Standing Tall

“You?”

“Yes.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t believe this.”

“Believe it.”

“How is that even possible? She doesn’t even know anything about sports.”

“She didn’t then, but she does now. Well, she knows hockey. And you had a lot to do with that.”

“My mom? Rebecca. Rebecca Caruso. Single mother…never goes out because she doesn’t want to leave me alone? That woman...met you at a bar?”

“Yes.” Scott chuckled at Tyler’s disbelief. “And because she couldn’t have cared less who we were, made me want to get to know her more.”

“I don’t believe this.” Tyler had been saying those words repeatedly over the past few days since he awoke in the hospital. Once Rebecca had discovered that Tyler didn’t remember anything about Scott being a part of their family, she immediately went into panic mode. But Doctor Drake assured her that is very common for something like this to happen and that given time, his memory may return. She encouraged them to give him information about their current lives, not all at once, but a little at a time. Sometimes hearing a certain detail about an event could trigger something within the brain and release all of the memories that aren’t accessible at the moment. So each day Scott and Rebecca gave Tyler a little piece of history from the past two years.

The first thing they told him was that they were married. The second was that he had a little sister. Seeing the confusion on Tyler’s face was extremely difficult for Rebecca but she hoped that by the time they brought him home from the hospital he would have regained all of his memories. Scott actually found humor in the fact that Tyler didn’t believe anything that they told him, especially about Gia, until he “met” her when they brought her to the hospital the next day.

“I wouldn’t lie to you. She was so adorable being all standoffish and borderline rude,” Scott laughed. “My only regret is not forcing her to give me her number that night. For a month I couldn’t get her out of my head. So one night I asked Luke if he had gotten Tiffany’s number and asked him to get me your mom’s. It only took him about two minutes…but it took me another few hours to actually make the call.”

“And that’s all it took?” Tyler asked.

“Well, no. It took some finessing for me to convince her to go out on a date. But that date changed my life,” Scott said.

“Apparently it changed ours too,” Tyler chuckled. “I can’t believe my stepdad is a Philadelphia Flyer. I must have become the most popular kid in school.”

“Well I don’t know about that…pretty sure you were always popular,” Scott laughed. “But getting to tell you friends that you got to hang out with the team sure made you popular with the girls.”

"Aw man...and I don't remember any of it. This sucks," Tyler responded.

"It'll be alright Ty...just think how much attention you'll get from girls now that you're injured. Girls love to nurse guys back to health," Scott smirked remembering all the times girls would fawn all over him for just having a black eye after a fight in a game.

"Are you seriously telling our son to use his injuries and memory loss to get girls?" Rebecca asked as she walked into Tyler’s hospital room. Rebecca had been released the day after Tyler woke up and had returned to work the next week at Scott and Tyler's insistence.

She had just picked Gia up from her mother's house and stopped on her way to the hospital to pick up cheesesteaks for them to have for dinner since Tyler was getting tired of hospital food.

"I'm not telling him to do anything...I'm just saying you girls can't help yourselves when we're injured. It's like we're cute little puppies that need saving and you're the savior," Scott smiled and leaned down to give both of his girls kisses before removing Gia from her mother's hip.

"Right...the only true part of that statement is the fact that you are a dog," Rebecca smirked.

Scott mock gasped. "Do you hear the abuse I take from your mommy?" Scott asked Gia. Gia just smiled and squeezed her arms around Scott's neck. "She's lucky I love her," he smirked.

"I don't believe this," Tyler spoke from his bed. Scott and Rebecca shared a glance and smiled at each other. "Ma, did you get the steaks? I'm starving," Tyler groaned.

"Yeah sweetie. Just the way you like it. Hopefully you won't be here too much longer and then you won't have to worry about hospital food anymore," Rebecca answered as she placed the sandwich in front of Tyler on his tray.

"When am I going home anyway?" He asked as he tore open the wrapping and took a large bit of the cheesesteak.

"Not sure yet bud. They want to make sure you're healing and there's no problems with your surgery," Scott said as he also dug into his cheesestteak.

"I feel better. I just wish I could remember," Tyler said.

"It'll come back. But in the meantime, we get to reminisce," Scott winked at Rebecca who just rolled her eyes.

***********

"Alright Tyler, I think you're good to go home. I'll have the nurses draw up the necessary paperwork and then you'll be on your way," Doctor Drake said.

Another week had past and Tyler didn't show any signs of complications from the surgery, so Doctor Drake felt he was able to go home. Tyler was so excited to hear this news that he almost jumped off of the bed to run out of the room.

"Finally! I'm so ready to blow this popsicle stand!" Tyler exclaimed.

"Ty, we're not leaving yet," Rebecca smiled, "give them time to get everything in order." Tyler huffed his disapproval and laid back down on the bed.

"Now Tyler, if at anytime you have any memories come back, let your mom or stepdad know, okay?" Doctor Drake said.
"Will do, Doc," Tyler responded with a salute. Rebecca and Scott chuckled. They thanked the doctor for all that she had done for them before she left to go give the nurses Tyler's release information.

"Gia will be so happy to have you home...and so will we," Rebecca said as she held Tyler's hand.

"I can't wait to sleep in my bed," Tyler sighed, "but wait...where does Gia sleep? Our house isn't big enough..."

"We don't live there anymore honey....we moved into a bigger house before Gia was born," Rebecca explained.

"Oh," Tyler frowned.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"I don't remember it," he said, hanging his head.

Rebecca placed her hand on his shoulder gently to try and comfort him. "That's alright sweetie. You will."

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

A few hours later, the Hartnell family was sitting in their den watching television. Tyler was trying to make himself comfortable on the couch but wasn’t having any luck. Seeing Tyler wince in pain, Scott got up and vacated his large recliner so that Tyler could be more comfortable.

With all of the information Scott and Rebecca had given Tyler over the past few weeks, there was one item that they delayed telling him. Although Tyler was alright with Scott becoming his father and taking his last name prior to the accident, they weren’t sure if the same would be true now. Neither of them knew exactly how to bring up the issue either. Luckily for them, Tyler was full of questions.

“So, since your married now…is my last name going to be Hartnell now?” Tyler asked out of the blue, but not showing any kind of signal of whether it would be a good thing or a bad thing.

Scott and Rebecca both looked at each other before Scott began, “Well, before the accident we had a conversation about how you felt about having your name changed.” He paused, glancing over at Rebecca who nodded for him to continue. “Before the accident, you wanted to have your name changed. We had thought about me adopting you, but without consent from your biological father it wouldn’t be possible.”

“Right, because he’s never been around,” Tyler said.

Again, Rebecca and Scott looked at each other. Rebecca spoke this time. “I was hoping to avoid telling you this, and I’m not going to go into detail about all of it, but your father had made contact with us right when Scott and I started dating. You didn’t want to have anything to do with him, and after some things happened he left again. There was no way he would give his consent for Scott to adopt you, he was that spiteful. He didn’t want us to be happy.”

“So our plan was to just change your name since we only needed one biological parent’s consent. But now we’ve filed the paperwork for me to legally adopt you and remove your father’s parental rights to you,” Scott said as he held Rebecca’s hand.

Tyler looked confused for a moment. “What changed between now and then?”

“After the accident, you and your mother were both unconscious. Because I was not a legal guardian for you I could not give consent for the surgery that you needed and obviously your mother wasn’t able to either. Long story short, after convincing your father that it was in your best interest to sign over his rights to me and give consent for the adoption, I was able to give the consent for the surgery. I also had the paperwork filed the next day. But if that’s not something that you want…” Scott trailed off looking to Tyler for approval.

“Well…” Tyler paused.

“Tyler, stepparents don’t have any rights when it comes to minor children unless they have the proper documentation. Even though Scott has only been a part of our lives for a short time, he loves you like you were his own son. Your biological father only wanted to be a part of our lives when it was convenient for him. Before the wedding, Scott wanted you to feel like a part of the family which is why we talked about changing your last name. This way there wouldn’t be anything left of your father,” Rebecca took a moment to compose herself, feeling tears form remembering everything they’ve been through with Brad. “After the wedding and everything calmed down we were going to have the name change done. And then the accident happened and forced Scott to take matters into his own hands to do what was best for you.”

“And you’re okay with that?” Tyler asked his mother.

“Without a doubt. I know you look at Scott and just see the hockey player. You don’t remember the guy that I dated, that took you to the rink to watch the team practice, took you to Phillies games for guys nights, or Gia’s father. Although I would never change anything about my past or your father, Scott is the father that I wish you were able to have growing up. Like I said, he loves you just as much as I do and with everything that’s happened I know that there isn’t anything he wouldn’t do for us,” Rebecca responded.

“Look Ty, if you’re not comfortable with it, we don’t have to do it. I can have the paperwork put on hold until you’re ready. Or you can do whatever you want when you turn 18. I just didn’t want to have to deal with a situation like this ever again. I agonized every minute that you both were unconscious. I couldn’t let anything happen to you…I mean, if you couldn’t get the surgery you needed and something happened…I would have never been able to forgive myself. But just because your last name is different than ours, it doesn’t mean you’re not my family. I’ve considered you my family since the first moment I knew I loved your mother,” Scott admitted.

Tyler sighed. He could hear the words they were saying, and he knew they meant them, but he didn’t know how he felt about changing his name. What would his friends say? Would they understand? Who changes their name at 17 anyway? Who would he be then? “Can I have some time to think about it?” he asked.

Rebecca’s shoulders fell but Scott remained poised. “Take as much time as you need,” Scott said.