It has been 3 days since I was reunited with my mother and brother —my family.
For an entire year I felt like a rolling stone; like I didn't belong anywhere but with Roman I felt a sense of belonging.
For once I felt like I belonged somewhere.
Even though he was so far away, he was always close by.
He watched over me like a hawk.
I gathered that we had to have been very close and I also learned that he hated Oscar and almost shot his face off when he found us making out in the hallway.
He came around shortly though, after Oscar proposed to me and that was ten years later. Talk about grudge.
"You were eighteen —barely an adult. I couldn't let him have his way with you," he'd said in a gruffy voice.
It was hard not to laugh at his "older" brother, protective streak but I understood where he was coming from.
We would spend hours just sitting around eating everything I liked or everything Roman knew I hated but fed it to me anyway for his own evil pleasure.
The respect I had for him became stronger everyday.
He always put me first and himself last.
No matter how tired he was, even after a long day of work, he was never short with me.
My admiration for him was deep seated and long lasting.
It made me feel really guilty that I was going against him.
He hadn't been anything but kind to me and how was I repaying him?
By lying to his face every night.
"I remember once.." He started, taking a seat next to me on the wooden bench, "You had the biggest crush on this guy named Albert —"
"Like Albert Einstein?" I interrupted shaking my head slightly.
His eyes widen so much I thought they would pop out of his head and he roared with laughter; clutching his sides.
He laughed so hard he had tears streaming down his cheek and he had gone completely red in the face.
"That's exactly what I'd tease you about and you'd get so mad," he forced out, wiping away his tears with the back of his hand.
I laid my head on his broad shoulders and listened attentively as he told me about our many memories as siblings.
Roman was an amazing brother despite him being the younger twin he protected me like he was the older one and always acted like it too.
"It's really good to have you back, Remi," he said softly squeezing my hand in his.
But was I really back?
Could I really go through with betraying my brother?
I lifted my head to see out the window; what I saw, took my breath away.
The ground below me was alive with lights, like someone had taken a handful of glitter and thrown it as far as the eye could see.
It was too dark to make out individual buildings, but the lights were enough for me.
I sighed, amazed at the view laid out before me.
"This was your favourite place. I remember you left home when you were just thirteen years old and Shepherd made me comb through everywhere looking for you. She thought you didn't want to be with her anymore. She was really sad about it," he explained gently. I squeezed his hand gently when he came to an halt and he flashed me a soft, genuine smile.
"But you really just wanted to witness the sunset. You said Albert had told you it was most beautiful out here so everyday after that we'd come out here together. It was our special place,"
Roman pulled his phone out of his back pocket and checked the time. The bold digits read 01:00am.
"As much as I'd love to stay here with you you need to go now," I nodded understandingly and pushed myself off of the bench we were so comfortably seated in.
He rose to join me and tucked his hands in his back pocket and rocked back and forth on his heels
Our goodbyes were always so awkward.
I had accepted the fact that he was my brother and I remembered a little bit of our childhood but it was still so awkward because I was bullshitting him.
He's your brother, idiot!
He walked up to me slowly and pulled me closer to him wrapping his arms around me.
His embrace was warm, and his big, strong arms seemed very protective when wrapped around my frail body.
The world around me melted away as I squeezed him back, not wanting the moment to end.
"Be careful out there," he muffled against my hair.
He attempted to pull back but I squeezed him tighter holding him in place.
We stood there just hugging each other for what seemed like hours but it was just a few minutes.
When we finally pulled back his eyes were brimmed with unshed tears and he offered him a small smile.
"See you later?" He asked nervously.
Great. The awkwardness was back
"See you later," I echoed turning on my heels and walking away.
That night sleep wouldn't come to me. I kept remembering Roman and how genuine he was with me.
Later that night, I tossed and turned in my bed unable to fall asleep.
In the ten hours I've been in bed I must have woken up six times.
Not for that long each time, but enough to break my sleep into unrefreshing chunks.
With every disturbance there is a new nightmare.
Roman found out I was double crossing him and told Shepherd about it. She had my head off before I could explain my side of the story.
Or Roman found out and killed me himself.
The last one had me thrashing around and screaming out in my sleep. Roman found out the truth about me, we fought and I gutted him the same way I did Oscar.
In my sleeplessness I am drunk on silence.
For hours it has seeped into my pores, dowsing my mind in its thick toxicity.
The usefulness of my thoughts left long ago, leaving these fatigued neurones to fire almost randomly flailing without direction.
I want so much to not to think at all, I want to be absorbed into the darkness that the night promised me hours ago.
I want to be waking refreshed to streaming white daylight, unaware of the hours between then and now.
But as usual my wishes mean nought and behind these closed lids the idiocy continues.
Leaning back in frustration, the blonde genius, let some glittering beads of sweat trickle down her forehead.
She stared at the contrasting white pixels against black as if all the URLs and fragments of code clogged the gears of her mind.
Although the overheated laptop scorched her laps and the jungle of algorithms played laser show on her glasses, she held her breath to concentrate as if her life depended on it.
Her eyes combed the monitor in search of a bug, moving from side to side rapidly like the eyes of a dreaming person but wide open.
A solid rap jolted her out of her deep concentration nearly causing her to drop the laptop from her lap.
A curious Jane poked her head into Patterson's lab and searched the room thoroughly.
Patterson cleared her throated causing her eyes to quickly snap to hers.
"Did you need something?" Patterson asked sending her a small smile.
Patterson had been the only one out of the entire team to not treat her as if her touch would burn if she ever touched her.
"Sorry. Are you busy?" Jane asked stepping into the lab and closing the door behind her.
Patterson's eyes glanced over briefly to the closed door then back to Jane.
"Nah. I was just playing around.
What's up?" She asked closing her laptop and turning fully to face the nervous woman.
Playing around with algorithms?
Paterson is the only person you would believe was playing around algorithms if she said so.
Like hail on a glass pane, the drumming of Patterson's fingers were as relentless as it was loud.
Each click of the french polished nails on the table echoed the tumultuous thudding of Jane heart beat.
Her face, rigid with tension.
"Can I borrow your phone? I need to call my brother," She asked quietly.
After that it was deadly quiet.
It was the kind of quietness you felt before someone sneaked up behind you and knifed you in the back.
"What happened to yours?" Patterson asked leaning forward to examine the woman in front of her.
"I left it with my brother. That's why I need to call him to remind him about it," Jane rushed out, tugging her hair behind ears awkwardly.
"Uh. Sure?" Patterson said with a confused look on her face.
She went over to her handbag and pulled out her phone.
She tapped around a bit, blocking her location and anything else that could've been leaked during the phone call, unlocked her phone then handed it to Jane with watchful eyes.
"Thanks," she squeaked out.
She dialed Roman's number and he answered on the very first ring.
"Roman. It's Remi,"
Patterson's eyes soften as she listened in on their conversation.
She was happy that Jane finally knew her identity but was sad that it happened under such circumstances.
"Are you busy?"
Whatever he was saying on the other end of that line didn't sit well with her because the crease in her forehead grew exceptionally deep.
"Fine," she said before pressing the end button and handing the phone back to Patterson.
"Thanks," she said again, making her way over to the door.
"Wait!" Patterson said scrambling off the seat and rushed over to Jane.
"Is everything okay?" She asked, genuinely concerned.
"I'm fine," Jane waved off.
Patterson eyed her suspiciously but nodded nonetheless.
"Okay," she said with a little smile and went back to 'playing around'
The team had been busy decoding one of Jane's tattoo.
"I never thought I'd ever say this but it feels so good to be doing this again," Tasha interjected.
Reade nodded in agreement while Jane just wore a look of annoyance of her face.
It must be nice to use me as a treasure map, she said inwardly.
Kurt, as if feeling her glare, glanced up at her. His eyes rested on her for awhile before she rolled her eyes and looked away.
He huffed in exasperation and folded his hands against his chest.
"No one's forcing you to be here, you know," He said, his eyes still throwing daggers at her.
Nas stepped in between them before another argument escalated.
"Jane. Stop," she said placing her open palm across the woman's chest.
"Weller, you too," she hissed, repeating her actions.
The two of them couldn't even been in the same room for more than an hour together.
Someone would get antsy and annoy the other which resulted in Kurt throwing out the fact that she's a murderer's daughter and she was probably exactly like her mother.
To her telling him that he held onto a corpse for twenty five years instead of moving on with his life like an adult.
He blamed daddy for everything and got mad at world.
It was tiring.
It had gotten so persistent that Reade and Zapata hadn't bothered to intervene anymore.
They'd just let them say what they needed to and moved on with the case.
Jane opened her mouth to say something before she heard yelling in the distance.
"Remi!" Roman
Her eyes searched frantically looking for the blonde haired man with a quick temper.
"Roman," she said when her eyes locked with his.
He did not look happy.
"Stand back, he's mad," Jane said moving forward to where her brother stood with his fist clenched tightly at his side.
His temper was like TNT, once the sparks started to sizzle there was very little time to duck and cover.
She knew she should just stay quiet and wait for the storm to abate, but she couldn't help inching closer to him.
"Easy there, baby brother," she said reaching out to him. His eyes soften but instantly turned hard again.
The intensity of his gaze made her itch and sweat in a way she didn't know possible.
"Remi. The truth," he said clenching his jaw tightly.
In the corner of her eyes she could see Kurt draw for his gun and she snatched up hers and pointed it behind her.
"Put it down," she gritted out, eyes still locked with Roman's.
"The truth," Roman repeated reaching into his back pocket.
Kurt stepped forward and aimed his gun at Roman's head. Jane cocked her gun and held it firmly in her hands.
"I dare you," she said to Kurt but her eyes remained fixated on her brother.
Roman pulled out a pile of paper from his pocket and held it out for his sister to grab it.
She placed her gun back into the holster and stepped closer to Roman until they were face to face.
She read through the papers with wide eyes and glanced up to find Roman's cold stare.
"Roman. I can —" Jane started
"—explain? Yeah. You better because if Cade has been in a coma for six months who the hell tortured you and why would you say it was him?" He interjected, scrubbing his scruff roughly.
The team exchanges nervous glances.
"If anything goes sour shoot him," Kurt whispered to his team.
Reade stared at him with wide eyes and shook his head violently.
"That's a suicide mission, boss. You know Jane will kill us all without even flinching if we shoot her brother,"
He had a point. Of course he had a point.
Jane had just found her family.
She finally belonged somewhere.
There was nowhere in hell that she'd let anyone harm her brother. Over her dead body.
Roman stepped closer to her rubbing his fingers over the faded restrain marks on her wrist.
"I know the torture happened. Who did it? Tell me!" He yelled, causing Jane to flinch backwards he had never yelled at her before. Atleast not that she could remember.
She had heard him yell on his phone but never had at her so she knew she was really done for.
"Are you going to report me?" She asked, stubbornly crossing her arms across her chest.
It would appear that she was just acting tough but what she really wanted to do was somehow block out the sound of her thumping heart.
"Remi —"
"You're right. I lied. Cade didn't kill Oscar," she said hugging her arms around her torso protectively.
Roman's eyes were mossy green orbs with a rings of silver – they twinkled with a sharp gleam like that of a tiger staking his prey.
His gaze was both of a wise professor and a bloodthirsty murderer: it called for respect and promised severe consequences for denying him.
"Tell me," he whispered, tugging her gently by her elbows.
And just like that her mouth started moving. She told him what she learned from Cade, what Oscar did to Mayfair, how she tracked him down, him telling her she wasn't Taylor all the way to her arrest.
"I didn't mean to. It was an accident. I just wanted to bring him for what he did to Mayfair. We started fighting and I grabbed whatever was closest... I didn't mean —" a strangled sob escaped her as she was trying to explain.
She brought her thumb and forefinger to her eyes and cried quietly.
Roman pulled her into his arms and her cries intensified.
Nas looked on with sad eyes and Patterson wiped a stray tear from her eyes and kept her eyes everywhere except on the heartbroken Jane being comforted by her brother.
"Shh. It's okay, Remi," he soothed brushing her hair out of her face. She clung to him as if her life depended solely on his alone.
"It's not okay, Roman! What kind of psycho bitch kills her finacé?"
She was obviously very upset and no kind of comforting would help her at this time.
So he let her cry, and said no more, but sat with her cold hand in his warm, easy clasp.
"She needed that," Nas said quietly, attracting the attention of the very damp eyed coworkers.
"She needed to cry her eyes out because she felt guilty of killing her fiancé. A man she clearly loved. Sure she needed that," Zapata said sarcastically.
Reade just looked on quietly before leaning closer to Nas and whispered, "she needs him. He's her brother after all."
Of course, I HAD to write about Remi & Roman because how cute are they?
When Roman was hugging Jane/Remi her face looked so content. Ugh my baby found her people.
But I really like Roman. It sucks that they're going against him. I need Jane to tell her brother everything so that they can be the badass siblings and take everyone down.
OK.
I hope you enjoy this little story.
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