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Part One
John Sherlock
Chapter one
"Don't I have a right to be grumpy?"
His head felt like it was full of sand and his eyes were too heavy to open. He laid for a moment and tried to figure out what the hell was going on. After a while, he finally willed his eyes to open. It was like looking through smoke, and his head hurt like he’d been hit with a crowbar or something equivalent. Not that he knew specifically what that felt like.
He blinked a couple of times, and as his surroundings came into focus, he realized he was in a hospital room. But before he had time to think about the why or the how, a face appeared in front of him. It was a pretty face and it belong to a woman in navy blue scrubs.
She smiled. “There you are.” She stuck a thermometer in his mouth, then put two fingers on the inside of his right wrist. She kept her eyes on her watch while he concentrated on her face. Her blonde hair was pulled into a bun that was probably a lot neater when she started her day. And she had light brown eyes the color of whiskey. When the thermometer beeped, sheremoved it and asked, “How are you feeling?”
“Like someone bashed my brains in.”
She patted his hand. “According to the police report, I think somebody did.”
He scowled at her, then rubbed the back of his head. “Really?”
She shrugged. “I think so. You have quite a lump, along with a black eye and a few miscellaneous bruises. Someone gave you quite a working over.”
He took a breath and felt a sharp pain in his side. “Yeah, seems he got in a kick to the rib cage, too.” The fogginess in his head made it hard to think. “Where am I?”
“Mercy General.”
That meant nothing to him. “Um…what city?” It seemed like a dumb question, but he really had no clue.
“Santa Fe.”
Again, the information was meaningless. He had no idea why he was in Santa Fe. “I’m in New Mexico?” It didn’t seem right. But he wasn’t sure why. In fact he wasn’t sure where he should be.
“Yes. It seems they addled your brain a bit.”
He looked at her as the reality of his situation began to dawn on him. “Did I have ID on me?”
She shook her head. “No wallet. No cell phone. Who can we get a hold of for you?”
No names came popping into his head. His mind was like a black hole with nothing in it past waking up five minutes ago. He had no idea whohe was. He shook his head as he tried to get a handle on the panic threatening to take over.
“I don’t know.”
She gave him a small smile. “There must be someone.”
“I’m sure there is. I just can’t remember.” He closed his eyes for a moment, afraid to say the words out loud. They came out low and slow. “I don’t know who I am.”
She let the seriousness of the situation flash into her eyes momentarily before her training took over. “Everything’s going to be okay. I don’t want you to worry.”
“Don’t worry?” He looked at her. “I can’t remember who the hell I am.”
She tried to keep control of the situation. “I’ll go get the doctor for you. I’ll be right back.”
For the five minutes she was gone, he went through an array of panic interspersed with cursing and trying to force out a memory. This all only resulted in making his head hurt more. When the nurse returned, she had a man in a white lab coat with her.
He went to the bed and smiled. “I’m Dr. Morgan. Ember here tells me you’re having some memory issues. What’s the last thing you remember?”
Issues?He took a breath. He didn’t want to alienate the man who may have answers for him. “Waking up here a few minutes ago. Before that, nothing.” He looked at his left hand. He had a tanline from a band on his ring finger. He rubbed it with his thumb as if the ring was still there.
The nurse stepped up beside the doctor. “Are you married?”
