Chapter 6

Elric woke with a pounding headache. He opened his eyes ever-so-slightly and was blinded by the sudden light. Blood was pounding in his ears, making it hard to concentrate on anything. He placed a hand over his eyes to protect them from the light and tried to look around him. He was laying on a white pleather couch in what seemed to be someone's living room. He didn't recognize anything, and sat up quickly to observe the rest of the room. Big mistake. More blood flowed to his head and his vision swam for a moment.

"Ah! You're awake." The voice he heard quiet and gentle, which was nice because he felt like he had a hangover. He turned slowly and saw a small woman, about nineteen or twenty, standing at the other end of the couch. She had shoulder length brown hair and matching eyes. Elric just stared at her, she seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. His mind raced as he fought to remember her name. "How are you feeling?" He shook his head to rid himself of stray thoughts.

"Okay, I guess. Uh… where am I?" She smiled at him.

"You're at my apartment. Sorry it's so dirty, this arrangement was a little unexpected." Elric placed his head in his hands. Nothing he did helped him.

"Who are you? What am I doing here...? Who am I?" The woman just stared at him with wide eyes.

"… What…? Stop messing around Elric! That's not funny!" She sounded really scared. There's something he wasn't supposed to forget, maybe? Elric shook his head and ran his hands through his hair. She sat down beside him and touched his shoulder. "What do you remember?" He sat quietly, trying to remember everything.

"Turning a corner… seeing…. you…. and then… nothing." She shook her head in disbelief, her hair swaying slightly with the movement.

"My name is Sabriel Rae Kaplan. You are Elric Turner. You are the lead detective for the police department. You're twenty-three years old. Any other questions?" Elric nodded and sighed. At least she was willing to answer him, which helped a lot.

"Why am I here?"

"When you saw me from around the corner, something hit your head and you blacked out. My friend, Stephanie, came and we carried you here."

"Where do I live?"

"Downtown somewhere, would you like to go down there later and see if you can remember anything. Maybe being near things you're familiar with will jog your memory." He nodded again and tried to stand. "Here," she said, taking his arm to help him, "I'll take you to the kitchen. I'll bet you're hungry."

"I'm not a child. I can walk on my own."

"I know, but it soothes my conscience to know that I'm helping you. It's kinda my fault that you're like this." Elric looked at her questioningly, but she ignored his gaze. "What would you like?"

"Whatever, I don't mind." They passed through an open doorway and into a white kitchen. The tiles where white, so were the cabinets, the fridge, the oven… you get the idea. It was also amazingly clean. Sabriel obviously had a lot of time on her hands, either that or she had a maid.

"Okaay. Are you allergic to anything?" Elric sat down at the small, round table and stared at her. "Right. No memory. Well, how about bacon and eggs? Or I could make some pancakes? You choose."

"No pressure," Elric stated sarcastically as he rolled his eyes. Sabriel smiled brightly at him and he wondered how anyone could be so happy so early in the morning. "Pancakes," he answered, unsure. Sabriel nodded her head vigorously and began to rummage through her pantry.

"So… any other questions," she asked. Her voice was even softer as she ransacked the small closet.

"What do you do for a living?" Her head popped from around the door and she had a wicked grin.

"What's that got to do with you're memory loss?" Elric shrugged and watched as she sighed, pulling a box that said "Hungry Jack" from a shelf. She sat the box on the counter and went back into the pantry in searched of the other things she would need. She didn't answer until she was at the fridge, hunting for the milk. It seemed as if Sabriel had something to hide. She turned to him with a serious face, milk in hand. Then she smiled, visibly relaxed. "I do some odds-and-ends jobs for my boss. No big deal." Oh yeah. She's definitely lying. Elric just smiled to himself. He would find out what was happening. She said herself he was a detective, didn't she? And to have a high rank in the police department meant that he had to be good at it, didn't it? "Do you want bacon or sausage?"

"Both?"

"Okay!" Elric slipped back into his deep thoughts, trying to remembereverything, as Sabriel stood at the stove working with the frying meat.

Sabriel worriedly stared at the bacon. What if she got another call from him while Elric was here? She used her living room to plan the robberies. It would be hard for him to miss museum blue prints and file after file of security guard records. But, she couldn't let him go back to his home. She doubted he would do well with his memory gone. Curse Stephanie and her obsession with blunt heavy objects! There were plenty of other ways they could've knocked him out that wouldn't require head trauma!

"Is something burning?" She heard Elric speak, but it took a moment for the words to register.

"Holy Crap! It's burning!" She shrieked as she scooped up the burnt pieces of pork and places them on a paper towel covered plate. She grabbed the frying pan and poured the remaining grease into a coffee cup that was sitting on the stove. Sabriel heard a weird sort of sniffling and turned to Elric to see him silently laughing at her. "Shut up, like you could do any better!" That outburst only made him laugh harder and now he was howling. He has a nice laugh…Wait, that little jerk is making fun of me!

"Here, let me help." And with that he was right behind her, his arms reaching around either side of her, his hands on hers, as he poured a spoonful of batter into the frying pan. Sabriel could feel her face burning as she leaned subconsciously into him. Well, this is a new development.

Thanks for reading! I'm really sorry I haven't updated for incredibly long time, and that this was so short. I just felt that no one was reading this, and if you're not going to read it, why write it, ya know? Thanks to the two people that reviewed… the only two people that reviewed… Anyway, please review. I need to know what you don't like about it and such so that I can adjust it to your liking.