A/N - Since I'm nice I decided to give out a bonus chapter! It's a reward for everyone having to read about Kim! ;) Thanks again for all the positive comments, I really appreciate it!
Drew stood in front of the enormous mansion just taking it all in for a moment. He looked down at his paper and verified the address one more time.
"66 Harbor View Road," he muttered to himself. "This is the place." He looked around and contemplated whether he should knock or just walk in.
"The people here don't see you as a stranger, but I sure as hell feel like one," he quipped. "Oh, what the hell, just open the door already."
Drew stepped forward and grabbed the handle to open the towering door. Just as he did that the door opened from the other side.
"DREW!" Monica shouted as she grabbed him and hugged him tightly. "I've been so worried about you. Are you okay, was the procedure successful, I have so many questions?" Monica was so excited to see her son she had forgotten they were still on the front step. "Oh my gosh, what is wrong with me, get in here, come in, come in." She urged pulling on his arm.
Drew, walked in behind her and began looking around at the surroundings. He saw the huge winding staircase and the marble floor of the foyer. It all seemed familiar but he wasn't sure if he actually remembered it or not.
"Come, let's go sit in the living room." Monica pointed to the right of the door and touching Drew's back, ushered him into the room.
Drew, still taking it all in looked a bit unsure of what was happening. Monica caught the look on his face and immediately realized he may not remember.
"I am so sorry, I should have realized," she said somberly.
"Realized, realized what?" Drew asks puzzled.
"You, you don't remember, do you? You don't know who I am." She sadly replies.
"Oh, n-no, no, no, that's not it. Not exactly anyway." Drew stammers.
"Please sit down." Monica points to the couch as she offers Drew a seat.
"Look, please don't misunderstand. I know who you are, I know, th-that you're my…." The words were stuck in his mouth. He almost couldn't bring himself to say them, worrying that it would somehow make it untrue. All those years in foster care, in different homes, all he wanted more than anything was a mother. Now he had one and he almost couldn't believe it was true.
"I'm your what?" Monica inquires, hoping he remembered being her son. She knew it was selfish, but she didn't know if she could take another son not remembering her.
"You are my mother." Drew spits out slowly. He saw Monica's eyes fill with tears and she leaned over and gave him a big hug. He hesitantly put his arms around her still having very little actual recollection of their relationship.
Monica sensed the hesitation in his hug and knew there was more to what he had to say. Slowly she pulled back and scanned his face for a hint of what he was about to say.
"Something tells me there is more to that statement."
Drew chuckles a bit and nods his head.
"Yeah, well, there is a lot that has happened over the past few weeks. Some of it I remember vividly and some, well, some I'm just getting around to remembering." Drew quips with a wink as he begins to explain his journey over past days. "I know that I willingly went to Andre Maddox to have him reverse the memory mapping procedure on me. Before he did the procedure, he had me make several videos about myself, about my family, about you and my daughter." Drew looks up and shyly smiles at Monica as he grabs her hands. "I know I have a daughter. I've seen pictures of her, heard about her from my own voice, but I've been dying to…." Drew stops himself quietly and takes a deep breath in. Quietly he says, "I've been dying to meet her." He smiles at Monica with a hopeful grin. "Is she here? I mean, does she live here, with me?" Drew questions. He stands up and begins to walk around the room. He gets a bit nervous as he begins to relay the thoughts and feelings he has regarding the mysterious woman he has been having dreams about. "I don't know much about the mother, that is, I don't remember that much, well really nothing, just, I think her name is Sam and I know that I still feel very connected to her."
Monica watches as Drew paces around the floor and smiles as he recounts his connection to Sam. Monica gets up and goes over to where Drew is standing by the double doors leading outside.
"Hey, listen, I don't think you should get so worked up. You just had some sort of a brain procedure, I don't think it's a good idea to put a bunch of stress on your mind right now." Monica puts her hand on his arm and softly touches his face. "Come on, come sit down with me again and we can talk about Scout. She doesn't live here full time, but she comes over for visits all the time."
Drew walks over and sits on the couch next to Monica again and listens to her tell him about Scout. How she loves the nanny and all the new things she has been discovering.
"Her latest thing, according to Sam, is that she loves to play with the pots in the kitchen and bang on them like drums."
"Sam? That's her mother, right?" Drew inquires sheepishly.
"Yes, you were right when you said you thought her name was Sam. Sam McCall." Monica recounts. As she tells Drew Sam's name she watches his face for recognition. She can see that he seems to be straining to remember, but not quite getting anything.
"Why don't we talk about Sam in a little bit. What I would like to know is did Dr. Maddox give you any after care instructions? Are there things we need to look out for? I mean, I'm a doctor but this 'procedure,' he did I understand it's never been done before. Did he tell you what to expect?" Monica rattled on annoyed that Drew could have a set back or a side affect that would be undetected.
"Whoa, hang on. Yes, Dr. Maddox told me to take it easy for a few days and well, there was something that happened after the procedure."
"What?" Monica insists.
"I got the most horrific headache I have ever experienced in my life." Drew explains. "But, it only happened the one time and there were other circumstances."
"What other circumstances?"
"Look, it just happened once and really, I'm okay." Drew tries to reassure Monica as he can see he upset her.
"Drew, I'm your mother and I'm a Dr. so please, let me help you handle your recovery. I just want to know what to expect and if I should be aware of anything." Monica sweetly places her hand on Drew's hand and gently rubs it.
"Okay, so when I first woke up from the procedure, I had gotten upset about things I had remembered, things about when I was taken prisoner, when the procedure was first performed on me back in 2012. Then, when I was intently trying to remember more details of what happened, I got the headache. Andre had me take deep breaths and relax and it went away."
"So, it sounds like you need to avoid stress and straining too hard to remember things."
"Yes, Andre said that he believes things from the last 5 years will come back to me naturally. Some things I do know like places and I have people's faces in my head, but I can't remember names, interactions, or the memories. Those are still somewhere in the back of my mind, yet to surface." Drew sadly looks down and glances over to the coffee table. Out of the corner of his eye he catches a glimpse of a document with Monica's name on it. He turns to fully look over at the table to see the document. 'Birth Certificate,' was labeled at the top. Drew pauses for a moment as a flash of memory comes to his mind. "I would like to adopt you." He remembers hearing Monica's voice saying that to him. He then flashes to a moment in an office and seeing himself signing papers. He remembered! It was the papers for him to change his name. After Monica had adopted him he decided to change his name from Drew Cain to Drew Quartermaine.
Monica, could see Drew was deep in thought. Not wanting him to bring on a headache she softly begins saying his name, trying to coax him back to reality.
"Drew, Drew."
Drew turned his head to look at Monica, slowly he begins to smile and moves in to hug her.
"I remember this," he explains, shaking the paper at Monica. "I remember, when I changed my name. I was so happy and, and proud that you wanted me for a son that I wanted to give you something in return." Drew beaming with pride, stands up in front of Monica and tells her the story of how he changed his name secretly and he was going to reveal it to her on Thanksgiving.
"Wait, how do you have this now, I never told you, I…" Drew sat back down on the couch staring at Monica while more memory came flooding back to him.
"Oh, I know, I sent it to you, when I was going to have the procedure, I sent you the birth certificate with a, a letter, right?"
"Yes, that's right!" Monica smiled at how quickly the memory seemed to come. She hoped the rest of his memories would come that easily. She remembered two years ago, when everyone thought he was Jason and how he struggled to get his memories back. She did not want to see him have to agonize that hard again over not remembering his loved ones. Suddenly Monica realized what the best medicine would be for Drew right now.
"Hey, how about we go upstairs and see that little girl of yours, she's probably up from her nap about now."
Drew jolted up with excitement. He had been waiting days to see his little girl again and now he was only moments away from it.
"Lead the way…if you don't mind." Drew coyly quips. While the house seemed familiar he still wasn't sure about which rooms were what and he didn't want to fumble around aimlessly, he just wanted to get to his daughter.
"Right this way," Monica quips back holding her arm out and pointing in the direction of the stairs. Drew takes her hand and draws her in close for a quick embrace. They ascend the stairs and make their way to the 2nd floor nursery. As Monica leads Drew through the hall ways he looks around intently, taking everything in, trying to make connections to memories, but also trying to remember his way around the enormous place! After a short journey, Monica finally stops in front of a closed door. She quietly knocks and then opens it stepping inside. Drew suddenly felt a twinge of nervousness, what if he scared her? What if she could tell he was different? What if he didn't remember her or worse, what if he didn't feel anything when he saw her?
"Drew, what's wrong? Are you coming in?" Monica softly inquires.
Drew looks up to see Monica staring at him with concern on her face. He quickly covers up his doubts by flashing a big smile and stepping into the room.
"Drew, this is the nanny…."
"Heather," Drew cuts Monica off abruptly. He hoped he was right about her name but something, in his head told him he was.
"Hi Mr. Cain. It's nice to see you again."
Drew was too distracted with thoughts of his baby girl to correct the nanny on his name. "Thanks, yeah, you too. How's my baby girl today?" Drew walks past the nanny and over toward the crib where he sees Scout standing and reaching out to him. All his worry and doubt about remembering her or not feeling anything for her fell away as he instantly felt a deep bond with his daughter. He flashed to memories of breathing life into her on the night she was born, holding her for early morning feedings and for their 'chat,' sessions they used to have, seeing her open presents at Christmas, holding her on her 1st birthday. So many memories came back with just one look at that precious face.
"If you won't be needing me anymore right now, I will leave you three alone." Heather timidly proclaims.
"Uh, yeah that's great, I'm going to be here for a while with my baby girl, I have missed her soooo much." Drew babbles, half talking to the nanny half talking to his little princess. Heather turns to leave the room and just before she does Drew stops her.
"Wait a second, did I call you the other day? I did, right? To talk to Scout?"
"Y-yes? You called to talk to Scout a couple of days ago." Heather hesitantly replies.
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to freak you out. I just, I've had a lot going on and I'm a bit, out of sorts. I'm just trying to get my bearings back." Drew explains to the young nanny, looking very confused. "Thanks, for clarifying that for me, you can go now." Drew dismisses the young woman before he traumatizes her further.
Drew switches his focus back to his daughter as he picks her up out of the crib. She brushes her hand through her hair and touches her fingers to her daddy's nose. Drew smiles brightly and hugs Scout close to his face.
"Hey there, baby girl, Daddy missed you so much!"
"Daddy!" Scout exclaims in reply.
"I'm sorry I was away from you but I promise you anytime I have to leave you, I will always come back. Always." Drew continues talking to Scout as he walks over and places her down on the carpet to play with various toys and stuffed animals. Drew picks up little playthings and squishes them into Scouts belly as he makes raspberry noises. Monica looks on for a few minutes while Drew reacquaints himself with his daughter and then she decides to give them privacy and leaves. Once in the hallway she lets out a big sigh and whispers a little prayer of thankfulness, "Thank you God, for bringing my son back to me." After her short pause she starts down the hallway, to head back downstairs. As she walks away she pulls her cellphone out of her pocket so she can call Sam and let her know that Drew is back and he is okay. Just as she is about to dial, the phone rings. The caller ID shows it's the hospital.
"Dr. Quartermaine," Monica answers. "Okay, I'll be right there." The call to Sam would have to wait, she had an emergency at the hospital to deal with.
In the nursery, Drew and Scout were in their own world, playing, laughing and babbling to each other. Drew felt real contentment in this moment. He remembered watching the video he had made for himself talking about Scout and how beautiful and smart she was. He was so right. She was the sweetest, smartest most beautiful baby around and he was the luckiest dad in the world to have her as a daughter.