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Ten minutes later, Joey was fully awake. Three doctors and four nurses that had packed into the room were dispersing. Chandler finally leaned over his friend, who hadn't yet said anything. "Joey?" his hand was once again in his friend's. "Joe?"
Joey looked at him, his wide brown eyes hurt and confused. "What?"
"How're you feeling?" The words sounded beyond lame to Chandler, but a lump had caught in his throat and he was barely able to speak around it.
Instead of answering, Joey shifted his position and countered with another question. "Who are you?"
Chandler felt the familiar cold feeling start to creep back into his stomach. The lump in his throat got bigger, so he was glad when Ross answered for him. "Joe...Joey, it's Chandler. I'm Ross." Ross's hand descended onto Joey's shoulder. He flinched away from the touch.
Several long seconds passed where the only sounds were the beeps and whistles of the various machines, then. "Are you going to hurt me again?"
Chandler glanced at Ross, saw he was thinking the same thing, and nodded at him to get a doctor. "No, Joey. We're going to help you." He felt tears prick at his eyes again. How could Joey think that he would hurt him? He would never, never hurt Joey.
Joey's face contorted with pain again. "Then how come I hurt so much?" his voice was quieter now and his eyelids fluttered. Chandler could see that he was going to fall asleep again, and worry gripped him. What if he didn't wake up again?
"I'm sorry, Joey. So sorry." He squeezed Joey's hand and watched his friend drift back to sleep.
The doctor came in a minute later, followed closely by Ross. "What happened?" he demanded Chandler, who was still standing, unmoving, next to Joey's bed.
Chandler tried to explain as best he could while his mind was still trying to grasp the concept of Joey not knowing who he was. It was terrifying. The doctor nodded, his eyes flicking between Chandler and Joey, his expression unreadable.
When Chandler had finally finished, the doctor spoke. "What you described was amnesia." Chandler had expected this, but that didn't make the conformation any easier to take. He had thought that amnesia happened only on bad TV shows.
"Amnesia can be caused by many things, but here my best guess is the head wound." Chandler peered behind him at the bandage that covered his friend's head.
"Is there any way to reverse it?" Ross's question pre-empted Chandler's own.
The doctor sighed. "There is no tried-and-true method to reverse amnesia, and sometimes it can't be reversed, if the trauma is too severe. But you should expose him to his normal surroundings as soon as he is able to leave. Bring him home."
And Chandler was sure that he would do just that. Even if Joey didn't remember anything, he would bring him home.
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