She shook her head again, as the first tear dropped.
The doctor took a deep breath. “Does this man look familiar to you?” He pointed to the man who identified himself as her husband a few moments ago.
Liz looked at the man again, although she’d already known the answer to that. “No.”
She saw the man swallow hard and turn away.
He spun to face the doctor. “What’s going on—why is she confused?”
“We’ll speak privately in a minute, Mr. Owen.”
The door swung open as two younger males rushed in with a wheelchair. One quickly went to her IV and paused, no doubt because he noticed it unattached. The attendant turned to the doctor who gave him a slight shake of the head.
“Liz, these men are going to take you in for a CT Scan. That’s going to help us determine how severe your injuries are, and why you can’t remember anything.” Dr. Harmon explained.
Liz fought to find her voice but so much was happening around her, she couldn’t grasp it all. She found herself turning to the one man in the room who had defended her when she felt attacked. He was already watching her and as if reading her mind, offered a single blink and nod of reassurance.
The doctor turned to address the two attendants. “I’m moving on to my next ER patient and probably won’t be around when you bring her back,” Dr. Harmon murmured, then cleared his throat “but this is Matthew Owen, the patient’s husband. Please find him in the waiting room to let him know when she’s back in her room.”
Matthew.Her husband. A small spark went off in her stomach.How was it possible that she didn’t remember him? That the handsome stranger was just that. A stranger.
“Can’t I go with her?” Matthew asked, to her relief.
“Unfortunately, they won’t let anyone in the room during the screening and we’ll need you to fill out some release forms for her medical records,” Dr. Harmon advised. He turned to the nurse. “Please page Dr. Tai for me.” He turned back to Liz and Matthew. “Dr. Tai is a neurologist. He’ll examine Elizabeth, look at her scans and discuss his findings and treatment with you.” The doctor nodded.
“Are you not her doctor?”
“I’m the trauma doctor. I examined her injuries when she was brought in. Now that it appears she’s suffering from possible PTA, Post Traumatic Amnesia, we need a neurologist.”
“How long does this last? Could she just snap out of it at any moment?” His hopeful eyes flicked back at her.
“Mr. Owen, I understand you have a lot of questions but until we know how severe her head injury is, we don’t want to overwhelm you with inaccurate details.” Dr. Harmon looked over at Liz, thoughtfully, “Or the patient.” He turned away and motioned the two young men to the door. “Please take her to Radiology.”
With that last order, the attendants wheeled her out of the room and into the brightly lit hallway.
Chapter 7
MATT
Matt couldn’t remember how long he’d watched Liz sleep before he knocked out himself. They’d brought her back from her scans and other tests around three in the morning. Two hours after they’d wheeled her out of there. By the time they’d brought her back, she was asleep again. The doctors assured him they had to give her something to help her sleep.“The overwhelming shock can take a toll on someone in her condition and delay recovery.” They had told him.
He gazed out the window. The sun hadn’t risen yet, but it was getting there. The large window had one of the better views in town. It faced the ocean in the distance, rather than the highway. He’d been in this hospital only once before. A year ago, for his father’s heart attack. The room was small, the food was horrible, and his father complained the entire time. When they brought Liz in the night before, he’d insisted that she get one of the bigger rooms with a better view.
When they brought Liz in.
Everything that had been alive and beating in him had come to a complete halt when he’d received the phone call. For a moment, he had let himself believe the most terrifying unimaginable things. The visions he allowed himself when the onsite ENT’s called him from a mere seven blocks away, were appalling. Even though it may have taken thirty seconds for the specialist to explain the accident and that his wife was alive but unconscious, it felt like a century. He and Ben raced out of the house but found nothing but Matt’s totaled car being cleared out of the road. Broken glass scattered throughout the intersection brought back those same heart-wrenching images.
He took another look at his wife, remembering how he’d found her in the trauma unit. A few scrapes throughout her body that would heal in a week and a wrap around her head that he’d hoped weren’t too far from that. He never imagined she’d wake up not knowing who he was. Or be unable to tell you her own name for that matter.
He took one last look at his wife before picking up the forms and walking out of the room.
Matt walked into the nearby waiting room and found Ben standing by the coffee machine in a daze and clearly not well rested. Matt glanced at his watch. It was only half past seven in the morning. “They let you stay the night?” he asked without looking at his brother.
“No,” Ben replied. “I got here an hour ago. She’s still sleeping.”
“How is Megan?” Matt had broken the news to his family about Liz the night before. He kept it short and warned them about overwhelming her. They had seen her being wheeled out of the room and her confused look when they stood. He had been so wrapped up in Liz’s current state, he’d neglected to ask how Megan was doing or bother checking on her. Being that she was roomed next door to Liz, he’d heard enough to know that she hadn’t suffered any major injuries and that they had just been keeping her there for observation. Francis had even mentioned that the doctors were uncertain whether Megan would even need to stay the night. Had he known that Megan was alone last night, he might have stopped in to check on her and let her know he was around.
“She’s okay. She was a little shaken up mentally. But physically, just a couple of scrapes and bruises. They pulled out some windshield shards off her forearm and right leg but nothing serious, thankfully.” Ben focused on his coffee.
