"Nick' exasperation and exhaustion was beginning to show through in PJ's tone." Nick, don't just stop like that. You have to tell me everything. You can't just stop in the middle of a sentence. What is it? Who does this Luka adore?"

PJ leaned forward, his hands tightly wound around the glass in front of him. His mind was racing, his heart beating faster than it had any right to, and his breathing short and shallow. Maggie is alive. The thought chased itself around and around in his mind, and still it wouldn't take root.

"Nick, she's alive?"

Once again, Nick nodded. "She's alive mate. And – well, PJ, she's a mother. She's got two boys, they're gorgeous according to Zoe, but you know me and kids, couldn't eat a whole one…" he tried, the joke falling flat as he caught sight of PJ's face.

"She's - kids? She – " he drew an intensely painful breath. "She moved on. She's got someone else" and Nick moved the glass from PJ's now white-knuckled hands. "She – "

"Stop right there Patrick. Stop jumping in feet first and let me finish."

PJ couldn't sit still, standing and pacing the room, before turning and glaring at Nick. He had a right to be – to feel what he was feeling whatever it is.

"Don't you dare lecture me Nick. You don't get to lecture me. How the hell do you think it feels to find out that she's alive, that – that Mags is ALIVE, and then to hear that she's not only alive, but that she's moved on and forgotten about me and has another man and kids with him? The Maggie I knew wouldn't do that, she loved me as much as I love her, and she wouldn't have been able to move on, but this woman – are you even really sure it's her? It might be someone else, someone who wouldn't – or maybe she didn't love me like she said, maybe she just - "

Nick rose, swallowing down his fury at PJ's words. "You need to shut up right now PJ, before you say something that you're really going to regret. You KNOW she loved you, and only you – and you know that she was in it for the long haul. There was only ever you, PJ, and you damn well know it. At least give her that respect." Nick said, his voice dark with anger. "Now sit down and let me finish."

PJ ran his hand over his face, shame invading him when his words set in. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't – she loved me, I do know that. It's just – I feel like I'm drowning here, Nick. I can't take it all in. She's – she's alive. Maggie is alive. My Mags – Nick, I need to see her. I need to - mate, where is she? What happened?"

Nick waited until PJ had sat down again, before telling him everything that he knew. Maggie was alive, she was Mel, but she wasn't. She was an office worker in a town north of Sydney, 'happy' with the life she had – the only life she knew. Still single, but –

"She's a mother, mate, like I said. She's got two little boys, twins, and they're fifteen months old. Tom and Joe, Zoe said. Cute as a button apparently, luckily enough for them, seeing as they've inherited their father's looks. Blue eyes and dark hair apparently, and an unhealthy appetite for spicy food and an adoration for lemon cheesecake." Nick smiled, watching it sink in.

"They're – mate, what are you saying? They're mine? Maggie's boys – I'm a dad?"

Nick nodded, before sitting back and giving PJ the time he needed for it all to become real.

"She – my Mags - I'm a dad – what did you call - " PJ paused, and Nick filled in the gaps.

"Tom and Joe. Zoe says Margaret has no idea why she chose the names, apparently they just appealed to her, but I'd say it's pretty damn obvious, wouldn't you? I mean Tom, after Mt Thomas, or the Boss, and Joe – well Joe is after you. Even the name of her supposed husband – who isn't real, by the way – was Rick, which I reckon was also after you, don't you?"

"Husband? I thought you said she – "

"Honestly Patrick, we're not going to get anywhere if you don't listen are we?" Nick admonished. "She has amnesia. Our Margaret can't remember a damn thing about us all, well, nothing important anyway. Apparently she remembers snoring, and - " Nick flushed slightly, "Well, she remembers being held as she slept, and but she's told Zo that she was always so confused, because whenever she looked at her wedding album, she couldn't feel anything for her so-called husband, but she did have shadowy memories about someone that she loved very, very much. So you WERE there all the time PJ, just bubbling below the surface, or something."

PJ smiled at Nick's expression, best friend he may be, but talking about love and that sort of 'mushy stuff' as Nick so often put it, well it didn't sit well with him.

"So?"

Nick's voice woke him from his reverie. "So what?"

"So when do we leave?"

A cold clamp of fear encircled PJ's heart for a second. Maggie. His Maggie was still alive. Still warm, breathing, and alive. Still out there.

"Nick, you – " PJ took a deep breath against a dry throat. "You said she couldn't remember me? That she's having flashbacks or whatever, and she's getting snippets of you guys, but not a single thing about me?"

Nick sighed, hating that part of it. He couldn't understand it either. Surely PJ would have been the first thing that she remembered, the first and mot powerful memory to come back?

"That's – well, that's what Zoe says. I'm not going to pretend to understand it, but if you're thinking of not going up to see her because of that, you're a weaker man than I thought. This is Mags, PJ, your Mags."

"I know it is," PJ snapped. "Sorry mate, it's just – " his voice tailed off as the fear grew. I – I loved – love" he corrected himself, "I love her so much, and for her not to be able to remember me – it hurts Nick."

"Which is why you have to talk to her" Nick said again.

PJ leant back in his seat. Ever since Nick had told him, ever since he'd found out that Mags was still alive, PJ had been terrified. Terrified that the memories he'd survived on for the past two years had been wrong. That Maggie hadn't remembered him because he hadn't been as important to her as he had thought. That she hadn't relied on seeing him to be able to get through the day as he had with her. That seeing his smile hadn't been the highlight of her day, that – that she - that she hadn't loved him as much as he loved her.

"PJ, don't do this to yourself. Margaret loved you. She – mate, you were it for her. It's obvious now, and how we didn't see it then, I'll never know. But don't you doubt it, she loved you as much as you loved her. It's as simple as that. And as for her not remembering – have you ever considered that seeing you will be all that she needs? Maybe she's blocked it out for the same reasons you are? Maybe she's terrified that you don't love her as much as she thought you did? Maybe she just needs to see those big blue eyes of yours and she'll turn to mush and remember everything? I don't know, but what I DO know is that you have to get off your backside and go and see her. You and Maggie, you belong together, and you owe it to yourselves to sort this out, so get up and start packing, because – " Nick stood up and moved over to the phone, pulling the phonebook out and opening it at the travel agency page, "I'm booking us a flight for tonight'.