Here is another story that I have had sitting on my computer for a long time.
John Lockhart walked through CNU headquarters looking for Cheryl Carrera. His new job was to be a FBI profiler. He would even get to help out in hostage negotiations. He was very well qualified for the job too. He had a doctorate degree in Criminal Psychology and taught a criminology class at Princeton for years. Now he got his dream job, working for the FBI in sunny California. He finally saw the office he was looking for and knocked on the door.
"Ah, Mr. Lockhart I presume" Cheryl said getting up from her desk, extending out a hand.
"Yes, and you must be Supervisor Carrera" he said shaking her hand.
"Call me Cheryl. I am so glad that you can join our team. You come highly recommended. I read that you worked at Princeton"
"Yes, I did"
"Did you ever teach an Emily Lehman?"
"Um, yes. Why do you ask?"
"She is one of our negotiators. There she is, right over there with her partner" Cheryl said pointing out Emily.
"Yes, that would be Emily" John said, all the sudden becoming very nervous.
"You were her mentor?" Cheryl asked
"Yes, I was" John replied still flustered.
"Well you did an amazing job. She is one of the best. Now you get to see her in action" Cheryl said motioning John towards the table that Emily and the rest of the team was sitting at.
"Hey, team. Here is our new team member, John Lockhart. Emily is already familiar with him" Cheryl said. Matt and the rest of the group looked over at Emily.
"Hello, Professor Lockhart" Emily said looking and feeling like she was just punched in the stomach. This was not good. But Matt seemed a little happy because he was thinking, yes, Professor Lockhart, not an ex-boyfriend. Frank looked over and saw that relieved look on Matt's face and couldn't help but smile.
"Emily, you know that you can call me John"
"Right, John" Emily said sinking back in her chair a little. Lia noticed and gave Emily a "what's going on look"
"John this is Emily's partner Matt Flannery" Cheryl said pointing at Matt. Matt extended out a hand to greet him.
"Frank Rogers and Duff, they work in HRT" Cheryl said as John shook their hands.
"And Lia Mathers"
"Yeah, Lia's our computer geek" Duff cut in.
"Shut up!" Lia said playfully punching Duff.
"Nice to meet you Lia" John said.
"Well, I have got paperwork. You guys bond" Cheryl said while walking away.
"So, you were Emily's teacher" Matt said trying to strike up conversation.
"Yes, she was my favorite student" John said.
"Why?" Frank asked sarcastically.
"Well, because she is brilliant" John managed to get out with a little difficulty.
"I know, it was a joke" Frank said guessing it must be a Princeton thing. Lehman never got his jokes when she first joined.
"Right, joke. Good one" John said looking over at Emily who was trying to look away.
"Do you wanna see headquarters?" Duff asked.
"Yeah, we can show you the kill house" Frank said grinning.
"Kill house?" John asked warily.
"They're just trying to scare you. They do that with all the newbies. It's shooting practice. Come on we'll show you" Matt said getting up. Frank, Duff, and John got up too, but not before John shot Emily a we'll talk later look.
"You coming?" Matt asked.
"No I think we'll stay here" Lia said, wanting to talk to Emily.
"Okay, your loss" Frank said as they left.
"What's going on with you?" Lia asked once the guys were out of earshot. Emily sat down and took a very deep breath.
"My relationship with Professor Lockhart, no John, was complicated" Emily stuttered out.
"What do you mean?", Lia asked confused.
"Well, I was kinda more then his student.", Emily said embarrassed.
"What? Oh, you mean that you slept with your professor!" Lia said a little too loudly. Luckily Cheryl was engrossed in her paperwork and there was no one else in her office.
"Okay, I know what you're thinking. But it had nothing to do with getting a good grade, okay?"
"But why would you sleep with your professor if it wasn't for grades?"
"It's a long story" Emily curtly said. Then she came to a realization.
"Oh my, god!" Emily said standing up.
"What?"
"John is alone with Matt. What if he says something about our history!" Emily said frantically trying to figure out what to do.
"Oh, come on. You told Matt that you slept with a professor before. I mean that is a good story, you had to tell him" Lia said trying to ease her friends worries.
"No, we don't talk about our past" Emily quickly said, a sinking feeling starting to grow in the pit of her stomach.
"You need to tell Matt yourself. Why don't we head down to the kill house and you can drag Matt aside. It's around noon, isn't that usually when you guys have a empty office make-out session?" Lia asked while devising a plan.
"You know about that!" Emily said. The thought never occurred that people would figure that out.
"Everyone knows about that. Now let's get to the kill house. Do the usual routine, tell Matt you need to discuss a case and drag him into an empty office. He'll go with it. Now let's hurry this along" Lia said pushing Emily over to the door that leads to the kill house.
"You know the usual routine?", Emily asked trying to stall, a little afraid of Matt's reaction.
"Just go!"
Frank and Duff were showing off how good their shots were. Matt stood their watching, while John seemed rather uncomfortable hearing the shots fired. Frank and Duff finally ran out of rounds and had to take a break.
"You do this everyday?" John asked about the Kill House.
"Just about" Frank said.
"It's their favorite way to pass time" Matt said.
"So, Princeton Professor. You actually taught Lehman?" Duff asked.
"Yes. Emily was a brilliant student" John said.
"What was college Emily like?" Frank asked.
"Frank!" Matt said, he was annoyed that Frank was digging into Emily's private life.
"What? You know that you wanna know" Frank said shrugging it off.
"Emily was like I said brilliant" John said, uncomfortable with the line of questioning.
"I think Frank meant, did you know anything about her personal life?" Duff said. John paused not sure how to answer this. Matt seemed to notice his hesitation, which made him all the more interested in Emily's past.
"Why would I know anything about a student's personal life?" John finally said.
"Slow response" Frank said smiling. He didn't know what John was hiding but her knew it was bound to be good.
"So, tell me how this happened" Lia said. She and Emily were a few minutes of a walk away from the Kill House.
"How what happened?" Emily asked playing innocent.
"Oh no. You can't tell me that you slept with your professor, and our new co-worker, then pretend you don't know what I am talking about" Lia said.
"It happened. That's all there is that you need to know" Emily said a little coldly.
"Wow, someone is a little touchy on the subject" Lia said.
"Sorry. It's just, I don't know how Matt will react. That's all. Before Emily knew it, they had arrived at the
Kill House. Frank, Duff, and Matt were talking to John.
"Hey. What are you guys talking about?" Emily asked since the room went silent when she and Lia walked in.
"A little bit of this, a little bit of that" Frank said grinning. Emily had a feeling he knew.
"Matt can I talk to you in another room for a minute?" Emily asked.
"Sure" Matt said following her, leaving Lia alone in the room with the guys.
"Lia, wanna fire a few rounds?" Duff asked.
"Oh, uh, guns aren't really my thing" Lia said.
"Come on Mathers, live a little" Frank said.
"Are you really gonna make such a beautiful girl like Lia fire a gun?" John asked.
"Yeah, shooting isn't exactly my talent" Lia said.
"Mathers, we're gonna get you to learn one day. It might as well be today" Frank said handing her a gun.
"How about this? We'll learn together. Like Cheryl said, we should bond" John said smiling at Lia. John positioned himself next to Lia, and helped her hold the gun in what he thought was the correct position. With John Lockhart standing over her back touching her, Lia had a very weird feeling, but couldn't quite place it. She awkwardly shrugged John away from her.
But before she did this, Frank pulled Duff aside, way out of earshot from Lia and John.
"Is it just me, or was Princeton hitting on Mathers" Frank said.
"What? The guy is like twenty years older then her" Duff said trying to ignore what he saw and heard earlier.
"You better get going before he moves in on your girl" Frank said.
"She's not my girl. But there is something weird about that guy" Duff said.
"I think it's time we put our investigation skills to the test" Frank said with a grin.
I'll add more later. Review!!!!