Cross Talk

Can you hear me, Sam?

What was that noise?

Come back, Sam. Don't leave me.

The voice echoed through his head, coming from nowhere and everywhere at once.

Sam? Where are you, Sam?

The voice, her voice, was so familiar. He turned to see her but all around him the world swirled in impossible shapes and colours. Suddenly a name formed in his mind. He called out to her. "Amanda? Where are you?"

I'm here waiting for you, Sam. Why didn't you come back to me?

Sam could feel his throat tightening, and as he tried to answer, reaching desperately towards the sound of her voice, he suddenly realized that he couldn't breathe. Gasping, he tried to call out, but his voice caught in his throat. All at once, everything went grey.

***

Gulping loudly for air, he sat bolt upright in the bed, arms flailing. When he realized that he could, in fact, breathe, he calmed down enough to look around him. A dream, it was only a dream.

It was a perverse fact of life among the field agents that the more assignments they took on, the more dreams they reported having about previous (or sometimes, they sarcastically reminded the psychotherapists, future) assignments. It was difficult enough to keep times and dates straight as it was, and the dreams of past and future sometimes jumbled together into an unintelligble mass. Even the most stable and seasoned veterans admitted that at times they simply didn't know where they were for days.

Sam glanced around the darkened room. His bedroom. In 2006. He pressed his hands hard against his eyes to try to kill the throbbing headache, then ran a sweaty palm through his hair. It seemed so stuffy, and he felt wet through and through. He threw off the bed covers and started at the sight of the outline of someone lying next to him. As he reached a tentative hand toward the sleeping form, a loud horn blast woke him rudely from a sound sleep.

***

Annie laughed to see Sam jump so high at the sound of the horn, and while he didn't appreciate the feeling of being so suddenly awakened from such strange dreams, he had to admit that it was good to see her smile. She turned away from his intense gaze to look again out the window of the bus at the changed city. Some of it she recognized, but most of the scene had changed drastically. She focused her attention on the passing buildings, resisting the urge to ask Sam who "Amanda" might be.

*******

"Amanda Morgan!"

The name had come to her suddenly, like a beacon shining through a moonless night sky. She remembered now, the girl who had been paired with Sam on her first assignment. Her name had been Morgan, Amanda Morgan. Her father had not wanted her to go on assignment, thinking it too soon. He had argued that she was too young, that she had not completed enough training. And when she had gone missing, he had blamed them all. But mostly, he had blamed Sam. She couldn't believe that she hadn't put it all together sooner. She just hoped there was something they could do from where they were.

She reached down and grabbed a nearly comatose DCI Hunt from his resting place partway under the table next to her. "Come on, I think I just figured out who was behind the shooting in the squad room." The big man lurched up to a standing position with startling speed, all at once all business and ready to go. He looked down on Ray and Chris, who were sitting strangely quiet, looking slightly dazed. "Coming ladies?" Ray suddenly smiled and stood up. He looked like he would be ready to follow Gene Hunt to the ends of the earth. Chris, he knew, would follow them both without questions.

"Where are we headed, and why?"

"I'll try to explain on the way."

******

"Why are we going to this hospital again?"

Sam hesitated. It was awkward enough to be going back into this place. He wasn't sure he could explain why he wanted to go back there. It was just a feeling that he had. He felt somehow like the answers were there. "This Morgan character that we're chasing after. The last time I saw him was here."

"Surely he wouldn't still be here, would he? Just hanging around waiting to be found?"

"I'm not really sure. But I think that he wants to be found. And I know that I want to find him. This is between the two of us, but he has tried to bring all of you into it. It has to stop."

Annie looked up at the cold grey building as she stepped off of the bus. It didn't much look like a place of healing to her.