AN: Hi there! I'm sorry for leaving this story behind for a while. Hopefully, this longer update will make up for it somewhat.

There are some medical jargon and stuff in this chapter, and, while I did do my research, I'm still taking the liberty that fiction affords me to make the medical stuff not entirely accurate.

Enjoy and let me know your thoughts! Thank you for reading!

Chapter 3

Sam felt good after having been able to stand up. It was only for a few minutes, but she felt a sense of herself again. To feel her bare feet on the cold hospital room floor and to have it tingle up her back. She felt slightly more human. For the most part, the sedatives had run their course and she was more alert. There was no longer a fog that surrounded her.

Alexis was sitting beside her on her laptop answering emails. Earlier in the day, she came with an iPad for Sam. Kristina and Molly found an app that was able to transcribe speech. It wasn't entirely accurate, but it was beneficial enough for Sam and helped to move the conversation along. It also helped the feelings of isolation that Sam was previously experiencing.

Now the iPad lay beside Sam on the bed. There wasn't much conversation to be had between Sam and Alexis. And Alexis believed that Sam was resting. And Sam was resting. Or at least trying to. Her anxiety was intense, and she wished more than anything to have Jason with her right now. Instead, He was still out grabbing the kids so that they could come for a visit. Her daydreams, when she'd have them, had been coerced into nightmares. Ones where the doctors would tell her the worst-case scenarios. One in which she was told she'd never hear again. But that daydream, or nightmare if you will, was mild compared to others. There were others where the doctors had told her she had a small hidden deadly tumor in her brain. She'd never see her kids grow up. It was as if without her hearing, her imagination had all the more time and energy to run rampant.

Jason walked into the small bedroom where Scout was soundly asleep. Currently at the Quartermaines' mansion, and waiting for his son, Jason had been told by Monica that Danny was with Cook baking chocolate chip cookies. She had additionally told him to go upstairs to Scout and she would send Danny up when he finished baking. Jason had agreed and now he stood over his napping daughter, taking in all her preciousness. Sleeping on her back with her thumb in her mouth, Scout seemed to define sleeping beauty.

Jason noticed that whereas Danny was a copy of himself, Scout was a copy of her mother. She has a heart-shaped face with beautifully expressive brown eyes. Her smile was capable of radiating a whole room. She had jet black straight hair just as Sam's, the curls she had at birth seemingly vacant. Jason found himself wondering if his daughter would be as talkative as Sam. Scout certainly cried more often than Danny ever did.

It's true what they say though. The daughter is daddy's little girl and Scout had certainly stolen Jason's heart. Jason remembered Sam's frustration when it had taken her hours to get Scout to sleep but the moment Jason picked her up, Scout passed out. Jason had to reassure Sam that she wasn't an inadequate mother. He had pleaded with Scout to make life a little easier for her mother. Sam's confidence had been waning and Jason didn't want Sam to ever believe herself a bad mother. The truth was that Jason found himself to be in awe of Sam every single day. He couldn't imagine a better mother for his kids.

"Dad!" Danny yelled from outside the room, running in and rushing towards Jason.

"Hey there," Jason wrapped him up, picking him up and walked out into the hallway to not wake Scout. "How was school?"

"Good," Danny answered simply.

"Yeah?"

"I miss mommy," the little boy said quietly.

"I know, I know. Mommy misses you too. So much. I promise you that we're going to see her real soon. But I want to talk to you first. Is that okay?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah? Okay," Jason set Danny back on his feet and then crouched down to his level. He wasn't certain how to start. How does one even begin to explain everything that had transpired?

"Danny, so you know how Mommy was in an accident?"

"Yes."

"Okay, well in the accident, Mommy got a little hurt," Jason started. He was going to leave out the needless and gruesome details like the limo exploding. "She has some cuts and she hit her head."

"Is mommy okay?" the little boy asked worriedly. Danny looked down and fiddled with his hands, feeling nervous and anxious.

"Yes, mommy is fine. The thing is… because of the accident, Mommy can't hear anymore."

"What?" Danny looked up at his father with confusion and incomprehension.

"The accident hurt her ears and now she can't hear anymore."

"I don't get it," Danny replied. He couldn't understand how someone couldn't hear anymore. Wasn't hearing something that just happened? Jason looked beside himself, searching for a way to explain properly. He mulled it over for a few more moments before it finally hit him.

"Here Danny, how about we try this? Put your hands over your ears and cover them very tightly and then afterward tell me how well you can hear me. All right?" Jason suggested. Danny nodded and pulled his hands over his ears and pressed down on them very hard. Jason, as an extra measure, then placed his own hands over the top of his sons'.

"Can you hear me?" Jason asked then. Danny smiled and tried to get closer to his father to hear better.

"Do it again!" he demanded. Jason smiled in response. Danny was still such an innocent child.

"Can you hear me?"

"I can't hear you!" Danny removed his hands from his ears.

"Exactly. That is what's happened to mommy."

Danny nodded, seemingly grasping the idea now. Jason was relieved that he had managed to find a way to explain the situation to his son.

"Will she get it back?"

"I don't know buddy," Jason didn't see the point in lying. "We hope it will. For now, mommy has this cool app on her iPad that you can talk into and then the iPad will write out your words so mom can read what you're saying. And me, grandma Alexis, grandma Monica, or anyone else, can write your words down on a piece of paper, also."

"Can mom answer back?"

"Yes, of course, Danny. She may talk a little louder than normal, though, because she can't hear herself talk."

"She can't hear herself talk?!" Danny was shocked.

"No, she can't. But it's fine. As I said, she can still talk to you. And now one more thing, Danny. This is going to be tough on your mom, okay…"

"Don't worry, dad," Danny interrupted Jason before he could finish. "I will help mommy."

Jason smiled. "Thank you. Mom will love that. But if you ever need someone to talk to, because it can be tough for you as well, I am here." Danny nodded. "Okay, what do you say we get your sister and go to the hospital?"

"Yes! Can we go to the kitchen to get the cookies? I want to give them to mom."

"Yes of course. Mom will love them."

"Good afternoon, I have some test results for you." Dr. Clars announced upon walking into the room, closing the door behind her.

"Hi there," Alexis greeted, patting Sam on the arm to wake her. "Give me a moment." Sam's eyes flew open and then turned to realize that the doctor was in the room. Alexis took the iPad, turning it on and then gave it to Sam. "Thank you," Sam replied.

"The doctor is here with the test results," Alexis started, and her words popped up on the screen in front of Sam. "Jason isn't here, do you want to wait?"

"No, Jason will have the kids with him," Sam replied. She didn't want the kids in the room while the doctor spoke in case she wasn't able to control her emotions. She didn't want to cry in front of her kids. Danny and Scout need to know that everything is okay. That their mother is strong.

Alexis nodded and turned towards the doctor.

"I'll begin with the good news," the doctor began. She talked slowly to allow time for the iPad to process her speech. "The scans don't show any skull fractures or brain bleeds."

"Okay, but Patrick already confirmed that," Alexis stated with slight confusion.

"Right, however, in some rare cases a bleed may not always show up on a brain scan right away."

"Okay, and what's the bad news?" Alexis and Sam braced themselves. The good news didn't have much to offer. Good news would have been that this was all a joke and Sam would have her hearing back by tomorrow.

"First, Sam's temporal membranes, otherwise known as the eardrums, are perforated in both ears, most likely due to the intense pressure from the blast."

"But that will heal, right?" Alexis asked, knowing from experience when Molly was young and had chronic ear infections.

"Yes… but…"

"So she'll get her hearing back," Alexis interrupted.

"It's not that simple," Dr. Clars answered. "In the tests, we found that Sam's vestibulocochlear nerve, the nerve that sends information from the ear to the brain, is damaged." A doleful and apprehensive air filled into the room. Sam's face paled upon reading the words.

"What does that mean?" Alexis asked, seemingly swallowing on her words. "Will she ever hear again?"

"It means that the head trauma that Sam sustained in the explosion, damaged the nerves in her ears. We can't be certain that Sam's hearing will ever return."

"So she's going to be deaf forever? She'll never be able to hear anything ever again?"

"Ms. Davis, it's hard to say. There have been patients who've shown recovery from this injury," Dr. Clars struggled on how best to inform her patient. This news was never easy to hand out and she hated this part of her job. Heck, she'd give anything to not be in the hospital room telling a patient that her life was possibly never going to be the same.

"So, I could get my hearing back? That's what you're saying," Sam spoke this time, clinging on to any hope that she could find in the doctor's words.

"Sam, I don't want to give you false hope. Yes, there is the possibility that your hearing can spontaneously return, however, it is within my experience that the more severe a patient's hearing loss, the less likely that patient will recover hearing. And considering you have a complete loss, I honestly do not expect for you to have a full recovery from the injury. I'm sorry to give you this news. I know we were hoping for better news."

Both Sam and Alexis were silent; they were stunned. Sam had thought about such news in her nightmares but never did the dreams tell her how to cope or how to react when the news finally came. Alexis hadn't allowed herself to think about the various circumstances. She didn't want herself to go crazy worrying about the worst-case scenarios. But now she felt as if a brick house was collapsing and tumbling on top of her.

"Would you like for me to give you some time alone? I can come back later to discuss what happens next," Dr. Clars proposed.

"Yes please," Alexis barely whispered, and Dr. Clars nodded before leaving, closing the door behind her. Sam let the iPad drop on her lap. The two of them sat there in silence, with their heads down. The only sound in the room being the monitors that kept their rhythmic beating, but Sam couldn't hear it and Alexis had grown numb to the sound. The hustle and bustle of the hospital had drowned away.

Sam moved her hand over to her mother's. Alexis grabbed Sam's hand, looking up towards her daughter. She could see the tears threatening to fall from her daughter's eyes. Alexis could feel her own cheeks burn as she kept her own tears wallowed up inside.

"It's going to be okay," Sam whispered, breaking the silence. "Everything is going to be okay."

"Yes, it is," Alexis took Sam's cue. "Everything will be fine." She marveled at Sam's strength, but she knew that inside, Sam was screaming. And it was true. Sam was screaming inside. She so desperately wanted Jason to be here with her. "Where was he?" she screamed in her head.

"Baby look at me," Alexis caught her daughter's attention. She stood up and sat down beside Sam on the bed. She took Sam's hand in both of her own. "We will get through this. I promise. I will be here. Jason will be here. Molly and Kristina will be here. We will all learn sign language together. We'll make the necessary adjustments and we will be there for you."

Sam didn't need the iPad to understand what her mother was telling her. "Thank you," she choked out, still not wanting to cry.

"You're my daughter," Alexis put a hand to Sam's cheek, "I would give you the world and more if I could. Come here." She leaned forward, wrapping her arms around Sam.

"Mommy!" Alexis jumped up and turned around. Danny came running into the room, springing onto the bed.

"Danny!" Sam threw her arms around her son, squeezing him and resting her head on top of his. Jason came running in with a sleeping Scout in his arms.

"Danny, you can't run away like that," Jason told Danny.

"I'm sorry, dad," Danny apologized, and Jason smiled, but not for long. He noticed the glum look on Alexis's face.

"What happened?" Jason asked. Alexis turned to face Jason and simply shook her head. That was all Jason needed. He understood. He turned to face Sam again. His stomach dropped and his heart lurched.

"Danny, do you want to do something for mommy?" Alexis asked. Danny untucked himself out of Sam's arms. "Mom's room seems a little boring and I think she'd really appreciate some flowers. Especially if they came from you. Do you want to go to the gift shop and help me pick out some flowers?"

"Okay," Danny was reluctant to leave his mom after just seeing her but his grandmother had insisted. "I love you mom," he told Sam.

"I love you too. So much," she replied. Danny jumped off the bed walked towards the door, waiting for grandma Alexis.

"Here, let me take Scout," Alexis took Scout from Jason's arms and walked out with the two children in tow. Jason closed the door after her.

"Jason," Sam cried. Jason ran up to her, throwing his around her. Her tears flowed freely and her hands gripped Jason's shirt. "Jason."