(A crossover ficlet—or quintuple-drabble, at 500 words—inspired by the episode "Blood Brothers" as well as the 1990 movie "Ghost," both of which featured Patrick Swayze. Hopefully you've either seen "Ghost" or have a passing knowledge of the character played by Whoopi Goldberg, otherwise this may not make much sense.)

Message from Beyond

Hawkeye was home from the war almost six months when the medium showed up at his office, introducing herself as Oda Mae Brown. She sat down in the chair he offered her and announced, "I have a message for you from Gary Sturgis."

Hawkeye recognized the name immediately. His mind went back to Korea and he recalled a young, good-looking blond soldier who'd been unfailingly loyal to his wounded buddy… and who'd had leukemia, as Hawkeye had discovered when looking into a microscope.

"Gary Sturgis," Hawkeye repeated. "Is he…?"

Oda Mae nodded to her left. "He's dead, yes. But he's also right here next to me, asking me to deliver a message to you."

"A message?" Hawkeye was more than a little suspicious, not believing in the afterlife, much less that ghosts could communicate from it.

"Made me come all the way here to Middle-a-Nowhere, Maine… said that a phone call wasn't gonna do it," she started to ramble, then suddenly looked toward her left, as if someone there had spoken. "OK, OK!" she snapped to thin air. To Hawkeye, she added, "He's got a' attitude, this one. Wants me to get to the point." Hawkeye kept his mouth shut and waited. Eventually she went on, "Gary doesn't want you to feel guilty, he knows there wasn't anything else you could have done. He knows that you were upset about having to give him his diagnosis, but take heart… he's happy on the other side."

Hawkeye tried not to scoff. Best to just get this bizarre episode over with, humor the woman until her work here was done.

Oda Mae leaned forward. "You shouldn't despise death so much, he says."

Now that Hawkeye had to respond to. "I'm a physician. It's my job to despise death. To fight it with every ounce of my being."

"Well, Gary says death is kind of wonderful. It's nothing to be afraid of—he wanted you to know that. He's happy."

Hawkeye spread his hands, "Well, thank him for that information, but I'm still going to do my damnedest to keep my patients alive and healthy. I took an oath."

Oda Mae tilted her head, shrugging. "Hey, I'm just the messenger, and I done what he asked me to do. I'll leave you alone now." She stood, then froze in place for a long moment, listening… apparently not done delivering her message after all. She looked back at Hawkeye and said, "You should clear the ice off the back porch steps before somebody slips and falls."

Hawkeye let out a little laugh to disguise the fact that he was completely unnerved. The back porch steps were in fact still icy from the last storm… and how the hell did this woman know that? He said, "What—Sturgis told you that?"

Oda Mae was halfway to the door now, but she turned and looked at him. "No, Dr. Pierce. That was your mother." She gave him a smile, her hand on the doorknob. "She says hello."