Chapter 2
Letty is sitting on her hospital bed. She's just gotten back from another series of tests. She is feeling quite discouraged about her lack of progress in regaining her memory.
"Well, we're going to have to call you something. Let's think. Kristin?"
Letty shakes her head and makes a face.
"Isabella." Dr. Taylor suggests.
"I don't think so."
"Lily."
"Lily? Do I really look like a Lily to you?"
"Lilies are beautiful flowers. That's why I bring them to you everyday."
"Are you flirting with me Dr. Taylor?"
"Eric. And not until you're released. I'm not allowed to flirt with my patients."
Dr. Taylor was visiting Letty for the 32nd day in a row. He has come to see her everyday since she rolled past him on a stretcher in to the ER. He volunteered to take her on as a patient wanting to make sure she was okay.
Letty had been in the hospital all this time and still had yet to remember one single thing about herself or her life before she woke up here. All her medical charts said Jane Doe, but no one called her Jane. No one called her anything.
She was due to be released from the hospital in just under a week and had no memory of where she was from. She also had no idea where she was going.
"So next week?" Eric said pulling her thoughts into their conversation.
"Yep."
"And you're going to go where?"
"No clue," she answers honestly.
Eric takes a deep breath and moves from his chair to the bed.
"I have a suggestion that is rather out of line and presumptuous of me, but I'm going to say it anyway."
Letty raises an eyebrow at him and waits for him to continue.
"Move into my flat."
"What!"
He holds up his hands.
"Hear me out. I have plenty of space. More rooms and bathrooms than I'll ever need. You'd have all the privacy you need because I work a lot. I mean you know for a fact that I'm always at this hospital."
"Yes, you do always seem to be here."
"It can be as long or as little as you need. I'll not try anything ungentlemanly. I swear. I just can't let you walk out of this hospital with nowhere to go and no money. I'd drive myself insane with worry."
Letty doesn't answer. She pulls her knees up to her chest. Eric stands up and prepares to leave.
"Just think about it."
Letty looks over at the flowers he brought that day and all the days before.
"Eric."
He turns back to her from the doorway.
"I like the name Lily. Let's go with that."
Dom wakes up late in the morning. He's in the bed in the second bedroom of his apartment. He is unable to sleep in the room he once shared with Letty. The bed where they'd taken such pleasure in each other for years.
Living here was torture enough. The apartment they'd had dreams in. The apartment they were moving out of in a few short weeks. Into the house they'd had built as a wedding gift to themselves. He couldn't live there either.
But more than the apartment and the unfinished house, he knew never again could he sleep in that bed.
He realizes after a few seconds that the phone is ringing.
He rolls over and the grabs the cordless.
"Yeah?"
"Hey Dom. It's Mia."
"Hi Mia."
"Can you let me in? The latch is on."
It takes a few seconds for the words to sink in.
"I don't want any company. Please go away."
"No Dom, open the damn door."
After a few seconds, "Okay."
He gets up and pads down the hall to the front door. He closes it and unlatches it, then lets Mia in.
"Dom, I've been calling you for three days."
"I didn't feel like talking."
Dom flops onto the couch and Mia puts his mail on the coffee table.
"Dom you have to help me out here. These are bills and cards and the contracts on the house. I need you to help me."
"Just throw it all out."
Dom doesn't even look up at her or down at the mail.
"Dom, I need access to your accounts and I can take care of all of this for you. Just please help me help you."
He rubs his face in his hands and sits forward on the couch. He struggles to engage in the conversation with his sister.
"Okay. What do you need?"
Mia unfolds a piece of paper.
"Sign this at the x. It's so the workers will finish the house."
"I'm not going to live there now," his eyes wide with pain at the thought.
"I know Dom, but I can't sell an unfinished house. I also need your check book. Where is it?"
Dom tries really hard to focus on what Mia is asking. But he's distracted with thoughts of the house.
"What?"
"Damn it! Your check book. I have to pay the mortgage on the house and the condo. Dom, you don't want to lose that house or this place."
"In the desk drawer."
Mia gets up and goes to the desk and gets the check book. She walks back and hands him another piece of paper.
"Sign this one too Dom."
"What's this one Mia?"
"It makes me the executor of your affairs financial and otherwise. I can't keep going through this fight with you Dom. I have the kids to take care of."
Tears form in her eyes.
"I need to be able to take care of you even when you shut me out."
"I'm sorry Mia."
She starts to cry. "I understand. I get it. If I could afford to fall apart I would too. But I can't Dom. I need this stuff so you can."
Dom signs the paperwork. He wills himself to feel guilty for what his absence is doing to Mia. But he can't. He can't think of anything but Letty. How she's not here. How she never will be again. How he just wants to shut himself away with his grief and loss. The pain was immense and suffocating but it's all he has of her now and he'll take it.
He walks over to his sister and pulls her into a hug.
"I love you Mia."
"I know you do Dom. I love you too. Let me fix you something to eat."
"No Mia, you'd waste your time. I wouldn't eat it. I'm exhausted and I actually fell asleep this morning and I want to go back to bed."
"Dom…"
"I just want to go back to bed. I'll take your calls from now on Mia and I won't latch the door."
"Dom…"
"It's all I can do Mia." He eyes burning with his grief.
He walks back down the hall and climbs into the bed in his guest room.
Six days later Letty walks into Eric's apartment with him. He leads her to the room with the attached bathroom that will be hers.
After she's settled she joins him in the kitchen for dinner.
"And you cook too."
"My mother was a chef so I kind of have to."
"So what are you doing here in LA?"
"My sister moved here and married a football, I guess you call it soccer, player. She's the only living family member I had left and I figured I could be a doctor anywhere. So here I am."
"Lucky for me you picked California."
"I think what you mean to say is lucky for me."
A/N - Poor Dom. I'm so sad for him whenever I read this.
