A/N: THIS STORY CAME TO ME AFTER READING A POST AT COFFEEROOMS. THE QUESTION WAS ASKED WHAT IF WOODY WAS IN A COMA AFTER THE SECOND SURGERY AND THEREFORE WAS DREAMING THE FIRST EPISODE. THIS WAS SUCH A GREAT IDEA, IT WOULD EXPLAIN A LOT OF THE DISCREPACIES I FOUND IN THE STORY LINES. IT ALSO HAD ME ASKING MORE QUESTIONS AFTER I'VE WATCHED THE ESPISODE A FEW TIMES. I THOUGHT I'D GIVE IT A SHOT. THANKS FOR THE IDEA. THIS CHAPTER IS VERY SHORT. HOPE YOU ENJOY, PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK. I DON'T OWN THEM BUT THEY HAVE INVADED MY BRAIN.

SHADES OF GRAY

CHAPTER 1: BLACK HOLE

It was black, very quiet, very still and very cold. Could he be dead? Well it was a possibility,of course. If he were dead, this is not how he had pictured it. As a child growing up, he remembered being told how peaceful and beautiful heaven was supposed to be. At church heaven was described as a paradise. This couldn't be heaven, this place he was stuck in was the farthest thing from paradise. Maybe he was in hell. He always thought of himself as a good guy, never stole, never cheated. Okay so he told the occasional lie and he was a cop, so he had killed a few criminals, but hell? No, it couldn't be, hell was described as scary and full of fire. Well this was scary, but it was also peaceful. Where am I, Woody wondered.

He felt like he was enclosed in a cement block. He couldn't see, hear, feel, talk, he couldn't do anything. He had to be dead, laying on a cold, hard slab in the morgue, his soul in limbo. The last thing he remembered was being wheeled into the operating room. The anesthesiologist injected medication into one of his iv's. Then his chest became heavy, it started to hurt, he couldn't breathe, his heart was racing, then there was white. A cloud like white, snowy; he thought he saw his parents, they were waiving goodbye to him, then they shook their heads. They slowly faded away and there was a surge of energy, a jolt of bright white, his body jerked and the white was replaced by black.

How long had he been in this blackness, he didn't know. It seemed like just minutes then it seemed like years, he couldn't tell. He missed his friends, his life. He couldn't see their faces anymore; Dr. Macy, Lily, Bug, Nigel………..and Jordan. Why couldn't he picture her anymore? He wanted out of this place, he wasn't ready to die. There were so many things left undone……..left unsaid. No, he couldn't die, no matter how bad it was, Woody wanted to live.