At the start of visiting hours the next day, a man came into Lulu's room.
"Is this how you plan to get out of paying for what you did to my son?" he demanded furiously. "You're gonna fake memory loss? You're gonna fake being like your mother? Why didn't you just go all the way and pretend to be catatonic?"
She stared at him, genuinely scared and confused.
"Who are you? What are you talking about? Who's your-""
Quit playing games with me, Lulu!"
"Leave her alone!" a familiar voice said angrily from the doorway.
She looked behind the stranger, at least she thought he was a stranger, with relief. Spinelli stood there, looking a little scared, but very angry and very determined.
"Fair Lulu has been traumatized enough without-"
"You're going along with it, of course. You think this is gonna get her to notice you? She'll dump you just like she did before."
"Spinelli, what's he talking about? Who is he? Wait; I know we're friends. Were we a couple before? Did I hurt you?"
"Mr. Baldwin, another voice said from behind Spinelli, "why are you upsetting my patient?"
Epiphany stood there, imposing, stern and ready to spit fire.
"Formidable Nurse Epiphany has impeccable timing," Spinelli said, smiling at her.
"Who's his son, Spinelli?" Lulu asked. "What did I do to him?"
"You explain that to her if you have to," Epiphany said, "but if you upset her any further I'll throw you out just like I'm about to do to the Special Prosecutor here."
"I won't upset her," Spinelli promised, approaching the chair by Lulu's bed, squeezing past Scott.
"My son is-" Scott began.
"Waiting for you!" Epiphany finished, raising her voice over his. "Now are you gonna go to his room or am I gonna have you escorted out of this hospital so you'll leave Ms. Spencer alone? I don't wanna see you near this patient again!"
Scott left, throwing dark looks at Spinelli and lulu until he couldn't see them anymore.
Spinelli sat down and began to explain the situation with Logan and the Text Message Killer. He was careful about what he told her. He knew from his research, and from what Patrick and Dr. Winters had told him this morning, that Lulu's memory needed the chance to come back on its own. She couldn't be upset, if possible, and she couldn't be given too much information. An emotional shock might bring back her memory, but it might also do more damage.
But it wasn't in his nature to lie to his friends, which was evident every time he tried. He always got caught. He would have to be careful, but honest.
"So this guy, Logan, was my boyfriend and you thought he was the Text Message Killer?"
He nodded.
"And I found evidence to support your claim, but he turned out not to be the killer?"
He nodded again.
"Why is his father so angry with me?"
"You were afraid of him. After finding all that incriminating evidence, you feared he would hurt you, so when he tried to grab you, you hit him with a wrench. He's in a coma now."
"But if he wasn't the killer, why did he have all that stuff I found?"
"You care about someone he doesn't like. He wanted to frame that person for the murders so you would stay away from him and he would go to prison."
"Did he frame the real killer?"
"No, Johnny was innocent, too."
"If you warned me about Logan, why would I go over to his apartment?"
"He was your boyfriend and you wanted to prove me wrong."
"So I end up not listening to you and get myself into a dangerous situation where I have to protect myself by hitting someone with a wrench and putting him in a coma?"
"You tend to frequently put yourself in danger."
"Why?"
"You have a mind of your own."
She knew he was being cautious and why. It frustrated her that she didn't understand all the details and that people were keeping them from her, but she understood that he didn't want to cause her further damage.
"I'm sorry," he said suddenly.
"What for?"
"I only wanted to protect you; I never wanted you to be in danger and the accident you were in last night is partly my fault."
"Why would you say that?"
"I had no hard evidence against Logan, but I told you my suspicions, anyway. I was so intent on trying to protect you that I-"
"Tried to warn me against a potential threat? How dare you do what best friends are supposed to do, especially when you are my best friend!"
She smiled at him, trying to make him wipe that guilty look off his face.
"You don't understand. I- I had already lost one friend to the Text Message Killer and I didn't wanna lose you, too. I selfishly told you about Logan because I needed to know I was doing something to try to keep you safe. You were so angry with me after you hit Logan and we found out he was innocent."
"I'm the one who hit him. Why would I be angry with you?"
"I'm the one who told you he might be the killer."
"What else were you supposed to do, let him kill me if he was the killer? Were you supposed to give him the chance to kill again?"
"But he was innocent and you hit him."
"I hit him, not you, and if I'd had the brains to listen to you I never would have been in a position where I had to hit him. I should have just waited to see what happened instead of rushing over there to prove you wrong. I know he was my boyfriend, but no one with half a brain would do what I did."
"You followed your heart."
"And look where it got me and Logan, me with no memory and him in a coma. None of it was your fault, Spinelli. You were just trying to be a good friend."
"You didn't see it that way before you lost your memory."
"Well, I have a different perspective now."
He hoped he wasn't unintentionally hindering her recovery. He was trying to be selectively honest without being deceptive and he knew there was a very thin line between the two.
"You don't seem to like this Logan guy."
"I don't," he said cautiously.
"What was my attraction to him?"
"You've tried to explain it to me several times. I honestly still don't get it and I- I've needed to try to just accept it. It was either accept it or risk losing your friendship and I didn't wanna do that, especially not after losing Georgie."
"Who's Georgie and how did you lose him?"
"Georgie was a girl. She was my friend. She found out who the Text Message Killer was and he killed her a few days before Christmas."
"That's awful! I'm so sorry! Was I her friend, too?"
"That's complicated. You did something that hurt her. You regretted it later; you were genuinely sorry and she forgave you, but you weren't exactly friends. You didn't hate each other either, at least not by the time I met you both, but- her sister, Maxie, was the one who couldn't let it go and I don't know if she ever will. Maxie can hold a grudge for a very long time. She used to hate me because I was so devoted to you and because I'm- I'm- not exactly normal. Most guys are good-looking, athletic and powerful. I'm- well, I'm The Jackal; what you see is what you get. I have no athletic skills to speak of and before I met you, Stone Cold and Georgie my best friend was my computer. Things are changing slowly between Maxie and me because of Georgie and our mutual endeavors to catch the one who took her from us, but it's too soon to say whether we're really friends or whether Maxie was just being nice to me yesterday because it was Georgie's birthday and we talked at her grave."
"Stone Cold?"
Spinelli blushed.
"I'm sorry; I tend to give people nicknames. They help me organize my thoughts, and with my friends they're terms of respect or endearment."
"Really? Interesting. What's your nickname for me?"
"Blonde One."
She picked a lock of her hair off the pillow and ran it through her fingers, smiling.
"I can see why. Who's stone Cold?"
"Jason Morgan, my friend and employer. You lived with us for a short time when your life got complicated and you needed a place to stay."
"So this girl, Maxie, and I are not friends."
"Not even close; you hate her as much as, if not more than, I hate The Unworthy-" He stopped himself, remembering that his nicknames would confuse her even more. "Logan."
"I hope she's your friend; it sounds like you two really need each other now. Besides, maybe if she's friends with you she and I can patch things up and make things easier for you."
He smiled. Before losing her memory, that never would have crossed Lulu's mind. He felt a pang of guilt at the thought that without her memory, Lulu was a much more thoughtful and logical person.
"Tell me about how we became friends, and don't be afraid to use your nicknames. We're friends and I wanna get to know you again, like I did before. I want you to be yourself with me. You can explain who you mean and if I get confused I'll stop you and we'll get it straight."
He told her about working for Evil Al and the two of them being kidnapped.
"So that was one of the times I deliberately put myself in danger?"
"No, you were an innocent. I was the one in danger; you were in danger because of me. I was too naïve to see the trouble I'd caused myself and others and you happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"But you rescued me?"
He shook his head.
"No, Stone Cold did. I fled while you two were distracted."
He looked away, his face reddening with shame.
"You were scared."
"But I left you."
"We barely knew each other."
"I ran to my Granny in Tennessee and you and Stone Cold tracked me down there, Evil Al's minions following close behind. I not only put you in danger; I endangered my Granny, as well. She's OK, but things could have been so much worse."
"But we're all safe."
He nodded, smiling at her positive attitude.
"So you and I became friends because we were kidnapped together, and by association you and Jason became friends?"
"Yeah, I needed a place to stay and you asked him if I could stay with him. He agreed and I've been living there since then."
"How long?"
"Over a year."
"You're not still in danger from this guy, Alcazar, are you?"
"No, he was killed several months ago. That was actually what sparked the text message killings; the killer was his son, Diego, and wanted to avenge his father."
"I still don't understand. Why do you consider yourself responsible for my accident?"
"I was told that the driver of the other car couldn't stop, that you didn't see him. You've been upset over what happened to Logan. If you were upset and distracted while you were driving-"
"Then I shouldn't have been driving in the first place. As for your part in what happened to Logan, what if you'd been right and he'd been the killer? You already lost one friend because no one knew who he was at the time. If you'd been right and Logan had killed me you and I wouldn't be having this conversation right now."
He didn't say anything.
"Spinelli, ever since I woke up in this bed last night, the only time I've felt safe is when I was with you. Everyone else is a stranger to me. I mean, so are you, but you just radiate this aura of protection and safety. You're not constantly asking me if I'm OK or if I remember something or someone or how I'm feeling. You talk to me like a normal person. You treat me the same as anybody else and I love that. I'm not afraid to ask you anything. I'm not afraid to talk to you. I need that right now. The accident was in no way your fault. You're a good friend, Spinelli, and I only hope I had the brains to know that when I had my memory."
She moved to hug him. He smiled as he returned the hug, thinking their friendship was finally back on track, even if she didn't remember him.
"I need to go for a while," he said when they broke apart, "but I'll be back later. Stone Cold is also here; he injured his hands trying to save two damsels in distress from Darth Diego and needed surgery. I need to go talk to him."
"OK, see you later."
She smiled as she watched him leave. He'd been the only reason her memory loss hadn't sent her into a screaming panic. She only hoped she'd been, and would be, as good a friend to him as he'd been to her.