"Soooo, what is it you want to know that I haven't covered?"
Instead of answering her Mac looked at Adam. "You need to carry from here on out until we get this mess cleared up."
"Wait … what?!" Emi was beginning to feel like she'd lost control of the conversation, that they were going to start talking over her rather than to her. In reaction she said, "No … if I'm endangering Adam then I'll …"
Adam cut her off with, "Whatever you're thinking Emi, forget it. Let Mac explain. He's part of the reason I brought you in today. I knew he'd come up with something."
Mac hid his surprise quickly but not quickly enough that Danny and Jo didn't see it. Danny wondered how for a smart man Mac didn't always see how much Adam looked up to him … almost like a father figure. Danny realized that Adam had put him in the big brother role but he hadn't really appreciated the responsibility that came with something like that until Lucy had forced him to re-evaluate how he looked at things in life. For her part Jo prayed that Mac wouldn't fall off of the pedestal that Adam insisted on putting him on. It would be a long and painful fall for both men.
Mac cleared his throat and repeated, "You carry at all times … the field, here at the lab, even at home." Finally, Mac turned his piercing gaze on Emi. "No running off. Period."
"What's … what's going on? I told you that Jeannie was still in her deep, dark hole and I know Turcell is so …"
Interrupting her he told everyone, "After some investigating on a separate matter I discovered that Dr. Roberta Carrolls was providing therapy to one of the victims from last evening. The problem being that according to her sister, Roberta Carrolls lost her license to practice about eight months ago and hasn't been heard from by her family and friends since that time. The sister had no idea that Carrolls was in the City, or practicing without a license."
Danny asked, "Do we know why she lost her license?"
"That's what I expect Agents Bacall and Mayberry to find out since it was due to charges brought by the FBI. However, the case the charges stem from has been sealed. Their ability to discover the reason and report them would of course be considered inter-agency cooperation and could lead to better communications on this case."
Haylen was about to open her mouth but Agent Mayberry had had enough and answered for them both. "If we can't find out directly, we'll forward it to our supervisor Agent Morton. We'll do what we can to confirm what Dr. O'Ryan was told regarding the earlier cases."
Emi startled them by warning, "Don't endanger your careers." At their look of surprise. "The Mortensen Case. There is some powerful and nasty people involved with that, not to mention heavy-weights at DHS. Go easy. I don't need any more on my conscience come Judgment Day than I already have to face." Haylen looked skeptical but apparently Mayberry was comfortable with the reference and merely nodded.
After the two agents left via the elevator Adam asked suspiciously, "How did you know where we were at?"
Danny rolled his eyes. "Hey ho, you aren't the only one that knows how to use a computer to track a GPS signal … or don't you remember you're both carrying smart phones?"
"You got Kendall to do it," Adam guessed.
Danny made a face and said, "Shaddup."
The two men smiled but Mac and Jo noticed that Emi didn't. Mac gave Jo a look before encouraging everyone back to elevators and to the lab to work on the current case.
# # # # # # #
Emi watched the men get back to work from her vantage at Lindsey's desk. After she was sure their conversation wouldn't get noticed she turned to Jo and said, "I saw the look. What is it that Mac wants?"
Jo leaned back in her chair and nodded. "Emi, it's his job to be suspicious. And it isn't just Mac's job but all of us. This is what we do … help solve crimes."
"Ok. And?"
"He wants me to … er … encourage you to cooperate with Adam and not give him a hard time."
"I don't plan on being a problem for him. I owe him too much." More quietly she said, "I … I care about him too much."
Jo snorted. "I have a teenage daughter. I know about semantics. Tell me point blank that you will not run off."
Emi didn't like being backed into a corner but she understood why Jo was doing it. "What do you want from me? I will not … will NOT … put Adam at risk. You don't know crazies as intimately as I do. It feels like I've had a lifetime to get personally acquainted with these types. Heck some people consider me one of them."
Jo shook her head. "Quit stalling." She was smiling but Emi also saw the steel beneath the smile.
"I'm not. I'm being realistic. I'll promise that it isn't my plan at this time but I won't lie and say it might not happen if things heat up and …"
"At all," Jo said like she was talking to Ellie, her teenage daughter. "I mean it Emi."
"But …"
"At all," she repeated. "If you start to feel the need to run for some ungodly reason then you call Mac or I. We'll listen."
Irritated Emi said, "I'm not putting either of you in danger either. Mac has Christine. You have Ellie and your other kids. No. Not happening."
Jo knew that if she pushed too hard she'd lose Emi's trust and that isn't what she wanted. Instead she told her, "You're being pig headed you know that?"
"Maybe but it's the only way I know how to be. I let my guard down for a while … and look where that got me, look how that hurt Adam. No. I'm not going there again. My baggage is my baggage. There is no offloading point. Looks like I carry it until the grave. Fine. Whatever. No normal for me."
"And what about Adam?"
"I protect Adam from me as well. I'm going to do the best I can to see he gets the life he deserves. And don't pull that face, I know Adam is a grown man and has a right to have a say in his own future. I haven't got it all figured out yet but I'm done feeling sorry for myself. I'm … I'm done trying to change who I am. If I'm lucky Adam can live with that … he claims he likes who I am. Maybe that was my mistake to begin with … maybe I'm not even sure what that means … but I'm not going to take it for granted and go out of my way to screw it up. There's only one Adam Ross in this world and for now … for now he is mine and I'm … I'm going to try and keep it that way. But not at Adam's expense. And that's all I'm going to say about it."
Jo sighed not at all satisfied with that as an answer. "Mac … he's worried."
"About me? Or about me being the weak link?"
"Emi, you know we all care …"
Emi nodded. "I know. I know it is mostly for Adam's sake but some of it really is for mine. And that just makes me more determined. You are all a tight team, you're used to closing ranks and doing whatever you have to do for one of your own. But I won't be shut out of this … I don't want to be 'protected' to the point I don't have enough information to make my own decisions. If I sense that it is going that way I'll go off and do my own investigation. I may not have all of the resources a lab like this one does but I'm still capable of doing it the old fashioned way. I'm used to having to start from scratch and build something based on only a few facts and I still manage … or I did manage … to be doggone accurate."
"Hmmm. Blackmail. Not the best way to handle Mac." Jo gave her a seriously unhappy look and added, "Nor me."
Emi shrugged. "I don't want to handle Mac. I don't want to 'handle' any of you. I'm not even asking to be a member of the team or interfere with the investigation currently underway on the homicides. I doubt if that would even be possible. But if it pertains to me and my case I want to be kept in the loop. I don't need to drive the bus but I'm determined to be a passenger."
"Or you'll go out and get your own bus?"
"Something like that."
"I'll discuss it with Mac but no guarantees."
Emi said, "None on my end either."
They both fell silent and returned to their other work. Jo to the never ending piles of paperwork on her messy desk and Emi to her pile of sketches and her internal dialogue of wondering what she had left to bring to the table that would prove she wasn't the frail helpless thing they'd seen the last couple of months.