Chapter 2

Lisa was sitting in her hospital bed feeling very confused. She didn't know who that man was and was scared by the whole thing. She wanted to know why he felt comfortable enough to kiss her.

Lisa was lost in thought when a doctor came in to speak with her. "Ms. Stillman? I'm Dr. Narayan. I have some questions for you. Do you know why you're in the hospital?"

Lisa turned to look at the doctor. "No, I don't. Who was that man? Why did he try to kiss me? What's going on?"

Dr. Narayan took notes and looked back at Lisa. "You were in a car accident earlier today with that man who was just in here."

Lisa felt angry at that. "Why would someone who crashed into my car be trying to kiss me?"

Dr. Narayan held up his hand to stop Lisa. "No, you were in the vehicle with him. You know him."

Now, Lisa was confused. "I have no idea who he is."

"Do you know what year it is and who the prime minister is?" he questioned.

"It's 2007. The prime minister is Harper." Lisa said with confidence.

"Hmmm…" the doctor hummed.

"What? Is that not right?" Lisa looked incredulous.

Dr. Narayan took a deep breath. "You appear to be having trouble with your memory. We need to run more tests. I'd like to order a CAT scan for you. We did one earlier, but I want to do another. And some other tests."

Lisa wanted answers. "What do you mean I'm having trouble with my memory?"

"It's not 2007. It's 2024," the doctor replied.

"What? How can that be?" Lisa demanded. Her mind was racing with this information.

"You have a concussion and it can cause issues with your memory. Let's get more tests run and we'll figure it out. Someone will be in to take you to get a CAT scan shortly." Dr. Narayan left to speak with Lisa's nurse.

Jack was in shock as he walked out to the waiting room while the doctors were running more tests on Lisa. She didn't know who he was. In all the ways he thought today would go, this was not one of them. He could not understand it. He spotted Lou and Amy and sat down by them looking shell shocked.

Lou spoke first. "What's going on Grandpa?"

Jack was leaning forward resting his forearms on his knees. He felt like he was going to be sick, but he managed to get out, "She's awake. They are running more tests."

"You wouldn't look this freaked out if everything was okay. What happened when she woke up?" Amy responded. She put her hand on Jack's back trying to comfort him.

Jack couldn't believe the words as they were coming out of his mouth. "She didn't know who I was. I tried to kiss her when she woke up, but she pushed me away and asked who I was and why I was trying to kiss her."

Lou was incredulous. "That's impossible. She has been in love with you forever. How can she forget her own husband?"

Amy made eye contact with Lou to signal that she should stop talking. Amy just sat next to him while Lou went to call Peter and Georgie. When Lou got off the phone they all just sat there. Neither Amy or Lou knew what to say, and they didn't want to make the situation harder for their grandpa.

Jack seemed like he was in another world. He just kept wondering how it all went so wrong. He'd had such a great weekend with Lisa. His mind drifted to the night before and he really hoped that wasn't the last time he was able to be with his wife like that. They'd both said that next morning how relaxed and refreshed they felt after the much needed time alone with one another.

After what felt like an eternity to the trio, Dr. Narayan called the family back to speak with them about Lisa's condition. Jack was standing in the hallway with his granddaughters listening to Dr. Narayan tell him about how his wife had amnesia and thought it was 2007. He realized that Lisa didn't remember him or any of their relationship let alone their marriage. He didn't really hear the doctor as his mind raced with this information.

"Mr. Bartlett? Mr. Bartlett? Did you hear what I said?"

Jack looked up at the doctor. "Sorry, I just realized that my wife doesn't know who I am. We met in 2007, but her memory must be from before then. Should I be worried that my wife has blocked out everything up until right before we met? What does that mean?"

Dr. Narayan looked unsure how to answer. "Well," he started slowly, "We don't really understand why the brain does things like this. Your wife's memory loss is likely to be temporary, but we don't know. She does have a concussion. I can't make any promises, but we are doing what we can to figure this out. We will keep monitoring her."

Jack thanked the doctor and turned to go back to Lisa's room.

"Wait, Mr. Bartlett." The doctor continued, "We don't want to give Lisa too much information at once. It might be overwhelming for her. Why don't you go home and get some rest. There isn't much you can do now."

Jack angrily turned back around and got in the doctor's face, "I'm not leaving my wife. She may not know me now, but I have faith that she will eventually. We have been through too much to just leave now. Also, good luck keeping things from her. She's smart and will figure it out. Does she know that she has memory loss?

"Yes," Dr. Narayan replied. "We did tell her that it's 2024. She was going to notice things aren't the same as 17 years ago. She was very concerned about why a man she didn't know was trying to kiss her. We told her that she does know you and that you were in a car accident together. If you go back in there, just don't give too many details. We don't want to upset her too much right now. She is already dealing with a lot."

"Okay, I can do that. I'll do anything for my wife to be okay."

Amy and Lou stood there watching this whole exchange with tears in their eyes. They were heartbroken for their grandfather and for Lisa. Amy got Jack's attention. "Grandpa, we're going to go back to the waiting room. Come find us if you need anything."

Jack returned to Lisa's room. He stood outside her door and took a deep breath before timidly entering.

Lisa looked surprised at who had entered her room. The doctor said that they knew each other and were in a car accident together. She didn't know what to think about all of it.

Jack decided to start by introducing himself. "Hi, Lisa. You don't remember me, but I'm Jack Bartlett."

"Hello, Jack. It's the strangest thing to lose 17 years of your life. The doctor said that we were in a car accident together." Lisa paused to figure out what she wanted to know and how to ask about it. "How have we known each other? That's been something I've been trying to remember. You clearly care a lot about me if you're trying to kiss me."

Jack thought for a second how to respond and decided to ignore the comment about the kiss for now, "We met through my granddaughter, Amy. She works with horses that have struggles in some way. She fixed a problem one of your horses was having. You came to a clinic Amy had after that where she demonstrated how she had worked through your horse's problems. Val Stanton accused Amy of drugging the horse. You defended Amy's work which I really appreciated."

Lisa chuckled at the mention of Val. "Val Stanton. That woman does love to try and make people look stupid. She's the worst."

Jack grimaced and then smiled. "She's not all bad. Val has been my neighbor forever, but she isn't around as much anymore. I do know the two of you are like oil and water. That hasn't changed."

That made Lisa laugh. "I'm glad not everything has changed. What has changed? Is Fairfield still successful? Do I still do business in France? Have I started to work towards retirement in France?

As Lisa barraged Jack with questions, he realized that not telling her everything right away was going to get tricky and she was going to be mad when she found out he wasn't completely upfront. He needed to find a way to get out of there. Much to his chagrin, he realized that Dr. Narayan was right.

"Your business has been pretty good. I'll tell you about everything eventually, but you are looking tired and like you need some rest. This has been a crazy day. I could use some rest as well. How about I let you sleep and come back tomorrow. We can talk more then." Jack patted her hand and tried to ignore his desire to wrap his arms around his wife and kiss her. "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow."

Jack left her room and took a deep breath. "This is going to be a lot harder than I thought," Jack muttered to himself. He didn't know how much to tell her and didn't want to overwhelm her and cause more issues with her memory.

Lou and Amy were surprised to see Jack back so soon. "What happened?" Amy asked.

Jack sighed deeply. He could already tell he was going to get tired of explaining things if Lisa didn't get her memory back soon. "Well, I realized the doctor was right. She had so many questions for me and I didn't know how to answer them without telling her too much. I begged off saying that it had been a long day, that she looked exhausted, and so am I. She was fine with me leaving. I don't really mean anything to her right now. I'm a complete stranger to her. Let's go home. I just want to take a shower and go to bed."

The three left the hospital to go home. Jack wondered what the future had in store. He had never done well with change and this was about the biggest change he could have imagined.

To be continued

Author's note: I need to give a huge thanks to TheRealTC for her encouragement and advice regarding this story.

I have several chapters ahead of this one already in my drafts. It has been a lot of fun to work on this story. There are lots of twists and turns coming.

Oh, and I should have mentioned before that this takes place post season 17 in case you don't want spoilers.