A steady repeating sound kept time as he became aware of his body. First of all his head hurt, ached in a way that made everything else feel foggy. Once Simon got past his aching head he realized he was laying on something firm and hard but not cold. He was able to move his hand and feel the texture of the surface. Sheets. He was lying in bed, but not a very comfortable one. That explained why it felt like there was something laying over him. A blanket probably. Slowly the muscles of his legs announced their presence and he twitched his toes before realizing his eyes were closed.
Opening his eyes almost overwhelmed him as his mind was assaulted with an abundance of information and bright lights. The ceiling that hung over him was an off white colour cut into rectangles. The beeping sound was coming from a machine to his left. Every beep almost felt like a reminder of how bad his head hurt. Looking to his left, Simon saw that it had a black screen with spots of colour, but the rest of it was off white like the ceiling.
Turning more, Simon found he couldn't make out most of the room. There was something black and square up on the wall in the corner. On his right there seemed to be a window but past the curtains he couldn't even guess at the weather. Quickly becoming frustrated at his lack of understanding, Simon looked to his right, hoping the last place he tired would hold the answer.
Sure enough the answer was found as he glimpsed the familiar blur of his glasses on a surface to the right of the bed. Reaching forward to pick them up, Simon realized he was actually attached to the beeping machine on his other side. There were needles in his arm. Still, first things first. Simon picked up the glasses. The frames were plastic and close to round but not completely circular. He put them on and the room suddenly came into focus.
His instant conclusion was that he was in a hospital though he couldn't at all remember why. Judging by the fact that his head was still pounding like a million tiny men had taken a hammer to the inside of his skull, Simon suspected he was here because he got hurt. The beeping machine's smudges of colour were actually lines that went up and down with his heartbeat. The black box in the corner was a blank TV screen and the weather outside was cloudy and overcast.
He didn't have long to collect his thoughts and guess at what to do next, before someone walked into the room.
"Ah you're awake," the friendly nurse said. At least Simon guessed she was a nurse as she was in light blue scrubs and holding a clipboard.
"Um yeah hi," Simon said, feeling like he wasn't quite awake enough for social interactions.
"I'll go tell her," the lady said.
Simon assumed she meant that his girlfriend was here waiting for him to wake up, either that or his family. She'd said 'her' which meant his mother or sister. Simon hoped it was his girlfriend though. He felt sure somehow that seeing Clary's face would make him feel better.
Moving around a little in the bed, he tried to get a sense of what hurt while he waited to see whichever 'her' the nurse had gone to tell. His head for sure but there was some soreness in other parts of his body too, his ribs and leg mostly.
When the nurse returned she asked him to wiggle his toes and count to ten and other such silly things he assumed were routine when someone was in a hospital. He asked the nurse what had happened and she told him he'd been in a car accident but was too busy taking his vitals to give him any details.
It wasn't long after the nurse left that two people Simon recognized arrived. His mother, Elaine, looked just like she always did, with her black curly hair peppered with grays she refused to dye. His sister, Rebecca had the same colour hair as him, brown, but somehow she wore it better.
"Hi," Simon said with an awkward wave which hurt so he put his arm back down.
"It's so wonderful to see you," his mother beamed. Though Elaine was smiling she looked like she'd been crying recently.
"What exactly happened?" Simon asked. "The nurse just told me I was in a car accident."
"You hit your head pretty bad," his mother explained in that fake calm voice parents used when they don't want to alarm their children. "And well you've been asleep for the better part of two weeks."
"Two weeks!" Simon exclaimed. "But what about my exams?"
No one answered his question. Instead they just beamed at him as if this was a second coming or something. His head hurt, his bed was very likely the least comfortable thing he'd ever had the displease to sit on and now it sounded like he'd failed all his exams by not showing up! His mother was gonna have to do better than that.
"Really guys," Simon groaned. "Stop gawking and tell me what's going on!"
"You were on your way home from work," Rebecca said. "And some idiot ran a red light and went right into you."
"Ouch," Simon cringed. He was glad he couldn't remember that. It sounded like it sucked, did explain his injuries though.
"How did you guys get here so fast?" Simon asked next. "Please tell me you haven't been waiting here all this time!"
"Izzy texted us," Rebecca said. "She's been here a lot."
Simon had to assume Izzy was the nurse's name which made sense as working in a hospital would mean being there a lot. Still to be on such casual terms with the staff, Simon had to imagine Elaine and Rebecca had been here way more than needed as well.
"I was asleep," Simon reminded him. "You have lives."
"Oh hush," his sister chastised him. "We were worried."
"Okay so since I'm awake now does that mean I get to go home?" Simon asked the nurse Izzy.
"Not my call," she replied. "I'll have to ask the doctor." And with that Izzy left.
"No one answered my question earlier," Simon continued. "What happened with my finals?"
"What are you talking about?" his sister asked.
"From what you've said it sounds like I slept through exam week!" Simon said. "Did you tell them why I didn't show up? Will the University let me make them up?"
His mother and sister exchanged looks of concern before both turning back to him. Simon felt sure this meant he'd failed all his courses and would have to start over. The idea made his stomach sink. He hated exams at the best of times, but doing them separately under special circumstances would suck even more.
"You aren't in University," his sister told him gently.
"You mean they kicked me out!" Simon exclaimed, annoyed. "Just for being MIA for two weeks." It just wasn't possible! Simon couldn't figure out what was going on. He wanted a real answer. It was very frustrating that his family wasn't providing them. If he'd had the energy Simon would have stood up to make a point.
"No, I mean you finished school years ago," Rebecca continued in a small voice.
Simon did a double take here. He was very aware of his blinking for a moment as he tried to process what they were saying. It didn't make any sense. As far as he could remember he'd just been in class last week. He could even picture the unfinished essay on his laptop. No, it wasn't possible, but then again the looks on his mother and sister's faces told him otherwise. A feeling of dread started to take hold in him. Simon can feel his heart suddenly beating hard in his chest. They were scaring him.
"That can't be right," Simon stated, suddenly very aware of his breathing. "I mean I know I'm almost done but I don't think they let you graduate without taking finals."
"You did graduate," his sister repeated. "Over three years ago."
Simon just blinked again. They were making less and less sense even minute. Would they really play a practical joke on him at a time like this? No, but then why were they not making any sense?
Now acutely aware of his panicked breathing and focusing unnecessarily on how quiet the room was, Simon tried to remain calm. From the sounds of it he wouldn't have to take those exams and that was a good thing right? Maybe they'd just gotten things a little mixed up and it turned out that he'd only just graduated. Yeah that made a lot more sense. Three years was way too long to consider. He couldn't just forget three years. This had to be some kind of misunderstanding.
The silence was suddenly interrupted by a new person walking into the room. Simon instantly expected it to be Clary so when a different woman walked in he found himself quite disappointed.
"I can't believe it," the new girl said, smiling as she looked at him. Simon furrowed his brow. This made even less sense. Where was Clary? Had his girlfriend really not bothered to come and see him in the hospital?
"Took you long enough," his mother said, turning to the new arrival. "Did you park on mars?"
"Ha ha," the girl said, tossing something to Elaine. It took Simon a moment to realize they were car keys. Since when did his mother give her keys to strangers? Was this girl some kind of car valet? No, that didn't fit with the way they were acting. It was like they were friends, but Simon had never seen this woman before. It didn't make any sense. The more Simon watched their interaction the harder it was for him not to panic. His breathing started getting shallow as he tried desperately to hold onto his denial.
And then all eyes were on him once again. Simon wished they'd look somewhere else. He was feeling self conscious enough as it was without their concerned gaze. The whole thing made him want Clary even more. He worked hard to control his breathing so he could ask the one question he really wanted to know the answer to.
"Does Clary know I'm awake?" Simon asked. "She must have been worried too, right?"
Once again everyone in the room exchanged concerned looks with each other but failed to answer his question.
"Okay you have to stop that," Simon said. "You are totally wigging me out." He was failing now to keep his breathing under control. It was official. He was panicking.
"Where is Clary?" Simon asked again, but this time breathlessly. His heart was racing. This whole situation was too much. It didn't make any sense!
The new girl moved closer to his bed, her eyes locked on him. Her stare was a bit intense. Simon almost wanted to recoil from it. She stopped short of actually touching the bed and just stared at him. What the hell did she want? She clearly wasn't a nurse so why did she need to be so close?
Simon's heart was pounding in his ears. Everything was wrong, so wrong. It was like he'd woken up in a completely different world.
"You haven't spoken to me since I walked in," she said softly. "You've barely looked at me."
Simon didn't reply. From what he could gather she was his mother's friend or maybe Rebecca's friend as she seemed a bit young to be in his mother's circles. Why would it matter so much to her if he looked at her?
"Why won't anyone tell me where Clary is?" Simon tried again. "And shouldn't dad be here too? Or maybe when he gets off work? What time is it anyway?"
Once again no one spoke. Simon was starting to freak out for real. They just stood there looking at him instead of answering his questions! Then finally the girl he didn't know spoke in a small quiet voice.
"As far as I know you haven't seen your ex-girlfriend since you guys broke up well over two years ago. Your father isn't coming because he died, Simon. And it's almost nine o'clock in the morning."
Simon couldn't believe it. Didn't want to believe it. Why in the world would Clary break up with him!? What had he done wrong? And his dad couldn't be gone. Simon could remember perfectly the conversation they'd had just the other day about Simon studying for finals. If he went home right now dad would be sitting in his favourite chair like he always was.
Who was this girl to tell him such lies? She didn't know him. His mother said it had just been two weeks he'd been asleep. Why then did it feel like Simon's entire life had been turned upside down?
He looked to his mother for guidance and saw the truth of the stranger's words in her eyes. And then he was crying. All the panic and anxiety that had been building in him, burst out all at once into tears.
His father, gone. His Clary, gone. It felt like both his past and his future were in shambles. For as long as Simon could remember his father had been there to tell him exactly what he'd needed to hear when he'd needed to hear it. And what did his future look like without the woman he loved?
Suddenly Simon jerked. Someone had touched his arm. He turned to see the bad-news stranger reaching as if to hug him. Simon jerked away sharply, feeling very surprised and confused. She backed away, slowly with the strangest look on her face.
"Why won't you let Izzy near you?" his mother asked in a calm mothering voice. Simon wanted to snap back at her why was she way over there when he needed a hug. He couldn't remember a time before in his life when he'd cried in front of his mother and she hadn't tried to comfort him.
"What are you talking about?" Simon snapped. "Izzy's the nurse who told you guys I woke up right? She took my vitals and everything before you got here."
"Your nurse's name is Sharon," the bad-news girl said. "I'm Izzy."
"So wait, you told them that I was awake?" Simon asked. He could still feel the tears on his cheeks, but his panic had subsided enough for him to speak. Crying seemed to help release the emotions though everything inside him still felt all twisted.
She nodded. "Why would you know before them?" he asked, perplexed.
"Izzy's been coming here every day," Elaine explained. "She's slept in that chair more than once." His mother gestured to the uncomfortable looking hospital chair in the corner of the room under the TV.
"Why?" Simon asked, perplexed. Assuming she'd respond, he turned to look at this Izzy girl and saw tears running down her face.
Slowly, Izzy held up her left hand. Wrapped around her ring finger was a shiny silver band with a moderately sized jewel embedded in it.
"Because we're engaged," she said.
Thanks for reading my new Sizzy AU. I actually started writing this close to a year and a half ago, but at the time I had too many other stories going at once to upload it. Then life got busy and I kinda forgot about it. I had planned to keep the number of stories I was trying to upload down to two after my son was born as I figured time would be in short supply, but it turns out I suck at sticking to one story at a time. Once I started working on other projects writing got easier. It's like I get bored if I'm not jumping between writing different stories all the time. lol.
Anyway long story short new fanfic. This story is partly inspired by the movie: The Vow and partly inspired by the fact that Simon lots his memory in the canon. This is my second memory loss story. The other one is a complete Malec one called "Forgotten". DFTBA
Sneak Peek Chapter 2
But first things first. Simon needed some closure. He couldn't find Clary's number anywhere in his cell phone, luckily he'd memorized that long ago. He just hoped she hadn't changed it.
'It's a long story, but this is Simon.' he texted her, 'I really wanna talk if that's okay.'
His hopes weren't high that she'd answer, but he knew he had to try. It felt like someone had just picked him up out of his life and put him in someone else's.
Simon could remember perfectly the little apartment he'd had just yesterday as far as he was concerned. One twin bed with a little makeshift kitchen and small bathroom. He recalled the times Clary had slept over and they'd had to snuggle up together on the tiny bed. The thought made him smile, but then he remembered that apartment was for sure gone. He hadn't planned to keep it after school ended. Simon had always assumed once he'd started working he'd be able to afford a better place. Did that mean he had a better apartment now? He didn't even know where he lived. A part of him just wanted to wait in this hospital bed until Clary came for him or he could go home with his mom. The Clary option felt better as going home to his parents place would just make it more obvious that his father was gone.
And Clary… well Clary was unlikely to answer his text message and he knew it. Simon felt like he wanted to cry again.
