Hey everyone, happy Thursday!

Here's the next update... let's see how they get through this.

Thanks for all your comments and for taking the time to read.

I'll try to update soon!

Happy reading,

Xoxo,

Nina

Sylvie practically ran out of the room, she was so in her head she didn't realize when she bumped into Adam, who was extremely excited about Kim waking up and doctor Walker was a few steps behind them.

"Do you mind waiting for the doctor? I really need to talk to Kim. I can't believe she's awake." The shining in his eyes was impossible to dim and the blonde was feeling like shit just to think about the news she had to break to him.

"Adam, wait."

"Come on Syl, I've waited enough."

"No, seriously. Wait." Her tone scared him a bit.

"What's wrong?"

Their exchange of words gave Charlie enough time to catch up with them, and having the doctor right there Sylvie straight up asked what she wanted to know and threw some light on Adam's uncertainties.

"Doctor, is it possible for her to be suffering from memory loss?"

"What are you talking about, Sylvie?" Adam blurted out but both women ignored him.

"Well, I would have to examine her, but it is a common side effect. Why are you asking that?"

"She…" the blonde trailed off because she had to say this, but she was fully aware that hearing this was going to destroy Adam. "She asked about my cousin."

"Ok." Dr. Walker was confused and Adam was just silent. "And what's the problem about that?"

"My cousin was her boyfriend, but um, he passed away two years ago."

"Oh, I see." Charlie said surprised. Nothing in Kim's initial tests suggested that something like this could happen. "I'm going to check on her and we'll see what's going on."

Both Adam and Sylvie nodded and let the doctor walk in first.

"Adam, try to relax ok. She's awake, that's the most important thing. Let's take this one step at a time."

"Yeah." It was the only thing he could say. He didn't want to get ahead of himself, he didn't want to think about the worst possibility right now, but being positive was quite a challenge given the circumstances.

"Hello, I'm Charlie Walker, I'm your doctor and we're so happy you're awake!" She told Kim, who still seemed a bit disoriented. "I'm going to ask you some questions and then we'll run some standard tests to see how you are. How does that sound?"

Charlie was just a couple of years older than Kim, so she could empathize with the whole situation. She was sweet, caring and upbeat, always looking for the silver lining, not to mention she was one of the best at Chicago Med.

"It sounds great Dr. Walker."

"You can call me Charlie." She said with a sweet smile and a wink. "Let's start. What's your name?"

"I'm Kimberly Burgess."

"What do you do for a living, Kim?"

"I'm a teacher." Even after being in a brutal crash and asleep for two weeks she managed to smile when she thought about her job.

"Do you know why you are here?"

"Um, a car accident, right?" Kim looked at Brett for reassurance and her friend nodded. "I don't remember much, a parking lot, a black SUV, that's all."

"Ok, don't worry, we can figure that out later. How about the people in this room? Do you know who they are?" Adam's stomach began to twist at the doctor's question, he wasn't ready to hear Kim's answer.

"That's Sylvia Brett, my best friend." Kim said, looking at the blonde in the room. "And um, I'm sorry I don't think we have formally met." The brunette scrunched up her nose and looked embarrassed as her eyes locked on Adam's.

"I'm Adam." He was trying his best to hide his emotions, but the truth was he was torn.

"Nice to meet you, Adam." Her smile was as kind as always as she looked between her friend and Adam.

"Oh no, Kim. He's not who I'm dating." Sylvie was quick to add, everything was too confusing as it was, there was no need to add any more misunderstandings.

"Oh, sorry." Kim furrowed her brow.

"Ok, Kim." Charlie spoke again. "Can you tell me what year we're in?"

"Um, Yeah. It's 2019."

Doctor Walker looked at Sylvie and Adam with big eyes. "Could you two step outside for a second? I want to talk to Kim." They both nodded and dundas they were told.

"Is everything okay?" Kim was a bit worried.

"You are a bit disoriented, so we are going to do a CT scan to see what's going on. I'm going to schedule that, ok? Your friends will wait until that's done, I need you to rest and relax."

"Ok."

"Now let me check out your leg, you had a big cut there."

"No wonder why it hurts."

Charlie laughed at Kim's comment as she observed the leg injury, confirming everything was looking good.

"The leg is fine, but it's still healing. So the pain is normal. You also had bruises pretty much everywhere, but those are fading away. Let me know if you are in too much pain. Do you need anything right now?"

"Some water would be nice."

"I'll ask for some and in the meantime I'll get your CT scan scheduled. Try to rest, I'll be right back."

Once outside Kim's room, Adam and Sylvie were waiting for doctor Walker to tell them anything. She didn't wait for them to ask, she just shared with them what they were going to do.

"As you could see, she's disoriented. As of right now I can't tell you if this is real memory loss or if it's just her body getting acquainted with everything. To be sure, I'm going to have another CT scan scheduled for her."

"Can we do anything to help?" Adam asked.

"Actually there is. I know this is going to be tough, but I need you all to give her some time. At least until we have the test results back and we have a better idea of what is happening and what we need to do."

"Ok." He agreed even though that was the last thing he wanted to do. "I call her parents and let them know she's awake." He grabbed his phone and left. He needed some fresh air.

Just as he said, he called Kim's parents and briefly explained what was going on, they thanked him and told him that they were on their way there. He also used that time to update his team.

Kim woke up. She's a bit off, can't remember much. They're gonna run some tests.

The text message was straight to the point. The lack of enthusiasm told his friends something was off. It was just a matter of seconds before his phone started to buzz indicating an incoming call.

"Ruzek." He answered without paying attention to the screen.

"Hey dawg. It's me."

"Hey Kev."

"What's going on bro? Kim's awake and you don't sound too excited. You don't sound excited at all."

"She doesn't remember, man."

"She just woke up. Give her some time."

"Kev, she thinks it's 2019."

"Oh." Kevin swallowed hard. "And what does the doctor think?"

"She said Kim might just be disoriented, but basically she has no idea what's happening. So until the CT scan is done we won't know for sure."

"Do you want me to go?"

"Nah, bro. I can't even see her until we have the test results. I'll call you when I have more information."

"Ok. We're right here if you need us."

"I know."

Charlie was able to get the scan for Kim right away. By the time the results were ready, Kim's parents had arrived and Adam was two seconds away from going crazy.

They were all gathered in a small room, knowing that all of Kim's closest people were right there, Dr. Walker prefered to talk to all of them together.

"We've checked the imaging carefully, I even asked some of my colleagues to take a look as well because I really wanted to make sure that we are not missing anything." She took a deep breath and proceeded to give them the images so that they could see what she was talking about. "For the most part the results are ok, nothing too serious we should be worried about."

"That's good, right?" Her mother asked. Just like everyone else in the room, she was worried about her daughter's wellbeing.

"It is." Charlie answered.

"Then what's causing this?" Now it was Adam the one who spoke.

"There is some minor swelling on the temporal lobe, which is the part of the brain that is related to memory. What Kim is going through right now is most likely connected to that. These results let us see that this is not her just being disoriented, she really is going through an amnesic phase currently.

The good news is that there is no sign of this being permanent or too severe.The bad news, on the other hand, is that there isn't much we can do at this point but wait."

"So, there's nothing we can do to help her?" Adam was eager to do something to help. He couldn't take the fact that there was nothing left to do, that he just had to stay there, arms crossed.

"Well, medically speaking no, but I do have some recommendations. For starters we need to tell her what year we are living in, and explain your cousin's passing."

"Should we tell her about her life now?" Sylvie asked.

"We should let that come naturally." Charlie heard the scoffs in the room and continued to speak. "I know that's frustrating to you, but imagine how it would feel to her. The following days for her are going to be tough. She is going to feel pressured and frustrated, even if that's not what you are transmitting."

"This sucks." Adam's voice was low, but both his in-laws heard him and went to hug him.

"I know this is not the scenario you had in mind, and to be honest we don't know what is going to happen. We need to wait, and hope that little by little she will regain her memory, but for now, it's best if she is not bombarded with information." Dr. Walker added.

"She's a fighter, she'll make it." Kim's dad was trying to be positive for Adam. "She made it this far, didn't she."

"Mm-Hmm." Adam agreed looking at Phill.

"I'm going to show her her test results, you can come with me." Charlie walked to the room and everybody followed. Kim seemed delighted to see her parents there, but her bright smile slowly disappeared as the doctor told her what was going on.

"So, I'm thirty?" That was the first question to come out of her mouth and everyone in the room lightly chuckled.

"You are, but you're a sexy mamma!" Sylvie responded and Kim gave her a faint smile.

"I'm going now, I'll come check on you tonight. Goodbye everyone, let me know if you need something." And with that Charlie Walker left the room.

Phill and Amanda also left the room, they wanted to call Nicole to give her the whole update about her sister, and Sylvie felt awkward staying there with Kim

and Adam. She was sure that Adam was feeling like crap right now, not only his girlfriend didn't remember him, but he couldn't even tell her who he was and most likely, he was going to have to walk away from her. The blonde told her friend she was going to step out to call her boyfriend, so that Kim could meet him and walked out.

"Well, that just leaves me." He said shyly. "I'm gonna get going and let you rest." Adam watched as she shifted on her bed trying to get comfortable and as soon as he moved to leave, he heard her voice.

"Adam, right?"

"Yes." He stopped on his tracks, hopeful that he was going to hear what he desperately wanted to.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, sure."

"If you're not with Sylvie, what exactly are you doing here?" She asked, trying to be as sweet as possible, but Adam's hurt was plastered all over his face. "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just trying to understand." Adam moved closer to her, all he wanted to do was kiss her and tell her that she had his heart in her hands, but he couldn't do that.

"It's ok, you'll be able to put all the pieces together." He absentmindedly reached for her hand and she pulled it away slowly, crashing every bit of his soul. "I'm, um, my name is Adam Ruzek, I'm with the CPD. The car crash you were in was connected to a case we were working on." He figured that was the best answer he could give her.

"Oh, ok. Um, I don't remember much about it. I don't remember much at all apparently." She laughed nervously. "But apart from the SUV I mentioned, I think there was a blonde woman too, and a girl. Yes, a little girl." Kim looked in Adam's eyes and felt something strange, nice and calming, but strange. "Oh my god! Is the girl ok?"

"Yeah, she's fine. In fact she was the one who drew that." He pointed to the picture and Kim smiled. "To thank you for taking care of her."

"Aw, that's sweet."

"It is."

"I'm sorry I wasn't of much help, but if I remember anything I'll let you know. Do you happen to have a business card or something?" Adam went through his pockets to get his wallet and pulled out a card and handed it to her.

"Here you go, but don't worry about any of this. I'm sure we can work something out with what we've got. I'm gonna go now."

"Ok."

"Hope you feel better soon."

"Thank you." He slowly walked away and she felt her heart shrink a little. She was confused, why was she feeling this way when she was in a loving relationship already, was she not that in love with Andrew? There was a lot going on in her head and she was too tired to put any more thought into anything, so she just shut down and spoke. "It was nice to meet you Adam."

"Likewise."

If only she knew how happy he was to have met her all those months ago.