Chapter eight- Be Strong
We're taking each step one day at a time
You can't loose your spirit
Let live and let live forget and forgive
It's all how you see it
And just remember keep it together
Don't you know you're never alone
'cause when you're in your darkest hour
And all of the light just fades away
When you're like a single flower whose colours have turned to shades of grey
Well hang on, and be strong...
-Be strong, Delta Goodrem
The same day- March 28th
"Mummy, are we going to go in to see daddy?" Theo asks as He stands with Jo and Grace outside of Chris' ICU room. They had been standing outside his room for the past ten minutes.
"Ah, Yeah. Sorry buddy, mummy was just thinking," Jo replies. "Let's go in. Mummy first through, I have to open the door and then sit down on the chair next to daddy."
Jo pumps some sanitiser into Theo's hands and instructs him to rub it in and then sanitises her hands before opening the door and walking inside with Theo and Grace. Theo walks over to the large chair next to the bed and Jo helps him sit on the chair.
Theo looks up at Jo, uncertain as to what to say and do. "Mummy?" Theo asks.
"It's okay baby, just talk like you normally would," Jo encourages. "Tell daddy about your LEGO."
"Yesterday I built the biggest car out of my LEGO. It flys and can drive in all the water!" Theo says excitedly.
After no response from his father, Theo looks to his mother for reassurance, "it's okay. You can keep going, remember daddy can't talk right now."
"I play with Zack and Scarlett. I'm a dinosaur and Scarlett tries to eat me and Zack tries to stop Scarlett, Theo says. "I play with Gracie at school too. She dribbles on me and crawls on me."
"Good job buddy, I think daddy liked hearing your stories, but we have to go now," Jo says.
"Dinner?" Theo asks excitedly.
Jo nods her head, "spaghetti."
"Yay, Scettie!" Theo says excitedly, "I love you daddy. I go have Scettie now." Theo jumps off his chair and rushes to Jo.
One week later- April 4th
Thee weeks post op
Amelia and Derek walk towards Chris' ICU room where Jo was waiting.
Every week since his surgery, Jo had met with Amelia and Derek to go over Chris' post op progress. The appointments always made her anxious, but as much as she was anxious, she was also hopeful... hopeful that something would of changed for the better.
"Hey Jo, how are you holding up?" Amelia asks.
"Please tell me something good," Jo begs.
Derek sighs, "Chris' stats are continuing to steady and there have been no neurological changes over the past week."
"It's been three weeks since the surgery, why isn't he awake yet?" Jo asks desperately.
"Jo, we talked about this. This surgery, it's not a sure thing. He may not wake up," Amelia explains.
"But Jo, no change isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sure, it's not what you want to hear because Chris isn't getting better, but it also means that he's not getting worse," Derek adds.
Jo sighs frustratedly and buries her head in her hands for a moment, "I know."
6 hours later
"You know, you both work really well with each other. It was really cool to watch you work together to save that baby boys life," Jo gushes as she walks out of the NICU with Alex and Arizona.
"We've had a lot of practice," Arizona chuckles.
"And I had a great teacher," Alex adds.
Arizona stops in her tracks and grabs onto Alex's arm, "woah, Karev, was that a compliment?"
"Don't let it go to your head," Alex chuckles.
"He's not great at compliments is he?" Arizona asks Jo with a chuckle.
"Certainly not at receiving them. They tend to go to his head and it becomes quite large. I've never seen a head as large as Karev's after he receives a compliment," Jo laughs in agreement just as her pager goes off.
Jo looks down at her pager, "it's neuro. 911, I've gotta go," She spits out at Alex and Arizona before rushing up to neuro.
"What... what's going on?" Jo anxiously asks the nurse, Sarah.
"Nothing bad, I promise," she says calmly, "Chris, he's waking up," she smiles.
Jo turns around in shock and looks at Chris' room, a smile forms across her face as she sees her husband moving for the first time in months. Sure, it was only small leg and arm movements, but it was something.
"He's awake," Jo grins happily, "he's awake!" Jo rushes over to the glass wall of the ICU and watches on. She breaths in and out deeply anxiously. She didn't know why she felt that way, all she had wanted for the past few months was for her husband to wake up, and now he was.
She breaths once more to steady herself and then sanitises her hands, opens the door and walks in and stands on the opposite side of the bed to Amelia and Derek.
"Chris, do you know where you are?" Amelia asks.
"N... no. Wh... what happened?" He asks quietly.
"You're in the hospital, you were in an accident and have been in a coma," Derek speaks up.
Jo grabs a hold of Chris' hand, which catches him by surprise and causes him to flinch, "What's my name?" Jo asks.
Chris looks over at Jo, with confusion and a little fear in his eyes, "Ma'am, do I know you?" He asks.
"Of course you do, baby, I'm your wife. I'm Jo," Jo responds
"Do you know what your name is?" Amelia asks.
"I'm Jake. I was on a farm in Tulsa... I work there... I live there. Gertie the pig, she's my right hand gal. H... how did I get here?" He asks confused.
Amelia, Derek and Jo all look at each other, it was clear that even though Chris was now awake, that something else was very, very wrong.
"Just rest up now, okay," Derek instructs, "Jo, can we speak to you outside?" He requests.
Jo nods her head, looks down at Chris quickly and then walks out side with them. "What's going on? Where is my husband?" Jo demands.
"We don't know. Something is clearly wrong through and I'd like to do a repeat head CT, to find out exactly what's going on," Amelia replies.
Jo nods her head frantically, "of course, do it. I just want my husband back."
Scene break
Being family of a patient sucked, it meant that rather then going up to CT with Chris, that she had to be elsewhere and wait for her pager to go off with results. She was unable to access his charts, which meant that trying to find out on the DL also wasn't an option. It was why Jo now sat slumped over in the waiting area of the hospital, the exact same spot she had waited to hear how his surgery went just weeks prior.
Arizona and Alex, who were walking by the waiting area observed Jo sitting down in a slump. "What do you think happened? Do you think that they had to take Chris back in for surgery?" Alex asks Arizona.
"I don't know," Arizona responds. She proceeds to approach Jo and Alex follows her closely from behind.
"Hey Jo, what's going on? Did they have to take Chris back into surgery?" Arizona questions.
"No, he's awake," Jo sighs.
"Ah, Okay, so what's wrong? I sense some dissatisfaction in your voice," Alex jumps in.
"He doesn't know who I am. He thinks he's a farmer who lives in Tulsa with a pig name Gertie," Jo responds.
Alex sighs, "I'm no neuro specialist, but it's likely temporary. Most amnesia usually is, especially if it's a result of a traumatic event."
Jo smiles slightly and nods her head, "I know."
It was twenty minutes later that Jo was paged back to the neuro floor and into Chris' ICU room. He laid in his head while Amelia and Derek had his scans up on the monitor next to him.
"Did you find anything?" Jo asks urgently.
"The CT has revealed damage to the hippocampus and the temporal lobe. Both play important roles in memory processing. This wasn't evident before Chris woke from his coma," Derek explains.
"Not evident, but how would damage of occurred as he was waking?" Jo questions.
"We don't know. The brain is an inexact science. There's a lot we still don't know," Derek responds.
"Can you tell me what the chances are are of me getting my husband back?" Jo questions.
"Again, we don't know," Derek responds.
"Well, what can I do to help him?" Jo asks.
"I'd just say get him back to a routine. Familiar people, places, and things, Okay?" Amelia responds.
"How? We lived in Connecticut when all of this happened, all of his family is there. I had him transferred here to be treated by you both and it was just dumb luck that I matched in this area too. I had to sell our house, he's not going to recognise anything we have here. And the kids. What about the kids? He's not going to recognise them and Theo, at least, is going to expect his dad to love him and I don't know if this Jake person is going to be able to love him," Jo vents.
Amelia sighs, "Jo, I know that this isn't what you expected, but you need to believe that it's going to work out." Amelia pauses for a moment before continuing, "photo albums and home videos are a good way to start. You could do that until he's discharged in a few days. I'd recommend taking a trip back to Connecticut, once I give him the okay to fly, usually 2 weeks or until he's completed enough physical therapy to be mobile enough. I know that you don't have your house anymore, but I'm sure you could drive past it and visit family, that would help," Amelia encourages.
A/N- this chapter is heavily inspired by Jane the virgin, and the idea that Chris wake with memory loss came from there. I also took some of the script and adapted it to suit this chapter.
I hope you all enjoyed!