joy1791 - thank you! And thank you for sticking with my baby! lol, if I'm honest, I keep wondering where she is too!
Trizzy - I will have lots of fluff for you - I will. I will start writing it for you now!!! And don't worry about Charlie
demolished-soul - Marty's supposed to be back in the actual show in a couple of episodes time, although I'm not sure I like the sound of what's gonna happen with him (:S)
ambercsiny - sorry it's taken me so long to update - when I could get on the web earlier this week, FF wasn't playing!
sparkyCSI - I know what you mean. I was supposed to be about last weekend... but then the SoCo called. And my boot got stuck. Ah well... but I should definately be about this weekend!
Carrie Michelle - knight in a squad car - I like that! He'll be back! I can't keep them away too long!
Alana Xavier1 - thank you. Yes, he did. He'll be getting past his issues soon!
ah-dorably key-ute - Hmmm, I'm not sure what's gonna happen is what you expect... but I think things need clearing up.
meadow567 - I think I want to slap him too. And that's a very good point - he now really owes her!
Bmangaka - I think I can see that too - it would be fun! Who do you think would win?
RK9 - lol, I'm glad I can help. And I think Seymour misses his mommy - I'm sending him back to you, complete with cookies!
Hmmm, there aren't any spoilers, but there are mega thanks to my beta!
What The Eyes Can't See
Chapter 207: I feel like you're gone, And every day is the worst day ever
Two and a half weeks later, Taylor was bored. Sam and Dean had left, muttering something about a ghost on a Hollywood set; her father had been shipped back out; and her mother was still hovering around. Between visiting hours she had been busy with the physical therapist (over two months in a coma hadn't done her muscles much good) although she had had the constant company of Maddy, who always seemed to know when these sessions would take place and would accompany her.
Lindsay, or Emma, had not been back. Well, Lindsay had, with Danny. Angell and her girlfriend had been, as had Peyton and Stella. Even Mac had made an appearance.
But Taylor was bored. She was still pretty much confined to her room, and Flack still hadn't appeared. Instead of feeling sorry for herself over that, she was growing more and more pissed off with him. And more importantly, worried.
News of what had happened with him had slowly filtered back to her, as well as the fact that he was due his first day back at work after the weekend and had been assigned a new partner. Although, the only information Angell could give her was the woman was a transfer from Utah.
'Good news,' the doctor boomed, entering the room. 'As far as I can tell, there's no reason why you should stay here any longer. I'll gather together some pain medication for you and you're going to have to return for regular check-ups, but I can't see why we can't have you discharged within the hour, if that's alright with you?'
Taylor nodded, 'I think I've had enough of hospitals for a very long time.'
'Do you need me to call a taxi, or will someone be coming to collect you?'
'I'll find someone,' Taylor assured him. She waited until he had left the room before extracting her cell phone from out of her bag. Sure, it was perfectly okay to use a cell phone in a hospital – so long as there was no life support machine in the room, but it still made her feel guilty. She'd insisted that Marty get her a new phone and bring it in for her, under the pretense that she was texting her friends to keep her entertained whilst she was waiting for the next visiting hours, as well as being able to get on the internet and check her emails and Facebook account. But it was also there, just in case Flack decided to text her. Which he hadn't.
Minutes later, she had secured a ride; and a while after that, just as she was struggling to get her shoes on, Adam appeared in the doorway. 'Hi,' he greeted her a little uncomfortably. They were nothing more than acquaintances, really, and whilst he couldn't say no to her, he wasn't sure why she'd asked him there.
'Hey Adam, thanks for coming,' Taylor smiled at him.
Adam nodded. 'My car's downstairs,' he told her, searching for something to say to fill the silence.
Taylor just nodded, grabbing at her bag, but as she winced in pain, Adam was there to scoop the bag up for her.
'I don't think so,' an orderly gasped as he spotted Taylor on her feet.
'I can walk, you know,' she grumbled to the orderly who was pushing the wheelchair the doctor had insisted she be wheeled out in.
The orderly just ignored her and continued pushing her to where Adam had pulled his Ford Focus up.
After Adam had loaded her belongings into the trunk, he helped Taylor into the passenger seat and they left. They were barely out of the hospital parking lot before Taylor wound the window down and placed her face into the icy wind which was blowing into the car.
'Taylor, it's March!' Adam exclaimed as he pressed a button and rolled her window back up.
'I know,' Taylor smiled happily. 'But it feels good to be out.' She leant forward, ignoring the dull pain that was throbbing in her stomach, and began rooting through the glove compartment until she found a CD of Adam's she liked.
She jammed it in the CD player and was soon singing along to Collective Soul's Better Now.
'Oh I'm newly calibrated
All shiny and clean
I'm your recent adaptation
Time to redefine me
Let the word out I've got to get out
Oh I'm feeling better now
Break the news out I've got to get out
Oh I'm feeling better now.'
Adam pulled over and turned the radio down. 'Look, it's not that I'm not happy to see you alive and about, but what am I doing driving you home? Surely there is someone better suited to that?'
Taylor sighed. 'Not really. I just wanted a ride home without someone asking me every five minutes if I was alright, needed something, wanted to stay with them for a while… I just want to pretend for a while that everything's normal.'
Adam slipped the car into park and shifted round in his seat. 'You wanna go get a burger?'
Taylor gave him a grateful smile. 'I would love nothing better.'
'Come on then,' Adam nodded his head at a burger bar just up from where they had parked. 'I never had a problem with hospital food, but I don't think many other people feel like that.'
Taylor hopped out of the car and followed him to the small diner, slipping into a booth. 'You've spent a lot of time in hospital?'
Adam nodded, reaching for the salt and pepper pots. 'Yeah. When I was younger.'
Taylor sat, studying him. He had grown quiet – quieter than normal, and he seemed unable to look away from the shakers in his hand.
'You alright there?' a waitress asked, finally giving him something to look at.
'Yeah, I'll have a double bacon cheeseburger, fries and a strawberry shake,' he told her, his eyes lighting up at the thought of food.
'I'll have the same, minus the bacon,' Taylor agreed. She waited until the woman had returned with the drinks. 'So… how's Kendall?'
Adam's hands went back to the salt. 'She's gone.'
'Gone?' Taylor asked, kicking herself for her nosiness.
'Got a job in a private lab in Jersey.'
'You can still see her though?' she asked.
'I could,' was all he said.
Taylor took a sip of the shake. Clearly, she wasn't making the best conversation. 'Do you have any brothers or sisters?' she asked him.
'Older brother,' Adam replied, a genuine smile finally finding his face. 'Christian. He's a social worker. Back in Phoenix. And a younger sister. She works for the Phoenix PD.'
'Do you get to see them much?'
Adam shook his head. 'Not really. I'd like to see more of them, but our jobs just get in the way,' he explained as the burgers arrived. 'Christian has two boys, eight and four.'
They chatted amicably about their siblings over the food, carrying on the conversation in the car, until they pulled up outside Taylor's. Adam glanced out of the window. 'You didn't tell anyone you were being released, did you?' he asked her nervously.
Taylor looked up spotting her ever angry looking mother, and Marty looking just as mad. 'Um, that would be a no,' she muttered.
---
It was the day of Chin Yip's funeral. Flack hadn't gone to the ceremony. He hadn't gone to the burial. As it happened, he was still suspended and he hadn't gone to work either. Instead, he was lying on the bed of the motel room he had been renting since Christmas, staring at a photograph. It was one of his favorites, taken by a friendly German tourist at the Grand Canyon. He was standing with his arms wrapped around Taylor, to the right of the photograph, and the wind was whipping Taylor's hair about, but they both looked happy and on top of the world. Literally.
And as he stared at it, he realized how much he missed his crazy black haired beauty.
With a groan, he pulled himself into a sitting position and grabbed the photograph. The Bullets were no more, and it was time to tell his Taylor how sorry he was.
---
Taylor set the remote down and yawned. Since getting home, four days ago, aside from listening to her mother nag, all she had done was watch a combination of America's Next Top Model, Whose Line is it Anyway? and reruns of Sex and the City. And much as she loved them, she was bored. She hadn't been visited by any ghost – not even Maddy or Aiden – and, quite surprisingly, she actually missed it.
Leaving her mother a note, who was out with Cordelia, she decided enough was enough. She got dressed, pulled a coat on and headed out of the door and to the subway. If nothing else, she was going to get an assignment off Alex and get back to writing again.
She was walking down the corridor to Alex's office when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye as she walked past one of the offices. She stopped and walked backwards so that she was standing in front of the door and stared, her mouth hanging open. In the middle of the room, suspended from the rafters, was a man, staring open eyes at her, unblinking. Taylor looked around, before turning her attention back to the man in the noose. He shifted his focus onto her.
Taylor took a deep breath and hurried away. 'Pain meds and too much TV,' she muttered under her breath as she carried on.
Alex wasn't alone. He was in the middle of what looked like quite a serious conversation with a woman. She looked to be about forty-five, quite stout, her graying hair short and spiky, with bright green eyes staring quizzically at her behind thick red spectacles.
'Taylor? We weren't expecting you back so soon,' Alex told her, hurrying over to the other side of his abnormally large desk to envelope her in a hug. 'You look well.'
Taylor smiled, guessing he was commenting on the fact she no longer looked quite so anorexic – IV nutrients and a healthy feeding plan from her doctors in the hospital, combined with a lack of gut-retching ghosts meant that food was doing its job properly. He obviously wasn't talking about anything else, because Taylor was still looking a little gaunt, and there were still decent sized bags under her eyes. 'I got bored,' she offered by way of explanation. 'The doctors may have told me to take it easy for a while, but I can still sit and type.'
'Glad to hear it,' Alex beamed. 'And you've just come at the right time. Taylor, this is Nancy Wicker.'
'Hi,' Taylor greeted her, shaking her hand. She looked quizzically at Alex.
Alex sighed and sat himself back down at his desk. 'Taylor, Nancy is the new Editor-in-Chief.'
'You're leaving?' Taylor exclaimed in surprise.
Alex nodded. 'It's my heart.'
'But what are you going to do?' Taylor blurted out.
Alex chuckled. 'It's about time I made time for my daughters.'
'And you're going to be leaving this paper in very capable hands,' Nancy told him, her voice firm, and thick with a Brooklyn accent.
'I know that I am,' Alex agreed.
Nancy turned to Alex. 'Look, why don't you take the rest of the week and come in Monday morning. We'll have a little meeting and discuss the future.'
Taylor blinked.
'Don't worry,' Alex reassured her. 'The only person who's going is me.'
---
The two men were still there when Taylor was leaving an hour later. She could see them from the corner of her eye as she hurried past, refusing to look. She burst out of the building and took a deep breath. She was about to head home when she noticed them. The streets weren't covered in them, per se, yet they were everywhere. Ghosts. With hairstyles and clothing that could have put them in just about every century possible.
There was a man heading in her direction, desperately trying to communicate with the woman he was walking with. He stopped when he noticed that Taylor was watching.
'You can see me, can't you?'
Taylor nodded slowly. She was terrified. The only ghosts she had ever encountered without Maddy or Aiden present usually hurt her. She backed up until her back hit the building behind her.
'You have to help me,' he told her, edging closer.
'How?' Taylor just about managed to ask.
'You have to stop Ann.'
'Please don't hurt me,' Taylor whimpered.
The ghost looked puzzled. 'I'm not going to hurt you, I just-'
Taylor never heard the end of his sentence as she bolted out from under his arms and ran into the subway. She didn't stop running until she was waiting for her train on the platform, leaning against the wall as she clutched at her side in pain. She wiped the tears from her face and looked around. And yet the ghosts were everywhere down there too. Taylor quickly looked down at her feet, praying that if she didn't look at them, they wouldn't realize she could see them.
---
Flack pulled up outside a florist and hurried in. He didn't buy her flowers very often. But today, he was going for an enormous bunch of yellow roses, blueberry delphiniums, and some citrus antirrhinums. He charged the flowers to his card and walked out, heading home.
'Taylor?' Flack called out as he walked in the house. He dropped his bag on the floor, and his keys on the table under the mirror before heading into the living room, expecting to find her fast asleep on the couch. Finding it empty, he frowned and kicked his shoes off, draped his jacket over the back of the couch and loosened his tie.
'Taylor?' he called again, picking up the bunch of flowers he had bought her, and headed up the stairs. As he was walking up, he noticed something on the floorboards. He paused and poked at it. Bringing the incriminating white substance up to his face, he frowned, before licking his finger. 'Taylor? Why is there salt all over the floor?' he shouted up the stairs. 'Taylor?'
Without a second thought, he dropped the flowers and pulled out his gun, dashing up the stairs. The trail of salt led to their bedroom. He burst in, gun scanning the room and finding it clear, and was about to leave and check the other rooms, when he heard muffled sobbing. He hurried over to the bathroom and pulled the door open to find Taylor huddled up in the corner of the shower, salt all over the room.
He put his gun away as he ran over to her, 'Taylor?'
'They're everywhere, Don,' she told him, staring past him into the doorway.
'What are?' he asked her softly, feeling her tense up in his arms.
'You remember Cordelia's imaginary friend, Robin?' she asked him, her voice her whisper. 'Well,' she continued at his nod. 'He's not so imaginary,' she whispered as she stared at the little boy who was watching her from their bedroom, his pale blue pajamas slightly singed, a trail of soot under his nose.