"The night of the accident, none of you survived."

That wasn't possible. None of this was possible.

Jesse's gaze wavered and moved from her face down to her feet. "You told me I looked a good ten years younger than your father, and you were close. He had me talk to you at your mother's funeral, which was your last memory of me. He was hoping I could help you get through this, too. That's why he sent me here. Your mother helped him through his transition, because he was ready for it, but he couldn't help you through yours, so he came to me."

Grace's lips parted, and she took a step back, landing against the wall. "But my dad isn't dead. You're lying about all of this."

"I'm not," Jesse said, cutting her off. "I look younger than your dad because I died on a flight soon after your mother's funeral. There was an ice storm, and the plane lost power. After I died, our friend from college, the one who fell off the bridge, came to me. I realized I was dead because I was so much younger, and in a place I hadn't been to in years, but we all need a person to help us through our transition."

"Some people aren't ready to face their end, while others search it out. Your dad sought it out the day after he buried you. That much loss in one man's life... sometimes there's too much grief to move on from. But he is at peace, and he wanted the same for you.

"You've been stuck in the Middle for too long, Grace. It's meant to be a place for a smooth transition, but you built a new reality here that won't hold forever." Jesse's hand came to cup her cold cheek. "I want better for you than this, and you're ready for better, or it wouldn't be erasing itself."

Grace shook her head, his hand still pressed against her face, then looked around at the empty space. No one could have emptied out her apartment in such a short amount of time. And yet, that was still the most logical explanation in all this. "I don't-"

Then it all came back to her. Grace hadn't known Jesse long, but she had known him. He'd been at her mother's funeral. He'd consoled her when she finally broke. He'd wiped away her tears and told her to let out all the pain she'd been holding in.

And then father received a phone call. The man who'd held her only a week earlier had died, along with forty-eight others.

"I died." The words she thought would cut through her throat and take away her final breaths weren't as painful to say as Grace expected.

The memories of waking up in the hospital hadn't been real. Thea's parents hadn't come over to empty the apartment, or if they had, it wasn't the apartment she'd been in all these months.

"Yes," Jesse confirmed. "I wish you hadn't. You should have lived a long and happy life, Grace. But that isn't always in the cards, and you were dealt a shit hand you didn't deserve. Like your mother having to leave her daughter and husband, sometimes death comes before our time. Or, like your father, sometimes we seek death out."

Her father was dead. Losing her had been more than he could handle, and he'd taken his own life. In all the times he'd come to her since the accident, it was all because he was trying to be with his family again. He wanted her back, and she was stuck in a hell of her own making.

"You called this the Middle."

Jesse stepped away from her and gave her a short nod. "It's where we all go to transition. It's meant to represent the safest time in your life, to make you feel a bit more comfortable as you move from life to the Infinite. Usually, it's a childhood bedroom or an event from your past that made you feel truly happy. In your case, it reflected the life you led right before the accident.

"The Middle gives us whatever we need to process and allows us the time and people to do so. Your father was the one meant to help you, but he wasn't able to help you process your death, since he'd been in your life until the very end.

"You weren't ready, and everyone saw that. You were able to absorb your friends' deaths, but not your own. So they decided to bring in the psychologist to help guide you to the truth. Someone who had a small part in your life, but wouldn't overwhelm you. No one can force someone to deal with that truth until they're ready to face it. But you're ready to face it now.

"You can have your family back, Grace," he told her, returning to her to place his hands on her shoulders. "Your mother and father are together again, and want you to be with them. Thea, Morgan, Josie, they miss you. This place isn't meant to be long term. It's just a stepping stone."

"To the Infinite," Grace responded, using the word he'd used before. "So, Heaven?"

Jesse did a single shoulder shrug. "Some call it that, but it isn't so black and white, and isn't what we grew up believing it was. The Infinite is so much like what our lives were before, only with the still living missing from it, and without all the drama. Those who have done truly evil things aren't allowed. That much is true, but what's considered wrong or right by the standards of the Bible isn't the same as what's right or wrong to be allowed into the Infinite.

"It doesn't matter if you're gay, have told some lies, partake in sexual desires before marriage, have done bad things in your past, or chose to end your life on your own terms. What matters is if you have a good heart. And you have a beautiful heart, Grace.

"You've let me see it these last few weeks, and allowed me inside of it. I'm forever grateful for that. I thought being the one to show you your mortal life was over would be the hardest thing I'd ever had to do, but my time here with you... there were times I'd even forget where we truly were."

Grace ran her fingers through her blonde hair as she turned away from him. "But that time is over, isn't it?" She guessed.

She'd never fallen in love while she was alive. A few crushes here and there, a few boyfriends under her belt, but never actual love. As it turned out, she had to die to find something that beautiful, and now the place where she'd fallen in love would be stripped away.

"It is," Jesse confirmed. "That kiss last night meant something to me, Grace. I came here for a single reason, then prolonged it because I didn't want it to end. The Infinite is so close to perfect, but there was always something missing for me there, until your dad came to me and sent me here.

"I would love nothing more than to finish guiding you to where you're meant to go, then remain by your side. Take you out on a date, get to know your friends, allow your father to give me a hard time... all of it."

"There's dating in the Infinite?"

Jesse laughed at that, his smile so big, dimples formed on his freshly shaven face. "Like I said, it isn't so different from mortal life. The only key differences is that it lacks pain and anger, and we all shift into the selves we were at the happiest times of our lives.

"My happiest times were when I was in college, back when everyone was alive and mostly carefree. I'm older here because I'm the age I was in your last memory of me. Once we transition to the Infinite, I'll return to that age physically. Your happiest times were with your friends, or you wouldn't have ended up in the apartment you shared with Thea. That means you and I will be roughly the same age."

Grace honestly hadn't minded the age difference between them, but she'd seen photos of him in his youth, and he was just as beautiful as as he was now. "And my dad can't be angry at you for falling for his daughter if there's no anger allowed."

"That's true," Jesse answered with a nod, his smile growing. "So, how about it, Grace? Would you do me the honor of going out on a date with me?"

What should have been a traumatizing event, instead, seemed full of possibilities. Grace supposed that's the way it was meant to be this whole time. She just hadn't allowed the truth within her heart.

She'd died over six months ago, and now she'd finally come to accept it. It was a peaceful feeling, and one that was consuming her more and more with every second that passed. "What do I have to do?"

His smile faded a bit, knowing they'd reached the end of the first part of their journey together. But that's all it was; a first step. "Just open the front door, and I'll be waiting for you on the other side."

Turning her head, she looked at the front door to her apartment, where only twenty minutes ago, it'd led her to the hallway. After she gave a final look around the apartment, Grace realized it was only a place, and not even a real one, apparently. What made this apartment important to her was the laughter that had died off long ago, the smell of smoke when Thea burned dinner, and her best friend's smile. None of that remained after their death. There was no reason to stay here, and every reason to leave.

It took Grace an eternity to reach the door, despite it being only a few feet away. And after one last glance at Jesse, she turned the handle. 

Author's Final Notes:

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