Blindspot
Chapter 1
Zapata stood in the terminal of the airport holding up a sign that said 'Nerd' on it. She had a friend flying in to help her with the Dragonfly case. After Borden had escaped CIA confinement she had called in for help. The CIA had agreed to have Agent Shelby Wyatt who had been a friend of hers while she went through the FBI academy. Shelby had also been assigned to the Borden case when Natasha had been as well. She had seen how she had reacted to the man and gotten Natasha to open up about what had happened while he worked for the Bureau. Shelby rolled her eyes when she saw the sign Natasha was holding but smiled and wrapped her arms around the smaller brunette's shoulders tightly. Natasha leaned into it. Patterson was the only that ever really initiated physical contact with her and she found she really missed it. Shelby laughed and punched her on the arm.
"She's really getting to you. Isn't she?" Shelby smiled.
"Yeah." Natasha sighed.
"Well. Cheer up buttercup. I'm here now. Maybe I can talk some sense into her." Shelby smiled brightly.
"No way. Promise me you won't. I don't want her to know how I feel about her, besides I'm pretty sure its too late for anything to happen." Natasha shrugged dejectedly. Their first stop was to the bureau building. They had a potential hit they were uncovering about Borden. Natasha led Shelby to the conference room where everyone looked up at them confused.
"Um. This is Special Agent Shelby Wyatt. She was my Control Officer for Project Dragonfly. Shelby these are agents Enver, Reade, Weller, Patterson and Jane Doe. Borden was our unit Behavioral Analyst." Natasha explained. Patterson's eyes flashed towards Natasha when she said Borden's name. Natasha looked down.
"CIA projects have Control Officers now?" Weller asked with an unamused tone.
"They do when your lead field agent tries to kill your asset." Shelby stared him down. Natasha's head shot towards Shelby.
"Dr. Wyatt…." Natasha glared.
"They need to know why I'm here just as much as you do. Former Agent Borden is marked for reprocessing. Not death. Our objective is to capture him alive and retrieve whatever information we can on the terror cell he works for now. Your team is not the only one researching Project Sandstorm. Do you understand?" Shelby glared at them all her eyes stopping on Natasha.
"Understood ma'am." Reade nodded in his acceptance glancing at his best friend. Patterson was staring at Natasha sadly.
"I don't need a baby sitter." Natasha grumbled once they were all sitting down.
"Well. The CIA feels that you do now that Agent Borden has gone rogue. I know this is a personal case for all of you. Especially you Agent Patterson, but he is still a very vital asset to our ongoing investigation." Shelby explained with a glare at Natasha who looked down at her hands.
"Well. I guess that's all for this morning's briefing. I mainly wanted to introduce everyone to Agent Wyatt." Reade rubbed the back of his neck tiredly.
"Shelby Wyatt everyone. Woooh." Natasha fake cheered.
"You love me. Let's go eat. I'm hungry. Oh or we can get take out and catch up on Game of Thrones." Shelby looped her arm through Natasha's.
"Ugh. I hate that show." Natasha grumbled.
"Yeah, well there is no way I'm watching X-Files. Not tonight." Shelby laughed and waved at everyone.
"I am obsessed with everything that just happened." She heard Rich state and chuckled slightly.
A few days later Natasha was in a van with Shelby while Rich and Patterson ran information from the bureau. Read, Jane and Weller were in the field trying to keep eyes on Borden. Natasha and Shelby didn't know that their coms were on or that Patterson and Rich could hear them from the operation control room.
"You should just tell her how you feel." Shelby told Natasha firmly.
"Yeah. That's a great plan. How should I start that conversation? Hey. I know I've been gone for the past few months, but I found out your asshole ex-boyfriend who I told you to give a chance is still alive and is our only hope of shutting down Sandstorm? It was just my really fucked up way of trying to tell you I was in love with you? That would go over SOOO well." Natasha rambled dryly.
"Okay. You might want to work on your delivery." Shelby laughed.
"It's not going to happen. Just drop it." Natasha pleaded.
"I can't do that. We're both here and I can't pretend like I didn't find you passed out drunk in your apartment the morning after you tried to kill him. You love her, and you have a chance to be happy. You should try to fix things with her." Shelby commented.
"You saw the way she looked at me in that meeting." Natasha sighed.
"She doesn't know everything you've done for her." Shelby pointed out.
"I don't think it would change anything even if she did. I waited too long even if I did have a chance with her, but what I can do. Is make sure this asshole doesn't get to hurt her ever again." Natasha stared at the screen of the laptop displaying Borden's figure on the bench.
"I can't let you kill him Tash. I already told you that." Shelby sighed.
"I'm not going to kill him, but if we bring him in. I can go back to making sure he stays hidden in a deep dark cell where no one can find him." Natasha explained.
"You scare me sometimes. I love it. I still think you should tell her. At least you would have some closure." Shelby shrugged.
"Which would probably end with a fist to the face so no thank you." Natasha stared at the screen blankly.
"Shit. He's on the move. They need help. Let's go." Natasha and Shelby jumped from van and ran after Weller and Borden. Natasha managed to knock Borden down after trading a few blows back and forth by raising her gun to his head. Shelby Weller and Reade ran up to them with their own weapons drawn.
"Agent Zapata.. Don't shoot." Shelby had her own gun pointed at them switching back and forth between Borden and Natasha. Weller eyed Shelby with surprise.
"Tasha. If you shoot him she's going to shoot you." Weller tried to reason with his friend.
"Zap. Please, don't make me do this." Shelby pleaded fearfully a few tears leaking out of her eyes. She knew her friend and what this moment meant to her. After Patterson had deemed her a pariah she had been spiraling down quickly.
"Natasha." They all heard Patterson's cracking voice through the com system.
"What do you want me to do?" Natasha whispered to Patterson even though she knew everyone could hear and it was the first time Weller saw Natasha's hands falter on her weapon.
"Don't shoot him. Please." Patterson pleaded. Natasha's hands shook on the gun, but she dropped it.
"Was that Patterson? How is she?" Borden looked at Natasha with a smirk. Natasha's face fell. She took her ear piece out then punched him in the face. Knocking Borden out cold. Shelby sighed in relief then crouched down to cuff him. Natasha holstered her weapon and walked back to the van robotically. Shelby looked after her. Concern written on her face. They all rode back to the federal building in silence.
Natasha was staring at the row of lockers in front of her when Reade walked in and sat down beside her handing her a towel to wipe the blood from her face.
"Am I suspended?" Natasha asked him dryly leaning her head back on the lockers from her spot on the floor.
"Not even close." Reade handed her a glass of the scotch he kept hidden in her locker.
Patterson found Shelby in the observation room of the interrogation room they were holding Borden in at the Bureau building.
"Agent Patterson." Shelby greeted as she rolled her sleeves up.
"Agent Wyatt." Patterson crossed her arms and looked at Borden with furrowed brows.
"Agent Zapata would want to be here with you if she knew you were here." Shelby told her with a look Patterson couldn't quite place.
"I know. I… Rich wanted to eaves drop on the two of you in the van. I heard what you both said. I just… I needed to ask you… What did you mean when you said I didn't know what she had done for me?" Patterson looked back at her with wide eyes. Shelby pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Oh man…" Shelby put a hand on the table to steady herself.
"I don't want to hurt her anymore. I don't know what to make of any of this. I just… I'm grasping at straws here. I need something…." Patterson wiped at her face. Shelby squeezed her shoulder.
"You should go talk to her." Shelby tried.
"And I will. I just… Please, Agent Wyatt." Patterson pleaded.
"You can call me Shelby. I um.. Well we can start by when she found out we had Borden in Custody. She did try to kill him. The CIA wouldn't let her, and when they didn't she demanded to be made his control officer, so she could make sure he stayed away from you. When they ordered her back to your team I was made his control officer instead. They made her sign a very specific privacy agreement. She fought the committee on reading you guys in on several occasions." Shelby explained. Patterson had tears forming in her eyes.
"I'm going to… Kick her ass for starters. She still should have trusted me. She did all of this to protect me….?" Patterson asked tiredly.
"You heard her in the van. She loves you. You really should give her another chance." Shelby stated firmly. Patterson nodded as she wiped at her eyes.
"Okay. I'm going to just go… I'm going to go find her." Patterson laughed lightly.
"Don't go to her unless you know you feel the same. She's hurting." Shelby tried.
"I feel the same. I just don't think I put it together that I did until I heard her say it in the van." Patterson smiled through her tears. Shelby smiled at her and squeezed her hand.
Patterson wandered through the Bureau looking for Natasha until Rich stopped her and told her she was in the locker room with Reade after cracking some distasteful jokes about her orientation. She just flipped him off and headed in the direction of the locker rooms. She found Natasha holding her head in her hand with a glass in the other while Reade had an arm wrapped around her shoulders. She cleared her throat and they both looked up at her. Natasha wiped at her eyes quickly and Reade moved his arm.
"Can you give us a minute Reade?" Patterson looked at him with the same defeated look Natasha had looked at him with initially.
"Um…" Reade looked at Natasha who nodded at him tiredly and leaned her head back on the lockers tilting her head back to lock eyes with Patterson. Reade stood up and hurried from the room. Grabbing the liquor bottle on his way out. Patterson locked the door when he left and turned to face her former best friend.
"What do you want…? To tell me I don't deserve to be in your life anymore again, because I get it. I get it." Natasha's voice cracked at the end of her statement.
"Stop. Just stop talking for a second." Patterson took the glass from Natasha's hand and set it behind the bench she had sat on in front of Natasha. She took Natasha's hands in her own and held them tightly.
"What do you want from me Patterson?" Natasha asked tearfully. Tears started forming in Patterson's eyes again too.
"I heard you and Shelby in the van. Rich wanted to eavesdrop. I'm sorry if I ever made you feel like you didn't deserve to be in my life. Shelby told me what happened with him when you found out he was alive." Patterson started.
"I asked her not to.." Natasha was cut off by Patterson continuing.
"Not to tell me anything I know. I kind of made her. Why the hell didn't you just tell me Nat?" Patterson squeezed her hands tighter.
"I didn't want…. I don't want to lose you." Natasha whispered. She felt Patterson move to sit beside her on the floor and wrap her arms around her. After they had held each other for a few moments. Patterson put a hand on Natasha's face and lifted it so they could make eye contact.
"You wouldn't have lost me you idiot." Patterson leaned in and connected their lips. Natasha let out a breath against Patterson's lips and the blonde smiled into their kiss.
"Don't ever lie to me again." Patterson gripped the openings of Natasha's hoodie holding her close.