One Chance: a Ted Sweeran fanfic

Ch 3

Ed's POV

My head hurt by the time Cara came back, this time with another woman. Harry had tried explaining some things to me, since the only personal thing I could remember was that my name was Ed. He had first told me that I was a famous singer and songwriter, and that I had left my home for London to make it big. There I had crashed at some of my mates' houses-one being the guitarist for the band he was in, which was called Direction or something like that. Sometimes he would crash there too and we eventually became mates ourselves.

He had even spontaneously taken his shirt off which I thought was a bit odd until I noticed something inked near his left underarm; the word "Pingu" was faintly legible under a star and a few other tattoos that I couldn't make out. I remembered Pingu, it was one of my favorite TV shows growing up, and when Harry had showed me my matching Pingu tattoo, or as he had called it "bromance tattoo", I couldn't help but laugh. Here I had forgotten everything important in my life: my friends, my family, my wife, my identity even, but I had still remembered some Swedish kids show from my childhood. Harry was then about to tell me about the time when I had given a tattoo when Cara returned.

She was just as gorgeous as ever, and this time she had a friend with her, someone also incredibly beautiful, but I barely paid attention to her, Cara was all I could think of. Instead of her looking at me in complete admiration, though, she was looking at Harry and signaling for him to do something. Apparently he got the message and immediately put his shirt back on and playfully slapped my arm and joked, "now don't you ever leave us again like that mate," which for some reason caused Cara's friend to flinch.

Harry then put his arm around Cara, which made me flinch. In all this commotion, I had completely forgotten that Cara was taken-by my best mate no less. I closed my eyes, trying to ignore the head ache that was developing from all this new information when I remembered Cara's friend. She was still standing there, looking at me as if I was a broken object she never believed would have been fixed. She seemed to have gone through a lot, and I immediately had the urge to comfort her, even though I had no clue who this woman was.

"I had dreamed of this moment, Ed, you have no idea how much it hurt to feel like you were alone, to have the other part of you taken away from you so suddenly, to have your whole life crash before your eyes and..." she was barely able to get the words out now. "And...and then there was you, my whole world, the reason I kept living, was now lost. I thought you were going to die Ed, and after everything that had just happened, I needed you. But I couldn't have you," she took a few seconds to compose herself then did the thing I least expected her to do-laugh. She began laughing hysterically and told me, "But now you're back, and I shouldn't be the one complaining, I'm sorry, I just have never been so frustrated and completely afraid at the same time, and I need you." She leaned over an faintly kissed my lips, then asked me, "so what did you and Harry talk about?" laughing as she did.

"Well, um..." I was sputtering for words, so confused at who this emotional woman was or why on earth she had kissed me. She was extremely beautiful, and just had this underlying radiance that made you want to love her. She had this aura of confidence, like she knew what she was doing and wouldn't compromise herself for anyone, which I loved. I could already tell that she was one of those rare people who had the power to change your life for the better just by being, and I felt the urge to know more about this woman. However, the first thing I could think to say was "Pingu", which made her laugh, crinkling her eyes and nose, making her even more attractive to me.

"Pingu? You mean that tattoo you got with Harry, that Pingu?" she asked. I could see she wanted to make light of it, but there was something about the way she said Harry's name, like there was some bad memories linked to it, which upset me.

She pulled up my left sleeve and pointed to another one of my tattoos, another memory of my past that I had lost to the future.

"Remember this one?" she had pointed to a three-letter inscription that advertised 'RED'.

I tried, I really did, but I had no clue what it meant. I looked at her hopeless, wanting her to give me a hint before badly guessing, "Is it because I'm a ginger or something?"

She laughed immediately, but then she realized I wasn't laughing with her, only looking extremely confused.

"Ed, sweetie, you don't remember what that means-like at all?" She looked at me, horrified to hear what I might say.

"I-I'm really sorry, but frankly I don't know who you are," I replied, wishing so badly that I had.

Her reaction was slow, like a bomb just waiting to detonate.

"Ed, don't you remember me, how couldn't you, I'm your wife-Taylor," she was heartbroken, I could see it already. She stood up from my hospital bed and paced around the room with her head in her hands, her body viciously racking with sobs.

"Taylor? I don't know how this happened, but I'm sure we can figure this out," I tried comforting her but I knew that my words were lost on deaf ears. I knew now something of the pain she had felt while I was in a coma, the hurt you feel when you desperately wanted to reach someone but they were out of your grasp.

Then Taylor stopped, then looking at me in unspeakable horror she begged, "Ed, please tell me you remember something right before the accident, something very important that happened."

My head seemed to shake no on itself, as if my body was the only part of me that would ever work again.

She sat back on the bed and sunk her head into her hands for the most agonizing ten seconds of my life. For that moment I sat in complete shock of what I had just witnessed, waiting for the bomb to explode, and listened to her broken breathing as a man would listen to the ticks counting down the end of his life.

She then turned and looked at me and said in a very fragile voice, "Ed, before your accident we had just gotten back from our honeymoon and I took the test, and, well it came back positive," she then instinctively put her hand over her belly and looked at me with the eyes of a woman who had gained something but then lost everything. "Ed, I'm pregnant with your baby."