Divorced! Now what?
Chapter 90

Theo

POV

My day was good. I watched over two minor angioplasties. I know it is still not that minor if we have to do more than a stent or two, but on the whole, today flowed well, and the doctors doing the surgery were getting really good at this side of surgery. They need a bit more experience to gain confidence, but overall, it was a good day.

Deciding on takeaway for dinner, I quickly headed to our favorite place and grabbed a whole lot of Chinese food, a little of everything, hoping to build her eating back up. She is still not eating a lot compared to her appetite before the accident, but I understand why. It just saddens me a little to see her so weak. After having such a vibrant, happy person before this happened, for twelve days she has been awake, and still no sign of her remembering me. I would have thought she would have had some memories come back, but alas, I am hopeful that she might have had a small breakthrough when I get back today.

When I opened the door and showed her the takeaway bags, I knew she had not had the breakthrough I wanted or needed to see. Her warm smile when I came in still made me happy. She did not push me away when she did not remember me, which I am grateful for. She is a good woman, and she is trying to see how we go. I have not pushed personal space too much, though I am aching to have her in my arms again.

I helped her change and took her to the pool once she was steady on her feet. I did thirty laps of the pool; it is not a huge pool, so thirty laps, for me here, meant little. Watching Bethany try to do four laps was a good improvement. Yesterday she struggled to do three. Every small step is a good step in the right direction. The sooner her body is healed, the higher the chance the mind will mend too. That is my hopeful view. I am not a brain surgeon, so I have no real clue other than what we learned as a student doctor before we chose what direction we wanted to go in. This made me think I should do a refresher course to improve that side, but then Dad said I was being dramatic and sticking to what I am good at.

After I had dried her and helped her put on some track pants and a top, I sat her on a chair and left her at the table. I headed to warm up the dinner. The smell of the food filled the room, and my mouth was watering already. I have had to try and cook; I never believed I was any good, often telling everyone I couldn't cook, though I can cook on the grill if someone else prepares the meat, and before when I cooked Bethany's steak. At the same time, she slept. I was lucky; she had made the salad and prepared the meat, and I just put it all together. But I have since found out that our local butcher sells meat that is already marinated, and that has made it easier for me.

Bethany looked at the food place before her, and she smiled.

'This looks good, thank you.' Bethany said with more enthusiasm than she had had in a while, and she did look pleased with what was on the table, which made me feel I had achieved something. Bethany dug into the food, eating a healthy portion at last, though still not enough for my liking. It was more than she had been eating, and to me, that was progress. She even ate some of the deep-fried ice cream that I knew she used to like, and it was good to see that the memory loss did not change her taste for food. I had heard weirder things had happened.

We talked about tomorrow's sports game, and I handed her over the sports pages that she loves to go through before a game. I watched as she circled and highlighted different things; her mind was busy, and these were all good signs. Dad had said to give her as many things as possible that would stimulate memories, like these sports pages, and to see her so focused on this was good. I headed back to the kitchen with all our rubbish and cleaned up the area where I had made the mess. If you had told me a few months ago, I would be doing kitchen cleaning and would have laughed at you. Being a single man, I did not make much mess at home and never brought a woman other than my family to my house. Not that I had many opportunities. Stop reading the wrong and incomplete storyline, j obnib.com has the correct and complete book. My work and family have been my main focus. My mother helped out with the women's refuge and often had me visiting there, just like Dad would, depending on the emergency and which one of us had the time. With our busy work schedules, though mine is reduced drastically, we have more doctors on board, and I am teaching more than doing the surgery. But then Mum would not expect me to leave Bethany while she was so in need of assistance. I think the word Mother used was delicate; I doubt Bethany would like to hear me call her that; she is a little spitfire.

I returned to the room, and Bethany was still busy working on the sports pages. I placed a coffee on the table near her, and I got a sort of grunt. I assumed that was her way of saying thank you. I chuckled and sat on a chair near her. I picked up the remote and turned on the television. We had the sports channel on, and Bethany never wanted to see the outside news. So far, she had not shown any interest in looking at the outside world, getting too busy trying to find her way again and get memories back before taking on what goes on outside the lab.

When I saw something on the television about her team, I turned the volume up, and the reaction was instant. Bethany stopped what she was doing and stared at the screen. She swore a few times about injured people out of the game and something about trade- offs, and when the story finished and it went on to some other team, she went back to her sports paperwork. I lowered the volume, watched the television, and watched her while drinking my coffee. I chuckled when her hand hunted for her coffee cup and, when she could not locate it, huffed as she looked up to find it.

When she started to yawn, I turned off the television and leaned forward.

'Bethany, time to stop now. Let's get some sleep. I suggested softly.

She looked up at me in surprise and looked around her, frowning as she did. I think she forgot she was there for a brief while, and I wondered where she had thought she was but was too afraid to ask that question.

'Time always slips away when I am focused on sports. Dad used to have to come and pull me away from it,' she says as she starts to put everything away, all nice and neat for tomorrow, when she will start again before the game starts. Once the pens and highlighters were away, and she had set the paperwork in order, she only knew why. I helped her to the bathroom to wash and do her business.

'Theo, I am ready.' She called out; she tried to return once on her own and ended up on the bathroom floor, setting her back a bit, so she learned her lesson to call out and ask for help. She did not like it at first, but she seems to have accepted that I am here for her and will not let her do stupid things like that again if I can help it.

I helped her out of the bathroom and into her bed, kissed her on the cheek, and headed back to the bathroom to do my own night routine. When I returned to the room, Bethany was already fast asleep. I stood beside her bed, looking down at her, all relaxed and safe.

Tomorrow was going to be a hard day for her. She wanted to push herself to stay away for the whole day, and I knew that was going to be very difficult for her. Dad and Bob will be here, and the four of us will try to make it a good day for her and ourselves. I got her a sports shirt and scarf so she could wear the dress.

Hopefully, she will not make a fuss about me doing all this for her this time. I want to help her as much as possible, and if she can appear like everything is normal, maybe her mind will relax and start to fill some of the gaps.

I know Bob wants her to remember her accident and find out if she woke at all after it, but coming up with her injuries, I doubt she woke until we had her here safe and sound.

We sat and had a long chat; he had hurt deeply when she was missing; it took all of his strength to continue with his job to find her. I could see his heart breaking each time I saw him, and we had yet to take her home. When she was at last here, all battered and bruised, it made all of us almost cry.

I was so caught up with my own grief when we had her home that I failed to notice how badly he hurt till I caught him sitting by her bed with tears in his eyes. Bethany was his only saving grace out of the shame of a marriage he had. Although he got along well with his son, they never had the same kind of bond that he had with Bethany, someone who actually got him and shared the same interest.