Disclaimer: I don't own Being Human, and I don't wish I did because it wouldn't be anywhere near as good as it is, and it would get cancelled when I made sure Damien Molony was in every scene!

Sorry for the wait for this chapter. It's been a bit of a tricky one to write, plus with all the news from Series 5, I'm been rather distracted! Thank you to all the readers and reviewers so far, it's been really lovely hearing what you think. Enjoy x

Warning: Bad language and some potentially upsetting scenes.

Chapter 8: Audible Agony

"I can't believe it. I mean, this is good right? I wanted this to happen for ages, and now it finally has, and that's a good thing. Isn't it?" Alex shook her head as she paced up and down the living room. Hal and Tom watched her, their heads following her movements in unison. Hal thought they must look as though they were watching a tennis match at Wimbledon.

"Of course it's good. It means you can pass on." He reasoned with her.

"But passing on is so... so... so final! What if I'm not ready? What if it's not my time?"

"If it's not your time your door won't come. Alex, you're over thinking this. Please sit down, you're making my neck ache." Hal asked her softly, making room for her on the sofa. She ignored him and carried on pacing.

"And what if I don't pass on? What if I really am stuck here? Forever! Stuck in an eternity with you Hal. No offence, but it can't get much worse than that can it?"

"That's a little harsh isn't it? And anyway, you're not exactly my idea of an intellectual picnic to be around either." Hal muttered irritably.

"Well then we're agreed on something!" Alex shouted at him as she stormed past.

"You're being ridiculous."

"Yes Hal! Because I'm scared, alright? I'm scared of what's going to happen to me. Or, what's not going to happen. I don't know!" she stopped infront of them and put her head in her hands. Tom stood to pull her into a gentle hug, rubbing her arms comfortingly. "Oh, where is she? What if she's been abducted, or killed, or kidnapped or something? You should have gone to pick her up Hal."

"Me? Alone with her? In a car? I'm not sure that would have helped the situation."

"Well with Tom then. And don't get all touchy with me, it's not my fault if you can't keep it in your trousers." She mumbled against Tom's chest.

"For the last time, that wasn't what I wanted! Look, Alex, just calm down, please! Bethan will be home soon and she'll be able to tell you whatever you need to know." Hal tried to appease the flustered ghost.

"Calm! CALM! That's easy for you to fucking say!" The lights flickered temperamentally in response to her anger. "I can't breathe. I actually can't breathe!" she said pulling away from Tom and starting to pace again.

"You don't need to breathe Alex, do as Hal said and sit down. You're not doing yourself any good. You've got yourself in a right state." Tom caught her gently as she walked past him again and backed her towards the sofa. She sat down next to Hal, crossing her arms huffily. Only seconds later the front door opened and Alex was back on her feet in a flash with a panicked look. Bethan walked into the lounge with a grim expression.

"How's she taking it?" she asked.

"Not well." Tom answered sadly.

"No, I can imagine." Bethan replied. "If one of you could do the honours and translate, I'll answer any questions she has."

The boys looked towards Alex, who took a deep breath to calm herself.

"Where was... it... found? And how?" she asked uncomfortably.

"She wants to know how and where she was found." Hal repeated, emphasising the word "she" as a mark of respect. Alex nodded towards him in appreciation.

"She was found by a dog walker, in woods just outside Cardiff. Do you really want to hear the details Alex?" Bethan asked cautiously.

"Yes." Alex answered firmly.

"Are you sure? It won't be easy." Hal asked concernedly, while Tom watched on sadly. Alex thought for a moment, but nodded. "Yes she does." Hal repeated for her.

"Ok. You were in a shallow grave in some undergrowth close to a well trodden footpath. They've already got a cause of death. The coroner has said your throat was cut, and you had some other small cuts and bruises, as though there'd been a struggle. And yet there was no trace of anyone else's DNA on your body, not even under your fingernails. There's no explanation as to why, but I expect Rook is confident enough that no one will ask questions that he doesn't feel like he really needs to go into too many details."

"So it is being treated as suspicious?" Hal asked, frowning.

"A murder investigation has been opened, but unsurprisingly there's absolutely no documented evidence of the perpetrator. Rook's been very thorough. I'm sorry, that's all the detail I know. I haven't looked up the report itself because of the risk of Rook noticing me again. The sooner he feels comfortable that I'm not a threat, the sooner I can move out of here and we can all get back to normal."

"So, what happens now?" Alex asked shakily, trying to hold herself together. Tom stepped over to her and put an arm around her.

"What happens now?" Hal repeated.

"Well, next you need to be formerly identified."

"After this long? Surely they should use DNA samples and dental records, due to the decomposition?" Hal asked, shooting an apologetic look at Alex. She shook her head to shake away his concern and frowned interestedly, waiting for the answer.

"Well, that's the strangest thing. They really must have been waiting for the right time, because your body has hardly decomposed at all Alex. In fact, they've put your time of death at between 10pm and 2am this Thursday just gone. Your body was discovered on Saturday morning."

"So, my family are coming here? To... identify me? When?" Alex gulped, swallowing the lump in her throat

"When will her family be here?" Hal asked softly.

"Tomorrow afternoon." Bethan replied. Alex stepped away from Tom and sat back on the sofa next to Hal. He hesitantly rested a hand on her knee and gave it a small squeeze. She smiled slightly at the awkward gesture.

"I want to be there." She said after a moment, her voice thick with determination.

"Alex, think carefully about this. It's not gonna to be easy, seeing yourself like that." Tom said concernedly.

"I spent ten hours stuck in a basement watching myself get eaten by maggots, believe me, this will be a doddle. And anyway, I'm not going to see my body, I'm going to see my family. I miss them Tom, and I haven't seen them for months. I need to do this." She told him remarkably calmly.

Hal watched the ghost thoughtfully for a minute before turning back to Bethan. "Alex wants to be there."

"Well... if you're sure Alex. But we won't be able to come in with you. It'll be family members only. You'll be on your own."

"I need to see them."

Hal nodded solemnly at the ghost, a fresh pang of guilt creeping into the pit of his stomach. Despite all her taunting about him drinking her blood, tangentially or not, he had been astonished at just how easily she had forgiven him for letting her die in the first place. In fact, she had been adamant that he was not to blame. Her exoneration had done little to sooth his overburdened conscience. He had agreed to go to the museum with her. He had played along, albeit begrudgingly, when Tom had insisted he leave a message on her phone. He had turned up to their date blood drunk and dangerous. And he had recruited Cutler all those years ago and turned him into the monster that had killed her in an effort to emulate his maker. Hal knew it was his actions that had led to her death and he couldn't forgive himself, even if she thought she could.

Truthfully, he was doubtful that seeing her family again would help her, but it was what she wanted and the least he could do was stand by her. After all, she hadn't just forgiven him. She and Tom had got him through his time strapped to the chair in the living room, and for that, he owed them everything.

The next day, they made their way to the mortuary in pensive silence. Alex had insisted that she would be fine on her own, but they had all called into work sick so that they could be there with her nevertheless, even Bethan. Hal parked the car as close to the entrance as he could and turned off the engine, but it was a while before the silence was broken, none of them really knowing what to say. Alex stared nervously out of the window from her seat next to Bethan in the back of the car. She flinched as a dark blue car came into sight at the end of the driveway. It wound its way through the car park slowly, before stopping in a parking bay only a few metres from theirs. Tom turned around in the passenger seat to look at her.

"Alex." She turned to look at him, her eyes full of panic and unshed tears. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to." She blinked, and wiped her eyes quickly with the back of one of her sleeves. She turned away again and watched intently as a large man got out of the other car, followed by a woman in a police uniform and a man in a dark suit.

"Is that your dad Alex?" Tom asked softly. She nodded but didn't take her eyes from the man. She sniffed and wiped her eyes again. "Who's that with him?"

"The woman is a family liaison officer, the man is probably the detective assigned to the case." Bethan answered solemnly. They watched as the trio slowly made their way towards the drab, concrete cladded building.

"I should follow them." Alex stated bluntly.

"Only if you want to." Hal turned to look at her.

"I do. Right." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to steady herself before rentaghosting out of the car, following her father into the building.

"She'll be alright." Tom said, more to himself than to the others.

"Of course she will. And she knows where we are if it's too much for her." Hal stated matter-of-factly, trying hard to cover-up the concern in his voice.

Almost an hour passed in wordless silence. Tom had taken to drawing his own interpretation of the Honolulu Heights household using stick men traced in the condensation forming on the windows, much to Hal's consternation. He had been sat with his eyes closed, twirling his double-one domino the entire time, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. Bethan had come to know Hal well enough to realise that while he might look as though he was distracted at times like these, he was really anything but. She wondered what he was thinking about, then decided that she probably didn't want to know. With her in such close quarters, it was probably something to do with killing her.

Bethan leant her forehead lightly against the window next to her and yawned sleepily. It seemed odd to care so much about someone she had never seen or heard, but care she did, and knowing what Alex would be facing alone in that building was heartbreaking. She was glad the ghost had Tom and Hal for company. She couldn't imagine what being invisible to the world must be like. She sighed and caught a movement from the corner of her eye as Hal shifted slightly. Out of habit she looked to the rear view mirror, but of course, she couldn't see his reflection in it. She didn't need to – she already knew he was looking at her through it.

Despite knowing in the back of her mind that she should be worried, all she could think was that it was a shame she couldn't see him. He did have lovely eyes. Actually, he had lovely everything. It had been easy to forgive him for the shower incident, considering it really had been as much her fault as it was his. Morbid curiosity had been the first excuse to pop into her head, and it had played a part, but the truth was she really had found it difficult to resist him. She had known that the only place his lips would have ended up was firmly clamped to her neck, but it hadn't stopped her from wanting him to kiss her. Until she had come to her senses and realised she was nothing more than prey. Luckily, she had never been a fan of modern cult vampires. She had been dragged along to the cinema to see the first of the Twilight movies, but had found herself treating it more as a comedy than a romance. The friend that had insisted she come with her, Harriet, had been very frustrated by this, and called her a "proper weirdo", citing Edward Cullen as "well lush". While Hal might also fall under the esteemed category of "well lush", he didn't look quite good enough to drive Bethan to suicide. Not quite, but then again it had been a close run thing that night.

She realised with a start that she might actually be staring directly at him in the mirror. She darted her eyes away from it, turning her attention to the car park instead. It was best not to think about him at all, lest her wandering eyes got them both into trouble again. She took to looking at the cars parked around them, picking out likely candidates for missing road tax or insurance through force of habit. A black BMW parked under the shade of a sprawling oak tree caught her eye, but it wasn't the car that concerned her. It was the driver, barely visible in the dim shadows cast by the branches, but still recognisable.

"Oh my God. Rook's here."

Alex had been wrong. Seeing her body laid out on the mortuary slab was much worse than seeing it in the basement. Which really didn't make any sense to her. But then she had never been particularly logical. It wasn't as though not looking at it was really any better, considering the only other person in the room was her Dad. His cry of anguish when they had pulled back the sheet to reveal her face was a sound she knew she would never forget. It was the audible agony of losing a child in one distraught sound. As he sobbed he stroked her cheeks, kissed her hair, told her he loved her and said goodbye. And she had wept with him. For the first time since she had been trapped in the cellar, she had finally cried. It felt strange, to mourn her own passing, but oddly right as well. She felt alive with Tom and Hal, because for all intents and purposes, she was. They could see her, touch her, talk to her. Her father could not. Her grief was for him, the father she had lost because she had died.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed when she finally followed him out of the room. The detective had gone, the information he had needed already confirmed, for all the good it would do. Not that she really cared about that. Cutler had already suffered his punishment for killing her, and the investigation would go no further with that bastard Rook pulling the strings. The family liaison officer sat by her father's side and explained that there were organisations that could help him and her brothers in their time of need. He hadn't been interested, as she had suspected, only wanting to know when her body would be released to them.

"I want to have her buried properly as soon as possible. She deserves that. She shouldn't be alone in there any longer than she has to be." He had said quietly. That had brought fresh tears to her eyes. The family liaison officer explained that now that her identity was confirmed, her body would be released to her family immediately. "Monday. We'll bury her on Monday. There's a rhyme they use for when children are born I think. Her mother used to say it before all the kids were born, her and her brothers. She was born on a Monday."Fair of face" or something, it goes. She's certainly beautiful. Or she was anyway. She always will be to me." He said, staring blankly straight ahead, the shock of seeing her body still plainly visible in his eyes.

She'd heard enough. She left him there with the police officer, stumbling almost blindly out of the building, not even bothering to rentaghost back to the car. Tom was the first one out, and she all but fell into him as he gathered her into his arms and held her tight. Tom had many good qualities, but his hugs were right at the top of Alex's list at that moment. Hal and Bethan weren't far behind him, watching on concernedly. She took a few deep breaths to steady herself before pulling away and wiping her eyes.

"You alright?" Tom asked worriedly.

"Let's just go home." She answered, avoiding the issue.

"Yea, we should. No point staying here for any longer than we need to. We should definitely go home." Tom rushed. Alex knew that expression. The anxious smile, the apprehensive tone of voice, the sideways glances. Something was wrong. She followed his gaze to a car parked on the other side of the car park.

"Alex, he's right. We should go." Hal ventured, coming to stand infront of her to block her view of the car. He was trying to rectify Tom's mistake, but it was too late for that.

She stepped around him and started walking towards it. And suddenly, as she stared at the grey suited man in the posh black car, she was reminded of the rage she had felt when Hal had been left with her in the basement. Cutler was gone, but she was far from appeased. She could hear the others following behind her as she began to run, calling for her to stop, that she shouldn't be doing this. She didn't care. Rook saw them coming and smoothly got out of the car just as she reached it, shutting his door unconcernedly. She punched the bonnet, creating a fist shaped dent in it. Rook stared at it and raised an eyebrow, but he didn't move.

"Smug bastard!" She swung at him, but her fists just flew through him, as if he wasn't even there. It frustrated her even more, knowing that it was she who was the anomaly, the smoke on the breeze, the ghost. She was vaguely aware of Hal, Tom and Bethan arriving behind her, but she didn't stop. "Fucking wanker! You kept my body for months before you gave it back to them! They've been waiting, holding onto the hope that I was still alive for all that time and now you've got the audacity to come here, today of all fucking days! My Dad didn't deserve this.I didn't deserve this!" She started sobbing again, and Tom grabbed her from behind, pulling her back away from Rook. She collapsed in a heap in his arms, and he sat down with her, rocking her steadily to calm her.

"You've got a nerve haven't you? What are you doing here Rook?" Hal demanded.

"Good afternoon Mr Yorke. Mr McNair. Bethan, and Alex too I presume. Just making sure that everything runs smoothly. It is my job after all." He replied, smiling cheerfully.

"Well as you can see, everything is in hand, so if you could kindly bugger off. You had no place coming here to gloat." Hal glared at him. Rook's mirthful expression didn't change.

"I was under the impression that this is what Alex wanted. Her family can grieve for her now and she can move on with her life. Well, her death. And what of you Bethan? How are you? It's been a while since we last saw each other. Has living with the three wise monkeys here made you reconsider my offer yet? Just to be clear, this is the last chance you'll get to accept."

"Offer? What offer?" Hal asked warily.

"I offered Bethan the chance to join the organisation I work for." Rook smirked, seeming pleased that she hadn't told them about it already.

"I'd rather die." Bethan answered coldly, taking the others by surprise.

"Oh Bethan. Sweet, beautiful, young Bethan. Trust me when I say that that can be arranged." He smiled warmly despite the obvious threat. Before any of them could react, Hal had stalked forward and grabbed Rook by his collar, pinning him up against the tree trunk. Tom was up in a flash standing next to the two of them and reaching for the stake that Bethan knew he carried in the back of his trousers, just in case.

"Hal." He warned, though his usually jovial eyes were fixed on Rooks' with a piercing glare.

"I've had just about enough of you. Leave us all alone, Bethan included." Hal growled at him.

"Now now Hal. This can't be helping your recovery." Rook calmly brushed his hands aside and walked past him back towards the car, straightening his tie as he went. He opened the door and got in, starting the engine and winding down the window. "Keep looking over your shoulder Bethan. Remember, you've been noticed." He called cheerfully as he drove away. Bethan's face lost some of its colour and her legs felt weak, but she swallowed her fear down, not allowing herself to be beaten by him again.

Tom walked back to where Alex was still sat on the ground to help her up. As they all headed back towards the car, Hal hesitantly laid a comforting hand on Bethan's back. She glanced at him in surprise but kept walking.

"You'll be alright. We'll make sure of it. He's just a weasel." Even he didn't look convinced by his own attempt to reassure her.