AN: So this one's a little out of the box for me; I usually write Walking Dead fics, but I've been off work poorly for a while and daytime tv is enough to drive anyone crazy...as a result I've been watching a lot of DVDs and this story just popped into my head...purely fantasy and credit for any lines from the movie goes directly to the scriptwriters as usual...
Elizabeth Rueland was having a bad dream; that's all that it was. She was watching her inert body lying on a hospital trolley as an emergency response team raced her along a corridor. Even Bob was there too, the suit to his tuxedo jacket discarded and there were blood splatters all over his once pristine white shirt. "Hold on, Elizabeth. Please, hold on." He repeatedly whispered as he clung steadfastly to the side of the trolley and rubbed his hand along her arm, trying to reassure her of his presence. It was strange how even in her sleep she could almost feel the tingle of where Bob's hand had trailed along her dream-like self.
"Hello, Elizabeth." The voice coming from behind her sounded very familiar, but Elizabeth was focused on the way Bob was sobbing as he was told he couldn't follow her through the swinging white doors at the end of the corridor. "What's the last thing you remember?"
"I'm sorry?" Elizabeth turned around to face the voice, and saw a young beautiful blonde wearing a 1940's style pale blue suit. She blinked, there was something tugging at the back of her mind; where had she seen this woman before.
"This better for you, sugarplum?" In a flash, the young woman waved her hand and in her place was a rosy cheeked older woman wearing corduroy pants and a flannel shirt.
"Nana?" Elizabeth gasped in disbelief, "But how…? Why…?" Elizabeth shook her head to try and clear it, even going so far as to pinch her arm to wake herself up; that only caused her to yelp out in pain though. Her Nana led her over to the suddenly empty seats in the waiting area.
"No, sugarplum – you aren't dreaming, not this time. I'm sorry, Sweetie but I've been sent here to lead you through what's going to be a difficult time for you."
"I'm dead aren't I? I remember now, we'd just left the fundraiser party…Bob was driving, it had been raining and a truck just came out of nowhere…" Elizabeth buried her head against her Nana's shoulder and sobbed. "Why, Nana? We were just getting started….we were even talking about trying for a baby now that Sidney's enclosure is underway…Why?"
"Sugarplum; you're not dead yet, they're still working on you hard in there. But, you have a decision to make….and it's not going to be an easy one." Nana ran her hand over her beloved granddaughter's face, wiping away her tears as she had so often done as a child.
"What do I have to do?" Elizabeth sat up and straightened her shoulders, the doctor in her coming through; and Nana smiled at her fortitude.
"Bob's going to take this hard; harder than anyone of us could have ever expected. Lord knows that man loves you, Sugarplum – but, and I have to be the one to say this; there's someone out there that could be the one to help him through this…"
"Someone else, besides me you mean." Elizabeth rose from the plastic chair and started to pace around; she was beginning to feel a little pain from whatever was happening to her behind those white doors, and something told her that she didn't have a lot of time left.
"There is someone close by, she was meant to meet Bob a long time ago; but something happened and the two of you started dating and that was that…The universe has a funny way of working sometimes, Sugarplum, and this is your chance to put things back on the path that they should have been…"
"Who is she, Nana? This woman that Bob was destined to be with." Elizabeth was starting to feel more and more distanced from herself and needed all of the answers.
"Now, sugarplum, don't get yourself all upset about this. Lord knows that boy loves you and you will always have a special place in his heart; but this woman could be the one to fill in that tiny little piece that he's been saving…a space he didn't even know existed." Nana stood up and held out her hand to Elizabeth, "Come on, I'll take you to meet her. I warn you, it might come as a bit of a shock."
