Part II.
Molly opened her mouth to scream, as did her doppleanger, when a voice spoke from the hall.
"Molly, honey, do you want some hot chocolate?" Realizing the other would probably say something to bring Mom in, and she didn't want that, Molly lashed out with a hand to cover the other's mouth-- just as the other did the exact same thing.
"Molly?" Great. Molly had to speak. She pulled the hand off of her mouth, just like the other did.
"No mom… I'm OK right now." Rebecca cocked her head. There'd seemed to be a stereo quality to her daughter's voice, like it was coming out of two mouths. She had been working too long, Becky thought, and walked back to the kitchen.
"Who are-" They stopped.
"I'" They stopped again. Blinked, then Molly took a deep breath and holding her hand up to keep the other from imitating her, spoke.
"Who are you?"
"Who Am I? Who are you?" The both stopped and looked at each other, then Molly started speaking.
"I'm Molly Cunningham, and I spent all day with mom after I got out of school and then I came home to find…you!" The other looked at her and put her hands on her hips.
"Well, I'm Molly Cunningham, and I woke up in a dumpster, and came back home-- to find you pretending to be me!"
"Not even!" Molly said, "You were probably going to try and bushwack me in my sleep and take my place you…" She decided not to say what she was going to.
"Hah! You probably knocked me out!"
"Well, I'm Molly and I know it for certain!"
"Oh, how?"
"I remember things only I could. Like the time I found Henry and-"
"Brought it home to play mom with because I wanted to take care of him like I hoped Mom would me." The other finished. Molly blinked. The other started up again.
"But there was also the time when Baloo promised me the peppermint fairy would come and he-"
"-had lied and was going to bring it up himself." Both Molly's started to look a little pale.
"OK, here's one nobody else could know. I followed Kit-"
"Behind the theatre because I wondered what he was doing with Kathy and then we saw him and her…" Molly turned red. The other Molly was just as red and they let that particular memory go.
"Are you… me?" Molly asked the one with the towel around her hair.
"I…don't know. I think I'm me, but than who are you? And if you're me who am I, I-" She closed her mouth, aware that she was babbling. She started up again, "I remember it was Wednesday and-"
"Wednesday? It's Friday." Molly said, looking at herself. She paused. "We need to figure out something else to call each other besides "Molly", it's confusing." The other one tensed.
"Well, what do you suggest? That's My name." Molly said.
"How about if we call one of "us" Elizabeth? That's our name as well."
"And how do we decide who gets to be called Elizabeth?"
"We'll flip for it!" Molly said, holding up a silver dollar from her dresser. The other one gave her a look that said: "you bloody idiot."
"Right-- you mean the trick coin Baloo gave us? No way, lets try an honest coin."
"Oh all right." Molly said, getting another. Five minutes later, "Elizabeth" was sitting on the side of the bed, finishing toweling off her hair. Molly tried to keep a smile from her face-- she knew exactly how Elizabeth would react to that.
"So what do we do?" Molly said, wondering that she was handling this so well-- be it was just like the-
"Episode where Danger woman faced the unstoppable clone army." Elizabeth completed her thought aloud. Molly frowned.
"Would you stop that?" She asked.
"Because it bugs you?"
"Yes! I don't like thinking that someone knows everything I knew-- it's-"
"Nervewracking? Don't I know it-- you could go telling everyone about my-"
"our"
"Okay, our secrets." Elizabeth blew her forelock out of her face. "This is really… um, odd."
"You said it." Molly paused, "And we'd better find out what's happened."
"Tell mom?"
"You must be a copy if you really think that-- what'd she do?"
"Panic, faint, call Baloo to blame him, and then call him back to ask for help."
"She could call Taddy…" Both shared a look of ultimate disgust at the name of Becky's newest boyfriend. Elizabeth put her hand out in an incredibly effeminate gesture.
"'Oh Rebecca, I would be there instantly, my sweet.'" She started, and then without missing a beat, Molly joined in a chorus,
"'But I simply cannot leave the house with my hair looking like this.'" They both stuck their tongues out at the memory.
"So we don't tell mom." Molly said, "But what happened?" Elizabeth shrugged.
"I don't know-- I woke up in a dumpster, managed to get back here, and took a shower-- I figured mom would be out and I could tell her what happened looked clean-- I didn't want to panic her." Molly nodded at that-- it was exactly what she would have done.
"But who made you?"
"Who made me? How are you certain they didn't make you."
"Well I've been with mom for the last two days."
"All the time?"
"Well… most of the time."
"Are you certain." Molly gave an exasperated sigh.
"OK, I'm not certain-- are you satisfied?"
"Yes!" Elizabeth said with a smirk. Molly thought about how obnoxious 'she' looked with that self satisfied look on her face and shuddered. No wonder some people ran when they saw her.
"So what do we do?"
"Well…" Elizabeth said, thinking, "We were at Higher For Higher, with the Thembrian shipment and I-er, you, oh heck somebody, touched that crate-- and Spigot blew up."
"that's your last memory?"
"After that, I got to spend time in a dumpster in a hospital gown." Elizabeth smacked herself in the head, "And I threw it in the trash-- lets go get it."
"Because maybe there are some clues in it!" Molly said excitedly, "This is just like the episode where-"
"Danger woman lost her memory in the fortress of destruction!" They both looked at each other and realized that whatever happened, they'd finally found someone who liked the Dangerwoman show, comics, trivia and movies as much as they did. Then both their faces got more serious-- they were in a Dangerwoman show-- only without any assurance that everything would turn out alright before the end.
"Right-- I'll go get the clothes." Molly said, "your hairs still damp and there wasn't enough time for me to take a shower."
"OK… I'll wait." Elizabeth said, moving to a part of the room where nobody from the hall could see her. Molly stepped out, and saw her Mom working one some financial documents. Rebecca looked up at her daughter and gave a slight frown.
"Not ready for bed?" Molly looked at her and once again noticed how she looked tired. Mom would be up at least two more hours, if the stack of work next to her was any indication. The glasses perched on her nose were a result of too many years of that, Molly was certain.
"I, uh, threw away something by mistake, I'm going to get it." Molly paused, "Mom, why don't we hire an accountant? You can afford it."
"I know…but it seems like a waste of money to have one when I can do it." Rebecca said,
"But think of all the time it would give you." Molly answered, "You could work on ways to make more money-- and keep Baloo working hard."
"To do that I wouldn't need an accountant, I need a slavedriver!" Rebecca said, laughing, "Only he'd have him off at Louie's in about ten minutes and that'd be the last I'd see of either of them for the week!" She smiled, "Don't worry honey-- it's a lot of work, but were so much better off than we were even a year ago-- we have two planes, a lot of contract pilots-- it's going well." Molly looked at her mother.
Then whey don't you relax? was her unspoken question. Still, tonight wasn't the time to bring that up. Molly went to the trash, and wrinkling her nose, picked up the hospital gown-- fortunately it had started out clean. She carefully packed it back to the room, Becky obliviously working on the figures. Inside, Molly-er Elizabeth, and Molly pounced on it.
A few moments later, they both leaned back, looking confused. It had the Cape Suzzette hospital logo, but nothing else.
"That's weird." Molly said, "if you were at Cape Suzzette, why didn't they tell mom?"
"Maybe they didn't know who I-No." Elizabeth cut herself off, "That doesn't make any sense-- the police would have put out an ad in the paper for anyone who knew who I might be to contact them." Molly nodded at that.
"How are you feeling?" Molly asked kindly.
"Still kinda woozy--why?" Elizabeth asked.
"Because you shouldn't be traveling-- so I'll go to the hospital and check."
"Now? What if mom comes in?"
"Why she'll see her daughter sleeping peacefully, of course." Molly said with an aura of superiority. Elizabeth gave a grin.
"You know, I could get used to this." She said.
"I'll be back before dawn." Molly commented by way of reply, going to her closet and grabbing her backpack with the flashlight and tool kit Uncle Wildcat had given her. She felt a little guilty-- he'd certainly not known about the course in breaking and entering Molly had gotten at Louie's a few years ago-- but it was in a good cause…
"Molly." Elizabeth said, pulling her pajamas on.
"hmm?"
"I don't recall ever trying to break into a place when nobody was there…" In fact the only time she'd had the chance to put the skills 'slippery fingers' Jake had shown her was when Baloo had locked them all out of Becky's car.
"Don't worry-- I can do it."
"I could do it-- what about you."
"Oh, lets not get into that-- we both could do it." Molly said irritably. "Now, could you go out and ask mom a question so I can leave-- don't talk to her about hiring an accountant, I already did."
"Oh, nice of you to remember." Elizabeth said with a grin.
"Well, I don't want to get grounded for your problems." Molly said archly.
***
Molly waited until Elizabeth started talking to Becky, and soundlessly moved to the door, gently opening and closing it. Once outside she went down the stairs, to insure that the sound of the elevator wouldn't alert anyone. Outside, she unlocked her bike from the rack, and swung onto it, preparing to pedal down the long, deserted road, the streetlights shining off the car windshields in lonely counterpoint to the stars above. The city was quiet here, although the down town was still jumping, the movies and theatres open late-- Molly and Becky had gone down there more than a few times, although Rebecca still only rarely let her go herself, and only with friends. The grounding she was risking was something she didn't want to consider.
"Well, here goes, the first big chance to do a Dangerwoman for real." Molly said, as she kicked off. Moments later the road was once again deserted, the figure of the teen lost in the gloom of the night, vanishing down the hill.