Thanks Nancy for betaing this despite being terribly busy. You're the best!
PART TWELVE
Although my interview with Winslow hadn’t given me as much information as I had hoped, I knew the research notes he had given me would be of particular use to Ellie. So I had gone over to STAR labs later in the day to give them too her.
I was just approaching the door of the lab when I heard a clatter of something hitting the floor. I entered with concern. I had been mostly joking when I had told Jon about the lab blowing up around them, yet having two people who equally disliked each other in the same space couldn’t be good for either tempers.
“Hey, it’s me,” I announced. “What’s going-” I stopped abruptly when I saw Ellie and Jay tumble off the counter together and onto the floor. I heard them scramble around behind the counter space, and then Ellie popped into view. She looked flushed and a little breathless as she smoothed her hair into place.
“Kaylie! We… weren’t expecting you here.”
“Are you guys okay?” I asked with concern. “What happened?”
“We’re fine,” Jay assured me as he came into view. “You just startled us, that’s all.”
What had they been doing? Wrestling? Okay, obviously not. As much as Jay might find Ellie to be annoying, I had a hard time believing that he would physically attack her. And the same went for Ellie.
“That looked like quite the fall,” I offered sympathetically, still trying to figure out what exactly had happened.
“We were sort of tangled up beforehand,” Jay explained. “The whole thing was kind of an accident.”
“It was?” Ellie asked, seeming to be irrationally upset by this information.
“Well, maybe an accident in the sense that I didn’t expect it to happen,” Jay rushed to correct. “But that’s not saying I regret it happening.”
“Yeah,” Ellie agreed. “I mean, I don’t. Regret it, that is.”
“In fact,” Jay continued. “I would be happy to do it all over again. As soon as I had the chance.”
“Me too,” Ellie replied, and I was surprised to see her blush.
“Okay, I give up,” I told them. “What are you two talking about?” It sounded suspiciously like… But no. I knew how those two felt about each other. Something like that would be impossible.
“Nothing!” Ellie replied, snapping her attention back to me.
“Yeah, nothing,” Jay agreed.
“So, you must’ve come here for a reason,” Ellie continued. “What’s up?”
“I have something for you,” I told her, allowing myself to focus on the investigation. Whatever bizarre interaction my brother had going on with Ellie wasn’t the most important thing here. “I just came from my meeting with Dr. Winslow.”
“I filled Ellie in on what you told me last night,” Jay said. “How did it go?”
“He couldn’t give me a lot of information on our criminal mastermind, but he did give me as much of his research as he could.” I plopped the duffle bag on the counter. “It’s all in there.” Ellie pounced happily on whatever contents the bag would produce, but Jay was not so easily distracted.
“So what did he manage to tell you?” he asked quietly.
“Not much,” I replied grouchily. I relayed the information Winslow had given me, including the research lab he had worked in.
“Are you going to go check it out?”
“Not yet,” I replied. “If Winslow was working there, it’s unlikely there would be anything pointing to the people who funded him. I’ll maybe try to see if I can find out who owns the place.”
“But it’s obvious that Winslow was turning a blind eye to a lot of the activities around him,” Jay pointed out. “It’s likely that he missed something.”
“I guess,” I admitted. “But I don’t really want to take the risk of going over there. He was almost caught when he went and that’s the last thing I need right now.”
“Yeah, okay. You’re probably right,” he relented. “I just want this whole thing wrapped up, you know?”
“Me too. But at least now we have Winslow’s notes. Ellie can maybe try to find a way to reverse the procedure.”
“It’s possible,” Ellie told us from across the lab. “These notes are pretty thorough, but you did say he didn’t grab them all. There might be something missing, I’ll know when I work on them more.”
“Were you listening in on our conversation?” Jay asked with shock.
“My ears were burning,” she replied impishly.
“Oh, so you just eavesdropped. Yeah, I can see why that might make sense as opposed to maybe *telling* us that…”
And they were arguing again. But as I listened to them, I realized that the dynamic between then had changed subtly. They weren’t actually enjoying it, were they? Quickly, I dismissed that thought from my mind. There’s no way they were actually starting to like each other. Right?
* * *
I had decided to change into my Molly Turner disguise in order to go back to the Planet. It would give me the freedom I needed to use whatever Planet resources I needed without causing suspicion. Of course, it might not have been entirely necessary as I didn’t plan on doing a lot of solo work, but I still wanted to make the effort. As soon as I got there, I walked straight to Jon’s office and tapped the door lightly before entering. Jon was hunched over his desk, but he looked up when I came in.
“Can I help…” he trailed off, staring at me intently. I stood there, willingly submitting to his inspection. “Kaylie?” he asked tentatively.
“Damn it,” I surrendered merrily. “You win again.”
“I… what?”
“I told you before that you wouldn’t be able to recognize me in this disguise if you didn’t already know it was me. I guess I was wrong.” I shut the door after me and sat across from him in the same place I had occupied the night before.
“Well, to be completely fair, I did have some… extra help.” He gestured to his ears. “No matter how hard you try, you can’t disguise your heartbeat.”
“I’ll have to bring that to the attention of the NIA,” I teased, secretly pleased that he had already relearned my heartbeat. Or maybe it was something he had never really forgotten. Either way, it was still touching.
“So how did your meeting with Winslow go?”
“Not as good as I wanted, but not as bad as it could’ve been.” I filled him in on the events of the day.
“So you want me to see if I can find the owner of the research facility?”
“That would be nice,” I suggested sweetly.
“You know, for the National Intelligence Agency, you guys seem to be pretty ill-equipped,” Jon teased me. “Don’t you have resources for this kind of thing?”
“Well, I suppose I could leave and go do it myself…”
“No way,” he shook his head. “You’re staying here.”
“Thanks,” I told him as he began to start the research I had asked. “I guess in all honesty, the reason why I don’t like running to the NIA is because I don’t entirely trust them. There’s only so long you can uncover corrupt agents before it starts to get at you. And it’s not like they value me very highly anyway. Just take what happened to Jay, for example. He gets into trouble on assignment and they dump him like a hot potato. Yeah, they’re going to pay him compensation and everything, but Jay was completely dedicated to the NIA and they just threw him out when he got to be a liability. And they would do the same to me.”
“So if you don’t trust them, why work for them?”
“Parental pressure?” I suggested wryly. “But seriously, I guess it’s because I can’t just walk away from a problem when I see it. So despite all the agency’s issues I stick with it because I know that I’m making a difference.”
Jon smiled briefly at me, and then returned to his work. “Oh, here we go,” he announced. “The building Winslow was working in is owned by SF Technologies. That sounds familiar…”
“Really?”
“I was doing some reading today on all the stuff Supernova’s been up to in the last few months, and… Yeah, here, take a look,” he pointed at his computer screen. “SF Technologies is a small company owned by Sharon Fleming.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Yeah, apparently I was supposed to testify at her trial coming up.”
“Jon!” I exclaimed, feeling the puzzle pieces coming into place.
“What?” he asked warily.
“You can’t testify anymore!” I explained excitedly. “You forgot seven moths of your memory, and the Fleming case broke open six months ago. And your mom said Supernova’s testimony was instrumental in the trial.”
“So Fleming wanted to make sure I couldn’t testify so he case would be weakened,” Jon filled in.
“And by erasing the last seven months of your memory, not only did you forget everything about the trial; you also forgot all the work you must’ve done before her arrest as well.”
“Do we have enough to prove that?”
“She owns Winslow’s lab. With his testimony, that’s pretty convincing evidence. How about you check into her financial statements and see if there’s any trace of the money she paid him?”
We spent the next few hours poking around Fleming’s accounts, digging up more and more information that showed she was connected to Winslow’s research.
“So where does Gertrude fit into all of this?” Jon asked.
“Fleming probably hired her on an unofficial basis to do all her dirty work,” I hypothesized. “We couldn’t find her anywhere because she’s probably not even a legal employee.”
“So she solicits Winslow and acts as the middle man for Fleming. If things go wrong, there’s nothing tying Fleming to anything illegal. When Winslow starts having second thoughts about the whole project-”
“About the time Jay was caught by Fleming,” I added.
“Right,” he agreed. “Winslow starts to have doubts when they use his machine to attack a federal agent. Fleming decides it’s not worth the risk anymore and sends Gertrude to take him out.”
“She gets caught by me, and taken to the police.” I continued the story. “But what she doesn’t know is that she never actually killed Winslow. Well, she did kill one Winslow, but the wrong one. His brother, not the scientist. Hopefully, she still doesn’t know.”
“With Winslow out of the picture, it’s even easier to use the machine to erase my memories of the trial.”
I nodded in agreement. “So after being sent to jail, Fleming sends a lawyer to bail Gertrude out. I know we couldn’t find out who could’ve sent the lawyer based on his name alone, but is there any way we can find a connection between him and any of Fleming’s companies?” Sure enough, the lawyer was listed as one Fleming’s legal consultants in a number of documents.
“Just the fact that her main offices are in the LuthorCorp building is also suspicious,” I suggested after we had collected more than enough information to create an air-tight case. “Winslow said his money was left at the front desk of the building.”
“So now what do we do?” Jon asked teasingly. “Storm her office and take her in?”
“Not exactly,” I told him with amusement. “Actually, I was thinking of letting the official NIA guys take care of it. They’ll bring out the big guns and get her into custody. Her activities in the last few days would definitely be enough to make sure she’s locked up until her trial. And as much as I have confidence in my disguise capabilities, I’d rather not test them unnecessarily. Bedsides, I have other plans tonight that are a lot more fun than tackling criminals.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah,’ I replied coyly. “They involve celebrating the solving of this investigation with this really great guy I know. If he’s free, that is.”
“He might be,” Jon replied. “Are you planning on doing this celebrating soon?”
“Very,” I confirmed. “Oh but wait, your mom will probably kill us if we took this to the NIA without telling her. And then we should probably actually take it to the NIA…”
“But after that?”
“After that, we’ll be able to celebrate however we choose.”
* * *
“So this is your ideal celebration?”
“I like pizza. So sue me.”
“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with pizza. I just would’ve thought you’d do something a little more out of the ordinary, that’s all.”
“And catching the person who’s responsible for creating a memory wiping device that erased the last seven months of your life is ordinary?”
“C’mon, Kaylie. It’s not too far-fetched.”
I laughed. “You only think that because you’ve got a skewed version of reality growing up with your parents. I’ve already heard about half their stories and I still can’t believe them.”
“Some of them are pretty far out there,” he conceded.
“That’s an understatement,” I replied. “So anyway, after I’ve spent the last few days doing all kinds of crazy things, I’d like to just kick back and do something ordinary with the guy I love. Is that too much to ask?”
“I guess not,” he told me, bringing me closer to him as we sat together on his sofa.
“So Ellie thinks that the research Winslow gave me could help to find a way to reverse the whole memory thing,” I told him.
“That’s good,” Jon replied. “Maybe then I can get my memories back.”
“It’s got to be kind of scary for you,” I told him. “You have no idea what you’ve missed in the last few months. And how your memories have changed who you are.”
“Maybe it’s a little scary,” he admitted. “I know a lot has happened to me personally speaking in the last seven months. And to not have a clear idea of how that’s impacted me is a little disconcerting. But Kaylie,” he continued earnestly, “memory or not, the way that I feel about you hasn’t changed. Just being with you for the last couple days has been so incredible. And even if Ellie can’t find a way to reverse the procedure, I still… I still love you Kaylie. It took me a bit to realize that, but I do know it now.”
“Oh, Jon.” I was at a loss for words. I saw Jon reach into his pocket and bring out my engagement ring. “Are you sure?” I asked, unconsciously bringing my hand up to receive it.
“Positive.” He slipped the ring back on my finger, took my hand, and kissed it. I shivered a little as I stared into his eyes. That lost, searching look I had gotten used to the last couple days was replaced by the look of a man who knew exactly what he wanted.
The spell was immediately broken, however, with the arrival of Ellie through the window.
“Kaylie! Great! When you weren’t at your apartment I hoped you would be here.”
“Ellie. Hi.” I wrenched my gaze away from Jon and tried to focus on what she was saying. “What’s going on?”
“We did it,” she announced, her eyes twinkling triumphantly. “Jay’s got his memory back.”
“That’s great!” I commended enthusiastically. I hadn’t hoped it would be this fast.
“And you’ll never guess who it that’s behind all this! It’s-”
“Sharon Fleming,” Jon filled in.
Ellie deflated a little. “How did you know?”
“We figured it out earlier today,” I told her apologetically.
“Well, that’s great,” she said. “Jay’s memories can solidify your case. That’s not the only reason that I came over here for anyway. Jon, if you want to come over the STAR labs now, I can reverse the whole procedure.”
“Right now? That soon?” I replied excitedly.
“No reason to prolong it,’ Ellie shrugged.
“Well, sure, I guess now’s as good a time as any,” Jon said.
As the three of us headed off to STAR labs, I was extremely excited. Fleming was probably already in custody, Jay had his memory back, and Jon’s was soon to return. Everything was shaping up well. Until we entered the lab.
“Where’s Jay?” I asked Ellie.
“He was here just a few minutes ago,” she replied with concern. “Maybe he went in the back somewhere?” But he wasn’t there. We searched the entire lab area to no avail.
Jay had disappeared.
