Chapter 41 Sophia's POV

I woke up and struggled to open my eyes. For some reason my eyelids were really heavy, but I managed to blink a few times and finally open them properly. I looked around trying to work out where the hell I was, who I was and even what the hell happened. The room was clearly a hospital room and it was empty. It being empty was comforting for some unknown reason.

I tried to sit up. Although I wasn't strapped down I did have all these tubes attached to me that were stopping me moving properly. They felt wrong, so I started trying to pull them out. It hurt, but that just spurred me on. Something I was doing set off an alarm which made me more frantic to pull them out. The worst one was in my nose. I'm guessing that went all the way into my stomach.

A nurse rushed into the room and then stopped in sudden surprise seeing me sitting up staring at her. “Well, hello, sugar. Just let me switch these alarms off.” She proceeded to fiddle with things above my head. “You're not supposed to remove the tubes yourself. All you had to do was ask.” Then she checked some of the places where I had pulled tubes out or wires off me. She needed to bandage me a little to stop me from bleeding.

“I will go and let them know that you are awake.” She reassured me.

Except I wasn't reassured. I couldn't remember who I was or where I was, but I knew they were coming to get me and I needed to get out of there. As soon as she closed the door behind her, I tried to get out of bed. I was in some kind of hospital gown with blankets on top of me. I had managed to remove all the tubes I could see and that included some wires that were going to my chest and the nurse had removed the few I had missed, but there was still something attached to me around my groin. I also noticed that my chest felt funny, like had something there that wasn't supposed to be there. I lifted my gown to find I had breasts and that struck me as both right and wrong. I reached between my legs, through some padded panties and found that tube that I was missing and not a lot else, which again confused me. I tried pulling on the tube, but that hurt.

My worry that someone was going to come in soon made me come to the decision to pull the tube out as quick as possible, but before I could the door opened, so I quickly tried to pretend that I wasn't doing anything. I don't think I fooled anybody as the female doctor came in with the nurse, looking at me intently.

“What are you trying to do?” She asked me.

“Nothing.” I replied. I didn't trust anybody at this stage. My voice sounded strange, like it was my voice, but it also wasn't. Maybe I was in here because I was insane.

Then she started asking me a series of questions. I could answer all the logic based ones like what is two plus two, but I didn't know my name, what year it was, who was the president or who my parents were. Eventually she informed me that my mother had been informed of my awakening and was on her way, when she arrived, any questions would be answered. Then the doctor left, but the nurse didn't. She pulled up a chair and told me bluntly that she was here to make sure I relaxed and stayed still. I asked if she could pull the last tube out and she said she needed the doctors permission. In the meantime, if I felt the need to go to the toilet, I could and it would be caught in a bag under the bed.

I lay back and tried to think on any of the questions, attempting to encourage any memory to come to light. I couldn't even think what my mum and dad looked like.

“Have my mum and dad been visiting me?” I asked the nurse.

“Your mum has been coming everyday. If you had awoken a few hours later she would have been here talking to you. She clearly loves you very much.”

“And my dad?”

She just shook her head, not answering me fully. “Why are you trying to get out of bed?” She asked instead.

“I don't remember anything really, but I have this sense of danger, like something is after me. Being stuck, trapped, held in place is making me feel uncomfortable.”

She looked at me thoughtfully, then got up and pressed a button by my bed. A few seconds later another nurse came in. They both stepped outside my door, but left the door open, so I didn't try anything. After a whispered conversation, my observer came back in again.

“I've asked, that's all I can do. In theory, you shouldn't even have the strength to sit up, let alone get up, so I'm not sure they will allow me to remove the catheter. They won't reattach anything without your mum's permission.”

“Why shouldn't I be strong enough?” I asked her.

She just looked at me with a sad smile shaking her head, not answering. So we stayed in silence for awhile.

Then the door opened suddenly and Laura, mum, rushed in and I knew who it was. I tried to move towards her, forgetting that I was still tethered to the bed. Before I could feel more than a painful tug in my groin, she reached me and wrapped me up in a hug, holding me tightly. She was crying, and I was crying and I was remembering.

When she was able to she started saying. “Don't ever do that to me again.”

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry.” Was all I could repeat until we had both calmed down. “Umm.. what did I do?”

Then she started laughing. When she had got herself under control, she released me a little so that she could see my face. “What do you remember? I was told you couldn't remember anything.”

“When you came in, it all came back to me. The last thing I remember is going for a singing lesson, trying to run away from these men in suits and being shot in the chest.” I quickly checked my chest for any bullet holes.

“It was a taser sweetie. Unfortunately, it stopped your heart.”

“I didn't think tasers are supposed to do that. I died?” I asked.

“Yes, you died and no, tasers aren't supposed to do that. I didn't know this but if your heart is beating very fast or there is a heart condition, a taser can cause the heart to go into fibrillation. I suspect you were in the midst of a panic attack with your heart going as fast as it could.”

“So I died? I hate to break it to you, but I can't really promise to never do that again.”

She smiled at me again. “Maybe no one else could, but you might be able to. When I say you died, I mean you really died. I don't think they realised that your heart had stopped, when they did, they performed CPR, but didn't succeed. A few minutes after they had given up, your heart started beating again. Because you had been clinically dead they were worried about brain damage, so you have had numerous scans. Initially there was significant brain damage, but slowly, over time it started to regenerate. This caused a sensation, I can tell you. The brain has the ability to adapt, but it is not supposed to be able to regenerate. At the same time your broken ribs and frontal trauma repaired itself in record time.”

“Broken ribs?” I asked confused.

“A consequence of CPR. The ribs repaired quite quickly, but the brain damage took a lot longer. You have been having brain scans every week. We thought it was finished two weeks ago but you haven't woken up until today. As far as we can tell, you haven't had the normal muscle wasting that normally occurs in coma patients either.”

“So I am really not normal, am I? Does this mean the MIB are going to take me away?”

“NO! I announced to the world that you are my daughter. And besides, all the investigation that they had been doing whilst we were unaware also proved that you had previously been Dillan. Your handwriting matched, all your descriptions fit Dillan's life and all your behaviour makes sense when you know the truth. All they needed was one more piece of the puzzle, which was Amy's diary.”

I felt such a sense of relief. “So Eve knows the truth now?”

Mum turned away from me a bit. “I suppose it is better if you know all that happened on that day. Eve's father is a General and works in the intelligence field, that is as much as I know about him. Anyway, he was involved in your investigation. They knew about the bus trip and they knew that you weren't Sophia, what they didn't know was who you were. They presumed that you were an alien. I think they called it a UE for unknown entity. When they realised that I had adopted you and were going to tell the world, they thought they had to take you in for questioning before that happened. They enlisted Eve's help by showing her all the evidence. Rather than telling me, she decided to organise for me, as well as Gem and Lisa to be absent so that you could be captured without resistance.” She looked back to me. “I felt very betrayed at the time. How do you feel?”

I thought about it. “It fits with her personality.” I said finally.

“What?” mum asked me curiously.

“We knew that the only way to convince Eve was to have overwhelming evidence otherwise she would never believe. I love Eve. She is beautiful and strong, will fight for what she believes in and has a huge generous heart, but she is also as stubborn as a mule and needs the equivalent of a meteor strike to change her mind about something. Maybe we should have tried harder to gather the evidence, like they did, but let's be honest, it was all in the past and had no bearing on our future, so why bother. Unless you have twenty twenty hindsight, we would never have seen this coming.”

“So you don't blame her?”

“For being herself? How could I? Hang on a second. Do you blame her?”

Mum sighed. “Sort of. Initially I did. We called off the wedding. I couldn't even think about marrying her while you were in a coma. I asked her to give me time and not to call me until you had recovered. Over time I have come to realise that she isn't totally to blame.” Then mum chuckled. “Her music company phoned me and asked me to not contact her yet. She has produced a whole new album in under two months. Saying sorry, asking forgiveness. I think the whole country would crucify me if I didn't at least try a reconciliation and to be honest, I have really missed her. It was just the thought of you lying in a coma every time I looked at her face that has stopped me.”

“How long have I been here?” I asked curiously.

“A little bit over three months.”

“That probably explains my hair and my boobs.” My chest was a lot larger than I remembered. “I hope that pleases Chelle. How has she been?”

“She made a deal with her mother. She has joined me every Saturday to visit you, but has had to date a man of her mother's choice, one date per week. However, if she hasn't changed her mind by the beginning of the summer holiday, her mum will stop trying to pressure her. Chelle is not happy about it, but it was the best she could do. Gem is now my PA and is usually with me. Today we had separate tasks and now that I know you are alright, I think we should make some phone calls. Now that everything is in the open, you can even speak to Dillan's mum and dad. If you want I'm sure we could arrange for them to adopt you.” Mum's voice caught a little on that suggestion.

“No mum. You are my mum and not getting out of it that easily.”

She laughed a little and wiped her eyes. “But I have only known you for a little while, they have been your parents for eighteen years.”

“True. I don't know if it is because my mind has been repaired or I just never thought about it before, but I have memories that are not so pleasant. I think I have always been a girl, suppressing that part of me because I had to. I remember when I was maybe five and all the boys were saying that hugging your parents goodbye was the sign of a sissy. Real boys or real men don't hug, don't cry or show emotion. Well, I decided that I didn't care what others did, I would do what I felt was right. My mother was embarrassed when I was the only boy hugging his mum goodbye and urged me to stop. I remember sitting next to my dad on the sofa, getting as close to him as possible, almost begging him to put his arm around me and he just....wouldn't. I remember him telling me to toughen up, stop crying, stop behaving like a girl. Maybe my parents would treat me differently now that I was a girl, but, you know what, you have always shown me affection, showed that you cared. I wouldn't give you up for the world. I want to know that they are alright, I want them to know that I am alright, but that is it. You are my mum and I love you.” We had another cuddle fest.

Sometimes you have to lose everything to find out what is precious. I knew what was important and no way was I giving that up without a fight.

The End.