[Holo/Arrival] This isn't where you're meant to be
There were a lot of reasons that Sarah hadn't wanted to go to that reunion. Not the typical ones, at least, she didn’t think they were typical. Not many people had grown up like she had. Moving from town to town and con to con. Changing identities as often as they changed addresses. But Sarah wasn't that girl anymore, Jenny Burton. She'd never really been her, had she? Now she was Sarah Walker, Chuck's girlfriend and Orange Orange employee. It was a cover as much as every other name and story; a role to be played.
She'd changed since high school and more than anyone could ever know; not conning people anymore and working for the CIA. She was one of the good guys, and not that geeky girl in braces. Of course, that had been part of the cover as well, as much as it had frustrated her. Blend in, don't stand out, don't make an impact and don't give people something to remember. She'd grown up that way, and going back - going home - went against all of her instincts and everything she'd learned.
There hadn't been a choice, not once Chuck had flashed. She tried to recuse herself from the operation once already but the General hadn't allowed it. The General was right, and Sarah knew it. Jenny Burton was a good cover, and the perfect way to get Chuck into the reunion. That it bothered her was immaterial, at least it should have been. All part of the mission, and Sarah wasn't about to admit to Casey, or to Chuck, how much this really had gotten to her.
It hadn't turned out the way she'd expected it would. That was almost what she'd come to expect whenever Chuck was around. Nothing worked out the way it was supposed to. Casey complained about it and Sarah told Chuck over and over to listen to them and just stay out of trouble. Yet she couldn't quite ever really get angry with him, not once they were both safe. They were safe. They were safe and back at her apartment and she was bruised and all she wanted to do was put this back in a box. To forget her past and forget everything that had been brought up by this trip.
She wouldn't. She owed Chuck that much. "I'll just be a minute," she called out of her room.
Her shower had been long and hot. As much to ease the aching muscles from the fight she'd had as to delay what she saw as inevitable. Telling Chuck about her past.
"Don't worry about it," he called back. "I got you a burger. For your face I mean."
Only Chuck. She smiled, wincing when it pulled at the sore muscles of her cheek. Her track suit on and her knives back where they were supposed to be, she wandered out to the main room. "Isn't that supposed to be a raw steak?" She had to ask it, taking it from him and pressing it to her her cheek.
"Not on a BuyMore salary. I did have enough cash to get you a cooked one though. Medium rare-"
"Extra pickles?" She said it with him, smiling through the hurt. It was sweet that he remembered. It made her forget, sometimes.
"C'mon, who do you think you're dealing with here?"
"Well I never doubted you, Special Agent Charles Carmichael," she had to tease, even now. If it did anything, it bled off some of the tension she was feeling. Tension that jumped back as soon as Chuck spoke again.
"So I guess the big secret about you was that you used to be just a typical high school student." It wasn't the truth of it, but it was the truth as far as he knew. "Wish I knew what changed that."
She couldn't tell him. She couldn't tell him about the CIA Director, about her father. About the offer that he made her. That he'd known all of her identities and had followed her life as much as her father's.
Sarah swallowed, pulling the burger away from her cheek. He'd earned this. He deserved this.
"Okay. Fine. I'll answer one question about my past, you've earned that much," she braced herself, not knowing what he'd say. If it would be about her father, or the jail references, the name... There was no way of knowing.
She'd never know what he'd been about to ask. One moment sitting in her apartment, the next standing on a metal platform in a strange room. Barefoot still, her hand went to the knife at the small of her back. "Hello? Anyone here?"
That was when she noticed the bracelet on her wrist. Sarah pulled her arm up fast, the realization it was fused to her skin almost immediate. "Whoever you are, I don't like playing games. You should know that."
She spoke to the space around her, the knife still in one hand. Sarah crouched to make less of a target of herself only then noticing what looked like a small communications device. The pros and cons of picking it up and trying to activate it ran through her mind. Yes, it could be an explosive device. But she was in this room with no idea how she came to be here, some sort of wristband attached to her. It was better to grab it and know, she decided.
"I don't know who you are," she said as she stepped off the platform, wishing she'd worn shoes. A stupid thing to want, she decided, knife in one hand and tablet in the other. "But whoever you are, you're in over your head."
Slowly, she approached the door. It was a way out of here and she saw no guards. It didn't mean it was safe.