Chapter Text
Her head hurt.
That was all she was aware of at first, then slowly the rest came.
Her vision blurred into focus, she was outside. The dullness of the sky and the chill in the air told her it was just after dawn.
She didn’t know where she was, so, slowly, she sat up before the world span again.
Leaning against what she hoped was a wall she gritted her teeth and stood. Everything wobbled again before she touched her head. It came away sticky. She looked at the red staining her fingers and groaned. She didn’t know how or why her head was bleeding. She needed to get to a hospital.
She didn’t know where she was but she guessed it was a park. Maybe if she could find a bench she’d see someone to ask.
The light in the sky slowly grew and when she eventually found a bench, birds could be heard chirping in the trees.
She sat down and stared into the distance.
Her head really hurt. She couldn’t work out where she was. Everything hurt. Her foot hurt. Her wrist hurt. Her knees hurt.
But it was her head that really hurt.
“Shit. Are you alright?”
The unfamiliar voice broke her thoughts and she turned slowly to look at the speaker.
“Okay shit no maybe not. Uh, can I call someone for you? Or maybe an ambulance? Shit yeah uh ambulance. What’s your name?”
She looked at the speaker, it was a man in Lycra with a bike beside him. She furrowed her brow and then winced.
“Shit do you not uhm speak English? What language-
“My heard hurts” she whispered.
“Ah brilliant! Not uhm not that that’s brilliant I just mean uhm, well that you speak English. Okay love, what’s your name?”
She looked at him, what was her name? She frowned and thought about it before she shrugged.
“Okay…Christ, you got any ID on you?”
She looked blankly at him. She didn’t know her name, she didn’t have a clue what ID meant.
“Okay fuck- right, ambulance, it’s alright love it’s okay” he took off his jacket and placed it over her shoulders before handing her his water bottle from his bike. He smiled slightly and opened it for her.
She took it and stared at it before muscle memory kicked it and she drank.
He smiled with relief before phoning for an ambulance. With a half-smile he thought that rescuing a bruised and dazed woman was a much better excuse than his friends’ had given for missing the half marathon.
The ride to hospital was full of two strangers in green, asking her the same questions the man had. But granted, they had cleaned her head up and checked her for concussion. So they knew how to help her.
Once at the hospital she was taken to a room where she sat on a bed. The wait wasn’t long and before she knew it another strange man was at her side and stitching her head up. She was content with silence but the man had other ideas.
“You’ve had a nasty injury here sweetheart. Do you remember how you got it?”
She shook her head.
“And I see you’ve not got any ID either…right…now I’m just going to get a female Doctor in if that makes you more comfortable…we just need to check you over. Does anywhere else hurt?”
She thought about it before shrugging, “knees”.
“Okay…anywhere else?”
“Ankle…wrist…my shoulder stings”.
“Your clothes aren’t ripped so we don’t have a concern for sexual assault however –
“I wasn’t…I can remember that…I wasn’t hurt…that way”.
The doctor looked relieved at the mention of her remembering something, “alright love. Okay. Well what we’re going to do is get the police to come and take your statement okay? You might be a missing person they’ve been looking for”.
She nodded and rubbed her wrist before crying out in pain, she’d forgotten her wrist hurt.
The doctor smiled at her before gently rolling back her sleeve to reveal a swollen wrist.
“We’ll get this sorted soon enough sweetheart”.
She waited and waited for the police officers to arrive, all the while letting other doctors poke and prod her for information. It had all hurt her head so she chose to not reply to any of them, simply, sipping her water and staring off into the distance again.
“Alright, thank you”.
A new voice echoed in the room and she looked at the curtains before they were pulled aside. A fresh smiley faced police officer appeared with a colleague.
“Hello there, I’m PC Moss and this is PC Keehan”.
She nodded.
“Now I gather you’re a Jane Doe at the moment”.
She smiled slightly and shrugged.
“Now Madam, we’re going to ask you a few questions, run your description through our database and after if we can’t figure out who you are we might have to bring you to the station and take some fingerprints…you might be on our database”.
“Am I bad?” she asked finally.
“Oh uh er no we uh it’s just well you might be someone we’ve come across before or…”
“You shouldn’t be taking me to your station then” she replied, “that’s rude”.
PC Moss chuckled, “I guess not…but how about we take you there and we could figure out on the way if anywhere looks familiar?”
“Better”.
PC Moss smiled at PC Keehan, “I’ll radio in…do you want to ask the questions?”
After yet another round of unsuccessful questions, she realised she would be going back with the police officers to a station. She didn’t like the idea but since she couldn’t remember who she was that would have to do.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“It’s a station called The Hill”.
She nodded, “okay”.
“That ring any bells? Might be your local”.
“None” she replied and then looked at the colourful cast on her leg before glaring at her new crutches. Her one wrist was swollen but she could just about put pressure on it to allow herself the chance to walk.
She limped after the two officers, finding that outside had once again changed. It was darker now, so she’d spent the whole day in hospital. She hoped someone was looking for her but she didn’t even know if she had anyone to care. She glumly realised if someone did care she would’ve been found by now.
Once at The Hill, PC Moss helped her towards an interview room with soft chairs and a table.
“Don’t suppose you’ve eaten much all day…I’ll get you a tea and some biscuits. PC Keehan has just gone to inform our boss where we’ve been. Hey with a bit of luck you might even meet him. He’s a lovely guy”.
She nodded and shut her eyes as a wave of pain threatened to make her scream. She just wanted to be warm and go home. Wherever that was.
The door opened and she shivered as footsteps approached.
“Hi I’m Acting Detective Chief Inspector Chris Lomax, my officers- Kate?!”
She looked at him and furrowed her brow, who was Kate?
“Who?”
“K-Kate th-i” Lomax frowned at her injuries before smiling softly, “I know someone who can take you home. Don’t worry”.
She nodded and then looked at PC Moss who came in armed with a plate of biscuits and mugs of tea.
“Iya Boss. This is our Jane Doe. Any ideas what we should do?”
Lomax nodded and took a biscuit, “I’m going to call a friend at AC12. He’ll come and collect her”.
“AC12? Why?”
Lomax looked back at her and she watched him closely as he spoke.
“Because that’s DI Kate Fleming and she’s been missing for six days”.
“Out of my way!”
She looked up as a voice screamed itself down a corridor. She sipped her tea and looked at the door as it burst open and two men moved through it.
“Kate!” the shorter of the two exclaimed and ran to her. The taller held the man back when she flinched. They looked like they knew her. She stared at them and their smiles turned to ones of worry as she surveyed them both.
“Lass it is good to see you” the tall man said. He sounded Irish. She didn’t know anyone who was Irish.
She looked at them both. She really didn’t know them and they called her the same name the Lomax man called her. Kate.
Was that her name? Was she a Kate? Kate Fleming he’d said.
“Kate” the shorter man pleaded, “mate”. He sounded like he was from London. How did she know accents if she didn’t know people?
“Mate” she repeated. That felt more like her name. Mate.
He smiled, “yeah it’s me, it’s me mate…Christ” he breathed and shrugged the taller man off to move to her side. He looked at her before sitting beside her and hugging her. She wasn’t sure how to respond to his hug so she patted his back. She didn’t want him to stop hugging her, he was warm and she was still cold.
That at least felt like the first thing she was sure of. Hugging this strange man felt right.
“Kate” he sobbed against her neck, “thought you’d ran away”.
“Son let the wee lass breathe” the tall man chuckled and approached her, “you had us worried there, Kate”.
“I don’t understand” she said and looked to the man crying against her, “who’s Kate?”