Chapter Text
He wakes up to sterile white walls of a hospital room.
There’s a loud gasp, possibly his own, and the frantic sound of a heart rate monitor speeding up with hair raising amounts of stress. He coughs, loud and hard, and people start yelling. Everything hurts.
“It’s okay Tyler, everything is okay,” there’s this blonde nurse wearing pink scrubs whispering encouragements into his ear as she holds him down to stop him from fidgeting. “Relax sweetheart, take it slow.”
“Where am I?” he breathes, his voice raspy from lack of use, and pain courses through his body at a lightning fast rate. Tyler feels like he’s going to die as a glass of water is pressed to his chapped lips. He gulps water like he hasn't seen it in weeks.
“You’re in the hospital honey, please stop moving. You have injuries.” And sure enough, he does. Tyler’s left arm is in a cast, his body is littered in the remains of dark yellow and brown bruises and his head is throbbing beyond all belief. He’s so confused and it’s putting a toll on him.
“I don’t understand,” whispers Tyler as he locks eyes with a disintegrating pink-haired man. There are dark bags under his eyes and he’s sickly pale.
“It’s going to be hard adjusting at first, I promise. Everything is going to be explained in a little bit, okay? The doctor is coming and your family is on their way. Your friend is right here if you need him.”
“Friend,” Tyler repeats, laying his head back against the hospital bed. “Hurts.”
“I know honey, I’m going to give you some more medicine right now, alright? We’ll get some food into your system too.” She messes with some of the tubes all around him and it’s then Tyler realizes how serious the situation is right now. He may not know what’s going on, but things aren’t good.
An older woman possibly in her late fifties bursts into the room frantically wearing a white coat and a stethoscope around her neck bounces to Tyler’s side. “Mr. Joseph, you have no clue how good it is to see you conscious.”
Tyler doesn’t speak. He looks between the tired man with the pink hair and his doctor.
“Sweetie,” she gestures to the blonde nurse, “if you would.”
Tyler doesn’t really want her to go but she leaves anyway, flashing a small smile his way. The doctor clears her throat and reaches for a clipboard tucked in a compartment near the door. “I’m Dr. Palmer. I’m afraid you had a little bit of an accident.”
“Huh?”
“You fell thirty-five feet from the scaffolding at one of your shows. Suffered a coup-contrecoup injury, meaning by hitting your skull on the stage it bounced your brain to the opposite side with a hard impact. They all said you weren’t going to make it, but I knew you were a strong one. Your friends and family did too. We had to do some surgery, you went comatose for about a month, and it hasn’t been a pretty month Mr. Joseph.”
“Not at all,” adds the pink-haired fellow.
Tyler blinks, trying to absorb all the information swimming around in his pounding head. So basically he almost died. Wonderful.
“We just need to do some routine checks before your family comes in. They won’t be long.” Tyler nods and Dr. Palmer skims over paperwork. Then she has him recite the alphabet, tells him to point to certain body parts and has him follow the light with his eyes. He struggles, but that's expected.
“Do you remember the fall?” Pink hair looks hopeful, but Tyler doesn’t. He shakes his head no guiltily.
“What’s the last thing you remember?”
“There was this basketball game I played in. I threw a free throw and won the game for my team.” he chuckles, immediately regretting it. “I was trying so hard to impress this girl, but she just wasn't having it. And then my family went out for ice cream.”
Dr. Palmer and Pink Hair share a look of fear. “Tyler,” she says softly, almost like she doesn't want to really say it, “how old are you?”
“I'm seventeen,” he replies like it's the most obvious thing in the entire world. The pink haired man lets out a mixture of a gasp and a sob and darts out of the room without an explanation. Tyler has too much going on to wonder what the man was doing in here in the first place.
“Oh sweetie,” the doctor mumbles, raising a hand to her hand. She scribbles on the clipboard and looks at him with remorse. “It's 2016. You aren't seventeen, you're twenty-seven.”
Tyler’s eyes widen. His monitor blows up and Dr. Palmer sooths him softly. “It's okay, we’re going to figure this out, I promise.”
“I can't remember ten years of my life?” He says mostly to himself in astonishment and there's a burning in the back of his throat like tears are about to spill.
“I know it's stressful, but you're going to get through this because you have people that love you and staff willing to help. I have to go put in some new data. I’m going to diagnose you with retrograde amnesia. We may be able to get your memories back Mr. Joseph, it's just going to take time.”
With a nervous gulp, Tyler nods his head and watches the doctor shuffle out of the room. He can't believe it. Ten years of things and memories and achievements he can't remember. Did he go to college? Did he get married? Is he a professional basketball player like he had always dreamed of? Did he ever get out of Ohio?
How was it possible for him to forget everything? What was he doing climbing something that high anyways? It was so stupid!
“Oh Tyler my baby!” His thoughts are cut short as his family enter the room; his parents and siblings gather around the hospital bed and his mother drops to her knees. She looks older than he remembers, with greying hair and tight wrinkles.“I thought I would never see you again,” she's sobbing and it's filled with so much pain Tyler’s heart twists into a knot. “Don't you dare ever pull a stunt like that again!”
“I-” Tyler starts, but his father tugs on Mom’s arm. He looks older too and Tyler wants to scream. Why can't he remember?
“We can punish him later Kelly,” he whispers, but his eyes are also stained with tears. “He’s been through a lot.”
“How you feeling big bro?” Zack asks as he leans against the wall. It's his siblings that get him. He can't remember, now matter how hard he tries.
“My head is throbbing like it has a heartbeat of his own. And I'm starving.”
“What can we get you?” Maddy asks with worry and Tyler notices the wedding band on her left hand. Holy shit. His sister was married. She was married.
“Coke,” he mumbles, trying to forget about the stress waging war on his beaten body, “and maybe some Taco Bell.”
“How about we ease into it sport?” Dad says as he wraps an arm around his wife’s shoulders. “You've been on a feeding tube for a month. Let's get you some soup. You're falling apart underneath that hospital gown.”
“Chicken noodle?” Tyler asks and his mother squeaks again. She trails her fingers up his left arm, tapping softly on the cast before pushing the sleeve a little higher. It's then he notices he has tattoos. TATTOOS. When did he get those? Why would he get those?
His family notices him acting weird and his mother frowns. “Ty? Honey? What's wrong?”
“I have tattoos,” he says in disbelief and before he knows it his entire family has rushed off in search of Dr. Palmer. He stares at the thick black bands a little longer, a chill running down his spine as his mother’s loud sobs echo down the hallway. The doctor must have told them the bad news.
He feels bad, he really does. But no matter how hard he tries, Tyler can't remember anything.
---
He's alone for awhile. The nurses come back in to fix his IV and help him use the bathroom. They get him his soup and he eats it slowly, the flavour weird on his tongue after so long of being unconscious.
At one point Dr. Palmer comes in and explains to Tyler what exactly he has and what can be done to fix it.
“We’re hoping that you have temporally graded retrograde amnesia, but the problem with this is that getting your memories to come back is going to be very difficult. We can try the reminder effect and hope for spontaneous recovery, but besides those there isn’t much we can do. You'll need to attend some therapy sessions, both physically and mentally for your body. Your muscles have gone into atrophy so it's important you get those to work again. They'll try operant conditioning there and see if we can get some of those memories back Mr. Joseph. You'll also need plenty of sleep and water and painkillers. But that's all for later; you'll be in the hospital a while.”
Tyler nods. He really has no clue what any of that means, but if the doctor sounds hopeful then maybe it's a good thing.
“Good. Your friend wanted to speak with you, and I was told your wife was on her way.”
“M-My wife ?” Tyler gapes, but the doctor is already gone. He has a wife. For some reason his head hurts worse than before.
“Hey Ty.” The pink haired man enters the hospital room slowly and drops to the chair he had been sitting in previously. He forces a smile, but his tired eyes give it away that he's broken and withering away. It makes Tyler feel guilty for reasons unknown. “Sorry I ran out on you early.”
“That's okay. I uh, assume you're my friend that everyone keeps talking about? I'm sorry I don't remember your name.”
He laughs, it's short and depressing and Tyler feels so bad. “I'm Josh. I'm your best friend.”
“You look really punk rock. Is that still a thing?” Josh has a silver nose ring and tattoos that completely cover his left arm. Plus he’s got these... things in his ears. Tyler isn’t sure what they're called. Either way, he looks like the last person Tyler would be best friends with.
“Of course it’s still a thing.” he clears his throat and runs fingers through his pink curls. “How are you coping?”
Tyler shrugs. “A lot is going on. Apparently I’m 27, and it’s stressful not being able to remember what happened. I just found out I’m married. I can’t be married.”
“You got married just last year,” Josh says softly, his attention on a loose thread falling off his tee. Tyler notices it says Panic! At the Disco and he squints his eyes.
“Is she nice?”
“Of course. You love her a lot and she loves you. She’ll be here in a little while. Jenna was a little farther away than your parents and I.”
“Jenna,” Tyler tries her name out on his tongue and decides he likes it. “You’ve been here a while, haven’t you?”
“Everyday. I was so worried Tyler. Nobody ever liked when you climbed things but this time it ended up being fatal. We were playing a show in-”
“A show,” Tyler stops him, tilting his head. Josh’s eyes widen before he relaxes as much as a person on edge can. He slides his phone out of his pocket and scoots closer to Tyler.
“Yeah. We uhm, we’re in a band together.”
“We’re in a band? Like, The Killers?”
Josh chuckles again and rubs his head gingerly. “You and your Killers.”
“I was supposed to see them in concert. Did I?”
“Yeah. You did. And you told everybody enough times it would be a little hard to forget.”
Tyler points to Josh’s shirt. “They sing that one song that plays on the radio all the time. About closing the door. Or back in 2006 I guess.” he sighs. “I don’t like this.”
“We’re friends with them Tyler.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously. Are you going to let me finish?”
Tyler’s eyes flicker over to the spike in his pulse as the machine spits out a few uneasy beeps. “Yeah. I’m sorry.”
“No don’t-” Josh sighs. “You don’t need to apologize.”
“I just feel like I should. Because we’re supposed to be best friends and I can’t remember who you are. I can’t remember anything past my senior year of high school and my memories may never come back and that’s terrifying.” the monitor speeds up. Tyler feels lightheaded.
“Hey, it’s alright, don’t stress yourself out about it,” Josh whispers as he reaches for Tyler’s hand. Tyler yanks it away without really thinking about it, because Josh is a stranger to him, but he forgets that he isn’t a stranger to Josh, and the man’s face lights up in pain. The nurse with the pink scrubs rushes in to help with Tyler’s spike in anxiety and shoots Josh a look.
“It’s probably better if you leave the room for now Mr. Dun. He doesn’t need any more stress put on him at the moment.”
Josh nods his head. Tyler notices his eyes are wet and it makes him feel like a real piece of work.
But the sedatives make him forget why he was even upset in the first place.