AN: This ignores most of season 3. So it's AU. Every time I watch Emily Lake I get so frustrated because H.G. wouldn't have gotten kidnapped so easily. She would have kicked Marcus and Jinks' asses. So, what if? Then this came out and I couldn't stop.
Her name is Emily Lake. She is an English teacher at the Lincoln High School in Cheyenne, Wyoming. She speaks funny according to her students. But she's an adult so juvenile jabs like that hardly bother her.
Except it does. Because she can't explain it. According to her social worker, she was born and raised in England until she was eleven when her parents got divorced and her American mother decided to move the two of them back to her hometown in Missouri.
It is possible that during that time her accent got mixed up and she talks funny now. She can't ask her mother about that because she died when Emily was twenty three.
Nine months ago, she was offered a permanent position at Lincoln. She accepted it even though it meant moving 800 miles from her home. The plane she was in crashed and she was the only survivor. There were newspaper clippings of it. The media covered it extensively for three months. Then the public got bored of waiting for the miracle survivor to wake up. So by the time Emily regained consciousness, they had stopped caring and moved on with their lives.
All of her close friends moved away right after college and she had no living relatives left so it took a while before someone noticed she was missing. And by then, she was already sent to Cheyenne because that was her most recent address.
When she woke up, her old apartment in Rolla was already leased to someone else and since she was only a substitute teacher, her previous employer was not obligated to take her back. In Cheyenne, however, the position for her in Lincoln was still open somehow and coincidentally, no one wanted to rent her apartment so the landlord gave it to her.
Her friend, Jennifer came to visit two days after she woke up. Emily could not recognize her. She did not feel even a smidge of familiarity despite her claim that she was her 'best friend'. Jen, as she liked to be called, convinced her to stay in Cheyenne.
"You've always wanted to get out of Rolla anyway," she had told her.
And since she had no memory of ever saying that, she had to take Jen's word for it.
Frankly, it all seemed a little too convenient for her. It was like someone really wanted for her to stay in Cheyenne and had gone through a lot of trouble to make it happen. But when you don't have a home, wherever you are tends to grow on you.
So here she is, teaching Shakespeare to a bunch of kids who think that the greatest piece of literature is the Twilight series. Okay, there are some rare ones who read Romeo and Juliet instead of watching the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. They make her feel like this life she can't remember choosing is worth living. And according to the recent pole in the school newspaper, she is the student body's fifth favorite teacher.
Her students clearly love her. And she likes them. She doesn't hate her life. She has a home. A friend who makes it a point to check on her everyday even though she is some big shot security consultant in D.C. And a cat. What more could she ask for?
She read her journals from before the accident. That is how Emily Lake should feel about her life.
The problem is she doesn't feel that way. She always has this sinking feeling like she is meant for more. There is this voice in the back her head that keeps telling her, "Do something about it."
But do what? The only thing she knows is that she feels out of place. What do you do about that? Move again? Jen thinks it's a bad idea.
"No one feels like they belong when they've been living in a new place for only four months," she had said to her the night before. "Give Cheyenne another few months. I'm sure you'll like it"
Jen tells her how she feels a lot. It annoys her but she is her only link to Emily Lake and she isn't sure if she wants to be anyone else right now. Feeling out of place is one thing. But having no identity is a different matter entirely.
So for now, she accepts that this is her life.
...
Journal Emily gets excited when she gets her paycheck every month. She puts three little hearts next to the date in her journals.
The present Emily pretends like it is a big deal because her doctor told her that following her usual routine would help her remember. Her old journals have now become a manual on how to be Emily Lake. She sees how weird that is. She's Emily Lake. Why in the world does she have to learn how to be Emily Lake?
"Everyone! On the floor now!" someone suddenly yells.
There are two men, both waving a gun around. She follows their instructions. And so does everyone else.
Emily has never seen a gun in her life, let alone watch someone actually use it. She is supposed to be terrified but she isn't. Instead she wants to fight them. But after surviving a near death situation, she figures she shouldn't be taunting Death.
Everything is going well for the robbers. Everyone is being cooperative. No one tries to be a hero. But then the police arrives which puts them in the awkward position of having to choose a hostage to ensure their safe exit.
She closes her eyes and wishes very hard that it isn't her. She prays, because Journal Emily prayed, for the poor soul who is going to be chosen.
And when someone yanks her from the floor, she realizes that she has been praying for herself. Her prayers are immediately answered as she finds herself disarming Robber 1 and knocking him unconscious with just two moves and shooting Robber 2's gun-holding hand before he can do anything about it. A customer who is lying close to Robber 2 kicks the gun away from him and then another helpful customer tackles him from behind, immobilizing him from taking any further actions.
The room is spinning a little. It may have been due the second move which involved making a semi-circle with her leg to maximize the power of her kick. Or maybe it's because she has read all of Emily Lake's journals and not one of them mentioned learning martial arts.
As ten or so microphones are shoved into her face, it occurs to her that she might not be Emily Lake after all.
...
It has been a week since the bank incident. Emily's ranking in the favorite teacher pole has risen to number two. One of the newspaper kid told her she will take first place by next week.
Everyone knows her name now. Everywhere she goes, there will be people greeting her or thanking her because their brother/friend/wife was in the bank that day. Yesterday, a little girl asked for her autograph.
They think she is a hero. She'd be lying if she says it doesn't make her feel good about herself. Actually, it makes her feel great. Awesome, even. She feels like she can do anything.
She tells this to Jen.
"You're not thinking of doing something stupid, are you?" her friend asks.
"No, Jen. It's the first time I feel good about myself in the last two months and I thought I'd share it with my best friend. But clearly, you're not interested in my happiness."
She hangs up.
Jen calls her again. Emily lets it go to voice mail. Jen has to call five times before Emily picks up her phone.
She doesn't swear for some reason. But when she picks up, she says, "Hello asshole."
Jen apologizes. "I'm just so worried about you," she says. "I mean they had guns. What if you got hurt?"
"Well, I'm fine now, aren't I?"
"That's what I'm worried about."
Emily sighs. She doesn't know what to say to her friend. She can't promise not to do something that Jen would classify as stupid. She just knows that if she ever finds a clue to whomever she was, Emily Lake or not, she would follow it until she could make sense of herself.
She hasn't had a plan yet. "I'm not planning on doing anything stupid," she says finally. It is the truth for now. It might change tomorrow but Jen doesn't need to know that.
"Okay."
"Okay?" she asks. "You're not going to interrogate me more?"
Jen chuckles. "Lucky for you I have a meeting with a client. But I am coming to visit you this weekend."
"It's midnight," Emily says, ignoring completely Jen's last sentence.
"It's two o'clock actually. And I see what you did there. Don't think it's going to stop me from coming."
"Yes, it makes so much sense to have a meeting at two in the morning."
"It is 10 a.m. somewhere, right?"
"I hate your job. You should hate it too."
"Yeah," Jen says. Emily imagines her shrugging at the other end. "I'll see you in two days?"
"Bye, mom."
Jen laughs and says goodbye.
She is a good friend, Emily thinks. Not a nosy bitch at all, she tries to convince herself.
...
Emily meets them at the airport. Them, as in more than one person.
Jen called her this morning, telling her that she will be bringing an associate because apparently she has a very important presentation to prepare by Monday and she can't do it without her colleague. Emily told her to just cancel her trip.
"And miss my chance to collect more air miles?" which is a stupid reason because she has millions of them. "We will be staying at a hotel. Don't worry."
"Good. Because my apartment can't fit three people."
It is clear to Emily that she can't talk Jen out of it but at least it means she will not have to be around Jen for the whole of the next forty eight hours. That is good enough for her.
The name of Jen's colleague is Michelle Williams. She actually looks quite familiar. Emily asks her if they have met before.
"I don't think so," Michelle says.
"You're thinking of the actress," Jen tells her.
"That happens a lot actually," Michelle says, smiling at her.
"Oh, there was this client we had once," Jen says excitedly, "who thought he was meeting Michelle the actress. You should have seen his face when our Michelle here introduced herself."
"He looked so disappointed," Michelle adds.
"Why?" Emily asks.
They both laugh.
"You're serious?" asks Jen when it is clear that she doesn't get the joke.
"Amnesia, remember?"
"It's because—" Jen tries to explain.
"Besides," Emily says, cutting her off, "whoever this other Michelle is, she can't possibly be more beautiful than you."
Michelle blushes. Jen looks surprised by her statement. She is too because she doesn't remember Journal Emily showing any interest towards women.
...
She wakes up with a menacing headache. It feels like a truck ran over her head.
After she picked them up at the airport, Jen insisted on going for drinks. She remembers dancing and lots and lots of drinking. Everything else is a blur to her.
She drags herself to the kitchen. She hears some sizzling. What happened last night? She hopes it isn't what she is thinking. She creeps into the kitchen and sees Michelle breaking an egg into the skillet that has been collecting dust in the cabinet.
"Good morning, stranger," Michelle says without looking.
"Morning," Emily replies. "Did…did we?"
Michelle laughs which does not answer her question.
"Although I am very flattered by the sweet nothings you whispered to me last night," Michelle says, grinning.
"Oh, lord," she rubs her forehead.
Michelle continues, "unfortunately, I am seeing someone."
Suddenly, she isn't feeling so mortified anymore. She is disappointed.
"So," she tries to sound as casual as possible, "tell me about…"
"Her," Michelle helpfully adds.
"Yes, her. What is she like? I need to know my competition."
Michelle breaks another egg in the skillet. She appears to be contemplating Emily's request.
"Come on," Emily says. "At least I'll know I haven't lost you to some jerk. Unless, she is one. Then I will readily kick her butt for you."
Michelle chuckles. "I do not recommend that. She knows Kenpo."
"Well, I have some sick moves too."
"I heard."
"Jen told you?" Emily asks. Where is she anyway?
"She did. It was stupid but still quite impressive."
Emily quirks her eyebrow. "Does this mean—"
"No, I do not find you more attractive."
She clutches her chest, "You sure know how to make a girl feel wanted."
"Who wants who?" someone interrupts their conversation. And there Jen is, leaning against the door frame.
"No one," she and Michelle say at the same time.
Jen looks at her and then Michelle. She squints. "Something's going on." She shakes her head. "Doesn't matter. Coffee," she demands.
It is like magic how coffee transforms Jen from speaking in short and barely coherent sentences to long sentences with a bunch of jargon Emily doesn't understand and doesn't care to remember.
"You're not doing your work here, are you?" Emily asks them. "I thought you were going to stay at a hotel."
"But we're here now," Jen says like it means something.
"I have work too, you know," Emily stresses.
"What? Putting ticks and circling words on paper?"
"Hey!" Emily exclaims. "My job is important. I shape the young minds who grow up to be those paranoid rich bastards," she cringes internally, "who make up your entire client base."
She looks apologetically at Michelle. Michelle just shrugs.
"So you love your job?" Jen asks.
"Yes," she admits without thinking.
"My next question is," Jen says, her tone no longer harsh and mocking, "why would you want to leave it?"
...
Emily was the one who ended up leaving the apartment. Her various attempts at annoying Jen did not work. So she went to the local library to get her work done. Her apartment cannot hold three people who each had mountains of papers of their own. After she marked almost half of Michelle's report on some state of the art burglar alarm, she gave up.
She is currently taking a break. There is only so much comparison between Romeo and Juliet and Twilight a person can take in two hours. She blames no one but herself. She brilliantly assigned her students the task of comparing the popular Shakespeare's work with a piece of modern literature of their choice.
There is a coffee shop opposite the library. She is a regular there as evidenced by a picture of her that they have put up on the wall behind the counter after her act of heroism (or stupidity. It depends on who you ask) last week. She also gets fifteen percent off her order now.
But that's not the main reason why she goes there. Every Saturday, there is this old man who orders an iced coffee and talks to whoever is willing to listen. He is American but every time he sees Emily he will start speaking in an English accent. She keeps telling him that she is also American but ten seconds later, he forgets.
He will tell the same story each week. About how he was in the army and how he was involved in an explosion that caused him to lose half his 'smarts'. But because he is very good at following orders, they still keep him for maintenance work at the army base until he retired. He always beams proudly at how he had managed to remain in the army even with his disability.
He isn't here today. She wonders if it's one of the rare Saturdays when his wife wants to spend the day with him. She chases him out of their house every Saturday morning so she could do her chores in peace according to him.
"Hi, stranger."
Emily looks up. It's Michelle.
"Did Jen kick you out too?" she asks.
"We're on a break," Michelle tells her. "Actually, I'm on a break. Jen doesn't know."
"What did you tell her?"
"I didn't tell her anything. I jumped out the window."
"That bad, huh?"
Michelle tries hard to hide her grin but then Emily smiles causing the grin to break out.
She feels comfortable around Michelle.
"Are you sure we've never met before?" she asks her.
"I think I'd remember," Michelle says.
Emily later manages to get some information on Michelle's mysterious girlfriend.
The Girlfriend (Michelle doesn't want to reveal her name for some reason) acts like she's 150. She has traveled to every corner of the world. She is an inventor which according to Michelle can be annoying because she sometimes takes apart house appliances for parts but the bright side is she can fix things. She is also English.
"I can't beat that," she says disappointedly.
Michelle laughs. When she laughs, she doesn't stifle her laughter. She laughs like she has just heard the funniest joke in the world. All teeth. Like a toothpaste commercial.
"I give up," Emily announces. But truthfully, she gave up after Michelle told her about the time she and her girlfriend went to Russia to save their boss. The Girlfriend almost froze to death in the process. But even in that state, she managed to shoot a chain from ten feet away, freeing their boss.
She sounds like a female Indiana Jones while Emily is a high school teacher who has barely traveled within the country. She doesn't even have a passport. Compared to The Girlfriend, she is unremarkable.
"Now that we've delved deep into my life, how about you?"
"I'm a teacher."
"That's it?"
"Pretty much," Emily says. "I can't remember much else."
"What do you remember?"
"Books. Accurate details about books from before the twentieth century. I remember exact sentences from them. But my high school graduation? I can't remember it at all."
"It must be tough for you. Is that why you're thinking of quitting your job?"
Emily rolls her eyes. "That's what Jen thinks I'm thinking of doing."
"And Jen is wrong?"
She shakes her head. "Jen is not right. I don't know. I haven't thought it through yet."
She stirs her tea pointlessly. One of the few things she has in common with Journal Emily is their preference for tea instead of coffee.
Michelle doesn't say anything or ask her to elaborate further. She waits patiently for her next words but Emily doesn't feel pressured to blurt out what she is thinking right away. Michelle's gentle eyes tell her that it is okay. She is here to listen or not listen. She isn't going anywhere.
"Do you ever feel like you don't know who you are? Even without amnesia, I mean, there must be once or twice that you do something that surprises you so much, you wonder, how did that happen?"
When Michelle doesn't answer right away, she asks if the experience is only unique to amnesiacs.
"No," she says quickly. "I'm just gathering my thoughts for a bit. It's a difficult question to answer."
Then she goes on to tell her that she once quit her job.
"Why did you come back?" Emily asks. "From Jen's stories, your job sounds like a nightmare. Not the filled with monsters kind. More along the lines of having to do a mundane task repeatedly for eternity."
Michelle chuckles. "My job is very different from Jen. I'm mostly on the field. It's just this one presentation that we need to work on together."
"I'm glad," Emily smiles, "for your soul."
Michelle snorts. She covers her mouth immediately. Her mouth is full of one of those fancy coffees and she is trying hard not to spray it all over Emily.
When she finally pulls herself together, she goes on to explain how someone she trusted had betrayed her and endangered the people she loved. She managed to talk them down and everything turned out fine but she couldn't trust her judgment anymore. And in her line of work, she needs to make choices that sometimes involve life and death. So she quit her job, thinking that her team would be better off without her.
"What changed your mind?" Emily asks.
"Believe it or not," she looks down at her fancy coffee, "it's the same person who drove me to quit in the first place."
"So, are you telling me I shouldn't quit?"
She smiles but it isn't one of her usual smiles. Emily can't see a single tooth. And Michelle's eyes…she has never understood how people can smile with their eyes but she does now.
"I'm telling you that, if you love something, it will draw you back. It doesn't matter how far you've left it or how long. It will be there when you're ready."
...
She cannot even begin to explain what just happened.
There was shouting. Yes. When she came home, she heard shouting. She had two bags of Thai takeout for dinner. She remembers because she had to balance them with her briefcase.
"So you're just going to let them do it to her again? She's a person!"
"You've seen her. H.G. Wells is still in there."
"She is not Helena. Not really. The last time I checked, the real H.G. Wells is still in the Janus Coin."
"Even so, there is still a risk of—"
"You made a person. You played God. And now you decide she isn't what you wanted her to be so you're going to erase her. That's murder. If you do this, Emily Lake will die."
That was when she dropped everything in her arms and hands. There were papers flying everywhere. Some of the food containers broke soiling her briefcase and the essays that failed to escape. She remembers thinking her students will not be happy about that.
But then she realized that the shouting had stopped. She heard footsteps rushing to the door.
So she ran. She ran faster than she has ever run before.
Someone called out her name. She didn't turn around. She was too afraid to.
She headed for the basement parking where her car was. Then she remembered that her keys were in her briefcase. She can't go far without it but she can't go back to her apartment and risk possibly getting killed either.
So she hid.
"Emily!" it was Michelle, her voice echoing throughout the basement. "Let's talk, okay? What you heard, it's not as bad as it sounds."
She wanted to yell back at her that the word 'murder' pretty much explained it all. There was no way that they could talk it out and agree that it was okay for her to die. But she bit her tongue, hoping that Michelle won't find her there and try to look for her elsewhere so she could make her escape.
Michelle was getting warmer. Emily held her breath for fear that even the slightest sound would give away her hiding place.
Michelle stopped right next to the car she was hiding behind. She slowly crept to the next car. The one that Michelle was facing away from.
But she turned as soon as Emily was between the cars.
"Emily," she said, her eyes cold.
Emily stood. Michelle had already seen her.
Her hand was holding this weird looking gun. "This might hurt a b—"
A burst of electricity hit Michelle, rendering her unconscious. Emily looked to the source. It was Jen.
"Come on," she said, her hand jiggling Emily's keys.
When Emily didn't move, she added, "Come with me if you want to live."
As Emily opened the door to the passenger seat, she heard her mutter, "Pete would have loved that."
...
She is now in the old man's house and guess what? He doesn't actually have a wife.
His name is Hugo Miller.
He no longer speaks to her with an English accent after Leena, Jen's real name, told him to stop.
"How many times do I have to tell you?" she had said. "She is not H.G. Wells."
"It's a shame that such a brilliant mind is confined to a coin. Nevertheless, it begs the question. What makes a person?" he says, looking curiously at Emily. He is standing uncomfortably close to her.
"Leave her alone Hugo," Leena warns.
"Do you know that every time a person recalls a memory, the memory changes?" Hugo asks, ignoring her. "It could be the emotional aspect. It could be in the detail. Anyway, something changes and it depends on the situation of the recall. So if someone were to say, manipulate the situation," the way he is currently looking at her is penetrating, "you could be living your life based on lies."
"Hugo!" Leena exclaims.
"What is going on? And why do you keep mentioning H.G. Wells?" she asks, frantically looking between them.
The drive to Hugo's home was quiet. She only knew that Jen was Leena when Hugo greeted them. Other than that, she knows nothing about the situation she is in.
"It doesn't matter," Leena says.
Hugo disagrees. "It does matter," he says.
"Oh, you just want to test her for your organic hard drive," Leena says exasperatedly.
"Damn it!" Emily cries out. She doesn't even realize that she just cursed and when she does, she doesn't feel even the least bit mortified. "Stop," she inhales deeply, "stop talking over me and start talking to me."
...
They explained to her how she used to be someone else who did something really bad. And as punishment, they stored her consciousness in a coin. The Janus coin, they called it. It left her still alive body unoccupied so they built a new person for that body.
And that person is her. Emily Lake.
"Wow," she said. "I can't believe this. I used to be H.G. Wells. But how about my sudden knowledge of martial arts? You said they wiped out everything?"
"We don't know," Leena answered.
"But we can find out," Hugo interjected.
"No, Hugo. She's not a lab rat."
"It's really up to her." Hugo looked at her, eyes full of hope.
"I…" she wasn't sure if she wanted more answers. They seemed to confuse her more. "I have to think about it."
"Well, you'll have to think about it on the road," Leena said. "It's not safe for you here."
Ever since then, she has been moving from one place to another. The only constant in her life is Hugo. He is still trying to study her but now, he has developed a fatherly affection towards her. It happened sometime after he ran into his old flame. One Vanessa Calder who rejected him for another man. He was devastated and told her that it is obviously too late for him to have children. So even though she is supposed to be decades older than him, he treats her like a daughter.
They see each other every six months or so.
Leena, however, has not shown up on her radar ever since that day.
Emily found out from Michelle that she was doing fine. That was about two years ago. She keeps running into Michelle. That woman really wants her dead. She told the Regents, the people who were after her, that Emily was the one who shot her. The good news is Leena was not blamed for her disappearance. The bad news is they are still chasing her.
That day at the coffee shop, she wanted to prove that Emily was not that different from H.G. Wells and she was as dangerous as the psychopathic author. Michelle purposely described Wells to her to get her to admit their similarities. Instead, she only saw how different they were. Then she tried to get Emily to leave Wyoming and she got what she wanted, just not the way she expected.
"You did my job for me," Michelle had said to her. That day she discovered another smile she never thought she would see across Michelle's face. A wicked one. "I didn't have enough to get them to even wipe you. Now, they don't care if I bring you to them dead or alive. And it's all because you ran. You see, innocent people don't run."
She wants to stop running but it is far too late for that. They have already associated her with H.G. Wells. When they look at her, they see Wells' sins, not the fact that she hasn't done anything wrong. It is the age old question; if you could go back in time and kill the child Hitler, would you? And it seems their answer is yes.
She also keeps coming across 'artifacts'. That is what they call things like the Janus Coin. Two out of three times when Michelle catches up to her is because of an artifact. She knows this but she can't stop herself from helping the people who are affected by an artifact.
But if she hadn't cared, she would have never met Myka.
Emily met her about six months ago.
She almost mistook Myka for Michelle. And since Myka looked so much like her arch nemesis, Emily had expected resentment from her. Instead, what she saw in Myka's eyes was love. Tears were pooling in them. And for a second, she thought Myka was going to hug her. But it was a difficult task to execute as they were both pointing a gun at each other.
Even so, Myka smiled. "Destined to meet at gunpoint," she muttered and lowered her gun.
Emily, still wary, held her gun where it was.
"Aren't you afraid of me?" she asked.
"Why should I?"
"You work for the Warehouse, don't you?"
Myka nodded.
"Aren't you all afraid that I might inherit the homicidal tendencies of a certain famous author?"
"So kill me now," said Myka nonchalantly.
She looked right into Emily's eyes. She didn't show even the slightest of fear. It was like she trusted Emily not to shoot her. She even went further by holstering her gun.
Emily lowered her own gun.
"You don't remember me at all, do you?" Myka asked. "I knew you existed but I didn't think…wow."
"Did you know her?"
"Who?"
"H.G. Wells," said Emily.
"I did," Myka replied. "Quite well, actually."
"So why aren't you afraid of me?"
"You tell me," Myka said. "I don't even know you."
After that first meeting, she tried to find out everything she can about Myka. It turns out that she is Michelle's sister. Looking into Myka's background had inadvertently lead to some revelations about Michelle whose real name is Tracy. Apparently, Wells became quite close to Myka at some point only to betray her by trying to end the world. And Tracy, being the protective big sister, thinks that every single trace of Wells should be destroyed and that includes Emily.
She no longer avoids artifacts now because she knows it is her best chance to see Myka again. It has not worked so far. Instead of Myka, she kept running into Tracy.
But she keeps trying anyway.
Myka saw something in her that no one else did. She is sick of everyone telling her that she will turn into a homicidal maniac. She wants a different perspective and she thinks Myka can give that to her.
So no matter how many times Tracy tries to kill her, she will keep on trying to find Myka.