Prologue: Where It All Begins

"This is where you fall.

This is where you get up.

This is where it all begins"

"Where It All Begins" Hunter Hayes ft. Lady Antebellum

Twenty-five year old Katlyn Prentiss stood, trying not to let her nervousness show, as she and her classmates waited for their shooting instructor to arrive. Petite, with wide brown eyes, Katlyn was one of maybe thirty to forty girls in this group of 200 FBI Academy trainees.

Katlyn was surprised when their instructor walked into the room. He was younger than any of her instructors so far, probably in his late twenties, and incredibly good looking. He surveyed the group for a few moments before speaking.

"I'm Agent Mick Rawson, I will be your shooting instructor for the next ten weeks. Now, this will focus mainly on shooting a hand gun, depending on your skill level, some of you may spend some time working with the rifles as well," he said, his voice containing an obvious British lilt.

"Are we past the point where it's acceptable to have major crush's on teachers?" her roomate, Illana, who stood beside her, asked.

"We were until he walked into the room," Katlyn mused, eyes not leaving Agent Rawson.

"Now, I've set the room up today to where there should be two of you at each table, I want you to open the box in front of you and take out the diagram and handgun inside. I want the two of you to take turns simply assembling and disassembling the firearm. I'll be circling the room to see how you're coming along."

Katlyn removed the contents of the box and held them out to Illana, "You can start if you want? I've already got a fairly firm grasp on it."

Illana, who was more schooled in hand to hand combat, struggled the first couple times, but by the time Agent Rawson reached them, she was moving at a pretty good speed. Illana passed the gun to Katlyn, who disassembled it and reassembled it with ease. She just wished the rest of her training came to her as easy.

"Well you girls seem to have a pretty good grasp on things. I take it you've done this before?"

"Actually, no," Illana said, "But, after the second time pulling it apart, I was able to get a pretty good grasp on how it all fit together."

"What about you…" his eyes flicked to the lanyard containing her Academy ID card, "...Katlyn?"

"A friend of my mother's taught me to shoot when I was fifteen."

"You're pretty familiar with this then. Well, good job, ladies," he said with a smile, before moving to the next table.

"How are we supposed to maintain concentration when he looks and smiles like that?" Illana whined softly.

"Simple, because we want this." Katlyn said, refusing to let anything or anyone distract her from her goal.

Later that evening, Katlyn found herself sitting on her bed, researching Agent Rawson.

"What'cha doin'?" Illana asked, flopping down on the end of her bed.

Due to the number of female students, Katlyn shared a room with just Illana, versus the normal three other people. Katlyn had been surprised by Illana when they'd first met. The red head was very exuberant, and hadn't come off very serious, but Katlyn had quickly discovered she was incredibly smart and also a skilled fighter.

Katlyn glanced up from her tablet, "Research," she said vaguely.

"You're totally cyber stalking Rawson aren't you?" she teased, "Don't feel bad, I did it too."

"I wonder what would make him leave the Special Forces and become an FBI instructor?"

"I don't know. I found it kind of strange too. Think he'd get mad if we asked him?"

Katlyn raised an eyebrow, "Then we'd have to admit we cyber stalked him."

Illana wrinkled her nose, "This is a good point."

Three Days Later

Katlyn ran along one of the trails behind the academy, she'd gotten out of classes and wasn't in the mood to head back to her room. She'd already run about a mile and stopped to readjust her IPOD, which had fallen loose from the clip on her waistband. When a hand touched her shoulder, she jumped, not having realized anyone was behind her. She turned to see Agent Rawson standing there, and let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

"I apologize for startling you. I called out but..." he reached out and tugged at one of her earbuds.

She laughed, "I just wasn't feeling much like going back to my room yet."

"It's a good way to clear your head," he said.

"The music or the running?"

"Both, really," he said with a laugh, "Since I have you here, I was wanting to talk to you and a couple of your classmates about something."

"What's that?" she asked, brushing a strand of hair from her eyes.

"There are a few of you that are already quite proficient with firearms. I've already got permission from the higher ups, how would you feel about doing some training with a sniper rifle?"

Katlyn grinned, "That would be awesome."

Her answering smile had caused Mick to smile as well, Katlyn realized she both needed to find ways to make him smile more, and avoid doing so at all cost, his smile was intoxicating.

The next few weeks seemed to fly by, and before Katlyn knew it she had already completed five of the ten weeks of training. It was hard work, but she was excited for the work she was doing and couldn't wait to go to classes each day. The work load was stressful, and Katlyn had taken to running almost every evening after classes. She regularly bumped into Agent Rawson during her runs, and most of the time they ended up running together, something that didn't help her growing crush on the instructor.

"So, tell me about yourself, Katlyn," he asked casually one afternoon, after they'd slowed to a walk to cool off.

"I'm really not that interesting, but what do you want to know?"

"What made you decide to join the FBI?"

"You're going to think I'm crazy, but parent's day in the third grade. One of my classmate's dad was an agent, Missing Children, he mostly talked to us about stranger danger and all that, but he also talked about how wonderful an experience it was when they got to bring a child home. It just clicked for me, I knew I wanted to know what that feeling was like for myself, to be able to help someone like that."

"I have to say, that's pretty impressive for an eight year old, most still want to be rockstars or princesses."

Katlyn laughed, "I've never been geared that way. Maybe it was because my mom was a foreign diplomat and trying to raise us as a single mother...I guess I always knew rockstar and princess weren't real options."

"So, you grew up fast then?"

She nodded, "Always act mature, you never knew who mom was going to bring home for dinner. What about you?" she asked glancing over, "What's a Brit doing teaching at an American FBI academy?"

"When I was British Special Forces, I met a man named Sam Cooper, he's an American FBI agent now, he was US military then. He's putting together a team and wanted me on it, so I came here, got certified, now I'm doing this until he gets the team off the ground."

Katlyn smiled, "That sounds pretty exciting."

"Yeah, though I have to be honest about something. I'm enjoying teaching a lot more than I thought I would. I'll be sad to leave it."

"I'm sure the school will be sad to see you go. You're a great teacher, those of us who have had you, are lucky."

"Aww..are you trying to make me cry, Ms. Prentiss?"

Katlyn laughed and playfully pushed his shoulder. She was surprised when he draped an arm around her shoulder for the rest of the walk back.

As soon as she got back to her room, she sat down on the end of Illana's bed.

"Something weird just happened," she said.

Illana looked up from the paper she was working on, "What's up?"

"I went for a run after class, like always, and ended up running with Agent Rawson..."

"Like always," Illana chimed in.

"We were walking the last like half mile to cool down, and he asked about why I wanted to become an FBI Agent, and I used that as an excuse to ask what had brought him to America….apparently he's only at the academy temporarily and I said that those of us who had gotten him while he was, were lucky."

"Nicely done," Illana grinned, "But what about that's weird?"

"He ended up putting his arm around my shoulders for the rest of the walk."

Illana's eyes widened, "Maybe he likes you."

"He's our teacher."

"So? You two have also ended up spending a lot of time together outside of class."

"As running partners, that's it."

"Or so you thought," Illana teased.

Katlyn lay backwards across the foot of the bed, "No distractions, I swore there would be no distractions."

"But he would be a really good distraction," Illana teased.

Katlyn grabbed a pillow and put it over her face, "I know! That's what's making this so hard!"

"You can close your eyes to the things you do not want to see, but you cannot close your heart to the things you don't want to feel." Unknown

The next three weeks did nothing to give Katlyn answers. Her interactions with Agent Rawson were the same as they'd always been, with the occasional mildly affectionate gesture, and that was it. Katlyn convinced herself that he was just more comfortable around her and that was it.

The last two weeks of her time at the academy were crazy. With final testing and qualification rounds, she was running on empty. She was thankful to have Illana to bounce things off of, because they weren't really allowed contact with anyone outside the school. Which was why one of the administrators coming to her room to tell her she had a phone call immediately concerned her.

She followed the woman to a small office, and picked up the phone.

"This is Katlyn.."

"Katlyn, sweetheart, it's mom. It's so good to hear your voice. How are you?"

Katlyn smiled, glad to hear her mother's voice as well, "I'm good, tired, but good. I'll be glad when next week gets here."

"I'm so proud of you, angel. You've done so well. I have bad news though, I'm not going to be able to make it to the graduation, a situation has come up, and I have to go over seas for awhile, I leave tomorrow."

Katlyn tried not to let her disappointment color her voice, "It's fine mom, really. I don't think they're going to make a huge deal of it anyways."

"I just hate I'm going to miss it. I tried to put this off but there's no way."

"It's fine, we'll celebrate when you get back."

"Of course, sweetheart."

Graduation day finally arrived, Katlyn stood talking to Illana and her family, when Mick approached them.

"Ladies, I just wanted to come over here and congratulate the two of you. The FBI is going to have two fantastic new agents."

Katlyn and Illana both smiled, "Thank you," Katlyn said, surprising herself by stepping forward and giving her instructor a hug.

Illana introduced Agent Rawson to her family, causing him in turn to tell Katlyn he'd love to meet hers.

Katlyn forced a small smile, "If any of them were here, I'd be happy to introduce you. My dad isn't in the picture though, and my mother had a work thing she couldn't get out of. But it's no big deal, Illana's family has decided to adopt me, for the night at least."

He laughed, a frown tugging at the corners of his mouth, "Well, I'm glad of that, but I hate none of your family was able to come. You've done amazing, they should be proud, I am."

Katlyn was taken aback by the last words he spoke, and couldn't help the blush that rose to her cheeks.

"Thank you."