameras and strange REM Pod things from where they'd been dotted about the house – which Fanny had been most pleased about – while periodically getting shots of Button House from both indoors and out.

Thomas had elected to write a beautiful going away poem for Halston though no one, living or dead, expected much to come from it; a reaction that had lead the Regency idiot to sulk off to God knew where to supposedly work on his art.

The Captain though had decided to leave Halston to it; let her pack and all. Kitty had already decided to follow the woman around so surely Hals wouldn't want him doing the same; especially when she needed to prepare.

Come dinner and Alison had graciously offered to let the ghosts all watch Friends while, she, Mike, Halston and Matt had one last dinner together. Much to everyone's surprise they'd even gotten Lady Button hooked, or at least as hooked as a woman like her could get. Cap still wanted to insist he was Chandler but every time he thought about it he just went straight back to Halston's throw away comment that was was indeed Ross. Maybe being Ross wouldn't have been so bad if Halston was Rachel. Cap's eyes went wide, the show forgotten as Pat asked for them all to quieten down for the umpteenth time. Where the hell had that thought come from?! When had thoughts like those even popped into his subconscious mind? No! The Captain pushed the whole string of thoughts from his head and forced his attention back to the show as Joey went after yet another young woman.

"Are you quite alright, Captain?" Asked Fanny, clearly not impressed by Joey's 'how you doin'' line. "You look ill."

"I'm fine, thank you, Fanny. Nothing wrong at all. Absolutely tickety-boo."

Fanny didn't seem convinced but she still went back to the show for which he was thankful; he didn't need the line of questioning.

Cap sat there with his fellow deceased folk for a while until Alison showed up to turn off the TV which none of them were pleased about but they didn't grumble too much when they realised how late it had gotten.

The ghosts all dispersed to their rooms for some rest. The Captain passed through the door to his room where he sat down on the bed and just stared at the wall his room shared with Halston's. He'd miss her but she'd come back; she'd promised. Cap had just lay back when he heard yelling drifting through the wall. Matt was angry Halston wouldn't lie – Cap didn't need to be in the room to know that.

The Captain sat himself up and stared at the wall again as the gears turned in his head. Once Halston was home she'd be free of Matt and be able to live her life in peace and unhindered by the tall man's greed.

Suddenly a crash sounded from the other room and that forced Cap to his feet in one smooth motion. Alison wouldn't stand for her things getting broken and he wanted to make sure Halston hadn't hurt herself somehow. The crash had sounded like glass so he assumed it was a lamp that had fallen. He passed through the wall expecting to find … well, the moustached soldier didn't know what he'd expected but what he actually found hadn't even been on the list. Halston lay on her back on the bed with Matt on top of her, at first glance most would have assumed they were having sex but no. Matthew forced a pillow down over her face, his fingers white with anger. Halston had knocked the bed side lamp off trying to get free.

In an instant Cap made to yank Matthew off of his friend but his hands went straight through him. Of course they had, he was dead. Alison! His only option was to get Alison and Mike. They were the only ones who could do anything to stop this horror. Cap charged straight through the wall and down the halls, round corners and just straight through a whole row of small rooms until he got to Alison and Mike's room where he grounded to a halt once he'd passed through the door.

"Alison! Alison!" He yelled desperately. Mike was almost flat on his chest snoring away while his wife lay on her side daintily. The Captain didn't notice any of that though. "Alison! Man down! Man down!"

That jolted the brunette woman awake and she pushed herself up on sleepy limbs as she groaned.

"Shut up, Captain. I just got off to sleep."

"You have to get out of bed!" Alison opened her mouth to chastise the ghost but the military man just carried on yelling. "Matthew is going to kill her. I can't touch him. You have to help, Halston!"

Suddenly Alison was wide awake. "What?!"

"He's going to kill her!"

Quickly Alison slapped Mike rapidly forcing him awake then clambered out of bed as fast as she was able.

"Mike, come on! Come on!"

Then the two humans were up, one alarmed, one confused, both trailing after the soldier. Cap hadn't trusted Matthew since almost the day he'd shown up but he'd never expected the man would try to kill Halston.

"What's going on?" Mike questioned his wife as they ran.

"I'm not sure but it isn't good."

Cap went through the bedroom door to Halston's room right before Alison threw open the door to see Matthew still over Halston with a pillow pressed violently over her face. Alison screamed and Mike grabbed Matthew in an attempt to wrestle him to the ground. The other ghosts appeared then, some slipped through the walls while others passed through the open door. Fanny and Thomas had been prepared to start complaining until they saw the scene before them and fell silent like their fellow spectres. Alison shot onto the bed and pulled the pillow from her cousin's face only to find her eyes closed and her chest still. Tears sparked in Alison's eyes.

"Alison, call a bally ambulance!" Ordered the Captain.

His deep voice jolted her out of it and she yanked Halson's phone off the side table and dialled 999 demanding an ambulance. She did her best not to let panic take over but she wasn't winning that fight.

"They'll never get here in time." Muttered Thomas quietly.

"There's an ambulance station less than a mile away." Julian informed. "They put it in after-"

Pat peered up at Julian knowing exactly what he meant; at least something good had come of his death. The scout master turned his attention to Alison and an unresponsive Halston.

"Alison, you have to start CPR. I'll show you."

While Pat went to kneel on the bed Mike struggled to keep Matthew pinned. Suddenly the taller man managed to buck Mike off of him and launched to his feet before the Captain. With all his military training and the anger he had locked up inside the Captain just reacted; he punched Matt square in the face and knocked him to the ground unconscious with a single blow. He'd not let the monster get away with this. Cap stared at his hands, how had he done that? Mike saw him, eyes bold with fear and then he was back on Matt keeping him restrained.

In the background they could hear Alison crying and answering the woman on the phone while Pat calmly talked her through CPR, but most were too focused on the fact Mike had looked at the Cap, had seen him!

Julian bound over to the window to stare out over the trees; he even rose up onto his tip-toes for all the good it did.

"I can see emergency lights."

"That was fast." Did Fanny actually sound relieved?

"It's their job." Mary pointed out.

While most of the younger ghosts were panicked and worried the elder ones like Mary and Thomas didn't seem all that concerned. They'd seen death many times over, they'd watched most of the people in that room die so it no longer caused the same panic in them that it did in someone like Pat. Of course that didn't mean that they didn't care. Robin had been there the longest by far but still he rushed to stand by Julian watching the lights.

Soon paramedics had barged into the bedroom though the ghosts – though none of them grumbled due to the situation. The Captain's panicked eyes looked on at Halston; even war hadn't filled him with so much emotion.

"She's too young for death." He muttered to himself. "No one should die at twenty-four. Especially if there isn't a war on."

So few could see him and his fellow ghosts and no one deserved to be murdered simply because they had morals. Thomas had been shot, his death had been rather quick, as had Julian's and Fanny's. His own and Mary's not so much. No one deserved these prolonged deaths, much less Halston.

"I know I joked bit I never wanted this." Said Julian quietly, his brow furrowed deeply with concern.

"You no do this." Robin lay a hand on the taller man's shoulder in an fugal attempt to comfort the former MP. "He did this."

All the ghosts turned their attention to a still unconscious Matthew pinned by Mike – all save for the Captain's.

Kitty wiped away tears. "How old is she? Halston never told me."

"Twenty-four." Answered the military man.

Robin left Julian in favour of standing right next to Alison who seemed to be in some sort of catatonic state.

"No let die."

Alison didn't answer, just watched as the paramedics did all they could. More sirens came from outside and cars rolled over the gravel rapidly but it went ignored until police barged in and yanked Mike off of Matt so they could arrest him.

The dead watched on in utter silence. All of the ghosts apart from Julian had seen someone die in the house before but they all knew the true extent of the agony one felt realising they were about to die.

"It's time to stop now."

The ghosts all spun around to see Halston stood beside the Captain; she was already gone. Cap's mouth fell open in silent horror, not a single syllable managed to slip out. Halston offered him a gentle smile.

"Thank you. Thank you for trying to help me, Cap." She peered over at her cousin. "Alison," she called a little louder and finally Alison moved "please tell them to stop."

All the horror, fear and tears burst forth from Alison a new as realisation hit her. Mike – who'd still been on the floor – scrambled to take his wife into his arms and hold her tight as she all but screamed out her pain.

"I'm so sorry, Ally. I am, but please tell them to stop."

Turned out Alison didn't need to ask because the two paramedics gleaned at one another mournfully then shook their heads slowly. The taller man put the defibrillator paddles back while the other looked down at his watch to pronounce Halston dead.

The only noise was that of Alison crying for a while, Halston wanted to comfort her but knew she'd only make it worse. Minutes or hours could have gone by with them all in that state but soon police wanted statements and all the ghosts save for Cap and the newly deceased Halston left the room. As the bespectacled ghost headed for the door Cap rested a hand on Pat's shoulder.

"Tell Alison to say she heard a lamp fall over and smash."

Pat nodded, of course he'd deliver the message.

Alone, the Captain and Halston stood and watched the paramedics, not a single word was uttered as they readied her body for being removed from Button House.

Halston hadn't ever really thought about being on the other side of the vale. She's spent her life talking to those who were already there that she'd only ever thought about the bridge between living and dead. What amazed Halston more was the fact she wasn't scared or angry or anything really. Maybe it was shock or perhaps it was something else.

Meanwhile Cap just watched her, he'd got no idea what to say. In the end he awkwardly settled for talking her hand into his own; he felt a spark, not as strong as when she'd been alive and hugged him but it was still there. He watched her smile softly which surprised him to say the least.

"Guess you're stuck with the German speaking Yank."

Had he not just watched someone he cared about die the Captain would have chuckled; all he managed to muster was a forced smile.