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her given name. No one, but Sam had ever called her that. She pointed her finger at him and moved with the stealth of a predatory cat toward him. “Don’t you even.”
                                “What?” he asked. “Don’t ask questions? I have a right to know.”
                                “I know that, Sam. You have every right to know, but please, for me,” she pleaded with him. “Please don’t ask me this now. I have to live through it twice and it was hard enough the first time. I need some time to prepare for a trip down memory lane.”
                                “Well,” he said, his voice returning to normal. “At least you have your memories. Me? I have a big void.”
                                The selfish part of Lil wanted to tell Sam that he needed to hold on to those memories he had of her. They were happy memories. They were what she tried desperately to cling to when he walked out. He didn’t want the memories of what pushed them apart. He didn’t want the memories of sleepless nights alone, crying until her body could no longer fight to stay awake.
                                Dr. Walker cleared his throat. Lil had forgotten the man was still in the room. “Sam and Lil, I know that this is tough for the both of you but the more function Sam’s brain has at remembering the past, the better the chance that he will regain those memories.”
                                Dr. Walker gave Lil a sympathetic look as he excused himself from the room. When he walked past, he lightly patted her back and whispered in her ear. “Take it slow.”
                  The door clicked shut and she looked at Sam to see if he was going to speak first or if it was all up to her. His head was down and it looked as if he was counting the thread count of the sheets on the bed.
    “Listen, Sam. I'm really sorry about everything. I wish there was something I could to do to help but there's not.” Sam opened his mouth to speak but Lil kept talking. “There is nothing I can say that will bring back your memories. There's nothing I can do to make you well. The best I can do is leave you right now. Just like this. If this is all you remember of me, then it's bound to be better than how you remembered me last.” The tears fell freely down Lil's face the more she spoke.
    “I know I can't compare my pain to the kind of confusion you're going through right now. It's selfish of me but this is the first time we've been in the same room together, much less spoken to one another, in three years. I’m a shell of the person you think you know. Broken, Sam. That’s what I am, that’s how I’ve been for a while. I can’t help you get better.”
                                Lil started to back away from Sam and to the door. “I'm going to go and I wish you the best. I do. You'll bounce back from this, Sam. You may not believe that now, but you will. Who knows?" she said with a tiny shrug. "Maybe this talk and seeing me have already helped. Maybe you’ll wake up in the morning and remember all that you’ve lost.”
    Lil stopped with her back against the door. She looked at Sam through the wetness of her tears clouding her vision.
    “Take care, Sam.”
    With those parting words, she turned her back on Sam, afraid to give him one last glance but knowing that the pained and confused look on his face would haunt her dreams later that night. She had to leave and get out of there. She was telling him the truth. There was nothing she could do for him.
                                When she opened the door, she didn't pay attention to the chorus of voices that called her name. All three Travers men were calling after her but all Lil could hear was the sound of her sobs echoing off the white sterile