June 18th 2006

Melinda pulled into her driveway on Hazen Street after a busy day at work. It was June, but the spring flowers were still in full bloom, filling the warm air with their perfumey scent. Melinda inhaled deeply, savoring the subtle aroma of lavender and lilac. It was the perfect remedy to ease the stress of the day. She locked the doors to her red Jeep Liberty, and walked up the porch steps to her front door.

"Jim?" She called up the stairs as she laid her purse and keys on the side table near the front door. Although Jim didn't respond, she took the sound of the shower running upstairs as a clue to where he was. Smiling, she pranced up the stairs to surprise him. When she reached the upstairs hallway, she was unnerved by a cloud of smoke that seemed to be billowing from beneath her closed bedroom door. Feeling mysteriously drawn towards it, she slowly crept closer. The smoke instantly began to fill her nose and throat, making breathing more difficult by the second.

"Jim!" She shouted hoarsely. She reached for the doorknob. As soon as her hand touched it, she gasped and recoiled in pain. It was white-hot. Feeling increasingly smothered by smoke (and now pain), she lowered herself to the floor, coughing violently and cradling her injured hand. Feeling lightheaded, her vision began to go gray around the edges when the bedroom door flew open and all the smoke immediately vanished.

"Mel!" Jim exclaimed, dropping to his knees in front of her, and taking her face in his hands.

Breathing heavily, Melinda looked into his worried eyes. "Hey, baby." She said, voice weaker than she'd hoped.

Jim raised one eyebrow in confusion. "Uh… Mel?" He asked. "What happened? Are you okay?"

Melinda laughed quietly and shook her head. It was just a vision. An extremely vivid and unnecessarily painful vision. "Yeah." She said. "I'm fine. I thought I saw something. And then I…. Um. Tripped?"

Even though Melinda and Jim had been married for a year, and together for almost four years before that, she still didn't like to tell him about her "ghost stuff" unless it was absolutely necessary. She tried to keep it on a need-to-know basis. It hurt him sometimes that she didn't share every detail of every ghost with him, but it was so much for her to deal with every day… And she was used to it. She didn't want to put it on Jim if she didn't have to.

Jim was still looking at her quizzically as she emerged from her train of thought.

"Sorry, what?" Melinda asked, obviously distracted and shaken.

"Tripped?" Jim asked, completely unconvinced.

Melinda sighed and frowned, looking down at the floor. Jim lifted her chin, redirecting her gaze towards him.

"What'd you see?" he asked quietly.

"Honestly, I didn't really see anything. Except for smoke." Mel confessed, "And a lot of it. I felt it too."

"That… Can't be good." Jim fumbled, trying to find the right words.

Melinda jumped to her feet, suddenly cheerful again as if nothing had happened. "I'm sure it's nothing." She watched Jim as he slowly got up, just realizing that he was wearing nothing but a towel and his body was still glistening with moisture. She grinned slyly and stepped closer until their bodies were nearly touching. Placing her arms around his neck, she leaned in to whisper seductively in his ear. "What are YOU doing?"

Jim chuckled and put his hands on her hips. "You are a strange girl, Melinda Gordon." He replied huskily.

"You love it." Melinda ran her hands softly down Jim's back, causing him to involuntarily shiver.

"I do." He whispered, sweeping Melinda into his arms bridal-style and entering the bedroom with her. Suffice it to say, all ghost-business was momentarily forgotten.

A/N: And so it begins! If you want more, please let me know! REVIEW!