Disclaimer: I do not own any of the music or movies mentioned in this fic and as much as I wish I did.........I don't own GhostWhisperer or any of it's characters, I do however, own those characters which appear in this fanfic, but not in the show. No copyright infringement intended!
"1, 2, 3, LIFT!" a doctor shouted before he and his colleagues lifted Mel, still strapped to the backboard, onto an ER examination table. " can you hear me?" he asked while lifting one of Melinda's eyelids and shining a pen torch into it. "Pupils are responsive but she isn't conscious. Blood pressure is 100/60 and dropping, we need to stop the bleeding fast!"
Rick Payne stood in a helpless silence as he watched the doctors working on Melinda. The collar was removed from her neck and her head fell to the side, she was now facing Rick, blood smeared across one cheek and her eyes closed- and yet somehow she's still the most beautiful thing in the world-Rick thought sadly. The doctor put an oxygen mask on Mel and began cleaning the large gash on the back of her head with an anti-septic solution. Seeing Melinda so helpless became too much for Rick and he quietly exited the room. I'm gonna need to suture the wound now, we don't have any time to waste give me 10 cc's of Propofol". After administering the anaesthetic, the doctor stitched up the wound.
"BP is now stable at 120/80, we're safe to check for other injuries. I want you to be as careful as you can okay, although you may not see it right away there could be severe internal trauma so we need to work fast okay." With the help of the team he removed the backboard from under Mel. He took a pair of scissors and cut carefully down the front of Melinda's shirt and then moved a bright blue light over her, checking for tissue damage.
"Her fingers on her right hand are real bruised up, they don't quite look broken but looks like they may have been squeezed together or squashed somehow. She has a soft bruise across her stomach too, looks like an arm print, like she was held right across the middle." He gently removed Mel's jeans and ran the light over her legs "bruise on her left leg, looks pretty consistent with a fall" He covered her over with a blanket and shone the blue light on her face "no visible facial bruising, I think I'm gonna take her up to x-ray to check for internal injuries. Jenny can you take her personal effects to recovery room 143, I'll have her sent over once x-ray are done with her. You can go ahead and take the gentleman outside with you, I think he'll want to be there when she wakes up."
The doctor then wheeled Melinda out of the room, straight past Rick, down the hall and into an elevator. "Hey wait up, where are you taking Melinda!?" Rick yelled as he saw Melinda's gurney disappear behind the elevator doors. A young woman came out of the room that Melinda had just been in "Sir my name is Jenny, if you'd like to follow me up to what will be Melinda's room, she's being taken up to x-ray right now but she should be out soon" "Sure, thanks" Rick replied as he followed her through the network of hospital hallways.
"My name's Rick by the way, Rick Payne. It so weird, I mean I was just in here checking on a student, asthma attack, and the next thing I know I see Melinda being pulled out of an ambulance. What the hell happened to her?" he asked just as they came to room 143, the nurse opened the door and told Rick to have a seat. The nurse sighed deeply before continuing "We are still looking into what happened right now, the police are gonna be up any minute, they may wanna ask you a few questions. All I can really tell you right now is that Melinda had a serious head injury, we've sutured the wound and now she's being checked for internal injuries. She should be down in the next ten minutes and she'll probably wake up soon after. Are you gonna be sticking around for a while?"
"Of course, I'm not leaving until Melinda is. But, um...where's Jim, her husband? I should call him!" Rick said, panicking " is well aware of the situation" the nurse said coldly. "Keep hold of 's personal effects until she gets here okay. I'll be back in later to check on her" she said, handing Rick a bag before walking out. "Well that was weird" Rick said to himself. He sat back in the chair and debated whether he should open the bag or not-No way, there might be private stuff in there...... I'm sure Melinda wouldn't mind...- on that thought he tipped the bags contents out onto his lap. He picked up the purple shirt on top and laid it out, noticing that it had been cut down the middle-like it wasn't already low cut enough- he thought, he raised the shirt to his face and tears came to his eyes as he inhaled Melinda's soft scent. Rick rested the shirt down on the table beside him and noticed the blood that had spattered over it- Jesus, I just wanna know what the hell happened-.
He then pulled Melinda's jeans off the pile and stretched them out- forget ankle swingers, these wouldn't even reach my knees- he joked to himself, seeing how tiny the jeans were. The next item was a gold heart pendant necklace which Melinda often wore, Rick opened the pendant and looked at the pictures inside. On the left was a picture of Mel's grandma and on the right was a picture of a very young Melinda- she was beautiful even back then-Rick thought.
Just then the doors to the room opened and a burly police officer walked in, followed by a petite, blonde woman. "You must be professor Rick Payne, I'm officer Gary Hodges, this is officer Sally King. We're investigating Melinda Gordon's case, would you be willing to answer a few questions?" the man asked before sitting down in a chair opposite Rick. "Uh..sure, I don't know how much help I can be but I'll try" Rick answered, nervously wiping away any evidence of his earlier tears "How long have you known ?" he asked, taking out a note pad and pen. "About three years, give or take a couple of months" Rick replied "What is your relationship with ?" the officer asked, Rick read between the lines and understood what the officer was really asking "Oh..oh no, we're not..I mean..we're just friends. We're really good friends, we spend a lot of time together, she's always working on some project or another and I guess I'm kind of the 'go-to' guy" he rambled.
"So you would say that you and are close?" the officer scribbled in his notebook as he waited for an answer "Yeah, yeah I guess we are" Rick smiled sadly and felt a small tug on his heart- close, but not as close as I'd love-he thought. "What's your relationship with like?" Hodges asked "He's a cool guy. Never really spent much time with him but he seems nice. He and Melinda are like the dream couple you know, the Brad and Angelina of Grandview....perfect. Hey, I asked a nurse before about Jim, but she didn't really tell me much, do you know where he is?" Rick asked curiously. "Yes sir, but we can't release that information until we've spoken to herself...." Hodges was cut off when the doors were pushed open and a sleeping Melinda was wheeled in. "I'll leave you two alone for now, let us know when she wakes up" the two officers walked out, leaving Rick sitting alone beside Melinda's bed. He scooted forward in his chair and took hold of both of Melinda's tiny hands in one of his.
"Melinda, I don't know if you've noticed but I'm not a very sociable guy, I don't have a ton of friends and I don't really go out much. I like to be left alone and I don't like anybody else to factor into my plans....except for you. You come along asking me annoying questions and picking my brain, you always have to know more....you're a total pest! But somehow I'm never annoyed when I see your face pop around my office door, on the contrary it's those times with you that I look forward to. I know that you're married and I know that we're just friends, but you can't blame a nutty professor for dreaming huh...Well I don't know what happened to you, but it looked like it hurt, I asked them where Jim was but nobody wants to talk about him...I thought it was weird at first but then I realised what it all meant. Melinda I know that you and Clancy seem like the perfect couple, but if he hurt you I would really hope that you would feel like you could tell me because I...I.. love you. If you love me too then don't say anything." Rick waited for a few seconds, staring at Melinda's peacefully sleeping face and then smiled to himself "Ha! I knew you felt the same way too!" he joked, knowing that Melinda was unable to talk, even if she had wanted to. "Sooooo...the doctors said you would wake up soon, so you know, you just take your time...I mean it's not like I have a life or anything....ha I'm totally kidding, well kinda. I just wish I could keep you safe, I wish you would let me get that close......If Jim is hurting you, I'll kill him, or at least I'll imagine myself killing him, that way nobody has to get hurt-" Rick's joke was cut short when he felt Melinda's hands move in his.
"Rick....Rick is that you?"