Page 50 of Baby Me

“Hey, Cameron. How are you feeling? It’s probably hard to talk now, so wait until the doctor clears you. Try not to move tooquickly.”

I finally managed to open my eyes. Kate was the first one I saw, and she looked absolutely stunning. She smiled at me with her gorgeous eyes, and I knew that it had been too long since I’d seenher.

“You look… beautiful,” Isaid.

“I look beautiful? I thought you’d come up with a better one thanthat.”

Since when had being honest becomewrong?

I looked her over again. Her hair seemed thicker, her eyes were happier, and that smile – God, I’d never seen her smile with so much joy before. She was wearing pearl drop earrings and a touch of makeup that made her rosy cheeks stand out even more. I glanced around the room full of twinkling lights. In the corner was a Christmas tree. It seemed familiar, but my head still hurt too much to concentrate. A low medley of Christmas carols was playing in thebackground.

“Where am I? Whathappened?”

“What’s the last thing youremember?”

I searched through my memory but couldn’t find a recentthought.

“Don’t worry. It will come to you. The most important thing is that you’re okay. We’re allokay.”

Charlie walked into the room. He wore the ugliest Christmas sweater I’d ever seen. As I glanced some more around my now familiar bedroom, he took my vitals and asked me some obvious questions. He told me there was no damage to my long-term memory, but I might still have a difficult time recalling what happened after I left the hospital that night. There had been lots of weed somewhere — too much perhaps – and then it all wentblank.

Why the Christmasdecorations?

Charlie gave me an I-told-you-so look and warned that this time he’d keep me tied to a bed if he needed to, then wished everyone on the other side of the bedroom door a Merry Christmas and left. It sounded like a crowd was waitingoutside.

Wait, it’sChristmas?

“Is that my whole family out there?” I pointed to thedoor.

“It is. They’re all here to celebrate Christmas together. Even Father John – you know, my biological dad – is here. I’ve been hoping you’d decide to open those eyes before Christmas, and you did. My wish already came true, and it’s not even Christmasmorning.”

Kate’s eyes shone through the tears she was holding back, and another memory struckme.

“I walked through the forest to get to you. The FBI director… we can’t trusthim.”

“I know. It’sokay.”

I felt my forehead crease as I tried to think about the past, except it was all mixed and mashed. A giant pulse expanded in the back of my head, intensifying theache.

“I had a baddream.”

“Aww, I’m sorry. I know nightmares can be rough. I was hoping that all the nice stories I’ve been telling you the past few weeks would behelpful.”

Weeks?

A memory yet again appeared in my mind’s eye, or maybe that wasn’t a memory at all. It was one of my entire family at the cabin celebrating Christmas. It would be a beautiful white Christmas, one that had the perfect white morning scenery behind the window each day. But then the dream turnedbloody.

“I dreamt that your brother was here and he had a gun. He wanted to killyou.”

“Actually—”

“Wait, there’s more. I dreamt that you took him to the police station to make an arrest and Cortez cameby.”

“Well— “

“And you were pregnant. You had a largebelly.”

“Okay, you were good for a while there. It’s true, Mike did come to get me, but I escaped with Evie, and I trappedhim.”

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