Two Weeks Notice
Spoilers:Revelations, To Hell..And Back, Amplification and 100
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These are the days Penelope Garcia quits her job:
A girl gets ripped apart by dogs and JJ wants to watch. In the next room, Penelope finds Derek with his arms across his chest and his eyes out the window. The light from the room shows his reflection on the glass.
"If this doesn't—" she says, "If Reid doesn't—" A thin wail from the computer floats in from the next room. Penelope flinches. Derek doesn't.
"Yeah," he says, "Me too."
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She doesn't start shaking until she's inside. Outside, when Derek tells her to stay away from the barn and Hotch won't tell her what's on the tarp, she shivers and passes it off as chill from the wind. Inside, the house creaks around her and the man on the bed has a slow, weak drawl interrupted by the hiss of machinery. The shiver turns to a shake, but with a few deep breaths she can keep still.
When she's waiting for word from Morgan that the case is closed, a man comes in with a gun. She turns around in time to see the shot and watch the blood spatter on the walls. The machines don't know the man is dead. Every time they push air into his body, the blood wells up out of his chest and spreads across the sheets. She shakes until she rattles and the world turns jittery. It's not something she can control and she knows it won't stop.
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Reid calls to say goodbye. She watches how the soundwaves change when his voice gets heavy and only looks away when they crackle with static when he clears his throat. The next day, when Reid is still alive, she hides the file away in the folder where she keeps her team. She burns a CD, labels it FOR DIANA REID in red sharpie and locks it in her bottom left drawer. It's the drawer she doesn't open; the one she keeps for the future.
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Technically, she's not allowed to delete anything from her computer system. Technically, all calls, emails and traces are to be labeled, filed and saved for future reference. In actuality, the moment Hotch answers the phone, she knows this isn't a call she will be keeping. She can't work with it on her computer, not when she knows about the gunshot at the end.
Most people think that once it's on a computer, it's permanent, but Garcia knows how to make it never happen. It's how she got this job in the first place and the reason she'll be fired from it.
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These are the days Penelope Garcia doesn't quit her job:
Her team comes home. Emily calls from the plane with a headcount and JJ steals the phone to tell her in a low voice that this was a bad one. She makes coffee and it's ready when the elevator doors open. She watches how Derek rolls his shoulder carefully, how Hotch won't start talking and Reid won't stop. Her team comes home and even though she knows about the gunshot at the end, she also knows about catching them before they can fire.