I know something is broken
And I'm trying to fix it
Trying to repair it
Any way I can
X&Y, Coldplay
Walking into her room was the scariest thing Grace had been confronted with since she woke up. Having a stranger run into her room trying to convince her that they were dating was nothing compared to this. Her room was filled with a mixture of things she had since she was a little girl and things she didn't know why she had. Seeing the photos in their cute photo frames scared her as well. The smiling face looked like her, but it felt like a completely different girl.
She sat down on her bed and her eye caught one photo standing on her bedside table; it was of her and Rich. She was in a bikini and sitting on a chair, while Rich was kissing her on the cheek. She picked the photo off the table and just stared at it, desperately trying to make sense of it… trying to remember it.
A knock on the door snapped her out of her reverie. She put the photo back face down and turned to see her father entering her room.
"Oh, hi Dad." She began to make her more comfortable on her bed by crossing her legs.
"Hello, Grace." He stayed standing up, but hovered over her bed. "Just checking to see if you are alright."
"I am pretty fine." She said, giving a small smile hoping that would be enough for her Dad. She just felt like being completely alone right now. She stared down at one of her old cuddly toys of a unicorn that was lying on her bed; she began to play with it distractedly.
"Your mother and I have been discussing about your education. We think it's best you don't go back for another few weeks, so you can catch up on your work here and try to remember everything." Grace lifted her head and jutted her chin out in annoyance.
"What? But… Daddy, I want to go back to school. To see my friends and it will be so much easier to remember things if I was there -"
"Stop shouting!" He exclaimed, before continuing on in a much calmer voice that was still filled with determination. "You are too far behind to be able to continue at the present moment."
"I'm studying English, Drama and Music. It's already in my head; I don't need to take any more time off school. Please Dad!" She was wiping tears out of her eyes. It wasn't fair; it wouldn't take her long to catch up on her studies.
"Fine. But you are prohibited from going out with your friends at the weekend. You need to do extra studying at home." Grace nodded sullenly, as her father walked out the room angrily.
She crossed her arms across her chest as if she was still a little girl who thought everything her father lectured her about was unfair.
She noticed her reflection in the mirror and was appalled to see the bruises on the side of her face were still very prominent. She wish she could just use a special fairy wand that could clear away her bruises and scars so she could forget about this whole accident… although forgetting things was kind of Grace's expertise at the moment.
Walking into school that morning had been an electrifying feeling. She had missed this place a lot and she even felt like she was remembering all the things she had learnt as she sat through classes. She was also (secretly) enjoying the attention she seemed to be getting from her accident. People she didn't know, but obviously knew her were saying, 'We're glad you're feeling better!' and other things along those lines.
She was walking to her locker when she noticed him. She considered just pretending she hadn't seen him, but she didn't like to be rude.
"Hi, Rich, right?" He had been smiling as he approached her, but when she had to clarify what his name was his smile faded as quickly as it had appeared. He nodded and then exhaled as an awkward silence fell between them.
"How… is everything then?" He started nervously, using his arms a lot as he talked.
"Um… good. How about you?" She was being polite as she could manage under the awkward circumstances.
"Fine. Look do you want -"
"Grace!" Franky was standing in between them smiling, but shifting her gaze between them, as if she realized she had walked in the middle of something.
"Franky…" Grace smiled, the girl standing before her was a little more feminine than the girl she had seen in the dream, but she still managed to recognize it was her.
"You remember her?" Rich suddenly said, obviously outraged. Grace immediately knew this must look bad if she can't remember her boyfriend, but remembers this girl who might not be a very close friend for all Grace knew.
"Oh, no, I'm sorry Rich. I just…" But Rich was already walking away from her in his heavy combat boots. She bit her lip and watched him leave. Why was she feeling so guilty about this?
The first person Rich thought to go to was Alo. He found him in the common room playing on his phone, while sitting on one of the sofas. He stomped over there, swearing under his breath, and threw his bag on the available seat next to Alo, but began to pace.
"What's up, mate?" Alo asked, pulling his best confused look. Rich kicked the wall, but couldn't actually let his anger out in words. Alo stood up and pulled on one of Rich's arms, so he would turn to face him.
"She remembers Franky, but not me." He felt angry tears pricking at his eyes, but he tried to hold them back. No fucking way was he about to cry in front of the twats currently sitting in the room.
"It fucking hurts already that she doesn't have a fucking clue who I am. But now… now she knows Franky. It just fucking hurts, Alo."
The only thing Alo could do then was hug Rich as tightly as he could until he thought of something comforting or magnificent to say. He thought of something and released Rich, but held onto his shoulders, so Rich couldn't look away from him.
"Then you go and make her remember. It'll work." It seemed to work as Rich wiped at one of his eyes, then slowly nodded looking a little more determined.
She had the same free period as him and they were both in the common room. He knew it was the only chance he was going to get for the day, so he slowly approached her. He was feeling scared… what if he told her everything, but she still couldn't remember?
She must have heard his heavy footsteps for she glanced up in his direction then unsurely smiled up at him.
"I'm really sorry about earlier, Richard… I didn't mean to offend you." She called him Richard. For some reason this lifted his hopes and he took a seat opposite her.
"Uh… it's fine. It wasn't fair of me to get angry at you." He so wanted to reach out and touch her hair, face or hand. He missed the physical interaction and being able to hold her whenever he felt like it, which was all the time.
"Okay, so…?" She was staring across at him with her huge brown eyes, while chewing on her lip. He coughed and remembered why he had first come over here.
"I want to try make you remember about me… about us." He couldn't look her in the eye as he said this. She simply smiled and nodded her head.
"Sure." He looked up just to make sure he hadn't imagined her saying it. Sure enough she was smiling at him and obviously waiting for him to say something.
"Right… Well, we first met during the summer before college started. Then I only spoke to you when Franky arrived here -"
"No, stop!" Rich had gotten so into what he was saying that he hadn't noticed the mildly uncomfortable expression on Grace's face. Now she was wriggling in her seat, as if she was disgusted by what he was saying.
"I don't want to remember like that. I don't want to hear how we met and hear our story… It will feel like it's happened to someone else, and not to me."
Maybe stories are just stories or maybe we can make our life a story.
He couldn't help but smile at the memory of that night when Grace had told him she wasn't real, just fiction. If only she could remember that night.
"Well, what am I supposed to do, Grace?" She was still smiling at him, whereas Rich was desperate. Of course this wasn't a big deal to her though, he was just a guy she had only just started speaking to.
She tapped her chin pensively, and then her eyes began to sparkle with an idea.
"Why don't you show me something that might trigger a reaction?" She asked it so politely and matter-of-factly that it seemed like her losing a year's worth of her memory was not a big deal at all.
Rich smiled and stood up. He knew just the place he could take her. Grace was still seated and she made an expression as if to say, 'What?'
"Come on then." This was all Rich said, but Grace immediately got her things together and followed him.
"What is this place?" Grace asked in awe.
"Uh… a pub." Grace rolled her eyes, as Rich pulled out a chair for her to sit on.
"I can see that, Rich." She had a little laugh to her voice, as she sat down on her chair.
"I'll get the drinks."
Rich had brought her to The Rhubarb Tavern. It mainly gathered a crowd that consisted of metalheads and this was the place where Grace acted as Subrosa. It was also the first time Rich saw there was to Grace than he originally suspected.
When Rich was bringing back the pints, he noticed Grace examining everything around her carefully.
"Do you recognize it?" Grace took a dainty sip of her pint then placed it back on the table. She gave a small sigh before answering.
"No… I'm not really supposed to be drinking. I'm on some medication and things." Rich just nodded and stared at the table. This was all he had planned; what should he do now?
"So, is this it?" Grace fiddled with the watch she was wearing and Rich then realized how awkward this was becoming.
"Yeah… pretty much." They sat in silence for a moment, while Rich just watched her.
He noticed her foot was tapping to the faint Metal music in the background… Grace still liked metal music then.
"Hold on!" He exclaimed, taking Grace by surprise. He ran to the bar and started talking frantically to the barmaid. When he got back he was grinning and out of breath.
"What was all that about?" Grace asked bemusedly.
"They're going to play a song. It's a song that you know." He said it as if there was a much deeper meaning to it that Grace couldn't help but blush and turn her face away.
"Fuck you; I won't do what you tell me!
Fuck you; I won't do what you tell me! "
Grace raised her eyebrows in surprise as she made out the lyrics. She could swear she had heard this song somewhere before, but where from? She held her breath in anticipation, as she was so close to remembering it… No, it left her as quickly as it had come. She had never heard this song before.
Rich was looking at her in anticipation too. She shook her head and his hopeful smile faded.
"Shouldn't we go back to college now?" She asked, wanting to just leave as fast as she could.
Ten minutes later, they were standing a little bit apart from each other on the street outside. Rich was kicking at little stones on the road and Grace standing awkwardly by his side.
"Are we going back then?"
"I don't have anymore classes, so I'll go back home." Rich replied, still avoiding her gaze.
"Oh…" Grace hitched her bag further up her arm. "Maybe we can do this again sometime? You could try helping me remember again?"
Grace asked the question so slowly, as she was trying to be careful not to give him the wrong idea. She wasn't asking him out on a date or anything, but he was still kind of her boyfriend, so maybe it was a date.
Rich's face lit up. He had assumed Grace would never want to speak to him again after that disaster.
"Sure, that would be cool." He could hardly contain his excitement.
"Cool." Grace said back.
She watched him leave, so she was left standing on the road still not quite sure who he was, or most importantly who she was.
You guys are seriously blowing me away with the number of reviews I've been receiving. Hopefully you're still enjoying it :)
And yes, there were a lot of parallels to 5x02 in this chapter, because I wanted to take it back to the start.
Keep reviewing! Oh, and I've written out a plan for this fic and there should be around 10 chapters in total!