AS UNCONSCIOUSNESS TAKES ME, I am suddenly somewhere else entirely.

Instead of being in our front room, I am in some kind of marble-lined lobby of an apartment building. Instead of Nelly sitting next to me, holding my hand, there is now a tall man dressed in a sharp, black uniform with a badge I don't recognise. Instead of being night time, I can see the sunlight streaming in through the glass windows in front of me. I can hear someone on the phone, and I'm praying he is on the phone to an ambulance because the amount of blood is unsettling, even after my monster nose bleed.

It all feels very odd, and as I look down, I realise my hands are different. They're larger, much larger, and more masculine than mine. I study myself further, realising I'm wearing different clothes. No longer in Captain America pyjamas, I'm now in a pair of blue chino shorts and white shirt, which are now both spattered with blood.

I try to shake my head, to try to snap myself out of it, but when they don't change or make things any clearer, I focus on something else. Something closer. I focus on a scar on the leg of whoever the person is, and my whole body goes cold. It's a scar I would recognise anywhere, because I had been there when it happened.

I'm not looking at myself.

I'm looking at Archie.

It's Archie who is hurting, his body that's breaking, and all I can do is watch as the scene unfolds in front of my eyes, through his eyes.

I shake my head. It's too freaky to even try to comprehend.

I touch my arm - Archie's arm - and I feel the sensation of his skin beneath my own fingers. I can smell the metallic smell of the blood gushing from his nose, as well as taste it, just as I had with my own nosebleed. I can smell the blood on our hans, and the cleaning agent on the squeaky floor. I can see, hear, smell, touch and taste everything going on in Archie's surroundings, and it only solidifies my theory from before.

I didn't want to believe it last time, but now? I mean, what I was seeing is evidence enough, although how I was going to be able to explain this to anyone? I had no idea.

I try to call out to him, but I can't. I want to tell him to hang on, to hold on for me, to keep fighting. I want to tell him that I'm with him, that I'll always be with him... but as my vision goes black again, I'm pulled away from him before I get the chance to.

***

"TESSA?" I HEAR A voice in the darkness, calling out to me.

I mumble something and I hear a sigh of relief.

"Tess, can you hear us?" A different voice says quietly next to my ear. "Tess, honey?"

It's Nelly. I move my arm but I groan when something sharp pulls at the crook of my elbow.

"Jesus Christ!" She hugs me harder after I open my eyes and I wish I hadn't. I look an absolute state. "You gave us all a fucking fright!"

I roll my head to the side, taking in my surroundings. I notice I have a large gauze pack pressed up against my nose, and everything feels drained and heavy. I can't see much past the gauze, but from what I can see, my clothes are completely ruined and covered in blood.

"What... happened?" I ask feebly. I don't even bother fighting the paramedic next to me, despite the large needle she's holding.

Nelly grips my hand, distracting me from it. "Thank god you're okay. We have no idea what happened... One minute you were with us and the next it was like you were possessed!"

"Poss-" I frown and look around, realising I seem to be in the back of an ambulance. "Where..." I close my eyes as nausea washes over me again.

"We're just headed to the hospital," Nelly tells me. "Tess, you scared me. Scared us both. Fuck, it was terrifying."

"I'm... sorry..."

The sight of all that blood on Archie's shirt flashes in front of my eyes, making my body go cold all over again. I want to call Millie, to ask to check on him like I did last time, but I can't seem to find the strength to do anything other than close my eyes.

"I'm... tired..." I say, my voice sounding like it's in a fishbowl, sounding far off and distant. I close my eyes, trying to bring back those images I had of Archie, wanting to see if he's being taken care of, like I have been.

His pain was my pain, it is my pain, and I can still feel it pulsing through me, making my insides squirm.

The ambulance jostles as a close my eyes again, enjoying the cool fluid coming in through my arm, taking me back to oblivion. And when I close my eyes this time, all I see is black.

***

WHEN I COME TO this time, I'm able to open my eyes straight away. The lights are dim, and I can hear some beeping next to my head, as well as low, hushed whispering voices.

The gauze pack is still on my nose, probably just for precaution, but now I seem to be attached to a machine to my left. Looking down past all the wires, I see my pyjamas, still blood-soaked and ruined.

I groan at the thought of losing yet another item of clothing to these nosebleeds when someone stirs to my right.

"Tess?"

"Jamie?" My chest explodes with relief and I cannot believe how much of a sight for sore eyes he is. Tears spring to my eyes, not that he can see them, before he comes to join me on the bed, wrapping me in his arms.

"Hey baby," he says, leaning forward to kiss my forehead. I put my hand on his arm, gripping tight, tethering myself to him. "It's okay baby, I'm here."

He kisses my forehead again and I watch as tear escapes down his cheek. As he sits back, he disappears behind the gauze, so I let one of his hands go to try and pull it off, so I can see him properly, but another pair of hands stops me.

I look to my right and this time I see Nelly. She smiles at me so I drop my hands from the gauze and take one each of their hands instead.

"What happened?" I ask, my voice sounding a lot more steady than the last time I asked. "My head feels all fuzzy." It felt like a haze, like it was all some kind of really bad dream.

I try to sit up, but they each try to stop me. When I insist I'm fine, they fluff up my pillow so I could at least sit up straight. I look at Nelly for a second and she looks exhausted, but I can see the relief in her eyes at seeing me awake and talking.

"It all happened so fast, Tess." Nelly speaks first. "One minute you were talking about your last shift at Black Flag and the next you were bleeding out your nose and spewing all over the floor."

I know the colour drains from my face, and a cold feeling washes over me. She's not saying everything that happened, I can tell.

"You weren't making much sense."

"What do you mean?" I ask with a frown. Concern is etched all over Jamie's face, and I really hope I wasn't talking out loud whilst trapped in Archie's body... not whilst Jamie was around.

"You were talking," she strokes my hand gently. "But you were talking gibberish. It was like you'd had a stroke or something. Thank God it wasn't that..."

I try not to show my relief, wondering how my life had become so complicated.

I look down at Jamie, who is gingerly holding my hand around the saline drip, and I start to feel colour flooding back into my cheeks as he winks at me, smiling my favourite dimpled grin. Those dimples always help.

"We were so worried. That's the worst one you've had." She stands and stretches, her back clicking, before retaking my hand. "You've been out for hours... but I'll go and tell the nurse you're awake."

Jamie shakes his head. "It's okay, I'll go. I need to have a pee... now that I know you're okay," he says before standing and kissing my head. I can't help but laugh as he walks away from us.

As soon as his footsteps disappear, I turn my head to Nelly. She was hiding something, and from the look in her eyes, it's bad.

"Nels, tell me the truth. What happened? How bad is it?"

She looks nervously towards the curtain, and that's when I know she hadn't been telling the whole truth a minute ago. It was something bad enough she didn't want Jamie to hear.

"Tess..." She worriedly looks around her as she runs a hand over her hair. "I don't even know how to describe this."

Oh God.

"Tess, you were talking as if you were someone else." She finally looks at me. "And then when you were finally... you... again," she slows, making a strange face, "you kept calling for Archie. You kept asking if he was okay, saying 'I'm here' and 'get up', amongst other... things."

"Other things?" I cup my mouth.

"Tess, you said you loved him." She finally looks at me, but I don't see any form of judgment in her eyes, which proves how good of a friend she really is.

"Oh my God..."

"Will has so many questions," she half laughs.

"Jamie didn't hear, did he?" I ask and she shakes her head.

"He didn't, and Will won't say anything either, but Tess, you need to tell Jamie. He needs to hear it from you. If he finds out he's going to go apeshit."

"I know," I sigh. I already know he'll blow his top. Anything involving Archie means he sees red. "Oh God. Why is this happening to me? Why does this always happen?"

"Always?" She asks with a frown. "Tess, has this happened before?" I look between the gap in the curtain before I nod my head. "Oh my god, when?"

I shush her slightly as her voice travels. "Not for a couple of years. Do you remember when I fainted in December? Just before the end of term?" She nods. "Well, it happened then. It wasn't the same, I just heard him, but I heard him plain as day, Nel." I shake my head. "I don't even know how to explain it, but it's like we're-"

"Connected."

My eyebrows shoot up in surprise as she says it, but it's why I know she's being calmer than I had expected her to be. She understands.

"Nel, I swear I'm telling the truth. I'm not crazy."

She doesn't say anything for a moment, but when her eyes soften and she smiles, my stomach settles a bit more. "Tess, you are crazy," she giggles. "And it really does only happen to you."

Maybe I was crazy, maybe I wasn't, but all my life I've been connected to Archie, so I knew something wasn't right today. Something had happened to him and I needed to know he was okay. I needed to know so badly I didn't care who knew. I just wanted him to be okay.

"Do you believe me? That I saw him?" I ask after we've both been quiet for a few minutes.

She sighs. "I do. I do believe you, but you have to tell Jamie, because if it's going to keep happening..." She trails off but I know where she's going with it.

I squeeze her hand. "I will. But I won't tell him now... I should probably tell him when I look a little bit less like an extra in Saw." She laughs at that, which settles the tension a bit, but I add, "I just don't want to cause a scene here, because there will be one."

Jamie's imminent explosion could at least be contained at home. In here it will attract attention, and I know he'll be a little calmer when it's just us two. At least I hope he will.

Just as I'm thinking about it, I look through the curtain to see Jamie with a doctor, the same one that treated me last time. He has a beard now, but from his smile and kind eyes, it seems he recognises me, even with a huge gauze pack attached to my nose. I seem to remember he was called Harry, but I can't quite remember.

"Mystery Girl's back again," he says, his voice as lighthearted as I remembered it, making me smile.

"It's not funny," Jamie says, crossing his arms as a dark veil shadows over his eyes at his jokey remark.

Harry collects himself as I try to glare unsuccessfully at Jamie. "I see you've had a rather large nosebleed," he says. He looks at my chart before adding, "and it isn't the first one either."

"Yeah, I look like I've come off the set of The Exorcist," I joke, trying to keep the mood light.

"You mean Saw?" Nelly jokes.

Harry laughs but stops when Jamie proceeds to glare at him again. He's about to say something, probably something rude, but Nelly stops him. "Jamie, it's fine." She raises her eyebrows at him, her stern face, and he seems to calm slightly before sitting down in the chair next to the bed.

"So what were you doing today when this happened?" He asks, walking closer to me to check my pulse. "I gather the last one was caused by stress?"

I stretch my neck before answering. "Literally nothing. We were on the sofa complaining how hot it was when it came out of nowhere. You can't get any less stressed than sitting on a sofa."

He chuckles but then frowns. "Could be something underlying though," he tells me and he has no idea how true that statement is, especially for me.

"Have we taken any bloods?" He asks, stepping back and writing something on my chart.

"You mean besides this?" I ask, gesturing to my blood-stained pyjamas. He chuckles on cue before I answer properly. "Nope, they haven't."

"Okay. I'm fairly certain it is just a bad nosebleed, a very bad one, but it'll be good to rule anything else out. Now that you're awake, do you mind if we take some now?"

I shrug, nodding warily as I look at Jamie. Last time he had to kiss me to distract me from the needle. This time he can't as I have a massive gauze pack on my face.

"Once we get those results we can see about starting the process of getting you home."

He nods with a smile and leaves us but I can see him pulling lots of vials out of a cupboard at the nurse's station, so he'll be back in a moment.

"Nel, you can go home if you want?" Jamie suggests. "I've got it from here."

She shakes her head. "No, I can stay. I'm worried about her," she says, gesturing to me with her head.

"Guys, I can hear you you know," I laugh.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't recognise you with the gauze on your face!" She giggles as I give her the finger, and we even get a chuckle from Jamie before his face goes serious again.

"So how many times has this happened?" He asks me.

I look at Nelly and she nods encouragingly. "Five," I mumble.

His eyes widen. "Five?!"

"But this is the worst it's ever been," I say quickly, feeling like I have to defend myself. "The rest have just been minor nosebleeds... I haven't been sick or passed out."

The first one I had, I'd been in a meeting with dissertation supervisor at the time. I had to hold a tissue to my nose for the entire thing but was at least able to have the meeting. The second, third and fourth times I had been in lectures. The first time that happened I freaked Glen out massively. I didn't have any tissues, so I just used my sleeve. When it wouldn't stop, I said I had to leave and that cheered him up a bit, as he was really hungover. The fifth one was today, and I hope to God that I didn't get another one like it.

"Still, Tess. Five? Why didn't you tell me?"

I shrug. "Because."

"Tess, that isn't an excuse."

"No it's not, but I didn't tell you because it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. I've had nosebleeds before this year - I had them all the time as a kid - and it's never been a cause for worry. Plus, as soon as something like this happens, you guys all treat me like I'm made of glass," I say, a bit more harsh than I'd meant it.

Jamie and Nelly look at each other but I continue.

"I admit, today was a cause for worry... But I don't know what made this one different, and I feel absolutely fine now. And I'll feel even more fine when I get this massive thing off my face," I add, gesturing to the gauze pack.

And that was the truth. I could feel the warmth coming back into my cheeks, and I knew my nose wasn't bleeding anymore. All the pack was doing was being annoying, so when Harry comes back, I ask him to take it off.

"Oh yeah. Sure, hang on, let me grab another smaller pack as well." He leaves again but comes back a minute later before starting work on getting it off.

I breathe a sigh of relief as it comes off. "Ahhh that feels so much better," I sigh as he wipes around my nose.

"And it looks like you've stopped bleeding, so no need to cauterise or anything drastic like that," he says.

"Cauterise?" I look sideways worriedly at Nelly.

"It's where they burn the end of the blood vessel," Nelly explains.

After wiping my face clean, Harry sits back and starts sorting the blood test kit.

"Right, sharp scratch." He leans closer to me and I look away, towards Jamie, as I feel the needle go in.

He takes about seven tubes, as if I hadn't lost enough, but I breathe a sigh of relief when he finishes and puts a ball of cotton wool in my elbow.

"Results will take an hour or so, okay. Can I get you guys anything to eat?" We all shake our heads, and he nods. "I'll let you know when you're okay to go home, so just sit tight for the moment."

When he leaves Nelly smiles. "How good does it feel to get that thing off," she says, pointing to my nose.

"So good. I can actually see you guys now, which is lovely." I grin. "And I'm sorry I gave you and Will a fright."

"Oh," she swats the air. "Don't worry about that, just get yourself home as soon as possible, okay." I nod as she stands. "I'll be back in a sec."

I smile before she leaves me alone with Jamie, who comes and sits with me on the bed, wrapping me in his arms.

"You okay?" He asks, tucking my hair behind my ear.

I nod and sigh, tipping my head into his hand.

"I will be. I just want to get home and shower."

He chuckles. "You know, you did kind of look like you'd just been exorcised."

"Oh cheers," I say, swatting at him. "I feel like it to be honest. My head hurts."

"I bet it does. Are you sure everything is okay otherwise?"

"I'm fine," I tell him with a nod. "It's probably the heat. It's the hottest it's ever been today."

Before I can get my next sentence in, I'm interrupted by a very loud boom of thunder, making me jump.

"Oh my god," I laugh.

Jamie gets up and pulls back the curtain, making me realise I'd been next to a window this whole time. The sky is dark, but I can hear the rain against the window and I breathe a sigh of relief.

"The heat's finally breaking," I mumble, yawning.

"Yup. Nothing better than a rainstorm," he smiles. But his smile disappears before he continues. "Are you going to tell your dad?" Jamie asks. "He should probably know."

"I don't want to worry him."

I know what was wrong, and I knew what I had to do. If I told Dad I knew he would just worry, especially with me being so far away.

Jamie gets back into bed and I yawn as we resume our previous position.

"I just want to go to bed to be honest. Today has been so exhausting."

"Well, you sleep. You need it. I'm not going anywhere." His lips touch my forehead as my eyes close, not needing to be asked twice.

"Jamie?" I mumble quietly.

"Yeah?" His voice is quiet too.

I open my eyes and move my head to look up and into his blue eyes. They are calming, just like a lighthouse to my ship in stormy seas.

"I love you," I tell him.

His smile lifts on his lips as they drop on mine, giving me a soft, tender kiss as he turns slightly, cupping my cheek gently with his hand.

"I'm sorry I'm such a pain," I tell him.

"You're not a pain, baby," he says with a smile. "Besides... I love you too much to let it bother me."

I can't help but smile at that, even though he may feel differently when he knows why I've been acting so strangely. But I don't say anything more now. I promised Nelly I would, but right now I'm too tired for that confrontation. I will tell him, but first, I do need to sleep.

Within seconds my eyes are closed again. I wake briefly when Harry comes back in to give me the all clear, but I'm asleep again in Jamie's arms as he carries me to the car, for the car ride home, and as he carries me up to our bedroom. As we settle in bed, he wraps his arms around me, kissing my neck gently as he holds me.

But as I fall deeper into sleep, I start to feel more uneasy, with questions about Archie filling my head.