BBC Ghosts - Captain's History

Seven - Research

Word count - 1729

When morning eventually came, Captain woke up, surprised to find that he'd actually drifted off and not been woken. It was 7 o'clock, so still a bit early, but he got up anyway.

He wondered if Julian had had any luck getting to sleep as he went down the stairs with slightly more of a spring in his step than there had been the last couple of days. Of course, he still missed Havers greatly, and was still sad that he died, but his death day was behind him now for another year, and it was quite a good feeling. It was like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He still wished Havers was with him, he still wished his Lieutenant and him could've been happy together without needing to keep it a secret, but it was easier to put it to the back of his mind when there wasn't a huge reminder constantly in his face.

When he arrived in the main room, Julian was sat on a chair already, staring intently at the ground, completely zoned out.

"Are you quite all right?" Captain asked.

"Oh, yeah." Julian said. He hadn't even noticed the Captain come in. Why did thoughts have to be flooding his head? He'd become so clueless about himself in the matter of half a day and he hated the feeling.

"Get any sleep?" Captain asked, making conversation and strolling slowly around the room, looking out every window for no reason in particular.

"No, you?" Julian replied. He wasn't sure; would it be better for him to spend more or less time around Captain to understand himself? Being alone and having no one to talk to and distract him didn't sound very appealing, but would being around Captain make this feeling worse or better? What exactly would worse or better even mean for him?

"A bit." Captain replied, not really noticing how worried Julian looked. It wasn't an expression he was used to wearing; normally he was quite casual and care free, but now his emotions were consuming him and he wasn't quite sure what to make of it. He was a mixture of panic, anxiety, stress, and confusion, and his face wasn't normally seen with those feelings, so it looked very different to how he normally looked.

Captain finished his circuit of the large room and found himself wandering back to sit on an armchair opposite Julian.

"Why couldn't you sleep?" Captain asked innocently, he was concerned for the MP, but didn't quite know how to get him to open up. Julian shrugged dismissively. The Captain bit his lip, he wanted to help, but didn't know how. Besides, how could he help if Julian wouldn't let him?

Half an hour passed slowly, and more faces started appearing, all completely oblivious to the night's activities apart from Pat, who was doing everything in his power not to watch Julian and find out if he was right about his theory. By eight, everyone was sat in the main room and Pat made the morning announcements.

"Hello everyone. Today we have book club, where we'll talk about our favourite books from when we were alive, at 1 o'clock, and then games club at 2. After that, Kitty will be giving the talk of the day." He announced, briefly.

"Why at different time? Normally clubs at 2." Robin asked.

"Because it's Thursday, and remember we said that everything would be slightly earlier on Thursdays because Alison and Mike always need to go somewhere from 12 to 3:30 so it makes sense to finish our clubs at the same time they come back because Kitty-" Pat started.

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Robin interrupted, before he saw something outside and ran out through the wall to try and catch it (a butterfly).

"Because Kitty doesn't want to waste time that could be spent with Alison." Pat finished, not quite as enthusiastic as when he'd started the sentence. After that, everyone started leaving and doing various things around the house. A few minutes later, only Captain, Pat and Julian were left in the room.