Page 91 of Come Back To Me

I pinched my lips shut and saw that Vaughan was just as amused by Daniel’s logic.

“Either way, I think the girls are going to love you, kiddo.”

“Yuck,” he muttered. “Girls are gross. I don’t want them anywhere near me.”

“So you don’t have any friends at school who are girls?” I asked.

His brows scrunched up, and he looked up at the roof of the truck as if he had to think about it really hard. “There’s this one girl, Emma, who likes talking to me. She’s pretty.”

“Do you like her?”

“She’s nice…” Daniel’s answer trailed off, and he was staring out of the window. I guess that was the end of that discussion. Vaughan parked the truck outside the hospital, and when we walked in, we ended up needing to go to different floors.

“I’ll see you later?” he asked.

“I’ll have Maddy give me a ride home if you’re done before I am.”

Vaughan didn’t seem too pleased with that answer, but he accepted it anyway. Daniel hugged me goodbye, and after I’d wished him luck, I watched as he disappeared hand-in-hand with Vaughan down the hallway.

I found Connor in his office with his head bowed as he looked over something on his desk. I rapped my knuckles on the door, and he looked up.

“Hey, Squirt.”

The age gap between Connor and me was fifteen years, making him the oldest, and from what my Dad had told me Connor did a lot to help with me after my Mom died.

“Am I bothering you?”

He stood up and gestured for me to sit in the plush chair on the other side his desk. “Not at all. Everything okay?”

“I’m not sure,” I replied honestly. “But I think you’re the only one who will be honest with me, rather than try to protect me.”

Connor eased back into the seat beside the one I occupied and I decided not to see him as my brother but as the neurologist.

“I had a nightmare last night,” I started, feeling my pulse quicken already. “And I think it was about my accident.”

“Have you remembered anything about that night until now?”

I shook my head. “Last night was the first time.” I inhaled and braced myself. “I want you to tell me what happened that night, Connor, even if you think it will upset me to hear.”

Indecision lined his features, so handsome like our Dad, and I noticed when he flicked the switch from ‘brother’ to ‘doctor’.

“You were at Dad’s house that night when you got into a fight with Aiden and Liam. Dad said you were so upset that you got into Vaughan’s truck and drove away.” So Vaughan was there the night of my accident, just like he’d said, but what I couldn’t quite get was why he was there. “Vaughan took Maddy’s car and followed you. You’d stopped at a red light, but when it turned green, a drunk driver hit the side of the truck at full speed and you were knocked unconscious.” Images from my nightmare flashed in my mind, except it now played out as if I were standing beside the wreck and watching it happen. Some of it was still blank but I saw the truck, I saw myself in the drivers’ seat while they tried to get me out, and I saw Vaughan, running towards his smashed up truck screaming my name. “You sustained head trauma and when they brought you in I expected you to have a few broken bones, but you didn’t. Your head CT showed no fracturing of your skull, but the impact caused your brain to swell, and I decided it was better for you if I put you in a medically induced coma until the swelling no longer posed a threat.” It was a lot of information to take in, but I listened. “When you woke up, I was able to ascertain that you had retrograde amnesia which affects the memories that occur right before the head injury. You had no problem recalling your senior year of high school, but when I asked you about college, you had no clue what I was talking about.”

“And you said I was lucky to be alive?”

Connor showed a glimpse of emotion for the first time since I’d walked in and I wondered how hard it must have been for him the night of my accident, to have been the doctor on call and to have handled my case. “Yes. Anyone else should have, would have, died or at least ended up in a coma permanently.”

“So why did I survive it when no one else would have?”

“Your guess is as good as mine, Squirt.” My brother was back. “You made it, and I think that’s all we cared about.”

“Do you know if I’ll ever get my memory back?”

“Like I’ve said before, you might and you might not. You haven’t had any more panic attacks have you?”

“No. I’ve been writing in a journal which helps.”

“And you haven’t been scared to be in a car?”

I shook my head. “No. I’ve only been behind the wheel once since the accident, but as far as being in a car, I haven’t been scared at all.”

“Those are both good signs, Kenzi. It means your mind is healing itself. As far as the memories go you can still get them all back, or you may not get any back. They may come back in stages or all at once, and something may trigger them, like driving a car again. There’s no definitive answer, unfortunately.”

I expelled a heavy breath and felt somewhat relieved that everything I’d felt over the last few weeks prevenient to my injury wasn’t abnormal or unexpected.

“I know it’s frustrating,” added Connor, “but you’re alive, Kenzi and you’re fine, considering you could have died that night. Whether or not those memories come back aren’t as important as that.”