Because he had received mostly good news before he had left the hospital Paul found himself able to relax and to enjoy his evening. He tried not to think about the potential for amnesia because if he did he would end up spending most of the night on Google looking things up.

The next morning when he was buzzed in to ICU he was suspicious; Cassie was sat there clearly waiting for him which made him think the worst, "What happened?"

Quickly getting to her feet she shook her head, "Nothing, we just need to talk a minute before you go in."

"When a woman tells you they want to 'talk' they're normally breaking up with you, as I'm not dating you it can't be that so forgive me if I am suspicious."

A soft laugh passed her lips and she shook her head, "I'm serious Paul, we need to talk about what to expect."

He hadn't been joking around, he was suspicious and it turned out he had every right to be. "So tell me, exactly what bad news are you about to drop on me?"

"It isn't bad news; it's a dose of reality." Sitting back down she patted he seat beside her and waited for him to join her before she began. "You know that there is a chance that Stephanie has amnesia, you just don't know how bad things are for amnesia patients. If it is short term amnesia they will slowly regain their memories and it will come back over time so that isn't such a big deal, if it is long term amnesia then that poses a much bigger problem. If somebody can't remember anything then they have to re-learn everything, some it can be as bad as them having to learn to walk again and some it is simply that they need to re-learn people, places, that kind of thing.

Luckily for Cassie he had been on Google over breakfast, his Mom would have killed him for eating and surfing on his iPad but he did. "I know. I did some Googling this morning, I can't guarantee that all of the information that I found was accurate but I felt like I needed to know something just in case."

"And you're still here?"

"Yes?" There was confusion as to why she thought that he was going to walk away. "It's not like she will actually want me to stay for long term."

"Or will she?"

He didn't even know why he had suddenly decided that she wasn't going to want him around when last night she had been pretty clingy and desperate for him to stay. "Okay fine, I don't know why I just said that but what happens if I do stick around and she has like long term amnesia and can't remember shit? I don't know her family or her business or anything useful to teach her."

Pretty much nobody that worked at the hospital wanted her to have long term memory issues; everybody wanted the happy ending for her. She didn't know what to say to him though; she had nobody anyway so it wasn't as if he would be taking her away from people who actually knew those things.

"You are about as much in the dark about Stephanie's future and past as I am. In all of the time that she has been here in the hospital not one person has been to see her so why are you so desperate for me to walk away and leave her with nobody at all?"

"It isn't that I want you to walk away from her; I just know that you have been through a lot yourself and the last thing I want to do is add to the things that you are going through by including Stephanie in that. Before you get all cranky and tell me that you have dealt with your wife's passing and all of that as a Nurse, and your friend, I still remain concerned about you because I know how hard amnesia hits not only the patient but those around them and I don't want to add to the ever growing pile of things you have on your plate."

As sweet as it was that she cared and as happy as he was that she was giving him all of the information it was old for him to have people treat him like he was fragile. "Spoiler alert, I'm not a china doll that is going to shatter into millions of tiny little pieces. We're doing all of this talking about how hard it is to deal with amnesia but she may not have it and she may not even want me around. Why don't we take it one day at a time and I will allow you to act like my Mom and constantly check up on me and if the worst comes to the worst I will listen to you if you think I am getting overwhelmed by it all and are not recognising it."

Impressed by his level headedness she was glad that he was willing to actually listen to her and take on board her opinion. "Why don't you go and say good morning to Stephanie then? I'm not sure that she has woken up but you can still go and see her."

"I promise you that I will not wake her up, she needs as much sleep as she can possibly get."

The two separated allowing Cassie to go and get ready to begin her shift and he entered Stephanie's room and smiled at how peaceful she looked, it was a much nicer feeling knowing that she had woken up so there was no stress to it. Taking a seat beside the bed he took her hand in his, "Good morning, I hope you're enjoying your sleep."

He relaxed in the chair beside the bed gently rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand occasionally. Eventually her hand flexed and her eyes began to flutter open, "Hi there."

Rapidly blinking her eyes she tried to focus on her surroundings and put a face to the presence beside her that was so comforting. "Where am I?"

That was a question that he hoped he wouldn't get in trouble for answering, "You're in the hospital, you were in an accident and got hurt so you really shouldn't move about too much."

His voice was familiar but she didn't recognise him at all, he was a complete stranger to her. "Who are you?"

"Paul, my name is Paul Levesque and it is very nice to meet you at last Stephanie."

"Who?"

What who? Who was he or who was she? "I don't understand." He hoped he got a decent clarification that didn't scare the shit out of him.

"Who is Stephanie?" She was feeling a lot less drowsy than last night but she still didn't know anything.

Fuck, she didn't even know her own name, this was bad. "Are you hungry or thirsty or anything?"

"I am thirsty please."

Quickly standing up he turned to get her a drink but realised there was nothing there. "Hold on please, I just need to get you some water."

He made a sharp exit out of the room and straight to the Nurses' station not recognising the face nor caring who they were either, "You are a Nurse here right?"

"I am. I am covering a shift, I don't normally work ICU I'm afraid so please bear with me but what can I help you with?"

He could feel his stomach doing somersaults the more he thought about what she had said in the room, he was really worried for her now.

Receiving only silence to her question she almost felt unqualified to be here, "Uh Sir, can I help you with something?"

"Sorry." With a quick shake of the head he freed himself of cobwebs, "Can I please get some water and a glass for Stephanie please? There is nothing in her room right now. Can you also pass a message on to whatever Doctor is on duty right now and tell them that Stephanie does not even know her own name please?"

"There is no water in the room? I am really sorry about that, I will fetch some now and bring it right in. I can also pass that message on for you; I assume they will understand what I mean?"

"Unfortunately yes. I am going to go back and sit with her but thank you and I'm sorry if I was rude."

A soft smile came to her lips, she didn't know who he was or who the patient was but it was a high pressure environment so it could all be understood. "It isn't a problem Sir, it really isn't."

Returning to the room he took his place back beside the bed, "The Nurse said that she would bring some water now."

"Thanks." She forced a smile for him but she wasn't feeling the smile because she didn't even know who she was.

The same Doctor that had been on the night before was on again so when the Nurse approached him and passed on the message he knew exactly what it meant and he really didn't like the news.

Sat beside Stephanie he could see the fear in her face and he knew that she didn't know what to say. "Is there anything you know?"

She wished she knew something but she was too afraid to admit that she didn't know anything about herself so she deflected it, "How do I know you?"

"You don't." The way she avoided his question concerned him.

Was he playing with her? How could he possibly say that when he knew she was struggling remembering anything.

The look on his face made him realise that he hadn't given her enough information to make her happy. "Okay so I'm not trying to mess with your head but we really don't know each other. You didn't have anybody sitting with you when I came by one day so I offered to sit with you and well here we are." He didn't want to give her too much information as she had only just woken up and she hadn't seen the Doctor.

If she could remember the people that she used to know then she would actually ask him questions.

An awkward silence had come over the two of them but it was broken by the Nurse appearing with a jug of water along with a glass and a straw. "Here you go. I'm so sorry that there wasn't any before. Would you like me to help you with a drink?"

"No thanks . . . this guy will."

'This guy' wasn't exactly a promising start but he'd take it as it was understandable. "It's okay. Thanks for the water but I'm happy to help her." Standing up he began to pour her a glass of water before he stuck the straw in it, "Are you ready?"

"Ready, thank you."

With his help she managed to soothe her throat with a much drink before he helped to situate her comfortably again.

Ten minutes later and the Doctor walked through the door, "Good morning Stephanie, how are you doing today?"

"Okay?"

The Doctor forced a smile and made a quick note before he carried on. "Are you comfortable?"

"My body hurts and I don't remember any thing or any body."

"You have some injuries which I will go in to later; I think I need to have another scan done so I can check your body out. As for your memory, I need to have some tests run on it so just hang in there and I'll run tests and get to the bottom of things and explain it all to you after. For now though relax and if you need painkillers let the Nurse know." Before he left the room he turned to Paul, "Can I have a word outside please?"

"Sure." Unsure of what he wanted with him he got to his feet and followed him outside.

Once they were out of Stephanie's earshot the Doctor's face took on a serious look, "The Nurse passed on your message, thank you for that."

"It's okay. For what it is worth her short term memory is affected too as she couldn't remember my name after I had told her."

"That may just be an after effect of the sedation but I will pass that on when I get the Neuro Psychologist to come and run some tests on her. I'm going to go and see if I can get the tests run as soon as possible."

"Thanks Doc." The speed that he wanted to get answers for her was great but he had completely forgotten to ask about what answers he should give to her questions and he didn't want to mess it up.

Leaving the Doctor to go back to his job he went back into the room, "Are you okay?"

"I guess. Tell me about yourself please."

"There isn't much to tell you." He sat back down beside her unsure of how much he actually wanted to tell her about himself.

"Please? When you don't know anything about anybody then you'll take anything." It was strange sitting with him, she felt like she should be touching him, so much so that she actively reached for his hand as it rested on the bed.

When she reached for his hand he allowed her to pull it closer. "My name is Paul, I'm thirty one years old and I work in sales."

"Are you . . . with someone?"

Shaking his head the last thing he wanted to do was get into his story so he was going to deny deny deny.

Silence fell over the two of them and she began to play with his fingers, she felt weird like she had done something wrong.

Things between the two were awkward but she was still quite tired so she soon found herself unable to stay awake any longer and drifted back off to sleep.

Much to his relief she slept most of the morning away so by the time lunchtime came and he had to take his break he had been able to avoid any more personal questions.

With Paul having just left Cassie entered the room to see if Stephanie was awake. When she walked in she saw that she was just waking up so silently walked to the end of the bed to check on her charts as she had been busy this morning.

"Who are you?"

Her attention was dragged from the charts when she was addressed by Stephanie. "My name is Cassie, I am one of the nurses here that have been looking after you. Can I get you anything right now?"

"Where is . . . that guy that's been there?" It felt weird without him around, especially when she couldn't remember anything.

She felt bad for her that she didn't even seem able to remember his name, "Paul has gone for some lunch, I have been making sure that he goes and eats lunch every day otherwise I threaten to kick him out."

"How long has he been sitting with me then?"

"I can't remember exactly as all of the days are merging in to one right now. I think that it is just over a week but he has been here with you all day every day."

He said that they didn't know each other but he had spent so much time together so did they actually know each other and he was lying to her? "Can I ask you a question please?"

"Of course you can, I will try to answer anything that I can."

"Do I know him and just can't remember him? He says that we don't know each other but I don't know."

This was awkward, how did she explain it to her? Moving to sit on the edge of the bed she could tell that she was struggling to process things and the lack of memory wasn't helping her. "You really don't know him at all. I promise you that with all of the research that has been done on you since you came in that I can guarantee that. It might be that you feel like you know him because he spent so long talking to you that you just recognise his voice, they do say that coma patients can hear when people are talking to them."

It was beginning to annoy her how she couldn't remember anything. "I hate this, I hate that I cannot remember anything. Can't you give me something to fix this?"

"Unfortunately not, there is nothing that we can do to fix a broken mind. It will get better though, you just have to give yourself time to heal."

She didn't want time to heal, she wanted to know everything and she wanted to know it now.

As she looked at the woman lying in the bed Cassie could sense that it was time for her to make a fast exit as she needed some time on her own. "If you need anything there is a buzzer right beside you and one of us will be right in."

Stephanie was too deep into being frustrated and feeling sorry for herself to hear what was being said to her, she just wanted to be better and she wanted it now.