Lee awoke with a start. He'd been having another nightmare. He shook his head hard. Who was Amanda? In his dreams he was sure he knew who she was, but when he woke up, she was gone again. He knew that she was someone important to him, but that was all. He glanced at his bare left hand. He wasn't wearing a wedding ring, so that was a good sign that she wasn't his wife, but who was she? What exactly was her importance to him? He could make himself crazy with these questions. All he knew about his life was that he lived in Washington, DC and that someone in his life was named Amanda and that she was a big part of his life. At least he thought she was. Why else would she appear in all his dreams? He got up. He had to find out the answers. He started opening drawers and cabinets looking for his clothes. He had to get out of there. He crossed the room to another cabinet and stopped short when he felt a sharp pain go through his head. He shook it off and continued on his mission just as Dr. Wright walked in.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" He exclaimed at the sight of his patient. "You shouldn't be up and around yet!"
"I have to get out of here! I have to know about my life!"
"I understand how you feel, but..."
"No, you don't understand, I have to get out of here now! This is making me crazy!"
"I can't let you do this!"
"Look, either you let me out of here now, or I'll just walk out, with or without you. I'm not going to stay here any longer! I want to go home!"
Dr. Wright threw up his hands in frustration. "All right, you win. I'll have you released this afternoon and make travel arrangements for tomorrow. But you have to agree to keep up with your medical treatment."
Lee nodded. "Ok."
"But for now, I want you to get some rest. We're going to be very busy in the next couple of days and I don't want you having a relapse."
Lee nodded. Dr. Wright started to leave. "Hey, Doc." Lee said.
Wright turned around "Yes?"
"Thanks."
"Mm-hmmm. Now get some rest."
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Meanwhile, at a different hospital in Berlin, Billy and Amanda are talking to the doctor that turned Lee's case over to Doctor Wright.
"I'm so sorry about your agent that was killed. There was nothing we could do. He was already dead when they brought him in."
Amanda bit her lip, trying very hard not to break down again. "I want to identify the body." She said.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am. I don't think that's a very good idea. The explosion tore him up pretty badly."
Amanda was not discouraged. "I don't care. I want to identify the body!"
Billy looked at her. "Amanda, I don't think you should..."
"Don't give me that. I have to know for sure, Billy." Billy knew that determined look on Amanda's face. He'd seen it many times before. He sighed and nodded for the doctor to show them the body.
"Ok." the doctor said, still unsure. "Follow me. Billy and Amanda followed the doctor through corridor after corridor until they reached the morgue. They walked into the room and the doctor walked over to a table with a body covered by a sheet. "I warn you, it's not pretty." "
"Please just show me the body," Amanda persisted.
"If you insist." He pulled back the sheet. Amanda looked at the mangled corpse in front of her and couldn't help but imagine Lee's face in place of the badly burned one. She turned and immediately lost the contents of her stomach onto the floor. She felt incredibly weak. She held onto the table for support. Billy came up behind her and helped her. The doctor hastily covered the body back up.
"I'm ok, Billy." she said.
"Come on. Let's go outside." He led her to a chair in the corridor. The doctor pick up and envelope and followed.
"This is what we found in the rental car he was driving." He handed it to Billy, not sure Amanda was able to handle it. He opened it and shook out the contents. In it was what was left of Lee's badge and a plain gold wedding band. Amanda picked up the ring and examined it. She knew it was Lee's. He had a habit of carrying it with him when they were apart on cases. He always told her it made him feel closer to her. She started sobbing, crying on Billy's shoulder, knowing now that her husband really was gone forever. Billy put an arm around her to comfort her and just let her cry until she couldn't cry anymore.
The doctor fidgeted not knowing what to do. He was young and hadn't had much experience with this kind of thing.
"Is there anything else you can tell us about the day this man was brought in?" Billy asked.
"There was another man brought in who was still alive. His case was turned over to Dr. Wright. He's in a small clinic north of here."
"I'd like to talk to this other man if possible." He hoped this other person could help them at least figure out why Lee had been in West Berlin without letting anyone at The Agency know. "Can you give us the address, please?"
"Sure. I'll go get that for you." He said, eager to get away from this hysterical woman.
Billy turned his attention back to Amanda. "Are you ok to continue?" Amanda could only nod. "Ok, let's go find out why this happened."
Billy was constantly glancing over at Amanda to make sure she was all right as they walked into the clinic together. He was worried about her. She'd picked up too many of Lee's habits. She was determined to search for the answers that she would probably never find.
Amanda was thinking about the time that she and Lee first talked about keeping their marriage a secret. The words he'd said to her kept ringing through her ears. "That could be you one day talking to strangers about your dead husband, trying to unravel the truth about his death, knowing you'll never find it." She had always known that it could happen, but now that that day had arrived, she couldn't believe it.
She smiled slightly as she remembered his enthusiasm only a few days before that when he had been planning their future. All his plans and dreams were gone. There would never be softball games in the back yard or two cats and a front porch swing.
Billy and Amanda approached the front desk in silence, both lost in their own thoughts. The attendant looked up and asked, "May I help you?"
Billy flashed his badge. "We're interested in a patient that was transferred here from another hospital late Tuesday night. Possibly a John Doe. The physician was a Dr. Wright."
"Oh. Yes. I remember. He was involved in an explosion in one of the hot spots. He was released just about an hour ago."
"He's gone?"
"Damn! I was hoping to talk to him about the bombing. Do you have any idea where he was heading when he left here?"
"No. He left with Dr. Wright."
Amanda was getting irritated. She wanted to know what had happened to Lee. "Do you know where we could find this Dr Wright?" she demanded impatiently.
"No, I'm sorry. He's a guest here. Sort of a loan-out from the EAO. He's only here a few times a year. He travels so much, it's impossible to tell where he'll turn up next. I know the patient that was here needed a lot of attention so he'll probably be spending a lot of time with him."
"But you don't know where?"
She shook her head. "None of the EAO doctors are required to report to us. Once the patients leave our clinic and are released into the care of outside physicians, we don't know what happens to them. I can tell you the patient was an American and that he had at least partial memory loss due to the head trauma he suffered during the explosion."
"Great!" Billy said. "I don't suppose you'd know where this explosion actually occurred, do you?"
"No, I don't, but I can tell you who does." She wrote down a name and address on a piece of paper. "This is the man who's in charge of the investigation. Maybe he can help you."
"Thanks for your cooperation." Billy and Amanda headed out the door both feeling a little frustrated.
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Billy and Amanda weren't the only frustrated ones. Lee couldn't stop pacing back and forth in the hotel room the doctor had been staying in. He was deeply annoyed at himself for not being able to remember any of his life. He didn't even know if he had any family that might be missing him now. All he had were the pictures that had been found in his wallet and half of a driver's license. What kind of life was he going to have now when he didn't even know who he was or where he came from? He pulled out the pictures again and stared at the one of himself and the brunette woman holding hands. Amanda, he thought but that was it. Why could he remember her name and nothing else? They way that they were smiling at each other in this picture, they obviously meant something to one another. Why couldn't he remember?
Dr. Wright watched him with growing restlessness. He knew that this man was going to have a rough road ahead of him He just hoped that he would hang on and see it through. He'd had patients in his situation in the past who just decided to give up without a fight. He was pleased to see that that didn't seem to be the case with his new patient. He was a fighter, he could see that already. He just hoped it would be enough.
"Hey, listen. I've got a flight booked for us this afternoon to take us back to the states. We should land at Dulles around 8PM DC time and I've already got my colleagues at the EAO setting up a facility for your care and our legal department working on trying to figure out who you are, try to make sense of the partial address and the like so we can notify your next of kin of what's happened to you. For now though you should get some rest. You're still recovering from a nasty head wound."
"Yeah," he said lying down still gazing at the photograph. He fell asleep with that picture in his mind.
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