Chapter 7

Jack woke up early as usual. He took a shower, and by the time he got out, Lou was in the kitchen. She had a cup of coffee ready and was plating up some eggs.

Lou put the plate of eggs on the table. "I made you breakfast, Grandpa."

Jack pushed the plate away. "Lou, I'm not sure I can eat this. I'm not really hungry."

Lou pushed the plate back toward Jack. "Grandpa, you need to eat. It's probably going to be a long day. You won't be able to care for Lisa if you don't take care of yourself."

Jack studied Lou's face to see how serious she was. "You aren't going to let this go, are you?"

Lou smiled. "Nope! So just stop fighting it."

Once Jack was done with his breakfast, he left for the hospital. While driving, he tried to prepare for his time there. He didn't want to make her feel more stressed by his presence, but he also didn't want to not be there. Especially with having surgery and preparing for her to come home with him the following day.

Arriving at Lisa's room, Jack thought she looked nervous and tired. He wouldn't say it though. "Hi, how are you feeling? Are you ready for surgery?"

"I'm fine. I'm ready to get the surgery over with. Someone came and helped me get cleaned up last night. They even got creative and washed my hair which was great because I'm pretty sure it could have been one of the top oil producers in Alberta." Lisa ran her fingers through her hair to show that it was clean.

Jack chuckled, "I'm sure it was nice to get cleaned up. We had been out at the fishing cabin for a couple days before the accident. Bathing isn't exactly easy out there. I know you aren't anxious for my help with that when we get home, but I'm sure Lou and Amy will help you. Lou did all of your laundry and has clean sheets ready to go for you. She even put Amy to work cleaning the house.

"She didn't have to do all that." Lisa was touched by how Jack's family was already taking care of her.

"Good luck getting Lou to not do all that. She even got up and made me breakfast that she forced me to eat. Seriously though, if she gets to be too much just tell her. She shows her love by fussing over people. Come to think of it, you might know something about that." Jack winked at his wife.

Lisa was caught there. She couldn't disagree even though she wanted to. "Guilty. I do tend to fuss over people when I care about them. I'm a pretty independent person though so I'm not sure how I'll deal with Lou's fussing."

Jack thought back to a fancy saddle he once rode. "Remind me to tell you about the time you bought me a saddle before we went on a cattle drive. As for Lou, I'll be around most of the time to help run interference. Amy and Katie are pretty good at getting Lou to calm down too."

A nurse came in then to bring Lisa to the pre-operative area. She spoke to Jack to let him know where he could go. "You can go to the surgery waiting room. We'll come get you once she's settled."

Lisa left the room and Jack went to the waiting room as he was asked to do. A text came through on his phone. It was from Amy. She was at the hospital and wanted to know where Jack was. He texted her back and sat back to wait for a while.

Amy entered the surgery waiting room and spotted her grandfather. "Grandpa."

Jack looked up to see Amy coming toward him. "You didn't have to come."

Amy sat down beside Jack and patted his knee. "I know, but I wanted to. You don't have to be alone through all of this."

Jack returned the gesture and patted Amy's knee. "Thanks for being here. I'm more worried than I thought I'd be.

"I figured. That's why I'm here. Lou wanted to come, but I thought she'd just make you more nervous. We were discussing it when someone called off from Maggies today and she couldn't find anyone to cover their shift so she had to go in. I was just glad I didn't have to argue with her for too long."

They sat in the waiting room chatting about the horse that had just left Heartland. Amy told Jack about how she had solved the problems the horse was having. Jack was thankful for the distraction.

Someone at the desk called Jack up. He could go see Lisa before she went back for surgery so he followed the person to where she was..

Lisa had spoken with a nurse, an anesthesiologist, and the orthopedic surgeon. Now she was just waiting to be taken back to surgery. As much as she was looking forward to getting it over with, she was also nervous about it. She wanted to fidget, but her right arm was out of commission and her left arm had an IV in it so she started rubbing her feet together. She had to do something with all of this nervous energy. A few minutes later she heard Jack talking to someone outside the curtain. She had forgotten that they said something about him coming to see her.

Jack pulled back the curtain and entered the area by Lisa's bed."Hey." He was nervous and noticed that she looked nervous too. He grabbed the chair by the wall and pulled it next to the bed. "Are you ready for this?"

Lisa looked over at Jack. "Yes and no. I'm ready for my arm and elbow to heal so that even if my brain never gets better, at least I can still take care of myself."

"I get it. I don't do well at not being able to do things for myself," said Jack.

They were both nervous and stressed about the surgery. There was an awkward silence between Jack and Lisa as they sat there. Neither one of them knew what to say so they stayed silent.

Someone came in to bring Lisa to surgery. Jack stood and in a rare moment of spontaneity, bent down and kissed the top of Lisa's head and rubbed her back for a second. He stood up when he realized what he had done and said, "Good luck. I'll go back to the waiting room now. See you later." Jack left the room before she had a chance to respond.

Lisa sat there in her bed looking shocked and confused about what just happened. She didn't have time to think about Jack being as affectionate as he had been since finding out she had amnesia. Her bed was wheeled to the operating room and she tried to prepare mentally for that.

Jack stopped outside the waiting room to take a deep breath and gather his thoughts before he rejoined Amy inside. Once he felt a little calmer, he opened the door and spotted Amy right where she was when he left.

Amy looked up after Jack sat down next to her. "How's Lisa doing?"

"Okay, I guess. I think she's a bit nervous, but ready to get it over with." Jack rubbed his hands on his thighs nervously.

"That makes sense. How are you doing?" Amy was watching Jack and knew that he was super nervous.

"Probably about the same as Lisa," he admitted.

Jack was thankful that Amy was okay with just sitting in silence. They were a lot alike in many ways and she often had a good sense about what he needed most of the time. They both got up and walked around the room occasionally and had little conversations about nothing important. Jack watched the screen where all the surgeries were listed and kept track of where Lisa was in the process. When he saw she was in recovery, he began to get nervous again. Someone came to get him and he got up to go again.

Amy called out, "Do you want me to leave?"

Jack stopped and turned around, "No, stick around. She's going to be moved to a regular room after surgery and I thought you might like to come see her. I'd like it if she could meet a couple of people from the family before she comes home so everyone isn't complete strangers."

"Okay, just call or text and let me know when you've gotten out of recovery and where to meet you. I'm going to run over to Maggies and grab some food. I didn't eat much before I left this morning and I'm starving. Do you want anything? Do you think Lisa would want anything?" Amy pulled out her phone to write it down.

"A sandwich of some kind would be great for me. Lisa likes turkey and swiss sandwiches. I don't know if she'll want anything, but I'd rather get her something and she doesn't want it than not get her anything and she's hungry" Jack realized the person who came to get him was standing there waiting for him. "Sorry. Lead the way."

When Jack went into recovery, he saw Lisa had a cast on her arm holding her elbow at a right angle. She was out of it and barely acknowledged that he was there. A nurse would check with her periodically and she would mumble a response. The nurse assured him that she would eventually become more aware of what was going on as the anesthesia wore off more.

Lisa could barely comprehend what was going on. She felt so out of it and beyond saying she was cold and in pain, she just sort of laid there. When Jack came in, she was confused for a minute, but then the last couple of days came back to her slowly. The brain fog from the anesthesia made it so she knew what was going on around her, but she was too tired to care at the moment. They seemed pleased with how the surgery went. After about an hour, the nurse in recovery said Lisa would be transferred to her room in a bit.

While they were alone, Jack got Lisa's attention and asked, "How are you feeling? I spoke to the doctor in the hallway. They said the surgery was a success."

Lisa just nodded. She didn't have much to say and it was too much of an effort to talk at the moment.

Someone came in after a few minutes to bring Lisa to her room. "Ms. Stillman, I'm here to take you to your room. I don't know if you remember me, but I took you to radiology yesterday morning. You've been transferred to a regular room so you won't be going back to the ICU." They turned to address Jack, "You can follow us up."

When Lisa arrived at her new room, Jack stayed in the hallway while the nurse and transport person got her into her new bed. After they left, Jack entered. He looked around and took in the new room. It wasn't too different from her last room, but it was set up a little differently. There wasn't a chair by her bed so he sat down on the sofa by the window. The awkwardness from before continued. Jack didn't know what to say and Lisa didn't really feel much like talking just to talk.

A beep from Jack's cell phone broke the silence. He pulled it out to find a text response from Amy. He had texted her as they were leaving recovery. She was back at the hospital. He sent a text letting her know what room they were in and then put his phone away. "That was Amy. She came to sit with me in the waiting room. She ran to Maggie's to get some food when I went to see you in recovery."

"Okay. Is Amy coming here? I'm not sure if I'm presentable enough to meet anyone new." Lisa tried smoothing out her hair a bit with her left hand.

Jack got up and stood by Lisa's bed. "She doesn't have to stay, but you look fine, and she doesn't care about that. We live in the same house. We've all seen each other first thing in the morning. I did have the thought that you meeting both Lou and Amy before you leave here might be nice. That way, you don't have to meet everyone at once. I should have talked to you about it first, though. I'm sorry."

Lisa continued trying to smooth out her hair. "It's fine. You're right that it might be nice to meet a couple of people before the hospital discharges me. I would like to meet Amy. I don't know how good of company I'll be, though. I took pain medication when I got out of surgery, so I may be asleep soon."

There was a knock on the door just then. Amy poked her head in, "Am I in the right place?

Jack stood up, "Come on in, Amy. I know you obviously know Lisa, but she doesn't know you. Lisa, this is my granddaughter, Amy. She's the reason we met, and quite honestly, part of the reason we got back together after we broke up."

Amy smiled at Lisa, "Hi, I'm Amy. Grandpa is right. You two met because of me, but I don't know about the other part. I know he's still a stranger to you, but he's a pretty sweet guy. He helped me so much when my husband, Ty, passed away. I couldn't have made it through the intense grief those first couple of years without him."

Lisa felt sad for this young woman who had already lost her husband. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I am still learning about the family. We hadn't gotten to that part yet. I think Jack mentioned you have a daughter?"

"Yes, her name is Lyndy. We named her after my grandma. She is a sweet little girl. She keeps asking about when you're coming home. You travel a lot, so she's used to you being away, but I think she can tell that this is different. Kids are pretty smart, and they pick up on more than we expect sometimes." She realized she was still holding the bag from Maggies. "Oh, I have some sandwiches from Maggies. Lisa, did you want something? I got something in case you did, but you don't have to. I can bring it home and someone there will eat it, I'm sure."

"What kind of sandwich did you get?" Lisa asked.

"Grandpa said you like turkey and swiss. I hope that's okay," Amy replied.

"That's one of my favorite sandwiches. It does sound kind of good. I haven't been able to eat or drink anything since last night, and I'm kind of hungry. I probably can't eat the whole thing, though. I haven't had much of an appetite lately." Lisa figured out how to move herself into the sitting position with the remote on the bed.

Amy pulled Lisa's table over the bed and set Lisa's sandwich down. She handed Jack his sandwich as well. "I know you've been up for a long time. Lou said she made you breakfast a little after 5 this morning."

Jack and Amy sat down on the sofa with their food. Everyone was quietly eating.

Lisa coughed a little, and Jack jumped up to check on her. "Are you okay? Do you need something to drink?

Lisa coughed some more and then answered with a hoarse voice, "Yes. I had a few ice chips in recovery, but that's it since yesterday. My throat is still kind of dry."

Jack went to the nurse's station and asked if he could get something to drink for his wife. They called his nurse over, and she said she'd be in shortly with a cup of water.

"Your nurse is getting you a cup of water," Jack informed his wife after returning to her room.

"Thank you. You know, it occurred to me that we didn't check to see if I was allowed to eat anything. Maybe take the sandwich away so I don't get in trouble."

Jack scooped up the sandwich and put it back in the bag from Maggie's while Lisa brushed crumbs from her hospital gown just as the nurse entered her room.

Lisa decided it wouldn't hurt to ask about the food. "Is it okay if I have something to eat? They brought me my favorite sandwich, and I'm pretty hungry after being cut off from all food and water at midnight."

"That should be fine. Let me just check and make sure you don't have any dietary restrictions, and then you should be good to go." The nurse pulled up Lisa's info on the computer and then turned around, "You should be fine. Just be careful. They put a tube down your throat for surgery, and it may be a little sore."

As soon as the nurse left the room, Jack pulled Lisa's sandwich out of the bag and put it back on the table in front of her. The three of them laughed at how ridiculous it was.

Lisa realized that part of her sleepiness was just lack of food. She was weak from hunger. Getting some nourishment helped to give her a bit more energy. She looked over at Amy, "I understand you've been in contact with my stable manager. What is he like?"

Amy got up to throw the wrapper from her sandwich away and sat back down. "He's good at his job. He's pretty serious about it. He was a competitive jumper and was even on track to go to the Olympics, but he got injured. We didn't get off on the right foot when we first met, but we're good now. Lyndy is best friends with his daughter, so I run into him pretty frequently."

"Since your daughters are friends, I don't suppose there's any hope of keeping my amnesia a secret from him. Do you think we could keep it quiet for everyone else at Fairfield? I don't want them to see me any differently." Lisa looked at Amy pointedly.

"I haven't really thought about that, but I could have a conversation with him and explain the situation," Amy offered.

Lisa considered it. "I'll think about it and let you know."

Jack jumped up. "I have your phone in the car. Lou charged it for you. Actually, I have your purse in the car. I'll be right back." Jack left the room in a rush.

Amy turned to Lisa, "You know, I was wondering if you might like a family tree to keep track of everyone. Our family isn't huge, but it is a little complicated."

"That might be nice. I've only met you, Jack, and Lou so far."

Amy found a paper in her pocket and grabbed a pen from next to the computer in the room. She sat down and started drawing the family tree.

Jack walked in a little later. He held up Lisa's purse and asked, "Would you like to look through this?"

Lisa held out her left hand to reach for the bag. Jack set in on her lap, and she began going through it. One of the first things she did was look for her license but was distracted by the reading glasses. She had noticed the night before when signing things that the print was a bit blurry and she'd had to strain to read everything. It didn't occur to her that her eyesight had started to go. She just assumed it was from the concussion. After she put on the glasses, the purse in her lap became way clearer. "I'm old. I need reading glasses now."

Jack laughed. "If you're old, then what am I? Actually, I changed my mind. Don't answer that."

Lisa looked at him over her glasses on the end of her nose and smirked. "Okay."

Amy laughed as she continued to draw the family tree. "You kind of walked right into that one, Grandpa."

Lisa laughed quietly as she grabbed her wallet and struggled to open it with one hand, but she eventually got it open. The first thing she looked at was her driver's license. Her address was most definitely not Fairfield anymore. It was strange to see. Closing her wallet, she looked through the purse a little more. She spotted a small bag with rings in it and pulled it out of the bag. She got Jack's attention and motioned for him to come closer, "Are these what I think they are?"

Jack nodded. "Yes, those are your wedding and engagement rings."

Lisa examined them. They were very pretty, but she didn't feel any sort of emotional attachment to them. She put them back in the purse, placing them in a zipper pocket to keep them safe. That was when she spotted her phone. She had noticed how modern phones looked compared to 2007. The last thing she remembered regarding phones from then was that she was planning to get an iPhone, but she hadn't switched over yet. Most people didn't have phones like that back then, but she noticed everyone seemed to have them now. She held up the phone to Jack. "Do you know how this works?"

Amy looked up from the family tree and said, "Good luck with that. He's terrible with technology. Ask him about the first smartphone you bought him. Oh, or about the security system he installed."

Jack looked back at Amy in protest. "Hey, I do kind of know how it works. It's the same as mine. I'll show you how to turn it on. Press this button here. Okay, now you can put in a passcode. You told me about it in case I ever needed to use your phone in an emergency. It's Snow14. We were married in 2014 in the snow."

Lisa entered her passcode and just stared at her phone. She didn't know where to start, but she saw that she had a ton of missed calls and text messages. She decided to start with the texts. Most were people she seemed to know from the racing world. Some seemed concerned that she hadn't replied to them. Lisa wanted to see what her texts with Jack looked like. She saw that Amy was right. He wasn't much for technology. There weren't many texts, but the ones that were there seemed sweet. One thing that caught her eye is her propensity to call Jack "cowboy" in her texts. She wondered if she did that when speaking with him as well.

Looking around her phone, she found her email app and opened it, knowing that it was probably going to be as overwhelming as her text messages were. She was right and had no idea what anything was about. Seeing that made it clear that she needed Edwin to know about her memory so that he could bring her up to speed with what was happening at her stables. "Amy, you can let Edwin know about my memory. Make sure he understands that I don't want anyone else to know and tell him that I'll call once I'm out of the hospital and settled."

"Okay. I'll do that." Amy finished up the family tree and brought it over to Lisa. "Here. This is the family tree so you can know how we're all related. It can get a little confusing. I didn't help with that when I named my daughter after my grandma."

Lisa took the paper and looked it over. "So you have another sibling through your dad?"

Amy moved to stand by Lisa and look at the tree over her shoulder. "Yes, we didn't meet until he was like 12, and then we lost contact for a while, but we're back in touch now. He got married at Heartland last year. Grandpa officiated the ceremony."

"Now, I just need to meet everyone and put faces with names. I've seen some photos thanks to Lou, but not everyone." Lisa was now trying to commit the family tree to memory so that she could know how they connected to the family.

"You'll be fine," Amy reassured Lisa. "We're just happy that you are still here, memory or not."

A nurse came in to check Lisa's vitals and see if she needed anything. Lisa admitted that she was getting sleepy.

Amy took that as a cue to leave. She gathered her coat and went to say goodbye to Lisa. "I need to get going. I wanted to try something with my latest client horse before Lyndy gets home. It was so good to see you. I'm glad that the surgery went well. We're looking forward to having you home again. We all miss you, but I think Katie and Lyndy miss you the most."

"Aw, well, it was nice to re-meet you, I guess you could say. This whole thing is so weird for me." Lisa said and then laughed. "You have a good rest of your day.

Amy hugged her grandpa and then hugged Lisa. "You have a good rest of your day, too. I'll see you tomorrow when you get home."

After Amy left, Jack and Lisa looked at each other. Jack spoke first, "And then there were two."

"Thanks for encouraging me to meet Amy. I do feel better knowing another person at Heartland, so I'm not going into a completely new situation tomorrow." Lisa was nervous about going to Heartland, but she was thrilled about leaving the hospital. She yawned and started to lower the head of her bed. "You know, I'm getting pretty sleepy. I think I'm going to take a nap. It's been a long, weird day."

Jack nodded. "It has. Get some sleep. I'm going to take a walk."

To be continued