Brian slowly opened his eyes, taking a deep breath of the fresh morning air coming in through the windows. He’d come straight home from the beach and thrown himself into bed, trying to get rid of his delusions. He glanced over and saw Leighanne sleeping peacefully and decided to give her a morning off from mommy duty and check on Baylee before she got up.

He yawned as he hoisted himself from the bed, making his way over to the bathroom. He washed his face, trying to rid himself of the sleeplessness that had plagued him all night. Brian couldn’t believe the crazy things he’d dreamt up the night before. It had seemed so real but his better judgment told him that he was imagining having seen Nick on that beach. It wouldn’t have been the first time he’d dreamt about Nick but this one had been the most vivid.

Eyes closed he reached around for a towel, furrowing his brows when suddenly one was pressed into his hands.

“I thought you’d never get up.”

Brian’s eyes shot open and he flew backwards, his back slamming into the shower door, cracking it, “You...you…that was a dream!”

“Do we really need to go over this again?” Nick asked with a roll of his baby blues, “I told you I would be here in the morning.”

“Yeah I know, but that never happened. I was asleep, I was dreaming, you’re not real because ghosts don’t exist. It didn’t happen.”

“Brian, it happened. I’m really here, you’re really awake and your shower is now really broken. You won’t be able to magically wake up and get out of that one either.”

“How did you…grab that towel?” Brian randomly asked, looking down at the towel that was still clutched tightly in his hands. 

Nick shrugged, “I wanted to grab it so I reached out and grabbed it; just like you were doing.”

Brian’s heart was beating as fast as a speeding bullet as he watched Nick move around the bathroom. He still could not believe that any of this was happening. His brain kept telling him that it wasn’t physically possible for Nick to have come back from the dead. Ghost or not he was back from the dead and that just did not seem normal, “Can you…touch me?” he asked.

Nick gave Brian a disturbed look, wondering what kind of things he was implying with his question, “Do what now?”

Brian sighed, not at all shocked that even as a ghost, Nick could take a simple question and turn it all around so it was dirty and perverse, “Touch me, like my arm or something…just so I know you’re real?”

Nick still looked sceptical but finally he walked over to Brian and poked him square in the chest, enough to move him back so there would be no disputing that Nick had touched him, “Now do you believe me?”

Brian nodded and rubbed the spot on his chest that still stung from Nick’s finger, “I do believe you now. I’m sorry I doubted you.”

“It’s okay,” Nick shrugged and hopped up onto the vanity to take a seat, “You still owe me something else though.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, it’s morning, and I’m here,” Nick reminded his friend.

“Oh!” Brian’s eyes widened as he was hit with a realization, “You’re absolutely right, I’m sorry I forgot about things I promised you during my crazy delusion on the beach. I take it back. I don’t hate you.”

“Thank you,” Nick grinned, “So what do we do now?”

“Why are you asking me? Shouldn’t you be the one with the answers?”

Nick sighed and looked around the bathroom for some kind of sign. A sign that he had a feeling he’d never get, “I really wish I had some answers, dude. Like I said last night, I don’t know why I’m here, I just found myself on that beach and was so excited to see you…I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing here. To be honest, I don’t want to be stuck like this forever. I left a lot of good looking dead women to come hang out with you.”

“I imagine this all must be really confusing for you too…” Brian’s thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock on the door.

“Brian?” Leighanne asked gently, “Are you okay? Who are you talking to?” 

“Yeah,” he answered, opening the door, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I just heard you talking to someone…” she trailed off, putting the dog that was struggling in her arms gently on the floor. 

The small Chihuahua immediately ran into the bathroom and started growling and barking viciously at the bathroom vanity, much to Brian’s amusement.

“That’s funny, dogs bark at you!” he laughed, looking at Nick who had pulled his feet up onto the counter and far away from the dog.

“Dogs bark at me?” Leighanne asked, completely confused, “The dog is barking at the sink, not at me.”

Brian looked at Leighanne with a questioning gaze, then looked back to Nick, “She can’t…you can’t…see him?”

“See what?” Leighanne asked wearily, wondering what Brian was going on about now.

“Him,” Brian answered simply, pointing in Nick’s direction.

“I can see the dog just fine Brian and I don’t get why he’s barking his head off. Oh my goodness, the shower door is broken! What happened to it?”

Brian laughed heartily, running a hand over his hair. He was completely unsure now as to whether or not he was crazy. He had hoped that if someone else could see Nick also then it would validate his insanity, “Well I guess the dog is my only confirmation.”

“Confirmation of what…what is going on with you? Are you alright?” Leighanne’s voice was full of concern and she gazed at her husband as if he had completely lost his mind.

“I’m just great,” Brian smiled, “I’m going to be down in my office for a while, I have some things to take care of,” he explained, hoping that Nick would get the hint and give the dog the slip to follow him. 

***

Brian watched carefully as Nick turned the pages of his scrapbook, carefully reading the details in every article. It was still unreal to him, sitting with his best friend who had been dead for (as of the day previous) over a year. The page turned and Brian heard Nick gasp as he read over the headline blazed across the top of the book.

Pop Star Slain In Brutal Murder

“I can’t believe this is about me,” Nick whispered, running his finger along the page under the words that he read. Brian had kept every article about the murder, the police investigation, the follow up and eventually the admission that leads had dried up and the case was going to the back burner for the time being, “Why are you showing me all of this?”

“I was hoping that maybe if you read about your death you might start to remember some of the details,” Brian admitted, sliding the scrapbook back across the desk towards himself. With a sigh he tossed it in a drawer and snapped the drawer shut, not wanting to have to think about all the details of Nick’s death. It’s not like he would have needed the articles to remind him, he had every gory detail memorized. 

“You tell me,” Nick suggested, “You tell me what happened and then maybe I’ll remember something.”

Brian let out a frustrated grunt, running his hands through his hair roughly, “I don’t know what happened, Nick! I can’t tell you what I don’t know! Everything I know is in those articles.”

“How do we even know that’s why I’m here?” Nick wondered, getting frustrated by how Brian was pushing him to remember things he didn’t think he could. It was like his memories were erased, it wasn’t like he’d just forgotten about what had happened. It was gone. 

“Why else would you be here?” 

“I don’t know!” Nick shrugged, “Maybe I’m here to…be a really cool Halloween party guest?”

“Yes Nick, that must be it,” Brian rolled his eyes, “What a great conversation starter you’ll be when no one can even see you!”

“Not necessarily. Leighanne can’t see me, but who knows; maybe someone else might be able to?”

Brian nodded, “You might be right. We should find out if the guys can see you too.”

“Even if they can’t…” Nick trailed off, sheepishly looking down at his hands, “I’d like to see them,” he confessed, his voice tinged with a loneliness that shook Brian to the core. At least during this past year they’d had each other, but Nick had been on his own, without them, wherever he was. 

“Let’s find out,” Brian said, reaching for the telephone.

“Who you gonna call?” 

Brian chuckled as he dialled a number, glancing up at Nick as the line began to ring, “Ghostbusters!”

“Mean,” Nick pouted, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“You love it,” the older man grinned.

“Yeah, I do, it was a great burn,” Nick finally laughed.

Brian smiled then drew his attention to the phone as he heard a hello on the other side of the line, “AJ! Hi, it’s Brian. What would you say to a home cooked meal? I want to make up for being such an ass yesterday.”

Nick drew his attention elsewhere as Brian spoke on the phone and he reflected back on the articles in the scrapbook. He wanted to remember so badly, but every time he tried to pinpoint a specific time in his mind he would come up blank. After reading what had happened he was sort of glad he’d forgotten. He knew that those kinds of memories would not be the kind he would want to carry with him into the afterlife, so he hadn’t. Finding the person who had hurt, and ultimately killed him seemed to be something Brian was very passionate about so he was determined to help him achieve that. He couldn’t blame him of course, he was sure that if he were in that position he would want to find the ‘bad guy’ as well. He only wished he could be more of a help to Brian and the other guys. There had to be something he had in him that would help, he only needed to find it. 

Nick had been wishing since the moment he’d found himself on the beach that he could go back and get those lost memories, to help him help Brian. He was worried that even in death he would fail his best friend. At the same time he was also worried that Brian would start to ask about what it was like on the ‘other side’ because it was just another thing on the long list of things he couldn’t tell him. 

“Nick?” Brian asked, watching his friend stare into space. 

“Sorry, I was just thinking.”

“What were you thinking about?” Brian wondered, wanting to know everything that could have possibly been going on in Nick’s mind. 

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m confused.”

“You were right to hate me,” Nick sighed, “I was such a screw up when I was alive and then I had to go and get myself killed like you said, and I didn’t even leave so much as a clue. Isn’t that just like me? Someone is trying to end my life and I can’t even leave a breadcrumb to help lead the way.”

“I wasn’t right,” Brian stressed, not wanting Nick to feel guilty, “I just don’t understand it. If someone wanted your money they would have asked for some, if someone wanted to be famous they would have left something behind but there was nothing! The entire crime scene was clean, the police said your body had been moved, that you hadn’t been killed on the beach you were just put there. The only thing the DNA evidence showed was that you’d had sex with Toni the night you'd disappeared. They could tell the DNA was old and there wasn't much of it left, but it still gave a link to her from that night; all of us cleared her though because she was your girlfriend. She was a complete mess; we knew she’d never be able to do that to you. The police figured there was no way she could have done it because she couldn’t have lifted your body and carried it down the beach, so the only suspect in the whole investigation was your girlfriend and it only took the police two days to clear her of everything. Then of course we had hotlines set up to try and find out if anyone had seen anything the night you disappeared but all of the wacko fans calling had the police going all over the state, hell, all over the country on wild goose chases that lead to absolutely nothing. We know as much today as we did a year ago.”

“I want to help you Brian but I don’t know how,” Nick muttered, putting his head in his hands.

“We’ll figure it out Nick,” Brian assured him, “but for now let’s concentrate on finding out if I’m the only lucky one who gets to hang out with Casper. Now I have to tell my wife we’re having guests for dinner. Maybe you should stay in here…I can’t explain the angry dogs all day long.”

“I’ll be as quiet as a church mouse,” Nick assured him, zipping his mouth closed dramatically.

“Normally I would say you’re full of shit but since I’m the only one who can hear you I guess I’ll have to take your word for it,” Brian laughed with a shake of his head. He gave Nick a smile then left him in the office, leaving the big investigation for another day.