Mindy looked at Mork blankly as her mind raced trying to come up with a logical reason for pinching his nose and having her finger in his ear. "I'm taking your temperature!" Mork nasally said, "What?" and Mindy nodded, "I was checking your temperature, haven't you ever heard about a mother kissing a child's forehead to check for a fever? This is how my mother used to do it." *Oh he'll never buy that.* Mork smiled, "That's nice of you, Mindy." She smiled back at him and thought to herself, *I can't believe he bought that!*, while he said, "But I think you can let go now." Mindy forced a laugh and pulled her hands back, "No fever that I can see, but we'll keep an eye on that."
Mork pushed himself up to a sitting position, holding his head and the ice pack. "My head feels much better, I think if you help me upstairs, I'll just crawl into bed and go back to sleep." Mindy pushed up from the floor and said, "NO!" He frowned at her, "No?" She shook her head, "I don't think you should try the stairs, why don't you just camp out in my room today." He nodded, "You're right, Mindy, thank you for taking such good care of me." She helped him to his feet and led him over to the door to her bedroom. Opening the door, she helped him crawl into bed and asked, "Do you want me to freshen up your ice pack?" He thought for a minute, "No, I'll be OK, I just want to sleep some more." Mindy said, "I'l come and check on you ever hour and wake you up to make sure you don't have a concussion, OK?" His eyes drifted closed, "OK, Mind..." and he quickly fell back asleep.
Mindy pulled a chair over and sat watching him sleep in her bed. He looked so peaceful, so calm. She was anything but calm. She only had two days to try and figure out how to restore his Orkan memories to him, or he'd be recalled to Ork, a planet he doesn't even remember, and she'd probably never see him again. She only had one idea to try, and that was to tell him the truth and present him with the proof, his space suit and helmet, and hope that she could get his finger to go off or drink or do something. She went back into the living room to try and think of what else she could do. She thought maybe if she told him some stories of some of their adventures, it would trigger a memory of his own and open the door. If it was anything like the door to his emotions, once the door cracked, everything would flood out.
She checked on him every hour all afternoon. She woke him enough to see if he was coherent and knew his name and her name, and then he drifted back off to sleep. Once when she went in, he wasn't in the bed. She panicked for a moment before hearing water running in the bathroom and realizing he was in there. She backed out and decided to check on him the next hour. When she went in the next time, she stood there in shock, as Mork had cut his hair! It was short, even shorter than he had it before when he was acting so human, or when he had cut his hair to get rid of the germs before she went into the hospital for a tonsillectomy. She woke him up, "Mork, what did you do to your hair?"
He sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, "It was getting in my face when I slept and I kept waking up with mouthfulls of hair. Why did I let it get that long? You'd think I slept upside down or something." Mindy just blinked at him, thinking of the trapeze bar he slept on upstairs in the attic. "Mork, you've been asleep all day, why don't you come have something to eat?" He nodded, "My head feels much better, and I'm starving!" She stood by as he climbed out of bed and stretched. "I've got the pancakes ready from this morning, couldn't waste the batter." He followed her out to the dining room, asking, "What can I do to help?" She turned to him and said, "You could set the table." Mork turned and pointed at the table before pausing, as if not realizing why he did that. Mindy recognized it right away as their first breakfast together when they had the same conversation, he had picked the table up using his powers. *The memories are still in there, I just have to get them to come out.* He took the plates from her and put them on the table, and sat down in his chair, frowning at the egg shaped pancakes in a stack in front of him. "Uhm, Mindy, why aren't the pancakes round?" She sat down in her chair. "I always make pancakes that way, Mork, they're Orkan style pancakes." He blinked at her with no recognition at the word "Orkan" at all. They ate their dinner of pancakes and Mindy tried to think of other memories she could invoke that would help him to remember.
After dinner, he helped her with the dishes and said, "I know I've slept all day, but I think I'll turn in early in my own room." She cut him off, sitting on the stairs blocking his way up to the attic, "Mork, do you remember what my greatest regret is?" Mork frowned, and then said, "Yes, that your mother died before she could meet me." Mindy nodded, "And do you remember why that is my biggest regret?" Mork's frown deepened, "Because I'm as close to you as she was, and an important part of your life now." She nodded and said, "And why else..." Mork turned and said, "I don't remember!" Mindy followed him, "You do remember, you just don't want to remember, but you have to!" Mork walked around her and scampered up the stairs saying, "No, no no!" She followed him upstairs, and found him frozen in surprise at the state of the room. The attic had been converted into a "pure Orkan environment" by the Elder, and Mork had left a great deal of that intact after he had his Orkan nature mostly restored. He had kept a few of his things from the old room, but it was definitely not the normal bedroom of a normal human. "Mind.... why does my room look like something from Star Trek?" Mindy stepped forward and took his hand, he tightened his grip on it, obviously scared. "Because you're an alien from another planet just like in Star Trek, Mork, you're from a planet called Ork. You have three hearts, drink with your finger, and you used to sit on your face when you first arrived." Mork's head shook back and forth, trying to deny what she was saying. "I don't remember that, I don't remember any of that." She tugged on his hand to make him face her, "You locked all of your memories of Ork away, Mork, inside of your mind. There is a door there with all your memories of home behind it, and you need to open that door." "No!" He pulled away from her and moved back into the room farther. Mindy continued, "That's why you don't remember anything from before coming to Boulder, because you were in outer space. When Dad tried to give you some water, he knows you can drink with your finger. When I was holding your nose, I was speaking to Orson, your superior back on Ork, that you report to every week."
Mork shouted "NO!" and staggered backwards, coming up against the wall, and dropping down to a crouch, muttering, "I'm human, I'm just as human as anyone else on Earth, I'm as human as Mindy. I'm normal, and I love Mindy and Mindy loves me and she'll be happier with a human." Mindy whimpered, "Oh Mork..." and moved over to sit next to him, resting a hand on his knee, "That's not true, Mork, I wouldn't be happier with a human; the only one who can make me happy is my Mork, Orkan alien nature and all." She leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss against his mouth. It was a kiss that freed his emotions, maybe a kiss would free his memories too. Mork gently, almost timidly kissed her back. She pulled back and looked at him hopefully. But his gaze shifted to his knees and he continued to mutter, "I want to be human, I want to be normal, I want it to be easier for Mindy so she can be happy." Mindy sat down next to him and wrapped an arm around him, trying desperately to think of how to convince an alien that he is an alien and that she's not unhappy about it like he thinks she is.