fic : Lost Time
Title Lost Time
Summary Let's say the Atwood's luck strikes again, although it’s a few days late.
Fandom The OC
Timeline AU, the initial event is mid season 1, somewhere after "The Truth"
Beta If it counts, MS Word 03
Disclaimers I'm not sure who really owns the show "The OC" (Josh Schwarz or FOX), but I definitely do not owe it
A/N This is a slightly modified and hopefully more realistic version than the originally posted.
Part 1
Waking up in a hospital room wasn’t really surprising to Ryan. Despite all his dislike for hospitals he was really glad for waking up in the hospital this time and not on the ground of the parking lot where he got jumped, robbed and left pretty badly injured. The fact that he was laying in a normal looking room and not in the ICU was reassuring as well. What stroke him as a little bit odd was that there were no visible traces of injuries on his body. He was sure that a least his arm should be broken, since he clearly remembered the cracking sound of the braking bone and the following pain. But there was no sign of a break. No cast, it didn’t even feel any different than usual as he tried to move it. As he tried to scratch his suddenly itching nose he recognized a plastic tube sticking in his right nostril. At this moment he slowly started to get scared. He remembered something about feeding tubes which would be used in cases of patients who can’t or won’t eat by themselves. What worried him was that a human could live a few days without solid food. Even at the time a few years back, as he lay in the hospital unconscious for a whole week, he couldn’t remember that there had been any sort of feeding tube. So how long had he been out to explain the necessity of such a thing? After a few more moments of worried and confused thoughts Ryan eventually decided that he wanted reliable answers and pressed the call button by the side of his bed.
Ryan wasn’t sure what to expect as the nurse entered the room, but the utter surprise and cheerfulness written all over her face didn’t help calming his anxiety. The young and really beautiful nurse - as he recognized on the second glance - seemed to him as if it was a fucking miracle that he was awake. That made him even more anxious about the question how much time he had missed.
“Hey sleepyhead, you are finally awake” the nurse greeted him as she walked towards his bed. Ryan wanted answers. He didn’t even care how unusually rude it was of him to simple ask “How long?”
“Don’t worry, I’m getting your doctor and he will answer all your questions”.
Ryan responded with a disappointed nod before the nurse hurriedly left the room to get the doctor.
A few very long minutes later a man in a white coat entered the room. Ryan gave the man no chance to even introduce himself before asked his momentarily most important question “How long?” The doctor hesitated a moment so Ryan asked again “How long have I been unconscious?”
“I’m Dr. Mitchel. I’ve been treating you since you where brought here. And as to your question I would like you to answer some of my questions first, then I will answer any question of yours.”
Ryan didn’t like the doctor’s answer and got more pissed with every minute of uncertainty, but clearly sensed the “not negotiable” tone in the men’s voice and nodded.
“First of all can you tell me your name and birth date?” Dr. Mitchel started his questioning.
“Ryan Cohen born on March 19th, 1988” Ryan answered but wondered why the doctor is writing it down on his chart. If he really had been in the hospital as long as he feared he was then they should know all this by now, or was his answer incorrect?
Dr. Mitchel didn’t let Ryan much time to think before asking “What’s the last you remember?”
Ryan thought for a moment and replied “I was in LA, on my way home. As I got back to the car I got jumped by someone. As far as I can remember he left me there pretty messed up. The next thing I remember is waking up here.”
After a short pause he added “Anything else you want to know?”
“Since you seem to remember what happened correctly there should be no brain damage. Any other question I may have can wait until you asked yours.”
Without hesitation Ryan asked again “How long?”
The doctor faltered a moment trying to find the right words causing an impatient Ryan to say “I know I’ve broken my arm that day and since there isn’t a cast anymore it must have been quite some time, so just spill it out! I despair here!”
“Nearly a year, in two weeks I would be a year.”
It took Ryan a moment to process this information. He missed a whole year of his life, but for him it felt like the incident was yesterday, not nearly a year ago. He could deal with that missing year. The fact that they had turned in the adoption papers a few days before “yesterday” and therefore now was a real family - his family - waiting for him, reassured him even more.
Thinking about the Cohens he wondered how they have been dealing with him being in a coma for a year. Since he woke up he was a little bit hurt that he was alone in the hospital, but now he could understand. It weren’t only hours or days. For them it was a year, fucking eleven and a half months, of hoping every single day that he wakes up, if he wakes up at all. So he truly could understand if by then they only visited once in a while. But he was awake now.
“Do the Cohens, my parents know yet?” Ryan asked hopefully.
“There is something I haven’t told you yet.” the doctor began but paused. “You were brought in without any id and all our attempts to identify you failed. I’m sorry, but I even know your name only since you told it me yourself before.”
“You’re kidding me?! I’ve a juvenile record. You should have identified me easily by my prints.” Ryan answered disbelieving. “The Cohens would do anything to find me; you can’t tell me they didn’t find me in a whole year, unless …” he trailed off, but since the words were spoken he wasn’t as sure of the Cohens anymore as he was a few minutes ago. They had this nearly twelve months to find him. Had they truly failed or simply given up on him.
Ryan was lost on thoughts about another possible abandonment until the doctor’s voice pulled him back to reality.
“If you want I can see what I can find out about you and I have to try to reach your family, so …” “NO!” Ryan cut him off. When he realized how despaired he sounded he added “They survived a year without me, they will get by a little while longer, and so I get so time to think this over. But I would appreciate it if you would do some research about me, but please don’t call them for now.”
“Sorry Ryan, but that’s not about you or me wanting to call them. It’s regulations that I have to call them ASAP since I’m now aware of your identity.”
_
A few hours later after Ryan’s first rehab session Dr. Mitchel visited again. Ryan immediately concerned by Mitchel’s sad expression asked “What’s wrong?” Mitchel wasn’t good at telling bad news and while the man still tried to find the right words Ryan voiced his next speculation “It’s the adoption right? They didn’t want me anymore after that incident. They didn’t want a son, who’s in a come for who knows how long. So they …”.
Dr. Mitchel cut him off forcefully saying “No, No, the adoption looks ok, you are still listed as son of Sandy and Kirsten Cohen, but according to your file” he paused for a moment ”you died in a terrible car accident the day you got attacked here in LA.”
He continued “I believe I remember seeing about the accident in the news back then. If I remember correctly in a highway tunnel between here and Newport a gas tanker crashed and caught fire. After they could finally extinguish the fire there wasn’t much left of the vehicles in the center of the inferno. In the file it says that your parent’s Rang Rover was found next to the tanker totally destroyed but with the remains of a burned body in it. Without going into more details, they couldn’t prove hundred percent that it had been you in the car, but you not showing up paired with the evidence they had, made them believe that it was you, so you were declared dead. I think that might also be part of why we couldn’t identify you. Back then there was a failure in the database system and it looks like there had been some kind of mix-up.”
Ryan completely overwhelmed by this new information had lain back in his bed and was deep in thoughts. He nearly missed the doctor say “I’ve tried to call your parents, but couldn’t reach them yet. It looks like you got the time to think you asked for. I’m letting you alone now, but if you need anything or someone to talk to, let one of the nurses call me. I’ll come by again, at the latest once I’ve reach your parents.” before he left.
The doctor’s words “you are dead”, “they believe you’re dead” kept spinning in his head. The world believed he died. He couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that “yesterday” what was actually one year back he was just happy to have finally the family of his dreams and no he lost one year of his life and to make matters worse everybody who was important to him believed he was dead. He wasn’t sure if it would be easier to go back to his old life or try to live a new without them.
TBC (maybe)