I promise I have not and will not let this story wither and die. It will be finished.
Real life has gotten in the way of me actually getting enough time to write, so it is slow going. The current status of Bones has not been a great inspiration either...I am having to force myself to imagine that the entire messed up plotline they are making B&B deal with is NOT REAL. Also, I've found that I cannot upload each chapter as I write it because continuity/plot errors are something I cannot stand to read in my own writing...and what I HAD intended to be a fairly short story has gotten a LOT more complex than I had anticipated, just BEGGING for me to screw something up plot-wise.
No excuse is acceptable, I know...And I apologize for the extended delay.
For everyone who has stuck with me this long...THANK YOU. For those of you who have given up on me...I'm sorry!
More updates ARE scheduled...really. Still hammering out some technical kinks in chapters 40-49!
Cam glanced away from the computer monitor in front of her, a motion at the periphery of the room catching her attention. As she watched, three people entered the large glass doors that led to the Jeffersonian's lab. They made their way purposefully across the lower floor until they were forced to pause at the bottom of the steps.
Even at a distance, Cam could read the impatience on Cullen's face as he glanced from the security card reader to where she was watching him. One of the Jeffersonian's uniformed guards, having noticing the little group, stepped swiftly up to meet them.
A quirk of a smile crossed Cam's face at the beleaguered sigh Cullen gave while he pulled his badge out and flashed it at the approaching guard. The smile widened and she dipped her head slightly to hide it as the man on duty glanced at the shield and then, despite its officiousness, looked up with an inquiring lift of his brows to seek her permission.
Stifling a chuckle, she nodded her approval. At her response, he swiped his own card through the reader, giving the trio leave to ascend the stairs. Cullen's eyes fixed on her, mild annoyance showing in his gaze as he and his companions drew near.
Cam schooled her features into polite interest as she glanced from Cullen, to Tyler and then back to where Tyler's young intern followed a few steps behind the two men. "Good afternoon…" Cam's eyebrows rose in inquiry after the greeting, silently questioning their presence.
"Dr. Saroyan," Cullen nodded politely, his eyes scanning the platform with desultory interest. His gaze skipped over Wendell, who looked up briefly from his own computer.
The young Jeffersonian intern glanced between Cam and their guests before his attention settled back on the test results he had been checking. Though he appeared engrossed in the data, Cam knew from past experience that, despite his apparent disinterest in the conversation, Wendell would be able to recount everything that was said or done on the platform from this moment forward.
Cam blinked into the silence that followed Cullen's greeting, waiting for him to explain his presence. When the silence continued to stretch, she finally asked, "Something I can help you with?" Her own impatience, though tightly restrained, showed in the extreme politeness with which she voiced the question.
Cullen cleared his throat before beginning, and a faint frown began to crease Cam's forehead as she picked up the unaccustomed hesitancy in his voice as he began to speak, "Ah…Booth told us that he managed to smuggle out some important data on a computer card…" He hesitated again slightly before he expounded, "We…need… to take it back to the Hoover."
Cam frowned slightly, Cullen's voice holding a false note that set her inner alarms jangling. Eyeing the man in front of her assessingly, she answered as noncommittally as she could, "I believe Hodgins gave it to Angela. She's working to see if there's anything useful on it.…"
Cullen smiled tightly at her, the expression not quite making it to his eyes. "Could you have her bring it out to us?"
"Sure." Cam nodded, a creeping feeling of misgiving raising its ugly head even as she reached for the phone on the desk near her. "What's going on?"
She lifted the receiver to her ear and then froze as her eyes picked up motion heading towards the platform. Cam watched as Angela appeared as if conjured, her stride swift and purposeful as she headed towards the small group on the platform, her sudden approach a bit too well-timed for Cam's peace of mind.
"Hi." Angela's big sunny smile appeared just a shade too friendly to Cam, and she narrowed her eyes in suspicion at the other woman. She slowly lowered the handset back onto the phone.
As she watched, Angela darted a furtive glance at her before she looked around at the people gathered on the platform. "What's up?" Her question, Cam decided, was also too mild to be normal for Angela, her whole attitude too nonchalant to be anything but faked.
"Ms. Montenegro," Cam could feel her smile turning a bit brittle, and she couldn't quite hide the misgiving in her voice as she spoke, "Deputy Director Cullen is here to get the data card that Hodgins found in Booth's stuff."
The placid look of inquiry on Angela's face intensified before morphing into an expression of vapid surprise that was just too contrived for Cam to believe. Sneaking a quick glance at Cullen and Tyler, she found herself morbidly amused by the fact that the two men were taking Angela's expression at face value.
"Oh?" She watched as Angela drew her hands from the pockets of her lab coat. Pinched between two fingers of her left hand was the data card in question, secure in a tiny evidence bag. "This?" Angela's wide-eyed casualness was excessively innocent.
"Yes, that's it." Cullen reached out an imperious hand, waiting for her to give the card to him.
Cam carefully schooled her expression into an impassive mask and folded her arms across her chest. She could tell that Angela had picked up on her unspoken suspicions by the way the other woman carefully avoided looking at her.
"Oh….um…okay. Here." Meekly, Angela stepped forward and placed the card into Cullen's outstretched hand. As she took a step back from the three FBI agents, Angela's eyes darted to meet Cam's glittering gaze.
Cam caught the tiny shake of her head and the fleeting expression of pleading that Angela flashed her. The look was one that had been used on her before, a look that begged for her silence, and her patience, for just a bit longer.
Cam sighed. She trusted her team implicitly, but there were times that she felt as if her job description should have included 'must be able to herd cats' in its fine print. She could feel one eyebrow climbing and hastily corralled it. Carefully schooling her features back into nonchalant inquiry, she turned back to Cullen.
"Anything else?" Her voice was cool.
"No. That…" Cullen shifted his weight slightly, appeared indecisive for a split second, and then he shook his head, repeating himself. "No, that should do it." He smiled, not quite meeting Cam's eyes, "Thanks. We'll let you know what we…uh…find."
Cam's gaze hardened, her eyes catching Cullen's and holding them as she folded her arms across her chest. "Yes." She drew the word out slightly, the challenge in her tone unmistakable. "You do that." She let him see that she was aware of his unease, and that she was suspicious of it and of him, and of everything that she knew he wasn't telling her.
For a brief moment, Cam thought Cullen was going to actually put aside his mantle of Deputy Director of the FBI and join the human race. He opened his mouth as if to speak and then a veil dropped over his eyes and he only nodded curtly at her before turning away.
His two shadows followed him closely as he headed back down the steps to the lower floor. Cam watched them, imagining that Cullen could feel the twin holes her eyes were boring into his rigid back the entire long walk across the floor.
As the three exited the lab, walked the length of the glass doors, and then disappeared around the corner, Cam drew in an excessively slow, long, deep breath. Without turning, her eyes firmly focused on the spot where Cullen's suit-clad form had disappeared, her arms crossed tightly across her chest, she spoke quietly and with great care into the mounting silence.
"Start explaining, Ms. Montenegro."
An innocent bystander would have mistaken the quiet calm of the gentle words to be a request, but Angela quailed at Cam's tone, knowing it to be a command. She flashed Wendell a swift glance that made him frown worriedly and leave his computer to move closer to the two women.
As Angela stepped up to her side, Cam finally moved, turning to rest her gaze on Angela's earnest face as the other woman began to explain in a quick rush of urgent words, "Hodgins called…"