Santa Anna Hospital

Monday, 08.00 hours

Scully opened the door to the patient’s ward. Mulder and Detective Calhoun followed close behind her.

They expected to see Becky Jenkins in bed, sleeping. Instead they were surprised to see her standing up combing her hair, ready to go. She turned to see them as they entered the room.

"Dana! Agent Mulder!" She looked surprised.

"Becky, where are you going?" She asked her.

"You’re not suppose to go until tomorrow." She walked to her and led her back to bed.

"Why am I here, Dana?"

"Well, that’s why we came, Becky. Detective Calhoun’s here to talk to you." Scully said.

Becky looked at him and nodded. Her face was gloomy all of the sudden as if knowing what he was about to say.

Detective Calhoun smiled to her, "This won’t take long, Ms. Jenkins. What is the last thing you remember before the incident?"

"I… I … don’t remember anything, Detective. I only remember that Molly Parker was kidnapped and Jenny was on the brink of a break down because of it." She turned to Scully and looked at her desperately, "I can’t remember anything else, Dana. I….. remember… she tried to attack me with a knife."

Scully put her hand on her shoulder, "That’s all right, Becky. You suffered a concussion and you are experiencing a partial memory lost. It will come back to you slowly. You don’t have to worry about it."

Becky looked at her in disbelief, "Concussion? What happened to me, Dana? Please tell me."

Detective Calhoun walked closer to the bed and looked at Becky, "Ms. Jenkins, last night the firemen found you unconscious, locked in the bedroom of Ms. Parker’s house."

Becky looked at the detective as if seeing ghost, her face turned pale.

Detective Calhoun continued, "It seemed that your friend, Jenny Parker knocked your head with a hard object to render you unconscious, Ms. Jenkins, and then locked you up so you wouldn’t be able to run when she burned the house."

"No… NO!! This is not true…. It’s not ture, is it? She turned to Mulder.

"I’m sorry." Mulder said.

"But why would Jenny burned her own house? This is impossible. Can you tell me why?" She said to the detective.

"Well, Ms. Jenkins… as you said, Jenny Parker was breaking down. We found, well as the matter of fact, Agent Scully found out that she consumed illegal drugs called NH1 that caused dementia and hallucinogenic reaction. She spread gasoline all over the house, Ms. Jenkins and all over her body too. It seemed that she burned herself first to ignite the fire."

Becky could only looked at them. She was not able to let even one word out of her mouth. Tears began running down her cheek. She bit her upper lip to control her sob. As memory started rushing inside her head, she nodded to him and whispered, "She……. once tried to stab herself with a knife……. I stopped her…… I……. She must have hated me so much for it……."

This time she lost control and cried on Scully’s shoulder. When she gained control of her self again, she looked at Detective Calhoun, "That’s not all…. Is it?

Calhoun shook his head, "There’s one more thing that you should know, Ms. Jenkins. Molly Parker had never been kidnapped after all. We found her dead body in the cellar, tied to the façade. It was completely burnt that we can’t determine the exact time of death….."

Becky shook his head in disbelief, with a trembling voice she said, "Are you saying the Jenny killed her in purpose? ……. No. You don’t know Jenny…. She wouldn’t have done all this……"

Scully held her and led her to look into her eyes.

"Becky. Jenny we know would have never done it. But she had not been her self lately. The drugs she had consumed changed her. She was not herself until the end."

Mulder shook his head and sighed. He had a better explanation on what had been going on, yet he didn’t have the proof. No one, not even Scully, believed his theory. Although she had admitted that the fire incident was obviously engineered, she couldn’t offer him any explanation. They had found the house empty, yet some hours later it had been burnt with all the three occupants inside it. Where had they been? The truth was still out there, he thought. Quietly he left the room, followed by detective Calhoun. That poor girl needed Scully, not them.

"This is all my fault." Becky whispered.

"No. This cannot be your fault." Scully said.

"Yes, Dana. It is my fault. If I hadn’t introduced my brother, Peter, to her that night, she wouldn’t have lived through this misery. She wouldn’t have needed the drugs. I prayed to God everyday and night, but He took my parents away. He let my brother fell in sin and now he took away my best friend." She cried.

"You are not responsible for what your brother had done to her, Becky. You can’t blame your self for something you didn’t do. Look at me."

Becky looked at Scully with her wet eyes. "No?? Then who is, Dana? God?"

"You are a strong woman, Becky. You used to be strong for her and Molly. Now you have to be strong for yourself. I know you believe in God and I know you’re a good Christian. If you feel weak, turn to God for He will give you strength. God tested your faith, Becky. As he did to me too. I fell too, just like you. But I’m lucky I still have a friend to help me up. Maybe he doesn’t realize that he helped me, but he did. Now it’s my turn to help you embrace the Light and return to his path. Don’t turn your back on God, not like this." Scully caressed her hair.

Becky cried harder and buried her face in Scully’s shoulder.

"Becky, I know you took care of Jenny and Molly not only because you love them, but also because you felt responsible for your brother’s action. Do you realize that maybe God has another plan for you?"

Becky sat on her bed and looked at Scully. Her expression was returning to normal, although Scully can still see confusion in her eyes.

Becky, for once in your life, you are free. You can do what you wanna do, go where you wanna go. You can embrace life as you like it……."

Scully left her sentence hung.

Becky’s eyes widened, she stared at Scully, but her eyes were blank, as if her mind wondered some place else. Scully was about to shake her, but she realized that Becky was just thinking over her words.

Slowly she was pulled back to reality, and smiled to Scully wearily, "I….. I don’t know what struck me…. I don’t know why I even blamed God for all this. I see the Light now and I will embrace it… as……"

She looked at Scully’s necklace and said, "……… As advised by a fellow believer."

Scully smiled and gave her a hug.

The Airport

Friday, 15.00 hours

"If only your head healed faster than my arm, we would have gotten a sit in the same row." Iwan said to Ardeth as they walked towards the plane that waited to take them to Canada.

Ardeth gave him his charming smile. He was wearing T-shirt and pants of his favorite color, black. His black leather jacket made him look even more charming. Iwan couldn’t see his eyes through his sunglasses.

"Too bad I was not in total control of my head’s healing process, my friend. It must be Allah’s will. Maybe you are destined to find a new friend on this plane, eh? Who knows? A beautiful American girl?" His smiled widened.

"Oh.. I surely hope so…" Iwan laughed.

"Speaking of your head," He continued, "How do you feel now?"

"OK. The headache’s gone. I’m feeling great. In fact, I’m ready to go on river rafting now." He joked. Suddenly his face changed to a more serious look.

"Tell me Iwan, you don’t have a concussion. Do you remember what actually happened back there in the forest on Sunday afternoon? Honestly, I can’t remember anything … and it disturbs me."

"Well, didn’t I tell you that you slipped and fell to a small gorge. I tried to help you but I slipped too and my armed got hurt. Lucky I didn’t break it. We were found by the ranger."

"Yes.. yes… you told me about that. I also remember that. But I can’t remember the journey, Iwan. Not at all. I can’t remember how we trekked, which road we took. I can’t even remember the preparation before we went into the forest."

"Funny now that you mention it, I don’t remember that either."

Ardeth rolled his eyes, "Oh, don’t tell me now that you also have a temporary memory lost. That’s very funny." He looked at Iwan and smiled.

On the contrary, Iwan’s face was dead serious.

"No Ardeth.. I never thought of it, either. No.. no, I’m not joking. How come I didn’t remember it? We went there twice, right? The first time was when we found the dead body. The second time was the next day, through another area which was not closed by the police line."

Ardeth nodded, "Yep, but my poor memory cannot recall the event. Somehow, I just know that we trekked to the forest and I slipped. Then I opened up my eyes and I was in the hospital on Monday night. I must have been unconscious for more than 24 hours."

Iwan suddenly stopped walking. The man behind him cursed and walked pass him. Ardeth looked at him, "What’s wrong, Iwan? Are you OK?"

Iwan shook his head, "No… I… I… just realized that what you remember is exactly the same thing as what I remember….. Yet, you knocked your head to the rock. I didn’t……"

"C’mon. Let’s get on the plane. You will have plenty of time to think about it later. Or if you want, we can drop by to a hospital once we arrived in Canada, to check on your head." Ardeth gave him a soft pad on the head.

Iwan shook his head again, "No problem, Ardeth. I guess, I did have a mild concussion after all. No need to worry. As the doctor said, the memory will come back slowly. Just forget what I said. River rafting is still our first plan, right?" He smiled foolishly and resumed walking.

Ardeth nodded and walked faster to the plane. Iwan followed him hurriedly.

Becky Jenkins wore a broken-white blouse that went nicely with her purplish trouser. She boarded the plane and took her seat by the alley. When she booked the plane the seat by the window had been empty. Yet she didn’t like seating by the window. Looking at the sky always reminded her of the accidents that took her parents’ lives. She wished she could have a nice companion through her journey.

It had been years since she visited her uncle and aunt in Canada. They practically raised her after her parents died in a plane crash. She shook the memory away as she realized she was now about to travel by plane. Her mind wandered to the beautiful place. She would love to go on white water rafting again with her aunt or walking in the National Park with her uncle. She had told them that she’d be coming home. She told them everything about her unfortunate experiences and apologized for leaving the house and acting stupid. And they, as all parents would react, accepted her back to their home like their long lost daughter.

The guilty feeling inside her grew more and more. She didn’t call them or talk to them for the past five years. Not even sending them Christmas Card. Maybe, like Dana had told her, this was the way God showed her a new path. A new plan for her. But first she had to correct all the mistakes she did in the past.

"Excuse me, Miss." Suddenly a deep voice stopped her train of thoughts.

A tall, dark and handsome man stood in the alley.

"Oh sure." She said and made way for him to seat by the window.

Another man passed by and spoke to the handsome one, "Man, I hate sitting at the back side of a plane…… with an old man."

"You’ll do just fine, my friend." The man answered him and smiled.

Becky couldn’t help but noticed that his smile looked somehow familiar. But, she would have remembered having met a guy as handsome as this, she shook the thought away.

She felt that the man beside her was looking at her, so she willed herself to turn her head.

"Yes?" She said.

The man seemed to be out of focus for a moment, he was staring at her point blankly, then his face turned red. "I’m sorry." He apologized. "I just thought I’ve met you somewhere before. Obviously I’m mistaken."

Ardeth cursed his stupidity, "What an old way to start a conversation." He thought.

Yet, the girl did not seem to be bothered. Instead she gave him a pretty smile, "Oh, don’t worry, for a moment there, I thought I’ve seen you somewhere too. Maybe our faces are too ordinary that people can easily mistaken us for someone else."

Ardeth smiled, "Yes.. yes… most probably." Suddenly his head spun and a vision of a room with a metal door was pictured on his mind.

Becky saw the obvious change on his face. "Are you OK? Are you sick?" She asked him.

"No.. no.. I’m not. I’m OK. It’s just that my head started to spin for a while there." He suddenly felt all right. He gave her a smile, "And the plane does not take off yet"

Another blow hit him. This time it didn’t hurt as much. Ardeth saw the woman was soaking wet in her night dress. He shook his head.

He offered her his hand and frowned, "I am Ardeth Bey. Are you sure we’ve never met before?"

Becky smiled. She found him cute with his way opening up a conversation with her. Even an old trick would work for people as handsome as he was, she thought.

She shook his hand, "I’m Becky. Yes, I’m sure we’ve never met before."

Ardeth smiled and shrugged, "I guess you’re right, we’re two too ordinary looking people."

Somehow, deep down inside, he was sure he’d met this woman. He didn’t know why he had such a feeling, and he didn’t understand. Yet he welcomed the opportunity to know her.

In a short while they were both engaged in a light yet warm conversation, leaving Iwan grudging even more for his bad luck.

= THE END =