An Interlude -Fic-
Title: An Interlude
Characters: Don Eppes, Surprise appearance.
Rating: G
Word Count: 770
Summary: After the flat line, Don floats in darkness until a familiar place and face appears.
Spoilers: For the Fifth Man.
Disclaimer: I regret to say that I do not own them.
Feedback: Is always and greatly appreciated.
Author's Note: This was written for elysium1996 who requested Don and 'Lost'. This was a scene that I was hoping we would see from this episode.
------------------------
Don is lost.
Being lost is a novel concept because while the old adage that men have no direction has some truth in it, this man has always been pretty good with directions. Car driving, mountain climbing, and everything in between. He hasn’t been lost in a figurative way either. Sure, his career and religious aspect had been called into question lately, but even then he had been moving towards a goal, moving forward in a certain direction.
So, this lost thing is something different.
And also something that is somewhat frightening.
He doesn’t know where he is or how he got to be lost. He just knows that he is lost. His body swims in a sea of darkness, midnight black that reveals nothing. Above him are voices that tell him to hang on and that things are going to be alright. There is a shrill beeping sound, like the ones on those medical TV shows. It hurts his ears and he moves away from it because the rest of him aches enough already.
The darkness suddenly clears to be replaced by a blinding white and Don finds himself walking across clean cut grass with a pale blue sky overhead. It only takes him a few seconds to realize just where he is: the baseball field where he’d played ball as a kid before high school years.
This can’t be right though because this place had been destroyed and paved over years ago to make way for a new neighborhood. He’d lamented the loss of a part of his childhood then and he cannot help the feel of nostalgia as he walks towards the metal fence now. As far as hallucinations go this one is pretty nice.
Worn sneakers beat a path over dirt that had seen innumerable teams come and go. His fingers tangle in the holes of the fence as he gazes out over second base. A dark shape in the brightness of the day catches his attention out of the corner of his eye.
It’s a person and it is only when Don gets closer that he realizes who it is waiting for him. He drops down on the bleachers in disbelief.
She is sitting right where she’d always sat during his games; with the best seat to see him from both the dugout and field. “Mom?”
Margaret Eppes, looking as she did before the sickness, turns shining bright eyes to her eldest son. “Donnie,” she smiles wide.
His mouth opens to ask howwhatwherewhenandwhy but then shuts as his mind poses the thought that since this is all clearly a hallucination, he should just take it for what it is: time to spend with his mother. Plus, he suddenly cannot remember why he is here in the first place. Or why he shouldn't be here.
Instead he opts to open with, “I think I might be dead.”
“You’re not dead,” his mother replies. Her hand rises up to point out to the baseball field. “I used to watch you run these bases.”
Don listens as she recounts stories he’d forgotten, gaining the perspective through a mother’s eyes. Time passes in what could have been seconds or hours or days. Finally he speaks,
“What am I doing here?”
His mother turns wise eyes to him and she tugs his hand into her own. “You’re waiting.”
Confusion fills his voice. “Waiting? For what?”
A serene smile that is familiar in the way that she used to tolerate everything about his adolescent ways. “For the right time.”
“So, I’m just here? Stuck in this limbo place after being stabbed?” Acknowledging the incident that had occurred brings all the memories back and the edges of the hallucination start to waver. Reality begins to set back in and he can hear the voices and the pleas and the ringing again. “Am I dead? Am I lost?”
Cool fingers touch his face and his mother places a gentle kiss on his forehead. “You are never lost, Donnie, when you have them by your side. Your father. Brother. Friends and people who love you very much.”
The field is gone and the metal fence is wavering.
“And you,” Don asks, desperate to cling to her for just a little bit longer.
“I will always be here,” blue eyes blink. “But now you have to go.”
She pushes him gently in the right direction and Margaret Eppes fades into the blackness that returns.
Don wakes with a flutter of dazed eyes to the sight of his father reading. He cannot remember anything from after the knife. But he is filled with the sense of peace, that he is home, and a lingering familiar kiss on his forehead.