Chapter 13: Fresh Start

June 2015

"Gone?" Anna wasn't sure she had heard the doctor correctly. She was sure that wasn't what the doctor had actually said "What do you mean by gone?"

"What I mean is that all of that part of her is gone," Dr Banke confirmed. "She has no memory of the murders and no more desire to kill."

"Wait…" Anna wasn't sure what she was supposed to think, to feel, to even say to this. "are you telling me…that Elsa…is…" she trailed, unsure how to complete the sentence.

"Yes," Dr Banke said as if she could read Anna's mind. "She is now in her room if you would like to see her." Dr Banke's pager started to beep. "That is my surgery, if you don't have any more questions, I have a brain tumour to remove."

"One question," Anna quickly interjected. "Does this mean that Elsa isn't…dangerous anymore?"

"As dangerous as the average human," Dr Banke said. "What I mean, is that she won't go and seek out people to hurt. She is as dangerous as you or I."

"Could it come back?" Anna was suddenly struck by this thought.

"No," Dr Banke shook her head. "I believe the damage done is permanent. Now, if you will excuse me." She swept from the waiting room through some double doors that lead to the surgery gallery.

Anna turned to her husband; her eyes gleaming with excitement.

"You know what this means?" Anna was practically doing a jig. "Elsa is no longer that monster. Maybe the attack was a blessing in disguise."

"But this begs the question; what do we tell her?"

Anna's face fell. What would they tell her?

Elsa watched as a security guard handcuffed her to her bed. For some reason, whenever she looked around at her window that showed the hospital corridor, there were people out there, staring or gossiping. Every time this happened, it puzzled her. What was so fascinating about her? Another puzzling point for her was why there was a security guard outside her door – all day and all night. If she needed to go anywhere, that guard would accompany her. It was very, very strange.

A couple of interns were in her room, adjusting her medication. They kept glancing over at her and whenever she caught their eyes, they quickly looked away.

"Can I help you?" Elsa asked after the fifth time this happened.

"Oh, no," one of the interns started giggling. "Just checking your IV fluids. You never know when one of these babies might come loose. Don't want your insurance to make a killing on medical malpractice."

"Okay," Elsa drew out the word. That was definitely the strangest thing she had ever heard and she grew up with Anna. There was something she was missing here. People didn't say stuff like that for no reason and in that tone.

Anna soon came into the room and shot the interns a disapproving look on catching them giggling in the corner.

"Sorry ma'am," the other intern said. "We better get a move on, after all, don't want to be seen as dead weight."

Anna scowled at the sentence and watched the two interns leave the room. Elsa watched as her sister sat in her chair beside her. There was something different about her. The way she had spoken before had made Elsa believe that Anna was mad at her but now, there was a shine in her eyes that she hadn't seen before.

"What happened?" Elsa asked.

"Oh, Dr Banke told me about your test results," Anna replied, trying to sound nonchalant but she was certainly hiding something.

"My memory loss ones?" Elsa scratched her face. "Yeah, it's so weird knowing that I have suffered memory loss. What is out there that I should know? Am I married? Do I have children?"

"Was and yes," Anna dragged her chair closer. "You must remember Jack?" At Elsa's nod, Anna continued. "Well, you guys got married during your final days at university and now have two children; Leif and Sigrid. They are really adorable."

An excitement flooded through Elsa when she heard this. So, she had married Jack. She knew who Jack was; he was the love of her life. Memories of their times together came to her; first time they saw each other, first date, first kiss, first time they had slept together. A small blush managed to creep its way into her cheeks at the thought of this memory. So, they had children and two of them; a boy and a girl. That was really interesting. It was a shame that she couldn't remember too much about them. She forced herself to think really hard, see if anything came to mind. A small memory of a baby in some arms did come, but who the arms belonged to or who the baby was, she didn't know.

"Wait," Elsa had just realised something. "You said 'was', what happened?" Panic began to settle within her. "Jack didn't die, did he? Was he in the accident I was in? Did I survive and he didn't? Is that why he isn't here? Where are the children? I want to – well have to say - meet."

Elsa started whipping herself into a panic as these thoughts flew through her mind. She barely noticed the look on Anna's face, one that was also filled with panic.

"Um, no, Jack is fine and is living in America," Anna said after a while. "He-he divorced you eight years ago."

"What?" Elsa's mind started to race again. "Why did he do that? I didn't have an affair, did I? Did I hurt him?"

"No to the affair part," Anna answered.

"That means yes to the hurting him part," Elsa buried her head into the sheets. She tried to move her hands but it just reminded her that she was handcuffed to the bed. "Please tell me that this," she yanked on the handcuffs, "wasn't the cause?"

Anna didn't answer, in fact she avoided all eye contact with her older sister. Elsa knew at once that whatever they were all hiding from her had to do with why she was handcuffed. It was obvious now. Elsa just wanted to jump out the window from knowledge that she had caused something to hurt the love of her life. Whatever she had done must have been very bad for Jack to take off with their kids like that.

"Look," Anna quickly said, noticing the look of pain on Elsa's face. "I'll try and talk to Jack, and maybe see if he will come and see you…considering the change in circumstances."

Elsa's face shone. "That'll be great."

However, she didn't fail to notice what Anna had said by change in circumstances. What did that mean?

July 2015

Jack must have been mad to do this – purely mad. Whatever had possessed him to do this can just fuck off now. He was walking through Arendelle Airport with his two kids, looking for his mother and grandfather. Anna had called him a couple of weeks ago to explain what had happened with Elsa. Yes, he had been concerned about her welfare but he had figured that she was in good hands.

His children – now fifteen and thirteen – had insisted on coming along. They may have been young when their mother had been sent to jail but of course, with access to the internet and children being little gossips, they had figured out the truth. They had come home one day demanding answers and Jack had been forced to provide it to them. Why did his kids have to be smart little buggers?

When Pippa had found out that Elsa had changed, she had ganged up with Anna to force him to come. She had wanted to come herself but had gotten sick at the last minute and had to stay home with Stanley who was there to help her. So, that was how Jack found himself looking through the airport.

Mad, he thought again, simply mad. He didn't want to think what it meant now that Elsa had changed – Anna hadn't really gone through all the details. All that he knew was that she had forgotten being a sick serial killer and had suffered intense brain damage. However, he did sense there was something else Anna wanted to tell him. Maybe he would find that out when he saw her.

"Jack, Sigrid, Leif!" the voice of his mother was calling him from just up ahead.

Grinning, he pushed his trolley in their direction and the five of them all hugged before heading out. In the car ride, Jack talked about the reasoning for why he was here – his kids already knew as they had a very long discussion about it. He had figured they were old enough now to get the full truth from him.

After getting the kids dropped off at his mother's house, Jack headed straight for the hospital. However, once he had parked his car, he realised he couldn't move. Something was stopping him. He knew what it was; it was the fact that the last time he had seen his ex-wife, she was smiling sadistically at her trial but now…

He mentally shook himself. It would be selfish for him to turn around and to leave. To leave Elsa now wouldn't be the best move. Quickly, making sure he looked presentable, he left the car and entered the hospital. He found Anna and Kristoff waiting for him in the lobby and gave them a huge bear hug and a giant grin. It was so good to see these guys.

"Where are my little niece and nephew?" Anna asked. "I want to see how much they have grown."

"Oh, I'll bring them around later in the week, I don't want to overwhelm Elsa with too much at once considering what you have said about her brain damage."

"Good idea," Kristoff nodded.

"So, about Elsa," Jack had decided to get straight to the point as quickly as possible. "What is this big thing you wanted to tell me that you couldn't say over the phone?"

"Well," Anna looked as excited as she did when Jack had told her that he was seeing her sister, "now, this might come as a shock but the doctor ran some tests on Elsa and apparently…wait for it…the attack caused her to lose that dark side of hers."

Jack's mouth gaped open. "Wait, do you mean…she's not…"

Anna shook her head. "She is no longer the Arendelle Ripper."

Jack didn't know what to say to this. His ex-wife now may be the person he had always believed her to be. Maybe…. just maybe…. he could get her back and they could have the life he had always dreamed, the life he always wanted.

Jack turned the corner and saw Elsa lying in her bed. She was handcuffed to the bed – well she was a convicted felon – and staring at the ceiling. All his old feelings towards her came flooding back to him. For so long he had tried to push her to the back of his mind, but it had been impossible. Not only was she the love of his life but he always saw her in the faces of his children.

Jack suddenly realised his palms were sweating and his heart was racing. He hadn't spoken to her since her imprisonment. What was he going to say? Yes, if what Anna had said was true then she was no longer the horrible monster she had been born to be. However, that didn't erase what she had done. She murdered innocent people, tortured them and in the process, caused a great pain to everyone around her. That evil look in her eye as she had recounted the murders was something that Jack wasn't likely ever going to forget. It still gave him nightmares. He was thankful that his children hadn't seen their mother like that.

"Are you okay Jack?" Anna asked, realising that he hadn't spoken for several minutes.

"Yeah," Jack breathed. "I just need a minute."

He continued to stare and then it hit him. This was a chance he had always wanted, always desired. A chance for him to start afresh and put that mess behind him. He had been hoping for a long time that the universe would give him this chance and now that it had, he didn't know what to do with it. Just take it one step at time, he could hear Pippa's voice in his head. It was just one visit. Who knows what it could lead to? Taking a deep breath, he entered the room and Elsa's eyes fell on him.

When she saw him, her face split into two with the widest grin she had ever seen. There was a light behind her eyes that he hadn't seen before. Maybe Anna was right. Just looking at her, he could sense that something was different about her. There was this energy that he couldn't describe. It felt…good. It felt wonderful. Just like the Elsa he believed her to be.

"Jack," she breathed.

"Hi," he breathed back.

A/N: So Jack is back! What is going to happen now?

Reviews:

DisneyMan: Always twists in my stories,

Collington: Yeah I also found that to be ironic. Yeah since Elsa's frontal lobe is badly damaged, it altered her personality a lot. There have been cases that show this i.e. Phineas Gage is a very famous one. His behaviour became a lot more violent. So the opposite affect. Hmm, I would say at this point, since she doesn't remember that part of her life due to the brain damage causing memory lost, she wouldn't have a response.