I Love You Three
Author's Note: All-righty. This is a continuation of "I Love You" and "I Love You Too."
Disclaimer: The author of this story (me) does not own the respective characters. She intends no copyright infringement.
-Standoff-
O105 hours
The silence of the night was broken. Sighing, Emily rolled over. Usually, at one in the morning, it was Cheryl calling in that there was an emergency.
Now, however, it was something entirely different. Sort of, she amended as the cell phone on her nightstand also chirped. "Matt," she said.
"I'm up," he reached for the phone. "Cheryl? What's up?" Emily heard him ask as she went into the other room. Gently, Emily lifted Kayla out of her crib.
"I know," she cooed to the baby, "it's time for food." Taking Kayla with her, Emily walked into the kitchen where Matt was already heating Kay's bottle. "What did Cheryl need?"
Matt checked the temperature. "She's put us on standby. Some threat called into the FBI building. Bomb, I think."
"Oh," Emily took the bottle and gave it to Kayla. "Why are we being put on standby?"
Matt shrugged his shoulders. There was a small smile on his lips as he watched Emmy and Kay. His wife and daughter. It did not seem weird to think of them like that.
The whole thing had not happened exactly as he would have hoped, but here they were: a happy family.
Emily finished feeding Kayla and burped her. Handing the bottle to Matt, she took Kayla back to her room. Many things had changed in the past year. She had a gorgeous four-month baby girl and was married to the man of her dreams. She also had a wonderful job that liked to call at one in the morning. Oh, well, nothing can be perfect.
Matt slipped his arms around Emily's waist as he came up behind her. "Hey," he whispered.
Emily turned in his arms. She slid her arms around his waist as well. "Hey. Should I be this happy at one-thirty in the morning?"
"Why not?" Matt replied-voice low so he did not wake the baby. "I'm incredibly happy for one-thirty in the morning. I would be even happier if we were to go back to bed," he suggested.
Emily grinned coyly, "Would you? I didn't know you liked to sleep more than you liked to spend time with your family."
Matt's lips found hers. After a nice, long, knee-weakening kiss, Matt pulled away. "I didn't intend to go to sleep right away."
Emily moaned and reached up to kiss him again.
0900 hours
Cheryl Carrera tossed the file down on Matt's desk. "That's the record of the threat we received early this morning. Can you guys take a look at that?"
Emily nodded, scooping it up. "Sure. Why are we getting involved exactly? This isn't our specialty." Matt leaned over her shoulder to skim the file.
"They asked," Cheryl shrugged. "Apparently, this is the third threat. The caller says the same thing each time…"
"'There's a ticking bomb in the building,'" Emily read. "It doesn't seem like he means a literal bomb."
"Right. …Anyway, we're expecting another call tonight and we want you guys to take it," Cheryl explained.
Matt answered, "Sure. We'll be up at one anyway."
"How is Kayla?" Frank questioned joining the group.
Emily knew Matt's face had transformed. He was smiling proudly now as he and Frank went for coffee. "I think he might mean a person when he says 'ticking bomb,'" she informed Cheryl.
"Internal Affairs is looking into it," she confirmed. "Are you sure you don't mind taking this case; you did just get back from maternity leave…"
"It's fine, Cheryl," Emily stated. "I actually feel like I never left. Plus, Matt will be primary. I want to work."
Cheryl agreed, "Sure. …How are you doing being away from Kayla? You have her at day-care, right?"
"Yeah. Cheryl, I can do my job. Everything is fine," Emily assured her.
"Okay," she gave in. "If you come up with anything: let me know."
Emily waved her hand as she buried her nose back in the file. It seemed that at one in the morning for the last three days a man-unidentified caller-had called asking to speak to the SAC of the office. When he was not put through, he told the secretary there was a ticking bomb. He then just hung up the phone.
"Coffee," Matt said, laying down her cup. "What are you thinking?"
"Not sure yet," she mumbled, continuing her reading.
1830 hours
Emily used her foot to rock the baby bouncer as she read over the file for the second time. Matt was cleaning up dinner. "You're not getting anywhere?" he questioned through the doorway.
"Nothing more than we had this afternoon," she sighed closing the file. "We need to wait for the call at one."
"You still thinking the 'ticking bomb' is a person? …It could be a law," Matt suggested. "Something we're enforcing that this guy doesn't like."
"Yeah…I don't know," she dropped her head back. "We really need to talk to this guy. He wants to be heard."
Matt nodded. "He'll call at one. We can talk to him then." Matt reached for the file, "I guess I should read this, huh?"
"You just want to get out of giving Kayla her bath," she accused.
"You know me too well."
Emily's laughter trailed after her as she took Kayla upstairs. She would change Kayla and get her ready for bed. Then, Matt would get to read her a bedtime story. Somehow, that had become his favorite part of the day.
A year ago, he would either just be leaving work or out getting a drink with Duff and Frank. Now, he was home reading to his daughter. And he was happier and more relaxed.
Matt finished reading the file. It took him almost no time as it contained the profiler's views-which Matt did not trust-and records of the phone calls. He wanted Emily' opinion: he would trust hers. But, Emily wanted to actually talk to this guy before she made any guess about him.
1950 hours
Emily came halfway back down the stairs. "Matt?"
"Yeah, I'm coming," he replied. Tossing the file on the coffee table, he quickly ascended the stairs and turned into Kayla's room. "Hey, Kay. Ready to find out what happens to Pip next?" Even though she did not understand most of what was happening, reading helped brain development and Great Expectations put Kayla to sleep.
Emily smiled watching Matt read to Kayla. He had a wonderful reading voice. When she had first found out she was pregnant, Emily had to admit she thought Matt would completely freak out.
He proved her wrong when he proposed two hours later. He said he wanted a family. He had one now and seemed perfectly content.
Matt finished the chapter and glanced down at Kayla. She was not completely out of it so he started another chapter. Usually, he would read two chapters to make sure she was asleep. Sometimes, he had to read three.
He completed the chapter and joined Emily in the doorway. "You want to finish discussing the file?"
Emily led the way back to the living room, flipping on the television and sinking into the couch. Matt sat beside her picking up the file. "So, we know it's a man," he stated. "We think we don't have to worry about any real bombs. …Hopefully, we don't have to worry about a bomb."
"Yeah," Emily agreed, "I think he's talking about a person. We need to keep him on the line long enough for Lia to get a trace. We need a name and face for this guy."
0055 hours
Kayla woke up crying and hungry and Emily was right there ready for her. She scooped her out of the crib and carried her into the kitchen where Matt was again heating a bottle.
He had not been to bed yet. Emily had gone to sleep somewhere around ten while Matt was rereading the file. Emily burped Kayla and gave her the rest of the bottle. "You okay, Matt?" she questioned.
"I'm fine. Want to be prepared to talk to him," he answered. "We should get the call anytime now." Lia had set everything up in their shared office earlier this afternoon. The house was HRT central without Cheryl or Frank.
"Yeah," Emily replied. "Time to go back to bed, Kay. We have to let Daddy work." She continued talking as she made her way up the stairs to take Kayla to bed.
The phone rang when Emily made it to the top of the stairs. Matt quickly reached over and answered it, "Flannery."
"It's Cheryl. He's on the line."
0610 hours
The baby monitor brought the sound of Kayla's crying into the office. Emily stirred, wondering only briefly why her neck was so stiff. Matt's arms tightened around her slightly in a hug. "I'll get her," he said.
Both had fallen asleep on the couch an hour ago after finishing the talk with Johnston Bigly.
Mr. Bigly claimed the SAC of the field office wanted to bring down the government. Matt had spent the first hour trying to figure out that much. The next long hours were spent trying to make Mr. Bigly understand that the SAC was doing everything in his power to help the government.
Cheryl had shown up fifteen minutes after the call came in. She had left after the second hour when they found Mr. Bigly at the drug rehab center. Emily assumed she had gone to talk to them about letting patients use the phone at one in the morning.
Emily had been the first to succumb to sleep when the call was over, propped against Matt. He had not wanted to wake her; he fell asleep five minutes later.
-Standoff-
A/N: So? I have to do a research paper on Great Expectations.
Edited: 28 December 2008…ladybug1115