BBC Ghosts fanfic

7 - When Allison isn't home

The following day, Luna awoke with eagerness. At first she had been terrified, but now she was just excited to know them more. She had promised Mary to show her the plants in her room later, but first she wanted to see Ali off.

Allison had come home from the pub with Mike, neither were drunk, but both pretty much immediately went to bed. When she said goodnight to Luna, she mentioned she had to meet up with a friend and would be back in the afternoon, but had to leave first thing in the morning.

Heading downstairs, Luna gave a cheery "good morning!" to the only two ghosts that seemed to be up at 7am: Fanny ignored her, but the Captain smiled and said good morning back.
Rounding the corner to the kitchen for breakfast, what she didn't see was the Captain sigh in the direction of Fanny. He made a mental note to ask Patrick to try and talk some sense into her - when the man got up, of course. The Captain hated to admit it, but he feared he wouldn't be able to keep his secret if he tried to talk to her about it himself.

Mike was up too, groaning slightly at his headache. They ate their toast together while Allison rushed around them, making sure she had everything she needed before she left for the day.
"Coat, keys, phone, wallet,..." she mumbled to herself as she darted out of the kitchen to the hallway to put on her boots. Mike made up a piece of jam toast and handed it to Allison before she could forget to eat, and she stuffed it gratefully in her mouth as she shouldered her bag.
"Ok, gotta go now, bye babe," she hugged Mike quickly and took another bite of toast, "and bye, Luna! I've got my phone on me just in case Mike sets the house on fire!" She joked, mouth full. Fanny passed quickly behind her, grimacing at her unladylike breakfast manners.
"See you later!" Luna called back, just in time to hear the door slam shut. A few moments later, the sound of the car engine was gone, and Luna and Mike were alone with the ghosts.

——/——/——

Mike, much to his dismay, had been given a to-do list for the day while Allison was out. There were only 3 things on it, but Mike, if he knew himself - which he did - would inevitably get through around 1.5 of those tasks.

Luna offered to help; she had seen Allison point to it on the kitchen table as she left, and Luna read it aloud to them both once she had left.

" '1 - paint the indoor windowsills in the living room', ok, that's definitely something I can help with." Luna said confidently, "Not much can go wrong there."
Mike huffed, "You'd be surprised. What else is there?"

"Ok, '2 - finish unboxing our stuff.' " Luna looked up at Mike, "You guys moved in, like, months ago. How have you still not unpacked everything?"
Mike shrugged, rubbing his temples as he forced himself to be more awake, "Erm, well, I guess it's all the non-essential stuff like decorations, photo frames, books, etc."
Luna gasped in mock-offence, "books aren't essential?!"
"Well," chuckled Mike, "we have got a whole library - plus we've been so busy with renovations and part-time jobs there hasn't really been time for reading."
"Fair point."

Mike stood up from the table to stretch, "What's number 3?"
"It just says '3 - don't' " Luna looked puzzled, "don't what?"
"Oh, that's just her way of telling me to not pull a Glastonbury."
"A what?"
"Never mind, long story."

Luna shrugged it off, and Mike tidied the kitchen before saying, "Right, I'll get on with the unboxing - Allison mentioned you and the, uh, dead people wanted to get to know each other better. So why don't you go do that, and I'll come back downstairs later and we can do the painting together?"

"Excellent planning, Michael." Luna almost jumped at the Captain's sudden appearance in the doorway, and watched as he stepped aside to let Mike through.
"I'm always upstairs if you need me, or if the ghosts weird you out or anything. Good luck with it all" said Mike, smiling at her before turning to walk up the stairway.