Prologue

Audrey didn't remember much from after the explosion. Small snippets of whispered conversations, the piercing shrill of an ambulance siren. But most of all she remembered a familiar voice calling out for help from behind a red velvet curtain. She could only see the curtain for a second, just out of the corner of her eye, as soon as she tried to look, it disappeared and the voice stopped calling. Audrey wished that the voice would keep calling out, it was the voice she wanted to hear the most. The voice of her first love and real friend, her Special Agent Dale Cooper. The rest was black.

When she woke three months later, the fluorescents of the hospital room blinded her and the breathing tube in her throat choked her. Suddenly it was chaos, and in a flurry of action, a team of nurses was by her side, cooing at her, telling her to relax and slowly removing the tube. Her father was there within the next five minutes, looking much more haggard than she remembered him, but ecstatic. For the next week, just about everyone in Twin Peaks came to wish her well, but her throat was sore from the breathing tube and made talking painful, and the person she wanted to see most, was no where to be found. Doc Hayward told her she needed bed rest, and that some tests needed to be run before she could go home, and eventually the guests were told to leave. John Justice Wheeler sent her the biggest bouquet of flowers she'd ever seen with an apology for not being able to come in person. She smiled, smelling the sweet fragrant flowers, but felt guilty, knowing that there was someone she wanted to see more than the man she had confessed to love and promised to wait for.

Finally the Sherriff came by to collect an official statement, and Audrey was told that the other men in the bank had not made it. The idea of being the lone survivor made her a bit sick to her stomach, but Audrey was strong. A person doesn't survive living with Benjamin Horne or being kidnapped and drugged without strength.

"Well Audrey, that's all I need from you, so I'll leave you to rest. Again, I'm so happy that you are awake, but I hope in the future you'll try to stay out of trouble!" The Sherriff said kindly and turned to leave.

"Sherriff Truman?"

"Yes?" He turned back to look at her, sitting upright in her hospital bed. Audrey suddenly felt a bit embarrassed and flushed, and had trouble articulating her thoughts.

"Where is… well I guess I mean… Agent Cooper went back to D.C?"

Audrey immediately knew something was wrong because the Sherriff shifted his weight uncomfortably and wouldn't look her in the eye as he slowly approached her bed.

"Audrey, I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but Agent Cooper has been missing since the day of the explosion."

Audrey sat up, wide eyed, "You don't mean you think he was in the bank too?"

"No, no. We believe it was a completely unrelated incident. But the fact is, that he has been missing for three months, without a word to anyone, even back in D.C."

"Well do you think anything bad happened to him? His old partner, the crazy one, did he do something? Sherriff Truman, I just need to know that Dale is alright!" She could feel herself start to panic. Why was Dale calling for help in my dreams?

"Audrey," Sherriff Truman grabbed her hands, trying to calm her down, "Audrey, I won't lie to you and say that I'm not worried, and I wish I had better news to tell you, but Agent Cooper checked out of his room at the Great Northern on the same day as the explosion, stopped at the Double R for a pie and coffee and hasn't been seen since."

Audrey could tell that he was leaving something out, something that made him deeply uncomfortable, and that made Audrey even more uneasy. But despite more questioning on her part, it seemed that Sherriff Truman was resolved not to tell her anything more. However, Audrey Horne had never been the kind of girl to be told no and so, as soon as she was released from the hospital she used her father's not inconsiderable bank account and connections to learn all she could about the disappearance of Agent Cooper. She discovered that Annie, who was left deeply shaken after being kidnapped by Windom Earle, had gone back to the convent after a month in the hospital, and was now practically unreachable, but safe. Albert Rosenfield, told Audrey to butt out, and that she should let the FBI do its job. He was even more disgruntled when Audrey had said, "I wouldn't be asking these questions if the FBI had done its job in the first place and protected its own!"

After a pause he replied, "Listen kid, I've known Coop a hell of a lot longer than you have, and I know that if he didn't want to be found, no one would be able to find him. Not even a spoiled little rich girl like you. So if I were you, I'd just have faith in him and that he'll return someday, and then let it go. Only Coop can bring Coop back now. " Despite the insult, he sounded genuine, but Audrey was so upset that she hung up the phone. Lying in bed, she stared at the wooden ceiling of her room in the Great Northern, thinking of how much Dale had helped her in his short time in Twin Peaks, and wished that she could do something now to help him. Let it go? How could I possibly do that?

Although Doc Hayward had stopped by for a few check ups since her release from the hospital, Audrey hadn't mentioned to him or anyone her reoccurring dream of the room with the red velvet curtains. The dreams were deeply disturbing, every night she watched helplessly, invisibly from the sidelines as Dale was threatened and tortured into submission by a terrifying man with long grey hair. She always woke up just as Dale begged, "No, please, anyone but her…" and the man with the long hair turned slowly, smiling, seeming to notice Audrey, and charged her. She hadn't gotten a good night's sleep in weeks, and it was beginning to wear her down. However, if there was one person that she had unshakable faith in, it was Dale Cooper, and Audrey was nowhere near giving up.