Stephen came out of the darkness he had been in but he didn't understand why he was returning. He didn't open his eyes as he was afraid that if he did, he might see teeth above him waiting and wanting to separate his flesh and bones. However he felt down with his hands and he encountered no bandages, no blood, no cuts. He thought for a moment, he didn't feel any pain at all. His scientific mind was trying to sort this all out, but it wasn't coming up with any ideas that fit. Maybe it would be the pieces that didn't fit that would let him know what the hell was going on. So telling himself with his best superhero voice to quit being a coward and open his damn eyes, he pushed his eyelids open and looked around.
He found himself in a white room with no teeth, no monsters, and especially no door with a window where Nick had been so pleadingly looking at him. He swung him feet over and off the bed and sat up. He could see a door but it didn't have a handle. All he could see in all this whiteness was the bed he had been laying on and himself. He gripped the bed hard but that didn't help him figure out what was going on.
Suddenly he heard a noise and noticed that on the other side of the room a door had opened. Only not like a normal door, it was like just gone. And in walked one of the most beautiful woman Stephen had ever seen. She was wearing a long white gown with no color what so ever. But there was color in the room now. Color that was in her bright red gorgeous hair. And when she sat down on a chair that just materialized in front of him, he fall deep and hard into the brightest greenest eyes he had ever seen. Stephen knew at that moment, that falling in love at first sight was very real. Nothing else seemed to matter at that moment that sitting here with her.
In a deep and throaty voice the lady said, "Hello Stephen my name is Truth. I was chosen to come and explain your options to you."
Stephen had to swallow a couple of times before he could speak. He said, "Chosen. Chosen by who, for what?"
She laughed, a deep hearty laugh that warmed Stephen through and through. "I am so going to enjoy the richness of your mind. Instead of asking about yourself you ask about me. However like your job I have rules and my rules don't allow me to tell you where your are or who I am. I find secrets destroy more than they do good, don't you? I mean if you had told Nick about your sleeping with his wife, instead of of keeping it a secret, don't you think things would have turned out better for you? If you told him earlier maybe you would not have been his friend in that case you wouldn't have died, or he would have forgiven you and you could have fought Helen together. Now there is a human with secrets." She laughed again.
"Secrets serve those that need them, and they help for a time," Stephen said. "I knew I should have told Nick but I figured with Helen out of the picture I need not hurt him more." "And," she said. "And, I needed Nick as much as he needed me." Stephen shook his head. What spell had this woman used on him. He never admitted even to himself, that he needed anyone, not even Nick.
She laughed again. She stood up and the chair disappeared. She looked down at him and said, "Such honesty. If all of mankind would be as honest in everything they do, they would be a happier species. Tell me Stephen, are you even honest with yourself? How about how and why you died?" Stephen starred at her dumbfounded. It was finally sinking in. She said he was dead. Then how could he be here? Finally he asked, "If I am dead why am I here?" He wasn't really sure he wanted to hear the answer but he knew at any cost he had to get to the bottom of this.
She sat down on the bed beside him, and lifted his hand to her lips. They felt so soft on his skin and he felt a jolt that told him he was truly alive. Then she withdrew her lips and said, "When a person dies doing a act of bravely such as your death was, they are brought here and examined. If we find they did the act with a true heart, then they are given a choice to return to earth alive, or go on from here. I am your examiner."
Stephen finds it hard to breathe. Someone examines his life and decides if he is worthy?
"Bloody hell" he says to the lady. "You have no right."
She stands and says to him, "this is the way it has been and always will be. You have no choice about being examined, your only choice will be whether you turn to the right or you turn to the left." "Now" she says as she sits down on the reappearing chair, "knowing what you know now, if you could go back in time, would you sleep with Helen Cutter and betray her husband." Stephen put his head in his hands. Why was his life so suddenly all about one act he did nine years ago? Yea he had lusted after Helen not too long ago, but his deep friendship with Nick had not allowed it to further than a few kisses. Maybe that is why she let him die.
After a unknown amount of time, Stephen lifted his head and said "I can't answer that question with a yes or no. What happened between me and Helen brought me and Nick together in a sick way. I wouldn't trade my friendship with him for anything."
She sat there looking at him, studying him, examining him. Finally she stood, the chair disappeared the door opened. She took his hand and motioned him to stand. Then she lead him to the door.
"To the right" she said, "you will find your life on earth again. You will find yourself lying on the floor after Nick hit you. If you choose to go that way, no one will know you died. However I must tell you someone else will die. Whether it is Nick, or Helen, or someone else I cannot tell you. If you go to the left you will be dead and life on earth will go on without you. Nick will have to find a new friend, Conner will have to find someone else to guide him, and the world will have to suffer with all the dangerous animals you will not be around to kill. Your choice."
Nick looks both ways. But he knows what way he will go. No one he cares for or has cared for can die that horrible death. This time he lifts her hand to his lips and kisses it. Then he gently says, "I have to go left. Nick is a better person than I. He deserves to live." And he lets go of her hand and steps out the door and turns left. He takes about a dozen steps down the hallway when he hears her shout, "Stop Stephen," then hears her running up behind him. He turns to her and she stands on her tiptoes and whispers in his ear, "I swear on all that is holy that no one you care about or have cared about will die." He whispers back to her "I thought you couldn't tell me that." She smiles and says "Sometimes you just have to break the rules. Go right Stephen, go right." And then she pulls his head down and gives him a kiss that curls his toes. Then suddenly she is gone, and Stephens goes right.
He finds himself lying on the ground looking up at Nick who put him there. He knows he deserves this for betraying his friend. Then he hears Helen say "I need you both alive. Someone must go inside and lock the door from the inside and keep the monsters contained." She motions for someone in the hallway to come forward. It is a guy they have seen before and she says, 'I command you to go into the room and lock the door from the inside. And stay there until you are destroyed." He does, and Stephen and Nick watch through the window until they turn there head in disgust. Helen takes that moment to disappear.
A week later Stephen finds himself in a pub, on the way to getting very drunk. In is pocket is a letter he plans on giving to Lester in the morning. He has been unable to talk to Nick about Helen, and Nick will not talk to him or even look at him. Conner will talk to him, but then stops when Abby notices. He can no longer stand to be at the ARC or around the people he once cared about so much. He has accepted a new job, in Greenland. He will be looking for fossils and studying ruins but he will be doing it on his own. He is leaving day after tomorrow. He finishes his drink and waves for another one.
The person that comes up to him says in this throaty deep voice, "Sorry Stephen you have had enough. You need to go and talk to Nick. This can be resolved, you can be pals again, but only if you go talk to him tonight." Stephen looks at the lady talking to him. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knows that voice. And when he sees the lady he discovers a beautiful lady with red hair and piercing green eyes. "Do I know you," he asks. She laughs, a laugh that warms Stephen to his toes. Then she says, "Stephen, go out the door and turn right. You will soon be where you need to be. Now go." Then she leans over and kisses Stephen a kiss that tells him all can be right in his world if he only goes and talks to Nick. When the kiss ends she pulls back, points to the door and tells Stephen, "Turn right." He gets up and heads to the door. When he reaches it he turns back to wave at the woman, only he can't find her anywhere. But he feels a breath on his ear and the voice saying, "Go right Stephen." And he goes out the door and heads to Nicks.
As he is just about ready to knock on the door it opens and Nick is standing there. They both say at the same time, "We need to talk." Then there is silence. Finally Nick says, "Come in. I have some cold drinks. Lets talk." And just as Stephen is shutting the door behind him, he hears that laugh. Someday he thinks, I will thank her for all she has done.