Massive thanks to everyone who's still reading and reviewing! I'm getting back into it, with our horses holidays coming up I'm working five-hour days instead of 12 hours... So more energy and spare time for writing! Yay!
Chapter 11 - The past
Kelly had seen the events happen on screen, and she was right behind Janet and the other guard as they shoved Stacy into one of the isolations rooms and locked it up. Janet and the other guard looked up at Kelly as she came down the stairs, and Kelly only waved her hand towards the guards before the woman scurried up the stairs without saying a word. Kelly pulled Janet aside, leaning back towards the wall.
"Well played Janet. Do you think anyone suspected anything?"
"No, well, Kris played well too, seeming completely oblivious to who this person is and all her remarks. And to be honest, I don't think Kris recognized her."
"Kris is bad with faces and names. She probably recognized her, but didn't remember from where. But you know of her, don't you?"
"Stacy something, you two and Julie put her behind bars while you were in Hawaii. Both Sandra and I remember seeing her from your files."
"Yeah, we did put her away whilst being in Hawaii, and she was not happy about it."
"So what are you going to do with her?" Janet asked, rocking on her heels while looking at Kelly, who looked so different from her usual self.
"I'm going to make sure she's transferred to another prison asap. Before that, I might have a small talk to her though."
Janet nodded, no need to ask what that conversation would be like. Not very friendly probably. Nervously looking down the hallway to make sure they were still okay to talk, Janet met Kelly's eyes again.
"Anything else new? I mean, except the fact that you've obviously joined the mafia and taken charge over the entire prison? For how long have you been here?"
"As long as you have. I'm observing you from the guards hallway, seventh door on the right. Here's a key." Kelly said quietly, placing a small door key into Janet's palm. "Visit me whenever, but don't let anyone see you go in."
"How did you get your position Kelly?"
"Don't ask me that, it's better if you don't know. Better for your own safety."
"Come on Kelly, just tell me! Did you kill someone?"
"Let's just say I made the last person in charge… go on a holiday."
Janet shook her head, her arms flailing in the air. "Kelly come on! Don't cross the line from good to bad, you need to start seeing things clearly."
"Janet. You work for me, so don't tell me what I can and can not do."
"Kelly, I-"
"No. Unless you have any useful information to me, I want you to go back up to the others, and keep your mouth shut. Understand?"
Janet mumbled a few words under her breath as she walked past Kelly, aiming for the stairs. Kelly grabbed onto her arm and forced her to turn around.
"Understand?"
"Yes, Kelly, I understand. That does not mean I agree with this! Does Charlie know about all of this?"
"Yes."
"I bet he doesn't agree either."
"He doesn't understand. He plays by the rule book. I play by my own."
"Kelly, maybe you should listen to Charlie, he know what he's talking ab-"
"He does not know what he's talking about! He's been hiding behind the walls of his house too long, he hasn't seen what this business has turned into, he hasn't seen how things have changed!"
Kelly was spitting out her words, furious at Janet for making her talk, furious at Charlie for not understanding, furious at the situation.
Janet just nodded shortly, meeting Kelly's dark eyes. The eyes that seemed to change color depending on her mood.
"Maybe, Kelly, maybe it's not the business that changed. Maybe it's just you." Janet whispered, before once again turning on her heel and heading up the stairs.
Coming up the stairs, Janet hurried over to the bathroom and locked herself in. Sitting down on top of the toilet with the lid down, she put her face into her hands. She loved Kelly, with all her heart, Kelly meant the world to her. As a mentor, but also as a friend. Kelly had taken her through so many conversations, so many problems during the last couple of years, and Janet would be ever grateful to her.
But Kelly had changed the last year. Ever since Tommy died, and Kris turned into her emotionless self, Kelly had changed. The more quiet Kris had become, the more dark Kelly had turned to. Everyone kept saying Kelly was losing her heart, it had been said ever since the crazy Fairytale case with crazy Zeke. How Kelly was turning into him. Maybe not to the point where she would kill everyone around her, but the darkness in his soul could be seen in Kelly's. And Janet knew, she knew, that if Kris didn't turn around, and come back to her normal, happy, energetic, loving self, if Kris would fade away completely and never become the same, Kelly would lose her heart. Because, in the end of the day, Kris was Kelly's heart.
Kelly was sitting down in the hallway of isolation, leaning her back towards the wall, knees pulled up to her chest. Janet's words had hit her hard, harder than she ever thought they could, and she just needed a moment to cool down before going in to meet Stacy.
Kelly knew though. She knew why Janet's words had so much power in them, why and how they could bring her to her knees. It was simple. Janet was right. Right about everything. The crime business never changed, only the person responsible for it and its development. And Kelly was a part of it, like all other detectives, cops, and yeah, of course criminals. And at the moment, Kelly wasn't even sure at what side she was on. All she knew is that he would do whatever it took to get Kris back. She had tried luring the old Kris back out with treats – now it was time to force her out.
Rising to her feet, she brushed out the wrinkles of her suit with the palms of her hands, before walking towards the room where Stacy was. Pulling out a keychain with a masterkey among others on it, she easily unlocked the door, entered, and locked it behind her.
Stacy was on the floor, but got up on her feet as Kelly entered. Kelly turned to face her, and the two of them just stared at each other for a while.
"Well, well, well. Isn't it Kelly Garrett?" Stacy grinned as she realized who the person in front of he were. Kelly stood quiet, leaning against the door with her arms crossed over her chest, just looking at her. "So I'm not going crazy. That was Munroe. And here you are. It's just Rogers we're missing, where could she be hiding?"
"She's not here. She left the business. But I'll tell her you said hello." Kelly said, a small grin that was barely visable escaped her lips.
"When I get out of here, I will tell the management about you guys! I will reveal your scam, your true identities!"
"You clearly haven't understood this yet. You are new here, so let me explain the rules to you. I am the management. Everyone in this prison follow my commands. So will you, even though you won't stay here for very long. People up there already think you're crazy, but I can't have the risk of you being here, we don't need the distraction. So you have to leave. But that might take a couple of days to arrange, so in the meantime, I'll leave you down here where you're safe and sound, and I know where you're at."
"You can't just leave me down here?" Stacy said, her eyes wide open in shock.
"Honey, that's what isolation is for. But don't worry. I'll have one of my guards come by with some water and soup now and then."
Stacy launched herself towards Kelly. She was not going to accept the fact that she had to stay put in isolation, because she was a threat towards the people that had put her away. She refused to. Instead she was throwing herself towards Kelly, with her hands clenched into hard fists, prepared to fight.
Kelly, who saw her coming though, moved out of the way, grabbed her sweater, and shoved her into the wall with brutal force. Stacy's head bounced off the wall and she fell unconsious to the floor. Kelly wiped her hands off to the other, and then exited the room.
Walking back up to her room, she contacted Mara through her walkie-talkie.
"Ma'm to Mara, come."
"Mara speaking, over."
"Inmate 3560921 is in isolation cell 3. Get rid of her, asap, over."
"Will do, over."
Kelly tucked the walkie-talkie back into the waistband she had around her hip, pulled the suit back down over it, and went upstairs to sit down with a cup of coffee in front of her cameras again. Today had left her with a lot of thoughts in her head, and it was not even noon yet.
This morning was one of those days where Kris wished she was home, alone, just her and her thoughts. In a prison you're constantly watched and surrounded, there's nowhere where you can just be yourself. Kris needed time to think, her mind was out of control. So many thoughts about the old days and how everything had changed so much since their time in Hawaii. The kids, Tommy, new friends found and old friends lost. And somewhere along the bitterness, she had lost herself. She had tried, God would know she had tried, to find herself again, but without Tommy everything had just seemed so meaningless, just not worth it. She had traveled across the states, met the love of her life, just to lose him forever a few years later. It was just not fair, it was just not fair at all.
As she was sitting there, everything seemed to come back to her. Every thought, every emotion, everything from that tragic day that would forever change her.
… ... ... ... ... ... … ... ... ... ... ... … ... ... ... ... ... … ... ... ... ... ... … ... ... ... ... ... … ... ... ... ... ...
It was mid March when they had gotten their case at the FBI Headquarters in Washington. The team had gathered up inside the bullpen, sitting down around the big oval table, all necessary information had been handed out. Bombs. Buildings were down. It was no new information to them – it had been all over the news reports on tv and in papers. They had all heard about it and they all had had that feeling that the case would soon hit their desk. And here it was.
It was her, her husband and Peter around the desk, and except those three there were Steve, Marielle and Kiera, the three new agents that had come in to replace the amazing agents that had been lost by Zeke's hand. Peter had gotten the role of Zeke now, he was in charge of the team and was their boss, he had left the fieldwork to do more in the office instead. They all felt good about it – they trusted and liked him. And it was him now telling them all what was going on. Telling them about threats that had been sent to the FBI and ignored, whereupon buildings had crashed. They had quite a lot to go on, the threats had been traced, and Peter said that this was a person who wanted to get caught. He left too much evidence behind him, too many trails, and all they had to do was basically bring him in.
Kris had learned later that the unsub had been wanting them to come – so he could blow them all up. That had been his plan. What she had been told afterwards was that the unsubs wife had been brutally killed, and he had turned to the FBI for help – and didn't recieve any. In an attempt to get their attention, he had started sending threats and blowing up buildings, and now it had reached whom he wanted. The FBI.
And they had fallen for it, like a mouse in a trap. They had taken the bait, and within a few days they had followed the traces back to the abandoned brick building in the middle of Washington D.C.
"We're going in."
Kris had heard Peter's voice in the intercom. He rarely followed them out into the field, but today had been an exception, and he was now leading the group of agents going inside. They were all dressed in kevlar, FBI jackets, with guns and other equipment hanging around their waists, and they entered the house with their guns drawn in front of them.
"Clear!"
"Clear!"
"Clear!"
The first and second floor was cleared within a few minutes, and their guns were tucked away, but still easy to get to. Walking through the house they had quickly realized that this was the person they were looking for, this was definitely his hideaway. Pictures of the different buildings before and after they were blown up, equipment in the livingroom with all you need to make bombs, sketches and blueprints.
"He's clearly not here." Kris said with a sigh, wanting the case to be over. She was leaving the FBI, something all of them knew about, but she just hadn't done it yet. She was looking around for other work without much enthusiasm, and she was staying in the FBI until she found something else. The others supported her every way, and Peter made sure she didn't have to do much more than she wanted to. She just wasn't sure what to do instead, but she was sure she would find something.
"Let's have a look around and see if we can find something linking to where he might be." Peter said, the others nodding. "Kiera, you're with me upstairs, Steve, Marielle, you check out this floor. Kris and Tommy, go downstairs. Have your walkies nearby and report anything you can find. Okay?"
Everyone nodded and seperated into the different floors. Tommy walked first, down the wooden stair which squeaked under their weights but still strong enough to hold them. Their hands on their guns, but guns not drawn, they made their way downstairs, looking around to try and find something useful.
They had barely made it down the stairs when a terrified scream, coming from their man in charge, had been heard in their walkie-talkies. It was a scream Kris would forever remember, a sound that had haunted her dreams ever since, the panic in his voice, the horror of realization.
"Get out! Get the fuck out now!"
Kris and Tommy had barely had time to react before the roof caved in, burying them underneath the massive piles of bricks and concrete. Last thing she remembered was pain, darkness, and silence.
"What's wrong?"
Kris looked up at Tay as she heard Tay's voice. She had competely lost herself in thought, and forgot about where she was and what she was doing. Kris cursed herself, bad mistake. She quickly dried the tears that were streaming down her face, as she looked up and met Tay's eyes.
"Nothing, nothing's wrong."
"You're crying?"
Kris let out a small laugh. "Was just thinking about another lifetime."
"Anyone in particular?" Tay asked, sitting down next to Kris on their picnic table outside on the playground, Dee and Coco sitting behind them, as usual.
Kris thought about her answer for a second, before coming out with it. "My husband. He was murdered little less than a year ago, and… well, I haven't really gotten over it."
Tay sat quiet for quite a while before nodding, still silent. After another couple of seconds of just breathing, she patted Kris' knee, meeting her eyes again.
"Did you ever revenge him?"
Kris shook her head. She had never been told who the bombman had been, the person who was responsible for Tommy's death, the reason to why she was a widow. She had never been told, because Peter had strictly told everyone not to ever mention the persons name to Kris, in fear of what Kris might do.
"No, I don't know who did it."
"If you ever met that person… What would you do?" Tay asked, a small grin appearing in her face.
Kris thought about it for a second, before her fists curled up into fists, her eyes narrowing in anger.
"I would make that person suffer as much as I have. I will let him know what a broken heart feels like. I will kill him."
Tay gave Kris' shoulder a pat. "Sounds like my girl. Now all we have to do is find out who did it and where he's hiding, and then we'll get that out of your system."
Kelly was spinning in her chair, her mind lost in thoughts. She had observed Kris and Tay out on the table, and even though there were no sound to the cameras, Kelly was an expert at reading lips. She had understood most parts of Kris and Tay's conversation… And she couldn't help but to think, that maybe that was exactly was Kris needed. She needed to get it out of her system. She needed a wake up call, and she definitely needed a closure.
Maybe bring Kris, and the person who killed her husband together, wasn't such a bad idea after all.
