BBC Ghosts fanfic

2 - Why is it always me?

The Captain was woken from his ghostly slumber by the strangest and most disturbing sounds he had heard in a while. At this ungodly hour??

Muffled wails and cries, the sounds of which filtered through the walls, appeared to come from the room next to him. The Captain sat bolt upright. Luna's room.

He hesitated before going through the shared wall - an officer and a gentleman cannot simply go unannounced into a young girl's quarters. It is unseemly.

But his mind was made by the sudden scream that jolted him out of his indecision. This was urgent. She could be in trouble.

Arriving in her room, he rushed to her bedside before he realised what was happening.

Luna was still asleep, but was thrashing and crying in obvious distress, her limbs tangling in the duvet and blanket as she frantically kicked out.

He suddenly became horrifyingly aware that he could do nothing to help her, to wake her up, or to drag her out of the nightmare. A wave of panic swept over him as he looked about, distraught at his uselessness.

But aha! Not entirely... Luckily though, his plan didn't need him to go far.
In fact, the plan came to him.
Before he even stepped out into the corridor, Thomas and Julian had arrived in the room, as theirs were next to and one door down from hers, respectively.
They both wore a worried expression, and glanced at the Captain for instruction - a habit they'd never admit to, but one they knew they'd be lost without.

"She's having a nightmare. And a bally awful one, at that!" the Captain surmised hurriedly. "Julian, can you wake her up?"

At this moment, Kitty entered the room, having heard the commotion from her room down the corridor. Her face morphed into one of shock and concern. Luna had stopped her thrashing, but it was replaced by sporadic episodes of wails and whimpers. All while still deeply trapped in unconsciousness.

"Why is it always me?" Julian complained, but set about looking around the room for objects to make loud noises with nonetheless.

"Good man" the Captain observed, choosing to ignore his whining.

"Oh goodness!" Kitty exclaimed, not content with standing there uselessly, "I'm going to fetch Allison!"

"Yes, thank you, Kitty - do hurry." The Captain instructed, clutching his swagger stick to his body.
As Kitty left the room, he glanced up and caught Thomas' eye. They shared a quick but knowing glance. The Captain quickly averted his gaze, choosing instead to encourage Julian as he summoned the strength to push a glass of water off the table.

Thomas looked down at his feet as he remembered the last time he had seen a situation like this one.
He sighed despairingly - at least he had been able to wake the other ghost up from their night terrors. It seemed PTSD affected soldiers even after death.

The Captain hadn't had any for a few years now, but when he used to, Thomas was always there to bring him back to reality and reassure him: no guns, no bombs, no threat - just bad poetry from a well meaning poet. The Captain never had let Thomas know how much he appreciated it, but he assumed the young Regent knew.

The two had become closer because of this, and a respect and understanding had formed between the startlingly different men. They both agreed, however, to keep it just between the two of them.

Dragged out of his thoughts by the sound of frantic footfalls, Thomas glanced up to see Allison rush into the room and to Luna's bedside - nearly going through Julian in her haste.

"Hey, Luna, hey, wake up." She said, softly at first, but louder once Luna didn't seem to respond. "Please, come on - it's ok, you're having a bad dream, wake up, sweetheart."