Thanks for all the great reviews. Hope you like this installment

Ruth woke up to find a bright light being shined in her eyes. She winced away from the light because it was painful to her sore head.

"Can you hear me?" someone asked. She tried to turn her head away from the light but felt someone holding her face tightly just at the moment the light vanished.

"Can you hear me?" the voice repeated. Her eyes were coming into focus now and she saw a man in a white coat standing in front of her. After a few seconds she realised that she was lying in a hospital bed so this man must be a doctor.

"Yes I can hear you," she said quietly.

"Are you in any pain?"

"My head feels fuzzy," she replied. "I think everything else is fine."

"Okay," the doctor replied. "Can you tell me your name?"

"Er… No," she said suddenly. "I can't. I… I don't know. Oh my God, I don't know my own name!"

"What can you remember?" the doctor asked. He had a sad look on his face that made her see how serious this was.

"Nothing," she said shocked. "Its black. There's… there isn't anything there."

"Her bag had been stolen by some low life thief," Harry said strolling back onto the grid. "Nothing more. I got out of there before I did something to him that would have landed me in a prison cell instead of him." Harry stared around as everyone looked at him.

"What?" he asked in a menacing voice.

"We found something," Dimitri said. "Ruth… she's been attacked. She was hit over the head with something and left on the pavement."

"You're telling me she's been beaten up?" Harry asked.

"Well, being hit once doesn't really constitute beaten up," Dimitri said. Then let it drop after seeing the look on Harry's face. "We've been calling the hospitals to try and find her."

"Good," Harry said. "How long?"

"What?" Dimitri asked confused.

"How long before she got taken to a hospital?" Harry asked.

"Two hours," Dimitri replied, knowing this was not going to go well. He wasn't disappointed.

"Two hours!" Harry shouted. He continued ranting but no one was listening.

"I have a lead," Tariq said quietly but Harry still heard him. "St Joseph's hospital had a woman admitted early this morning. Unknown name, brunette, approximate age late thirties and suffering from a serious head injury."

"I'm on my way," Harry told them. As he was leaving his phone rang. He saw it was the Home Secretary. He answered it and then immediately hung up, not needing any interruptions on the way to the hospital.

She had been poked and prodded by so many doctors she wondered if she was still a human or had morphed into a laboratory rat as well as losing her memory. A unrecognisable female doctor came in. She had a friendly smile and red chin length curly hair.

"Hi, I'm Christine Ward," she said. "How are you feeling?"

"Like you want to tell me something," Ruth replied shrewdly. Just because her memory had vanished did not mean her IQ had been cut in half.

"We have someone who's turned up to claim you," Christine said. "If its too soon for you or you don't want to see anyone…"

"No," Ruth replied. "I can't remember anything about my life, even my own name. I don't know where I live, or what I do for a living. I don't know if I'm married or divorced. I don't even know if I have children. What can it hurt meeting someone who might, just might know me?"

"Okay," Christine said. "Don't panic if you don't recognise him. You probably won't. It is normal for patients in this situation not to remember people who were important to them before their memory loss."

"Fine," she said not really expecting anything to happen when she met this mystery guest. She didn't have that much optimism and wondered if that was a result of the bang on her head or whether she was like that normally.

"He'll be in here in a minute or two," Christine said leaving her alone for a few precious moments.

"Just let me see her," Harry said, sick of arguing with a doctor who looked so happy that she should be on top of a Christmas tree. A doctor who was proving to be a surprisingly difficult challenge to talk around.

"Okay," the redhead said. "But I have to tell you she has suffered major damage to her head and her brain."

"And?" Harry asked waiting for the other shoe to drop. He knew from the look on her face that there was something she wasn't saying.

"Physically she's fine," the doctor continued. "However she doesn't remember anything about her life. Nothing. Its all gone. She's suffering from severe amnesia. Because of this she has been hard to identify which is the main reason we're allowing you to see her."

"So nothing?" Harry asked. "She doesn't remember anything? Not even her own name?"

"No," Christine said. "So please be prepared for her reaction because she probably won't recognise you."

"Okay," Harry said slowly, trying to absorb this information. The doctor moved and opened the door, allowing Harry to go in. It was Ruth. She was sitting up in bed and looked perfectly fine except for a small dressing on her head.

"Thank God you're alright," he said instantly, approaching her bedside.

"Hi," Ruth said blankly. She had absolutely no idea who this strange man was but he seemed to know her.

"You don't know who I am do you?" Harry said lowly feeling disappointment run through him.

"Sorry," she said with a shrug. "If its any consolation I don't know who I am either so its nothing personal."

"I know," Harry said. He reached for her hand carefully and squeezed it reassuringly.

"Clearly you recognise me," she said. "Do you want to tell me anything? Like my name for a start?"

"Your name is Ruth Evershed," Harry said quietly. He watched her face carefully, waiting for a flicker of recognition that never came.

"Okay," she said quietly. "And… you?"

"Harry Pearce," he said feeling his heart break as she clearly didn't recognise him.

"And how do I know you?" Ruth asked. "Am I… are we married or are we together? I mean, how did we meet?"

"No, you're not married and we're not together," Harry said feeling a stab of pain go through him at the possibilities of things that could have been. "We work together," Harry said. "We met about eight years ago."

"Working at what?" Ruth asked confused. "What do we do?"

Harry sighed, wondering how he could explain the inner workings of section D to someone who had no memory. This was going to be a long conversation.

I have a lot of work over the weekend so the next update will be on Monday at the earliest. Hope you enjoyed it, xxx.