A/N: Yay! This story has had remarkably great reception so far, which pleases me. Here's the deal on the other stories too: Future of the Past will be continued. Once again, I threaten cancellation and all my loyal readers come out of the woodwork to save it, so thanks. Frozen in Time progresses slowly. It'll get at least a few more chapters and, depending on how they are received, may get a few more after that. So that's the way it looks. This story will continue to receive updates as long as my readers are interested.

Also: A reader (I won't mention names to protect them from being branded a creep) has requested an "Ebi Unmasked" on my Twitter feed. As in, I'll put up a picture so you can see what the real Ebi looks like. I'm not sure how I feel about this—your idea of what I look like is probably much more flattering than what I actually look like. So I'll put it up to you—do you like the mystery of Ebi and his dormouse? Or would you rather I put up a picture? Let me know. But first read and review!

"She should be fine for the time being, as long as someone keeps a close watch on her," Dr. Shannon told me once she had exited the exam room and removed the filter that protected her from the contagion. "Be careful around her, Mark," she advised. "The virus can be contagious if you're exposed to high amounts. We've put extra precautions in place to ensure Maddy doesn't spread it anymore than she already has—she's got her own re-breather type filtration system—but I recommend you wear one as well." She handed the mask to me and I put it on.

"Can I go see her?" It was the only thing I cared about. Dr. Shannon nodded and I went in. And there she was—the same, brilliant girl that had come through on the tenth pilgrimage. But she didn't remember that anymore. She was lying prone on the bed, looking terrified. "Hey," I whispered softly, trying to avoid scaring her, but she jumped anyway.

"Y…you again?" she asked, her eyes widening. I nodded slowly. "Wh…why are you here?"

"I came to see you," I offered simply. I knew the protocol—I wasn't supposed to mention any new relationships she had developed after reaching Terra Nova. It would confuse her further and could hamper the recovery process. We were back to square one, and Maddy would have to get to know me all over again. In one sense it was nice—no more disaster date that ended with us spending the night in the trees—but on the other hand this was much more painful. We had fallen in love once. Would Maddy fall in love with me again?

"Why did you come to see me? Where's my mom?" She started looking about frantically.

"It's okay, Maddy. It's fine. Your mom is right outside."

She shuddered, blanching a bit paler. "Please…please just go…go away. I…I can't help you right now. They say I'm sick." A tear trickled from the corner of her eye to the pillow beneath her. "Please…" she whispered again. I resisted the urge to try and comfort her. Any physical contact would spook her worse than she already had been. I swallowed the tightness in my throat and nodded.

"Don't worry, Maddy. I'll come back." She whimpered and I winced, realizing how my words could have been construed. "I'll come back to check on you. I just want to know you're alright, okay?" I paused. "I just want to be your friend." For so long I had dreaded hearing that phrase fall from her lips. It was even more painful saying it to her, even if she had no recollection of what we once shared.

"No," she said softly. "No you don't. You…you just want me because I can tutor you…or you can cheat off me. You don't want to be my friend. No one does." She rolled over and I could hear a soft sob escape her.

"What do you mean?" I asked, my brow creasing as all the little tidbits of her past came flying back to me. "What do you mean no one wants to be your friend?" She shook her head, not turning around, but her back was shuddering visibly with each sob. "Maddy, I swear I'm not like all the other people who've hurt you…" She shook her head again and I knew how cliché the statement must have sounded. How many people had played her before? She wasn't a fool. She learned from her mistakes. So now I had to find a way to convince her that I wouldn't be a mistake. Easier said than done. "I'll come again tomorrow, okay?" I received a few sharp gasps in response but nothing else, and I took that as a cue to leave.

Dr. Shannon eyed me worriedly as I stepped out of the exam room where Maddy was still resting.

"Hopefully we can produce a synthetic copy of the root soon—we're working on isolating its DNA," she told me. I had no clue what it meant, but with luck Maddy would remember soon. "She can't forget you, Mark," her mother continued. "You meant too much to her while she still had the memories. She'll remember."

I could feel my throat tightening again. "I hope so, Dr. Shannon," I replied tensely. "I really hope so."

It was a sleepless night for me. All I could think about was Maddy, lying in that bio-bed, confused and sad and lonely and scared. And, unlike most people here, she had no way out. Because this wasn't Terra Nova to her. This was a dome somewhere in Chicago, and she was still the Maddy Shannon that was branded 'know-it-all' and 'outcast.' She was still the shy, fearful Maddy Shannon that really believed no one in the world cared about her.

"Her memory loss seems to have slowed. I don't think she'll lose much more than she already has," Dr. Shannon told me the following morning. It was a relief—somewhat. She wasn't going to totally forget everything. Her mind was still stuck in early 2149, toward the beginning of her sophomore year in high school. She still knew her parents, Josh, and Zoe, so it was a start. With Dr. Shannon's permission, I placed the re-breather device firmly over my mouth and stepped into the little exam room. She was looking at me through half-lidded eyes that widened when she caught sight of me and realized who I was. She let out a whimper as I stepped a little closer.

"Why do you keep coming back here?" she asked me.

"I'm worried about you," I confessed.

"Why? Because if I don't get better then you won't pass?"

"No, Maddy," I sighed. "I don't need your help passing. I passed all my classes." Back in 2147, I added in my head.

"I…I don't even know you. I haven't seen you in school before, how do you know my name?"

"Uh…" Woops. Hadn't thought about that one. "I'm…new here…and I heard someone calling you Maddy." It wasn't the greatest explanation but it seemed to work.

"What do you want from me?" she peeped.

"I just want to get to know you…to be friends…"

She studied me again. I could feel her looking at me closely, trying to work something out in her calculating mind. "No one wants to be friends with someone like me," she repeated her words from the previous night.

"That isn't true!" I found myself saying to her in earnest. "I do!"

"Why? So I'll let you sit next to me and cheat off my tests?" she asked, her voice coming up a notch in exasperation.

"No. Because you're intelligent, and you're kind, and you're a lot tougher than anyone gives you credit for…"

"How…how do you know so much about me?" she asked, and I shut my mouth. I had been describing the Maddy Shannon I had gotten to know over the course of fifteen months. But to her, I was just some strange guy who showed up and she no doubt thought I was a stalker now. "Do I…do I know you?" she asked.

My heart skipped a beat, but I broached the topic carefully. "Why do you say that…?" Hope surged through me. Maybe she was remembering!

"You just…seem really familiar to me…but I can't place my finger on it."

"My name's Mark. Mark Reynolds," I told her, hoping the name would spark something. Maddy considered the name for a long moment and I held my breath, but then she shook her head and my hopes were dashed. "Doesn't help?" I ventured.

Maddy shook her head. "Sorry." She sounded genuinely remorseful.

"Don't be. But at least we know each other now."

"I guess…you said you're new here?" She was getting a bit braver now—hopefully more comfortable around me?

I nodded my head.

"Where did you come from?"

I paused before answering truthfully. "New York." It's where I had come from before arriving at Terra Nova.

Maddy propped herself up on one elbow, curiosity taking over now. "What's New York like?" she queried.

I thought. My remembrances from that city weren't the fondest. "It's rough," I finally said. "And dirty. But there's definitely good there. Definitely hope."

"Mark, is it?" she asked, and I nodded my head. "Do you…do you know how I ended up here? In this dome, I mean. I'm from Lakeview and I don't really know what I'm doing here. I was there one minute and the next I was in this place…" the words came out in a single breath without any breaks in between the sentences.

"Your mom…" My mind raced to think of some sort of plausible excuse. I hated lying to her, but I had been advised to go along with whatever she said until the root was cloned or something else jogged part of her memory. "She was…recruited." A compromise. Not technically a lie. Dr. Shannon was recruited. Just not to some dome in Chicago.

This seemed to satisfy Maddy because she just nodded her head mutely. "Did you really mean what you said?" she asked, her voice painfully fragile.

"About what?"

"About wanting to be my friend."

"Yes," I answered, almost too quickly. "I really do want to be your friend, Maddy."

"I've never had a boy friend before," she said, and then suddenly her eyes widened and she turned a few shades redder. "I mean a friend who's a boy!" she said quickly. "Not like a boyfriend as in a relationship partner. I've never had one of those either but that's not what I meant when I called you a boy friend. I meant that you're my first friend who's a boy and…" her voice trailed off and she looked away from me, drawing in a deep breath. "Yeah…" she whispered.

I couldn't help but laugh a little, which made her blush deeper. "It's okay, Maddy. I know what you meant." Although I was really hoping she would remember that I was both a boy friend and a boyfriend to her. The scarlet shade didn't leave her cheeks though.

Staring at her blushing like that made me realize even more how much I really did love Maddy Shannon. And I know that, given the chance, I'd fall in love with her all over again, as many times as I had to in order to solidify it. And I was hoping now more than ever that she felt the same way. And that she still would when all of this was over.

A/N: Well you know what they say: it has to get worse before it gets better. Thanks for the lovely reviews you guys left me. I appreciate the feedback. This shouldn't be too long of a fic—a multi chapter, yes, but I'm not anticipating much more than about five or six chapters at the present. Please review.