Chapter 1

It was nighttime at the fishing cabin, and Jack and Lisa were standing by the river in each other's arms, looking at the stars. Jack looked down at his wife feeling like the luckiest man in the world. He wondered, not for the first time, how someone like her even wanted to have anything to do with him, let alone marry him.

Lisa noticed Jack looking at her intently. "What?"

Jack leaned down and kissed Lisa. He pulled back slightly to look at her. "I was just thinking how lucky I am to have you in my life. It still blows my mind that someone like you wants anything to do with an old cowboy like me."

"You are the best man I know. My life is so much better with you in it." Lisa wrapped her arms around Jack's neck and pulled him down for another kiss. That led to more and more kisses. Lisa interrupted Jack as he went in for another kiss, "How about we go inside. It's getting cold out here, and my legs are tired from standing in the river for so long today."

The couple went inside, and Lisa pulled her husband to the bed. The couple ended the day in each other's arms.

The next day, Jack and Lisa were driving home from their weekend at the fishing cabin. They were in good spirits from having time away with just the two of them. Life had been extra crazy at Heartland lately with all the people who lived there. They just needed some time for themselves without any interruptions, like being asked to take care of great grandchildren or check on cattle. Jack was singing along to the radio. It was a love song, and he took the opportunity to sing it to Lisa and flirt with her. Lisa had always loved it when he did that and was flirting right back. The song was kind of cheesy, and it made them laugh. Jack looked over at Lisa to check her out and looked back just in time to see a deer run out in front of them. Jack slammed on the brakes, but he lost control of the truck, and they spun around several times until the passenger side slammed into a tree.

Jack couldn't believe what happened. He was feeling disoriented, and his heart was racing. Looking over at Lisa, he saw that she was not awake and the car was crushed in on her where they hit a tree.

"Lisa! Lisa, are you okay? Honey!" He reached over to feel for a pulse and felt so much relief at finding one. She had glass in her hair and all over her clothes from the passenger side window. Jack tried brushing it off of her and cut his hands on the glass.

The old cowboy got out of the truck and called for help, feeling thankful that they weren't that far from home and his phone had service.

Jack saw blood starting to trickle down Lisa's face while standing in front of the truck. Her right shoulder and arm don't quite look right either. He was starting to feel panicky at the thought of anything bad happening to his wife.

Thankfully, he heard a siren in the distance. The fire truck pulled up first, followed closely by an ambulance. They jumped out of their vehicles as Jack rushed over to tell them his wife was in the truck, unconscious, and bleeding from her head. The firefighters got to work, moving the car away from the tree, and worked quickly to get Lisa out of the truck.

Jack was feeling desperate to help and completely useless. "Please help my wife!"

The firefighters were able to free Lisa from the truck and got her onto a backboard. The paramedics quickly moved her to the ambulance. Jack grabbed Lisa's purse out of the truck and jumped into the back of the ambulance with Lisa and the paramedics. "I'm coming with you! Clearly, I can't drive myself to the hospital with the state my truck is in."

"Sir, we need you to ride in the front with the driver. We understand wanting to be with your wife, but we need space to work back here."

Jack wanted to argue, but he also knew that would just waste valuable time that could be used to get Lisa to the hospital. He rushed around to the front of the ambulance, and they took off toward the hospital. When they arrived at the hospital, Jack tried to follow Lisa into a trauma bay, but nurses held him back. "Sir, you need to let them do their jobs. Your hands are bleeding. Have you been examined at all," one nurse said. Jack waved them off. "I'm fine. I got a bit cut up. I just need to know about my wife."

The nurse changed tactics, "I get that you want to stay close to your wife. How about we go right over here and get you cleaned up a bit. Is there anyone we should call?"

Jack Bartlett realized that he hadn't contacted his family at all, and they had no idea about the accident. "I need to call my granddaughters and their dad.

The nurses got Jack's cuts cleaned, and Jack called Lou and let her know what had happened. He could hear Amy in the background. Lou let him know that someone would be there right away to be with him.

After about an hour, a doctor came out to speak with Jack. "Mr. Stillman?" Jack grimaced and corrected the doctor. "My wife is a Stillman. I'm Jack Bartlett. How is she doing?"

The doctor apologized for the mistake and gave Jack an update. "Sorry about that. Your wife is still unconscious but stable. She's breathing on her own. We stopped the bleeding on her head, but we still had more tests to run. Head out to the waiting room. There's nothing you can do here. We'll come talk to you when there's more information."

Jack took a deep breath for the first time since the accident. "Thank you, doctor. Lisa is everything to me. Please make sure she is okay."

The doctor patted Jack's back and tried to reassure him, "we're doing everything we can for your wife. It's a good sign that she's breathing on her own. We'll send someone to come get you after we get her settled in the ICU."

Jack walked into the waiting room right as Amy and Lou were arriving. Amy spotted her grandfather immediately and rushed to him. "Grandpa!" Amy called out and threw her arms around his neck. Jack hugged Amy back as Lou joined the pair. "Hi, Grandpa. What is going on? Are you okay? How's Lisa? "

Jack pulled away from Amy and gave Lou a quick hug. "We were driving back from the fishing cabin when a deer ran in front of us. I slammed on the brakes to miss it, but it caused me to lose control of the truck. We spun around several times, and we slammed into a tree on the passenger side. She has been unconscious the whole time." Jack stopped to try and pull himself together. He was feeling overwhelmed by everything.

Amy and Lou pulled Jack over to some chairs so they could sit down. He looked around, surprised that Tim wasn't with them. "I'm surprised your dad isn't here."

Amy and Lou looked at each other, and Amy said, "We needed him to look after Lyndy. Jessica is out of town, and we didn't want to leave Katie alone." Lou added, "Katie loves you and Lisa so much. She is relieved that you are okay, but she's so worried about Lisa. You know how close they are. We figured dad wouldn't help being here. He is better at home. We promised to give him updates, though." Jack nodded and squeezed Lou's hand, not trusting his voice to be steady.

As the three of them sat in the waiting room, Jack thought over what exactly happened in the accident. He was certain that he should have been paying better attention to the road. He and Lisa were in a silly mood and were just having so much fun. He might have seen the deer sooner, and maybe he wouldn't have lost control of his truck if he hadn't been distracted. He was deep in thought when he felt Lou shake his shoulder a bit. He looked up and asked, "Huh? Did you say something?" Lou responded, "I was just going to get something to drink. Do you want coffee, tea, water, or a snack?" Jack shook his head no. "I'm fine. Well, maybe water. I haven't had anything to drink in a while." Lou headed off to get drinks and snacks for everyone.

Amy hugged her grandfather's arm and looked up at him. "How are you doing, Grandpa?"

Jack looked down at his granddaughter, but he couldn't really speak without getting emotional. He was feeling guilty about the accident and that his wife was the one who got hurt. He patted her knee and got up and walked to the window.

Lou came back to the waiting room with water bottles and snacks for everyone. They all sat and waited for news.

A while later, a nurse came to find Jack. "Mr. Bartlett?"

Jack rushed over to the nurse. "How is my wife? Has she woken up? Is she going to be okay?"

The nurse responded, "Dr. Narayan will speak with you in the ICU. I'll take you to him now."

The nurse saw Amy and Lou behind Jack and said, "Only family in the ICU."

Jack replied, "They are. They're my granddaughters."

The nurse led the trio to the ICU, where they met the doctor overseeing her care while there. "This is Dr. Narayan. He will be Ms. Stillman's doctor in the ICU."

"Hello, I'm Dr. Narayan and I have spoken with the ER doctor and looked over everything."

Jack was feeling impatient and just wanted to see his wife. "Is my wife going to be okay? Just give me a straight answer."

Dr. Narayan looked sympathetically at Jack. "She is still unconscious. She has a lot of bruises on the right side of her body, and she has a broken arm and elbow. They set the break in the ER, but she will still need to have surgery to put pins in her elbow. Ms. Stillman has a concussion. We are monitoring that closely since she isn't awake. There's a lot more we'll know once she's awake. You can go in to see her."

Amy and Lou followed Jack into Lisa's room. They all gasped at what they saw. Jack had seen her right after the accident, but she now had large bruises on the right side of her face, and her eye was swollen shut. She also had a cast on her right arm. There were bruises visible on the right side of her neck going down to her shoulder.

Jack sat down on her left side and held her hand. He noticed that her wedding and engagement rings were gone. "Where are her rings? She's gonna want them. She hated it when she couldn't wear them regularly before we told everyone we got married."

Lou headed for the door, "I'll go ask about her things. They probably have a bag of it somewhere and just haven't given it to us yet."

Jack sat and held Lisa's hand. All of his attention was on her. A while later Lou came back with the bag of Lisa's things and said, "They didn't want to give this to me, but I pulled the wealthy horse owner card and worried husband card for Lisa and grandpa and made them feel guilty. It's just shoes and jewelry, including her rings. They had to cut her clothes off of her in the ER, and they were bloody, so those are gone. Grandpa, can you give me Lisa's purse? I'll put these things in there, and we can take it home later.

Jack indicated to his granddaughter where his wife's purse was located. He was thankful for Lou being there to help with that stuff. He couldn't focus on anything but Lisa.

Eventually, Amy and Lou returned to the waiting room to give their grandfather time alone with Lisa. He barely acknowledged them as they left. Jack continued to hold Lisa's hand. He kissed it periodically and caressed her ring finger where her rings should go. Exhaustion won out, though, and he fell asleep with his head resting on Lisa's bed.

Lisa began to regain consciousness. She had a terrible headache, and her whole body hurt, but especially her right side. Her throat was dry. It took her a while to open her eyes. As she opened her eyes, she realized that she was in a hospital room. Looking to her left, she saw a gray-haired man holding her hand and resting his head on her bed. Lisa was confused.

"Um…Who are you? Why am I here?" Lisa asked, barely able to speak. She coughed, trying to clear her throat.

Jack woke up when he heard her voice and her coughs, but he didn't hear what she said. Seeing Lisa was awake, he smiled and stood up so he could kiss his wife. Jack leaned in to kiss her, and she pushed him away, looking scared.

"Who are you? Why are you trying to kiss me?" Lisa questioned the man in front of her.

"What? You're joking, right? Why wouldn't I kiss you?" Jack looked at his wife very confused.

"Because I have no idea who you are! That's why!" Lisa looked at this man very confused.

Jack ran out of the room to the nurses' station. "Something is wrong with my wife! She doesn't know who I am!"

To be continued