agirllost | (no subject)

"I...oh God, Meg was right, I shouldn't have told him..."

Elaine comes over to Kim and puts a hand on her arm. "Whatever it is, we can fix later...but you cannot change what is done. We can work to solve the problem after we've accomplished what we need to now."

Elaine can feel herself beginning to tire, and though her eyes are closed as she sits on the bed and she is relaxed for the most part, her brows are knitted together and she just might be breaking a sweat.

She nods, 'Fix it, must fix it,' she thinks.

Kim notices the job is almost complete.

Watching Angela sleep and Chase comes up behind her, an arm around her waist, his other arm still in a sling, keeping his hand safe.

"Hey," he whispers, "Sorry that I'm late."

"It's okay, she fell asleep pretty easily."

Elaine is done with the filing of the green coded folders, and she closes the drawers. There's a key on the side of the cabinet, but Kim will have to lock it herself.

She looks over to see how she is doing.

Kim puts the last file away.

Sitting in the house and waiting for the phone to ring. I know he's going through things but it's not fair that he's pushing me away again. I want to call him but I'm angry and Angela's playing and our next door neighbor's in, I could get her to watch Angela for an hour so that I can take in a run, clear my head.

Chase is off getting therapy again and his hand needs a lot of therapy and he's been so distant and between him and dad, I just feel so alone.

A run. That will make me feel better.

She sees Kim close the filing cabinet, and beckons for her to come over to the other filing cabinet.

"You have to take the key and lock your false memories in here. You'll remember them, but only as you would remember a vivid dream or memorable nightmare. You will know what is real, and what isn't."

Kim nods, "I...Elaine, thank you. I..."

Elaine smiles. "If I hadn't finally figured it out tonight, I think I would have gone mad from those dreams, so I am glad to help."

"How do I lock this?"

"There's a key on the side of the cabinet. I can't really touch it."

There's a small hook where the key is hanging.

Kim reaches out for the key and when she touches it she's assaulted by the memories of the other place. She knows it's another place, she remembers leaving the bar, remembers entering it.

Before she can get sucked back in, she puts the key in the hole and turns it, locking the drawer and takes a step back.

Elaine takes a deep breath. "Are you all right? Are you ready to go back?"

"I...I think so."

She nods.

"All right. Take my hand again."

Kim does and Elaine closes her eyes.

One...two...three...

There's a lurch again to the side, and Kim is once again in bed, sitting against the headboard.

Elaine smiles. "Welcome back, Kim."

Elaine herself is trembling a little. She's extremely exhausted.

Kim opens her eyes and sees Elaine and Ryan.

She waits for the conflicting memories but she looks at Ryan and only remembers what happened to him.

Elaine looks exhausted but Kim can't help but reach out and hug her, "Elaine, thank you Elaine, thank you, thank you," she whispers.

Elaine laughs tiredly. "Oh, I'm just so glad I could help you, my friend...so glad."

Sweat is cooling on her body, making her tremble more.

Kim notices the trembling. She pulls back and glances at Ryan. "Elaine, are you okay?"

"Oh, just tired. It took a lot out of me...but a good night's sleep, I'll be right as rain, don't worry."

Elaine looks over at Ryan and smiles. "It would have been much easier if this thing came with...instructions."

Ryan moves a little closer and puts and hand on her arm. He was pretty wary of anything magical and even though he was glad Kim was ok he was a little worried about the effect the pendant might have on Elaine.

He still has no idea how to process what he just saw so he looks between Elaine and Kim. "Everything is ok, now?"

"I think everything is. I'm relieved, and Kim knows which memories are which now." She grins. Oh, she's going to have a good night's sleep...and probably half the day the next day, as well.

Kim nods, "I...dad, I have to see dad and Chase and I know that I've hur them and..."

"Kim, they're going to be so glad you know who they really are now...they're not going to hold anything against you. And you should go to see your father...he has been ill, he would love to see you--I think it would do him a world of good." Elaine keeps her voice gentle as she talks about Jack. Kim's just recovered from a tremendous shock and Elaine doesn't want to shock her still further.

"He...he's been ill? What happened?" Kim picks up on that immediately. She remembers he was in the bar from later she knows that a man who looked like him died in front of her but *now* she knows that wasn't her father, at least not the version she knows.

"Someone, we have good ideas of who--" here she looks to Ryan for confirmation, "--poisoned him. He had what looked to be a heart attack. But Nita was there, and she healed him. He's been resting in his room since then. He's going to be fine, Kim. But you should go to see him, I'm sure he will be terribly happy."

At the words 'poisoned him' she almost jumped from the bed, "He...he had a what?" her face pales.