A/N: Hello again everyone! I'm back with another update! Before we get started, I'd like to give a huge thank you to everyone that read last chapter! I'd also like to give a huge thank you to winterschild11, Riku child of Dawn, Guest, Side1ways, spookje10, and RainbowDiamonds for reviewing! I'm so glad you all are enjoying the story so far! :)

I hope you all enjoy the new chapter!

Six Weeks Later

The second half of February was proving to be miserably cold. There'd been a dusting of snow last week, but now it was nothing but below-normal temps and wind gusts.

That hadn't stopped me from taking my daily five-mile runs. As I locked my front door, I thought again about stopping by the hardware store this week for paint. The door was chipped and faded, no longer the bright red it had been when I bought the house. Come to think of it, the hunter green shutters could also use a fresh coat of paint, ad shriveled leaves still littered the lawn from fall's damage months ago. Unfortunately, my two-bedroom was in need of more love and care than I'd had time for lately, having again taken on more shifts than usual, since we were down a paramedic. I could've used several more hours in a day...or a clone.

'It's fine. I'll fix it up when spring hits.' I thought, heading down the front porch steps, and as I did, one of the bricks came loose, wobbling beneath my foot.

Great. Another thing to add to the list. Not that I had any reason to complain. All in all, it was a cozy home, a nicer one than I should've expected on my meager budget.

After shoving the house key inside my sweatshirt pocket, I began a slow jog across the street toward the lake that served as the central point of the neighborhood. A wide sidewalk lined the entire circumference of the lake, and since it measured almost exactly half a mile around, it made it easy to keep track of my laps.

I started out with an easy pace, letting my muscles warm up to the cold. Running was a way to clear my mind from everything work related that threatened to drive me crazy. Pushing myself was the only way I'd found to let go of what I couldn't control and put it behind me, so I guess it was a therapy of sorts.

The past week had been unusually rough, the icy conditions in the mornings caused a slew of car accidents, and with every call we responded to, my mind went back to James.

I hadn't seen him since the day he woke up, but… I thought of him often. My guess was that he was still recovering and hadn't yet gone back to work, but I didn't know for sure. We didn't have any mutual friends in common, that I knew of, to ask how he was doing, and I wouldn't even dream of tracking down his address to find out for myself. Okay, that was a total lie. Maybe I'd thought about it, but I didn't think I would actually do it.

At the halfway mark directly across from my house, I upped my pace, enjoying the burn in my muscles as they stretched. My breath came out in white clouds as I took in the clear, crisp day, and it hadn't escaped my notice that I'd only passed a small handful of joggers and walkers out this morning. Usually, it wasn't surprising to see families feeding the ducks that hung around the lake, or nearly bump into kids on their bike, but freezing weather didn't entice people to leave their comfy beds.

'Bunch of slackers.' I thought with a chuckle.

"Logan?"

I was so thrown off guard by the voice that had come from behind me that I nearly ate pavement when my knees threatened to go out. I slowed to a stop and then turned around, lifting a hand up as I squinted in the bright sun. When I got a good look at who it was, my jaw dropped.

"James?" I said, completely dumbstruck that he could be standing a few feet away, in my neighborhood of all places. It was like thinking about him just made him materialize.

In a pair of black athletic pants and matching jacket, and wearing a beanie cap, James crossed the patch of grass that separated the walking path from the houses that backed up to the lake. His smile was friendly as he walked toward me. "I thought that was you."

"Wow. You look…" Unbelievably handsome? Surreal? Alive?

"Better?" He chuckled and shoved his hands in his jacket pockets. "Yeah, kinda hard not to be."

"Definitely better than the last time I saw you." I tried not to give him a once-over, but it was proving impossible. I'd almost forgotten how gorgeous the guy was. "Are you, uh..doing okay?

"I am, yeah." He looked down at himself and then smiled back up at me. "My body's all healed, just waiting for my mind to catch up."

Oh no… "What do you mean?" Even though I knew exactly what he meant.

"The doctors told me I might have some short-term memory loss due to the accident and the amount of drugs they used to keep me in a coma for a few days. Seems to a bit more permanent, though."

Jesus. "I'm really sorry to hear that."

"It's okay. Frustrating, but…" He shrugged and kicked a small rock on the path into the lake. "Sorry, I didn't mean to stop your run, it's just...well, I don't recognize many people nowadays, so I guess I got excited to see a familiar face."

Familiar...me? I was familiar? Definitely surreal.

"I also wanted to say thank you." He went on. "It's strange that I can't remember much from before my accident, but I remember what you did for me." His voice dropped low. "I don't think I could ever forget."

Despite the cold, heat crept up my neck. My first instinct was always to downplay my role, but with James, I found myself saying, "I'm just glad to see you're doing better."

We stood there awkwardly, neither of us really seeming to know what to say. But then again, we didn't actually know each other, did we?

"Did you… Were you going for a walk?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah. I've been trying to get some fresh air. Slowly get myself back up to speed, you know?"

Screw my run. I wasn't about to pass up the chance smacking me in the face. "Would you like to join me? I don't really feel much like running this morning anyway."

James' face lit up. "Sure."

I moved to the outside of the path so he could take the shorter inside and then let him set the pace, not wanting him to overdo it.

"Is this too slow?" He asked as we settled into a casual stride. Not speed-walking, but not exactly a leisurely stroll either.

"Not at all. This is great."

"I've been trying to work up to sprints. I'm just not quite there yet."

"Oh yeah? Do you run?" Shit, how would he remember that? "I mean, uh…"

James laughed. "I know what you mean. And I don't think so. From what I've been told, I wasn't really into sports all that much. I played hockey from time to time and went for walks, but I wasn't too active."

I chuckled at that. I didn't need to look him up and down again to see that he was probably wrong about not breaking a sweat regularly. He was a little leaner than he'd been before the accident, but prior to that, James had an athletic build that I'd taken notice of, and thought about often, so he had to be spending some time in a gym.

As we passed by my house, I said, "Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?"

"You can. I might not know the answer, though." He joked.

"Maybe not." I said, my lips quirked up. "But… what exactly do you remember?"

He fell silent beside me and looked out at the ducks passing by the water.

"It's weird. I remember pieces from the day of the accident. Like stopping at a gas station for a drink, but they didn't have what I wanted." His cheeks tinged the slightest shade of pink as he said, "I remember your face. I know we spoke, but I have no clue what was said. I know I was dressed up to go somewhere, to work, I think, but I can't tell you where that is or what I did. And before that? I guess that's where it gets tricky." He pulled his beanie down and blew out a puff of air.

"When I woke up in the hospital and saw my parents, I thought I was dreaming. They look older than the last time I saw them. And Shane, my brother? He's not even in middle school yet, but they tell me he's getting ready to graduate high school. And, sure, he looks it. But my brain doesn't really comprehend that I seem to be missing a ten-year chunk of my life."

I let out a low whistle. "Damn. Ten years? So that'd make you, what?"

"Seventeen." He said. "Almost eighteen. But my driver's license says twenty-seven."

Oh my God. Seventeen? He thought he was still seventeen? I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with that information besides internally freak out.

"It's not all cut and dry, though." He continued. "I have flashes of things that seem to have come after high school, and I remember a few things here and there, but nothing really makes sense."

"Like watching a movie of your life, only you don't really recognize the characters."

He squinted at me, the sun in his eyes. "Exactly."

We were coming back up to the house we'd come down from, and I inclined my head toward it. "Is that your house?"

"What?" He followed my gaze. "Oh. No, it's my parent's place. I've been staying with them since…" He shrugged. "The house they say is mine doesn't feel like mine."

"I can't imagine." What would it be like to lose all that time, all those memories? The people you knew, the places you went. Your job. Your whole life as you knew it, bam, gone in a flash. And would he ever get them back, or would he have to basically start over from scratch? How did you push a reset button on your life?

"Enough about all that." James said, breaking through my thoughts. "Tell me about you."

"What about me?"

"Well, considering the only thing I know about you is that your job is to keep people from dying, I'd say tell me everything."

I laughed. "You don't want to know everything."

"Sure I do. We'll start easy. How old are you?"

"Twenty-six."

"And are you married? Have a girlfriend?"

I almost choked out a laugh. "No. And no." And then, to state what would become obvious soon enough, I said, "No boyfriend, either."

James did a double take. "Oh." He said, not seeming bothered by it, but rather like he hadn't considered it. "Why not?"

"I guess you could say I'm married to my job." Oh, and I seem to have it bad for a seventeen-going-on-twenty-seven-year-old guy who can't remember much of anything about the past ten years of his life.

"So you live alone?"

"Just me, myself, and I."

"Any pets?"

"Nope."

"Is your real name Logan?"

I shook my head. "Technically, my real name is Hortense. But I hate the name so I just started going with Logan."

"Logan…?"

"Mitchell." I said, and when I stopped walking, he looked back at me and then backtracked over.

"What? Did I ask too many questions?"

"No. It's just that you never told me your mane, James…"

"Oh. Diamond. James Diamond."

"Pleasure to meet you, James Diamond." Freakin' Diamond? I'll be damned if that's not the most perfect name for this guy. I held out my hand, and he stared at it for a moment before he shook my hand with a lopsided smile crossed his face.

"Nice to meet you too, Logan Mitchell."

I let go of his hand, not because I wanted to, but because he might start to question why I wanted to link fingers so soon after introducing ourselves.

As we began to walk again, James said, "I'm really glad I ran into you today, Logan."

"Me too." I said, trying to keep my voice nonchalant. "I'm glad to see you on your feet."

"I wasn't sure how to reach you. You know, to tell you how grateful I am for what you did."

"You don't have to do that."

"You're kidding, right?" James shook his head. "You go around saving lives like some kind of superhero and don't even want to accept a 'thank you'?"

I snorted. "A superhero?"

"Yeah."

"I don't think I've ever been called that before." I said. "Which one?"

"Which superhero?"

"Yeah. If I'm gonna be one, I better at least be one of the good ones."

When James' brow furrowed, I realized too late that, shit, maybe he didn't remember any of the characters names. But then he said, "Superman."

"Whew. I'm so glad you didn't say Ant-Man."

"Who?"

"Uh, never mind."

I was surprised how easy the conversation flowed as one mile turned into two. James had a never-ending set of questions for me, and I was only too happy to answer every single one. For someone who'd gone through what he had in the past few weeks, he was remarkably... not bitter. Instead, he was curious, friendly, and open. As open as he could be, anyway.

As we closed in on our fifth lap around the lake, I could see that he was starting to get a bit winded. From the little I knew about him, he seemed to be the type who would power on even if he wasn't feeling up to it, so I decided to give him an easy out.

"I should probably head back home, get ready for work." I said as we reached the stretch his parents' house sat on.

"Oh." James said, the expression crossing his face equal parts relieved and disappointed. "You work on weekends too?"

"Not usually, but I've been covering more shifts lately."

"Does that leave any time for fun?"

Fun? What was that? I'd always been the guy my friends called to hang out, but I'd turned them down so much working crazy overtime that they'd stopped asking. Damn, when had I become so lame? "Not much." I admitted. Though that needed to change, and soon. Although I'd said that after Christmas too…

"That's too bad. I think you work too hard."

As we slowed to a stop, I gripped the back of my neck before lightly scratching it. "You might be right."

"I am right."

"And you look way too smug about that."

"I'll be smug when you tell me you took a day off to go bowling or something."

"Bowling?"

"Or bar-hopping or hiking or whatever it is you do for fun."

"Bowling." I said again, laughing. "Well, I'll keep you posted on how it goes."

"You do that. And Logan?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks for the walk."

"Anytime." Really. Feel free to join me anytime.

"Are you out here everyday?"

"About five days out of the week, usually. I've been working a lot lately, so sometimes it's still dark out."

"Okay. Maybe I'll catch you out again soon." He said, and it sounded like a question to my ears.

"Well, it looks like we're neighbors, at least for now, so I don't think you can get rid of me."

I hadn't meant it the way it came out, and I hoped he wouldn't get the wrong impression. Well, it was the right impression, but I hadn't meant to give it to him or anything so… Ah, shit. Screw it.

"It'd be nice to have a friend nearby." He said, pushing his hands in his pockets. "One I remember, anyway."

Friend. Yeah, I'd always had a lot more than friendly feelings for James, but I could handle this friendship thing. There was something so endearing about his straightforwardness, and the inquisitive, open way he approached the world after the trauma he'd gone through. I'd always thought of him as just a bit reserved, maybe hesitant, when I'd seen him at Gustavo's, but this version of James seemed to be anything but shy.

"See you later, Logan." He said as he headed across the patch of grass that led to the gate of his parents' backyard. As he went to pull the gate shut behind himself, I stopped staring long enough to wave goodbye.

But who was I kidding? This was so far from goodbye that it was practically a new beginning.

Done! So James and Logan seem to have reached "friend-status" pretty quickly! And it seems that James is suffering some setbacks in the memory department, but he seems to be handling it pretty well.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter!

I'm almost done with the next chapter, so hopefully it'll be up tomorrow!

Until then!

-Epically Obsessed