Boy Meets World

"Amnesia"

Summary: Does the name help you at all? Seriously, this is a story about someone forgetting everything and everyone... except how to love. (Say it with me now... awwww!)

Rating: PG-13 (language, situations, themes, slashiness)

Disclaimer: If they were mine, TGIF would have a totally different meaning.

Setting: Late 7th season AU.

Series/Sequel: Not yet. Because really, don't I need to chill with the series? smirk

Feedback: Helps me forget who... what I am. the Wicked crew. Love ya, babies!

Note: After the prologue, the tense will shift from past to present. Just so I don't get a lot of people saying that I switched tenses midstream or something.

Prologue

"I think... I'm going to tell them. Tonight." Jack Hunter sat up on the couch and looked over at the other two people in the room.

"You're serious?" Shawn, his brother, questioned.

"Yeah." Jack touched his boyfriend Eric's hand softly. "This thing we have, it's serious, and I really don't want to do the whole 'bring your significant other to dinner and shock the hell out of your parents' thing, you know? So I figure, tell them now, get it over with, and let them calm down before summer rolls around." Jack rubbed a hand over his face. "What do you think?"

Eric sighed as his forehead wrinkled in thought. "If you're sure, by all means. Want me to come with?"

"I appreciate the offer, but I think that this is something that I need to do alone, okay?" Jack stood and grabbed his keys

"Well, if you need anything, call, alright?" Eric put his feet on the coffee table, which Jack playfully shoved off.

"Hey, no killing the furniture while I'm gone. See ya." He kissed Eric before walking out the door.

"Bye," Eric and Shawn chorused while turning their attention to the television.

To say that it did not go well was an understatement.

For an hour straight, Jack's mom and stepdad yelled, cried, quoted scripture, and did everything but beat him physically to get their point across. True, Jack hadn't really been expecting them to take the news calmly, but to react like he was the devil was more then he expected.

"Okay, now, are you going to give up your sinful course?" His stepdad boomed.

"So it's okay to be tolerant and all, but sinful when there's an actual person involved?" Jack stopped and lowered his voice. "I know that you wanted me to grow up and get married and have grandkids. And I still might. Being bisexual isn't the end of the world."

"It's not right, and you know it!" his mother pleaded tearfully.

"Your mother's right." His stepdad's voice was lowered, which made Jack look up, suddenly more alert. A calm Artie in the middle of an argument was never a good thing. "I think you need to go."

"What?"

"As long as you stay with your... boyfriend," and Artie spat out the word, "You aren't welcome here."

Jack's eyes filmed over with tears, but he tossed his head back, not willing to let either one see him get upset. "I see," he said, fighting to keep his voice even. "Well, goodbye then."

He turned to the door and blindly let himself out. Fumbling with his car keys, he fought to open the door. He kept using the wrong keys though, and cycled through the whole ring before finding the right one. Still more than a little upset and angry, he started the car and peeled off down the street, not minding the sound of squealing tires.

As he drove back to campus, his mind kept replaying the conversation. It had started off so well, with his mother happy to see him, and his stepdad at least civil. They had been glad when he had told them that he had made the Dean's list for the last semester of college, and that he had some solid job offers on the table. But then he had said the fateful words 'Mom, Art, I have something to tell you', and look where that had gotten him.

As he thought about the last thing that had been said to him ("you aren't welcome here"), his eyes filled with tears again. He wiped them away furiously, mad that he was crying over people who obviously didn't care much about his feelings. As he swiped at them again, his car momentarily crossed the double line. At the same time, an oncoming car, with the driver on a cell phone, crossed it too.

It would have been funny if it wasn't so tragic.

"Okay, you know who's going to win this one. Xena's gonna wipe Ally all over the floor!" Eric's attention never wavered from the screen.

"Never count out the little ones. They're the ones that fight dirty." Shawn nodded his head knowingly and watched the Claymation fight proceed.

The phone rang, making Eric and Shawn both groan. "Okay, I'll rock, paper, scissors you. 1, 2, 3, go!" Eric threw paper and Shawn put out rock. "Ha ha! Paper covers rock! Go answer the phone, boy."

Shawn got up, grumbling all the way into the kitchen, where the phone was located. He picked up the receiver, ready to get rid of the caller fast so that he could watch the show.

"Hello?"

"Hello. May I speak to Shawn Hunter, please?" An unfamiliar woman's voice asked.

"This is he."

"This is the patient rep at County General Hospital. It's concerning your brother, Jack."

Chapter One

You open your eyes, slowly. The brightness of the room is hurting your head, and all you want to do is cover your eyes with your arm, to block out the light. When you try to raise your arm though, it's heavy and... has something on, in it?

You hear excited voices, high and low ones, chattering excitedly. You want to tell the voices to be quiet, but you're not sure that you understand what they're saying, or if they even speak the same language as you. You're not even sure what language you speak- there's a blank when you try to think of the word that your language is called. But you know that you speak one, and the concept of not knowing what it's called hurts to think about, a little.

Someone comes up to your side and says something. You don't understand the words, but the tone behind it is soothing, so you let yourself drift off again.

The next time you're awake, the people are still there, and the place is a little darker. You open your eyes without trouble, and take in your surroundings without moving anything but your eyes.

The place is lit up, and there are lots of chairs. People are in the chairs, on the floor, and there's one person standing up, leaning against the door. You start studying the peoples' faces, trying to see if anyone looks familiar, but they don't. They look kind though, you decide, so you don't let the fact that no one and nothing looks at all familiar to you bother you too much.

As you gaze around, you notice that one of the persons, the one on the door, points to you and says something in a low voice, which makes the other ones talk excitedly. Soon, a person, dressed in a colorful (you know that it's colorful, but don't know the name for the colors) outfit comes up to you and says something. You look up into the kind face and wonder how you're going to communicate the fact that you can't understand a single word that the person is saying.

It turns out that you don't have to, because the face peering down at you says something else and moves their head in a gesture that's familiar, but still confusing. You just wait to see what happens. Someone else comes into the room, in another outfit, but one color this time. The new person says something. It doesn't sound bad, so you close your eyes again, letting the sounds comfort you.

"Can you hear me?"

You open your eyes suddenly and look up at the person that's speaking. Female, your mind supplies. Older, Caucasian. Redhead.

"Yes," you say, and then smile, because you can understand her, too.

"Someone's glad to be up," she remarks. "I'm Paula, your nurse. Your call button is here," she indicates to a squarish object on the bed, "and these are your television controls. Do you need anything, Jack?"

"N-no," you start, and then frown. "What did you call me?"

"Your name. Jack Hunter?" she asks, picking up on your confusion.

You start to say something, and then stop. "I... I don't know."

After that, things happen in a hurry. You find out in quick order that you're in a hospital, because of an accident. You've been here three weeks, but it seems shorter because you've spent a lot of that unconscious. The doctors have diagnosed you with neurological damage, which is causing the amnesia and aphasia. That basically means that you can't remember much of anything, and have trouble understanding words or speaking sometimes. Neither one is upsetting to you as when the people around you call you "Jack". Jack has memories, family and friends. You have none of these.

You slowly start learning the people's names around you. Shawn, who visits only occasionally, but is nice when he comes. Shawn says that he and Jack are brothers, which is interesting, but does nothing for you. A girl named Rachel stops through too. You can tell that she had some kind of special relationship with Jack, because of the way she talks to you- full of pauses that used to have meanings, but don't anymore. Eric, who comes by almost everyday, doesn't ever say much, and is just mellow to be around. You also have people who come through just to say hi, like Cory and Topanga and Angela. They all seem nice, but a little distant.

Three more weeks pass, and the doctors want to send you home, but you don't have a home. Apparently you and your parents had a fight, because they know you're in here, but they haven't visited or anything. The way people talk about it, like they expect you to be sad, is vaguely annoying, because all they are to you is two more people you don't know. Eric volunteers to let you stay in the apartment with him and Shawn, which is fine with you. So the doctors release you with fanfare. They tell you how fortunate you are, because you weren't seriously injured physically. The only thing that troubles them is your ongoing memory problems, and the fact that you still have aphasia sometimes. They're not sure that your memory will ever return. You're more concerned that you were a total asshole previously and that no one will tell you.

As you walk into the apartment, Eric points out things to you, and Shawn tells you stories about what happened. You accept all of this knowledge, knowing that you won't remember half of this stuff later, but if it makes them feel good, it's okay.

Later, you look around your side of the room. Underneath your bed is a box full of different objects. There are a lot of pictures of people, some you don't recognize, and some of the people that visited you in the hospital. You notice a lot of pictures of you and Eric, and a lot of the group pictures, you two are always standing together. It makes you wonder if he and Jack had the same kind of history of Jack and Rachel.

The last thing you pull out of the box is a fat book. There's no title on the front, but when you open it up, there is Jack's name along with a set of dates. Curious to what it talks about, you sit on the bed and start reading.

September 1

Okay, every school year I start this, and forget about it midway through November. This time, I'm determined to keep track of the stuff in my life.

So, today I guess was kinda important, because I left for college. Mom cried, and Artie kept telling me that he expected me to do something great with my education. I wanted to tell him, no shit, but I didn't feel like starting anything, so I let it slide. So, we got an apartment, and it's way too expensive for me by myself, so I started looking for roommates right away. Luckily, I found two right away. Their names are Eric Matthews and Rachel MacGuire. They seem nice, so hopefully we'll all get along.

College doesn't seem all that different from high school yet. People still want to be popular, and everyone wants to be noticed. Me, I'll just be happy if I can get through the year without a repeat of last year.

You close the book and wrinkle your brow in confusion. You guess that Mom and Artie are your missing parents, and you know who Eric and Rachel are, but whatever happened last year (or the year before this was written) is of course, a mystery.

Deciding on a course of action, you get up off of the bed and go into the apartment's living room, where Eric is watching some show on television. He's laughing uproariously, so you stop and watch a few minutes of it. It doesn't seem very funny to you, so you shrug and sit down next to Eric. He looks at you and smiles. "Hey Jack!" His gaze falls to the little book that you have in your hand. "I see you found your diary."

"I guess. You ever read this?"

Eric throws up his hands. "Hey, would I do that?"

You stare at him blankly, because you really don't know.

Eric senses your confusion and says softly, "That would be a no. I respect your privacy. Plus, you never read my journal."

You nod and then say, "The reason I asked was because there's some stuff in here that doesn't make sense. And I was hoping that maybe Jack had talked to you about it."

Eric winces. "You're Jack!" He takes a breath and exhales. "Sorry. Okay, what about?"

You show him the first entry in the notebook. He scans it quickly and hands the notebook back to you. "Um, that's probably something you're better off not remembering." His voice shakes a little, and his gaze falls to your... hands?

"What?" you ask automatically, looking down at your hands too. Eric takes them and gently turns them over. You see faint white scars on the insides of your wrists, which Eric traces with his fingers.

"You really want to know?" He asks seriously, gaze never leaving your hands.

You swallow nervously, not because you know what he's going to say, but because of the way he's still touching you. "I'm sure."