Chapter 2

When Taylor returns to SIOC, wearing some slightly long yoga pants, an FBI T-shirt and some borrowed canvas shoes, the team is standing in Kurt's office. Patterson's rushed back to the lab for some 'very important thing' and Taylor doesn't know whether to go in or wait outside. Honestly, she thinks she's about to pass out. The drugs that knocked her out haven't quite worn off yet, and she's been poked and prodded and interrogated for the last four hours. She wants to go home but she's not quite sure where that is.

Jane catches her eye through the window and smiles, beckoning for her to go in, so she does.

"Hey," she says as Taylor goes over to her. "Better?"

Taylor nods and then yawns.

Jane checks her watch. "It's two am, you must be exhausted. Come on, we'll let Kurt finish the paperwork and I'll take you home."

"Where exactly is that?"

"Well, Kurt and I were thinking you could stay with us, if that's okay with you? It's safe, close to the FBI, and we've got plenty of room."

"Okay."

Jane looks around at the rest of the team, all of whom look a little tired themselves, and looks back to Kurt. "OK if we go home without you?"

"Go ahead," Kurt says. "I'll be another hour or so."

"Night, everyone," Jane says.

"Night, guys," Reade says.

"See you tomorrow," Tasha says.

Taylor's asleep before she can get under the covers. Jane turns the bedroom light off, takes Patterson's shoes off her feet and quietly closes the door. Once she's finished, she calls Roman.

"Hey," he says. She hears the smile in his voice. She's not surprised that he's awake at two-thirty in the morning. He, like Jane, suffers from nightmares and is usually awake for an hour or so between one and four a.m."How was the drug bust?"

"Uh, the drug bust was great, what I called to talk to you about was what we found in the warehouse besides the drugs."

"Why, what'd you find?"

"A teenage girl. She's been ZIPPED."

"What? Why would anyone ZIP a kid?"

"We don't know. We couldn't find any record of her anywhere."

"Wow. Okay. Where is she now?"

"At home with me and Kurt."

"What?"

"We kinda offered to take her in until the case is solved."

"I. . . really don't know how to respond to that."

"Neither do I. This is either the smartest or the dumbest decision I've ever made."

"What did you name her? How old is she? When can I meet her?"

"Taylor, fifteen, and I don't know. She's got a lot of adjusting to do. Maybe next week? We were going to have dinner anyway."

"Sounds good. Talk to you tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Love you, Roman."

"Love you too. Bye."

Light, pressing against her closed eyelids, is the first thing that registers in Taylor's brain. She opens her eyes and finds herself in an unfamiliar room with charcoal carpet, light grey walls and a wardrobe opposite her. Light filters through an opening between two dark curtains that cover a window to her right. She hears noise coming from the kitchen. She gets up slowly, opens the door and walks down the hall.

Kurt's cooking something on the stove while Jane sits at the counter with a mug in her hands. She's laughing at something he said, her eyes bright, hair disheveled. There's something so wonderfully domestic about the scene that gives Taylor a pang in her chest, but she doesn't quite know why.

Kurt turns and notices her standing there. "Morning, Taylor," he says with a half smile. "Pancakes?"

She takes a seat next to Jane as Kurt hands her a plate with three pancakes, butter and maple syrup.

"Sleep well?" Jane asks.

"Yeah. Thank you, by the way. For letting me stay here. I don't remember if I said it last night."

"You're very welcome. Hey, so I was thinking you and I could get you some clothes this morning, and then we'll go to the FBI in the afternoon. Patterson wants to do some more tests on you."

"More? I think she took a sample of everything I have."

"Not those kinds of tests," Jane laughs. "Mental ones. She wants to see what kind of education you've had."

"Won't I have forgotten it?"

"Not the material. You might forget learning it, but the concepts will still be there."

"This one speaks nine languages and didn't learn any of them after she came to us," Kurt adds, jerking a thumb at Jane.

"Wow," Taylor says.

Jane walks purposefully through the store, grabbing random items until she's got a sizeable pile in her arms. She hands them to Taylor and ushers her into a changing room. "We won't know what you like until you try it, so you're gonna try everything," she says.

Taylor glances suspiciously at the clothes. There are some bright colours she knows she hates by instinct, but some things don't look so bad. She pulls a pair of black jeans out of the pile along with a black-and-white striped top and a ripped denim jacket. She picks up a pair of laced ankle boots from the floor.

She walks out of the changing rooms and stares at herself in the full-length mirror. Her hair is out and a little bit wild and the boots make her a good two inches taller. She smiles a little. She feels like herself, and considering she doesn't know who she is, it's a good feeling.

"Hey," Jane walks up to her from behind. "That's cool."

"I like it," Taylor says.

"You like it?"
The expression on Jane's face, so full of hope for her, makes Taylor want to cry, so she swallows and nods instead.

Apparently, two pairs of jeans and three tops don't make a wardrobe, so Jane drags Taylor around a million other shops until they're both laden down with bags. After lunch it's back to the FBI for the tests she so despises.

Jane pretends to be sorting out Taylor's paperwork while she watches through the window. Taylor sits at the table doing her fourth test in as many hours. She blows hair from her face and sighs.

"You know you look kinda creepy staring at her like that," Kurt says as he comes up behind her.

"Don't you feel it? There's something about her. I don't know what it is." Jane shakes her head.

"Maybe it's that she's in the same position you were three years ago."

"Maybe."

Taylor stands up and takes her paper with her out of the interrogation room. Jane pretends she's not leaving just because Taylor is.

While Taylor is getting her photo taken for her ID, Patterson briefs everyone on the tests. "She's definitely had a good education. Her language skills are great, math and science pretty good. She's got an IQ of 160 and her people-reading skills are off the charts. It looks like she must've skipped a year or two of school because her intelligence level is not that of an average fifteen-year-old."

"So she doesn't need to go to school. What are we gonna do with her?" Reade asks.

"Well, first I want her to take a test to get her GED and then I thought we could hire her as a consultant," Patterson says, twisting her hands.

"What?" Jane says.

"She's a kid!" Reade cries.

"Are you crazy?" Tasha says.

"Well, it'll keep her close to us. And a teenage prodigy working for us is honestly less suspicious than a random kid wandering around the NYO."

"You've got a point there," Kurt admits. "All right, I'll expedite the paperwork."