Second Chances (38 page)

"Had to be certain."

"So we passed then?"

"That last slip of paper wouldn't have had a phone number on it if you hadn't."

Nathan let out a sigh of relief. She was being honest, he was certain of that.

"So now what?"

The line went silent and for a minute he worried she'd hung up.

"I guess," she began and then sighed. "I guess it's time we meet up."

He could tell she wasn't happy about it. She sounded as if she had been hoping she could just have ended the situation and left them roaming the mall indefinitely.

"Where and when?"

The woman let loose a string of expletives before giving him instructions.

Nathan opened the window and tossed the phone out before turning to Paige. She started the car and asked, "Where to?"

"Back to Middletown, the Seaside Motel."

They rode back in silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts and fears of what they might find.

"I feel like I am going to throw up," Paige said as she turned into the parking lot of the motel. She drove around and parked toward the back.

"I know what you mean, but we'll be okay. I promise, we will make it through this. Room twenty-three," he said pointing.

She brought the car to a stop and they sat there for a moment. He reached over and gently rubbed her shoulder. "Come on."

They got out of the car and walked to the door. Nathan moved in front of Paige and then knocked.

The door swung open and a tall woman stood in the doorway. Nathan guessed she was several years older than himself, but that could have just been from the stress she was obviously under. She was attractive, but he had a hard time looking at anything other than the gun in her hand.

Paige wasn't looking at the woman or the gun, she was looking beyond her to the man sitting on the edge of the bed. She squinted at him, a puzzled look on her face. Her eyes went wide, she gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. She nudged Nathan aside, her eyes never wavering from the man.

"Dad?"

Paige pushed past Julie, bumping the gun in her hand. Julie let out a startled gasp and quickly took her finger off the trigger and tumbled into Nathan.

Paige knelt on the floor in front of Jason, her eyes locked on his. She reached out and touched his face. He looked down into her eyes, tears glistening at the corners of his own.

"It really is you, isn't it?"

Jason placed his hands over hers and gently squeezed them.

"How?"

Julie grabbed Nathan's arm and pulled him into the room and after a quick look in the parking area, closed the door.

"You...died," Paige murmured. "But...then so did I. Didn't I?"

Jason swallowed hard, his tears now running freely down his cheeks.

Nathan looked at Julie then down at the gun still in her hand. He arched his eyebrows questioningly.

She frowned and then sighed before lowering the gun.

"So much," Jason began and then his voice cracked. He dropped his head into his hands.

"Take your time, Dad."
 

Nathan shook his head slightly. None of this made sense. He had spent the last few days trying to convince Paige that he knew her and she had fought him every step of the way. They had entered the room only seconds ago and yet already she was certain the old man on the bed was her father, even though she remembered him dying.

His laugh caught everyone off guard. It actually took Nathan a moment to realize he'd been the one who'd laughed. He dismissed the questioning gazes of the others with a wave of his hand. How could he explain that he was partially upset with Paige for doing exactly what he had done only days earlier in the airport. He had seen her and instantly known, believed, it was her, just as she was doing now with the man on the bed.

"How?" she asked again, looking from Jason to Julie and back again.

Jason cleared his throat and wiped at the tears. "So much to tell you. So much," he paused again and gently slapped his right hand against his head. "So much, I don't remember. Julie, help me remember. Please."

Paige studied the face of the man for a minute before looking over at Julie. "What is wrong with him?"

Nathan studied the woman and swore the look on her face was guilt.

Julie sighed. "As your dad said, so much to explain."

"So he really is her father?"

"Yes. No." Julie tossed her hands up in frustration. "I don't know exactly how I would say it. He is Jason Kendall and he had a daughter named Paige."

"And she died in a fire?" Paige asked.

"Not in the fire," Jason corrected. "After the fire."

"Can we start from the beginning?" Nathan asked.

Jason began to open his mouth, but Julie waved him quiet.

"No, not yet. I am not comfortable sitting here. I am not comfortable being here at all. I want to keep moving."

"We jumped through all your hoops already. You still think we are being followed or tracked?" Nathan asked.

"Yes, I know it sounds paranoid, but you don't know who we are dealing with. I need to be paranoid," Julie said. "I think I am going to need to be paranoid for the rest of my life."

Nathan could hear the sadness in her voice and he honestly felt sorry for her. She looked tired, borderline exhausted. He didn't know what this woman had been going through or how long she had been going through it, but it was quite clear she was on edge.

"So what do you want from us?"

Julie looked at Paige and considered her question. She could see confusion in the girl's face and hear the desperation in her voice. She could see the same look in Jason and she had to fight her urge to breakdown in tears.

"I'm sorry, Paige. You've no clue the danger we are in. I am just not comfortable staying in one place, not here anyway. By this time, my original plan had Jason and I a very long way away from here."

"Well I need to know what the hell is going on," Paige said, looking from Julie to Jason. "A few days ago I thought I knew everything about myself and my past, but that was all a lie. I...I died, maybe? I remember my father dying, but..." She gestured at Jason. "I see that I am wrong about that too. Is anything I think I know real?"

Her voice was cracking, she was on the verge of completely losing it. Nathan went to her and put his arms around her, doing his best to comfort her.

"Okay, you don't want to stay in one place too long, then let's get out of here. We can take my car or yours, whichever. We can drive wherever you want and while we do, you can explain all this. Deal?"

All eyes were on Julie, even Jason's. His most of all, actually. They seemed to be pleading with her. Nathan got the impression that he needed this even more than Paige.

"You didn't have us jump through all those hoops just to let Paige see her father and then leave us high and dry, did you?"

Julie swore under her breath. "No, I guess not. Jason, are you up for more time in the car?"

He shook his head yes.

"Okay, can you help him to the car? He's getting his muscle strength back, but he is still hurting more then he will let on."

"Getting his strength back from what?" Paige asked, concern clearly showing on her face.

"Later, once we are on the way."

Julie did a quick sweep of the room, looking for anything that might indicate that they had been there. Nathan helped Jason to his feet and could tell Julie was right, the man was leaning heavily on him. Paige reached out a hand to help, but hesitated. Jason smiled weakly at her and after a moment she returned his smile.

"My car or yours?" Nathan asked.

Julie joined them outside and indicated her vehicle. "You don't mind driving, do you?"

The way she voiced the question, Nathan knew he really had no choice. He was also certain that she would likely have her hand on or near her gun the entire time.
 

He helped to buckle Jason into the backseat, Paige sitting with him and then he climbed in behind the wheel. Julie joined him in the front and sure enough her hand rested half in and half out of her purse. He looked at her hand and then at her.

"I'm not going to apologize."

He could hear the stress in her voice and wondered just how much trouble were they actually in.

"Where to?"

"Doesn't matter I guess. Just make sure you stick to the speed limit and follow the rules of the road."

He nodded at Julie's instructions and started the car. He pulled out of the lot and turned right on a course that would take them to the Newport Bridge.

"So," Julie said. "Where should I start?"

Silence hung in the car. Nathan flicked his eyes to the rearview mirror and saw that both Paige and her father seemed dazed. He wondered why the old man seemed almost as confused as Paige.

"I'm not Paige, am I?"

Jason reached over and took her hand and squeezed it, before looking at Julie. He seemed as eager to hear the answer as Paige.

"You are and you aren't."

"What does ..."

"Why does he seem confused about all this?" Nathan interrupted.

"That is all part of the story. He knew all of it at one time," Julie said reaching back and taking his hand from Paige. "To protect me, he gave up so much of himself."

"Start from the beginning," Jason said softly. "I'll help as best I can."

"No, please tell me who I am first. Whose memories do I have? They obviously aren't right. I clearly remember you dying. But I...or Paige, whoever is the one who actually died."

Her voice was cracking again and Nathan had to fight the urge to stop the car and try to comfort her.

"You are Paige Kendall, just not the original one."

"What are you saying. I am some kind of copy? Some kind of clone or something?"

"Yes, that is exactly what I am saying."

Nathan wanted to laugh at Julie's words, but he'd seen too much these past few days to even consider her to be joking. "How is that possible?"

"How do I have her memories? Well some of her memories? How do I ..."

"Wait. Like Jason said, let me start at the beginning."

"But," Paige began to protest.

"No, let her tell the story," Jason insisted.

"Your memories are a mix of the original Paige's and a fantasy that Jason helped make up."

"I don't understand why..."

"I'm going to explain," Julie said, her impatience sounding clearly in her voice.

"Go ahead," Nathan urged.

"Okay. The memories you have of your father and mother are fake. Your mother was a scientist like Jason. They were both neurologists. Well Jason was so much more, but..." She waved her hand, dismissing the thought.
 

"Is my mother...Paige's mother still alive too?"

"No," Julie said softly. "The memory you have of her death is real. She died when you...Paige was younger."

Paige's eyes flicked to Jason and she could see the sadness in his face.

"Paige became his world. I eventually wormed my way in," she said was a sad smile.
 

"I don't understand."

"I fell in love with your father when I was taking one of his courses."

"Courses?"

"I am not doing a very good job of explaining things, am I?"

"I taught a few courses at...Harvard," Jason said, looking at Julie for confirmation. She nodded. "Julie was one of my students. Later she became one of my research assistants. And later we became closer."

"I was in love with your father from the day I met him. Took me forever to let him know, but I won't bore you with that story."

"Cloning? Was that the type of research you did?" Nathan asked.

"No, Alzheimer's," Julie answered. "Like I said, the brain was his area of expertise. He was trying to understand the disease and come up with a cure. To say he was on the cutting edge would be like saying the guy who made the stealth bomber was on the cutting edge of paper airplane technology."

"What do you mean?"

Both Paige and Jason remained quiet, leaning forward a little, anticipating the answer.

"I won't pretend to say I understand a quarter of what Jason does or did. None of us do, even after all this time. Memories are stored chemically, proteins encoded in the brain. Well Jason developed a way to scan, map, record and transfer those memories."

"To what end? I mean how would that help Alzheimer victims?"

"Understanding how something works is one of the first steps to knowing how to fix it. If this car broke down, could you fix it? Could you diagnose what was wrong with it?"

"No."

"Neither could I. But a mechanic could. A mechanic knows how a car engine works. He knows what each part is and what they are supposed to do. Jason was seeing how the brain and memory, specifically, worked. The stuff he developed was incredible. He started small. As with almost all research, it started with mice."

"Mice?"

"Yes, I am sure you've heard of training mice to run a complex maze. Well he would train a mouse to learn a maze, then he used his techniques to transfer that knowledge from that mouse to another mouse that had never seen the maze."

"I remember those experiments," Jason said, a sad smile on his face. Nathan guessed there was much he did not remember.

"Does he have Alz..."

"No. Not real Alzheimer's," Julie insisted. "I will get to that. I wasn't his assistant at the time he was doing those experiments. Most of this I learned later from Jason and from reading his notes. Most of which, I will be honest, I couldn't come close to understanding."

"So what happened?" Paige asked.

"You did. Paige did. The fire. It was clear that there was no way Paige was going to recover from the fire. Jason refused to let her go. During her final days, he scanned her six ways from Sunday. Did every test he could imagine and recorded her memories. At the time I don't know what he thought he might do with them, but he couldn't let go and so he preserved her the only way he knew how."

"I couldn't just let her go," Jason whispered. "I didn't have a real plan. I was completely lost until Bill called."

"Bill?" Paige asked.