Disclaimer: The Show Victorious, its characters and other associated copyrights are property of someone else and not me.

Memory

Chapter 2 – Tears in the rain

No one's pov.

It was just after 6 PM and Tori was halfway through a TV dinner, when the buzzer to her apartment rang. Getting off the couch she walked to the panel and hit the intercom.

"Hello"

A happy voice sprung through the speaker. "Hey Tor…It's Me, Cat. Let me Up."

Normally a visit from Cat would be welcome but Tori was tired from work and just watned to be alone. Annoyed at the intrusion, Tori growled but hit the buzzer anyway. She then opened her door and went back to the couch where she had been sitting. She hadn't expected any company and was curious why Cat decided to Visit. A few moments later, Cat came walking through her door.

"I hope you know I'm eating, I just got off of work Cat.." Tori said between bite of her dinner.

Cat walked into the living room, picked up the TV dinner off the table and threw it in the trash.

"HEY! That was my dinner." Tori protested.

"Not any more. I've barely seen you in a month and we are having dinner. Besides, I can't have my best friend eating Lasagna from a box. Let's get you some decent food. All you eat these days is TV dinners or crap from that greasy spoon you work at." Cat said as she put her hands on her hip's, to show she meant business.

Tori stood up and nodded. "OK, what do you have in mind?"

"We can hit that new Italian Place on Melrose, Giovani's Italian Kitchen. I've heard good things about it. My Treat."

Tori grabbed her purse off the table as a smile came to her lips, it's a date.

"That and we can visit Jade in the hospital, it's on our way." Cat said as they were heading out the door.

Tori suddenly felt Ill, but she dared not show any sign of it. "Maybe we shouldn't, Jade needs to rest. She was in a bad accident. She doesn't need us hanging around anyway."

Cat pulled the door to Tori's apartment shut. "Nonsense, Jade needs the company. Cooped up in that room, she's been getting crabbier by the day."

Tori then pulled the phone out of her purse and checked the time. "It's after 6, I'm sure visiting hour's are over. Maybe tomorrow." Anything but Jade, thought Tori, Anything but Jade.

Cat gave Tori a look of slight scorn. "Sorry, you aren't getting out that easy. Visiting hours end at 8:30. I know you weren't at first, but Jade is one of your friends now and it won't kill you to stop in for a few minutes. I've been there almost every day."

"Sure" Tori said, appearing to give. but still grumbling in displeasure.

"Stop being such a grouch Tori. Look I know you've been real busy working full time and going working on your singing. You'll feel better helping to cheer Jade up." Cat said as they walked out of the building.

Tori made sure Cat was in front of her and not paying attention, when she mumbled bitterly under her breath. "Not a fucking chance."

"So she doesn't remember anything in that happened in the last 17 months, is that right?" Tori said as they drove to the hospital.

Cat shook her head. "Not a single thing."

"Tough break I guess." Tori said in a low voice.

"Could you imagine, losing more than an entire year of your life. Gone, like it had never even happened." Tori paused and glanced out the window before answering. For an instant, unseen by Cat, Tori's face was rather sad.

"No."

A short while later, Jade looked up to see Cat stride happily into the room.

"Hey Jade." Cat said. "Look who I brought."

Tori looked over to the doorway to see Jade standing there. For a second as she and Jade locked eyes, Jade suddenly had a feeling like she had just forgotten what she was about to say. It was an odd feeling, which passed quickly.

"Hey Jade, How are you feeling?" Tori said with a smile that only looked half convincing.

"Like I got hit by a truck, next stupid question." Jade, who had been increasingly crabby as the day went on, snapped.

Tori began to examine the room, and its contents. "At least you have a nice room. I see you got my flowers."

"It's a hospital room Vega, is sucks. They all do. So have you been keeping out of trouble?" Jade said as a smirk formed on her face.

"I finished my degree in music, this May. I've been working on my demo tapes and working full time at the diner. My life has been pretty uneventful of late." Tori answered.

"Figures."

"We're heading out to a new Italian place for dinner on Melrose." Cat said.

"So when are you getting out?" Tori asked.

Beck, who was sitting in the corner, chimed in. "The Doctor said, she can go home the day after tomorrow."

Tori glanced at Jade's cast. "I'll bet you'll be glad to go home Jade, huh?"

Jade chuckled. "Yeah, that's for sure. I can get some decent food. You know what I want. I suddenly had a craving for ice cream just now."

Tori very quickly turned and looked out the window. "Oh look you can see the ocean from here. You should check out the view." Tori said. What she actually was thinking was, how extremely painful it was to know that Jade had no idea what the word meant anymore.

"Does it look like I can Vega? I'm stuck in this stupid bed.

For a few minutes more, they all chatted. Then Cat and Tori, both wanting to eat, said their goodbyes and departed. The pair having left, Jade went back to the Clive Barker novel she was reading on her Kindle. Beck, who was hungry himself, gave Jade a kiss and departed as well.

Tori felt better after getting away from Jade. At this point she wanted all of it to just go away. Beck and Jade get married, leave town and that's that.

Tori couldn't help but think. "Then I can pretend it never really happened and move on. Tell myself it was just all in my head. From the terrible end to the very beginning, which started as a single remark."

Flashback – 14 months ago

Jade and Tori were sitting on the couch in Jade and Becks apartment one windy Saturday night. The scissoring on the Television and a half empty bottle of wine on the coffee table in front of them.

"Thanks For coming over Vega." Jade said as she took a sip of her wine.

Tori nodded with a smile. "My pleasure, I like keeping you company. How long will Beck be on that film shoot anyway?"

Jade let out a slight sigh, "He'll be on location in North Dakota for at least another month. I'm happy with him getting movie parts but…." Jade let her voice trail off at this point.

"But what?"

"I used to like being alone. But lately, with Beck being gone on one film shoot after another it's been getting to me. It's easy to start to feel unattractive and unwanted. Even I'll admit that. Let's face it, I'm not the easiest person to be around."

It was the sad look on Jade's face that got to Tori. Add to that the several glasses of wine she had drunk, she felt the need to say something she wanted to say in a very long time. She so desperately wanted to make Jade feel better.

Tori put her tanned hand on Jade's pale one. "Jade, You're an insanely beautiful and talented woman. You're smart, sexy and if I were him, I would treat you like a queen. I can't even think how he could stand to be away from you."

Jade could tell from the way Tori said it she really meant it. It was a remark that startled her, but in a very good way. It made her feel both warm and wanted, more so than she had felt in a very long time.

End flashback.

Now it was a bittersweet memory and Tori was the only one, who even knew it ever happened. As sad as it was that was probably for the best, she thought. Tori shook off old memories of Jade, smiled at Cat and hoped to have a decent evening with a very good friend.

After about 10 minutes of reading Jade put her kindle down and thought for a moment. Something about the Tori's visit seemed odd. But she couldn't put her finger on it, so she resumed reading.

It was exactly 16 minutes later that Tori realized what was strange. Actually there were two strange things. The first was that her demeanor was rather subdued. Jade knew that could be explained by the fact that Tori had been working a lot recently.

But the second thing was very odd and only then did Jade realize it.

Except for that one single moment when she first entered the room, Tori never once looked her in the eyes. She seemed to purposely avoid looking at her, taking in interest in everything else in the room.

Of course Jade thought back to, how fascinating the view suddenly became to Tori when the word Ice cream was mentioned. It was like she couldn't look out the window fast enough and when she did nobody in the room could see her expression. When Tori looked back she had her rather bland looking smile back on her face. She searched her mind for the word Ice Cream and it had no particular special meaning. It was just something cold, people liked to eat.

None of it made any sense to Jade. One thing that she knew was, that just thinking about it was beginning to give her a throbbing headache. She put down her kindle and closed her eyes.

Though she didn't like to show it, the absence of 17 months of memories was disturbing to her. in fact it upset her greatly. She felt there was this giant hole inside of her and she had no idea what was once there. Sure people could tell her what happened, show her pictures but it wasn't the same. They all tried to jog her memory.

Jade had no idea what she thought, when Beck proposed last month. She knew she said yes, which meant she was happy, but what was she thinking at the time? That and a thousand other moments. What did she do, what did she think, and what did she feel. All those questions ran through Jade's mind.

A line from the movie Blade Runner ran through her mind, it was one of Beck's favorite movies and they had watched it a number of times.

"All those moments, will be lost in time, like tears in the rain."

Jade liked the movie too, The main bad guy, Roy Batty could have easily been a cardboard cut out bad guy character. Jade appreciated the fact that he was much more than that. Though she personally thought, the Deckard was a replicant theory was utter bullshit. It needlessly complicated the plot.

But as much as Jade searched her mind, those moments were gone. Tender moments, angry moments, sad moments, happy moments. As cherished as they may have been at the time, they might be gone forever.

It all left Jade with a faint lingering sense of sadness that she really didn't quite understand or shake. She didn't think she was the type of person who would be so broken up inside about a year's worth of memories being missing. Yet, now it did break her up inside.

"I guess I'm not quite the person I thought I was." Jade said to herself.

Her eyes closed, Jade pushed all of those thoughts out of her head. Surprisingly, sleep came quickly for the Goth.

After a brief time Jade began to dream. She was walking down a path through a forest or a park where she came to a blue park bench. But sitting on that bench was another woman that looked exactly like her. This version of Jade was wearing a leather Jacket over a green skirt and black top. A streak of green in her hair.

"Who are you?" Jade said.

The other Jade looked up and smiled. "I'm you, from that 17 months you lost."

Jade suddenly sat down next to her twin. "Tell me, what happened. Tell me something. Why is this bothering me so much?"

The other Jade put a finger to her chin and tilted her head. "We'll you went to the bathroom a whole lot of times. You ate food and wrote.."

Jade stood up and glared at her twin. "Don't get smart with me! I do that every day."

A serious and thoughtful look appeared on the twin's face as she got up. "Regardless of how much you know, what I know. You're still in the same place, good or bad as you ever were."

"Don't patronize me. That's BS" Hissed Jade, as her temper began to show.

A smirk appeared on the Twin's face. "I happen to be you Jade. Did you actually expect me, to actually give you any answers? They're my answers, not yours; I'm just kind of selfish like that, so you can't have any." The twin said rather mockingly

Her patience gone, Jade lunged at her twin. The doppelganger simply laughed and faded away.

I'm glad people are liking the story so far.

Next chapter of "The Bet" will be out soon. I'm having a touch of writers block on that one, so it's a bit slow in coming. But it is coming. Rest assured.