A Way Back Home | Adopted by Gerard Way (Book Two)

Two Weeks Of Nightmares (71)

Gerard's POV

I'm back to pacing in the hall, only this time Laura and Mikey are here with me. Running their hands through their hair, biting their nails. I'm afraid Mikey might bite his whole finger off, but luckily all his appendages are intact when the doctor comes back out into the hall.

"Evelyn is suffering from short term memory loss," she explains before I even have a chance to ask what's going on.

"How short do you mean? What can she remember? She recognizes me, right?" I ask desperately.

"Yes, she remembers you," she nods. "We gave her paper and a pen to communicate with. She'll have to work with a speech therapist, but her speech will come back with time and so will her memory."

Mikey, Laura, and I look at each other before I take the lead and enter the room. Eve's bed is in a sitting up position, she doesn't have to crane her neck to look at us. Her eyes immediately light up when she sees Mikey and I, but she seems to be ignoring Laura. We all sit down in chairs that have been pulled around her bed. No one knows what to say first.

Quickly, she grabs the notepad and pen lying next to her and scribbles some messy words, then flashes the paper at us:

I don't know what I did but I'm so sorry.

Instead of breaking down in tears, I take a deep breath and calmly explain to her what happened. "It's not your fault, Evie. You got in a car accident with your friends, Raven, Krash, and Ryder. Do you remember them?"

Eve furrows her eyebrows. I have so many questions, she writes.

"We have time," I tell her.

She takes a long time to scrawl her questions on a new page, a look of intense concentration on her face, like it's taking all her energy to get her thoughts on paper. I can't imagine how disorganized they must be in her head right now.

(In order of importance)
1. Where is Emerald/is she okay?
2. How long have I been here?
3. Am I still going to live in Rhode Island?
4. Since when am I hanging out with Krash and Raven again?
5. Where is Zero?
6. Who is Ryder?

So, I start by telling her how she left New Jersey as planned on March 27th with her social worker, left from there with her friends on July 3rd, and it's now July 18th. She spent about three months in Rhode Island. Emerald is at home and safe, and as soon as she finds out Eve is awake, her mom will be bringing her here so they can be reunited.

I glance at Laura to see if she wants to take it from there, but she doesn't seem to have anything to say, so I go on. Hoping that something will jog her memory, I tell her any and all details I can remember from our phone calls throughout the months. About school, her classes and her grades, the places she hung out at with her friends, but leaving out the bad parts that it might be best that she's forgotten for now.

Eve puts a hand up weakly to halt me.

"You okay, Evie?" I ask, stopping in the middle of my story about how she told off some girls for speaking about her behind her back in French.

She nods distractedly and writes, Is Ryder here? Can I meet him?

"Well, it's like three in the morning, Eve. Your friends are probably asleep," I say apologetically.

She looks down, disappointed.

I reach and rest a hand over one of her's. "I think you've gotten an overload of information for tonight and you need some rest," I tell her gently, not wanting to disappoint her some more. But it's obvious she's tired.