My hearing returns before my sight does. Mostly because when I wake up, my eyes are closed. I lie there, unmoving, listening. There is a quiet beeping somewhere in the background, the sound of softly shuffling feet. A door opens and closes, and all at once there are two hands resting, very cautiously against my cheeks. Feather light, barely even a touch. Then something hot splatters against my cheek.

‘Kim…’

It’s Pie.

‘Kim…’ her voice is shaking like nothing I’ve ever heard before. I can barely make out the different syllables. ‘Don’t do this to me again. I’ll never forgive you, do you hear me? Never.’

My mouth won’t work. Neither will my eyelids. The only things I can move are my fingers, which I twitch experimentally. Pie doesn’t notice. The hot splashes on my cheek, which I now realize are tears, are falling thickly now. The pillow beside me is growing damp.

‘I can’t do this again,’ she bites out. Her voice is swollen. ‘Don’t make me do this again.’

I twitch my fingers, this time grasping the bed sheets. My eyelid flickers. Then they part, and I can see Pie’s face, flushed with crying.

‘Do what again?’ I croak out.

Pie doesn’t respond. She just sits there, watching me with only one emotion. No relief, no happiness. Just extreme, paralyzing fear. I push myself up on my elbows and she leans back, keeping her distance.

‘Pie? What’s wrong?’

Pie jerks forwards and grips my arm a little above the elbow with sharp fingers. ‘You called me Pie,’ she mumbles. Her eyes dart between my own, frantic. ‘You know me?’

‘Of course I know you. Nothing could make me forget you, Pie.’

That, apparently, was the wrong thing to say, and tears quickly begin to dribble down her cheeks again. I reach over and pull her closer, confused and hurting. ‘It’s ok, Pie. The serum didn’t work, I didn’t forget anything. I’m still here.’ Then I pause. ‘Wait.’

Pie pulls backwards slightly. Her breath is ragged with anguish.

‘Wait. You said… ‘don’t do this to me again’.’

‘Kim.’

‘You said, ‘don’t do this to me again’. Don’t do what again? Pie, what hap – ’

I pause again. I can feel something deep in the back of my head, like a rock stuck fast in the ground. It grates within me. Pie repeats my name, but she’s far away suddenly, a secondary figure to the something that is within my grasp, like it has been many times before. Except this time I won’t let it slip away. This time I can’t. This time I –

The rock shifts. The world tilts. I

wake up.

‘Pie?’ I whisper. She flickers back into focus, looking tired and brittle. ‘You… we…’ I swallow. ‘You like to go swimming when you’re upset.’

Her face turns ashen. She reaches out with trembling fingers and then withdraws, not daring to touch me.

‘Pie,’ I breathe. Everything is spinning except for her, everything is turning and spinning and moving and Pie – Pie sits, frozen, beside me.

‘Kim,’ she mouths. She looks terrified. Painfully so.

‘Australia,’ I say, and she stiffens even further. Only her eyes are moving, dilated with fear. ‘Agent 24 didn’t die. Because that was you. You were agent 24.’

Pie disintegrates. She presses her face into my shoulder and cries so hard she can’t breathe, then chokes out a few short gasps before crying again.

‘You did,’ she gets out between sobs, ‘you did forget me.’

‘I didn’t really,’ I say. My arms are around her waist, I’ve all but dragged her onto the bed with me. ‘Not really. I couldn’t.’

‘You said, on the first day, when Jane came around – you said my name. You introduced me to her before I had a chance to tell you my name, I thought –’

‘I’m sorry,’ I mumble, pressing my lips against her forehead. ‘I’m so sorry, Pie, please –’

‘I had to quit field work,’ she continues. ‘I couldn’t do that anymore, so I did solo surveillance missions, and then In sent me out here – to work with you and I didn’t think – I didn’t think I could do it –’

‘I was a test trial,’ I say, more so for my own benefit than hers, to solidify the memories now draining loudly back into my mind, ‘and before that – we –’

And then Pie is pulling my face down to meet hers and she’s kissing me like I had wished she would for the past week, her lips stained by grief, her hands on my neck, feverish. I kiss back with all the fervor I can manage, while years worth of memories slip back into the gaping holes they left behind, filling me up with images of Pie, kissing Pie, being with Pie, loving Pie, Pie, Pie, Pie,

‘I’m sorry,’ I say against her lips, over and over again. ‘I’m sorry I left.’

She pulls away, and I miss her instantly.

‘It’s ok. You’re back now.’

She surges forward again and I wrap my arms around her waist, pressing my face into her hair.

‘I missed you when I didn’t know you,’ I say.

She still smells, faintly, of chlorine. I hold Pie as tenderly as I can, and we lie there, and I love her.

+

‘You told me Van was your fiancé.’

Pie smiles at me a little sheepishly. ‘He was when we first met. I wondered if it would trigger something in you.’

A few moments later, when In makes an appearance, Pie is under the sheets with me, my head resting on her shoulder and our hands clasped above the blankets. I’m listening to her breathe. Remembering.

‘So,’ In says. ‘You remember.’

‘I remember everything,’ I say, and Pie squeezes my hand. In raises an eyebrow.

‘Everything? You mean from before as well?’

I nod. ‘The serum must also be the antidote.’

‘I see. That would be very useful information if we hadn’t destroyed their entire stash, and the base to boot.’

Pie sits up, and I follow. ‘You destroyed it?’

‘When the others arrived, agent 72, you had just fallen into unconsciousness and you, agent 68, were on your way to follow. They wanted to knock you out and then administer another dose, but luckily we stopped that from happening. And now the base has been destroyed.’

‘And G.O.L.F?’ I ask.

‘Still operational. That may have been their headquarters, but I don’t doubt they have back ups and weapon cache’s all over the world. They took a major blow today, though.’

‘What about Mike?’

In shrugs. ‘Got him behind bars. The evidence you gathered against him over this past week was easily enough, so we thank you for that. We’re also offering the both of you a month long respite, considering the events that transpired, if you’d like.’

I look at Pie, who smiles softly down at me.

‘I think we might take you up on that,’ I say.