Author's Note: Hey, the site's back up again, yay!

~ Jed ~

"And do you think that one of them is still here? Is that why you brought me here?" And here I'd thought she'd been trying to help me out from the goodness of her heart, and now she was just like all the others, wanting something from me. "I'm sorry to disappoint. I don't see anyone here," I bit out, stalking toward the stairs.

"No, that's not…" Gemma chased after me, her face pinched with distress. "Jed, please, don't be angry with me, that's not why I asked you to stay here at all. I just thought you might understand, that's all."

"Understand what?" I stopped at the top of the stairs, looming over her.

"What it's like to talk to… to ghosts."

"Of course I do. Haven't I had to my whole fucked up life?" But then I realized what she was saying. Yes, of course, I understood what it was to talk to ghosts, but so did she. She wanted me to understand her.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to mislead you about anything. You're free to go, of course, if you prefer." Gemma bit at her bottom lip, overcome with regret. "I… I'd better go change that fuse." Quick as anything, she turned and fairly flew down the stairs.

"Wait…" I chased after her, but my speed wasn't what it used to be yet, and she was nowhere in sight by the time I reached the bottom of the stairs. But then I heard a soft cry of pain coming from beneath the stairs and I realized where she'd gone.

I pulled the door to the closet beneath the stairs open to find Gemma standing there, the torch at her feet, holding a bloody knuckle to her mouth.

"Did you hurt yourself?" I leant down and picked up the torch, shining it on her hand.

She immediately dropped her hand to her side. "It's not bad. I just can't get this bloody fuse out."

"Here, let me," I moved a step closer, but she was between me and the fuse box.

"You don't have to. It's my job now," she said, struggling with the stubborn fuse again.

I closed my hand over hers. "Let me," I insisted. For a moment I thought she would resist again, but then her shoulders slumped in surrender.

"Alright."

Without waiting for her to move away I pulled the fuse out without too much trouble and popped the new one in. The lights came back on out in the lounge, though we still stood in the dark with the torchlight between us. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have lost my temper," I offered.

"It's fine," she said, waving my apology away. "I should've probably told you from the start about Jilly and me. I just didn't want that to be the only thing you think of when you think of me. I know that sounds silly." She shook her head.

"Actually, it makes perfect sense." How many times had people not been able to look at me the same way once they found out what I saw?

Gemma smiled at that. "You do understand."

"I do," I smiled back. "Is Jilly the only one you can see or have you always seen ghosts?"

"Just Jilly, but then we were exceptionally close. I expect she didn't want to leave me alone with Mum already sick in hospital at the time she died."

"How did she die? Or sorry, if you don't want to talk about it…"

"No, it's, it's fine. It's good to have someone to talk to," she said with an almost shy smile. "We were out walking home after a concert. Shouldn't have been out that late, but with Mum not home, it was easy to sneak away. Anyway, this guy who'd been at the concert stopped and offered us a ride. He'd been drinking and you could just tell what he was thinking – get the two of us alone and then, I don't know, try to have it off with us or something. But it wasn't a ride home he was offering, you know?"

I just nodded, the dread growing in the pit of my stomach as I knew what must be coming.

"So I declined, rather politely, I thought, but Jilly… she was ever the bold one. She told him to get stuffed and said some very impolite things about his mother. He got so… I think he went a bit mad. He backed into us with the car. Maybe he thought it was a joke, maybe he thought we'd get out of the way? But it was too fast and unexpected to get out the way of, and down we went." She took a deep, shuddering breath, and I reached for her hand, giving it a squeeze.

"I was lucky. I was pushed back into the tall grass. All I ended up with were a few bumps and bruises and a tick bite. Jilly though… her head struck the curb just the wrong way. She never opened her eyes again."

"I'm sorry." It didn't seem like enough, but she squeezed my hand back.

"It was just such a waste, you know? A few off the cuff remarks and her life was over. She didn't deserve that."

"No, she didn't. What about the guy? Did they catch him?"

"Oh, they caught him right enough. When he saw what he'd done, he did a runner and drove away. Only he was so panicked, he lost control and ran straight into a power pole."

"Shit. Talk about instant karma. Did he die then?"

"No, he's in a coma in the same facility you were in."

I stared at her for long seconds. "You work at the place where the guy who killed your sister is cared for?"

"Yup," she said, looking away and tucking the hair behind her ear. "I know what you're thinking, but I haven't done anything to him. I wanted to, but I haven't."

"But you were planning to at some point? Why else would you choose to work there?" What would that have been like? Going in to work every day knowing you had the power to exact your revenge in any way you liked and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

"I don't know what I'd planned," she said miserably. "There he was, being cared for in this private facility, family coming to visit him like he was some poor, sad, victim, when it was his own actions that put him there. I thought maybe I'd… I don't know not pull the plug exactly, but find some way to make him suffer for what he'd done."

"And did you? Find some way to make him suffer?"

She shook her head. "I didn't have to. He's not in there. As soon as I had access to his medical records, I found out his brain waves have been completely non-existent for years. An NHS facility would've counseled his family to terminate life support years ago, but the private one is happy to keep taking his family's money, even though there's no hope. It's as you said, karma. He has no life and no release of death either. He'll never be at peace as long as he's there. That's revenge enough for me."

"And that's the whole reason why you became a nurse? To get your revenge before you found out he was a vegetable?"

"Oh no, not at all! God, is that what you think of me?" she gasped, eyes stretching wide. "No, I wanted to work with coma patients because Mum was in one for a while at the end. The nurses there were wonderful, and they didn't have to be. They could've left Mum in a darkened room day and night, but they made sure she had fresh air and music, even asking me what her favorite programs were on the telly so they could turn them on for her. That's what I wanted to do. To give patients some comfort and dignity at the end, and help the families as best I could. It was only in the last year that I came to the facility you were in and found out that's where he'd been the whole time. I swear it."

"I believe you," I said, giving her hand a squeeze. No one who spoke so passionately about it could be making the whole thing up. Or maybe I just wanted to trust her so badly I was letting it cloud my judgment. Then again, who was to say I wouldn't have done the exact same thing in her shoes? "Then Jilly's been here with you this whole time?"

"For the most part. She's not here right at the moment, but then I expect she's having a sulk," she smiled.

"She's none too pleased about me being here, I take it?" That could cause a problem or two.

"Yeah, I'm not entirely sure why. I would've thought she'd be happy to talk to someone else. Hey, maybe that's it? Maybe you can't see her because she's keeping you from seeing her? Maybe it only works when the ghost wants you to see them?"

"I dunno. It hasn't come up before. The ghosts I've met all want someone to see their pain."

"Trust Jilly to make things difficult," she grinned. "She's really an okay kid, she's just had me to herself since she died. I expect it makes her a bit protective."

That was another troubling thing. "Does she think I'm going to hurt you? You mentioned darkness…"

"You heard that?" Gemma tucked the hair behind her ear again. "I'm sorry. I don't know, I can't tell if she was just being dramatic or if she does think there is some danger. I know you would never hurt me though."

She said that with such absolute confidence, but I wasn't so sure. "How can you know that? People around me do get hurt." Kate more often than not. That had to be part of why she'd put up such a protective shell around herself, to keep from being hurt again. Only it kept her friends out as well as her foes.

"But not by you. She just has to get to know you. If you want to, that is. I would understand it if you wanted to leave."

I saw the loneliness and isolation I felt reflected back at me, the yearning for a connection among the living. Maybe this wasn't the ghost-free haven I'd been expecting, but perhaps it could become something even better? "Shall I go and meet Jilly properly then?"

A/N: Well, there you have Gemma's backstory, what do you think? Can he trust her?

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