Disclaimer: I do not own Haven or am profiting from writing this story.
Amnesiac
Chapter 4
Alexa rode in the back with Duke. She still didn't feel very comfortable being around Nathan. The haunted house memory had showed her Audrey's feelings towards Nathan and the intensity of them had surprised her. The feelings that Audrey had towards Duke weren't such a surprise. Alexa was beginning to share them. She supposed that if Nathan ever ended up acting like a human being towards her, that she might feel the same way towards him.
Nathan was distant and cold. "Dwight says that two teenagers were having lunch when the male started acting strange. We're going to see what's going on."
They parked behind the police barricade and got out. Alexa and Jennifer stood by the Bronco while Duke and Nathan walked away to confer with Dwight and Vince. But not far enough that Alexa couldn't hear their conversation.
"Damn!" Dwight remarked. "I still can't get over how different she looks."
"She's still got the same fiery, independent personality." Duke said. "Even though I'm sure that Nathan would disagree. He is being even less charming than usual towards her. She won't fall back in love with you if you won't stop being a jackass. And you won't be able to realize your dream of her killing you and ending the troubles."
"What's the status?" Nathan just ignored Duke's jabs.
"They are both jackasses." Alexa muttered to Jennifer. "Maybe I should just date Dwight."
Jennifer started laughing. "Are you going to start a harem?"
"Maybe I should." Alexa replied. "I'll call it Haven's Harem."
Both of them kept laughing. One of the other officers came up to Alexa and gave her a police radio. Alexa thanked him and just held it. The three men came back towards her. Alexa nudged Jennifer and tried to look serious.
"Why do you have that?" Nathan asked suspiciously as he noticed that she held a police radio.
Alexa gestured to the crime scene van. "They gave it to me. They think I'm a cop. Isn't that cool?"
"No it's not." Nathan told her. "Give that to me."
Alexa handed it over. Nathan gave it to Duke while Alexa rolled her eyes. Alexa told Jennifer goodbye and that she would meet her later at the Herald. While Duke and Nathan kept arguing, Alexa wandered away. She had to use the ladies room and she headed towards the closest location. She walked into The Rope Loft and headed towards the restroom sign. She saw a scary looking guy look at her behind the cold storage door. It freaked her out so much that she screamed.
Her fist was against her heart as it pounded in her chest. She heard footsteps racing closer to her and the door slam into the wall behind her. Nathan raced in front of her and blocked her view of the guy, gun drawn. Duke grabbed her arms and pushed her behind him. Alexa grabbed the back of his shirt and held on. Duke gently made her let go then he positioned himself behind Nathan.
"All I wanted to do was go to the bathroom." She managed. "What the hell kind of town is this?"
Nathan started talking to the guy. "Josh? Hey we just want to help."
Josh pounded on the door. "Stop calling me Josh!"
Nathan pointed his gun at him. "Josh, you're surrounded."
Josh grabbed a knife and tried to unlatch the lock with it. He was unsuccessful and he snarled.
"Put the knife down." Nathan ordered. "This is over."
"You're damn right it's over. I trusted her and look where it got me." He said before cutting his own throat.
Nathan yelled. "Whoa!"
Alexa screamed as the window in front of her was painted red with blood. The body fell forward and Alexa just sated in horror. Rivulets of blood trailing slowly down the glass.
"Oh, my… God." She said slowly and with great horror.
Duke led her away from the crime scene. She sat in the back of The Bronco and stared at her hands. He walked away to have a little chat with Nathan. He came back and rummaged behind the seat. He opened a bottle of water then handed it to her. She took a drink then just held it.
"You okay?" His brown eyes were concerned.
Alexa looked back down to the bottle in her hands. "No. Why would someone do something like that?"
"Nathan's going to investigate." Duke told her. "He'll get to the bottom to why he did this. You can always help him find out why."
"Ok." Alexa took another drink then tried to smile.
Nathan climbed into the driver's seat and Duke took up the front passenger seat. Nathan put the key into the ignition then started the truck. He pulled away from the curb.
"Going to the station." He said briefly.
"We're coming with you." Alexa told him, watching surprise cross Nathan's face before his cop face came back.
Back at the station, Duke and Nathan talked to Katie aka the girl whose friend went crazy and killed himself at the restaurant. Alexa watched from the couch as Duke asked her questions. They found out that Katie, her boyfriend and Josh were all involved in an accident a few days ago. Tyler was still in the hospital. Nathan seemed preoccupied, he spent more time brooding and staring at her then trying to solve the case. Finally, Nathan pulled himself together and had another officer take Katie's formal statement.
"So where do we go next?" Duke asked Nathan.
Nathan answered. "The hospital. To talk to Katie's boyfriend, Tyler."
"Ok. And can you please act like a cop in Alexa's presence." Duke requested. In response to Nathan's glare, he held his hands up in surrender. "Whatever. Just trying to help, buddy."
Alexa snorted and walked out of the office. She made sure to put an extra sway in her step just to piss Nathan off. Judging from the chilly feeling of the eyes glaring a hole into her, she had succeeded admirably.
They got to the hospital and went to speak to Tyler. They questioned him about the accident and about his friends. He told them that he was pretty sure that Katie had done something to him that made him crash the vehicle. Duke wrote him out a prescription for a free drink at The Gull. All of them went to go talk to Katie again because now she seemed like their prime suspect. Nathan radioed in asking if Officer Rafferty had already dropped Katie off.
The dispatcher came back. "Bad news, honey. Officer Rafferty just called in to report that the girl just ran in front of a car and was hit. EMT's are working on her but it doesn't look good."
"Dammit." Nathan cursed. "On my way, Laverne."
Nathan got there in a few minutes and got out of the truck. The EMT's were pulling away and the coroner's van was on its way. The body was covered with a sheet and the shaken driver of the car was crying. Officer Rafferty looked shaken up next to her but was holding onto her composure. A second officer looked to be taking both of their statements.
Dwight walked up to them. "According to Rafferty, Katie had what looked like a small seizure then told her 'It worked again. I had this coming.' Then she darted out in front of the car to kill herself."
"So it's someone else." Nathan surmised. "Someone else's trouble."
"Could it be Tyler?" Alexa suggested.
This got her attention from everyone. "Think about it." Alexa started. "This only started happening after he got into the accident. The only two people who walked away from the accident are now both dead. Tyler's the only one left."
"I agree." Dwight said. "Go back and talk to Tyler. Figure out what he left out of the original story. I'll stay here and take care of this."
Nathan, Duke and Alexa raced back to the hospital. When they got to Tyler's room, Alexa was nominated to talk to him since she would seem less threatening.
"Tyler?" She knocked on the door then opened it.
He was faced away from her, looking like he was asleep. She got closer to him then screamed when she got close enough to see that he was dead. Nathan and Duke jumped into the room and swore when they saw the body with the syringe sticking out of it.
"That's not him. That's the orderly." Duke told Alexa.
"I'll check the security footage." Nathan told both of them then walked away.
Duke looked at Alexa then Nathan's retreating back. "I'll, uh, go see if I can find his nurse."
Duke retreated and Alexa sighed. The nurse came back with Duke and was suitable horrified. Nathan asked for the security footage from Tyler's room. While they were waiting, the forensics team arrived and started taking pictures. A security guard arrived on the floor with a laptop with the last 24 hours of footage booted up ready to play. They saw the orderly give the remote to Tyler.
"Look!" Alexa said. "They are both moving their hands in the same way. It happened after he gave Tyler the remote. Katie and Josh both gave him cards."
Nathan shook his head. "Yeah looks like Tyler is the one with the trouble."
They both watched as Tyler was wheeled out by the orderly then sped forward to see the orderly come back into the room. Alexa turned away as the orderly filled a needle full of air then stabbed himself and gave himself a fatal heart attack. She flipped through Tyler's medical chart.
"Hmm." She frowned. "It looks like his condition is worsening. After each attack he has a seizure and he loses more motor function each time."
Nathan took it from her and studied the pages. "That must be how he comes back to his own body. He needs to have something from the person he is possessing and killing the person is how he comes back to his own body. The seizures happen because his body can't handle the additional information that the consciousness provides when he returns."
Nathan's eyes got big. Nathan pulled out his cell and put Duke on speaker. "Where are you?"
"First floor. No sign of Tyler." Duke reported.
Nathan closed his eyes in relief. "Tyler's our guy. He can possess people by touching an item that he was given. Like a drink ticket for The Gull."
"Crap! This is what I get for being nice." Duke sounded pissed. "So keep a look out for anyone suspicious then?"
"Yep." Nathan said.
There were a few seconds of silence. "I think someone's following me." Duke said quietly. "Wait a second."
There were a few minutes of silence then a sound of a door slamming shut and locking. After two minutes or so, Duke came back to the phone.
"Mission accomplished." Duke responded. "Locked his ass up. I'm down in the basement."
"On our way." Nathan made a beeline for the elevator.
Alexa stepped inside the elevator and pressed the basement button. Door closed and they were brought down to the basement. They stepped out and saw Duke pacing in front of a door.
"He's in there." Duke pointed.
Nathan got into a firing position and Duke unlocked the door. He swung it open, revealing a black space inside. Nathan swept the opening with his gun but there was no noise. Nathan edged forward a little and felt for the light switch. He found it and turned it on.
Duke waited for him to turn around then bashed Nathan in the face. He grabbed the gun while Nathan was still disoriented and ran behind Alexa. He pointed the gun at both of them.
"Move! Move!" He yelled at her.
She darted behind Nathan.
"This was a trap." Nathan realized. "You're Tyler."
"Surprise." Tyler spoke through Duke's mouth.
"Give me your phones." Tyler ordered.
Alexa grumbled. "I just got that."
But both of them handed over their phones.
Nathan started trying to get into Tyler's head. Tyler confirmed that his trouble started after his car crash. Possessing Josh had been an accident. All of a sudden, he was having lunch with Katie. Worse, he realized that Katie was cheating on him with his best friend. He couldn't believe that they were doing this to him. So he took his revenge. He confirmed that he needed to be touching something the person gave him before he could possess them.
Nathan told him calmly. "Tyler, you can't keep this up. It was on your charts. Your real body is falling apart the more you possess people. You're gonna die."
"Which is why I'm trading my body in for this one. Permanently." Tyler said, waving the gun around and stepping forward, menacingly. "Now get in there. Or I'll shoot your girlfriend. Now move."
They stepped inside reluctantly and Tyler slammed the door shut on them. He locked the door and walked away.
Nathan started kicking the door, hoping that someone would hear or that the door would give way. Alexa just sighed and went to go lean against a wall. After about twenty minutes of watching Nathan ineffectively try to kick the door down, she was bored and cracked a joke.
Her humor was apparently not appreciated by Detective Wuornos.
"I'm glad you're feeling better." He eyed her. "Maybe after this, we can get some food. Maybe some pancakes."
Alexa recognized that he was trying to find some common ground. "Sure. I could go for breakfast."
"Ok." He banged on the door a few more times.
She reached into a box and pulled out a few items that could do double duty as lock picks. "This clearly is not working, Detective Wuornos. Let me try."
She pushed him out of the way and started picking the lock.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"I've picked a few handcuffs in my day." She joked.
"You get arrested a lot?" He asked.
"No. I just had a boyfriend who was really into bondage." She said absently while listening to the lock click. "Oh! Well that was a memory that came out of the blue."
She turned back to look at him only to see his eyes move away. She realized he was staring at her ass. "You getting a good look?"
He didn't say anything. Just looked away with a clenched jaw.
What she had wasn't working so she came back to the box and rummaged around again.
"You know I'm not her, right?" She looked up at him.
He stared back at her. "Yeah, I do. You're a completely different person and I don't want you. I want you to be Audrey again."
Alexa felt an unexpected pang of hurt at that. She looked down then away.
"I'm sorry." Nathan apologized. "I know that's a terrible thing to say. That's just how I feel."
She walked back to the door without a word. Tried for a few more seconds then the lock clicked and she swung the door open. Without a word, she motioned forward and Nathan walked out. As much as his words hurt her, finding Duke was more important.
Alexa told him. "I'll stay here and finish searching the hospital for Tyler's body. You go and find Duke."
She walked away before he could say anything. She started at the top floor and searched every nook and cranny.
She was on the ground floor when she had a commotion from outside. She ran outside to see Jennifer in front of Duke's Land Rover, holding a gun. Nathan got to her first and gently took the gun away from her.
"Duke's not Duke." She was frantic. "He just ran inside."
"Yeah, he's been possessed." Alexa shrugged. At Jennifer's incredulous stare. Alexa added. "I'm getting used to it."
"He got the drop on Dwight." Nathan told them. "Before he went down, he told Dwight that he wants to possess Duke permanently and in order to do that, he thinks he has to kill his original body."
"The orderly never left the hospital so Tyler has to be here somewhere." Nathan finished.
"Basement is the only place I haven't checked." Alexa told them.
Jennifer flapped her hands. "What are you waiting for? Go save Duke so I can kick his ass for kissing me. Don't look at me like that. It felt like kissing my brother. I never want to repeat that ever in my life."
Nathan shook that off. "You didn't give Duke anything did you? Something he could take in to Tyler's body?"
"I left my pen in his leg." Jennifer admitted.
"So he could take control of you too. Any of us." Nathan said slowly.
"Isn't she immune to The Troubles?" Jennifer asked Nathan. "They won't affect her like Audrey."
Oh. That's the reason he's keeping me close, Alexa realized.
"Okay." Alexa said aloud. Her eyes darted back and forth from Jennifer to Nathan. "I get it. Is that why I'm so important to all you people? Because I'm immune to these trouble things? What else can I do?"
"That's a lot." Nathan replied."
Alexa nodded. "All right. Then maybe I should go in there by myself."
"No, you're not going in there on your own." Nathan declared.
"Tyler can't control me." She reminded him. "I go in there; I take Duke's drink ticket out of Tyler's hand. We get Duke back and I get a free drink."
Which after dealing with you, Alexa thought with her growing anger; I'm definitely going to need.
"No." He said firmly.
Now I'm pissed off. Alexa had finally reached her limit.
She took a step closer to him and kept her tone soft. "Okay, I have a question for you. Is all of this real? This trouble insanity."
Nathan licked his lips. He looked a little nervous at her tone. Maybe some things did carry over despite her lack of memories. Like the steady current of anger she was feeling.
"Yes." He said.
"Then maybe I need to be here." She was going to help Duke no matter what. "This is what I'm supposed to be doing."
Jennifer nodded at Alexa, proudly smiling. "That makes sense to me.
"I'm the only shot at saving your friend." She reminded him. "Tyler can control you then you'll turn on me. Do you want to take that chance? Or do you want to take a chance on me?"
Nathan sighed then gave her his weapon. "Here. Three minutes then I'm coming in."
"All right." Alexa nodded. "Got it, Dudley Do-Right."
Alexa went back into the hospital and made her way to the basement. She pushed her anger down. She needed to stay focused. She'd give Nathan the tongue lashing he deserved later.
Of course, the gurney containing Tyler's body was at the end of a long hallway. She wanted to sigh. What a horror movie cliché. She walked up to it and saw the ticket in his hand. All of sudden, Tyler's hand knocked the gun out of hers, skittering out of reach.
She gasped and turned to see Duke's face staring at her. He had a hatchet in one hand.
"You'll be dead before you ever get that thing out of my hand." Puppet Duke told her.
"You think by killing yourself, you'll be left with control of Duke's body?" Alexa asked him. "What if it doesn't work?"
Tyler was desperate and he threatened her with the hatchet. "What choice do I have?" He yelled. "My body is ruined! There is no going back for me now. Maybe for you too."
"How well do you really know this guy?" He stared at her then touched Duke's face. "Is he really worth dying for?"
He lifted the hatchet in the air like he was going to strike her. Afraid of what he would do, she stepped back out of his reach. But Duke needed her. She wouldn't abandon him. She eyed the gun and knew it was too far away to grab.
She knew that Tyler's soul was attached to his own body. Tyler had surmised that because he killed the people he possessed to return to his own body, that it would work the same if he were to kill his own But Tyler was a desperate kid. All bodies possessed their own soul and were full already, so to speak. He would only be able to fully possess a body that had no soul left.
"I'm sorry, Duke." She whispered. Sorry you have to watch your own body kill someone.
She watched in horror as Duke's body pivoted then buried the hatchet in Tyler's body. Blood splashed onto him and Duke gasped. His eyes turned silver. His body straightened out then Tyler's body started going through its final death throes. Duke's body copied it as they both seized.
"What's happening to me?" Tyler gasped out of Duke's lips. He threw himself against the wall. "What is this? This wasn't supposed to happen."
Tyler's body stilled and Duke fell to the floor. Alexa was in suspense as Duke's body breathed heavily then pushed itself up.
"Tyler?" Alexa asked.
Duke turned around and looked at her. "Relax, sweetheart. It's me."
Alexa took a deep breath then let it out slowly. Duke got to his feet then just looked lost in thought.
"You remember anything?" Alexa asked.
"All of it." Duke admitted. "It was like I was a fly on my own wall the whole time."
"What was that?" She asked. "And what was going on with your eyes?"
"My family curse." Duke explained. "When I killed a troubled person, I kill their trouble too. When he died, Tyler couldn't control me anymore. He accidentally ended his own curse."
"All right. Well that's good to know." Alexa nodded. "Got a lot to learn here."
"Yeah. That was a close one." Duke said quietly.
Alexa just stared at him. Then rushed forward and hugged him, just happy that he was alive. His arms came around her slowly and held her to him. They tightened and she held on. He let go first and then she did.
She looked up at him to see surprised eyes staring at her. They were both just staring at each other when Nathan found them. He broke eye contact first. Nathan demanded an explanation and Alexa took it upon herself to tell him what happened. Nathan called the forensic team again and supervised the crime scene. Alexa escorted Duke up to bandage his leg wound. When he saw Jennifer, he paled then his face went green.
"So I see you do remember." Jennifer glared at him then socked him in the arm. "Don't ever try to do that again."
"I swear on the Buddha." Duke promised. "Don't get me wrong. You are a very attractive woman but-"
"No woman wants to hear the end of that sentence." Alexa warned Duke.
"Thank you!" Jennifer told her. "Ready to go?"
"Let me take Duke to the waiting room." Alexa told her. "Oh and Duke, I need my phone back."
Duke gave it back to her. "Where are you two ladies off too?"
"To talk to Vince and Dave." Alexa told him. "Text me when you are ready for me to come get you. I'll drive you home. "
She looked at the time then teased him. "You should be out of here in about six hours or so."
"Ha ha." He groused. "As long as I get a ride from a woman as beautiful as you, I guess this day won't be so bad."
"Aww thanks!" She gushed then she said sweetly. "Now give me Nathan's phone."
Duke gulped then gave her the requested phone with a questioning look. "Do I want to know?"
"I'll give it back." Alexa promised. "Eventually. Don't tell him you gave it to me. And if you want to know what your buddy did, you can ask him yourself. Time's a wasting, Jennifer. Let's go get some answers from your newspaper fellows."