Unforeseen Danger

Mid-Tennessee
State
Hospital

November 2

Pain.
Pain blossomed, bright and sharp in her brain, unfurling like the petals of a rose.
 
The mere flutter of her eyelids caused a white-hot explosion behind her eyes so brilliant that, for a moment, she saw nothing.
 
She cried out and clutched her head in an attempt to stop the dazzling fireworks inside her skull.

“Nikki!” someone shouted, but she couldn’t answer, couldn’t move, as she fought the blackness that threatened to reclaim her.

Finally, the blinding pain dissipated into a dull, heavy ache.

Where was she?

The scent of pine disinfectant burned her nose.
 
She shivered under the cool blast of air conditioning and slowly opened her eyes.
 
Her head felt too heavy to lift, even if she had been game enough to try, but she wasn’t feeling particularly lucky at the moment.
 
Her vision swam and seconds passed before she could focus on the woman hovering over her.

A nurse?

“There’s our girl!”
 
The woman smiled and pressed a button by the bed.
 
The intercom crackled to life and she said, “Please tell Dr. Carver the patient in 412 is awake.”

“Your handsome husband has been waiting on you, Nikki.”
 
The nurse nodded and reached to take her pulse.
 

Carefully turning her head, she followed the nod and stared blankly at the dark-haired man in the corner.

There was some mistake.

He wasn’t her husband.

She wasn’t Nikki.

She was
—

A tiny flutter of fear grew in the pit of her stomach.

She was
—

Abruptly, confusion gave way to terror.
 
It clutched her with icy fingers.
 
Her breath left her in a rush and she began ripping at the wires and tubes attached to her.

“What’s wrong with her?” the man cried.

She clawed at her chest, trying desperately to breathe in an environment that suddenly seemed devoid of oxygen.
 
Iron bands of panic snapped tight around her chest, crushing her under their weight.
 

Breathe, breathe,
breathe
.

She commanded herself to calm down, commanded her terrified mind to unlock her lungs.
 
When air finally flooded back in, it made her head spin.
 
Then she heard someone screaming, a high, keening sound of terror.
 
It took her a moment to realize the screams were hers.

***

Doctors and nurses raced into the room.
 
Nikki’s eyes rolled back and she began to convulse.
 
Her small frame jerked in the bed as if an electric current surged through it.

“Get him out of here!” someone yelled.
 
Hands grasped at Jake Hawthorne, who stood rooted to the green tile floor, watching his wife in grim horror.
 
They shoved him out into the hall and slammed the door behind them.

“Nikki,” he whispered, unable to tear his eyes from that closed door.
 
He couldn’t hear her anymore and somehow, the silence terrified him more than her tortured screams.
  

With as much
fervor
as he’d cursed her before, he prayed for her now.
 

As deeply as he had hated her then, he feared for her now.

An eternity passed before Dr. Carver came out to talk to him.
 
Luke Carver was a friend and Jake knew from the look on his face that things were bad.

“Is s-she…?”

“Nikki’s okay,” Luke reassured him.
 
“That was some panic attack, though.”

A wave of relief washed over Jake.
 
“So…
a panic attack
?
 
That’s all?”
 

Luke hesitated.
 
“Jake…Nikki sustained some brain injury in the accident.
 
She had a seizure, too.”

Jake hugged himself against the chill those words caused.
 
“What do you
mean,
brain injury?”

“She has post-traumatic amnesia.
 
She doesn’t remember her name, her address, or…you.”
 
Luke frowned.
 
“Jake, it disturbs me that she doesn’t remember her own name.
 
Amnesia in real life is nothing like it is in the soap operas.
 
It’s unusual for a person to lose such basic information as her own identity.”

“But she’ll remember everything eventually, right?”

“Hard to say.
 
Most people with post-traumatic amnesia regain their memories gradually within six months—”

“But?”
Jake prodded.
  

Luke sighed.
 
“Depending on the person, it could be days or decades.
 
Hopefully, I can tell you more after the CT scan, but right now, I just don’t know.”

His words stunned Jake.
 
Luke continued, laying out the proposed treatment for her condition, but Jake scarcely heard him.

Nikki didn’t know him.
 
It seemed absurd that, just a couple of days ago, she had jerked her wedding ring off and flung it at him, shouting that she wished she’d never met him.
 

Careful what you wish for, Nikki
, he thought, and then felt guilty.
 
No matter what had happened between him and Nikki, he couldn’t stand to see her suffer as she was now.

“Look, Jake.
 
It’s possible that the Nikki in there will act nothing like the Nikki you love.
 
She could experience bouts of forgetfulness, irritability, and confusion.
 
She might need to be put on anti-epileptic medication for awhile, and it’s likely that she’ll have to go to rehab.”
 
He shrugged.
 
“On the other hand, her situation may improve dramatically once the swelling in her brain goes down and healthy brain cells start to take over for the damaged ones.”
   

Jake was numb, stricken by what he’d just seen and heard.
 
He allowed Luke to guide him back to Nikki’s room, even though his first impulse was to turn and run.

Jake’s heart plummeted as he gazed at the pitiful creature that had once been his beautiful bride.
 
She whimpered when she saw him and breathed deeply from the oxygen mask that she held to her face, but, thankfully, didn’t lapse into another panic attack.

Nothing could prepare him for the physical changes that had taken place in her since he had been forced from that room.
 
Her skin, already pale from the accident, was now bleached as white as milk and her eyes were lined in black, not by mascara, but by anguish.
 
Her hair lay wildly on her pillow, reminding him of the snakes of Medusa.
 
Nikki had always taken great pains with her appearance, and it hurt him to see her this way.

He mustered up all the compassion he could for her and managed what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

“Nikki?”
 
His smile felt sickly and pasted on as he approached her bed.
 
Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion and Jake could almost believe that he was caught in the middle of some horrible, sluggish nightmare.
 
The look on Nikki’s face was something he could never have imagined, however, and Jake felt oddly trapped by the fear in her eyes.
 
She lowered the oxygen mask and her lips moved feverishly, but he couldn’t yet make out what she was saying.

“Don’t you remember me?
 
Jake?”

She shook her head, her lips never ceasing their frantic chant.

“—through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil—”

He managed to catch part of her faint refrain and lurched to a stop.
 
His throat ached with the emotion caught there.

She was praying.
 
His beautiful, haughty Nikki was
praying
.

She hadn’t attended church regularly since she was a girl, and he began to grasp how alone she felt.
 
Despite himself, Jake’s heart went out to her.

He wanted to take her hand, but he was afraid that would frighten her, so he just talked softly to her.

“My name is Jake Hawthorne.
 
I’m your husband.”
 
He felt like a liar even as he said it.
 
He thought of the divorce papers lying on his dresser, just waiting to be signed and filed.

In his heart, their marriage was over.

“I’ve been trying to reach your parents, Sara and Doug, but they’re in
Europe
and I haven’t been able to track them down yet,” Jake continued, nearly babbling in his nervousness.
 
Her fear seemed to be ebbing somewhat.
 
At least her lips had stopped moving as she watched him pace.
 

He wanted to find her parents, to figure out some way to get them to take her in and care for her.
 
He didn’t think he could do it, not after what he found out about her this week.
 
Jake wanted to walk out that door and never look back, but their marriage had once meant enough – to him, at least – that he just couldn’t leave her like this.

He rambled on about anything and everything, hoping to say something that would jar a memory in her.
 
Nikki merely stared at him, as mute as a statue.

“Children?” she rasped.

Her voice startled Jake.
 
He stared at her for a beat before he could reply, “No, we don’t have children.”
 

Nikki nodded and closed her eyes.
 
She dropped off almost instantly to sleep.

How odd that Nikki had asked about children,
Jake thought.
 
He watched her for a moment, and then slipped outside in search of coffee.