Sorry for the even longer delay this time, but I have a bad schedule, and my mind is starting to wander off to other stories and such. Gomen nasai, perdono, eezveenayti (I think that's right…), and a million other apologies! Enjoy the story, and thanks for staying with the story!

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"Melanie!"

Dominic could hardly breathe as his eyes fell upon a barely moving form lying in front of him on a pasty white bed. The quiet beeping of a monitor filled the room. He inched nearer to the bed reaching out to touch Melanie.

Melanie looked up at the strange man who'd entered her room. She was scared- the man was tall, and very muscular with a shaved head. Was he dangerous? She blinked in confusion and bewilderment.

"Who are you?" came her question, a knife in its innocent brutality.

Dominic held back a breath as he choked out words. "You know who I am," he whispered to the girl lying in front of him with a blank face. She had to know him. She had to know who he was.

"I'm your boyfriend," he pressed on, urging her to remember.

"I don't…I don't have a boyfriend. I don't even know your name," Melanie whispered, ducking her head a little further underneath her blanket. She was scared of him; she didn't know the man standing in front of her.

The doctor came in behind Dominic with Mia at his heels. He sighed when he saw the pained look on Dominic's face and took him into the hallway to speak privately with him and Mia.

"I'm afraid she has amnesia, Mr. Toretto. We have performed a few tests on her to see just how much she's forgotten, and speaking for her mental capacity, she has kept all of her academic knowledge intact. She has started to remember her parents, and friends that have been with her for most of her life. We've actually been able to calculate how many years of information Melanie has stored in her mind, and that is sixteen years, along with any of the curricular classes she's taken. It's very remarkable indeed that Melanie has been able to retain so much after a crash with such an impact," the doctor paused to breathe and continued, "However, we used pictures that she kept in her purse to see if she could recollect who the people in the photographs were, and she drew a complete blank. She could not recognize them at all. Those pictures were of you, your sister, and a few of the people gathered in the waiting room. I'm terribly sorry."

Dom felt anguish flood his whole body as he sought to understand why the woman who loved him so much couldn't remember him. "Is she going to get better? Will she eventually remember me?"

The doctor shook his head sadly, "Unfortunately, there is no telling as to whether a patient will definitely remember everything. The only thing that can be done is to wait and help her. If she doesn't remember you, you may need to either restart a relationship, if she wishes, of course, or simply break ties with her, as the pain may become unbearable to you. It's happened before."

As the doctor finished, Dom pulled the door to Melanie's room open again, sat by her on the bed, and placed a hand on each of her arms, shaking her gently.

"Come on, you have to remember me! You know me; you love me! Can't you recognize my face? We were fighting just a few days ago, you know, on how your parents didn't like me! We're supposed to talk-" he felt himself being jerked away by a pair of strong arms while Melanie sat in front of him, crying.

"Get away from me!" She yelled, looking at him with hurt eyes that flashed from green to brown. "Please, don't hurt me! Don't come near me again!"

Dominic froze at her words, too shocked to move. "We were gonna talk about getting married…you said you'd thought about being my wife," he whispered like a heartbroken child reaching out for affection. "You love me…"

His big brown eyes brimmed for a moment as Mia pulled him outside, back to Dr. Hastings.

The disappointment showed in the doctor's eyes as he began to lecture, "Mr. Toretto, can't you understand that she's just come out of very intense surgery? Don't you see that she needs some peace, and all you're doing is stressing her out? What you have done may be traumatizing towards her recovery! I'm going to have to ask you to leave immediately."

Dom looked back through the small glass window at his girlfriend, huddled together with her hands resting on her knees, as if she had indeed been further traumatized.

She has to know me…she can't just forget me like that, amnesia or not…he thought to himself, watching her turn to stare at him. He mouthed, "I'm sorry" to her, and attempted to wave feebly at her, but all his beloved did in reply was to shake her head and look away. Dominic sighed as the deep brown hair he'd always used to run his hands through fell down her back. She wasn't his anymore, and he'd done nothing wrong; done nothing to deserve this kind of torture.

Just then, the other members of the team; Letty, Leon, Jesse, Vince and Brian approached the door and Vince moved to turn the knob. Dom shook his head as a signal to leave her alone and glanced at Mel one last time as he turned to face the others.

"She…the crash had a major impact on her head. She can't remember anything past the time she was sixteen, except for whatever she did in college. Melanie doesn't know who we are," he explained to them, choking on the very last sentence.

Everyone's jaws dropped in disbelief as they realized that they'd lost a member of their team. All of those years they'd spent together were nothing. She was just a ghost of the team, no role anymore. Surely, she wouldn't want to rejoin them, how could she? They were part of the reason she'd gotten into this mess, not that she knew.

Letty pushed into Leon's arms and cried softly- Melanie had been like another sister to her, and Jesse just looked at the ground and paled even more.

Vince recovered a little bit and started to push everyone out towards the hospital exit. "Come on, guys, she'll get it in her head that we're a team, and everything will get better, I know it will…let's just go home and let Mel rest for now…"

After the team had gone, Mia stopped Dominic and hugged him. He still looked like a stricken child. "Don't worry, Dominic. She loves you; she just doesn't know it yet. Remember- the mind may forget, but the heart doesn't. She'll come back to you."

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*sniffle* Melanie and Dom are over…or are they? Someone has a plot in mind for Melanie; now that she's become detached from the team…will this interfere with Dominic's efforts to regain his one true love?

Find out in…Chapter 8: The Art of Persuasion!