Page 60 of Fall With Me (Sugarland Creek)

When she doesn’t respond, I stand. “I’ll go find Noah.”

“Okay,” she finally speaks, but her voice is hoarse.

When I step into the hallway, Noah’s giving the doctor Ellie’s parents’ numbers.

“Hey, uh…she’s awake.”

Noah beams. “Oh good!”

The doctor follows us into Ellie’s room, who’s sitting up a bit higher now with a little more color in her cheeks.

He introduces himself as Dr. Murray and explains everything to her he told us earlier.

“I had a seizure?” she confirms when he finishes speaking.

“That’s what the initial exam and bloodwork are showing. Do you have a history of those?” he asks.

“No…never,” Ellie responds. “What happened exactly? How’d I get here?”

“You came in presenting hypotension, which is a sudden drop in blood pressure, but it’s possible something else correlated with it to trigger an epileptic episode. It was an unfortunate event that it happened while you were on your horse, which caused you to fall and smack your head on the barrel and then gave you a concussion,” Dr. Murray explains. “But the good news is the CT scan showed no signs of swelling or internal bleeding in your brain, and some of your bloodwork is still pending, but so far, nothing that makes me believe you have any kind of organ failure or infection.”

“That’s good, I guess,” Ellie says, but then looks at Noah with panic in her eyes. “I don’t remember any of that. It happened while I was in the middle of racing?”

Noah sheepishly nods.

“Is that normal?” Ellie asks the doctor.

“Most people don’t remember their traumatic events,” Dr. Murray says. “I’d say that’s quite common.”

Reminds me of when Tripp got one during high school while playing football. He didn’t remember anything from that whole day.

“Wait, is Ranger okay?” Ellie asks Noah.

“He’s fine. Fisher told me they got him back in your trailer unharmed.”

She presses a hand to her chest, breathing out a sigh of relief. “Good. He must be so scared.”

“So you have no memory of the race or before it?” Noah prompts. “Not even Magnolia, Landen, and me screamin’ for you? I made the coolest sign.”

“No…it’s blank. I don’t even remember going to the rodeo. The last thing I remember is arriving at Uncle’s ranch. Wait, no, Easton’s uncle’s ranch. Anything after that, I’ve got nothin’.” Ellie rubs her temple, then tilts her head in confusion. “I thought you were married to Fisher. Who’s Landen?”

Noah’s eyes widen as she looks at the doctor and then points to me. “Landen. Mybrother.”

“Ohh…” Ellie studies me, and a whirlwind of thoughts enters my mind. “I figured he was one of those hospital volunteers who keep patients company or whatever. I did think it was weird how he was just stickin’ around, but I figured hey, he’s cute, so why question it?”

Noah chokes out a laugh, blinking rapidly. “You don’t remember himat all?” When Ellie shakes her head, Noah adds, “You’ve known him for four years. He’s helped train you.”

“There’s a sense of familiarity, but I don’t rememberknowinghim.” Ellie glances from me to the doctor, panic written on her face. “Is that normal for me to forget people?”

Great…she hates me so much, her unconscious mind completely erased me from her memories.

Talk about a gut punch.

“With a concussion in addition to an epileptic episode, I’d expect you to experience some memory loss or brain fog,” he says.

“For how long?” Ellie asks.

One of his shoulders lifts as he purses his lips. “Typically, a few days. But in some cases, it can take weeks or months. Sometimes it never comes back. With your injury, it’s hard tosay. Everyone recovers at their own pace. The key will be resting and not overdoing it.”

---