Disclaimer: See chapter 1
Author's Note(s): Phew, thankfully I think we are coming to the end of this story. As always, my eternal gratitude goes to the people that reviewed, (RavennaNightwind, Dr. Cameron, smokeylove, me and tearbos), and to everyone else who is still reading this story! I really liked writing this chapter for some reason and I hope you enjoy it.
Easier to Lie
Chapter 12
Emily was annoyed. No, scratch that. Emily was furious. How was she supposed to sort herself out with people breathing down her neck about it all the live long day? She just needed some space. Well not space per say, just space from her team.
Hotch couldn't suspend her. It just wouldn't be fair…
Taking a sharp bend, Emily sped down the road, fifteen miles an hour above the speed limit. She briefly contemplated that perhaps she might not be in the right frame of mind to be driving right now, but she dismissed this thought easily. As long as she didn't run anybody over it would be fine. She turned another corner down into posh looking housing estate and then put her foot down on the break pedal a tad too enthusiastically, causing her to jolt forward as the car came to a stop.
She took a brief moment to regain control of her breathing before getting out of the car and walking up the driveway of the house she had stopped in front of. Then before she could change her mind, Emily rang the doorbell.
It took Charlie less than a minute to open the door. Despite the late hour, she was still fully dressed with a pen resting behind her ear and a rather frazzled expression on her face.
"Emily," she said in surprise, "What are you-"
Before Charlie could finish her sentence, Emily had walked past her and into the warmth of the house.
"Please, come in," Charlie muttered sarcastically under her breath, shutting the door and turning around.
"Hey," was all Emily could think to say.
"Good evening," replied Charlie, surprise still evident in her voice, "I don't mean to be rude, but it's almost two o clock in the morning. Why are you here?"
"I-" Emily faltered, "I don't really know."
"I see," said Charlie slowly, "Emily…Have you been drinking?"
"What? No! Of course I haven't! Why do you always assume I've been drinking?"
"Because you usually have."
"Yes well…that's neither here nor there."
Emily could tell that her friend was biting back a smile in spite of her stern expression. For some reason she found that fact intensely irritating. Maybe this was a mistake.
"I'm sorry for disturbing you. This was stupid. I'll leave now," Emily said, quickly turning to go.
"No, wait," exclaimed Charlie. She moved forward and caught Emily's shoulder and much to Emily's horror, she flinched away from the contact, she just couldn't stop herself. Charlie quickly let go and looked at Emily properly for the first time with a considering expression on her face. "Go and sit down. I'll make us some hot chocolate."
Briefly, Emily considered ignoring this instruction and looked rapidly at the door with full intention of fleeing anyway. However something in the way her friend was watching her told Emily that Charlie wasn't going to let her leave even if she had to physically restrain her. So she nodded gracefully and walked to the room that Charlie was pointing to.
The room was expensively decorated. Two black leather couches sat at a ninety degree angle in one corner of the room with a black, circular table in between them. Opposite them at the other corner of the relatively small room was a shiny black television. Lining one of the walls that the TV was against were three tall, black bookcases filled with dark red leather bound books and on the other two walls that did not have a window, there hung three black and white paintings of odd shapes. In contrast to the dark furniture, the walls were a creamy white colour that perfectly matched the soft carpet under Emily's feet. She took her shoes off so as not to make the light carpet dirty and moved to sit on one of the comfortable couches. It did not surprise her how fanciful this room looked; having money was something Charlie had always deemed important. Emily had always been rich though so she had never really understood the importance of money to some people.
Soon, Charlie came in carrying two mugs of hot chocolate. She placed them carefully down on the table in between the two couches and then sat on the opposite one from Emily. For a while they sat in a slightly awkward silence, both blowing steam from the top of their drinks. In Yale they had grown very close but over the years due to their contrasting careers the two had drifted apart. Sure, they still exchanged phone calls and emails, but it just wasn't the same as when they were living together.
Emily was the first to break the silence, "Nice place," she commented.
"Thank you," replied Charlie rather fondly, "I bought it from a newly married couple who were going to have children and wanted to move to a bigger house."
Nodding, Emily's eyes swept the room once more as she racked her brain to try and think of something else to say.
"How is the case going?" asked Charlie after taking a sip of her drink.
"Frankly, we've hit a brick wall. Again," said Emily, quickly warming to the topic as it did not revolve around her, "I don't understand why we are having so much trouble catching this guy. We think he's in a psychotic break so someone should have reported him by now. It doesn't make sense that he has gone undetected for all this time."
"It is rather a conundrum," Charlie remarked, and then added, "I'm sorry that my sketch didn't help."
"That's okay," said Emily dejectedly, "They very rarely do unless the unsub has very distinctive features. JJ did the press conference and used it for point of reference anyway, so who knows. Maybe we'll get lucky and someone will call."
"Perhaps," Charlie agreed. "Which hotel are you staying at?"
"The Thistle," said Emily, "It's about a forty minute drive from here."
"I know where it is, and no, it most certainly is not a forty minute drive. How fast were you going exactly?" said Charlie, shaking her head almost imperceptibly in disbelief.
"I don't remember," replied Emily evasively.
"Of course not," said Charlie in a maddeningly patient voice. "So, which one of your team members incensed you so much that you stormed out of your hotel and raced across the city like a bat out of hell to come and bother me?"
Now that it actually came down to it, Emily wasn't sure she actually wanted to talk about this. Her eyes flicked around the room as she tried to think of something else to say. The stark colours around her were beginning to give her a headache.
"No one, what makes you think someone made me angry…?" Emily feebly trailed off at the end of the sentence, realising how terrible a liar she could be at times.
"Right, of course not," said Charlie sarcastically.
Suddenly, Emily snapped, "What is going on with this room? It's so cold and impersonal. You know, the colours black and white individually both indicate that a person is trying to hide from the world and distance themselves from the people around them."
"Yes, well now you're just lashing out aren't you," said Charlie, looking supremely unimpressed.
Emily clenched her fist, her fingernails digging into the palm of her hand.
"It was Hotch," said Emily through gritted teeth.
"Ah yes, Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome," said Charlie with a small smile, "What wrongdoing has he committed?"
"He said he was going to suspend me if I didn't start concentrating on the case properly!" said Emily angrily. She stood up and began to pace.
Charlie's eyes followed her progression up and down the room, "I'm sure that isn't all he said."
"No, he said that if I can't learn to cope with things by myself he's going to suspend me until I 'seek professional help'," Emily could hear the fury in her own voice but did nothing to try and calm herself.
Charlie didn't speak for a moment, something for which Emily was grateful, but then that question she was dreading still came.
"Am I correct in assuming that these 'things' you have to learn to 'cope with' have something to do with those faded bruises on your face and arms?" Charlie's voice was completely neutral, almost as thought she were enquiring about the weather.
Emily felt bile rise in her throat and she quickly swallowed and shook her head desperately, not daring to open her mouth just in case. All those feelings she had meticulously suppressed were beginning to rise to the surface. She tried to take deep steadying breaths to calm herself down. Just before Charlie could speak again, the phone rang. Charlie looked mightily annoyed while Emily thanked God for small mercies.
"You can go and have a look around if you like," said Charlie in an irritated voice.
Saying nothing, Emily followed her friend out of the room, and while Charlie picked up the phone in the hall, Emily moved to go up the stairs, her goal to get as far away from Charlie as possible without actually leaving the house.
From the top of the stairs, she could hear Charlie all but yelling down the phone, "I don't care how many nightmares you have, Rosemary! Quarter to three in the morning is not an acceptable time to call somebody!"
Emily felt her chest constrict and her attempts to keep her emotions in check was making it harder and harder to breath. She quickly moved to the furthest room and slipped inside, closing the door behind her with a sharp click. Through her blurring vision, she could see that she was in Charlie's study. There were papers scattered all over a dark mahogany desk, and upon closer inspection, Emily realised that this must have been where Charlie was when she had knocked on the door. She knew this because on the piece of paper in front of the chair, Charlie seemed to have stopped mid-sentence, and Emily knew that this was something the other woman was not likely to do unless she had a very good reason to stop. She was far too scrupulous when it came to her work.
Taking a deep shuddering breath, Emily raised her eyes to look at the rest of the desk. To her surprise there were a few photo frames on it. Two of which had pictures of herself and Charlie. One of them was from their first year at Yale, just before they had gone out to a party. Emily picked up the second one; it showed herself and Charlie on their graduation day, cap, gown and all. They both looked very happy.
Emily felt the first tear slide down her cheek.
She angrily tried to swipe it away, but it didn't matter how hard she tried, more just kept falling.
She didn't know how she got there, but soon Emily was crouched in the corner of the room with her face buried in her hands and the tears falling thick and fast. The more she tried to control herself and stop crying, the harder and more painful it became.
If possible, her heart plummeted even more when she heard the door open and the soft footsteps of her friend enter the room. Emily had developed rather a complex as a child about people seeing her in an emotional state. Her parents, especially her mother, had always told her never to show weakness in front of people because they would only use it against you later on. However, when she felt her friend arms warp themselves around her and pull her into a hug, Emily couldn't help but feel safe. She allowed herself to be comforted as silent sobs shook her body.
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Author's Note(s): There was actually more of this that I was going to write, however the chapter was becoming rather long and I wanted to post it tonight.
I really enjoyed writing this chapter, although I'm not sure why, and I hope you liked it too. Hehe though for some reason the ones that I like never seem to be as popular as the ones I was less pleased with :p Ah well.
Not entirely decided on what is going to happen in the next chapter, although I have a vague idea. If there is anything anybody would like to see before I finish this story, now is the time to tell me so I can try and fit it in :)
Once again, thank you for reading!
