My eyes drifted open slightly and I took in my surroundings.

Where am I?

I held my left hand in front of my face, examining it.

Hand. Check.

I reached up and pulled a chunk of my hair in front of my eyes.

Hair. Dirty blonde.

I struggled to sit up in bed, but I was met with a minor amount of pain in the back of my head at the effort and sank back down. Dirty orange walls…tacky curtains…there were machines hooked up to me that were continuously beeping. A dull throbbing beat against the inside of my head, and I wanted to reach out to and whack the machine into silence. I struggled to lift my right arm, but it wouldn't obey my commands.

My name is…I thought. Shaking my head slightly, I struggled to grab on to the thoughts that were swimming around namelessly inside my head. My name is…

Pursing my lips together, I bit down on the inside of my mouth and stared at the blanket that covered my body. I have legs, right? Why can't I feel my legs? Why won't they move?

I used my left hand to pull the blanket away that was covering my body. My legs were there, both of them, fully intact.

Legs. Check. Okay…so I have all my body parts. I seem to be human. I'm…

Frowning, I rolled my tongue around in my mouth and tried to think about myself again. My name is…I tried, but nothing came to me. I am…Who am I? What happened to me? Why am I here?

I looked around the room again, hoping that something random would jog my memory. Crumbly plastic hospital furniture…tacky curtains…a clock on the wall with a click by the second that threatened to overpower the beeping of the machines.

"My name is…" I played around with the words, become acquainted with the sound of my own voice. "My name is…"

"Jaime. Jaime Sommers. I'm glad to see you awake."

The man who stood in the doorway was tall and thin, taking up hardly any space as he leaned against the doorframe.

"My name is Jaime," I responded. "Jaime Sommers."

"I don't believe we've actually met," the man said. "I'm Michael."

Narrowing my eyes, I tried to memorize his face. "Michael?" I tried.

"Yes."

"It's nice to meet you, Michael. You didn't know me before?"

"No, I wasn't your doctor until…What do you remember?" Michael asked, a look of suspicion crossing his features.

"My name is Jaime," I answered helplessly. "But…you told me that."

After much concentration, I was able to raise my right arm slightly. "That's progress."

"You couldn't move it?"

"My right arm," I answered. "My right arm, and my legs. They aren't working right. Was I in some sort of an accident?"

"A long time ago. What's the first thing you remember?"

I shrugged slightly, as best as I could lying in the bed. "Waking up here and trying to figure out what the heck is going on?" I offered. "Where is my husband? Do I have a husband? Do I have family? Where are my friends? You're the first person I've seen so far, I have so many questions, I…"

"We shouldn't do this right now," he interrupted. "Not when you've just woken up. I'm going to go get Dr. Wells and have him take a look at your…At you."

"At my what?" I pushed, picking up on his slip. "What's wrong with me?"

"Jaime, I…"

Without realizing I was doing so, I reached out with both hands to grab the bars on the sides of the bed and squeezed them in anger. "You can't do this, you can't just come in here, and…" I pulled my right hand away in shock as the bars I was squeezing in my right hand gave way and began to bend. Curiously, I pulled my right hand away, but continued to squeeze with my left. Nothing happened. Wrapping my right hand around the bars again, I pulled them upwards back into their proper place.

Very firmly, Michael stated, "I'm going to get Dr. Wells now. He can explain better than I can." Michael disappeared from the room, leaving me alone to stare at my hand.

Who am I? What am I…that I'm that strong? Am I a mutant? What's happening to me?

A much shorter man slipped into the room holding a clipboard, and walked up beside the bed. "Hello, Jaime. I'm Dr. Rudy Wells."

"You're my doctor," I stated.

"One of," he responded.

"Then tell me what's wrong with me. Why am I like this? Why can I do this?" I squeezed my right hand again and re-bent the bars on the bed. "Normal people can't do this. Why can I?"

"Jaime, you just woke up. Maybe we should wait just a little bit long…"

"No," I snapped. "I feel fine. You tell me now, or I'll go above you and find someone who will."

Rudy sat down in the plastic chair next to the bed. "Quite a while ago, you were in a sky diving accident," he said.

"A while ago. How long have I…"

"Half a year ago, you almost died," he continued. "But we saved you."

"Saved…me? How?"

"You lost the function in both of your legs, your right arm, and your right ear. We fixed them up as good as new." He took a deep breath, bracing for my reaction. "We used our technology."

"Technology?" I questioned.

"It's called…bionics."

"Sounds mechanical. So I'm a robot, then," I reasoned.

Rudy nodded. "A little bit mechanical, but you're still human. You just..."

"What are bionics, exactly?"

"Mechanical implants. They make you fully functional, even more so than you were before the implants. Faster. Stronger."

"Why am I here now?" I frowned.

"Later," he said, getting back to his feet. "I have to make rounds, but I will be back later to talk some more."

I closed my eyes. Not a mutant. A machine. Not a mutant. A machine. I repeated that over in over in my head, forming it into a mantra of sorts. I have metal implants. In my body. Metal. Like a robot. But not. I'm a human. I think.

The knowledge was too much for me to digest. I rolled over and closed my eyes, drifting off back to sleep.