A/N: I'll be posting another chapter today. It should be up shortly.
Week 44
It was late afternoon in Nanda Parbat.
Archie and Henry stood close together, quietly having a discussion about one of the many files stacked on the professor's desk in front of them.
Candle light flickered in the room as Jane opened one of the window shutters in Archie's office.
Looking out over the beautiful landscape before her and the rapidly darkening sky, Jane's thoughts were racing a mile a minute. She had so many... too many, really, questions and half formed ideas; and right now there wasn't much she could do about any of them.
A frustrated sigh escaped her throat, and Archie briefly looked up at the restless woman before turning his attention back to Henry and their back and forth.
Aside from the hushed whispers between the two men, no other sounds disturbed the quiet of the office. Jane strode up to the desk and cleared her throat to break into the conversation.
"I feel like we're getting nowhere."
The two men looked at her, their eyes saying go on.
"We keep deciphering this information, but we're not doing anything with it." Jane watched as the two men shared a look, a twinkle in Archie's eye. Unperturbed, she ploughed on. "What's more, they know we have this information. They have to know we'll get through it all at some point. They could be changing their game plan as we speak."
Without saying a word, the professor stepped away, crossing to the other side of the room rifling through a huge chest.
Shaking her head at Archie's apparent dismissal, Jane looked to her teacher, as if he could give her the answers she was looking for.
Henry Pendragon looked his normal solemn self as he placed his hands down on one of the many piles of pages and books sat on the desk in front of him. "There are a lot of answers to be found in Nanda Parbat, no question about it." Locking eyes with her, he made sure he had her undivided attention. "None of them are going to satisfy you. Not one of them is the one you're looking for."
Jane shifted around when she felt Archie at her back. Turning, she saw he had James' fedora and trench coat. The very same ones he'd been wearing when she'd first met him.
Feeling her heart clench at the memory, Jane found she could not tear her eyes from the items as Archie placed them on his desk in front of her.
With heart-stopping realisation, Jane realised where Henry and the professor were going with this whole conversation.
"No." Blunt and final.
Starting to pace in frustration, Jane waved her arms wildly as she spoke. "I'm not him. I'm not going to be him." Stopping in front of the professor, Jane crossed her arms in defiance.
Archie responded with visible annoyance. "Believe me, Ms. Rizzoli. I am painfully aware of that fact."
In a reversal of roles, Henry stepped forward, playing peacemaker. "Of course not. You're going to be yourself. That's the way it should be..."
""...That's what James wanted." Archie cut in.
Jane's eyes dropped as the truth of their words sunk in. Of course that had been what he wanted. He'd spent all that time teaching her, preparing her...
Henry gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "You saw your reflection in the cave, Jane. You saw yourself without ego, without distortion, selfless and ideal."
Jane immediately bristled. All the calm instantly disappearing as the memory of that moment in the ice cave jumped to the forefront of her mind. "I don't know what I saw, Henry!"
Pendragon merely gave her a sly smirk. "Sure you do. It just makes you uncomfortable. It scares you. It should."
How little this all bothered him annoyed Jane greatly. "How reassuring." She replied, her voice heavy with sarcasm. "Is this another lesson about letting go? Is that what this is? Cease being myself to become myself?"
Picking up the fedora, Henry's voice was almost playful. "Lovely paradox. A lot like life."
Jane glared at the man before her. "So I hide in the shadows?" Her gaze briefly shifted to the fedora. "Under this thing? Never letting people know who I am?"
The frustration of her first few encounters with James circled in her memory. It seemed a lifetime ago that he had hidden everything from her.
"You're going to find, like James did, that some questions can only be answered by doing that."
Having spent time on the force undercover, Jane knew the truth of what he was saying.
Seeing her surrender, Henry reached out and gently placed the fedora on her head. The brim of the hat cast a shadow over her face, hiding her features.
"A mask." She whispered.
"A mask." Henry replied in return. "And just like how some questions can only be answered wearing one, there are some that can only be asked when you remove one."
Archie stepped forward, his silence during their exchange coming to an end. "It's time to leave, Jane. Seek your answers elsewhere."
A solitary tear fell as Jane reached up and pulled the hat firmly down.