Here's the chapter with the plot twist! It's definitely different. Hope you are enjoying the story so far.
Present Time (NYO)
Weller kept glancing back in the rearview mirror for most of the drive back to the FBI office. He could hear Zapata offering words of encouragement to "Jane", telling her everything would be okay. He wasn't so sure. Was she really even Jane? That was the name they gave her, before he thought she was Taylor Shaw. They never did learn her real name, although to him and the team, she came to embody the name they chose for her: Jane.
He kept replaying the phone conversation in his mind and he couldn't help but focus on the second chance reference. Would it be possible for them to get to the same place they were before everything fell apart now that she had no memory? Now that he knew from the start she wasn't Taylor Shaw, would they be able to build a new relationship?
They reached the garage and Patterson and Borden were waiting with a wheelchair and a hospital gown and took Jane to the 2nd floor for a medical evaluation. After reviewing the findings, Patterson took Jane to change into street clothes and Borden made his way to the 4th floor to inform AD Weller of Jane's condition.
Borden found Weller in the conference room and proceeded to report their findings. "From what we can tell the ZIP that she has been injected with a second time has affected her the same way. She appears to have retained cognitive memory but her personal narrative has been obliterated. Also, from comparing her blood samples to when she came to us the first time, the ZIP was given in a much higher dosage this time."
"Jane told us, during her confession, that Oscar said he was going to use even more the second time to prevent the flashbacks from recurring. Do you think that's what happened?" Weller questioned.
"Obviously we can't be sure and we have no way of knowing when the injection took place although from the puncture mark on her forearm it would suggest that she was given the ZIP within the last 6-10 hours."
"So, that leaves us back at square one." Weller scrubbed his face with his hands and blew out a breath in frustration.
"Not exactly, at square one Agent Weller."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, we have been here before. When she came to us the first time, she was an enigma. But this time, she has a history and a name. "Jane" has a history, albeit a short one, with the FBI. We know some of her likes, skill set, temperament, things like that. For example, when I first met with her we talked about a person's history being a series of choices that they make to get them where they are now and that she just didn't remember hers. I even showed her an example. I gave her two cups, one with coffee and one with tea and asked her to try them both. She took one sip of the tea and turned up her nose and proclaimed that it tasted like grass clippings. In that one experiment, she remembered what grass trimmings tasted like and she figured out the she liked coffee instead of tea.
As someone who has probably spent the most time with her, you may be able to help guide her towards likes and skill sets she excels at to help restore her confidence. I also think that we should show her any videos or photos that show her with you and the team to see if maybe it will trigger a flashback to a shorter term memory.
There is also the knowledge that she is, in fact, not Taylor Shaw and that may eliminate some of the reconciliation Jane was experience previously because she could not connect any memory of Taylor to ones that she remembered experiencing."
The mention of Jane and Taylor as the same person made Weller guilt-ridden. His reaction to finding out about Taylor's murder by his own father; Mayfair's arrest and subsequent disappearance and Jane's behavior in the previous weeks had sent him over the edge emotionally and had ultimately gotten her kidnapped from FBI custody and memory wiped for a second time. Borden seemed to sense where Weller had gone in his mind and offered him a life line back.
"Agent Weller, you have a rare opportunity to start over. It will be hard especially since the memories of you and her will be one sided, but it is a starting point."
Starting point. Those words hit him hard. He remembered standing in Jane's safe house and hearing her utter those same words to him and taking his hand and placing it over her heart. He could still recall the electricity that seemed to coarse through is fingertips when he touched her bare skin just above the tank top she was wearing. Was that something he was really going to get back?
"How do you suggest we proceed?" He asked Borden, not trusting his own instincts.
"I think we should bring her into conversation and the planning going forward. We have the unique advantage of correcting some of our mistakes in the past. Her very first memory was triggered with you in the firing squad and she is an excellent marksman so I think you should take her there."
Weller smiled as he reminisced about their first time in the room. He was attempting to coach her through the mechanics of loading the weapons when she took over and loaded them like it was second nature. She then proceeded to hit the targets one by one dead center with precision he had never before witnessed. If he's completely honest with himself, the attraction probably started right then. He remembered standing behind her as she brought the handgun up to fire and it felt like he was fighting against a magnetic pull towards her body. It had been that way anytime they were in close quarters.
Weller's daydream was cut short by Patterson and "Jane" entering the conference room. "Jane" was dressed in her typical outfit of dark jeans, tank top and a Henley pullover which left just the bird tattoo on her neck and the hexagon shapes on her hands exposed. Weller managed a soft smile in her direction and held her gaze for just a split second before she looked away.
Weller cleared his throat and began to speak. "Jane."
"Why do you keep calling me that? I mean she said you didn't really know my name?" She said pointing at Patterson.
"Um, well, that's the name we give to unidentified females." Weller replied, slightly taken aback by her question.
"So there are lots of people running around with the name Jane Doe?"
Weller didn't have the heart to tell her that most common usage for Jane Doe was for unclaimed dead bodies. Borden sensed his hesitation and jumped in. "Well, Jane is the name we used when we opened your file the first time and that is the name that most of the team knows you as, but that doesn't mean we can't change it." He looked over at Patterson for some reassurance.
"Of course," the pretty blonde assured. "Your case file is actually coded as J. Doe – Female, so maybe we can come up will another female "J" name if you don't want to be called Jane."
"I don't want be called Jane." She replied barely above a whisper.
Patterson thought for a minute and exclaimed, "How about Jill? Still a female name, four letters, starts with "J"."
Patterson looked over and saw her nod her head slowly. She looked back at Patterson and said "Thank you."
Weller looked on with sadness in his eyes. It seemed that, although he was looking at "Jane", he couldn't help but feel like they were on their way to being completely disconnected.
Borden saved Weller from having to speak by filling Jill on what they had been discussing prior to her and Patterson's arrival.
"So you think if I retrace some of my first steps I might be able to trigger something?" Jill asked.
"Your first memory flashback was triggered when you and I were in the armory, so that seems like a good place to start." Weller said.
"Okay," Jill said pushing up from the table. "So do we start now?"
"Uh, sure. Let's just stop by office so I can drop these files off and then we can head down."
Weller led the way to the armory. He had already called down so several weapons were on the table in their assigned room. He was watching her as she moved around the table. "Which one should I use?" Jill asked.
"Whichever one seems like it might be the most comfortable for you." Weller responded. He remembered the first time they had been in that very same room, Jane had picked up, locked and loaded the M-4 on the table before he could even finish saying the name of the gun and explain how to fire it. This time around she circled the table twice before choosing the smallest handgun. She loaded it without direction but certainly didn't seem to handle the weapon like an extension of her hand the way he had seen her use guns in the past.
They stepped over to the target tunnel and she got herself set in a firing position. Weller leaned in close to reach around her to push the button that would send the paper target down the tunnel. He immediately noticed something felt odd. More accurately it was the "nothingness" that felt odd. He was just inches over her left shoulder but he felt as if he was in the room with a stranger. No electricity, no magnetic pull towards her, no need to steel himself from the unprofessional thoughts that used to enter his mind whenever he was physically this close to Jane. Nothing.
With the target in place, Jill rapidly fired off several shots. She pushed the button herself and watched as the target came to within a few feet of where she was standing. She smiled back at Weller, "I did pretty good huh?"
Weller just nodded. Every shot had hit the paper target but only one was dead center. The Jane he knew hit every target center mass, every time. They tried a few more weapons but the targets were just as inconsistent as the first one. Unfortunately, unlike the first time, the muscle memory exercise was not successful in triggering any new memories for Jill. It also, led to more confusion for Weller.
They took the elevator back to the 4th floor and wound through the hallways to Patterson's lab. The blonde was hunched over her keyboard and looking back and forth between three monitors filled with lines of code. "Ugh!" Patterson cried out in frustration.
"What's wrong?" Weller asked.
"We had to rewrite the program that links the internal and external databases and we are almost finished but the program keeps giving me an execution error every time it runs. I've had our best people working on it for most of the day and we aren't having any luck." Patterson sounded exasperated.
"Can I take a look at it?" Jill asked.
"Jane… I mean Jill, this program has hundreds of thousands of lines of code and I know you don't remember but computers aren't really your strong suit."
"Well, I just noticed that you have a redundancy code on the middle terminal that is forcing the this last of line of code to continue looking for a way to stop the loop. I know it's not going to fix the execution error but if I change the order of the binary line then we can identify the section of code that is giving you the problem and start from there."
"Huh. That just might work." Patterson said hopefully. Patterson and Jane huddled together over the terminals for a few more minutes when Jill sat straight up and got a faraway look. Weller knew that look. He had watched Jane experience flashbacks and he knew that's what was happening.
"What is it Ja- I mean Jill? Did you remember something?"
She closed her eyes trying to get the moment back. It was so fast, like a snippet of a black and white movie playing. She was at a computer terminal and someone handed her a usb stick with numbers to punch on the side. She saw a flash of long dark hair then nothing.
Jill stammered, "I'm not sure. It was so fast and then it was gone. But I think it was something. I just….it's gone."
Patterson put her hand on Jill's and told her it was going to be okay.
The moment was broken when Reade and Zapata sauntered into the lab carrying to trays of coffee. "How'd the armory go?" Reade asked.
"Yeah, Jane I hope you didn't let Weller win otherwise he'll never let you forget it." Zapata teased.
"Actually, its Jill and he didn't shoot with me. But I did hit the paper every time." Jill replied.
"Hit the paper….that's a good one." Reade retorted. "Center mass, I'm sure."
"No, only about half of them were on the target, the rest were on the outside." She corrected.
"You're kidding me?" Zapata sounded incredulous.
Reade looked over at Weller who responded simply by shrugging his shoulders.
Zapata set the coffee carriers down on the edge of the desk and proceeded to hand a cup to everyone. "I know it's not Bourbon, but I think we should toast to Jane…I mean Jill. I know it's going to be a long road for you but we will get through it together."
The four of them clinked cups with Jill watching with a confused look on her face. Patterson explained that at the end of toast, everyone touches glasses as a sign of good luck. Jill held up her glass and touched all the glasses one by one. Then she took a sip of the coffee.
"Yuck!" she said as she crinkled up her nose. "What is this stuff?"
"It's coffee from your favorite café about 2 blocks away." Zapata answered.
"Ew, I don't think I like it. It tastes bitter and it leaves a funny coating on my tongue. Are you sure I liked it?"
"Yeah, but maybe they changed something. I'll get you a water." Zapata turned on her heel and left to find a bottle of water.
Reade looked over at Weller who was clenching and unclenching his jaw. Reade knew that was never a good sign. He pulled Weller out of earshot of Patterson and Jill.
"Weller, what's going on? You look like you are ready to snap."
"I don't' know yet, but something's not right. I've got to find Borden but I need you to do me a favor and don't let her out of your sight." He instructed pointing to the tattoo covered woman currently calling herself Jill.
Present Time (Caribbean)
"Well done Jane!" Boston exuded with accolades. "You will have your Prince Charming naked in no time with moves like that."
Jane blushed as she reset the chess board for yet another match. After several hours of playing, she had finally beaten Boston 4 out of the last 5 games and he proclaimed her to be a modern day Bobby Fischer, whoever that was.
The late afternoon sun was moving behind the house and the shade was a welcome respite from the strong rays. Rich had excused himself after breakfast and hadn't been seen since. She knew that was going to change when the guards on the wall had shifted their perimeter.
"Houston we have a problem!" Rich called out in his booming bravado.
"Houston? Don't you mean Boston? I mean who are you talking to?" Jane asked curiously.
"Nevermind about that. Sometimes I forget your lack of pop culture knowledge. Maybe we can work on that while you're here. I would love a great binge watch session of amazing pop culture moments. But I digress. Janey my love, it appears that Stubbles has found you."
"WHAT!" Jane exclaimed leaping from her lounge chair. "He's here?"
"Well, no. It could be that you found him. I'm still getting information but whatever it is it can't be good."
"Rich, what the hell are you talking about?" Jane demanded.
"Here, see for yourself." Rich handed Jane a stack of color photos. "These were taken this morning at HQ. As you can see there is Stubbles, Patty and some guy I have no idea who he is but right here is YOU! I mean obviously not you because you are here but there is apparently another beautiful girl, who looks exactly like you right down to the beauty mark under your eye, covered in head to toe in tattoos who is currently keeping company with our very own cousin Stu."
Jane flipped through the photos several times. "I…I…don't understand. Who is she?" Jane questioned out loud.
"Well based on the fact that she is identical to you, covered in the same tattoos and the FBI is currently thinking it's you my best guess is that whoever took you and trained you to do what you can do, hit the hot girl assassin jackpot cause you must have a twin sister." Rich concluded.
Jane stared at the last photo of Kurt and the mysterious girl who was identical to her in every physical way sitting across from him at the conference table. She looked up at Rich with tears forming in her eyes and said "Now what?"
Rich replied in his usual cryptic way, "Yes, now what indeed."
Please review and let me know what you think and if you would like to continue reading this story. I am trying to have it finished before the start of the new season and reviews are great motivation!