Is This For Real?

How long have I been here?

Oww, my head

What happened last night?

For a moment, Serena lay completely still on the bed; her head was pounding, her throat was parched, her skin felt like sandpaper and her whole body ached. It was almost impossible for her to move.

The dim light in the room made her uncomfortable in the strange surroundings. Looking around, she wondered if she was in a hospital or a spa. On first glance, she would have guessed spa but as she became accustomed to the light, she realised there were too many buttons for it to be a spa. She pressed the closest button she could reach, just to see what would happen.

"Hello, Serena." A grey haired woman, dressed in a dark blue nurse's uniform bustled into the room shortly after. "I'm Roxy. How are you feeling?"

"My head hurts." She didn't mean to moan, but it came out like that.

"That's completely normal after an accident, especially after one as tragic as yours."

Tragic? Accident? She was having trouble digesting what the nurse was telling her as she moved around the room. What had happened last night? She could remember going out to Bar Mad with Blair, Olivia and Vanessa; Dan was supposed to be with them, but he was running late.

"Excuse me, do you have my handbag?" Serena asked, noticing that it wasn't with her in the room. Roxy nodded and disappeared to retrieve it. She needed to call Dan, why wasn't here with her?

"This isn't my bag." Serena announced when Roxy re-entered.

"This is what you came in with." The nurse smiled kindly. "But we can check the ID." Her hand slid into the Burberry bag, extracting a small identical wallet. "See, Serena van der Woodsen." She showed Serena her driver's licence. "It's definitely yours."

"Okay." Serena accepted the designer bag as her own, maybe she had brought it and somehow forgot about it.

"Oh, and this is yours too." Roxy handed over a ring.

"I'm not married." Serena protested, this was getting to be too much. "I'm not even engaged!"

"Honey, take it. It's yours; I remember taking it off myself." She smiled. "You're definitely either married or engaged to be."

Serena smiled, unsure at what else to do. There was definitely something strange about this, Roxy had to be playing some sort of game on her; one of her friends must have put her up to it. Not only did the handbag still look glossy and completely new, but the room she was in was too high-tech for a hospital.

"Dan, it's me Serena. Listen, I'm in the hospital. I can't explain, but can you please come and get me." She dialled Dan's number from memory and left the short message while Roxy glared at her for doing something wrong.

"You can't use that it in here." She warned. "Doctor Edward is going to come and talk to you about everything okay. Help you understand what's going on."

Roxy had barely left the room when the aforementioned doctor entered. "Hello Serena, we're just going to go through a couple of questions." He smiled gently, taking a seat next to her. "Can you tell me your full name?"

"Serena van der Woodsen." That was easy.

"Well done. Can you remember anything about your accident?"

"The last thing I remember," Serena paused to think for a second. "Was trying to find a cab in the Theatre District; I was drunk, and I was with by best friend Blair."

"Are you sure Serena?" He sounded like a teacher, testing her. "When you arrived it was noted that you had been driving an Audi TT."

"That can't be me." Serena laughed a little, and Roxy re-entered the room. "Dan would be furious if I drove drunk. Dan's my boyfriend." She explained.

The doctor nodded, noting something on his pad. "Moving along, can you tell me what year it is Serena?"

"2007." Serena answered; another easy answer.

Only this time, the room went quiet. The doctor turned back to look at Roxy and they whispered something to each other.

"What's wrong?" Serena asked.

"Serena," Roxy the nurse took her hand gently. "Today is April 29, 2010."

Serena had the sudden urge to vomit. "What?"

"Don't worry." The doctor smiled, "Just a little memory loss, has to be expected with a knock on the head like you got. It will come back." He promised. "You're just lucky to be alive."

Serena looked up at the door, where someone had just entered; her mother. "Mom. Tell them it's 2007." But just from the look on her mother's face, she realised that it was 2010.

"Serena, you're awake." Lily looked up from the book she was reading to smile at her daughter, who had drifted off to sleep after the nurse had given her a sedative. It had been an hour.

"Is it really 2010?" She still couldn't get over that information. "Where is everyone? Where's Blair?"

"Darling." Lily crossed to the bed, to give her a hug. "You don't need to worry about that. You should just be worrying about recovering."

"No mom!" Serena was getting agitated. "Where's Dan? Where's Blair?"

"Don't ask about Dan." Lily tried to calm Serena down. "Your fiancé won't appreciate that."

"Fiancé?" Serena's voice dropped to a whisper. "Who's my fiancé?"

"Oh baby," Lily choked up. "I know the doctor said it was going to be bad, but I didn't realise it would be this bad." A couple of tears rolled down her face.

Serena's heart dropped. It was obvious that Dan wasn't her fiancé. Why wasn't her mother talking about Blair either?

"Who's my fiancé?" Serena repeated.

"He's on his way. He got caught up with work, but he'll be here as fast as possible."

"Mom." Serena shouted, she had to to get her mom to stop babbling.

"It's Nate sweetheart."

"Nate?" Nate? She mentally repeated the name a couple of times. "I'm engaged to Nate? But he cheated on me."

"He changed." Lily smiled, taking her seat again.

"No." Serena shook her head, she wouldn't accept this. "I'm with Dan."

"Serena, you and Nate have been together for two years." Serena's younger brother Eric entered the room.

Two years? Serena couldn't say anything. Nate had repeatedly cheated on her, until she had finally left him and committed to Dan. She looked again at Eric, he looked different; older, better looking.

"Do you remember me?" He asked carefully.

"Of course I do." Serena laughed. "Mom, can I talk to Eric alone?" Lily left her two children while she went to go find some proper coffee.

"You have to tell me everything, E." Serena insisted, sitting up in her bed.

"Are you seriously not pretending?" It was the only thing Eric could respond with. "Because I can't tell with you anymore."

"Yes, how much have you changed?" Serena asked; she couldn't tell how much her brother had internally changed.

"I'm still gay, if that's what you're asking." Eric answered bluntly. "Something's haven't changed that much."

"Am I still friends with Blair?" Eric shook his head. "Dan?" She asked weakly, not wanting to know the answer. Eric shook his head again.

"How am I not friends with Blair?"

Dan shrugged his shoulders, "You only ever told me about Dan."

"Did he cheat on me?" She was slightly excited to learn about how much her life had changed.

"No, you just moved on."

It was crazy, Eric noted out loud. That the last thing Serena remembered was being with Dan and being friends with Blair. "It's been three years since you last heard from them." Eric said seriously, with a straight and sad face.

"Eric, you have to help me." Serena begged, she needed to know how she had gone from her life to being engaged to Nate and driving an Audi TT.