CH2
Kate's jaw drops to the floor as she lifts her arm up to look at the bracelet on her arm. "What?, …. ? How?, …. Why?, ….. No this can't be happening." As Kate goes back to trying to take it off.
"Please don't take me off. I can help you. Just give me a chance."
"Why shouldn't I take you off? I don't even know what you are. And how are you talking to me anyway?" Kate can see herself in the dresser mirror talking to herself/arm/bracelet.
"I need your electrical energy that your body creates to survive."
"So you are some kind of parasite attached to my arm?" Kate is scared now.
"That would imply that I'm organic in nature which I am not. I'm a machine. I simply get my power to function from you instead of a power receptacle like the one in the wall behind this dresser."
"So you are some kind of computer or smart phone?" Kate is starting to calm down. "Wait, how did you know there is a power outlet behind the dresser?"
"I scanned it as well as everything that is in your dresser. And I'm a little more that a smart phone except I can't seem to be able to make phone calls. I feel like something is missing and that I should be able to do so and more."
"You scanned my dresser? …. Ok, what is in the top right drawer?" Kate challenges.
"You have socks in that drawer. You have divided them into three separate sub-types. On the right are dressy socks, in the middle are casual socks and on the left are your fuzzy socks.
Below that drawer is your tank top drawer. You have each folded and rolled and are color coded with the brights on the left getting darker to the right.
The top drawer on the left has panties and swimwear, all bikinis to be precise. And again you have each organized by color similar to the tank top drawer.
Below that drawer are you long sleeve cotton shirts like t-shirts.
Below that drawer is your bra drawer. You have regular bras on the right and sport bras on the left, and once again they are color coded similar to your tank top drawer."
"Ok, Ok, I get the picture. You've made your point. …. You said something about feeling like something is missing?" Kate questions beginning to believe, slowly.
"I feel like there are gaps in my memory and that I should be capable of doing other things. I just don't understand what those things are. …. If I show myself to you can you tell me what you see?"
"Show yourself? You're a bracelet. What else is there to see?"
"I'm able to altar my appearance to better blend in with my owner. At the moment I look like a bracelet that you would wear to work."
"WAIT! You're the watch aren't you?" Kate suddenly gets 2+2.
"Yes, my previous owner was a man and I had camouflaged myself to look like a casual sports watch."
"And I picked you up and put you in a bag and then sealed the bag. How did you get out and onto my arm?"
"You never actually put me in the bag. Just as you started to drop me I altered my appearance and attached myself to your arm just above your wrist. You knew you had dropped the watch in the bag and then sealed the bag and handed it off."
"So you can move and attach yourself to someone." Kate is now scared again.
"I can't crawl across the floor, no. I can only bend myself a little, and no I can't crawl up your arm if that is what you are thinking. And my size prevents me from attaching myself to something larger, like a neck or a thigh. An ankle would however work if you prefer."
"You said you need me to live, but I found you lying on the pavement. You weren't attached to anyone." Kate questions its truthfulness.
"When my owner died I became detached from him. I have a short built-in power life. Think of it as a battery. However it doesn't last long. By the time you picked me up I was almost out of power and would have died."
"Ok you said you feel funny, let's take a look at you." Kate is now curious though still a little scared.
At that point the bracelet she is looking at changes. Now she sees a part silver and gold band about 2 inches to almost 3 inches wide and is full of small sparkle items similar to microscopic diamonds. In addition there are 2 fairly good sized diamonds set into the band. There are also three locations that looked like 3 places where possibly a diamond of comparable size would be attached but they were empty.
Kate explains all this to it and notices that when it talks the microscopic looking diamonds seem to sparkle.
"That must mean there are parts of me that are missing."
"Do you know what those parts do?"
"I'm afraid I do not. I feel like I should know but I do not. It's like I know there is an answer to your question and I should be able to answer it, but there is no information to answer it with."
"Maybe these big diamonds are part of your memory? Like a memory chip in a computer." Kate offers.
"I'm afraid I do not know. However your theory has some facts attached to it. It is hard to explain. I feel like I should know the answer but I do not. I'm sorry.
Where any of these diamonds found where you found me?"
"There was nothing on him and only you as a watch was anywhere near him. Perhaps you are why he was killed. They wanted the diamonds off of you and they got 3 of them before they panicked and left." Kate wonders aloud.
"But I would have looked like a watch not like I do now."
"Unless it was needed for you to look like a diamond watch for some reason. Do you know who your former owner was?"
"I'm sorry I do not. I feel like I should I just can't access the answer to your question.
You said former owner. Does this mean you will let me stay?" The voice actually sounds hopeful unlike the monotone most of the conversation has been taken place with.
Now Kate is really in a pickle. It sounds like this thing is a person but hurt/damaged. And she does help families get answers when a loved one is killed. And the NYPD is supposed to serve and protect.
"What's your name? Or do you have one?"
"My name is Jill. My previous owner named me after Jill Ludlam who created an AI unit in a MacGiver episode named 'The Human Factor', (original air date; September 22, 1986, Episode #023.)
"MacGiver huh? That was a pretty good show, not that I believed for a minute he could do what he did show after show. …. Ok fine. You can stay. Just don't suck me dry or I'll drop you in the East river." Kate threatens not that she is that cruel but it/she doesn't need to know that.
"Thank you. I promise I will help you as much as I'm capable of helping you. Perhaps one day you will find my other parts and make me whole again." Jill sounds happy.
"I am likely to want to move you to my ankle from time to time. I don't usually wear jewelry at work. I worry that it will get in the way. That and I don't want to look too flashy at work." Kate alters the deal.
"That is acceptable. Thank you Detective Kate Beckett." Jill agrees to the terms.
"Well I was going to take a nice hot bath. BATH! Oh the water better not be overflowing onto the floor during all this." As Kate rushes for the bathroom.
On the way Jill tells her. "The tub is only half full. You did not turn the water on full Kate."
Reaching the tub Kate finds that indeed the tub is only half full of hot water and it is filling slowly.
"How did you know?"
"I scanned the bathroom where the tub is located and gave you an answer." Jill explains.
"How far can you scan?" Kate is intrigued.
"It is relatively close. From your bedroom I could scan the bathroom and your closet and a little of the hallway, however not any farther than that."
"Do you feel like you could scan farther than that before now?" Kate is curious.
"Now that you mention it, no I do not." Jill sounds happy.
"So we know some part of you is complete. Are you water proof?" Kate does not want to give up her tub.
"I will be fine Kate and I will not electrocute you if that is what you are worried about." Jill calms any fears Kate may have.
Kate turns the water up so it will fill faster and then strips and gets in the tub and just tries to relax.
"Can you scan people also?" Kate is curious. Can Jill scan her and tell her if something is wrong.
"No I cannot. Though I feel like I have in the past. Perhaps that is part of what is missing."
"Does it concern you that you are not whole?"
"It is disconcerting to not feel whole, but I do not know what I'm missing. It's kind of like having an itch that I can't scratch. Not that I actually itch, nor can I scratch."
This gets Kate to chuckle a little. "Sounds like your sense of humor is at least partially intact.
What do you remember about your previous owner?" The hot water is beginning the work the kinks out.
"I'm afraid I know very little. I feel like I should know a great deal, but there is nothing there. It is annoying. I know we were working together. I just don't know about what.
I know I liked him. He was a very kind man. He called me his girlfriend sometimes. It feels like I know a lot about him but I can't remember him.
It feels like we were close but I don't know what that means."
Kate remained quiet until the water started to get cold. Then she got out and toweled herself dry. She considered getting a glass of wine before bed, then remembered what Lanie had told her about drinking alone.
It would be nice to have a friend. Kate didn't have many. The few she did have she hadn't seen in a long time it felt like. So she changed into sleep clothes and went to bed.
"Do you sleep?" Kate asks with a yawn.
"I do not require sleep. I am capable of turning myself off and on, however I feel like I have not done so in a long time." Jill replies.
"Well do what you think best. Just don't talk in your sleep, or mine."
"I will be as quiet as a church mouse unless I need to be." Jill confirms.
Come morning while Kate was getting dressed to go into work. "I would like to move you from my wrist to my ankle if I can. I'm just not yet comfortable wearing jewelry that shows." Kate asks.
"You are free to remove me at anytime. I cannot prevent it. I just don't want to die so I would like to stay with you if you will let me." Jill states.
"Thanks, I'll make this quick." And Kate proceeds to remove the necklace and attach it just above her ankle as quickly as possible. "You ok? Was that fast enough?"
"I'm fine Kate, thank you."
Later at work Kate was still working on her mountain of paperwork she was given. Kate had noticed the group had caught a new case and Sullivan had started a new white board. Curiosity and boredom finally got Kate to go over and look at it when no one was watching.
Kate looked at everything. She had noted that autopsy results were not yet posted. Probably where Sullivan was right now. Kate decided not to press her luck and left it to go get some coffee.
Monkey piss was a more fitting description. Still it did help keep her awake. When she wasn't trying to spit it back up.
Kate was alone in the break room. "Kate the document on the white board has been altered." Jill speaks up.
"Altered? What document?" Kate asks softly.
"The term 'Whitewash' might be more appropriate.
Many dictatorships and authoritarian states, as well as democratic countries, have used the method of whitewash in order to glorify the results.
Later, during the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia following the Prague Spring of 1968, the Press Group of Soviet Journalists released a collection of "facts, documents, press reports and eye-witness accounts," which was promptly nicknamed "The White Book" both for its white cover and its attempts to whitewash the invasion by creating the impression that the Warsaw Pact countries had the right and duty to invade.
North Korean radio broadcasts claim to have an abundance in food supplies, yet the government receives food aid from foreign states.
Japan is accused of whitewashing its history of warfare and imperialism by omitting or minimizing subjects such as the Nanking Massacre in textbooks.
In the study of reputation systems by means of algorithmic game theory, whitewashing is used to refer to an agent abandoning their tarnished identity and re-creating a new blank one, in what is more widely known in Internet slang as sockpuppeting.
The text of The New Jim Crow has been identified as being whitewashed due to the bias of its conceptual framework, which omits pertinent African American people and history, as well as politically radical ideas in favor of a more conventional and mainstream perspective. Critics maintain that the text has been whitewashed for white middle-class consumption." Jill expands the meaning.
"Altered? How? Which document?"
"If you take me back over there I can explain." Jill offers.
With coffee in hand Kate heads back over to the white board. "The document in the plastic bag on the far right. Several lines of information have had their writing removed and replaced with new information." Jill explains.
"And how do you know it has been changed?"
"I have scanned everything on the board. Several of the lines on the document have a different form of ink used then the other lines. Plus the date of the inks used are widely different." Jill expands on her analysis.
"Beckett. What are you doing?" Detective Sullivan comes walking up.
"Sorry sir, I got bored and wanted to see. And I really wanted to do something to help." While Sullivan remains silent Kate decides to plow on. "Sir this document looks altered to me." Kate points out the one Jill had been talking about.
"Altered?" Sullivan steps up to look.
"Yes sir, several of the lines look different to me. Different ink maybe? Different style? I don't know, different."
Sullivan takes it down off the board and holds it up to his face really close. "Well I'll be, …." Sullivan hits Kate in the shoulder with the document and starts to leave with it in hand. "Nice work Beckett! And finish that paperwork." He calls out over his shoulder as he leaves.
"Thanks Jill." Kate speaks softly.
"I promised to help Kate and I intend to keep that promise as long as you'll let me." Jill whispers back.