Lest I Forget

Anterograde Amnesia

This was one of the most detrimental moments in Kirstin's life. It was three days after Scott's accident, and he was near discharge. Dr. Olusola wanted to monitor his vitals and be sure that his memory retaining wasn't a fluke. He woke up and was aware of each new day, and was ready to go home. Kirstin decided that she would mention things about his memory loss to Scott once he got home and in a comfortable place. While Dr. Olusola went through a check-up list for Scott (he could actually show this to Scott, now that he would remember), Kirstin went to Scott's room in the institute and loaded up his things in Jeremy's car and had him take everything back to their apartment and put them back in Scott's room. Scott was a very organized person, so she had to explain where certain things went... but hopefully he'd have forgotten that much while in the hospital for a few days.

She got Scott back at home, and he was more than happy to be back. He did notice things that were very different in the scenery on the way home, such as new buildings that weren't there before, the grass wasn't as green as it usually was, or noticing that it felt like a cool spring day in the middle of what was supposed to be August. The first thing he did once he got home was beg to see Olaf. He'd become attached to the puppy... now full grown dog. He was shocked when this large polar bear-esque dog bounded towards him and began licking his face. "Oh my god, he grew ten times bigger in a matter of days! Are you sure I was only in the hospital for three days?" He laughed loudly, turning his face from the excited dog.

"Calm down, Olaf!" Kirstin reached for the white monster, tugging him back gently. "He got all beaten up!" She looked up at Scott. "Yeah, he is pretty big. There's an explanation for that. I fed him dinosaur treats and he shot up like a weed overnight." He laughed at her humor and just accepted the fact that the dog was humongous. That was the thing that scared Kirstin about explaining to Scott what was going on in his life... the fact that he so easily accepted things. It could easily be a front, and he could be paranoid about it later. But, to her face, he'd accept it to lighten the moment. But he'd never had more than a day to process the news, so that's possibly why he was so okay with it. This would be a different ballpark. "I want to show you some things. Can you stay in here for a minute?" He nodded and pulled the large dog up on his lap onto the couch and ruffled his fur, Olaf's tongue flopping out as he enjoyed his friend who he hadn't seen in so long.

Kirstin went into her bedroom and pulled out a large box. She'd stored the photos in much more contained files, plus stored lots of other things, such as reports from the hospital, photos of the accident, the DVD Mitch had made for Scott... she stored everything in there. She removed the DVD and previously removed the photos of Mitch that she'd saved. She had purpose for those in all due time, but she felt that her focus needed to be on Scott's lost years, not a relationship. And, that was rightfully so. Mitch even agreed with it.

"I'm going to tell him today, Mitch. I just wanted to let you know in case you wanted to, um, know." She sounded so unsure, dragging her foot along the floor and studying the lines that the tiles made when they met together.

"You should. I think it's better if you wait until you get home, though. That way he feels comfortable learning about this while he's in a familiar place, you know?"

"You're very right." She looked off into the distance, not making eye contact with Mitch due to her being nervous. "Where do you stand in this? Are you still going to Nashville?" The question was inevitable. He hadn't pictured having this conversation with Kirstin, but it was better to figure things out before he spoke to Scott.

"I don't know... but I feel that we shouldn't introduce his romantic past yet. He's not ready for that, and I sure as hell am not." He bit his bottom lip, a habit he grew when he was nervous. "But, I do want to be in his life. I just don't know how, yet. But this isn't the time to bring me up. He probably forgot all about me at the hospital, honestly."