46.

'Can I get this?' Bonnie asks Mandy as they are locked in an embrace within the confines of room 211of the Mulberry Hotel. The this she refers to is a knock to this room's main door.

'Sure ... go right ahead.'

Bonnie is one hundred percent of who it is on that other side of the door. She does not need to hear a voice, she does not need to see to know for she knows anyway despite the fact that others are surely coming too, the need she does have to hear, see, or even feel comes from somewhere else.

She opens the door wide to see Henry standing there. For a moment or two there is no movement, both Henry and Bonnie just stand there looking at one another before the biggest of smiles decides to completely take up the whole of Henry's face. The two embrace as if they have been waiting their whole lives for this moment, as if they are the closest of friends who may have spent months or even years apart.

'Someone call for a doctor?' calls out a voice approaching from down the hall, 'oh ... that's right, the doctor is already here' continues the voice.

'Archer ...' speaks Henry as he stretches out a hand as his embrace with Bonnie comes to an end.

'That would be your name Doc, but I am happy to hold onto Henry for a little while longer.'

'Hey, hey ...' speaks Sue as she turns a bend into this corridor and as she catches up to the others she continues to speak, 'I swear, this guy is like a child at Christmas, he couldn't get up here fast enough.'

'Not true' says Archer trying all he can not to smile.'

'It so is ...'

Hugs and cheek kisses all round and Mandy comes out into the hallway to join in with a key card in hand in case the door to the room closes over before they all can get back inside. Things hardly have a moment to settle down inside the room when a new knock marks another arrival, a dual arrival.

Blue and Red are back and wearing fresh suits, no traces of nose bleeds or blood hailing from any other origin on their clothing. They look a lot less like bank robbers and a lot more like successful businessmen or even possibly fashion designer which Sue would like to comment on but doesn't; still, they may one day have to deal with the repercussions of the actions which ultimately brings them to where they are today.

Down in the lobby of The Mulberry Hotel, Maggie has taken herself a seat the instant she made her return. It is the same seat she took when she first arrived here with her memory loss in tow. She is fearful to a degree of returning to room 211, not a frightening kind of fear but more of a fear of having things come to an end.

Oddly enough this whole situation has given her more stability in her life than what she has had for quite a few years. She is glad an end is coming though she also doesn't want it to end at all and the end is what she fears for it will leave her with a proper what next? for the first time in her life.

Maggie's long term or longer-term bout of having short term memory loss made it ever so difficult to settle down. Now a recent bout of memory loss has ended and in turn has hopefully ended any and every chance of short-term memory loss returning. As soon as she had sat herself down, she had got herself a brief glance of someone relevant to the past few months of her life.

The sighting of a blond-haired fellow only lasts a split second as she has looked away before realizing who she caught sight of. This fellow would hold more relevance for Sue than for Maggie and with not being able to see where that fellow could have gone to Maggie decides not to investigate his presence any further.

It is not long before further distraction comes, and a friendly one at that.

'Hi ... do you mind if I join you.'

She recognizes the voice before she sees who it belongs to. William has come to be in her presence in the same manor he had after a full memory loss had taken a grip of them both.

'I'd rather you didn't' she says in jest and in reply to his question.

'Well, if that is an invitation then I will take it', he sits in the chair next to her which is six or seven feet away, so he is not overly close. 'I'm William by the way.'

'No shit, Sherlock' she says as she stands to great him with a hug. He stands too.

'My name really is William' he says continuing the light-hearted moment and this makes her want to smile all the more. 'We better get up there, staying down here won't make the day last any longer, it only wastes what time we do have', he knows her so well and he is also wise beyond his years.

Once all eight, nine including Mandy, are within the confines of Room 211 Maggie feels the need to apologize, all of the forgotten crew received injections and most showed signs of improvement early on. For some like Henry and Sue it would take longer than others, the twins began healing almost right away, in days they were walking again.

For Maggie it took a while, she continued to experience short term memory loss over the three months in the facility in which they stayed within and as it only properly discussed for the first time here in Room 211. It was because of Maggie that memory loss would hit at all. The Nanites within each and every person linked them all together and slowly but surely and over time Maggie's condition infected them all to the point they needed to be locked in that room with eight singular beds.

The inmates, which in a way is what they became, overran the asylum and they each made an escape so to speak due to the effects the Nanites were having on them though a plan had been set in motion for what had come to be had been seen coming to a degree and a well arranged plan saw a gathering within a room within The Mulberry Hotel until a final update could bring them all back to themselves.

A half hour of grouped and individual chat with nine individuals occurs within room 211 and this chat is in full flow until the point where it is interrupted by a phone call to the room's individual phone. Everyone goes quiet and everyone turns to Henry who returns a questionable look.

'What? You guys want me to answer that?'

'Well, you did assume a leader's role' speaks Archer and this brings about some lighthearted laughter.

Henry answers the phone and other than Henry's voice speaking in response to the call, the room falls silent.

'What was that all about?' asks Archer once that call has come to an end.

'That was Siobhan, from the reception desk. Apparently, we have visitors waiting on us down in the lobby.'

There are visitors in the lobby; quite a few in fact but there are three who are, let's say, outstanding. One of these visitors is William's mother and he quickly moves to greet her, and the others find William's actions overwhelming and they can't help but feel at least some of the emotion William does.

Another of the main three visitors so happens to be someone temporarily known as Sander, he is alive and well and Mandy can't help but head straight for him, hugging him first and then slapping him before returning to the hug. She briefly considers the head surgery he went through and the slap she gave him though those Nanites have seriously aided recovery.

'I thought you were dead' she says.

'So did many others.'

Sander had been indeed injected with Nanites too, so being connected via the Nanites he too suffered memory loss. Of course, William's mother worked closely with Sander. It wasn't easy for her to take a step back when it was needed and this moment for her is the payoff for her restraint.

The third of the three main visitors is a blond-haired man, Sander too is blond haired and there is a connection between the two men. When he is observed, everyone, including Sue, is instantly aware of who this other man is. This blond-haired man in a way is a cause for Sue's previous condition as he is also her savior.

Sander had been raised as an only child though he has an older half-brother, and this so happens to be the blond-haired man at his side. They both share the same father. The closer Sander got to his invention becoming reality, it couldn't be helped, his brother revealed himself and they worked together to see it through.

It came too late to save their father though as we know it has brought together all of what we have here.

'You had a big say in bringing everyone together' Sue says to he, with whom in many ways is the closet anyone has ever got to her emotionally while also remaining quite the enigma.

'Indeed, you were my favourite hello and my most difficult goodbye ... when the time came.'

'Are you planning another goodbye?' Sue asks as she thinks about a possible embrace.

'I certainly hope not, not now ... with a renewed future, there is renewed hope ...' and the embrace happens.

There is only one more question of importance to be asked at this moment and Archer has the pleasure and privilege, if it can be called that, of asking it of Sander.

'That darkened room I woke in' he begins, 'would you care to explain it and all it contains?'

'That my friend will not be so simple ...'

'Try ...'

Twenty-four hours pass and everyone is free to return to their everyday lives, or what exists of those lives from before the past few months and up to a year in some cases. The twins go into hiding; they did rob a bank after all and would rather not go to prison. Their recent departure from custody is not discussed. How that occurred, for now, will remain a mystery. Archer is soon reunited with his Doberman. The lady he met on the day of his seizure kindly took the dog in.

Being in full health, Henry returns to his family, the wife and children who are eagerly waiting for his return, and for all life moves on. That room in the facility the experiments began in, that darkened room, illuminated before Archer left it. What exactly is in there? Well, that may best be kept for ... another story ... and for Siobhan's part in all this ... why had she been so willing to help? Well, that too can be left for another time ...

Bonnie, the first to have access to Room 211, is the last to leave it though before she does, she gazes into a mirror and whether it is something she is imagining or something else, what she sees in that reflection is an aspect of her personality she hopes to never see again.

THE END