Jim and Veronica entered his living area.  Jim offered her a spot on the couch, Veronica sat down.

"Can I get you anything to drink?" Jim offered.

"Sure, I'll have some water." Veronica smiled at him.

Jim walked over to the wall tablet and tapped his way to the ‘Refreshments’ screen.

"Actually..." Veronica said.

Jim turned to look at her.  She was already looking at him.

"...You know what I'd really like, you know what I haven't had in God knows how long?"

Jim looked at her curiously.

"Sparkling grape juice." She said with a smile

Jim wasn't sure if he'd ever had sparkling grape juice before, but his memory was still not great.  He smiled at her.

"Of course. Two sparkling grape juices coming right up." 

Jim pressed a couple of options, and the refrigerator-like object in the kitchenette began to make a sound.  Two wine glasses appeared from below a platform on the refrigerator and fizzing liquid began to dispense into them from above.  The liquid was dispensed in phases so as not to allow the carbonation to create a foam that overflows.  Jim walked over and grabbed the glasses.

Jim then walked back over to Veronica on the couch and handed her a glass.

"Fancy." she joked

"Only the finest." Jim replied in a professional waiter mock tone.

"Thank you, good sir." Veronica said in a British accent, only partially mocking Simon.  "So Jim, what do you make of Simon?" 

"I'm still not even sure what to make of myself, let alone Simon." Jim said, taking a sip from his glass.

"That's fair." Veronica replied.  "I do hope your memory returns sooner rather than later." She took a sip from her own glass.  "I could only imagine what memories you're forgetting.  It seems pretty important to me that a memory restoration happens."

Jim shrugged.

"Why the shrug?" Veronica asked.

"I don't know..." Jim began. "I don't know who I was before.  I have a better idea who I am in this moment, but what if who I was before was more of an asshole?"

"That's fair..." Veronica acknowledged his concern.

"What if the person I was, before the memory loss, isn't who I want to be now?"  Jim took another sip.  

"Have you considered the possibility that who you were before was a good man, a strong person, with exceptional qualities?"

"Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves in assuming now." Jim said with a laugh.  "Even if I was a good, strong person, I'd like to believe my current sense of humility would have prevented me from even acknowledging those qualities." Jim took another sip. "As far as i'm concerned, anyone that feels the need to announce how humble they are for all the world to see and hear, doesn't seem like a very humble person to me."

"That's fair." Replied Veronica, taking her own sip.

"Do you remember anything about me?" Jim asked

Veronica paused briefly while finishing her current glass.

"I'll tell you what, you grab me another glass and I'll tell you everything I can remember." Veronica handed her empty glass to Jim with playful eyes.

"One more sparkling grape juice coming right up." Jim said, also playfully.

Jim got up and approached the wall tablet again.  The refrigerator made another noise, and two more glasses popped up and filled.  He walked them back to the couch.  Veronica looked up at him and it was the first time he really noticed her green eyes, and red hair.  He handed the glass back to her in his waiter impression.  She didn't say anything this time, only smiled and took a sip looking up at him.  Jim sat back down.

"Okay, spill it." Jim said with a smile.  "What do you remember about me?"

"Not as much as you'd like to know, unfortunately, or myself for that matter.  My memory is really only bits and pieces.  From the little bit that I remember, who you are now, is not all that different than who you were before.  For that, I'm glad." Veronica continued to smile as though reliving a fond memory.

"How so?" Jim asked

"You're a natural leader.  You ask all the right questions at the right moments." She took a sip.  "You always seem to think about things differently than everyone else.  You and Connor are best friends, that comes naturally.  Lydia is very science oriented in her approach to things, and you'd have to be blind not to notice the romantic connection between the two of them.  I dare say that's why they're both here..."

Jim couldn't take his eyes off of Veronica, completely encapsulated in the moment.  Jim could feel his heart rate rising.  He felt flush.  There was something about Veronica, something extremely familiar about her that his lack of memory wouldn't let him grasp.  In this moment, however, there was no shelter, there was no outside world.  Nothing existed except for Veronica and the couch they were sitting on.

"...A reason why we are here." Veronica continued.  Veronica reached her hand out and placed it gently on Jim's free hand.  Veronica's green eyes were fixated on Jim.  To her, Jim was the only thing that existed in that moment.  Veronica leaned forward and kissed Jim on the cheek.

In that moment, Jim started to have brief flashes of memory.  He was standing in a line-up.  The other men and women standing to either side of him were merely silhouettes. No visible faces, just dark shadows of what were multiple entities around him.  The next flash was of darkness, and a voice 

"Selection Begins"

The next flash was of him taking a test of some kind.  He raised his hand amongst the other shapeless, faceless dark masses around him.  The next was the barely visible Veronica, he was shaking her hand.  The next was of him and the barely distinguishable Veronica engaging in hand-to-hand combat.  The next was of a barely visible Connor and Lydia.  There were all four sitting around a table eating.  Connor and Lydia kissed.  The next was of him standing amongst a large group of dark masses of people.  Connor, Lydia, and Veronica, nearby.  Another voice.

"Please step forward when your name is called."

The memory sped up, Jim could hear Connor, Lydia, and Veronica being called up, Jim heard his name.  The next flash was them in a small separate room being spoken to by someone he couldn't make out.  The next memory he saw was Connor and Lydia walking away together inside of a shapeless building of some kind.  The next flash, he could see Veronica's face clearly.  She was looking at him.  Everything about her was beautiful to him.  In the next instant of the same memory, She reached in and kissed him on the cheek.  Pulling back,  her eyes were still filled with an intense love.

Jim snapped out of his memory, and Veronica was there on the couch in front of him.  The transition from memory to reality was flawless.  She had the same green eyes, the same red hair, and the same look in her eyes.

"Veronica?" Jim spoke in a sudden sense of remembrance.

"Yes, Jim?" Veronica recognizes the recognition in his eyes.

Jim leaned forward and kissed Veronica squarely on the lips.  Veronica had been waiting for this.  She returned the favor with vigor.  Not only did she not pull away, in fact, the opposite happened.  Veronica committed herself to that kiss.  Jim with no lack of commitment to the kiss either, continued.  His heart was racing a mile a minute.  He may not remember much yet, but he knew without any shred of doubt, he didn't want this moment to end.  Alas, they pulled apart from each other gently.  Both of their gazes, still very much on each other.  Jim broke the silence first.

"I think my memory is coming back to me a little."

"What did you see?" Veronica asked excitedly.

"I'm not completely sure, a lot of blank faces and something about a selection process?" Jim asked, confused. 

Veronica nodded her head.

"I also saw Connor, and Lydia, at first they were faint, but they became more clear as the memories rapidly fired at me." Jim continued.  "Then there was you.  We all went through some kind of selection process didn't we?"

"Yes." Lydia confirmed.

"Wait, you remember that?" asked Jim, confused.

"I remember more than I've been letting on to, from the start." Confessed Veronica.

"What do you remember?" Jim asked with urgency.

"I remember the selection process, I remember meeting all of you, I remember going through various testing and problem solving exercises.  I remember you succeeding at every single one.  We all did really, but you stood out amongst everyone else as being highly intelligent.  I also remember us being chosen to run this shelter we're in.  The whole process took a couple of months.  I do know this though.  It didn't take a couple of months to make my mind up about you, Jim." Veronica paused while continuing to look at him.  "It only took a single moment when you looked at me for the first time to know that I wasn't just a fellow crew member in this fallout shelter.  I was in love with you."  She paused again.  Do you know what else I remember?"

Jim was speechless.

"We are forever life partners.  For better or worse, through sickness or health.  We are together, and we are one." Veronica finished.

They both sat there, Jim unable to say anything.  Everything that Jim had been feeling up to this point suddenly became clear as day.  Jim knew he was also in love with Veronica, he also knew that he would do anything and everything in his power to protect this woman, not that she needed protection, but he knew he would always be by her side for anything that came their way.  He knew that she was in fact, his forever partner in life.  

Jim finally looked up again, at Veronica, and found his voice again.

"I love you, Veronica." Jim said, sort of choked up.

"I love you too." Veronica replied.

They once again kissed, then embraced.

"What happens now?" asked Jim.

"We maintain this shelter, and hopefully one day we can venture outside and salvage what we can of society." Veronica sat back against Jim's chest.

"How long do you think that'll take?" Jim spoke in her ear

"I'm not sure." Veronica turned to look at Jim.  "It'll happen one day, but I do know one thing.  We'll be ready when it happens."

Lydia returned to her place in Jim's warm embrace.

"What should we watch?" Asked Jim

"Doesn't matter to me.  Anything with you is perfect." Veronica replied, completely engulfed by this perfect moment that she shared with Jim, not wanting it to ever end.