Chapter Four

Tommy picked up his car keys on the kitchen table and headed for the front door and it took him less than fifteen minutes to find her hotel. He parked his jeep and went into the lobby.

"Can I help you, Sir," the young blonde girl behind the desk asked.

"Yes," he said, "My name is Dr. Thomas Oliver and I need to know what room Kimberly Hart is staying in."

"I'm sorry, Sir," the receptionist replied, "But I'm not allowed to give out that information."

"Please," Tommy begged, "It's a matter of life and death." The receptionist sat behind her desk, scrunching her face, trying to decide what to do.

"Okay," she said, "But you didn't get this information from me. She's in room 3B, upstairs."

"Thank you," Tommy said and left the lobby for the upper part of the building.

Finding her room was easy, but getting the door open was a bit of a challenge. He knocked as hard as he could and got no response from inside the room.

"Come on, Kim," Tommy all but yelled, "Open the door. Please Kim!"

"Jesus Christ! I'm coming," came a voice from inside. She opened the door and stared blankly at him.

"What?" she began and when he didn't say anything, "Did you need to add something to your verbal assault?"

"No, Kim, I…" he began to say.

"Good," she interrupted, yet again, "Goodnight." She closed the door in his face and went back to her bed only to hear his incessant knocking again.

"What do you…" she began to as she opened the door again. This time he interrupted her words with his lips pressed to hers. He wrapped one arm around her waist and pulled her closer and buried his other hand in her hair.

"…want," she finished in a whisper as he only man in the world that could make her weak in the knees pulled away from her.

"To apologize," he said, softly. He was still close enough that she could smell his sweet breath when he spoke.

"Its not like I didn't see it coming," she said, "And I probably deserved it."

"No Kim," he said, "I had no right to go off on you like that. Especially not knowing what I…"

"What you know now," she finished for him and when he nodded, she continued, "So let me guess. You did a little research and found my files and now you feel all sorry and sympathetic? Is that it?" She stared at him for a long time and he didn't answer.

"Kim, please…" his words begged.

"What?" she growled, but he could see the tears welling in her eyes. There was nothing he could say to her because there were no words to tell her how sorry he was for not being there for her. Instead, he watched her break down in front of him. She turned away from him and walked toward the back of the room where the bathroom was. He followed and wrapped his arms around her, holding her own arms to her chest. He turned her around, pulled her into him, and held her there.

When she got to the point where she couldn't stand anymore, he picked her up and sat with her in his lap on the bed.

"You know, you don't have to stay here," he told her, "You can come home with me."

"I'm okay," she whispered, "But I don't want…" She never finished the sentence and he knew that she had cried herself to sleep. He smiled to himself, then stood with her in his arms, and carried her to his car and he covered her with his black, leather jacket.


Kimberly woke up in a dark room, the clock on the night stand next to her read 3 a.m. in a blue light. She sat up to fast and jumped when something moved beside her.

"What's wrong, Kim," Tommy asked in the dark.

"I'm sorry Tommy," she answered, "I just didn't know where I was. How did I get here, by the way?"

"You fell asleep at the hotel and I didn't want to leave you alone, so I brought you home with me," he answered. She slowly laid back down and rolled to face him.

"I want you to feel safe here," he told her.

"I always feel safe with you," she whispered, "You should know that." He smiled in the dark and she smiled back.

"Can I ask you something," he asked.

"You can ask me two somethings," she joked, but his face was serious. Even in the dark, she could see that.

"Why didn't you ever come to us or at least tell us what happened?" he asked in a hushed tone. She was silent for a long time. So long that he'd almost thought she'd fallen asleep again.

"At first, it really wasn't my fault," she began, "When I woke up, I was barely ninety pounds and I didn't remember my own name, let alone any one else's. The doctor's said that the memory loss was from the head trauma caused during the attack. And being in a coma for three months certainly did not help matters any. They told me that my memory would return slowly, over time, but I was so scared that half the time I felt like I couldn't believe anything any one told me. It was like being lost in a forest, layered in thick fog. I had to go to physical therapy and gain at least twenty pounds. It took almost six months to regain my memory fully. When what happened that night came back to me, I had a nervous break down and was hospitalized for a while. I didn't want you guys to see me like that. After a while, things began to get better, but I'd never compete again. I coached for a while and went to therapy for years before I graduated college with a business degree with a minor in music. Over the last nine years, my life has pretty much been one giant roller coaster ride. Just in the last couple of years have I gotten my life back in order. I've been a real mess and afraid of people. Which is the other reason why I never talked to anybody. I was scared to be around people, even you guys. I didn't want anybody I cared deeply bout to see me fall apart like that." After listening to her story, Tommy closed his eyes and took a deep breath before speaking.

"Kimberly, you know that we would have been there for you," he pleaded in the dark, "You could have come to us when you couldn't deal with all of it." She smiled and sighed softly next to him.

"There's nothing any of you could have done for me," she said softly, "I remember hearing my mom say that she should call you guys and get all of you to Florida to see if you could help, but the doctor said it wouldn't do any good because I wouldn't know who any of you were," she said, "You know, he was right. She'd show me pictures and I didn't recognize anything." Tommy remained silent in front of her. He felt defeated.

"I knew that all of you would have been there in a heart beat and you would have stayed as long as I needed if my mother had called and I would have loved it, but this was something that I had to deal with on my own because none of you would have understood what I was going through or how I was feeling," she explained, "The most you could have done would have been standing by and watching me suffer. In turn, you would have been causing your own suffering." He sighed in the dark and touched her arm gently .

"I wouldn't have wanted that," she said.

"I know," he said, "You're right, but I know that every one of us is sorry we never picked up the phone when we didn't hear from you."

"If it helps, I wouldn't have answered if you did," she admitted and continued when she saw his confused expression in the dark, she continued, "I know myself well enough that if some one called, I would have been begging to be saved from something that I couldn't be saved from. I had to face my fear alone."

"You know," he whispered, caressing her cheek, "You are the strongest person I know." She smiled and nuzzled her cheek into his hand and then she met his eyes.

"I learn from the best." she whispered.