Gunshot Revelations

By: DemonClowSorceress

Disclaimer: I don't own Perception.

I really thought my newest stalker was just another figment of my imagination.

It's not like it hasn't happened before. During the Corvus case there was the guy with aviator sunglasses following me in a black car. I just thought it was another product of my paranoid mind and didn't think much of it - until Kate slammed her brakes and it rear-ended us.

So I didn't think much of this stalker. Not even when the guy pulled a gun. I thought it was just me being me, so I didn't even flinch. Nobody else noticed him, anyway.

Then I heard Kate scream "GUN!" and saw her run towards me. I looked around stupidly, thinking she saw someone else, but my eyes drifted back to my stalker, the only guy pointing a gun at me.

What was it that Judge Trent/Nemesis asked me? "Do you ever think you're having a hallucination, and it turns out to be real?"

He's real. So is the gun. The knowledge made me freeze, like a deer in headlights. For the rest of my life, I'll regret freezing.

Everything went into slow motion. I heard her scream, "DANIEL!" and felt her tackle me. I heard the gunshot. I felt her collapse on top of me.

This can't be happening.

Kate rolled off me and onto the ground. She was clutching her midsection. There's blood leaking between her fingers.

This can't be happening. This can't be happening.

But it is.

I forced the paramedics to let me ride in the ambulance with her. Yet another thing I only do for Kate. I held her hand all the way to the hospital, through the ER and right up to the emergency room until I could go no further.

This can't be happening. This can't be happening.

But it is.

I glanced up at the glowing red sign for the operating room and fought to control my breathing. Kate's a fighter. She'll get through this, I told myself. She's got to. Because I have to apologize.

Because it's my fault.

How could I be so stupid? Natalie's told me time and again to tell Kate about when I see people who aren't there. But I didn't want to call wolf, to be wrong, to be labeled crazy again. And now she's paying for it.

After about five hours Lewicki showed up, yanked me out of my chair and drove me home. Said I needed to sleep.

I knew I wouldn't. Like I could get any sleep knowing Kate is still in that hospital.

Which is probably why Lewicki slipped a sleeping pill into my tea.

After a fitful mockery of a night's worth of sleep, I wake up and plod downstairs to find some tea, and instead I find Kate.

I know she's a hallucination. For one, she's in my kitchen, sitting at my kitchen table when I know for a fact that Kate's still at the hospital. For another, it looks like she's wearing one of my tee-shirts and that's it. Barefoot, in a shirt that's long enough to cover her butt but still short enough to show an awful lot of skin...

I stand stock-still in the doorway, unable to believe that in my grief-crazed state, I've put the woman I care about in a borderline sexual fantasy. My God, I really am crazy. And desperate to get laid.

"Hey," she says brightly, sitting up. "Sleep okay?"

"Not really," I answer. I figure as long as she's here, I may as well talk to her. There are worse people to talk to. "What're you doing here?"

She smiles, sweet and tender, and it damn near breaks my heart. "You're lonely, and you're scared. Scared for me," she deduces correctly. "Where else would I be?"

I can't argue with this logic. I drop into my chair and stare at her, quietly daring her to disappear.

"You don't really want me to disappear," she scolds.

She caught me. "Okay, but I do want you to put on some clothes," I say.

Her smile is impish. "Make me. You can, you know."

Dammit, she's sexy when she teases me. I can't believe my mind is doing this to me. Kate could die, and I'm projecting my repressed desires. I swallow hard and choke out, "Stop it. Just...stop."

"C'mon, Daniel," hallucination-Kate purrs. "You know your mind better than anyone else. You know you want this."

"You're not Kate." It's hard to say those words, but I force myself to. "You're not real."

"Doesn't mean you can't indulge yourself."

I squeeze my eyes shut and shake my head. I won't succumb to this stupid lust-driven delusion. The last time I hallucinated her, I was tortured by the kiss we shared for days. I can't do this to myself, to Kate. This is an insult to everything I love about her.

"C'mon Daniel." She walks closer to me, slowly, like a cat stalking her prey. "Don't you want this?"

"I just want you to be okay again, Kate," I whisper. "That's all I want."

She pauses, her face inches from mine. "Why?"

"You know why."

"Say it anyway."

Pushy hallucination. "Because I love you."

"That's nice to know," I hear her chuckle. When I look up, she's wearing her usual FBI-agent attire. "How about you stop moping and get cleaned up? You know how worried I get when you're clearly not taking care of yourself." Spinning her finger in a let's-get-going motion, she adds, "Then go back to the hospital and wait for me to wake up."

I blink, and she's gone. I take the shortest shower known to man, throw on the first clean clothes I find, and bully Lewicki to drive me back to the hospital.

Visiting hours don't start for another two hours, but I manage to charm a nurse into letting me sit in the room. I wait for what feels like forever, just holding her hand and waiting. She has to wake up. She has to. If she doesn't...

I grip her hand in mine to banish those dark thoughts. Her heartbeat is steady, as is her breathing. That's it, Kate. Keep breathing. Just keep breathing.

Her closed eyes blink. I straighten up and read the monitors. A slight change. Is she waking up?

Her eyes blink again, then flutter, then slowly open halfway. She takes in her surroundings first, and then her gaze shifts left. Shifts to me. She smiles, and the weight on my chest is gone. "Daniel," she whispers hoarsely.

"Kate," I breathe in relief, a smile tugging my lips upwards as my eyes tear up. "Thank God you're all right."

"Have you been here since I was admitted?"

I shake my head. "No. I knew you'd be mad if I had, so I went home to catch some sleep. How're you feeling?"

"Better." Her hand weakly squeezes mine. "What about you?"

"I'm fine." No need to tell her I had a schizophrenic fantasy.

A tiny smile tugs at her lips, sweet and tender, and it damn near breaks my heart. "Liar." Her eyes slowly blink again. The drugs are pulling her back under. "You'll be here when I wake up?"

"Of course," I promise. Where the hell else would I go? "Sleep well, Kate."

I wait until I'm absolutely sure she's asleep, then I press my lips to her forehead. I squeeze my eyes shut and commit her feel, warmth, and smell to memory. I'll call the nurse and ask her to call Mr. Moretti and Donnie in an hour, maybe two.

For now, I want Kate to sleep peacefully.

Please tell me what you think. And, as always, please review!