In Your Dreams

6.

I scrubbed out and glanced through the window and into the OR where Bailey was finishing up the abdominal surgery on the woman. We didn't speak much throughout the surgery, and I didn't blame her. I'd basically said that I saw a dead person, one that they were all still grieving over. How incredibly heartless, right? And they were operating on a woman who would probably die soon. It showed you how really fragile life is, it could change at any second. I realized how much I'd taken for granted, maybe that's why I thought I saw Meredith. Maybe she was my wake up call.

I walked out of the scrub room and walked down the busy hallway, heading towards the main hallway of patient rooms and nurses' station. I saw Mark talking to a man in a blue uniform who was taking notes. I frowned as I slowed my approach. The police officer nodded his thanks and then walked off. Mark looked up and spotted me, his expression was full of worry and angst.

"Hey." I frowned "What are the police doing here?"

"A guy knocked out a resident and took his kid."

"Are we on lockdown?"

"No." Mark shook his head "We don't think that he'll hurt his own kid, but we need to find the baby before he strokes out or something."

"Kids don't have strokes Mark."

"No." Mark said "But they might when they're going through withdraw." I snapped my head up and became stiff and alert, Mark continued "The girl you just operated on."

"The one with a crater in her abdomen."

"Her and her husband were cooking Meth."

"Jesus Christ." I hissed. No wonder that baby was screaming. "How long ago was it that they came in?"

"Four hours."

"We don't have long." I sighed "We need to find that baby."

"I know." Mark nodded "We have people all over the hospital looking."

I bit the inside of my cheek as I tried to think of where a Meth cooking father would take his son. But I wasn't a father and I'd never touch the stuff so really I had no idea. I glanced down the hallway in thought as I tried to dig deep down into my mind for an idea. I saw a flash of blue and my eyes scanned back as a habit. She just stood there, at the corner of connecting hallways, staring at me with a face full of excitement and anxiety. I blinked a few times, I wasn't seeing this, I couldn't be seeing her, she was dead.

I looked around the hallway again, trying to shed the image from my eyes but they made their way back to the spot she'd been standing. She looked at me with irritation this time and raised her skinny hand and waved it at me. I frowned and glanced over at Mark who was on the phone, could he see this too? I turned back to her and she looked angry. She took a few steps back and waved me forward again, she wanted me to follow her.

I took a quick glance around and a what the hell..I stepped forward as if a gravitational pull was moving me towards her. She turned her back to me and walked around the corner, I followed. I tried to pick up pace as she moved quickly, her sneakers never made that squeak against linoleum that everyone else's did. This should have told me to stop and turn around, that I was following a ghost, but it didn't.

"Hey!" I yelled out to her "Meredith?"

She glanced at me over her shoulder and gave a soft nod but kept walking, waving her fingers at her side as if encouraging me to follow her. I shook my head in frustration, I couldn't believe that I was doing this. It was insane and she could be leading me off the rooftop for all I knew. She turned down a small dark corridor type of hallway, just under a stairwell and stopped in the middle. She turned halfway towards me and smiled. It was bright and beautiful, the smile of angels. Whether this was a figment of my imagination or she was a ghost, it still took my breath away.

She then walked to the door under the stairs and disappeared through it. For the first time since seeing her I got goose bumps. I blinked, I couldn't believe what I'd just seen. But I heard a soft muffled sound coming from the other side and snapped out of it as I rushed over to the door and flung it open. A man was crying as he rocked a little boy in his arms, he looked up at me desperately and I knew exactly who he was.

"I don't know what happened." He cried "He started shaking and then he passed out."

"I need to take him." I said in a calm voice as I held my arms out.

"Please." He pleaded with me "I don't want to lose him."

"You won't." I lied "But if you don't give him to me I can't guarantee that."

He looked worried and hesitant but he knew the boy was in trouble. He gave me a nod and then lifted the him into my arms. I held him tightly to my chest as I turned and ran down the hallway towards the main hall where help was. I thought I saw a streak of light blue standing as I passed, I didn't have time to stop. But I knew she would be smiling. I don't know why I could see her, or why she was coming to me. All I knew was that I hoped to see her again. And that this little boy might owe his life to a dead woman.