Disclaimer: I do not own Jane or Kurt or Blindspot. Writing about them is simply the outlet for my obsession.

PATTERSON

Patterson hadn't heard from anyone on the team in over an hour, and it was making her extremely anxious. Where is everyone? she wondered. Mayfair had ducked out earlier and no one had heard from her since, she hadn't seen Weller at all today, and then Reade and Zapata had been called to the scene of some kind of disturbance… they'd run out so fast, they hadn't even given her a clue where they were going. None of them had checked in recently, and no one who actually was around seemed to be able to tell her what was going on. It wasn't like her team to just disappear without a trace, but that was what it felt like had happened. Where was everyone, anyway?

And then suddenly, just a few minutes ago, the whispers had started from the hallway just outside the door of her lab. She usually paid no attention to them. The junior agents – and even some of the not-so-junior agents – loved to talk, but it seldom amounted to the real story. Today, however, they were much louder and more excited than usual, which made her wonder… and that, combined with her desperate curiosity about her team, had her on edge. She just had a feeling that it wasn't a coincidence, that the two were somehow related.

She knew that had any one member of her team been there, they would have told her that she was jumping to conclusions. For a scientist, she knew that she tended to rely more heavily on intuition than most of her contemporaries – but the thing was, her intuition was rarely wrong. A feeling of dread settled over her and she made up her mind that just this once, she'd investigate what the fuss in the hallway was about. Walking slowly toward the door of her lab, she started listening to the whispered chatter from people passing by her door. She was dismayed to realize that she'd heard a familiar name.

Jane Doe.

But what about her? They were talking louder and louder in the hall now, loud enough that she could make out more than just Jane's name. What she heard… There were some absolutely insane things being said, and she knew that she must be hearing it wrong. She had to be, because it couldn't possibly be true.

They were saying that Weller had arrested her. That just showed how absolutely wrong the young agents always got things. Still, she was dying to know the truth, and to know that her team was alright. They were her family, after all. They'd been through so much together. She'd always felt a camaraderie with them, but since David's death, she'd needed their support more than ever. She cared deeply about each and every one of them. As much as she loved her lab and the work she got to do there, the one thing she disliked about her job was that her whole team was sent into danger day after day, and she was left to worry them until they made it back safely. Today was no exception.

Check in, already, you guys! she thought furiously, convinced that if she thought hard enough, she could make it happen. She inched closer and closer to the door, the feeling of dread growing stronger the closer she got.

PATTERSON AND READE

Peeking her head out into the hallway, she felt the unusual buzz in the air increasing. Something was definitely going on. That was when she saw Reade, an angry look on his face, walking quickly toward her. She sighed with relief, knowing that finally she'd find out what was going on. He stopped beside her, but didn't make eye contact. His attention was trained towards the far end of the hall, and without giving her time to speak, he asked, "Have you seen Mayfair?"

"Oh, um, no, not since first thing this morning," Patterson replied in surprise. She could tell just from Reade's demeanor that something was wrong. "Reade… is everything okay? What's going on?" she whispered. "All I've heard is this crazy rumor…"

Reade scoffed, rolling his eyes and looking toward the ceiling. She couldn't remember seeing him react this way to anyone in a very, very long time. It wasn't like him to be so flustered. Finally, sensing that she was still waiting for an answer, he sighed heavily, trying to think of how to condense what was going on into as few words as possible. He just didn't have the patience to deal with someone was would undoubtedly react even more emotionally than Zapata.

Still, bitterness against Jane had built up inside him to the point that he simply couldn't hold it back. So instead of biting back the anger he was feeling, as he knew that he should, and giving her a simply factual answer, he replied tersely, "Jane is a traitor. Weller arrested her, and she's in Interrogation."

Looking down at Patterson for the first time, he felt a twinge of guilt when he saw Patterson's face constrict in shock and dismay, her hand flying to her mouth and her eyes watering slightly. He regretted having to be the one to have told her, and wished that he could have thought of a more sensitive way to do it. Patterson was like a sister to him – an emotional little sister. But it was done, and he was too angry with Jane, and with himself, to be able to stand there with Patterson while she broke down.

"I have to find Mayfair," he said, pushing past her down the hallway, leaving a distraught Patterson in his wake.

Patterson fell back against the wall, feeling like the ground below her was suddenly shifting. She was having trouble breathing properly, and she just stood there, looking around helplessly, hoping that someone would come along and explain to her what in the world was going on. What Reade had said didn't make any sense.

Jane? A traitor? It was impossible. They knew Jane. She was part of their team. They'd worked together for months. She'd saved their lives, especially Weller's, but the others' as well, again and again. What had she been accused of? And why hadn't they stood behind her?

That isn't Jane, Patterson thought furiously. I don't care what anyone says, that isn't Jane. She is not a traitor.

She focused simply on breathing in and out, in and out, as the pounding of her heart in her ears made taking in any other sounds around her impossible. This was not happening.

PATTERSON AND ZAPATA

She was still bracing herself against the wall, her mind spinning a million miles an hour, a few minutes later when Zapata came around the corner. Patterson pulled herself up as quickly as she could and jogged towards her, meeting Zapata halfway between the corner and the door of her lab.

The first thing Zapata noticed when she saw Patterson was that her eyes were wild and she was out of breath.

"Zapata, what's going on?" Patterson asked. "Reade told me… he said that Jane…" she paused, trying to catch her breath. Her anxiety level was making it difficult. Zapata wondered for a second if the blonde was having a panic attack. "I don't understand," Patterson continued, clearly getting herself even more worked up. "It has to be a mistake. It has to be…"

Zapata took a deep breath, putting a hand on Patterson's shoulder and turning her around so that the two of them could walk back towards her lab. "You should sit down for this one," she told her friend. "It's bad."

Patterson looked at her in confusion, her eyes begging Zapata to explain what was going on. Zapata walked her to the stools by the counter in the lab and waited until Patterson was seated before saying another word.

"I know this is going to sound insane, but Weller said," Zapata paused, biting her lip before continuing. She took a deep breath and began again. "Weller said that just before his father died last night, he admitted to him that he'd killed Taylor Shaw." Zapata stopped there, letting the first piece of information sink into Patterson's brain. She knew that it was a lot to take in, having been equally shocked when Weller had told her not too long before.

"But… the DNA test said…" Patterson stammered. She was a scientist after all, and she couldn't understand how her test could have been wrong. Jane had been a match for Taylor's DNA. The only way that could have come back positive if she wasn't Taylor was if someone had… Her hand went to her mouth in shock for the second time in a matter of minutes as she realized what it all meant.

"Someone switched the sample," Patterson whispered. "It's the only explanation. But who? And why? And how?" Patterson's mind was moving a million miles a second. She looked back up at Zapata suddenly. "And we're sure that it's true? As weird as it seems that Weller's dad would say that if it wasn't true, how can we be sure?"

Zapata nodded slowly. "I know, I know, but it looks like it's true. We'll have to do tests, of course, but Weller said that his father told him where he'd buried Taylor – a campsite where they used to go camping when they were kids – and Weller went there to see for himself, and he… he found her. He found Taylor's remains, and her doll… buried just where his father had said they would be."

Patterson stared silently in space for a minute, thinking hard. "But just because…" she started, slowly accepting the evidence of Taylor Shaw's death, but still unwilling to accept the fact that this made Jane a criminal. "When Jane came to us, she remembered nothing. Weller was the one who was sure she was Taylor. He was the one who wanted her to be Taylor. She didn't say she was Taylor. We told her she was Taylor." Patterson paused, and when she spoke again her voice was barely a whisper. "I told her that she was Taylor…"

A look of horror spread across Patterson's face as she processed the fact that she had in fact been the one who had made the announcement – which they now knew had been false – that Jane was Taylor Shaw. "Oh my God, oh my God…" Patterson whispered, appearing to lose what little composure that she had left.

"Patterson! Look at me!" Zapata said sharply, snapping her friend back to reality. "You are not responsible for this. Whoever did this, it was not you. All you did was conduct routine tests, the same way you always do. This was not you…" Patterson had a far away look in her eyes, and Zapata could see that she was just barely holding on.

"But I… I… Oh my God…" Patterson whispered, tears beginning to spill from the corners of her eyes despite her best effort to the contrary.

"Hey," Zapata said, putting her hand on Patterson's arm. "Hey! No matter what happened, they need us right now. Weller needs us, and so does Jane. And if she didn't do it, then she needs us even more than ever. Reade doesn't believe her, he's sure she's a traitor. And Weller… he can't think straight right now, which is pretty understandable, all things considered. It's up to us. They need us." Zapata paused, letting her words sink in. "Patterson, if anyone can figure this out, it's you. But I need you to hold it together… stay with me, okay?"

Patterson nodded quickly, wiping the tears off of her face and trying to get ahold of herself. Zapata was right. They needed her. And she knew that she could figure this out. After all, it was what she was good at. She had worked on harder cases in the past. This one seemed to be a bigger conspiracy and it was definitely more personal, but there had to be a way to figure it all out. Suddenly, something occurred to her. It seemed so simple. Why hadn't she thought of it before?

"But that's why she didn't remember… because it wasn't her." She looked up at Zapata hopefully, silently begging her friend to tell her that she'd found the loophole that would prove that Jane wasn't guilty.

"I know, and that would make sense," Zapata replied slowly, "After all, she insisted that she didn't remember anything about being Taylor for a long time. But then, remember, she did saythat she remembered tiny little things about being Taylor." She looked at Patterson sadly. "Why would she say that she remembered being Taylor, if she was never Taylor?"

"I… but… maybe someone implanted memories in her!" Patterson sputtered. "There has to be some other explanation! After everything we've been through together, how can we just… give up on her? Don't we owe it to her to believe her? Don't we owe her more than that? How many times did she save Weller's life? And yours and Reade's?" She could feel herself getting upset now. How could Zapata accept all this so willingly?

But Zapata was just shaking her head sadly at her. Jumping off her stool, Patterson looked at Zapata, her eyes blazing. She shook her head in disbelief. "This isn't happening," Patterson asserted defiantly. "This can't be happening. I know Jane – we know Jane – and she would not do this. I don't care what Weller said. He's wrong."

Zapata stepped towards her with the intention of trying to reach out for her, hoping to try to calm her down, but Patterson just backed away from her. "I don't know how you can accept this," she continued angrily, "but I can't. I won't."

With that, Patterson left the lab, walking quickly and not looking back.

ZAPATA

Zapata sighed heavily, hating everything about this situation. She could understand how Patterson felt, she just wished that she could be so absolutely sure of Jane's innocence. Whoever she chose to believe – Weller, who seemed to have the facts on his side – or her intuition about Jane, she felt like she was betraying one of her best friends, people who she would do just about anything for. Both of them couldn't be right… could they? How in the world were they going to make sense of this?

Walking back toward the hallway, she wondered if Reade had found Mayfair. They really needed her just then. Surely she'd be able to help them make sense out of what was going on… She started down the hall toward her boss' office, more conflicted now than ever, wondering fleetingly where Patterson had run off to.

PATTERSON

Zapata had told her that Jane was in Interrogation, and without a second thought, Patterson started down the hall in that direction. She didn't even see the stares of the agents that she passed in the hall, those who knew that Jane was part of her team and wondered what Patterson was up to. For her part, Patterson didn't really know what she was going to do when she got there, only that she had to see this for herself. She couldn't believe that they had really put Jane into an interrogation room, like a common criminal. The way they had the night she'd been found in Times Square when they'd known nothing about her.

Back then, it had made sense to be suspicious of her. Patterson could concede that. But now? No matter what they'd just learned, they hadn't just met Jane. Did they really think she could have been lying to them about it all, all this time? Patterson knew that she could be naïve at times, but she simply couldn't accept that the Jane she knew didn't exist.

As Patterson approached the door of the only interrogation room where the lights were on, her pace slowed almost to a stop. She crept forward the last few feet reluctantly, cringing and biting her lip, not wanting to see Jane in there, but needing to at the same time. Finally, she reached the window that looked into the room and for a second, she thought the room was empty – that there'd been a mistake, and that Jane wasn't there after all.

Glancing around the small, bright room, however, Patters realized that Jane was there. But instead of sitting in the chair beside the metal table, she was huddled against the wall, her knees to her chest, her arms hugging her knees and her head down – presumably to block out the world. She felt the familiar sting behind her eyes as she stood and watched her friend, who sat perfectly still on the cold floor.

She must feel so betrayed, Patterson thought. And completely alone. Her heart broke for her friend, and she had the urge to charge into the room and hug her, though she knew that it was not allowed. The knowledge that she couldn't do a thing to comfort Jane made standing there a thousand times worse.

PATTERSON AND ZAPATA

Patterson didn't even realize that anyone else was there with her, or that tears had been rolling down her cheeks long enough for her face to be more than a little damp, when suddenly she was conscious of the fact that Zapata was beside her again.

"Patterson, I need you to come with me." There was something in Zapata's tone that hadn't been there before, something ominous. Patterson glanced back at her, wondering what else she was going to tell her. As far as she was concerned, things were about as bad as they could get. Couldn't she just give her a few minutes to take all this in?

"We found Mayfair. Well, we didn't, but someone did," Zapata told her carefully.

Patterson turned and looked at her in confusion. What in the world is she talking about? she wondered. Her thoughts were so jumbled, she couldn't bring herself to form words, so she just continued to stare at Zapata, hoping that what she was saying would start to make sense.

Zapata pursed her lips, looking down at the ground and then back up at Patterson. When she spoke, she didn't sound like herself. "I don't know what happened, but…" Zapata stopped, still not believing the words that were about to come out of her own mouth could be true.

"Mayfair's dead."