The Second Time Around Ch. 02

"Mamma! Mamma, get up, he's awake again!"

A new voice. Not like the soft, husky one he had heard moments ago. This one was light and the owner was just as beautiful as it sounded. Grey eyes clouded his vision before it was replaced and he recognized the older woman from before. She was crying and kissing him, touching him and squeezing his hand. Then suddenly a legion of doctors entered the room and he was being poked and prodded like a lab rat.

"What is going on? Is he ok?"

"Why are you putting those flashlights in his face? Can't you see that they're hurting him? Mamma, tell them to leave."

"Gina, calm down!"

"No!" Gina stated unable to control her wavering emotions. "I won't calm down! Why the hell do we need all of these doctors? Some of you get the hell out!"

Everyone stopped moving, the swarm of doctors turned in Gina's direction and before one of them could speak, a new voice was heard in the distance. "We only need one, maybe two doctors tops. The rest may go."

His voice commanded respect and before he knew it, Caid watched as the fifty or so other doctors ambled out of his room, leaving only two behind. "Dante, what the hell took you so long?"

"Ginevra!" her mother warned, telling her daughter to cool her temper and to watch her language.

"Sorry, Mamma."

"I'm sorry that I'm late, I had to get Ilenia, that bitch Susan--"

"What did I just say to Gina?!"

"Sorry, Mamma."

"Excuse me," one of the doctors interrupted, getting the attention of the trio. "Could I possibly ask you all to step outside? We're going to do a quick check-up and don't want to cause any...discomfort to Mr. Comito."

"A quick check-up?" Gina asked, flashing her black hair behind her shoulders. "Our brother has been in a coma for a year and you're telling us that you're going to do a quick check-up? I expect an MRI, brain scans, blood tests--the whole damn works! Got that!" She demanded, throwing her hands on her hips as her brother snatched her towards the door. Gina was not one to hold her tongue for anybody, especially when it involved her baby brother or when she was emotionally upset. As of that moment, both were the case.

"I'm sorry about my daughter's behavior, however; I would still like for a full body assessment. Will that be possible?" Caid heard Mamma ask. He had tried to sit up, but for some reason his body wasn't listening to him. It felt heavy and lethargic. But hearing Gina say that he had been out cold for a year made him rethink it all. Somehow, to him, it had felt as if ten minutes had passed between his accident, arriving at the hospital, talking to his brother, then waking back up. How in the world could a year have been gone?

Furthermore, if it had truly been a year, what had happened to Brigitte? He needed to find her. He wanted to know that she was all right. He had to see her.

"What's happening?" Mamma asked when the heart monitor began to skyrocket. Adriano's body was convulsing and one of the doctors, the shorter of the two, was screaming for nurses to come in and help him hold him down.

"Mrs. Comito, I need for you and your family to wait in the lounge. We'll be right with you," the other doctor said instead of handing out an explanation. He ushered her out the door towards her two awaiting children then closed it as politely as possible before rushing back to work.

"Oh mio dio!"

"Mamma, it will be alright," Dante tried assuring her while he watched his sister cradle their niece, Adriano's daughter, Ilenia. She was crying and asking if God was punishing her for being a bad girl by taking away her daddy. On the day of the accident, Ilenia had said things that she hadn't meant to her father because he had been mean to her mother. She couldn't understand why they hated each other so much. And all she really wanted them to do was to be happy the way they had once been.

"Ti prego, non piangere," Gina cooed to her niece as she rocked the seven year old back and forth. "Papa will be alright. Didn't I tell you that he would wake up? Don't worry. God has sent him back to us. We should stay positive."

She nodded her head, watching her grandmother do the same then make the sign of the cross as she offered up a prayer of thanks. All that was left to do was wait and wait and wait, until they felt as if their heads would explode if they didn't get any information. No news was not always good news.

"Papa's going to die again!" Ilenia cried, after waiting what felt like years to her, holding her head back as tears swam down her little face.

"Don't say that," Dante told her, scooping her up in his arms to hold her against his chest. He couldn't fault the little girl, she was only being honest with herself, but her words had sent a cold shiver down his spine. There was no way that he was losing his baby brother. How would he go on if that were to happen? He had been there when Adriano had spoken his first words and he had been there when he had taken his first steps. He was his brothers' keeper.

But after occupying the hospital for nearly fourteen hours with no results, it was quite hard to keep hope alive.

A sea of black hair turned towards the door when a firm voice cleared itself into the room. They froze in expectation, uncertain as to whether they should be expecting good news or the worst. "Doctor?" Gina asked, stepping forward with shaky feet. He was going to say what she had been having nightmares about for the entire year: that Adriano didn't make it. He had given up. He was gone.

"Mr. Comito is..."

"Is what?!" Gina demanded practically ready to pull her hair out.

"He is fine. All tests came back in the negative, however--"

"If you don't stop with all of these dramatic pauses and give us some damn answers," Dante threatened, covering his niece's ears so that she wouldn't hear him swearing.

"Our brain scans show that Mr. Comito's brain has healed from the accident; however, due to the amount of scar tissue, he seems to be suffering from retrograde amnesia."

"What?" the two siblings asked in disbelief as their mother slumped to the waiting room floor.

"He has no recollection of who he is, what he does, his prior life experiences...the only memory his mind still contains is of the accident."

"How is this possible?" Gina asked unable to cope with the fact that their brother would never be able to retrieve a piece of his past...their past ever again.

"Does this mean that he will never remember anything?" Dante asked, steadily consoling his crying mother.

"No, unlike anterograde amnesia, where there is complete loss of short term memory, Mr. Comito will be able to construct new memories. There is a slight possibility that his memories will one day return, however; from what we can see from our tests, that may never happen."

"Oh Dio!" Gina whispered, covering her mouth with her hand as she shook her head.

"What matters is that he is still alive and as long as he can make new memories, we should be thankful," Dante told them. "Do not cry, we do not want him to see us this way."

His mother and sister nodded their heads in agreement as they took several minutes to compose themselves before giving the doctor their attention.

"Tell us what we will need to do and we'll get it done."

"He will need physical therapy to retrain his body how to normally function...after all, it's been a year since his neurotransmitters have had to do any type of work. His speech and thought are a hundred percent. Aside from his memory, Mr. Comito will return to a hundred percent after his therapy."

"Can we see him?" Gina asked, needing reassurance that he was truly awake and wouldn't slip away from them again.

"Yes. His heart rate is stable and the nurses have been preparing him for company. I'll lead the way." They walked in silence until their doctor abruptly stopped footsteps away from the door. The doctor waited for a nod of approval before he slowly opened Adriano's room door.

He was propped up in bed staring at the white walls when they entered. He regarded them curiously as they entered, questioning their presence with his eyes although his lips had yet to move.

"Mr. Comito, you may not remember them, but this is your family," the doctor told him, watching him intently for any signs of distress. "Do you remember these people?"

Caid didn't reply, perhaps he should have since they were all looking at him expectantly, but he felt like a deer in headlights; as if at any moment, one of them would point a finger at him and call him an imposter. He wasn't this Comito guy and didn't know squat about him even though the name did sound vaguely familiar.

"Adriano?" the doctor called, breaking him out of his thoughts.

That name, he'd have to get used to being called by it until he got some answers. The first would be why he was in another person's body. The second would be where he could find Brigitte. "Yes?" he heard his voice croak. To his surprise there was an accent. A slight, seductive accent that he didn't recognize.

"Do you recognize anyone here in this room?" Caid scanned his eyes over the Comito family. That beautiful woman was there again this time holding on tightly to a dark haired man whom he could only assume was her son. They all had the "Comito genes" he assumed. Especially with the familiar wavy black hair, blue, grey or even bluish grey eyes peering back at him. They all had a prominent butt chin with an oval shaped face and high cheek bones. There was no way that they could deny ever being related. Not even the little girl hugging onto one of the men. She was definitely a Comito.

"Mamma," he said unconsciously and watched as the angel with the bluish-grey eyes clamped a hand over her mouth before hurrying to his bedside. He didn't know her name except he had heard them call her that enough to know that she was the family's matriarch.

"Mio figlio," she greeted, running her soft palm against his cheek.

Caid was not used to this: the love of a mother. His own mother had left him and Corey with nannies from the moment they were born. His father had been the family ghost--only present to remind you that he existed; otherwise, he also was never there.

"Do not be afraid," her husky, soft voice told him when his eyebrows furrowed together. "We are here to take care of you. I am your mamma, Zoe." She turned back to her other two children, waving them forward to greet him.

They approached him cautiously, as if he would transform into a demon before their eyes or sprout a set of horns, watching for any sign of discomfort.

"Who--?" he asked as Mamma gently placed a finger over his dry, pale lips.

"This is your older brother Dante," she told him as a daunting man approached with the little girl in his arms. "And your daughter, Ilenia."

His eyes must have bulged at that news because the little girl began to cry and stated how her papa would never remember her again.

It's funny how one day you die without any family to love you then awaken to find a full one who had nothing but love to offer you. His cheeks felt wet and before he knew it, his vision was blurred and warm hands were wiping at his eyes. "Ilenia," he croaked as his chest heaved. "She is beautiful." He might not know why or how long he would be in this body, but he vowed to treat that little girl as his own.

The little girl reached for him, but Dante made her refrain from touching. He wasn't sure if she would accidently cause him injury. "Not tonight, mio cuore," he whispered against her temple as he stepped to the side to allow Gina by.

Caid recognized her instantly and gave her a warm smile that had her hugging him in spite of her mother warning her to be careful.

"This is your older sister Ginevra," she said gently pushing her daughter away before she caused him harm. "We are your family and we love you very much."

The tears wouldn't stop for all of them and before long even the doctor realized that he needed to step out to give the family time alone together.

"The doctor says that you have long-term amnesia and that your memories may never come back," Zoe told him.

"What matters is not the past," Dante said, stroking his brother's hair out of his face, "but that you're alive. We can always make new memories, but we could never make a new Adriano."

Caid felt guilty. He was a deceiver, just like the devil to Adam and Eve. Only he hadn't meant to lie to them. He couldn't tell them that their son and brother wasn't suffering from amnesia because he was already dead and that he, Caid Harrison, had taken over his body. They would definitely call him a shrink or lock him in a mental hospital. All that he could do was vow to love them, treat them well, and not take them for granted until he was able to figure it all out. So until then, he would have to forget all notions of Caid Harrison's previous life, except for Brigitte, and focus on Adriano Comito's new existence.

"Adriano, don't you worry about a thing. We'll find you the best physical therapist that money can buy and you'll be back on your feet in no time," Gina promised, sitting down gingerly beside her little brother.

"Caid Harrison," he said quietly as if his lips hadn't moved at all.

"What about him?" Gina asked. "Because of that damn bastard, you were in the hospital and in a coma for a year. Don't think about him."

"Ginevra!" Zoe warned, glaring at her daughter until she backed down. "How many times must I remind you that he was only trying to avoid hitting a little boy? The mother told the police so in her statement."

"Then she should've been hit instead for letting her kid run in the road and take an innocent life. That man would have still been alive and Adriano would never have wound up in the hospital with amnesia!" she yelled then plopped down in a chair to cry. "She's so stupid."

"Is he..."

"He is dead," Dante confirmed even though Caid already knew about himself. He had only wanted to know where he'd been buried, if at all. "He died on scene and was buried about two weeks after the accident. It's a shame too because he had this beautiful woman as his lover. What was her name again?"

"Brigitte. Brigitte Hils," his mother supplied.

"Yes, Brigitte Hils," Dante continued, not noticing how Caid...well Adriano's, head had twitched at the sound of her name. "She used to come by a lot to pray for you. Then all of a sudden she stopped showing up. We looked all over for her, but she seemed to have vanished," Dante told him remorsefully.

"What's wrong, Adriano? Why are you crying?" He turned his eyes to his new family and took a deep breath. "Find her for me?" he asked them, urging them to accept his request.

"We won't leave any stone unturned," his mother promised.

"There is no corner of this Earth that a Comito cannot reach," Dante told him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

His eyes were becoming heavy, but he was resisting sleep. He was afraid to let them close only to reawaken to find that his new family was only a dream and that he had awoken in Hell. He didn't want to take that chance.

"Andare a dormire," his mother said, stroking his hair as his eyes closed.

"Mamma, he doesn't understand anymore," he heard Gina tell her.

"He doesn't now, but he will."

"Don't worry, son, we will find her," Mamma promised, kissing her son on the forehead as he fell into a peaceful sleep before them.