Chapter 40

"Lewis." Randall Handler, Lewis' boss, came into his office. "I know this is late notice but, I need you to give Dr Linda Denman a tour of our facilities as you are head of this department and Dr Lawrence is on leave."

"Yes sir,"

"Great, she arrives at noon, I'll bring her here then," he smiled and left the room. He passed Alan as he did so.

"By the look on your face you already know the news." Alan said rhetorically. Lewis nodded.

"Why is she transferring? Randall didn't mention that."

"She's helping out with the new recruits for a few weeks and is helping Randall out personally with a specific report."

"Oh," Lewis replied, "Well, I'm giving her the tour of the facility. This means that I'm going to have to try and not trigger any memories and act like we've just met."

"I hope she won't," Alan said, "I'm sure it'll be fine."

OoOoO

Alan returned to Lewis' office an hour or so later; he was talking to Cleo on the phone

"Yeah…I'll be careful." Lewis paused, "No I won't mention your names if I can help it…Okay but I'm sure Emma already knows…" he glanced over at Alan and smiled. "Sorry Cleo, Alan just arrived…yeah…okay see ya…love you too." Lewis hung up the phone.

"Hey. What did Cleo say?"

"She wants me to careful and minimise unintentional hints. In addition, Jen is going home to a friend's house and Cleo and Will are working late tonight. She wants me to tell Emma about Jen,"

"Right. Why can't she tell Emma?"

"She probably already has, she just wants to remind her. Why are you here?"

"Just to wish you Good Luck, she just arrived."

"Thanks Alan,"

OoOoO

A few minutes later, Dr Randall Handler and Dr Linda Denman were on their way to meet Dr Lewis McCartney, the head of the marine mammals department and distribution of equipment.

Handler knocked on Lewis' office door.

"Come in," Lewis called.

"Lewis, this is Dr Linda Denman, Linda this is Dr Lewis McCartney, your tour guide for when you are here," Handler introduced.

"Nice to meet you Linda," Lewis smiled as genuinely as he could.

"Likewise," she replied as they shook hands. "Have we met before? There's something vaguely familiar about you,"

"Maybe we've seen each other round? Your nephew Alan is my friend,"

"Oh, most likely" Denman seemed happy with this explanation. Randall left Linda in Lewis' hands. Lewis smiled at his guest. "What would you like to see first…?"

OoOoO

Lewis spent the next hour and a half giving Denman a tour of his area of the facility and all the various equipment. When Lewis had shown her the motion activated cameras, she paused as a memory flashed across her mind. She remembered herself and a man; she believed he was her old employee…what was his name, oh yeah, Greg. She saw herself and Greg placing these cameras on a rock. She shook her head, annoyed by the interruption. It was frustrating having amnesia, memories, most of them spontaneous and random like this one occasionally surfaced in her memory, specifics usually triggered by something of significance.

"Linda? Are you alright?" Lewis asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just had another memory," she knew Lewis had been debriefed on her amnesia.

"Well, okay. There here are our…"

OoOoO

Denman's P.O.V

As Dr McCartney showed me inside the many locked storage rooms containing lots of expensive marine equipment, I felt something tugging at my memory. I felt like I knew Lewis well, like I had met him well before today's meeting, it was like I knew quite a lot about him. I shook my head clear of these thoughts and focused on what Lewis was showing me. I had gotten used to the feeling of forgetfulness, the feeling that I should know a certain person or place. These feelings always reminded me that there were some things that I could never remember. I was extremely grateful that I could remember most of my life before the accident; I still had memories invading my mind, usually once a week. I definitely felt a connection with Lewis though, I do not know why…

"And that concludes our tour," Lewis said with a smile I could tell was fake. It seemed Dr McCartney did not like me very much...I blinked back into reality; he was looking at me as if he was expecting a response.

"Linda?" he asked

"Oh sorry," he repeated his question.

"Great, hey could I see that latest report?"

"Sure, it's back in my office," I followed him there, as he searched through his filing cabinet, I looked around the room. I picked up a family photo I spied on the desk. It showed Lewis with his arms around a young woman with tanned skin and long brown hair. In her arms, she was holding a pre-schooler; she looked about three or four. A young girl who looked about five was also smiling at the camera, in front of who must be her mother. My eyes were drawn again to the woman, Lewis' wife. I shook off an over-whelming sense of déjà vu – I knew I had seen her somewhere before.

"Is this your family?" I asked him. A flicker of undecipherable emotion passed over his features before he smiled.

"Yeah,"

"What are their names?"

"That's Jennifer," he said pointing to his eldest daughter, "That's Andrea," he said pointing to the pre-schooler and it seemed he slightly hesitated before pointing to the woman and saying, "And that's my lovely wife,"

"What is her name?" Again, he seemed hesitant of something, but continued.

"Cleo," he said. As soon as he had said the name, a rush of memories floated across my vision. I sat down in the welcoming chair abruptly. The first picture I saw was Lewis and his wife Cleo, only they were teenagers. The next scene was in front of that cafe I had passed by, only it had a different name, Lewis and Cleo along with two other girls. Next was a particular DNA sample I was looking through the microscope at. It quickly shifted again, I saw the three girls in a mysterious pool. Was that a tail? It moved again to the same three girls running on treadmills in a cave. Finally, I saw Cleo and her friends making familiar positions with their hands, water and lightening flying in all directions. Cleo pushed her hand forward and suddenly there was darkness.

I gasped loudly; I remembered everything completely for the first time in years.

OoOoO

Lewis' P.O.V

I should have put that photo away. How careless of me. I pointed out my family members to the one who once was an incredible danger to the love of my life. Jennifer, Andrea and finally Cleo. I was not sure whether I should mention Cleo's name, but when Denman pressed for it, I had to tell her, I mean she just thought my wife was an ordinary girl. As soon as I said Cleo's name however, I knew I had made a mistake. Linda Denman had fumbled her way into the empty chair and now was holding her temples tightly. A few seconds later, she gasped loudly. I waited anxiously for her to recover, I was frozen, was she having a relapse? It seemed she was not.

"I remember...everything," she breathed after recovering herself. This was not good. Not good at all. It felt like now I was the one having the relapse.

A/N: I feel so mean leaving a cliff hanger like that but...

I also feel terrible that I haven't updated in so long. I really have had no time to myself unless you count hours annotating and highlighting sources and filling out evidence templates for a huge history internal/assignment as down time...

Sorry about that, but here is the next chapter and I hope you enjoyed it.