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Chapter Five: Facing Reality
Cole walked into his Mom's hospital room to see her lying in the bed with a bandage on her head and a cut on her arm, but at least she and the baby were all right. That's what was important.
"Hey, Mom." He whispered so quietly he wasn't sure he heard anything.
"Oh, Cole! You're all right! I thought something happened to you!" Marty shouted pulling her son tightly against her chest.
"Of course I'm fine," Cole said confused, "Why wouldn't I be fine? I wasn't in the car with you."
"You weren't? Well then where were you?"
"I was at home wrapping Christmas presents with John."
John, Marty thought as she furrowed her brows together, Who's John?
"John?"
Cole began scratching his head in confusion at the look on his Mom's face when he mentioned John's name. The familiar wide smile that usually was there at the mention of the detective was gone and in its place was pure confusion.
"Yeah, John McBain. You know 6ft 185 lbs., long brown hair, blue eyes, goatee. The man you're in love with. The man whose baby you're having."
Marty's head began to swirl rapidly as she listened to the words coming out of her son's mouth. Who was John? Apparently he was her boyfriend and apparently they were also having a baby, but why couldn't she remember?
Touching her stomach gently with her hands, she felt the familiarness of a baby bump and gasped. She was pregnant. Looking at all the monitors she was hooked up to she finally noticed the fetal monitor that was beating steadily.
"Mom, are you all right? Do you need a doctor?"
All Marty could do was stare at Cole while her head continued to swirl and she began to get dizzy from the confusion of it all, but she still couldn't escape the feeling in the back of her head that something was missing. Like someone else should be in the room right now. For the first time in a long time it wasn't Patrick she missed. Maybe it was this John person she missed.
"I'm going to get Dr. McBain or Dr. Miller. I'll be right back, Mom. Don't move or anything."
Cole left his Mom's hospital room to see John still sitting in one of the chairs looking at a picture in his hand.
"Hey, John have you seen Dr. Miller or Michael?"
"Mike was paged somewhere and I haven't seen Paige. Why? Is everything all right with Marty?"
"No, something's wrong. My Mom thought something happened to me that I was in the accident with her and when I told her I was home with you . . . It was like she didn't . . . "
"Know who I was." John finished Cole's statement for him.
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"Mike told me that when Marty woke up she was scared and disoriented. That she didn't mention the baby or me; just you. She didn't recognize him or Paige either. She's got amnesia or something."
"Are they sure? What if they're wrong?"
"You just saw her. Do you think so?"
Cole sighed defeated and shook his head slightly.
"I thought so."
"So what happens now, John? What are we supposed to do?"
"I wish I knew, kid, I wish I knew. See this is what people mean when they tell you to face reality. The reality we have to face is that Marty's not all right. That there's a lot she doesn't remember. We have to help her face that."