“Do you remember anything Aerin?” the woman’s voice called to me. I opened my good eye and looked back at two sets of worried faces. “I’m Olivia, by the way, in case you can’t place my face. Bai just told me that you couldn’t remember her name, so …”

Their faces were bordering on panic now. If it wasn’t for this pain, I’d probably start to worry also, but … first things first.

“Is … is .. there something I can take for this pain?” I asked, and then winced from a lancing edge that poked sharply somewhere in my shoulders.

“You’re on a drip already, Aerin,” Olivia said softly. Bai whispered something to her and squeezed my hand before turning to leave. I guess she’d noticed that the light from the hallway had hurt my eye earlier so she opened the door just a crack before slipping out of the room.

“She’s getting the doctor in here,” Olivia explained, and gave me a small smile.

I returned her smile. Or tried to.

“Wh-a-a-tt happened?’ I asked after drawing a series of breaths and then exhaling carefully. Seems I remember that from Dan.

Dan! At least that’s a name I remember. And I do remember my own name, too.

“Let’s wait for the doc, and have her take a look at you first, before we get into all that, okay?” Olivia asked, and then gave me an encouraging smile.

The doctor and a group of nurses burst into the room. They weren’t as mindful as Bai had been about how the light could assault my eyes.

There was a flurry of activity as the nurses checked the bags and machines I was hooked to, and one started to take my blood pressure while another was checking the state of my bandages. The doctor shone a light into my eye, and asked me a series of questions.

I blew steadying breaths out, and surrendered to the rhythmic and efficient flow of activity that swirled around me.

From the recesses of whatever bank of memories remained available to me, I remembered that I’d been subjected to this process before. I instinctively understood, based on that memory, that it would be better to simply answer questions when asked, and forbear the poking and prodding that they had to do to check on various things, than fight this tide of activity.