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First things first: Thank you all so much for your lovely comments on the first chapter! Sorry that it took me a bit longer to post it, but somehow time wasn't exactly on my side this week! Anyway, here's Chapter 2, and it starts with a little surprise... And I'm curious if you recognize the people in a segment further down the road.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Unknown location
Beneath his cool demeanor, Neal Caffrey was seething. And not just for the fact that, once again, he fell victim to a kidnapping. Or for the fact that right in this moment, he was out of options of freeing himself, as he was not only locked in a cage, but also gagged, bound on his ankles and wrists, and, probably as a precaution, his wrists chained to a hook on the wall. No, what really got his blood boiling was the fact that whoever had their sights on him and staged the kidnapping had no qualms whatsoever to kidnap Sara as well. To make things worse, they obviously had the Taser on a real high setting when they had used it on her. Neal was no medical expert by far, but even he knew that something like that couldn’t be good for the human body. He hoped that Sara was already in a hospital. When his kidnappers decided to get rid of her, he convinced them to dump her in the alley, which he knew was a place where NYPD found junkies on a regular basis. Before working on yet another escape plan, which was more for keeping his mind busy than for anything else, he sent a prayer up to the skies that Peter and his team were the one to work their case. If not for him, than at least for Sara’s sake.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trinity Hospital
Sara’s room
Picking mindlessly on a thread on the blanket, Sara waited for any of the three other people in the room to come over to her. Obviously, the man and the woman in the suits wanted something from her, if the somewhat animated talk with her nurse was anything to go by. For a few minutes, the doctor who ran the tests on her earlier that day also stopped by, but he was gone as quick as he had come.
Peter and Diana tried to get Jody to agree to one of them telling Sara her name. Jody reasoned that it was better for the patient and his recovery to find out everything on its own speed, but Peter told her that, while he could understand her reasoning, they simply didn’t have the time to wait for Sara. Both he and Diana stressed that Neal was out there, for almost two weeks now, and that time was of the essence. Reluctantly (and backed up by Dr. Grant), Jody finally agreed that they could tell her the name, but nothing else, at least not for the time being, since it might be too overwhelming for Sara.
“Hey there.”
Sara looked up to see the Afro-American woman approaching her. Her whole body language spoke of a “shoot first, ask questions later” character, but she tried her best to keep Sara at the calm, collected level she was ever since she woke up.
“Hi.”
The woman sat down on the plastic chair next to the bed and grabbed Sara’s hand.
“Hi, my name is Diana Berrigan. My partner,” she motioned over to where Peter was standing, “and I are with the FBI.” She pulled the badge from her belt, holding it up for Sara to check it. “And we would like to talk to you about what landed you here in the hospital.”
“Well, I have to disappoint you, but I don’t know anything. Not even my own name.” She looked to Diana. “Do you have any idea how frustrating that is?”
“No, I don’t and I can’t even begin to comprehend what you are going through at the moment.” To emphasize her words, Diana squeezed Sara’s hand ever so slightly, just enough for her to feel it. “But I think I can take some of that frustration away from you.”
“How?”
Sara was confused. Was that woman some kind of a magician?
“I can tell you your name.”
“How do you know my name?”
Again, confusion spread like wildfire within Sara. How did this woman happen to know her name? Did they know each other?
“Diana knows your name because you and I and her and the rest of my team have worked together in the past”, the man said from his position at the end of her bed.
“Caution, sir. Remember what we talked about before,” Jody interrupted from her spot in the far edge of the room.
“I know, Jody, I know,” Peter retorted.
“We worked together? How? What do I do for a living?”
Without her noticing, Sara grew more and more agitated by the second, and Diana saw from the corner of her eyes that Jody was already preparing a syringe with some kind of tranquilizer.
“Hey, hey.” She increased the pressure on Sara’s hand, grabbing it with both of hers. “Look at me.” Sara complied, locking her gaze with Diana’s. “Okay, calm down. Deep breaths.” She started to show Sara what she meant. “In. Out. In. Out.” Surprisingly enough, Sara followed her example, and in a matter of seconds, both her breathing and her whole demeanor were back to the rather calm one from before.
“Sorry.” Sara looked up and round at all the other in the room.
“Don’t be,” Peter said as calm as he could muster, his eyes never leaving Sara. If not before, his heart was completely going out to the young woman now. She did well under these circumstances and for the first time since he got the new that she was found in the alley, he wished he didn’t have to put her through the questioning.
“Let’s try again, okay?”
Diana brought both Peter and Sara from their respective reveries back to reality.
“Try what?” Sara asked in a small voice.
“Me telling you your name.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Good.” Diana locked her gaze with Sara, hoping that her eyes would do an excellent job at assisting her in the following task. “Your name is Sara Ellis.”
Sara repeated the name over and over again in her mind, and after several times she started to like it. Yes, this was a name she could live with. So, next question: Who was Sara Ellis?
“Am I a good person?”
She smiled upon seeing both Peter and Diana slightly jumping at her question. Apparently, this Sara could do a number or two on other people, if she wanted to do so.
“Yes, you are,” Peter answered, for the first time since he entered the room a smile gracing his features.
“How do you know that? I mean, you are working for the FBI. What if I’m a horrible person and you captured me before?”
“No, you’re not. Yes, Diana and I are working for the FBI, and while we capture a lot of bad boys and girls on the job, we like to work with specialists from time to time.”
“And you are one of these specialists,” Diana added.
Sara remained silent, trying to comprehend everything she had learned in the last few minutes. It looked like she was pretty successful with whatever she did for a living. Otherwise, the FBI wouldn’t ask her to work with them.
“Okay, then. Can you explain why I ended up here?”
Sara directed her question at no one in detail. She just hoped that any of the others in here would be able to shine some light on the big dark area in her brain.
“You were found almost four days ago, in an alley not far from here.”
To her surprise, none of the agents answered. Instead, Jody sat down on the second plastic chair by her bed, mirroring Diana’s posture.
“How did I end up there?”
“We don’t know, Sara.” Peter answered this time, and Sara could read some kind of desperation in his eyes. Apparently, her story was just part of a much bigger picture. “But we hoped you could answer that for us.”
“Sorry to be such a failure,” Sara said with a shrug. Somewhere deep down, she knew instinctively that the “old” Sara didn’t like to fail, no matter what field.
“You are not a failure,” Diana said with as much determination as she could muster in her voice. “You didn’t choose to lose your memory, did you?” Sara shook her head no.
“But I want to help you.” Sara looked from Diana to Peter and back. “I somehow know that you wouldn’t be here if there was another way to get the goal you’re after, whatever it is.” She paused, and to her surprise, she saw both agents nodding slightly. “What I don’t know is how I can achieve anything that might help you without my memories.” This time, she looked over at Jody, but the nurse only could hold her gaze.
Peter was about to say anything when his phone started to vibrate. Muttering an excuse, he made his way out of the room and went further down the hallway, in the direction of the family room.
“Jones, what’s up?”
“Peter, we have a problem.” Peter heard him shuffling some papers. “Better make that some problems.”
“Please tell me that Keller is still where he should be.”
“Yeah, our favorite nemesis is still in the same place. Which both Bryan McKenzie and Henry Van Horn are not.” Again, the sound of papers being shuffled filled the line, giving Peter time to search his brain for a connection to the two names. While the name Bryan McKenzie didn’t ring any bell, Henry Van Horn brought up some quite bad memories. He was responsible for kidnapping an old Navy buddy of Jones and he nearly succeeded in killing Neal, who was undercover in his enterprise, with a high-tech bow and arrow. The last thing Peter knew that Van Horn was waiting for his trial in the high-security ward in Rikers.
“What happened?” Peter asked.
“Simple as that: they used a shuffle in the main yard at Rikers as distraction and escaped.” Sensing that Peter was about to ask more, Jones added. “NYPD is already over there, trying to shine some light onto that. Hughes has sent two agents there as well. Someone was helping them, and they also kept quiet about it for almost two weeks.”
“What?”
Peter must have said that louder than he thought, since one of the nurses gave him a look of disapproval while she passed him. He mouthed “Sorry” before turning all his attention back to his agent on the phone.
“Yeah. Rikers has kind of a log system for their inmates, and the last entry is dated two days before Neal and Sara disappeared. Not a coincidence, if you ask me.”
“No, not at all.” Peter took a breath. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it did. “I remember Van Horn from the case of your Navy buddy, but I can’t place the other name. You sure he’s linked to any of our cases?”
“Oh, he definitely is. Bryan McKenzie was the culprit in the case of the missing Stradivari. Neal and Diana worked the case with Sara, so Diana should know more about than I do.”
“Okay, I will talk to her. Any other news?”
“Sorry, Peter. But we keep digging. Agent Roe is here as well, and he has commandeered access to military technologies for us. Whatever we need, he gets it for us.”
“Good to know. Keep me updated.”
Peter was about to hang up when Jones started to speak again.
“One more thing, Peter. I’m trying to get a hold of one of the psychologists over at Annapolis. They have several working there who are specialized in uncovering information. Sounds weird, but they just have special techniques to get the soldiers using more of their brain matter and access areas of the memory that we normally don’t go to.” Jones paused. “And a good friend of mine, who works with victims of crime, told me that Sara should try it with some kind of meditation. I can have him come over to Trinity’s and give it a try, but only if Sara wants to. How she’s doing so far?”
“Not good, Jones, not at all. She has technically lost all of her memories. Diana and I had to tell her her own name.” Peter paused. “But you know what? Tell this friend of yours to meet me here. Maybe we can come up with some strategy.”
“Will do.”
Before Peter had any chance to say something more, Jones had hung up on him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Peter came back to Sara’s room, he noticed that Jody was gone – and that Diana and Sara were talking to each other like old friends. He also noticed that Diana tried to keep their talk as common as possible, talking mainly about the latest trends in various fields.
“Is everything okay?”
Peter was quite surprised to hear that question coming from Sara. He would have expected Diana to ask it, not the woman with whom nothing was okay.
“Yeah, Sara, it is. But I would like to borrow Diana for a second.”
“Sure…” He could almost see the wheels in her head turning, searching for his name. “I’m sorry.”
Sara buried her face in her hands, trying to hide the desperation and frustration from everyone. Peter stepped closer and pulled the hands away.
“Hey, hey.” When she didn’t look up, he put a finger under her chin, tilting her head back until Sara had to look into his eyes. “It’s okay. You can’t remember my name.” Sara furrowed her brows, showing openly her confusion. “We never said it before.” Peter stuck his hand out in introduction. "Hi, Sara, I’m Peter Burke.”
Within seconds after hearing the name, Sara’s eyes went wide. Peter took a step back, unsure on why Sara showed this kind of reaction and on what might happen next. He heard Diana leaving the room, obviously in search for a doctor or a nurse.
Sara didn’t get anything of what was going on around her. As if the name “Peter Burke” was a code word of sorts, one of the dams her brain had built up broke and let out a flood of images. Images that she only could watch, but she didn’t get the meaning behind any of them. She saw herself, dressed in an elegant green dress. She saw a short man, with a round face and glasses. A nice looking woman, apparently a bit older than herself, with dark brown hair and kind eyes. Another woman, this time an older one, with an air of international flair to her. But the person, the face, she saw the most in these “flashes” was that of a man with dark brown, wavy hair and a pair of striking blue eyes. Who were them all? And what did they mean to her? Was that part of her family? And why did she get the feeling that something had happened to one of them?
“Sara! Sara!”
At some point, the worried voices of Peter, Diana and Jody reached her through the haze the images had created in her head. She looked up to them, but somehow the images blurred over their faces.
“Here, have some water.”
Diana’s voice came through, and Sara more felt than saw the glass of water she had handed her. Apparently she had made some pain-laced sounds without noticing them. She took a sip, but even the water felt somewhat strange on her tongue, just as if her taste buds were prepared for something else, something stronger than water.
“You’re back with us?”
This time, Jody spoke to her, but Sara couldn’t answer her. Which was more due to the confusion these images had created than to anything else. In sips, she finished the whole glass, all the while Diana and Jody rubbed her arms and thighs in a reassuring, calming manner, while Peter kept vigil at the end of her bed.
“Peter?” Sara winced internally, her voice sounded like raw paper.
“Yeah, Sara, what do you need?”
Peter came closer, sitting down on the edge of the bed next to Diana. Sara grabbed his left hand, holding it up so everyone could see the wedding ring.
“You are married, right? Do you have a picture of your wife with you?”
“Yes, I am, and yes, I have one here.” He pulled out his phone, and Sara could see that he was scrolling through something. After some moments, he turned the display over to her, showing a picture of him with the one woman she saw in the flashes.
“Oh my God.”
“What? What is it?”
“I… I remember her. I don’t know her name, but when you told me yours, it was like a dam broke in my mind. I can feel that there are more of them, but she was one of the people I saw in the “flashes”.”
Sara looked up at Peter, trying to gauge his reaction. And for a fleeting second, she could detect some kind of hope flitting over his features before the neutral expression she already associated with him took over again.
“Can you describe any of the other people you saw?”
“I can try, Peter, I can try,” Sara said in a small voice. Part of her was triumphant for reaching such a goal, but the better part of her was still frustrated at the lack of memories and details connected to the faces she saw.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Peter and Diana returned to the office later that afternoon, they both could see a very small sliver of hope on the horizon. Over the course of the last few hours, Sara managed, though somewhat slowly, to identify Neal as one of the faces from her “flashes”, as well as Mozzie and June. They didn’t tell her any names, since Dr. Grant didn’t want to risk any more dams breaking in her brain. Sara also told them that she knew somehow that there was more to every single one of those faces, but she couldn’t connect the dots, so to speak. Peter added “yet” to the sentence in his mind; he was more than convinced that Sara would be able to completely restore her memories. What he wasn’t so sure about was if Neal had that much time, and so he sent a small prayer up to give his friend and partner the strength to keep holding on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Coming soon: Sara makes more progress, the Harvard Crew can rule out some suspects, some new names pop up, and Neal is running out of time.
Chapter 3 is already in the making!
Unknown location
Beneath his cool demeanor, Neal Caffrey was seething. And not just for the fact that, once again, he fell victim to a kidnapping. Or for the fact that right in this moment, he was out of options of freeing himself, as he was not only locked in a cage, but also gagged, bound on his ankles and wrists, and, probably as a precaution, his wrists chained to a hook on the wall. No, what really got his blood boiling was the fact that whoever had their sights on him and staged the kidnapping had no qualms whatsoever to kidnap Sara as well. To make things worse, they obviously had the Taser on a real high setting when they had used it on her. Neal was no medical expert by far, but even he knew that something like that couldn’t be good for the human body. He hoped that Sara was already in a hospital. When his kidnappers decided to get rid of her, he convinced them to dump her in the alley, which he knew was a place where NYPD found junkies on a regular basis. Before working on yet another escape plan, which was more for keeping his mind busy than for anything else, he sent a prayer up to the skies that Peter and his team were the one to work their case. If not for him, than at least for Sara’s sake.
Trinity Hospital
Sara’s room
Picking mindlessly on a thread on the blanket, Sara waited for any of the three other people in the room to come over to her. Obviously, the man and the woman in the suits wanted something from her, if the somewhat animated talk with her nurse was anything to go by. For a few minutes, the doctor who ran the tests on her earlier that day also stopped by, but he was gone as quick as he had come.
Peter and Diana tried to get Jody to agree to one of them telling Sara her name. Jody reasoned that it was better for the patient and his recovery to find out everything on its own speed, but Peter told her that, while he could understand her reasoning, they simply didn’t have the time to wait for Sara. Both he and Diana stressed that Neal was out there, for almost two weeks now, and that time was of the essence. Reluctantly (and backed up by Dr. Grant), Jody finally agreed that they could tell her the name, but nothing else, at least not for the time being, since it might be too overwhelming for Sara.
“Hey there.”
Sara looked up to see the Afro-American woman approaching her. Her whole body language spoke of a “shoot first, ask questions later” character, but she tried her best to keep Sara at the calm, collected level she was ever since she woke up.
“Hi.”
The woman sat down on the plastic chair next to the bed and grabbed Sara’s hand.
“Hi, my name is Diana Berrigan. My partner,” she motioned over to where Peter was standing, “and I are with the FBI.” She pulled the badge from her belt, holding it up for Sara to check it. “And we would like to talk to you about what landed you here in the hospital.”
“Well, I have to disappoint you, but I don’t know anything. Not even my own name.” She looked to Diana. “Do you have any idea how frustrating that is?”
“No, I don’t and I can’t even begin to comprehend what you are going through at the moment.” To emphasize her words, Diana squeezed Sara’s hand ever so slightly, just enough for her to feel it. “But I think I can take some of that frustration away from you.”
“How?”
Sara was confused. Was that woman some kind of a magician?
“I can tell you your name.”
“How do you know my name?”
Again, confusion spread like wildfire within Sara. How did this woman happen to know her name? Did they know each other?
“Diana knows your name because you and I and her and the rest of my team have worked together in the past”, the man said from his position at the end of her bed.
“Caution, sir. Remember what we talked about before,” Jody interrupted from her spot in the far edge of the room.
“I know, Jody, I know,” Peter retorted.
“We worked together? How? What do I do for a living?”
Without her noticing, Sara grew more and more agitated by the second, and Diana saw from the corner of her eyes that Jody was already preparing a syringe with some kind of tranquilizer.
“Hey, hey.” She increased the pressure on Sara’s hand, grabbing it with both of hers. “Look at me.” Sara complied, locking her gaze with Diana’s. “Okay, calm down. Deep breaths.” She started to show Sara what she meant. “In. Out. In. Out.” Surprisingly enough, Sara followed her example, and in a matter of seconds, both her breathing and her whole demeanor were back to the rather calm one from before.
“Sorry.” Sara looked up and round at all the other in the room.
“Don’t be,” Peter said as calm as he could muster, his eyes never leaving Sara. If not before, his heart was completely going out to the young woman now. She did well under these circumstances and for the first time since he got the new that she was found in the alley, he wished he didn’t have to put her through the questioning.
“Let’s try again, okay?”
Diana brought both Peter and Sara from their respective reveries back to reality.
“Try what?” Sara asked in a small voice.
“Me telling you your name.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Good.” Diana locked her gaze with Sara, hoping that her eyes would do an excellent job at assisting her in the following task. “Your name is Sara Ellis.”
Sara repeated the name over and over again in her mind, and after several times she started to like it. Yes, this was a name she could live with. So, next question: Who was Sara Ellis?
“Am I a good person?”
She smiled upon seeing both Peter and Diana slightly jumping at her question. Apparently, this Sara could do a number or two on other people, if she wanted to do so.
“Yes, you are,” Peter answered, for the first time since he entered the room a smile gracing his features.
“How do you know that? I mean, you are working for the FBI. What if I’m a horrible person and you captured me before?”
“No, you’re not. Yes, Diana and I are working for the FBI, and while we capture a lot of bad boys and girls on the job, we like to work with specialists from time to time.”
“And you are one of these specialists,” Diana added.
Sara remained silent, trying to comprehend everything she had learned in the last few minutes. It looked like she was pretty successful with whatever she did for a living. Otherwise, the FBI wouldn’t ask her to work with them.
“Okay, then. Can you explain why I ended up here?”
Sara directed her question at no one in detail. She just hoped that any of the others in here would be able to shine some light on the big dark area in her brain.
“You were found almost four days ago, in an alley not far from here.”
To her surprise, none of the agents answered. Instead, Jody sat down on the second plastic chair by her bed, mirroring Diana’s posture.
“How did I end up there?”
“We don’t know, Sara.” Peter answered this time, and Sara could read some kind of desperation in his eyes. Apparently, her story was just part of a much bigger picture. “But we hoped you could answer that for us.”
“Sorry to be such a failure,” Sara said with a shrug. Somewhere deep down, she knew instinctively that the “old” Sara didn’t like to fail, no matter what field.
“You are not a failure,” Diana said with as much determination as she could muster in her voice. “You didn’t choose to lose your memory, did you?” Sara shook her head no.
“But I want to help you.” Sara looked from Diana to Peter and back. “I somehow know that you wouldn’t be here if there was another way to get the goal you’re after, whatever it is.” She paused, and to her surprise, she saw both agents nodding slightly. “What I don’t know is how I can achieve anything that might help you without my memories.” This time, she looked over at Jody, but the nurse only could hold her gaze.
Peter was about to say anything when his phone started to vibrate. Muttering an excuse, he made his way out of the room and went further down the hallway, in the direction of the family room.
“Jones, what’s up?”
“Peter, we have a problem.” Peter heard him shuffling some papers. “Better make that some problems.”
“Please tell me that Keller is still where he should be.”
“Yeah, our favorite nemesis is still in the same place. Which both Bryan McKenzie and Henry Van Horn are not.” Again, the sound of papers being shuffled filled the line, giving Peter time to search his brain for a connection to the two names. While the name Bryan McKenzie didn’t ring any bell, Henry Van Horn brought up some quite bad memories. He was responsible for kidnapping an old Navy buddy of Jones and he nearly succeeded in killing Neal, who was undercover in his enterprise, with a high-tech bow and arrow. The last thing Peter knew that Van Horn was waiting for his trial in the high-security ward in Rikers.
“What happened?” Peter asked.
“Simple as that: they used a shuffle in the main yard at Rikers as distraction and escaped.” Sensing that Peter was about to ask more, Jones added. “NYPD is already over there, trying to shine some light onto that. Hughes has sent two agents there as well. Someone was helping them, and they also kept quiet about it for almost two weeks.”
“What?”
Peter must have said that louder than he thought, since one of the nurses gave him a look of disapproval while she passed him. He mouthed “Sorry” before turning all his attention back to his agent on the phone.
“Yeah. Rikers has kind of a log system for their inmates, and the last entry is dated two days before Neal and Sara disappeared. Not a coincidence, if you ask me.”
“No, not at all.” Peter took a breath. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it did. “I remember Van Horn from the case of your Navy buddy, but I can’t place the other name. You sure he’s linked to any of our cases?”
“Oh, he definitely is. Bryan McKenzie was the culprit in the case of the missing Stradivari. Neal and Diana worked the case with Sara, so Diana should know more about than I do.”
“Okay, I will talk to her. Any other news?”
“Sorry, Peter. But we keep digging. Agent Roe is here as well, and he has commandeered access to military technologies for us. Whatever we need, he gets it for us.”
“Good to know. Keep me updated.”
Peter was about to hang up when Jones started to speak again.
“One more thing, Peter. I’m trying to get a hold of one of the psychologists over at Annapolis. They have several working there who are specialized in uncovering information. Sounds weird, but they just have special techniques to get the soldiers using more of their brain matter and access areas of the memory that we normally don’t go to.” Jones paused. “And a good friend of mine, who works with victims of crime, told me that Sara should try it with some kind of meditation. I can have him come over to Trinity’s and give it a try, but only if Sara wants to. How she’s doing so far?”
“Not good, Jones, not at all. She has technically lost all of her memories. Diana and I had to tell her her own name.” Peter paused. “But you know what? Tell this friend of yours to meet me here. Maybe we can come up with some strategy.”
“Will do.”
Before Peter had any chance to say something more, Jones had hung up on him.
When Peter came back to Sara’s room, he noticed that Jody was gone – and that Diana and Sara were talking to each other like old friends. He also noticed that Diana tried to keep their talk as common as possible, talking mainly about the latest trends in various fields.
“Is everything okay?”
Peter was quite surprised to hear that question coming from Sara. He would have expected Diana to ask it, not the woman with whom nothing was okay.
“Yeah, Sara, it is. But I would like to borrow Diana for a second.”
“Sure…” He could almost see the wheels in her head turning, searching for his name. “I’m sorry.”
Sara buried her face in her hands, trying to hide the desperation and frustration from everyone. Peter stepped closer and pulled the hands away.
“Hey, hey.” When she didn’t look up, he put a finger under her chin, tilting her head back until Sara had to look into his eyes. “It’s okay. You can’t remember my name.” Sara furrowed her brows, showing openly her confusion. “We never said it before.” Peter stuck his hand out in introduction. "Hi, Sara, I’m Peter Burke.”
Within seconds after hearing the name, Sara’s eyes went wide. Peter took a step back, unsure on why Sara showed this kind of reaction and on what might happen next. He heard Diana leaving the room, obviously in search for a doctor or a nurse.
Sara didn’t get anything of what was going on around her. As if the name “Peter Burke” was a code word of sorts, one of the dams her brain had built up broke and let out a flood of images. Images that she only could watch, but she didn’t get the meaning behind any of them. She saw herself, dressed in an elegant green dress. She saw a short man, with a round face and glasses. A nice looking woman, apparently a bit older than herself, with dark brown hair and kind eyes. Another woman, this time an older one, with an air of international flair to her. But the person, the face, she saw the most in these “flashes” was that of a man with dark brown, wavy hair and a pair of striking blue eyes. Who were them all? And what did they mean to her? Was that part of her family? And why did she get the feeling that something had happened to one of them?
“Sara! Sara!”
At some point, the worried voices of Peter, Diana and Jody reached her through the haze the images had created in her head. She looked up to them, but somehow the images blurred over their faces.
“Here, have some water.”
Diana’s voice came through, and Sara more felt than saw the glass of water she had handed her. Apparently she had made some pain-laced sounds without noticing them. She took a sip, but even the water felt somewhat strange on her tongue, just as if her taste buds were prepared for something else, something stronger than water.
“You’re back with us?”
This time, Jody spoke to her, but Sara couldn’t answer her. Which was more due to the confusion these images had created than to anything else. In sips, she finished the whole glass, all the while Diana and Jody rubbed her arms and thighs in a reassuring, calming manner, while Peter kept vigil at the end of her bed.
“Peter?” Sara winced internally, her voice sounded like raw paper.
“Yeah, Sara, what do you need?”
Peter came closer, sitting down on the edge of the bed next to Diana. Sara grabbed his left hand, holding it up so everyone could see the wedding ring.
“You are married, right? Do you have a picture of your wife with you?”
“Yes, I am, and yes, I have one here.” He pulled out his phone, and Sara could see that he was scrolling through something. After some moments, he turned the display over to her, showing a picture of him with the one woman she saw in the flashes.
“Oh my God.”
“What? What is it?”
“I… I remember her. I don’t know her name, but when you told me yours, it was like a dam broke in my mind. I can feel that there are more of them, but she was one of the people I saw in the “flashes”.”
Sara looked up at Peter, trying to gauge his reaction. And for a fleeting second, she could detect some kind of hope flitting over his features before the neutral expression she already associated with him took over again.
“Can you describe any of the other people you saw?”
“I can try, Peter, I can try,” Sara said in a small voice. Part of her was triumphant for reaching such a goal, but the better part of her was still frustrated at the lack of memories and details connected to the faces she saw.
When Peter and Diana returned to the office later that afternoon, they both could see a very small sliver of hope on the horizon. Over the course of the last few hours, Sara managed, though somewhat slowly, to identify Neal as one of the faces from her “flashes”, as well as Mozzie and June. They didn’t tell her any names, since Dr. Grant didn’t want to risk any more dams breaking in her brain. Sara also told them that she knew somehow that there was more to every single one of those faces, but she couldn’t connect the dots, so to speak. Peter added “yet” to the sentence in his mind; he was more than convinced that Sara would be able to completely restore her memories. What he wasn’t so sure about was if Neal had that much time, and so he sent a small prayer up to give his friend and partner the strength to keep holding on.
Coming soon: Sara makes more progress, the Harvard Crew can rule out some suspects, some new names pop up, and Neal is running out of time.
Chapter 3 is already in the making!
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-23 01:39 am (UTC)You have no idea how much I love it that Peter's name got Sara close to regainning her memory ♥ I wonder what's gonna happen when she hears Neal's name :P She already saw his image in the flashes and judging by her thoughts, he definitely caught her attention!!!
And poor Neal, it's not gonna be easy for him to get out of this one *pets him*
Looking forward to the next chapter ♥
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-23 11:30 am (UTC)Oh, Sara will hear Neal's name in quite an unique way XD Neal is made for catching attention, ain't he?? And Neal... well let's just say there's some whump coming his way XD
On the investigation side, Peter and the team will get help from two very remarkable women. Best of it: Peter already knows one of them. Jones will also get his chance to shine, in more than one way. And Diana will become more and more Sara's "person", her tie to reality (and to her memories), as the story progresses.
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-23 04:37 pm (UTC)