The next morning I wake up to find Calleigh unconscious. Although I knew the odds, I couldn't help but feel disappointed that she hadn't awaken yet. I continued to stare at her for awhile, silently hoping that she would wake up. After about 15 minutes, I slowly stood up and stretched. Man, sleeping in a chair is painful. I head back home to take a shower and to change my clothes. Then I returned to the hospital to spend the rest of the day with Calleigh. That is basically my daily routine. I didn't eat anything because I was sinking into some strange sort of depression. I felt empty without Calleigh or Gabriella around. I want to pick my little girl up, but I'm afraid that my attitude won't be healthy for her. I called Alexx and she reminded me that Gabriella was welcome to stay as long she needed to. Like I said, Alexx is the best.
For the next week and a half I followed that same routine. I was given time off of work to stay with Calleigh and my boss was strangely understanding. He must know how I feel. When H came to see me, he said that I should eat something because I was getting thin and I looked pale. There were dark bruises forming underneath my eyes because I was losing more and more hours of sleep each night. I was lost and dead to the world.
On Thursday morning, I woke up feeling tired since I barely got any sleep. I opened my eyes to a bright and sunny room and I shut them quickly. I tried opening them again, and this time I succeeded. I stretched my arms a bit, before raising up from the chair and beginning my daily routine.
When I reached home I took my shower and got dressed in......well I have no idea what I got dressed into because I couldn't care less. I walked back downstairs and I passed a mirror on my way to the door. I caught my reflection in the glass and H was right, I looked bad. My stomach growled. Maybe I should get something to eat before I go. I went into the the kitchen.
"Hmm, what can I eat?" I muttered to myself. I scanned the cabinets for some goods, but came up empty. Damn. Calleigh is the one who usually remembers to go grocery shopping. I sighed. I'm not really hungry anymore. But I guess I should eat anyway. I grabbed a roll and decided to make a turkey sandwich. I sliced the roll, buttered it, and piled on lettuce,tomato, and turkey. I have to admit, this sandwich looks pretty good.
I went to living room and sat on the couch with my delicious turkey sandwich. I flicked on the television with the remote and the news channel was on. I quickly changed the channel because the news is evil....very evil. I hate the news. I changed it to some kind of Spanish soap opera and decided to watch that. I continued to eat my sandwich all throughout the program. Even when my I finished my sandwich, I continued to watch the rest of the show. When that one was I finished, I watched the next few episodes since they were having a marathon. By the 8th episode I was hooked. There was just so much drama. Man, now I know why women love this so much. It keeps you on the edge of your seat, wanting more. When the marathon was over, another show came on and it was like 10x less exciting than what I was watching before. About halfway through I drifted off to sleep in the middle of a love scene between two guys.
SOME HOURS LATAAA...
I woke up with the sun shining in my face..again. I got up and changed my clothes not even bothering to take another shower. I jumped into my shiny silver vehicle and sped off to the hospital. Before I went up to her room, I stopped in the gift shop and bought her another bouquet of tulips in assorted colors of pink, yellow, and white. Those were her favorite colors and I thought that her room could use a bit of brightening up.
When I reached her floor, the H and the rest of the gang had smiles full of relief on their faces. When they spotted me they threw me even bigger smiles of relief. If only they knew how creepy they looked... Alexx had Gabriella in her arms and they were the only two who looked upset. A worried expression crossed my face.
"Alexx, what's up with everybody?"
"Well, Calleigh woke up last night and everyone is relieved." she said with a slight smile. I grinned widely. I swear, my heart just skipped a beat. I can't believe that she's actually is awake. I felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. A huge weight.
"Oh Alexx, that's great! But what's wrong with Gabriella?" I asked, lifting her from Alexx's arms.
She sighed. "Honey, Calleigh doesn't remember her. She doesn't even remember that you two were dating, much less married. "
What?! Bullshit...bullshit..."Oh no. How long will this last?"
"Maybe a couple of weeks or so, depending on how long it takes for her memory to return. But until then, we all have to go along with what she remembers because this type of thing can really harm her recovery process if we're not careful."
I sighed. Just when I get my Calleigh back, some other shit just has to come out of nowhere and ruin it. I mean I knew she would have memory loss, but I thought that maybe she would be confused about where she was and stuff, not that she would forget that we were married and had a little girl! That is the type of thing you just don't forget. But then again, I can't be mad at her. It wasn't her fault that she couldn't remember. I am going to have to keep reminding myself. It is not her fault. It is not her fault. It is not her fault.
"Thanks, Alexx. But if she asks about Gabriella, what do I say?"
She thought for a moment. "Honestly, Eric, I think you should just hold off on the whole Gabriella idea until she begins to remember. We tried to jog her memory before but she came up unresponsive and even more confused. I don't want to say that you should avoid having her near Calleigh, but just try not to mention her if you don't have to. Remember, we don't want to harm the recovery process. I'm so sorry."
Gabriella buried her head in my shoulder. Somehow she understood that she couldn't see Calleigh and it was upsetting her.
"Princesa, how about we go to the Arts N' Crafts store after we leave the hospital? How does that sound?"
She lifted her head and smiled brightly. "Oh, we can go there?" she asked softly.
"Yes, Princesa, we can." She wrapped her arms around my neck, squeezing it once again. I wished she'd lay off of the strangling for awhile. She thanked me and I put her down. When I stood up, Ryan looked at me and mouthed 'How do you do that?' I shrugged and mouthed back 'I have no idea'. He laughed and shook his head. I walked to Calleigh's room door. I hesitated to open the door. Maybe she wouldn't want to talk to me. Maybe she'll be asleep. I should just go No. I shook those thoughts out of my head and opened the door anyway. And you would never guess what I saw.
Wolverine was making out with Calleigh. My heart started to break all over again. So she remembers that they were dating, but not that we're married. This sucks. I can't believe that I have to play along with this. What if she never remembers? There still is a slight chance that she won't feel the same way about me and Gabriella and that she'll stay with Jake. This is so frustrating...
I cleared my throat, interrupting them. Calleigh was the first to look at me.
"Oh, hey Eric!" she said wiping the corners of her mouth. Why?! Why?! Why?! This is just so twisted...
"Hey Calleigh." I said with a surprisingly believable smile on my face.
"Sorry about that.." She shot Jake a death glare. Ha-ha.
"No need to apologize." I said walking over the other side of the bed, NOT occupied by Wolverine. " I just came to bring you these." I held up the tulips.
"Oh thanks, Eric. I love them. How did you know my favorite colors?"
"You're welcome, hon - Calleigh." This is killing me. I placed them on the nightstand and kissed her on the cheek. "Feel better." I was about to leave the room ( unfortunately ) to let her continue with Jake, but she grabbed my wrist and stopped me.
"Wait...could you stay for awhile? Please?" she asked smiling a dazzling smile that I couldn't resist.
"Sure...." There's hope!
She gave Jake a look. "Jake, do think I could talk to Eric alone for a moment?"
He looked surprised for a moment. " Oh, yeah sure. I'll be out in the hallway." He kissed her fully on the lips for a little longer than necessary and looked at me when he pulled away. He is so milking this, taking advantage of my wife's memory loss..... I only wish that she'd remember and that she wouldn't kiss him back willingly.
She smiled as he left the room, and when he left she turned to me. "Eric, I'm sorry for keeping you here. I just really missed you."
"It's fine, Calleigh, really."
"Good." she said with a smile.
We sat in a comfortable silence for awhile and then I heard a soft snoring noise coming from her bed. "Calleigh?"
She didn't respond. She must be asleep then. I settled in my chair and shut my eyes. I drifted off to sleep listening to the soft sound of her snoring, which I loved so much.
2 HOURS LATAAA
I woke up to the fast beeping of the heart monitor. Calleigh was thrashing around violently in her sleep. 3 nurses came running in the room. "What happened?" one of them asked as the other two tried to hold her down and restrain her. I shrugged. The nurse turned back towards Calleigh, who began to scream. After a couple of minutes, her eyes shot open and she stopped moving and screaming. She was sweating and breathing heavily and there were tears in her eyes. She started trembling. "It-It h-hurts. Make it s-stop. Please" she breathed softly.
The nurses exchanged glances. "We'll have one of the doctors come in" one of them said. They left the room whispering, leaving Calleigh and I by ourselves. She started to move again so I grabbed her hand and rubbed comforting circles on the back of it with my thumb.
"Shh, shh, calm down, Cal. You'll be fine." I hope. She started to calm down a bit, but she continued to cry, sweat, and breath heavily. A doctor came rushing in.
"What's the problem?"
"I have no clue. She keeps muttering about something hurting her."
He began to feel gently around her abdomen and my guess is that he hit a sensitive spot because she let out a loud shriek. "Well, she tore open her spleen again, so we're going to have to either repair it or remove it. She needs to go into surgery immediately for a splenectomy." The doctor called a couple of nurses in and they wheeled Calleigh out of the room. I followed them out of the room and was about to follow them down to the operating room when Alexx stopped me.
"Don't go, honey, it'll be too much." I wanted to protest, but she was probably right. "Take Gabriella to that store she loves so much. She kept asking for you while you were in there with Calleigh, you know."
I looked over at my angel. She was fast asleep on a chair, with her head in H's lap. My heart broke at the sight of her. I haven't been spending time with her and she must feel horrible without either of her parents around. "Alexx, why is she asleep? Didn't she get enough sleep last night?"
She shook her head slowly. "No, not really. She really does miss you."
"Alright, Alexx. Thanks for letting her stay with you. I'll take her home tonight, because I really miss her, and I want to talk to her about Calleigh."
"Sure" she said with worried eyes. I walked over to H.
"Eric, how is she?"
"She's, ah, bad. She tore open her spleen again so they have to remove it." I scratched my head.
H didn't say anything, but the look in his eyes told me that he understood. He went through the same thing with Marisol. "Well, are you going to be alright?"
"Yeah, Yeah, I'll be fine." I said, scooping up Gabriella.
"Let me know if you need anything." He threw me a halfhearted smile as I carried Gabriella down to the elevator. She woke up when we reached the ground level.
"Daddy..." she muttered slowly. "Are we going to the Arts N' Crafts store?"
"Si, princesa. We'll be there soon."
"Mm hmm" she mumbled happily.
We jumped into the car and went to the Arts N' Crafts store. By the time we reached the parking lot, Gabriella was fully alert and awake, talking to me about things that were totally irrelevant.
"Daddy, what are we going to get?"
"What would you like?"
"Grilled Cheese."
"What?"
"I want to get paints, crayons, paper, glitter.."
"We have all that stuff already, you know."
"Do we have cheese to make grilled cheese?"
"Huh?"
"Daddy, I want to be a princess for Halloween."
"That's great, sweetheart...."
The only thing that could make her act that random is sugar, and in order for her to be that out of it, she must have eaten like a king sized bag of Skittles or something. But I guess I can't complain. I needed some kind of distraction to keep my mind off of Calleigh and that surgery. I mean, isn't she like at a higher risk for infections since she can't fight them off? What if she gets some crazy infection and...dies? Let me stop over-thinking things because I just need to be hopeful and pray for the best. Even if a small part of me is focusing on the worst.
I pulled into a spot close to the entrance of the store. Gabriella took off her seatbelt and waited for me to open the door. When I opened it, she hopped out onto the pavement. She grabbed my hand, pulling me towards the entrance of the store. As soon as we went inside the store, I grabbed a cart and soon enough it was filled with.....stuff. And it wasn't small stuff either. She went all out. Gabriella picked out a large set of markers in a spectrum of colors, a large (and I mean large) container of Model Magic (A/N For those who don't know, Model Magic is like Play-doh but it's used for art projects, sculptures, etc....search it on the Internet and you'll see what I mean...let the story continue =D), some stickers,a few pads of paper...scratch that....many pads of paper, and since she wanted to draw trucks and bears, I bought books on trucks on bears. Even if she can't read, she still likes to (attempt to) draw them and they will last for awhile since she respects her books.
Before we even reached the check-out line, Gabriella spotted candy and decided she wanted some. I decided against it, but her wide, pleading brown eyes made me consider it. What's the harm? Shes already bouncing of the walls anyway so this honestly couldn't hurt. I hesitantly agreed, and she ran off to get some.
"Eric?" The woman in front off me had turned around and I recognized her from college.
"Jen?" Jennifer used to be my best friend I have no idea how we split up, but I guess after we got our diplomas we just separated and took different paths. I squeezed around my cart to give her a hug.
"Oh my god! I have missed you so much! Where have you been these past years? I haven't seen you in like ages!" she said as she unloaded her shopping from her cart.
"I've been around. You know, Jen, we have to hook up later, right? I mean, there's no way I'm letting you slip through my fingers again. I've missed you too much." I said smiling. Wow, I actually smiled a genuine smile. That's something I haven't done in awhile. I reached across her stomach to help her unpack her things from her cart.
"Thanks for the help and yes you're right. We have to meet up again. Definitely." She had trouble pulling out the last thing, so I helped her out. While her things were being rung up, we exchanged phone numbers.
"Eric, what are you doing tomorrow?" I thought for a moment. Gabriella is going to see my mother so...
"I'm free."
"Great. Do you want to meet up by the marina?"
"Sure, I'd love to. What time?"
"12? We could do lunch on a boat. I'll bring the drinks and you can cook, because I love your cooking."
"Deal. But only if you make those awesome smoothies. Oh and that delicious red velvet cake."
"Deal." she handed the cashier her credit card and signed her name. She grabbed her bags and put them in her shopping cart. I helped her load them back in.
"Call me." she called out as she walked off with her cart.
"Not if you don't call me!" I yelled back. She laughed. I began to unload my things onto the belt as Gabriella came running back with a bag of gummy bears. She put them with the other things and wrapped her arms around one of my legs.
"Princesa, what took you so long? You didn't get to meet my friend."
She shrugged. "There's a lot of candy here."
I chuckled and continued to load my things. The cashier rung them up slowly. How long does this actually have to take? Good God. Finally when the Turtle finished ringing up the items, I took out my wallet and payed him. I grabbed the cart and led Gabriella to the car. I packed all the shopping in the trunk before leading Gabriella to the side of the car to strap her in.
"Daddy, tomorrow can we go to the beach?"
"Not tomorrow, sweetheart. You have to go to Manuela's house, remember? She really is looking forward to seeing you." I said as I strapped her into the car. She crossed her arms. Oh, no. I can feel a fight coming on.
"No. I don't want to go. I want to stay with you."
Let me play the nice card first. "Princesa, Abuela misses you. She's making your favorite cookies."
"No! I want to stay home! I don't wanna see Abuela!"
Let me try one more time. "Princesa, you'll have fun. Please go for me and mommy?"
"NO! I'M NOT GONNA GO!" she yelled, her cheeks flushing.
Okay ,usually Calleigh would be the one to deal with this because she has some strange female connection with her. But since that's not an option, I'm going to have to do it. Alright so let me set her straight. I'll use that word that Calleigh uses...Missy. That must have some affect. Right? "Listen, Missy. You are going to your grandmother's house and that's FINAL. I don't want to hear ANY complaints. Understand?" I must have hit a soft spot because she frowned and stuck her bottom lip out. She turned her face away from me so I sighed and shut the door. At least it worked.
I walked to my door, jumped in, and drove off in the direction of our home. To be honest, coming home sucks. Sure, it's my home, and I have Gabriella to keep me company, but my wife, the love of my life, is in the hospital. Home is not home if she's not there by my side. It's killing me now. Jake/Wolverine gets to hold her and kiss her; He gets to do all the things that I wish I could do. I bet he's probably going to try to build up their relationship again. And I can't do jack about it. Bull-shit.
We pulled up into the driveway. I turned the key in the ignition, turning the engine off. I got the car and walked around to Gabriella's side of the car. I opened the door. Maybe she'll be happier now. "Gabi?"
She had already taken off her seatbelt so she leaped out of the car and walked past me with a cold, pissed expression on her face. Well, excuse me. When did my little angel turn into this woman with attitude? Dang. I shut the door and got the bags out the trunk. They were pretty heavy, but its not like anyone was around to help me so I struggled with them all the way to the door. I had a bit of problems with my keys and Gabriella was standing on the steps impatiently. I finally got the right key into the lock (after some....minor setbacks). Gabriella sulked inside and flopped on the couch, burying her face into the seat. Sigh. I can already imagine what she's going to act like as a teenager. I put the bags down and sat next to her.
"Gabriella," I said softly, trying to comfort her. "Why are you so upset?"
"You and Mommy don't want to see me anymore."
"No, you're wrong. We both love you. More than you think."
"Why doesn't Mommy want to see me?"
"She does, but she's sick. She got hurt badly, and she doesn't remember that we're a family. It might be awhile before Mommy comes home again." I doubt that she even cares about what I just said. I've been like legally neglecting her and I can understand how she must feel right now.
"NO! You are lying. I hate you!" Her lip started to quiver again, but this time, her eyes filled with tears. She turned her face away from me again, just like she had in the car. That could only mean one thing: she's going to cry. Now, Gabriella doesn't cry much because Calleigh usually works her mommy magic to fix the situation. But since she's not here, things are going to spiral downwards. I could never stand to see girls cry, even from when I was younger with my sisters. It always made me feel sad because I always tried to make my sisters smile. So if she starts to cry, I don't know what I'm going to do.
She began to whimper softly. "Princesa, please don't cry" I pleaded with her. She cries just like Calleigh. It starts off slow, then the tears hit you full force with a large BANG! She continued to whimper and then the whimpering turned into sobbing, which, as expected, turns into the full force crying.
It was HORRIBLE! She just wouldn't stop. She had buried her face into a pillow, and when I tried to wrap my arms around her, she pushed me off. And the volume kept escalating. It would quiet down for a bit, then just start all over again in a louder tone. Other parents advise me to just leave her alone and let her get it all out because you don't want her to think you'll spoil her. But how can you just leave a crying little girl like that? That's wrong. WRONG! I sat by her for a bit longer before she jumped off the couch and sped up to her room. She slammed the door forcefully behind her. I sighed and stared down at the beige pillow she had been holding. It had a dark, wet spot where her face had been in addition to quite a bit of snot on the edge. Gross. Since there was no use in even trying to make amends with her, I turning to my best friend - Television.
I hit the POWER button and the screen flicked on. Since that dumb show that I didn't like was on the soap channel, I switched it over to Noggin. Yes, I watch Noggin. It really does help to know about these shows if they are all your child talks about. When I switched it on, three pictures were displayed and I had to figure out which one was different, which didn't exactly take rocket science to figure out. I watched a couple more shows before I dozed off during some commercials.
1 HOUR LATAA
I awoke to find a picture stuck to my chest with glue. It was a picture of me, Calleigh and Gabriella holding hands next to Calleigh's MDPD Hummer. It said 'Dady I sorey. Lave Gabriella.' (A/N For the slow people who didn't get the message, it meant 'Daddy, I'm sorry. Love, Gabriella.' Now finish the chapter. =D). I smiled. It doesn't matter that she ruined a perfectly new shirt with her glitter glue. I'm just happy that she's forgiven me. See? Everything is all good.