"I just heard, is she going to be okay?"
A part of Cristian ran to blame anyone but himself, and Seth was conveniently there. "This is all of your fault."
"What?" asked Seth.
"Because of you she's lying there."
"How? What did I do?"
"You upset her, that's what, you threw her away like she was nothing because she made a few mistakes and she wasn't perfect, because you found someone better."
"You know what she did to Jessica, she wasn't the person I fell in love with."
"Oh? If you really ever knew her you would have seen that all she wanted was the love and the acceptance of a family, it wasn't all about the money. She was afraid to get hurt so she pushed everyone away, you should have seen that."
"It wasn't my fault that we grew apart."
"Maybe not but you didn't have to flaunt it in her face that she wasn't good enough for you, look at it from her point of view, there's Jessica with the family, the friends, the money, everything Natalie thought she deserved, and you threw that in her face," Cristian said standing up.
"I don't have to take this," said Seth leaving and slamming the door on his way out. Cristian sighed and sat down. He smoothed Natalie's hair from her brow and she opened her eyes.
"Natalie...it's okay, you're in the hospital, you're going to be okay, I promise."
She looked up at him with those big beautiful eyes. "Who are you?"
"Natalie, it's me, it's Cristian."
"Cristian? Get away from me...why am I here, I wasn't that sick, I want to go home," she said getting up and immediately dizziness overtook her and she fell back against the bed, holding her head. With the help of this guy who'd she never met she got back into bed and closed her eyes trying to concentrate, he seemed so familiar, like the memory of him lurked just on the edge of her mind and she couldn't grasp it, but why was she here, in a hospital?
The next few minutes were a blur of people and motion and it made her dizzy, she saw faces that stirred recognition but she couldn't say how or why.
The doctor came in and he smiled reassuringly. "Hello Natalie, It's Dr. Troy MacIver, do you know where you are?"
"I-I'm in a hospital-do I know you?"
"We met a few times, what's the last thing you remember?"
"I was with this guy Seth something, I had the flu I think, I don't want to stay here, can I leave?" she was starting to get scared, nothing was right, why was she here?
"I'm afraid we're going to have to keep you for a few more days, you were in a serious accident."
"I-I was?" she tried to think back, the last thing she remembered was eating the soup and falling back asleep, maybe Seth had taken her home?
"What year is it?" he asked.
"1999."
"Okay Natalie, we need to run some more tests and then we'll see when we can get you released, okay?"
"Yeah sure, who was that guy that was here before?"
"Cristian Vega, he's one of your friends," with that he left and Natalie sat there thinking.
Cristian.....the name sounded so familiar, just like the face, he had looked glad when she woke up so maybe he was her friend but why couldn't she remember him? Maybe the 'accident' had given her brain damage, to bad it hadn't erased her memory of Roxanne Balsom. She sat there alone trying to remember Cristian Vega.
"It looks like she has amnesia."
"What? How could this happen?" asked Viki.
"Well it can happen with trauma to the head, I'm not going to lie to you, she could wake up tomorrow and remember everything or..."
"Or what?" asked Cristian, he couldn't believe that she had lost her memory, it wasn't fair, she had been through so much already.
"Or never."
"So what do we do? Tell her who we are and what's happened the last three years?" asked Viki.
"That may be a bit much for to handle, just introduce yourselves and tell her that she's been living with you for the last few years, she probably doesn't know about being a Buchanan so we don't want to overwhelm her to quickly."
Natalie sat there overwhelmed, Ben and Viki Davidson had just left and she was shocked. It was 2002 and she'd been living with them and her mother Roxy was married to a rich guy named Max. They hadn't told her why, not that she'd been able to ask, she'd still been in a whirl finding out that three years had passed without her aware of them, it was truly mind boggling. She was able to somewhat process these strange events when the door opened again and it was her 'friend' Cristian Vega.
"Hi...Natalie," he said uncomfortably.
Natalie was determined to get answers so she invited him to sit down.
"I though they exaggerated on how bad hospital food was, but I was wrong," she said looking towards the tray they had called a 'lunch'.
"Yeah, it is pretty bad."
"So how long have when friends?"
"Not very long."
"How did we meet?"
"Through Jessica Buchanan, she's Viki's daughter."
"Oh, Mr. and Mrs. Davidson seem like nice people."
"They are, everyone likes them. I'm glad you're awake."
Natalie stopped as his words made her remember...something. "Natalie! NATALIE! Wake up!
Thank God you're alive. We have to get you to the hospital. Natalie, can you hear me? Natalie, can you hear me? Natalie, try to wake up please." She remembered being very, very cold.
"You found me, I was so cold...." she mumbled.
"Natalie? Do you remember?"
"Yeah, kind of, I think, you kept telling me to wake up. Tell me about my accident."
"Well, you had just left my apartment and you were driving on an icy road, apparently your car spun out of control and it went down an embankment. I found you, you were lying in the snow so I drove you to the hospital."
"Wow, this is so weird, it's...it's like trying to remember a movie that I saw a long time ago and I can only remember vague parts, like you telling me to wake up and being cold...." she closed her eyes and concentrated, she need to know who she was, and she wanted to remember now. The harder she tried the faster the memories alluded her.
"I can't remember," she said opening her eyes.
"It's okay, the doctor said try not to exert yourself, you suffered from a pretty bad concussion," he said reaching out and putting a strand of hair behind her ear. She smiled, besides Seth no one had been this nice to her, at least not that she could remember. She was glad she had one friend, she might not remember anything but his voice but being near him felt familiar and for now....that was enough