I own nada.

-

They hadn’t been able to find whoever put her in a coma – whoever had beaten her, raped her, and beaten her again until she lost all her memories. Her face, her prints, her DNA came up with no hits, as though she had never existed. She had been found naked, and no one had been reported missing that matched her description.

Nick was starting to believe they would never even know who she was. She wasn’t brain dead, the doctors said. They only knew she had amnesia because of her brief moment of lucidity, when she had asked, “Where am I? Who am I?” repeatedly. Her injuries forced her into a coma shortly afterward.

Nick sat beside the comatose woman, reaching out to hold her hand. “We will find who did this. You’ll wake up soon and someone who knows you will be here, waiting to tell you about your life until you remember. You’ll live, you’ll move on, and we’ll nail the bastard who did this. But first, you have to wake up…I have to keep faith that you can.”

The woman stirred, and Nick knew she had moved into REM sleep when he saw her eyes. He smiled. “That’s the first step.” He stroked her hand and left.

Two days later, she woke up, whispering her own name.

“Faith.”