A/N: My fellow readers and writers, I give you the sixteenth chapter! I'm going way outta left field in this chapter, and GASP! I'm including lyrics to a song. I do not claim ownership of these lyrics, just so you know. It's a song that was in Dollhouse at the end of the fourth episode. It was so sweet and stuff that I decided to use it as my inspiration! YAY! Song title will be in the ending A/N, so if you ever want to listen to it, you'll have to go through the chapter! We're going to be around the Twilight Mall a lot, and you'll get some new info on a certain female character, as well as...I'll leave that for you to find out. I had a blast writing most of it, a very depressing blast since I probably wrote about 90% while listening to the song featured in this chapter. And it probably sucks since I'm awful at writing certain parts and things tend to not make sense when I write while listening to music, but--I tried my best. And a lot of the parts mesh, so there aren't as many line breaks in this chapter. God, I love that song. Disclaimer is now null and void since Dollhouse, TDI, TDA, and Mirror's Edge are now in my ownership.
April Fool's! Hah, if I owned Dollhouse, TDI, TDA, and Mirror's Edge, you'd be seeing more fast paced action, romance, and humor--in all four! And I'd be one very rich writer. But that's besides the point. So review, disclaimer (still in effect) is in the first chapter.
Chow got another phone call from his informant that made him grin on the inside.
"You are a very lucky man Mr. Soo-Hyun. You have more time to get him to us, another day to be exact."
"Really? And may I ask why?"
"I have other plans that keep me from receiving him. But my deal still remains."
"As does mine."
"I will be sure to keep that in mind. Goodbye." Chow hung up, smirked, and called Chris to tell him of the good news.
As it turns out, the Twilight Mall had an area for making music, sequestered in a room that wasn't sound proofed for some reason. Mankins hammered away at things like vibraphones, keyboards, triangles, drums, and many percussion instruments. However, there was one instrument that had been collecting dust: the ivory grand piano. Heather got it as a gift from her father, and she was never too fond of the instrument, so she put in there, hoping the Mankins would never use it. They only pressed a few keys from time to time, and very few managed to play a coherent tune on the piano, mostly snippets of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" or "Row, Row, Row Your Boat", even the occasional Mankin playing something from "Chopsticks" from time to time. Courtney had never been in the room herself, mostly because she had never known it existed. So it was no surprise that once she found the room while wandering the complex a little after dinnertime, she immediately set her eyes on the ivory grand piano. It was, after all, the biggest instrument in the room.
She sat down at the white rectangular piano stool and looked at the keys, polished and gleaming in the dimly lit room. Courtney softly pressed a key, and when the piano made a sound, she leaned back from the piano, then leaned back in and pressed another key. Her eyes lit up in delight and she started playing a scale on the white keys, then the black keys. Then she looked over the keys again, and a skill of hers had been unlocked: her ability to play the piano. Courtney had learned not only to play the violin, but the piano. She had known how to play the piano since her youth, taking up the hobby around the same time she started learning how to play the violin. She, however, played the violin outside of her home and not the piano, a personal choice of hers. She had thought that the violin would make her look more accomplished in the eyes of future people when running for office or applying to an Ivy League university.
During her senior year, after she broke up with Duncan, she had heard a song called "I Go To Sleep" by Sia and heard the piano in the song. She immediately went looking for the sheet music, and found it, along with the notes to sing the song. Her sadness over her break-up had turned into determination to sing better and play the song completely. And she succeeded. She then sought to learn more songs, but only succeeded in learning one other song before leaving to Harvard: "River Flows In You" by Yiruma. She never played the piano after that, until now.
"Can you see if the kitchen has the almond-crusted salmon?" Cody asked Blaire while he was working on an Imprint for Eva. She had been called on an Outing to be a private karate instructor for an English billionaire's son. Blaire rolled her eyes in disgust.
"I live to serve dinner." Blaire would try to get Tawny to do it, but Tawny was working.
In fact, Tawny was heading back to Cody and Blaire since her shift was over, but she passed by the music room Courtney just so happened to be in. And what she heard made her stop in her tracks.
Up in Cody's office, Blaire heard the same thing. A music note.
"Hey, Cody, you should check this out." Blaire walked up to the plasma screen TV to see the surveillance footage of Courtney in the music room.
"And hello gorgeous but deadly." Cody uploaded the Imrpint to a disk and took it to the Imprint uploading dock. "What is it Blaire?"
"Courtney. She's at the piano in the music room."
"Nothing to worry about. She has every right to be curious about that piano, but she'll probably give up and move on to another instrument, like the drums or vibes." At that time, Blaire saw Courtney lean away from the piano.
"You're probably right." But Blaire kept watching, fascinated by Courtney's reaction to the piano. "But…why is she playing a scale?"
"Common with all Mankins. It's elementary my dear Watson." Cody chuckled at his own joke as he stored the Imprint disk in a section sequestered for ready-to-use Imprints.
In the room, Courtney stared at the keys. Even though her skill had been unlocked, she didn't know what to do. Then she remembered a song. She made a small smile as she set her two hands in separate positions over the keys, and then she played a tune with her right hand…and then started humming, and was soon singing. Tawny's mouth dropped open. I didn't know Mankins could play the piano—or sing!
"Cody, she's playing an actual tune." Blaire pointed to the TV screen with a worried look on her face.
"What—?" And Blaire, Cody, and Tawny heard Courtney sing.
"When I look up from my pillow I dream you are there…with me." And it was beautiful, but it alarmed Cody and Blaire greatly. Tawny was already alarmed, but stayed by the door to hear more.
"Holy…crap…" Cody muttered to himself.
"She sounds beautiful." Blaire commented, Courtney still singing.
"No, no, no, no, this is bad. It means Courtney is starting to remember things. She's gaining skills; skills that should—were—have been wiped."
"Maybe it's from one of her past Imprints?"
"No way. We've never programmed her with the skill to play the piano! I mean, can you hear her? She sounds like she's been playing for years!"
"What if…she has been?"
"But I remember Courtney from TD! She never told us she could play the piano, only the violin!"
"Well, she was a rich kid, right?" Cody nodded. "So she probably learned more than one instrument to impress friends of her parents. It's common with rich kids."
"But you know what this means right? If you're right, then this—" Cody pointed at the TV again. "Means we're going to SHIT! If Heather gets a hold of this, it's curtains for me!"
"Consider yourself lucky. She turned in early. Tawny was on break, so she went to talk with Heather. Heather told her she had a dinner party to go to with her family, and Tawny told me, and now I'm telling you."
"Thank you so much! This gives me time to wipe the footage and…" Blaire put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.
"Just…stop thinking about that and listen to Courtney."
Courtney started playing the song again, her second time playing. She sensed that someone was watching or hearing her and wanted an encore of her performance, so she played again.
When I look up from my pillow
I dream you are there with me
Though you are far away
I know you'll always be near to me
I go to sleep
And imagine that you're there with me
I go to sleep
And imagine that you're there with me
I look around me
And feel you are ever so close to me
Each tear that flows from my eye
Brings back memories of you to me
I go to sleep
And imagine that you're there with me
I go to sleep
And imagine that you're there with me
I was wrong, I will cry
I will love you till the day I die
You were all, you were all alone and no one else
You were meant for me
When morning comes again
I have the loneliness you left me
Each day drags by
Until finally my time descends on me
I go to sleep
And imagine that you're there with me
I go to sleep
And imagine that you're there with me
Tawny walked into the music room after Courtney had finished playing her song.
"Courtney…" Courtney heard Tawny walk in and turned around to face Tawny.
"Hello. I was playing a song."
"Yes, you were." Tawny smiled.
"Would you like to play?" Courtney moved to the left side of the stool, making room for Tawny to sit next to her.
"No thank you." Tawny looked at Courtney apologetically. She couldn't play for her life.
"Oh." Courtney turned back to the piano, but turned her head to face Tawny. "Would you like to hear another song?" Tawny's eyebrows rose in shock, but settled quickly. Mankins don't ask questions like that.
"If you like." Tawny could think of no other response, and she sat down next to Courtney on the stool. She started playing a new song, "River Flows in You" by Yiruma to be exact.
"Well played Tawny." Blaire said to herself, and Cody heard it.
"She's playing another song?" Cody walked to Blaire from the fridge, which he had gone to in order to eat some ice cream bites. "Ice cream bite?"
"Mhm." Blaire took a bite size piece from the box Cody held in his hand.
"God, you're right. She does play beautifully."
"What did I tell you?"
"Okay, this doesn't leave here, and I'll make sure to tell Tawny myself."
"You won't tell Beth?" Cody stared at Blaire for a long time, thinking about Tawny's question.
"I…don't know."
"She hates Heather as much as you do; you don't have to worry about her betraying you."
"I guess you're right."
"Would…you…like to go to sleep now?" Tawny asked Courtney after she finished playing "River Flows in You". Courtney eyed Tawny as though studying an exotic species.
"No thank you. I would like to play some more."
"All right." And Tawny left Courtney in the music room when she started playing and singing "I Go To Sleep" once more. Tawny sighed deeply before making her way back to Cody's office. They've probably seen this by now.
"You know what to do, right?" Chase asked Bridgette downstairs away from the general population.
"Yes. Shall I go?"
"If you like." Bridgette smiled and walked away to the center of the complex to meditate. At the same time, Tawny walked up to Chase.
"Baby, you won't believe what I just heard."
"What?" Chase spun around to face his girlfriend.
"Courtney was playing the piano and singing a song to go with it."
"Really? But I thought Mankins couldn't do that."
"Same here. I'm going to talk with Cody about it. Want to come?"
"Sure." And the two proceeded to Cody's office.
"Tawny!" Blaire ran to her and gave her a hug. "You handled Courtney so well…"
"Thank…you…?" Tawny quirked an eyebrow. "It was nothing, really. But I told Chase."
"You—oh, hey there Chase." Cody stopped himself from yelling at Tawny because he saw Chase.
"What's this about Courtney singing and playing the piano?"
"One of her former skills when she was a regular person was most likely unlocked when she saw the piano. The video is still going, but I'm erasing the footage as soon as she's done playing."
"Right, because Heather will have your neck for it because she's starting to remember."
"Even if Heather likes it, I can't afford to take that chance, not with my job on the line." All four of them heard Courtney, who was still in the room, play more of "River Flows in You". "You won't tell her anything, will you?" Cody was honestly worried for his job and a little bit of him worried for Courtney's well being.
"Not a word." Chase left the three.
"Okay, so you're clear on what you have to do tonight?" Blaire asked Cody.
"Yeah, totally."
"My plan is NOT going to fail, so please keep my hopes up." Tawny sincerely asked Cody, something she didn't do often.
"Got it." Cody grinned, but went back to listening to Courtney sing. "Blaire, can you see if the kitchen has the almond-crusted salmon?"
"Again, I live to serve dinner." Blaire left the office and went to the kitchen to get a plate of the salmon, which was being served. I can't believe I have to do all of this stuff for him…Blaire was walking when she almost bumped into Courtney, who was humming a tune that Blaire couldn't understand.
"Huh?" Courtney stopped humming and looked at Blaire, who was very flustered from almost dropping the plate.
"Courtney. You stopped playing?"
"I'm tired now."
"Would you like to go to sleep?"
"No thank you. I think I'll go paint." And Courtney walked past Blaire to the painting area. What the hell? Blaire shook her head a little before making her way back to the office.
"You got it. Thanks." Cody snatched the plate and the knife and fork in her other hand and left to the couch down the small flight of stairs to watch the Mankins milling about.
"Tawny and I are going to get something to eat. We'll be back, okay?" Blaire warned Cody.
"Yeah, go, go." Cody shooed them away. Blaire and Tawny looked at each other, both thinking what the hell's up with him? They shrugged and left to the kitchen.
Cody looked out over the complex, searching for anyone he knew. He could see Lindsay, Eva, Katie, in fact, most of the Mankins doing whatever as usual. His eyes glanced to the eating area, where he saw Tawny and Blaire in their lab coats getting something from the line. He kept eating, and then he saw another person in a lab coat, someone with short brown hair, and smiled.
"Hey Beth!" Tawny smiled at her while they got something to eat.
"Hi Tawny, Blaire."
"Having a late dinner?" Blaire politely asked, making sure the moment wouldn't become too awkward.
"Yes. I lost track of time."
"Doing what?" Tawny asked her.
"Thinking. Bye girls." And she left the two girls, Cesar salad in hand.
"That goodbye was a little rushed, don't you think?" Tawny asked Blaire. She didn't give a response right away. Blaire was staring at Beth walking away, wondering what she seemed troubled about. "Blaire?"
"Yeah." Blaire absently answered. "Let's go back up." They remained silent for only a few seconds. "Tawny, did Beth seem…out of it to you?"
"She's probably just nervous about tonight. Whatever." Blaire, however, could not shake the feeling that there was something more to Beth's worry. The two were back in Cody's office, and he had just finished his salmon.
"Could you bring this down?" He asked the two, holding the plate in front of Blaire.
"We JUST came back from there." Blaire spat at Cody, setting down her plate of salmon on a table with papers on it.
"Do you want to know how to avoid spandrels when aligning rigid designators?" Cody quirked an eyebrow at Blaire.
"What the hell—?" Tawny was cut off when asking what Cody was talking about.
"You are so DAMN lucky I need this job." She snatched the plate and knife and fork from Cody's hands and made her way to the door.
"Thank you!" Blaire scoffed in response as she left to put the plate, knife, and fork away.
"She gets more irritable at night, especially if she hasn't eaten in a few hours. I thought you knew that." Tawny informed Cody.
"I'm sorry." Cody looked out over the railing to the complex.
"You saw someone down there, didn't you? Was it Beth?"
"Maybe…"
"You stalker! Are you looking for her?"
"No. No, just looking."
"Well, Blaire and I talked to her. Blaire said something was off with her, but I think it's just nerves." Cody nodded in response.
"Can you get me a juice box?" Tawny blinked once, eyebrows raised in shock.
"You never miss a beat, do you?"
"Yup." Cody grinned, now out of his gloomy mood. Tawny went to the fridge to get a juice box for herself and Cody.
Beth walked down to the kitchen, black heels click clacking on the buffed wood floor. She was nervous and excited all at the same time, but had a feeling something was going to be different. And she was right.
"Beth! This way." Cody quickly grabbed her hand and the two started running to another area of the complex.
"Cody—where are you—what are we doing here?" They had just arrived at the small rectangular pool in which Courtney swam laps in, except no one was here. Cody dropped her hand, took off his shoes and socks, rolled up his jeans, and sat down on the edge of the pool.
"What do you think? I already ate, and I know you did, so I decided to take us here instead." Beth remembered times when she would swim in this pool, back when the regulations were less strict, but that was back then. And not only that, Cody was right; she had eaten already.
"We're not supposed to be here."
"Lighten up. I've been coming here to think for a while now."
"Is that where you went that night after we talked?" Beth took off her black heels and sat down next to Cody, gingerly dipping her feet into the surprisingly warm water. "Wow, it's warm. It used to be cold when I swam here."
"Yeah, I went here. I stayed for a while actually, and then I left sometime around midnight. And after Heather got more money from Chef, she was able to have the pool continuously heated."
"Hm." Beth kicked her feet a little, feeling the water lap around her legs. "Wait, is this place watched?"
"Sure, but I can always do something to the footage."
"Heather would murder us if she saw this huh?" Cody laughed.
"Yup, but not if it's not documented."
"So…why are you doing this?"
"What?" Cody was thinking of how he wanted their talk to fold out when Beth asked her question.
"This. You never answered my question. Why me?"
"I told you. You're the only one who I'd like to talk to."
"And using me for flirting practice?"
"Not this time."
"You're not talking to me for flirting practice? Then what for?"
"All in time."
"Well, I don't have that time. This was really sweet," Beth smiled and looked at Cody, who looked cool on the outside but was stressing on the inside. "But if you're not going to tell me why, then I'm—" Beth was silenced because she suddenly felt a hand grab her hand wrap and lips pressed to her lips. It took her about a millisecond or two to realize that Cody was kissing her and she slowly closed her eyes and melted into the kiss, slowly bringing herself closer to Cody, but soon found herself breaking off the kiss. Her mouth was open from shock and trying to catch her breath. "Leaving."
"Do you want to leave now?" Cody asked her, not even smirking, but his tone carried it.
"No—yes—no…but why did you do that?"
"I think you know why."
"I do—what's that?" Beth had heard something faint, and although it sounded familiar, she couldn't place it. She took her feet out of the water to put on her heels, and Cody quickly pulled his feet out of the water and put his socks and Vans back on, jeans now rolled down.
"What's what? Beth!" She had started running, trying to follow the sound. Cody sighed and followed her grudgingly.
"It's coming from…here." Beth stopped in front of an unmarked door. "The music room." Cody placed a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm both of them down.
"Though you are far away I know you'll always be near…to me." A woman's voice sang, piano playing throughout.
"Who is that?" Beth turned her head to Cody and asked him. Cody recognized the voice, belonging to a former TD friend of theirs. Courtney.
"Someone we know." He tersely responded.
"Cody?"
"Hm?"
"I was the "special someone", wasn't I?" He looked at her, a glint in his eyes, and he kissed her again. This time, she pulled herself closer to Cody, and then they both heard sobbing. They broke the kiss and listened through the door.
"D-D-D-D—" And Courtney broke into sobs.
At the same time, the Mankins were heading off to bed down the corridor to the exit, and Bridgette was in the crowd, black sandals shuffling along the carpeted floor and silk sky blue short sleeve V neck knee length gown chilly against her skin. The Mankins were supposed to head left, but Bridgette fell behind so she was at the very back of the crowd. Where she was supposed to turn left, she saw Lindsay in her pink cotton short sleeve scoop neck (showing off her breasts) knee length gown turn to the right, and Bridgette headed to the glass plate window door. The door opened, and Bridgette stepped outside into the chilly Las Vegas night, unusual for March, and the door closed behind her once she was outside. A man wearing a grey suit and black dress shoes stepped out of the shadows cast by a fire escape across from Bridgette.
"Do you trust me?" Russell Benton asked Bridgette while unzipping his pants and loosening the belt around them.
"With my life." Bridgette responded, trained to do so through the neural responses programmed into her by Cody.
"Do you want to play the game?" Bridgette scanned him with her green eyes and furrowed her eyebrows.
"No."
"But…you remember to be very quiet during the game, right?" Russell started unbuttoning his suit jacket.
"Noise is upsetting." Russell smirked.
"Lift up your dress." Bridgette prepared to lift up her dress and Russell started taking off his suit jacket when out of the shadows behind Bridgette Chase came out of them and punched Russell clear across the face, a punch powerful enough to knock Russell through the plate glass window, which shattered into a million shards that fell to the floor. Russell then fell on them, cutting his face very badly. Chase looked down at Russell, struggling to get up from the bed of glass, and Bridgette stood next to Chase.
"That wasn't quiet." Bridgette commented in her dull monotone voice.
"It wasn't meant to be." Chase responded, and Russell started getting up, showing his bleeding face.
Beth and Cody had heard the shattering glass, and ran to the source of the noise (holding hands unknowingly) to find Russell on the bed of glass and Chase and Bridgette standing over him.
"Chase!" Beth yelled.
"Dude! What the hell did you do?!" Chase eyed them, and saw their hands gripping tight to each other. Way to go Cody, way to go.
"Bridgette no longer cries." Chase stepped around the groaning Russell, Bridgette in tow, and the two walked away, not before Chase gave Cody a pat on the back as a tacit congratulation. Beth and Cody looked at the groaning Russell, not being able to speak for a few seconds.
"W-w-we—y-y-you—I—Heather—!" Cody bit his lip in fear of what Heather would do about this.
"Why is he groaning?" A voice asked, and Cody and Beth spun around (letting go of each other's hands) to find Courtney in the hallway. Courtney was in her nightgown now, a silk royal purple spaghetti strap silk mid thigh gown.
"Courtney! What are you doing here?" Cody asked her.
"I'll go and see if Heather is available." Beth whispered to him before rushing past Courtney.
"Why is he groaning?" Courtney asked again.
"Because…uh…he fell. Onto some glass." Cody nodded in an attempt to reassure Courtney. He did not need a Mankin going on the blink, not tonight.
"He fell…" Courtney nodded.
"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Courtney nodded once more and walked right past Cody and Russell and down the left corridor at the end of the hallway. He fell onto some glass? What kind of fucking excuse is that?! DAMN IT! Cody sighed once Courtney was out of sight. Some night this turned out to be.
Harold picked up Russell and took him to a separate room, away from the general population. He had also been given orders to find Chase, which he did with ease, and bring him to Heather, who had returned only a few moments ago to find out from Beth that Russell had been sent through a plate glass window, courtesy of Chase. Beth herself didn't know why, but Heather knew Chase and his ex-cop ways well enough that it had been a set-up against Russell, officially putting Nick and his replacement Clerk in the clear since they were both in isolation. Smart man. I'll have to give him a bonus to appease him.
Later on, Chase and Harold both walked in to Heather's office, and Heather was looking at their reflections through the large window overlooking the Las Vegas skyline.
"Chase, I am…mildly pleased." She turned around to face Chase and Harold. "Why am I mildly pleased?" She smiled her fake and controlled smile.
"I caught the guy who was raping Bridgette. Shouldn't you be ecstatic, or as ecstatic as you can be?" Heather glared daggers into Chase for his side note.
"I'll let that go…this time. No, Chase, I want to know why. Why didn't you tell US," Obviously referring to Harold and herself. "That you were setting up Benton?"
"He had to be clear. He had to be…flush with success, or he'd never have tried again." Chase answered the question succinctly. Heather turned her back to Harold and Chase.
"You will never take action like that on your own again inside these walls, am I clear?"
"You're clear." Chase smirked, and Harold gritted his teeth in response. Heather gave a side glance to Harold, who she saw was getting upset, so she turned back to them in an attempt to reassure Harold.
"A bonus has been wired to your account." Heather lied in a sense. The bonus wasn't wired yet, but it would be very soon. Chase's eyebrows rose in shock.
"I don't need a bonus."
"Well…I need to give it to you. That's all." Chase eyed her for a few seconds.
"Heather." He gave a small bow before being escorted out by Harold. Harold closed the door and spun on his heel to face Heather. Heather gave a small (huge by her standards) sigh and trudged back to her black swivel chair, heels click clacking on the wood floor. Harold took this as his cue to walk up to her and pose a few questions to her.
"What do we do with Benton?"
"I'll let you know." She didn't even face him when she gave her response.
"And you saw the other thing, the tap?" Heather lifted her middle finger to the spacebar on her black wireless keyboard, and a video popped up on her desktop showing Courtney playing and singing in the music room. After about thirty seconds of listening to Courtney, she pressed the spacebar once more to stop the tap.
In fact, the entire complex was bugged with separate cameras as Heather's own personal surveillance if the original system ever failed. In doing so, she also knew about the development of Beth and Cody's relationship, and Harold knew about it too, but they weren't worried about the development…much. Harold was more stressed than Heather because he thought it would make both of them more susceptible to a sting operation against them, but Heather reassured him that it would never happen.
"Ma'am, do you have an exit strategy?" Heather's eyebrows rose in shock as she turned in her seat to face him. "We have a Clerk abusing a Mankin, a romantic relationship being forged under our noses, a Mankin regaining "wiped" skills, and more. I take much of that as my responsibility," Which it really wasn't, but in a sense, it was. "But The Sir will target you if this all goes south."
"Your concern is touching, but my bags are not packed. You will bring the Clerk to me. And as for your other problem," She looked at the paused frame of Courtney at the piano. "Tell Cody to prep Courtney."
"Ma'am—" Heather snapped her head back to Harold, an evil glare boring through him.
"I believe it is high time someone showed that vile pustule who is the monarch and who is the subject. Tell Cody to prep Courtney with the combat skills set." Harold understood that there was no getting past Heather's orders, so he bowed and left Heather alone in her office. Vile pustule? Where the hell did that come from? Oh, right…
After Heather's tenure in TD, there was no surprise that she was one of the most hated teenagers in North America—nay, the world! By the year 2009, when filming for TDM ended, the TD series had been broadcasted to countries in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and although there was a lot of debate about the contestants, most agreed that Heather was a sly, conniving bitch. Heather knew this, but it never really hit her hard until she re-watched her first letter from home (the one she got while she was in Camp Wawanakwa) during TDM. It showed her parents…moving all of her stuff…and partying because she was gone. Heather made a wry smile back then when she watched it the first and second time.
The first time in Camp Wawanakwa, she watched by herself with no cameras watching. After all, they were PERSONAL letters. Heather didn't pay much mind the first time; she convinced herself that the movers were moving her stuff to their separate guest house, which was much bigger than her parents' room, which was her room.
The second time was different. It was not only her watching, but the entire viewing world re-watching it. As it turns out, Heather learned during TDA that her parents had moved her stuff into a U-HAUL storage space and took their room back and used Heather's original room as more storage space for other things. So to re-watch it during TDM, when every single contestant knew of her conniving ways, was painful for her. She didn't show it, hence her wry smile and a whisper to herself that was picked up by the cameras and the entire viewing world.
"Are you still happy now that your daughter has been gone for two years?" She got up from her seat and left the tent she was watching it in.
After TD, she went on the Internet daily typing her name into search engines, only to find fanfiction and forums all over slandering Heather, in not only different tongues other than English, but in also some of the most colorful usage of English and other languages she ever thought possible. The only solace she got from reading about herself on the Internet was when a few commented on her smartness for playing the game well or felt sorry for her when she had her head shaved or lost her ugly wig or made her change to niceness in fanfiction (only to find out she was portrayed as mean as ever most of the time).
If slandering via the Internet wasn't enough for her, it really hit home when it came to school. Her own friends claimed no friendship with her, saying that she was 'too mean' for them after her actions on TD. Heather became very smart after that, being reclusive and the like.
Once she graduated high school, she moved to England to study abroad. Her parents paid for everything, so she had nothing to worry about. She was getting accustomed to life there, and even started talking prim and proper like them.
After spending three years in England, she got a call from Chef Hatchet saying that he needed a head of his first branch of Mann Corporation, the Las Vegas branch. Heather readily accepted the job offer after being informed of her perks and his reasons for recruiting her. In 2012, she started working there, got adjusted to her job very quickly, and built up the branch to what it is today, exacting revenge on all of her TD contestants.
Heather, at her desk, closed her eyes and sighed. She remembered in England how she made no friends because they remembered her as Heather the bitch from TD. It was such a long time ago! She'd say to whoever would listen, but they didn't care. They never did anyway. I'm just the bitch.
A/N: Happy stuff or sad stuff first? Okay, happy stuff. You've got a new relationship, FINALLY! I think all of this lovey-dovey stuff might get re-focused onto another couple...you'll have to wait and see which one. Now to the sad stuff. Aren't I such an evil person? I made Heather have a horrible life after TD. But now you know why she talks all stiff and stuff, but that is in part due to the fact that the woman in Dollhouse who has Heather's job in this fanfic (God, the wording is so wrong) is British. Gotta keep some aspects of Dollhouse since I love the series so damn much. But I gotta say: I'm surprised I pulled all of this music crap out of my head! It's totally deviating from Dollhouse canon, but this is a TDI fic, not a Dollhouse fic. I realize in retrospect how sappy I must've been feeling when I was writing this, because I would normally never pack this much romance and tradgedy into a chapter. I think my other Dollhouse fanfic (I deleted it due to developments in Episode Six; sorry folks!) had permanent effects on my brain. CRAP!
Songs that should be in your mind (because they were in mine!): "I Go To Sleep"-Sia, "River Flows in You"-Yiruma, "Contagious"-Trapt, "Same Mistake"-James Blunt
Same couples, same Company, kidnapped list still the same, blah, blah, blah...
So let's run it down! What does Heather have in store for Courtney? Why did that informant give Chow an extra day? When will we see Chris and everyone outside of the Twilight Mall again? What is Courtney's next Outing? Will Harold ever stop being a Nervous Nelly? What's going to happen to Russell? All of that and more, NEXT!!! Review please, and have a happy April Fool's!
APRIL FOOL'S!!!!