Lauren's eyes fluttered open for the first time in what felt like an eternity. Her eyelids were heavy, and the first thing she was met with was the blinding light above her.
It hurt. Everything hurt.
She had no idea where she was. She wanted to scream but no words would come out. Her throat was dry and scratchy to the point where it physically hurt simply to breath.
What was she doing here? How did she even get here? So many questions darted around her mind that it took her a while to realize she didn't even know the answer to the simplest question.
What was her name?
Her head was pounding, the constant beeping of the number of machines hooked up to her definitely wasn't helping. She wanted to rip all the wires out of her, to just turn over and scream until she woke up again.
Maybe this was just a bad dream.
Lauren tried to move her arms, but found they were abnormally heavy, she scratched feebly at the IV protruding from her arm but slumped back into the bed when she found her hands couldn't even grip the small object, let alone rip it out.
She was crying freely now, but she felt nothing. She was numb.
//
It seemed like an eternity had passed before Lauren heard footsteps entering the room and voices suddenly filling it.
She sat up, and was greeted by 4 middle aged men, all in white jackets, one of them noting something down on a clipboard.
One of the men smiled at her softly, but she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. He said something to her, but she didn't reply. She couldn't.
She wasn't even sure if he had actually spoken or if she had just imagined it.
The man pulled a chair up next to the bed and gave Lauren a sympathetic smile before taking a seat.
He cleared his throat before he began, the sound made Lauren cringe.
"My name is Dr. Alejandro Cabello. I have been working with you for quite some time Lauren, although you probably don't remember" He smiled softly once again
Lauren couldn't respond, she couldn't even muster enough strength to shake her head, so she just continued to stare at him blankly.
Apparently he took that as a sign to continue. "What I'm about to tell you may be hard for you to take in right now Lauren, but I need you to listen. You don't need to understand right now, but it's my job to inform you what's going on."
He paused to make eye contact with her before continuing. "Two years ago you was involved in a head on collision with another vehicle. The crash was fatal, both your parents were killed on impact. You only survived because you were flung from the vehicle via the back window, meaning you didn't suffer the full impact of the crash."
Lauren was sobbing now, she didn't understand why this was happening to her.
"You were found 20 meters from the scene, not breathing. After being resuscitated by a paramedic on scene, you were air lifted to hospital. Your heart stopped 3 times on the journey here. You was rushed into surgery with a severely broken leg, four broken ribs, a collapsed lung and a far more severe skull fracture, which was causing internal bleeding. You wasn't meant to survive Lauren. It's a miracle the impact to your head didn't kill you instantly."
Alejandro sighed before nodding to the other doctors, apparently signifying they could leave now.
"After the surgery, your body shut down. You was in a comatose state for two years. We didn't find any identification on you but we did find your phone in the car. It was pretty ruined, but we managed to pull up a few text messages, that's how we found your name was Lauren.
Your parents bodies were um, not in a very good condition so we weren't able to identify them, so we don't know of your last name yet, but maybe you'll remember in time."
"Speaking of which, there's no telling if your memory will come back or how much of it will come back. You will almost certainly suffer some speech and learning impairments and perhaps some physical ones too, but we'll assess the extent of that later."
Lauren was frozen. The room was spinning. She wanted to cry but the tears weren't coming. She opened her mouth to scream but no words came out.
Alejandro reached for her hand cautiously. She flinched but was too weak to move her own hand away, so she just left it there, she was tired of fighting.
"I know this is a lot to take in Lauren, but I'm going to take care of you I promise. We're going to get you better okay?"
Lauren tried her best to force a smile, and was satisfied when she managed to lift the corners of her mouth just ever so slightly. As confused as she was right now, something about the man sitting beside her made her want to trust him.
Her doctor seemed pleased, now grinning brightly at Lauren.
"let's get you some water kiddo, you must be thirsty" He said, ruffling Lauren's hair playfully before heading out of the room.
Lauren just sat there, staring at the now empty chair beside her, trying to organize everything she had just been told in her head. She couldn't remember anything. Not even the accident. Definitely not anything before that.
It's like everything before this moment had been wiped clean. It was as if she was starting life all over again.
She wondered what her life was like before, if she was popular and happy and her parents loved her. She'd like to think so.
Lauren was terrified of the future now. What would happen if she didn't get better? If she couldn't remember?
She didn't even know if she could still speak.
But she did know one thing, she would forever be indebted to the stranger who had shown her kindness when she needed it most. She decided she would thank him in whatever way she could when she saw him again.
Right now, Alejandro Cabello was the only thing that gave her even a glimmer of hope, and she planned to cling onto it with everything she had.
A/N
So here it is! This is the first chapter. Like I said, this is loosely based around another fanfic that I enjoyed so much, so when it was left unfinished, I decided I would put my own twist on it.
Thank you for reading, I will still be continuing Don't Forget Me and updating both of these regularly because I love writing them so much, even if it's only me reading them haha.
I love every single one of you that took the time to read this. Be safe.
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