A look into Justin and Amy's relationship. A sequel to "When You Least Expect", with a few companion chapters from Amy's and Justin's point of view. This is what happens when you fall in love.
N/A: This is a re-write of chapters 44 and 45 of When You Least Expect, a little more from Amy's and Justin's point of view.
"Can I ask you something?" Amy asked Rory, while Sarah was filling their wine glasses.
Rory had invited Sarah and Amy over for a girl's night. It had been almost three months since Tristan's unit had rescued Amy from the Syrian militia, and they were still looking for those responsible for her kidnapping. Amy still argued fiercely against needing protection, saying that she was an FBI special agent, and that just because she started up as an analyst, and specialized in linguistics didn't mean she couldn't take care of herself. She had aced all of her combat classes, and she was a great shooter. She even put a bullet on one of the insurgents holding her hostage. But both her boss and Tristan's superiors agreed that she should be placed in protective custody, and have a trained sniper following her everywhere she went.
Both girls knew that Amy was getting anxious and tired of having Justin follow her every move, but Justin didn't really have a choice: he was ordered to follow her around, and he'd do that until they caught the ones responsible for the attack, or until he was asked to stand down. So Sarah decided to talk Rory into a Girls Night In. They would be perfectly safe at Rory's place, and Tristan could keep an eye on Amy in a much more subtle way, while the girls relaxed and drank some wine. Of course, they would have to convince Justin that Amy would be just fine with Tristan looking after her, and Sarah and Rory would have to convince Tristan to stay around, but out of the girls' way, in the first place. But they all knew Rory a way with Tristan, that usually made him agree with whatever she wanted. So there they were.
"Sure, ask away Amy!" Rory answered. She smiled warmly at her new friend, and waited for her to say something. Both Rory and Sarah had become very close to Amy, since she moved to North Carolina. Amy and Sara had met before, through Jake, when Sara and Andrew were still in Connecticut, and Amy was still working closely with some reporters from the Gazette.
"Is Justin always like that?" Amy whispered. She didn't want Tristan to overhear her. She risked a glance at the porch outside, where she knew Tristan was quietly reading a book, trying to give the girls some privacy.
"Like what?" Rory whispered back, narrowing her eyes, and leaning closer to Amy, so that they could continue to talk above a whisper.
"Like, all serious, all work, all the time. I mean, does he ever do anything fun?" She asked, thinking back to the Justin she knew before the whole kidnapping thing.
"Wait. Are we talking about the same person? Because the Justin I know is like, the least serious person I know. He is always making fun of Tristan, or messing with Jake." Rory told her.
"So, it is just me, then." Amy sighed. She had yet to tell Rory about the steamy night she and Justin shared after Rory and Tristan's Wedding Party, or any of the other nights after that. She knew that Tristan knew about it, at least some of it; she had guessed as much from the way Tristan smirked every time Justin looked at her. He had to know that something happened, right? But she knew that if Tristan had told Rory, then Rory would have said something by now.
"Well, it's his job to protect you. And he's very serious about his job..." Rory tried, but even she didn't quite believe what she was telling Amy. Sure, Justin is serious about his job, but that didn't make him a serious person. There must be something else that she didn't know yet. She looked at Sara, willing her to say something.
"It's just... He's taking this very seriously. And every time I try talking to him about something not work related, he just... kind of freezes me out. It's almost like he's afraid of getting closer to me, I mean, it feels like he doesn't want us to get to know each other..." She ranted. She was feeling miserable, and she knew it was starting to show. Plus, she really wanted to talk about what happened between her and Justin, and they were the only ones that knew him a little better, that could give her some perspective. But at the same time, so much time have passed, and she hadn't said anything since she got closer with the girls. She didn't know were to start.
"Wait. Justin? Afraid of getting closer to you? That makes no sense." Sarah said, looking from one girlfriend to another.
"No. We're missing something, Sarah." Rory said, and looked at Amy. The wheels in her head already starting to turn. "We are missing something, aren't we Amy?" Rory smirked, finally realizing what was in front of her. Rory couldn't believe she hadn't seen this coming. It was so obvious it actually hurt.
"You like him!" Rory stated. When she saw Amy starting to blush and look away, she repeated it, more forcefully this time. "Oh my God, you like him!"
"Shh!" Amy shushed her. "Are you nuts? I don't want Tristan to hear that. He already knows too much..." She started, without thinking, and stopped dead in her tracks. Oooops, she thought. Busted.
"Too much? Amy, what does Tristan know that we don't?" Sarah asked her.
"Well. I imagine that he knows that Justin and I, well, that we kind of had a... a fling, a while ago." Amy said. There. Out in the open. Sort of.
"How long ago?" Rory asked, trying to put the pieces together. She couldn't imagine anything happening after she was rescued. They wouldn't be so tense if it had. She though that Justin and Amy met during her rescue mission. Since they both worked in the same field, it was possible that they had seen each other a few times before the mission, and since both Amy and Andrew were friends with Jake, they could have run into each other that way. So it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that they had crossed paths before. And of course there was her wedding party. She remember that Amy attended the party, together with some friends from Jake, from the paper.
"Well... we first hooked up a little more than a year ago..." Amy said, thinking about their first night.
"A year ago? And you're just telling me this now?" Rory exclaimed, a little hurt by the revelation.
"Well... it only happened a few times. I mean, after a couple of months, I left to work in Syria for almost 4 months, and then we were attacked. And before I knew it, Dylan was carrying me into the hospital, and bam... Suddenly I need a bodyguard, and Justin jumps at the chance, but it's like... he's a complete different man. He's acting like nothing ever happened between us."
"You're telling me that, before you went to Syria, you two were having a fling, and now he's pretending nothing happened?" Sarah asked, wanting to be certain. The three of them were so engrossed in the conversation that they forgot to keep their voices down so that Tristan wouldn't hear them. But Tristan could hear everything and he was barely paying attention to his book. He hated eavesdropping on his wife's conversation, but since Justin was not telling him anything, well, he had no other choice but to continue listening.
"Yes. Well. Kind off. He drove me home, when I came back from the hospital in Washington, after that speech. And well, we did… he was... it was... raw, and crazy, and wonderful. And when I woke up, he had left. The next thing I know, he and Tristan are at my doorstep, and Tristan is saying that both the Colonel and the Deputy Director agreed that I should be in protective custody, and that Justin's been ordered to shadow me. And now, it looks like... he's acting like nothing happened."
Tristan couldn't believe what he was hearing. He never even noticed that he closed the book he was reading, and turned towards the opened door, where he could see the three women talking. Man, Justin was really, really stupid. Tristan was well aware that Justin and Amy had been seeing each other casually, because, according to Justin, he led a too dangerous life to tie himself to someone.
Which was the biggest bullshit he had ever heard Justin say, especially because Justin was one of the biggest supporters of his and Rory's relationship. It was just dumb on his part to avoid getting involved with anyone. And Amy, well, at least Amy could take care of herself. She's a sharp shooter, she's fast, and most of all, she's brilliant. It was not by chance that she was one of the most sought out agents in the Bureau.
And the worst part was that he couldn't even yell at Justin for being stupid, because he was not supposed to know that he and Amy weren't seeing each other any more. He knew that there was something going on before the mission, but Justin was still implying that there was nothing going on between he and Amy. He argued something fierce when Tristan appointed him as Amy bodyguard, even though he knew that the order came from high up. He couldn't very well ask him if he was still seeing Amy, and he couldn't call him on his stupidity right now. He had to figure out a way to make him talk. He shook his head, and scooted closer to the door so that he could continue to hear the conversation going on.
"Well, I remember seeing you and Justin talking at Rory's wedding party, but I never imagined..." Sarah said, but didn't even finish the sentence.
"I don't believe it. My wedding? I mean, Tristan was bound to notice if Justin just took off..." Rory started, and looked outside, just in time to see Tristan scramble to open the book again. Damn it, he had been listening to their every word, and he didn't even the decency to look ashamed of having been eavesdropping on their conversation.
What the hell, Tristan thought. The night came to an abrupt stop. Amy was absolutely embarrassed, Rory was scowling at Tristan, and Sara just looked out of place. The girls decided to call it a night, and Rory asked Tristan to drive both girls home.
Tristan whispered something to Rory, before picking up the cars keys, and motioned for the girls to follow him. It was a very silent ride. Amy was embarrassed that Tristan overheard her ranting about Justin, and even though she knew he was aware something was going on between she and Justin, he was also Justin's best friend, and would not break his confidence. And she also didn't want to talk to Sara, because Tristan would hear every word. So she kept silent. Sara kept looking to Amy, willing her to say something, but even though she was good friends with the girls, Tristan made her kind of nervous, being her husband's boss and all.
In fact, Amy was feeling all tied up in knots, and acting weirder than ever. Talking to the girls about her last night with Justin only made her miss him even more. She was feeling miserable, and out of place. Rory was right, she was absolutely head over heels in love with Justin. She couldn't even look him in the eyes when he open the door for her, when she arrived, for fear that he'd see right through her. She was not ready to tell him she loved him, so she bowed her head, and walked straight to her bedroom.
Justin took one look at her, and immediately thought that something was wrong. He looked at Tristan, who just shook his head, and was already coming back to his car. Tristan had already driven Sarah home, and he was anxious to get back to his place and his wife. But Justin decided to ignore Tristan's reticence in explaining what the hell was wrong with Amy, so he just closed the door, and went after his best friend.
"Hey, Dugrey, wait up!" He said, when he saw Tristan getting inside his car again and closing the door. He jogged to the car, and tapped at the window, ignoring Tristan's "I'm-not-in-the-mood-to-talk" dirty look.
"What?" Tristan scowled at Justin, trying to look as exasperated as possible.
"What the hell happened at your place? Amy was fine when I dropped her off." Justin asked angrily. When Tristan just blackened his scowl even more, without answering him, Justin briefly thought that he'd better drop it, but it was already too late.
"Fine? Well, I suggest you get inside, Meyer, and ask Amy what happened. That is, if you're stupid enough not to know why she's not fine." Tristan answered, using his best Captain DuGrey tone of voice, that Justin was more than familiar with, to go with his dark look.
Before Justin could summon up an answer, Tristan closed the window and drove off, leaving a bewildered Justin behind. It took Justin about three seconds to understand what Tristan was talking about. Since they came back from Syria, Tristan was trying to get Justin to open up and talk about Amy, and Justin was doing his best to ignore it – and her.
He was not ready to accept his feelings for her, so he was doing all he could to keep a respectful distance from her, and apart from that first night, he thought he was doing a good job. Maybe he should tell Lt. Colonel Custer the truth about his involvement with Amy and ask for a replacement, thinking that it would be better for both of them if someone else was keeping her safe. Well, maybe not better, but certainly easier.
Justin quietly came inside, set on talking to Amy and telling her that, just in time to see Amy taking her clothes of and putting on a pair of shorts and an old, ratty FBI t-shirt she usually wears to bed. He was frozen to the spot, and as much as he knew that he should look away and respect her privacy, thinking that she mustn't have noticed her door was not fully closed, he couldn't take his eyes off her. "Damn it..."
He knew that he had said it out loud when Amy turned back and their eyes met for a second. He quickly looked away, but not fast enough. He had enough time to notice the enticing blush that covered her cheeks, at being caught nearly naked. Damn it. He was in love with her.