Our Past: A Janiel story (Jack x Daniel)

Chapter 2

Daniel's POV

Seeing Jack laying in that hospital bed shook me. I've never seen him so vulnerable, and in that moment, all I wanted to do was hug him. Hug him and hold him close so that he would never, ever be hurt again. I'm thinking all of this as I walk through the hospital doors, hoping to see Jack. Soon I'm directed to his room, and I see that he is all alone. No nurses, and I guess his family is out getting breakfast. Knocking on the door, I gingerly step into the room.
"Hey Jack. It's me, Daniel." He looks at me, and I see a spark of recognition in his eyes.
"Hi. Are you here to tell me about myself?" Jack waits expectantly, so I suppress my tears and take a seat on a white chair.
"Yep. Today I'll tell you how we met." 

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Technically, we always knew each other. There was no specific, "Oh! I'd better introduce myself!" moment. Our moms had gone to college together, and we lived pretty close to one another. At this point in time, Jack's family had two houses. One in the suburbs, and one at a lakefront. The summer before my third grade year, my family decided to go visit Jack's at their lake house. We bonded immediately, and spent the next few days swimming in the lake and just generally having fun. But there was one moment that stuck out to me that I will always remember. It was a normal day until Jack decided he wanted to go all macho and offered we go paddle boating by ourselves. I was skeptical at first, thinking of how hard it would be to paddle it all by ourselves. I mean, my legs were kind of skinny, so... But Jack eventually convinced me, and somehow our parents thought it was fine. Reluctantly, I allowed him to drag me along to somehow "have fun". As soon as we stepped into the tiny boat, it started wobbling. "Ah!" I squealed, and grabbed onto Jack, who was sitting next to me. We started drifting, and luckily we were in a cove, so no big boats were going to come smash us to pieces. "Don't worry Daniel," said Jack. "We'll just go to that tiny area over there." He pointed to a small section of the cove near some over hanging trees. Algae listlessly floated along the surface of the water, and bugs swarmed the air. Well, maybe they weren't 'swarming' per se, but there was definitely more bugs than I was comfortable with. "No no no no no! NOT over there. Please Jack," I pleaded. "Anywhere but there." "Fiiineeee. You're such a wimp." Jack responded. I pouted and slouched in my seat, looking away from him. He started paddling the boat. From what he was doing, it looked easy enough. All I had to do was act like I was peddling a bike. Then the chopper thingies would move, and we would be propelled forward. Easy peasy. So I put my feet on the peddles, and started moving my legs. Long story short, I was wrong before. It was not easy peasy for a skinny seven year old like myself. Even though Jack was a year younger, he was obviously accustomed to this. He even steered us where we needed to go! But wait. Where was he steering us? Once I spotted the mossy trees and giant cicadas looming upon us, I screamed. We were in the tiny area I told Jack not to go in!"Jack!!!!! What are you doing!!!" I screamed like there was no tomorrow, demanding he turn us around that instant. I think he got a little scared about all my screaming, so he was about to turn us around, but a HUGE bug landed on my leg. It was a cicada. (a/n: if you somehow don't know what those are, look them up. they freak me out *shudders*) I screamed louder than I ever have before. "OH MY GOSH IT'S A CICADA JACK TURN US AROUND RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!" Now Jack certainly got the idea and speedily turned us back to the dock. But before we could go anywhere, we saw a figure splash into the lake right next to us. I gasped. Gosh! Why does everyone have to keep scaring me?! Turns out it was my dad who had come to rescue me upon thinking I was drowning because of all the screaming. Eventually we made it back to the dock and put the bugs behind us. My dad gave Jack a scolding and then banned Jack and I from going out by ourselves anymore. I, for one, was relieved, but Jack was all pouty and salty. "That's what you get, Jack." I stuck my tongue out at him, and he promptly tackled me to the ground. The bugs were long gone, and things were back to normal.

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"So Jack, do you remember any of that now?" I asked with searching eyes, while trying not to get my hopes up.
"No, I'm sorry Dani." He looks at the floor. Aaaand so much for not getting my hopes up. Suddenly the air feels constricted as I wonder if he'll ever remember our life together. Then I realize something.
"Wait, you called me Dani!" I exclaim.
"So?" he waits for an explanation.
"Well, that's what you used to call me all the time. Maybe this means you do remember, we just have to give it time!"
Jack nods along. "I really hope you're right." Then he reaches for me and we hug for a long moment.
"I'll come back tomorrow," I say as I walk out of his room. I'll come back with more stories and more hope for the days to come. 

a/n: Thank you so much for reading this! seriously, you're comments mean a lot to me, they inspire me to write more for you guys. I'll try to update this weekly, but we'll see how that goes... i hope you're enjoying this story so far though!