The next time she opened her eyes she noticed how much better her head felt. The cottony fuzz seemed to have been corralled for the time being and sounds were much clearer than they had been in a very long time. Some of the words that had been caught up in the spider web of floss that previously filled her skull bounced freely in her head now, anxious to be acknowledged. She thought that if she was going to start trying to make any sense out of what was going on around her, she had better start trying to figure it all out now.
Ranking the words she could remember in terms of how often she thought they had been said, she created a mental list. First was Kenziwhich she was almost convinced was a name more than a word, or perhaps some weird title or endearment – whatever it was, she was relatively sure it was what they were using to refer to her. Second was safewhich she vaguely knew the definition for – it was just something she had experienced very little of in the recent past. Third was homewhich was also vague in her memory but not so vague that the place she was in now brought it to mind, in her thoughts of home she saw somewhere with questionable walls, mismatched furnishings, and discolored floorboards. Helpalso ranked up there rather high and seemed to be exactly what these people were providing her with. Lastly, there was the word love, something she felt she might actually be able to grasp at long last.
If truth be told, it was less the words that called to her than the voices that uttered them. Familiar voices, known voices with well-known tones and intonations. They wrapped her up in those long lost feelings of comfort she had given up on ever feeling again despite her brain's best attempts to convince her that she would be rescued one day. She knew these voices. She knew they could be trusted. But the voice that drew her in the most was the voice of the woman she knew she was snuggling against – her anchor in a giant swelling sea of unknowns and not-quite-remembered things. There was a tiny niggling feeling at the very back of her brain that wanted to put a name to that particular voice. But no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't recall what that name might be.
The room was sparsely populated, just a few of the people who had been milling about before remained plus another woman with fair hair and a white coat. She seemed to recall having seen her when she first found herself in this room, just before she fell asleep but before she had been given food – in that in-between and highly unsettling time when she was still relatively sure she was still going to be killed soon. She was feeling more and more certain she might have been wrong about their original intentions The woman knelt down next to the bed, her hand wrapped gently around her wrist. This time, she didn't try to block out what she said.
"Well, your pulse is stronger. That's an improvement. And you said she ate something?"
Another voice from across the room responded, "Colcannon. We mixed in the medicines so I don't know for certain that she got the right dosage. I didn't want to try forcing her to take a handful of pills under the circumstances."
"No, that's fine. Right now, anything is better than nothing. And you're right, we don't want to cause her any additional fear or worry if we can help it." The woman made eye contact with her and smiled. "You seem to be feeling a little more at ease, Kenzi. I'm glad to see it. The more you can rest, the faster your body can heal. I'm really looking forward to you driving us crazy again. It's been too long."
She just watched the woman evenly. Most of what she said made sense, just not in any way that she could relate to immediately. In an attempt to keep the woman happy, she nodded slightly. Just a ducking of her chin but it seemed to cause the woman's face to brighten perceptively.
The woman patted her hand, letting her wrist go gently. "We've still got a long road ahead of us but we're starting off on the right foot, I think." She rose up to her feet. "You get some more rest and I'll be back in the morning to check on you again." She started to move away but paused, tears glistening in her eyes. "I'm so glad you're back with us, Kenzi. You'll never know how glad I am."
She nodded again, keeping her eyes on the woman. She had no clue as to why the woman seemed to be so moved, but let it slide with all the other things she simply did not understand.
"I miss hearing her voice."
That was the voice of her anchor and she snuggled just a little closer. She sounded lost, saddened by the words she spoke. She wished she could do something to ease her in the same way the woman's voice gave her reassurance. She wished she could but the fear was just too great.
"But we have her now. We can see her, know she's alive and recuperating. We know she isn't being hurt anymore. We'll just have to accept that for now. Perhaps her voice will return soon."
oOo
Tamsin glared at the screen on her desk. She was back at the station pouring through piles of information she Hale and Dyson had managed to gather on their little side job. The factory had to go. It wasn't enough that they had freed Kenzi, they needed to put it out of commission and get the others out now. She would deal with the Morrigan's displeasure when it came and in whatever form it would take.
She'd been sitting at her desk for a while now having left the Dal just after Kenzi had fallen asleep again. It had been so difficult to watch her slowly work her way through the bowl of food and Tamsin had needed something to distract her, something to focus on besides how very damaged the young woman was. Work, even if it wasn't exactly one of her assigned cases, seemed like as a good a choice as any.
She was distracted by a coffee cup being plunked down next to her hand and glanced up into Hale's eyes. "Thanks."
Hale nodded and drug up a chair to settle into. "How are you doing?"
The question confused Tamsin. "I'm fine. I'm not the one who was held captive and tortured for three years." She kept her voice low so as not to attract the attention of the others who filled the room around them.
"Yeah. Me either. I've spent the last few years safe and sound, well fed and comfortable, but I'm not fine and neither are you."
Tamsin smirked. "Okay. I'm doing better than Kenzi. How's that?"
Hale quirked his eyebrows. "Trick called. She's awake again. He said she even nodded at something Lauren said when she stopped by to check in on her." He rubbed at his eyes with his hands. "He said it wasn't a big nod but it was intentional. She's going to come back to us."
"Of course she is, it's Kenzi."
"No matter how many times we say that, it's still the truth." Hale remained silent for a beat. "I may have an idea about how to take down the factory."
"You wanna tell me about it?"
Hale surveyed the room quickly. "Not yet. Let me check up on a few details and then I'll fill you in. I was just about to grab a bite to eat before I stopped by the Dal to see Kenzi. Want to join me?"
Tamsin stared down into the cup of coffee Hale had brought her, it was the first thing she'd even thought about putting in her stomach since they had formulated their escape plan for rescuing Kenzi. She took a sip, knowing she wouldn't be doing anyone any good if she passed out from low blood sugar. Especially not Kenzi. "Sure. You're paying, right?"
Hale grinned. "Yeah, I'm paying. Maybe you could use a little of that valkyrie mojo of yours to get us a good table though. Rub elbows with the rich and famous."
Tamsin shook her head. "Rich and famous - you mean like you? You want me to make the hostess doubt herself into seating us in the VIP section?"
"I may be rich but I'm not famous." He grinned wolfishly. "Hey, D-man! We're going for dinner. You coming?" He waved toward the door as they passed Dyson on his way in.
oOo
"Kenzi?"
She looked up at the only person who remained in the room - her anchor with the familiar voice and safe, comforting vibes. Felling more secure, she studied the woman's face from her chocolate brown eyes to her jawline, trying to remember the name that just barely escaped her memory. She knew this woman, she knew her almost as well as she knew herself. Why in the hell couldn't she remember her name?
"Kenzi, do you know where you are?"
She turned her head slightly to glance at her surroundings in case they had changed without her noticing. Nope, still in Narnia. She considered indicating that she did indeed know where she was but somehow she figured this – where ever it was – wasn't really Narnia. Instead, she shook her head slightly.
"Do you know who I am?"
She stared hard at her questioner. Somewhere at the back of her mind, she knew this woman but still she couldn't recall her name. Tears filled her eyes as she slowly shook her head again. She didn't want to disappoint her in fear of angering her and earning a violent reprisal but she simply couldn't remember who she was. She cringed away from the woman, her tears leaking into her hairline as she shrank back.
"Shh... Hey, hey, hey, Kenzi. It's okay. It's alright."
She felt the woman's hands quickly reach out and touch her face, wiping her tears away with gentle fingers. She tried to pull away from the woman but was instead enveloped in a tight hug. Feeling her body crushed in so tight an embrace was oddly comforting but also sent tremors of raw terror through her body. She felt the woman pull slightly away, holding her face between her hands as she peered steadily into her eyes.
"It's okay if you don't remember me. It's okay if you don't remember this place. All that matters right now is that we found you and you're safe."
She felt herself pulled back into a tight hug. Maybe the woman was telling the truth – she could easily have lashed out at her but hugged her instead. She wished she could give her something back in return. She peered at the room from her position pressed against the woman's shoulder, scanning everything she could see. Finally something on the far side of the room caught her notice and she gasped slightly.
"Kenz? What is it?"
Sitting back against the couch, she kept her gaze focused on the object she had recognized. One small thing in a vast world of things she didn't remember... She raised her hand, pointing at it.
"What?" The woman followed her finger to the bookcase on the far side of the room. Ruffling through the items that were stacked there, she spied a familiar volume. "This? You remember this book?"
She nodded slowly.
The woman smiled. "Of course you remember this book." She handed it over.
Taking it gingerly, she opened the cover and drew her hands down the length of the pages. She couldn't read the words written inside but she knew the shapes of the symbols. She knew this book. She smiled faintly.
"You remember that, huh? You saved the world with that book, you know. You deciphered the code and figured out where the Garuda was hiding. You even went with us and fought as hard as any Fae there – maybe even harder. You're the best of us, a real hero."
She pulled away from the tender caress of the woman's hand on her knee, pulling the book with her. There were some things she couldn't believe, even from the woman she used as an anchor.
to be continued...