Chapter 6

Gary didn’t think he had ever moved so quickly. Except perhaps when he was trying to follow Jason during the Take That dances. Crashing through his lounge door he scrambled around on his worktop for his keys. God his fucking keys! Where had Robbie put his keys?

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Gary threw his mail, paper and anything in his way across the kitchen. “Who doesn’t put keys on the key hook? Robbie Williams, that’s who, I put the fucking key hook there for the keys and no one uses it, no one!”

Slamming his fist down on the table he drew a deep breath. He just needed to be calm, you never find anything when you’re stressing. Flexing his fingers he scanned the kitchen. Something silver glinted from his mug shelf, lifting his ‘Only Takes A Minute To Make Some Tea’ mug he grabbed his keys and shot out the door.

And ran smack bang into Sue. Sue grabbed his shoulders.

“Hey there, where you going so fast?”

“He’s awake.” Gary said, grabbing her hand. “Can you drive?”

“Of course.” Sue grasped the keys out of his hands and they dashed to the car.

The snow had near melted but Sue drove slowly anyway out of the drive. Gary shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Didn’t this car go any faster? His heart pumped in his throat, his feet tingled, his stomach turned. What was he going to do when he got there? What was Mark going to be like? Gary had a sudden desire to have been to medical school just so he’d know what to do, know what to say, know how Mark would be feeling.

“Deep breaths, Gary.” Sue said, turning to smile at him. “He’s still going to be awake when you get there, he’s on the road to recovery, be happy instead.”

Gary turned to her. “How do you always know what to say?”

Sue smiled again. “You know what to say Gary, you just got to get it out, sometimes we feel passionate about someone and we just have to get over our reservations and tell them.”

“Even if they tell you they don’t love you?” Gary said watching her beautiful face intensely.

“Are you joking? Your joking right?” Sue raised her hands off the wheel briefly in exasperation. “God men are so clueless, Mark fucking loves you, he loves you so much he says your name in his sleep, he accidentally wrote Mark Barlow on his ID form.”

Gary stared at her opened mouthed. “What? Are you serious?”

Sue made a face. “Jason made me promise not to say anything, but fucking hell you guys were taking so long.”

Gary looked back out the window. He could not believe what he was hearing, they must of heard wrong. Mark probably said all of their names in his sleep, and he was always spelling his own name wrong. It didn’t mean anything. Just coincidences. That’s all, coincidences.

“Your convincing yourself it was all a coincidence aren’t you.” Sue said shaking her head. “Fine, whatever, learn the truth by yourself.”

Damn. How did women do that? It had always baffled Gary how they managed to know exactly what you were thinking at all times. He wished he had that superpower. The rest of the journey was quiet, Gary mulled over what Sue had said. By the time they reached the hospital he had convinced himself completely that it was a coincidence and by the time they walked through the big glass doors he had even convinced himself Mark was going to hate him for not making sure he got home safely.

They walked to the reception and the doctor that had spoken to them before came out to meet them.

“Mr. Barlow, nice to see you again. You here to see Mr. Owen?” The Doctor looked down at his clipboard. “Would you mind stepping aside and talking to me for a second?”

Oh God. What now? Gary wanted to do nothing other than run into Marks room and see him awake; to assure himself Mark was on the way to recovery. He followed the doctor and sat down opposite him on the cream chairs that were pulled out for him. Sue had popped to café to get something to eat.

“Mr. Owen woke up a lot sooner than we first suspected but although his breathing is back to normal and we can say his body is on the mend its his mind we are most worried about.” The Doctor clasped his hands together on the desk before him. “He has experienced quite serious memory loss, he is unsure of who he is, his whereabouts and didn’t recognize your friends Mr. Orange and Mr. Donald.”

The ball in Gary’s stomach squeezed tighter causing him to buckle a little. He rubbed at it when his hand, willing it to go away.

“Will he remember?” Gary asked slowly.

“Yes, of that we are 97% certain but we don’t know how long it is going to take him to remember everything fully, at the moment he managed to name where he was born and roughly his age but beyond that he has been struggling.”

Bloody hell, did these doctors actually know anything? It seemed that all Gary was ever hearing was that they were not sure, or uncertain, or that they flat out didn’t even bloody know!

“You can go and see him now if you want, your friends Mr. Donald and Orange left earlier with a girl, Mr. Williams is in with Mr. Owen and his brought his lady friend.” The doctor smiled. “Your friends going to be okay, of that I am certain, just um… have a little patience… oh err.” The doctor laughed. “No pun intended.”

Gary rolled his eyes. How many times had he heard that one before? Gary followed the doctor once more into intensive care and the doctor once more left him alone. He looked through the little glass gap in the door. Robbie stood with his arm around Kate’s waist, his fingers stroking lazily at her hip. Mark was sat up in his bed, his eyes were dazed and confused but by God they were alive.

Gary pushed open the door and three pairs of eyes turned to him.

“Gaz.” Rob said smiling at him. “We’ll um leave you guys for a minute, come on babe.” He pulled Kate from the room.

Gary stood awkwardly in the doorway, not really sure what to say.

Mark smiled tiredly at him. “Do I know you? Doctor said I’ve forgotten some things because I had an accident.”

Gary’s chest ached; he took a seat by Marks bed.

“You do know me.” He said slowly. “We’re friends…”

Mark looked pained for a minute. “Man, I’m sorry I just cant seem to place anyone or anything, I was damned scared when I woke up didn’t know where or who I was, the Doctors spent ages explaining to me.”

Gary hated to think of Mark waking up alone and afraid, god damnit why hadn’t he just stayed here? He could have been there to reassure him.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here to help.” Gary said, swallowing the hard ball in his throat.

“That’s okay, the more people I see, the more I’ll remember… I felt different when I saw you though.” Mark turned away from Gary. “I don’t know how to explain it, kind of like I knew you more than the others who came in, like we had something different… Jesus I sound like a fucking Romantic Comedy.” Mark laughed quietly.

Gary webbed his fingers together. He wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take. Mark was alive, he could see that and he was getting better, but he didn’t know him. He didn’t know who Gary was, Gary couldn’t possibly tell him now. Jesus Gary wanted to do nothing more than just hold him and have Mark hold him back like old times. He wanted to see the old Mark again more than anything.

“It’s complicated.” Gary said, boy had those words never been more true. “But listen I know you don’t remember who I am yet but I am so, so, so, relieved that your awake, you had us all pretty scared.”

Gary got up to leave. It was too painful to speak to Mark; he just needed some time to figure stuff out.

“I promise I’ll tell you if you wake up.” Mark said, making Gary stop in his tracks. “You told me that in a dream, that’s how I recognized you, what did you want to say to me?”

Gary swallowed. “I do want to tell you something, just not yet.”

Mark held up a hand weakly. “Understood… but listen I get this feeling that when I remember there is something I need to tell you too.”

Gary stood and looked at him for a while and then without a word closed the door behind him. Sinking back against the wall, grateful for its coolness he let out a long groan. God he hated this. Opposite him Robbie and Kate were kissing on the chairs lined up against the wall. Gary rolled his eyes.

Kennedy bounced towards him, with Em, Laura and Vicky by her side. They had brought flowers.

“We’ve come to see Mark.” Vicky said smiling.

Em sunk down to her knees and took Gary’s face in her hands. “Look at you all miserable, he’s going to remember Gaz, come on show us a smile, he’s getting better!”

Gary smiled at her weakly. Em frowned, Laura sat down beside her.

“Come on, we brought Taz’s!” Laura reached into her pocket and pulled out the caramel chocolates.

“Do you know how long it took us to find Taz’s?” Vicky said. “We went half way round the fucking world.”

Gary took the chocolate form Laura’s outstretched hand.

“You can tell us how many calories it’s got if it makes you feel better.” Kennedy said smiling.

The girls left Gary moments later to go and see Mark, Em had pulled him into a hug that had smelt of roses and by the time Gary had finished his Taz he felt better. Maybe he needed a walk, it had been so intense, and perhaps he needed some air to clear his head. Hauling himself off the floor Gary walked towards the exit.

***
Mark lay in his bed staring at the ceiling, a group of girls had just left and he had been told the Doctor would be in soon to ask him some more questions. He wondered if the blonde haired man would come in again. Mark couldn’t describe how he felt when he saw him, it was strange like all these words were clogged up in his throat but he didn’t know what they were or how to say them. He didn’t care about the doctors routine questions he cared about remembering what he needed to say to that man. Because something was telling him it was important.

He closed his eyes, balled his fists as best he could without causing himself too much pain, and tried to remember.