The last few hours had been so strange. The moment those blue eyes opened his heart had practically leapt from his chest. Of course he’d noticed the moment it happened, he’d never let his eyes stray from that angular face.

He didn’t know how to deal with the words that Scott said. He knew he was medicated, so he was probably still pretty out of it, and hello... brain injury, but he couldn’t help but feel warm at just the memory of Scott calling him his angel, calling him 'his'

After they had established he didn’t really remember anyone the doctor had instructed them to introduce themselves. The poor, confused blonde tried to pay attention, but he just seemed so tired. The only name he seemed to be able to cling to was ‘Mitch’.

It was getting late when they finally brought Scott back into his room after a myriad of more tests. Almost everyone had left for the night, not wanting to overwhelm the poor man. Mitch was just waiting with his parents to say goodnight. He’d slept by his side every night since he’d been put in this room and alone in a waiting room when he couldn’t be next to him. He knew it was probably silly, but he just couldn't bring himself to leave him. If something had happened while he wasn't there he would have never forgiven himself. But Scott was awake and Alex was there now. Everyone agreed that he should be the one to stay. Mitch wasn’t needed anymore, and while it wasn’t what he wanted, he was ok with it. As long as Scott wasn’t alone, he could deal.

“You get some sleep, son. Your mom and I will be back tomorrow.”

Scott just kind of looked up at his parent’s quietly as they said their goodbyes. Then it was Mitch’s turn to say goodbye. 

“Hey Scottie.”

Those lips slid up into a smile. “Hey Mitchie.”

He felt like his heart doubled in size as he listened to Scott say his name, recalling it on his own. “You get some sleep, ok?”  He looked down as Scott’s fingers slid down the blanket and found his own. He met him the rest of the way and took his hand in his. “I’ll be back first thing in the morning.”

The smile fell immediately from his lips. “No. You- please don’t leave.”

He reached up to push some hair from the blonde’s forehead with his free hand. “Alex will be here with you. You won’t be alone.” He hated the distressed look on the man’s face, but didn’t know how to make it go away.

“I’ll be right here Scott. I won’t go anywhere.” Alex appeared on his other side, but Scott just kind of shrank away from him. He shook his head. “No. No I want Mitch. Please stay.” He tightened his grip on Mitch’s hand. 

Mitch didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes, but he didn’t want Scott afraid either.

“Alex, honey I know it’s hard, but he doesn’t remember. Right now we’re all strangers. I don’t know why, but Mitch is familiar to him. He helps keep him calm. He needs that to heal.  We’ll come back first thing, I promise.”

“But-” Alex wanted to protest, really not wanting to leave Scott, but he knew he had to go. His face fell completely. “I love you. I’ll be back tomorrow, Ok?”

Scott didn’t seem to really care at the moment. Mitch felt a bit guilty as Alex walked past him. “I’m sorry.”

He turned to him. “It’s ok, man. It’s not your fault. Just take care of him.”

He nodded and Alex went to stand outside of the room.

“Have a good night, Scott.” His mom walked over and kissed his forehead. She turned and took Mitch’s face in her hands.  “And you… you need sleep, sweetheart.” She smiled and kissed his forehead as well. “Don’t forget to take care of yourself too. I’ll get Avi to bring you more clothes and things tomorrow.”  She winked as they all left, closing the door behind them.

He sighed a bit as he was left alone again with his friend.

“I’m sorry I don’t know them.”

“You don’t remember knowing me either, but I’m glad you asked me to stay.”  He adjusted the chair back to where he wanted it and sat down, still keeping hold of Scott’s hand.

“But, I feel like I know you. I don’t remember how, but … I know you.”

“Do you want to talk or do you want to sleep.”

“She said you need to sleep.”

He smiled sweetly, not realizing his thumb was caressing circles on the back of Scott’s hand again.  “I’m fine, I promise.”

“Can we talk?”

Mitch nodded. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Just, tell me about anything I guess."

“OK. Why don’t we start with your family.”  He went through Scott’s family, using his phone to show him pictures of everyone as he went. Once that was done he moved on to Alex.

“Alex is your boyfriend.”

Scott made a face.

“He’s a really nice guy, and he’s gorgeous and he’s very good to you. He loves you a lot.”

“I don’t like his hands.”

Mitch laughed. “You usually love his hands, and you love him. See?” He showed him a few pictures of he and Alex together.

“I guess.”

“Ok, we’ll come back to him. Next is me. I’m your best friend. We’ve been friends since we were kids.” He showed him a few pictures from when they were younger.

“Eww my hair.”

Mitch cracked up. “We live together in Los Angeles.”

“Good.”

“Good?”

“Yeah. I like that we live together.”

“We have a lot of fun.”

“Can I see pictures?”

He nodded and went through his phone, showing Scott loads of pictures of them together.

“Is that our cat?”

He nodded. “Do you remember his name?”

He shook his head.

“Wyatt. Wyatt Blue.”

He nodded and Mitch could tell he was tired.

“Why don’t we pick this up tomorrow. You can wake me up whenever you wake up, ok? I won’t mind.”

Scott nodded, eyes already starting to droop. “Goodnight, Mitchie.”

“Goodnight, Scottie.”

______

It was a typical night for Mitch. Every time a nurse came in to check on Scott it roused him from his already uncomfortable sleep. His favorite nurse had been on duty and had covered him with a blanket the first time she made her rounds and brought him a pillow.  It had helped, but it was still hard to get comfy in the stiff lounger/chair. Scott had slept through almost everything and for that he was grateful.

It was about 5:30am when Scott had woken while one of the nurses was checking everything and this time he couldn’t get back to sleep.

Even though Mitch was exhausted, he enjoyed the time alone with Scott. It was good to see him smiling again.

“Ok, so do you recognize this song?”  Drunk in Love began to play from his phone.

Scott listened, a smile on his face, but he shook his head. “I like it, though. She can sing”

Mitch felt a bit discouraged. There wasn’t a lot that Scott did remember that wasn’t general knowledge, but there were a few things that seemed to break through. He responded really well to music, go figure, so that’s where they were currently.

“That’s Beyonce’. She’s your absolute favorite. You are obsessed with her.”

He laughed a bit. “I can believe that. She’s good.”

“OK, how about this song.” He switched to La La Latch and held his breath.

Scott was quiet for a bit as he listened. “I feel like I know the words, but I don’t. Does that make sense?”

Mitch nodded.  “That’s you. You’re the one singing right now.”

Scott looked at him as his eyes widened. “Really?”

Mitch nodded. “You’re a singer. You’re in a singing group with me and 3 other people. Remember we talked about Avi, Kevin and Kirstie?”

Scott nodded. “You sing too?”

“Here, I can show you the video.” He pulled up the music video and handed Scott the phone. Funnily enough he could navigate an iPhone like a pro. Scott watched the entire video.

“We’re really good.” He smiled and looked at Mitch. “You’re amazing.”

Mitch shook his head with a bit of an eye roll. “We’re called Pentatonix. Oh, and we also have a youtube channel called Superfruit. Do you remember youtube?”

“Yeah. I think so. That’s the video streaming thing right?”

Mitch nodded and helped him pull up a recent Superfruit episode. Scott laughed through the entire thing.

“I’m so weird.” He laughed out.

Mitch laughed as well. “We’re both weird.”

“I like us.”

Mitch smiled sweetly at him. “I like us too.”

He watched 4 more episodes and also the Beyonce' video before turning to Mitch again. 

“Do I have a phone like this? I feel like I do.”

“You do. Do you want your phone?” He got up when Scott nodded and went over to the little closet he’d thrown his bag into and fished around until he found Scott’s phone. Miraculously it was just turned off, not dead.

He moved back to his chair and handed Scott his phone while he took back his own. “We probably aren’t supposed to be using them, but oh well.”

Scott looked at the lock screen and held it up to Mitch. “Is that Beyonce’?”

Mitch laughed. “It is.”

Scott seemed proud of himself as he looked through his phone, spending time looking through his gallery, asking Mitch every now and then about a person he didn’t recognize or a picture he just wanted to know more about.

He seemed to frown when he played a video of him and Alex together. His eyebrows scrunched close together as he tried to think.

“We look ok together, I guess.”

“Are you kidding? You look like Ken and Ken’s perfect gay surfer boyfriend.”

He just kinda sighed and moved on. He held up the phone with a picture of Mitch and his friend Chris. “Is that your boyfriend?”

Mitch almost laughed. “No. Chris is our friend, more yours even than mine. You have a lot of handsome friends, Scottland”

“Is there a picture of your boyfriend?”

“You mean my imaginary boyfriend? No. No boyfriends for me.”

Scott just watched him a little before going back to his phone and moving on to the text messages.

“We text a lot.”

“We do.”

“I wish I remembered these.”  

“Me too.”

“Did we ever date?”

Mitch almost burst out laughing, but the question was so sincere he just couldn’t risk hurting him.

“No. I’m definitely not your type.”

“What do you mean?” He looked a bit upset by that information.

“You like big guys. Nice and tall with perfect faces and big muscles and perfect abs. You like Abercrombie models.”

“Well that sounds dumb.”

He laughed then, unable to stop it this time. “It’s really not. You’re gorgeous. You can get pretty much anyone you want. Why not go for the prettiest when you can have your pick.”

“I think you’re beautiful.”

He couldn’t stop the blush that rose to his cheeks. He smiled as he looked down at his phone to try and hide the coloring.  “You’re sweet”

Scott smiled to himself as he continued to look through their text messages.

“Alex just texted. They're on their way. Do you want to try and go over everyone again since they will be here soon?”

Blue eyes turned up to his  again. “Sure.”

“Ok, so who is this.” He held up his phone with a picture on it.

“Kristie.”

“Close. It’s Kirstie.”

Scott wrinkled his nose as he missed it.

Mitch thought it was adorable. “And this?”

“Kevin.”

“Good job. This one?”

He had to think a little harder for this one. He knew he kept pronouncing it wrong. “Avi.”

“Perfect.”

“Annnd thiiis…”

Scott pretended to think hard. “Hmmm … Marvin.”

Mitch made a face and laughed. “Marvin? Really?”

Scott burst out laughing at Mitch’s face. “Ok, ok. Mitchie. “

“It’s good to hear you laugh. Ok, next one.”

Scott’s face fell a bit. “Alex.”

Mitch took his hand again. “Heyy. You seem really weird about Alex. Do you want to talk about it?”

“I don’t like him.”

“How do you know?”

“I just, get this weird feeling in my stomach.”

“Sure it’s not butterflies? Or maybe just attraction?”

“No. It’s uncomfortable. I don’t like when he holds my hand.”

“I’m sorry. I wish I could help you remember.”

“You are. I mean, you will.”

They were interrupted by a knock at the door and Scott’s mom, dad and Alex came in again.

"We come bearing food." Alex smiled that megawatt smile. 

Mitch looked back at them plastering on his own smile. "Thank goodness. Mama is starving and not about to eat anymore of this cafeteria food."

Scott laughed and he wanted to close his eyes and just listen to the sound of it. 

No matter how exhausted he felt, no matter how stiff or sore, it was all worth it just to hear him laugh.