One of the nurses came in to change my saline bag. “How are you feeling?”
I took a deep breath and glanced over at the pile of dress on the chair. “My head hurts, but other than that I’m okay. Do you know when the doctor is going to come in?”
“Soon,” she replied with a smile. “Have you remembered what happened yet?”
I shook my head. “No. Is that my dress on the chair?”
The nurse giggled. “Sure is, sweetie. You came in here all dressed up for a wedding. Beautiful dress, but no groom, so I’m assuming it was some kind of costume party or something.”
“Groom,” I replied with a laugh. “No, no groom. I’m too young for that.”
The nurse walked over, looking at me curiously. She put her hand on my forehead and flashed a light in both of my eyes. “Your response is getting so much better. You really hit your head hard. I’ll bring you some water to sip on.”
“Thank you,” I replied.
Reaching up, I carefully patted my head, wincing at the stinging that shot through my brain as I gently tapped a wad of bandages covering some sort of cut on the back. Whatever happened, I really hit my head hard. Everything felt normal, but at the same time, kind of off kilter. There was just something strange about everyone, and I had no idea where my parents were.
Movement caught my attention, and I looked up, finding Gabriel standing in the doorway, talking to a nurse. I smiled, a warmth flooding through my chest. He always made me feel better. As soon as I was with him, my anxiety just melted away.
“Gabriel,” I called out. “Come sit with me. Help me make sense of all of this.”
When he looked over into the room with the nurse, he gave a forced smile. Immediately, I noticed something different about him. He looked…more mature for some reason. He had laugh lines at the corners of his eyes that I had never noticed before. He also seemed to be more muscular than the last time I saw him.
As he walked into the room, nervously looking back over his shoulder, my eyes shifted up and down. He stood next to the bed and gave me a nervous smile. “Hey. How are you feeling?”
I reached for his hand. He took mine, squeezed it, and set it down on the bed. “Well, I feel much better than I did five minutes ago. I’m just trying to figure out why you’re treating your girlfriend like a stranger. And why are you wearing a pilot’s costume?”
Watching Gabriel’s face was kind of alarming. He stared at me like I had lost my mind. He grabbed the stool and pulled it up next to the bed, taking a seat. Reaching out, he took my hand again, and I smiled at him. His eyes shifted nervously around and back to me. “Emma, do you remember what happened? Why you’re here at the hospital?”
“Um, no not really,” I replied. “Apparently, I hit my head really hard. Were we at some kind of costume party? Is that why I was dressed like a bride and you’re wearing that pilot outfit?”
Gabriel sighed and then smiled at me again. “Look, everything’s going to be explained, I promise. I just need to talk to your doctors a little bit more first. Okay?”
I nodded, confused. When he stood up, I pulled on his hand, bringing him back to my bedside again. “Don’t leave me alone for too long, okay?”
He smiled and nodded, heading back out of the room. Everything was so weird, and the longer I sat there, the more I realized there were huge gaps in my memories. Not only was Gabriel acting and looking different, I felt like I hadn’t seen him in forever, which was ridiculous. For some reason, though, I just wanted him back by my side, without pause. I needed him close to me.
Whatever was going on, I knew I’d be okay. I was always okay with Gabriel, which was why we had all our plans already laid out for the future. Nothing could come between us.
Gabriel
“Emma’s head CT came back fine,” the doctor explained. “There’s literally nothing wrong besides the cut on her head. No swelling, no bleeding, nothing.”
“Okay,” I replied. “But obviously something is wrong. She was my girlfriend eight years ago. Today, right before she fell, was the first time I had seen her in eight years. She’s acting like the last eight years never happened.”
The doctor nodded. “We see this sometimes in head trauma victims. There’s no damage to the brain that we can see. I really think she’ll regain her memory; it just might take a while.”
“I’m going to have to explain something to her,” I replied. “Otherwise, the world is going to get weirder and weirder for her.”
The doctor looked over at her room. “Yes, you’ll need to give her some notice that eight years is missing from her memory, but I don’t want her getting too many details. The onslaught of information could cause her to go into shock. We would rather have a time traveling Emma than a catatonic one. She needs to be on bed rest with someone she trusts and in a stress free environment. With those things, her memory should start to jog.”
The doctor squeezed my shoulder and walked away. I didn’t know what to do at that point. I couldn’t just take her home and have no one know where she was or if she was okay. At the same time, calling her father did not sound like a trusting and stress-free environment. With a sigh, I pulled her wallet out and opened the zipper pouch on the back, pulling out her phone. The screen was scuffed from the fall, but it still worked.
There were seven missed texts on the screen. Six of them were from Liv, who I knew to be Emma’s lifelong best friend. Liv always gave me a hard time, but I was absolutely ecstatic to see her name come up on the screen. So, I headed outside and gave her a call.
“Emma,” Liv answered with an exhaustive tone. “I’ve been so worried.”
“Uh, it’s actually not Emma,” I replied.
There was silence for a moment before Liv started talking again. “Who are you and where is Emma? I swear to God, if you are making plans for new lampshades made from her perfect skin, I will hunt you to the ends of the Earth and castrate you while you’re…”
“Whoa, whoa, no, I’m not…I didn’t kidnap her. This is Gabriel. Gabriel Rivers.”
Silence again. This time, I just kept talking. “It’s a long story, but Emma fell and hit her head. I need you to come to Chicago General. I’ll be waiting out front for you.”
“I’m ten minutes away,” Liv replied. “See you in a minute.”
I hung up the phone and spent the next fifteen minutes pacing back and forth. When a cab finally pulled up and Liv got out, I almost hugged her. I was so relieved. Immediately, she started asking questions, so I told her what happened from the moment I noticed her standing there.
“Well, let’s go inside. I’m sure she’ll be so glad to see me.”
I shook my head. “That’s the thing. When she woke up, she had lost the last eight years or more of her memory. She thinks we’re boyfriend and girlfriend. The doctor said she has a temporary form of amnesia, but to prevent shock, we can only tell her the basics, and everything else, she has to remember on her own.”
Liv stared at me for a second like she was trying to figure out if I was messing with her or not. She rubbed her face and groaned. “Why? Why did this happen today of all days? Okay, so what do we do now? I mean, I know what I should do. I should kick you in the scrotum and leave you out here writhing in pain. I won’t, though, considering those balls are currently under the supervision of Emma. Wait…do they know who she is?”