Hi everyone, thanks for the reviews. Here's the next chapter.

A New Glimmer of Hope

When Joey walked out of Caroline's room, she couldn't help but smile a little bit even if it was a sad one. When Joey was in the room and talking to her sister, all her hoping and wishing was rewarded by the squeeze of Caroline's hand when Lillian had been mentioned. It took all of Joey's energy to not run out into the hall and get Pacey or Bessie and tell them about what happened. She decided against it and went to look for Doctor Fitzgerald.

"Excuse me, can you tell me where Doctor Fitzgerald's office is located?" she asked someone in the nurses' station.

"Down the hall, third office on the left. But he's not there."

"Is he still out?"

"No ma'am. He's in the waiting room with the family of one of his patients."

"Thank you. I appreciate it." she said before walking towards the waiting room.

"Is everyone here?" Doctor Fitzgerald asked. "I wanted to fill you in on Miss Witter. But I'd rather wait until everyone is here."

Just at that moment, Joey showed up behind the kind-hearted physician. It didn't take her long to find a place to sit before he started.

"You can begin now, Doc." she told him.

"First of all, Miss Witter is responding very nicely to the medication we're giving her for the respiratory problem that arose when she slipped into the coma. And her heart has recovered fairly well from the cardiac arrest she suffered the other day."

"Do we know what caused it?" Dawson asked him.

"I'm sorry, but that is still a mystery to us. But the most probable cause was the situation with her lungs."

"Okay. What about her kidney? How much time do we have to wait to operate?"

"As soon as we are one hundred percent sure that the perfect match in organ and tissue types are found."

"Speaking of which," Bessie interrupted. "who would be the best candidates to be tested?"

"In all cases regarding something as delicate as this, the best possible donors would be immediate family members, more specifically brothers and sisters if the patient has any. By the way, there was a young lady that was tested the other day. Does anyone know if she's here? We had not been able to go over her results. Does anyone know where I can find her?"

"I'm right here, Doctor Fitzgerald." Gretchen said approaching the group form behind. "As for the results, I have them with me right here." she said pulling out the papers she held in her hand the day everyone found out about the sheriff being Caroline's biological father.

"All right, please follow me to my office so we can discuss them in private."

"Yes doctor."

With that, they were gone, leaving everyone else in the lobby with confused faces.

"When did Gretchen get tested?" Joey asked.

"Beats me." Pacey answered. "She didn't even tell me about the test."

The afternoon breeze hit one Ray Barnett squarely across the face as he entered the doors of Capeside Memorial and walked up to the information desk.

"May I help you?" asked a young receptionist. She was maybe a year or two older than him, but she was flirting shamelessly with him.

"Actually, maybe you can. I'm looking for a Doctor Fitzgerald. I was told that he worked at this hospital."

"Are you a patient of his?" the receptionist asked him.

"Um, no. I'm one of his students."

The receptionist was shocked beyond words at his revelation, considering how young he looked. But she quickly regained her composure as she looked up the doctor Ray had asked for.

"Office six, fifth floor."

"Thank you." he responded before heading towards the elevator.

The elevator ride to the fifth floor was a very slow one. Not that Ray minded. He was just a little impatient to find out why Doctor Fitzgerald had called him to come to Capeside. He hadn't been here in awhile. The last time he had been here was a year ago when he had graduated college at Boston University and came to see Doctor Fitzgerald as an advisor when he started med school at Mass General. Around the same time, there was some family business that needed taking care of. Although Ray had been at Mass General for a year, he still had no idea what he wanted to specialize in. But being in Capeside was a nice change for him. Today, he was to start a new rotation with his mentor but didn't think much about the location at first.

"Doctor Fitzgerald," he called when he found the doctor. "your favorite pupil reporting for duty."

"Ray, it's good to see you. I'm sorry we couldn't do the rotation in Boston, but I have to take care of a particular patient that needs a lot of my attention right now which is why I've had the rotation moved here."

"That's fine, I've been meaning to stop into town anyway. I have family here that I need to visit."

"Perfect. Go home and get settled in. Then come back this afternoon."

"Okay. See you in a couple of hours."

After checking in with Doctor Fitzgerald, Ray decided to get a feel for the hospital he would call home for the next six weeks. So he decided to give himself a little tour. After a little while, Ray found himself near the nursery. He always had a fascination with babies, maybe because he didn't really come from a big family.

"Ray? Ray Barnett?" he heard a voice behind him. But it was a voice he hadn't heard in almost three years.

"Bessie?" Ray's first instinct was to turn around to see if his ears weren't deceiving him. "Bessie Potter? Get over here and give me a hug!"

The two childhood friends hadn't seen each other since the day that Bessie's mom had been laid to rest. That was when she lost her battle with lung cancer. The whole time that Lillian was sick, Ray was by Bessie and Joey's sides, caring for them like the sisters he never had as a child. Granted he was only five years younger than Bessie, he always felt at ease with her. Lillian's sickness is what made Ray decide to go into medicine when he enrolled in college at the tender age of fourteen, being a child genius that was home-schooled and graduating very early.

"How've you been? How's med school treating you, shorty?" she asked him while playing with his hair and calling him by his childhood nickname.

"Not too badly. That's actually why I'm in town." he told her. "I'm on rotation with this doctor here that usually teaches some classes at Mass General. But he's got this really important patient and reassigned the rotation here."

"That's really terrific Ray. How's the band?"

"Don't know. They went on tour during the summer and I couldn't go with so they dropped me." he told her. That's when he saw the sad look on Bessie's face. "Don't worry. They say it's just temp. But if it isn't, I'll just get a new band."

He saw extreme sadness in her expression. And it worried him.

"Bess, what' wrong? Is it Joey? Did something happen to your sister?"

"My sister, yeah. Just not Joey."

This confused ray to no end.

"What do you mean not Joey? If memory serves, you only have one sister. Or am I suddenly wrong?"

"It turns out we had a younger sister we never knew about. Funny thing was that she was practically under our noses the whole time."

"Is she someone I know?"

"Caroline Witter."

The pond was a clear blue and the sky was as clear as day. Everything about this place was really beautiful. Caroline had the one thing here that she didn't have on earth. Lillian knew her daughter was trying to make a decision with herself. Should she stay? Should she go back?

"Sunflower? Are you alright?"

"Of course mommy. I'm just thinking."

"It's a hard decision. But whatever you choose, I know you'll do it following your heart."

Caroline was carefully weighing the pros and cons of the situation. But it wouldn't be easy.

Dawson Leery sat in the hospital room with his beautiful, comatose wife. He didn't make too much noise. Truth be told, he just sat there like he was watching a newborn baby asleep in a crib. Every once in a while, he'd brush her hair away from her face and caress her cheek.

"Honey, you have to wake up. You have to come back to me. To us. I know I'm being a little selfish, but I don't care. I just want you to wake up so I can hold you in my arms."

Soon there was a knock at the door. Jack and Andie McPhee entered the room. They had been amongst the many people who had been there, showing support to him and Caroline's family.

"Dawson, why don't you let us take over for a while. Go take a walk or lie down for a little bit." Andie suggested.

"Yeah man, we'll stay here with her. You need rest. Think of it this way, you'll get sick If you don't take care of yourself and then Caroline won't be able to forgive herself, or us for that matter, for letting that happen. Do what Andie says, get some rest. If anything changes, we'll go get you."

"Thanks Jack, Andie." he said bending down to kiss Caroline goodbye. "I'll be back sweetie. I love you."

With that, he gave her a peck on the lips and squeezed her hand. He was surprised when she squeezed his back.

"Did you guys see that?" he asked his friends. "Her hand. It moved."

"Maybe this is a good sign. Maybe it's nothing." Andie said. "But we still have to hope. If we keep hoping and wishing like we have the past two days, maybe she'll wake up really soon."

"I agree with Andie." Jack said in turn. "If she can squeeze your hand then that means she can definitely hear us like Jen keeps saying. Maybe we'll still get our miracle and Caroline will come back to us."

Okay, I know that was really long. I'm sorry that the end of this chapter wasn't really that good. And I'm sorry if it seems that I'm writing Ray out of character. As for who his family in Capeside is, that's still a mystery to me. Okay, hoped you all liked it. Suggestions and criticism are always welcome.