Holding Out For A Hero (The Five Sisters Series) (3 page)

During dinner, Mike asked her, "What do you think your name is?" and she told him she had no idea.  He told her to think about it and if they could not come up with a name, they would have to name her something so he could call her something. 

After they ate dinner, he told her how lucky she was to have survived. "I was coming home from my monthly shopping trip, and I saw your car on the side of the road. It had hit a pole, and all the airbags had deployed. You were sitting there with your head on the side window, which I guess is where you got that gash on your scalp from. The doors wouldn't open, so I had to bash in the window with my boot. Then I grabbed you out of the car, gingerly because I was not sure if you were hurt or not. As I ran, carrying you, your car burst into flames. The little dog joined us at the car and rode along to my house."

"You are really my hero, and I am so thankful that you—a trauma doctor—found me. What are you doing here in a remote place like this if you are a doctor? You don't seem to have any patients, or do you?" She asked him.

He laughed a lot. "I probably should explain that to you," he said, "let's go and sit in the great room and talk." Mike stood up and offered his hand for her to steady herself when standing up. They walked to the great room, and Mike busied himself with starting a fire while she walked around and looked at the pictures. Once the fire was started, he got up and sat in the oversized chair, and she sat down on the end of the couch nearest him. He rubbed his hands together, and started.

"I moved here to get away from the craziness of daily life, and to re-examine what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. My wife, Jocelyn, died in a car accident four months ago, and the coroner is still trying to determine what caused the accident.  Being an ER doctor, I read the first report of her accident, but it was not complete because the circumstances surrounding her death were suspicious and they needed to do more testing.  I thought it was strange because she did not bleed a lot even though it was a very traumatic accident.  She died even though the airbag deployed. I am waiting on the final report to understand what happened.  I love her a great deal, and it was hard to manage to be in our house without her after being married for five years. So I bought this house and moved here, back to the country life that I grew up in and away from the emergency room." Tears started to form in the corners of his eyes remembering what he had lost and how angry he was at the world for taking it away from him. He paused, and pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and dabbed his eyes.

Mike continued, “We met in our internships, Jocelyn was going to nursing school and I was in medical school.  I loved Jocelyn from the moment I met her, and it was on our first date that I decided I would marry her.  Of course, I didn’t tell her that.  After we had dated for about 6 months, I proposed, and we went to Las Vegas and got married.  We always planned to have children, but had not gotten around to it.  Our lives were busy, and Jocelyn took on the life of a doctor’s wife, doing a lot of charity work and being out and about.”  Mike’s voice trailed off and then he looked at her.

"So that is why you have her clothes upstairs, and the pictures around the house of you with a woman but I don’t see where there is another person living here besides you?" She asked him, reaching over with her hand to pat his arm.

"Yes, I could not bear to let them go, I know she's not coming back, but I have not been able to deal with that part of it because I don't know why she died.  I need to move on but it’s hard." He said, staring at the fire. He turned on the radio to a local music station, and some country music came out of the speakers. They sat there in silence for a couple of minutes.

Then he said, "You can wear whatever you want from that closet, it is fine. I don't need to keep it. And you need it. And I will get out your clothes from the accident so you can look at them and see if it brings back a memory." She murmured a yes, and leaned back on the comfy leather and closed her eyes. She started humming the song, like she knew it, and they sat there looking at the fire and listening to the radio.  Mike got up and got her clothing from the accident, and she looked through it but she didn’t remember anything about it.  She double checked the pockets for a sign to indicate who she was, but nothing was there.

Finally, he got up and told her he was going to bed, as it had been a long day. "Let’s go and find you some pajamas" he told her. They walked up the long staircase and she spent a couple of minutes in the closet. When she came out, she was wearing a demure flannel pajama set that was printed with cows and sheep jumping over fences and moons. He laughed to himself at her choice, as those were the pajamas he had bought Jocelyn for their first Christmas together; she had worn them sporadically throughout their marriage.

He sighed, and they walked over to the library that was upstairs. "Now, you can pick any book that you want to read from here. It helps me go to sleep when I read before bed.  Feel free to read as much as you want." He told her.

She chose a lighthearted romance, and they walked downstairs so he could make sure that all was well and the fire was out before she went to bed. She didn't seem to mind him taking such good care of her, and she almost reminded him of a scared bird.

Of course, he thought, she has no idea who she is and can't remember her past, I would be scared as well. She went to her room, turned on the lamp, and started reading until she was ready to go to sleep. While she was reading, her dog jumped up on the bed and worked his head under her hand, signaling her that he wanted her to pet him.  So she stroked his hair and scratched his belly for a little while, and then he crawled under the covers and curled up next to her as she was turning out the light to go to sleep. 

Mike went to his room, and sat in his chair for a long time reading, but not really seeing the pages.  Talking about Jocelyn stirred up the sorrow and regret of his marriage, and the wish that he had more time with her.  He saw death every day in his job, yet he didn’t think it would be so soon and Jocelyn seemed to understand his work.  She was always there for him when he needed her, and he could almost hear her voice telling him it was fine to start living again.  He thought that would be something she would want, not for him to be stuck in the woods with his grief. 

Maybe the accident and girl were part of that moving on, now that he needed to take care of her until her memory returned or her family found her.  He had felt aroused by her choice of pajamas, and thought he should take a relaxing shower before bed. So he got up and showered, then crawled into his bed for a night of tossing and turning and nightmares about seeing his wife's face in the accident with the woman he had just rescued. He lay awake for hours and  thought about what to do about the woman laying downstairs who had no past.

As she lay awake in her room downstairs, she heard him get up and then the shower come on.  She thought, he is very nice to let me stay here and without any idea who I am.  He certainly made it clear that he didn't really want the company.  But when they had sat by the fire and she listened to his story about his wife and the accident, she thought he was healing a little, just telling the story. 

She wondered how much of his feelings for his wife she had stirred up by showing up in a car wreck and wearing her clothes.  She wasn't sure if she had a family at home, but she was not wearing a ring.  All the family she knew she had was right here in bed with her, snuggled to her side, and she didn't even know his name.  She should give him a name, something that shows how daring and ferocious he really was - Brutus, she thought.  "Ok, from now on your name will be Brutus." She told him.  He looked up at her then snuggled his head back down.  Apparently, that was OK with him.

She had a book to read, but she could not concentrate.  She knew she was really lucky to not have a broken bone and just a couple of cuts on her head.  And, of course, no memory.  The cut on her forehead was little, and just taped shut with a butterfly closure.   She wasn't so sure about the stitches on the side of her head or the haircut he had hastily given her.  She was thinking about cutting her hair off to let it grow back evenly, but she would still need to think that one through.

The sheriff didn't seem to have much hope for her, she thought.  Mike mentioned coming up with a temporary name for her, but she wanted to know her own name. 

She read the book for about 30 minutes, and then laid it on her nightstand.  It was kind of a steamy romance, and she was getting strange ideas about her "hero", so she thought it would be better to go to sleep. 

The next few days seemed to pass quickly in their lives.  Mike would get up and go for a run in the morning before breakfast.  He was gone for about an hour, and, when he returned, he would take a shower.  After the shower, he would come down and fix breakfast for them.  They would chat about little things, and eat, and he would try to help her remember things by telling her about past and current events. 

The rest of the day was spent by her reading and walking through the garden in the back of the house.  Mike came out and showed her how to pick the tomatoes and other vegetables that he was growing.  He told her it was the only way to have fresh produce between trips to town.  She also did some light cleaning, but he was very cautious and always making sure she did not over do the activity.  He said she needed to rest.  She was just going slowly crazy, she thought to herself, because she was living without a point of reference.  She just wanted to know what she did before, what type of job she had and where she lived.  Basic things that most people take for granted.  She felt sure that somewhere out there someone was looking for her, and she hoped that they would find her soon.  She also hoped that her memory loss would not become permanent, but Mike said only time would tell.

She listened to the radio a lot as well; both talk and country music (the only stations that seemed to come in) and she hummed along with the songs.  Pretty soon, she knew the words and sang along with the
twangyness
of them.

By the fourth day, she thought she would get up and go for a walk while he went on a run.  She had brought the clothes and shoes downstairs from his closet the night before. She got up when she heard him the next morning, then got dressed and waited for him to leave.  Once he left to run, she watched what direction he left in and started a walk that way, too.  If she fell or had a problem, he would be back in 30-40 minutes to save her, right?  She walked out for 15 minutes before heading back to the house, and felt fine.  She decided to build on her walking every day and probably would eventually start running, as well.

When she returned to the house, she showered and thought she would set out some of the breakfast items.  By the time he got down from showering, she had breakfast ready, except for the bacon —Mike was impressed. 

At breakfast that morning, Mike started out with asking her how she felt and if she had remembered anything.  It was their morning ritual.  Her normal answer was the same, “Feel fine, no memory.”  He told her he had thought of a name for her, and he smiled as he said it—"Taylor." 

"What?" She asked. 

"Yep, Taylor, because you just love singing her songs and I hear you singing all day—you have a great voice like an angel; I am getting used to having someone in the house—so I think it's only fitting to give you her name.  I really want you to have a name, as long as you don't mind, and you kind of look like a Taylor," Mike told her.

She continued to read and study several books and listen to the radio while doing some light cleaning. She picked some vegetables from the garden and took the initiative to start lunch. Mike was happy to see her up and about, and she seemed fine with the name Taylor for them to use until she remembered who she was.

Taylor was reading mostly romance novels from the library, and she was always looking for a new book because she had finished the last one.  So later that day, Taylor went to her room to read a new book she had just found on the shelf, called the Kama Sutra. She had no idea what it was about until she started reading, then she felt her cheeks burning as she imagined doing the positions in the book. She read the words and looked at the drawings.  The book stated that they would give a great deal of pleasure to both the male and female involved in the sexual act.  Although Mike was a healthy, sexy man, he made no signs of having feelings toward her and even seemed to be keeping his distance so she could heal.