Vaughn PoV

I tapped my foot on the floor impatiently waiting for the doctor to come in Chelsea's room. Chelsea lay in the hospital bed and was staring helplessly at the remote control, trying to figure it out. She smashed her fingers over random buttons and was biting her lip so much it was starting to bleed. Her angry fingers still hadn't found the power button at the top of the remote. She huffed and tossed the remote at the wall and the television flicked on, a little too loudly for my taste. "Don't throw things. You could have broken something." I said sternly. She ignored me and watched the weather forecast that had animated little clouds, suns, and rain drops. I stood up to go retrieve the remote (what was I, a dog?) and just as I did, the doctor walked in. "Hi, I'm Doctor Jin." He looked over at Chelsea in the bed, and she stared back blankly for a moment, and then returned to watching the weather channel. "That must be Mrs. Chelsea, and you…" he looked at his clipboard, "must be her husband, Mr. Vaughn." I choked on the air and had a coughing fit.
"Vaughn's my husband?" Chelsea said looking at me with wide eyes. That had managed to get her attention. I was bent over still coughing but I managed to shake my head 'no'. "What's a husband?" she asked looking at me perplexed.
"Doctor… Jin? May I speak with you outside?" he nodded his head curtly and held the door open for me.
We stepped into the hallway and Jin spoke, "Did I say something wrong?" he said. He was a very formal man. He had glasses and wore his black hair slicked back into a shiny ponytail. "What gave you the idea I'm her husband!?" I pulled on my hair and he stood their calmly looking at his silver clipboard. "It says so right here," he said tapping his pen on the paper, ""Relationship to patient: Spouse" see?" he showed me the form I had filled out for Chelsea, my jaw dropped. I had left that section blank. I know I had. "And at the bottom of the form is your signature." He said flatly pointing his pen to the scribble. My hands were shaking, "I know that's my signature, dammit!" I kicked the door and winced at the pain in my foot, "but I did not fill out that damn box on the paper! The only reason I'm here is because she can't remember whether or not she has any family!" Jin stood there examining the paper without any expression. I stared at him and felt my blood boil from how calm he was being. "Regardless of whether you falsified information, I think it's best for Mrs. Handler if she continues to believe you are her husband… It says here that she's suffering from amnesia. Is that information correct?" I nodded. He continued, "Well seeing as how she has no relatives we know of, she will need someone to comfort her, Someone to help her remember things again. I could run all sorts of tests on her, but I think it would be better if I just took some blood and did an X-Ray tonight, just to see if she's been drugged or if she's broken anything. I will make some calls tomorrow morning and let you know what I find out." I sighed and nodded my head.
I went back inside the room to collect my suit jacket, and there was Chelsea watching the television yet again. "Van?"
"Vaughn." I said correcting her.
"Are you leaving? Am I going with you?" She asked climbing out of the hospital bed, rather uncoordinatedly, I might add. Thank goddess the nurse hadn't taken her undergarments off. Her flashing me her underwear was awkward enough. There was a bunny face on her butt. I looked up at the ceiling and scratched my head. "Well, I am leaving but you can't come with me. You have to stay here tonight and I'll be back tomorrow." She walked up to me and pulled on my tie almost choking me.
"I don't want to be here alone… it's scary…" She looked at me with tears in her eyes. I had no idea what was going on in her head. What was it like to lose your memories? What was it like not to remember anything? She continued to hold her grip on my tie and she continued to stare at me sadly. I sighed. I wanted to go back to my apartment. I had to pack my things so I could go back to the island tomorrow.
I came to a conclusion. "Tell ya what," I sat down on the hospital bed and she sat down next to me, still holding onto me, I felt like I was on a leash. "I'll stay here until the tests are done and until you fall asleep, and I'll be back once you wake up alright?" I smiled at her. She didn't like my proposal, but accepted it.
"What tests will they do?" She asked. "Will I fail like SpongeBilly did?"
I had no idea what she was talking about, but shook my head, "No, it's not a pass fail sort of thing. The doctor will take some of your blood and analyze it. And there's a machine that can see through your body to make sure you haven't broken a bone."
"My blood?" she stared at her scabbed kneecaps that had red whelps around them. There were bruises on her thighs and shins. "Is that… inside of me?" she looked at me, and I nodded encouragingly. She smiled brightly at me, for the first time she was actually smiling at me. I felt my face get hot and looked away from her.
"Do you recall seeing anyone before m—" I was cut off by Jin and an old nurse walking into the room.
"Hey Chelsea, how are you feeling?" Jin asked politely handing her a cup of water that she refused. Chelsea pondered the question looking up at the ceiling. "I feel… well I don't know…" she looked at the white tile.
"Amnesia does cause confusion." Jin said. Chelsea perked up at hearing the new word.
"Like anemone?" she asked me smiling. I guess she learned that word on Spongewhatever. I shook my head and and told her what amnesia was. Jin and the old lady occasionally nodded with me. When I finished she was looking at me with concentration like she was focusing on every word I said.
"We should do a blood test now, and move on to the X-Ray. I imagine you're quite tired, Mrs. Handler." The old lady said. Chelsea's eyes got big as the old lady went into the hall and returned with a needle. She was grabbing my forearm digging her nails into my skin. "This is a syringe. This is what we have to use to get the blood sample from you. It won't hurt I promise." The old lady approached Chelsea and Chelsea was leaning closer and closer to me to the point she was almost in my lap, yet never taking her eyes off the old woman.
Jin looked at me with pleading eyes. I sighed. Something I seem to be doing more and more lately. "Chelsea, look at me," Chelsea shook her head no and wouldn't take her eyes off the woman. "Chelsea, I have a story to tell you about a cat and a dog. It was an animation I watched once." This interested her, she turned her head and looked at me, I was completely bullshitting at this point, but it was the only way to keep her from freaking out. "Well the cat lived on a sunny hill and the dog lived by the river. The cat lived a lazy life at the top of the hill. She laid in the sunshine all day, ate mice and bugs she found on the hill. The dog had a hard life. He had to get in the water and look for fish," the old woman took Chelsea's arm from her, Chelsea not noticing. "One da-"
"Why doesn't the dog have a lazy life too? He could lay in the sun and eat bugs and mice with the cat."
"Cats and dogs don't get along. Anyways," the nurse took the cap off the needle and searched for a vein in Chelsea's arm. "One day the cat had wandered too far and fell into the river. The dog noticed this and thought, "Good serves that cat right!"" the nurse was taking Chelsea's blood now, "but then he saw a face appear on the sun and the face said, "Hey save that cat!" so the dog did and the cat and dog were friends for the first time ever, the end." I rushed to the ending because the nurse had finished bandaging her arm and was leaving the room. Chelsea stared at my hair.
"That wasn't a very good story." She said flatly.
"That's not a nice thing to say." I retorted.
"SpongeBilly is better than that," Jin snickered, still standing in the doorway. "But maybe we can be friends like the cat and dog." Then she turned and pointed at Jin, "You can be the weird face in the sun. But the face doesn't have any friends. That's too bad."
I smirked at her. At least she wasn't a dolt all the time. Jin waved me over to him, "I don't think an X-Ray is necessary. If she complains of any pain let me know. I'll call you in the morning." He whispered. I nodded and sat down in the chair next to the hospital bed. She still hadn't noticed the bandage on her arm. She was too busy fiddling with the remote again, but this time focusing on each button she pushed. A cartoon came on and there were hamsters singing.
"Van—I mean Vaughn, what is this called?" She turned her head to me, her eyes still on the TV.
I looked at the familiar orange hamster that I so often saw hanging on girl's phones, "Hampallo." I yawned and rested my head on the back of the chair.