Wuthering Dormice (aka Bike) Part 822 by Angharad

I asked for a bottle of water and some peace and quiet. They warned me that they would need to give another unit of blood within three hours. I nodded and then sat down at the bedside of Henry.

I drank some water and addressed my patient. “Henry, old fruit, I have a bit of a problem–you see, I can’t marry Simon unless you give me permission. So, if I were you, I’d hurry up and wake up, unless you want to see Simon left on the shelf.” I chuckled to myself as I said this–he’d be laughing too, if he was able to.

I settled down and asked for the energy to fill me and heal Henry. I sat and concentrated for a moment, then I felt as if my whole body was buzzing–as if I had an internal wasp’s nest. I knew it was time to try and bring another decent man back to life.

“Okay, Henry, here we go. You’ll feel the energy enter your body in a few moments, when it does, look for the light and listen for my voice–I’ll try and guide you back to me–unless of course you’d prefer Simon ran the bank for you?–I thought not. Let’s get on with it.”

I held his hand, and put one of mine over the bullet wound near his shoulder. It had hit his sub-clavian artery, and it was the one they had repaired, the other had hit his chest but missed both his lungs and heart. Apparently the object of shooting someone twice, is the second shot causes a form of shock which is often fatal. It was a miracle that he had survived at all.

I felt the area under my hand, the one over the gunshot, grow very warm–uncomfortably so. It was almost as much as I could do to tolerate it. The palm of my hand felt as if it was burning and I’m sure I could see flames around it. Oops–was I doing something I didn’t oughta?

I could smell burning, and it took all of my concentration not to run away and get help, but I didn’t, I stuck it and eventually my hand cooled down and I relaxed. I became aware of my other hand, the left one which was holding his right hand, it began to grow very cold–so did I. I began to shiver and I focused on the energy, trying to take myself away from my body and its distractions.
My hand returned to normal and so did the temperature–when it was a trifle too warm, as hospitals often are.

I concentrated on the light, “Come on, Henry, make for the light and my voice. C’mon man, make it snappy.” I hoped he would take that as a joke, which was how it was intended. I drew down more light, visualising it entering through my crown and exiting through my hands into Henry, who was glowing.

I was trying to pump it up, make it impossible for him not to find me. I kept going, pulling down the light and passing it into him for some hours. Once more I could feel myself immersed in this giant ball of light, which was hurting my eyes.

I rubbed them and opened them, someone was stood in front of me–they came back into focus and I could see–it was Henry. So whose hand was I holding in the bed? I looked–it was Henry’s–duh, this wasn’t supposed to happen.

“What are you doing here?” I squeaked, my throat had gone all dry.

“You told me to come, remember?”

“I meant come back to your body”–God, these Camerons are so thick, it’s untrue–“get back into your body this minute.” He looked totally bewildered, but I needed him to recover physically, not become a ghost.

“But you told me to come to you and the light,” he protested.

“Since when have you been the expert?” I asked angrily.

“I’m not an expert, Cathy, but then neither are you.”

“Compared to you I am, now get back into your body or I shall go home and leave you here.”

“You can’t, Cathy.”

Why not?” I yelled back at him.

“Because I’ll die.”

“If you keep standing there, you will anyway.”

“I only did as you told me,” he was sobbing–or his ethereal form was, his body was still rigged up to a bank of machines, beeping away in unison. “I followed the light.” He looked at the body in the bed. “Who’s that?”

“You–who else?”

“God, I look old.”

“You’ve been shot twice and lost loads of blood.”

“Oh, that would explain it then, you had me worried for a minute.”

“Henry, will you kindly get back in your body.”

“Is it going to hurt?”

“How would I know?”

“You were setting yourself up as the expert...”

“No, I told you I had more experience of healing than you did, I’m no expert.”

“So how do I do it then?”

“I don’t know, how did you get out of it in the first place?”

“I was floating about above it in the ambulance.”

“Oh great–how do I tell Simon?”

“Tell him what?”

“To hold on to this string, his dad’s attached to it like some phantom helium balloon.” The image flitted through my mind and I had difficulty not laughing out loud.

“What am I to do, Cathy, this isn’t funny?”

“I haven’t a ghost of an idea,” I replied and started to laugh.

“Very funny, if you don’t get me back into my body, I shall haunt you until you marry Simon.”

“I didn’t get you out of it in the first place, so it’s hardly my fault, is it?”

“No but you stopped me floating off in the ambulance.”

“Do you realise why you were floating off?”

“Not really, why?”

“You died.”

He laughed, “Don’t be silly, my body’s there on the bed, I can see it breathing.”

“Unless you get back into it, that’s all it’s going to do.”

“No, I always heal quite quickly.”

“Henry, if you don’t get back into it very soon, you never will again.”

“Are you okay, Lady Cameron?” called a nurse.

“Yes, thank you,” I called back, then to Henry I hissed, “You realise you’ve got no clothes on, don’t you?” I think his ghost blushed, it’s rather hard to tell.

“I thought I could hear voices,” said the nurse as her footsteps got closer.

“Quick, get in the bed,” I pushed Henry and he fell onto his unconscious body and seemed to enter it, his body jumped and shuddered and the machines went crazy for a moment.

The nurse came in, “What’s going on here?” asked the nurse and the machines reset themselves to normal and the heart monitor beeped more regularly. “I could hear voices.”

“It was only me telling Henry to get better.”

“I thought one of them sounded like a man’s voice.”

“Maybe I got a little hoarse, I was doing quite a bit of talking.”

“Could be,” she looked at me suspiciously. “I’ll take his blood pressure and replace the transfusion.” She did as she said she would, “He’s coming along very nicely, I’ll perhaps change the dressings on his wounds.”

She began to pull off the dressing on his collar bone. “Oh!” she gasped.

“What’s the matter?” I asked wondering if she’d seen a ghost–seeing as one had been hanging around.

“The wound.”

“What about it?”

“It’s healed.”

“It has?” I looked, “It has.” I’m better at this than I thought, so stick that in your catheter, Henry Cameron.

“That is weird?”

“No, that is Henry, he’s just attention grabbing.”