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David Rossi
Twelve Years ago
"I know you took that book from my office. Why won't you fess up?" David mock-glared at Annabeth from behind his coffee mug, watching her face intently.
She smiled and shook her head, looked out the window towards the rain beating down on the diner pane, and then back at him. "You're a pretty sore loser of bets, aren't you? It's been a week, just give up already." She smirked at his face, enjoying their game more than she'd enjoyed anything in her life. "And before you say I'm deflecting, I didn't steal your fucking book."
Rossi furled his lips around his teeth and let the hot liquid seep down his throat before pinning her with a more serious glare. "Watch your language."
At this, Annabeth audibly snorted, and replied in a mock-child's voice. "Words are bad!" then threw her head back and laughed. David couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face, he had no reply for such a short, yet eloquent and logical retort. Damn this girl, she check-mated him at every turn.
"Alright. Words themselves aren't bad, but they don't always sound good or further your cause. Perhaps I should have said, choose your words a little more wisely." David rubbed the rim of his coffee cup with a thumb, relaxed, enjoying himself. She had seemed pretty truthful when she said she hadn't taken the book. Which he didn't care a rats ass about, it's just this stupid bet they had to catch one another in a lie, and who could do it first. She had arrogantly whispered in his ear one afternoon after he picked her up from Junior College, "You'll never catch ME in a lie." When he'd happily announced a caper of a partnership of serial rapists. It was a simple enough statement, but she had taunted him, dared him even. He had responded with a like statement. "Miss, you'll never catch the greatest profiler who ever lived, in a lie."
"Fuck that." She popped her head up from her hot chocolate, licking whip cream from up her upper lip, and smiling wickedly. The intrusion on his thoughts reminded him of how head-strong she really was. He shook his head at her defiance, he knew it all too well – shit, rebellion was his middle name. He wondered how things were going in her new world, she didn't offer much up – once a week he was allowed to pick her up from school, college, at fifteen, he admired, and during the 45 minute rush hour drive through D.C. traffic he grilled her about everything except her home life. She had asked him to drop it on their first visit, and he respected that wish, though it had hurt.
"You're gonna land yourself in a world of hurt." He had said the words before he'd thought of them, and regretted them instantly. He had never met anyone who had lived hurt like Annabeth. She was born into it. She stilled slightly, just barely, and straightened her back. He noticed the body language change and could kick himself. "Bethy I didn't mean …"
"I know." She widened her eyes to keep the tears from falling. "It's Sara, now, remember?" The sting went away almost as instantly as it had come, and she forgave him. "So I need a book from your office." She grinned at the tortured look on his face as it snapped back up to make eye contact with her.
There was a half smile, half grimace on his face. "Well if you're looking for the 37th edition of miniscule expressions, it's gone." He raised the coffee mug to his face again, to hide his humor. He knew she had it, and he just hadn't worked out how to prove it yet.
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"You've been staring at that campus the entire lunch, Dave. What's on your mind?" Emily placed a hand on David's forearm to get his attention, and removed it just as quickly when she felt him jump underneath her touch. She hadn't meant to invade his space… She looked over from the diner window and watched Hotch pay the lunch bill, saw Spencer emerging from the men's room with Morgan right behind him.
"Memories." David answered truthfully, remembering his little lie detector. He restrained himself from touching the window pane where she had breathed onto it with a huff, and then childishly placed her nose and mouth on it, then, to his annoyance. "Someone has to clean those, you know." He had chastised, as he put cash on the table. "Then they'll thank me for job security." She had answered seriously, without missing a beat. David chuckled. Emily just nodded her head, implying she understood. It was no secret to anyone on the team that he had tried to get away from Chicago many times since his high school graduation, but work and cases had often brought him back.
"We have a new lead on the body, it seems someone in Homeland Security knows who our Jane Doe is." Aaron put his cell phone in his pocket and exited the diner, the team now abuzz with the excitement of a new lead, and followed. Dave turned his head to watch them exit, until he was sure they were gone, looked back at the ordinary window and touched it. "Bethy. Where are you?" The whisper was heard by no one, but something in him twisted wildly. It had been almost four years since he had heard from her. They had gone a couple of years without contact since her eighteenth birthday, but this was different. His birthday and Christmas letters had been sent back, unopened. David sighed, feeling sick to his stomach, and left the diner – their diner.
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Annabeth
"Stanwood will debrief you on your new post orders. I have a dinner arrangement. Best of luck, agents." Larry had dismissed himself almost as soon as the small squadron of troops had entered the "war-room" for the new game plan involving Petryrulich and Yermolich and their beautiful Romanian Jane Doe, who happened to be named Elyona.
"Fat cat." Raisha hissed disgustedly, all but resisting the urge to spit. Annabeth cocked her head to the side like a puppy gauging a new sound, and looked coldly at the chocolate-skinned woman as if she were a new species of fish.
"Did our beloved Bull touch you in your bad spot, Rayray?" She asked, in a child's taunt.
Raisha miraculously kept her body from leaping nimbly across the conference table to tear out the throat of her bully, but Annabeth noticed with exquisite pleasure that she had clenched her teeth and narrowed her eyes into snake-like slits.
"That's rage, not pain. You'll be fine, little dove." Annabeth patronized, lifting her head back to full-tilt. She gave a simpering smile when Raisha's nostrils flared. Jealousy, Anna interpreted as easily as hands that knew silk from cotton. She casually scanned the faces of her colleges, then gave an annoyed look and an exasperated sigh at the shock they all wore on their faces.
"Please, let's go on with the debriefing. Who we gotta scratch?" Annabeth folded the long thin fingers of her hands in her lap, on top of a crossed leg and pursed her lips, attempting to give any impression of full-attention she could stomach.
"Simply put," Standwood began, bending in his important walk about the conference table and making eye contact with a few, "We will bring Petyrulich in alive. He needs to be questioned, and Yermolich – well the orders are to kill on sight. Him, as well as any of his known associates."
Which means the State department is only looking for someone to hang for Jane's murder, they want Yermolich for information on someone. Annabeth's mind silently reeled behind an impassive face. Too valuable to kill always meant one of two things, espionage, or evidence for a cover up. She could feel the walls tighten in around her a little. Terrorists were one thing… a woman's cold-blooded murder being used for "the greater good" as Larry called it, sent her blood to boiling. It might be time to fly the coop…. She thought calmly of David's words. David. She didn't realize the tortured look she wore.
"Is that shame and guilt?" Raisha hissed, palms flattened on the table, feeling triumphant at having caught Annabeth in any emotion other than impassive.
"Sadness, Rayray. It's sadness. And longing." Annabeth answered quietly, an implication in her voice saying she didn't mean Raisha to be an enemy of hers at all. She stood and excused herself, not at all ashamed of her truthfulness but quite ashamed of her slip of emotion. They would never see it again.
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Hoping somebody likes this! I'm quite enjoying it. =D
