Psychic Visions 08-Now You See Her... (16 page)

“How?” He looked at her, and then said dryly. “Remember I can’t see her physical hand.”

Tia watched as he followed Dr. Maddy’s directions and eventually managed to pick up her physical hand.

“Now, Tia, go and hold his hand. Make sure you hold him with your right hand, the same hand your physical body is holding.”

Tia stepped to Dean’s side and placed her right hand in his.

Crackle!

“Whoa, what the hell was that?” Dean cried out.

“Now look at the bed and tell me what you see.” Dr. Maddy said, her voice raised slightly, curiosity and excitement in the air.

But he was staring down at the hand in his. The nonexistent physical hand. “Holy crap. I can see her hand.”

His gaze flew to the form on the bed and he swallowed – hard.

“This is some weird shit.”

Stefan spoke from the far side of the room, “Dean, when you thought you saw her being attacked and you stepped up to help her, how long ago was that?”

“Just before I went off on physical leave myself.”

“Physical leave,” Dr. Maddy asked sharply. “What do you mean by that?”

He turned, but his gaze stayed on the bed. “I started having trouble with my vision, digestive problems and fatigue. The doctors thought I’d picked up a virus somewhere but couldn’t pinpoint it. That’s why I was doing a security stint at the hospital – I need the extra money. I’m no longer getting my full pay, but the bills didn’t reduce with the income.”

“And now?”

“And now what?” he growled. “What do you mean?”

Tia spoke from beside him. “She means do you still have those symptoms or have they improved?”

She watched him turn to face her, and his gaze grew wider. He dropped both her hands and bolted backwards. “Holy shit,” he whispered. “What the hell is going on?”

*

He straightened and
glared at her. He hated feeling like nothing made sense. But that was how he felt right now. Nothing. Made. Sense. “What happened to you?”

“What happened to you?” she asked curiously. “How do I look to you now?”

“Like…” He stopped, at a loss for words, then continued in a rush, the words flying out of his mouth. “Like a ghost.”

She grinned, at least he thought that was a grin. “Okay, so now things might be back to normal.”

“How,” he waved a hand at her, “is this normal?”

“We all have the ability to leave our bodies,” Stefan said quickly from the other side of the room.

Dean cast a glance his way and caught his breath. His heart pounded against his ribs. What the hell was going on? “You too?”

Stefan nodded. He motioned to where his physical body was sitting. “Me too. I just do it consciously.”

Dean shook his head. “This so can’t be right.”

“So now you see things normally again.” Dr. Maddy’s voice was thoughtfully curious.

“If
this
is normal,” he snorted. “How you could figure that doesn’t make any sense to me. But okay.”

She laughed. “
This
is very normal.”

“Why would holding her hand,” he looked down at his now empty hands, “make any difference?”

“I’m not sure. But there is something about your connection to her.”

He bypassed everything else and went to the heart of the matter. “What would have caused this disturbance in the first place? And is this why I spent the last month going from specialist to specialist without getting any help?”

“Quite likely, but until I know more I can’t say for sure. But as your vision was affected, your perception would also be affected. Your balance and sleep patterns could be off, and you’d definitely be tired as your body struggled to right itself.” She paused, then nodded. “For whatever reason, your body couldn’t but would of course continue to try, and that would set up all kinds of issues inside.”

He was shocked, relieved, delighted and incredibly confused. “I’d love to think I was back to normal. Hell, this is the first time I’ve ever taken a sick day, and I went down for weeks.”

“Could you place the start of the problems after you helped Tia?” Stefan asked.

Dean shook his head. “Not that day, maybe not the next, but soon after I started to notice things weren’t right. But they weren’t necessarily very wrong. It was a slow decline until I couldn’t function at work and at home. As nothing improved I did the rounds and rounds of doctors.” He looked over at Dr. Maddy. “Are you taking on new patients?”

She laughed. “My patients are all here on this floor, but I do occasionally help other people.”

“More than occasionally,” Stefan murmured affectionately. “She’s yet to turn anyone away who is in need.” He motioned to Tia on the bed. “Tia is a good case in point.”

“You called. I helped.” Dr. Maddy gave him a special smile.

“But have you helped? Am I okay now?” Tia asked, her ghostly voice more of an echo than the clear ringing bell voice Dean remembered.

He gave a tiny head shake to clear his mind. “This is going to take some getting used to.”

“Yes it will, but just think – your body can heal now. You should notice a visible improvement today.”

He started. “That fast?”

Dr. Maddy nodded. “We still have to find out why this happened. But given that some things are starting to revert, we need to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I did a scan on Tia’s body looking for anomalies. Sounds like I need to do the same for yours. Maybe there was an energy switch in the visual cortex.”

“Scan and energy switch along with visual cortex in the same sentence do not sound like something I want anything to do with.”

She laughed. “Relax. It’s painless. And harmless.” At his look she smiled. “It’s a visual scan. Nothing more. Honest.”

Not sure if he believed her, he relaxed only slightly.

“Energy switch?” Tia said. “Are you saying when I was attacked, the attacker actually hurt Dean?”

“Quite possibly,” Stefan said. “He might have intended to hurt you, but Dean got in the way.”

“Or he was pissed at me and deliberately targeted me.” Dean shrugged. “If we’re talking Sci-Fi already then we might as well do Sci-Fi theories.”

The others grinned.

An alarm sounded out of the hallway and Dr. Maddy bolted. “Sorry, have to do it later.” And she was gone.

Dean looked over at Stefan to find him sinking into his body. He did a double take and watched as Stefan opened his eyes.

He gave a tiny wiggle and grinned. “That feels better.”

Jesus.

Dean turned to Tia, but she wasn’t making any move to her body. Lord, that sounded so wrong. “Are you going to do what he did,” he asked, motioning toward the bed.

Tia shook her head. “I can’t.

“Can’t?” How the hell did that work? Stefan had managed easily enough. “If I hold your hand could you?” he asked, feeling like an idiot.

“I don’t know,” she said in surprise. “Maybe.”

“Then let’s give it a try.” He held out his hand again and she placed her weird ghostly one in it before he reached across to pick up her physical hand. “Do it now,” he said.

She shrugged and awkwardly lay down on top of her body.

“I
feel like
an idiot,” she muttered as she lay on top of her body. She couldn’t really feel anything.

“What happens if I let go,” he said and dropped her etheric hand. “Is that easier?”

She closed her eyes and tried to sink herself inside her body. After a moment, she opened her eyes and realized she was still lying on top of herself.

They quickly tried various hand holding options, but the end result was she couldn’t seem to rejoin her body. She caught Stefan grinning at them. “What’s so funny?” she asked.

“You two. Returning to your body isn’t physical, it’s mental. Just think yourself back inside.”

She glared at him. “That’s not very easy you know.”

“That’s the trick actually,” he admitted. “It is easy. You’re making it difficult.”

She snorted, lay back down, closed her eyes and thought,
let me be one with my body.

And damn if the room didn’t erupt in cheers.

She opened her eyes to see the same room but from a slightly lower position. She lifted a hand and saw the skin and nails looked right. She laughed. “I’m back.”

“You are indeed.” Dean grinned down at her. He reached out and held her hand, studying it. “This is what I thought I saw all along. Who knew?”

She grinned up at him, threw off her covers and sat up. “Whoa, dizziness.”

“You need to assimilate slowly,” Stefan said. “Adjust to the extra weight.”

She shifted a little on the bed, more of a butt wiggle that had Dean smiling, and realized Stefan was right. “It is heavy. And clunky. And awkward.”

“Life, this physical experience is all of those things, but it’s also a gift. A precious experience you need to remember to appreciate. Too many people only realize the value of this gift when it’s too late to fully experience it.”

“Understood. Body, I need to take care of you.” Still grinning, she hopped to her feet and walked around the room, stretching and twisting. “Damn that feels good.”

“And just in time,” Dr. Maddy said from the doorway. “I have a request to move up the arrival of my incoming patient.”

Stefan stood up. “We can take our leave now.”

Dr. Maddy nodded. “Let me know if I can help.”

“If you get a moment, do a remote scan on Dean, and let’s see if he’s got something missing or added like we assumed Tia had.”

“Understood.” Dr. Maddy smiled at the three of them. “Glad to see things are back to normal now.”

Tia walked over to the beautiful doctor. “Thanks so much. I don’t know anyone else who could have helped.”

“I think you need to thank Dean. He seems to have had the biggest impact on your healing.”

Tia nodded. “Thank heavens. I’m sorry he was hurt when I was, but I’m very glad to see him here with me now.”

She reached out, delighted when he reached back.

*

Looking down at
their hands, Dean asked, “How much does any of this mess have to do with her body parts going missing. Is that still an issue?”

There was a collective silence for a long moment before Stefan shrugged. “No idea. She’s all there at the moment. With any luck she might stay all there.”

“What a ridiculous conversation,” Tia said.

“And one you’ll need to take outside.” Dr. Maddy grinned and shooed them out of the room. “We have to get the bed ready, and I’ll be busy doing the intake and initial assessment. If you want to talk still you can go back out on the balcony and visit.”

“No, you’ve been wonderful. Thanks as always. We’ll leave now,” Stefan said.

With Stefan leading the way, they quickly went down the elevator and to the parking lot. It was the early hours of the morning. The sun was rising, but the world was still asleep.

“My place?” Dean asked.

“Sure. At least until I know what’s next,” Tia muttered. “Much of my world hasn’t changed. I was attacked and I’m still in danger. My only friend is missing and could possibly be dead.”

“Maybe, but now at least you are healthy enough to deal with what comes next.” He looked over at Stefan. “Are you coming back to my place?”

“I’m wondering about going home and doing some research. Why don’t you both come with me?”