The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments

Vlahos heeds Steve’s advice and goes to therapy, where she reveals more than she anticipated in the first session. She discusses her parents’ contentious marriage and how it has influenced her own relationship with Chris. Vlahos feels uncomfortable; the reason she came to therapy was to discuss her patients, but she now must reflect on her childhood and habits. When Vlahos confesses that she feels responsible for Lisa’s death because she didn’t stay to stop her, her therapist asks, “You think you have that power?” (162). Vlahos realizes that even if she had stayed, checked in more, and done everything “right,” Lisa still might have killed herself. Vlahos feels a bit better after this conversation.

As Vlahos’s employer adds more and more to her plate, Chris suggests that she ask her friend Hannah, one of the only people who supported her through her pregnancy, to be a bridesmaid in their wedding. Vlahos shrugs it off; they haven’t spoken recently and Hannah has moved away. As she’s thinking about this, Vlahos fields a call from a young woman who has called the company asking for immediate help. Vlahos soon learns that the patient, Lily, is traveling and that her hospice provider has contracted with theirs in case of an emergency.

Vlahos finds Lily with her friend, Allison; they were planning on going to the beach, but Allison now can’t wake Lily from her nap. Though Vlahos knows little about Lily’s medical situation beyond the fact that she clearly has cancer, it quickly becomes clear that Lily is going to die—out of nowhere, according to Allison’s description of their day. Allison runs out the door to get a bowl of sand so that Lily can make it to the beach; she also opens the windows to let in the ocean breeze. Allison kneels at Lily’s feet as if praying, telling Lily that she’s at the beach. Lily sheds a tear in acknowledgment and then passes. This act of love between friends prompts Vlahos to immediately text Hannah to ask her to be a bridesmaid. Hannah says yes and that she will love Vlahos forever. 

Although having the wedding in a year would give Chris and Vlahos ample time to plan their dream event, they both know that Babette will not live that long. They plan instead to have it in three months. Babette chooses “Good Riddance” by Green Day for her dance with Chris, a song whose lyrics ask its listener to accept and enjoy the unpredictability of life.

Vlahos helps care for Babette as her condition declines. She is eventually admitted to the hospice program Vlahos works for, and while Vlahos thinks this is for the best—she would not trust another company with Babette’s care—she is still overwhelmed being on the other side of the experience. Chris wonders whether Babette will see her beloved terrier, Holly, in the afterlife. Babette had struggled with putting Holly down when she grew suddenly and severely ill at the age of 16. Later, when Babette tried to scatter Holly’s ashes in the ocean, the wind blew them backward into the faces of her entire family. They could not help but laugh.

While Babette is in hospice, a hurricane hits their town, forcing Vlahos, Chris, Babette, and Chris’s father to evacuate. The storm does not make landfall where expected, and due to factors that include Chris’s and Vlahos’s unpredictable jobs, oversights in packing medication, and hospital closures, Babette ends up dying in a hospital far from home. Had Vlahos’s coworker not advocated for them, the hospital would have let her die publicly in the hospital hallway. In the end, despite the fact that Babette’s entire family gets to say goodbye, Vlahos feels like she failed her family.

Vlahos to stand up to her boss, Travis, when he texts her about missing work as she shops for caskets for Babette. Chris adopts a bunch of plants from Babette’s funeral. Steve sends Vlahos a beautiful email that mourns Babette, honors her importance, and welcomes Vlahos back to work. Vlahos senses Babette’s presence in various forms, like a sunbeam in her car and a whisper to take on a unique new patient. The patient, Albert, is unhoused and apparently lacks even Medicaid. Vlahos recalls her struggle to afford prenatal care after getting pregnant; her father canceled her insurance after learning of her pregnancy, and when she shows up at the gynecologist with Medicaid, the receptionist openly stated that poor people should not be allowed to have children.

Vlahos is determined to make Albert feel cared for despite his circumstances, but when she suggests that he moves to a hospice facility, he refuses, implying that he would feel less “safe” around medical professionals. She quickly learns that living with his friends under the bridge make him feel safest. She asks Albert and his friends if they want a turkey from her company for Thanksgiving, and he tells her that people tend only to give them food over the holidays. Vlahos decides to drop off food at other times, but when she mentions this at work, Travis tells her that if corporate finds out she could lose her job. Chris suggests that she do it anyway, but she says she cannot risk losing her health insurance. She wonders whether this is a chance to separate her personal and professional lives, but she cannot stop thinking about it. The next day, Chris leaves groceries in her passenger seat, texting her not to compromise her morals for a job. Deja helps Vlahos break the rules and then reveals that because of health insurance complications with a new promotion, she has to quit.

Later that night, the on-call nurse calls Vlahos to inform her that one of Albert’s friends called and then hung up when he realized she wasn’t Vlahos. Chris warns her that this could lead to burnout, but she trusts her intuition that something is wrong and goes to help Albert. She arrives to find that Albert is happy and seeing his deceased mother; he thinks it is a side effect of the medication and begs Vlahos not to take it away. Vlahos reassures him that she won’t stop his medication and that she doesn’t think he’s hallucinating. She goes home, feeling a reassuring presence by her side. The next morning she forgets her name tag, distracted by a strange gust of wind on her neck. She therefore has to turn her car around and get it, extending her normal commute time. As she continues to work, she drives past the aftermath of a car crash. At work, Vlahos learns that Albert died that morning, and Vlahos goes back to the bridge to find Albert’s friends gathered around him holding hands. As she leaves, Albert’s friend Gil mentions that before he passed, Albert was worried about Vlahos getting into a car crash.