Brian Kinney opened his eyes slowly, confused as to why it was so hard to make them open wide.  He felt strange but couldn't put his finger on why.  He had awakened plenty of times in the past with hangovers from the previous night's festivities, but this felt completely different.  His head throbbed, as per usual, but it was the rest of his body that felt odd.  His mouth was also much dryer than his usual 'morning after' hangover.  He smacked his lips, and immediately felt movement close by.  He turned his head to the side and saw several people standing nearby, staring at him as if he was on display.  That wasn't normal either.  He usually woke up totally alone in his loft's bed.

His vision zeroed in on the person closest to him.  He was a rather nice looking kid with pale blond hair.  The kid had the strangest look on his face.  Brian couldn't say why, but it looked oddly like a combination of fear and relief.  What the fuck, Brian thought to himself.  He looked past the kid and finally recognized the face staring at him.  

"Hey Mikey," he managed to croak out through parched lips.  "What's going on?"

Michael stepped forth, moving Justin to the side so he could get closer to Brian's hospital bed.  He reached for Brian's hand and held tight.

"Oh God, Brian, you had us so worried!  We didn't know if you'd ever wake up again or not."

"What are you talking about?  And who is we?"

Brian's confusion deepened.  As he scanned his surroundings, he realized for the first time just how many people were in the room with him.  He recognized Debbie and Vic right away.  Emmett and Ted stood off to the other side of the room.  And he was surprised to even see Lindsay and Melanie nearby.  But what surprised him most was how small Lindsay was.  He had last seen her only a few days before, and she had been as big as a house, carrying the baby he had produced for her and Melanie.  But strangest of all was the kid with the light blond hair.  That one looked more upset than any of the others.  

"Mikey, what is going on here?  Why are you all gathered around me as if you were at a funeral... my funeral?"

Michael looked surprised.  "Brian, what is the last thing you remember?" he asked, with concern in his voice.

Brian struggled to think.  His head began hurting with the effort.  Before he could form an answer, the door to his room opened and a man in a doctor's smock entered, carrying a folder filled with papers.  The folks around Brian parted to make room for the newcomer.

"Doctor, Brian is talking normally but seems really confused," Michael told the newcomer.

The folks surrounding Brian stepped aside, making room for the doctor.  The man was at least sixty years old, with a kind face.  He was known for handling patients and their loved ones with honesty, tempered with kindness.  He had been Brian's doctor from the beginning and was well aware of the temperament of his patient's loved ones.  They would need kid gloves.  He hoped his patient would be able to handle whatever he was about to deal with.  

"If you would all give me a moment to examine Mr. Kinney, please," was his response to Michael's question.  "I will be better able to answer any questions you may have, and then you can return."  He turned to Brian.  "And any questions you may have, Mr. Kinney."

Brian still felt confused, but he now recognized that he was in a hospital.  Obviously the man in the white coat was his doctor.  But the reason for his being in the hospital still eluded him.  Brian wasn't prone to fear, but his heart began racing.  Something was terribly wrong.  Why couldn't he remember what brought him here?

************************************************************

Doctor Welby waited until the room cleared.  He checked Brian's pulse.  He didn't like what he read there.  His patient was obviously stressed.

"Relax, Mr. Kinney.  You're in good hands.  You've had quite an ordeal, but now that you're awake we can really see what it is we are dealing with.  First of all, can you tell me your full name?"

"Brian Kinney, of course," he responded with a touch of irritation.

"Good!  Now Mr. Kinney...."

"Brian!  My dad is Mr. Kinney."

"Brian, do you know what city we are in?"

"For fucks sake, Doc, I presume we are still in Pittsburgh.  Why all the stupid questions?"

"They are needed.  Do you remember anything about the events that led to your being hospitalized."

For the first time, Brian didn't feel so confident.  He hesitated.

"Mr. Kinney... Brian?"

"Damn it, Doc!  No!  I don't remember being injured.  Was I in a car accident or something?"

For the first time, Brian realized there was something heavy on his head.  He reached up and felt the bandages that still covered a portion of his scalp.  His face showed his surprise.  

"Yes, you were injured and received a very serious head wound.  We had to operate to relieve the pressure on your brain.  You've been in a coma for several weeks while your brain healed.  We've just been waiting for you to wake up, so we could better assess the amount of damage that was done from the trauma."

"Trauma?  What kind of trauma?  And are you telling me that I've slept through several weeks of my life?  What happened to me?"

"You were attacked.  Someone took a baseball bat to your head.  But I will let your family give you all the details.  My job is to take care of you medically."

With that, Doctor Welby continued his exam.  After checking all Brian's vitals and asking a series of questions, he excused himself and went out into the hall.  There he found the same group of folks who had been with his patient when he first arrived to check on him.  The doctor thought for a moment as to how lucky his patient was.  He had never seen a more devoted group of family and friends waiting for the recovery of one of his patients.  A few of them had spent more time at the hospital than in their own homes.  He knew his patient was going to survive the devastating attack on him physically, but he wasn't so sure about the mental prognosis... not after receiving some of the answers to the questions he had just put to Brian.

Debbie was the first to ask.

"So, Doctor, what is the prognosis?  Will Brian be alright?"

"His physical prognosis is excellent.  His reaction to various stimuli was what we would hope for after a lenghthy coma.  He appears to have no serious visual difficulties or problems with motor skills that I can see so far.  His hearing is certainly intact."  His voice trailed off.

"What is it, Doctor?  I can tell there is something more you are hesitant to say."

"It isn't his physical condition that has me worried."  He decided to be blunt.  "After I asked a number of questions, his answers... well, to be clear, they weren't timely.  In other words, his memory appears to be shut down to the point where he seems to have lost nearly a year of his life."

"What the fuck!" 

The outburst came from Michael.  

"Hush, Michael!" Debbie ordered her son.  "Go on, Doctor.  What makes you think that?"

"First of all, when I asked him what the date was, he gave me one that was almost a year ago.  That was my first clue.  Also, a while back you mentioned to me that he has a son produced through his surrogacy with friends.  When I asked him about his family, he told me he had a mother, father, and sister.  He never mentioned his son.  When I asked if he knew why no one in his family had been to the hospital to visit him, he told me that he didn't really get along with any of them.   You yourself confessed to me a while back that you were not his mother, but more of a surrogate mother to him.  At the same time you also told me his father was recently deceased.  Mr. Kinney said nothing about his father having passed."

Michael spoke up again.

"But Doc, he seemed to recognize all of us.  He even called me by name." 

"I'm not saying he has lost his memory, Mr. Novotny.  I'm saying he has misplaced a part of his memory.  I can't be sure how much he might remember from the date he gave me until the present, if anything, because I don't know his history.  That will be something those of you will have to help with."

"His memory will return, right, Doctor?"  It was Melanie who posed this question.

"I can't say, at least not for now.  There is no hard and fast rule with these TBI's.  I'm sorry, I mean Traumatic Brain Injuries.  No two cases are exactly identical.  It is going to be a wait and see proposition.  I'm not surprised that he can't recall the actual event that caused the trauma, but it is unusual for someone to lose only a certain portion of their lives.  Of course, we'll need to check further to see how much of the past he does remember, as well as how much he doesn't."

Justin had been strangely quiet throughout the entire discussion.  He had noticed the way Brian looked at him when he first awakened.  It was the look one gave a stranger, not someone you felt connected to in any way.  A different kind of fear had gripped his heart at that moment, than the one he first felt when he saw Brian waking up.  That fear was that Brian would blame him for the bashing.  This fear went deeper.  He had to know.

"Doctor, what did he say when you asked him the date?"

The doctor gave him the answer.  Justin's heart sank.  The date was only a day before he met Brian for the first time outside of Babylon. 

Debbie spoke up again.

"So, what do we need to do to help?  You name it and we'll all do our best to help Brian get better."

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.  The doctor told them to return to the room for their visit, but to cut it short for now so that Brian could rest his brain.  He instructed them to return the next day, and they could start formulating a plan on how to help Brian retrieve his lost memories.  They nodded again and followed the doctor back towards Brian's room.  No one, except for Debbie, noticed that Justin wasn't following them.  He turned away and moved slowly towards the exit door at the end of the hall.  She quickly told Michael that she would be right back, and hurried after Justin.  She caught up with him.

"Justin, where are you going?  Brian needs you."

"I don't think so, Debbie," he told her forlornly.  "I don't think he even knows who I am.  I saw the way he looked at me.  And after what the doctor said, I now know he doesn't remember me."

Debbie's heart broke.  She suspected Justin was correct.  The poor kid was exhausted and barely functioning already, and now this blow was just too much.  

"You go on home then and try to get some rest.  We'll talk about this more in the morning.  Don't lose hope that Brian will get over this and all his memory of you will return.  I have faith in him."

"Yes," Justin responded halfheartedly.  

Justin left, leaving Debbie worried about how he was going to deal with this unexpected turn of events.  She made a mental note to check on him as soon as she and Vic got home to make sure he had gone to bed.  She prayed that he would be strong enough to deal with whatever they were all going to have to deal with, now that Brian had returned to the land of the living.

To be continued......