Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Robin liked to keep an eye on the weather, which meant Alison ended up keeping an eye on the weather. Today was due to be rainy and wet - not torrential, but unerringly present. They should be able to stay inside most of the day, all of it if they were lucky. 

Well, Mike and Alison would. The ghosts didn’t really appear to care about the rain since they couldn’t really get wet. That did mean that the rain would be going straight through them which had to feel somewhat odd. She’d never thought to ask really, but it must feel strange going through walls and other objects even if it wasn’t painful like moving through living creatures. 

They had considered getting a cat at one point but had nixed that idea fairly swiftly. A cat would probably be easily able to see the ghosts, but might walk through them without a care. Or otherwise be very disappointed when they couldn’t receive affection or food from their spectral owners. 

For today they had decided on a board games day. Thomas had been the winner at Scrabble with Lady Button and The Captain hot on his heels. Alison had been utterly destroyed. Game two was Catan, which Julian took. The Captain had then insisted Risk was next. Alison was a little worried they were starting too late at 2pm, but agreed to move the pieces so long as she didn’t have to play. 

This left the players as The Captain, Thomas, Julian, Robin, Fanny, and Humphrey. Pat and Kitty were outside, and Mike had bailed after Catan to play some more modern games. 

The game had swiftly devolved into a typical game of Risk with battles going on off as well as on the board. 

“I’m just saying, I don’t think dice rolls are the best way to decide how the battles go!” The Captain was saying. “There’s no way my men would have lost a battle to Robin’s!”

“Sore loser.” Robin smirked from the other side of the table as his green troops marched further into Africa. 

“Well, I don’t really see what the alternative is.” Alison murmured as she moved the relevant pieces. 

“Fisticuffs?” Thomas cut in.

Humphry raised his eyebrows, probably because of the lack of hands he could raise. “I think I’ll do better with the dice really.” 

Julian went out first and stomped off in a huff, murmuring something about having been to Cambridge. Unbelievably Thomas pouted less when he went out second, instead staying with the game and holding up Humphrey when appropriate so he could have a better view of the board. Robin was third, and wandered off to find where Julian had got to. The pair reappeared in short order for a game of chess, with which both of them were more comfortable. 

“Oh ho ho, Fanny. I believe we have you now!” The Captain was looking very pleased with himself, his red troops dominating the map. 

Lady Button’s eyes were calm and concentrated. “I wouldn’t be so sure. I do think I have a rather good plan.”

“I’ve had a plan since the start! Oh yes, it’s all coming together.” His raised chin and straight back really did make him look the part, unlike the Edwardian lady he was eyeing across the board. 

Humphry was being held up by Thomas, “Erm, would either of you be up for an alliance per chance?”

This was probably a very sensible idea, especially if he could get one with the Captain. Red playing pieces were abundant, with Fanny’s blue currently only spread across two countries. To be fair, Humphrey wasn’t doing much better with four to his name. 

“No.” Came from The Captain and Fanny in perfect unison. They had yet to break eye contact. 

Alison caught Thomas’ eye and could see he was also trying not to laugh. He leaned in closer to her so the others didn’t hear and said, “Those two are always so competitive with games like this.”

She laughed lightly. “What, like you and The Captain at Twister?”

The poet scoffed in response. “I have matured immeasurably since then!”

Suppressed giggles broke out from everyone within earshot. Humphrey proceeded with the rest of his turn before Thomas could get himself all worked up about his game based prowess. 

He didn’t last long and went out on his next turn. Then it was time for Fanny to play her ace, and the bet she’d made came off flawlessly, flooding her countries with reinforcements as The Captain went bug eyed. He didn’t say anything as she started systematically dismantling his empire. 

“Wahay Fanny, go get him for me!” Humphrey cheered her on as she started on revenge for his untimely demise out of the game. 

“Oh, there will be no mercy now.” Fanny replied primly as she directed Alison to make her moves and rolls. 

And there was none. Julian and Robin rejoined the group to jeer as the Captain was run off the board, allowing Lady Button to claim world domination with a very unladylike shriek of victory. “I did it! I beat you all!”

Alison laughed. “Yes, well done! I think it’s time to give the board games a rest for now though, to give everyone a little time to calm down.”

This was mostly directed at The Captain who had plonked himself down on the sofa and was attempting to impersonate someone who didn’t care that they’d lost a game, but in fact very much did. The most sympathetic pair of ghosts were still nowhere to be seen, so he’d probably have to wait a minute for Pat to return with some comforting words for him to pretend to brush off. 

As if sensing his buddy needed some help, Pat appeared through one of the walls. He clocked The Captain swiftly and headed over. “Oh, what’s up mate? How were the games?”

Alison tidied up the game and put the box back in the cupboard before heading into the kitchen for a snack. Mike was already in there getting started on dinner. She gave him a welcome kiss. “Thanks for starting on dinner. We’ve just finished a game of Risk. Lady Button made a hell of a comeback over The Captain.”

Mike’s face showed surprise. “No way! Over an actual military captain?”

“I know right! Don’t let him hear you say that though, he’s already sulking about it.”

“She’s one smart old lady.”

“Oh, don’t let her hear you say that .”

Alison joined in with the task of cooking, cleaning up after Mike as he went, and covering the dishes while she was at it. Mike had taken the liberty of making a large amount of pasta sauce so they could reheat and eat it over the week instead of realising they were hungry then just ordering takeaway as they were too hangry to cook. 

It was in these moments Alison could just relax in domestic bliss and simply be happy. 

The ghosts sometimes liked to join them for dinner, so Alison tended to pull the chairs out for them out of habit. Today they gained almost a complete cohort with only Julian and Kitty missing. She frowned. It wasn’t like those two to miss dinner. Or hang out together. 

She let Mike start his dinner with gusto as she turned to the chair next to him. “Pat, do you know where Kitty is? I haven’t seen her all day.”

Pat looked up from sticking his face as close to Mike’s bowl as was reasonably feasible. “Oh, Kitty. Yes, it’s odd she hasn’t come in for dinner. She was trying to guide insects out of puddles of rain when I last saw her; Daley used to do the same thing as a little boy. I’ll go out and get her in, make sure she’s alright.”

“Keep an eye out for Julian too!”

“Oh, yeah. He’s probably fine though.”

Pat meandered out through the wall, calling out for Kitty. Alison and Mike discussed the latest of Obi’s dates before sliding into the less fun subject of the finances of the house. She gave it as much attention as she could stomach before offering to make some cookies for pudding to distract Mike. It was only halfway through this task she realised that she still hadn’t seen Pat, Kitty, or Julian. 

Thomas was sitting on the counter next to her. He was looking at the cookie dough with a certain level of lust. “These look like they will be so much sweeter than the treats of my time. I do wish I was able to taste them.”

“You’ll be able to smell them cooking?” She offered. 

He swung his legs and leaned over the bowl. “More chocolate perhaps?”

She dumped the rest of the chocolate in, much to his delight. A few moments of massaging it in and they were quickly rolled into balls and tossed in the oven. 

Thomas gazed into the oven as she washed her dough caked hands. “Such beauty, and still yet unfinished…”

“Feel free to stay and watch them if you like.” She said. “I’m going to look for Kitty. I don’t know if you guys can get stuck somewhere, but if she was still alive I’d guess that’s what had happened.”

“She’d never been stuck playing hide and seek before, but there’s a first time for everything.” Thomas stood and brushed the imaginary wrinkles out of his clothes. 

“And Julian has never been one to entertain her games.”

Alison grabbed her coat and shoes before heading to the front door to begin a laborious sweep of the grounds. Or screaming like a crazy person across the grounds. Maybe she should just get on the roof with binoculars? No, the now dense rain would make that difficult. She pulled her hood over her head in preparation. 

“You going outside?” An incredulous voice came from her left. Mike was in his cozy clothes now, holding an empty mug which had previously contained hot chocolate. 

“Yeah. Lost Kitty. She’s been gone a while and everyone that’s gone to look for her hasn’t come back.”

“Oh. Okay.” He looked around for appropriate gear and started to put it on over his tracksuit. 

“You want to come with me?” Alison was a little incredulous, Mike loved to be warm and cozy.

“Of course! You’ve lost already dead people to it, you can’t go all alone or I’ll end up going out to look for you. Might as well go together.”

“She is already accompanied, Michael.” She’d almost forgotten Thomas was still there until he spoke. She shot him a look complete with raised eyebrow. He was looking at Mike anyhow so it didn’t work. 

With both the living humans now complete in their wet gear the trio ventured out. Alison called out for Kitty as they went. No luck in the back garden. No Kitty near the edge of the west fields. They’d already established she wasn’t in the house. Thunder growled overhead.

“Oh, oh, Alison! Over there!” 

Thomas had spotted Kitty, Julian, and Pat standing in the edge of the lake. After pointing to them he strode off with purpose, Mike and Alison trailing behind. The three of them were up to their mid thigh (on average) and leaning over to look at something in the middle of their little group. She supposed getting into the lake didn’t matter to them. To be fair, it wouldn’t really matter to her either at the moment as she was already soaked. 

“They’re in the lake?” Mike asked as they marched towards it. 

“Yes.” Alison squinted but still couldn’t make out what they were looking at. “They’re looking at something, but I don’t know what yet.”

She called out once she was on the water’s edge. “Pat! What is it?”

“It’s a duckling, Alison! It’s all tangled up and stuck! We herded the others out but this one won’t budge.”  Pat walked up out of the water onto the raised area Alison had found to stand on. 

“It’s a stuck duckling.” She reported to Mike. 

“Ah.”

Alison turned back to Pat. “So why have you been out here for so long? Why not come and get us in the first place?”

“These two were a state when I got here. Kitty was sobbing in a right panic, so Julian couldn’t leave her, and then they couldn’t coordinate to herd the ducks out of the mess they’d got stuck in. I managed to pull them together, and we were debating if there was a way to get the last one free without dragging you out into the rain.” 

“If I’d had my way we’d have got you half an hour ago.” Julian had joined them on the platform, expression disgruntled yet still watching Kitty faff around in the reeds to no effect.

Mike looked at her for an update as she finished talking to seemingly thin air. She obliged. “They’ve got the others moved but there’s one still there tangled in the reeds. Just over there, near that flower, can you see it? Yeah, could you…?”

Her face was pleading.

He scowled.

“I don’t have wellies on! You do!” Possibly a moot point but she pointed it out anyway.

“Fine, fine.” He grumbled as he waded into the water. Kitty finally took some notice of those on the bank while she was getting out of the way to avoid Mike lumbering through her. She swapped places with Thomas who followed Mike to supervise the untangling. 

Alison shifted from foot to foot and watched the action in the lake as Kitty told her all about the afternoon. She flinched at the thunder, but there was no lightning as far as the eye could see. 

One minute.

Two minutes. 

Three minutes. 

Then Mike and Thomas rejoined them and she could breath properly again. 

Kitty squealed over the duckling. “Thank goodness he’s alright! His family is right over there.”

“Kitty says thank you for rescuing him. The other ducks are over there.” She mirrored Kitty’s point for Mike. “Complicated?”

“It’s not easy to do delicate work with a struggling ball of fluff and freezing cold, wet fingers.”

She gave him a friendly nudge. “I think I can make a hero a hot chocolate. Let’s get inside and dry.” 

They picked their way across the now flooded fields. Searching for footing was a bit of an issue with the ground now a muddy, waterlogged mess which they each slipped over in more than once. It turned out ghosts could also slip in the mud, which she leant when Julian took an ungraceful tumble. Mike also noticed this as she suddenly stopped and turned her eyes skyward. 

“What?” He asked. 

“So you know how Julian has no trousers on? He just stacked it spectacularly. The ground around us is now being cursed at in a spectacular fashion, and the shirt is no longer doing its job.”

“It’s quite incredible how creative he can be with vulgar language.” Thomas added from behind Mike. 

Where Julian had struck out alone in front, the other three ghosts had joined the line Alison and Mike had formed. Mike was in the front, then Thomas - checking the footing was safe for a lady such as Alison - Alison, Kitty, and Pat to bring up the rear. Pat was complaining the least. She figured he was probably used to dealing with being stuck out in the rain to collect wayward campers. 

“Come on now everyone, it’s not that far!” Yep, there was that Pat cheeriness. She wished she could be that cheery, but she’d just plunged knee deep into some mud. 

This was quickly forgotten when Mike and Thomas vanished. 

A wet thud was all she heard, then nothing. Looking into a dip which had appeared right in front of her, she saw the two of them lying motionless at the bottom. 

The next few hours were a blur. 

Phone Call. Hospital. CPR. Waiting. Tears. Mike’s family. Tears. Buried wire. Electric shock. Tears. 

Dead. 

But she’d known that. She’d known he was dead before she even called the ambulance. In the couple of seconds he was above his body, before he moved on, he’d told her he loved her. She’d called the ambulance anyway, in case she was wrong. In case they could do something. They had to do something. 

But they couldn’t. 

Standing. Waiting. What to do. What now. 

In the end she took a taxi home. Mike’s family had offered for her to come back with them so she wouldn’t be alone, but she wanted to just be away from it all. It was pitch black outside as the taxi dropped her off.

The creak of the door felt cold and the house too big and empty as she stood dripping in the foyer. She’d been crying so long she felt numb now. Taking off her wet clothes was just automatic, nothing in her head. 

But her brain, now grasping for any other straws to focus on but the painful absence of someone who should be there, now supplied her with information. More lights were on than she remembered. And she’d left the cookies in the oven, but no smell of burning reached her. 

Upon entering the kitchen she saw the cookies, albeit burnt, out of the oven and laying on top of it the way one would leave them to cool. She tried to pull at her memory. Did she tell someone about the cookies? Did she take them out? 

She was sure she hadn’t been back inside. She’d stayed by Mike the whole time while the ghosts split up to hustle Thomas out the way when he came to, to try and keep her calm, and to futilely supervise the arrival of the ambulance. The paramedics had had to pry her from his side. 

She just stared blankly at the cookies. 

She must have been there for several minutes before a noise behind her roused her into a slow turn. All of the ghosts were gathered in the doorway. She regarded them with hollow eyes. “What do I do now?”

The ever practical Captain answered, soft yet direct. “You’ve had a traumatic experience, Alison. Take a shower, get into bed, and put the radio on in the background. We can also keep you company if you prefer.”

The tears came back into the corners of her eyes. “Please. Don’t leave me alone.”

“Of course not, dear one. Come on now, up we go.”

The ghosts spoke in soothing tones as they cajoled Alison up the stairs, giving every supporting word they could think of. It was met with silence, but they didn’t mind. Alison just let the words run over her, glad for the noise but also for not having to respond. 

Pat and Thomas were the only ones not to go with her, leaving them standing in the kitchen. 

The former scout leader turned to face his companion. “When are you going to tell her?”

Thomas walked over to the cookies and stared at them as Alison had. “I don’t know, Pat. I don’t know how she’ll take this.”

Then he picked up a cookie and put it in his mouth. 

Chapter Text

Alison hadn’t given the expected reaction at all when Thomas showed her he now appeared to be alive again. It had only been the next day, as really Thomas now had needs that he would only be able to hide for so long. Pat and Thomas had also revealed things to the other ghosts at the same time. 

Alison had just looked up at him from her bed with wide brown eyes. Thomas shuffled from foot to foot as she stared. Then slowly, slowly, she reached out one of her hands until it brushed his. 

He took a deep breath in. 

It was quickly squeezed out of him again when Alison shot up from the bed and squeezed him. She pulled him tight to her and pressed her face into his neck, crying again. Thomas wasn’t really sure how to feel about this. He’d initially stood with his arms straight out, but managed to pull himself together enough to fold them around her. 

She’d simply refused to let go. The other ghosts had been stunned. Robin had tried to put his hand though Thomas straight away, much to his regret. 

It was now a few days later and they were still in the same room. Still in the same clothes. Alison had done the bare minimum required of her with regards to the death and funeral, poking listlessly at her phone. Thomas had grabbed food for them out of the cupboards. He had even considered trying his hand at cooking (despite very little experience in this area) but Alison wouldn’t let him leave that long. She mostly wanted to lay in bed with her head on his chest. 

This in itself made Thomas very happy. He knew what her hair smelt like, how soft her skin was, the warmth of her breath. But the situation itself was wrong. She wasn’t eating properly. She hadn’t left the house, hell, she hadn’t even taken a shower. 

They both needed showers. Thomas had considered making an attempt but he couldn’t figure out how the darned thing worked - it was either freezing or scorchingly hot. No way he was putting his whole body in there. 

The fact they both needed showers was compounded by the fact that they were still both wearing the same clothes. In fact, Thomas had been wearing the same clothes for over 200 years now and they were finally becoming uncomfortable. The blood was still dried into his clothes from the fatal gunshot. He idly put his fingers through the hole and touched the now unblemished flesh.

These Alison could apparently ignore. Fine. But the third thing was going to be a problem. 

“My dear…” He spoke softly to Alison, effectively into her hair as she lay on him. “We are rapidly running out of acceptable food. If you wish, I can attempt to cook something. Pat can direct. But I will warn you it may not taste up to your standards as it will be my first attempt.”

Pat leaned in. “I’ll try. Hope you like baked beans.”

This fact seemed to have got Alison’s attention. “No, no, I…we should eat something real. I can do it…”

Unsteadily, she rolled up off the bed and planted her feet on the floor. She then stood and headed out the bedroom door for essentially the first time since she’d come in. Thomas hurried himself after her. He was glad he then had the pleasure of Julian popping up, his mouth opening to say something, and Fanny appearing like an avenging angel and practically rugby tackling him out of the room. 

The Captain, Kitty, and Robin greeted them in the kitchen. They looked relieved to see Alison enter the room. 

“Alison, you’re up! I’m so happy to see you out of bed.” Kitty greeted her friend warmly, wringing her hands together in the place of a hug. 

“Hi Kitty…” Alison murmured. “We need some food. What do you think we should have?”

“That’s just it I’m afraid.” The Captain cut in. “We had a look, and really, nothing remains in this kitchen that we can recommend you eat as a meal.”

Alison just tipped her head to look up at him with a blank expression. “Oh…”

Thomas felt his heart clench. He could solve this for her. “I believe I can remedy this for us. I shall venture out to the store to get supplies.”

She seemed to briefly light up, the ghost of a smile appearing. She turned to rummage in the pockets of her coat, handing him a plastic rectangle. Her smile warmed his heart, and she quickly thanked him before shuffling off, presumably to lay down again. Still a problem, but one that would have to be dealt with after physical needs were met. 

He looked down at the rectangle in his hand, suddenly uncertain. 

“Thomas, have you ever been to the shops before?” Pat’s face said he knew the answer to this already. 

“Well, not recently.” He objected. “But I’ve been to markets and such before. I really can’t imagine shopping has managed to change that drastically.”

“Well, I’m not sure. But Thomas, surely you should change?” Kitty tipped her head and eyed him up.

Thomas wasn’t sure he liked jeans after all. 

They felt oddly restrictive and itchy after years in his usual clothes (plus that one time he’d briefly swapped clothes with Robin for the novelty). When the ghosts had gathered to help him find clothes to change into, the caveman had remarked that going out for food hadn’t been such a faff in his day. Fanny reflected that at least Thomas would not have to chase the food down. 

In addition to the jeans, Kitty had pointed him to a colourful t-shirt with a cartoon cat on it that one of the visitors to the house must have left after a party. A nearby spot had also gifted him a denim jacket to match his jeans. The sunglasses had been picked up from a random table as he passed them by, and he was pretty sure the shoes were Alison’s. They didn’t quite fit right but it was better than nothing.

He was now walking down the road hoping the clean clothes and lack of bloodstains would make up for not having had a shower in a few days (centuries). Julian and Pat accompanied him. 

“So, when the attendant asks me to pay, I’m just to hand over this rectangle?” He asked Julian. 

“Yes, it’s the same rectangle she uses when paying for things online. Called a card. It, sort of, stores money for you.” Julian replied, waving his hands. “Just remember to pick up that magazine I put on the list.”

“Just stick to the list and you’ll be fine. I reckon we can make a few decent meals if you can get all that.” Pat pretended to pat the list Thomas held for emphasis. He curved his lips up in a smile at the thought. 

“Yes, The Captain assured me it should be a simple operation. Go to the corner shop out the drive and to the left past the horse farm, collect the items on the list, present them to the assistant in the shop, then provide them with the rectangle of money. Gather the items and return them home, followed by cooking Alison a pleasant dinner.” The last item would be the most difficult but should also have the biggest pay off in terms of improving Alison’s general wellbeing.

He parted ways with the two men at the boundary of the property. It was nice to finally be somewhere else; he hadn’t left the property since he had ended up stuck there. The trees wove new patterns with their branches, the light dappled across the floor in different ways. Twigs and leaves now crunched under his steps.

No horses were present when he walked past the farm which disappointed him a little - horses were still the same as in his time; it would have been nice to have something he knew how to correctly interact with. He could hear the cars that had replaced horses buzzing by in the distance, where they would hopefully stay. He had seen how fast they could move on the television and had no wish to experience it first hand. 

When he arrived at the shop it seemed rather unassuming. A house that someone had had outfitted into a store maybe. It was quite a surprise when the door jerked itself open as he approached. Thomas jerked back, looking around for who might have done this. He would have said it was a ghost but there didn’t seem to be any present.

As the entity didn’t seem to be malicious he snuck in past it when it opened again. He kind of wished he hadn’t. The lights were so harsh and bright, and vivid colours stabbed into his eyes from every angle. The music he wouldn’t have minded if it weren’t in combination with the rest of the sensory assault. He blinked, stunned. 

“Sir? Sir, are you okay? Do you need help?”

A woman had approached Thomas while he had been frozen. By her helpfulness and seeming uniform, he thought she was likely to be an employee of the store. He blinked hard a couple of times and forced himself to open his mouth. “Hello, ma’am. Er, yes, I’m afraid it is my first time in this establishment. I have been tasked with retrieving these items.”

He thrust the list in her direction. The brunette raised her eyebrows and accepted the crumpled paper. Uncrinkling it, her eyes scanned over the words as her head nodded. “Yeah, I think we have most of that in stock. Do you need help finding…all of them?”

Her voice raised for the last part of a sentence as though it was a question. From that, he deduced it was not standard to simply hand the list to an employee then have them acquire all of the items for you. What was it Pat had said? You bring the items to the cashier at the check out. Just match the names of the products to those on the list. “Um, no, I will bring them to you at the check out. Excuse me.”

Thomas turned on his heel and gingerly headed down the first aisle. It took him what felt like forever, drowning in a sea of neon coloured packets and insanely random product names, but he thought he had everything. He had initially tried to carry the lot in his arms and pockets, but about half way through his gathering mission he had had to abandon that endeavour. They all now sat in a very heavy plastic basket. He hefted it up onto the ledge in front of the cashier.

His head followed each item as she passed it beneath a red light and it beeped. Fascinating. 

She laughed. “Hahah, I guess. I don’t really think too hard about the barcodes, I just scan them.”

Whoops, he’d said that out loud. “Yes, indeed. What is the preferred pedestal for your thoughts? Mine is poetry.”

“Oh, cool! I’ll read it sometimes, but it’s not really my area. I’m studying maths.”

He frowned at her scanning food in a shop. Surely she didn’t have to do this while simultaneously studying to improve herself? “Are you sure?”

She laughed again. “Not right now! I need this job to have enough money to live. Not sure how long I’ll stay in it though; don’t really know what to do after I graduate yet. Anyhow, all done. How will you be paying?”

Thomas managed to get the card out of his jeans pocket on the second try. He offered it to the cashier. She seemed a little confused, but satisfied when the box she raised to press against it gave a beep. 

“Would you like your receipt?”

“Erm, yes, please.” Alison might need it. Or it could be useful for future reference if he had to do this again. 

Four plastic bags awaited him on the end of the counter. The material seemed awfully thin for transporting items like tins, but he didn’t have any other options. Stuffing the card and receipt into his pocket Thomas grabbed two bags in each hand, hoping the magic door would work for heading outside as well. He called a farewell to the lovely cashier, making a mental note to bring her a poem in repayment for her kindness, and strode off back down towards Button House.

Sadly no horses graced the field on his way back either. Seeing them might have helped the pain that was now rippling though his fingers. These fingers were built for writing, not physical labour damn it! He cursed whoever had decided these were good bags for transporting heavy items. 

Sharp red lines had been etched onto his hands by the time he made it back onto the grounds. The Captain was there to greet him with auxiliary support provided by Robin, who currently appeared to be watching a bug. 

“Ah! It looks like the mission was a success then, Thomas!” The Captain leaned over to inspect the bags as best he could. Thomas put them on the floor, allowing them to spill open a little, for some blessed relief to his hands. A tin rolled out, but he didn’t care at this point. 

“Baked…beans. So, no cooking?” Robin read the label off the tin that had stopped next to him.

Thomas shrugged. “I don’t think you’re meant to bake things twice.”

“Oh, no, no.” The Captain interrupted before they could get any further. “You can warm these again, or even eat them cold if you wish. Excellent field rations. They’ll keep forever. Come on Thomas, last stretch! Just to the house now!”

He groaned as he retrieved the tin and picked up the plastic nightmare hand slicers once again. 

Pat and Fanny had been elected as most likely to be able to help Thomas produce a decent meal for Alison. Kitty was supervising said lady of the house while the operation was underway, Robin could only roast meat, The Captain could only really offer ration style meals, and Julian was fairly useless in a kitchen. 

Fanny had suggested a nice three course meal with all the trimmings to help get Alison’s spirits back up. Thomas wasn’t sure he was up to that, but luckily Pat’s ideas seemed to be more practical. They had turned on the oven for some chips, got out a pot for the baked beans, and were on the way to frying some sausages. 

“Are they supposed to spit so, Pat?” Thomas worriedly asked as he flinched away from a drop of hot oil. 

“Yes, yes, just means they’re cooking.” The former youth group captain looked ravenous. Fanny gave him a sideways glance. 

Thomas bent down to look through the glass plate front of the oven. “On the other hand, these don’t appear to be doing anything at all.”

The chips didn’t say anything back but sat limply on their tray. Pat took a knee beside him. “Hum. Try a bit hotter maybe?”

Thomas did as instructed. At least all three of them could agree the beans seemed to be going as expected. “I hope this meal will be up to Alison’s standards.”

Fanny made a huffing noise. “She’d been eating cold food for days, Thomas, she doesn’t have standards any more. Besides, you’ve been eating the same. I’m surprised you’re not ravenous after that.”

Oh. Yes. Hungry. To be honest he’d mostly forgotten what the sensation felt like. He guessed he must be, but didn’t really want to think about that too hard at the minute lest he devour an entire pot of beans and neglect to save any. 

“Okay, sausages out! Oh my…yummy…those look perfect.” Pat had always been a bit weird about food after he died. Thomas also suspected he had been like that before he died as well. 

He took the chips out of the oven and peered at them. “These…don’t seem right.”

“Poke them with a knife and lick it.”

Thomas gave Pat a quizzical look, but poked one with a knife and placed his tongue against the tip. “Okkaayy, noph watt?”

“I’m guessing it’s not hot then.”

It was not. They put the chips back in for five more minutes while Thomas tried not to salivate over the sausages. Hunger had returned full force as a feeling. Maybe just one….but no, no, he should wait and eat with Alison. He was a gentleman after all. 

His gentlemanly ways were being stretched to the limit as he carried out two plates, cutlery precariously balanced with the food, to the sitting room. He didn’t know if the forks and knives were the ‘right’ ones as Fanny had put it, but also at this point he didn’t care. Alison perked up as she smelled the oncoming food. “You did it!”

“Of course, dear Alison. Here.” He sat one of the plates down on her lap and placed himself beside her. She tucked in slowly. He tucked in with the fervor of a starving man.

He felt the silence, despite the multitude of people in the room, and thought conversation to distract her from her thoughts was the way to go. Her eyes still held a haunted look and her eating was mechanical. “I was disappointed not to pass horses in the field on the way to purchase supplies. I should like to ride them again sometime.”

“Oh, you can ride a pony?!”

“Kitty, you know this. And horses, please. Ponies are the little ones.”

“But they’re so much cuter!”

“That’s to hide the fact they’re closer to hell and act like it.”

The Captain opened his mouth and was defending the merits of a good sturdy pony, but Thomas had no recollection of the words he’d just said as he’d heard something much better. Alison had laughed. Just a little, light thing, but he was certain that was the sound. He looked away quickly when she caught his eye, not wanting her to think he was staring. 

“I’d forgotten you knew how to ride, Thomas. It’s something I’ve always wanted to try.” She said over Humphrey's head sticking up for full size horses to the others. 

“Well, that’s no problem!” He was louder in his reply, grabbing the attention of the others from their squabble. “I can look to purchase one tomorrow and will happily teach you how.” 

“I can barely afford this house, I can’t get a horse!”

“I do think a horse would look lovely grazing in one of the outer fields.”

“Not helping, Fanny.”

Kitty thought they should get a foal, while The Captain urged for a thoroughbred. Fanny favoured a Friesian. Alison’s insistence that they were not getting a horse at all went unheard. 

The poet smiled to himself. A hot meal of real food had definitely been the right idea.