Thanks to Kadi219 and Narcissanerea both for beta-reading this and helping me to understand a lot of things I didn't know. And also for the patience with my mistakes.
Also thanks to everyone for reviews and sticking with me. Again I'm sure there will be mistakes and it's all my fault, but it's not my first language and I'm doing this for fun. So bare with me, I'm still learning.
After few days in the hospital, meeting with people she had no memory of and doing more and more tests, it was finally time to go back home. She felt excited to be free of the confines of the hospital, but feared not being able to recognize her own things. At times the amnesia was really exhausting and frustrating, but on the other hand, it was helping her discovering things she might just have taken for granted.
Walking through the door of her condo filled her with weird sensations. It felt like she knew the place already and yet found herself in some place that did not seem to be her style. She walked through the entrance slowly looking around and stopped at a framed picture "These are our children, Emily and Ricky. Well, Richard but we all call him Ricky" said Jack just entering with her bags.
"Hey mom" came a voice from down the hall. Sharon looked and saw the cute guy of the hospital.
"Hey, it's Rusty, right?" he nodded hugging her.
"So we have three kids and two are not living here with us?" She questioned, holding the frame in her hands.
"Yes, Emily lives in New York and Ricky is in Palo Alto, but they come visit when they can. Can't stay away from their parents too long, I guess" Jack put down the bags and moved to the kitchen. Rusty rolled his eyes to at his words. He knew Jack was lying and didn't care to put false information into her head. The doctors made sure to explain that Sharon had to live in a free-stress environment and recommended slowly giving her tiny bits of information in order to make her brain start to remember, rather than telling everything about her life at once.
When they left the hospital the nurse gave Sharon a prescription for painkillers the she could take if she became overwhelmed by. The nurse had also scheduled a few appointments in the upcoming days with a psychologist to her channel the maelstrom of thoughts and memories running chaotically through her mind.
"So what do you want for lunch?" Jack asked "There's nothing in the fridge" he closed the door and turned where he stood. His frustration was obvious. "Kid, what have you been doing all morning?"
"Sorry Jack, I tried to make the house look decent after the mess that you made in just one night"
Sharon was surprised to hear the young man calling him by name, but she thought maybe he was attempting to better emphasize his sarcastic response by using his name, rather than calling him 'dad'.
"I'll go get some take-out food. Chinese?" Rusty grabbed his car keys from the small table at the entrance.
"Mexican. Sharon enjoys that better, don't you?" replied Jack looking at Sharon
"No she doesn't… and it also costs more! She enjoys Chinese more." said Rusty annoyed with Jack's constant attempts at misleading Sharon. This prompted a series of quick and sarcastic responses to one another as each of the two men tried to take the lead in how Sharon should be cared for and what she would prefer.
"Anything is fine with me, really. Just grab whatever you feel like, Rusty. Do you need money?" Sharon interrupted the exchange before it could become too heated.
"He has the money. He works, let him buy you lunch." Jack smiled at the boy with an arrogant grin.
Sharon walked towards the door with Rusty, "Thank you!" she said with a smile before closing the door. Coming back to the kitchen she looked at Jack "Why are you so hard on him? He was being nice. I'm sure he doesn't need you to-" she was interrupted by Jack snorting. "Look, if you are going to help me remember, then you also have to take a little more effort in being kind to him. I don't know what your problem is, but we can talk about it if you want. You're his father, he looks to you as a role model. Can you please be a little bit more patient with him? For me?"
"Okay" his reply was barely audible.
"Thank you. I'm going to take a shower and get changes while he is gone, okay?" Sharon already felt exhausted and needed to relax.
"Well, if you need help scrubbing your back…" his look was naughty and he tried to kiss her.
"For the moment, I'd prefer to keep a certain distance, if you don't mind. All I know about you is that your name is Jack and that we have three kids. I'm trying to get used being married. We can go slowly, right? I'm not going anywhere, anyway!" she smiled taking a step back from him.
He watched her walking to the bathroom, not responding to her request.
When Sharon came out of the shower, feeling refreshed, she noticed that he hadn't even set the table. "I thought you were going to set the table?" she questioned gently.
"The doctor said you have to learn to do everyday things again, so I thought you'd do it and find out where things are."
It seemed like an excuse for not doing it, but she had to admit he might not be wrong and she did need to learn the little things first to live her daily life. She started to explore around to find the tablecloth, napkins, cutlery and glasses. After searching for awhile she asked for his help. He was reading the newspaper on the sofa and stood up, exhaling loudly. After telling her where everything was she found the tablecloth and napkins but forgot where he said the cutlery was so she asked him again. She surely didn't expect him to get mad for her asking again.
When Rusty entered the door with the food he heard Jack raising his voice and calling her stupid and accusing her of not focusing, he immediately ran to the kitchen. "Hey! Get away from her!" Rusty began to yell too.
"It's fine Rusty, everything's fine. He's right. He has told countless times and I keep forgetting. It's alright, now I understand. Thanks, Jack and I'm sorry I bothered you." She moved towards Rusty to take the food "So, what did you get?" her smile was more sad than happy.
"Chinese" he eyed Jack harshly "I got your favorites, dumplings with steamed vegetables and mushrooms". Rusty put the bags on the counter and went to take off his jacket.
Lunch passed in near silence except when Sharon asked a question, trying to remember her children's names "I would like to call Emily and Richard later. I want to hear their voices, maybe it will help?" she asked.
"If they're not busy" Jack rudely replied.
"I'm sure they'll be happy to hear from you, mom!" Rusty said, countering Jack's rudeness.
Soon after they finished eating, Sharon felt the need to lay down and rest a bit, while Jack sat on the sofa watching TV, leaving Rusty to clean the table and dishes. When she woke up two hours later, Jack was still on that sofa, eating chips, and laughing at a movie, while Rusty had gone to his bedroom. She gently knocked on the door. "May I?" she asked. Rusty welcomed her in. She closed the door behind her and sat at the end of the bed. "Look. I know that you and your father have-" she was interrupted immediately.
"He's not my father." Sharon looked at him and he realized he was confusing her "I was adopted" he clarified.
"Oh, so you're not biologically ours?"
"No, you adopted me two years ago!"
"Okay, so Emily and Ricky are our children and Rusty is adopted. Alright, understood!" she smiled "Anyway, we live under the same roof and he's older than you. I know you didn't do anything bad before, but can you please try to be more patient with him? It's not easy to deal with him, I realize but… it would be nice to be in a calmer environment. Do you think you can do this thing, for me?" she asked him the same thing she had asked Jack, feeling quite certain that it would have had a better result with Rusty. She wasn't sure why, it was a strong feeling nonetheless.
Rusty seemed to want to argue, but he took a deep breath instead "Okay mom, I will try… for you!"
Sharon smiled at him and gave him a kiss on the forehead before leaving the room, but when she reached the door, Rusty stopped her.
"Mom?" she turned "Just… don't always believe what he says". When he saw her nod, he went back to looking at his computer.
Those words made Sharon suspicious and she wondered what he meant by that. While she wanted to believe her own husband wouldn't lie to her, in the past couple of days and especially the last few hours, it seemed that Rusty was much more reliable than Jack.
She went back to the living room where Jack was laughing loudly at the movie "May I?" she said smiling and pointing to the spot next to him. He nodded and she sat trying to get more comfortable with his presence next to her.
After the movie had finished Jack grabbed his jacket "I'm going out for a while" he didn't say where he was going or when exactly he was going to be back, leaving her sitting on the couch by herself.
Rusty had left already an hour before to go to the library. She learnt in the past few hours that the kid was in college and during weekends he had a part-time job as a server at a nearby restaurant to save money. He was a good kid, very well educated, and diligent.
After few minutes of looking around, she spotted a photo album on the shelf underneath the TV and decided to have a look at it, to see if anything helped her memory. Looking through the photos she only saw faces she couldn't recognize. She spotted her children, now that she knew who they were, and Jack; but, then there were a lot of people who she supposed were siblings or relatives but she wasn't sure. It wasn't until she saw a group photo, in a place that she couldn't recognize, that she felt something familiar. There were two other women in the photo with her and she spotted Rusty too, as well as six men; she didn't recognize any of them except one. The one who was in the ambulance with her, whose voice reassured her during the ride to the hospital. He was smiling, standing right next to her, and again he was holding her hand.
All of a sudden the doorbell rang, distracting her from looking at the photo. Putting the album on the coffee table, she went to the door and opened it. Standing in front of her was a big bouquet of flowers and from behind it, appeared the man.
"Andy!" she smiled at him, realizing that he had never told her his name, but she remembered it.
