I watch Dr. Richardson carefully. Her face an inch from the window, her breath misting the glass. “Sometimes the truth does more harm than a lie. While she was in a coma, she lived an alternate truth. You all have to give her time to adjust, to come back to reality. Back to us.” Dr. Richardson turns and gives Nora and me a sad smile.

Nora winces and I step closer to her, rest a palm on her shoulder. She turns and wraps her arms around my waist and buries her face in my chest. Helplessness rises up inside me as I feel the shudder shake her frame. This isn’t how it was supposed to go down.

“I don’t know what that means. Can I see her or am I supposed to stay away?”

“By all means, visit with her. But Mike, you will be a trigger for her. And at this point in the game you can’t accuse her of being wrong. It will only agitate her. Be sensitive and patient.”

“Are you telling me to go along with her delusion?” I ask. The pang of guilt that stabs my chest is from not telling Aubry how I feel about her.

“No. But don’t actively accuse her of being wrong just yet. If you’ll excuse me, I have to find Detective Salve and give him an update. He generously offered to wait on questioning her until I could assess the situation.”

I nod and mumble some social grace in her direction.

Nora looks up at me as she steps backward. “I think you should go see her now. Before Salve talks to her.”

I wrinkle my face in confusion. “Why?”

“Because she’s been begging to see you. I think it’s upsetting her that she hasn’t had a chance to talk to you alone. Maybe if you visit now it will help her know that it’s safe to tell Salve what she remembers. Because, right now, she thinks there’s some big cover-up happening that we’re all in on and she’s not really saying much about what happened.”

I dig at the back of my neck, a knot forming fast. “Okay.”

“Don’t be scared.”

“It’s not Aubry I’m scared of.”

“What then?”

“What if I make it worse? What if I say the wrong thing and set her off? I don’t want to cause any more damage.”

Nora’s face breaks into a smile. “You really don’t know how much Aubry cares about you, do you? I know you idiots have attempted to hide it—even from yourselves—but trust me Mike, you can’t damage Aubry.”

I'm relieved to see a spark of life in Aubry's expression when I open the door. Those narrowed blue eyes have never looked better despite her almost skeletal frame. Her fragileness evident in her chapped lips, stringy hair, and pallid skin. 

“Can I come in?”

“I don’t know. Can you?” she snaps. I clench my jaw to keep from saying something stupid. I missed this. Her fiery attitude. Her spunk.

Just seeing her again awake, alive, elicits strange emotions in me. I want to smother her with kisses. Strangle her with affection. I used to feel like an echo but with Aubry I feel the best I've ever felt. I do none of those things. Instead I pulled the chair close to her bed and sit in it.  I take her hand in mine.

“So,” I ask, “How are you?”

Her jaw drops open. She looks at me like I have three heads and I instantly feel bad for the stupid question. “Sorry, I meant, how are you feeling?”

“Of all the things you could ask me, that's your question?”

I let out a long sigh and drag my hand through my hair. “What do you want me to say, Aubry?”

“Well, for starters, I'd like you to tell me how I got to Tucson?” She pins me with a pointed glare.

“Someone found you outside, unconscious there. But I know you've already been told all this.” I’m parroting information that’s been regurgitated by everyone.

She squints her eyes shut and mashes her fist into her temples.

“No, no.  I know things, Mike. I remember things. I'm not crazy. But, I feel too desperate to be sane.  Why are you doing this to me?” Her tone is pleading and it nearly cracks my heart in half, seeing her this way.

“Tell me what things you know.  Let's start there,” I offer up.

Her eyes snap open. “Okay,” she says hesitantly. “I know you smuggle for the Russians. I know that's how you found me, and I know all the things that we did together. How I felt so used every time you left and so confused whenever you were with me.  How you told me I had to stay there because it wasn't safe here and yet now here I am, home, and I don't know why. I don't remember leaving the jungle.” Her eyes bore holes in my face.

I swallow thickly passed the lump in my throat. “Aubry I don’t know what you’re talking…” I stop short, the words stuck in my throat.

“Mike?” My name comes out accusatory or maybe it’s disapproval.

Looking away I say, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I do know that I promised myself I’d do anything to bring you back. To have you back. I missed you. I should have been honest with you. The games we played before you went missing were stupid. For months I thought, if you could just hear my voice and follow it out of the dark, I’d … I’d make everything right.” I bite my lip and drag a hand through my hair.

She pushes her head back against her pillow, clearly frustrated. “So, you're saying we didn't have sex?”

The words come out blunt and clipped.  I choke on the spittle in my throat. She’s all over the place and I can barely follow, let alone come up with tactful answers.

“What?” I ask.

She points between us. “You.  Me. Sex,” she says.

Flustered, I simply shake my head.  My heart hurts.

Her nostrils flare and her eyes shoot daggers in my direction. “I'm not joking, Mike.” And she’s not. Like the red-blooded male that I am, I wonder if she thinks the sex with me was good.

I clear my throat and say, “Aubry, we’ve never had sex. Trust me, I’d remember.”