Chapter 1: Last Moments Before All Hell Breaks Loose

''Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten.'' David Ogden Stiers

Tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. Waiting patiently, though slowly growing impatient. Nobody else on the intersection and yet, he had to wait. Wait for the bright red light to turn a bright green, telling him he was allowed to continue his journey. A journey which would usually take him less than fifteen minutes, right now he'd been on the road for almost twenty. 'Maybe the light is broken, maybe...' he didn't get a chance to finish his thought when the light finally turned green.

''Finally,'' he said to himself while trying to ignore the loud music coming from a high school down the street. He tried not to think about anything other than getting to her house, having dinner with her and her brother. 'Just focus on that, don't listen to the loud music, and don t listen to the sounds coming from that screeching car that's heading your way... Wait? What?'

Derek hadn't even noticed the car until he heard the screeching tires and was blinded by the headlights, just half a second before the navy-blue pick-up truck crashed into the passengerside of his car.

The sight of those bright headlights heading his way was the last thing he remembered before all the darkness. It was the last thing he remembered before the slow beeping woke him up.

Ignoring the pounding in his head, he slowly opened his eyes. Things were a bit blurry, he couldn't quite focus, but he could see a white wall which matched the sheets perfectly. A bunch of other things telling him he was in a hospital room. Everything was the same perfect, bright white, making her dark hair stand out even more.

He could feel the warmth of her hand on top of his as she was sleeping with her head resting on the bed. He slowly took his hand from hers, careful not to wake her up, and started to softly stroke her hair. It was a matter of seconds before she woke up with a startle. And even after that it seemed to take her a few seconds to realize where she was. When she did she reached over and paged a nurse, suddenly wide awake.

''Derek, honey, is you okay?'' He could hear in her voice that she had been crying. Her red eyes didn't do much to cover that up either.
He cleared his throat, ''fine,'' he answered after a few seconds.

He noticed the nurse coming into his room and checking his vitals, but he never took his eyes off of her. He simply couldn't. He felt as if it had been too long since he had last seen her, too long since he had last heard her voice. What had happened? How long had he been here, lying here unconscious?

He remembered leaving work, vaguely. He sat up a little straighter, letting the nurse put another pillow behind his back. He leaned back and took a moment to compose his thoughts. Trying to make more sense of what was going on.
A hospital bed, she had been asleep and had obviously been crying. Something had to be wrong, something had to have happened.

When he looked at her he knew she could see the confusion written all over his face. She sat down next to him on the bed. ''Derek, do you remember what happened?'' He heard her ask in that oh so familiar worried and caring voice.

''I remember leaving work, sort of...'' he answered slowly. ''Do you remember what day that was?'' She asked.
''June 17th,'' he answered.

He immediately noticed the relief on her face. ''Why? What's wrong?'' He asked.
''The doctors were afraid that you might have amnesia,'' she answered and let out a sigh as she wiped away a few strands of hair from her face.

''You look... different,'' he said slowly, taking a moment to take a good look at her. She seemed thinner, and had her hair always been this dark?

He immediately saw the look on her face change as she grabbed one of his hands in both of hers. ''Can you tell me what year it is?'' He heard her ask. He got too distracted by the feeling of cold metal, coming from the two rings pressing against his hand. He looked down and took a look at her left-hand ringfinger. And there it was: the ring he was going to use to propose to her with. What was that already doing there? How did she get her hands on that? And why was there a wedding ring next to it?

He slowly took his hand from hers, ''2005,'' he answered, looking straight into her eyes, waiting for a reaction. He could see tears well up in her eyes again, but holding them back. She swallowed hard and sat down in the chair next to his bed.

''Baby girl, what's wrong?'' Derek asked, starting to get worried.

Penelope took a deep breath, taking a second to calm herself down. 'This can't be happening,'' she thought, 'dear God, please tell me this isn't happening!' Was all she could think. ''Honey,'' she mumbled, followed by a short pause, trying to ignore the fact that her voice was breaking, ''it's 2011.''

It was like lightning had struck him, like a bomb had gone off in his head. ''2011? But how...? What happened?!'' He asked. He opened his mouth, trying to say something else. Hell, he had a million things he wanted to say, to ask! But nothing else came out. It was like the only thing in the room with them was silence. ''2011?'' He muttered again.

Penelope nodded slowly, ''tell me everything you can remember about that last day, anything you remember,'' she said.

He took a second to think about this. Short flashes about reports he had written, talking to her and walking to his car... And then he remembered something that he knew would clarify things: ''I was going to have dinner at your house. I was going to meet your brother Luuc for the first time,'' he said, a little proud of himself for remembering that.

He saw a tear fall from her eye, ''that happened such a long time ago,'' she said as she rubbed her forehead.

He picked up her left hand and looked at the diamond ring, ''so... I see I finally gave you that ring,'' he said with a slight smile.
''Yes, you did,'' she answered, a smile forming on her face as well. ''We got married six months later,'' she continued.

He noticed her hesitation to continue. ''What's wrong?'' He asked her, getting worried.
''We have a daughter,'' she said quietly.

His jaw dropped, he certainly hadn't seen that coming.
Her name is GraceLynn, but everybody calls her Gracie for short... You call her princess,'' she continued. We also have fraternal twin boys, even though they look very much alike. Their names are Joshua and Riley,'' she told him, swallowing past the lump in her throat.

What was she going to tell their children? 'Sorry, but your father doesn't remember you'? That would go great!

Derek was just speechless, waking up one day and finding out that you're married and have three kids. That certainly wasn't an everyday thing... thankfully!

''A true friend can see the words in your heart and tell the story of your life when your memory is gone.'' Tamara Artemis

Please review! Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated!

BTW: This might turn into a two-shot, be on the lookout for it!