BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
She breathed in sharply, trying to force her foggy mind to wake. Her eyelids fluttered as the bright light assaulted her eyes. A warm hand took hers and a soft voice spoke her name, "Lucy?" It was strange to her muddled mind.
Lucy groaned, her body felt sore and her throat felt like a desert. Her eyes adjusted slowly in the sun filled room. She found herself looking at a man with long hair and a soft face, but there seemed to be something missing from his eyes.
"Lucy?" a different voice asked and the hand squeezed hers. Lucy looked at the hand then to the person it was attached to. She saw a man, his expression was ragged, his brown hair was a mess, his clothes were wrinkled and he needed a lot of sleep to catch up with the dark circles under his eyes. The worry that was etched deeply into the lines of his face made her want to give him a hug and to tell him it was going to be all right. Lucy looked at him curiously, why did she have such feelings for someone who she didn't even know.
"Lucy?" he asked again, his eyes were searching hers for an answer to an unasked question. "Do, do you-" He breathed in, looking away and shifted uncomfortably.
"Do you remember us?" the other man with the soft face asked.
Did she know them? Lucy studied their faces and raked through her still foggy mind.
"No." She looked warily at them.
The man who looked worn out seemed to collapse into his chair and the other just sat back in thought.
"How do you know me? Where am I?" she asked.
"Well, we're your friends and we're in a hospital." the man with the soft face looked at the other man.
Friends? How could she be friends with people she didn't even know. Lucy's mind raced, perhaps she had alzheimer's and she was an old lady. Lucy quickly looked at her hands. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, her hands looked almost the same. Her hands were more tanned than she last remembered. And her arms, her arms were less flabby. She sighed, she wished she could look into a mirror.
An older man with peppered grey hair in a while lab coat walked in.
"Ah, you're awake." he said in a cheery voice said. "Hello, I am Dr. Larson. Do you know where you are?" He asked.
"I'm in a hospital?" She said slowly, glancing at the man with the soft face before looking back at the doctor.
The doctor looked at his clipboard. "That is right, you seemed to have suffered a concussion and some minor brain damage. I'll need to ask you some questions." He looked at the two men sitting, "Could you step out for a minute, please?"
They left the room without a word and the door shut behind them.
"Could you tell me your full name please?" the doctor asked
"Lucy Rae Hunter." she wished she could have some water to ease her dry throat.
"Could I have some water, please?"
The doctor looked up from his clipboard with a smile, "Of course." He grabbed a small plastic cup that had been upside down on the side table and filled it from the water pitcher that Lucy hadn't noticed, then handed her the cup. She downed half of the cup in one gulp.
The doctor looked at his clipboard and continued with his questioning. "Your date of birth?"
"July 9th 1987"
"Good. Your mothers name?"
"Barbara Hunter."
"Your father's name?"
"Paul Hunter"
"Ok, and how old are you?"
"20"
The doctor frowned and made a displeased sound. "What is the date?"
"Oh, I don't know the exact date-"
"What's the last date you remember?"
Lucy took a sip from her cup and thought, "Well, I know its just past January 16th because we celebrated Nikki's, my best friend's, birthday party a few nights ago."
"And the year?" his voice was monotone.
"2008." She said slowly, taking in his reaction. His face was clean of any emotion, which must mean it was bad.
"It seems that you have suffered some memory loss."
"How much is some?"
The doctor's face grew sad, "I'm sorry to say this but it seems that you have lost just over three years of memories. The current date is November 16th 2011."
Lucy sat there stunned, then one question popped into her frozen mind.
"Will I get them back?" Her voice cracked, betraying her calm demeanor.
"The trauma was severe enough that they may not return, but there is a chance that they will." Lucy nodded and looked out the window at the sunset, she took another sip as her other hand fiddled with the rough blanket. The doctor turned to leave.
"Wait," Lucy looked back at the doctor as he turned to look at her, "Do you know their names, the two guys that were in here?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't ask, but they were well aware of the possibilities. Is there anyone else you want aware of your situation? A parent or a guardian, perhaps?"
Lucy shook her head "No"
"I'll let the nurse know to bring you in your food and to refill the pitcher." and then he left.
Lucy's mind was clear of all the fog that had been there before but she felt like there was a large hole in her mind where her memories had been.
'How could this have happened?' she questioned herself. 'Those guys, they had to know what happened, the one did say we were friends.'
The two men walked back in.
"So you don't remember anything about us." the raggedy and, she noticed, shorter one stated sadly.
"Not one thing," She felt like she could cry, but she wouldn't cry in front of them, "but you guys know me and what I've been doing for the last three years, right?"
"We met you in October of 2008" The taller one said, "We can take you home if you want."
"Sam, come on. You know she has no one to go back to." The raggedy man said.
"We could help her get settled and-" the taller man, Sam, was cut off by Lucy.
"Hold on. I told you that I don't have any family." Her voice sounded choked as she tried to calm down. She gave them both skeptical looks, trying to look stronger than her voice lead on.
"Yeah, you trust us." The shorter one said gently.
"Well, trusted." Sam corrected earning a glare from the other.
"Ok," Lucy started slowly, her voice beginning to strengthen, "If I trusted you enough to tell you that-"
"Well it's not really deep dark secret material. I don't really see why its such a big deal." Sam said.
Lucy glared at him, "It may not be deep dark secret material, but it is not something that you just tell random people. Not everyone needs to know that I don't have parents. I don't tell people because its not a nice thing to do. Why should I put that kind of weight on someones shoulders... It's - it's not even a question, I just wouldn't."
She took a deep breath. Her small rant made her feel angry and she could deal with anger. "Ok I need you to answer a question for me." she looked at them, suddenly shy. "What are your names?" she looked carefully at them. she knew Sam's name but she needed to know the others.
"I'm Sam Winchester and he's Dean Winchester, we're brothers. You've known us for just about three years." Sam's face was calculating, studying mine, but Dean's face was that of someone who was broken. When he saw her looking he composed himself, his face slipping under a mask of barely held back sadness.
"What about Nikki? Shit, I need to call her and tell her what happened!" Lucy looked around the room for a phone.
Sam cleared his throat, "I'm sorry to tell you, but Nikki is dead."
Lucy gave him a hard stare, "What?" her voice was small.
Dean spoke up but looked at Sam, not Lucy, "She died in a car crash."
Lucy felt the tears well up in her eyes again. "Was it fast?" Her voice cracked.
"What?" asked Dean
"Did she- she wasn't in any pain?"
"Nope, there was no pain, she died instantly."
Lucy took a few minutes of deep breathing before her eyes finally cleared up
"Maybe we should help you get settled in somewhere. So you can get back to a normal life." Dean didn't look up from the floor.
"Woah! You're not getting rid of me that easily." Her voice, still rough from the tears, didn't sound as strong as she wished, "I just lost three years of my life! Its not like I have anything to go back to and I expect to find out what I've been doing traveling with two guys."
"Traveling, how did you know that we've traveled together?" Sam asked. Dean's face looked so hopeful.
"I still don't remember anything," She said apologetically, "but I do know that we are not in Jasper, Indiana. Jasper has the nearest hospital to Celestine and the trees there look nothing like those ." Lucy explained. She looked over at Dean and her chest hurt when she saw the hope slip from Dean's face. 'Did I love him?' she asked herself looking at her hands but no answer came to her.
"Do you have another question?" Sam spoke up.
Lucy looked up at him startled.
"You looked confused." He answered her questioning gaze.
"Oh, um." she looked around the room. "When can I get out of here? This gown is uncomfortable." she picked at the hospital gown. Feeling the ties in back made her aware that if she stood, Dean and Sam would be able of see her underwear.
"Well you've only been here for a few hour so they should let you either today or tomorrow." said Sam. Just then a nurse came in. She was a nice looking lady that seemed to be in her late twenties, her bleach blond hair was up in a tight bun and her hazel eyes looked over Lucy and the guys
"Here's a full pitcher and I have a menu that you can pick your dinner from." Her voice was sweet.
Lucy took the pitcher and refilled her cup then reached to put the water pitcher on the side table when Dean took it from her.
"I'll get it, I need a refill anyway." Lucy blushed in embarrassment, she hadn't thought about if they needed anything.
"Thank you" Lucy said to the nurse as Lucy was handed the menu. She looked it over and decided.
"Can I have the ham and cheese sandwich?" she asked handing the menu back to the Nurse
The nurse nodded with a smile and then left to go get the food.
"So how long was I out?" Lucy asked the guys then took a long sip.
"About six hours." said Sam.
"I thought people with concussions shouldn't sleep for the next, like, 24 hours." Lucy wondered out loud.
"They shouldn't because they could go into a coma, but the doctors couldn't wake you." explained Sam.
"They thought you wouldn't wake up." said Dean, his tone was dark.
'So thats why Dean looked so worried,' thought Lucy. 'What a horrible feeling it must be to wonder if someone would ever wake up.'
"Thank you." said Lucy shyly looking at Dean
"What for?" asked Dean
"For just being here when I woke up."
Dean smiled "Well, we would never just ditch you."
'Oh, right' Lucy thought, 'we're friends, I would have stayed by Nikki's bedside if something like this happened to her and she would have done the same.' Lucy's heart ached at the thought of Nikki, 'I can't believe she is dead.'
The nurse walked in the room with a tray of food which carried Lucy's sandwich.
"Here is your food," she rolled a cool table thing over Lucy's bed and set the tray on it "You two can eat in the cafeteria if you'd like." the nurse offered to Sam and Dean.
Dean flashed the nurse a smile, "We're good for now." Sam nodded in agreement.
"The cafeteria will be open until 9:00" the nurse said with a smile more to Dean than Sam and then she left, her hips swinging noticeably out the door.
Lucy finished off her water, looking out the window, pretending to not see Dean watch the swinging hips until the door closed. Lucy heard Sam sigh, 'Dean probably does that all the time, and even as haggard as he looked now, who could blame the nurse. Hell' thought Lucy, 'even I started to fall for him." she chastised herself.
"You two should go get some food too." Lucy suggested
"We had lunch just a couple of hours ago." said Dean
"Well you should get some sleep, you look like you've been through hell." Lucy really just wanted them to leave so she could go pee without them seeing her underwear.
"You have no idea" Dean joked and Sam breathed a laugh.
Lucy gave them a confused look but sighed in surrender, she probably wouldn't get it even if they told her.
The nurse came back in, flashing her freshly glossed smile at Dean before looking at Lucy "Visitation hours end in an hour, but you can return at 8 tomorrow morning." Her sweet voice made Lucy want to cringe.
Sam smiled, "Thank you, we'll be out soon."
"Do you know when I'll be released?" asked Lucy
The nurse looked at the clipboard in her hand, "You should be released tomorrow if there are no complications." And with another smile she left.
I took a small bite as an uncomfortable silence stretched through the room.
"We should be leaving." Sam said as he stood.
"We will be back first thing in the morning to get you." Dean said with a small smile then he reached into his pocket and placed an object in Lucy's hand. "If you need us," His voice was hushed and eyes seemed to bore into hers, "for anything, call. We are second and third on speed dial."
She gave him a reassuring smile, "For what, boredom relief from the infomercials?"
Dean laughed dryly. "Maybe not for that," his expression became very serious, "but if you don't feel safe, call."
Lucy nodded completely serious now.
Dean and Sam left, the door shutting behind them. Lucy looked at the cell phone in her hands. It was a flip phone and was kind of stylish, being blue with silver trim. Lucy thought of what Dean had said. He said that both he and Sam were on speed dial, so was this her phone? Lucy looked through the phone. It had only three contacts, D, S and B. '
"The D and S must be Dean and Sam but who is B?" She quietly wondered. Lucy slowly ate her food as she looked through the phone. The phone had a camera but there were only a few pictures of scenery, mostly skyscapes and with those she knew that phone was hers.
A while later nurse came in to take the tray and to make sure that Lucy was doing well. She gave Lucy the controller to the TV and left telling Lucy she would be back in few hours. Lucy flipped on the TV and found only infomercials. She sighed and shifted under the too thin blanket then a very urgent feeling came over her. She threw off the blanket and swung her legs over the bed. Slowly, she stood, she didn't know what to expect, but she stood just fine. Then she hurried to the bathroom to relieve herself.