I'm suffering a bit of writer's block as far as "Nightmare" goes. Hopefully, writing this will help me snap out of it, and both should be updated soon, but after that I don't know. I have completely ignored my summer assignment for English and it's like 60 pages or something. (Curse those evil 10th-grade teachers….)
Disclaimer: I do not own Blindspot or any of these characters.
…
Tasha Zapata would rather swallow a hornet's nest than join the CIA. Or at least that's what she had made perfectly clear to Jake Keaton. Sure, she'd had thoughts of leaving. They all had. In the case of Reade, the leaving part had just come before the thinking part. In the case of Patterson, the leaving had come after too much of the thinking. But they'd both come back.
Reade had gone on to Quantico, since his transfer had already gone through. Within two weeks, he had transferred back. She'd been delighted. His replacement had been insufferable.
Patterson's exit, however, hadn't been quite as graceful.
She could remember it clearly.She and Jane were slinking through the abandoned warehouse, in search of the final suspect in a trafficking case. One. One suspect, not four. But four armed gunmen were exactly what had been waiting for them in the shadows. They hadn't known in time. All they'd heard was a shocked gasp through the comms before Patterson had gone deathly silent. They'd had time to exchange a confused glance before asking in unison "Patterson?" And then all of hell had broken loose.
Patterson had suddenly returned over the comms, "Guys, watch out! Four, to your left, Jane!" They had both whipped around, disabling three of the suspects. They hadn't anticipated the grenade that the fourth possessed, but Patterson had managed to choke out a warning in time for them to run, saving their lives again. It hadn't spared Jane from getting a concussion though.
Weller loudly demanded an immediate explanation, but Patterson wasn't there to give it. When they got back, she was with Dr. Sun, who had later given the explanation that Weller demanded.
In her terror for the team, she had become too stressed and the anxiety had transported her back to another stressful situation, which had caused her mind to recognize one of the suspects as Borden. Or something like that, anyway.
In reality, none of the suspects even closely resembled him, but, for lack of a better definition, Patterson was paranoid. In fact, when they had finally hunted her down, she had clung to the two of them and started sobbing. She thoroughly blamed herself, even if they didn't.
Weller was less forgiving. His fiancé could have died. And he'd made sure that Patterson knew it. Jane (who had refused to be admitted to the hospital) dragged him off before he could say anything to her that he would truly regret later on and he had apologized after Jane had made him listen to Dr. Sun, but it hadn't mattered.
The next morning, she had tearfully gone to Weller's office with her resignation, explaining that if her private fears interfered to the point of rendering her useless and endangering the team, then she wouldn't be able to do her job anymore. Weller argued loudly with her before ripping up the resignation letter. He refused to accept her badge and gun, saying "Take a break. You've been through too much for it not to affect you. Go somewhere else for a few months, take a leave of absence. When you come back, we'll talk."
She left and was back two days later, unable to stay away any longer. Weller had had to force her to go elsewhere for her own good, and, at the suggestion of Dr. Sun, dragged her from the building to her car, saying that she had to take a vacation for at least two weeks, or else he would personally cuff her and put her in a holding cell with only Rich DotCom for company. Exactly fourteen days later, she was back in her lab and nothing more was said about it.
Soon after both Reade and Patterson were back and it became clear that neither had any other intentions of leaving, Jane left to start at Quantico so she would be able to continue working with them. Tasha tried to convince herself that this was good news. But it was difficult.
It wasn't that she didn't trust her - Tasha trusted Jane with her life – but she still held reservations after the whole mess with Roman. She hadn't had a shot, that was what the report said. Bull shit. She let him get away. She could tell. Jane was like an open book when it came to her brother.
But still, Jane Weller was one hell of an agent and one of her best friends. Nothing would change that. Still, she couldn't help but wonder…
No. It doesn't matter. The FBI may not be the most effective, but at least we're humane. The CIA gets results, but they take things too far. And we do get results, just not as quickly.
That was what she told herself in the beginning, a little doubtfully at first, but soon she came to realize that it was true. She was FBI, through and through. Nothing could change that. And Jane, well, that just proof of how loyal she was.
To her brother. The voice in her head told her.
Shut up. She's loyal to us, too.
If it came between all of you and him, who would she pick?
With a jolt, she realized that she didn't know. But then she thought back to all of the times that Jane had saved the rest of them from her crazy family. If it came down to it, she would protect the team.
Jane Weller was trustworthy. Jake Keaton was not. No matter how hard he pressed, she would never join him and his mangy pack of rats. Ever.
And then, Jane disappeared. And everything went to hell.
…
So, should I continue? Obviously "Nightmare" takes priority (after the English homework), since I've been working on it longer, but I wanted to do something to alternate it with, so I don't get bored. Or something like that, anyway.
