Melinda drove back to the cabin as fast as she could. Her hands were shaking, her mouth was dry, and she could hardly breathe. She needed him to be okay, she needed him to be okay. The tears began to fall as she pulled into the cabin's gravel driveway.
"Where's Jim?" she shouted to Detective Neely as she got out of her car.
"He's inside, just stay back." He responded, drawing his gun.
All of the sudden, a rifle shot broke the silence of the woods, and Melinda's heart stopped. She could see the silhouettes of two men in the door, but it was impossible to tell who was who. Detective Neely aimed his gun slowly, and then shot. For a split second they waited. The wounded figure in the window collapsed to the floor, and now they could see his face. It was Jim.
"NO!" Melinda screamed. "JIM!"
In a blur, 911 was called, Hunter was arrested, and Jim was sent to the Hospital. Before she could think, Melinda was sitting by Jim's side, waiting in agony for him to wake up, and come back to her.
"Please, Jim." She whispered. "Baby, please you have to wake up. I can't do this without you."
The tears fell harder now, and soon she was fast asleep, clutching her beloved husbands arm. Later, she became aware through her sleep, that someone was watching her. Slowly she opened her eyes, and Jims face came into view. Relief flooded through her, like rain.
"You're more beautiful every time I see you." He said.
"You're awake." Melinda said, almost too relieved to speak. "I love you."
He smiled. " Melinda… something happened. It's called an embolism, it's a technical term- you don't need to know it."
"Oh! Let me get you a doctor!"
"No, just stay right here, look at me, right at me," he said, pained deeply by something. "I want you to remember me this way, please."
Melinda froze. She looked beyond Jims face and saw his body, lying motionless in a hospital bed. Slowly, shakily, she stood.
"No." She said strongly. "Not you."
"I will always love you Melinda." He said, almost crying. "Always.
'Code Blue First Floor, Code Blue First Floor' came over the speakers. Doctors and Nurses rushed into the room.
"Not you." Melinda said again, " Please god, not you!"
Jim's spirit disappeared, and she was alone. She collapsed into tears and soon the darkness over took her.
Melinda woke suddenly, jumping up in her bed. She was soaked in sweat and was shaking terribly. And for a horrible, split second in time, the dream felt real, and the heart-ripping, breath-taking grief hit her once more. But before she could let her mind go any further, she heard a familiar, soothing voice, and felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her.
"Shhh, it's okay, it was just a dream." Jim said soothingly, "I'm right here, it's okay."
Her body went weak in his arms, as she felt him all over, to make sure he was really there. Her eyes soon met his, and her breathing began to slow.
"Oh, Jim." She sobbed into his shoulder. She took his face in her hands and kissed him all over, his cheeks, his forehead, his eyelids, his neck and finally, his lips. They just sat there for a moment, cherishing each other in a blissful embrace. Melinda pulled away and pressed her forehead to his, breathing in his scent, thanking anything and everything holy on this earth that the nightmare was over and Jim had come back to her.
"What happened?" He asked softly, cradling her in his arms, after giving her some time to calm down. "Was it a ghost dream?"
She shook her head slowly, and took a deep breath. "No, this was just a regular, horrible, nightmare."
"Oh." Jim said, obviously surprised. It was often that Melinda had a normal dream, whether it be a nightmare or not. "Well, what was it about?"
"I dreamt about…. the night you were shot… the night you died." She said shakily. She felt Jim's arms tense around her. "It was so real, Jim. I felt like it was happening all over again."
Her voice was cracking, and tears were falling. Jim stroked her hair soothingly, kissing her repeatedly on the head. He wiped the tears away, and titled her chin, so she was looking him straight in his piercing blue eyes. She saw so much pain; she knew how hard this must've hit him.
"I am so sorry, Melinda." He said, gritting his teeth against all the anger he had towards himself." I hate that I caused you so much pain. If I could do anything to take that night back… I shouldn't have gone back to the cabin, I should've stayed with you. I.."
The words were too painful to say. Melinda entangled her fingers in his beautiful brown hair, and pulled him in for a passionate kiss. After a few minutes, Melinda pulled away and rested her head on his chest.
"You already took it back," she said kissing his neck, "When you found a way to come back to me. No matter what decisions were made that night, not matter what happened, none of it matters. You're all I need."
"God I love you so much." He said, burying his face in her hair.
"I love you too."
Jim took a deep breath, pecked Melinda once more on the lips and rose from the bed.
"I need a glass of water, can I get you anything?"
"I'm fine," Melinda said, clutching his fingers. "But could you check on Aiden? I want to make sure we didn't wake him."
"Will do." Jim smiled, kissed his wife's fingertips and left the room.
Melinda sighed, content, and snuggled back down into the covers. Suddenly she heard an unfamiliar voice from the corner of her bedroom. A man's voice.
"You need to help her." He said.
Melinda jumped up, and turned to see a man, mid to late twenties, standing behind her. He was beat up pretty bad, and he was wearing a police officer uniform.
"Who are you?" Melinda said. "I can help you."
She really needed to come up with some new catch phrases.
"You need to help her!" The man said again, this time angrily.
"Who? Who do I need to help?"
"A woman just like you, who is in pain. Pain, which you specifically, are very familiar with."
"What are you talking about?"
"November 7th." And with that the ghost was gone.
Right because telling me exactly what it is you want, and making it just a little bit easy for me, just this one time, wouldn't be smart at all, Melinda thought dryly to herself. Just then she thought of something.
"Hey Jim." she said when he walked back into their room.
"Hey Melinda." he said smiling.
"What's today's date?"
"June 7th, why?"
"A ghost was just here, and when I asked him who he was, all he said was November 7th." She said, giving Jim only the bare essentials at this point.
"Maybe that was the day he died. Did he seem newish to you?"
"Yeah he did actually, but doesn't that seem to easy to you?" Melinda said, stretching out on the bed.
"You have a point there, ghosts have never been too eager to make it easy for you." Jim said, gazing at Melinda with a familiar mix of admiration and concern.
"True." Melinda said, wanting to change the subject. "How was Aiden?"
"Wide awake," said Jim chuckling. "Sorry babe, but I think we're lucky he isn't sitting on the front porch suitcase in hand, ready to go."
Melinda giggled. Delia, her son Ned, and her new fiancé Richard, were going to Disney World for a week and had asked Melinda and family to join them. Neither Melinda nor Jim could take off work, but they didn't want Aiden to miss out. So they had given Aiden permission to accompany Melinda's long time best friend and her family. They were coming to get him the next morning at 7 am. Aiden had spent the last two weeks packing and going on and on about all of the rides he was going to go on, and all the characters he was going to meet, so it was no surprise to Melinda that he was wide awake.
"It's going to be so weird not having him around for a week." Said Jim climbing back into bed.
"Tell me about it. Delia's cell phone bill is going to skyrocket over the next week." Melinda said laughing.
"Yeah I'm gonna miss him like crazy," Jim said. He then started to kiss Melinda's neck and run his hands up and down her back, causing her to shiver. "But at least we'll have a chance to spend some time together."
Melinda smiled and kissed her husband in agreement.
The next morning after kissing her son goodbye about a thousand times, and making him repeat all of the emergency numbers, Melinda sat at he kitchen table sipping coffee, preparing to go to work. Jim came down the stairs, looking unbelievably delicious in his scrubs.
"I'm off at 6 today, so I should be home by 630 or 7." Jim said pouring coffee into his thermos.
"Sounds good." Melinda said, flashing him a warm smile. "I'll probably beat you home."
"Is that a bet?" Jim said coming up behind her, and grabbing her playfully.
"You're on." Melinda said giggling. "Loser cooks dinner tonight."
"Oh, I so hope you loose, it's been a while since we've ordered out."
Melinda smacked him on the arm before getting up, pecking him on the lips, and heading out the door.
"Have a great day, see you when you get home." She said.
"I'll be waiting."
"Like hell!" Melinda said laughing, "I love you."
"I love you too."
Later that day, when there was a lull at the store, Melinda got on her laptop and tried to do some research. She did a search on fallen police officers in Grandview and surrounding areas, who had died on or around November 7th. She got several hits, but none of the officers looked anything like her ghost. Soon she got the idea to search for fallen police officers in Grandview, without giving a specific date. Finally she found her ghost.
Sergeant Aaron Thompson, 29, was shot and killed while on duty last night at 10:45 PM. Thompson was responding to an anonymous tip at a privately owned cabin off of Sandy Ford Road. The shooter was identified as Terrance Williams, son of the owners of the farm. The family has yet to comment. Thompson is preceded in death by his father George Thompson. Thompson is survived by his wife Kathryn, 28. Memorial services will be held this Friday June 9th at 10 am at Wells Funeral Home.
Melinda sat back in her chair in thought. Could his wife be the person he wanted Melinda to help? Possibly. She couldn't think about this now though, customers had begun trickling into the store. She closed up at 6 and was home by 630. She had just gotten out of the shower when Jim got home at 7.
"Nice of you to join me, Dr. Clancy." Melinda said seductively at the top of the stairs.
"Hey, I lost on purpose! Really, it's quite difficult to be fashionably late." He said, throwing his things on the floor, dashing up the stairs and scooping Melinda up in his arms. Jim carried her to there bedroom, and laid her tenderly on the bed. Later, it occurred to them that neither of them, win or loose, had bothered to make dinner. Not wanting to leave their own little heaven quite yet, they called an ordered a pizza. They ate in bed, much to Melinda's dismay, and after they were full, they spent the next few, blissful hours making love.
"So what's the deal with the latest ghost?" Jim asked, hours later.
Melinda smiled. What other man would ask about ghost's right after sex?
"His name is Aaron Thompson, age 29, Grandview police officer, shot and killed in the line of duty, survived by wife Kathryn."
"Woah! Thats a new record for our nifty little ghost busting team." Jim said, chuckling and wide eyed. "What does he want?"
"I'm pretty sure he wants me to go talk to his wife, and get through her grieving." Melinda said. "You know... 'cause I've been there."
Jim smiled crookedly, "I think you skipped the last few chapters though babe. Since I'm still with you, and I'm not going anywhere."
Melina wrapped her arms around Jim's neck. "You better not." She said, taking a few seconds to just appreciate him being there. "But at least I can tell her that her husband is still here and that he loves her and that he'll be at peace and all that fun stuff. In and out, end of story."
"Famous last words." Jim said with a smirk.
"Trust me it will be easy!"
Which of course meant that no, it was not going to be easy. It was going to be hard. Very, very hard.
"If you say so."
Melinda didn't have time to reply, because right then Jim silenced her in a kiss so passionate and intense, she lost all train of thought. Later, as Jim lay beside her asleep, Melinda caught herself gazing at her husband, completely and totally in love with him. She thought back to the day's right after the shooting, when Jim was dead and she thought she had lost him forever. It was the worst time in her life. She had seen tons of people grieve their loved ones, and eventually move on. But Melinda wasn't sure she could have let Jim go. Even though she told him, begged him even, to go into the light, the mere thought of living without him for a day killed her. Jim must've known this, because he never left her, not once.
She continued to watch him, completely intoxicated by his presence even as he slept. She watched the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. She lightly drew her fingertips up and down his cheek, admiring his handsome face. She had been married to this man for almost ten years, they had been to hell and back together, yet to this day every time she saw him, every time he smiled at her, her knees went weak. Melinda sat there and thought back on all the times Jim had been there for here. All the times he had comforted her, held her, dried her tears. He was her whole life, along with their son Aiden.
However, couldn't help but feel a little guilty. She had come across several wives loose their husbands and hit that rock bottom of grief that Melinda called home in the days after Jim's death. But unlike them, Melinda's husband came back to her. She never had to let go of Jim, he wouldn't let her. All of the other husbands that passed before their time, took their place in the light leaving their grieving wives behind, not knowing there was a way to come back to them. Melinda was sure that if they had known there was a way, all those men would have at least tried. "Insider Information" as Jim called it.
Melinda wouldn't recommend the whole body jumping thing to anyone. Not that she wasn't completely grateful to have Jim back in her life, because she was so unbelievably grateful. Its just, to look at the love of your life and them look back at you and have no idea who you are... is one of the most painful things a person can experience. She looked back at her husband's sleeping face, thought again back to the days following his death and decided that she had known worse pain.
Through with all the dark thoughts, Melinda got up and headed over to the bathroom to brush her teeth. When she stepped into the bathroom, she found herself emerged in a vision. She saw herself getting out of the car, and shortly she saw Detective Neely. The rifle shot soon sounded, followed by the shot from Neely's gun, the shot that brought her world crashing down. Melinda was now seeing this horrific scene in a new perspective because it was a vision. Once the vision was over, she asked herself why a ghost was sending her a vision of her husband's death, something that Melinda herself had already witnessed.
Suddenly she stopped in her tracks. Oh my god.