"Please, little...Eve, I don't understand what you want! Please don't do that...it's...you can't cry! I did everything the rota said, everything! Annie! ANNIE!"

Hal's bellows reach me upstairs and I sigh as I rent-a-ghost down, knowing from experience that one hour of looking after Eve will have turned Hal into a quivering, desperate mess. Sure enough, I find the ancient vampire sat on the sofa gingerly holding my baby, whose tiny face is scrunched and bright red.

I go and relay my usual spiel for these situations, which mainly consists of "Yes, Hal, I'm here, calm down, she's fine, don't worry, calm-"

"She's crying Annie," Hal interrupts, managing to look offended and terrified at the same time, which is actually quite impressive. "People, babies, do not just cry for nothing, there's something wrong, I just, I can sense it. Jesus what if I've held her too tightly and she's dying of internal b-bleeding, Christ, or what if she's got meningitis, Good Lord, Annie, quick, call a physician, I'll pretend to be gay again, I'll wear the tank top, I swear, anything, just please let...oh"

Eve stops crying as soon as I take her off him and cradle her gently in my arms. For a moment, Hal looks completely dejected and my heart breaks a little bit for him.

"Why doesn't she like me Annie? I've tried so hard, I try so hard...maybe she can sense the monster inside me. That's it. She's scared of me. Jesus."

He buries his face in his hands and heaves a sigh which seems to rack his entire frame. I can't bear to see him like this and forget that this is Hal, Hal with his ridiculous levels of OCD...ness who doesn't like being touched and probably won't appreciate some ghost messing up his do and reach out to hesitantly run my fingers through his hair which is just as soft as I thought it would be - not that I've been thinking about Hal's hair, goodness no, just that it looked soft and I've always wondered if he conditions, yes that's it, and-

I see the muscles in his back tense and stiffen, and begin to pull my hand away when I feel him relax into my touch, resting his head against my hip and allowing me to continue. I begin to follow a pattern, remembering briefly that Hal appreciates order and familiarity, and run my fingers through the short hair at his temple, along the curve of his head then veer slightly to the left, close enough to almost graze his ear. I lose count of how long I stand there for, cradling Eve in one arm and marvelling at how right it feels to be calming him like this, and stunned into silence by the scent and sight and feel of him and this moment. I feel the urge to thread my fingers gently through the soft hairs at the base of his head, and my ghostly heart skips a beat when Hal whimpers quietly. The small noise breaks the silence, and startles me into the realisation that I'm stroking Hal's hair. I can't cope with that because I've just realised that Hal whimpering and being all dependent and vulnerable just does something to me. I shake my head to clear my thoughts and resume my original hair-stroking path as I use my best defence mechanism; talking.

"You're right" I begin, stupidly I realise a second later as he stiffens again. "No! No no no I don't mean right as in right, I mean right as in that Eve can sense things. She's very clever you know, especially gifted linguistically." I feel him chuckle gently against my side, but choose to debate Eve's capabilities another time when I'm more coherent and his warm head isn't pillowed snugly against me, his breath gusting against my leg and- no Annie. Bad Annie. Continue with the talking. "She can sense that you're not comfortable with her, that you're a bit nervous and on edge. You just need to calm down and breathe when everything gets panicky. She loves you, you know that. Just be her fun, brave Uncle Hal and that'll be enough for her."

I realise that Hal's looking up at me, head still resting on my hip and my hand still absently running through his hair, my fingers now drawing soothing circles against his smooth, cool temple. His eyes are round and trusting, and try as I might I can't look away. We've never had a conversation this intense and, and deep, and I don't know what to do with this new, unexpected and totally endearing side to him.

"Really?" he breathes.

"Yes. I promise"

"And you Annie? What do you think of me?"

His question stills my hand for a second, and my breath catches but I just can't look away from those gorgeous eyes. I panic.

"I, erm, gosh, I don't, yes, well, that's a question, indeed, what do I think of, well, erm-"

I hesitate as I begin to think, really think, about my feelings towards this Hal, this new, never before seen version, without his arrogance and 'I'm better than you' vibe. Hal obviously mistakes my pause and starts to pull away, looking hurt. For some reason him pulling away right now seems like the worst thing in the world.

I drag him gently back to rest his head against me and stroke his head again.

"Hal, no, stop. I – I mean we, Tom and I, we, er, we love you too. OK? So just, you know, we do."

He sighs in what I'm pretty sure is relief and nuzzles my hip slightly before standing. Good. I'm glad. Whatever that was, was too much, too intense, and caused too many new feelings and thoughts. I release a breath I didn't know I was holding and gently shift a now sleeping Eve in my arms. I look up and smile at Hal, watching him hesitate and smile shyly back. We stand in silence for a moment until he raises his arms awkwardly, and for a moment I think I'm going to die from shock if I wasn't already, you know, dead, when he seems to forget his dislike of touching for a second time tonight and wraps me in a hug, Eve gently squeezed between us. His hands come to rest protectively at the base of my spine and I feel for a second like I'm part of one of those beautiful young families you see on adverts, the strong, handsome husband embracing his young wife and baby lovingly. Hal looks down at me and there's a breathless moment when I realise that we're so close I can count his eyelashes and see the tiny freckles on his nose and feel his breath ghosting, ha, across my lips and if I lean in just a few more inches-

"I have to go!"

Hal looks as surprised as I am at my outburst. His arms quickly fall away as he begins to frown in what seems to be confusion, and I just about notice through the red hot haze of my embarrassment that he's barely even listening to my gabbling.

"I, erm, yes, goodness, there's so much to do! I have to...defrost the, er, the swimming pool! Yes. That. What I just said, is...what I have to do..."

Hal nods distractedly and I take that as a cue to hurry as quickly as I can from the room. At the door I quickly look back before I run up to the sanctuary of Eve's room, and realise that Hal's still standing in the middle of the living room, looking as scared and bewildered by what just happened as I feel.