Yomiko Readman blinked. Where was Nancy? She'd said that they'd
meet here, and given how much the clinic's staff had said she
looked forward to her visits, it wasn't likely that the younger
woman (not a girl, for all that her lack of memory often made
her seem one) would have forgotten. "Umm... What happened? Where's
Nancy?"
The intern who had led her here giggled. "Some secret agent you
are, Sis! You can't even recognize me?"
Yomiko blinked and looked at her. Right height, right build,
sort of similar in the face... The body language was right, now,
but it definitely hadn't been earlier. "Wow! That's really good.
How'd you learn to do it?"
"I just remembered, one day." Nancy was smiling a blissful,
innocent smile. "Just like I remembered about PPGs and
the fifth kata and TL-6-70 airspeeders."
Her memory was returning? That might mean that... "Really?!
That's wonderful! What do the doctors say?"
The taller woman's gaze was much sharper, for a moment, than
usual, cutting past smiles and friendship and shining a spotlight
into worries that Yomiko would much rather not have had. She
seemed slightly sad at what she saw, but broke into a grin
right after. "No worries! They're pretty sure that the only
parts that're recovering are the skill sets - no persona memories.
I won't ever be who I was. Which is fine!" she chirped, "Since
I can tell that I musn't have been very nice, even if nobody
ever says anything about such things."
Yomiko blushed and adjusted her glasses and decided to be blunt.
"Well, actually, you and your sister were clone sisters."
Nancy blinked, then her eyes got very wide. "Oh my."
"The biggest difference that I can think of - though I didn't
know you very long -before- - is that she was a couple of years
older than you were."
"Oh." Nancy perched on the stone wall at the edge of the cliff,
kicking her legs and looking across the ocean. "Thanks for telling
me."
"You deserved to know." Yomiko planted her elbows on the mossy rock
and stared blankly at the horizon. "Does it bother you?"
She thought a moment. "Uh-uh. I mean, it's more past than I had,
right?" She giggled.
"Good."
They sat in silence for a while, enjoying the feeling of company.
Yomiko wasn't reading - she didn't think it would be polite when
she was there for a visit.
"Sis?"
"Yes?"
"You do the same thing my sister did, right?"
"Yes, we were partners."
"I want to help."
Yomiko glanced up.
Nancy tucked a strand of hair back behind her ear, then cocked
her head and smiled. "I want to be like my sister."
The shorter woman sighed and laid her head along the wall. "It's
very dangerous."
"Yeah, of course. I know what I could do. Somebody else might
do it to me, or worse. But... If I -can- help, don't I have the
resposibility to try?"
"I don't know, Little Sister, I don't know... They won't want to
trust you, you know."
"They won't? Why - oh. Yeah." Nancy slumped.
"But..." she didn't look up, and didn't see the other woman's
hopeful look. "I'll tell them I think they should."
"Thank you."
"Don't thank me, please." Yomiko seemed very sad.
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