Chapter Text
Large and loud. She could swear she heard someone saying the quintessential Don’t Leave Me when there’s a big event like this. Bernie opens her eyes again, looking down to her hands. Her drab olive colored scrubs long gone, only to be replaced with tight, white skinny jeans, white plimsolls, a white button down shirt blouse. Nothing touched by dirt or grass. Everyone is wearing bright white. She brings her hand to run through her hair once it begins to fall into her face, only to realized it’s curled. No, something was very off.
“Bernie?”
Turning to face the voice, a gentle smile beginning to grow across her face, “Elinor, but I...”
“First off.” The young brunette wraps her arms around the blonde tightly, embracing her, “thank you, so much, for tending to Mum. She...can be a handful, I know. I get it from somewhere.” Elinor grins, “Second, thank you for trying your best to save me. Third, how should I put this...”
Bernie feels a lump growing in her throat, her eyes growing damp, “I’m dead, aren’t I...” It wasn’t a question, it was something she knew to be true.
“The first few...weeks or...whatever, are the hardest.” She tries to reassure the woman, “I mean, Bernie, look around you.”
“I didn’t have an opportunity to say...to say goodbye to my children, to apologize for their-”
“Do you honestly think they care at this point?” Elinor raises an eyebrow, “they have a funeral to plan.” She folds her arms across her chest. “I know how hard this is for you-”
Bernie begins to shake her head slowly, “You have no idea-”
“Except I do.” Elinor sounds knowing. “All of my friends, my boyfriend, my parents...my mother...” She shakes her head, “I know exactly what you’re going through. So many people you wish you could go back and...express your love to them. Just, anything.” She shrugs, “I’ve been here a while. Time...is weird here.”
Bernie swallows, standing a bit straighter. Crying isn’t going to help anything, neither is anger. “I always thought that, when I die, I’d see my Mum...or my brother that died when I was eleven in a car accident.”
“And you might, in due time, but...there’s someone I want you to meet first.” Elinor gently takes Bernie’s hand, guiding her through the vast garden, behind some shrubbery and stone structures. A woman about her own age with playing cards in her hand.
The woman tosses her hand of cards onto the pile in front of her, “You see, Jerome, there’s really no point in continuing, darling.” She smirks, shaking her head slowly, “You’re only going to make yourself look like a fool and...I don’t keep company with fools.”
Bernie furrows her brow, there was something familiar about the woman. “Is she who you want me to meet?”
Humming affirmingly, Elinor continues to hold the blonde’s hand, “Her name is Adrienne McKinnie...she’s my Gran.”
The blonde begins to chuckle, “What? She’s no older than myself or Serena-”
“I’ve already told you that time is weird here.” Elinor shakes her head, “besides, you can’t even see yourself. You look like you’re...I don’t know...in your mid-thirties?” She offers a grin, “I don’t know how it all works. Some people are kids who didn’t die as kids, octogenarians who look like teens, or toddlers who look like adults. It’s weird, but...it all works. Helps communication and...whatever.”
“Elinor, my dear girl.” Adrienne beckons her granddaughter closer, “Who is your friend?”
“Gran,” Elinor pulls Bernie to the table, “this is Mum’s partner, Bernie Wolfe.”
“Was.” Bernie corrects, following the older woman’s direction to sit in the now vacant seat across from her, “Serena and I...we kind of went our separate ways.”
“But I can tell by that gleam in your eye that you still love her.” Adrienne smirks slightly, “I am amused that my Serena began to dip her toes in...dating people of the same sex. Though, somehow, I’m not surprised. Edward always was a bitch.”
“Gran.” Elinor warns, “still my father.”
“Oh, Ellie, I’m aware.” Adrienne waves her hand, dismissing the girl, “are you going to pull up a chair or...stand the whole time we talk business?”
Bernie notices as Elinor follows Adrienne’s direction from the corner of her eye, “Business?” She holds her hands up motioning to the space around her, glancing around, “we’re dead and in paradise, what business could you possibly have with me?”
“You wanted to say goodbye. You wanted another chance.” Elinor leans over to the woman.
“I don’t see how that would work out if they’re planning funerals.” Bernie reaches up, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.
“Oh, you’re quick and beautiful to boot. I like you.” Adrienne begins to smile, Serena’s smile. “I see what my Serena saw in you.”
“Mrs. McKinnie-
“Oh, we’re all friends now here, Bernie. Or, at least, we will be.” Nodding, the older woman leans back in her chair, her hands remaining clasped in her lap, “My daughter, as I’m sure you’re aware, has been having difficulties limiting her alcohol consumption. Soon enough, she’s going to drink a bit too much...and show up here.”
Ellie shakes her head a little, “Or, at least, she’ll be dead.”
“Destined to an indeterminate amount of time in limbo while the powers that be argue over her soul.” Adrienne shakes her head, “I don’t understand it and I certainly don’t make the decisions about who comes and goes, but I am privy to information.”
Bernie raises her eyebrows, “I still don’t understand why-”
“I’ve phoned in a few favors, as they say.” Adrienne smirks, “Which, trust me, was not an easy thing to do for me...with my pride and all. Frowned upon here, I’m aware, but it does exist. Seems silly to pretend it doesn’t.” The woman speaks with her hands a bit, “You see, Bernie, you’re so new here...that your body is hardly even cold yet. Your...physical body.”
“Makes me feel so much better.” Bernie replies sarcastically.
“Hopefully.” Elinor makes a face, “Weird time thing and all. I mean, fingers crossed you aren’t buried.”
“If she is, we’ll take care of it, but I’m sending you back. One last mission, Major Wolfe” Adrienne chuckles, amusing herself, and letting slip that she knows more than just a simple introduction from her granddaughter, “I’ll inform you of the terms once you arrive. Things such as who can see what and when, all of that. It’s a bit complicated, but...you seem like a clever girl. I’m certain you’ll figure it out in no time.”
Bernie swallows, of course she’d protect Serena as best she can. Even if that means doing so from beyond the grave, “and what do I do to get the ball rolling?”
“Just...close your eyes, dear girl.”