NOR - Jill & Charlie's thread

[Piano man]

Louie gives Jill her space to phone her husband privately, and looks for any familiar faces he thinks he can trust. I need some answers. Even if they think I'm crazy. I'm not crazy.....am I? What happened to the last three years.

"I'll be right back Jill. I'll see if I can find some answers. I'm not going out of site though. Even if I have to wait for someone."

[Laraqua]

Both Louie and Jill feel quite tired. What little distance they have walked has exhausted them and Jill can hardly reach for the hand-set. Louie's clothes pull and tug at his limbs and joints, as though the uniform were somewhat too small for him.

It is only then, in the silence of separation, that the two realise they have lost a surprising amount of weight.

[imme]

Jill listens to Louie with only half an ear, her thoughts being completely occupied in frantically flowing guesses as to what's going to happen in this phone call. She pushes several coins into the slot, dials her husband's work number, it's too early for him to be home ... I think, and leans against the wall, exhausted. What's happened to me?

[Piano man]

Louie takes a seat over by the nurse's desk and looks for a familiar face. Even if he doesn't recognise anyone he decides to ask.

"Excuse me nurse. I don't know if you know me, but I'm one of the Janitors here. I just woke up and I don't know what's going on. I've seem to have lost three years of my life, but that's not possible right?"

There it is. Louie lays all his cards on the table. All he knows is that he is so tired and can't run anymore. If they kill him then maybe he'll have some peace, and if they don't maybe he'll have some answers. He doesn't point out Jill. If this goes wrong he doesn't want her getting hurt.

[Laraqua]

Louie: The nurse looks at him with a shocked expression. "Bu..." She looks up and over at the others at the reception desk, then over at the various patients milling about. Then she looks back down at him. "We... A doctor needs to examine you. See how you're..." She shakes her head. "Yeah, let's go." She reaches down to help him up.

Jill: "Look, if that's you Malcone, I'm warning you, stop calling!" says a familiar voice.

[imme]

Jill swallows hard and in a strained voice says, "No, Charlie, it's me." She finds that it takes a lot of effort just to remain leaning upright against the wall.

[Laraqua]

Jill: "Me? Who's me?"

[imme]

Jill wipes a treacherous tear from her cheek and clears her throat. "Jill." Your wife.

[Laraqua]

Jill.

There is a long silence on the phone. "Is this a joke?"

[imme]

Now the tears are flowing freely. "No, it's me, it's really me. I don't know what happened but I'm here ..." Her voice trails off into sobs.

[Laraqua]

Jill.

"You at the hospital?" Charlie asks excitedly. "Why'nt the nurses call me that you woke up? I'm coming right over. Look, you at the hospital. For God's sake, it's been three years!"

[Piano man]

Louie: The nurse looks at him with a shocked expression. "Bu..." She looks up and over at the others at the reception desk, then over at the various patients milling about. Then she looks back down at him. "We... A doctor needs to examine you. See how you're..." She shakes her head. "Yeah, let's go." She reaches down to help him up.

Louie politely shrugs off the helping hand.
"If it's all the same to you I promised Jill I would wait for her. I'm not going anywhere without her. When she is done talking to her husband you can have a doctor talk to both of us at the same time. That is the least we can do for her, if three years have really gone by then she has some explaining to do. The biggest thing you can do to help me right now is tell me how come three years have gone by, and where did all the ash go?"

[Laraqua]

"Ash?" the nurse asks, confused. "Well, erm, at least the rough part of the news has passed. You see, three years and four months ago, over 500,000 people world-wide fell into a coma. No problems with breathing. You and Jill are the first people to wake up."

[Piano man]

Louie has seen too much to believe that right now. He looks at the nurse quizzically, and with an edge of skeptisizm to his voice he continues on.

"So if what your is telling is true. Then why do Jill and I have the same memories. We've talked for a while since we've been awake and both experience the same things while in our so called comas. Lastly if I've been in a Coma for that long how did I manage to walk down two flights of stairs."

Something occurs to Louie and he looks down at himself for the first time since waking up to see if he is wearing hopital pajamas or his janitor uniform.

[imme]

He's excited. With the sudden relief also came an extreme weariness. "Yeah, I am. I ... can't stand here anymore, I'm too tired. So I'm going to sit down. In the waiting room. I'll wait for you there." She pushes herself away from the wall and listens for any last words before hanging up and precariously making her way to the nearest chair.

[Laraqua]

Jill.

"Yes, yes, sit down. I love you," Charlie says with feeling.

Jill realises that while the clothes she is wearing are most certainly hers, they aren't what she remembers wearing in the 'dream'.

Louie.

"I'm not qualified to say. Perhaps the words you were both saying were building together a dream you thought you shared. After all, you can't be certain that the memories you have now existed before one or the other of you mentioned them. Perhaps Jill mentioned ash and you added that to your dream, then you mentioned something else and she added that to her dream." The nurse shrugs. "I'd better go talk to the front desk and get a doctor over here."

Louie wears a janitor's uniform but judging by the namebadge, it's not his. That would explain why it was so tight despite his weight loss.

[Piano man]

Louie see Jill sit down and gets up to go sit beside her.

"Something isn't adding up here Jill. This nurse tells me we've been in a coma for three years. If that is the case then why do I have on a janitors uniform instead of a hospital gown. It's not even my uniform. I'd rather this be real than what we remember, but it doesn't seem likely. Let's stick together for now. We should not completely dismiss what they say, but be on guard. Oh ya watch for inconsistancies in what they say.....Ha and mom said I was wasting my time watching Columbo

[imme]

Jill works to dry her face as Louie babbles at her. He still loves me. I missed three years, but at least I'm not alone. Slowly, however, Louie's words sink in. She looks down at her own apparel. If Charlie's been waiting for me for three years, he must have visited often and made sure I was dressed in the pretty dresses he always liked. And yet, a thought occurs to her. "Didn't we wake up in the Children's Ward? Yes, because when I woke up I had a book open on my lap. I can't have been sitting in there for three years!" She turns to Louie with fear in her eyes. "What's going on?"

[Laraqua]

The nurse returns to the two of them. "Doctor Sutcliffe is waiting for you two in her office. Would you like to follow me?"

[Piano man]

Louie looks up at the nurse with a look of shock.

"Dr. Sutcliffe? I think that we are going to stay right here for a little bit. You can have a doctor come here if you think it's that important.........but not Dr. Sutcliffe."