Reincarnation Part Ten
Love Loss and Fate
Harold spun around, his eyes searching the sidewalks and streets in both directions, both were astonishingly empty. He didn’t see Detective Carter, anyone else or anything for that matter. No traffic, pedestrian or vehicle. The streets were deserted. Finch scrutinized the buildings around him. The landscape was exactly as he remembered only devoid of any living, moving thing. Harold Finch was alone. With no idea where to go or what to do besides the direction Carter had shown him, Harold walked through the automatic doors of the hospital.
The interior also was as Harold remembered from the one time he’d been there. Inside the hospital was as empty as the vacant streets and surrounding buildings.
Finch took a few more halting steps into the hospital lobby. He was completely at a loss where to go or what to do. The information desk sat empty as well as the chairs in the waiting area to the right. The hospital gift shop to his left was vacant, its selections of balloons, stuffed animals, flowers and other various items waiting to be purchased by relatives or friends of a patient.
Harold raised his hands and beseeched the empty vestibule, “Where do I go now?” Silence was his only answer.
Carter had said he needed to see something in here and deciding here meant somewhere else in the hospital Finch moved towards the bank of elevators and hallway in front of him past the reception desk.
Astonishment turned to shock when as Harold moved forward someone brushed past him dashing towards the reception desk. There was now a smiling elderly woman at the desk and the tall, salt and peppered haired man speaking to her was….John.
Harold stood there in stunned silence as he heard a very distressed John asking what room his brother, Harold Tanager was in, introducing himself as John Brandon. John was told the room number and was heading for the elevators by the time Harold was able to collect himself enough to weakly cry out, “John!” Harold took a step forward and loudly called out, “John!” once more when the other man kept going.
“He can’t see or hear you,” offered a female voice to his right.
Harold turned to see a woman sitting in the previously empty waiting area facing away from him and looking out the window. Although he wanted to follow John, Harold instead was drawn towards her. When he walked around the last chair in the row chairs in which she was seated, she looked away from the window and up at him. “Hello, Mr. Wren.”
Jessica Arndt was looking up at him, her smile warm and welcoming. “Please sit down, Harold. May I call you Harold? I can tell you're confused and a little shaken by what just happened. I’ll try my best to explain everything.” She motioned to the chair beside her and asked again, “Please sit.”
Finch blinked then blinked again. He had looked away from John’s first love towards the desk and elevators Reese had entered, the urge to follow him almost pulling Harold in that direction and declining Jessica’s offer. The kindly woman behind the desk disappeared before his eyes and except for Jessica; the lobby was empty once more.
Dazed and even more confused about what was happening here, Harold almost fell into the chair Jessica had offered him, his legs too unsteady to hold him up. The turmoil Harold was experiencing jumped two fold when he consciously tried to take a calming breath and it registered he didn’t need to breath at all now. Finch sat there for minutes it seemed not breathing, awed and yet puzzled that he didn’t need to.
“I was as confused as you when I first came here,” Jessica offered softly, then placed a reassuring hand oh Harold’s knee. “Everything is just memory here. Even breathing.”
Harold turned to the woman beside him, his jaw dropping. He swung his arm over the back of the chair, abruptly reaching out and opening his hand to indicate the empty desk, raising his voice irritably, “I just watched and heard John asking what room I was in. That was not a memory. I-I-I don’t understand what is happening!” Ashamed of his outburst Harold apologized. “I’m sorry Mrs. Arndt. This...place...it’s so strange. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, where I am supposed to go. My friend said I needed to see something here.
Jessica smiled and nodded. “Yes. Your friend was right. You need to see me. I am part of that something.”
“You?” Harold questioned tentatively his eyes widening.
“Surprised as I am, it is nice to see you again. You were a special part of John’s life and someone still very important to him but I don’t know what you can tell me.
Harold jolted uneasily when something occurred to him. “Mrs. Arndt? Are you here to…” Finch tamped down the apprehension he was now feeling and continued, “Are you here to reprimand me for ignoring your need for help all those years, only to arrive when it was almost too late and then offer just words of warning.
Harold turned from her, “I know I deserve any condemnation you have for me. It was heartless of me to discount the needs of one in favor of the needs of the many. I could have...I could have saved John so much pain if I just had done something sooner.”
Jessica took Harold’s shoulders and pulled the distraught man around. “Harold! I would do no such thing. You are in no way responsible for what happened.”
“I knew what Peter was becoming. I am the one that chose to stay with him, time after time. Even that day we met in New Rochelle I ignored your warning and went home to Peter. I was the one who called John too late to help me, not you.”
She smiled faintly at the older man; her eyes reflected a moment of sadness before being replaced once again with peace and acceptance. “We all make choices, sometimes ones that have fatal consequences. Fate can be a cruel mistress and it’s hard sometimes to understand why something good can ever come from it.”
“That’s what I’m here to show you. You couldn’t protect anyone on that list of yours at first. Not me, not anyone.” Jessica took Harold’s hand and held it between hers. “That is the something good to come out of this. You and John both lost people you loved dearly, myself, Nathan, your fiance. But as painful as these things were in your lives it brought you and John together. You and John have saved so many lives. And you found each other. You found love again.”
Harold looked away sadly, “I thought we did. I know I love John, I always will.” Only the doubt and hurt were just too strong for him to shake free of even now. “He gave up on us, he found someone new. When she died he left me, our mission and New York without a word.” Bitterness tinged his words. “I don’t even know why he’s back here pretending to care.” Harold looked hard again at Jessica, “And I still don’t know why we are all here.”
“You’re a hard man to convince Harold Wren. Guess I’ll have to show you.” Jessica stood then and pulled Harold up with her by the hand she still held tightly. She dropped his hand and walked towards the elevators beckoning Finch to follow her.
They rode the elevator down one floor to the main level. Upon the doors opening and exiting the elevator, Harold was again shocked speechless. There were people on the floor. Doctors, nurses, volunteers, and visitors were going in and out of rooms, some rushing in and out, others not.
Harold followed his female guide to a door on the right. Again Jessica informed him, “Remember they can’t see or hear you.” The door opened as a doctor left the room. The two slipped into the room before the door closed behind him.
If Jessica hadn’t grabbed his arm he might have fallen to the floor in disbelief. There he was lying in a bed, a distraught John and a very angry Shaw on opposite sides of it.
~*~
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue