A/N: something fluffy for Halloween. Enjoy!
Ghost Saver
Brittany had always seen ghosts. When she was a baby, she had often smiled and babbled at her transparent friends. Her parents told everyone she was content to watch curtains blow in the breeze, and were mystified as to why she would burst out laughing or grow animated for no apparent reason in her crib. When she learned to talk and told her parents about her friends Marty and Ruth Rose and Captain Hughes coming to play with her, they remarked to everyone about how imaginative she was, and how she could play alone for hours with practically no supervision. That had confused Brittany; surely having tea with Princess Diana was plenty of supervision for a four-year-old. But now, at age eighteen, Brittany knew that her parents thought she was alone because no one else around her could see ghosts.
For a brief time, she'd wondered if she was crazy. But after talking it over with her grandfather Milton, who'd passed away some years before, she determined that she was just more connected to the spirit world that other people. She didn't have to be crazy. By the time she started high school, she started talking less and listening to all the interesting jokes the ghosts of McKinley told her. Eventually they all became friends. She'd even lost a game of checkers to a compulsive gambler in the parking lot once and as a result, had been forced to make dumb puns and use misnomers in front of her human classmates if she didn't want her locker combination to keep changing or her underwear to keep getting stolen.
She'd considered briefly going into the business of being a medium or maybe even a double-agent ghostbuster. But, deciding that a cheap, neon storefront or life of covert crimefighting wasn't something she was interested in, she decided to enroll in community college. She liked it well enough, and the ghosts that wandered the dingy halls of LCC didn't give her any special treatment. She liked everything about her life, except for the fact that she was single. That was a little lonely. Lots of humans thought she was weird because sometimes she would whisper to her ghost friends or make jokes only ghosts understood. When she'd had a boyfriend before, ghosts kept walking in on her having sex with him, which had really killed the mood for the first little bit. Eventually she'd made a pact with the local ghost council that in exchange for privacy in her bedroom, she'd make sure they could hold their council meetings in the choir room at McKinley. But for the moment, she was single.
One day, she was strolling through the park, taking in the last of the fall weather before it got too cold. She sat down on a bench and watched a pair of ghost squirrels do their perfectly choreographed stop-and-go chase up and down a tree across from her. She wondered; how did they always know when to stop and start? Their timing was razor-precise, and there didn't seem to be any verbal communication between them.
"Fucking squirrels," someone grumbled next to her. "I thought vermin would be prevented from coming back in the afterlife."
Brittany turned and was surprised to see a beautiful ghost girl sitting on the bench next to her with her hands stuffed in her pockets. She was exceptionally transparent, meaning she had just crossed over.
"Why don't you like squirrels?" Brittany asked.
The ghost girl huffed. "If it weren't for squirrels, I'd be going about my life like normal right now."
"Your ghost life or your human life?" Brittany asked. She'd learned that ghosts still referred to their existence as living, since they could do just about everything they'd done as humans.
"Human," the girl said. "As of right now I'm hooked up to a bunch of machines at Mercy."
Brittany turned sad at the mental image of such a beautiful girl stuck between life and death. "You're in a coma," she said sadly.
"Yep," the girl said, sounding angry. "All because a fucking squirrel jumped in front of my car."
Brittany bit her lip. It was unlike squirrels to be so vicious. "A ghost squirrel or a live squirrel?"
The girl frowned. "A live squirrel. Living people can't see ghosts."
Brittany felt a little embarrassed. It was always awkward the first time she introduced herself to a ghost and admitted she was still fully human. They had so many questions about why she could see them, and she didn't have any answers. "I can see ghosts," Brittany said.
"Well duh," the girl said, annoyed. "Ghosts can see other ghosts."
"No, I'm alive," Brittany said. "Look." She let out a breath that steamed in the cold air. It was the one sure-fire way to tell if someone was a ghost or not, since older, less transparent ghosts could sometimes pass for humans In the ghost world. New ghosts were the most transparent, but the old ghosts that were only ten percent transparent were tricky. Other than steam and footprints, Brittany just had to go with her instincts when trying to decide if a presence was human or not.
Seeing Brittany's breath billow out into the air, the ghost girl was taken aback. She looked around, not knowing what to say. Brittany didn't know what to say either, so she started her explanation, which wasn't really an explanation at all. "I've always been able to see ghosts, ever since I was a baby. I don't know why. Maybe I'm just in touch with a different plane or something."
"You believe in that crap?" the ghost said with a dubious look.
"I'm not the undead one here," Brittany said, shrugging.
The ghost huffed, her lack of steam glaring to Brittany as the girl hunched over.
Then the girl made an unexpected request. "There's probably some rule against this, but is there any way you can tell my family I love them?" she said, looking a bit frightened. "Just in case I don't make it."
Suddenly weighted down by the fear in the girl's eyes, Brittany nodded. She knew it would be weird to find a family of strangers and convey a message from their undead daughter who was also still kind of alive. If she could pull it off without looking crazy, it would be a miracle. But looking at the beautiful ghost girl next to her, she felt obligated to try.
She looked forward at the squirrels, wondering if they were the ones who had caused the ghost girl's car accident. She was about to ask where the girl's family lived, but when she looked back at where the girl had been sitting, the bench was empty.
That night, Brittany tried to fall asleep like usual, but sleep wouldn't come. Instead she tossed and turned, thinking about the beautiful ghost girl and her sad request to tell her family she loved them.
When the sun came up the next morning, Brittany set out to find the girl's body in the hospital and try to comfort her family. She didn't know why she felt so compelled to help a strange spirit, but she did. There was something unbearably sad about the girl. Usually new ghosts were happy to be free of the confines of their mortality, free to roam about the world as they pleased, without fear of death or pain or suffering. That was the biggest difference between humans and ghosts; ghosts didn't suffer. Painful and uncomfortable feelings were mere memories to them. Ghosts were some of the most interesting people Brittany knew, but a sad ghost was concerning to her, simply because she so rarely encountered one.
When she arrived at the hospital, she immediately felt foolish. She didn't even know the girl's name. How was she supposed to find her without any information? Just wander around until she found a girl in a coma that looked like the girl in the park? She walked toward the ICU cautiously, not sure if she should announce herself.
The hospital was the only place she never saw ghosts. Years earlier, there had been a town hall meeting for all spirits and they had collectively agreed that roaming the halls of hospitals was poor form. It complicated the intense emotions of the humans there, and often alerted ailing or drugged people to the presence of an afterlife. They had decided that hospitals were the one area, aside from morgues and funeral homes, that they wouldn't roam around without specific business. Visiting ailing relatives to bring peace was okay, but wandering around without cause was, as they said, poor form.
Luckily, today there was one ghost nurse working the desk. Brittany suspected that the ghosts knew about her mission and had placed the ghost nurse there to aid Brittany in finding the mysterious, beautiful girl. Sure enough, as Brittany approached the desk, the ghost nurse winked at her and whispered, "Room 314." Brittany nodded and surreptitiously slunk down the hall without any of the human nurses noticing.
When she entered the room where the girl's body was, she felt a hundred times heavier. The girl was hooked up to every type of machine imaginable, tubes coming out her nose and mouth, sensors strapped to her chest and hands, monitors on her heart and forehead. She was as close to the spirit world as a person could get without being dead.
As though the girl would be able to hear her, Brittany crouched next to her and whispered. "Hey, it's me." There was a pause as the machines beeped and pumped. "We met in the park," Brittany continued. "You were mad at the squirrels. I don't think they meant to upset you, they were just trying to cross the road."
The girl didn't respond.
"What's your name, anyway?" Brittany asked.
Realizing she could look at the chart at the foot of the bed, Brittany moved away momentarily. SANTANA LOPEZ the chart read. MULTIPLE HEAD INJURIES, PERSISTENT VEGITATIVE STATE.
Brittany was further saddened by the girl's chart. Her diagnosis meant she was only partly alive. After all, she'd seen the girl's ghost. She wouldn't have met the ghost if the girl was completely alive.
"I'm sorry your brain is working funny," Brittany said. "And I'm sorry you're stuck." She stood there looking at Santana for a few minutes, watching the forced rise and fall of her chest with the breathing machine, the lights of her monitors flickering.
"I promised I'd tell your family that you love them, but I don't know where they live," Brittany said apologetically. "I don't know when they're coming to visit you, so I'll just have to hang around," she said. "I'm sure you get lots of visitors."
Seeing Santana was still unresponsive, she settled down in a chair and pulled out a copy of The Secret Garden. After reading the first paragraph, she looked up. "Oh, did you want me to read out loud?" After a moment of silence, she said, "I thought so." And so she began reading to Santana.
After a few hours had passed, Brittany's stomach began to rumble. "I guess I better head out," she said. "Sorry I didn't catch your family. I'll try again tomorrow." And then, because she knew shaking hands wasn't an option, she hovered awkwardly over Santana's bed for moment before darting forward to kiss her forehead. Then she stood there for minute, unsure if what she'd just done was okay. But the monitors droned and pumped on without change, and eventually Brittany left.
She went to pick up a sandwich and took it to the park where she'd met Santana the day before. She sat down, and no sooner had she unwrapped her sandwich, the girl appeared next to her.
"Hey!" Brittany said. "I just came from visiting you."
"Thanks " Santana said, sheepish. "I saw you go in. That was nice of you."
"No problem. I hope you liked the story I read you."
Santana squinted and eyed Brittany strangely. "You read to me?"
"Yeah, for like two hours. We were just getting to the good part, but then I got hungry."
Santana stared at Brittany in silence for a minute before she said, "No one has ever read to me for two hours."
"Not even your grandparents?"
Santana shook her head and looked at the tree in front of her. "Not for two hours," she mumbled. "Now my grandma won't even talk to me."
Genuinely sad for her, Brittany pouted. "Why not?"
Santana gave a dismissive shrug. "It doesn't matter anymore."
"What doesn't matter anymore?"
Santana waved it off with her hand and mumbled, "She thinks it's wrong that I love girls the way most girls love boys."
Brittany's pout twisted. "I'm sorry. I don't think it's wrong. I like girls too."
That got Santana's attention. "You do?"
"Yeah, I like everybody," Brittany said cheerily. "I mean, how can I not? People are just so nice and attractive."
Santana looked at Brittany like she'd grown another head. "What universe are you living in? Everyone is ugly and horrible."
Brittany felt sorry for the Santana's ghost. She must have been a very sad and scared person before she became a ghost. "I don't really know what universe I'm in," Brittany said. "I mean, I'm human, but I can see and talk to ghosts too. I'm kind of in two worlds at the same time."
"Like me," Santana muttered. "Not dead, but not a total ghost yet. I'm so transparent, other ghosts give me funny looks."
"I like your transparency," Brittany smiled. "There's nothing you don't go with."
"Are you this nice to humans too?" Santana asked.
"I hope so," Brittany said. "I try to be nice to everyone."
Santana mulled that over for a minute before saying, "Well... Thanks for reading to me. I'm sure it was a nice story." It was quiet for a minute before Santana said, "I thought being a ghost would be a lot more fun."
"It is fun!" Brittany said. "At least that's what the other ghosts say."
Santana scoffed. "I have never been so miserable in my life. It's like every single bad feeling I ever had has come back to haunt me. The other ghosts say they can't feel pain the way they did as a human, but I sure do."
"Maybe you're a special kind of ghost," Brittany offered.
"But I'm still a ghost! Why can I feel? I'm pissed about everything!"
Brittany gave her a tender pout. "Maybe because your human heart still works."
Santana froze for a second and then got up and started to float away.
"Wait!" Brittany called. "Where are you going?"
"I'm gonna go take care of my heart once and for all. I don't like watching my parents suffer, and it's just so pathetic to see my body lying there helpless. I can't even breathe on my own. I just want to put everyone out of their misery."
"No!" Brittany cried, realizing Santana was going to the hospital to pull the plug on her own body. "Don't do that! You're not allowed in the hospital unless someone you love is dying!"
Santana lingered and Brittany hoped it meant she hadn't given up on going back to her body. "Santana, if you die, your family will be devastated."
"My grandma already said I was dead to her. What difference does it make?" Santana said.
"It makes all the difference!" Brittany said. "You have the rest of your life to do amazing things."
"I can do amazing things as a ghost," Santana scowled. "Prank the assholes at school, switch the diet and regular soda outlets so the Cheerios start getting fat, slash the tires on Sue's LeCar, and I don't have to worry about getting caught or hurt. It's win-win."
"But there's one thing you can't do," Brittany said.
"What?" Santana asked looking skeptical.
Brittany stood up and puckered her lips, leaning into Santana's transparent form. When her lips drifted through Santana's without sensation, Santana gasped.
"I can't touch people?" she whispered.
Brittany shook her head sadly. "Only other ghosts."
Santana paused, contemplating giving up physical satisfaction. "Well… That should be okay. I'm sure I can find some hot lady ghosts."
"It's not the same," Brittany said. "You can't feel warmth the way people can."
Santana paused again. "Is warmth really worth living for?"
"Absolutely," Brittany said.
Santana looked around, still skeptical. "I don't know," she muttered. "It seems like a silly thing."
"What about love?" Brittany said. "That's worth living for."
"Can't I find that as a ghost?" Santana asked.
"I suppose you could," Brittany said. "But the happiest ghost couples met when they were living."
Santana bit her lip, pondering.
"Tell you what," Brittany said. "Wait until you've seen your family talking to your body before you decide. If you want to leave all that behind after you see it, I won't stop you."
Santana grew even more hesitant, and Brittany knew she didn't want to watch her parents cry.
"I'm not supposed to be in the hospital," Santana said. "It's poor form."
"You didn't seem to care about that a moment ago," Brittany said. "I kind of have a deal with the local ghost council. If you come with me, you won't get in trouble."
Santana debated for a minute before sighing and saying, "Okay."
Brittany smiled and stood up, brushing the crumbs out of her lap. She hadn't eaten much of her sandwich, but helping the sad ghost girl was more important right now. "One more thing," Brittany said with a sneaky smile.
Santana raised her eyebrows, skeptical of any deals this strange girl who lived in two worlds was offering her.
"If you wake up, once you're all better, you have to go on a date with me."
Santana looked away and bit down and embarrassed smile. "Do you make a habit of asking dead girls out?"
"You're not dead yet," Brittany said. "Hopefully you won't be for a very long time."
Santana didn't say anything, so Brittany searched her transparent face. "So... do we have a deal?"
Santana looked at the ground and nodded.
Satisfied that she had a little leverage to convince Santana not to give up on her human life, Brittany headed back toward the hospital, Santana trailing not far behind her.
When they arrived at Santana's hospital room, it was exactly as Brittany had left it. Santana's ghost looked forlorn as she looked through the glass at her body.
"I look so pathetic," she said.
"I don't think so," Brittany said. "I think you look beautiful."
Santana didn't respond, only kept gazing at herself as ghost tears pooled in her eyes. "I don't want to stay," she squeaked. "It's too hard."
Just then, an old woman walked down the hall toward where Brittany and Santana were standing. She looked weary and weatherbeaten, as though the weight of the world rested on her shoulders.
When Santana saw her, she paled, even in ghost form.
"Abuela?" she whispered.
The old woman walked right past them into Santana's room and stood there for a moment, hands limp at her sides. Tears formed in her eyes as she knelt next to Santana's bed, clasping her hands in prayer.
"She came to see me," Santana breathed in astonishment. "I didn't think she would."
Brittany said nothing, only moved closer to Santana's ghost to comfort her as best she could without touch. Santana lifted her hand to the glass, watching her grandmother pray for her.
Brittany could hear Spanish mumbling from inside the room, but she didn't know what the woman was saying. All she knew was that Santana's ghost was crying harder now.
"What's she saying?" Brittany whispered.
Santana shook her head and sniffled. "Enough," she said.
With that, Santana floated through the door with a determined expression on her face.
Brittany reached after her, terrified Santana was going in to tamper with one of her machines or to try to communicate with her grandmother. That was strictly forbidden, and Brittany didn't want to be an accomplice to a ghost crime. But she couldn't very well burst in on a stranger in a coma and an old woman praying for her.
To her relief, Santana's ghost didn't move toward the machines. Instead, she wrapped her arms around the old woman and said, "I love you too, Abuela."
And then, throwing a sad smile over her shoulder at Brittany, Santana climbed onto the bed, laying herself within her body, until they blended together perfectly.
At first, nothing happened. The old woman kept mumbling and the machines droned on.
But then, a beeping occurred out of sequence.
The old woman's head lifted and looked at the machine to her left.
Then another beep sounded. And another.
Then an alarm went off and things started swarming around them.
The old woman rose to her feet, eyes wide and alarmed. Two nurses and a doctor ran down the hall, heading straight for Brittany. Brittany moved out of the way and watched with a joyous heart as Santana's left pointer finger rose, then her whole hand twitched, and then she was obscured from vision by the doctors and nurses tending to her as she rose to consciousness. More hospital staff dashed inside, Santana's grandmother clutching her heart and looking heavenward with grateful tears. Ten minutes later, Santana's parents ran in, peppering their daughter's face with kisses that Brittany knew were warm.
Brittany watched for the next half hour as Santana was brought back into the world of the living. When the chaos of regaining consciousness had settled and Santana was lying in her bed surrounded by her family as they took turns holding her hand, she looked up at Brittany. Brittany held her hand to the glass, not sure if Santana would know who she was. She wasn't sure if, when returned to their bodies, ghosts remembered their ghost lives. But after only a moment, Santana made an effort to smile. After another moment, Brittany saw, unmistakably, a wink.
Brittany grinned and winked back, prepared to wait patiently until Santana was well enough to walk through the park with her as a human girl.