In my old tradition of forgetting to cross-post to until I go to post chapter 2:
and dreaming through the twilight that doth not rise nor set
"What is the name of your superior?"
She stares up at her questioner, uncomprehending. He stands over her. It's an intimidation tactic, that much is obvious; get in the subject's face, make her feel small.
It's no good. She hasn't remembered any names since she got here.
He strikes her.
There's no point. She feels the contact, but not the pain. She hasn't felt pain since she got here.
"What," he snarles, "is the name of your superior?"
"I don't even know my own name, jackass," she spits back, as if on autopilot. Her voice comes out dry and cracked. It's been a week – she thinks – and she realises that after the first day she's barely spoken.
That actually stops her opponent.
"You have no memories?"
"I see faces," she says; there's nothing secret in her own experiences and she won't risk anyone by saying it. "I don't know anything about them."
"And nothing else?"
She shrugs. "I think I had a dog. The truth is, I feel like I've always been here."
He walks away, muttering something about "a waste of good resources". The door slams shut behind him.
"Hey," she yells after him, though she knows it's futile, "does this mean you're gonna let me go?"
Today is the day. Michelle's sure of it.
Agent DiNozzo is off somewhere with the Director, and it's making Michelle nervous. She needs to leave on time. All her paperwork's done, and it's almost five…
"Probie, I can hear you thinking from here," McGee says without looking at her.
She sighs. "Do you think Agent DiNozzo is going to be long?"
"You need him for something?"
"I just don't want to be late leaving today."
McGee shrugs. "Then go."
"You don't think that would be… inappropriate?"
"I'm out of here as soon as I finish my paperwork."
She glances across. "You're playing a computer game right now."
He glares. "Probie, go home."
She goes.
"You have to run."
She looks up into the familiar eyes of one of Them, looming over her in the doorway.
"Quickly. You only have a few minutes, run now."
"Don't understand." Is this a test? A trick of some kind?
A pair of hands take hers and pull her to her feet.
"You have to run, Kate."
Wide-eyed, she daren't take in the name she's just been given. She runs.
Wherever she's being held, it's close to the ground. There's noise coming from outside, just to her left – she turns to see an open window. Glances out. Yes, she can make that distance. She scrambles down and flees, out onto a busy street. Dodge that car. Get out of the road, get out of the road! Stumbling, she falls on her hands and knees.
"Hey, lady! You need some help?"
She shakes her head no, desperately, and gets up. Keep. Going.
The city is brightly lit, though the sky is black, and she lets autopilot take over. Run. Run. Into the city, left here, take that underpass, collide with a stranger-
"Sorry-"
A man dangles from a rope in a prison cell.
He grabs her by the shoulders and stares.
"Special Agent Todd?"
It's nine-forty-five, and DiNozzo's still at work.
Probie was gone by the time he got down from Jenny's office. It was the first hint of thinking for herself he'd seen from her, so he let it go, and when McGee and Ziva disappeared in quick succession, they didn't seem to notice that he was still going.
Jeanne Benoit.
It's dishonest and underhanded, and Tony doesn't like it.
"Yeah, okay, DiNozzo, you've never lied to a woman to get what you want."
If he looked to Ziva's desk he'd find it empty, so Tony keeps his eyes closed and stays in the fantasy. She's shown up occasionally over the last year, but more and more since Gibbs went away. He could have done with her presence this last couple of months. "This isn't what I want."
"Sticking to one woman gonna be too hard for you?"
God. He wants to talk to her about this. He's talked seriously with her more than he has with anyone else in his life.
"Then how come you've never once visited me?"
"You know why," he mutters.
"Because you can't bear to express your feelings?"
He opens his eyes and glares at the empty chair. "Exactly."
The phone rings. Damn it.
"DiNozzo?"
"Fornell," he sighs, this is the last thing he needs – and damn that bastard for knowing exactly where to find him at ten o'clock on a Thursday night.
Then he starts listening.
Fornell gives her information, but she can't take it all in at once. Her name is Kate Todd. She's an NCIS agent. She doesn't even understand what NCIS is, but she has a name, and that's more than she had this morning. A friend's going to come and get her. Even better.
She has a friend.
"Um… Fornell?"
He gives her a funny look that's like a smile but somehow seems wrong in this face.
"Do you have any paper?"
He gives her an empty pad and a few pens. Like a woman possessed, she starts drawing.
Fornell looks over her shoulder. "I thought you couldn't remember anyone."
She shrugs. "Not their names."
He reaches around and points at the drawings, one by one. "That's Gibbs. McGee. Sciuto. Mallard. And-"
A knock on the door. The pad goes flying as she leaps to her feet.
"It's alright," Fornell says, but she sees his hand resting on his weapon as he goes to answer the door. He opens it a crack, then all the way. "Come on in, I'll… make myself scarce."
A face she knows only from her dreams appears.
He freezes there in the doorway, his eyes fixed on hers. His mouth hangs slightly open.
She steps forward, shaky. Her hands rise up to touch his face. "I know you," she whispers, her voice cracked and dry.
"Oh, God, Kate," he breathes, in a rush, and sweeps her up in a crushing hug. She lets out a gasp and he releases her. "Did I hurt you?" There's such concern in his voice that she wants to cry.
"No," she lets out, "no, no, Tony…" and clutches to him. His arms come back around her, gentler, and his hand slides up her back to her shoulders, her neck, the hole in the back of her head –
He scrambles away, eyes wide in horror.
"Oh," she says, another memory flooding back. "I remember now. You were there when I died."