Remember When....

Aftermath

When I saw Caylen for the first time my heart broke. She knew who I was but I know something was wrong with her memory.

"Hey babe" Caylen said drowsily from the heavy milligrams of the pain meds.

She had half of her head shaved because the wound was so bad they had to do immediate surgery. Her left eye was bruised black, blue and purple. Two of her right ribs were broken. Other than that she was just bruised and scratched.

"Hey my love" I responded with a warm smile, not showing my fright on how she looks so she doesn't freak out.

The nurse came in with some food for her to eat. Stacey and Robert were comforting each other in the corner of the room. Caylen looked around and suddenly gained a confused look on her face.

"Where's Shane?" She asks.

I look over at Stacey and Robert with tears running down my cheeks. Robert gets up and we trade places so I was comforting Stacey and Robert was with Caylen.

He gently caressed Caylen's cheek and said sympathetically, "Honey, um...I don't ex-exactly know how t-to tell you but S-Shane is uh..." Robert looked down at the floor,"you and Shane were in a bad car crash and uh...Shane didn't make it babygirl." Robert was already crying.

I looked at Caylen and saw her shed one single tear with a straight face.

"Really?" Caylen asked and Robert nodded.

Caylen broke down right then "I'm so sorry dad."

She said through her tears.

Robert kissed the top of her head and whispered "it's okay baby it wasn't your fault."

The nurse came in with her daily dose of pain meds and she took them. She then gradually dozed off and woke up a couple hours later as I was reading To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

"Reading that again huh babe?" Says Caylen in a groggy voice.

I smile and reply "Like every other time I'm stressed out my love."

She slightly frowns as if to wonder why I'm stressed then looked around.

"Why am I in the hospital?" I looked at her confused.

"Babe you were in a car accident with Shane..."

she looked at me like she didn't understand what was going on. Before she was about to say something-- Jason, her best friend, walked in with a bouquet of sunflowers and other foliage. He looked so worried when he saw her.

"Hey CC" he said hesitantly.

"Hey Jase!" She said practically jumping out of her bed.

Jason has been studying across the country at NYU for the past year and hasn't seen Caylen in person since he left.

"It's nice to see you Jason" I said standing up to give him a hug.

"You too love. How you holding up?" Jason replied and it took everything in me to hold back from crying.

He hugged me once again and cupped my face in his hands

"She'll be okay." He said then I nodded. He kissed my forehead and went over to Caylen.