The Ghost & Mr. Stone

A Jake/Cassandra Story

By Brown Eyes Parker

Author's Note:

This is loosely based on the Rex Harrison movie The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, an utterly fantastic and underrated movie that I only discovered on TCM's "Prelude to Halloween" last October. There are also elements of the Reese Witherspoon movie Just Like Heaven in it, but this story isn't an exact replica of either film. You don't even have to watch either of them to get what's going on, though if asked, I would recommend both movies. On another note, this may be slightly OOC and it is definitely AU.

Rated: T

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

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Prologue. . .

"Promise me that you won't stay here forever," she whispered. "Go and see the places we always talked about seeing. Okay?"

"Okay," he answered hoarsely, his throat thick with unshed tears.

"You need to promise me that you'll go," she said. "Promise me that you'll see Paris one day and that you won't hide yourself from people anymore. Let them see the real you, because the real you is so beautiful. Promise me that you'll fall in love again eventually and that you'll move on."

He hesitated, right now in the face of death and heartache, moving on didn't seem as easy as she was making it sound. He didn't know if he could make a dying girl a promise he wasn't going to be able to keep. But she was looking at him so intensely and with so much hope that he had to grant her her one last dying wish.

"Okay," he said. "I promise."

She smiled at him, relieved. "Thank you."

A nurse came into the room and looked at them sympathetically. "Visiting hours are up," she said.

He released a deep breath and picked up the book he had been trying to read to her before. "I'll see you tomorrow darlin'," he told her even though he was pretty sure that tomorrow wouldn't come for them.

She smiled at him. "Goodnight," she answered.

A few days later. . .

"You can move in with us for the time bein'," his sister told him as she drove him home after the funeral. "Just until things settle down and you get your bearings again."

He shook his head. "No."

She frowned. "No? What do you mean no? You just lost your fiancée, I think it would be best if you stayed with me and let us look out for you. . ."

"I can't stay here," he answered. "I'll just see her everywhere I go, I need to get away and decompress somewhere where I am not going to be reminded of her or what I lost."

"But you need your family!" She protested. "You just lost somebody important to you. . . I don't want you to be by yourself."

"I'll check in every day," he promised. "But I need to do this. . ."

"Isn't it a little too soon for the moving on process? You just buried Mabel. . ." she tried again, trying desperately to hold onto him, afraid that he was going to do something irrational and irresponsible without her to look after him.

He shook his head again. "You can't fight me on this, my mind is made up and I'm not budgin'. I promise I won't do anything stupid."

"Don't make promises you can't keep," she grumbled. "You'll get drunk and you'll get into bar brawls because it's what you do when you're hurtin' Jake. I can't let you go unless I know you're going to be okay. You're my little brother and I. . . I don't want to see you run away. Please Jake, please just stay!"

"I can't," he answered. "Whether you let me go or not, I'm goin' to be gone by the end of the week."

"Well, are you goin' to come back one day?" She asked, frustrated and close to tears.

"I don't know," he answered.

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Chapter 1

"It's a nice place," Jake Stone said, looking around the artsy little apartment. It was exactly what he was looking for, a huge difference from his life and home back in Oklahoma. "What's wrong with it that you're tryin' to rent it so quickly?"

"Nothing," the real-estate agent, Brenda Blaine answered, rolling her eyes. "The family is requesting I rent it quickly because it's just sitting here and they want somebody to look out for it while they wait."

"Wait for what?" Jake asked.

"I don't know all the details but apparently the girl who owns the place was in some sort of accident three weeks ago and she still hasn't recovered yet."

"Recovered?" Jake asked, frowning slightly. "From what?"

"From the coma," Brenda replied, rolling her eyes. "So, do you want it or not? I do have other appointments today, so if you aren't going to take this apartment then you're going to have reschedule and the earliest I can squeeze you in is a week from today."

"I'll take it," Jake answered because he couldn't fathom spending another day with this woman, who seemed more intent on gossiping than doing her job.

"Great! Why don't you go to my office and I'll call and have my co-worker take care of the paperwork for you? As soon as that's taken care of, you're free to move in whenever you're ready."

"Good."

"Come with me, Mr. Stone!" Brenda sang.

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"You promised me that you'd deal with it though, Brenda!" Eve Baird protested as the other real estate agent was about to leave her with Jake. "You know I don't want to deal with renting out my best friend's apartment to people."

"Oh boo-hoo now put on your big girl panties and deal with it like the ex-colonel that I know you are!" Brenda replied. "Now I have to go because I don't want to be late, I'll catch you later Eve!"

Eve growled in irritation before turning back to Jake. "I'm sorry about that. Things have been very stressful around here lately. And Brenda promised I wouldn't have to deal with renting out Cassandra's apartment. Even though she would probably rather I do it over Brenda. Anyways, you don't care about that and honestly, I don't want to talk about. I'll go and draw up the appropriate paperwork, excuse me."

She disappeared into the outer area of the real estate agency.

"Did you know Cassandra Cillian's apartment is haunted?"

Jake looked towards the office door and saw a young Asian man standing in the threshold. "Excuse me?" he asked.

"The apartment you're going to rent is haunted," he repeated, grinning. "At least that's what the last two people who rented the apartment told me."

"Ezekiel Jones!"

"It's true Baird!" He called back. "Everybody's saying that Cassandra is. . ."

Eve came back and stared him down, her arms folded across her chest. "The last two people who rented her apartment were a couple of drunken frat boys! That isn't exactly everybody! Now stop telling Mr. Stone stories and go clean the coffee pot or something now Jones! Please!"

"Fine," Ezekiel grumbled. "But don't say I didn't warn you when he comes back tomorrow and wants to look for somewhere else to live."

"Jones!" Eve snapped, all but dragging him away by his collar.

She reappeared a few minutes later, paperwork in hand. "Sorry about that. Jones likes to repeat gossip. There aren't any ghosts. Not in Cassandra's apartment, not anywhere around here."

Jake sighed. "I don't mind ghosts so much, I'm already keepin' company with some of them as it is," he answered.

Eve frowned but she didn't press him for details, probably because they didn't know each other that well.

"Here," she said, sitting down across from him and sliding the papers in his direction. "Sign."

He did without saying another word, then she handed him the keys.

"Thanks," he said.

"Yeah," Eve answered. "Listen, if you need anything you can stop by anytime and let me know. I don't mind helping you out a little bit."

Jake forced himself to smile and nod. "Thanks. I guess I'll see you around. 'Bye."

Eve waved as he left. "Goodbye Mr. Stone."

"He'll be back in a couple of days when her ghost starts haunting him," Ezekiel said coming back into Eve's office and smiling at her cockily.

Eve got up, clearly annoyed with him as she shoved the paperwork into his hands. "Just go and file his paperwork, Jones," she said.

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Jake looked through her stacks of CDs looking for something to listen to and fill the quiet spots of her apartment, she had a variety of different music but nothing in the country genre except for Taylor Swift and in his opinion, she didn't count as country music at all.

He switched on the radio instead, flipping through stations but the little town he had escaped to didn't even have a decent country station. He sighed, giving up on finding anything to listen to and decided to settle into bed for the night with one of his books about art history instead.

He hadn't been reading for long when he heard noises coming from the living room.

Jake swore under his breath as he tossed the book aside and pushed the covers off, going to see what was going on and to make sure nobody was intruding on his privacy.

A redheaded girl dressed in a black dress with a Peter Pan collar, green tights and sparkly flats was dropping a vinyl on the record player. The unmistakable sounds of Bolero filled the apartment.

She turned around and looked at him, a frown creasing her forehead as she appraised him. After what seemed like forever, she spoke.

"Who are you and what are you doing in my apartment?"

TBC. . .

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Author's Note II:

I'll try and update regularly on Mondays, but I don't know if that'll be set in stone. But there will be regular updates on one of the days of the week. I hope you'll review and tell me what you thought so far.

Until Next Time!

Holly, 1/19/2015_