Harper continued to look at him with a mixture of fear and disbelief. She knew exactly who was standing before her.

"Okay, you crazy bitch," Colby began, trying to remain calm. "I know this is totally insane and hard to grasp. You must be really pissed off. But we – Taylor and I – we didn't mean to harm you, seriously. I just wanted my stuff back."

Harper blinked in confusion, her breath shallow beneath the mask. She tried to say something, but only a muffled noise came out.

"Oh, great, she can't even speak properly, fantastic," Colby muttered, running his hand through his hair again. "Listen, Taylor will be back soon. Can you try not to freak out in the meantime? Please?"

Harper didn't seem to fully understand him, but her eyes narrowed as she tried to focus on his words. Colby sighed and leaned back, burying his head in his hands. How was he supposed to explain this? And what was going to happen now? This chick would never let go now that she can see him.

Suddenly, the door opened, and Taylor entered with a tray full of food. She froze when she saw that Harper was awake and staring at Colby. But the ghost didn't give her any time to ask questions.

"She can see me, Taylor," Colby said quickly and tonelessly, without lifting his gaze. "The fucking fart sniffer can see me."

Taylor carefully placed the tray on the table, processing what her ghost had just said. "How is that even possible?" she asked cautiously. She didn't show it, but she was internally on the verge of freaking out. Then she looked at Harper, who was still staring at Colby. "Okay, um. Harper, I'll call the doctor. I don't know why you're looking in that direction, but there's nothing there," she lied. Was that too obvious?

"Seriously? That's your plan now?"

Taylor pressed the button for the doctor and gathered her things. Meanwhile, Harper still hadn't taken her eyes off Colby. It didn't take long for a nurse to enter the room.

"She's awake," Taylor quickly explained. "But she seems a bit out of it. I'd better go." And with that, she left the room, Colby quickly following her, causing Harper to start groaning in desperation again, but Taylor didn't pay attention to that. "I'll visit you again soon, don't worry," she lied once more.

As soon as Taylor closed her apartment door behind her and Colby, she slumped to the floor and finally managed to breathe a little.

"How," she began.

Colby lay flat on the floor, staring traumatized at the ceiling. "No idea. She opened her eyes and checked me out."

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"Does that have something to do with her heart attack? It's often depicted in shows. If someone had some kind of near-death experience, they can see ghosts."

"Have you ever had something like that? Is that why you can see me?" the ghost asked, concerned, turning on his side to look at Taylor.

"Not that I know of. What do we do now with Harper?"

"How about this: We never see that sick bitch again?" he asked hopefully.

"What if she reports me? Theft? And you've seen her apartment. Today she got proof that you're still wandering this earth; she'll never leave us alone."

"Possible, but she doesn't know where we live."

"I have to go back to work tomorrow. I'd like to, but I can't hide in my apartment anymore without getting fired. What if she shows up there?"

"You never told me exactly what you do for work."

Taylor sighed. "Doesn't matter right now. Anyway, I'm scared shitless."

Colby sat up and scooted over on his bottom to Taylor, now sitting next to her on the floor. "Are you kidding, girl? You met up with a total stranger. Then you saved her fucking life. And then you got yourself some food in a hospital. All. By. Yourself. You've exceeded yourself several times today. I'm proud of you, Living Girl."

Taylor smiled slightly. "Thank you, that means a lot." She retrieved the bracelet and the Polaroid from her jacket pocket. "And these two things seem to belong to you. May I?" He extended his arm, and she placed the bracelet on him.

He smiled too, noticing how close he and Taylor were now. Being Colby fucking Vance, he promptly made the first move, gently placing his hand on her cheek and kissing her on the lips.

For Taylor, this came as a real surprise, but equally surprising was that she didn't resist it at all. On the contrary, it was actually quite lovely. Like magic. Suddenly, she felt warm and secure. Just like on the Ferris wheel.

Eventually, Colby withdrew his head and grinned at her. This time, it wasn't a warm smile; it was his typical Colby grin. "Knew you'd come around eventually," he winked. "That was your reward for your brave deeds today."

Taylor took her hand, brushed it across Colby's face, and then flicked his nose. "I've told you before. Don't get too full of yourself about that." Now she grinned too, and both knew that there was absolutely something to be proud of.

"See, everything's fine. And even if that bitch wants to press charges against you, so what? Then I'll just hop into the heads of every cop in Proxley, and they'll all forget about it. Don't worry."

Taylor had an idea. "Why don't you just do that to Harper?"

Colby crossed his arms. "Honestly, she thinks so much about me, I'm kinda afraid of accidentally erasing something in her brain that's even remotely related to me. In the end, I might delete too much, and suddenly her whole brain is just mush."

"A valid point," Taylor said in a playful high-pitched voice.

"Yeah? Is it, Tay? A valid point?" Colby laughed.

"Tay?" She raised an eyebrow. Even Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson would be jealous.

"Yeah, you like that? Or maybe Tay-Tay?" Of course, he winked again.

"What happened to Living Girl?"

"Who says I can't have multiple nicknames for my girl?"

"Your girl? You're getting bolder and bolder. We need to talk about how you talk to women correctly. At least with me. I like the direction we're going in, but we need to talk about that, Col-Col."

Colby chuckled. "You just seriously called me Col-Col?"

Now Taylor crossed her arms triumphantly. "Hey, you call me your girl, I call you Col-Col. Deal with it."

"U know what? For my girl," he winked again, "I'll even accept awful names like Col-Col." Now he was the one grinning triumphantly.

"Fine," came from a smiling Taylor.

"And now that that's settled." Colby looked at the Polaroid, still in Taylor's hand. "Who's this little fucker who obviously sneaked onto my team photo?"