AUTHOR'S NOTE: This was going to be the last chapter, but as I couldn't fit everything I wanted to in it, there is going to be one more chapter.
THE CLOCK TICKING ON THE WALL
// SHE HAD ALWAYS HATED PACKING, BUT WATCHING SOMEONE ELSE DOING IT WAS TEN TIMES WORSE. It signified the end.
Gaia sighed and leaned back until her back rested against the wall as Ed stuffed his last stray sock into his bag. It was strange, she thought, the one time she didn't pack led her here, to this place, this new life. Only this place, this life didn't seem so new now. No longer could she draw a line between now and then. New life was smudging into the old, becoming one big blur, and everything was starting to become all too real. The problem was that Gaia was sure it was Ed who was smearing her line, but she didn't have the courage to tell him to stop. No, not courage: fear.
ED SAT DOWN ON THE BED OPPOSITE TO GAIA. She had been unusually quiet, and even now he had finished picking up his stuff that had mysteriously moved around the room, she was making no move to talk. Deciding that there had been enough silences between them that day, Ed grabbed at the first thought he had. "So, these Scorro people-"
"Socorro," Gaia corrected him.
"Right. You've dealt with them before?"
Gaia nodded. Ed waited to see if she was going to say anything, but she just sat there looking sad. Fearing the next silence, Ed ploughed on with his questions. "Were you working a case?"
Suddenly Gaia looked rather embarrassed. "No...not officially anyway."
Ed smirked. "Not officially, eh? Nice to know you still have your vigilante streak."
Gaia ducked her head, the sadness slowly shoving all new emotions away. Ed sighed and stared out the window instead, as looking at Gaia was becoming too laborious. Clearly this conversation was over before it started. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the book he and pulled from under the mattress the other night: Advanced Alogorithims. He presumed it had once belonged to Catherine, Gaia's one time roommate.
Ed snapped his full attention to the book. Kim had told him that Catherine was part of a terrorist group. No he had to be wrong, but maybe... "Was Catherine a member of Socorro?"
HAD HE REALLY JUST SAID THAT? Gaia blinked hard then swallowed hard. "What did you say?"
"Your...your ex-roommate, Catherine. Was she? Was she part of Socorro?" Ed shifted uncomfortably as he tripped over the words he had already said. Gaia felt a flicker of regret for making him feel uneasy, but she had to be sure. She had to be.
"How...?" Gaia shook her head, willing the words to come. The questions. How on earth did Ed found out?
"I'm sorry, but I asked Kim about her," Ed said quickly. "I was just curious as to what happened to your roommate, that's all." Ed looked directly at her, and Gaia felt her regret multiply as she saw the guilt and remorse in his eyes.
"That's...that's okay." Gaia swallowed hard again. There was no reason for her to hold back anymore.
The words just began falling from her lips. It was as if the dam that was her mouth had broken and she no longer had any control as what rushed out of it.
And as the words poured out, she could feel the anger build inside her. She had let herself trust again. After Tatanyia and Sklyer she should have learnt. But she hadn't. She didn't. She had just let people get close to her, people that only wanted her for her fearlessness. Nothing else.
She suddenly felt the sting of tears. But that wasn't true. Ed, who was sitting right in front of her, was proof of that. He knew nothing about her unique genetic make up, and yet he stood by her no matter what.
As if proof of her thoughts, a look of sadness had stolen over Ed's features as she had talked. With the end of her story still ringing in the air, Ed said, "I'm sorry."
Gaia half shook her head. "Don't be. It's Catherine should be feeling sorry for. She's the one Marsh damaged, not me." Gaia rose from the bed and brushed her hair back, as if the action would also push back her bitter memories. "You know if you don't get moving soon Agent Bishop will start to think you're planning on staying here. And I doubt that being forced to joining the FBI isn't part of your plans."
Ed seemed to take a second to catch up with Gaia's sudden switch of subject. "No, not really," he replied, and with a heavy feeling weighing in her chest, Gaia watched as Ed picked up his bag and moved towards the bedroom door.
JUST LIKE WHEN HE HAD ARRIVED, MS 'WELCOME' WAS SITTING BEHIND HER DESK LOOKING LIKE SHE BELONGED BEHIND THE DESK IN A BEAUTY SALON AND NOT THE BUREAU. As he approached her desk, she lifted her mascaraed eyes and smiled her glossed lips. "Leaving already Mr Fargo?"
She even had the voice of a sexed-up receptionist. Why she was here he didn't know - she really belonged in New York along with all the fantastic phony girls who lived there. He bet his sister would just love her.
"Yeah," Ed replied ruefully, glancing back at Gaia who was fiddling with a giant knot in her hair. "I'm afraid so."
"Too bad," Ms 'Welcome' simpered. "Oh well. If you just wait a moment Agent Wheeler will come and see you off."
Ed nodded a thank you and she gave him a smile before returning to tapping her acrylic nails against her computer keyboard. Running a hand over his head, Ed bit back a sigh. He really wished he wasn't leaving already. Spinning on his heal, he walked over to Gaia who hadn't moved from next to the door.
"I've got to wait for some Agent Wheeler before I can get my show on the road."
"Um, okay," Gaia grunted as she gave one last pull on her tangled locks. Despite her somewhat messy appearance she still looked more beautiful than the overdone receptionist did. "Um, once you're done here do you fancy getting a coffee?" Gaia continued having turned her steel gaze away from her offending hair to him. "Talking to Agent Wheeler isn't the best send off. In fact if you stay awake long enough for him just to say 'goodbye' I'd be impressed."
"I think I'll cope," Ed chuckled. "After all I've had years of survival practice in high school for this sort of thing."
Gaia made an expression half way between amused and down right disbelieving. "Uh huh. Cos the Bureau and high school are so similar."
Feeling an odd pop inside his chest, Ed replied with, "They don't seem that different to me."
"MR FARGO?" Ed turned his head to see a bespectacled man standing to his left. "I'm Agent Wheeler."
Time suddenly oddly divided and Gaia felt very far away. In a blink, his conversation with Gaia changed to taking place years ago - and once again Ed found himself in some sort of time whorp.
"Oh. Hi."
Agent Wheeler gave him a strained smile in response to his greeting. "If you could please follow me, I would like to do this as quickly as possible."
"Right," Ed said, then turned back round to look at Gaia. She gave him a reassuring nod, and said, "I'll wait here until you're done." Ed gave her a fleeting smile then followed Agent Wheeler into a neighbouring room.
The room was almost identical to the one he had been herded into when he had arrived at the FBI base: a large table took up most of the space with a couple of cheap looking chairs placed around it, and a lone filling cabinet was stuffed into the corner next to a dull plastic phone that hung on the wall. Ed sat himself down on one of the chairs, feeling it creak under him, as Agent Wheeler dragged out a paper file and laptop from his bag and set them on the table. As soon as he had flipped open the file, Agent Wheeler began reeling off a series of questions in a bored tone and with each answer Ed gave - his name, his age, his address, his life history - he tapped at the keys on his laptop. Ed shuffled in his seat, an uncomfortable ache filling his head - his body - as he looked up to the clock ticking on the wall. It was turning out to be worse than queuing in Wal-Mart; everything was moving too fast too slowly. He had wanted them to spend his last few hours in Quantico together - after all who knew when he would next see her? - but instead he had been sitting in a room with a man who looked like he would crumple if you just blew on him for the past hour.
The click of a laptop shutting pulled Ed out of his fog.
"Okay Mr Fargo, I have asked you everything I need to." Ed could almost feel the relief rush through him, as Agent Wheeler said those words. A feeling that was short lived. "However," Agent Wheeler continued, "Special Agent Malloy would like a few words with you before you leave."
"HELLO MR FARGO, I'M SPECIAL AGENT MALLOY." Ed looked up from the sturdy hand being held in front of him to the stern eyes staring down at him. "I hope you don't mind, but I will be seeing you off the site instead of Agent Wheeler."
It had been mere moments after Agent Wheeler had said Malloy's name that him left the room and the Special Agent entered.
The second Malloy stepped into the room Ed felt nervous. There was something about his sharp suit and slicked back hair that gave off the air of intolerance - one false move and Malloy would not be waving him off site but would be throwing him off.
Cautiously, Ed shook Malloy's extended hand. "Erm, that's okay...Sir."
Malloy pinned Ed with a stare that, if possible, made him feel even more tense. "I'm going to cut to the chase Mr Fargo. While here in Qunatico, visiting Agent Moore, you have been exposed to some highly classified information concerning a group called Socorro. As I'm sure you know, Socorro is a very powerful and very dangerous terrorist group and we have yet to neutralise them. However, until we manage that, the FBI would like to keep their existence quiet. I'm sure you can imagine the panic it would cause if the public knew about them." Malloy glared at Ed as he said the last sentence, as if challenging him to say otherwise. "In short, I would like you to refrain from relaying anything you may have learnt while here to anyone. Or otherwise there will be severe consequences."
Instantly, as the word "consequences" had filled the air, Malloy's stare softened. "Okay, Mr Fargo, that is all I wanted to say to you. I hope you have a safe journey room."
And with that forced goodbye, Agent Malloy left the room leaving a thoroughly rattled Ed behind. //
ED HAD HOPED THAT SOME GOOD OLD-FASHIONED SUGAR WOULD HELP EASE HIS MIND, BUT FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, IT WAS DOING NOTHING. Sluggishly, Ed wondered if he had put sugar in his coffee then his mind wouldn't still be swarming with everything Gaia and Agent Malloy had said to him that morning. Though Malloy's words had been ominous to say the least, it was what Gaia had told him that bothered him the most.
It had turned out that Catherine had infiltrated the FBI in the hope that becoming Gaia's friend would enable her to recruit Gaia as a member of her father's terrorist team. Sounds like something out of a sci-fi book, Ed mused. Though if he was honest with himself, he could understand why Marsh had wanted Gaia. Not only was she super strong with a wit to match, she had a courageous quality that Ed had never seen in anybody else. In short, she would be the perfect warrior. The only problem was that Gaia had an iron clad hold on morality and would never let it break. Despite her many flaws, Gaia always believed in doing what was right. What was for the greater good. And it was a shame that someone would want to break that hold, because it was one of the things that he loved most about her.
Ed glanced up at the big clock that was set on the cafeteria wall just above the vending machines at the back. The hands showed that it was just past 5am. Ed sighed. He didn't want to leave, but he couldn't really put off going much longer.