It had been an hour or so since Nicki had eaten, her time seemed to be occupied by stories, or tall tales more accurately, from Zendaya and Micheal.

Though entertaining she hadn't fully given her mind and attention over to them. She still had an agenda with every intention to follow through on. So when she finally found an opportunity to slip away she took it without hesitation.

In hindsight Nicki realized it might not have been the best of ideas considering she hadn't a clue of the layout and what led to where.

However she proceeded anyways. She'd run into Giselle eventually right?

"Nicki, oh dearest Nicki!" Or maybe not.

She frowned at the masculine, unfamiliar voice before turning around.

She was suddenly swept off of her feet being twirled in a quick circle before she met the ground again finally being able to get a good look at the man.

His skin was pale, with a tinge of pink in his cheeks and on his nose that brought life to his face. A thick beard framed his sharp jaw.

"You're awake!" He enthused with wide excited eyes.

Nicki only blinked giving a partial and awkward grin.

"What... You hit your head or something in that accident?" He lifted a brow, his energy calming down some.

"It's me. Ian. You're jack ass bestie." He made hand gestures expecting something to click.

"I'm sorry but, I um actually don't remember anything at all... since I woke up." She spoke awkwardly.

Her searched her face intently for a sign of something to give away her joke, but there was nothing it seemed.

"Please tell me you're joking with a very convincing poker face..."

She shook her head.

Ian looked on perplexed bringing his hand to his chin.

"Interesting development." He spoke slowly.

"Whelp," he threw his hands up.

"This just got weird considering I hugged you like a crackhead looking for a fix and you have absolutely no idea who I am."

Nicki couldn't help her chuckle.

"It's fine it's not your fault."

It dawned on her then, Ian hadn't been warned of her memory loss quite yet. Nobody had informed him of code 'keep Nicki's life a secret from her for some dumb ass reason'. Maybe he'd give her the answers she was looking for; that is if they were 'besties' as he suggested.

"So were we really best friends?"

He offered a light shrug.

"You would probably never admit it out loud to yourself but oh yeah, definitely."

Nicki raised a brow.

"Why wouldn't I admit that to myself?" She folded her arms.

"Well nick nack we didn't exactly like each other when you got here. Like, at all. But things changed I suppose."  He gave a wide, taunting grin.

She narrowed her eyes before sighing.

"Are you screwing with me? Do we even like each other now?"

Ian's somewhat facetious demeanor relaxed into more of a serious one. He looked at Nicki with genuine eyes and a pain filled smile.

"Honestly I didn't think you were ever going to wake up. Scared me shitless." He shook his head, the feeling still very reminiscent.

"I always had a pretty crappy way of letting you know I care, but I promised myself if you woke up I would do better. You may not remember me Nicki, but you're one of the best friends I've ever had. I kind of care about you a lot and you better not do anymore dumb shit because I won't let your ass forget this time." He spoke drawing another chuckle from Nicki.

"Thanks for letting me know you care,"

She suddenly felt a twinge of nervousness flush through her stomach.

"So um what exactly... happened to me?"

He looked at her long and hard, the silence around them only adding to the moments sudden dramatics.

"Wow, you really don't remember..."

Nicki quickly shook her head anxious for an explanation, she felt as if she were grasping it with the pads of her fingertips.

"Nicki."

And just that fast she lost her grip.

She recognized Kat's voice behind her now.

Perfect timing.

"I was just looking for you, come on we need to get you some pain killers and antibiotics, you're stomach is going to feel like hell in a little bit." She gently held her arm turning her around.

"Ian... I'll talk to you later." She gave a lingering glance to the taller man before clearing her throat and finally dismissing their presence.

Nicki was less than enthused to see her, she was sure there was no coincidence in her timely pop up. But she'd keep that thought towards herself.

"So who was that?" She decided to ask casually.

"I mean I know his name is Ian but, you guys were exchanging some interesting looks."

She watched Kat's cheeks rouge.

"Well, he's sort of my husband."

Nicki could tell by the shy girl that hardly came out to speak, she wasn't quite use to calling him that yet.

She opened her mouth to speak but was quickly cut off.

"But enough about that, you really can't go wondering off like that Nicki-"

"Why not?"

"Because unnecessarily huge is an understatement for this place. You'll be lost in less than two minutes and that could end very badly."

Onika sighed heavily earning a stare from Kat.

"Is that going to be a problem?" She pondered.

"No I'm just... not liking this feeling of having to be babysat."

"I'm sorry Nicki and I understand that. Trust me this whole memory loss thing isn't only hard on you, believe it or not. But we can't just let you roam around when there are things that you don't know."

"Things like what Kat." She halted walking turning to face her.

Nicki observed as her confidence faltered slightly, and she swallowed before breaking eye contact.

"I can't tell you that right now." She shrugged, her voice a little smaller.

They finally made it back over to the infirmary. Nicki followed kat in standing awkwardly in the open space as the smaller woman pulled various things from cabinets.

Once she gathered what she needed she told Nicki to sit on the edge of the bed.

"May I look?"

Nicki offered a quick nod.

She slowly pulled the cotton material above her stomach, careful to not let her cold fingers brush her skin.

The bruising was of course still just as dark as it'd been earlier, but since she'd pulled her stitches there'd been slight crusting around them where she'd bled a little.

Kat poured peroxide onto a cloth before cleaning around the stitches.

"You clearly haven't been in too much pain by the way you've been moving around, and It's because of the *morphine-atoxl drip we've had you on, but that's going to wear off soon. When it does, you'll probably hurt a lot worse waking up tomorrow morning than you did today."

Nicki cringed remembering the pain she'd been in when she'd first woken up. She wasn't thrilled at all to hear it'd be getting worse.

Kat gave her medication and antibiotics to keep her stitches clean while she was still recovering.

"So just take these like I said and the pain should subside after a little bit-"

They listened as foot steps neared and a figure rounded the corner.

She stopped walking looking up once she realized Kat and Nicki's presence.

Nicki's stomach seemed to turn in nervousness at the sight of her. She felt as though she were suppose to sit up straight with perfect posture and wait for further instruction.

Giselle only surveyed the two of them before walking further into the room.

"Hey guys." She spoke as she pulled some gauze and a bandage from a high cabinet.

Nicki swallowed, slightly confused at her willingness to speak to her. Maybe it was simply because Kat was present in the room, and the hello was really intended for her, and maybe she had only said 'guys' to be nice. Either way she decided to take her chance, regardless if she were shitting bricks or not.

"Umm, Kat can I talk to her for a minute please?" She asked hardly above a whisper.

She flashed her look of concern clearly wondering if she was sure, or if she realized the conversation she was walking into. But she eventually nodded nonetheless.

"Yeah sure I'll... be back in a minute... or something." She mumbled the last bit to herself as she left the room.

Nicki took a deep sigh before pushing herself off of the bed.

She neared Giselle seeing her remove the bandage from her arm.

"What are you doing?" She asked meekly trying to begin some form of conversation.

Giselle didn't take her eyes off her own arm.

"Changing my bandage. I bled through this one." She held it up before tossing it in the trash.

Nicki then took the moment to actually look at the damage she'd done to her upper arm. The gash was thick and wide, and it was still fresh, the pink meat reddened with blood attempting to clot the wound.

"I- I'm sorry about that by the way." Nicki stammered.

Beyoncé offered a shrug as she whipped away excess blood, placed a new bandage on, and wrapped a thin layer of gauze around her arm.

She finally looked up meeting Onika's eyes.

"I'll be alright. Did you need something from me?"

"Oh um," Nicki wasn't exactly sure how she'd planned on this conversation going. But this definitely wasn't it.

"Not really I was just- I was wondering if you could maybe... tell me what's all going on?" Any confidence she had was quickly slipping away from her, she could feel herself being eaten up by the intense gaze of this woman.

"You need to remember Nick," Giselle broke their eye contact as she moved around Nicki to put up the rest of the gauze.

Nicki caught a whiff of her redolent scent in the process: that smell.

"It's not gonna do you any good if I just tell you."

"Why not."

"Doesn't matter why." She began to exit the room.

"Bey." Nicki suddenly said causing her to stop dead in her tracks.

Smelling her scent had triggered an auditory onset of that name in Nicki's mind. She could hear herself saying it, hundreds of thousands of times. She knew it was caused by Giselle and the name had to be attached to her in some way.

Nicki knew she was right by the way Giselle slowly looked back at her. She turned in the doorway standing silently with what Nicki decided were curious eyes.

So she continued.

"I remember that name. I can um, remember myself saying it... and I figured you knew it."

"See? Memories starting to come back already."

But her voice was less than thrilled, any intrigue that crossed her face was now completely gone. She turned again, this time not giving her any room to speak as she left.

Nicki huffed in frustration, was she serious?

Here she had gone telling her she needed to remember, you'd think a coincidence such as her remembering something right then would be enough to garner a certain amount of interest, but she couldn't be bothered with her for a moment longer.

Nicki crossed her arms beneath her breasts bitting the inside of her cheek just as Kat reentered.

She read Nicki's face gathering how the conversation went.

"You're just going to have to give her a minute okay?"

"But why? I get it, you said this is hard for everybody but I just remembered something, doesn't that mean anything?" She shrugged in frustration.

"It does-"

"So then why the hell is she being such a bitch about it?"

Kat tried to refrain, but she released a chuckle anyways.

"You sure do remember how to cuss." her voice was calm.

Nicki relented with a deep sigh realizing her sudden rage definitely wasn't worth much.

"I'm sorry I wasn't really even thinking about it I just got... mad."

"It's okay, I get. Let's get you up to your room it's about time you turn in for the night." Kat spoke gently before walking out of the infirmary.

Nicki followed close behind.

Though no longer mad, feelings of frustration still lingered within her. She'd made absolutely no progress with the one person she thought she'd get some form of an answer from.

Nicki was back at square one.
____________________________________
Hey y'all we're back with chappy twooo. Much didn't happen here but we've gotta build ground and what not ya know? Also for this story I'm really gonna try to incorporate a storyline for all of the major characters I introduce. I don't want this world to be limited to the lives of just two people (though yes it is mainly about them, it's not only about them.) We've got more people to meet and they're coming soon. Hope you enjoyed 💜💜💜💜

What do you think of this Ian guy?🤔

Kat seems to be killing Nicki's vibe☠️ is she justified or should she just let her be? Why or not?

That name seemed to grab Giselle's attention for a moment👀 you think she got to her a little with that? Is she going to keep icing her?

And ofc any predictions at all😌

Love you guys!!! Again, hope you enjoyed. Now I have to go read Hamlet akskdlskdkd the shits actually really funny☠️☠️☠️

*morphine-atoxl: A fictional form of morphine that I made up. It relieves pain the way morphine does without the high/side effects that come along with it. It's advanced medicine.