by Ann Jensen
A doctor came in the room, his face had a big smile. He was somewhere in his late forties with slightly graying brown hair and gentle eyes.
“Ms. Johnson it is good to see you awake. I’m Dr. Marks, I’m the neurologist on your case.”
“It’s nice to meet you.”
“What’s wrong with her?” Dragon’s voice was filled with strain. Tari looked between him and the doctor with growing worry.
“Let me do a quick exam and then you can ask any questions you might have.”
She had plenty of questions but had no idea where to start. A nurse came in and made Dragon leave. Seeing him walk out the door caused Tari anxiety, but she held onto the belief he wouldn’t just disappear.
They proceeded to run through a series of tests that involved poking and prodding every part of her body. Her body and its weak responses terrified her but seemed to please the doctor. Bandaged cuts covered her stomach and chest, two particularly nasty ones ran all the way up to her neck. Moving anything took a struggle so hard that sweat was beading on her forehead and body like she had run a marathon.
“The sluggishness you are feeling in your muscles is normal because of the drugs we’ve had you on to prevent spasms and seizures while you were in the coma. We’ll stop those and check you out in a few hours but you seem to have good nerve responses so you should have full mobility.”
“What happened to me?”
“Just a few more questions, then I will explain what I can.”
He ran her through a lot of questions that ranged from what she thought was today’s date, to shape recognition, and simple math problems. Tari had been taking some pre-med classes before her life had taken its drastic detour and she recognized he was trying to establish her mental acuity.
“Do you want your fiancé in here for the discussions in case he has any questions?”
“My fiancé?” Was he talking about Dragon?
“You are a very lucky woman. Your friends and he have been here every moment we would let them in.” The doctor had a faint New England accent making her think he was from Connecticut or somewhere near there.
The nurse smiled. “We will miss Mrs. Rios and Pixie’s baking when you go home. I swear I’ve gained five pounds in five days.”
Mrs. Rios, Pixie? The only Pixie she knew was a new student Val had brought with her a few weeks ago. She didn’t have friends who would visit unless it was some of the waitresses from Traker’s and that didn’t seem likely.
“Uhm, yes, Dragon can come in.”
“What about, Sueann?” the nurse asked.
“Who?” She was positive she didn’t know anyone with that name.
“The red-headed woman who was in here earlier. She used to be a nurse here so I know she’ll ask.” Janis looked concerned.
“Val?” Tari knew the fun-loving woman was a nurse, and having someone with more medical knowledge couldn’t hurt, but why had the woman called her Sueann? “Sure.”
Janis laughed. “I forgot the people in her husband’s Club call her Valkyrie. It fits. She was definitely hell on wheels while still being nice. We will miss her.”
When the nurse opened the door, Dragon immediately came to her side and took her hand. His eyes studied her like he was afraid she was going to vanish which was amusing since she felt the same way. The doctor sat on a rolling chair and took a deep breath.
“To answer your question from earlier Ms. Johnson, you were brought in with a significant number of lacerations to the abdomen as well as trauma to your ribs, arms, and head. The damage to your head caused a hematoma and they had to drill a hole to reduce pressure on your brain.”
“I don’t remember any of that.” She had seen the healing wounds but even they hadn’t painted the picture the doctor’s words had just etched into her mind.
“You were in a coma for six days. We will need to do more in depth testing, but you seem to have minor paraphasia and amnesia that covers about two months before you were admitted.”
“What is paraphasia?” Dragon asked while Tari was still trying to process what was going on.
“It is a condition where a person unknowingly says a nonsense word when speaking rather than the word intended.” The doctor looked down at his clipboard. “For example, when I showed her a circle she called it a dayeera.”
“Dayira means circle in Arabic.” Tari defended herself.
“Interesting. Did you mean to speak Arabic?”
“Well, no, but the word is not nonsense.” Tari didn’t like the fact her brain and her body weren’t working. She had always kept herself in good shape, eating right, and considered herself intelligent. The fact that both things might be taken from her was terrifying.
“When I asked you how many siblings you had, you said, geen.”
“That is none in Dutch.”
“How many languages do you speak?”
“Ten, if you include English. Does this mean I don’t have paraphasia?” Tari didn’t want to have something wrong with her brain. Plenty of bilingual or multilingual people switched between languages without thinking about it. She usually only did that with Spanish since she had primarily grown up speaking that and English. But she had been fascinated with learning languages when she grew up so it wasn’t impossible for it to happen with another language.
Dragon squeezed her hand and she saw his face was worried.
“The only words you just spoke that were in English were English and paraphasia. Try it again but relax and try to focus on English.”
She did, forming each word as she spoke it.
“Ten languages is very impressive. I’m going to get you the name of someone who specializes in Aphasia and related speech disorders. This, along with the amnesia, may be a temporary thing or they may be something that is now part of your life.”
“Will she ever remember what happened? Who did this to her?” Dragon asked.
“With retrograde amnesia it is difficult to say anything definitively. She may wake up tomorrow with total recall or she might never remember,” the doctor replied.
To Tari he said, “With the great support and friends you obviously have, I’m sure you’ll find your way through.”
Tari wanted to believe the doctor. She was exhausted and confused on so many levels. According to the doctor over two months of her life were missing and they must have been important months. She was going to have to rely on friends she didn’t remember and a fiancé she couldn’t even remember dating.
Chapter 14
Even a Queen needs her beauty sleep.
Dragon felt Tari’s hand go limp in his and looked down to see her eyes closed. He must have looked as worried as he felt because the doctor quickly reassured him.
“She’s just asleep. You should expect her to do that for a little while. Her body has gotten no exercise in the last six days, so even the exam we gave her will have been exhausting.”
After watching her unresponsive for so long it was hard to accept that this time she was just asleep. He had her back now and wouldn’t let her go. He had to make her safe but he wasn’t a doctor, so he had to trust this man knew what he was talking about.
“We still don’t know who attacked her. If she doesn’t remember, finding the son of a bitch who did this will be difficult.” But he knew he would find the man or men responsible and they would pray for death before he was done.
“She may remember but putting pressure on her is likely the worst way to accomplish that. Amnesia like this isn’t well understood. It is more than just her short-term memory so there is psychological as well as physiological components. You would do well to find someone for her to talk to not just about the memory loss but to help her adjust. She might experience severe mood swings or even PTSD.”
“And the language thing?”
“People who wake from long term comas often have neurological issues. One girl woke up from a coma speaking a different language another had a complete personality change. Hopefully, this is all temporary as
her mind readjusts.”
Dragon left Val with the sleeping Tari. He wanted to grab food and pick-up Citlali so the little girl could see her mama awake. She was too young to understand what was going on but she knew something was wrong. He strode down the hall to the waiting room to let the Brother on duty there know what was going on before he left.
The sight of Max in his crazy biker glory, sitting across the waiting room from a very nervous looking yuppie family, made Dragon smile. They huddled away from him like he might go feral at any moment. Those close-minded suburbanites would never comprehend the real meaning of family that he and his Brothers lived and breathed every day.
Max was Road Captain for the Dark Sons and one of the most laid-back, chill men he had ever met. Unless he was riding motocross. The man pulled insane tricks that had made him legend in certain circles. Rumor among the Brothers was the man had been a SEAL before getting drawn into blacker ops but he never talked about it and Dragon respected him enough to let his demons rest.
“You look like a man just let out on parole,” Max teased. “Heard your woman is awake.”
“Awake and now sleeping. Val’s sitting with her. I’m grabbing dinner with mi madre and mi hija then we’ll all come back and visit.”
Max looked over at the family still giving him wary looks. “Let me take a walk with you.” Max didn’t say anything until they were outside heading to his bike. “She tell you who attacked her?”
“No. Doctor says she has amnesia. She doesn’t remember the last two months.”
“Guess that’s good and bad news.”
“How do you figure?”
“Well, she doesn’t remember Didi.”
Dragon groaned. “You know I wasn’t fucking around with her.”
“Yeah but you said you two hadn’t worked that shit out so the way I see it you get a fresh start.”
He needed a real start with Tari. The unknown threat hanging over their head had to be dealt with and he needed time to show her they were meant to be together.
“You didn’t follow me out here just to ask about that.”
“No, two things. First, Puck found out something interesting this morning when he was chatting up the receptionist.”
Dragon had spent many long hours with Puck when they had been guarding Pixie a few months ago. The man was a classic ‘boy next door’ handsome and used his good looks to charm as many women as possible out of their panties. He was still a prospect but Dragon guessed it wouldn’t be long before he earned his bottom rocker. The fact he had been hitting on a woman while on guard duty came as no surprise.
“What did he learn?”
“Someone’s been calling for your woman several times a day but they always hang up when they hear she can’t receive calls.”
“You think it might be the man who attacked her.”
“Yeah. I already talked to Hawk and he’s agreed to station someone here even off hours. They’ll have to be in the waiting room but it’s the best we can do.”
“Shit.” Dragon didn’t like the thought that Tari’s attacker could be actively stalking her. The hospital had security but he doubted it could stop someone determined to kill. “What’s the second thing.”
“I know you’re looking into the problems at the yoga place. Sharp had me use some contacts I have in law enforcement to test the heroine we found stashed there. The mix came back matching some seized from a Jacks distributor.”
“Seriously? You thinks those crazy assholes were stupid enough to set up shop in one of our businesses?” Dragon asked, surprised at what he was hearing.
“That’s where I think we actually fucked up. Three years ago when Dozer bought that place for Val, Denver narcotics had it pegged already as a possible distributor. I think we actually moved in on them.”
That would explain why the books he had been reviewing seemed wrong from day one. The business was always in the black but the numbers were too perfect like someone was always recording just enough business to keep Dozer from looking any closer.
“Why wouldn’t they have made problems back then or moved shop?”
“My guess is since Dozer left the staff in place they just saw it as an extra cut out between the product and them.”
“Why haven’t we heard anything since we shut them down? Even if they didn’t realize it was Dark Sons it has been long enough that they should have figured it out.” Dragon was amazed that anyone could be that stupid.
“That I don’t know. It’s not like we are low profile.”
Dragon left to meet up with his mother and daughter at a local diner, letting the problems bubble in the back of his mind. He enjoyed watching his daughter babble and laugh with his mother while making a mess of her mac and cheese. When he ordered his burger, he smiled and remembered not to put mustard on it.
Chapter 15
When you hear a southern woman say, “Ohh Hayelll No!” You better bolt.
Tari woke to the sound of Val humming a popular country song just slightly off tune. She felt a lot clearer and was able to raise her hand to brush away a piece of hair from her face. Her fingers and toes all wiggled on command though the soreness in her stomach had turned into a dull ache that was echoed in her head.
“How you feeling, sugar?”
“Sore but good. Where’s Dragon?”
“He went to grab dinner then bring your little darlin’ back here.”
“Oh.” She was disappointed he wasn’t still there but kicked herself mentally. He would be back. It hadn’t been a dream. She tried again to remember how they had reconnected but the place where those memories should be remained out of reach. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
“Why are you here? I know that sounds rude, but from my memories you were a student and I liked you but how did we become friends?”
Val looked puzzled for a moment. “Darlin’, about half of what you just said was in English.”
Tari forced herself to focus on each word and by the end Val looked almost hurt.
“I think your memory of our relationship and mine are very different. You have no idea what a blessing you have been in my life. Sure, we didn’t chat on the phone but you changed my life.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Do you remember the first time we met?”
Tari did. She had just gotten the job as yoga instructor back then the studio had been called The Wellness Spa and was a ratty hole in the wall. She had been on her way to teach a meditation class when she saw a woman hunched over on a bench like she was in pain.
“Of course.”
“I didn’t tell you then, but I had just received the news that the latest fertility treatment we had tried hadn’t worked. I was so lost in my own pain, I didn’t know where I was. You sat down next to me and told me to breathe.”
Tari laughed because she remembered the dirty look Val had shot her way.
“You said breath was the center of life; it gives our minds and our souls the space and energy they need to heal all wounds and solve all problems. Without enough breath we’re paralyzed by the pain. Then you offered me a free class and said it wouldn’t fix what was wrong but maybe it would help me learn to breathe.”
Tari had always found herself drawn to people who were hurting since she had spent so much of her life getting emotionally battered. Yoga and meditation had given her the strength to get through it all and she wanted others to find that peace with her.
She concentrated on her words as she responded. “I was surprised you came.”
“So was I. I’m not exactly a granola loving hippie but your classes weren’t about that. After the first month my husband bought the place because he said if something made me so happy it should be nicer.”
“You’re the one who bought the place and gave it a makeover?”
“You’re still mixing your words, Tari but I think I understood that. Yes, you found that out a week ago when I fired Fifi and Marco when they tried to fire you for b
ringing Lali to class.”
A sharp bolt of pain zipped across Tari’s mind as a memory flickered then slipped out of reach.
“You and your classes were a constant source of peace and enjoyment in my life. I was a trauma nurse here at Denver Medical. The things you taught me helped make things not seem so bleak. That night when we went out after class with several other students and everyone was busy bitching about their stress and jobs you said something that changed my life again.”
Tari barely remembered the night out she was talking about. Before Citlali going for a drink after the studio closed wasn’t an uncommon event. “I don’t remember.”
“Well I do. You said we all needed to ask ourselves a simple question. Were we working to live or living to work? You said if we were putting up with stress because it was necessary for us to survive then we should see if there was a better way and pull up our big boy pants until we found it. But if we were choosing to live miserable lives for no good reason then we were just masochists and should wake up and enjoy life.”
Tari must have had an extra drink that night. She didn’t usually have the guts to say things like that. “That changed your life?”
“Sure did. I hated being a trauma nurse. I became a nurse because I like helping people. We didn’t need the money or the crazy schedule that goes with that job. I am now a part-time nurse at a VA rehab hospital and I love it. You made that difference. I have always thought of you as a friend.” Val laughed. “Dozer came back early with everything going on and him and I are both enjoying living up to your most recent life advice.”
Tari wondered what other sage advice she had given. The woman made her sound like she was a wisewoman or something. Before she could ask, they were interrupted.
“Nefertari Johnson?”
The male voice tinged with a slight Northern California accent broke up their conversation. Tari looked over to see a strange man standing in her doorway. He was middle aged with a slight belly and a scowl that could scare children. He had muddy brown hair that was slicked back in an unflattering style and wore a suit that fit him a little too tight. A gun and badge were clipped to his belt. Something about his eyes caused pain to lash across her brain, biting back a whimper she tried to answer him.
