Disclaimer: The characters are property of Janet Evanovich and I am not making any money from this story. The story line is mine.
The Upside of DownPart Two
By, Elissahara30
I squeezed Ranger's hand in mine, and tears of relief started to make tracks down my face. He was there and he's alive. There was so much I wanted say, so many questions I needed to ask, and so much right now that I didn't understand. That could wait, right now I couldn't take my eyes off his face, and my heart ached with the need to be close to him.
Ranger brushed the tears from my face using his thumb, and he gently caressed my cheek. I leaned into his touch, "Are you in pain?" He asked me, his voice soft and full of emotion.
Oh, god I was. It was a pain so bad that it couldn't compare to anything that had ever happened to me physically. But that wasn't what he was asking me, so I shook my head no. I closed my eyes and breathed in his scent, and there I felt it. That physical ping, that always happened when he was near. I felt his lips brushed over mine, and it stole my breath away. I opened my eyes and looked into his, and they were so open, I could every emotion there and the foremost in them was love.
"I nearly lost you this time, Babe." His voice broke and he brought my hand up to his face and kissed my palm. My eyes tracked from his face to our joined hand, and my heart stuttered. We had wedding rings on, and the pattern was identical to both. He noticed were my eyes had focused and a look of confusion crossed his face.
"Stephanie, are you alright, do you remember what happened?" No, this isn't alright. I knew we weren't married. All of sudden I couldn't breathe, I felt hot and black dots swam before my eyes. The mantra of, this isn't real, this isn't real, ran repeatedly through my mind.
Ranger hit the panic button on the com panel by my bed, and my hospital room was of a sudden full of nurses and one of them made Ranger leave over his protests. I was fussed over and prodded and eventually one of them gave me a sedative in my IV, because I calmed down and Ranger came back into my room followed by what I assumed was the doctor.
"Hello, Stephanie. I'm Dr. Berrnet." I gave him a wan smile as he sat down on one of those roll around stools. "I was explaining to your husband that with your type of head injury it's possible to have reactions like you did."
"How?" was all I managed to say. How was Ranger my husband? How did I get a head injury? What the hell was going on?
"You were in a head on car collision three days ago and you've been in a coma since. It's very common for people to lose their memories of recent events. Sometimes for longer spaces of time. Your husband mentioned your panic attack started when you focused on your wedding ring, do you remember being married to Carlos?"
"I'm not married," my raw voice broke out.
I watched as Ranger's face took on a pained expression, "Babe, we've been married for eleven years."
No, not possible. I hadn't even known Ranger for eleven years. Hell that would mean I was married to Ranger the same time I had been married to Dickie. I started to feel my head hurt as I began to shake my head in an emphatic No!
"Ranger, I haven't even known you that long." I rasped out.
A dark looked crossed Ranger's face as he said, "Who in hell is Ranger?"
I started to feel my chest tighten again as I started to cry. What was going on, why I was being tortured this way. The doctor stood up and pushed my angry husband out of the door. I could hear Ranger arguing with the doctor, but at that point I didn't care. I felt the apathy take over and I carefully turned on my side away from the voices outside. I took in a shuddering breath and fell into a fitful sleep.
When I woke up again, I was in my old room at my parent's house.
TBC . . . .
A/N: Confused yet? Good.
