Frank looked around at Joe, Bess, and Susannah. "What are we going to do?"
"Looks like the question is, what are you gonna do, bro." Joe said. "You know, only you could get yourself in hot water with the missus without even having a missus."
"I don't know about that; you're doing a pretty good job of it." Bess said venomously, delivering a sharp pinch to his side. "This is serious."
Joe scowled, twisting away from her. "I know, I know. Sorry." He looked back at Frank. "It'll probably be temporary, right? That's how it is with concussions. We've had enough to know."
"I guess..." Frank said uncertainly. "But I've never heard of amnesia like this before, where the patient loses her long term memory and believes a lie..."
"Can't we just tell her?" Bess chimed in. "I mean, that she's Nancy? Maybe if we explain everything it will ring some bells for her."
"But what if she doesn't believe us?" Joe said. "Without her memories, it's only our word against hers that we are who we say we are. We can't even show her ID. And we can't risk letting the doctor know her memories are wrong!"
"But we have to!" Bess gasped. "So what if we get in trouble? This is Nancy's life! If she needs medical help we can't go around pretending she's alright! We'll just have to explain to the authorities about the fake IDs."
"That we were duped by a fake State Department agent who tricked us into smuggling a bomb into the country?" Joe challenged. "They'd lock us up and throw away the key. And that includes Nancy."
They both looked to Frank, as though he were the deciding vote. He had to admit they both had valid points. Nancy's health was the most important thing... but ultimately, she wouldn't get the care she needed in an Egyptian prison. "We'll talk to the doctor first, see what he can tell us." Frank decided. "Maybe she'll remember on her own. If not, we'll have to get her back to the States for treatment as soon as we can."
"It won't be easy, getting her all the way back home without letting on that we're not the Addisons." Bess said.
Susannah gave her arm a comforting squeeze. "You're not bad at being the Addisons. You had me fooled for days."
"Yeah," Bess said, "But that was when Nancy was in on the act."
The doctor came out to talk to the group, interrupting their planning session. "Mr. Addison?"
Frank shook his hand. "That's me. Well, both of us, actually. This is my brother Cooper and his wife Nikki. Susannah's a friend of the family."
The doctor nodded at each of them. "Well, from what I can tell, physically Rebecca will recover. She does have a moderate concussion, which is why she is experiencing some dizziness, mood swings, and memory loss, but rest and time should take care of that."
Frank nodded, more than familiar with the symptoms of a concussion by this point in his life.
"I am a little concerned about the extent of her memory loss." The doctor continued. "Rebecca is able to recite the basic facts of her life accurately, as far as I am able to tell. Her age, birthday, parents' names, college."
It didn't escape Frank that these 'basic facts' were exactly what had been covered in the bio sheets they'd all read to prepare for their cover identities.
"She knew what day it was, who your president is, the name of the ship... but she seems to be having trouble describing the details. For instance, she knows your wedding date, but she can't describe the wedding itself, you understand?" Seeing the concerned looks on her friends' faces, he added, "It's very possible that all this will come back to her in the next few hours or days. I just wanted to warn you not to push her too much on the details. Rest is the most important thing for her right now, and the best thing to do is support her and avoid putting any unnecessary stress on her healing brain."
Bess spoke up. "Doctor? What if all those memories... the details and stuff, what if they don't come back?"
"In that case, I would refer Mrs. Addison to a hospital where they could do further tests in order to identify and treat the problem." the doctor said. "This is a small infirmary; we don't have all of the equipment we would need to do more complicated scans and procedures on board the ship. But as I've said, it may not come to that."
Frank nodded. "Thank you. Can I go back and see her now?"
"Of course." the doctor replied. "But please remember to let her rest. The concussion may manifest itself as unusually strong feelings of anger, sadness, or anxiety, so try to avoid topics that might upset her if you can."
"Good luck with that." Joe muttered.
The doctor left them, and Frank turned back to his friends uneasily. "I think I'm going to stay with her for a while... do you think you can—?"
Joe nodded. "We've got plenty more cabins to search. You just hang out here with Nan. Maybe she'll remember something."
"Thanks." Frank said. He turned to Bess. "I'm sorry, I know you'd rather be the one to stay, but..."
"...She's your old ball and chain, for the time being. I know." Bess finished with a small smile. "Hey... if she was... herself, right now? She'd really love it that you wanted to stay with her."
They left before Frank really had a chance to think about what she'd meant by that, but a smile of his own fought its way to his face as he walked back down the hallway toward Nancy's room. If Nancy had been herself, she'd love it that he wanted to stay with her...
Reaching her door, he took a deep breath and steeled himself to face Nancy again... or rather, Rebecca.
"You came back." she said when he opened the door.
Had she really thought he wouldn't return? "I told you I would." he reminded her softly, sitting in one of the chairs next to her bed. "How you feeling?"
"Bad." she said. "Scared. The doctor was asking me all these questions and I knew the answers, but I didn't remember them, you know?"
She looked so lost, so vulnerable, that he forgot to be nervous in his haste to reassure her. "I know, Rebecca. But it'll get better. The doc said this happens sometimes with head injuries. All you need is a little rest."
She nodded, obviously having been told the same thing. "...Cole? I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier. I was just... I don't know."
He reached out to pick up her hand. "Don't worry about it. Don't worry about anything."
"When I heard you say that name I just had some kind of... reaction." she said, biting her bottom lip shyly. "I know you love me, Cole. I just don't remember it, and it's got me a little on edge."
Frank briefly fantasized about taking that lip between his own teeth before shaking the inappropriate thought out of his head. "Rebecca, Nancy is you. It's just another name I call you." he told her, truthfully if misleadingly. He couldn't do much to help her right now, but if he could give her this little bit of peace of mind, he would. "It's a long story, and I'll tell you sometime, but I wasn't thinking of any other girl when I said that. I promise."
"I don't know if I'm stupid or just crazy about you, but I believe you." she said, beaming at him. In her gaze he felt that same familiarity, the same intimacy he'd felt when she'd kissed him earlier. She was looking at him differently than she had before—when she was Nancy.
"You're not stupid." he husked, using his free hand to stroke her hair above the bandage. "Everything will come back to you. It's just going to take a little time and rest."
She nodded, slowly, carefully. He guessed that her head still wasn't quite up to sudden movements.
"Why don't you close your eyes for a while?" he suggested. "Start sleeping off that concussion."
"Are you going to stay?" she asked.
"Of course. Unless you don't want me to." He didn't add that if she asked him to leave, he'd only be going as far as the waiting room. The last thing he intended to do was leave her alone in this helpless state while Kimball and his goon could be somewhere nearby waiting to finish the job on her.
"You'd be more comfortable going back to the cabin..." she hedged.
Frank shook his head. "I'd be more comfortable staying here where I can see you're safe and make sure you have everything you need." The soft smile she gave him in response sent a pulsing warmth through him, and he quickly tried to shut the door on these dangerous feelings. "I'll be right here. Now get some sleep."
She sighed, but gave in almost immediately, wriggling against the pillows to find a comfortable position for sleeping. "Did the doctor say when I can get out of here?" she asked through a yawn.
"They want to keep you overnight." he told her, smiling at the exasperated look on her bruised, tired face. Even with amnesia, Nancy Drew hated to be cooped up in a hospital. "If there's no complications they'll release you sometime tomorrow."
"And then you can keep me overnight."
Her teasing, half-asleep mumbled comment stained his face with a blush; luckily, his 'wife' was too close to sleep to notice. Strangely, the sound of her peaceful breathing seemed to trigger a sense of deep-seated unease in him. He told himself that Nancy would recover physically, that her amnesia was merely temporary, but seeing her so wounded and confused had shaken him... not to mention the quandary he now found himself in regarding their relationship. He couldn't stop thinking of the way she had kissed him—a way Nancy Drew had never kissed Frank Hardy.
Even the bandages and the bruising couldn't tarnish the beauty of the brilliant, fiery woman he saw when he looked at that hospital bed, and he couldn't stop the protective feelings that had been welling up inside of him from the moment she agreed to join his case... and those feelings had only intensified since then. How was he supposed to keep their relationship strictly professional when she thought they were really married? Maybe he could maintain his objectivity if he could manage to look at it as just another case, another missing person: Nancy Drew.
Which didn't make it any more encouraging to realize that, according to his mental tally, they had three cases and no answers... and it looked like they were down one detective.