AN: Thank you for your lovely reviews as always, I hope this doesn't drag too much, there is a purpose to it I promise!

Chapter Twenty-Five

Christian sat outside Ana's hospital room as he had frequently done over the last few days. His wife had been awake for five whole days now, and while he saw pieces of her every time it was his turn to go into her room she still wasn't back, not properly back.

The evenings were the worst, Ana could barely remember her own name in the evenings and would often ask she be called Annie, and so they'd all agreed that visiting her after seven pm was a bad idea. Christian had even left the hospital during that time, going to see John Flynn for his own therapy and sleeping in his own bed knowing that Ana was well taken care of by the incredible team she had around her. The mornings were good, and he'd tried not to be selfish and let Grace, Mary and Ray take it in turns to see Ana when she was at her best in the first few hours after she'd woken. They weren't allowed to be with her more than twenty minutes at a time, none of them were, and the worst of it was she often didn't remember the last person who had visited.

Ana's nurses were incredible, there were four of them in total, taking it in turns around the clock. They didn't just care for Ana, they cared for the entire family, reassuring them through Ana's oddities, supporting them through the emotionally challenging time the family was experiencing, keeping all of their anxieties relatively low. Truth was, without them Christian wasn't sure how any of them would cope, even Mary and Lorna who both had a lot of experience working with people with Post-traumatic Amnesia were finding this hard and admitted they were simply too close to Ana to be able to be objective about it.

The hallucinations were hard to deal with, though Mary and the nurses had explained to him at length it was Ana processing her memories in an unusual way. He had been in to visit with her, and she had told him at length about how she had gone to a spa with an angel and how they'd talked about her receiving a gift from God in the form of a baby. It had hurt Christian because no one had been able to tell Ana she was pregnant yet, because they were worried how it would affect her and how she would react. She wasn't considered competent to make her own decisions yet and they would not be able to give her a termination if she asked for one and feared her harming herself as a result. However, it wasn't until later that evening when Christian went for dinner with his family that he discovered that when Grace had visited with Ana earlier in the morning, she had talked about wanting to visit the spa again like they had for her bachelorette party and that she wasn't sure if she could do that with the baby. Grace had asked if she knew about the baby and she'd confirmed she did though when Grace spoke to the nurse, they said no one had told Ana that she was pregnant as they'd all agreed not to but realised she may have been aware of it in her own way. It was all very unnerving to say the least.

"That's it Ana, easy does it." The Physio's voice carried through the partially open door and Christian couldn't resist having a peek inside. Ana was sitting in the chair beside the bed, a small foot bike at her feet and she was very slowly, and with a lot of effort making the peddles move. Christian smiled, the news that Ana would likely not walk out of the hospital had been another blow he hadn't been prepared for. Ana's muscles were weak and it would take a lot of work with physiotherapists if she was ever going to regain full walking ability again, though he was hopeful, Ana was showing a lot of determination when it came to physio. The nurse slipped out of the room and smiled, they were still on one-on-one care though it wasn't twenty-four seven anymore, meaning the nurses could fill Ana's charts away from the bed, give her some more privacy.

"She's doing good." Madeline smiled, she was Ana's favourite nurse who experienced the least amount of aggression from the patient and therefore she'd also become Christian's favourite.

"She's making progress." He smiled thought it was stiff.

"Look Christian, I know you want to be here for her, and I respect that so much, but you're not helping yourself sitting here day in day out." Madeline said crouching down in front of him as she had done so many times over the last five days.

"I don't know what else to do." Christian shrugged.

"Why don't you go to work? It will give you something to talk about with her when you next visit. You know having things to talk about helps her not have to rely on her ability to make conversation… I hate to say it but it's why Mary and Grace get such a good response from her, because they talk about things they've done even if it's little things like wash the dishes." Madeline was being cruel to be kind, Christian couldn't spend his life sitting on the chair outside the room like this, it simply wasn't healthy, she knew Ana had weeks before she would be ready to leave the hospital and Christian would sink into a depression if he sat there much longer.

"I don't want to leave her."

"She doesn't even know you're here." Madeline sighed, Ana barely remembered what day it was, where she was or who the president was, there were times she didn't even know who Christian was and what he was doing there and while they all knew it wouldn't last forever, it was hurtful to those who would always remember. "Look, try it for me, you're not visiting her again today are you? So go to work, go have dinner, do something that you can tell her about when you come here again tomorrow and see if I'm right and that there's a difference." Madeline challenged, feeling it was the only way to get the young man out of his seat. He sighed, she was right, he had to try something. Ana didn't seem all that interested when he was there and he'd even started reading some of her favourite books to her just to fill the silence, and truth was she didn't seem very interested in that either.

"Ok… ok I'm going… uh Mary is visiting next… can you just ask her to give me a call and fill me in about the visit?" Christian asked, feeling that at least he could compromise if he would get updates he would leave.

"I'm sure she'd be happy to do that." Madeline smiled rising to her feet. Christian nodded and grimaced, he really didn't want to go, but Madeline was right he needed to try so he could have something new to talk to Ana about during his next visit.

When Mary arrived later on that afternoon, she found a pretty anxious Ana sitting in bed, twiddling her fingers. Mary smiled as she always did and when Ana looked at her, and relief flooded the younger woman's face, she realised that today Ana knew who she was.

"Hello Ana, how are you?" Mary asked gently.

"Glad you're here." Ana replied. "I need to tell you something." She shouty whispered and Mary hid her smile as she went over. There was a childlike innocence around Ana right now, her mannerisms, her speech, and while it was hard to see there was also something adorable about it.

"What is it?" Mary asked taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

"It's about my mom." Ana explained taking Mary's hand.

"Ok." Mary smiled, Ana had spoken a few times about her Mom, she seemed to have recovered some memories from her past that had once been lost, this wasn't uncommon, there were stories of people remembering languages from their childhoods and coming out speaking them fluently, but then losing them as the PTA passed.

"I remember she died… in the car accident." Ana replied and Mary hid her surprise, this was a new one. "That's how I hurt my head… in the accident isn't it?" Ana asked and Mary nodded, she knew better than to correct someone in PTA. "My Mom… there was blood everywhere and so much glass… why did that car hit us? The light was green it was our turn to go…"

Mary clutched Ana's hand a little tighter, these were obviously the memories and the initial thoughts of a five-year-old little girl who didn't know she was about to be kidnapped and taken away from everything she knew. It was devastating to hear. The way Ana's voice shook, the way her eyes glistened with tears, Mary could see the rawness of the emotions and it was heart-breaking.

"Mary?" Ana asked, her eyelashes fluttering as she battled her tears.

"Yes sweetie?" Mary asked softly, unsure where this conversation was going next, but as intrigued as ever.

"Am I going back to Westpoint?" Ana asked and Mary tried and failed to hide her surprise, Ana was clearly pulling on random threads of memory right now and her mentioning of Westpoint was intriguing.

"Why do you ask that?" Mary asked.

"I really want to go there." Ana explained nervously. "I liked it there… and I want to see my horse."

"Maxwell?"

"Who's Maxwell?" Ana asked confused.

"Your horse." Mary replied and Ana's eyes scanned the room while she was actually scanning her mind and then as though a light came on, she gave a gentle nod.

"Yes Maxwell… my horse. I'd really like to see him." Ana explained and Mary chuckled, of all the things for Ana to ask for it was that bloody horse.

"I don't know if we'll be able to get him in here Ana, you're in the hospital, and you will need to stay for a while." Mary replied hoping that this wouldn't upset the young woman too much, having a conversation with a PTA patient was always tough as it was hard to know what would trigger them.

"Well he's already been here Mary so I don't see why it would be a problem." Ana replied, so matter-of-factly Mary burst out laughing, of course, Ana like many coma patients had some memory of her time when her eyes were closed, and despite the PTA, she was remembering the bloody horse of all things.

"Well… I'll speak with Christian and your nurse…" She turned to Madeline who had just walked into the room. "And see if this is something we can do… ok?"

"Please." Ana nodded before yawning.

"And that is a sign that you need to rest. I'll call Christian and see ok?"

"Ok." Ana nodded sinking back into her pillows. "But who's Christian?" Mary grimaced as Ana allowed her eyes to slip shut, she was glad she wouldn't have to answer that question.

As she always did, Mary moved to the couch where Madeline joined her. Christian had consented for medical information to be shared with his Mother, Ray and Mary so that they could be as informed as possible while helping him and Ana.

"She seemed more lucid now." Madeline commented and Mary agreed, knowing Ana as intimately as she did, she had more insight than anyone to how lucid Ana could be. This was the best she'd seen her.

"I'm hoping that these memories of her mother don't stick around… it will be kinder for her if they don't." Mary said though she knew Ana could retain some of those memories, and she had been working with Lorna about a plan to deal with it if that was the case. "This is the first time she's mentioned Westpoint?" Mary asked which Madeline nodded, all the nurses were keeping a log of Ana's conversations, so that they would be able to distinguish her reality from her make-believe world, the family played a big part in that, but at the moment they were spending more time with Ana than the family so they kept a log that the family could help. "Westpoint is a psychiatric trauma unit for young adults, Ana was a patient there until March of this year, she spent six months there in total." Mary explained. "Maxwell was one of the therapy horses there, he nearly died after she left because he felt abandoned, so Ana has bought him from Westpoint and he will be housed at their new home. I'm sure you heard about the horse visiting."

"I had heard, did it help?" Madeline asked and Mary shrugged, they couldn't judge if Maxwell's visit had helped Ana.

"It helped Maxwell, he was starting to go downhill again, the horse and her… they're soul mates."

"Then we need to get them together again… physio have been hoping to get Ana to the gym… maybe we can arrange that he goes there for her to see him."

"That would be brilliant if you could." Mary commented, even though there was a chance Ana wouldn't recognise Maxwell when he did come, she hoped that the connection between the pair ran deeper, beyond anything science could explain, and like he had done when she was at Westpoint he would connect with her on a deeper level.

The following morning Christian arrived at the hospital to be Ana's first visitor of the day. As promised, Mary had contacted him to tell him how their visit had gone and he was very surprise to learn Ana had talked about Westpoint and Maxwell.

He gave a gentle tap on the semi-open door before walking in. The smile Ana gave him could have lit up Times Square and his heart hammered hard in his chest. She recognised him.

"Christian!" She beamed and he couldn't help but smile back as he went over to her bed. She grabbed at his tie and yanked him to her and before his brain could catch up her lips were on his, kissing him hard. Christian melted into her touch, it had been three weeks since he'd last kissed his wife like this and here she was, kissing him as though life depended on it.

"Good morning." He mused when she released his lips, but still held tightly to his tie, panting as though she'd just run a marathon.

"Good morning my beautiful husband." She replied and he beamed, it was the first time she'd referred to him as her husband. Slowly she was coming back, it was the reminder he needed that his Ana was still in there.

They had been warned, that the PTA could go instantly, like someone turning a light switch on and Ana simply becoming her old self. However, they'd also been told that it could be slow, that they would gradually see more and more of their Ana as her brain learned to connect islands of memories until eventually they'd all line up.

"So tell me, where have you been?" Ana asked as she finally loosened her grip on his tie allowing him to sit up a little, though she did let him take her hand.

"I went to work, I hope that was ok." Christian replied and she nodded but said nothing waiting for more. "I also went by the new house, to make sure everything was ready for us. Elliot is changing over one of the reception rooms into a temporary bedroom for us so that we won't have to deal with the stairs."

"That's very thoughtful." Ana mused and Christian nodded. Truth was, they had been measuring the doors for a wheelchair, because they knew now that Ana would not be walking home and the more freedom she had for movement, the better. Christian knew that his wife, once her memories were back, would need that independence and freedom and he would do all that he could to ensure she had it. He didn't want her to fear being unable to just go if she needed to. While Westpoint had helped her so much in managing her negative behaviours, not needing to run was not the same as not being able to run.

"Good morning Ana." Mathew, Ana's physiotherapist smiled as he came into the room with Nurse Amelia. Ana grimaced, if there was one thing her memory seemed to be processing it was Mathew's work, as he came in every morning to get her transitioned into a chair so they could exercise. She hated it, she could barely hold herself upright at times and yet he was talking about getting her walking.

"How are we this morning?" Amelia asked, tucking her short blonde hair behind her ear, green eyes looking from one to the other.

"We're good. Christian was just telling me about…" Ana trailed off as she realised she didn't remember what they had just been talking about.

"Work." Christian mumbled but Ana had already withdrawn, she'd dropped his hand and sunk deeper into her cushions. "Well I should go, let you get on with physio." He said and he leaned forward like he always did when she was semi-lucid, and he kissed her head. He understood it was hard for Ana to not remember things, truth was he knew if he was to stay five minutes more she wouldn't remember that she didn't remember… but it was physio time and he didn't want to outstay his welcome.

Once Christian was gone Mathew and Amelia transferred Ana to the chair beside the bed, it was hard for Ana as they held under her arms, she wasn't able to control her legs to put any weight on them so they simply hung loosely beneath her as they carried her from one space to another. Once in the chair, pillows were shoved down the side to support her back which was able to be upright for only a few minutes before all the strength was zapped from them and Ana could no longer hold anything but her own head.

"Ok Ana, you managed one full round on the peddles yesterday. I want you to try and give me two today." Mathew said as he put the peddles at her feet and Amelia gently bought her feet up to the them one at a time. Ana grimaced, it was quite uncomfortable. She could feel her legs, that wasn't the problem, but between the wastage to her muscles from being trapped in bed and the fact her brain just didn't seem to connect to her legs, she was very uncomfortable with anyone touching them.

It was exhausting, just doing two rounds on the peddles which took over thirty minutes and the continued communication with Mathew and the nurse, by the time Grace arrived for the afternoon visit, Ana was sleeping soundly. Grace didn't mind though, she knew that rest was as important as any rehab for Ana and so she quite gladly just sat there, just in case she woke.