A/N: Very short, as I wanted what follows on from this to be a chapter on its own as its style will be different.
The night Inspector Poole left the island Dwayne, Fidel and Catherine could be found in the latter's bar with rum cocktails of various strengths and quite glum expressions. Camille had declined to come out, claiming fatigue and a desire for an early night. They'd not pushed the issue with her.
Finally, Fidel spoke, "I think it's good he went back to London. I'm not saying Saint Marie is backwards but they are going to have better doctors there, top of their field. He'll get better and then he'll come home."
"You're probably right," Dwayne agreed. "Plus this way we avoid the whole weird factor. I mean, he was wearing a t-shirt at the hospital, that was weird enough, but one of the nurses told me he was charming. Can you imagine? I might actually have had to compete for the ladies with him, until he remembered who he was and went back to making an ass of himself."
Catherine had not seen Richard since the accident, having her two attempts to visit fall firstly when Dr Cadet had decided on no visitors and secondly when his mother had been there, and she had not wanted to interrupt. She considered Dwayne's words with some alarm.
"Was he really so different?" She asked.
The expressions on the men's faces were enough of an answer, but Fidel added, "He clearly did not know who I was at the airport this morning. I'm glad I managed to catch him. At least we've done something, but I don't think we should stop there. So, what's stage two of the plan?"
Catherine and Dwayne looked at Fidel blankly, clearly having missed the memo where they had formed a committee to fix their current predicament.
"You know, to help the Chief get…back to normal."
"Fidel I know you want to help, but we aren't Doctors. You're the one who pointed out he's gone to London to get better," Catherine told him gently.
Fidel wore his glum expression again.
Camille was becoming unbearable. They were expecting a new Inspector to be assigned from Turks and Caicos. The man was apparently close to retirement and had finished training his own replacement, and had agreed to come to Saint Marie to plug the hole left by Inspector Poole. Meanwhile, it appeared that any of the annoying personality traits Inspector Poole had lost when he hit his head Camille had started to channel. She had thrown herself into work, and had less time for relaxation that the Inspector had when he'd first arrived on the island.
It had been a whole week since the Chief returned to the UK, and as far as Dwayne and Fidel could tell nobody had heard from him. When Camille had finally left them alone to go talk to a witness on the other side of the island, Fidel thought it was safe to bring up his "get the chief better as soon as possible plan" again, but to his surprise Dwayne brought it up first.
"Right, we need to find a way to get them talking again, then she might actually relax for five minutes!"
"I suppose we could call him," Dwayne gave him a look, but it was the best Fidel could come up with. "Hey, I mean it would be normal wouldn't it? To check up on him?"
"Yeah, but are we going to have to go through his mother?" asked Dwayne, who had no desire to ever get on Mrs Justine Poole's bad side after the brief time he spent in her company.
Fidel looked equally reluctant to take that risk, but suddenly brightened, "Why don't we just try his mobile?"
Before he really knew what he was doing, he pulled out his own phone and rang his boss. Luckily, it was actually a decent hour in the UK.
"Hello Sir, this is Sergeant Fidel Best from Saint Marie, the one who saw you in the airport before you left?"
"Oh right, you alright?" The Inspector sounded a little lost.
"I'm fine Sir, we, well, just wanted to see how you were doing?"
Richard tried to think of something positive to say, clearly the young man was hoping for good news. When he'd opened that packet given to him at the airport, he'd found several photographs amongst other things. Weirdly, the people in the photographs did not seem as unfamiliar to him as they did when he'd seen them in the flesh. He was sure his psychiatrist would have some wonderful explanation for why, but he hadn't told her. When he'd come across a shot of Fidel with a young child, he'd felt a surge of pride but had no clue why.
In the end, the best response he could come up with was, "My life is very weird."
"I can't imagine, Sir. Well, if you ever have any questions you know, maybe if you're trying to piece something together or place a memory, you could just call. Dwayne or Camille or I would always be willing to answer..."
Dwayne actually looked like he'd rather not have been volunteered for that task. Wasn't that he didn't want the chief back, more that he didn't think he was the best person for the job. Not exactly the patient type, unlike Camille who is the one Fidel should really be working on getting Richard to talk to.
At the other end of the phone, Richard paused before asking, "Are you sure about that?"
"Of course Sir, why would you say that…uh, apart from the whole not remembering anything…I suppose you would actually want to check I wasn't just being polite."
"No, actually, it's just," Richard took a deep breath, because he wasn't sure he wanted the answer. "Doesn't Camille hate me?"
Fidel had to resist the urge to laugh, "No Sir, I can assure you she does not hate you."
"But…I remember a few things and we just, didn't we fight all the time? I can remember telling her to go back to Guadeloupe. Not to mention the fact we were fighting that night, weren't we? And I know I said something awful, something I shouldn't have, but I don't remember what it was."
"You did bicker Sir," Fidel said, rather diplomatically. "And I don't know what happened after you left the station but I'm sure she doesn't hate you."
Dwayne rolled his eyes and grabbed the handset off Richard, "Chief, you're going to have to call her because after that incident with your mother she probably thinks you hate her. Now, she should be back in about an hour. Have you still got the number for her desk? Yes? Good. Why don't you call and ask how she is. Women love that. Talk later Chief!"
And with that proclamation, Dwayne put down the phone, and looked up to find Fidel staring at him wide-eyed, "What? It needed to be said!"
"Do you think he'll call?"
"He will if he knows what is good for him!"