When Jade opens her eyes the next morning, her heart almost stops when her gaze falls on Tori lying next to her. "You're still here," Jade breathes as a greeting, to which Tori turns her head to face her. Tori's lips lift in a soft smile. "Of course I am. Good morning."

"Hi," Jade pushes out as she sits up and runs a hand through her hair. "So?"

Tori watches her and frowns. "So… what?"

A tired sigh is pushed out of Jade's mouth, her head coming to rest against the headboard of her bed. "What are we going to do?"

Tori's face immediately darkens and she looks away from Jade, her jaw muscles twitching as she harshly bites her teeth together. "Tori, I gave you time to… not think about it. But we really have to talk about it now."

"I'm just scared," Tori mumbles eventually after a long silence passed between the two girls, her eyes fixed on her fiddling fingers. The brunette's words don't really come as a surprise to Jade, of course she is scared, it's only normal in a situation like this. But Tori's avoidance of the subject and refusal of thinking of a solution for her problem astonishes Jade quite a bit.

"I know, Tori. But do you really want to die?"

Tori's head snaps towards her, an incredulous look on her face. "Of course not!"

"Well, then," Jade shrugs her shoulders and throws the blanket off of her, getting up and looking at Tori with raised eyebrows, "Stop being so closed off and start fighting."

Tori scoffs and shakes her head. "You are so insensitive."

"So what if I am? At least I try to think of ways to keep you alive!" Her voice grows louder even though Jade really doesn't want it to and Tori shoots up from the bed, angry eyes looking into Jade's. An argument is really the last thing they need, but neither one of them cared right now.

"Oh yeah? And what would that be, huh?"

"Uh, maybe what I told you yesterday?" Jade waits with raised eyebrows for a reaction but all Tori does is furrow her eyebrows and cross her arms. "Tell your freaking parents," she continues loudly and the eye roll she gets from Tori doesn't surprise her at all.

"I told you, I don't want that! How stubborn can you be?"

"How stubborn can you be?" Jade's feet make quick progress of walking around her bed until she's standing right in front of the difficult acting girl. Only now does Jade see a thin layer of tears shading her eyes but she's already too far gone to stop yelling, the still lingering sleepiness and the anger that Tori's stubbornness sparks in her taking over Jade's brain. "It's probably the only chance you have! How much of an idiot are you?"

Tori's eyes widen in hurt but Jade keeps going. "Stop acting like a whiny child and face your fears, okay? Pull yourself together and stop trying to pretend that things aren't happening! Stop being so damn afraid of facing reality!"

"Well, I'm sorry that I'm scared of the fact that I'm dying!" Her sentence ends with a loud sob and she lifts her hand to cover her mouth, her tears now finally spilling over.

"You don't need to be scared of anything, Tori! Nothing will happen to you, nothing can happen to you! Not if you do something!"

"Oh no? It's not like I can just crawl back in and everything is good again!" Tori turns around, swiftly walking out of Jade's room, the only thing she wants to get away from the pale girl. But Jade isn't that easy to shake off. "Where are you going now?"

"I don't know? Maybe somewhere where I don't get yelled at!"

"So you're just going to give up?" Jade asks with an incredulous laugh, causing Tori to turn around and face her. "Didn't think you were the quitter type."

"I'm not giving up," Tori grumbles with narrowed eyes, "I just know when it's over."

"Oh. I get it. You just stopped fighting for what you wanted the most. I'm sorry, of course that's completely different. My bad."

"Life isn't about what you want, Jade. It's about what you get. And you just have to deal with it, whether you like it or not."

"I'm not going to accept that."

"Why do you even care? Be happy, you don't need to put up with me anymore."

"But I want to put up with you!" she shouts exasperated. Jade's words echo around the hallway, bouncing off every wall and repeating over and over in Tori's head. The brunette frowns, staring at Jade. "What?"

"God, Tori, are you really that dense? You heard what I told your father! I care about you! I may hate that and believe me, I officially declare myself insane for falling for a ghost, especially for such a whiny one like you, but that doesn't change the fact that I really do care about you!"

"You… fell… for me?"

Brown eyes look at Jade full of wonder and Jade shifts from one foot to the other, the confession that bubbled out of her mouth without any forewarning mixed with Tori's reaction to it making her slightly uncomfortable. "Let's… Let's not talk about this right now. There are more important things we have to deal with."

Tori nods her head almost dazedly, her eyes still fixed on Jade who shifts from one foot to the other, avoiding Tori's eyes at all costs. The previous anger that roared between them is suddenly completely gone, the yelling and shouting now history. Quick footsteps jogging up the staircase catches both Tori and Jade's attention and they turn around, only to see Jade's dad – like always, dressed in a suit – looking at Jade with a raised eyebrow. "What's going on here? I heard you yelling."

Jade sighs, closes her eyes and shakes her head. "Nothing, dad." She opens her eyes again and shrugs her shoulders. "I was just…" She fishes for words but can't come up with a convincing story, so she just rolls her eyes and shrugs her shoulders again. "It's nothing. Sorry to have bothered you."

Without another word, she turns around and walks back into her room, closing the door behind her and plopping down onto her bed. Tori follows not too long after, walking through the closed door with her fingers fiddling again and her eyes carefully watching Jade's every move. "I still don't want you to tell my parents that you can see me, Jade," she states quietly and Jade looks up from her lap, "I just don't want them to see you any differently than they should see you."

Jade lifts her lips in a bitter smile and pushes a breath out of her nose. She shakes her head and looks away from Tori. "And how should they see me?"

"The way I do." Jade's eyes travel back to Tori, who takes a deep breath. "The nice and gentle side of you. They see a girl in you, that deeply cares for their daughter, even though she doesn't even know her that well. I want them to see you that way." Tori nods, then breathes out a laugh. "I don't want them to think you have a mental problem."

"I wouldn't care," Jade weakly argues, swallowing away the disappointment and hurt she was feeling.

"I know you wouldn't. But I would."

A heavy silence falls over them, with neither one of them wanting or knowing what to say. Thoughts wildly race around in Jade's head, ideas of convincing Tori's parents not to sign, but none of them really sound like a good plan. After a while of just sitting on her bed and Tori still standing in front of her, Jade takes a deep breath and quietly says "I'm going to drive to your house later. I'll try to talk to your parents without telling them that I can see you."

"No, Jade. Not today."

Jade's eyebrows crease and she looks up at the brunette. "What? Why not today?"

Tori smiles. "Your song. Andre wants to come over today, remember?"

Jade starts to splutter out a string of incoherent words as she struggles to understand what Tori was saying. She's probably going to die soon and all she wants is for Jade to work with Andre on their song? It's the most ridiculous thing, at least to Jade. "I'm going to cancel, of course," she eventually brings out, "Tori, your life kinda depends on me, you know."

"I swear, if you're going to cancel because of me again, I am going to destroy your favorite scissors, and if that still doesn't help, I'm going to drag you into the afterlife with me," Tori deadpans but Jade couldn't really see the humor in her words. At all.

"Tori-"

"No, Jade, please," Tori pleads, shaking her head, "We still have time, okay?"

Jade hesitates but then slowly nods, resulting in a smile to form on Tori's face. This… Everything was just too much to handle, it's too overwhelming and the mix of feelings swirling around inside of her aren't making it any easier. "Good," Tori sighs and tears her eyes away from Jade to take a look around the room. "Well… I'm going to go for a walk and… come back later… so…"

"Fine."

Tori nods and looks at Jade one last time before disappearing out of the door.

x.X.x

Andre finishes their composed tune on his keyboard, dark expectant eyes looking up at Jade. "What do you think? Sounds good?"

He frowns when she doesn't react, reaching over and poking her arm. "Jade?"

"What?" She blinks a couple of times and moves her gaze away from her empty bed, instead settling it on Andre. "What did you say?"

"Where are you with your head, Jade?" His voice lacks any trace of annoyance but is instead laced with pure worry. Jade swallows, shakes her head and looks down at her lap. Tori has been gone for nearly six hours and it drives her insane, not knowing where she is, not knowing if she's even still there. Frowning, she looks back up at her friend.

"I'm worried about a friend," she simply says and watches Andre lean back as he processed the info. "About what friend?"

"You don't know her. But she promised to… call me and she didn't and now I'm just really… really worried. Maybe something happened." She looks at him and hopes that he believes her. Technically she was telling the truth, she was just hiding the fact that her friend is a ghost.

Andre is quiet for a long moment before he asks "Do you want to make sure she's okay? I mean, we can stop for today. We'll keep working on it tomorrow." His words bring a wave of relief to wash over her and Jade smiles, nodding her head. "Yes, that would be… that would be great, Andre."

He shrugs and gets up, gathering his things together. "Okay. No problem." He clamps his keyboard under his arm but stops for a moment to observe Jade. "You act really different lately. You… smile more often, somehow." Jade stays quiet and Andre takes it as his cue to leave. He stops at the door though and turns back to Jade. "Does it have anything to do with that friend of yours?"

Jade opens her mouth to deny that but she thinks it over one more time, before saying "Maybe."

"Well, I already like that friend," he smiles and waves at her before walking out and going home. Jade waits until she's sure his car is gone from the driveway before she snatches her keys and walks out, quickly making her mind up.

Tori's parents are getting a visit.

x.X.x

Jade knocks lightly before pushing the door to Tori's hospital room open. She doesn't know where Tori's parents live so she just hoped they would be at the hospital and thankfully, they are.

"Jade?" Holly smiles slightly when she sees her standing in the doorway, tilting her head. "Come on in. It's nice to see you again."

With hesitant steps, Jade walks in and also sees David and a girl – probably Tori's sister – sitting by Tori's bed. "I'm Trina," the girl confirms not too kindly as she let her narrowed eyes scrutinize every detail of Jade. Jade gives her a light nod. "Jade." Trina nods but her wary eyes don't stray from Jade, giving her a once over. Ignoring the older Vega sister, Jade turns to David who smiles at her and gets up from his seat. "I'm really glad you came back, Jade. You just disappeared yesterday. I was a little confused."

"I know that you want to turn off Tori's machines." The words bubble out of her before Jade really realizes it and she hears David take in a sharp breath. Her eyes flick over to Holly who looks away from her, pressing her lips together.

"How did you find that out?" Mr. Vega's voice is soft, calm and Jade can't keep the anger from bubbling up at seeing him so… 'okay' with the situation. "Does that really matter?" She asks with furrowed eyebrows and watches Mr. Vega look down. "How can you even think about that? She's your daughter, you can't just give up on her like that!"

Jade quickly pushes past him and takes a look at the lifeless body lying in the hospital bed, before whirling back around. "She's alive! You should fight for her, instead of… getting rid of her!"

"This… we're not getting rid of her," he calmly explains and takes a step closer to the upset girl, "It's the best for Tori."

"No, but… you can't do this," she says with a light laugh, "Listen, I… This is not an option, okay? If you let them turn those machines off, you will kill her."

"Jade," Tori's dad says with a sigh and lifts a hand to rub his neck, "This was a hard choice for us. We didn't take this lightly, believe me. But Tori, she's…"

"She's not dead! There's still brain activity, isn't there?"

"Yes, but the doctors think-"

Mr. Vega's voice suddenly drowns out as Jade's eyes fall on Tori standing behind her father, her quiet voice reaching her ears. "Jade. What are you doing here?" Without breaking eye contact Tori walks closer, past her dad, until she's standing right in front of the raven haired girl. "It's over. You shouldn't be here. We can't do anything anymore."

An idea pops into Jade's head and she quickly turns towards Mr. Vega. "What if I can prove it? What if I can prove that she's still alive, still here."

David stops talking and lets his confused gaze rest on Jade. "Sweetheart… I don't…" He trails off, confusedly watching the girl in front of him. Jade opens her mouth but Tori's voice stops her. "Jade, don't. Please, I don't want this. They won't believe you, they'll think you're crazy."

"Tori," Jade breathes, but the brunette wouldn't let her argue.

"No. Please. If you… If you care for me just the slightest bit…" Her pained eyes travel all over Jade's face. "You don't tell them anything. I don't want it to be any harder for them than it already is."

"Jade? Are you okay?" At the sound of David's voice Jade reluctantly moves her eyes away from Tori and only when she looks at the dark haired man, who looks back at her with so much worry, does Jade realize that she's actually crying. Her mouth opens but nothing wants to come out. David sighs and steps closer, his hands gently coming to rest on Jade's forearms. "It is… so hard, I know that. But this is not a life anymore. Tori doesn't deserve that, don't you think? We have to let go, sweetheart."

"I know she doesn't deserve it, but… she doesn't deserve to die either." Her eyes travel to Tori once again. "I can't let go of her. Not yet."

Mr. Vega says something but Jade isn't listening, her eyes locked with Tori's. Her brown eyes are filled with unshed tears as she shakes her head. "I can still feel her," Jade quietly murmurs, her words dedicated to Mr. Vega but her eyes not leaving Tori.

"Jade… I think it's better if you go home now." David's voice sounds in her ear and Jade reluctantly turns towards him. "You need to… let it sink in. Just… let me drive you home."

Sniffling, Jade shakes her head. "No."

"Jade-"

But she doesn't let him finish. Not taking a look back, she storms out of the room. When she finally gets out of the hospital, she takes a large gulp of air, lifts her hand to wipe her eyes and ignores every look she gets. She can't take it anymore and she doesn't want to. As if in a daze, she finds herself in her car, driving out of the parking lot with David's words bouncing around in her head. "We have to let go, sweetheart."

It keeps repeating and repeating, until she almost starts to believe it. Maybe she has to let go, maybe it's the only way. Maybe Tori is supposed to die. But no, Tori wouldn't have found her if she really was supposed to die. There has to be a reason why Jade is the only one who can see her.

With her teeth clenched together and determination replacing the defenselessness and fear she felt just seconds ago, Jade steps harder on the gas pedal, her thoughts with Tori and her eyes not seeing the red stoplight in front of her...

A/N: Oooh. You probably didn't expect that ending, did ya?

And what's the deal with Jade's mom? Well, you still don't know. Hm. Guess that's something for another chapter.