The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

Chapter 11

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Bosco, with Jason in his arms, watched and waved as Jordan boarded her school bus and headed off to school. She'd been hard to calm down all morning since she knew he was going to take her to see Jennifer when she got home.

"Okay, Buddy. Let's get you off to the sitter so I can go check on Mom," he said, turning to go back into the house.

"Mom," Jason repeated with a smile.

"Yeah, Mom," Bosco said back, adding a tickle under his arm which made him flail. Bosco loosened his grip, pretending to drop him and then tightened his grip again. That seemed to be his favorite game at the moment because he let out a squeal that Bosco thought would bring the neighbors running.

Bosco looked through the bag that he'd packed the night before to make sure that he had everything he needed. He grabbed the extra diapers off the table, not realizing he'd picked up his cell phone - which remained turned off - and stuffed it all into the bag.

"Okay, Jason. Let's hit it," he said, scooping him up and heading out to his car. Once everything was loaded up, he pulled the car out of the garage and hit the button on the remote to close the door. As he pulled out of the driveway and headed up the street, the phone in the kitchen began to ring, with no one there to hear it.

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"No answer at home. I tried the cell number he left too, but I keep getting voice mail," the nurse told Jennifer's doctor.

"Oh well. Keep trying. But, I'm sure he'll be here soon enough. He hasn't missed a morning yet. At least we'll be able to give him some good news," the doctor said, making a note in the chart he was working on and heading off to see another patient.

The nurse headed back into Jennifer's room to keep an eye on her for any more signs of improvement. She'd shown signs this morning of becoming more awake. She'd opened her eyes a couple of times when asked to do so, and she even turned her head toward the doctor's voice once.

"Doctor, I wasn't able to reach your husband yet, but I'll keep trying. He should be here soon though," the nurse told Jennifer as she checked a few things on her monitors and straightened things up around the room. It was normal procedure to keep someone in the room with a patient that was coming out of a coma. They didn't want the person to wake up with no one there. They'd be disoriented enough and didn't need to be terrified as well.

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Bosco pulled into the hospital parking lot and gave the lot attendant his usual greeting along with the coffee and doughnut he supplied him every morning.

They chatted for a few minutes and Bosco headed into the hospital. He looked up at the clear, blue sky and was reminded of what the sky looked like the morning of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He shook that feeling off and returned to the unusually upbeat feel he'd had all morning.

He grabbed a newspaper from the little shop in the hospital lobby and continued upstairs to Jennifer's room. The elevator doors opened and he stepped out and glanced toward the nurse's station to call his usual greetings. Before he could get the words out, the nurse called out to him.

"We've been trying to reach you," she said, standing up and hurrying over to him.

"What? What happened?" Bosco said, concern and dread creeping into his mood. He reached for his hip as he simultaneously started toward Jennifer's room and realized that his phone wasn't clipped to his belt.

"No. It's good. Sorry," the nurse said.

"Susan, what is it?" Bosco said as he hurried toward Jennifer's room. He reached the doorway and the dread almost prevented him from entering the room.

"She's waking up," Susan called after him as she followed.

He practically stumbled into the room and saw a couple of doctors around Jennifer's bed.

"Doc?" he said in almost a whisper. He cleared his throat, took a couple more steps into the room and called out again.

This time, the doctor heard him and turned to face him. He was smiling and Bosco felt relief. "Is she really awake?" he asked.

"Well, she's getting there. She's opening her eyes more frequently when we ask her to and she's turning her head to follow voices. These are all good signs of improvement; however, don't be surprised if she stays like this for a little while," the doctor explained.

"Please, come in and see for yourself," he said, stepping to the side to let Bosco in.

Bosco looked at Jennifer and noticed that there seemed to be a little more color to her cheeks and the head of her bed had been raised slightly higher. He walked up to her side and took her hand.

"Jen? It's me. Can you open your eyes for me?" he said, his stomach doing flips at the thought that she was finally coming out of it.

He watched her brow crease and called out to her again. "Jen. Please look at me. Show me those beautiful eyes," he said, brushing a stray hair from her cheek.

She turned her head in his direction and he could tell that she was trying to open her eyes. He kept talking to her and finally her eyes fluttered open. They didn't appear to be focusing on him, but the doctor said that was normal when patients began to wake up.

"Jen," Bosco said, a huge smile breaking out on his face. "Thank God. I'm so glad to see your eyes," he said, leaning over to kiss her cheek. He sat back and noticed the confused look on her face. She was looking back and forth between the doctor and Bosco.

"Doc?" Bosco asked as he continued to look at Jennifer.

"Jennifer. Do you know who this is?" the doctor asked her. Bosco's heart jumped as he saw the slight shake of her head.

"Jennifer, this your husband. Bosco," the doctor told her as if the name had simply slipped her mind.

Jennifer started to try and form a word and only a whisper came out. Bosco moved closer and asked her to repeat what she had tried to say. The doctor saw the look on Bosco's face as he sat up and instantly knew that something was amiss. He put a hand on Bosco's shoulder.

"What did she say?" the doctor asked him.

He pulled his gaze away from Jennifer and looked at the doctor. "She said, 'No. Jeff,'" Bosco told him.

"Jeff?" the doctor asked, confused.

The nurse, who was one of the nurses that had worked with Jennifer before and knew Bosco from when he was in the hospital being treated by Jennifer, leaned over to the doctor.

"Jeff was Dr. Boscorelli's first husband. He was killed a number of years ago," she explained.

"Oh," the doctor said in almost a dismissive tone. "This is absolutely normal. Her memories are all confused. Totally normal. Likely, she'll just need some time to get them straightened out," he told Bosco.

"Likely?" Bosco questioned.

"Well, there's always the possibility that she's suffered some memory loss. We'll just have to wait and see, I'm afraid," the doctor told him. "We'll continue doing some tests to see what we can find out. In the meantime, she's just about worn herself out. Let's let her get some rest, shall we?"

"C'mon, Bosco. Let's go get some coffee. They'll be a little while more doing some tests anyway," Susan told him as she took him by the arm.

Still slightly in shock, he allowed himself to be pulled from her room. Before he realized it, he was walking down the hall with Susan.

"What the hell just happened?" he asked as she guided him into the nurses' lounge.

"What just happened is that your wife is coming out of her coma," Susan said, handing him a cup of coffee.

He took the cup and set it down on the table. "She doesn't know who the hell I am!" he stated.

"You heard the doctor - it's not uncommon. She's suffered an injury to her brain. Her memories are a little confused," Susan said, trying to calm him down. She'd seen this many times and knew that she had to get him calmed down, or he was going to upset Jennifer and make her progress slower.

"A little confused?!" he said, scoffing. "She thinks her dead husband is still alive! She has NO idea who the hell I am!" he said as he started to pace.

Susan sat back and sipped her coffee, deciding to let him continue to pace a little and let him calm down.

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TBC...