As she returned home from lunch with David, Abigail had a funny feeling inside. The look in David's eyes had reminded her so much of the way he had looked at her when they had been two teenagers in love. Were some of the old feelings returning for him after all this time?
"Well, how did lunch with David go?" Jack asked that evening.
"He had to put Ellen in a drying-out clinic," Abigail said. "She got arrested for DUI."
Jack sighed deeply. "I knew something like this would happen soon."
"During the twenty years I was in the coma, did you ever know Ellen to have a drinking problem?" asked Abigail.
"Never," said Jack. "She and David always seemed perfectly happy to me."
Abigail sighed. "I guess it must have all started when I came out of my coma, then," she said softly.
"You can't blame yourself, Abby." Jack embraced his wife, and she rested her head on his shoulder. "If she's so unable to deal with the fact that you've recovered and are now living a happy and successful life that she's turned to alcohol, that's nobody's problem but her own."
"She was always so jealous of me," Abigail murmured from the security of Jack's arms.
"Well, she has no reason to be," said Jack. "If anything, it should be the other way around. After all, you were the one who lost twenty years of your life and your boyfriend on top of that."
"Things just aren't always logical, are they," Abigail commented.
"People aren't always logical," Jack said.
Joanie had just about nodded off to sleep one Friday night when the ringing telephone jarred her awake.
"Something terrible has happened, Mom." Joanie heard her daughter Lisa's panicked voice and her own heart started to thump madly. "Matthew lost control of the car and hit a telephone pole. He hit his head on the windshield really hard. He's in surgery right now. They don't know whether he's going to make it or not."
"Lisa! Are you all right?" Joanie practically shouted into the telephone's receiver. She saw Chachi looking at her with a deeply puzzled expression.
"I'm all right, Mom. Just scared to death, is all."
"I'll be right there, sweetheart," Joanie said. As soon as she was off the phone, she told Chachi what had happened.
"I'm going with you," Chachi told her.
They arrived to find Lisa standing with Matthew's father, David.
"Oh, my baby!" Joanie rushed to Lisa and hugged her tightly, and Lisa cried on her mother's shoulder.
"Where's Ellen?" Joanie asked David.
"I had to have her admitted to a drying-out clinic," David told her.
"Does she know what happened yet?"
"I called the clinic. They're supposed to give her the message."
Joanie, Chachi, and Lisa all ended up staying in the hospital with David all night. Joanie's heart went out to the man. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to have an alcoholic for a wife and now, on top of that, a severely injured son.
Matthew was in surgery for several hours and was then taken to intensive care.
"His skull isn't fractured, thank goodness, but he has a severe concussion, and his brain is swollen and bruised," David told the others. "They don't know when he'll regain consciousness, if ever." He sank into a seat and buried his face in his hands, sobbing his heart out. Joanie felt just as if she'd stepped back in time to the day she'd first visited Abigail in the hospital after the girl had slipped into a coma.
The following morning Joanie called Abigail and told her what had happened. Jack watched as his wife's face turned as white as a sheet and she almost dropped the phone.
"It's Matthew," she told him. "He was in an accident last night and got a serious concussion. He's unconscious, and they don't know when or even if he'll ever wake up."
"Oh dear God," Jack said softly. He immediately called the school and told them that he wouldn't be in that day, then drove himself and Abigail to the hospital. They arrived to find Joanie, Chachi, and Lisa still sitting with David.
David looked up as Abigail approached, and Abigail saw his eyes light up as he spoke to her. "Abigail. I knew you'd come."