"Mama?"

Keira's eyes were open, and staring horrified at the little girl in front of her. Linzee stared right back at her, just as confused as the woman who had just woken up. Keira's hand suddenly reached out and stroked the side of Keira's head, like she was trying to figure out if the girl in front of her was real or just her imagination.
"What the hell?!" she almost screamed, and Zacky lurched forward to gather up his daughter in his arms, concerned at Keira's strange reaction to Linzee. She began to wail, curling herself up into a ball in Zacky's arms and clutching at his shirt. Zacky had known the crash would've come with her forgetting a lot of things- but did she really forge that yelling at a baby made them cry?

"Ssh babygirl, don't cry. Daddy's got you, sweetheart, it's OK. Don't be scared baby, ssh, good girl..." Zacky soothed, as Linzee's cries began to soften. He could see Keira wincing at the sound the baby made, but she'd been the one to start making the baby cry. She offered him a sympathetic look, and when he realised that Linzee was just sniffling, he knew she was waiting for him to say something.

"Baby? Do you remember me?" he asked gingerly, edging forward as he felt Linzee bury her head into his shoulder, trying to get away from the crazy lady that had just yelled at her. He could hear doctors yelling from the corridor, all of them anxious that now Keira had woken up, she'd have to have a crazy amount of tests.
Keira stared up at Zacky like he'd grown an extra head, and suddenly shook her own, staring blankly up at the two people in front of her.
"No, I don't remember you. Are you my husband- is this our daughter?" she asked softly, and Zacky felt his knees buckle.

This woman had been the only person who'd understood when he took Linzee in. The one person who he'd bared his soul to- and suddenly she couldn't even remember who he was.

Doctors suddenly bustled in, surrounding the girl Zacky loved and starting to speak in medical terms- completely confusing him.
He needed to get out- even if it was just to go back home and think about what had happened.
Slowly, he edged his way out of the hospital room, not even bothering to look back when he heard Keira yell something.

If she couldn't even remember his name, then why would she want to know who he was? He didn't stop for any doctors, or any of the people who told him to watch where he was going.
When he was out in the parking lot, he strapped Linzee into the booster seat that had been wedged into the front seat and drove away, the whole time feeling a little more empty inside. Linzee began to speak gibberish again, pointing and clapping at the car stereo. He didn't listen to the music on the radio these days, and the stereo hadn't been used in weeks.

"You wanna listen to music, huh? Alright baby, you get your way" he said softly, turning on the radio and tuning the channels until he got to a station that was playing relatively normal.
"So, for all you SoCal hard rock fans who have been begging me to play some of our hometown heroes greatest hits, let's give you guys what you've been waiting for! This is Avenged Sevenfold with Afterlife"

Linzee starting clapping excitedly, and Zacky smiled. 'Afterlife' was the first song he'd played to her, and even after all this time, she still remembered it.
"Da-da, Da-da!" she squealed happily, bouncing up and down in her seat as the vocals poured in, ringing through the car. He grinned, his sudden fear and regret about Keira almost forgotten in the pit of his stomach.
This girl could brighten up any day- she was like sunshine through bleak clouds.

"That's right, sweetheart, that's me! And your Uncle Brian, playing the fancy ass solo because his egos bigger than his hair. And Uncle Matt, and Uncle Johnny and..." he paused, his mind suddenly flooded with the memory of Jimmy. In the future, she'd know about those dark years he was put through, the ones he was just starting to get over.
One day.

"Bri-ba! Bri-ba!" she shrieked again, and Zacky laughed. All that time Linzee had been hanging out with Brian and she'd sort of managed to say his name, even if it did sound like bribe when she said it.
"Good girl! When we get home, you can say that to Uncle Brian yourself" he said happily, smiling when he heard Brian's crazy solo come in just as they turned into his driveway. Both Matt and Brian's trucks had been camped out in his drive for a while now, and it was only a matter of time before both of them turned around and went back to their lives.

Zacky switched the music off, unbuckled Linzee from her seat and brought her into the house, where he found Brian and Matt looking at some sock puppets with confused expressions. When they heard the family walk in, they looked up- both offering sympathetic grins to Zacky. But he wasn't having any of it while his daughter was still in ear-shot.
"Hey, baby, you wanna show Uncle Brian what you said today?" he asked the little girl in his arms, who was smiling and laughing at the two people she'd come to know so well.

"Bri-ba, Bri-ba!" she cried, clapping her hands together happily and Brian dropped the sock puppet entirely, shocked. His smile broadened, and he pretended to wipe away a tear, looking like he was starring in a Hollywood movie rather than standing in his best friends living room, sorting through puppets.

"I think I'm going to cry!" he said dramatically, looking like the proudest 'Super-Uncle' in the history of the world, before running over to his friend and lifting Linzee out of his arms and giving her a hug, kissing the top of her forehead.
"Aren't you a clever little chickie, Linz? How's about we go and get you a cookie while Daddy and Uncle Matt talk, and then you can meet my friend Mr Snugglebear?" he asked in a sing-song voice as he carried her into the kitchen, leaving Zacky to collapse onto the couch with his head in his hands.

"What happened?" Matt asked him quietly, putting a hand on his friends back, trying to be comforting. When your own life was falling apart, it was difficult find some sort of hope to comfort your friends- he could say that from experience.
"She woke up. But she doesn't remember me" Zacky whispered, feeling like his insides were going to come spilling out if he let himself get any deeper than he was now.

He didn't want to talk to Matt, or Brian. He just wanted to lock himself away somewhere, and let all the emotions come flooding out into the open.
"Can...can you guys watch Linzee for a minute? I need to get myself together" Zacky asked Matt solemnly, and without waiting for an answer, walked out of the living room and up the stairs, narrowly avoiding Brian and his daughter, complete with the promised cookie.

And once he was locked away in the solace of his bedroom, and feeling a little like a teenage girl who'd just been dumped, he threw himself onto his bed, buried his face in the pillow and let the tears begin to flow.