"Jake?"

It was so cold…Christ, this was unbearable. I ached all over…it felt like I'd been worked over by the largest wave. My head was pounding…and the cold. So, so cold…

"Jake, wake up. You have to wake up."

"Ackerman…wake the hell up."

Shuddering, I cracked my eyes open.

"Jake!" Father Dominic. "Are you all right?" In response I managed to groan a little. No, no, I was definitely not okay.

"Where's Suze?" Paul demanded. "Is she all right? Did you get her out?"

Weakly, I nodded, coughing. I closed my eyes for a long moment. Damn, I was tired. Exhausted, actually, like I'd run a marathon. Apparently, fighting the undead really takes a lot of a guy. When I opened my eyes again, Dr. Slaski was peering at me.

"No offense, kid, but you look like hell."

I could have cared less. "Why's it so…cold?" I whispered, cracking my eyes open again.

"What? Jake--" David stared at me. His freckles were standing out again, so that meant he was worried. "Jake, you're freezing. Hey, can we get him a blanket--Jake? Jake!"

Someone was shaking me, and people were calling out my name, but it didn't matter. I was officially out of it.

I heard the voice again. For every action, a consequence. This is yours.

For every action…

a consequence...

this is yours...

your consequence...

my consequence...yes, mine. I knew the risks. My actions, my consequences.

When I opened my eyes again, I was wrapped in a very hot, very scratchy wool blanket.

"Jake!" David cried out, looking relieved. "You're awake."

"Yeah," I mumbled, sitting up. "Yeah, I...ooh. Ohh, boy," I groaned as the headache I'd had before returned with a vengeance. "Damn. Is my head supposed to feel like somebody took a sledgehammer to it?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Paul said, walking up to us. "And damn, Ackerman, it's about time you woke up. We were thinking of calling 911. And then we'd have to explain what'd happened, which would end up with all of us in the psychiatric ward."

"I've been to a few of those," Dr. Slaski reminisced. "They aren't so bad."

"You know, when I said I was going to do this, you didn't mention I was going to feel like complete crap afterwards," I complained.

"Would you have changed your mind?" Dr. Slaski asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, but at least then I'd be prepared," I grumbled, then asked plaintively, "Anyone got some aspirin? Excedrin? Or maybe just some good old morphine?"

"Sorry," Father Dominic said, coming in. "I'm afraid we're all out of morphine." He smiled at me. "Feeling better?"

"Sort of," I grumbled. Then I brightened. "But Suze is okay. She's okay."

Father Dominic smiled at me. "Yes, she is."

"What happened?" Dr. Slaski asked.

So, I told them. I told them about the spirits, about finally beating them only to find my rope broken, about Suze's father coming to save us. The only part I didn't mention was Mom's message. That was...just between us.

"And Suze is back," Paul said.

"Yes," I said, and stood up. Every bone, every joint in my body ached…there wasn't an inch of me that didn't hurt. Lord, this sucked. Of course it was worth it, I'd do it again in a heartbeat if I had to, but the pain still sucked beyond belief.

"So," Father Dominic said, "we'll wait until we get the official word from the hospital."

I stared at him as if he were insane. "Father, are you crazy? After all that, you think I'm gonna just twiddle my thumbs until the hospital calls?"

Paul sighed. "Jake, we can't just show up there, in the middle of the night, and have Suze wake up right then. It'll seem too weird."

Oh, yeah. "Crap," I groaned. "C'mon, Dave. Might as well go back home."

"Uh, wait a minute," Dr. Slaski said. "Jesse wants to know if that's such a good idea, you driving."

Jesse? Oh, right, the ghost I couldn't see anymore. I shrugged. "Should be okay."

"Yeah," David said, grinning at me. "Maybe now you'll drive at a reasonable speed."

I glared at him. "Suze's rubbing off on you too much."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

It was, but I wasn't going to say that. Instead, I just put him in a headlock and marched him out of there.

"Hey, David?"

"Yeah?"

"When I was exorcised...how did you see me? I mean, you're not a mediator, right?"

David sighed. "Dr. Slaski had this...liquid elixir, he called it. It does something to you...helps you see ghosts. It works for a while, but then it can't work ever again."

"Oh." I nodded, then paused. "Wait. There aren't any side effects, are there?"

"No," David reassured me.

"Good. Good." Only one of us needed to go through hell with the lousy side effects.

"Jake?" David's face was worried.

"Yeah?"

"You're gonna be okay, right?" David's voice was slightly higher than usual, and I really, really got how scared he must have been when I blacked out back at the Mission.

I didn't know the answer to that, but I gave him what he wanted to hear. "Yeah, man. Don't worry about it. I'm fine."

But if I wasn't okay...well. There were consequences, I knew. The voice had told me that. I'd known that the minute I'd crawled into the hole, the minute I'd found Suze, the minute I'd faced down all those ghosts.

There was going to be consequences.

And whatever they were, I could deal with them.

The first consequence apparently involved me puking my guts out.

"Jake, sweetie?" Mom's voice. "Are you all right?"

In response, I groaned. Not really helping my story of 'yeah, I'm totally cool and not puking my guts out.' I lay down on the cold porcelain floor, which felt good against my flushed face.

This sucked beyond all belief. How the hell did anyone do this? Why would anyone want to do this? If this was the effect of being up in that place, then I would stay on Earth for the rest of his life, and maybe even beyond that, thank you very much. God.

The door opened, and I saw a pair of slippered feet coming towards me. "Sick," I mumbled.

"Oh, honey," she said, kneeling down and touching my shoulder. "Did you eat some bad food?"

"Uh huh," I mumbled. I was shivering again. Oh God...I lurched up into a sitting position so I could puke some more. Right then, I hated the universe and everyone in it. Except for Mom, because she was rubbing my back and making soothing sounds.

Finally, after I was finished, I rinsed out my mouth.

"Do you want something to eat?" Mom asked. "Some chicken soup?"

My stomach lurched again. Food. Ugh. "Nah," I told her. "I'm just gonna go to bed."

"Waiting sucks, man," I mumbled.

David smiled. "I agree."

Something that was bothering me for a while popped back into my head. "So...that Jesse guy," I tried for a casual tone of voice, but by the look David gave me, I failed completely. "What's with him and Suze? They going out or something?"

David shrugged. "I think so. Is that a problem?"

I stared at him. "Are you crazy? Of course it's a problem--he's a ghost!"

"Ssh," David cautioned, glancing at the door. I didn't know why, since it was freakin' closed, but whatever. "He's a nice guy?"

"How do you know," I demanded. "Have you had any conversations with him? What, can you channel the dead now?"

"Well, there was this one time..."

"David, for the love of God, do not finish that sentence," I warned. "I really can't handle any more weirdness tonight." He grinned at me, his braces glinting, and I continued. "It's just...he's not real."

"Of course he is," David said, sounding bewildered. "You saw him tonight. You know he's there, he exists."

He didn't understand. I shook my head. "No, you don't get it. He exists, yeah, but not in the way we do. He--he doesn't eat, he doesn't need to breathe, and the only people he can touch are mediators like Suze. He--" I took a breath. "He'll never be able to meet Dad, or Mom. He won't be able to take Suze to her prom, or even to the movies or..." I trailed off.

David looked sad. "No. He won't."

I sighed. "Look, Jesse's probably a good guy, I don't know. But...I don't see how it could work."

"Neither do I," David admitted. "Suze's going to have her heart broken...isn't she?"

I sighed again. "Yeah. She probably is."

Later on, Brad came in. "What are you doing?" I asked sleepily.

He shrugged, looking awkward. "Nothing." A pause. I could tell he wanted to come in, he just didn't know how. So I made it easy on him.

"Are you coming in or what? Cause there's a draft coming in from the door."

Brad grinned and shut the door behind him, sitting on a chair. "Heard the snoring, thought it was you." I glanced at David, snoring peacefully besides me.

"If he ever gets married, his wife will have to be deaf," I muttered, and we both chuckled. A thought came to me. "Hey, Brad."

"Yeah?" He lounged in my chair, looking relaxed.

"When Suze wakes up..."

"When?" His eyebrows went up.

Maybe it wasn't a smart idea, but I held my ground. "Yeah, when."

Brad considered it. "Okay. When."

"When she wakes up...you think we should teach her how to surf?"

He frowned. "She's probably be worried about her hair getting messed up."

A few weeks ago, I would have agreed. After realizing the shit she'd gone through all her life, I had a different outlook now. "She could be into it."

"Maybe," Brad agreed. "Just...don't get your hopes up, okay man? And...not just about the surfing."

I smiled at him. "You gotta have faith, man."

He shook his head at me. "Suit yourself, dude."

I blinked, hearing two voices talking excitedly. I glanced at the clock. 4:47 AM. Damn. David and Brad had gone to their rooms ages ago.

I heard the pounding of footsteps on the stairs. "Jake, Brad, David, get up!" My dad. His voice was...joyful. Excited. I sat up as he banged my door open.

"Dad, what--"

Dad smiled at me. It looked like he had shed ten years. "It's Suze. The hospital just called. She's awake."

There was more after that. I had to jump up, get on some decent clothes, get into the car, etc...

In the car, while I was trying not to puke, Brad whispered, "So, surfing huh?"

"Yeah," I said, grinning. "Surfing."

A pause. "We'll have to get her a surfboard."

"I think Mom and Dad'll spring for it," I said, still grinning.

Suze was, in fact, awake. Her eyes were open instead of closed, still the same bright green I remembered. And the really weird thing is, throughout all the happiness and tears and hugging, I could actually feel all the stress that had been accumulated over the past few weeks just...fade away. Just like that. Like the sight of Suze's green eyes and her smile at us...had taken all that pain and worry and fear, and made it go away.

It'd worked. The plan...it worked.

And whatever the consequences were...I'd deal.

Because this...this moment was worth it.

A/N: Only one more chapter left, and (drumroll please)... it's in Suze's POV. No, seriously.