Leroy had left soon after Tina gave Rachel the information on Dr. Jesse St. James. He was sure the girls had more to talk about but the talk about the case was becoming too much for him. He really believed that Rachel would be okay, but the fact that she had been through all of this and he wasn't around broke his heart. There was no one to blame but himself, he should have been there, he should have been around to protect her.
His whole life seemed to be filled with should haves, would haves, and could haves lately. He couldn't go back and change the past but he could start now and make a better future. To some maybe that wouldn't be enough, maybe too much time had been lost, but he was going to try with all his might to regain some form of normalcy between him and Rachel.
Now Leroy was standing outside the clinic were Rachel's therapist appointment was being held. He could tell that she was nervous, biting her lip and looking around in every direction like she was close to running away at any moment. She knew she had to do this though, despite how nervous she felt. She really wished Santana could be here, but she had been hurting this morning and wasn't able to go. She had sworn to Rachel that she was perfectly fine to go, but Rachel knew better. Plus, Rachel decided, she really needed to do this on her own despite how scared she was.
"Are you ready to go in?" Leroy asked as he studied Rachel's face again. She nodded and started towards the door not saying a word.
The two made their way down a long hallway after checking in at the front desk, everything just seemed so basic and clean. Jeez, this place was really clean. It is a clinic, Rachel thought to herself. When they arrived in the waiting room for Dr. St. James office Rachel was surprised. He must be a fan of Broadway. The walls contained various posters from shows that had long finished their initial run. Does that mean he will know who I am? Rachel wrung her hands together nervously as she sat down in a chair. The lady at the front said she would let Dr. St. James know she was here. Hopefully he would be out soon.
Leroy placed his hand on Rachel's knee. "It's going to be okay, you might not even find a trigger today." Rachel gulped and nodded her head. It was one thing to have an intense flash back around her father or Santana, but she didn't know this man at all.
"Ms. Rachel Berry?" Dr. St. James poked his head out of an office door.
Rachel stood up and walked around the chairs. Her father reached out and grabbed her hand. "You'll do great, I will be right out here waiting for you." He smiled, trying to put some positive thoughts in her head.
Dr. St. James moved around his desk to gather the file that he would need for this session. He had already been briefed on what Rachel had already remembered. Now he just hoped that some of the items that he had collected would help her remember more. He had worked with plenty of patients...clients...he was never sure what to call them, that never received a flash back while in his presence. Just because nothing happened today, didn't mean it wouldn't happen when Rachel went to sleep tonight.
Rachel came into the room looking around nervously. She smiled and held out her hand for Dr. St. James to shake.
"Hello."
"Hi. Please have a seat." He motioned towards the couch on the very living room looking side of his office.
Rachel took a deep breath as she began to sit down. Dr. St. James followed his own direction and sat in a chair in front the coffee table directly across from Rachel.
"So..um Dr. St.-
"Please call me Jesse."
"Okay." Rachel straightened her jacket pulling it forward and wrapping it more tightly around herself. "Jesse, how exactly does this work?"
"Well, I get to know you and then we try to work some objects into our conversation and see what happens."
"Oh okay." Rachel hadn't really been expecting that. She wasn't sure what she was really expecting in all honesty.
"Did you think I was just going to have you go through a box of stuff?"
Giving a subtle nod and then head shake, Rachel looked back up to Jesse. He had this permanent smile plastered onto his face. Did he really need to smile that much?
"That's okay, that's what a lot of people expect to happen when they come in here. I think taking a more natural approach to finding triggers is a better way to do this. When you have been triggered before you were doing natural things, having normal conversations, that's the layout I try to follow myself, with some extra things involved. Also, it's perfectly fine if we don't find any triggers today, yes this is for the investigation, however it's for you too."
Rachel pulled her best confused face. "I thought this was for the investigation."
Shaking his head Jesse wrote down a note or two. Rachel didn't know what he could be writing down already, they hadn't even started talking much about the case yet. "It's not just about the investigation, it's about you too. I personally don't know, but I imagine it's a very scary thing to have a chunk of your life missing."
"You have no idea." Rachel mumbled as she slid back on the couch, finally relaxing a little bit in order to get comfy.
"Well, let's start with this. Let's try to narrow down the time frame that you still have no memory of. It's my understanding you made it to Santana Lopez's cabin at approximately midnight or so Sunday night going into Monday morning." Jesse looked at Rachel with his still bowed looking at his notes. "Yes."
"Okay, Marcus Porter left the club with you Friday night around 1:30 AM. The flash backs you have had while you were on a bed, do you recall if your clothes had been changed yet?"
"I don't think so."
"I would bet they didn't change your clothes until last minute. Overall I would estimate a time gap of anywhere from twelve to sixteen hours. Now, your past triggers consisted of a light reflection and the smell of cherries."
"The others were dreams, or well the memories came back in dreams. I don't know what they were exactly just that I was asleep when I remembered them." Jesse nodded as he reached for a portfolio binder filled with pictures of bedrooms including Marcus's and Rachel's along with various hotel rooms. Opening it, he placed it on the table and motioned for Rachel to look at it while he continued to ask her questions.
Flipping through the pages, Rachel didn't recognize any of these rooms. Some of them were fancy hotel rooms and others were..not so fancy. She really thought this was silly until she stopped on a photo close to the back. She would have missed it except a very distinct clock caught her attention. She drug her fingers over the picture as she squeezed her eyes shut trying to regulate her breathing.
Rachel was walking or more like being drug on her feet across the room. There were hands around each of her arms, her head was bobbing back and forth. Front to back...front to back...front...wow..that clock was so bright. The black numbers stood out against the blue background, 4:36 PM. She passed through the door sideways, the man on the right exiting first. Who was he? Did she know him, he kind of looked familiar but she wasn't sure. The door slammed shut as the man on her right exited behind her.
Jesse watched as Rachel's breathing became irregular, he knew that she had seen something that had triggered her. Something in the picture that she was looking at. Which picture was it? Turning his head to get a better look Jesse realized that she was looking at the photo of Marcus's apartment. He made sure to make a quick note of which picture Rachel was looking at and sat back to wait. He couldn't pull her out of the flashback, he had seen that done before and it wasn't a nice thing to do or see really.
Rachel's eyes fluttered open a moment later. Her beating heart no longer felt like it was going to pop out of her chest. She pointed to the picture. "I remembered that clock and seeing the time on it. 4:36 PM. We must have been leaving to go to the mountain."
"Do you know who's room that is?"
Rachel shook her head, she only knew the room because it kind of looked familiar.
"That's Marcus' room. You never seen it before? The whole time he was your manager?"
"No, he usually kept his room locked, when I would be with him at his place for some reason he always used a key to get in. I only saw partially into it at a passing glance."
"So that narrows down the time frame to probably about ten hours of your memory still missing. We can keep working on trying to get it back. That is, if you still would like to meet with me even after the trial is over?"
Rachel rubbed her hands along her pants. "I will definitely think about it." Her smile slowly faded into a grimace. "We're done for today right?"
Jesse shook his head and looked at his watch. "We still have twenty minutes. Would you like to see some more items or pictures? We could always just talk more, it's up to you. We could even try an experiment."
Rachel looked at Jesse puzzled. An experiment, she wasn't jumping in excitement at the idea of being part of an experiment. Jesse could see how nervous Rachel was about trying this experiment, he knew it was a long shot to even get her to think about it. It would be incredibly tense but it could potentially help.
"What's the experiment?"
Setting down his note pad on the side table next to his chair, Jesse pulled out a black scarf. "I will blind fold you and I have a recording of all the Porter's brothers voices. It could trigger things you heard them say, identify who all might have been with you..." He trailed off as he noticed the distressed look on Rachel's face. Maybe this was a huge mistake.
"I will do it." Jesse tried not to let the shock show on his face, he didn't really think she would be up for it.
"Okay, just lean back and relax, I will tie it." Rachel could feel her heart rate increase as he tied the scarf around her head, this felt all too familiar.
"Rachel." The woman jumped, she didn't expect him to still be that close to her. He held his hands out in surrender, he didn't mean to scare her. Backing away he grabbed the USB and started the recordings. "Okay, let's get started."
Marcus- I have no idea what you are talking about, my brothers and I have done nothing to that woman. We were just trying to find her, we were worried about her safety. She went hiking and she went missing, we have no reason to harm her.
Rachel's heart rate began to increase. Her whole body felt like it was thumping her heart was beating so hard. Is this what the beginnings of a heart attack felt like? "Please...please turn it off...I can't do this." Jesse waited like he hadn't heard Rachel speak and continued to let the recording's play.
Daniel- I tried to tell them they shouldn't do it, but they were so angry at life in general that they couldn't see reason. I done what they asked but they don't know I never gave her whole amounts, I knew it would kill her right there if I did.
That voice, Rachel recognized that voice. She had heard it whispering in her ear when she was on the bed before.
"Rachel", Daniel whispered. Rachel groaned and tried to sit up. "Shhh, don't move." Daniel looked back over his shoulder to make sure that there wasn't a chance of Marcus coming back in the next few minutes. He had told him he thought there were police outside. "They're going to take you to the mountain soon, when you wake up, run as fast and as far as you can. Run Rachel and don't stop until you find help."
"Daniel!"
"Yeah Boss?" Daniel didn't know why in the hell he called Marcus boss, the name had just been said and stuck one day.
"You idiot, what are you doing?" Marcus asked as he took in the scene in front of him. Daniel held up an empty syringe. He had emptied it down the sink before coming in here in case he was to get caught. "The food we gave her earlier was bringing her around, had to knock her back out." Marcus was skeptical, but he trusted his brother.
"Okay, get out of there."
Rachel sat up abruptly, ripping the blind fold off of her face. The second voice..that was Daniel Porter. She couldn't believe it. Her chest was heaving, she was crying and sweating, she had to leave. She couldn't do this anymore, this would be the first and last time she ever done something like this.
"Rachel what did you see?" Jesse practically jumped over his chair to grab his note pad to write down anything that she was about to say.
"Daniel Porter wasn't drugging me like he was supposed to. He's the one that told me to run. He's the one that led me to Santana."
Q1 - I chose Jesse because despite him being an ass on the show, I actually enjoy his character and out of the small list of characters I had yet to use, he was the one that was most appealing to me. I toned him down a bit, so he's not nearly as crass.
Guest - I appreciate your criticism and while I will keep it in mind if I ever write another story, this one is almost finished. Therefore, I am going to finish this story the same way I started it.
Thank you for the reviews, favorites and follows.
