The Love of a Stranger

The Future's In Our Hands

The past few weeks for me was like being a child learning their first words. Apparently the injury to my head caused damage to my brain that controls speech, in other words, I had a mild diagnostic of speech impairment. It was as bad as I assumed it to be. Even though I had planned in my head what I was going to say I couldn't pronounce them, my mouth just tensed up and ignored my demand to function. Any word that was able to be spoken came out slurred making me sound drunk, it was horribly embarrassing, but with the help of Dr. Andrews who works in the speech therapy department I could speak slightly clearer, plus Dan acting as an assistant helped me whenever he could which increased my chances of speaking fluently again. Other than the speech impairment, I had seemed to be doing fine, the headaches caused a bit of a problem but that was to be expected so it didn't bother me much, but what wasn't to be expected was how bored and dull daily life would be bedridden in a hospital with nothing but rubbery tasting food to eat. I had never realised in my entire life how good a Chinese sounded, it made my mouth water.

Dan had a visitation rota; Monday's, Wednesday's and Friday's. Any day that he didn't come he'd spend his time at the studio along with the guys, their upcoming album was on the brink of completion and as a fan I could not wait. Dan refused to give me any idea or clue to what it consisted of, obviously I wasn't pleased.

As of my disloyal parents, my mother was too physically unable to hide any further, it was only a day after my what-seemed-like-death she was arrested and convicted to life imprisonment for multiple charges including child abuse, child neglect, assault and the murder of Jack. My father, on the other hand, turned himself in which I respected. I never hated him for what he did understanding that things were difficult for him, I had never realised until he told me that he had been homeless. Admittedly, I believed that my family were a mess and I'm glad that what happened to me didn't happen to anyone else, all I could do from my past experiences is to learn from it, to learn not take life for granted and expect everything to be perfect and to generally be happier.

Two weeks after my awakening I had been told that I was able to leave soon and I couldn't be more ecstatic, finally getting to go home and live the life of a normal person; no more hiding and no more worrying (although I did have to worry about getting a job...I'll have to think about that.)

Once I had texted Dan the good news he immediately rushed his way over to me to celebrate.

"I c-can go h-home no-ow." I slurred, this was so embarrassing, I hope this gets fixed soon.

"That's great! I'm so proud of you, I really am."

I was so jealous of the fluency of his speech and the clarity of his words, but I couldn't stay mad at him, especially after he kisses me on the head and envelops me in a hug.

"I've got a surprise for you...Cathy's has been renovated!It's no longer 'Cathy's' so the council were looking for owners, I looked into it aannnddd..."

He didn't.

"I bought it! I figured you could do something with it, maybe open up a bakery because I know how much you loved to bake and how amazing your cakes are."

He did.

Words couldn't even begin to describe how shocked I was, mainly because I couldn't pronounce the words but I was so delighted. How do I deserve this perfection that was Dan? What have I done for him? It doesn't make sense.

I pulled myself closer to him as a signal of thankfulness.

"I love you." I managed to say without stuttering or slurring my words for the first time since I woke up. Dan looked deep into my eyes at the clear articulation of my words. He grinned kissing me on the lips. As if things couldn't get any better, Dan pulled out a bag with a logo on it. It seems to contain some type of box.