Sorry for the late post, my computer decided it didn't like me today!

...

Marissa answered the door to find Griffin and Cara standing on her doorstep.

"Where is she?" Griffin asked, his medical bag in his hand.

"In the bedroom." said Marissa pointing up the staircase.

Griffin hurried off taking the stairs two at a time.

Marissa turned to see Cara waiting to be invited in.

"And I understand we have something wonderful to talk about." said the dark-haired doctor with a grin.

…

Griffin found Bianca lying back on the vast bed with a scowl of disappointment on her face as she held an ice-pack to her knee.

"Well, let me look at you." said Griffin, putting his medical bag at the foot of the bed and pulling aside Bianca's hand that was holding the ice-pack so he could examine her knee.

"I can't see any inflammation." he said, prodding the knee cap with his finger experimentally in search of swelling and briefly flexing the joint.

"But the redness?" queried Bianca.

"That's mostly cause by the ice. You should really wrap it in a towel or something before putting it on bare skin, you'll get a frost burn. It's especially dangerous for you as you wouldn't feel it."

"I just thought the way I landed on it..." began Bianca peering forward to have another look at her knee.

Now that the redness from the ice was beginning to die away Griffin peered closer at a small red patch that wasn't fading.

"You might have a small bruise there but I don't think it is anything to be concerned about." he said after a moment. "Now you also said something about your hip."

"I think I pulled something." said Bianca , lifting her skirt to rub a muscle on the inside of her thigh.

"So this is a pain in your thigh, not your hip." said Griffin. He rubbed his hands together to warm them. "May I?" he asked before feeling the muscles running along the inside of Bianca's leg.

Bianca looked away trying hard not the think about where his hands were going.

"Yeah… sorry, thigh not hip." she splutter.

"Well then that's something to be grateful for…" said Griffin, his fingers quickly finding the hardening of the affected muscle. "Tell me if you feel discomfort." he said.

He began flexing her hip and her knee. It was only when her leg was pulled out to the side and her knee bent that there was any real twinge of pain.

"Okay." said Griffin, finishing his exam and stepping back from the bed. "I want you to stand up for a moment."

"Stand up?" queried Bianca in surprise, but Griffin was confidently holding his hand out for her to take.

Cautiously, Bianca sat up, swung her feet round and taking Griffin's hands rose slowly to her feet.

"How do you feel?" Griffin asked.

"Wobbly." said Bianca, struggling to keep her balance without her knee support.

"Any pain?"

Bianca shook her head.

"Now I want you to take a couple of steps."

Bianca obeyed with an ungainly gait, still holding tightly to the support of Griffin's strong hands.

Griffin then ducked down to examine her leg again, forcing Bianca to grasp his shoulder in order to stay on her feet.

"All right you win!" said Griffin finally straightening up and guiding Bianca back to the bed.

Bianca was confused.

"What have I won?" she asked, "Another lecture and a month in bed?"

"No." said Griffin, easing Bianca back down to sit on the edge of the bed. "I am giving you your old brace back. You are now free of the medical boot, just use the brace wisely. Don't go over doing it!"

"And the pain in my leg?" Bianca asked, not sure she could trust him.

"It's a pulled muscle." he said as he picked up her discarded ice-pack and handed it to her. "You can put some ice on it for a start. The anti-inflammatories you are already prescribed will do the rest. And the additional support from your full brace will prevent you aggravating the strain. You should be fine in a few days... And thanks…"

"Thanks?"

"You called me. You had a pain and you got help… You're finally listening to the lectures on taking care of YOU! I'm just glad it turned out to be something minor."

Bianca smiled and nodded.

"I'm sorry for calling you out so late…"

"Like I said, I'm not." said Griffin.

"While you're here could you maybe talk to Marissa?" added Bianca nervously.

"It's okay Cara came with me. They're already talking… what do you say we fit you back in your old brace and we can go down together and find out how they are getting on?"

…

Marissa led Cara through to the lounge.

"I take it Bianca told you?" said Marissa, taking a seat on the couch and signalling for Cara to take a seat opposite her.

"She was worried about you." said Cara. "So how are you feeling? Any dizziness or headaches?"

"I just feel a little muddled." admitted Marissa.

"It can take time to integrate your memories; you've been a different person for the last fourteen months."

Marissa pulled her hands through her short hair.

"But can I prove that this has happened?" Marissa sighed. "That I'm still me but a whole new me as well."

"But why do you need proof, surely you know within yourself…" Cara trailed off when she realised she was missing something.

"The trial." said Marissa simply.

Cara nodding in understanding and frowned in thought.

"Well right now we can do a cognitive test to show if there are any changes; sort of like the one we did when you first awoke from your coma. Do you remember that?"

Marissa nodded.

"And every six monthly check up since..." she added, but she did still remember her first session with Cara, when she woke up confused and terrified by the void in her head. "I was such a coward then." she muttered sadly.

"Hey, you were a newborn… it was understandable to be scared. I'd have been more worried if your weren't! So do you want to try this test; I just need a few things from my bag?"

…

"So we will start with object recognition." said Cara turning on a tape recorder. "I'm going to show you an object and I want you to describe it to me."

She pulled out an object from her purse.

"A pen." said Marissa.

"I need a full description."

"Okay, it's a yellow Bic, or a knock off of one, the lid is blue and therefore so is the ink inside it and the end is slightly chewed."

"Good." said Cara putting it down and picking up something else.

"A lip gloss stick, Fusion's passion pink. I like that one, it tastes of cherry! Bianca uses it sometimes."

"Very good." said Cara drawing something else from her purse much to Marissa's amusement; this was really a cognitive test?

"A receipt." said Marissa, taking it from her. "It's from Krystal's Bistro for a coffee and a slice of carrot cake… oh and your waitress was me! How was the service?"

"Excellent." said Cara, giving Marissa a grin.

"But seriously, this is telling you something about my mental state?" said Marissa, she wasn't quite sure that she believed it.

"It is." said Cara, "And it has certainly changed from that first test we did. You are putting familiarity and preference behind you descriptions which is a good thing, it implies great personal connection between objects and experience."

"Okay." said Marissa.

"How about we move on to word association." said Cara, "I say word and you tell me the first thing that comes into your head… Sheep."

"Wool."

"Socks."

"Foot."

"Butter."

"Bread."

"Kiss."

"Tree…"

"Hmm." said Cara after a pause. "There it is again."

"What?" asked Marissa confused.

"Well the first time we did this test I said tree and you said kiss, but you didn't know why. And this time I say kiss…"

"And I said tree…" finished Marissa.

"So why do trees make you think of kissing."

Marissa cheeks turned pink.

"Well the first time I kissed Bianca it was in the park and we were standing under the dappled shade of trees… and before that I'd made a quip about carving our initials in a tree… For me I guess trees and lakes and Bianca and kisses will forever been combined."

"Even when you don't remember it. That must have been some kiss!"

"Not really." said Marissa, "It was a little awkward and freaked Bianca out because she wasn't really expecting it. But it was the start of something incredible so I won't forget it! Well, hopefulyl I won't forget it again."

Cara laughed lightly at the joke.

"So are you ready to move onto the next part… do you remember what that was?"

"Maths." said Marissa. "I'll probably do worse this time…"

…

Bianca and Griffin came down into the lounge to find Cara and Marissa calling out rhyming words to each other.

"Bed…"

"Shed… head… red…"

"Box…"

"Locks… fox…shocks…"

"Rude."

"Food… dude… um… brood…"

"Are we interrupting?" Griffin asked.

"One more." said Cara. "Explain…"

"Explain…" muttered Marissa, this was harder. "Insane… Coltrane… In pain…"

"That'll do." said Cara turning off the recorder.

"So is this enough to say that I'm a whole new me… or the same old me… however you want to look at it?"

"It's a start. You'll probably need a head CT and a day with Neuro to really be able to pinpoint any physical changes. But I can check your responses from the last time you did this… two months ago was you're last six monthly check up wasn't it… and report on any physiological changes to your responses."

"Can you do that by tomorrow?" Marissa asked. "We have to leave for Philadelphia by the afternoon and I need some kind of medical certificate to say I'm telling the truth."

"I can try." said Cara, giving her patient's knee an affectionate squeeze.

Bianca came in and took a seat beside Marissa.

"That's good news." she said.

"And how is your leg"? Marissa asked turning to her girlfriend.

"I've been given the all clear. It is just a strain and I need to watch myself but that is all…"

"She'll be fine." Griffin confirmed.

Bianca looked from Cara and Griffin and gave them a grateful grin.

"Thank you both for coming out so promptly."

Cara smiled but it was Griffin who answered.

"You are practically family! We were happy to help." he said.

Griffin noticed the way all three women raised an eyebrow at his words.

"I mean Marissa is Charlie's half- sister so technically…"

Cara got up and put an arm in Griffin's shoulder to stop his babbling. All three women already knew his words had much more to do with how he felt about Kendal.

…