Disclaimer: I do not own any of the music, products or movies mentioned in this fic and as much as I wish I did.........I don't own GhostWhisperer or any of it's characters, I do however, own those characters and storylines which appear in this fanfic, but not in the show. No copyright infringement intended!

A result of my random imagination… Doesn't follow the story line of the show and Not about ghosts just a Jimel fic x This story deals with some serious and disturbing issues (although not graphic at all) and requires a certain level of emotional maturity, please read and review…I love to hear what you guys think xx Lolly xx

-To fix something,

you must first understand

every way in which it is broken.-

It was 1:00pm on Monday afternoon when Melinda wiped the tears from her face as she sealed another packing box, this one full of old family photographs and keepsakes. She carried it down to the removal truck that was sitting outside the house and handed it to her social worker, Lisa James. "Is this the last one?" Lisa asked, Melinda only nodded in response as she watched her load it up onto the truck and then pull the door down. She winced as it slammed shut, making the whole situation suddenly seem more final.

"You ready sweetheart?" Lisa asked sweetly opening the passenger door of her car and motioning for her to get in, Mel climbed in quickly and strapped herself in, glaring out the window at the torrents of rain which seemed to reflect her mood. She smiled sadly as she saw a group of teenagers coming out of a house on her road, they were laughing and talking animatedly, all smiling and already making the most of half term holiday. Melinda hadn't been out once in the past few months, she had to leave all her friends behind, only coming back once every two weeks to check up on the house and pick up mail. She sighed quietly as Lisa climbed in the other side and gave her a reassuring smile before starting the car and setting off on the five hour journey to Grandview, Driscoll County.

Melinda Gordon was 16 years old, 3 months ago her parents had been killed in a horrific robbery gone wrong. Five men had broken into their home in Calabasas, two held her mom and dad at gunpoint while the others stole everything they could from the house. Melinda had been on her way home from her dance class and unaware of the deathly situation, she burst through the front door yelling to her parents that she was home. The robbers had panicked and shot her parents, killing them both instantly. They all bolted for the door but when they saw Melinda, they decided to change their plans-they grabbed her and forced her into their van where she was beaten unconscious. She was taken to a seedy motel room where they kept her for a week, torturing and abusing her-psychologically, physically and sexually. They came up with a rule 'no speaking unless spoken to' of course it sounds simple enough but when you're being beaten mercilessly by five men who are all double your size, it's not simple at all. Every time a sound passed Melinda's lips-no matter how small-it would provoke another brutal attack. At the end of the week they left the motel and while driving at over 70mph, they threw Melinda out of the back door of the van.

Fortunately later that night a young man pulled over to the side of the road to relieve himself, when he turned his car around his headlights illuminated what he thought was the dead body of a child. He rushed over to her and found that she was in fact still alive, though badly beaten and fragile. The man called 911 and stayed with Melinda until the EMT's came…the paramedics had said that if she were left undiscovered over night she would never have made it. After a month in intensive care and three weeks in recovery, Melinda was taken to a children's home by social services. Her parent's murderers were caught the same night they dumped Melinda, they got into a pile up on the freeway, killing two of them and landing two in prison for life with no possibility of parole and one of them in a low security facility for a minimum of five years without parole.

Melinda had blamed herself ever since it happened, she felt that if she hadn't have yelled out her parents would still be alive. After that night she barely spoke anymore, especially to men, only when a question was unable to be answered with a nod or shake of her head. Melinda went through life with her head down and her mouth shut, her grades slipped , her social life had disappeared altogether, she barely ate enough to stay alive and she slept for only a few hours each night with her subconscious plagued by nightmares.

In a matter of seconds, Melinda Gordon became a shell of the girl she once was.

"Melinda, we're here sweety" Lisa said quietly, Melinda's eyelids fluttered open and she smiled weakly at Lisa before unbuckling her seatbelt, and climbing out of the car. She looked around in awe, behind her five very flashy cars were lined up neatly in a sprawling gravelled driveway that they had just driven up and in front of her was a mansion. Even the word mansion didn't do this palatial home justice, clear glass walls were framed by panelled wood that blended in with surrounding forest. There were three floors decreasing in size as they went up, sort of like three blocks stacked on top of one another neatly. The driveway wrapped around the left side of the house and continued out of sight and there was a path off of the driveway which led up to the front door.

"Don't worry about your stuff Melinda, we'll come back for it before I leave…right now I just want to get you in from the rain, come on honey. Now remember, their names are Olivia and Christopher Jenner, they look after five other kids….they haven't adopted any of them because they specialise in teens so they're just guardians. That doesn't make the kids any less a part of them, it just means that you keep your own name etcetera" Lisa said, they both hurried up the driveway and before they even reached the door it flew open. Melinda gasped as she looked at the woman in front of her; so petite that she barely rose above Melinda's tiny 5ft 2ins, loose honey brown curls fell softly around her shoulders, bright golden-brown eyes framed by long dark lashes. She had a heart shaped faced, her cheeks were graced with a faint blush and she looked like she couldn't be older than her late twenties.

She wore a midnight blue dress with a low square neckline, three large round buttons vertically in the middle of the chest and a band under the bust which accentuated the woman's tiny waist. The soft silky fabric flared out gently over her hips and lay just above her knees, she looked beautiful. "My name's Olivia, you must be Melinda" she smiled warmly and pulled Melinda into a soft embrace "I've heard so much about you, you're more beautiful than I ever could have imagined. I'm so happy to have somebody here who's smaller than me…I'm pretty sure sometimes people think I'm one of the kids!" she joked, Melinda smiled…the first real smile she had given anyone in a long time.

Lisa felt tears come to her eyes as she saw the smile grace Melinda's lips, the only smile she had ever seen reach Melinda's eyes. " we'll go get her stuff from the car, it was lovely to see you Olivia, get in touch if you need to, I know Melinda will be fine with you" Lisa said, Mel followed her out to the car and smiled when Lisa took one of her hands in her own "first impressions?" Lisa asked, biting her lip nervously. Melinda smiled warmly and nodded her head "I think I'll like her".

Lisa breathed a sigh of relief "I thought so, she seemed lovely the first time we met, I just knew you'd be okay here. You have my number Melinda and I don't ever want you to feel like you can't call me. Now, I know you usually wake up around 4am when you have a bad dream…Please call me if that happens Melinda, I'm not saying you have to do it every night for the rest of your life but this is a hard time for you and I want the transition to be as smooth as possible, over the past few months of you being in the home I was always there to talk you down when you woke up in a panic…just because you're leaving the home doesn't mean you're leaving me, can't get rid of me that easy sweetheart, there's something special about you Melinda Gordon" she said reverently before pulling Mel into a hug.

Melinda buried her face in Lisa's hair and let the tears fall "I'm gonna miss you so much Lisa, I don't know how to talk to new people, what if they all hate me…" Lisa pulled back and looked right into Melinda's eyes as she spoke "nobody could ever hate you darling, you don't have to talk until you feel ready, I'm sure you'll find someone there who you really trust…you'll be fine honey" they shared one more quick hug before Lisa climbed into her car and drove off with a wave.

Just as Melinda was about to pick up her first suitcase she heard the front door slam shut. Melinda spun around and found herself face to face with the most gorgeous boy she had ever seen; he was quite a bit taller than her with messy near black hair and piercing blue eyes, he was wearing a long sleeved black t-shirt and dark jeans and even through the fabric she could see that his body was ripped. Both feeling a strange kind of electricity jumping between them, they stood in the rain staring at each other intensely, Melinda with a slight look of fear-her eyes were a little wider than normal and her lips parted to form a surprised 'O', and the boy with a troubled expression- a slight crease in between his eyes and a set jaw as if he were trying to decode a complex equation.

Without a word the boy picked up the smallest of the bags and lifted the strap onto Melinda's shoulder, he then picked up both of her large suitcases, one in each hand and gave a slight nod towards the door. Melinda gave him a nervous half smile and walked back to the house holding the door open for him, he walked through and gave Melinda a pointed nod in the direction of the lounge. She followed him quietly and found Olivia laying cutlery on the table in a huge dining room which was adjoined to the lounge "oh hello sweetheart, just getting ready for dinner. I don't suppose you've introduced yourselves" she said with a knowing look.

"James Clancy, Melinda Gordon….Melinda Gordon, James Clancy, but he prefers to be called Jim. Now you both have a rather prominent feature in common, neither of you are very talkative…. Jim here is a year older than you Melinda, 17 years old and he's been with us for a year……now, there are two rooms ready for moving in, either room 2 or room 6. I'll leave it up to you to decide, Jim could you show Melinda both of them for me sweetheart, I'm just gonna go take the potatoes out of the oven."

Jim nodded and picked Melinda's bags up and headed up the stairs; a spiral chrome staircase with glass panel on either side. Melinda looked around as they got to the top, she was facing a huge clear glass portion of the back wall of the house which stretched from floor to ceiling and was about 12ft wide, out of which there was a perfect view of the lush surrounding forest. There was a long hallway which ran two doors left, two doors right. Each door was a different fun colour except for one freshly painted white one. Jim set Melinda's suitcases down and walked down the hallway to the right until he reached the white door, there was a large chrome silver number 6 fixed to the front, he pushed it open and motioned for Melinda to go inside.

She walked in and gasped as she took in the beautiful room; tastefully decorated with cream, red and black as the colour scheme. There was all the furniture a person could ever need, including a medium sized plasma screen television mounted on the wall opposite a very modern and simplistic looking black leather sofa. Melinda threw Jim an amazed look and was a little surprised to see him with the same troubled expression from earlier, he shook his head as though he was answering a question 'no' then walked out the room signalling for her to follow.

Confused, Melinda walked behind him, stopping as he picked her suitcases back up. Jim went back to the staircase and headed up the next flight, ending at a shorter hallway where there were two doors but. Jim turned to the left where there was another plain white door and pushed it open for Mel, her eyes widened as she saw the inside- it was even bigger than the last one and had exactly the same layout but with an en suite bathroom and purple, gold and black as the theme.

Melinda wasn't sure why Jim didn't want her to stay in the other room, but considering the fact that he had lived there for a year she thought it probably best not to question his logic. She smiled back at him and motioned for him to come in from the door way, Jim walked over to the huge king-sized bed and laid her suitcases down beside it. Since Melinda had been at the children's home she had never been left alone with a male, she would freak out when the doctor asked Lisa to leave the room and they had to call out for a female therapist as the one that the home provided was a man. Melinda's smile faded as she looked at the gap between herself and Jim, too close. She looked up at him with wide eyes and saw him looking back at her with a concerned expression, he reached out to touch her arm and steady her as she swayed but as soon as their skin touched Melinda slammed her eyes shut as she was hurled into a memory.

_ "I SAID SHUT UP!" The tall and muscular man yelled, he drew his hand back and slapped Melinda across the face laughing as she fell to the floor, he stood looming over her and unzipped his pants "please..go ahead and disobey me as many times as you want…" he lowered himself on top of her and whispered in her ear "…I enjoy the punishment"-

When Melinda opened her eyes she had tears streaming down her face, she was curled up on the floor and Jim was nowhere to be seen, she sat up, pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them close with her arms. A couple of seconds later there was a knock on the door and Melinda looked up to see Jim standing in the doorway with a glass of water in one hand, the other held up as if in surrender and a notepad and pen tucked under his arm. She didn't know why but there was something about him that made her feel safe, as if she had known him forever and trusted him. She gave him a weak smile and a small nod then patted the floor next to her, Jim smiled brightly, sat down next to her and handed her the water. As Melinda sipped from the glass Jim wrote on the note pad

-U kay? Sorry if I scared ya…I didn't think….

Melinda smiled and wrote back –It's kay, wasn't your fault ummm flash back…please don't tell Olivia, I don't want anyone else to know...please?

Jim stared at the note as his conscience and logic fought, he knew that Olivia should be informed of Melinda's flashback but something about the way she looked so pleadingly into his eyes made him sigh and write back - my lips r sealed, the bathroom's on the right if you wanna wash up and stuff before dinner, every1z waiting to meet you….bout 1/2hour kay?

Melinda smiled gratefully and stood up to walk Jim to the door, he set the note pad and pen down on a table next to the door before leaving, he walked out if her room only to enter the one right next door. –Is that why he wanted me to be in this room….so that we'd be close?...I doubt it, I mean it's probably just so that I'll be out of everyone else's way…but…- Melinda shook her head to clear it then went back to the bed, sat down and opened up one of her suitcases. She pulled a pile of clothes off the top and chose a pair of black skinny jeans with a long form fitting hot pink tank top with AC DC in black scribble text on the front. She grabbed some underwear and a purple towel from the pile and headed for the bathroom.

Melinda hung her towel on the towel warmer and stepped through the sliding glass doors of the massive power shower. She quickly washed up before wrapping herself up in her warm fluffy towel and tip-toeing back to her bedroom. Melinda changed into her outfit, applied some make up then after glancing at the clock and seeing she had 10 minutes to spare, she dug out her straighteners and tidied up her hair. As soon as the clock hit 7:00pm she sighed and made her way downstairs, taking the time to check out the beautiful sunset view from the glass wall on the first landing. As Melinda reached the bottom of the stairs she heard many voices all engaged in light banter, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she rounded the corner and walked into the lounge.

The first person to stand up was Olivia, she smiled and walked over to Melinda placing a hand on the small of her back . Melinda hardly knew the woman but still found comfort in the gesture, the room was filled with strangers and everyone was staring at her. Olivia cleared her throat and everybody's eyes swivelled from Melinda to her "Everybody I'd like you to meet Melinda Gordon, now I know you all already know about her but she doesn't know you guys…I'd like each of you to tell Melinda your name and age and then a little something about yourself okay?" Olivia asked with a pointed nod in a small blonde girl's direction "okay, I'll start…My name's Alexis, I'm 17 and I've been here for 3 years…it's nice to meet you" she said with a genuine heart warming smile. The boy next to her smiled and sat forward as he spoke "My name's Mitch, I've been here for 3 years also and I'm Alexis' twin brother" they had a slight southern accent and Melinda wondered how they ended up so far from home.

A tall girl with shoulder length sandy blonde hair and bright blue eyes was next "my name's Holly, I'm 15, I've been here since my 13th birthday and I'm Mitch's girlfriend" she said, with a slightly territorial tone of voice, Melinda gave her a small smile and let her eyes rest on the last person in the room, Jim, she smiled warmly at him and he smiled back and stared into her hazel eyes with his own piercing blue ones. "Do you guys like already know each other or something?" Alexis asked curiously, both Melinda and Jim snapped out of their trance like stare and gave small nods. Just as Alexis was about to ask another question the front door opened and in walked a tall Italian looking man with dark hair and a chiselled jaw, his eyes were a light brown and his skin tanned.

Melinda smiled up at him nervously and bit her lip, he smiled back, walked over to her and stuck his hand out for her to shake, she instantly panicked as is hand flew out, closing her eyes and praying that she wouldn't have another flash back in front of everyone, the startled silence was broken by the man's voice "I'm sorry Melinda, I didn't think, I'm so sorry…are you okay?" he asked feeling guilty, she opened her eyes and a single tear rolled down her cheek, thinking of the first person that came to mind she threw a panicked look at Jim, he jumped off the couch and walked over to Melinda slowly, holing both hands palms up in front of him and maintaining eye contact so as not to startle her.

When he reached her he gave a pointed glance in the direction of his hands and then hers, Melinda looked nervously back and forth between his eyes and his hands –He's being so sweet to me, all I've done is cause hassle for everybody and yet here he is. He's pretty much the only person I feel safe with right now and I don't even understand why- Melinda slowly leaned into Jim letting his arms wind around her and rest softly , one around her shoulders and the other around her waist. "sssshhh" he soothed, her head snapped up and she smiled at him-he spoke….to me, well I don't know if ssshhh really counts as a word but it counts to me-. Everyone in the room was staring in wonder and confusion at the relationship that Jim and Mel seemed to share and in shock at the fact that a Jim was so willing to be close to a stranger. Melinda leaned her head into Jim's chest, closed her eyes and breathed in his clean soft scent, for the first time in a long time she felt safe, like maybe she would be okay.

Please leave a review xx Lolly xx