Remember When ↠ l.p.

Right where it hurts...

After a slightly stressed drive here, we've made it just in time. "You're both very lucky," I tell the two girls "I was going to blame being late completely on you and you would have had to tell him why we were late. I don't think you could have made it through that ordeal." Liam has been himself more often, but it's a very vulnerable side of him. For one thing, he's still not very strong and was only stable enough now, a week after he woke up, to be moved into his old room. He's also still broken up over Sophia's death. I don't blame him, of course and it's not like anyone would. Although he doesn't say it outright to us, I know it's hard for him to see Tessie, but then also the best part of his day.

She's currently skipping along beside me, holding one hand while Cailyn holds the other. "Can we still visit Daddy when he changes rooms, momma?" She looks up at me, frowning slightly. I internally fawn over how cute and sincere she looks.

"Of course we can! I imagine he would be disappointed if we didn't in fact. We can come and see him as often as you want to," I consider that for a minute and backtrack a little. "well, as often without making your dad tired." I smile at her as we approach Liam's door. We were told yesterday that he would be moved at 9:30 exactly and if we wanted to be there for the entire move we should get there a little earlier or right on time.

"Good, I've really missed him." Tessie hurries ahead of us, tugging at my hand impatiently. "Come on, come on, we're going to miss it!! I can see them!"

"Oh sure! Now you're finally concerned about getting there on time huh?" I snort and make a face at Cailyn. "You kids are funny."

"No, you're funny!" Cailyn sticks her tongue out at me. I shake my head at her. Apparently she's still in some sort of mood.

As we reach Liam's room we see that they're helping him into a wheelchair. "Just in time!" One of Liam's regular doctors greets us at the door. "We were just about to make our way, in procession of course, down to his new/old room." 

Liam waves to us and Tessie breaks free to run over and give him a kiss on the cheek and pat the arm rested on the arm of the wheelchair. I beam watching the two of them. It's so...relieving to see something happy come about after nothing but tragedy after tragedy for such a long time. It's also relieving to see them back into their normal father-daughter dynamic, when other Liam was "in charge" you could tell he still cared for Tessie, but it wasn't the same. I think she was a little frightened by him and how different he was from her father. 

"How are you feeling today?" I ask him as I walk over. I lean down him and wrap an arm around his shoulders, cringing a little at how skinny he feels. 

"I feel ready for a change of scene," he says with a soft laugh "I've gotten sick and tired of this room. I've heard my other room looks more like a bedroom you'd find in a flat and that I even have some decor there." 

"Mommy said you have a really nice TV and comfy chairs." Tessie tells him. "I haven't seen it yet too. So we can see it first together!" She's bouncing on her heels next to him, still holding onto his arm, the cutie.

However Liam doesn't seem as struck by how cute she is, he's instead looking up at me with a little shock. "She calls you...?"

I feel my stomach sink in realization. Tessie just called me mommy, something I've gotten used to because she's done it for months. She started a little after she came to live with us, I think. Liam however, has been severely out of it. He says he doesn't remember some of the things that happened while the other Liam was in control and some things he just knows without really being able to explain how he knows them. This is obviously one of those things, although I'm not even sure that the other Liam knew about it. I feel even more horrible when I realize how this will seem to him. He's just come out of a coma and prior to that hadn't really been present in his own body. It still feels like Sophia only died about a month and a half ago.

How is he going to react to this?