Vocab
Missing Man: formation flown at military funerals for aviators. Planes fly over the cemetery, and at a certain point one of the planes pulls up into the sky, away from the others. YouTube link: /watch?v=szSyyCSf8ws

Lucas awoke to the sound of the door opening and the pain in his head throbbing. However, the discomfort seemed to fade away once he saw who opened his door. A smile spread across his lips as he and Riley made eye contact. Once the door was closed behind her, she returned the smile and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

"Hi," she spoke quietly.

"Hey," Lucas responded weakly. "You know you can come closer… I won't break," he lightly teased.

Riley's smile grew as she approached the side of the bed. "So, how are you feeling?"

Lucas looked around the room a bit. "A bit foggy… but all things considered, I'd say pretty good, especially now that you're here. Quite frankly, I didn't expect to see you here so soon."

She raised an eyebrow as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Weren't you going to go visit your grandparents? You mentioned it last week."

Riley bit the inside of her cheek as she sat on the edge of the bed. She had mentioned that just after he started this deployment on the Enterprise… about three months ago, soon after he surprised her. Despite the doctor's warning, it still hurt Riley a bit that he had forgotten so much. Now what do I do? Do I let him know or just humor him?

It seemed that her mouth had decided for her for she responded, "Yeah, well… certain things take priority."

"How did your dad take that?"

"Rather well. In fact, he insisted." Which is true, my dad did insist I come.

Lucas took ahold of her hand and kissed it. "That was nice of him."

"Well, he knows how important you are to me."

After a few more moments, the door opened again, and Maya's voice boomed. "Sheesh, we just can't leave you two alone, can we?" she asked as both she and Farkle entered.

Riley rolled her eyes as she moved to get up, but Lucas silently refused and kept a tight hold on her hand. It shocked her to feel that much strength coming from him considering all that he'd been through, but as she looked back down at him, he looked drained. He was probably using all the strength he could muster to keep her where she was.

"So, how's the soaring eagle doin'?" Maya asked.

"Grounded," he replied, allowing his eyes to narrow slightly at her.

"Better that than the missing man," Farkle commented.

Lucas shifted his line of sight to the right corner of the base board of his bed. "Yeah… that it is."

Riley smiled just as her phone started to ring in her pocket. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Lucas responded.

As Riley took the call, the other three friends continued to chat and tried to keep their voices down so they wouldn't interfere with Riley.

"Looking forward to some down time?" Maya asked.

"Not really… if I were anywhere else I wouldn't mind it, but since I'm here I wouldn't exactly call it downtime."

Maya looked around the room and grimaced. "I don't blame you there," she replied as she shuddered. She never did like hospitals, despite being lucky enough to never need one herself.

"I think anyone can agree with you there, Lucas," Farkle added.

"Sorry about that…" Riley jumped in as she slid her phone back into her pocket. "That was my dad. The rest of my family has just landed, and we need to go pick them up," she explained as she turned to face Lucas. "I'll be back later today. I promise."

"I look forward to it," he replied as Riley placed a kiss on his cheek.

"I'll see you then," she said as she stood up. "Come on, Maya."

Maya nodded as she followed her best friend. "See ya guys later!" she bid as they headed through the door to go find Captain McCall.

After the door had closed behind the girls, Farkle turned back to face Lucas and pulled something out of his pocket. "I managed to pull this out for you before the medics on the Enterprise tossed your flight suit," he explained.

As Farkle pressed the small, velvet, water stained box into Lucas' hand, Lucas looked up at his RIO in confusion. "What is it?" he asked.

Lucas watched as Farkle's jaw nearly landed on the floor. "You didn't just say that…" Farkle trailed as shock made its way over his face.

"Well, I did… so are you going to tell me or are you going to make me guess?"

Farkle closed his eyes for a brief moment before he responded. "It's the engagement ring you were going to give to Riley while we were here."

It was Lucas' turn to have his jaw drop. "I'm going to propose to her?!"

"Goodness, I didn't think he'd forget this much," Farkle mumbled to himself. "Yeah…you were talking about it for a while, and when the opportunity presented itself, you took it. Don't you remember any of it?"

Lucas was silent as he tried to wrack his memory so he could recall what his best friend was speaking about. While he was doing so, he knew that it wasn't such a crazy idea… he cared for Riley deeply, it just shocked him that it was happening so soon! Or rather, so soon in his mind. Clearly there was a huge gap in his memories… one that would have gone unnoticed by him for who knows how long.

An echo of what seemed to be a memory came to the front of his mind. I'm planning on proposing to her at dinner.

It was clear that it was something that he would say… or rather, said. But the voice was so muddled that he wasn't sure if he was misremembering when he said that, or that he just thought he remembered.

"Vaguely?" he finally responded.

Farkle sighed as he put his hands in his pockets. "That's okay… you really should be focused on getting better at the moment anyway."

As if on cue, the door opened again, this time to reveal a nurse. "I'm sorry, but I need to ask you leave for about twenty minutes while I take some blood."

Farkle nodded. "No problem," he responded before he turned to face Lucas. "I'll catch you later."

Once Farkle was through the door, he let out a sigh. He had to keep reminding himself that things could be much, much worse at the moment. It was harder to go in there than he thought, and that was saying quite a bit. As he headed down the hallway, Farkle prayed that everything would turn out alright, and that his best friend would be the same old Lucas once again.

Lucas sighed as he looked back to the airport. After a week of recovery, he was finally cleared for full duty once again. His memories had returned to him a few days after all of his friends visited, much to his relief. However, there was no time for Lucas to go through with his original plan when he was catapulted off of the flight deck. Sure, he could have asked Riley when they said goodbye a few minutes ago, but he didn't want to leave after her answer. He didn't want it to be rushed. Lucas wanted to be able to stay with her after he asked her; he wanted to be able to stay and celebrate. No, now was not the time.

As he climbed into the helo, he took one last look out past the landing field. Another three months until he was back on this shore. Another three months until his tour was done.

A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed it! Let me know what you thought before you head out.