Catching Up

Rick stares at me for a few seconds before reacting. He pulls me into another hug and whispers into my ear, "I'm sorry Melinda." I nod into his shoulder as more tears spring from my tear ducts. I blink try to blink them away but they manage to spill over anyway. Rick just continues to hold me until I relax my arms from around him. He lets go and I head into the living room with Rick following close behind.

We sit on the couch and I start explain what happened after Rick left. "I met a man who can hear ghosts due to a near death experience and he has been helping me solve all the mysteries these days."

"Yes, I know that Melinda I was there that day remember?" Rick says.

"Yeah, I know I was just starting off slow." I say with a small smile. "Well about a month after you left Jim and I were invited to attend a friend of mines wedding and a ghost child was trying to warn the bride to be that the man she was fixing to marry was not who she thought he was. It ended with Jim getting shot. He later died in the hospital." I say with tears threatening to roll over. Rick gently takes my hand in his and tries to console me. I get it back together and finish. "No ghosts came to me following his death, not even Jim, and Delia helped me realize it was probably due to my grief. It was blocking it somehow."

I take a shaky breath in and get up to get some water. I bring back a glass for Rick also and continue. "Finally Jim did appear to me and I tried to get him to crossover but he wouldn't. I was heading to work when and Jim was beside me but I couldn't get through due to a car crash. I saw the man's spirit leave his body and go into I guess go into the light. Then I saw Jim's spirit beside the lifeless body. I knew what he was thinking. I yelled 'No' but he did. At the hospital I stayed with him and let him live with me. He knew himself as Sam along with everyone else because that was who he was told he was. He lost both Sam's and Jim's memories. And when I told him who he truly was he didn't believe me." I said wiping away tears. "Now he believes that I can communicate with spirits but not that he is really Jim and I don't love Sam. I can't keep trying to convince him so I let him go. Everyone else knows it's him, including Delia." I say finally finishing the story. Rick leans forward and wipes away a tear from my cheek with his thumb and I close my eyes and let the tears go.

I wake up the next morning in my bed, confused. Then I realize I must have fallen asleep on the couch and Rick carried me up to my room. I get out of bed and change into a new outfit for the day. I make my way downstairs and hear Rick in the kitchen. "Sorry about that." I say when I see Rick.

Rick jumps and turns around holding his chest. "God damn it, Melinda!" Rick says breathing heavily. "You gave me a heart attack!"

I start laughing and I can't stop. "Sor… Sorry." I say but I continue laughing. Rick stares at me like I lost my head. I finally am able to control myself. "Sorry," I say again with a smile on my face. "I just realized that is the first time I truly genuinely laughed." I tell him.

Rick shakes his head and turns back to the stove at whatever he was cooking. "I see you learned to cook while you were in the Himalayas." I say truly impressed as I take a seat at the island.

"I had too. It was just me and three other guys in the middle of nowhere, so we couldn't order delivery." He states very seriously. I shake my head, same old Rick, I think to myself.

"So how was the sabbatical?" I ask him.

"Well I definitely learned a lot." He starts, "Like how much I hate the cold, winter is a stupid season, and the mountain air everyone talks about is not real." He says as his voice gets louder with each statement.

"So not well, huh." I sum up his thought.

"No not well at all. It snowed almost the whole time so we weren't able to do anything while we were there. So we ended it early and came home." He tells me as he pours scrambled eggs into a bowl.

I get up and grab some plates from the cabinet, along with some forks from a drawer. I quickly set the countertop of the island and move to fix Rick a cup of coffee and myself a glass of orange juice. Rick brings the bacon eggs and toast to the island and I grab some jelly from the refrigerator. I sit down beside Rick and we fall into a comfortable silence as we eat breakfast. "This is really good." I compliment Rick.

As we finish up I put the dirty dishes in the sink and start washing them. Rick gets up and dries and puts up with a little help from me. After the dishes we sit back down at the island. "Thank you." I say quietly.

"What for?" Rick questions me.

"For last night. For listening to me and not trying to tell me it will be okay. And for taking me to my bed when I fell asleep on you." I say to clear up his confusion.

"Well it wasn't a problem taking you to your bed, and I didn't say 'It's okay' because it's not." Rick says. "I went through this too when I lost Kate, and while I didn't experience the whole new body thing, I still know what it's like to lose a spouse to death." Rick says gently. I nod and feel some tears escape.

I shake my head sick of crying as I wipe the tears from my cheeks. "Where did you sleep last night?" I ask Rick to change the subject.

"Oh, I slept on the couch in the living room." He says nodding in that direction.

"We have a guest room you know, you could have slept in it." I tell him.

"Well I didn't want to over step my bounds and look around your house while you were asleep like a thief in the night." Rick says with a laugh.

"Fine have it your way." I say. "What did you want to do today?" I ask him.

"Well I was planning on heading home to unpack and then heading to the school to sign up for my class again." He tells me. "And you?" He asks me.

"Well after yesterday Delia told me she would open up the store today while I had the day to 'feel better" I say with air quotes around the last two words.

"Ha," Rick says with a smile on his face, "Well since you don't have any plans want to help me unpack?" He offers.

I think about it for a second but soon agree. "Yeah let's go." I say as I grab my purse and head for the front door.

"Awesome," Rick says as he gets up to follow me out the door and into his car.