~ Chapter 58 ~

"Oh, my gosh! You managed to get past whoever's out there. I can't believe it! How did you find me?"

Marlena's words gushed out in a torrent as she stared in wonder at the man before her. How could he possibly be here? Was she really about to be free? Speaking in a whisper, she held a finger to her lips in warning.

"Shh! We need to be quiet. They can't know you're with me, or…"

Casting panicked glances towards the door, she unconsciously held her breath, expecting her kidnappers to come bursting into the room at any moment. As the seconds ticked by, she became increasingly bewildered at their apparent lack of response to her companion's arrival. He moved in her direction, and when he spoke, his voice was calm and low.

"It's okay. You're safe. There's nothing to fear. No one's going to hurt you."

Raising his hands in a gesture meant to soothe her, he continued to walk forward. His palm was curled around something metallic, and a shaft of light glinted off its surface. Almost instinctively, she stepped back, as a horrible realization hit her. It was a key. This man was her captor.

For several minutes, Alex gazed at the sketch Frank had drawn, shock and disbelief rendering him speechless. Once he finally regained his voice, his rage erupted.

"How could he do this to her?! The bastard's got to know she'll be terrified. I'll kill him!"

Frank was fighting a strong urge to utter a few profanities of his own. Despite this impulse, his belief in basic human decency won out.

"I doubt he was thinking straight."

Alex turned and practically growled at his mentor.

"Don't you dare defend him! There's no excuse. None. I don't care how upset he is. Nothing justifies putting her through such trauma."

"I agree with you, son. I just thought you might want to consider the good news in all of this. They don't have her. He does. And while he may be desperate, you know she'll suffer no harm at his hands."

"None more than she already has, you mean."

"No doubt she's extremely frightened, but she will get over it. Especially with you to help her."

"Which I can't even do yet. We know who took her, but we have no idea where she is."

"That information might be easier to obtain than you think. May I use your laptop?"

"Of course. And Frank…"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry I snapped at you. It was…"

"Perfectly understandable," Frank broke in, offering his protégé a warm smile. "No offense intended, and none taken."

"Thanks."

Alex sat in silence, watching as Frank accessed one of the Agency's top-secret files. A few mouse clicks later, with an image and an address clearly visible on screen, both men grinned triumphantly.

"You never cease to amaze me," Alex declared, open admiration reflected on his face. "When did you develop such prodigious computer skills?

"Retirement left me with far too much time on my hands," Frank explained modestly.

Alex chuckled.

"Only you would have time to spare while fulfilling your priestly duties and running a psychiatric practice."

"You know I'm easily bored. And I still don't sleep much."

It was a shared legacy from their Agency days – one that was standing both of them in good stead, as the hours moved inexorably towards midnight. In spite of the lack of rest, their minds were sharp and clear. Having memorized the relevant information, Frank logged off, while Alex grabbed some bottled water and a few snacks, in anticipation of a long drive ahead. As the two men shrugged into their jackets, Frank endeavoured to bolster Alex's spirits.

"All we have to do is program the address into the GPS, and you'll be with her again before you know it."

"You may need to keep me from tearing him limb from limb."

"Just focus on Marlena, son. Let me be the one to deal with John Black."

"Why?"

It was a single word, but the tone of its utterance spoke volumes. And with that one word, his heart sank. She knew. He didn't know how she'd figured it out so quickly, but she knew.

In that initial moment, when her first instinct had been to believe that he was there to rescue her, he'd been prepared to go along with it. To play the hero. To let her lean on his shoulder, and draw on his strength. But none of that was going to happen now. Now, he had to explain his actions. And if the expression on her face was any indication, she wasn't in a forgiving mood.

"Why, John? How could you do this to me?"

What could he tell her? How could he make her understand? Silence stretched between them as he struggled to come up with an excuse that would sound credible. Something she wouldn't instantly dismiss. Nothing remotely convincing sprang to mind.

"You kidnapped me."

It was a statement of fact, not a question, and the harsh reality of it overwhelmed him. In his desperation, he'd likely ruined any chance he had of getting her back. But maybe, just maybe, he could salvage this. It hadn't been his smartest move, but it had been a grand gesture, designed to make her see how much she meant to him.

"I prefer to think of it as having spirited you away for some alone time."

"You drugged me! You left me in a dark room, with the only exit locked from the outside! This was hardly a surprise date gone wrong."

"Would it help if I said I was sorry?"

Too little, too late.

"Only if you really mean it. Do you?"

John hesitated before answering, debating whether honesty would be the best policy in this instance. Ultimately, he opted for the truth.

"I am sorry that you were frightened, but I don't regret bringing you here."

"Then I have to ask again – why?"

"I… I wanted… a chance to talk."

"A chance to talk?! You didn't have to kidnap me for that. We were talking this afternoon, at the penthouse. You took off. If you had more to say, you could've stayed."

"I was too upset then. I wasn't thinking clearly."

"And you are now? This is what thinking clearly looks like to you?"

"I know it doesn't seem that way, but I was desperate. Can't you understand that? We'd just signed divorce papers."

"Papers that you served me with. You're the one who set this in motion."

"I'm sure you've realized that the papers were a ruse. I didn't really want to divorce you."

Marlena feigned ignorance.

"You didn't? What did you hope to accomplish, then?"

"I hoped to shock you. To make you come to your senses. To jolt you into remembering."

"Well, you succeeded in doing that."

"Yes, you finally remembered, but even that didn't turn out the way I'd planned," he grumbled, unable to keep the disappointment from his voice.

"You thought I'd fall back into your arms."

"Of course, I did! How could I have imagined any other outcome?"

"And you were so disappointed when I didn't react the way you expected me to..."

"That I snapped. I guess you could say I temporarily lost touch with reality. I had to figure out some way of getting you back."

"And your brilliant solution was to kidnap me."

"This wasn't some macho ploy, Doc! I was fighting for my life. Fighting for us. Fighting for our love!"

"Scaring me half to death was hardly the best way to do that."

"I had to get you alone, so that you'd hear me out. I couldn't take a chance that your shrink would interfere."

John's tone had taken on a churlish quality. Marlena worked at composing herself before responding.

"What does Alex have to do with this?"

"Everything! I knew that, if he got to you before I did, he'd fill your head with lies. He'd make sure that, even though you had your memories back, you'd want nothing to do with me."

Anger, fierce and white-hot, flared within Marlena at John's criticism of the man she loved. She flushed a bright red, as she bit back an irate retort.

"You're wrong about him. He's been scrupulously fair when it comes to you."

"Yeah. Right. I don't believe it."

"That's your choice, of course. But it's the truth. He's urged me to consider my feelings for you very carefully, given the circumstances. To make sure I was embarking on the right course of action, once I'd remembered..."

Her words trailed off abruptly, and his curiosity was evident as he studied her face.

"Once you'd remembered what? What circumstances are you talking about?"

She was quiet for a moment, as she contemplated how much to reveal.

"This isn't my first bout of amnesia," she admitted softly.

"What are you saying?"

"I've had amnesia before. I'd forgotten a huge chunk of my life, from long before I met you."

"Come on. That makes no sense! How on earth could you even think..." His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "It's that quack. He put this notion in your head."

"John, you really have to stop blaming Alex for everything. Yes, it's through my sessions with him that I realized the truth, but it's not as if he manufactured a past for me."

"Why not? He's capable of it. He's been messing with your mind since he got here. It's no great stretch to assume he could've implanted false memories in you."

"That's not how it is at all! When will you accept the fact that Alex has my best interests at heart? His entire focus has been on helping me regain my past, so that I can move forward with my life."

"So that you can move forward with him, you mean," John snarled with ill-concealed bitterness.

"What are you accusing me of?"

"I'm not accusing you of anything. Your psychiatrist is another story entirely. I believe that he's been plotting to steal you away from me, from the day he met you."

He didn't have to steal me. I was his, willingly, from the start.

Marlena deliberately kept her face expressionless. No need to alert John to the fact that his speculation was uncannily accurate. She decided that a diversionary lie was in order.

"Alex hasn't been plotting against you, no matter what you think. But he has helped me rediscover events that were buried so deeply, I'd forgotten them for decades."

"He's actually helped you remember something? Really? And here I thought it was the divorce papers that had jogged your memory."

"They did! They reminded me of my recent past – the one I'd shared with you, and Don, and Roman. But Alex was the one to open the door to those distant years. He got me to recall all of my repressed memories."

John grunted in frustration.

"How can you be so gullible? It's obvious that this so-called earlier amnesia never happened. It's merely a suggestion that North whispered in your ear during some bogus hypnotherapy session."

"Enough, John! Stop denigrating the results I've achieved with Alex. It's due to him that I know who I want to spend the rest of my life with!"

A sensation of having been punched in the gut caused John to exhale sharply, but otherwise, he remained silent.

"I remembered my first love," Marlena confessed.

When John failed to respond to her revelation, Marlena examined him carefully. He was grimacing, as if in agony, and his face bore a greenish tinge. Had a bowl or bucket been within reach, she would've handed either to him instantly.

It was clear that her latest admission had stunned him, to the point of physical distress. And yet, she didn't regret being honest with him. He needed to know, in no uncertain terms, that her affections lay elsewhere. That nothing was to be gained by grand gestures meant to reawaken their love. As strong as it had been, it was in the past. Alex was her future.

"Who is he?"

The words were a mere croak, as if the very effort of speaking them was painful.

"Someone I met at university."

A sound like a bark emanated from his throat. It took her a beat to recognize it as laughter, harsh and bitter.

"So, you're giving up on us – on the wonderful life we built together – for some guy you knew half a lifetime ago? Are you nuts?!"

"I'm perfectly sane, thank you very much."

"I don't agree. You might no longer have amnesia, but I think you've plumb lost your mind."

"I haven't. I'm very serious about this, John. This man is my true love."

"Okay, let me get this straight. You've remembered some long-ago love affair, and based on nothing more substantial than a few memories, you've decided you want this guy back?"

"Yes."

"Has it even occurred to you that he might not want you? That he might be married, with a family, and be perfectly happy? Are you so selfish that you're willing to pop back into his life and screw all that up?"

"Not that it's any of your business, but he's unattached."

"And you know this how?"

"The internet is an absolute marvel. There's Google, social networking…"

"So, you hooked up again on Facebook?"

The idea was so ludicrous that John snorted in disbelief.

"Something like that. Trust me, I've done my research. We've reconnected, and he's as interested in resuming our relationship as I am."

"Do you expect me to just accept this? To blithely step aside while you move on without me?"

"I do. You gave me my freedom this afternoon, when you signed the divorce papers. I intend to take full advantage."

"Like hell, you will! I am the love of your life, and I won't let you throw away everything we had for some futile attempt at resurrecting a long-dead romance!"

As John's voice rose, so did he. Impulsively, he reached out and, grabbing Marlena roughly by the wrist, yanked her against him. His other hand found its way to her jaw, and he tilted her head back. His lips inched towards hers.

"John! No!"

Her refusal sent him over the edge, rendering him incapable of rational thought. His fingers entangled themselves in her hair, immobilizing her, and he tried to kiss her once more.

"You're mine!"

Just as Marlena began to fear that she'd have to submit to John's advances, the echo of approaching footsteps caused them both to freeze. A wave of relief coursed through her at the sound of a familiar, and most welcome, voice.

"You don't really want to be doing that…"