"Tim, are you sure you want to leave now? Why don't you stay for the night? It's absolutely no trouble at all, you know? I can fix the guest room in a whiff. I at least owe you that for bringing me home safely."
"There's no need, really. Bethel Park was as good as on my way back to Silver Spring, so it was no trouble. Besides, I enjoyed the company. The miles pass faster when having someone to talk to."
The woman, his mother's elder sister, laughed and gave his arm an affectionate squeeze. "Oh Timothy. I do admit I quite preferred driving back with you than stepping onto that bus again. What's more, it's not that often that I see my favorite nephew!"
"That's because I'm your only nephew, Aunt Judith."
She was serious again. "Timothy, I would prefer you stayed for the night. I'd never forgive myself if anything happened to you, you know?"
He took her hand and stooped to plant a kiss on her cheek. "I have to go. Besides, it's not the first time I've driven back home at such a late hour. And I have an appointment with my publisher, first thing tomorrow morning. I've already postponed the meeting."
"Oh, I wished you'd have slept in like all the rest after the wedding party of your cousin Bethany."
"And who would've looked after the kids? I don't drink that much and I'm used to getting up with the birds."
Seeing she couldn't break his resolve, she gave him one more hug. "Go, then. It's getting later and there's no need keeping you here any longer. Make good use of what daylight remains." She blessed him for a safe and uneventful trip home and closed the door behind him as he walked back to his car.
-o0o-
It was pitch dark by the time he was driving on a straight-away stretch of the 105 mile long I-76 or Penn Turnpike. As he was surrounded by miles and miles of unchanging farmland, the drive had become tedious and he was starting to feel fatigue setting in.
Soon, he would have to stop at a gas station and it wouldn't be a bad idea to get some coffee to keep him alert.
"What the...?" With widening eyes, Tim, in a reflex, slammed on his brakes and turning his steeringwheel to avoid the motionless figure walking in the middle of the road, he swerved out of the way of the girl in white. With screeching tires and madly spinning, the car veered off the road and was for a fraction of a second airborne before coming down and rolling over into the ditch. With one more flip, it finally came to rest on its top.
When all was silent again, apart from the hissing engine, he opened his eyes and found the world around him had turned upside down. He raised...dropped...a hand to his aching head and his fingers came back glistening wet and sticky.
Oh, that's just great!
The girl in the middle of the road!
Oh my God!
Out! Out!
He unbuckled himself, which wasn't as easy as he'd anticipated, and crawled out of his upturned car. But, man, his head hurt like hell.
Tim slowly got up, holding his throbbing head and looked towards the spot he'd seen the girl. There was nobody there. He slowly turned around. Not a soul to be seen in this darkness.
Blinking, to clear the blurry vision, he pulled out his cell and with trembling fingers dialed *11 for assistance.
Then, weariness caught up with him and he sank to the ground by the side of the interstate, and, lying on his back, all he could see were a thousand stars...and a pretty face looking down on him.
-o0o-
Tim woke up in a hospital bed with little memory of what had happened...until his vision cleared and found the friendly eyes of his nurse, checking his vitals.
"Well, hello there. How nice of you to join us again."
"You... It is you!"
She laughed and it was like music to his ears. He realized it sounded rather cliché, but that's how it was.
"You...you're p...pretty..."
"Quite the charmer, are you?" She chuckled as she penned something down on his chart. "You're quite handsome yourself, you know? However, let's check on you first."
She asked the usual questions one expects when suffering from a concussion. At least, that's what he thought he had. He lifted his hand, the one that hurt, in front of his face. Oh, and his wrist was in a cast, too. Taking stock of himself, he found he didn't seem to suffer anything worse.
He let himself drift off in an uneasy slumber again.
-o0o-
He woke up to the sounds of the awakening city. A dove cooed right outside his window, the morning sun bathed his room in light, and there was the ever present sound of bustling traffic...and people. His neighbor was already mowing his lawn...
Lawn?
He sat bolt upright in his bed and looked around the room.
What...?
He didn't have the time to register what had happened for Jethro had bounded into the room and onto the bed, planting his paws on his chest!
Trying his hardest to push all of the 80 lbs. dog to the side, he noticed two more figures running inside his...HIS bedroom and throw themselves onto his bed.
"Daddyyy!" A young fair haired boy piped up, his little face beaming as he hopped up and down on the bed making it squeak and groan with every landing.
Daddy?
"You're awake!" His older sister squealed excitedly.
They seemed both unfazed at his obvious confusion, his eyes moving from one to the other and back again.
He ran his hands through his hair, feeling the onset of a panic attack. It took all of his willpower to keep a hold on himself.
"Tickle, daddy?" The girl asked with a mischievous twinkle in her green eyes, about to add action to the words with the boy letting himself fall beside Tim, readying himself to join his sister in tickling their father.
"No. NO! NOOO! Please, don't!"
"Lauren! Terrence! No tickling your dad! Remember?"
The kids, sitting back, regarded Tim slightly abashed and with pouting lips. It was all he could do to keep his face neutral.
"Because he's ticklish..." The girl whispered, feeling chastized and also a little sad that her father could be such a party-pooper.
Looking past Jethro and the kids...his kids...he took a double take when his eyes met the pretty woman who'd walked into the bedroom. He remembered her; she was the kind nurse who had taken care of him at the hospital, following his...ah...accident? Why was it his memory was so foggy? He'd never thought he was amnesiac.
Still, the situation sort of started to feel...familiar...good. Gone was his previous anxiety. Maybe he'd had an accident and this really was his life. It was a question of time before he'd remember it all again. Day by day. Given time, it would all be all right.
She leaned over him to plant a soft kiss on his lips, and then she lovingly brushed a stray lock of hair from his forehead.
"Good morning, sweetheart? Remember the day?"
Day? What day?
"We're going to Disney Land!"
And Lauren and Terence got the bed rocking again...and the rocking went on and on and on...with peals of laughter echoing as he sank away into darkness again...
Nooooo!
What was happening to him?
-o0o-
The sound of a familiar voice was what brought him back to consciousness.
Tim opened his eyes and…was once more confused by finding he was lying in a hospital bed once more. What had happened now? Since when had he become prone to accidents?
He blinked and looked again.
There was his…wife?…the same nurse from before, checking his vitals.
"Well, hello there. How nice of you to join us again."
"Wha…?"
Even more confused, he looked around and found the room the same as before…and with this young woman…his wife…
His brain was in overload and he grabbed his head scrunching his eyes. What the hell was happening to him? He found he'd landed into some loop, living an event again and again.
Other than recognizing the nurse as his wife…and his earlier waking up at...the hospital and then at a place called home...his memory was a blank and it scared him.
The nurse laid a steadying hand on his arm.
"Hey, you're going to be fine. You've sustained a brain injury… Sorry for having to bother you with this, but we need to ask you these questions. Are you ready?"
He wanted to nod but remembered just in time that would be an unwise move, so he croaked out a "yes".
They went through a whole list of questions and his answers were…mostly negative. Yet, this didn't seem to alarm the nurse. Of course, the weariness quickly pulled him under again.
The next time, his brain seemed a little less foggy and he lay there, trying to remember what had landed him in a hospital bed. The nurse - Sue, she had said her name was – had explained how he had been in a car crash on the Turnpike and had been mostly unconscious for the past three days.
Three days!
Suddenly, he was feeling a great loss... A dear wife...and Lauren...Terrence... All gone...
What about his team? What would they think?
And then, in his heavily concussed state, all he could think about was: where was his cell phone? He had a call to make!
-o0o-
His slumber, albeit fitful, did do him a wealth of good and he was feeling a lot better and alert – definitely less spacey, which was a great relief to him - when Sue walked into his room to check on him.
The doctor had already explained his weird dream was just a result of his mind playing tricks on him, induced by the trauma. Tim didn't mention the fact that he'd seen the girl in white – and the object of his ending up in a hospital bed, in the first place! - prior to his injury.
After two days of lazing in his bed and memory slowly coming back to him, he couldn't keep it to himself anymore what had really occurred.
"Sue... Er... Do you have a moment, please?"
"Sure, Timothy. Or... Better yet. It's the end of my shift. Why don't I just go and punch out? I'll be back in a sec. Can you wait..." She laughed. "Stay awake till then?"
"No problem. And if you do find me pulled under; just wake me up. Promise?"
Sue laughed and after giving his hand a pat, she left to change.
She was back in no time, dressed in a jeans and a close-fitting T-shirt from the Guinness factory in Dublin. He idly wondered if she'd really been there...in Dublin.
Sue sat down in the chair and looked at him with a smile.
"Okay. So what's bothering you?"
"I...I don't think I ever told you about why I crashed?"
"Uhm... You just said you lost control of your car... When the State Farm Safety Patrol responded to your distress call, they found nothing out of the ordinary. Well, except that they found you unconscious and your car flipped. No other car involved. No...road kill. So, what are you talking about, then?"
He fidgeted uncomfortably. How was he going to explain this? "No body?"
She regarded him curiously. "No. Did you...see...somebody?"
"In fact, I did." He licked his dry lips. "You may think me mad, but I...I...think...I saw a girl in the middle of the road."
He didn't notice how she had suddenly paled and just went on.
"Slightly younger than you, maybe, but still very much alike. I did everything to avoid running her over and...well... Seems I just got myself in a pickle," he finished morosely.
"You saw her..." Sue whispered with a slight tremor.
"You've seen her too?" He asked, a little more hopeful he might not be the only one having seen her. The girl in white reminded him too much of those urban legends...
Sue gave him a hesitant nod.
"And?" Tim prompted her.
"But not in the way you saw her, Timothy. The situation was somewhat different. She...she was my sister. Twin sister. She got herself killed on the Turnpike. One dark night three years ago. Her car had broken down and she had been trying to stop an other car for help. The man didn't see her until it was too late."
"Oh..." He didn't quite know what to reply to that.
They sat in silence for awhile but then Tim had tired again and she left.
For the rest of his stay, she would pay him a daily visit after her shift to sit and talk with him. And they were both sad when the moment had finally arrived to say goodbye.
Jimmy had offered to come and take him back to his apartment in Silver Spring and there he stood, trying to look indifferent as Tim and Sue wrapped their arms around each other for a long hug and promises to keep in touch.
-o0o-
Late summer.
"Where are you me taking to, Tim?"
"Shhh... You'll see. This will be a night to remember."
After they'd left the car at the carpark, Tim had lead a blindfolded Sue by the hand to a grassy knoll from where they had a unspoiled and breathtaking view over Washington DC, its brightly lit landmarks clearly visible.
"Wait here," he whispered in her ear as he let go of her hand.
He first had to put some finishing touches to make his well-thought plan complete.. With all the preparation beforehand and Abby's attention to detail, this had better not go wrong.
Satisfied, he walked back to her and gently removed the scarf he'd tied over her eyes. He planted a loving kiss on her lips before moving to stand behind her, wrapping his arms around her as she stared, filled with awe, at the exquisite picnic displayed right there, in front of her.
Tim, still standing behind her, looked over her shoulder at Abby's awesome job. She had worked wonders, like he knew she would.
He recalled his trepidation when, many months ago, he'd entered her lab to let her know he had a girlfriend. A good girl. The girl that had taken care of him during his stay at the hospital. The girl whose ghost sister, albeit in a rather unorthodox and bizarrely supernatural way, had got him hospitalized as if already having decided he was meant to be her sister's love. Needless to say, he hadn't told the full tale to anyone else, nor Abby, even though he knew for sure she would've delighted in hearing about it.
His announcement had gone better than he'd anticipated. In fact, she'd told him she was happy for him. "She'd better not break your heart, Timmy, or I'll take care of her...and I'm sure Ziva wouldn't hesitate to join me!" Abby had fiercely assured him.
When he'd let Abby in on his proposal plans, she had positively jumped with excitement. Of course Abby would take care of it; exactly the way he wanted...and some! She'd assured him this was going to be a memorable one!
So here they both stood, taking in the large tablecloth spread out on the grass. The bottle of champagne (his choice) in a cooler filled with ice. Plates, cups and glasses. A basket full of finger foods and other delicacies. A pair of self-inflatable matresses, a blanket and a stack of fleeces to keep warm. A large bouquet of roses in a silver wine cooler. A small, battery-operated radio and CD player (Abby's idea). Some candles in ornate and colorful glass containers which he'd lit before taking off her blindfold.
Sue turned in his arms and kissed him. This was undoubtedly going to be the most romantic and sensual picnic experience for both of them.
Once more, Tim took Sue by the hand and made her sit down.
Kneeling down in front of her, he was about to make the most important step in his life. His hand went slowly to his pocket and came back with a small velvet box which he opened with trembling fingers.
This was the 'moment suprême': proposing to the love of his life.
Sue's eyes had become moist. Her hand went to her chest to still her frantically beating heart. She couldn't take her eyes off his smiling, happy face.
Tim cleared his throat and with a voice that shook, overcome with emotion, he presented the ring asking, "Sue, will you marry me?"
At first, she was speechless and he became concerned that, maybe, this was too soon.
But then, letting her tears of joy fall, Sue extended her finger and nodded. They leaned into one another for a sealing kiss.
Together, they'd watch the stars for a bit, have a love bite, maybe dance under the stars...savor the bubbly.
Spending an unforgettable night in a 1,000 star hotel...
FIN