Room 304, Tanner Memorial Hospital, Unknown City, Arizona
The morning seemed to bring new life into Hadrian as he was beginning to become restless fiddling with his very many IVs and attempting to take out his catheter. Julia had something of a grand time trying to reign in her fussy husband. She had wanted nothing more than to take him home and forget that the past three months had ever happened, but there was a matter of making sure he was truly alright and the questions that were begging to be answered. Hadrian smiled at his wife when she smacked him across the hand for attempting to push the call button for more drugs. His sense of humor seemed to have survived his ordeal and his hazel eyes lit up as he watched her move about the room fussing with flowers that were sent to him and ensuring get-well cards didn't have money in them.
"There seems to be a lot of flowers," he said wondering where they had all come from.
"Well...some are from the families of your patients, some are from our family, and these latest batches are from the people you rescued during a robbery," said Julia looking over her husband with a good deal of admiration as well as suspicion.
"Robbery?" asked Hadrian not recalling anything of the sort in the least. "What robbery....what was I doing in the middle of a robbery?"
"That is precisely what we want to know." asked the gruff voice of none other than Detective Hank Gordon.
Hadrian Rawsone looked upon the old man with confusion before concluding that this man was the last person he saw before he slipped into shock. Of course, he had not had much of a memory to go on from before just being able to see the older man's face before everything had gone dark.
"Who are you?" he asked attempting to sit up in bed causing his wife a bit of distress as he winced from what he understood to have been a pain in his chest.
"Dren doesn't move so much you're barely healing as it is," said Julia rushing over toward him to stop him from doing further harm to himself.
"What...?" began Hadrian in utter confusion as he raised the upper part of his hospital gown in a bid to look at the bandages on his chest. "H-how did this happen?"
"You were shot Mr. Rawsone, do try and keep up," said Detective Gordon. "Witnesses say the gunmen were intent on robbing the local diner and you intervened after returning from the men's restroom."
"Who the hell are you?" asked Hadrian offended by the brash nature of the older man who had stepped into his room.
Getting a good look at him, he noticed the tanned trench coat and lazily tied brown tie to complete his sloppy dress in the form of a not-so-white long-sleeve shirt and dark brown trousers with mud-stained brown dress shoes. Hadrian guessed that if this Hank Gordon had been any closer to him, he would have smelled of worn leather, old booze, and stale cigarettes.
"Dren this is Detective Gordon, he saved your life," said Julia grateful to the older man despite her husband's annoyance at his sudden and brash appearance.
"There was a robbery Mr. Rawsone, one you were smack in the middle of, and the way everyone tells it ended with you taking on the would-be robbers yourself and taking a bullet in the process." continued Detective Gordon. "The way I see it, these folks are lucky you happened along of course your little lady over there has been looking for you for a while now and you just happen to show up in another state looking no worse for wear and you're suddenly the hero of the hour."
Hadrian's annoyance got the better of him in this situation and he narrowed his now darkened gaze at the detective.
"First of all it's Doctor Rawsone, I worked hard to obtain my degrees from medical school to simply be considered "mister" by anyone, and second, I didn't happen to do anything least of all save a bunch of strangers from a robbery that I can't even recall." growled the now angry man.
Julia seemed to be put off about how upset he'd gotten.
"Dren!." she said unsure what had come over him. "What's gotten into you? he's simply asking a few questions."
Hadrian took a moment to exhale and attempted to calm down. He hated being the apparent accusation in the voice of the man who had so-called saved his life almost as much as he hated to have his wife disappointed in him.
"Look detective, I don't recall being at any diner," said Hadrian adamant but with a measure of a respectable tone. "I don't remember the robbery if there ever was one and I can't tell you how I even got here from my office in Colorado nor which vehicle had been used as transport."
Detective Gordon looked at him for a few moments before choosing his words this time.
"What's the last thing you remember?" he asked using more manners in his tone than before.
"I was at work," replied Hadrian. "It was...I had a patient...Colin Winters."
Julia recalled Colin Winters and that he was her husband's biological father who had abandoned Hadrian and his mother when he was just a child. She knew this part of the story from Colin's visit, but she couldn't understand how Hadrian would disappear after such a minor incident.
"I remember telling him that I requested his transfer to another more capable psychiatrist as I was ill-equipped to handle his particular need for care." continued Hadrian trying his best to recall the events before his apparent disappearance and shooting. "He wasn't too thrilled about it...we bickered and he stormed off or at least I believe he did until I went to get into my car and suddenly felt something hard strike me across the head."
Julia couldn't believe what she was hearing. Hadrian had not wandered off as she had previously been led to believe he was assaulted just as she feared he had been. Unable to help herself, she gasped at the thought of what might have happened had it not been a simple bump on the head and if the assailant was deliberately trying to kill him.
"It's alright Julia," said Hadrian giving his wife his undivided attention. "I'm here and so are you...we'll get through this."
The newly conscious shrink turned his attention back to Detective Gordon.
"Did anyone question Winters?" he asked suddenly fearful that he might have known the culprit all along. "What does he have to say about all this?"
"Your father has been cleared a long time ago," replied Detective Gordon.
"That man is NOT my father," growled Hadrian once more showing a sign of contempt in the eyes of his on-looking wife.
Of course, this she understood as she knew all too well the story her husband had not wished her to know about his misspent youth and the household he had grown up in.
"Is there anything else you remember?" asked Detective Gordon as if making a mental note of some kind as he was told what little of the story made sense.
"I recall being on my back and in a great deal of pain," replied Hadrian still utterly confused as to what happened to him. "You were standing over me in what I could make out to be some disgusting back alleyway."
Detective Gordon seemed disappointed with the lack of fundamental aspects of the recall but knew the poor man had taken a lump on the head before he had taken a bullet that much trauma in such a short amount of time would make any man forget things, especially something so painful as whatever this experience had been.
" After three months, it's not a lot to go on," he admitted delicately. "But I will keep looking into the issue of your assailant if nothing else...you've made your way back to your lady and seem to be in good company so I'll leave you to it...if you recall anything else feel free to drop me a line."
"Three months?" asked Hadrian suddenly beginning to panic and it showed via the machine going haywire due to his increase in blood pressure. "What is he talking about three months?"
Julia did her best to keep her husband calm should his condition worsen.
"Dren...relax please unless you want to stay in this place longer than you have to," she warned.
"Three months..." said Hadrian utterly flabbergasted. "I've been gone for three months...Jules...I'm so sorry...you must have been a nervous wreck....and the girls...I haven't spoken to our girls since the morning they went off to college."
Julia tried her best not to let the thought of what happened to get the better of her, but she wasn't as strong as she wanted to be in situations like this, and having Hadrian back just proved how much she relied on him. She burst into tears prompting him to pull her close to him while he held her not giving a single care as to the amount of pressure she was putting on his still-healing chest wound.
"It'll be okay Jules," Hadrian reassured her as much as he had the day he found out she'd been pregnant while they were still in high school.
Julia was more than glad to have her husband back.
Whatever this was, she had hoped they could put it behind them and continue with their lives.