He awoke to an unpleasant aroma and the blare of a TV. Kurt groaned as he opened one eye and glanced at the time on his bedside clock. Just after seven o'clock, which meant that smell must be Sarah cooking breakfast. He rolled over, wanting more sleep than the five hours he'd gotten, when the events of the night before came flooding back and he sat bolt upright in bed. Taylor!
He showered and dressed quickly, mindful of Mayfair's warning about the media's interest in Taylor's case, and made his way to the kitchen just in time to see Sarah place the remains of a burnt omelet in the trash. "Good morning, sis."
Sarah spun around. "Kurt! Oh, dammit, did I wake you? I'm sorry. I wouldn't have turned the TV up so loud if I'd known you were home. It's just that there was this really interesting news story about this woman the police found drugged and naked in Times Square last night and . . . never mind about all that. What time did you get back from Kentucky?"
"Late," Kurt said as he poured himself a glass of orange juice. "Or early, depending on how you look at it." He took a seat at the kitchen counter. "I actually got called back because of that woman they found. Has Sawyer already left for school?"
Sarah shook her head. "He had a sleepover at Billy's house last night, remember? He's been talking about it since last week. God, that is just so awful," she said, returning her attention to the news program as they began to replay the woman's story. "Who would do that to that poor woman?" She glanced over at Kurt. "How did the FBI get involved? According to the news report I saw earlier, the NYPD found her."
"They did." Kurt hesitated, debating how much to tell her. Not that he had that many details as of yet. "The FBI got called in because she had an agent's name tattooed on her back."
Kurt wasn't quite meeting her eyes as he spoke, and a terrible sense of foreboding gripped Sarah. Her brother rarely discussed work with her and for him to volunteer information . . . "Which agent's name?" she demanded.
"Mine," Kurt admitted, confirming what he could see his sister already suspected. "They flew me back ahead of Reade and Zapata to see if I could identify her."
"And did you?" Sarah did her best to keep the edge out of her voice. As if her brother's job wasn't dangerous enough, now he was apparently being targeted by someone who thought nothing of doing only god knew what to a defenseless woman. He didn't immediately answer and she frowned at him. "What aren't you telling me, Kurt?"
"The woman . . . It's Taylor, Sarah." Kurt watched her face as the truth sank in, saw the shock morph into disbelief, then anger. "I know this is difficult for you to hear . . ."
"The only thing I'm having difficulty with at the moment is the fact that I wasted time this morning feeling sorry for her," Sarah spat. That woman had torn Kurt's heart out and stomped on it without a moment's hesitation and now she had the nerve to reinsert herself into his life? Unbelievable. "Tell me, does she have the names of all the suckers whose hearts she's broken tattooed on her body, or are you special because you were her first?"
Kurt gaped at her, and Sarah winced as she heard how that sounded. "I'm sorry. That was out of line, but I'm not going to stand here and listen to you make excuses for her again. I've heard all of them over the years, and they're all bullshit in my opinion. I don't deny that she was too young to make a lifelong commitment when she married you, but even if she did confuse affection for you with lasting love, it doesn't excuse what she did. She was an adult when she left you; if she had chosen to act like one, I might have a modicum of sympathy for her now. Assuming she actually is the victim in this case, of course."
"She is," Kurt interrupted before his sister could launch into another diatribe against Taylor. However justified it might be, he'd heard them all before. "She has amnesia, caused by an experimental drug she was given. I didn't speak to her personally, but one of the doctors who's treating her told me that she can't remember anything about her life before crawling out of that bag in Times Square last night."
"Oh my god." Sarah's anger dissipated in an instant as she stared at Kurt with horror-filled eyes. For all the uncharitable thoughts she had entertained about Taylor over the years, for all her unkind words just now, she would never have wished something like this on her. To have your whole life erased and wake up in a public place with no sense of self . . . she couldn't imagine anything more awful than that. "My god, Kurt. Is it . . . do the doctors think she'll get her memory back eventually?"
Good question. "I don't know," Kurt admitted. "I didn't think to ask." Though he did seem to recall Dr. Borden saying something about it being a permanent state, which didn't bode well for her chances of recovery. He found himself hoping she would prove the doctor wrong.
"So she had nothing to do with this?" Sarah asked as she came around the counter and took the seat next to her brother. "She really is just an innocent victim in all of this?"
Kurt shrugged. "The investigation's just getting underway, but I assume so. It's hard to imagine that anyone would willingly put themselves through this when they could just come in and ask for help. If Taylor were in trouble, I'd like to think she'd know that she wouldn't need to go to such extremes to secure my assistance, despite our history."
Of course she wouldn't. Her brother was too much of a boy scout to turn away anyone in need. Even her. "So someone who knew of your past history with Taylor did this to her, then," Sarah theorized. "Does the FBI have any leads on who that might be? I mean, it must be someone with a grudge against you, right? Why else use your ex-wife to . . ." To what, exactly? Send him a message? Cause him pain? If they wanted to do that without directly inflicting it on Kurt himself, it would have made more sense to grab someone involved in his life in the present. Someone like her. Or Sawyer.
Oh God. Sawyer. He'd promised to call her before he left for school this morning, but he should have already been there by now. What if Taylor's reappearance was just a diversion and the same person who had done this to her had taken him?
"Sarah? What's wrong?" Kurt asked as his sister turned as white as a sheet and made a desperate grab for the phone on the counter between them.
"Sawyer . . ." It was all Sarah could do to force the words out. "Sawyer was supposed to call me this morning, but I haven't heard from him. What if . . ." She couldn't bring herself to finish that sentence, but she saw understanding dawn on Kurt's face.
"Calm down, sis. Breathe." Kurt gently pried the phone from Sarah's shaking hands. "I'll give Billy's mom a call to make sure Sawyer got to school safely, but I really don't think you have anything to worry about. Sawyer's a nine-year-old kid; he probably either forgot, or didn't want to look bad in front of his friend by having to call his mommy. I'm sure he's okay."
"Yeah, well, I'll feel better when I hear that from Susan." Sarah knew she was probably overreacting, but she was justifiably freaked out right now.
"I know." Kurt gently draped an arm over his sister's shoulders and pulled her into his side as he scrolled down her contact list. "I'll call her right now." He rubbed his hand up and down her arm as he spoke to the other woman. "Sawyer is fine. Susan dropped the boys off at school ten minutes ago, and she watched them both go inside before she left. She apologized for not having him call you this morning, but they were running late, so she told him she'd do it for him. She was just about to dial your number when I called."
Sarah blew out the breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding. "Oh, thank God. And thank you for making the call for me. I probably would have scared poor Susan to death. It's just if anything happened to Sawyer . . ."
"You know I'll always do everything in my power to keep that from happening, right?" Kurt honestly didn't think his nephew's kidnapping was a part of this unsub's plan—it felt much more elaborate than that—but it couldn't hurt to take precautions until they knew for sure. "I'm going to start digging into my old cases as soon as I get to work today to see if anyone who's capable of this kind of thing has been released recently." He didn't recall any cases with similar MO's, but that didn't mean someone he had put away hadn't come up with a creative new way to target the cop who had imprisoned them.
"In the meantime, it can't hurt to take precautions. No one can take Sawyer out of school without your permission, but it might be a good idea to call and warn them to be extra vigilant right now. I'll follow you to work to make sure you get there safely." Fortunately, Sarah worked in a hospital as a physical therapist, so there was no shortage of armed guards around to protect her if need be. "If anything feels off today, and I mean anything, call security immediately. I'd much rather you have to apologize for a false alarm than to be the cause of a real one." This wasn't the first time that Kurt had confronted the possibility that his job might put his loved ones at risk, but Sarah had always been oblivious to the danger in the past. Seeing her fear today drove that point home in a whole new way. "And I also want you to have a security guard walk you to your car at night until I give you the all-clear. Promise me."
"I promise." Sarah felt ridiculous saying that when her brother was the one who would no doubt be running headlong into danger today in order to discover who was behind this. She pulled out from under his arm and shifted on the stool to face him, studying him soberly. "I know better than to ask you to take yourself off this case, but you be careful as well, okay?" Someone out there had him in their sights for an as yet unknown reason, and no matter how awful what had happened to Taylor was, justice for her was absolutely not worth his life.
"Actually . . ." Kurt drew the word out and saw Sarah's eyes light with nervous anticipation. Actually, Mayfair's already removed me as lead agent. She was afraid that I might be too emotionally involved to be objective."
From her brother's disgruntled tone, it was clear that he disagreed with that assessment. "I know you don't want to hear this, but she is right. I've never seen you look at another woman the way you did Taylor, and you started falling in love with her when she was emotionally vulnerable, just like she's going to be now. I was there to pick up the pieces when she broke your heart, and I don't want to see you go through that again." Truth be told, she still didn't think he'd completely recovered from it.
"I don't intend to," Kurt replied dismissively. The walls around his heart were Taylor-proof now. He might be a little slow on the uptake at times, but that was one mistake he wouldn't be making twice. "Look, Sarah . . . I appreciate the concern, but you don't have anything to worry about. More than likely, the moment we put Taylor's face and identity out on the news, the man she left me for will come to claim her." Though he was going to make damn sure that man wasn't also the one who had done this to her before he let her leave with him again.
Sarah nodded slowly. She wished she could share his confidence, but Taylor Shaw had always been his blind spot. The last time she'd been in trouble, he'd rearranged his entire life to help her, and she had repaid that sacrifice with the cruelest betrayal imaginable. If there was one bright spot in this entire mess, it was that Taylor had amnesia, because if she were able to give Kurt the slightest justification for what she'd done, Sarah feared her brother would be incapable of maintaining any emotional distance from her.
"Well, at least you'll finally have that man's name and face, know that she's been happy and well-cared for." Kurt might not ever admit it, but she knew that lack of closure had haunted him. He'd promised Emma Shaw on her deathbed that he would care for her daughter, and in his mind, he'd broken that vow when he'd let Taylor waltz off with a stranger without making any effort to look into him. Never mind that she had chosen to do so at the expense of the vows she had made to him.
"Yeah," Kurt agreed halfheartedly, wondering for the umpteenth time what he would be like, this man who had stolen Taylor's heart from him. Wondering what this nameless, faceless stranger had offered her that he hadn't. He sighed as he stood up. "If you're ready to go, I should probably head in to the office. I'm gonna have a lot of files to go through today. I'll call you once I know something one way or the other."
"Or anytime . . . if you need to talk," Sarah offered as she got to her feet as well. "I'm sorry for my outburst this morning, and I promise to listen without badmouthing Taylor. I'm here for you if you need me, Kurt."
"I know, sis," Kurt told her as he hugged her tightly. "You always have been, and I appreciate all your support. I know I don't say it nearly often enough, but you mean the world to me, you and Sawyer, and I don't know what I would ever do without you guys."
"Fortunately, that's not something you ever have to worry about." Sarah smiled mistily up at Kurt. He really was the best big brother she could have ever asked for. "I have an apartment broker scheduled for the day after tomorrow, so we'll be out of your hair in no time, but I promise, we won't be going far." She hoped to find her own place within a few blocks of here so she and Sawyer could visit often.
"There's no rush, Sarah," Kurt told her as he released her and started for his bedroom to retrieve his badge and gun, then turned back. "Oh, one more thing. For the time being, Mayfair and I agreed that it would be best to keep the news of my marriage to Taylor quiet, so if you run into anyone from the office, we were just childhood friends, nothing more."
"Do you think that's wise? Lying to her? Lying to the people you trust to have your back every day?" Sarah was justifiably concerned. That trust was a two-way street, and if Kurt's decision eroded theirs in him, it could place every member of his team in jeopardy.
"I don't know, Sarah," Kurt said wearily, already wishing this day were at an end. Wishing he weren't always the one who had to try to anticipate every possible thing that could go wrong. "Mayfair had valid reasons for wanting to keep it a secret, and since I felt that news might be a bit much for Taylor to handle right now on top of her amnesia, I decided to go along with it. It's not as if Reade and Zapata and I discuss our personal lives much anyway—" at least he rarely discussed his with them, "—and as Mayfair said, we're not lying so much as simply not telling the whole story."
Sarah's look was frankly skeptical, but she simply kissed Kurt on the cheek as she brushed past him to pick up her purse. She would have loved to ask him if Mayfair was also going to take the heat for this decision when it inevitably blew up in their faces, but she supposed in the end it didn't really matter. She would be here for Kurt just as she always had, just as she always would.
He had always done the same for her, after all.