Love Always Wins

Prologue.

Saturday December 7th 2019. Ålesund, Norway.

Seb swung the car into the car park and drove along, impatiently looking for the first available space, Wham's 'Last Christmas' was playing quietly on the radio and snow was falling steadily from a night sky that was glowing, thanks to the low clouds that were illuminated by the lights of the town. He hit the breaks as a car reversed out in front of him.
"Du verdammter idiot!" (You fucking idiot!) He gestured with his hands, the male driver of the other car hadn't even bothered to look his way and was oblivious to his presence. As soon as the car was out of the way, Seb quickly parked his rented Range Rover Evoque into the space and was out of the car in seconds. After locking it, he dashed across the car park and straight into the main entrance of the hospital. He ran along the corridors, taking a left turning, a flight of stairs, another left turning and then a right, his stomach was doing back flips with excitement. It felt like an early Christmas miracle that both his wife and their unborn baby had survived the traumatic events of Thursday and after spending yesterday unconscious, he'd been given the news that Chloe had come round, and she was going to be having another scan to check if all was still ok with the baby. Getting close to the door of her room, he was confronted by Chrissie and his excitement quickly dissolved when he saw her tears. "What's wrong? Has something happened? Is she ok? Is it the baby?" He fired the questions at her, quickly feeling panicked at her distress. "I need to see her."

"Seb, wait." Chrissie pressed a hand to his chest. "David's in there with her now and a doctor, she's upset and confused. I'm not sure you should see her."

"I'm her husband, of course I should see her, she needs me and god knows, I need her!" He went to push past her, he just wanted to see his beloved wife.

"She doesn't seem to remember who you are."

"What?" Seb looked confused and looked towards the door of his wife's room. "It'll be because she's just woken up, she'll be ok when we see each other."

"Seb, she knows who you are but not what you are to her. Does that make sense?"

"No." Seb shook his head. It did make sense but he didn't believe her, Chrissie must have got it wrong. While Chloe had been shot, she hadn't suffered a head injury so this made no sense at all.

"She saw her wedding ring and had no recollection of getting married, she didn't even remember being pregnant. She freaked out, we're lucky the doctor was there. She knows who you are, but....." Chrissie paused and wiped her eyes. "It's like she's lost the last year, she doesn't remember any of it! She's lost her memory Seb!"

"No." He shook his head again, this was bullshit.

"Sebastian?" David emerged from Chloe's room, pulling the door closed behind him.

"You've gotta tell me this isn't true!" Seb stepped forward. "Please, I need to see her!"

"It is true. Look Seb, there's no easy way for me to say this. The doctor is pretty sure she has a form of amnesia, it's rare but it can happen when someone's been through a traumatic event like Chloe has. She doesn't want to see you right now, she's too upset. She doesn't remember a thing; not about the shooting, getting pregnant, getting married....."

"Then let me see her! Let me talk to her!" Seb shouted frantically, he was desperate to see her. Just two days ago he was scared that he was going to lose her in the cruelest way possible, now it felt like he was losing her all over again.

"I'm sorry but she's refusing to see you right now." David tried to keep his voice even, emotions were running high and he wanted to protect his daughter from further distress while trying not break Seb's heart. He knew he was failing at the latter as Seb staggered backwards until his back hit the wall and he slid down to the floor with his head in his hands. "I'm sorry Seb." David didn't know what else to say as the magnitude of Chloe's condition hit and Seb started to crumble. It felt like the hardest thing in the world to do as David turned around to go back into his daughter's room while her husband was left devastated and in bits on the corridor's hard floor. Seb looked up through tear filled eyes as Chrissie bent down, quietly crying herself, and kissed the top of his head.

"Give her some time, I'll try my hardest to get her to see you. Just think of your baby, you've got a little fighter there already." She was barely audible as she spoke what words of comfort she could think of before walking away and entering the room where his wife was.