"I- What?" Ace was staring back at me blankly. "Are you messing with me right now?"
"I'm suddenly in the hospital with no idea how I got here and you're in here staring at me, and you're asking me if I'm messing with you? I'm really hoping I'm dreaming right now."
I was hoping for the exact same thing.
Slept with last night? Like the first time we met?
"Let me...call a doctor." I was having deja vu and not the kind that I wanted. If I never saw Ace in a hospital bed again, it would be too soon.
"Can you call Gigi?" He closed his eyes for a moment. "Damn it, you don't know who that is. Where's my phone? Why are you still here? Can I see a doctor?"
My chest was pulling in different directions and I felt like I was losing my breath. So I decided to leave. "Yeah, just hold on."
As soon as the door closed behind me, I collapsed to the floor, trying to hold everything in. I needed to find his doctor. And to call Gigi. I could put Tyson on that though.
After a few seconds and after sending Tyson a text, I stood on shaky ground and walked over to the nurse's desk. "Hi, I need to see Ace Winters' doctor. He's awake."
She smiled, slightly calming me down. "Right away sir."
The doctor appeared only a few moments later, his mouth upturned up until he saw my face. "That's not a good face."
I followed behind him as he walked to the room. "He's lost his memory."
He nodded. "I was afraid of that since he's had two head injuries within a short amount of time, but these things are often temporary." He turned back to me with his had on the doorknob. "Let's see what we can do."
He pushed the door open and Ace was laying there staring at the TV, his mouth slightly agape. "Mr. Winters, how are you feeling?" The doctor greeted, while I stayed closer to the door. I didn't want to scare Ace. He clearly didn't remember certain things about me.
Or anything about me besides the fact that we'd slept together.
And he didn't seem to like the thought of that very much.
"Are you my doctor?" He asked.
"I am. How's your head feeling? 1 to 10?"
He still had that confused look on his face. "Six or seven maybe, but I don't think my brain is working the way it should if I'm being honest."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm seeing Halloween ads on the TV, but it's nowhere near Halloween. I mean...Jesus." He hung his head then like the realization just came over him.
"Do you know what day it is?"
He shook his head before rubbing a hand over his face. "I don't think so...at least not anymore. I thought it was closer to February, but it has to be October, huh?"
He was taking this surprisingly well. I don't know if even I could take the news as well as he was.
"It's October 24th."
"Of 2019?"
"Yes."
"Oh thank God. I don't know if I could take it being a completely different year."
The doctor smiled, scribbling some notes on his clipboard. I was trying not to make a move in the corner of the room, trying not to draw attention the fact that I was still here. I just let them continue their conversation while my brain processed the information.
"What's the last thing you remember?"
"Going to work...I think...I thought."
"Walk through it out loud with me. Starting from the last time you woke up."
That's when his eyes fluttered over to me and my breath hitched in my throat. He swallowed hard and tore his eyes away to stare at the window that was covered by closed blinds.
"I woke up. I left his house."
"His?" The doctor asked.
He pointed to me. "His."
The doctor laughed. "Do you remember his name?"
Ace paused for a moment. "Aiden...Walker...I think."
The doctor nodded. "Good. Now did that just pop into your head or did you remember it from somewhere? Maybe a piece of paper or do you remember a certain conversation that was had?"
He shrugged, starting to show signs of irritation. "The first name I remember from him ordering pizza at the restaurant I work for, but...the last name just popped into my head. What...I don't understand. I feel like I'm the only one who can't see into my own head." He laid his head back against the pillow as his eyes brimmed with tears. "Where's Gigi?"
The doctor turned to me. "I assume you know who that is."
"How the hell would he know who- Fucking never mind." He lifted his arms to wipe the tears from his face. "Can you all just leave? The only person who's face I need to see right now is Gigi's and she's not here, so just...let me be."
"But I-" I started to protest, but the Dr. Hayes turned to me with a small smile on his face.
"Sure, we can do that." He tilted his head towards the door, telling me to leave the room.
Once outside again, Dr. Hayes flopped through his clipboard briefly. "From our brief interaction and what you have told me, I believe that he has post-traumatic retrograde amnesia. There's no way to determine how long it will take for his memory to return. The best thing for him to do is rest and walk through memories with him. You know this Gigi right?"
I nodded, sliding a hand along my sweating face. We were standing directly underneath an air conditioning vent but it wasn't doing me any good. "She is his best friend. They're extremely close. I called her already and she's on the way."
He scribbled more notes down on his clipboard. "Good. She will more than likely have to explain a lot of things to him, such as who you are and what happened to him if she is aware, not all at once of course. I will try to convince Ace to allow me to stay in the room during part of their conversation, but if he doesn't feel comfortable with that, I will stick with briefing her on how to speak to him so as not to aggravate him. Does that sound good?"
"It sounds terrible, but there's nothing I can do about it." I hated being helpless. I was never helpless.
"Welcome to my world."
Ace P.O.V.
Please, please, please don't let me start crying again. I hate fucking crying. It's annoying, it draws attention to me and I hate answering questions, especially from random people.
I was grateful when a familiar face entered the room. I was tired of staring at the TV and feeling confused.
Gigi's eyes were wide when she entered the room. She looked completely different. Well, not completely but her hair had highlights and the bags under her eyes were gone, like she hadn't been stressed out in months.
"Ace! Jesus! They told me you were awake but I didn't believe them." She rushed to me and the doctor took the opportunity to slip back inside the room, but I stayed quiet.
She reached out to hug me before retreated her arms. "Shit, can I even hug you?"
I pointed a finger up to Dr. Hayes. "I assume that would be up to him."
He nodded in response. "Yes, just be careful with his head."
Gigi wasted no time and wrapped her arms around me, trying the hardest not to make the hug awkward, but since all the equipment was in the way, it was almost impossible.
"Gigi, what the hell is going on?" She held onto my hand as she dragged a chair from the wall to the bed to sit in.
Dr. Hayes walked over, his clipboard still in his hand. I hated that clipboard. It made me feel like I was being evaluated, which I was, but it definitely gave me that fish in a tank type of feel.
"I think I can explain that one to you."
He stopped towards the end of the bed, which was probably for the best. "Okay."
"You sustained an injury to your brain. Twice. And on separate occasions."
"What? Did I get in more than one car accident?" I didn't think I was that bad of a driver. I was actually pretty good.
Dr. Hayes looked over to Gigi. "I'll defer to you for that."
She smiled at me softly. If I had to pick one emotion to describe it, pity would easily be the word. "No, you didn't get into a car accident, either time actually. The first time...you were sticking up for Sophie from her father. He ended up choking you."
"Some help I was."
"Ace, he's in jail. You were a hell of a lot of help."
"Are you serious?" I never thought I would see Sophie's dad in jail, even as much as I wished it to be true.
"I'm one thousand percent serious."
"Wow." I couldn't remember any part of that. Speaking of... "So, I'm assuming that the reason I have this gap in my memory is because of the second time. Am I right?"
Gigi nodded and her hand reached out to lay a hand on my blankets, as if to offer some sort of comfort. But I was still in the shock stage so nothing had really sunk in yet.
"Yes. You trusted a new friend and they ended up hurting you."
My brows furrowed together naturally. "Hurt me? How? Who is this new friend?"
"His name was Kyle- or Jason. I mean, it's kind of complicated. Tyson was the one who found you. He'd hit you in the head as revenge for dating Aiden."
"Dating?! I'm confused. There's too many names and I'm getting a massive headache. Please..."
Dr. Hayes steppes forward and placed a gentle hand on Gigi's shoulder. "Maybe we should give him a moment to process. Maybe pick this up tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow? Hell no, I'm just gonna make myself more confused."
"You need rest." He insisted.
"No, I need answers. I'll take a few minutes to break if you insist, but I can't spend the rest of my day like this. I'll explode." Technically, he could say that I could have no visitors but I wasn't having that if I could help it.
He sighed. "Fine, but you're going to drink some water while I check on some other patients. We are definitely gonna take things slow though."
"Fine." I rolled my eyes as he stepped out. As soon as the door closed, I was acting questions again. "Aiden? Are you for real about him? The pizza guy?!"
"I'm deadly serious."
Aiden P.O.V
I had called just about everyone I could think of to tell them that he was awake. You could never prepare for something like this.
Which is the reason I called my dad.
"Aiden?" He answered the phone in a confused tone. I was never one to call just because. What was the point of that? "Are you okay?"
"No." My voice was shakier than I wanted it to be.
"Send me the address." He said and then hung up.
And that was that.
The door to Aces room swung open and my eyes immediately found contact with Gigi's. "How is he?" I didn't want to go in until it was my time, but I was itching for a report.
She smiled and held her hand out. "He's asking for you."
For me? I guess I would find out sooner rather than later.