You Can Find Me In The Space Between

Chapter Thirteen

a/n - Here's the thing right, I started writing this with the hope that the plot would come to me, but then it didn't.

"Hey Fi?" Nate asked while knocking on her door. He had spent the past 12 hours searching for more information about the mystery band. He had even tried replying to Michael's email, but kept getting an error message.

Fiona opened her door while yawning and brushing her messy hair out of her eyes. "Bud – you know I love you and all, but what are you doing here? And no offense, but why do you look so bad?"

"Offense taken," Nate said brushing up against her shoulder as he walked into her dorm room.

"Hey! What if I had a guy in here?!" Fiona practically screamed.

"Seriously? Haven't you noticed how thin the walls are?" Fiona's face turned as red as her hair while she slapped Nate's arm. "God Fi, not like that. I mean I would have heard you trying to get him to leave last night."

Fiona rolled her eyes before climbing back under the covers. "Whatever. So why do you look like you've been sleeping in a haunted house?"

"I think... um, well I think I might have remembered something. Well not even properly remembered, but like half remembered?" Nate spoke quickly, though it sounded more like he was speaking to himself rather than to Fiona. However, at hearing Nate's soft words, Fiona sat bolt up right.

"I'm guessing you don't mean you remembered something from class? Like you remembered something about your accident?" Fiona asked in hushed tones. The tone of the room had changed, as if it was charged with electricity.

Nate shook his head and slid down the wall to the floor. "No... it was nothing to do with an accident, and it's still a sort of fuzzy memory anyway, well it's not even a proper memory..."

"Nate. Stop stalling."

"Right. Okay, but it just doesn't really make any sense, but I think I know that ghost band," Nate replied.

"Seriously?" Fiona said before she flopped back down onto her bed. "Nate, we literally stumbled upon them from being a one hit wonder. Music can be a powerful memory trigger. You probably just remember that song from when it first came out."

"No... it's more than that. Plus, since we watched that video, my fingers won't stop tapping. I think, I think I might have played piano. And I feel like that was a big deal, like a big part of my life."

Fiona stared at Nate, trying to remember everything her professors had taught her about memory. "You may be on to something... it sounds like it could be muscle memory." Fiona got out of bed and twirled her finger, indicating Nate to turn around. Fiona quickly ditched her pyjamas and threw on some real clothes. She grabbed her keys and Nate's hand, dragging him out of her room.

"Where are we going?" Nate asked confused. He had thought Fiona would either help him delve deeper into this mystery, or tell him he was crazy. He didn't anticipate taking a field trip.

Fiona pulled him onto the elevator as soon as the doors opened. "We're going to the music building," she said, as if it was the most obvious thing. Seeing the confusion on Nate's face, she continued to explain her theory. "We're going to test your theory. Muscle memory can often be buried in the subconscious, so if you were some piano prodigy, you should be able to read music and play like a concerto or something with ease."

Nate gave a funny jerk of his head. He was torn between excitement of discovering who he was, and nervous anticipation. Not to mention he was feeling a bit less confident about his theory after sharing it with Fiona. The spoke the whole way on the short walk to the music building, or rather Fiona spoke while Nate felt like his heart was in a vice grip. As neither took any music classes, they had to wander around the maze-like building till they found the open space area with rental instruments. Fiona pushed Nate towards the large grand piano in the middle of the room.

Nate sat down and gently placed his fingers on the piano, almost waiting for something magical to happen. When nothing immediately happened, he turned to face Fiona. "Okay, just remember that it's probably been a while since I've done this, so don't judge." Fiona simply nodded and waited for Nate to start playing. He took a deep breath and started to press down on different white and black keys.

Nate and Fiona's eyes snapped up at the sound of a door being flung open. "Oh... sorry. I heard... you playing. I thought something had fallen on the piano. But, um, don't give up," a middle-aged man said. Before he walked back out the door, he turned once again to look at Nate. "We offer student discounts on beginner lessons, you should check them out." After an awkward beat, he turned around and left the room.

Once the door was fully shut, Nate and Fiona burst into laughter. "Sorry Rinehart, but I'm thinking you weren't some musical prodigy. That was just horrible. Truly horrible. I think my ears might be bleeding."

"Hardy har har," Nate said sarcastically. So obviously he didn't play piano, or at the very least, didn't seem to remember the notes. But his fingers were still itching to move. He looked around at the instruments trying to think of something else he could try. His eyes landed on a drum set, and almost as if it was putting out a magnetic pulse, Nate walked towards the stool behind the kick drum. He picked up a stick tentatively, and watched in awe as his fingers spun the piece of wood deftly around his fingers. Nate looked over at Fiona who was watching with her jaw dropped.

"Dude," Fiona began with wide eyes. "That was"

"Unexpected, I know." Nate finished.

"I was going to go for unbelievably crazy amazing, but sure. Unexpected works too." After the success of the drums, Fiona insisted that Nate try all of the other instruments. It probably would have been funny except for the fact that it was super embarrassing. Especially the tuba. The reed instruments were also a learning curve but thanks to youtube, Nate at least tried.

Fiona practically skipped the whole way back to the dormitory when she stopped abruptly, causing Nate to crash into her. She pivoted slowly till she faced Nate. "You know what I just realized? You could have a whole bunch of secret skills." Nate shrugged in response. "Did you ever make anything happen? Anything you couldn't explain when you were angry or scared?"

"What?" Nate said confused.

"Okay well you must be a true muggle then, every Potterhead would know what I mean." Nate continued to be puzzled. Fiona rolled her eyes and resumed walking back to the dorm. "But I do kind of mean it. You're turning into a Jason Bourne character. I wonder if you have secret scars and bullets, and maybe you're secretly an assassin." Nate didn't understand the reference but laughed anyway. Him being an assassin was truly hysterical – he practically cried the last time he got a paper cut.

Once they reached the dorm, Fiona offered to go grab them some late lunch before they tried to learn more. Nate was 89% sure that would involve creating random (and quite possibly dangerous) tests. While he waited, he was trying to find somewhere that he could order or bongo or something from. Drumming had just felt right – like it was an integral part of who he was. As he searched around the internet, he started drumming on his table, finding the beat easily to Stand Tall.

"Nate! How come you didn't tell me you could sing too!?"

Nate spun in his chair to see Fiona standing in the door holding a saggy back of chip and something else that smelled delicious. "I can't sing," Nate said. Well, he wasn't actually sure, but he had a good feeling.

"I literally just heard you singing," Fiona said while rolling her eyes and jumping onto Nate's bed.

Nate was confused – was this going to be his new life? Always in a state of confusion? He hadn't even realized he was singing. Was he secretly in some sort of boy band? He was tempted to see if he could dance too, but he decided not to do that in front of Fiona. He wasn't sure which would be more embarrassing; if he couldn't dance at all, or if he was a part time ballerina. Ballerino? Male ballet dancer?

"Okay," Fiona said, snapping Nate out of his own thoughts. "Let's eat quick, because I want to see what else you can do!"

"Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail." Charles Kettering

So fewf, no one has to bully me about not getting this out before Monday. And my husband is working all weekend, so me and the baby will just try to write. Mostly because I want to finish this up so I can work on my other book. Toodles!