Down Memory Lane [closed]

[Sexual_Muse]

"Is this true?" A folder slammed on the metal desk and echoed in the sparely decorated room of her supervising officer.

"Depends on what you're talking about Harlow." He smiled leaning back in his office chair pushing the folder away from from him with the end of his pen. Like always his thinning black hair was slicked back with far too much pomade and there was a smell of stale cigar smoke in the air that tainted the clean crisp air that pumped with through the complex's underground facility.

"All of it." Harlow snarled watching as the folder tittered on the edge of the desk before falling, the papers stuffed into the folder scattering all over the concrete floor.

"Humph." The chair squeaked as Charon shifted his weight. Named after the Greek ferryman there was little weight to shift yet the old worn in chair whined. He was built wiry but unbelievably strong and tall enough to loom over those both shorter and taller then him. That's how his personality was, there was no one he seemed to be afraid of and everyone gave him a wide berth even in his best of mood. All but Harlow. His new position gave him a better view of his computer screen, giving off the air of finality about the conversation Harlow was trying to have with him.

Harlow couldn't believe this. The documents scattered on the floor were free of their normal blacked out sections, reporting every detail of the scouting mission, the mission that she had just finished. "This man... what the reports said he was working on..." She had been working for Charon since she was sixteen and this was the first time she had outwardly questioned him. "What it says, it can't be true." Even to her own ears her voice sounded weak and pleading. "The cure to medical diseases, cancer even polio."

"There was something about that in the report, yes."

There was-?!?!? Harlow's jaw dropped. He wasn't even going to deny it? "So it's true?" Harlow had questioned where she had gotten the uncensored scout report but once she had started reading it she had stopped wondering. The report had been completely different then the one she had gotten detailing an international bioterrorist building a massive syndicate with a goal of targeting the governments so they could take over.

"In so many words?" Charon turned slowing shrugging his bony shoulders together. "Yes." The corners of his lips turned up in a smirk void of any emotions.

"They why did I kill him!" Harlow wanted answers to all the questions that were running through her mind but there were too many and her mouth seemed unwilling to ask them in fear of what she would hear.

Charon let out a heavy breath and turned his chair realizing that Harlow wouldn't just go away. "Because you were told to. As simple as that." His tone was clipped and this face gave every indication that he was done with this conversation since trying to brush her off the first time didn't work.

"But Charon the things he was doing. The medical breakthrough-"

Charon leapt from his chair his open palms slamming on his desk silencing his best agent. "Do you think he was the first innocent man we've killed. You've killed?" He questioned her, anger straining his voice and making his veins pop on his neck as he leaned into her with every word. "Studies like Mr. Wüthrich can't be let loose on the world. They must be controlled, used and be seen not as a single occurrence but as pawn in the game of power."

Harlow was stunned into silence before being paralyzed with rage. The game of power. Weren't they here to help people. Being confronted by the idea that she had killed innocent people before made her sick, she was always told she was wiping out the scum of the earth. She had been comfortable with that idea when it came to missions that required her to kill but now she was rethinking every time she had pulled that trigger or unsheathed her knife.

"Your dismissed." Charon eased back into his chair the vein in his neck back to normal.

"Sir." Harlow left his office swiftly and returned to her pod within the Warrens.

~~~

Air superiority fighter jets, utility helicopters, even cargo-transport aircrafts. At Harlow's fingertips was also a vast array of watercrafts designed of any situation. And the list of weapons was enough to make any girl swoon. Harlow had accesses to things that would make 007 green with pure envy and the last ten year with L.O.C.K. she had just assumed that these toys just came from the military.

Since the confrontation with Charon months ago things had changed in every way for Harlow. That day was the triggering point in Harlow's life, the moment that lead up to this point. She knew she had been watched since that day but she had made a point of returning to her old self, of being the perfect little soldier until they stopped watching so closely.

Harlow nervously thumbed the razor edge of the knife, letting it graze over her skin calming her. This had to be the day, there would be no other chance. Charon had assembled a team of his own and gave Harlow the role of piloting the heli. To run a blackout from L.O.C.K. to the drop zone. Leaving her a block of time alone. If the flight was clean there and back.

The handle of the fixed tactical knife warmed in her palm. A comfort as the only thing she really truly owned. It had once belonged to her great grandfather and was with Harlow no matter where she went awake or asleep. Over and over the knife scraped the pad of Harlow's thumb until her watch chirped that it was time.

On the bay level of the Warrens Harlow trailed her fingertips over the planes that she had once flown and wished that what she was about to do made it possible to take them all. But what she had learned meant getting out of here and letting the world know the truth.

~~~

The night was perfect for a blackout mission. It was the night of a new moon with a thick cloak of cloud cover so not even a single star could be seen. Even the wind was with them for it had been ages since Harlow had flown such a smooth ride. That it was so perfect worried Harlow even more. It made her hyper aware of everything just waiting for the the shift in the wind so to say.

"Three minutes." Charon's over crackled over the speakers in the headphones.

Harlow looked over her shoulder. Six of the best agents within L.O.C.K. crowed the helicopter, fidgeting with their gear preparing for their coming up mission.

"Twenty... fifteen....ten..." Harlow counted down knowing that they could hear her. "Nine.. eight... seven..." Charon stood up and the five with him followed suit. "Six... five... four..."

"Ta-ta Har-har." A flirtatious voice taunted before the six men jumped from the helicopter when Harlow reached zero.

"Red in forty." Charon's voice told Harlow when he touched down.

Forty minutes? With that time restraint she could never get to the Warrens and back within the time that she needed to be back here. "Green." Harlow confirmed lifting off and heading to a cold spot. Her hand resting on the handle of her knife, it wiggled in it's sheath and shimmied as if loose.

"Oh and Harlow..."

She had just been frantically thinking about how she would get to the Warrens when his voice cut through her thoughts.

"Sir?"

"Sorry about this."

Harlow was very familiar with that sound. The sound that bullets made when cutting through the air. 'Shit!' Falling instinctively into her training. The sound of tearing metal screeched over the sound of the sound of the rotating propellers as Harlow fought to keep the bird up in the sky.

The bulletproof front of the heli spider webbed as the rounds pierced through the glass. "Fuck." Pain blasted through Harlow's shoulder and blood soaked the cotton shirt under her leather jacket. It was warm, throbbing and between that and the webbed window it was getting harder and harder to concentrate. More bullets rained down on her and the helicopter dropped. Red light flashed over her bash and a shrill came from somewhere in the back. The thick smell of smoke reached her nose paired with that of fuel.

Harlow knew she was in a losing battle and the intense heat that hit her back pushed her out of her seat. Her head hit the window and get felt it give. It was either that or her head had just caved in. She could taste blood in her mouth, the copper taste sickening her as she continued to fight.

Another rain of bullets and the helicopter exploded, throwing Harlow through the air. Luckily for her she blacked out that particular moment. What happened next was a patched movie of images that didn't make sense to Harlow. Fire and pain. Trees? Fear urging her to run. A river and the sound of water. A cold chilling grip of death. There was no air, she couldn't breathe! Blackness... hard uninviting darkness...

 

[BeachBum25]

Patrick McLaughlin was a well-educated, athletic man. He grew up on his parents farm, and working on the farm meant that he never really had to lift weights. Doing his chores before school and then before he started his homework helped to build a body that was strong and lean. He had played football in college. There actually had been some talk that if he wanted to he could have played in the NFL; even if it had only been as a back-up and special teams player. However, during his senior year in college, Patrick had decided that he wanted to medical school. When Patrick put his mind to it, there was no doubt that it would be accomplished.

His first year of medical school was draining. He missed playing football; something he had done from the time he was six years old. The hours of study were long, but Patrick was doing well. It was right before the end of the school year when Patrick got the phone call. His parents had been killed in a car crash when a tractor trailer had failed to stop at a stop sign. He was devastated. He flew home. Being the only child it was going to be on him to take care of the arrangements. After the funeral, as Patrick packed to return to school for the finals, he made a life-changing decision. He looked around the house, and then walked outside and looked out over the fields. He couldn't bring himself to sell the farm that his parents had worked so hard for. It would have been one thing if his parents had sold it at some point, but he couldn't do it. Patrick decided to stay and work the farm. That had been eight years ago.

Today, Patrick is married to the farm. He never takes a vacation. He never takes a day off. He works long hours, and every time he thinks about giving the farm up, he thinks of his parents. He starts early every morning. He has some regulars that work for him year round, and during harvest time there are quite a few migrant workers that come to work his farm. He does not ask about their immigration status, because he does not think it is a bad thing that they come and work hard to provide for their families. At times he worries though. There are times when he sees a helicopter flying overhead, or he sees police vehicles driving by that ICE is coming to get him for hiring illegals. It doesn't stop him though. They are great workers.

Patrick decided to sit outside tonight after dinner. It was a beautiful night, and the area was lit by the moon. He sat in an old rocking chair and just stared out into the distance. He wasn't thinking about anything. His mind was just blank as he enjoyed the beauty of the night. That was until he heard the helicopter. He jumped up and leaned on the he porch rail and looked up into the sky. Was the helicopter coming for him? Then he heard gunshots.....and then more gunshots. After that he heard more gunshots and the sound of a sputtering motor. He looked into the distance, and that was when he saw it. The helicopter was going down. He jumped off the porch and started running in the he direction of the helicopter. It didn't matter if they were coming for him....somebody was in trouble.

 

[Sexual_Muse]

Before the crash Harlow had taken the time the survey the surrounding area around the drop zone, it was important to know where the dangers might come from and the only thing that had thrown up a red flag had been some family farm some four leagues away. But other then that it was the only thing around and as she had researched the farm she found nothing alarming about it and determined that it wasn't a threat.

Where she was now didn't matter, the rapid waters of the river she had tumbled into was swiftly taking her away from the crash site. Lifeless as she was Harlow's limp body just drifted, hitting rock and getting snagged by submerged limbs that scratched and tore at her clothing and skin.

As the river rounded a bend the waters calmed and washed Harlow up on a rocky beach. For an unknown amount of time Harlow just laid there slowly breathing, her body throbbing with pain. In time her eyes opened and she looked around her surroundings. She didn't know where she was. Nothing felt right and when she tried to stand her left knee refused to hold her and she crumpled back to the ground.

"Achak!" Back on the ground Harlow rolled up her black cargo pants and inspected her knee and somehow knew that it wasn't broken just heavily bashed. Before getting up again Harlow sat there and went from head to toe checking herself over. The back of her head hurt but there didn't seem to be too much damage there. Her shoulder blazed with pain and when she inspected it there was no way that she couldn't tell that it was a bullet wound. "Bullet..." Harlow's hand hovered over the injury as she tried to remember where she might have gotten shot.

Panic replaced everything else in Harlow's mind as she tried to recall anything at all. A childhood, where she worked, her family or even a name but nothing came to her. Now every sound that she heard was a danger and Harlow's heart race kicked up as she fell deeper and deeper into the unknown fear of what her life was.

"Okay, okay, okay." She repeated to herself over and over trying to calm herself but mostly her mind. Gathering what little strength she had Harlow tried to stand up again and managed it by balancing her weight on her other leg. Hopping ungracefully forward Harlow made it a few feet before her foot slipped and she went down again, her head hitting a large rock on the way down.

Blackness greeted her again as her five foot five body went limp as she blacked out again.

 

[BeachBum25]

Patrick sprinted toward where he saw the helicopter go down. As he continued to run, he started to realize that it was much farther from his house than he had thought at first. He was committed now, though. He had to keep going. He crossed over the road and entered the wooded area. He worked his way through the woods; tripping over broken branches and fallen trees. He had to slow down or he was going to fall and break his neck.

He found himself at the bank of the river. Patrick then began to work his way along the river....looking for a narrow place to cross as he continued to search for the wreckage of the helicopter. He looked down river and saw flames. He continued to head in that direction when he tripped again. This time he didn't trip over a branch, or a fallen tree. This time he tripped over a person. He rolled and saw that it was a woman. He got up on his knees and bent over her...checking to see if she was still alive.

She was breathing. He's hook her lightly, but there was no response. He checked to see that she was breathing and that she had a pulse. When he realized she was alive he stood up and then bent down to pick her up. He carried her back along the river...following the path by which he had already travelled. When he got out to the road he headed toward his long driveway and carried her up toward his house. While walking up the driveway she started to stir. "Take it easy. You will be okay. I will get you to my house and I will call for help." He wasn't sure that she could hear or understand him, but he tried to reassure her.

 

[Sexual_Muse]

When Harlow came to next it was only for fleeting moments. Her body swayed with movement but knew she wasn't moving, nor was did what carry her have that lifeless cold that the river had. No what carried her was warm. Eye fluttered open heavy with exhaustion. Everything was blurred, her eyes refusing to focus. The rumble of a chest and the soothing voice of a man. The words were slow to come to her but once they did something in her screamed at her.

"No." Harlow croaked her unshot arm waving feebly in the air. "No.. help... no." She was starting to fade again, the pain from all parts of her body pulling her back into the depts of darkness. Back of head. Temple. Lip. Left shoulder. Ribs on both sides. Pinky and ring right finger. Lower back. Left knee. She listed the major pains as she passed out again happy to be free of it if only for a little while. Another "no" escaping her lips before she was out.

 

[BeachBum25]

Patrick carried the woman up the long driveway. He tried to get her to relax when she started calling for help. "Sshhhh. I will get you help. As soon as we get up to the house, I will call for an ambulance. I will get you help...just relax." He moved his head to avoid her arm when it shot up into the air. As they got closer to the house, and the light from the house shone upon them, Patrick could set hath e woman was dressed in some type of military suit. He started to think that maybe this was the helicopter from ICE and that maybe they were really coming for him this time.

As he approached the end of the driveway, it suddenly hit him how far he had carried this woman. It wasn't until that moment, when he thought about the distance, that his arms began to tire. He was almost there though. He approached the steps to the front porch. He carried her up onto the front porch. He decided that it would be better to take her inside, since it would take some time for the ambulance to get to his house. He maneuvered his way in the door. He carried her into his living room and laid her down on the sofa. Patrick checked her pulse, it was pretty strong considering the fact that this woman was just in a helicopter crash. At least Patrick assumed that was what had happened. Then, he realized that he didn't know if there were any other people in the he helicopter when it went down. He would have to leave that to the authorities. Right now, he had to stay with this woman. He patted her arm. "Relax. I will be right back. I have to find my phone so I can call for help for you. Take it easy. I won't be gone but for a second."

 

[Sexual_Muse]

The warmth of the sofa only served to point out how cold Harlow was and as the sound of footsteps dimmed her body began to shiver with cold chills. "Urahk." The pain filled moan tasted like copper and dirt as the woman regained consciousness. Everything was slow in coming back to her, she sat up confused by her surroundings as her mind rebooted.

"Hello?" Harlow tried calling out her own voice sounding unfamiliar and weak. For as much pain as she was the fact that she had yet to come up with any explanation on how she get here or where here was... In fact the more she tried to thinking about it the less came to her. She couldn't recall her name. What she looked like. Who her parents were or anything of her life. Did she live in this house? Was this her sofa she was on? If so how did she get hurt? Questions upon questions ran through her head and she didn't have a single answer to any of them.

Pushing past the pain the woman got up and weaved on unsteady feet. Something inside of her told her to run, that she wasn't safe. That this wasn't where she was supposed to be. "I- I have to get out of her." She mumbled to herself once again taking in her surroundings. Nothing seemed to jump out at her or clued her in as to what was happening . With nothing but herself Harlow moved towards what looked like a front door. If she was trying to be sneaky she wasn't succeeding, with her bum knee and the list of other pains her hobble and weaving caused her to bump and knock a number of things down as she caught herself from falling.

Hurry, hurry, hurry. Her mind chanted forgetting for the moment that she didn't know who she was. This was her priority, to get to safety. Harlow didn't know what that looked like or where that was but it didn't feel like here and because of that she was on the move.

 

[BeachBum25]

Patrick went upstairs to search for his cell phone. Out here in the middle of nowhere there was not much of a need for a cell phone.... Or for any kind of phone for that matter. The limited contact he had with people was the people working the farm and those in town when he went to purchase supplies. He found his cell phone plugged into the charger on the nightstand next to his bed. He picked it up and had to power it on.

While the phone was powering up, Patrick made his way back downstairs. He wasn't sure exactly what he was getting himself into, but he knew that he had to help the woman...... even if he was helping someone that may have been trying to find out if he was hiring illegal immigrants. That didn't matter. She was injured and needed attention.

As he got to the bottom of the steps he he noticed the woman heading toward the front door. He started to run in her direction. "Hey, where do you think you are going? You can't walk around like that in your condition. We have to get you some help. I am going to call an ambulance as soon as my phone starts up." He grabbed her by the arm and tried to guide her back to the sofa. "Come on. I am just trying to help you." He could tell from the look in her eyes that she was not totally aware of anything that was going on, or what might have happened.

 

[Sexual_Muse]

"No." Harlow jerked out of the man's told on her while at the same time snatching the phone from his hand. "I- I-..." She looked down at the phone and the feeling of dread coiled in the pit of her stomach. Unsure of what had possessed her she dismantled the phone, the pieces that she had taken off falling from her fingers like grains of sand. "I'm sorry..." She said the words while staring at the pieces of the phone on the ground but meant them to the man that had appeared in the room. The phone wasn't damaged and could easily be put back together but looking at it as it was calmed Harlow in a way that she couldn't explain.

She didn't know what was wrong with herself. In fact she didn't know much of anything and that scared her but she would never admit it. Harlow licked her lips as again her eyes scanned the room looking for something or someone. Her guess was that she didn't know this man, that he had found her? But where and in what kind of a situation? "Thank you for the help but I am fine." She lied to the man wanting to get as far away from whatever was going on as she could. "I don't need any help." But as she said that and backed away from the man he knee gave out again and she crumbled to the floor biting her lip to curb to yelp of pain that jolted through her body.

"I have to go." Harlow knew that only a blind man would believe her and even then the blind man would know something was off and try to help. "I don't want your help." Something dripped off her fingertips and she looked left at her arm and the droplets of blood that stained the man's floor. Seeing the blood made her body reawaken to the flood of pains and injuries that she had blocked off. Shit... Harlow wanted to get up but feeling overwhelmed by everything that her body was feeling was making her stomach churn, threatening to upchuck anything and everything that she had in her tummy. She didn't feel good, she couldn't fight it anymore and what little strength she had left her body and she slumped to the floor with a moan.

"Nice ceiling." She chuckled as she laid out on her back comfortable here on the floor. She had no wish to move, well she did but there was nothing she felt like she could do about it right now so she got comfortable in where she was despite being in the surge of wave after wave of pain.

 

[BeachBum25]

Patrick was shocked by the woman's actions. He was so shocked that he could not speak. He looked down at his cell phone....in pieces on the floor. Then he looked at the woman as if to say, "what the fuck." He was no dummy, and he realized that something was going on here. He had no idea of what that something was, but there was definitely something going on.

"Listen, lady. I know that you don't want my help. However, you do need someone's help. So, why don't we do this....you tell me where or to whom I can take you, and I will drop you off there. That way, you are not getting my help and you never need to see me ever again." Patrick was starting to get pissed off. He had gone out of his way to help this woman.....had even carried her for a couple of miles in an effort to help her, and this was how she acted in his home.

He saw her step back, and then begin to wobble. When she went down, Patrick did not make any quick moves to help her. He let her go to the ground and then moved a little closer to her. He did not comment on what she said about the ceiling. "Despite the fact that you want to get out of here, you are not going to be able to do it on your own. You have lost a great deal of blood and you have several injuries that are going to require attention. You have more than just bruises...you have some significant injuries. So, tell me what you want me to do to help you."

 

[Sexual_Muse]

"I-" Harlow took a deep shuddering breath before finally giving in to what was happening and the fact that help had to come from somewhere. "I don't know." She had been to hard on the man, he seemed to be only trying to help and knew her actions were a bit out of place. "I can't remember a thing." She told him happy to stare at the ceiling and not at him. Admitting that she couldn't recall a thing about her life made her feel all that more vulnerable. "I don't know who I am. I'm void of everything even a name." Harlow whispered sadly. The pain of knowing nothing about her own life overwhelmed the physical pain that she felt.

"I'm sorry." She said making the effort to sit up a bit and look at the man who was only trying to help. "And thank you. You were only trying to help and I- I've been nothing but trouble." Harlow winced against the pain that she was feeling and laid back on the ground. "I need help. Your help if you would still provide it." Even thought she knew nothing about herself she knew enough to know that asking for help wasn't something she was used to.

 

[BeachBum25]

He listened to her intently as she talked. She said she did not remember anything. She said she couldn't even remember her name. He wondered if this was just some kind of ruse. She acted pretty defensively for someone that did not remember anything about her past. Then she asked for his help. Patrick was somewhat surprised by this change. He didn't think she would let him help. However, his ability to help her was limited. He could help with some bandaging, some cleaning of wounds, and he could call 911.

"I am more than willing to help you. I understand that you are in a great deal of pain, and I understand that you are frustrated that you have lost your memory, temporarily at least. I will be happy to help you. We do have a couple of issues, though. One, I can help get you cleaned up and bandaged but that is it. Two, I need to get you out of those torn and tattered clothes, but I obviously have nothing to fit you. You will have to wear something of mine which will be huge on you. Lastly, I think I need to call 911. You need serious medical attention."

 

[Sexual_Muse]

No matter how many times she told herself that what this man said was what needed to be done, she couldn't shake the feeling that it was a bad idea. A really bad idea. "You're right." Maybe she was the sort of person to fret over such things, to makeup scenarios that looked as if, at least from her point of view, she were in danger. Harlow didn't think that was right but what did she know. The man had way more going for him then she did, laid out as she were on the floor and growing increasingly more dizzy with every minute. "But I just want it to be known that I have a bad feeling about this." If he asked for more details about this feeling she had Harlow was going to make herself sound like even more of a loony when she told him that she hadn't the slightest idea.

"Secondly..." Harlow sucked in a sharp breath of air as she sat up, eyes tearing against the pain. "Mind helping a lady out of her petticoats?" She tried to smile but fell short. As much as she wanted to act as if everything was alright, it wasn't and she was too tired to keep up the act. That she was going to undress in this man's house... This man, she had referred to him in that fashion since she had first came about. "So... um..." This really should have been one of the first questions she asked and that she was asking it after she asked for his help in undressing him embarrassed her a little bit. "I'd love to introduce myself but as I can't remember my own name, how about you go first?" If she had the extra blood to waste her cheeks would have been a rosy blush but since she didn't she was saved from that girlish reaction.