Well this idea came to me a few days ago, after I read another fanfiction story that was about memory loss. And I couldn't stop myself from writing this. This is going to be a long chapter story just as my other Nicky/Lorna story - but I don't know exactly how long. So please let me know what you think of this - I'll try to update this frequently but can't promise anything as I've got a lot of work to do for my classes, along with working on my other stories. I hope you enjoy!
Misfortune
It was a cold, winter day in New York City, and Nicky Nichols reluctantly went to help Red (who's like a mother to her) clean one of her neighbor's house. Her own mother, Marka Nichols, was off on another one of her business trips and forgot to leave her money to pay the bills with or to use for her own health needs. So fortunately, Red offered to have her help with her cleaning service - that way she'll have some extra money in her pockets. Besides, that will give the Russian woman good reason to keep watch over the rambunctious redhead - who she knew had a definite drug problem.
Nicky grudgingly walked up the front porch, into the house, and was a bit alarmed when she got a whiff of a smoky-fire smell. She rushes to find Red - worried that the house is on fire - but before she can even take another step, she hears a horrendous scream that seems to come from across the street. Not sure what to do or what's going on, Nicky walks into the living room where she finds Red in the midst of dusting off the TV stand. "Did you hear that scream? And it smells like fucking smoke in here! Do you smell it?" She frantically questions.
"Nicky - watch your language," Red warns in her thick Russian accent and shakes her head in response. "I didn't hear any screaming and I definitely don't smell any smoke. What's the matter with you, Nicky? Trying to get out of cleaning?" She lightly joked but grew concerned when a minute later another loud scream can be heard - seeming to come from one of the surrounding houses. The two of them stop what they're doing and start to head outside, in order to see what's going on.
As they step outside, they immediately notice the smoke surrounding the house right across the street. A short, brunette woman is frantically screaming as she stands wide-eyed on the burning house's porch, looking in at the flames that engulf her family's house. Nicky and Red quickly make their way over, noticing - once they're close enough - that this short woman is covered in burns and soot residue from the fire. Red - being the maternal woman that she is - gently approaches her, giving her a look of sympathy. "Are you okay? Did you call 911?" She gently asks, reaching to place a hand onto her shoulder in an effort to comfort the obviously terrified woman. But her hand is frantically shaken away as the brunette backs away, almost back into the burning house.
The brunette looks at them - her brown eyes as wide as ever. She doesn't even know what's happening - all that she can remember is waking up to the smell of smoke and her body being covered in the hot substance. "I-I-I-I," she stutters, not entirely sure of what she was about to say. She has no clue who she even is or who these people standing before her are. She doesn't even know how she ended up waking up in a burning house. "There's-There's a fi-fire..." She says as if believing it for the first time.
Nicky takes out her phone to call 911 - knowing there's something not right with this woman. Once she's off the phone, she looks over at Red, not sure of what they can do for the woman. "Let's get her away from this house - she's already probably breathed in too much of the poison from the fire..." The two try to grab onto the petite brunette, but she only backs further away. Before they can attempt to grab her again, she starts running down the street as fast as she can.
They don't even have a chance to go after her as both the ambulance and fire department show up within minutes of her running off. Red approaches them, her features hard with worry and concern for the young woman they just witnessed run away - who was most certainly disoriented and confused as to what was going on. "We have no idea how this fire happened - my daughter and I were across the street cleaning when we heard loud screams coming from over here. There was a young woman just standing here on the porch, screaming her lungs out and looking very disoriented. She also had some really bad burns on her arms and legs but she ran away before we could do anything to help her!"
Brown eyes peep out of their eyelids while also examining their surroundings. A beeping sound can be heard - seeming to come from the machine that's on the right of her bed. A machine near her bed? That must mean she's in the hospital...but she can't remember coming there. Did she pass out and was brought here by a stranger? Many questions run through the disoriented woman's mind as she stare up at, presumably, the doctor. "Well it's nice to see that you're awake. I'm Doctor Washington," the doctor says kindly, giving her a sympathetic smile, "Whoever brought you here said that you were just lying on the sidewalk...didn't know if you were dead or alive. Can you tell me what happened?"
The brunette woman shrugs her shoulders, looking at her with confusion. She can't remember what happened to her or how she ended up lying on a sidewalk. All she knows is that she woke up in a house, where her body was engulfed in a swarm of fire. "I-I-I don't - I don't know. I saw a fire...really bad fire. I don't know how or why it happened or who's house I was even in...I just - I woke up and was surrounded by smoke." That's all she knows and remembers. She has no idea who she is or what is going on with her.
"So you were in a fire? You don't know who's house it was? Are you sure it wasn't the house you live in? Or is there something else that happened? Were you kidnapped and brought to a strange house?" The doctor questioned thoroughly - needing as much information as she can get, not only so that she could use that in helping to find out what damage has been done to her patient but also in case she needs to make a report with the police.
Shaking her head, the brunette begins to feel frustrated. "I don't know! There was no one in the house with me so I doubt I was kidnapped...I don't know what happened - I don't even know who the hell I am! I just need - can you let me leave already?" She looks angrily at the doctor - her eyes wide and terrified.
Doctor Washington gives a worried look - she knows that that's not a good sign for her patient to be having memory problems after waking up in a fire. That must mean something in the house was poisonous and had to have been purposefully caused. "I'm afraid you can't leave just yet - I'll need you to have an MRI done of your brain, we need to see what's causing this memory loss of yours. You don't know your name or anything about where your family is?" The other shakes her head in response and she sighs sadly. She decides to take a quick step outside of the room to make a call to the police station - hoping that maybe they can figure out a way to find out who this woman is and how they can get in contact with her family.
Before she can even do that, the police show up and are heading her way. She walks over to them, wondering if they already know about this mysterious woman - she hopes that they do. "That patient of yours - we found out who she is, her name is Lorna Morello. The only thing that wasn't completely destroyed by that fire was her ID card," One of the female police officer's - with wavy brown hair and ocean blue eyes - speaks as she hands the ID over to Doctor Washington. "Her family - none of them made it; we found four bodies in there. All of them completely unrecognizable. That was one of the worst fires we've seen in a while - it's surprising to me that she was able to make it out of there alive."
"Well she certainly didn't make it out of there without any long-lasting effects - she has no idea who she is or that the house was even hers. She has no clue who her family is or anything for that matter. Whatever caused the fire - it must have been some kind of poison because it's caused Lorna's memory to be lost. Are you guys investigating the cause of it?" The doctor asks, even though they probably already started an investigation. Which only gets confirmed when they nod in response to her question. She sighs - this poor young woman is not only left without a family but also of her memories. She won't even be able to remember them - how horrible would that be?
It's a few days later when Nicky notices the woman - from the fire - walking down the street, obviously still quite disoriented and looking to be in a considerable amount of pain. She goes over to Red, who's just finished dusting off the homeowner's china cabinet, giving her a worried glance. "Ma, we gotta do something to help that woman. She's still just wandering around out there - and she looks like she's in pain." The redhead states while looking out the living room window. All that's left of the house is piles of debris and a battered woman who has no idea who she is.
The Russian woman turns to face her - giving her a knowing glance. She's always known Nicky to want help people, even though she tries her hardest not to show it. "Fine. You stay here though and let me try to talk to her. We shouldn't overwhelm her, not when she's already so terrified," she firmly speaks as she slowly makes her way out the door. The brunette woman, she sees, is just standing on the property that was burned to the core only a few days before. Slowly and very carefully, Red starts to walk over towards her - trying not to get too close and scare her off again.
Lorna stares at her intently but says nothing. Did she know this woman? Is that why she keeps trying to talk to her? She doesn't know who she knew and didn't know - even her family, who apparently were in that burning house with her and are no longer alive, she couldn't remember them either. Shaking her head sadly, she looks down at the ground. She has no family, and no where to live - What is she going to do? She can't remember anything about herself - only her name, since the doctor told her it.
"Was this your house?" Red starts off the conversation - even though she already knows the answer to question. She just doesn't know how exactly to go about asking this woman if she needs any help. Especially after the last time, when she ran away so fast. Seeing the other shrug her shoulders to her question, though, brings a bout of concern to her face. "Do you not know if you lived here? Do you know who you are? Where's your family?" She knows she shouldn't ask so many questions at once, but she can't help herself - they just come rushing out of her.
Being bombarded with that many questions at once makes Lorna's head spin. She has to shut her eyes for a few seconds in order to be able to refocus them. "Uh, I-I-I - the doctor told me that my name's Lorna...and my family was burned to death in the fire, I was told. But I don't - I don't remember them or myself or-or anything! I just, I woke up and flames were engulfing my body, that's all I know and remember. Who - who are you? Am I supposed to know you or something?" Her brown eyes timidly stare up at the older woman - who's features are hard and unreadable to her.
Hearing that this woman not only lost her memory but her family as well breaks Red's heart tremendously. She wouldn't know what to do with herself if something like that happened to her own family. Her family was everything to her; to lose them would be like losing part of her heart. "Oh dear - I'm so sorry to hear that!" She gently says, taking a few careful steps closer to the petite brunette. "No, we don't know each other. My daughter, Nicky - she heard your screaming the other day and so we came to see what the problem was. And she saw you again today, just aimlessly wandering around out here. Why don't you come home with us? You shouldn't be outside in this nasty winter weather, sweetheart. You could get deathly ill and I'm sure you don't want that - not on top of what you've already got to deal with."
Standing in the entrance-way of Red's house, Lorna can't bring herself to move any further. She doesn't even know why she agreed to come with them - she hardly knows the two women. Besides - they weren't even people she knew before her memory was completely erased, and her real family was gone. What the hell was she going to do? She had nowhere to go - nowhere to live, no family, no significant other - she was truly and utterly alone in the world. Were these random people about to allow some strange woman off the street live with them?
"Come on, kid," this time it's Nicky who's speaking to her as she stares worriedly into her eyes, "Get in here before you catch a damn cold!" When she sees that Lorna still hasn't moved, she goes over to her and pulls her into the house. She closes the door and then leads the smaller woman into the living room, helping her to sit down on the couch. "Lie down - you need to sleep; you look like you haven't slept at all since the last time we saw you." Nicky is firm with her words, but keeps her voice soft as to not upset the other. She gently grabs the blanket that hangs over one of the recliners and brings it over to wrap around Lorna.
While Lorna rests, Nicky and Red sit in the kitchen with a pot of tea as they silently keep watch over her. "What can we do for her, ma? She's got no family, and her home is a fucking pile of ashes and dust. We can't just let her live on the damn streets!" The fiery redhead shouts, earning her a stern glare from Red. She sighs, reaching for her cup of tea – she knows she shouldn't be swearing in front of her, but it's a force of a habit that she can't seem to break.
Shaking her head, Red sips on her own tea. She peaks in on the woman who's sleeping on her living room couch and lets out a quiet sigh. It tore at her heart to know what's happened to her – it makes her reflect on her own life, her own family. If she couldn't remember her family – it would not only hurt them but also herself. And that brings her to the decision of having this young woman stay with her permanently – maybe by her staying with Red and her family, it might help in recovering memories of her own life. "How many times do you need to be reminded to watch your language? You can talk like that with your friends and anyone else you want, but not with me," she sternly starts off, "I know she can't be living on the streets, Nicky. You think I'm an idiot or something? Why do you think I told her to come home with us? She will stay here for as long as she needs; I could use the company, anyway. With my boys being grown and you're staying at your house while Marka's away, I could definitely use her company and try to help her in some way. And maybe you could try being friends with her – help her out, look after her so that she doesn't try to run off to the streets – where God only knows what kind of people she'd run into. She's probably your age, maybe a little younger. I think you two could be good friends, just don't try to force her into talking about what happened. I know you – Nicky – you're always getting into people's business, but don't do that with her. She hardly knows us or herself for that matter; the last thing we should do is force her to remember information that she may never remember."