A/N: PHEW! Boy, was this chapter a challenge to put into words in a acceptable manner. BUT, here we are. Yay?

THANK YOU, a million times, for your reviews, love and support! They make me happier than you could ever imagine. (HUGS)

Awkay, because I've kept you waiting too long… Let's go! Just, BEWARE – THIS'LL BE A STRANGE ONE! I blame lack of sleep and ice-cream. (smirks sheepishly)

Part 4 of 6 – Chess With the Ferryman

At first Ethan thought that it was panic attack. He hoped that it was one. But then a small army of medical professionals was working on Will, all of them wearing grim expressions. And he had no other choice but to acknowledge that this was something far worse. His friend was wheeled away before he got the chance to ask a thing.

For the longest time Ethan stood there, staring at the spot where his friend was just sleeping. He stared, his stomach twisting and turning and knotting. And wondered, as much as he would've preferred to avoid thinking about it, if he'd ever see Will again.

Ethan shuddered, caught uncharacteristically off guard, when eventually a tired looking nurse wearing scrubs entered. He was barely able to comprehend a word of what she was saying. All he saw was the blood staining her clothes. Will's blood. "… blood clot in the lung … paralysis adds the risk … doing everything we can …"

She said that they'd do everything they could, tried to provide him with reassurance. But he'd heard those words and seen that expression before. And knew what it meant.

Soon the nurse had to leave. Ethan wasn't about to go anywhere just yet. He dragged himself to the chair he occupied not too long ago, his legs heavier than lead, and slumped down. Then he waited. From the window sunlight streamed in, and he wondered when morning dawned.

He'd been waiting torturously long when the room's door opened. Benji and Jane walked in, only to freeze when they noticed what was missing. "What's going on?" Benji sounded heartbreakingly innocent as he looked to Ethan, searching for answers the man didn't have. "Where's Will?"

Will had no idea what he happened. He didn't remember falling asleep. Yet his eyes opened to find a dimly lit room. There was a scent he couldn't identify and he frowned, trying to make sense of things.

Was he injured? No, probably not. He felt a little cold but there was no pain or even discomfort.

And then it came back to him in a horribly painful surge of electricity. The crash. Waking up unable to feel his breaths. Waking up unable to breathe.

Was he finally dead?

"And you always say that Ethan has a flare for drama." The unfamiliar woman's voice sounded amused. "Yes, you're dead. Whether you stay that way or not is entirely up to you." Turning his head, he found a stunningly beautiful young woman with long, slightly curvy long hair and eyes that held the color of the ocean. She was watching expectantly, sitting at a small, beautiful table made of dark wood. The only thing providing the room with any light was the gaslamp by the edge of the nearly black surface. When he didn't understand what she wanted she pointed towards something directly in front of her. A chess-set. "You have a big decision to make. Maybe a game would help you focus and decide."

Will gritted his teeth. "And how am I supposed to get there?" Because he wasn't going to crawl.

The woman chuckled, and it sounded eerily familiar. "Just get up and walk. It isn't that hard, now is it?"

Will didn't know what coaxed him to motion. But he braced himself, then swung his legs over the narrow bed's edge. He was shocked when he realized that he could feel them. He was even more so when he got up, slowly and gingerly, and didn't wobble.

The woman's eyes softened as his joy and surprise seemed to thrum through the room. "Exciting, isn't it? It's easy to bend the rules here."

Now that, was the key issue. Will could feel everything swaying softly and it had nothing to do with his balance. The sounds of waves carried to his ears. Were they on a ship? "What is this? Hell?" It only sounded logical, if his physical body was dead… somewhere out there.

This time the young woman, a girl really, giggled. "Of course not, silly." She prepared the chess-pieces calmly and with great ease, and was done by the time he sat down opposite her, slowly and gingerly. Those hauntingly familiar eyes looked right into his. "Consider this a waiting room. While we're here you still have the time to choose which side of the river you belong to."

Will nodded, wondering if he was going out of his mind or truly dead. He looked at the white pieces in front of him, then glanced towards his bizarre companion. "And who are you?"

She smiled sweetly. It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. "I go by many names. You can call me the Ferryman."

The name made Will shiver. He focused on the gameboard to hide the moment of vulnerability. "I don't know how to play", he admitted.

"Sure you do." She made the first move to encourage him. "Silence your mind, just for a little while. Stop analyzing and calculating."

Will's hand did move before his thought.

The girl smiled, visibly pleased. "There you go! Now the game has begun."

The trio still keeping their vigil in Will's room was blissfully unaware of the battle going on in both the rapidly shutting down mind and an operating theater.

"Frankfurt." Benji's voice pulled his companions out of their gloomy thoughts. The man refused to stop pacing for even a second. "He got shot… what, twice? Thrice? They were ready to label him dead on arrival."

"London and Thames", Jane joined in. "It took minutes before he was finally found." The way Will looked when he was hauled to safety, deathly pale and blue-lipped, still made her chest tighten if she let herself remember. "And it took three more minutes to get him breathing again."

Ethan stood in front of a window with his back to them, and they hadn't been sure if the man was even listening. Until he spoke out. "Berlin. That explosion, and the rubble… They should've killed him."

Oh, Jane recalled. "Remember how he just sat there, waiting for the rubble to be cleared so we got to him?" Dust and blood covered Will, back then. The man's leg was trapped by rubble and obviously broken. They could only imagine how many more broken bones and how much other damage there was. Still the man grinned at the sight of them, clearly having trusted that they'd come for him. ('What took you guys so long? 'you take the scenic route?') "That idiot has survived too much to just… give up like this", Benji insisted.

But what if this is it? Jane refused to voice out loud, because even thinking about it was almost too much. The memory of how her friend looked upon telling the story of his family came back to haunt her. Will was a fierce fighter, they'd all seen that. But what if this was more than he could take, body and soul?

A few more moves were made in a nearly companionable silence. It was almost creepy how normal something so utterly surreal could feel. "Just out of curiosity… Why chess?" It wasn't exactly on the top of Will's 'things to worry about' list but he was morbidly curious.

The strange woman shrugged. "Why not? You win and you lose, just like in life. Almost any move can be your last. I like the metaphor." Her eyes flickered towards him. "But that's not what you really want to ask, is it?"

Will made a move of his own. Bought some time. "You said that I'd have to make a decision."

"Yes." She hummed softly for a while. "You're one of those few lucky passengers of mine who has a choice."

"Over what?"

She rolled her eyes. "Don't play dumber than you are. It may work with others, but it won't work with me." She pursed her lips, contemplating as her eyes examined the board. "Which harbor you want to go to, of course."

Will mulled over those cryptic words. For a minute, day or a year, he couldn't tell. Until a particularly nasty wave slapped the ship, accompanied by chilling, inhuman moans. He shuddered despite himself, the cold from before intensifying.

Heavy curtains of blood red velvet covered all windows. Shielding whatever was going on outside from sight. Will twitched when the moans grew louder, some stupid part of him itching to investigate.

"Don't", his companion advised. "Those lonely, troubled souls… If they see you they'll lure you along. And you'll be lost in the river for all eternity."

Will scoffed, trying to hide how those words chilled him. "Sorry. But I'm too old for ghost-stories."

"That's what she told you, for the last time days before she died." His companion's voice was changing. "Didn't stop her from enjoying every tale you told her."

Will couldn't control the trembling starting to take over him. He stared, too far gone in a shock to glare. "Who are you?"

His companion's face transformed. And the young woman became an agonizingly familiar little girl. The same who called him daddy, the same who filled his whole world with light. The smile aimed at him was exactly the same.

Apparently tears existed in this bizarre place somewhere between life and death. Because they filled Will's eyes. He was glad that he was sitting, because otherwise he would've simply crumbled. "Serena…" His little girl. His very own angel.

If he wasn't already dead, the electric assault of fire-hot agony was certainly killing him.

"I apologize for causing you such distress." Those words coming out in that voice… It was almost more than he could stand. "But I always take the form of the person who means the most to my current passenger. Because that way it's easier to put things into perspective, to decide what to sacrifice." She got up and approached him. He would've retreated if he was able to move a muscle. Such a smile didn't belong to such young face. "Serena… She's your past, present and future. She's the most precious person you've ever had in your life. She's the pain currently burning and gnawing…" A far too familiar, now ice-cold hand was pressed against where his heart was supposed to be beating. "… right here. And the face you saw before… It's how you've always imagined she might've looked one day."

A tear, perhaps several, rolled down Will's cheeks, burning like acid. He would've done anything if it really was his little girl, right there in front of him. He would've done anything if he would've had the chance to embrace her, even if only once.

"You have two choices, here", the Ferryman explained in his daughter's child's voice. "You can see through this whole journey with me. And when we reach the harbor your wife and daughter may be there. Or not. That's the risk you'd have to take. Or I can take you back. The journey is long and painful, and you already know what kind of a life would wait for you there. But it'd be life."

Flashbacks of his family taunted Will mercilessly. Another electric jolt made him tremble, and his eyes blurred. So many precious memories, although they had far too little time together… "How am I supposed to choose?"

"Ask yourself just one question." Those haunting eyes gazed at him curiously. "Do you want to die?"

Will's lips opened. But as it turned out the answer that should've been the simplest one in the world refused to come out. His head whirred.

Yes, he'd be bound to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. A million things he'd wanted were lost to him. But there were also so many things he could still do, that he wanted to do. Most of all he wanted to prove to himself that although he failed his family, he could still help others. He wanted to leave a mark into the world for them, since they ran out of time before they could. And he wanted his own life to mean something before he died.

"No", half-whimpered. "I don't." He didn't want to die, wasn't ready to sail where his family might be waiting for him. And in that very moment he hated himself for it.

His companion didn't seem to judge him. She smiled. "See? It's that simple." She looked down and her eyebrow bounced up. "Well. Look at that."

In a desperate need of a distraction Will did. And blinked. He'd succeeded in accomplishing a checkmate. "How the hell did I do that?" he blurted out.

The Ferryman's eyes softened. Like those of a parent watching their child. "Everybody loses against me eventually. But you weren't meant to lose today."

In an operating theater a battle raged on. The blood clot had been removed. Which left them with a new, unexpected problem. They'd been ready to call the procedure a success when all of a sudden, without a warning, Will's far too tried, exhausted heart first stumbled, then stopped entirely.

They fought. And fought, even though it didn't look like their patient was fighting with them. After a desperate amount of time several pairs of sad, pleading eyes looked towards the doctor who refused to give up. Who, despite all the time that'd passed by, wouldn't accept that they'd lost the patient. "Michael, please…!"

"… charging …!"

"Clear!"

"Alright, then." The Ferryman gave Will a reassuring smile as they stood in the middle of the tiny room, face to face. "The voyage back isn't going to be pleasant. You'll experience things that will most likely make you regret your decision. But whatever happens… Whatever you may hear or feel… Keep your eyes closed, and don't say a word. Do you understand those rules?"

Will nodded. Even though he felt like he didn't understand anything at the moment. "What happens if I speak or look?"

"Remember those moans we heard earlier?" Her expression was far more solemn. "You'd become one of them. You'll be trapped into the river for all eternity."

He shivered, feeling cold yet again.

"Now, close your eyes", she advised. He obeyed, albeit slowly. "The journey begins."

For what felt like half an eternity it was eerily quiet. Until what sounded like the screech of rusty metal came, hellishly loud after the silence. Soon it was followed by ticking. And then those tortured moans were there once more. Circling around him, closer and closer, like the haunted beings had succeeded in dragging him into the river. Several times he was almost certain that he felt cold, bony hands on him. Not opening his eyes was one of the hardest things he'd ever done.

Then something was wrapped around him. Tighter and tighter, until he feared it might crush his ribcage. It disappeared abruptly, replaced by the sensation of a tongue licking him. His muscles tensed up to a painful extend, every little bit of him screaming that he should do something. Fight. Resist. Open his eyes.

Long claws, such that couldn't belong to a human being, ran down the bare skin of his arms. Something sniffed at him, the warm puffs of air coming from so close that it nearly sent his mind into a state of chaos. He heard a low growl, and wondered if it was some kind of a hellhound inspecting him.

Then, as suddenly as it all began, it was over. There was nothing but silence, which only the distant sounds of waves disturbed. Until other noises echoed through.

A little girl's laughter… The only song he'd ever danced to, with only one person… A woman's voice singing a lullaby…

Losing them was so painful that it nearly killed him. This, choosing to leave them behind… It was worse.

'Where are you, daddy?'

He felt the tears he'd fought so hard to keep at bay running again. He gasped under the assault of agony, by some miracle not uttering a sound. Suffered in silence because he had no other choice.

'Are you playing hide and seek?'

He pressed his hand against his chest when what felt like an explosion roared inside. It burned and stung, so badly that it brought him down to his knees. His lips opened but even a single word wouldn't come out.

'DADDY!'

A hand was laid on his shoulder. He barely felt it. "The thing with coming back to life…", the Ferryman mused. "… is that it always hurts far more than dying."

Will gasped, unable to do anything else.

"You can let it all out, now. We're here. They're gone."

Needing no further encouragement, Will opened his mouth again and hollered, at the top of his lungs. Screamed out the pain and fury, the longing, the heartbreak. Screamed out that he was still alive, still fighting because he was too stubborn to give up.

In the operating theater the gloomy faced surgeon who finally accepted defeat lifted his gaze towards a clock. "Time of death…" He was cut short when a green line jumped, and a bleep announced that William Brandt's heart was beating again.

TBC

A/N: Poor, poor Will. That was INTENSE! And different. BUT. Was it any good, at all?

PLEASE, do drop a word or two to let me know your thoughts! Hearing from you ALWAYS makes my day.

Okay, I REALLY need to head to bed. Until next time, folks! I REALLY hope that you'll be there.

Take care!

IHaveANameYaKnow: I've gotta admit that I'm REALLY happy and flattered that it moved you so. (BEAMS)

But GOSH, poor Will! He's been through a horror story. And now THIS. (whimpers)

And oooh, a baby on board! We'll see if we ever find out the daddy. But Jane will definitely be a good mom. (smiles)

Colossal thank yous for the review! Until next time.