Paul pulled up to Martin's Drugstore and turned off the car. He took a deep breath and looked at Della.

"Ready, Beautiful?" he asked.

"As ready as I can be," she said, with a shaking voice.

They got out and walked inside with pounding hearts.

The drugstore had a cozy feel. Its shelves were organized and well-stocked. There was a soda fountain with a counter where one could enjoy a cold drink. But all this was of no importance to Paul and Della. They quickly craned their necks, gazing past the other customers, to see who was behind the counter.

Their hearts beat even faster when they saw it was a man with black hair and broad shoulders. His back was to them, at first, as he retrieved something from a shelf. Then he turned around.

Paul found it necessary to furtively slip his arm around Della and support her as she began to sway unsteadily beside him. Her dearest wish had been granted. She was looking at a pair of very familiar blue eyes. Perry!

She took a few deep breaths, regained her composure and footing, and nodded for Paul to release her. No sooner had he removed his arm than the customer in front of them pocketed his change, voiced his thanks and left the store.

The man they had cried over and sought tirelessly looked at them without a hint of recognition and said in an even, undisturbed voice,

"May I help you?"

Paul quickly said the first thing that came to his mind.

"Yes, you may. We would like some bandages, please."

"What kind?"

"Made of gauze, good for bandaging small cuts and such."

Perry retrieved the desired item from the shelf. His movements, as always, were decisive. He was dressed more simply than he ever had been in Los Angeles, though. He was wearing a white button-down shirt, brown trousers, and an apron over the entire ensemble. The only hint of his past was the small signet ring on his finger, which, apparently, the currents of the river had not divested him of.

"Will there be anything else?"

"Yes," Della said, "I would like some candy. Do you have any peanut brittle?"

"We have the best peanut brittle in the state," The man behind the counter answered with a persuasive smile. "How much would you like?"

"A pound," Della said quietly.

Perry expertly weighed out the peanut brittle, wrapped it in paper, and put it on the counter. Then he stood silently, looking at the two people in front of him, ready to receive any further orders.

At that moment, Paul's eye fell on a stack of newspapers. Struck with an idea, he picked one up and showed the headline to the woman accompanying him.

"Look, Della," he said, making sure to pronounce her name particularly clearly so that Perry would hear it, "it seems that George Irvam was convicted of first degree murder yesterday."

"Why, yes, it does, Paul," she returned, likewise emphasizing his name.

"It is very lucky for William Hun that he had a good defense attorney when he was tried for the same crime several months ago. Otherwise, George Irvam would have framed him."

"Indeed, he was most fortunate."

Paul glanced at the person behind the counter, and asked, as if he were merely a talkative man trying to strike up a conversation about a favorite topic,

"Have you been following this case? It's fascinating."

Perry smiled politely.

"I've read the paper, if that is what you mean. It seems that a good deal of detective work was done in the previous case."

"Indeed there was, and there were so many brilliant deductions on the part of Hun's attorney, too!"

The drugstore employee merely nodded.

"Well, then, how much will everything be, including the newspaper?" Paul Drake asked, feeling his equanimity quickly slipping away.

"Two dollars."

The blond man pulled out two dollar bills from his pocket and put them into Perry's hand. Then, he took Della's arm, and escorted her out of the store as if it had been the most casual shopping trip of their lives.

They walked back to the car and got in. For a long moment, they stared unseeing at the windshield, both busy with their own thoughts. Then Paul struck the steering wheel with his fist in a gesture of defeat.

"That was," Paul began to say, but suddenly found himself choking on a lump in his throat and had to stop.

"One of the happiest, and saddest, moments of our lives," Della finished for him in a voice barely above a whisper. "Perry is alive, but does not remember you or me…or even his law practice. Perry Mason, one of the most brilliant minds of our day, reduced to waiting on customers at a shop!"

"I was certain that mentioning William Hun's case would provoke some sort of reaction from him!" Paul exploded with frustration. "Perry barely slept, ate or did anything else for the three weeks that he was trying to clear him. He told me it was one of the hardest but most important cases of his career."

"It's not his fault, Paul. He was almost murdered himself a few weeks ago!"

"I know that Della, but I'm a man and as such, I like to fix things. And I have not the slightest idea of how to fix this!"

"This is what we are going to do, Paul." Della swallowed anxiously. "We have to leave him here today, unfortunately, but we will be back…you will come by every few days and try to chat with him about past and ongoing legal cases in Los Angeles and hope that something sparks his memory. And I will work in his office with his colleagues and friends from the bar association and try to keep his law practice afloat for the day that – please God – he will remember. And on the weekends I will visit him here and see if there is anything I can do to hasten the return of his memory. If we are lucky, his amnesia will resolve. And if it doesn't – at least we won't leave him friendless in the world."

Paul nodded his acquiescence to this plan and turned on the engine. Two things were certain. One, Della was definitely leaving her heart behind in that drugstore. And Perry, despite the genius he had been in the courtroom, had been a terrible fool not to see what a gem of a woman he had had in his office all those years.

I absolutely love reading your reviews, thank you to everyone who reviews my stories!

I will try to post the next chapter soon. Della will return to the drugstore and start speaking to Perry...and romance just may begin to blossom.