Disclaimer: Yeah, um, guess what? Don't own it.

A/N: Computers have been going on the blink left and right around here...had to write this chapter over again after discovering that it had been COMPLETELY ERASED! Boy, does my luck suck...Anyways, on to the story!

Chapter Twenty-Three: Out With It

"So Miss Hoyt, are you ready to have those stitches removed?" the doctor asked. Amanda was in the hospital with her father. It had been two months since her attack, and it was time to get the stitches taken out.

"I've been ready ever since I had them put in," Amanda complained. "These things are a real pain in the-" She was cut off by her father's hand going over her mouth.

"She's ready," Woody said, quickly covering for his daughter.

The doctor led them to the room where the operation would take place, and left them alone for a few minutes while he prepared.

"Look, Amanda, I know you haven't had much sleep," Woody said, turning to face his daughter. "But could you try to not swear in front of the doctor?"

"I'm grumpy," Amanda said, crossing her arms over her chest. "I have a right to be. You try waking up at five in the morning when you're an insomniac. It's a blast."

"You can sleep in the car on the way back," Woody said, trying hard not to laugh. He knew how teenagers could be when they are deprived of sleep for long periods of time.

"Promise?" Amanda asked.

"Promise," Woody said. "And I also promise that after we get out of here, we'll stop at Steak and Shake and get something to eat. How does that sound?"

"Woo-hoo!" Amanda shouted.

"I'll take that as a 'Great' then," Woody said with a grin. Just then the doctor came in, and the next thing Amanda knew, she was drifting off to sleep.

Amanda looked at her surroundings. She was in a field of flowers, wearing a long white dress.

"Wow," Amanda said to herself. "Coolness."

She started walking through the field when she saw something moving towards her. Amanda squinted to see what it was. When she finally saw the shape clearly, she gasped.

"Mom?" she whispered. "Am I dead?"

Jennifer Baxter-Brown looked at her daughter and smiled. "You're not dead sweetheart," she said. "You're sleeping."

"So this is a dream?" Amanda said, and then added. "Wow. Am I ever blonde at times..." Her mother laughed.

"You get it from my side of the family," she said. "Anyways, I only have a bit of time with you, so what do you want to do?"

Amanda paused for a moment, then ran to her mother and hugged her. "I've wanted to do that for a while now," she said.

After a few moments, Jennifer stood back and looked at her daughter, studying her. "So," she said after a few seconds. "Who's this Peter guy?"

Amanda blushed. "Let's walk and talk," she said.

"So, you really met John Lennon?" Amanda asked in shock.

"Yeah, I did!" her mother said excitedly. "He was really nice. Appreciates the fact that kids nowadays still enjoy his music."

"Did you meet anyone else?" Amanda asked her mother, desperate to know more. They had been talking about what Heaven was like, and all the people her mother had seen there.

"Well, there was one person...Nah, you don't want to know," Jennifer said.

"Tell me! Tell me!" Amanda shouted. "Who was it?"

Her mother whispered something into her ear that made Amanda scream with surprise.

"Oh my god! You actually met him?" Amanda asked in awe.

"I did," Jennifer said with a grin.

"I can't believe you got to meet River Phoenix!" Amanda said. "Do you know how many girls would be jealous of you?"

"My own daughter included?" Jennifer asked slyly.

"Right last name, wrong brother," Amanda said. "Although, he was a cutie."

A sudden whooshing noise caught their ears, and they turned to see a light coming closer to them.

"Time to go, sweetheart," Jennifer said, hugging her daughter.

Amanda walked toward the light. She stopped and turned to look at her mother. Her mother's smiling face was the last thing she saw before the light engulfed her.

Amanda blinked her eyes a few times and looked around the room. The white light she had seen was obviously the light above her, and she noticed she was back in the hospital.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," Woody said, walking over to her. "You were out for a while."

"Was I dead?" Amanda asked, still woozy.

"No, just sleeping. They finished up about half an hour ago. We can leave if you're ready."

Amanda sat up slowly and looked down at her side. The stitches were gone. She was back to normal.

Amanda smiled as she walked out of the hospital with her father. "Now that I'm better," she thought. "Maybe things can get back to normal."

A/N 2: Time for the shout-outs!

Sweet-rush37: Thanks! I hope you and the others liked this chapter. I couldn't resist throwing in a dream sequence again. I thought it might be cool to see what was going on in Amanda's head during surgery. I mean, who's to say what happens when you're knocked out then?

Dan: It's OK. Everything's fixed now. We had some bugs in the system that needed to be fixed, so that's why it took me so long to update. Damned computers...I think the computer people are doing this on purpose...

canadianfan1984: Yeah, he is, isn't he? I might make Amanda have one more nightmare, but it will be later on if I do. Right now, I'm just gonna concentrate on getting another kid into this story. See if you can guess whose it'll be!