Survivor - Connor x OC

The Scientist

Coldplay – The Scientist

After Alex's warning, Taylor thought she would be prepared for Jake. How wrong she was. They had come to the part of her testing, and according to Elijah, they had to prove that all of her memories were intact first and foremost.

She was seated across from Jake and the room felt incredibly small. Though she had known Jake her entire life, she had never known him to be angry. He was easy-going to the point of being blasé. Her older brother, but it was unnerving seeing him sitting across the way, coiled like a predator, tense and hostile.

"I don't see the point of this." He said again. Taylor hadn't been able to say anything from the moment he came into the room. She couldn't fathom what Alex had meant, her going easy on him.

"You have known Taylor longer than anyone." Elijah said, sounding quite bored now. "We already know that Taylor's recent memories are intact, now we need to test the remote ones. As remote as possible."

"How exactly did you do this with yourself?" Jake asked, giving him a skeptical look. Elijah rolled his eyes.

"I obviously couldn't. Now stop being difficult." Taylor looked at Elijah, startled. Was he an android, too? That would certainly make all of this make more sense. "Whenever you're ready, Taylor."

She frowned as Jake turned back to her, fixing her with a scowl. It was almost impossible to think of something to say, with him looking at her like that. Like she wasn't his sister. Like he didn't know her. Like she didn't belong to him.

The room was quiet. They stared at each other, and Elijah was watching them with a contrived look of boredom on his face, but she knew that he was desperately interested. Alex was on Elijah's left, looking on with a frown. Connor was on his right, that furrow between his brows, worried.

To her surprise, Hayley was on the very end. Watching.

"This is pointless." Jake said finally, when she didn't move to speak. "That's not Taylor."

"You were the forgotten one." She said finally. She was still getting used to the sensation of not having to breathe, so a small sigh escaped her when she spoke, pinning Jake with her gaze. He froze in his chair. "At least, that's what you always thought, wasn't it?"

"I don't know what you mean," he said. But he did, she could already see it. In the way he shifted in his seat. In the way his eyes shifted away from her face.

"You and dad were close. So close." She kept her eyes on his face, but he kept his on the floor, frowning now. "He would take you to football games. He showed you how to fix cars in the garage after school. Father and son. Best friends.

"And when he died, when Hayley was born, you were inconsolable. Almost as much as mom." Jake finally looked up. His face was blank now. No longer angry, just listening. "You think I didn't see it, but I did. But mom fell apart. Hayley couldn't take care of herself. I couldn't take care of both of you.

"I thought you would be okay. Because I was just a kid." She smiled, soft, sad. "I didn't know any better. Mom kept raising me to be a perfect actress. I kept raising Hayley. And you kept going, thinking no one could see you."

Tears had collected in Jake's eyes, but she didn't stop. Not now. "That's why, when everything went sideways, I left. I was scared, of course, but I was also afraid that I would ruin you if I stayed. Both of you." She took a breath, remembered she didn't need to, "But I never forgot you."

Jake stood and came toward her. She tensed in her chair, but he pulled her to her feet, all the way on her tiptoes, and wrapped her in a hug. He was much taller than her. He'd inherited their father's height, along with just about everything else about him. She was the one who was just like their mother.