Part two - Almost four months later
Four months had passed since that terrible night. Suzie flew over, but could only stay for three months, then she had to return home. She was trying to get back as soon as possible, which meant that she would be back in the beginning of next week. They all visited as much as they possibly could, which meant they were there most of the days. They had asked Dr. Greene if he thought Wendy could hear them, but he had no answer to that question. Some research said that people can remember things from the time they were in a coma, other research showed no evidence of that. Still they continued to talk to her. Brian told her about how fast Baylee was growing up, and they all talked about memories they had of times they spent together. But other times, they just sat there looking at her, one of them holding her hand. The bruises had healed, so had the stabwounds. If it wasn’t for the machines, you’d think she was asleep.
Brian decided to take a walk on Nick’s private beach, right after dinner. His thoughts were on the conversation they had with Dr. Greene earlier that day.
“I’m really sorry to tell you this, but I think the time has come that we have to accept that Wendy might not ever wake-up. Four months is a long time to be in a coma. I know you’ve probably heard about the people that woke up after years and years of being in a coma. Yes, that does happen, but realisticly, the chance that she will wake up is very, very small. I know you don’t want to hear this, but I have to tell you this. There is a fairly good chance that she will never wake up.”
The guys just sat there in silence. Dr. Greene had just confirmed what they had thought about themselves. Well, four of them. Brian never gave up on her and he said to himself that he just knew that she would wake up. Even though he told Nick that he couldn’t know, by this time he himself felt it. He didn’t mention this to the other four though. He only told Leighanne how he felt and she stood by him, even though she wasn’t as sure as Brian about Wendy waking up.
~~At the hospital~~
Things weren’t going like they were supposed to. Yes, he practically lived in room 246, but he had only eyes for her. Nothing love-like though, they weren’t in a relationship when this happened. She asked one of the trainees, and she told her that Kevin was as single as could be. But still, he hardly ever noticed her. Sure, he was polite, but he never asked her out or anything. You’d think that after four months, he’d get bored once and a while and would come and talk to me about something else than Wendy. Unfortunately, he never did. Most of the time he was talking to her, or with one of his friends that also seemed to almost live in this place. She was getting desperate, and her patience was diminishing.
~~A week and a half later~~
Brian thought he was going crazy. He had been sitting next to Wendy, holding her hand and telling her about Baylee eating breakfast, and spilling most of it on the floor and his dad’s shirt, when he suddenly felt her weakly squeeze his hand.
“Kev, she squeezed my hand! Owh my god, she squeezed my hand. Get Dr. Greene!! Wendy, Wendy, can you hear me?”
Kevin looked up, not as excited as you’d think he would be. “Cuz, it’s just your mind playing tricks on you. We all thought she squeezed our hand or moved her head at one point.”
“But Kev, I’m sure this time. Really!!!”
“Let’s wait for a moment or so, so that Dr. Greene doesn’t come here for nothing.”
Brian felt frustrated that his cousin didn’t believe him. But he couldn’t blame him. This wasn’t the first time he thought she moved. He just kept staring at her, to see if she’d show any signs of waking up. Then she squeezed his hand again.
“Kevin, go and get Dr. Greene in here now. I just felt it again.” Brian gasped with suprise and excitement.
“Allright, but don’t get your hopes up too much. I don’t want you to get hurt.” Kevin said while he was walking to the door to get Dr. Greene to take a look at Wendy. What if his cousin was right? Would things finally return to normal after all this time?
Kevin was in no hurry to find Dr. Greene, Brian was probably imaging things again, like they all had at one point in time. The last four months had been awful. Yes, her wounds were healing, but being in the hospital most of the time made the guys weary and they had even started to lose hope. The conversation that Dr. Greene had with them the other day was only making things worse. They all knew that the chances of her waking up were slim, but him saying it somehow made it real. Phoebe now only visited on Saturday or Sunday, because of her work. She had to do all of Wendy’s work now too, because her boss didn’t want to hire anyone new for the time being. Leighanne came as much as she could, but she had Baylee of course to take care of as well, even though Brian helped her as much as possible, it was hard for her to come and visit. The guys tried everything in their power to bring Wendy back into this world. They had read that playing the person’s favorite music would work, so they did that. They heard that talking to the person would speed up the process, which obviously didn’t work either. They even sang to her, but none of it worked.
Nick told him that he could hardly remember her voice and laughter, which made him feel guilty. Kevin told him that that wasn’t that strange, four months is a long time. He himself found it hard to remember her soft voice and the color of her eyes. They had tried talking about what should happen next, but they all ended up crying, so nothing was decided yet.
Kevin knocked on Dr. Greene’s office door after which he heard him say: “Come in.”
“Dr. Greene, Brian thought he felt Wendy squeeze his hand. He wanted me to get you, but if you ask me, his mind is playing tricks on him again.”
“Well, I’ll have a look, just to be sure.” Dr. Greene replied as he got up.
~~Meanwhile in room 246~~
“Wendy, I know I felt it right this time. Just wake up baby.. Squeeze my hand again..” Owh God, let it be true this time. Please, don’t let this be my imagination again. Then, he felt her squeezing his hand for the third time. “You can do it, Wendy. Open your eyes for me.” Brian said while tears of joy were filling his eyes.
Owh my head.. Need to... open my eyes..
Wendy tried to open her eyes and managed to do so, but it was so hard that se almost immediately closed them again. “Come on, baby, open your eyes for me..” she heard someone say.
Why is this so hard.. And why is someone telling me to open my eyes.. I just want to get some sleep..
“No, don’t slip away again. Stay with me, baby. Come on, look at me.” Brian began to panic because it seemed like he was losing her to unconsciousness again, but he felt huge relief when she opened her eyes.
Everything is so blurry. What’s wrong with me..
Dr. Greene and Kevin entered the room and saw Brian all excited while he was talking to her.
“Kev, she’s awake! She opened her eyes for me and squeezed my hand again. She’s awake cuz!!”
Kevin walked up to the bed and saw that she was trying to open her eyes again. He just couldn’t believe what he was seeing and felt like he was going to explode with happiness. This was what they had been waiting for.
Even Dr. Greene was stunned for a second. But he quickly recovered and walked right up to her.
“Wendy, you’re in the hospital right now. My name is Dr. Greene and I..”
But then something went wrong. Her breathing suddenly got heavier and increased, so did her heart rate. She coughed because of the tube and just completely panicked. Brian held onto her hand and tried to soothe her.
“Wendy, it’s allright. Calm down, you’re in the hospital and everything is going to be fine. Just breathe.”
But things only got worse. Dr. Greene hit the red button and told Brian and Kevin to wait out in the hallway. At first Brian refused to leave her, now that she was finally awake.But Dr. Greene told him that it was best for Wendy if he left the room for a moment.
After they had left, Wendy slowly calmed down a bit.
“Wendy, I’m Dr. Greene. You need some help with breathing, so that’s why we intubated you and you can’t talk at the moment. Do you understand me? If you do, squeeze my hand once.”
Wendy squeezed his hand.
“Allright, I have to ask you some questions. If the answer is yes, squeeze my hand once, if the answer is no, squeeze it twice. If you don’t know the answer, squeeze it three times. Do you understand me?”
Wendy squeezed his hand once.
“Do you know why you’re here?”
She squeezed his hand twice.
~~Meanwhile in the hallway~~
The two cousins sat down in two chairs that were nearby her room.
“I hope she’s doing okay.” Brian softly said.
“I’m sure she is Brian. It’s probably the shock of being in the hospital or something. I still can’t believe that she’s with us again.”
“I know, at first I thought I was crazy and that nothing happened, and now she’s awake! I just hope that she’ll be fine and her old self again. Owh men, I’m just so happy I could dance! Well, I just might do it..”
Kevin bursted into laughter as he saw Brian do a little happy dance right there in the hallway. “I’ll be outside for a moment, allright? I’ll call everyone to tell them the news.”
“Wait a minute, Kevin.Before you do that, I need to talk to you for a moment.” Dr. Greene said as he came out of her room. “I’m sorry fellows, there’s something I need to tell you.”
“Please don’t tell me that we lost her again.” Brian’s voice quivered with fear.
“No, she’s awake. But she doesn’t remember anything.”
“Well, that’s quite a good thing for now, isn’t it? She doesn’t need to remember the night of the attack.”
Kevin nodded his head, agreeing to what his cousin had just said.
“Brian, Kevin, she doesn’t remember anything. She doesn’t know what happened, who you are and she doesn’t even know her own name or anything about herself. She suffers from total memory loss. I’m sorry.”
Kevin and Brian looked at each other, not knowing how to respond to this terrible message. Would this nightmare ever end?!
