It was true of course. She was a ghost, and he'd caused it, tangentially more than anything else but he had. If Cutler hadn't been trying so hard to impress him and drag him back, hell, if he'd never recruited Cutler, if he'd never killed the man's wife to prove a point and win a bet. Well, things might have turned out very differently for them. Maybe he'd actually have gotten through the date, maybe she wouldn't have ended up drained of her blood and a ghost with it. "You deserve the grand love story though" he said softly, more guilt than anything else, there was always guilt when it came to Alex. "The real you, she deserves that. I'm sorry for my part in taking all those chances from you."
He'd said it before, but never completely took blame for it, not really. But it was his fault. Why should he not just admit it.
The strange tone of her voice though as she talked about Katherine gave Hal pause, had things changed between them since, Oh god had something been going on, had he reverted in spite of that?
"Alex were we..." he began but the sentance turned into a sort of half sigh half flailing hand gesture before he reverted to the safer topic of Annie.
"I believe she must have passed over. Perhaps that was her unfinished business. Because if it had not been I think she'd have returned to us. To Tom and I, we were probably the closest links she had. I don't believe she faded or anything, she's too strong for that, and people had tried in the past, to separate us all. I think she saw her door. And I think she went through it."