It's Only the Rain

"Sir?"

"Do it. Let my brother go."

In the hallway, Mindy still struggled with the security man.

"Release her, Charles."

Mindy pulled free, rubbing at her arms. The pain there was an unhappy reminder of her time with Greg.

"How did you know about Max?" asked Cecilia, her eyes searching for some truth in Mindy's that would give her the hope she wanted.

"I told you I saw him. The first time I met Trevor, he was walking Max on the beach. I know this sounds crazy, but I was inside Trevor's head. I used the machine after you and Mitchell left, and somehow it transported me into his sub-conscious. I saw everything, the house on your private land outside Arbor Point, his dog, Max. He even took me on a tour of the town and introduced me to Ned."

"The artist..."

"Yes...Trevor took me there to show me his painting. The one of the lighthouse."

"Friedlin's, the gallery by the beach. I know it. Trevor would sneak off to go over there and look at the art. He always tried to hide his hobby from me, afraid I would disapprove."

"This was no hobby. It was his passion," said Mindy defensively.

"Now you even sound like Trevor," replied Cecilia with a slight smile.

"Please believe me. I swear I'm not making this up. We have to stop them from making a terrible mistake."

Cecilia Harcourt hesitated, wanting to believe it, needing too.

Mindy suddenly felt a wave of nausea pass over her, a weight seeming to drop onto her chest, making it hard to breathe. She swayed, grabbing at her head.

"What's wrong, Dear?" asked Cecilia concerned, stepping forward and taking hold of Mindy.

Mindy closed her eyes, trying to steady herself. They snapped back open with a look of stark fear.

"We're losing him..."

Cecilia set her jaw and pulled the young nurse after her back toward Trevor's room.

They burst through the door, and Mindy noticed immediately that all the mechanical sounds from the life support apparatus around the room had stopped. Dr. Graves was listening to Trevor's chest with his stethoscope while looking up at the heart monitor above the bed.

"He's not breathing on his own..." he said sadly.

"Mitchell! I demand you turn those machines back on!" yelled Cecilia angrily.

The younger Harcourt rounded on his mother. His face was almost devoid of emotion, revealing what Trevor had known all along. His brother was a man missing that most vital of ingredients to make him whole.

"It isn't your decision to make anymore, Mother. It's done."

"NO!" yelled Mindy defiantly, throwing herself passed Mitchell, who was taken so much by surprise he couldn't move fast enough to intervene. Mindy's fingers closed on Trevor's hand.

She remembered what Professor Middleton had said about Helen not needing the machine, that the power to bridge the gap had been inside her the whole time. She remembered and closed her eyes, willing herself to be back there again, back on the beach with Trevor.

A cold sweat broke out on her forehead. She could hear voices yammering around her, felt hands gripping at her shoulders, trying to tear her away.

"Please, Trevor! I'm here..." she cried inside her head.

The ground seemed to open up beneath her, and she had the sensation of falling. Blackness surrounded her, and a roaring noise like a runaway freight train assaulted her ears. It took her a second to place the sound, and when she did, her eyes snapped open in recognition.

It was the sound of thunder.

The waters of Lake Michigan were heaving, caught, and whipped into a frenzy by a gale-force wind. All-round her lightning flashed and lit up the sky, while a solid wall of rain moved like a steel gray curtain across the landscape headed toward where she stood. Mindy quickly realized she was not far from Trevor's house, and she took off at a dead run, arms pumping, feet churning up the sand.

The house was dark, and she stopped at the back door, pounding on the wood frame and calling out Trevor's name over and over. Fear gripped her chest, she had no idea how long she had, but she knew that he was slipping away, dying even as she stood there at the epicenter of the storm inside his head. She pounded the door harder, hard enough to sting the tender flesh of her hand and draw blood from her knuckles.

The door opened, and Trevor stood there eyes wide in surprise.

"Mindy! You have the strangest way of showing up out of nowhere. You should come inside. It looks like we're about to get one Hell of a storm."

"Trevor! Listen to me. I have no idea how much time we have...I need you to wake up!"

"I beg your pardon? If this is a joke, I don't get it."

"I know this sounds nuts, but you have to believe me. None of this is real! The house, Arbor Point, Max, it's all a dream. You're in a coma in a hospital in Chicago, and they've turned off your life support. If you don't wake up, you're going to die!"

Trevor looked as if he didn't know whether to laugh or call the men in the white coats.

"Mindy? You can't possibly be serious?"

"Please, Trevor. I can feel you slipping. We don't have much..."

A new sound cut off Mindy's words, a sound like a jet airliner taking off, and when she turned toward the beach, her heart froze in her chest at the sight of a gigantic water spout churning its way across the lake toward them. A tornado at least a mile across, sucking up water from the lake and hurtling forward like the fist of some ancient God ready to erase anything in its path.

"Time's up..." she thought.

"Take my hands!" she ordered.

"What?"

"Take my hands, and whatever happens, don't let go. Promise me you won't let go!"

He stepped out onto the sand with her, turning to follow her gaze.

"Holy Shit! We need to get inside!" he said urgently.

"No time. Take my hands, Trevor! Now!"

She grabbed at him, gripping his hands as hard as she could until her fingers turned white.

"Mindy! We can't just stand here!"

"I know..." she said, closing her eyes.

The wind slammed into them, tearing at their clothes, pummeling them with loose sand, blinding them. The air was alive with the groaning sounds of the beach house being torn to shreds, loose wood from the uprooted deck shooting into the sky.

"Mindy! For God's Sake! We need to run!" shouted Trevor.

She didn't answer, didn't open her eyes.

"Mindy!" came his cried again, but his voice seemed further away now.

Something collided with her chest, hard and unyielding, driving her backward. She held tight to Trevor's hands, feeling him falling toward her, the ground rising to meet them both.

"Help me!" shouted Mindy to the Heavens.

They landed in a heap, Trevor's weight crushing down on her, and she coughed, squirmed at the feeling of being trapped.

"Trevor! You're crushing me," she said harshly before she felt his weight shift aside.

It took a second, but it dawned on her that the world had gone quiet. The wind and rain, the pounding of the storm had abated. She opened her eyes to sunshine, breathed in the sweet aroma of fresh-cut grass.

They were standing at the edge of a grove of trees. To one side was a cornfield that seemed to stretch far off into the distance, on the other ran a long ribbon of highway that twisted its way toward a town that lay several miles away.

"What the Hell. Where are we?"

Trevor looked dazed, turning slowly, taking in the impossible sights around him. His house, Lake Michigan, the town of Arbor Point, all gone like they had never existed.

"It's okay. I know where we are," she said calmly.

"Would you like to clue me in?"

"Indiana. That's my Aunt Fran's house," she nodded at a comfortable looking dwelling that stood at the top of a low hill maybe a mile from where they stood.

"I don't understand. How did we get here?"

"I told you. You're in a coma, or at least you were."

"Would you like to explain that a little more?"

"I'm not sure I understand myself. I felt you dying, and I...I tried to pull you to me. I think I may have drug your consciousness into my brain."

"Are you joking?"

"Look around! Does this seem like a joke to you?"

Trevor couldn't argue with the reality he found himself in, bending down he dug up some black Earth from the ground, let it tumble through his fingers.

"So, what am I a ghost or something?"

"I honestly don't know. I'm not even sure how I got us here exactly."

He stood back up, closed his eyes, still trying to wrap his mind around this new truth to his existence.

"You said I was in a coma. What happened to me?"

"A drunk driver hit you, and you suffered head trauma. I've been your nurse for the past year. There was this experimental treatment your mother was trying to bring you back, and I sort of got caught up in it."

"Sounds like my mother...She was never one to quit. Did I get worse?"

"No, you were stable but not improving. Your brother, he got a court order to have you taken off life support. I'm not sure how."

"That little prick. I knew he had it in for me," mused Trevor rubbing his jaw.

"This is all a dream then, a world only inside your head?" he asked Mindy.

"I guess. It's a safe place, like Arbor Point was for you. The only place I ever felt safe in my life."

"If it's so safe, then what is that?"

Mindy turned around to look at where Trevor was pointing behind her.

"I have no idea..." she said quietly.

Hanging in the air was what appeared to be a rip in the fabric of the world around them, a crack maybe ten feet high and half as wide that pulsed at the edges with little flashes of light. They could see into it, but all that was there was an inky blackness, occasionally lit by small flashes and ripples of movement like someone was throwing a stone in a pond.

"I think that's where we came through," observed Trevor, "I think that might be me on the other side. The dying me."

He closed his eyes again, grimaced, and drew in a slow breath, "I feel almost drawn to it like it's calling me."

"You can't go back there!" she exclaimed, "You were dying, remember."

She stepped closer, putting her hands on Trevor's chest, feeling the steady beating of his heart.

"We'll both be safe here."

"What am I here, Mindy? A memory? An echo of what I was before?"

Trevor put his hands over hers, looked into her eyes.

"At least we could still be together."

"Maybe..."

Before she could answer, the sunlight that shined down on them dimmed, and the sky that had been so bright and clear began to cloud over.

"Looks like rain," said Trevor.

A rumble of thunder made then both wince, reminded of what they had just been through together.

Dawning recognition fell across Trevor's features, and he took a step away from Mindy, releasing her hands.

"Storms seem to follow us everywhere," he commented, looking again at the sky and then back down at Mindy, "I don't belong here, do I?"

"You can't go back," she repeated, her voice cracking with emotion.

"What happens to you if I stay?"

Mindy's thoughts flew back to Helen Middleton's bedside.

Was that what had happened to her? Did she try too hard to reach her brother and end up pulling him into her mind? Did he become trapped there with her? The two of them forever locked in a mind ravaged by perpetual storms, desperate to force out what it didn't understand.

Trevor seemed to read this all on Mindy's anguished face, "I have to go. I won't let you end up like me."

He started toward the crack, which was slowly sealing itself, growing smaller as he approached.

"Trevor! Wait!"

Mindy ran to his side, tears beginning to pour down her face.

"I don't want to be without you. You gave me the courage to set my life right. I need you."

He reached up to wipe her tears aside, smiled, and kissed her soft lips.

"Courage? You're the brave one, Mindy. All I've ever done in my life is to hide. You're the one that risked everything to come looking. I think you're going to be just fine. I'm just sorry I won't be there to see it."

"Trevor...No..." she whispered as he turned to go.

He stopped one last time at the foot of the fading crack when Mindy shouted at him, making him look back.

"Don't quit! Try to wake up, Trevor. You didn't understand what was happening to you before, but you know now it isn't real. There might still be time."

He nodded and smiled, "I'm glad I got to meet you, Mindy Dawson. Even if it was only in a dream."

As he drew closer the crack began to pulse with a strange energy, the edges growing so bright Mindy had to avert her eyes. A sound like a door slamming shut reached her ears at the same time as a pressure wave blew through the air taking Mindy right off her feet

She felt herself falling toward the ground.

...And awoke as Mitchell Harcourt jerked her off his dying brother and shoved her roughly back toward his security man.

"You crazy bitch! What the Hell is your problem!"

Mindy couldn't answer. She was sobbing hysterically now, held tight by the bigger man behind her.

Mitchell was brushing at his suit, looking worried it might have gotten wrinkled in the ruckus.

"The way you've handled this Graves makes me wonder if your hospital is worth that grant money,"

"Now, see here, Mr. Harcourt!"

Graves didn't finish his statement. Instead, he jumped back from the bed when Trevor's body convulsed, and he began choking on his airway.

"Sweet Jesus! He's breathing on his own. He's alive!" cried Dr. Graves.

The experienced physician quickly removed the tube from Trevor's throat easing him back onto the bed while checking his vitals.

"This is a miracle, but his heart is good and strong, and most importantly, his brain function has returned to normal. I can't explain it," said Dr. Graves looking at the bedside monitors.

Cecilia ran over to her son, taking his hand and putting her palm against his cheek.

"Trevor. Can you hear me? It's your mother," she said, beaming down at him.

Slowly, Trevor's eyes fluttered open, and he tried to speak, his voice coming out as barely a whisper. Cecilia leaned closer, putting her ear near his lips.

"Where's Mindy..." he managed to croak out.

Cecilia straightened up, looking startled before turning to the nurse who had spent the past year caring for her stricken son. The one he had never met.

"He wants to talk to you," she said quietly, stepping back.

Mindy came over to the bed straight away, changing places with Cecilia Harcourt and taking Trevor's hand.

A smile creased his pale face, and he tried again to speak, voice coming a little stronger this time.

"I wish...you could have woken me...with a kiss instead..."

She laughed, the tears on her face now ones of joy.

"I can't believe this..." said Mitchell, his face nearly as white as his brothers.

Trevor barely managed to raise a hand, but the gesture was unmistakable. He waved his brother to him.

Mitchell looked around uncomfortably before coming over to the bedside.

"It's good to see you awake. I knew you would find a way back to us," said Mitchell awkwardly.

He had to lean close to catch Trevor's reply, and when he did, it made his face lose what little color it had left.

"I know...what you did...little brother...fuck you..."

Mitchell cleared his throat and stood back up. Speechless, he turned on his heel and left.

"I'm sorry we need to clear the room. I want to get some specialists in here and go over Mr. Harcourt carefully to make sure he is all right," ordered Dr. Graves.

Cecilia gathered up her security guard and the stunned Howard Voss, who had stood in the corner the whole time struck dumb by the rapid change of events and made to leave.

Dr. Graves raised an eyebrow when Mindy failed to move.

"I'm not going anywhere. I'm his nurse," she explained in a no-nonsense tone.

Graves shook his head but didn't argue. It had been a trying enough day already.

EPILOGUE -

"You realize if you stopped squirming, this would be going a whole lot faster, right?" said Mindy while her boyfriend frowned and looked up at the ceiling.

"I'm used to tying my own ties," answered Trevor.

"You will be soon. I hear your rehab is coming along great. Before you know it, you'll be hitting black-tie gala's all over town."

"Crap! I hope not. If this one weren't aimed at me, in particular, I wouldn't be going."

"There. All finished," said Mindy, taking a step back to admire her handy work.

"How do I look? Dashing...Handsome...Gorgeous in the extreme?"

"All of the above," she said, moving back in to throw her arms around Trevor's neck.

They shared a long, intensely heartfelt kiss.

"You know there were a lot of things in my dream that I loved and appreciated, but the one thing that I'm glad turned out to be real was you."

"Please don't make me tear up! I just got my eye makeup right!" said Mindy fighting back her emotions

Trevor laughed, kissing her forehead before releasing her to fetch his cane.

"Will your brother be there tonight?"

"Mitchell is no art fan. Besides, he has his hands full running the non-profit my mom put him in charge of, so I doubt we will be seeing much of him in the near future."

"Maybe working for others will rub off on him and make him a better person?"

"That's the plan."

"I'm glad your mom was able to get control of the company back," added Mindy.

"Mitchell's support on the board dried up pretty quickly when they found out I wasn't going to shuffle off the mortal coil. Whether I ultimately take control of the company or not, his days were numbered."

"Will you? Take over the company one day?"

Trevor paused in thought, "I think my mother would still very much like that to be the case, but it isn't where my heart is at. Let's see how tonight's opening goes first."

"At least your mom was willing to fund your work. She seemed quite proud of your paintings and clearly wants the world to see them."

"Yeah, it only took me almost dying to open her eyes," said Trevor a little bitterly.

"At the end of the day, isn't it more important that she did?"

He laughed again, "Always the optimist. I like that about you most, Mindy. Let's go see what the world thinks then, huh?"

They left hand-in-hand, stopping at the edge of the doorway so that Mindy could grab an umbrella from the stand for them to share as a drizzle fell outside.

"It's just a little rain," said Trevor with a wink.

"I know. I just don't like to get wet," said Mindy.

"If the storm bothers you just sit by me. I'll protect you."

Trevor waved at their driver to bring the car closer while Mindy looked off at the approaching clouds. Her face took on a an expression of disapproval and she shook her head as if showing unhappiness with an unruly child. The clouds slowed and suddenly began to break up, light shining through, the drizzle drying up and passing.

"I'm far too brave for such things..." she said under her breath.

"What was that, Sweetie?"

"Nothing. I don't think we will need the umbrella after all."

"Huh? I guess not," replied Trevor noticing the change in the weather.

The driver stepped out to open the door for them and Trevor and Mindy entered the vehicle which soon pulled away from the curb and drove off into the setting sun.