Remember8

Her first week awake after a three month long coma-like state was filled with scans and tests. Her scans showed that all the damage from the crash had been healed.  She answered hundreds of questions through a series of tests to determine how well each part of her brain was functioning. She passed them all except for her personal memory. They brought in pictures of her family members but she felt no recognition with any of them. After the tests the doctors told her not to stress, time was usually what it took for people to recall lost memories. But she did stress and worry. She still felt lost. Blank, someone had wiped her clean to start over. She didn't want to start over. The only thing keeping her from being overwhelmed was Charlie. Since waking up Charlie barely left her side, they talked for hours and hours everyday. Her asking questions and him giving detailed descriptions of the life they had made together.

One day ten days after waking up, Charlie came back, from a quick visit to the house, with a heavy box. 

"What's all this" she said laughing as he finagled the box onto the bed within her reach.

"Memories," he said with a smile, "these are almost all our pictures. Most of them you have made into scrapbooks, I think that's where we should start, but there is also hundreds of other pictures. I realized more visuals might be good and the scrapbooks are our favorite memories, favorite pictures. So what do you think?"

"This is amazing, so perfect. Even if I don't remember, I can use these to try and create new memories in my head. The next best thing!" Smiled at him, already falling for him again, wanting the years she had lost back.

"Where do you want to start?" He asked, "the beginning?" At her nod, he grabbed an album out of the box. 

The book was green with twisting vines and leafs scrawled across. It had the words 'Our First Years' across the top and a slightly blurry picture of the two of them kissing. She touched the picture and looked at him questioning.

He smiled, "That is our first kiss. A friend of yours had been taking pictures of the baseball game we had all went to and snapped it as it happened. You always said it looked magical with the big lights putting us in contrast. The perfect timing of it. Even if the picture wasn't perfect, you said it was a favorite."

"Yes, I can see why. Magical." She couldn't stop looking at it, trying to picture the thoughts and feelings she must have felt. She opened the book. Each page had a few pictures, not crowded, so you could really see each one. And each page had captions, sometimes dates or locations, sometimes a brief saying or inside joke. 

The first few pages showed them at the beach, on bike rides, taking road trips. One page was dedicated to the day he told her he loved her through a hand written note. The words slightly shaky, nervous. And a picture of the heart shaped necklace he gave her.

Further pages showed their first apartment, where they lived through college, some of the holidays they had there and the two cats they had adopted.

The last page was dedicated to when they got engaged, the pictures showed a hike up a mountain in the snow and a frozen waterfall. There was even a picture of the ring, simple but amazing. At the bottom of the page was written, 'seven years together, ready for a lifetime more'.

 She shut the book, noticing that there were tears on her face. She looked at him and he climbed onto the bed beside her, wrapping her in a hug. He rubbed her back and kissed the top of her head. "I love you, Emily, everyday from our first to our last. You are my everything. We can make this work, whether you remember or not, I love you and nothing will ever change that."