Chapter 5
Stephanie woke up after her surgery. Her brain felt foggy from the anesthetic. The nurse noticed she was awake and left to get the doctor. A pretty woman entered the room. "I'm Dr. Amanda Frasier. How are you feeling, Jane?" she kindly asked.
"Fuzzy," Stephanie breathed through her teeth.
"Are you in pain?" Frasier asked.
"No," she replied.
"We put you in a medically induced coma for the past few weeks to give your brain and body time to heal. Dr. Tim Wallace and I need to release you today. Louise and Barry Rogers own the Honolulu long-term care facility. They offered you a room in their facility with access to nurses and a beach," she said, smiling. "Personally, I would go for the beach alone."
"Ocean wave," Stephanie managed to say.
"Do you remember your name?" Frasier decided to ask.
"No," she answered as a tear ran from the corner of her eye towards her ear.
"Everything will come back when you're ready. Don't push yourself to remember. Are you willing to stay with Louise and Barry at the facility?" Frasier asked, remembering Jane never gave her an answer.
"Ya," she said through her teeth. She may not remember her name or where she lived, but she knew the beach calmed her.
Louise entered the room to make sure Jane wanted to stay at the home where she could recover. "Jane agreed to go to the facility. Dr. Wallace and I will drop in once a week to check her progress. Bring her to the hospital in four weeks to get her casts removed," Dr. Frasier explained.
"Would she need to wear them longer than six weeks?" Louise asked.
"Not likely. If Jane needed to wear them longer, we could give her temporary casts or braces," Frasier replied. They discussed physical therapy.
Everything sounded painful to Stephanie. She knew it was necessary if she wanted to walk again. They transported her to the care facility in an ambulance. She wasn't impressed, but it was the safest way to move her to her temporary home.
Louise and Barry gave her a room on the side of the ocean. She could look outside her window to see the sky and water blend together. Louise called her by a different name, hoping to get an involuntary response. "Every day, I'll call you by a new name. Maybe we can figure out your name. Would you like that?" Louise asked.
"Ya," Stephanie replied. She didn't like getting called Jane. It's the name they used for unknown women.
Barry retrofitted a wheelchair to transport Stephanie from the facility to the beach. The wheels were wide enough to push through the sand. "Hi, Jane. My name is April. I'll be your nurse from 7 am to 3 pm," April introduced herself as she wrote her name on the dry erase board on the wall near the door. "Weather permitting, we'll go to the beach to watch the waves every morning after breakfast."
Stephanie involuntarily smiled, showing April the wires on her teeth. April smiled at Stephanie, "I like watching the waves too. They calm my nerves when I'm frustrated." She nodded in agreement.
They had a path leading to a pergola for their residents to sit on the beach in comfort. April took Stephanie to the beach as promised. Stephanie smiled as the waves rolled onto the beach. She wanted to put her feet into the water, but her casts couldn't get wet.
"Jane's happiest when she's on the beach staring at the waves," April told her friend Abigail when she arrived for her shift. "Louise said to try calling her by different names to see if she reacts. The book of names is by the door. Once you use one, cross it off."
"Wouldn't it be best to wait until she remembers her name?" Abigail asked.
"We can't keep calling her Jane, Abbie. She hates the name," April replied.
"How do you know she hates it?" Abigail wondered.
"Watch her face when you call her name. Her eyes slightly narrow, and she cringes," April answered. "Come on. I'll introduce you."
April grabbed Abbie's hand and took her to see their patient. "Hi, Jane, Abigail will be your nurse for the 3 pm to 11 pm shift," April stated.
Abigail watched her eyes narrow and shoulders raise when she got called Jane. April was right. The woman hates the name. It made sense why they wanted to discover her name. However, there are over a thousand names in the book. It would take a long time to find her name if her name was even in the book.
Dr. Amanda Frasier and Dr. Tim Wallace visited Stephanie a week post-surgery. Amanda wanted to check her face to make sure it was healing perfectly. She gently peeled back the dressing that covered the incision. "It's healing quite well. Let these fall off on their own," she advised April. "You don't need to keep them covered unless you take her onto the beach."
"I've been changing her bandage when we come back in, especially if it was windy," April stated.
Stephanie smiled. "Ah. You don't mind getting the bandage changed if it means seeing the waves," Amanda guessed. "When we take off your casts in three weeks, these sticky tape bandages should fall off."
Dr. Wallace asked, "Keep Jane's hair clean. Make sure you don't soak the stitches along her hairline." April resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She smiled when her patient huffed. They knew the protocol.
"Move your fingers for me," Dr. Frasier instructed. "That's great. Now wiggle your toes." Stephanie rolled her eyes but followed the doctor's instructions.
"You're doing great, Jane," Wallace stated. "We'll see you next week."
When the doctors got into Tim's car, he said, "You realize we don't need to come here every week, Amanda."
"I know, but I want to make sure she's okay. It's important for her to know people care about her recovery," Amanda stated.
April uncovered Stephanie's body and laid the bed flat. Stephanie glared at the woman. "It's not that bad. You know I have to make sure your hip joints get exercise. The swelling is going down. I have oxycodone to help with the pain," April said.
"No," Stephanie said.
"No to the exercise or the pills?" April asked.
"No pill," Stephanie tried to say.
"Okay. I won't give you the opioid. Would you take Advil instead?"
"Ya," Stephanie answered. She didn't like the foggy head from the pain medication. It made her nightmares a lot worse.
As April bent Stephanie's right knee and helped rotate her leg, she told her about the date she had the previous night. Stephanie laughed when April said, "Darin reached across the table to touch my hand. He bumped the beer glass, and it fell over. It spilled into his lap. Not only did it look like he pissed his pants, but the beer made him smell like he did too."
Stephanie's shoulders shook in silent laughter. She liked her daytime nurse. April was funny and kind. Abigail was more by the book and didn't offer any personal information about herself. Stephanie was happy they didn't interact much. Her nighttime nurse, an older woman named Christie, was very kind. She would stroke Stephanie's hair if she had a nightmare and tell her it was just a dream.
Some of Stephanie's dreams were like a fuzzy memory. People and places popped into her head. When she tried to focus on them, the image would shift. Christie has a son and daughter, both in their early twenties. Stephanie liked hearing about them as Christie soothed her from the bad dreams.
"Are you still with me, Addison?" April tried another name in the As. Stephanie narrowed her eyes. "Okay, your name isn't Addison. Back to my disastrous date. Darin, after spilling his beer he decided it was time to move our date along. I let him drive us to his place. When we entered the house, his mother asked him what had happened to his pants. I've got to say that I had no clue he lived at home. Thankfully, my place was only a few blocks away."
"Mo," Stephanie stated. She wanted to hear what April did, suspecting she had left.
April giggled. "You want to know what happened?" Stephanie nodded. "I got the hell out of there. During dinner, he said he lived alone. It turns out that he's a huge mamma's boy. I'll pass." Stephanie shook from silent laughter. "I bet you have some epic stories from botched dates."
Stephanie shrugged her shoulders. She listened to April dissect every second of the date with Darin. It was amusing and the perfect way to distract her from the dark thoughts. "Who is Ranger?" April asked out of the blue.
She searched her brain for a memory of Ranger but couldn't find anything. Her head started pounding from the strain. "Don't think too hard. The memory will return on its own," April stated. "Now, let's go to the beach."
Ranger and his team scoured every corner of Trenton. He knew deep in his heart that his Babe wasn't in the area. The next region Ranger checked was Point Pleasant, her favourite place. He sat on the beach, not caring that the seat of his pants got damp from the sand. "Where are you, Babe?" he talked to the waves. "Please come home. I love you." A tear dripped from his jaw.
Tank stood guard, his back to Ranger as he gave his friend his privacy. His heart ached for his boss and best friend. The love of his life went missing a few weeks ago. Rangeman wasn't the same without their sunshine. Tank touched his cheek, feeling moisture from the tears he unknowingly shed.
At Rangeman, the men were feeling lost without Stephanie. When they patrolled the streets and saw a brunette with curly hair, they'd call for Stephanie, but it was never the woman they longed to see. Ranger was unbearable for the past few weeks. He got angry and took the men to the mats for the smallest of infractions.
"I hope we find her soon," Binkie said.
"I'm praying Beautiful is still alive," Lester added. "We do not want to know how Ranger will react to finding her dead."
"Did he check at Point Pleasant?" Hal asked.
"That's where he went with Tank earlier," Cal replied when he entered the break room.
Hector continued to search the hospital records to see if Jane Doe got admitted. He got through several local hospitals but didn't find her. Like Ranger, Hector didn't believe Angel was dead. He tried tracking the flight path of the Cessna, but Bianchi never filed his flight plan. Hector scrubbed the data gathered from the major airports along the coast, comparing the tail number to the manifests stored on the mainframe computer. He tried to access the data for private airfields, but they didn't keep accurate records. His intuition led him to believe the Cessna didn't land at an airport, private or publicly owned.
"I've been avoiding Hector too," Woody added. Hector was surliest than usual. His anger barely got concealed.
"Did you notice the new tattoo?" Manny asked.
"It's beautiful and scary at the same time," Hal replied.
"I wonder how the tattoo artist got her eye colour," Manny added. Hector got a tattoo added to his chest of a 6-inch angel who had gorgeous blue eyes. Her wings were silver with blue accents. She wore a gold chain with WW on the pendant. "The detail is magnificent."
"It probably took multiple sessions to complete," Cal said. "I didn't realize Hector and Bomber were that close."
"Hector calls her angel because she reminds him of his sister. Serena had curly hair too," Lester stated. "She died during a drive-by shooting. He killed the man responsible." Lester rubbed the spot beneath his eye, indicating it's how Hector earned his first teardrop.
Ranger stayed on the beach for a few hours before returning to Rangeman. He got called for a mission a few hours later. It was the perfect time for a distraction. Focusing on his special ops deployment would temporarily prevent him from missing Babe.
The men were relieved and worried when they learned Ranger had left on a mission. If Stephanie were still alive, it would tear her heart apart if Ranger died. They knew Stephanie loved Ranger and that Ranger loved Stephanie. Both lived in a land of denial regarding their feelings for each other.
Tank escorted Ranger to the rooftop to the helicopter. The chopper would fly him to base headquarters to get briefed. All Ranger got told was the mission could last up to six months. It would be a long time away from his business, but Tank, Lester and Bobby could handle the operation without his guidance or assistance.
"Keep looking for Babe. I know she's still alive," Ranger said as they took the elevator to the roof.
"If she's still alive, why hasn't she reached out to us?" Tank wondered.
"Amnesia," Ranger replied before getting into the helicopter. He gave Tank a small wave as the pilot lifted off the roof to depart.
When he returned to the fifth-floor control room, Tank requested all employees to meet in the largest conference room on the third floor for an announcement. Lester and Bobby took over monitor duty after Tank said, "Ranger thinks Little Girl has amnesia, and that's why we haven't heard anything yet."
Hector was the last to arrive for the impromptu meeting. He took a seat as Tank announced, "Ranger left for a mission that has the potential to last for six months. In the meantime, keep your eyes and ears open regarding Stephanie. She may have amnesia from her injuries."
Speaking in Spanish, Hector said, "I check all major hospitals and clinics in New Jersey for an unidentified woman, Jane Doe. It will take time to filter through all of the hospitals."
"Continue your search," Tank ordered. "Remain vigilant. Investigate all possible sightings. Dismissed." The men were shocked. They never considered that Stephanie might have amnesia.