2/1/16 Update: A guest reviewer requested to know how I'm doing. I'm so sorry I haven't updated the story or this profile in almost 3 years now. I'm going to say it again, even though you all may not believe me. I do plan to finish this fic. I still think about it often. Unfortunately the real world has gotten in the way over the last few years.

Almost 2 years ago I left work early one Thursday morning because I wasn't feeling well. I stopped at a local restaurant to pick up some take out on my way home and while I waited for my food to be ready, I checked facebook to kill the time. My brother's girlfriend posted a seemingly simple status about being cigarette free for a couple weeks. But as I read on, she also added to please pray for my father who was in a motorcycle accident. My heart basically stopped as I read that. I knew he was supposed to travel to a motorcycle festival with friends that morning. I couldn't believe I was reading this on facebook and no one had called me. She had time to post it on facebook and no one had called me!

I quickly left the restaurant to call my parent's house. My brother answered the phone. I asked him what the hell happened and he had very little info, serious motorcycle accident, airlifted to the nearest hospital over 40 miles away. I hung up and called my mother's cell phone. She was just arriving to the hospital, it's over an hours drive from their house. She didn't have much info either. He was in emergency surgery, traumatic brain injury, hit a deer. She was waiting to call me when she had more info. I was furious. I live over 3 hours away from the hospital and 4 hours from their house. I decided I should try to get to the hospital as soon as possible.

After getting off the phone with her, I called and texted a few of my closest friends. One immediately said she was leaving work and would come to my house to drive up with me. I paid for the food I no longer wanted, contacted my job and told them I didn't know how long I would be gone and went to my house to pack. When my friend got there, I was trying to decide whether I should pack clothes for a funeral or not. I work in health care. I knew what a traumatic brain injury and airlifted meant and it's rarely a good outcome. Ultimately, I didn't pack the black clothes.

It was a long drive, and my friend did a good job of distracting me for most of it. It was stupid, but I couldn't stop thinking about this little bell I had meant to buy for him and hadn't gotten around to yet. This old superstition says that you should buy one for a friend or loved one to hang under their motorcycle for good luck and safe travels. Irrationally, I felt personally responsible for the accident because I hadn't bought the damn bell in time.

When we arrived to the hospital I met my oldest brother in the parking garage. He showed us to the ICU waiting room where my father had just been transferred. Most of my family were there waiting along with some of my fathers' friends who had been riding with him. My mother had just gone in to his room.

Apparently my father had been travelling with 6 other motorcycles. He had been the lead bike. According to his friend who had been on the bike immediately behind him, the deer ran across the road from the left and leaped directly into the side of my father, giving him no chance to even see it coming. The deer was killed on impact. My father's friends immediately called 911 and knew not to move him or remove his helmet. He was unresponsive and bleeding from a head injury. My uncle was also riding with them and said it took 15 minutes for the ambulance to arrive and then another 20 for the helicopter.

Eventually I got to see my father. I learned that he had received a brain shunt in the emergency room to relieve pressure. They had not done a craniotomy yet. The nurses explained the number referring to his current fluid pressure. It was steady at 18 while the tube drained fluid. Apparently this was good and we just didn't want it to rise over 20. He was also on a ventilator.

My mother and I stayed with him all evening until the nurses assured us he would make it through the night and we reluctantly drove home to get some sleep and return in the morning. For a week straight we continually made those trips, sometimes my mom and I, other times, by myself, or meeting my brother, my mom coming later when she had to take care of something at work. The nurses explained that medication was keeping him unconscious and they would periodically stop it to wake him. They would talk loud to him and get him to squeeze their hands, sometimes flutter his eyes open. He answered simple questions by squeezing their hands.

My friends visited, one a surgical tech, explained that most traumatic brain injury patients don't have a good prognosis if a craniotomy is needed. I had this secret false hope that he would wake up completely normal if we could get through the week. Realistically, I knew what a traumatic brain injury could do to a person. As the week went on, my father was less responsive on the left side. He had no broken bones but had experienced severe soft tissue damage to his left arm and hand.

Eventually they determined he was stable enough to remove the ventilator, which ultimately meant they could try to wake him for longer periods of time. He seemed to recognize us. But everything was still so unsure.

I eventually had to go back to work but made the long trip back up to the hospital when they moved him off from ICU. He was talking more at this point, and recognized us, but his stories didn't make sense. I remember breaking down that night, thinking, would he want to live like this if he knew. The head injury had occurred on the right side of his brain and was affecting his movement on the left side of his body so it was unclear if he would regain this function.

From the hospital, he was quickly moved to an acute rehab center. Most of the patients there were stroke victims. The staff were wonderful. My mother made the drive every single day. I went up as often as I could. His stories continued to be strange and he had issues with short term memory. He'd mix up things he was watching on tv with real life, one time watching Swamp People and then saying he hurt his arm fighting gators. It was a long two months but he slowly improved each day, standing with the help of staff, then walking with a walker, until he could eventually walk slowly unaided. The short term memory was always an issue, but the disjointed thoughts stopped too.

Eventually he got to come home and he continued to improve every day, receiving outpatient PT and OT. He did exercises to improve function in his hand. His balance steadily improved. By the fall, he got back on his motorcycle. My brothers had fixed it for him. Honestly, I feel like it's miraculous, the recovery he made. His short term memory has improved, although it will always be an issue. My mom eventually got back on the bike with him. Since the accident he is actually less anxious and overall, happier. He feels like he got a second chance at life and I'm so thankful for it.

Sorry for the long-winded story. It was cathartic to write. So, speaking of second chances, I will eventually finish this story. Thank you all for your wonderful reviews and messages.

-Mara

8/22/13 Update: Believe it or not, I honesty haven't abandoned Second Chances! I've got some amazing reviews over the last, almost 2 years. I know! I'm terrible! My harddrive fried up in my laptop which means I lost anything I had been working on. I might have some stuff saved on my external harddrive but I've yet to get a new laptop so until that happens I have not been able to write. But hopefully it will be soon! I miss this fic dearly and will see it to completion even if only for myself. Thanks to everyone who still send encouraging words. I'm sorry if I don't reply personally, I feel too terrible about not updating and can't face you all, lol.

10/19/10 Update: I've gotten some concerned reviews and although most might not check my profile, I just wanted to reiterate that I promise I have not abandoned Second Chances. I'm so sorry the updates are about 2 months apart but the next chapter is almost finished. Unfortunately there is a lot of dialogue I want to get just right and it is taking me a lot longer to write this chapter. But I promise it's coming and I thank each and every reviewer for the encouraging words!

7/27/10 Update: If anyone bothers to check this I just wanted readers of Second Chances to know I'm still here and I'm still writing and I apologize profusely for the huge wait for this next chapter. Sorry!!! Thank you all for the reviews I get even still. They are so encouraging when I'm struggling to find time to write.

5/5/10 Update: For some bizarre reason fanfiction deleted all my scene breaks. :( It's quite annoying because now I have to spend time going back into each chapter and changing the type of scene break I used and then re-uploading the file and then switching it out with the right chapter. And I have no idea how long ago this happened which makes me very frustrated as well because it just does! Haha So anyway, I'll still be working on ch. 43 as well.

3/13/10 Update: I haven't abandoned Second Chances for anyone who is concerned and may be checking my profile. Just wanted to let you all know it's been a crazy couple weeks with a ridiculous snow storm that knocked my power out for a whole week. So hopefully the chapter will be finished in the next week. -Mara

So I've been on this site long enough and figured it was about time I fill something out here. I'm 25, from NY, and in between my bachelors degree and masters... just trying to put off that, going to school again, thing for as long as possible haha. But umm, yeah, hopefully I will have a real art teaching job soon. Unfortunately, it seems like everyone is looking for one of those.

Anyways, I'm in love with the Harry Potter books and that's the reason I found this site. I was bored after the books ended and wanted to read more about the characters and have found some fabulous fanfics on here. My personal favorite genre has become Severus adopts Harry and no matter how many there are, or how similar they are, or even how much my own story is like so many out there, I just can't get enough of them.

Even though I particularly prefer JKR's traditional pairings, I am open to other ones once in a while. And I hate flames. I understand everyone has pet peeves but if someone wants to write a fanfic, they should be entitled to do so without harassing comments. If I don't like something I just don't read it, rather than insult the author. I'm all about positive reinforcement. :)

I especially like happy endings. That's not to say you can't write a fabulous fanfic with a sad ending. I just like my fairy tale endings.

I've only written one story and it's in progress. Second Chances is a story that starts at the beginning of the summer after Goblet of Fire in which Harry is being abused by the Dursleys and Snape finds out. They are forced to live together for the summer so Snape can teach Harry and it becomes a long road to them understanding each other better. The title is Second Chances because I think Snape deserved a better life than he got stuck with in the Canon Books and Harry deserved a real family. So it's a relationship they could both use. I update almost once a week because I'm having so much fun writing it and I know how annoying it is waiting for a story to update when you are so interested in reading it. I've had great feedback so far which also encourages me to write faster. I didn't really plan much of the story out ahead of time and sort of just jumped into it. Now I realize how difficult it is to write out a coherent story, so props to all those fabulous writers out there.

-Mara