Previously on The Legacy Files...

"Just stay away from me!" 

"Colleen..."

"Just leave me alone!"

It was then that Evan realized just how royally he had screwed this up. In all of his daydreams, restoring Colleen's memories had never gone like this. She was afraid of him. Him, Evan, who had been her best friend. And with total right. She didn't know him, didn't know what was going on, didn't know what would happen to Hillary, or herself, or anything. 

He stood there for a moment and stared at her, watching the way the gusts of wind ruffled her hair and clothes. She had a desperate, wounded animal look about her. And his heart ached. He felt something in the pit of his stomach grow, threatening to upend his breakfast. He took one last look at her, then turned and walked away.  

And now, The Past is a Present, Part 2...

Suggested soundtrack: Lullaby by James

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“Solo day-drinking.  Awesome.”

Evan recognized Holly Ferris’s voice immediately as she entered the bar, but he didn’t turn around.  The bartender visibly bristled, probably worried that her condescension would scare away the other clientele, some of whom also fit the description of solo day-drinkers.     

Holly reached Evan’s stool and stood behind him.  

“I’m not solo,” he said, still not turning to face her with fake pleasantry.  “You’re here.”

She sat down next to him, still wearing her stylish long coat, and placed her plum-colored clutch handbag on the bar in front of her.  She was dressed impeccably.  Probably on her lunch break.  She was gorgeous, her black hair short, showing off her slender dark neck, her eyes done up to bring out that hazel color in them.  But he and Holly – he knew they would never work out.  They had tried that before.  He had too much baggage for her.  Hell, he had too much baggage for himself.  But at least they had stayed friends…most of the time.  When she wasn’t acting like she was his mother.    

 “How did you know I was here?” he asked.

“Daniel called me at work.  He’s been trying to reach you.  Something about an incident at the hospital. So he asked me to check out your usual haunts.”

“Couldn’t he have gone after me himself?”

“He doesn’t know where to look and I don’t want to give him any ideas.  I figure you need your privacy just as much as the next man.”  She looked a little self-satisfied, then, in her own skills of investigation, and he should have been grateful she kept his secrets really, but instead he just felt irritated.  

“And yet, you’re here.”

This clearly offended her.  He could see by the look on her face.  But the satisfaction he thought he would get out of saying it failed to manifest itself.  

“I’m just checking on you.  I didn’t intend to stay.  Just make sure you call Daniel.”  

She got up from her stool to leave, swiping her clutch handbag from the bar.  

“Holly…”  

She stopped mid-stride.  

“I just needed some time to process some things.”

Her face softened a little.  “Just call Daniel.  He’s worried about you.”

Holly grabbed her purse and headed for the door.  Evan followed her with his eyes, but kept his seat.  He was aware Daniel had paged him, but he had lost track of how many times.  He dug his pager out of his pocket and checked the display.  11 total, but in his defense, not one of them had been *911.  

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Colleen lay on the couch in the darkness of Katherine’s apartment, listening to the refrigerator running.  It had been a long, confusing day.

When Katherine saw her face after the hospital visit, she called Robert and asked him not to come, which Colleen was thankful for.  Instead, she and Katherine had skipped the spaghetti, ordered Hawaiian pizza instead, and played N64 until late.  Katherine asked no questions about the day.  She always had a way of knowing what Colleen needed.   

Now as Colleen tried to sleep, she found that sleep would not come.  She felt like she was losing her mind, like everything she thought she knew about her life was wrong.  In her mind’s eye, she could see Hillary coming through the green portal thing with Heath carrying her mother.  She has this dazed look and blood is trickling from her mouth.  Heath (how did she even know his name?) stumbles and falls to the floor, and her mother rolls out of his arms.  

Colleen pulled the sheet over her head and tried to block out the thought.  But a new one only took its place.  A memory.  One of Hillary sitting beside Colleen’s bed in her room at the apartment above the antique store.  Colleen is about 16 years old.

“Colleen, you’ve been through quite a trauma.  Your head injury and losing your parents in that car accident.  This is to be expected.” 

Colleen could taste and feel the desperation as if it were all happening again.  “But I don’t remember anything!  Nothing! It’s all a blank!  I can’t remember anything from the accident! I can’t feel anything from the accident!  It’s as if it never happened.”

She had just woken up, but Hillary had told her that she had been in the hospital, had been in a coma, had woken up, come home, everything.

“The doctor said this could happen.”

“But you don’t understand!  I don’t even remember anything from before the accident, either.”

“Do you remember me?” asked Hillary, patiently.

“Yes.  And I know who I am.  And I know my parents.  But everything else is just…gone.”

Five years away from this horrible moment, lying on her friend’s couch, Colleen tried with all her might to push these things away.  Instead, she only succeeded in making the coffee table slide across the rug and hit the TV stand, a by-product of her exertion.  She glanced at Katherine’s door and waited, but there was no movement.  She had kept the secret of her powers from her friend for five years.  Now was not the time to blow it.  

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The next morning, Colleen found herself arguing with the nurse at the reception desk at Mercy Hospital.  What was supposed to be a simple visit had suddenly become more complicated.  

“What do you mean, she’s no longer on the hospital grounds?  How can you just move her without my permission?”

“I’m sorry.  Ms. Dean has been moved to a private care facility within the estate of Mr. Daniel Morgan,” the nurse, Tina, responded, with patience stemming from years of practice.  “He felt she would be able to receive the best care there.”

“What?  Who the hell is Daniel Morgan?  Not THE Daniel Morgan.”

“If you mean the billionaire, then yes.  He is listed as her power of attorney.  It is all perfectly legal, I assure you.  He did leave an address for you.”  She handed Colleen a business card with an address printed on it, and a handwritten note on the back.  

Sorry for the confusion.  Please come see me.  I will send a car for you.  Uncle Daniel