Here I am with another oneshot haha. Shouldn't I write on some other story? Well, yes but I just love writing Jim and Melinda so much.

I think there are probably a hundred of stories out there like this, I think I read one ages ago even. But this idea popped up into my head and I can't let it go.

"Mel?" I heard Jim's voice as I heard the door close as he came home from work. "Oh my God! Today! You wouldn't believe the day I've had… Terrible. I've had the worst day. I've never been through a day this long. But now…" he came and slumped down next to me on the bed. "Actually, only being here with you makes it all worth it…. Mel?"

I couldn't say I'd had the best day ever neither…

I could still feel my cheek stinging, I had been through all kinds of reactions when I told them about my gift but never before had anyone ever hit me before…

"OLIVER." The teenager's mother scolded out as I took a step back and laid my hand on my cheek. "How dare you..?"

"She… she… I want you out of my…"

"Don't you even dare talk to anyone like that. And most certainly not a woman that you don't even know…"

"But she said…"

"I HEARD WHAT SHE SAID." Both I and Oliver were startled when she shouted and if I wasn't shaky enough before. "Look! I don't believe you either. But the least I can do is to let you speak until the end. I'm so sorry for my son's behavour. Can I get you anything? Ice?"

"No…" I said shakily when I found my words again. "I get it… I don't think… I have to go. Bye."

Without waiting for an answer I grabbed my jacket and bag and ran outside and into my car.

I didn't particulary want to talk to anyone… Jim was at work, my mum was home. Jim would be home in just a couple of hours but by then it wouldn't hurt anymore and I wouldn't have to tell him…

Then on the other hand he didn't know about my secret…

Maybe this was the time to tell him once and for all…

…I was realizing that it would take me five minutes to get to Jim's flat while almost half an hour to my and my mum's house…

And I had tears in my eyes so driving long would not be a good idea.

I hadn't even made up my mind before I pulled over in the driveway of Jim's house…

"Mel?" Jim's voice was sounding more distressed this time around and in the corner of my eye as he reached out and took a tress of my hair. When he froze and felt the tress fall off my cheek I knew he had seen. "What is this? What happened to you?"

"Nothing." I tried and brainstormed for a lie. "I… I opened a door and dreamed away so I hit it right into my face."

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if I ever did something so clumsy…

"Melinda. Don't lie to me. There's a bruise and I can see the shape of somebody's finger. Who did this to you?"

I couldn't figure what to answer, if he saw how this had happened then there was no meaning with lying to him. And if he was to find out I would have to tell him everything…

"Where are you going?"

He suddenly stood up from next to me and walked around the bed. I didn't want him to go at all but couldn't get myself to follow him.

"Just a second."

Jim's flat was so little there was only the hallway and then one big room with a curtain for the "bedroom" on the other side of the curtain I could hear Jim moving and the freezer opening and closing again.

"Here." He had wrapped a bag of frozen peas in a towel and came and sat and carefully held it to my cheek. "Is that alright?"

I should have thought of doing this right away but there had been so much spinning in my mind. Only the thought of that this would be the time I'd have to tell Jim about my gift sent new tears rolling down my cheeks.

"Mel…. Who did this to you? And don't lie to me… Why are you crying?"

Yes… why was I crying? Crying over something I didn't even know was gonna be….

"I just… I'm crying because I… I just… I really like you and I-I-I don't ever want you to leave."

"Baby…" Jim smiled and took my hand with his. "…I won't. Not as long as you don't want me to. So you don't worry about that. Don't you worry about it for a single second…"

If I waited for him to finish saying what he would I would probably never get to say it…

"Jim?"

"Yeah."

"There's something I have to tell you about."

Jim's frown went even deeper…

"Are you going to tell me who hit you?"

"I can see ghosts."

I tried to think back and forth about all the various ways I would be telling people and it had slipped out in the simplest way just like that…

Jim froze and then raised an eyebrow. His hand, along with the ice pack fell down to the mattress, I suddenly felt a whole lot colder than what I had with the ice pack towards my cheek and for several seconds none of us said anything.

Now I really wished I'd had told Jim about this sooner- and before he was so important to me as he was by now.

"You should say something soon."

"Ghosts? As in dead people?"

"Yes."

"…I did not see that one coming... Well, can you tell me a bit more about it?"

"When people- or animal dies they turn into a spirit. Usually they move over into a light right away. But sometimes they stay behind because they have some unfinished business with the living… Those are the ones I can talk to and… bring messages from them…"

"Wow…"

For a moment Jim seemed dreamed away, staring right ahead of him, away from me and didn't say anything at all.

I had told so many people about this through my years and the first few seconds had still never been as slow and long as they were in that moment.

New tears rolled down my cheeks and I felt it going over the bruise there…

Maybe Jim should at least know what had caused that. I was pretty sure that was what he wanted to know anyway.

"Sometimes people that I come to don't believe me… a lot of the times they don't believe me. Today… there was a girl- fifteen, sixteen years old. She died in a car crash with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend survived but he has since developed quite some… anger issues and the girl… she just wanted for him not to be so… angry."

"And that''s the boy you went to talk to today."

"Yes."

"And he slapped you."

"Yes."

"Because he really does have anger issues."

I gave Jim a meaning look…

"I just have to say I understand him."

"No." Jim protested barely one second later. "Car crash or issues or ghosts or not- he is NOT allowed to do that to you." He gripped the ice bag hard as if trying to keep himself from hitting something when he rose to his feet, then paced some back and forth in front of me. "I could just… I could… I mean… I just want to hurt him. Badly. He hurt you so that ain't more than right…. And if you'll ever talk to him again then I'm coming with you."

"No… you can't do that…"

"I can and I will. And if that boy as much as lay a finger on you then I'm going to rip his…"

"Jim!"

When I interrupted Jim silent for a moment, then sighed, took the ice pack hard and stomped away. On the other side of the curtain I could hear the anger in his hard stomping and when he threw the ice pack back in the freezer with quick and hard moves before he came back and slumped down back next to me.

"I just don't want anyone to be able to hurt you. And if you're at risk then I'm going to be there to stop them. Because I'd rather get hurt myself than seeing you like this. And I would tell you to leave this ghost be and ignore the boy's anger issues but I have a feeling that no matter how many times I would tell you that you would still get going right there."

He couldn't have been more right…

"It doesn't work like that." I wiped the last few tears off my face. "…I don't want you to get hurt.

"And I think the absolute same." He told me. "I know that because that's what people do when they love someone."

I froze, I wasn't even sure I had heard it right- I must have missunderstood…

"What?"

"That's what people do when they love someone. They don't want them to see the other get hurt. And I love you…"

"What?"

Jim smiled and tenderly laid his hand on my cheek so he could turn my head for me to look at him.

"I said I love you. Is it so hard for you to hear that?"

I closed my eyes and played what he had said over and over in my head.

"I see so much love every time I do this." I said at last. "…so much love…"

"And yet you feel that there's no one there to love you?"

The waterworks came back on as I leaned my head against his shoulder, he held me close and none of us said anything. For how long? Half an hour? Two hours? I didn't know.

"Not since my grandma died no."

"Did you see her when she died? Is there a way for you to tell the ghosts from the living? Do ghosts look the same? Are they white and transparent? Are they… There's so much you'll have to tell me now."

"Yes. But she passed away completely soon after. She always did the same as I do now with trying to make the dead cross over to bring them peace. Yes, as they're ghosts I can feel the difference. I can feel their feelings…"

Memories took me back to being fourteen years old and my grandma explaining to me the difference in between seeing people and ghosts and how I had felt her…

"They look like regular people and how they looked like they died. But sometimes, before they come to peace I can see how they died, they can be bruised and broken if hit by a car or in a car crash, wet if they drowned and so on. No. There aren't any those are white and transparent… Do you have any more questions?"

Jim bit his lip as if there was more he wanted to ask…

"Have you ever seen my brother? Dan? Or our dad?"

Jim got up again and disappeared behind the curtain.

"Just wait for me for a minute. I'll be right back."

He obeyed, and when he was back he had a photo album with him that he riffled in and pointed to a photo of what must have been Jim's graduation day.

"Have you seen them?"

"No." I shook my head. "But that might be good." Jim sighed sadly and laid the album to the side. "It might be that they crossed over already. That they felt they had said and done everything they wanted and needed before they could see the light."

"Light? I don't understand. What…. Where? What can you see there?"

"I can't… Whatever is in the light is for the person crossing over… but I can see the smiles on their faces, I can hear them talking the names of someone they knew and love who already is on the other side. I can feel their peace… That they see the light means they have peace and forgiveness…."

"So, it's like… heaven?"

"Something like that."

"Whoa!"

I had never been through that the moment I told someone about these things had come with such thick and long moments as this…

"Well… I do know one thing… No two." Jim interrupted the silence at last. "As for first I know I love you… And as for second I know I'm not going anywhere… And there's a third thing too…"

He made a pause.

"That isn't going to change."

Random fact

Awwwwwww. I just love writing these two together.