2 2. Pre-Pilot Memories

Waking up in a hospital bed with a migraine wasn't exactly thrilling. Even less so when 30+ years worth of memories were coming at me all at once. It felt like hours had come and gone despite it being only minutes before my head finally stopped pounding and I could finally get up. First things first was realizing everything that happened was real which was more than clear as I took in the familiar looking hospital room before making my way to the attached bathroom to look in the mirror and see Phoebe Tonkin looking back at me with hazel green eyes. My hair fell in soft natural waves reaching mid chest. My hands moved along my new body finding an hourglass figure with perky D-cup breasts, a small waist with a taut stomach, and wide hips with a pert behind. My tan skin was near flawless aside from a pink scar and completely free of unwanted body hair with perfectly manicured brows thanks to laser hair removal my new memories showed was done several years ago. The only thing that remained from my past was my height of 5'4. Despite being 37 I looked to be over a decade younger and thinking on my parents in this life I knew that they themselves had also looked much younger then they actually were. Memories of my new life flowed through my mind.

I left the state for college which is where I met Tyreese Williams. He was a junior with dreams of playing in the NFL while I was a freshman dreaming of becoming a doctor. He had been my first and then after a late night in the library while there was a party going on in the dorms I walked in to my room to find him fucking my roommate. It was a couple years before I got involved with someone again and the memories of my next partner left me anxious about the future.

While attending medical school in Atlanta I frequented a bar where I eventually met a gruff man a few years older then me. Neither of us had spoken until the night I knocked some drunk asshole on his ass when he tried to put his hands on me after I turned him down. He had laughed so hard he almost dropped his beer when he realized just how big a size difference there was between me and the prick before asking how I managed it. We didn't exchange names instead we gave each other nicknames his being Angel on account of the frayed wings on the back of the leather vest he wore while mine was Xena. Neither of us were looking for anything serious and that was probably why the affair lasted as long as it did. It was two years before he said he was leaving town, effectively ending things between us, but not before I ended up conceiving Carl. Of course I didn't learn about that until after he was gone and I ended up passing out in class only to wake up in a hospital room. With my first life I now know Carl's father Angel is Daryl Dixon which left me a little nervous about how things would go at the quarry.

Major Jackson Stone was the third and last person I had been seriously involved with. My parents had set us up or rather my mother did so through my reluctant dad as she thought it was important I give Carl a better role model and father figure then Shane to grow up with. Despite the initial awkwardness and my annoyance at being forced into a blind date just months after giving birth he was charming and I did end up choosing to date him. We got engaged a year later only for him to be diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. The last two months together were spent together with Carl as Jack refused treatment, wanting to experience as much as possible while he still could. He died in his sleep two days before we were supposed to get married.

There were even more memories of people I recognized from the show. Jack's childhood friend was Abraham Ford who promised to take care of me in Jack's place where he could by becoming like an older brother to me and an uncle to Carl which saw me becoming the godmother to his children. There was Dr. Tomichi Okumura that I befriended during medical school, Tomi's sister Yumiko a criminal defense lawyer I had met a few times when she visited, Dr. Jenner along with his wife Candace which I had met briefly during a medical conference, Glenn Rhee who I had slept with a year ago during said medical conference basically deflowering him, and Merle Dixon who I had met several times as a teen when my father brought him home so he wouldn't spend holidays alone on base up until they lost contact after my dad retired.

Then there were all the memories of Carl. I was 25 when Carl Grimes was born 11 days late. In my memories he quickly became the light of my life. I can remember every fever and the cause of every scar. I can remember his excitement the first time we went camping and how he had begged Shane to come with us. It even became a regular thing to do during the summer even if sometimes we could only go as far as the backyard. I remember how he came home crying because a boy in class made fun of him for not having a dad only for Carl to mention Shane which led to the teacher, Shane's girlfriend of the time, telling him he was wrong. Carl's questions about his dad, Jackson, and Shane. The photo album we made for him to show 'Angel' if they ever met that had a photo of the two of us together, one of him working on his truck in the new leather vest with the same wings on it I had gotten him, two pages filled with my growing stomach and the matching ultrasound picture next to it, and then every important moment from his first time standing to his first day at preschool to catching his first fish.

Then came all memories with Shane. Shane and I had been inseparable from the ages of 8/9. That closeness also became somewhat of a problem between us as, despite how much I adored him, he with the approval of my dad made it impossible for me to date by scaring off any guys that looked interested or setting them up with some other girl. That had been one of the reasons I left Georgia for college. The day we became friends was when I helped him fight some older boys and managed to give one a black eye. I hadn't known it at the time but he thought I was a boy that first day as my hair had been short thanks to a girl cutting it during class before the summer he and his Grandma Jean moved to King County along with the fact I didn't really do girly clothes as I was a pretty active kid.

The day I mentioned that I was looking into having another child Shane had made the offer to donate. Shane's offer to be the donor was taken up just a few months later after I convinced him to think things through. We talked about how things would work and if he would want to be more involved then a regular donor. He was there for every insemination, the last having occurred days before the car accident that put me in a coma.

Wren Grimes was my new name, after my grandmother in this life. My parents were Jonathan and Penelope Grimes. Shane had started calling me Lil' Bird once he started to surpass me in height while my own growth slowed in everything but my figure.

*****************

After finding a bag with clothing, a note, and a set of keys on the gurney outside my hospital room with my former name on it I got dressed and followed the note's instructions on how to find the RV and Sprinter. After finding my RV I decided that the best way to make sure the main keys never left my possession by being touched by someone else (dead or alive) would be by locking them in the hidden safe of the cab since I was the only one that knew where it was and the code for it. Once that was done I headed into the living quarters to check things out. The majority of the baby supplies could be found in either the kitchen or the main bedroom. There was an entire lower kitchen cabinet dedicated specifically to baby related items. There were several gender neutral outfits for every season in just about every size up until what might be a preschooler (3T/4T) in a duffle bag situated next to one filled with my new clothing and pregnancy wear.

The boon spice drawer seemed to have everything from adobo and baking powder all the way to turmeric and vanilla bean extract. The boon cabinet beneath the sink held all purpose Lysol spray, a bottle of multi-surface Lysol concentrate, Bleach, Tide laundry detergent, Dawn dish soap, a pack of cleaning sponges, heavy duty rubber gloves, and a compact floor cleaning kit (collapsible bucket, 4-piece pole that screws apart, brush head for sweeping/scrubbing, and a washable mop head).

The pantry cabinet boon had double doors and several pull out shelves. The top shelves holds labeled containers of flour, sugar, oats, coffee, tea, pasta, rice, various dried beans (black, kidney, chickpeas, lima), green tea powder, and coffee grounds. The middle shelves holds canned vegetables (sweet corn, green beans, tomatoes, veggie mix), canned tuna, canned Vienna sausages, canned meats (beef, ham, chili) and instant soup mixes (tomato, chicken noodle). The lowest shelves holds a jar of raw honey, molasses, powdered peanut butter, powdered butter, powdered milk, powdered eggs, popcorn kernels, and dark chocolate. At the bottom located on the floor was vinegar, oil, and hidden away in the back a few bottles of liquor (rum, vodka, whiskey). The bathroom held everything I was told it would even having a masculine and feminine product in some cases like the razors, deodorant, or bar soaps and in the case of toothpaste one that is fine for adults while the other is for children.

General RV Image

OC's RV Floor Plan Image

Sprinter Image

It was as I was checking things in the RV that I realized I couldn't remember a lot of personal details from my previous life. Faces were blurred and the memory of my parents' voices were fuzzy. I couldn't remember the name of my first kiss or even his general appearance, despite knowing we had gone to school together up til college and being great friends I knew if asked today I wouldn't be able to pick him out of a lineup. I could remember the awkwardness of my first time the summer before my junior year of high school in my previous life yet I was aware that this time it hadn't been until college and certainly not as awkward. It was so strange that I could feel the emotional connection that came with the memories of a life I know I didn't live yet not the ones I did. It was as though those memories, the ones I actually lived, were from a movie.

*****************