Posting chapter 5 quickly, while my hack is working...
Chapter 5: Come Back to Life
The next day, Jules and Spike found themselves in the hospital room once more. Adele was still comatose. Her eyes were still moving rapidly back and forth under her eyelids, as if she was dreaming constantly.
Spike sat helplessly by, watching as Adele appeared to grow more fragile by the second. She was becoming smaller and smaller, as she slowly seemed to fade away.
Abruptly, Spike was brought back to the here and now, as alarms quickly sounded alerted the staff: Adele had flat-lined.
Spike stood frozen in time, paralyzed with fear, completely beside himself; suddenly so unsure of everything. His world was rapidly crashing down around him, shattering into little unrecognizable splinters.
The hospital staff rushed into her room, ushering him out quickly, as they called for the crash cart. The noises and sounds rolled into each other, crashing inexplicably into a blur. The room had taken on an eerie surreal feeling. Time seemed to have slowed down from his perspective. Nothing made sense.
Spike vaguely heard the doctor shouting for a crash cart. "Code Blue! She's flat-lined!"
He watched from outside the room in horror as Craven ordered the nurse to charge the defibrillator to 300 joules. Spike tried to process the bits and pieces he could hear, from the other side of the glass. He wondered why anybody would want 300 Jules. She was an awesome friend and co-worker, but 300 of her seemed to be an implausible request. Sleep-deprived and apprehensive with worry, Spike was not entirely with it. His thoughts raced rapidly, incoherently, through his mind.
She can't die, he thought to himself over and over. But what if she does? What then? What do I do? What happens then?
The disjointed thoughts engulfed Spike's wearily fatigued psyche. Suddenly, the loud, long, screaming beep of the flat-line alert was replaced slowly by blips of a faintly-beating heart becoming rapidly stronger, as Adele fought her way back to the ones she loved, her family, her Spike.
"She's back," said Craven calmly, sighing with relief.
Without warning, Adele's eyes flew open and she rose upright in the bed, gasping audibly. Spike's heart leapt with simultaneous fear and relief. Ignoring everyone around them, he and Jules reentered the room, taking care to remain to the side, out of the way of the health professionals.
"You're in a hospital!" said Craven to Adele, who was hyperventilating and gagging against the ventilator tube. "Relax!"
"Don't fight it, Adele," Jules said steadily, from the sidelines.
"Relax, relax, you're all right!" said Craven. He had both hands on Adele's shoulders in a secure hold, instructing her with a firm command. "Can you blink?" Adele made another gagging sound and blinked. "Alright, alright, raise your thumb. Raise your thumb." Adele raised her thumb, still panicking. "Good. Good. Do you want the tube out?"
Adele's blood pressure and pulse was spiking. Despite her panic, she managed to nod and blink. Craven quickly pulled out the ventilator tube. A nurse placed an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose.
"Just breathe," said Craven calmly. "You're fine."
It took a few long moments, but gradually, Adele's breaths evened out, then deepened, and her blood pressure returned to normal.
"That's it," said the nurse calmly.
"I'm Doctor Craven. This is Nurse Prior."
"Kaitlyn," said the nurse, smiling.
"Of course, you know Spike and Jules," said Craven, looking at Jules and Spike.
"Welcome back, Adele," said Jules. "We've all been worried sick. You shouldn't scare us like that."
Adele looked around, confused.
"You have a question?" Craven asked.
Adele blinked and Kaitlyn removed the mask. "Where am I?"
"Toronto General Hospital," said Craven. "You were in an explosion."
"I don't remember," said Adele hoarsely, looking around helplessly.
"That's all right. It's normal," said Craven. "Most people never remember the trauma."
Then Adele looked at Spike and Jules and said the last words they wanted to hear.
"I... I don't know them."
The doctor gazed steadily at Adele. "You don't know Spike and Jules?" he asked calmly, clarifying.
From behind the mask, Adele shook her head slowly back and forth.
Jules looked at Spike standing beside her. His expression was one of despair.
"No worries," she said, more for Spike than herself, her tone more reassured than she felt. "It'll come."
"Absolutely," Craven said, nodding. "Temporary memory loss is to be expected. Don't let it worry you. Are you breathing comfortably?" Adele nodded. "Good. Let's switch to the nasal cannula, Kaitlyn."
"Okay," Kaitlyn said. She stepped forward and spoke quietly to Adele, as she took off the mask and inserted the cannula.
"You're doing fine," said Craven. "You just rest. I need to talk to Spike and Jules for a moment, if you two would come with me, please."
As the door closed behind Spike, he started breathing heavily, panicking. He sank against the wall and closed his eyes for a long moment, to calm himself. He wished it would all go away, that it was just a bad dream he could wake up from. When he opened his eyes again, the doctor was still standing in front of him.
"Spike, how long have you and Adele been together? Including before you were married," Craven asked.
"Including when we were dating, three years," said Spike. "Why?"
"Adele is suffering from retrograde amnesia. The swelling of her brain explains it," said Craven. "Who an amnesiac remembers depends on the prior relationship."
They glanced into the room, where Adele had quickly fallen asleep.
"She was in a car accident last year," said Spike. "Could that have anything to do with this?"
"I don't think so, it's too long ago," said Craven, "however, a previous head or brain injury could be exacerbating her symptoms or may have caused a relapse of some sort."
"Is she just going to have to relive the last few years of her life, until her brain catches up to itself?" Spike asked. "She thinks I'm a stranger. How am I supposed to even take her home? She has to be able to trust me, just to walk out of here."
"Rather than fully relying on medical remedies, you'll need to rebuild habits with her," said Craven. "Prove to her you are who you say you are, with something as simple as showing her your wedding photo, perhaps. Once you get her to trust you, try showing her other photos. That may trigger some memories to resurface. Let me be clear, Spike; I believe all her memories are there. I think she's just not able to access them right now, because of what's going on with her brain."
Spike nodded. "With the swelling and everything," he said.
"Yes," said Craven. "Hang in there. She'll come around."
Spike nodded. He certainly hoped so.
Jules stood in front of the team in the barn, an hour or so later.
"I have good news," she said, looking around at all of them. "Adele has regained consciousness."
Cheers went around the room, as well as smiles and sighs of relief.
"But there's a problem," said Jules. "She has some memory loss."
"Retrogressive amnesia is normal after severe trauma," said Ed calmly.
"Yeah," said Leah. "I remember when I totaled my car when I was 19. That day is still a blank to me."
"Well, Adele's blank is about the last five years," said Jules frankly.
Stunned silence palpated the room.
"To her," Jules went on, "it's 2007 and she's still full-time in college, where she struggled with severe depression and anxiety. She thinks she still cashiers at Safeway, too."
"She doesn't know she changed jobs?" Sam asked.
"I doubt it," said Jules. "She didn't recognize Spike or me."
Looks of shock came over the team's faces.
"Wait, if she didn't recognize Spike..." said Leah slowly.
"Means she won't know any of us," said Ed.
"I'm sure it's just a temporary condition," Jules said, her voice more confident than she felt.
"Can we go visit her?" Ed asked.
"Not just yet," said Jules cautiously. "Her neurologist, Doctor Craven, will let us know when she's up to it."
"Copy that," said Ed, and the rest of the team followed suit.
Spike watched helplessly as Adele fought her way back to consciousness, that afternoon. Frown lines appeared immediately as the sleepiness wore off and were quickly replaced by the effects of the concussion and edema. She let out a short groan before vomiting, as waves of pain and nausea washed over her. After several long minutes, she stopped retching and shaking and laid back against her pillows in exhaustion. Only then did she attempt to open her eyes. She clenched the sheets tightly in her hands and rolled around on the bed, trying and failing to find a comfortable position.
"Easy, Adele, nurse is coming," Spike said, pressing the call button. "Remember my name? It's Spike."
Mostly ignoring him, Adele shook her head ever-so-slightly in response, her eyes squeezed tightly shut from the pain.
Craven entered the room a minute later, followed closely by a nurse. "How are you doing, Adele?" he asked.
"My head... hurts..." Adele cried, clutching her head in her hands, trying to alleviate the pain. Tears of pain streamed down her face.
"I've got something for your pain," said Craven. He handed her a pill and the nurse gave her a cup of water. "We need to take you down for tests. I wanted to wait until you woke. Do you want to wait until you're feeling better? The pill should take about fifteen minutes to take effect."
"No, I'm fine. Let's do it," said Adele.
Two more nurses entered the room and lifted the bars on the side of Adele's bed and began to wheel her out of the room.
An hour later, the tests were complete. Adele had struggled on the way to and from the tests; the elevator's motions down and up from the imaging department made her very nauseous and she threw up several times. Adele was wheeled back into her room to sleep off the antiemetic and pain pill. She awoke a few hours later to the ever-present debilitating headache.
Shortly after she awoke, with a press of the call button, Craven entered the room with the test results.
"How's your head, Adele?" he asked.
"Killing me," Adele moaned.
"I'm sorry the transport gave you so much trouble, but with concussions, that's not abnormal. I've brought you another pain pill," said Craven, nodding at the nurse. She stepped forward and watched as Adele took the pill from her, swallowed it, and washed it down with a cup of water. "And I have your most recent test results."
Adele's eyebrows rose. "And?" she asked.
"What I have isn't brilliant. The tests show that, while the swelling of your brain hasn't gone down at all, it hasn't increased," said Craven. "This is good. How are the headaches?"
"Not as frequent," said Adele.
"But still pretty nasty?"
"Yes."
"Well, at this point, there's not much more we can do, except monitor your progress and manage your pain," said Craven. "So in keeping with the heavy anti-inflammatory and diuretics medications we have you on, I'm sending you home."
Adele's head jerked up; she winced, regretting the motion immediately. "Ow... I can go home?"
"If I were to discharge you, do you have someone who can stay with you?" Craven asked, though he knew the answer. "It's not a good idea for you to be on your own until your memory returns."
"I can stay with my folks," said Adele.
"Adele," Spike interjected gently, "they're sharing responsibility of taking care of the twins. Don't you think it would be, er... a bit much if they had to take care of you, too?"
Adele glared at him. "Then who... Spike?" she asked testily.
"Me," said Spike simply.
"How do I know you are who you say you are?" Adele asked him.
Spike sighed and pulled out a sheet of paper from his pocket. It was a copy of their marriage certificate. He also pulled out two photographs: their wedding photo and a family photo. He had gone home and grabbed them while she was sleeping.
"See?" Spike asked. "We've been married since 2010. The twins were born in March of 2011."
Adele frowned. "If you say so," she said. She now had no choice but to trust him.
"I'm going to go home to prepare a room for you," said Spike. "Jules is on her way to pick you up, alright?"
"Who's Jules again?" Adele asked.
"I work with her," said Spike. "We work for the SRU, Strategic Response Unit."
"Okay," said Adele.
"I want you back here twice a week for scans, Adele," said Craven. "I want you back here immediately if your headaches increase in intensity or frequency, alright?"
"Alright," said Adele. "Thank you, Doctor."
Spike met Adele's gaze and nodded, then left the room. He met Jules in the hallway.
"Hey, Jules," he said. "She's waiting for you."
"Alright," said Jules. "Where are you going?"
"Home; I'll meet you there, I'm going to prepare a room for her," said Spike.
Jules nodded and continued down the hallway. She entered the room as the doctor was leaving the room.
"Remember our deal, Adele. You're free to go as soon as you get dressed. Jules is here to take you home," said Craven.
Adele nodded and the doctor and nurses left the room.
"Adele, do you need any help getting dressed?" Jules asked.
Adele shook her head, then winced in pain, changed her mind, and nodded. Jules stepped forward to help her change clothes.