I'm very sorry I didn't update sooner. Last chapter was the last one for 1982 and now we're beggining a new year with a "plot twist" which will be the main topic throughout 1983 and possibly 1984.

This whole new plot line has been very hard to write and shape, but I feel I've reached a point where I'm comfortable with how/where it's going. It was difficult to write about this because I have nearly zero experience on this particular situation, besides what I've read and a few stories I've been told. So this is just my mind going wild. If anyone reading this story has been through something like this, I hope I'm not belittling your experience nor your feelings.

Oh! and WATCH OUT FOR THE TIME STAMPS!

January 12th, 1983

1:33 am

Madison General Hospital

Her consciousness started to stir between the fog of her thoughts and feelings. Everything around her was dark and eerily silent. And she had a strange and overpowering feeling of emptiness.

Tiny fractions of her being started to become aware of her body again, and she discovered that the darkness wasn't around her, but within. This realization scared her, and she tried to force herself to open her eyes, but her eyelids felt horribly heavy.

The silence was still there. But it was out of her body. She could now hear her heart racing inside her ribcage. She could also hear her breathing which was surprisingly calm considering how fast her heart was hammering.

Giving up on her efforts to open her eyelids, she concentrated on finding the source of that unsettling feeling of emptiness.

/-/-/-/

5:27 pm

She couldn't tell if it had been days or just hours when she was finally able to open her eyes. It wasn't quiet anymore, and she thought it was the noise what had helped her focus enough to regain control of her own body. The first thing she noticed right before opening her eyes was that there was a big hand holding hers, and the first thing she saw was Steven's face. There was a mix of relief, fear and a deep sadness in his eyes.

She tried to ask what was going on, but her throat was too dry. A cup of water and a straw entered her field of vision from the other side and she drank slowly. She was incredibly thirsty but knew she couldn't drink too hastily. "You're in the hospital, sweetie" said Kitty's voice from the other side of her bed as the cup disappeared in that direction, but she only had eyes for Steven. She couldn't understand why he looked so sad; she felt all right, though still a bit sleepy.

Without a word he came closer to her, kissed her lightly on the forehead and rested his head in the pillow next to hers, sighing deeply and stroking her hair. The noise had subsided around them, and she heard the door being closed a few feet away from her bed.

Slowly, some images and sensations started to pop back in her head. Last thing she remembered was walking hurriedly down a long corridor, a stack of folders in her arms. She remembered someone speaking incessantly and slightly out of breath behind her, as if he or she was having trouble keeping with her pace and talking at the same time. Her attention was brought back to the present when Steven pulled his head up from her pillow.

"How are you feeling?" asked him in a low voice

"What happened?" asked her instead "How long was I out?"

"You don't remember?" asked him, a mix of dread and relief in his voice. She couldn't understand how he could have such contradictory feelings at once. She shook her head, his dread starting to seep into her, and another image flowed back into her head.

A small stab of pain between her ribs made her stop for a second. She felt as if she hadn't been able to stop for even five minutes in the past ten days. One of her co-workers had quit his job from one day to the other, and another had broken his leg and was out for a whole week. This left her with double the work and half the time, right when she wasn't feeling quite well herself.

Steven had been out that weekend, chasing bands in Seattle with WB and Eric. She had had to work long hours the whole week plus the weekend. She couldn't believe she could be this tired, and it was only Tuesday!

She took a deep breath and started speeding again down the corridor when a whole different stab of pain coursed from her ribs to her knees making her loose balance and drop to the ground.

January 11th, 1983

6:15 pm

Groove's

He could hear the phone ringing incessantly in the office, but he was way too happy and relaxed to stand up and pick it up. Leo had scored a really good stash of film and after reviewing the books with Ryan and closing the store, the three of them had put "In through the out door" on the turntable and where enjoying a well-deserved break. The phone could wait.

Three minutes later the phone rang again, and, just like the first time, he ignored it. It could not have been more than two minutes when the phone rang yet again; the song Carouselambra had just started to sound. Exasperated he got up from the couch, walked to his office and answered the phone.

/-/-/-/

6:22 pm

"Damn it, Hyde! Why can't you pick up the damn phone?!" yelled Eric from the door after Ryan had opened it for him. Steven was standing in the middle of the store, caught there by the music coming from the turntable.

He turned his head to look at Eric, an empty look in his eyes. He could see that his friend was saying something, but the only sound getting into his brain was the sound of Plant's voice coming from the speakers. All of my love, all of my love to you, now. A small part of his brain knew what the song was about – he'd read it somewhere. And he had heard it many times before, but without really listening.

This time was different. Now he understood perfectly well what the lyrics meant. And the song hit him like a well thrown, mighty punch in the guts, shattering something that he didn't even know he had inside, leaving him breathless.

Without a word he walked out, passing right past Eric as if he wasn't even there.

"What happened?" asked Ryan, confused.

"I'm not sure" said Eric. Kitty had only told him to go find Hyde and tell him that something had happened with Jackie and she was in the hospital, but that she would be ok. But if Jackie was ok, Eric didn't understand why his friend was so unsettled.

Eric followed Hyde out the store, but he was already speeding out of the parking lot. He got into the Vista Cruiser and followed his friend's El Camino to the hospital where Kitty would be surely waiting.

/-/-/-/

9:47 pm

Madison General Hospital

The room was quiet. Steven was sitting in a chair next to Jackie's bed, with her left hand on his. He slid the ring back where it belonged. Kitty had explained that the doctors had had to take it out for surgery.

Kitty tentatively laid her hand on his shoulder as the doctor left the room. Steven stiffened, his breath caught on his throat for a moment. After a couple of seconds, he let go and relaxed slightly on the chair, his breathing going slowly back to normal.

"Did she know?" asked him, after a while.

"They are not sure" she said, her voice soft and soothing "They told me she was half unconscious when they brought her here and whatever she said didn't make much sense"

"And how long…?" asked him, not knowing how to finish the sentence.

"Just about four or five weeks"

/-/-/-/

January 22nd, 1983

3:21 pm

Jackie and Hyde's house

He dropped his keys and shades in the table by the door and walked to the kitchen to put the groceries in their place. The house felt too quiet for a Saturday afternoon, even considering recent events.

He wasn't sure how he had managed to explain everything that had happened to her. To them. And he also wasn't sure if she had understood all of what he'd said. She had gotten into a kind of catatonic state and didn't seem to be able to say or do much.

She had been discharged from the hospital the next day. When they got home, she had gone straight to bed and fallen asleep faster than he'd thought possible. After that, he felt as if he was living with the ghost of Jackie.

Sometimes he would wake up in the middle of the night to hear her crying inconsolably. Then he would hold her tightly hoping to soothe her, while doing his best to keep his own tears from falling. And he was exhausted from keeping his own loss from tearing him apart.

After putting the groceries away, he went to their bedroom to find it empty, as was every room in the house.

Prompted by some weird feeling, he opened the closet door and discovered that some of Jackie's clothes were missing.

Twenty minutes later he had called everyone they knew, but nobody had seen her.