She opened her eyes groggily to find him smiling down at her.
"Dale." She rasped, lifting a hand towards him.
"Don't talk, wait a moment."
He reached across to the pitcher of water on the bedside table and poured her a glass, holding it to her lips while she sipped gratefully.
"How are you Annie?"
"I've felt better." She manages a smile up at him. "Where am I?"
"You're in the hospital. Do you remember anything?"
Annie hesitated for a moment, then shook her head. "Dreams. Just fragments of dreams. Red curtains. Weird voices….. I don't know…"
Then she see's something.
Something in Dales eyes that makes her blood freeze in recognition.
But he doesn't notice.
She's always been good at hiding her feelings.
"Nothing." She reiterates, even though for a moment she thought Dales eye's went opaque, that his smile became overly wide, predatory.
Harry puts his head round the door and Annie thinks she's see's a flash of irritation cross Dale's face. But he's smiling, it's only his eyes that give him away to her.
"Coop, Hawk just called in. Seem's they found Leo Johnson."
Dale turned back to Annie and gently brushed her hair back from her face. She smiled hoping he didn't notice how she'd had to force herself not to recoil. "It seems I have to go. I'll be back Annie." He kissed her hand tenderly and she managed to smile weakly as he left.
She watched him leave and exhaled, hadn't realised she'd been holding her breath.
Shakily she stroked at the scars on her wrists, a reminder of a time …..
No.
Not now.
She'd always been perceptive. Too perceptive… Too receptive, that's what her mother had said. Too open to the world and all it's secrets.
They'll burn you up, she'd said.
And they had.
They'd put her in the hospital and then running away to the convent.
That's not Dale.
The thought made her sick.
It's not him.
She swung her legs off the bed and sat for a moment, gathering her thoughts.
She had to get out of here.
Had to tell someone.
But who?
The only person in Twin Peaks she could envisage herself explaining this too was Dale, and he was….. Changed.
In the back of her mind she thought she heard soft jazz, a saxophone maybe.
Meanwhile.
Meanwhile.
Someone walking past her room caught her eye.
A young man with a head dress on, flowers in his grasp. He stopped and turned towards her, frowning slightly, then, plucking a bloom from the bouquet, he stepped into her room and handed it to her.
"They're for Audrey. My sister." He said hesitantly.
Annie thought he sounded like he'd not spoken to anyone for a very long time, his words hesitant, as though he was rolling them around his mouth, not sure if he liked the taste f them.
"You've seen." He said quietly, then without another word he left her. The flower in her hand the only solid memento of him being here at all.
