Hey you're lucky you won't have to wait too long ;) i start to feel better and so i managed to finish the chap. but it might not be good since i hadn't the best conditions to write it...

But well hope you'll like it. thanks for reading and please review. :)

Chapter 27

Mel woke up in the middle of the night. She had a weird feeling but couldn't explain it. When she realized Jim wasn't in bed, she waited a little to see if he was just having a bathroom break. But after a moment she got up to know where he was. She found him in sitting on the couch. It's only when she turned around the couch and face him that she saw it.

'Jim? Oh my god! What's wrong?' Mel asked worried seeing Jim who was holding a towel against his bleeding nose.

'Nothing. I'm ok, don't worry.' Jim quickly replied.

'Jim I've never seen you having a nosebleed in 7 years. What happened?' Mel said looking serious.

'Ok... well let's just say that when you're not sleeping in my arms, I should turn my back on you instead of facing you...' Jim said carefully.

'What? You mean... I did that? I hit you?' Mel said staring blankly at him.

'Yeah... but it's ok really.' Jim started. 'You were sleeping, having an upsetting dream obviously, but it's not your fault.'

Mel sat down on the table in front of the couch.

'God, I'm so sorry, Jim. Really I don't know what to say.' Mel said.

'Honey, you don't have to say anything.' Jim said smiling trying to convince her. He took the towel off his nose and waited a moment. 'See? It stopped bleeding. I'm fine.'

'Still, I feel very bad.' Mel said honestly, looking down.

'Come on, Mel. Stop.' Jim said warmly. He took her hand and pulled her close to him. 'I don't want you to feel bad. You don't have to.'

'Thanks.' Mel said looking at him.

She saw Jim touching cautiously his nose.

'Does it hurts?' she asked.

'A bit but it's ok, I'm a though guy.' Jim said jokingly.

'Yeah, you are' Mel said laughing. 'Why didn't you wake me up?' Mel asked after a moment.

'Actually, it's when I tried to wake you up that you punched me... Seems to have a good effect though since you calmed down shortly after.' Jim said laughing.

'Oh.. sorry.' Mel said awkwardly.

'Mel. It's ok. What was you dream about, anyway? You didn't seem afraid, more like mad.' Jim asked.

'I... I don't know, it's not very clear.' Mel replied.

Jim saw her starting to blush. Mel was feeling more and more uncomfortable.

'Mel?' Jim said looking at her intensely.

'Alright! But you promise you won't laugh at me first.' Mel said seriously.

'Why would I laugh at you?' Jim asked surprised.

'Because it's stupid...'

'Ok... I promise I won't laugh' Jim said seriously. He was amused by Mel's behavior but was curious to know Mel's dream, so he stood serious.

'Ok... so... We were at some kind of charity event and there was this girl, a gorgeous girl, and I thought she was being a bit too close with you and told her so. The least I can say is that it didn't went very well...' Mel explained, embarrassed, pointing the covered-in-blood towel and Jim's nose.

Jim was only smiling but Mel could say he was holding a laugh. He looked at her intensely and was about to talk when:

'You promised, remember?' Mel reminded him seriously.

Jim held his hands up.

'I know, I know, I was just thinking... you actually hit me 'cause you were jealous of a girl that was too close to me. That's... sweet in a way, and unfair in an other.'

Jim tried his best not to laugh but the face Mel had at this precise moment was priceless and he couldn't help but start laughing.

'Jim! You promised!!' Mel said, sounding hurt.

'I'm sorry, I'm really sorry but it's your reaction, it's... I'm sorry sweetie it was just too funny.' Jim apologized while trying to be serious.

'It's ok I guess.' Mel said with a little smile. 'I hadn't think about this the way you put it and I'll give you that it does sound weird... but funny.'

Jim took her in his arms and they hold each other tightly.

'It was only a dream but I guess I really don't want women to approach you too close... ' Mel said jokingly.

'That's fine with me.' Jim said kissing her cheek. 'You know the most important for me?' he asked more seriously.

'What?' Mel said looking deeply in his eyes.

'You can't imagine how happy I am that this whole bad dream and hitting me thing has nothing to do with ghosts for once. Not that I want you to hit me more often but if it was only 'cause of such things I would be relieved. Don't start thinking I'm bored about them.' Jim quickly said, remembering what Mel told him about her fear he'd get fed up about it at some point. 'But I just think that with what you're already going through on daily-bases, they could at least let you rest properly on 'nightly-bases'.' he explained.

'Yeah, I know what you mean. I wished they could hear you.' Mel said.

She sometimes thought spirits really enjoyed messing with her sleep, as if they wouldn't lest her rest peacefully because they can't themselves. Jim was right, she, too, was glad that for once it was something 'casual' bothering her at night, even if it was something stupid and embarrassing.

They soon got back to bed to finish their night. Remembering what he said Jim chose to take Mel in his arms instead of turning his back to her, he sighted as she apologized one more time.

'Mel, stop. I'm going to regret telling you.'

They kissed passionately before going back to sleep.

The next morning they slowly woke up with the sun light entering the room. After a short talk in bed, Mel and Jim got up. As she felt a bit dizzy from getting up, Mel went straight to sit on the couch, to take a bit more time to be fully awake before starting the day. By the time Jim took a shower, Mel had fallen asleep on the couch, her head resting on her hand. Jim found the position pretty uncomfortable, so he slowly and carefully lied her down, resting her head on a pillow. When Mel started to stir, he softly whispered a few words to her hear, which quickly made her going back to sleep with a smile. After covering her with the blanket, Jim walked outside.

Mel woke up a couple of hours later, since it was early when they had first woke up, it wasn't that late. She got up and started searching for Jim, she soon saw him by the window, sitting on the porch's steps.

'Morning. Again.' Jim said smiling at her when she opened the door to go outside.

'Hey.'

She sat down next to him, and softly kissed him before resting her head on his shoulder.

'How do you feel?' Jim softly asked taking one of her hands in his.

'Better.' she answered. 'I guess I needed those two more hours of sleep.'

'Obviously.' Jim simply said squeezing her hand.

'Are you ok?' Mel said noticing his low voice.

'Yeah. I was just... thinking. Since you started talking about Timothy and his relationship with Lily and after seeing how close they seem, even now that he's dead, I keep thinking about Dan...'

Mel knew how important for him it was, since it was still hard for Jim to talk about his brother. She put her head up to look at him, who had his head down, looking pretty sad.

'Dan?' Mel said trying to make Jim talk more about the deep thing that was apparently tormenting him.

Jim looked up at her.

'Yeah... I've been thinking a lot about him. After our wedding, when I was thinking about giving up on being a paramedic, you told me you'd had seen him and that he had told you I should keep being there to make a difference for people as I did for him.' Mel looked intensely at Jim and nodded, making him going on. 'What happened after that? After you talked I mean. You never mentioned him crossing over.' Jim said, finally letting out what was on his mind.

'I haven't because he didn't. At least not while I was around.' Mel added. 'And I haven't seen him since, I would have told you if I had.'

'I know.' Jim said, a trusting smile on his face. 'You think it's a good thing?' he asked her.

'I honestly don't know. But since he knows about what I can do and wasn't afraid to talk to me I believe that if he's not around, it must be because he hadn't any other unfinished business.' Mel explained.

'Any other?' Jim asked surprised.

'Other than see you happy.' Mel explained. 'That's what I understood from what he said.'

'So he probably crossed over since I've only been happier and happier since we got married.' Jim said seriously but still smiling to Mel. 'And it's only going to get better...' he added gently caressing Mel's stomach.

'Yeah. For me too.' Mel simply said, resting her hands on top of his and letting her head fall on his shoulder again.

'How's your nose?' Mel asked shyly, a while later. She had noticed it was slightly bruised but she knew he wouldn't brought the conversation.

'It's fine Mel.' Jim replied, touching his nose carefully, as it was actually hurting, but he didn't wanted Mel to feel sorry, as she had no reasons to.

'So what do you want to do, today.' Jim asked to change the conversation.

'First, breakfast would be great.' Mel said smiling. 'Then we'll see. I still hope Timothy will show up.' Mel confessed.

'I'm sure he will, Mel. He seems so close to his sister I can't believe he would stay away from her or his parents too long.'

'I hope you're right.' Mel said sounding sad.

'Hey, come on. Let's start with breakfast, we'll worry about the little guy when we'll have eaten.' Jim said getting up.

He hold his hands towards Mel, who took them to get up too. While keeping her hands in his, she leaned against his chest, resting the top of her head in his neck.

'You ok?' Jim asked as she hadn't move for a moment.

'I'm great.' replied Mel, who was just enjoying the feeling of warmth and safety she always felt when she was in Jim arms.

After a few more minutes, Mel pulled away and they got inside. As there was some bread leftovers from the night they ate in the cabin, Jim made French toast, for Mel's biggest pleasure, that they both ate it with maple syrup, along with a hot chocolate and a glass of orange juice. After Mel got dressed, they went at the main cabin to see what activities were proposed for the morning. Mel chose a manual work lesson that was supposed (according to the paper) to make her 'spend a great time while improving her artistic talents.' Jim chose to go fishing in a nearby river with a group of men lead by an other member of the camp team, which was something (fishing) that he hadn't done for years. The last time he did was with his dad when they were still in good terms which lead back more than ten years ago. After a quick kiss, Mel and Jim both left their own way.

Mel opened one of the many doors found in the corridor of the cabin.

'Hi! Welcome here! Come on in, don't be shy.' a middle-aged woman said energetically as soon as Mel had stepped a foot inside the room.

Feeling a bit shy anyway, Mel slowly walked in the room. It was a nicely decorated place, with paintings and all kinds of amateur manual work everywhere. A few women were already busy, talking happily together.

'What's your name miss?' the woman asked.

'Melinda.'

'Welcome Melinda. I'm Elizabeth. Make yourself comfortable, we just started.'

'Thanks.' Mel said.

Elizabeth seemed very nice, she was warm and quickly made Mel feel more at ease.

'Is anything in particular interest you?' Elizabeth asked.

Mel took a look around her, at all the different things possible to do and saw a table with a pottery set.

'I've always wanted to try this.' Mel said happily.

'Pottery? Good choice.' the woman said following Mel's look.

She motioned the chair to Mel, inviting her to take place behind the table. Elizabeth was about to start explaining when someone opened the door. Mel was happy to see Katie coming in.

'I'm sorry I'm late, Elizabeth, I was dropping Lily at the kids activities.' Katie said apologizing.

The two women obviously knew each other.

'Hey, Katie! Nice to see you here. Don't worry, nobody is ever too late here. You know how it works, just take place where you want.' Elizabeth said with a smile.

It didn't took long to Katie to see Melinda.

'Hi, Melinda.' she said walking over to her.

'Hi.' Mel said with a smile.

'Pottery... why not. Do you mind?' Katie asked showing the second pottery set next to Mel's.

'No. Please.' Mel answered.

As Elizabeth saw that Katie had took place next Mel, she let her do the explaining and left to check the other women's work in progress. After a few minutes of explanations and advises, Melinda and Katie started to work on their clay.

'So you know the teacher.' Mel said to start the conversation.

'Oh, Elizabeth isn't a teacher.' Katie replied laughing. 'She's from a close village and just loves to share her passion.' she explained. Mel nodded quietly. 'And, yeah, I know her. She was already here the other years we came and we quickly connected. We even kept contacting each other between each of our trip here and... she helped a lot when Timothy...' Katie couldn't finish.

'I'm sorry.' quickly said Mel.

She was about to put her hand on Katie's shoulder in a comforting gesture, but stopped herself just in time as she saw her 'covered-in-clay' hands. She stood there with her hand hold, looking slightly silly but still smiling warmly at Katie.

'It's fine.' Katie said smiling at Mel's position.

'I know you would have told me but I have to ask anyway. You haven't seen Timothy, have you?' Katie said after a few silent minutes.

'No. I was hoping to see him but he didn't came to me.' Mel admitted. 'And I think Lily would have told you if she had seen him.'

'That's what I thought too.' Katie said with a forced smile.

Seeing Katie was a bit down by this, Mel tried to slide to an other conversation.

'Speaking of Lily, what is she doing?'

'She's doing archery at the kid's club.' Katie said enthusiastically. 'What?' she added seeing Mel's weird look.

'It's just... isn't she a bit young to do archery?' Mel asked slowly.

'Somewhere else she probably would, yeah. But they have special equipments here for little kids. There were having a lot of fun when we left her.' Katie explained.

'That's nice.' Mel said thinking at how great this place was.

'So Vince stayed with her?' Mel asked.

She was curious since she had understood from Timothy that their dad wasn't doing that much things with Lily anymore.

'No, he had other plans. I can't imagine how he acted with you when you told him about Timothy.' Katie said. Mel looked at her with an interrogating face. 'I tried to make him realize what is happening and that we had to help Timothy be at peace and he got pretty mad.' she explained.

'Yeah, well I get that a lot.' Mel said with a shy smile. 'So you don't think he will accept to talk to him?' she added a bit sadly.

'I don't know 'cause when I reminded him all the signs we've had all that had happened, relating it to why or how Timothy had done it, he seemed to at least give a thought about it, so I have hope.' Katie finished with a smile.

'That's good, 'cause I believe it would help everyone a lot.' Mel confessed.

'Hey! You're doing very good.' Elizabeth said suddenly making both Melinda and Katie jump, as they were deep in their conversation, not really paying attention around them.

'Thanks.' Mel said happily looking at what should become a vase in a near future.

Meanwhile, the small group of men including Jim, was just arriving at the river after a walk in the forest.

'I'm not a big fan of fishing but my wife was doing a pretty 'girly' activity, so I had to find something to do.' Jim said, laughing slightly, to a man with whom he was talking for a few minutes now.

Soon they all gathered around Bill, the leading man from the camp team.

'Hey guys, so here we are.' he said, not too loud. 'Since it's easier to fish when it's calm we're going to spread all along the river, let's make teams of two. Try not to go with someone you already know, so that you can meet new people.' Bill said friendly.

By the time Jim took one of the fishing rod displayed by the camp, there was only one man around him when he turned back. Jim could only see his back for the moment and when the man turned around, Jim couldn't help but let out an annoyed sigh.

'Great...'

please leave a review.