Jim and Rick laid Goren on the couch, then Jim ran to get his first aid kit. Meticulously, he took Goren's blood pressure and listened to his heart and lungs. "Should I call for an ambulance?" Melinda asked as she handed her husband a blanket.

Jim nodded as he covered Goren with the blanket. "That's probably a good idea. That lightning strike was very close, and his lungs sound a little coarse. He should be checked out."

Eames walked around the couch as Jim moved out of the way. She sat beside her partner and watched him with worried eyes. "Is he all right?" she asked.

"I think so," Jim answered. "But we don't know what happened to him out there. I'll feel better once they check him out in the emergency room."

Sliding her hand into Goren's, Eames looked around the room. "Is Nicole here?" she asked warily.

Melinda shook her head. "No. She's gone."

"Gone where?"

"Into the shadow realm. Instead of crossing over into the light, she was taken by the shadows. She won't be back."

Eames was relieved to hear that, but her relief was short-lived because she honestly didn't know how Goren was going to react to that news. The most consistent aspect of his relationship with Wallace was his unpredictability, which she also felt was the most frustrating.

Goren groaned softly and began to move. Eames turned her full attention to him. She rubbed her palm over the back of his hand as his eyelids fluttered and he groaned again. He shivered as he opened his eyes and coughed a few times to clear his lungs. She touched his cheek. "How do you feel?"

"Like I was hit by another truck," he groaned, coughing again.

The siren of the ambulance cut through the storm sounds outside as it approached and pulled into the driveway. Jim met his co-workers at the door, letting them into the house. Goren slowly sat up as Eames shifted to sit beside him, still holding his hand. Jim talked briefly with the two paramedics, explaining what happened, before they approached Goren. He shook his head and waved the two men off. "I'm fine," he said. "I don't need an ambulance."

"Why don't you let us take a look at you?"

He started to protest, but Eames interceded. "Let them," she said softly, squeezing his hand.

His jaw was set, but he nodded. "Fine, but I'm not going to the hospital."

The paramedics examined him and ran an EKG, then argued with him for ten minutes, trying to convince him to let them take him in. Goren was stubborn, though, and refused. The crew chief looked at Eames. "Are you his wife?"

She shook her head. "No, but I'm staying with him, if that makes a difference."

He looked back at Goren. "Since your girlfriend is willing to keep an eye on you..."

"She's not..." He stopped, no longer completely certain what she was to him. Looking at her, his expression softened. "She takes good care of me," he admitted softly.

After writing on his clipboard, the paramedic handed it to him. "Sign your refusal for me and we'll head back to the station." He looked at Eames when Goren took the clipboard. "If anything concerns you, call us or take him directly in to the ER. Everything looks all right, but his injuries from the truck could be masking more recent ones."

"I'll take care of him," she assured him as he took the clipboard back.

She watched the two paramedics walk to the door with Jim and Melinda, then turned her attention to her partner. "Do you have to be so bull-headed?"

"Yes." He smiled. "I am okay, Eames, I promise."

Jim and Melinda returned to the living room as Rick came out of the kitchen with a glass of water, which he offered to Goren. "Thanks," he said. He drank the water, then looked at Melinda. "Nicole—was she responsible for this?"

Melinda perched on the coffee table and nodded. "Not the storm, but what happened to you, yes. You got caught between her and that mist. There was some kind of dense fog shrouding the yard and none of us could see you. I don't know what happened between them or what they did to you."

"Is she here now?"

"No," she answered. "She's gone."

"She crossed over?"

"Not really. She was taken by the shadows."

"The shadows?"

"I don't know a lot about them, but they're not pleasant. It's horrible to watch a soul being taken by them." She shuddered. "I have nightmares about it."

Eames thumb stroked her partner's. "Are you sure she's gone?"

"Yes. The shadows don't let go of the spirits they claim. She won't be back. But the mist...the mist is gone, too."

Goren frowned. "Did the shadows get it, too?"

"No. Apparently, the mist was a hiding place for another ghost, but I didn't get a good look at who it was."

A new voice spoke up from the other side of the room, a voice only Melinda could hear. "I'm his brother."

She turned toward the voice. A man stood near the window, a nice-looking man, with wavy brown hair and kind eyes. She looked at Goren. "He's here."

"Wh-Who?" he asked. "Who's here?"

"Your brother."

A shadow crossed Goren's face. "Frank?"

Eames also scowled, tightening her grip on her partner's hand. Melinda didn't know what to make of the reaction of the two detectives, but Frank was not surprised. "I don't blame him. Our mother got sick when we were kids. She was never the same after that. He was seven; I was ten. He was so little and so scared, so lost. After that, I was pretty much all he had, and I watched out for him. But then, little by little, as we got older, I slipped away until I was gone, and he had no one." He looked at his brother. "Tell him I'm sorry. I wish I could go back and do it all over again. I would do a lot of things differently."

Melinda turned to Goren. "He said he's sorry. He'd do a lot of things differently if he had it to do over."

"Wouldn't we all?" Goren answered.

He was tense, cautious. Frank appeared on the couch beside his brother. His expression was soft with deep affection. "I don't expect him to forgive me. I don't deserve that." He paused. "Look at him. He's a cop. He did something good with his life. And me? I was a gambler and a junkie. I wasted my life, but Bobby? He made something of his. By all rights, he should have been worse than I was. He was so little when Mom got sick, and Dad never showed any interest in him. He was always getting into trouble as a kid. He turned to alcohol and drugs younger than I did. But something, something happened to him to turn him around. I was never that lucky." He smiled, his eyes shining with love and pride. "See how he turned out? I wish I could say I had a hand in that, but I didn't. It was all him. I'm so proud of him. Will you tell him that? Tell him I love him, and that I am so sorry I let him down."

Melinda said, "He says he's sorry he let you down, that he loves you and he's proud of you."

"Frank..." Goren said softly, his demeanor changing. He spoke his brother's name with a mixture of grief and regret. Eames squeezed his hand tightly and he squeezed back, struggling to sort through the emotions that suddenly assaulted him.

Melinda lightly touched his knee, which was close to hers. "He can hear you, if you have something to say."

What was there to say? "Frank, I...I'm sorry, for what I said, for not being a better brother."

Frank leaned forward to look at his brother's face. "You have nothing to apologize for, little brother." He looked at Melinda. "When we were kids, I took care of him when Mom couldn't. I tried to keep him out of trouble, but he only got wilder. I was the older brother, the one everyone expected everything from. Bobby had the freedom to be a screw-up, and so he was. When I went to college, I started hanging out the wrong crowd, doing the wrong things. Slowly, I lost my grip on my life, but somehow Bobby got a grip on his. He took care of Mom. He buried Dad. He turned out to be the responsible one, and all I ever did was cause him pain." He looked at Melinda. "I didn't know who Nicole was when she turned up at my door. She...killed me, to mess with him. She loved to mess with his head, I found out. After I died, once I realized what was happening, I found my brother, and I realized what was going on, what Nicole was planning to do. So I protected him, and Eames, but I didn't want Nicole to know who I was or what I was doing—not until I knew he was safe. This doesn't make up for all the times I let him down, for all the disappointments, but maybe, someday, he can forgive me."

Melinda's expression was kind, her eyes moist with unshed tears. "He knows he let you down so many times. After Nicole killed him, he found you, and when he realized what she was doing, he protected you."

"And Eames..."

Agitated, Goren pushed his fingers through his hair. Eames squeezed his hand and rubbed her hand over his arm, but his voice was still tight, accusatory. "You abandoned Mom, Frank. She only wanted to see you, but you never came. You couldn't even show up at her funeral. And Donny...what was the point of keeping him from us?"

"I guess I just didn't want you and Mom to know I screwed up again. Besides, Donny was better off with his Mom in Pennsylvania. I was wrong. Maybe I'm out of line, but...please ask him to take care of my son, the best he can. Tell him I wish I had been a better father, a better son and a better brother, a better man. I just wasn't strong enough. I know it doesn't mean anything to him, but I am so proud of him." He looked at Eames and smiled. "She means so much to him. Tell him not to be afraid to love her. Mom's gone. He needs someone to love. And tell her she could do a lot worse than loving my brother. He has a lot of love to give, a lot of love that was never given back to him because we were all too busy looking past him."

Melinda nodded. "I'll tell them."

Frank got a distant look in his eyes. "Wow—what is that?"

"Do you see the light?"

"Yeah...is that for me?"

"Yes, it is."

Standing, he took a few steps toward the light. "Mom? Hey, Bobby, Mom is there, in the light, and she looks great, happy and healthy. Take care, little brother. I love you."

He continued into the light. Melinda returned her attention to Goren. "He's gone. He said your mother is in the light and she looks healthy and happy. He asked me to tell you he wished he'd been a better brother and asked if you could watch out for his son. He never told you about him because he didn't want you to know he'd screwed up again. But he is proud of you and he loves you, and that's the bottom line. That's all that really matters now."

Scowling, Eames said, "So he gets to rest in peace now?"

Goren closed his hand around hers. "It's okay, Eames," he said softly. "I'm glad he's found peace. He never knew it when he was alive."

"Kind of like you?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Kind of like me. We fell off the same family tree, almost."

Melinda said, "I have one more message. He doesn't want you to be afraid to love her. You need someone to love." Her eyes shifted to Eames. "He said his brother has a lot of love to give. Let him give it to you. He protected you because you mean so much to Robert."

Eames looked at him, but he was looking down, at her hand joined in his. He tightened his grip and raised her hand to kiss it. Only then did he raise his eyes to look at her. Without looking away from him, Eames asked Melinda, "So this is all over now? Nicole is gone, and so is Frank and that mist?"

"Yes, it's over. All the ghosts have gone."

"You're sure they can't come back?"

"I'm sure."

"So, can we eat now?" Rick asked.

"Oh, no...dinner..." Jim rushed to the kitchen to pull his roast from the oven.

Melinda laughed. "Are you hungry?" she asked Goren.

He wasn't sure if he was or not, but he couldn't be rude to Melinda and Jim. "You went through all that effort. The least we can do is eat."

He looked at Eames for confirmation, and she nodded. "Yes, let's eat."

Melinda and Rick went into the kitchen as Eames helped her partner to his feet. When she stepped away, he grabbed her arm and pulled her back to him, against his chest. As she slid her arms around him, he touched her chin, tipping her face toward his to kiss her.

When he withdrew from the kiss, he looked covertly around the room. "Nothing blew up or broke," he said.

With a laugh of relief, she gave his arm a playful smack, slipped her hand into his and led him to the dining table to join the others.

A/N: Just one more chapter to go, folks. So, how many of you guessed that Frank was the ghost hiding in the mist? :-)