Charlie was just exiting the OR, having finished stabilizing the patient from whose gut the mortar shell had been removed, when something caught his gaze in the next OR. And before he could fully comprehend what he was doing or why, he'd grabbed a mask and stepped inside the OR.
At first, he said nothing, staring down at the patient on the table. Then, he realized everyone in the OR was staring at him. He looked up sharply and that's when he saw her...
"Dr. Harris, what are you doing?" Maggie asked when no one said anything for an incredibly long time.
He glanced sharply at Maggie and stammered for a few moments, then shook his head instead and turned and left the OR.
"You can't tell her," a voice spoke up beside him, the spirit from inside the OR keeping pace with him as he marched towards the waiting room.
"Can't tell her what?" Charlie hissed under her breath.
She didn't answer. She didn't have to. They both knew what she'd meant.
He burst into the waiting room and immediately six faces turned to look at him, but the one he was focused on was Dawn. Once again, he opened his mouth to speak and once again, he found words failing him.
"Charlie?" Dawn said, voice trembling in spite of what was surely her best attempt at keeping it level.
Before he could respond, though, the door behind him opened and this time everyone's attention shifted to the newcomer. All she said was, "She never made it off the table."
The other woman in the room turned to wrap Dawn in an embrace, but Dawn was quick to reject the gesture of sympathy. She rounded on Charlie and demanded, "Tell me she's wrong, Charlie."
"You can't tell her," the spirit repeated. "She can't know."
"Tell me she's still alive," Dawn repeated.
"Dawn..." he said quietly, not entirely sure what voice to listen to.
"She needs to believe I'm dead," the spirit said, "It's kinder this way."
Charlie wasn't sure he believed that.
"I know you talk to spirits or ghosts or coma patients or whatever," Dawn insisted. "It's how you've worked all these so-called 'miracles'. I'm begging you..." She'd never begged for anything from him – not while they were married and certainly not since the divorce – but she was willing to beg for this. "Do your woohoo thing and tell me she's going to be okay. Please. It never has to leave this room..."
"Tell her to let me go."
