Throughout lunch Joshua told him as much about Stephanie and her family as he could before he had to go back to his Mom.
Now that they were alone Paul could feel his sister's eyes on him, "What?!"
"Why are you doing all of this Paul? Stephanie seems like she has a long road of recovery in front of her and she has nobody else so you are literally her only support and that is a lot for anybody to take on."
Sighing heavily he sat back in his chair, "Didn't we already go over this? I just want to do something useful for somebody. She has literally lost everything, her family, her memories and her actual memory. This past week she has been having terrifying nightmares about the crash and I have been the only person that has been able to comfort her. I realise this is because I have been around a lot but at this point she needs me and I am more than happy to be there for her. You don't have to like or agree with what I am doing, all I ask is that you just stop trying to talk me out of it because it just isn't going to happen."
Lynn didn't understand why he was doing it, she understood that Stephanie was clinging to him as he had been there consistently but his desire to do it in the first place confused her. However saying all of that she didn't want to lose her brother so she was going to have to bite her tongue and let him get on with it. "I won't try and talk you out of it, if it gets too much though could you please promise me that you will walk away and also that you are taking good care of yourself."
"I am taking good care of myself. One of the Nurses here acts like my Mother and she wouldn't possibly let me overdo it, she insists on regular breaks for food etc etc, if you don't believe me then ask any of the Nurses, they will be certain to tell you that what I am telling you. I need to get back to Stephanie though as I promised her that we could go out again this afternoon if she was still up to it."
She let her brother leave as there was no point in trying to get him to stay. Despite major revelations about Stephanie's life and health she still had major reservations and nothing was going to change that.
Returning to the ICU Paul smiled at the Nurse, "Can I leave a note for the Doctor please?"
"Sure thing. What is it that you want him to know?"
Leaving a note to tell the Doctor what he had learned about Stephanie he then made his way in to her room to check up on her after lunch.
It felt like he had been gone forever to Stephanie because she had long since finished her lunch and he had yet to return so part of her thought that he had actually left for the day.
When he walked back through the door she was so surprised to see him. "How was lunch?"
"Informative. Despite the fact that my sister stuck around and wouldn't take 'go away' for an answer I learned a lot. How was yours?"
"The food was okay and there was no company so I would say that it was better than yours if only because I apparently didn't have to put up with your sister and you did when the two of you are fighting."
"Well that is something." Taking a seat on the edge of the bed he really didn't know what to do with her this afternoon but he decided to give her the opportunity to choose, "So what would you like to do this afternoon?"
She had thought long and hard over lunch about what she would like to do and the answer was nothing, "Can we just stay here please? I don't want to be around people."
"Of course we can. Let me see if I can work out how to get us a television or something to keep us occupied."
After a relaxing afternoon with Stephanie Paul left ICU and turned his phone back on only for it to immediately beep which he expected to be his sister complaining about something, against his better judgement he opened it.
Hi Paul it's Cassie. I've just had a call from the Cops and they said they can help us get in to Steph's house whenever we want, we may have to wait at the house if they're busy but they will get there. When are you free?
Finally there was good news and the sooner they did it the better.
I can do tomorrow. I'll pop back in and tell Stephanie that I'm not sure what time I'll be in tomorrow and then the sooner we get it over with the better for Stephanie.
After sending the text he turned right back around to go back and see Stephanie.
Paul had just left her after spending the day together and she was happy and relaxed, she really enjoyed his company and it made her day more tolerable, she just wished that she had other ways to occupy herself. She was just about to reach for one of the books that were on the table beside her when he walked back in, "I thought that you had left."
"Well charming. I am so glad that you are happy to see me." To save her stretching he took the book from the top and placed it on the bed, "There you go."
"Thank you. So why are you back? You didn't have anything to have forgotten, I think . . . I can't really talk about forgetting things."
It would be easy for him to forget things today but thankfully it was not that. "Actually I just came back to say that I'm not sure what time I'll be in tomorrow. As I left ICU and turned my phone back on I had a text that I have been waiting for and I have to do that in the morning."
Oh, she was looking forward to seeing him tomorrow but if he was really busy she didn't want him to feel like he had to come. "If you're busy you don't have to come, I understand that you're only doing this as you feel sorry for me."
Paul perched himself on the edge of the bed and took hold of her hand, "I promise you that I don't come as I feel sorry for you, I come because I enjoy your company and I enjoy seeing your progress."
"I haven't progressed anywhere, I still don't remember your name all of the time."
"But you have." She had come so far, so much further than he actually thought was possible. "Actually you have come a long way. You are now awake, you're talking, you're sitting up, and you're going out and about. If you think about the fact that you were unconscious when you first arrived then you have come a long way."
Stephanie almost wanted to pout, she hated that he was making so much sense, "Can't you just not make sense please?"
"I could try if it would make you happy. Would you like gibberish or just a lot of useless words?"
The twinkle in his eye made her smile, he was so goofy and made her smile even at times when she was sad or when she wanted to be mad at the world for one reason or the other. "Dork."
"Dork language it is then. I will be in at some point tomorrow, I don't know when but I will be here so keep out of trouble until I arrive please."
"I promise I will but only if you keep out of trouble with whatever you are doing."
"That is guaranteed, Police will be there." When the Nurse walked in with her dinner he knew that it was his time to leave, "And that is my cue, goodnight Stephanie."
"Night Paul and good luck tomorrow."
"Thank you." Kissing her cheek quickly he pulled the table up for her dinner to be placed on before he hurried out of the room.
When he got home from the hospital Paul spent the evening discussing plans with Cassie ready for the next morning.
Nine am on a Sunday morning was disgustingly early but that is what time he found himself sat outside what was apparently Stephanie's house and judging by the size of it then it was going to take them all day to go through it.
A knock at the window had him turning his attention there relieved when it was just Cassie; leaning across the car he opened the door for her, "Jump in out of the cold if you want."
"Sitting in here will certainly beat standing out there. My husband needs the car to run errands as his is in the garage all weekend as the part they needed never came in so he dropped me off and said he'd pick me up later."
"It will also save people thinking that you're a burglar casing the joint."
Unsure whether to laugh or be offended that he thought she looked like a burglar Cassie shook her head, "So how did Stephanie take you not being in there all day?"
"Predictably she tried pushing me away saying that if I didn't want to go and visit her then I didn't have to. I don't know if that was more to do with her or the whole drama with my sister yesterday but the less said about that the better but I think she is going to finally leave me alone."
"Are things not great with your family?" She couldn't help but pry a little given his situation and the wait they had gave her the time to.
"Things are fine really; I have just been avoiding talking to them because I knew that they wouldn't agree with me visiting Steph so it saved me a headache. My sister couldn't take the hint that I wanted to be left alone though and turned up at the hospital and met Stephanie and sat there through the meeting with Joshua but in the end I think she decided that I am an adult who she can't control."
Cassie had completely forgotten about his meeting with Joshua so now they had something else to discuss whilst they waited.
Just about an hour after they had arrived at the house the Police showed up and helped them gain entry before they left them to go and deal with an emergency.
Taking a look around the impressive foyer Paul was feeling more than a little overwhelmed at the size of this place, "So where do we start and what are we looking for?"
"Well we are looking for photographs of her family and any real proof of friends or something. If we stumble across something that will keep her occupied that would be great and I might pick up some of her own clothes to see if it brings back memories or makes her feel closer to herself as a person."
That was one hell of a list that Cassie had compiled and would take them ages to complete it all but he was certainly up to the challenge. "I guess we had better start searching otherwise we will be here all day."
To begin with the two of them decided to start the search in the downstairs rooms together and then split up upstairs. The very first room they entered was what appeared to be the lounge, or more likely one of the lounges, and it had some pictures scattered about the room so they had something to work with hopefully.
The first place Paul looked was the windowsill where there was some frames standing. Picking up the pictures one by one he smiled at the first being of Stephanie with her brother as young children, one of them as teenagers when he was going to a formal event, possibly prom, the final one was of them together at his wedding. "What about this picture of Stephanie and her brother at his wedding?"
"That is such a lovely picture of them together. Hopefully that is a picture that she'll remember or she will enjoy looking at anyway. Let's see what else we can find."
It took them a few hours but they searched the entire house until they had a selection of photographs. Whilst they were at it they picked up some of her own clothes and as Paul went through the cupboard in Stephanie's room that seemed to hold a whole lot of different things he came across a portable DVD player, this had to be something that they could use and work with.
Moving back to the closet he took down one of the smaller suitcases that was left on the almost empty shelf and placed it on the bed, they could use it for the clothes and for the portable DVD player and some DVD's, if he could even find where she had them stored. Quickly pulling the zip closed on the suitcase he carried it downstairs almost crashing in to Cassie at the bottom as she walked across the bottom, "Sorry Cass."
"It's okay; I'll live almost being run over. What is with the suitcase?"
"I found a portable DVD player, I thought if I could find some DVD's I would take it in to her now and if not I'd buy some cheap DVD's from that second hand store in town and take it in next weekend or later this week or something. By the way, the clothes are in here too."
She couldn't help but smile at his comment, "Oddly enough I thought that they might be. It sounds like a good plan to take the portable DVD player in for her though, I think she is going a little stir crazy during the day so this will keep her occupied. I think we're done now so we should head out once we see if we can find some DVD's for her."
They managed to find some movies and a few box sets so hopefully that would keep her occupied for a little bit and then they both headed out for the day allowing Paul to make his way to the hospital.
As he walked down the corridor with the suitcase trailing behind him he was actually really looking forward to it because he missed her this morning. Being buzzed in to ICU he made a beeline for her room and took a second to just watch her flicking through the magazine with the iPod headphones in her ears. Propping the suitcase up against the wall he moved to sit on the edge of the bed.
Engrossed in her magazine and the music on the iPod she didn't see him come in but as soon as Paul sat down she practically threw the magazine out of the way. "What are you doing here?"
"Well there is this woman who I kind of like hanging around and I thought as I was done with what I needed to do I would come and see her."
"So why are you here?"
He laughed softly at the question, it felt like they went through this same dance every day that he came to visit her. "Because you're the woman that I like hanging out with. If you want me to go again as you're more interested in your magazine and music then I will, I don't mind."
"Don't leave me alone please." She didn't want him to go and leave her alone as last night she dreamt of the crash again, it wasn't as frightening as before but it made her feel so alone and she didn't like it.
Eyeing her suspiciously he got the feeling that something had happened but he didn't want to push her on it, "Good thing I have nowhere better to be then isn't it? I actually have a couple of surprises for you, if you want them?"
Stephanie's face lit up and she smiled brightly, she liked the idea of a surprise because it brought something new to her day whilst she was stuck here in bed. "I like surprises, I think. What do you have?"
The excitement on her face was adorable, "I guess I will show you and hopefully you will like your surprises." Picking up the suitcase he placed it on the chair as he pulled it closer as it was far too heavy to put on the bed, slowly unzipping the bag he opened the lid, "Voila."
The bag was quite far away so as best she could she leant forward to look in it but she couldn't quite make out a lot of it, "You brought me clothes?"
"I brought you your clothes, there is a difference. The reason that I couldn't come in first thing this morning is because I was meeting Cassie, you know the Nurse who acts like my Mom, at your house so that we could get some of your things."
They had been to her house? She had so many questions about that but she wasn't mad at them for going to her house. "What is it like?"
"What is what like?" He had been watching the wheels turn in her mind and it made him wonder what was going on and what she thought of him actually being in her house.
"My house. What does it look like?"
He knew better than to answer the questions as he would probably only end up getting himself in trouble as he would say the wrong thing and they would all be mad at him. "Don't you want to see what else I've got? I didn't bring just clothes you know."
"You did?!" She perked up a little as there may be something that linked her to her past in there.
"I did." Reaching in to the suitcase he pulled the DVD player out from between some clothes where he had put it to be safe, "I found this portable DVD player and I thought that you might enjoy watching some DVD's when there is nothing else for you to do in the day."
The thought of having something to do made her happy because she had been so bored, "How do you know I will like the DVD's? How will I know that I will like them?"
"They were in your house so at one point you must have liked them. If you don't want this then it is okay, I will take it away." Something felt off about her but he couldn't put a finger on what exactly it was.
She appreciated everything that he was doing for her but she was just getting really irritated lately because she was not making any progress with her memories and it felt like she was stuck in a giant hole and couldn't climb out of it.
Paul had planned to take her out for a walk when he arrived but it seemed like she was not in the right head space for it so he decided to do something to hopefully take her out of whatever was keeping her brain occupied. "What if I fire this thing up and we figure out how to use it and watch a movie or something together? As long as you don't mind my fat butt squashing you in your bed anyway."
"Yes please. You're not fat but you can pick what we watch, I don't mind today." She tried to smile but she wasn't sure if he would believe it or not.
The smile didn't reach her eyes so whatever was bothering her was really bothering her and knowing Stephanie she wouldn't open up to him about it but he would try later. He placed the DVD player on the table and took out the cable before he started to go through the DVD's he had picked up to see which one he thought would be most likely to make her smile.
Once he had his pick he closed the suitcase and put it on the floor out of the way and then plugged the DVD player in exactly where Cassie had told him to, "Here goes nothing, let's hope this works."
They paused the DVD when the Nurse came to check Stephanie's vitals and didn't even let her leave the room before they pressed play again as they were both enjoying it so much.
Once the movie ended he took the disk out of the machine and shut the lid, "So how was it?"
Cuddling closer to him she just wanted to be held now, "Good, I enjoyed it so thank you."
He tightened his arm around her shoulder, "You're welcome, I'm just glad that you enjoyed it. What would you like to do now?"
"Nothing, just you and me sitting here and doing nothing would be nice please. You make me feel like everything will be okay and I need that today."
Everything was going to be fine, he believed in her that she was going to make progress every single day, or he hoped that she would anyway. "Take it one day at a time and don't rush too far ahead and you'll be fine."
As she rested her head against him Stephanie didn't know how she would do that, she was always jumping ten steps ahead wanting to be better and remembering things and she wanted to be walking again but right now she couldn't remember anything and she couldn't walk but one day she would be able to, she had to be.