Shadgirl2: So...Midna says that updates will be slow for our other story, "A Second Chance."
Midna: Updates on "A Second Chance" will be slow because of duels, which we have to write now.
Shadgirl2: So we've got another collab (because I don't write stories on my own, I'm not that good). It takes place in a future Earth (like, millions of years in the future, when continental drift has made all 7 continents one again, like Pangaea). The world we know exists only in the history books—
Midna: No-so-vague references to American history appear at a later time.
Shadgirl2: Yes, thank you, Midna. Anyway, it's me and her writing.
Midna: So, without any further ado, enjoy!
Disclaimer: We don't own Yugioh GX.
WARNING: OC
The first thing I remember, I woke up with a major headache, and the lights in the room—along with the white walls and white...well, everything—didn't really help much. I'm not sure why, exactly, but seeing all that white had me freaked out for a bit. That is, until a woman came in wearing a pink nurse's outfit. She had auburn hair pulled back in a ponytail and gentle green eyes.
"So, you're finally awake, are you?" she asked me. "How are you feeling, dear?"
"Uh... My head hurts," I told her.
"No surprise there. You were in a serious car accident. You're lucky you're still alive. Can I get you anything to ease the pain?"
"Uh...sure?"
She nodded. "Wait right here. I'll go get you something."
She walked out, leaving me to wonder about what she had just said. I didn't remember being in any sort of car accident. Then again...
A car accident? Why don't I remember it? Come to think of it, I don't remember anything, I realized suddenly. I...can't even remember who I am...
While I was trying to remember who I was—which only made my headache worse—a doctor walked in and asked, "So, son, how are you feeling today? The nurse said your head was bothering you?"
"Uh, yeah, a little," I told him.
He started checking me over, checking my blood pressure as he said, "I see. Does anything else hurt or feel funny, young man?"
"No."
He took the blood pressure cuff off me, then put on his stethoscope. "That's good to hear. Because you were a mess when we found you." He lifted my shirt and continued his examination.
The nurse came back in just as the doctor finished up. "So, how is he, doctor?" she asked.
"Well, he's doing a lot better than when he first came to us. Now, if we can only get his name, we can call his family to come pick him up." He turned to me and asked, "So, son, what is it? Who do you want us to contact?"
Great. Just great. I knew he was going to ask that, but I didn't have an answer. I mean, I hadn't thought about my family, per se, but I'd been wondering what my name was. Guess my family would know that...if I could just remember who the heck they were.
"I...I don't know. I can't remember."
"What was that, young man?" the doctor asked.
"Surely you can remember something about yourself," the nurse said. "Your family? Do you have a mom? Dad? Any siblings you know about?"
The more she asked, the more I wondered. "I don't know."
"Do you know where you were born?" the doctor tried. "Where you live? What kind of a life you used to lead?"
Oh, yeah, sure, I totally knew where I was born. No, I didn't even know where I was, for crying out loud! I mean, I'd figured out that I was in a hospital, but what part of the world that hospital was in was still a great mystery to me. For all I knew, I was born in a spaceship from the planet Mordar.
"No."
"Then perhaps you know your birthday," the nurse suggested. "How old you are? Anything?"
"Can you remember anything at all, son?"
I shook my head, now wondering what the date even was. Great. I was just getting more and more lost the more questions they asked. "No, nothing."
The doctor turned to the nurse and lowered his voice, apparently aiming to keep the conversation hushed—well, that worked about as well as interrogating me because I heard every word they said.
"This is bad. He has no memory of anything before he wound up here."
Yeah, that was true.
"Is it amnesia?" the nurse asked.
The doctor nodded. "I'm afraid so. Which is made worse by the fact that he didn't have any ID on his person when we found him. Getting him the care he needs will be difficult without the people he knows in life there to help him."
Great. Well, wasn't I just a genius? Running around getting into car accidents and losing my memory without any ID. Whoever my parents were, they must not have raised me very well. I sounded pretty stupid to my own ears just then.
"Then maybe I can help," the nurse suggested. "Let him come home with me for now. I'll do whatever it takes to find his family and help him through this."
"Are you sure, Elise? This could be a tougher job than you think."
Nurse Elise said, "Well, we can't just drop the poor thing off at the shelter. He'd never fit in there, all things considered. Please. Let me take care of him. It'll be our little secret."
The doctor thought about it for a minute. For a bit, it looked like he was gonna say no, which would have left me...where, exactly?
Luckily I didn't have to find out. "Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt," the doctor said. "Alright, Elise, but be warned. This isn't how we usually operate, so keep it under wraps. We could both get fired if you don't."
"Okay, thank you, sir! I promise I won't let you down."
They both turned back to me, and the doctor said, "Well, son, in light of the circumstances, our nurse Elise will be looking after you until we can find your caregivers." Careful choice of words, there, doc. "But if, after awhile, we discover that there aren't any, you'll be taken to our local children's shelter and looked after there until such a time as someone decides to take you in or you grow up and move out. Do you understand?"
Did I understand? Well, I guess it wasn't that hard of a concept to grasp. Stay with the nurse until my family was found (or lack of family was determined) and then live in orphanage until I grew up. In practice, though, it was a little more complicated. Like, how did he think they were gonna find out I didn't have a family? Were they just going to drop me at an orphanage if nobody showed up in a few months? And I didn't have a clue how old I was. How was I supposed to know when I "grew up?"
But I didn't say any of this. I just nodded. "Yeah."
"Very good," Elise said. "But, before we do anything, we should really figure out what to call you. After all, people will start to wonder what's going on if you don't have a name, right?"
Well, I don't know about you, but I thought it sounded pretty fair that they should wonder. After all, I was wondering what was going on, and nobody could clarify anything for me. Why should I have to be the only one who was totally lost and confused? Besides, the idea of being given a new name—even though I didn't remember my old one—was...uncomfortable to me, for some reason, and I shifted at the suggestion. But I knew she was right.
"So? Do you have a name in mind that you'd like to be called for now?" she asked. And then the uncomfortable suggestions from a stranger began. "How about I call you Henry? What do you think?"
What did I think? No. N. O. No. That felt so wrong in so many ways. "Uh..."
"That's a no, then? Then how about Gary? Is that name any better?"
You ever try talking to someone from another country and then realize that they're speaking another language? One that you don't understand? That's what this whole thing felt like to me, like all of the names she came up with were a different language. Like, I mean, literally, these names felt foreign to me. Like they weren't used in my homeland. I shifted again and started trying to remember what my name was, or at least my initial.
"Okay? How about...Sam?"
I shook my head, knowing I wasn't any closer to figuring out my real name but not wanting to be called by some foreign word. "I don't know..."
"Kevin?"
I shrugged.
"George?"
I shook my head, very sure I didn't want to be called that. But...the "G" sounded familiar...
"No? Then how about...John? Do you like that one any better?"
I blinked as something came back to me suddenly. "It starts with a J," I said.
Elise grinned and said, "Oh, I get it. You're trying to remember your real name right now, aren't you?"
I shifted again and admitted, "Well, everything feels wrong."
"Then perhaps some J names will feel better to you. How's Jesse?"
"Mmm..." I shook my head.
"Jonah?"
I shook my head again.
She put her hands on her hips and said, "Kid, you're making this harder than it needs to be. All you've got to do is pick a name."
I shifted guiltily. Sure, she could say that—she knew her name. "Sorry."
"Okay. Enough with the guessing games. The next name I throw at you is what I'm going to call you unless you remember your real name naturally. Okay?"
"Okay," I agreed, figuring I'd annoyed her enough for one day. I mean, she was the only reason I wouldn't be going straight to an orphanage, so I should probably try to be nice.
"Good. Then your name is Jaden. It starts with a J and seems like it will fit you. Sound good?"
I nodded. It still didn't feel right, but it would do for now. Hopefully I'd remember who I was sooner or later—preferably sooner.
She sighed, apparently relieved that I hadn't said no to that name, too. "Good! Now, then, Jaden, I'm going to go talk to the doctor about what we need to do to set this up. I'll be back to discharge you shortly. In the meantime, why don't you take this medicine and take it easy for awhile, okay?" she said, handing me a couple of pills and a glass of water.
I was about to say that the doctor was here, but then I realized he wasn't. He must have left sometime while we were talking. "Okay," I said instead, taking the medicine and the water.
As I popped the pills in my mouth and chased them down with every last drop of that water—I hadn't even realized how thirsty I was until then—Elise nodded and headed out. This, of course, left me to my muddled and confused thoughts, which wasn't exactly helping the medicine get rid of that headache I still had.
So I'm living with a nurse for now...but what if I don't have any family?
That was when something she had said hit me hard—kid, in a car accident. With no ID. Meaning no driver's license. Meaning I couldn't have, legally, been driving. Meaning there had to have been someone else in the car...
Wait a second, didn't they say I was in a car accident? Who was driving? Oh, please tell me it wasn't my parents!
Then things got weird. A faint voice said, "Kuri kuri..."
"Huh?" I looked around, but didn't see anyone. "Who's there?"
Silence answered me. I waited another moment to see if I'd hear it again, but I didn't.
"Must be my imagination," I decided.
That was when Elise came back. "Okay, Jaden, we're all set! Just as soon as I unhook you, we can get going, okay?"
And that was when I realized that there were all sorts of wires on me and an IV in my arm. Man, I was real perceptive that day, wasn't I?
"Um, first, was there anyone else in the car?" I asked. Hopefully I was just breaking the law.
"Well, there were two men we found," she answered, unhooking everything that I hadn't even realized I was hooked up to. "Both dead, I'm afraid, so we're not sure what happened. But don't worry! You're okay now."
Okay. So either I was adopted by a gay couple and both my parents were officially dead, or that was my father and some other relative, or my father and a friend, or... You know what, there were a lot of possibilities. Personally, I was hoping for the "nobody I knew" possibility.
"Okay."
"So, Jaden, shall we go?"
I nodded and stood up. I guess I moved too fast, though, because I nearly fell on my face.
Elise caught me and helped me get my balance. "You alright, Jaden? Do you need a crutch or something?"
"N-no, I'll be okay."
"If you say so. Just...try not to fall on your face on the way to the car, okay?" she teased.
"Okay."
Nurses. Always thinking you need a crutch. I wasn't sure where that thought came from, but I guess it just meant I'd been in hospitals a lot. Either I was really clumsy or I suffered from some sort of condition that I couldn't remember.
Man, amnesia stinks.