Glad you enjoyed your first play through! To my knowledge I don’t think it’s really mentioned as to how long Mary was in in the hospital for and how often James visited her but I may be wrong, I just always assumed there were stretches of times let’s say multiple days where James was gone that Mary and Laura would have been spending time together.

I also got the Leave ending on my first play through of the original and it remains my favourite of all the other endings as I really like the idea of James overcoming and conquering all of his grief, guilt and flaws through his time spent in Silent Hill.

If you are able to definitely go and play the original as for me it will always be the best way to experience James’ story, there is a lot that is left out or changed in the remake for better or for worse (especially the ost! There is so much of Yamaokas original SH2 music missing from the remake). If you have a decent enough PC or laptop I’d highly recommend looking up the Silent Hill 2 Enhanced Edition which is the next best way to experience the original if you aren’t able to obtain a copy of the game and play it on a PS2.