Kate wrapped the blanket around both of them as she leaned back into Nick's arms on the couch. She closed her eyes, feeling every breath he took. Nick held her tighter than he ever had before. "We're going to get past this, Kate. We are."
Kate took in a long breath, and without opening her eyes, grabbed his hands in hers. "I know we are."
"Hey, O'Malley, where's that fifty bucks you owe me?" Carl said with an outstretched hand.
"What fifty?" Nick rolled up his newspaper and eyed Carl like he was a fly needing to be swatted.
"The fifty you borrowed from me yesterday!" Carl's no-nonsense tone made Nick stop and seriously think about this. Nick, never being the type to owe anyone anything, began to dish out cash.
"I've only got fourty two on me, I'll catch up with you later."
"No worries." Carl was just about to grab the money when Kate's hand swooped down from nowhere and returned the money back to Nick.
"He's messing with you. Carl, cut it out!"
Nick's eyes landed square on the gnome, who tried covering up his skeem by laughing it off. When Nick stood up, Carl ran as if his very skin and bones depended on it. In all reality, they probley did. Nick gave up when he couldn't remember who or why he was giving chase to, or where he was chasing this person to. Confused, he shook his head, accepted the coffee Kate handed him, and settled for reclining back in his chair again. Carl's eyebrows lifted in good thoughts when he saw Kate walk from the room. "Hmm." He said to himself, and wandered back to Nick. "Gonna give me my watch back sometime, or do you plan on borrowing it forever? Which is really rude, if you stop to think about it."
O'Malley glanced at the watch on his wrist. "This is yours?"
Carl rolled his eyes. "It was, until you borrowed it like weeks ago." He could almost feel his own nose grow as he lied. Nick began taking off his watch, ready to fork it over to the gnome.
"Damn it!" Kate ripped the watch from Carl's hand. "Nick!" Kate pulled herself together when she saw the look on his face. "This is your watch, not his, now put it back on and don't give it to him again. Carl, one more episode like this and I'll shoot you myself." Ten minutes after Kate left the room to switch the laundry around, Carl slipped the watch he convinced Nick, for the second time, was his, into his pocket, along with the fourty two dollars. Every so often, Nick would return to himself and the two would sit and bicker back and fourth while watching the Cubs play. But every so often, Nick would look around the room as if he was just dropped there, having no idea why he was there, who was with him, or where he was. Carl saw it all, and as it dawned on him he was loosing his friend, Carl lost his sence of humor about it all.
"See ya, Kate. Tell O'Malley I'll drop by to see him tomorrow." Carl waved a goodbye.
"Goodnight, Carl, I will."
Before leaving, Carl returned the watch and the money, laying it on the living room coffee table. He was a thief, but he was a friend, Nick's friend, before he was anything else.
Nick woke up that night, sitting straight up in bed, waking Kate. His eyes panned the room for a familiar sight, and when none came, he jumped up. Kate tried reaching from him, but he pulled his hand away from her. "Who the hell are you?"
Kate, half expecting this at some point, walked slowly around the bed towards him. "Nick, relax, I'm Kate, remember? And your Nick..."
"I know my name, thank you very much, why the hell am I here?" He stared at her like he'd never seen her before. "Who the hell are you?"
Kate swallowed hard and fought back the tears in her eyes. "Nick, you live here. I'm Kate, we live here, us, together. Now just try to relax and think."
Nick grabbed a pair of pants that were tossed over the footboard of the bed and threw on a pair of shoes. "Look, lady, I don't know who you are, or where I am, but I'm going home." He started to leave the apartment when the woman grabbed his arm, pulling him back inside.
"You are home. This is where you live now."
"I live in the apartments on...wait a minute, why am I telling you this? How did I get here?"
Kate shook her head, "You don't live there anymore. You broke your lease so you could move in here, with me. Nick, don't you remember me? I'm Kate, we work together."
"Listen, thanks for the good time, but you need to get your head checked, lady. Now goodbye." Nick tapped his head, leaving their apartment, walking right past his own car. He didn't recognize it as his. He walked fast, leaving Kate rushing to keep up with him. He sighed as he glanced behind him, seeing her running after him. "Hot, but a few ants shy of a picinic." He said under his breath as he quickend his pace.
Kate was at a loss. The lab people said it would be an uphill climb, with alot of heartache, but they never really prepared her on how to keep a man safe in his own house with her when he didn't remember living there. She tugged at his shirt, shoving a photo of them in his face. He stopped walking and took the picture of them together, studying it. Kate spoke before he could ask any questions or walk away again. "Hot dogs, you love them, it's all you eat practically." Her mind raced under the pressure of trying to recall things to jar his memory back into place.
Nick chuckled. "Lady..."
Kate, my name is Kate."
"Kate," Nick stressed, "Any girl will know that, I'm a very cheap date." He smiled at his own crack and continued to walk. "Nice picture, where did you get the prop?"
"Jesus!" Kate could have been struck by the link herself the way her memory was failing her.
"No, but your close. Later." Nick didn't bother to turn around but held up his hand in a poor attempt at a wave goodbye. He only got a quarter of the way down the block when Kate decided desperate times call for desperate measures.
"Do you remember this?" Kate grabbed his face and pulled him into a kiss, which he didn't fight much. Well, ok, not at all.
"I think so." Nick said slowly and just as quietly. "Kate?"
Relieved and exhausted Kate flounced down on a nearby curb, burying her face in her hands. Nick made his way over to her and took a seat next to her. "What else do you remember?"
Nick shook his head and stared straight ahead. "Nothing else, just you." He turned to look at her, this time not so seriously, he smiled. "Just you and that kiss."
They went for a long walk before going back home. Just as the sun was coming up, Kate pulled Nick back to her in an embrace. "Just promise me something, don't forget my heart, ok, Nicholas O'Malley?"
"I promise you that, Kate...Kate...um...Kate O'Malley?" Nick looked at her for help as he stumbled.
Kate closed her eyes. "Benson. We haven't gotten that far, yet, Nick."
Nick continued to hold her on the corner of the street. "Well I'll make you another promise, Ms. Benson. When we make it through this, and we will, we will work on getting your last name changed to something else, something easier for me to remember, how about that?" He gave her a wink and smiled.
"Was that a proposal?"
"I'd like to think I'm more romantic than that, so consider it a promise for a proposal. Next time I do it, I'll be on my knees with a ring."
"It's awful. I can't leave him alone for a second. He forgets everything. Last night he forgot to turn the microwave off after he made popcorn. By the time I got to it, it was burned and close to setting on fire." Benson threw herself back in her chair and waited for her Captain's response.
"Who's with him now?"
"Carl. He's forgetting how to fight with Carl." Kate heard her own voice break and knew if she didn't stop talking at that second, she would start crying and probley never stop.
"Kate, I think I have some good news." Shawn poked his head in the Captain's office. "The med team thinks they can have something by tomorrow. Of course, it'll have to be tested first, but at least it's a start."
"We will take what we can get for now. Thank you, Shawn."
"Yeah, thanks, Shawn." Kate chewed on her lower lip for a minute. "I have to get going. I just wanted to keep you up to parr on what the progress is. With any luck, they are back home killing eachother." Kate joked, but she wasn't laughing.
"Continue to keep me posted, Detective."
The four person team of Shawn, Jonathan, Page, and Kate assembled once again in the Captain's office to debate over the next move in helping O'Malley.
"The problem and really only obstacle we have now is getting to her. We need a sample of her fingernails to properly get anywhere with an andidote for Nick." Shawn didn't look optimistic. "But none of us can get anywhere near her in the tank she's in."
Captain Page took a deep sigh in. "Why don't you just go in there and knock her block off?"
"Unfortunatly, she would decay within seconds, including her nails, leaving us with no link to analize."
"Benson, what do you..." Page looked around with the others in the absense of Kate."
Detective Kate Alice Benson stormed down the hallway of headquarters on a mission. Without stopping or missing a step, she grabbed hold of the machete that was hung on the wall, making her way to the tank that held the hidious witch.
Kicking open the doors, Kate had only one thing to say. "It's time for a manicure, Bitch!"
Soaking wet, Kate threw four severed fingers from the links hand onto Shawn's desk. The rolled towards him as Jonathan backed up in shock and excitement. "You got..." Jonathan was momentarily distracted by Shawn's body falling as he fainted, hitting the floor with a thump. "...the fingers. WOW! The med team can do their...thing now...but wow, how did you like um, get them?"
"By turning into Nick." Kate accepted the towel Captain Page handed her as she helped Shawn back to his feet. "And one more thing," Kate said, "When it's time to kill this thing, give me the pleasure!"
The three men, even Shawn in his weakend state, recoiled at her sudden aggression. Only Jonathan said anything. "Wow!"
When Kate got home, after telling Carl the good news, Kate slipped out of her wet clothes and into one of Nick's old shirts. She could smell him on the shirt and she knew the only place to be was in his arms, even if he didn't know who she was or why she was cuddling up next to him in bed. She had to believe that somewhere inside him, he knew. Before falling asleep herself, she whispered to him, "Your almost back, Nick. You'll be back soon."
On the surface Nick didn't know who she was. But something inside of him told him not to push her away. He held on tight to her, but he didn't know why.