Chapter IV
"He was a secret agent, and still alive thanks to his exact attention to the detail of his profession." ~ Ian Fleming
Hotch stopped Gloria as she was walking with Leenux. She motioned to the girl to go ahead towards the Assistant Director's office. Ryland had appeared some feet behind them.
"What is it, Hotch?"
"I have asked Morgan already but I wanted to ask you, too. I know you two go to the racetrack. Are you sure that this no competition turning violent?"
"No, for sure no. Everything is very much legal, just people wanting to try some speed."
"You had a fight two weeks ago."
"I didn't have a fight exactly. There are some men with bigger shoulders than their heads that don't really appreciate getting beaten by a woman. And the whole thing of driving at those speeds can work people up. They are not criminals. Come on, Hotch. The guy left with his tail between his legs with me not even lifting a finger."
Hotch smiled to the side. Morgan had told him the story.
The man was blocking Gloria during the whole race but she managed to squeeze past him on a turn and beat him. He came out of the car shouting and accusing her that she tried to push him off the road, looking for some support from his buddies. Gloria just leaned on the side of her car, completely unphased.
"You twist so much on a straight road that you forget to turn when it matters," she replied, "Try to use the stick shift from time to time," she winked.
The guy was getting closer to the point that Morgan got alarmed that it was about to get physical and she was antagonising him, but Derek didn't move. Gloria knew how to take care of herself and to be honest that guy deserved it if he asked for it. He had been driving completely erratically. Morgan was right behind them and he hadn't dared to try to pass him even when he lost focus as Gloria left him behind.
"You are not gonna school on how to drive, lady!" the man shouted to her face.
Gloria still held that indifferent look on her face. That had confused the man, trying to assert his dominance by intimidating a woman and realising it was not working. His buddies who weren't that supportive, got in the middle, stopping him from getting them kicked out.
"The whole track is on video. I should school you, to be honest. I should school you on how NOT to get the back car pinned into yours," she spoke dangerously low, "Mate, you are lucky it was me you were trying to block. Anyone else on this track and you would have been left with half a car and your face into the protective tires. Be careful next time, okay?"
His friends murmured to him that she was right. Apparently they had gotten scared they were about to crash quite a few times.
"And the people don't really know that Derek and I work for the FBI, either and the licence plates are removed for privacy," she carried on.
"Okay," Hotch nodded, stepping away to answer his mobile that rang.
"So the Mustang is not just for show," Ryland's voice came from behind her as she started to walk.
Apparently he had overheard part of the conversation.
"So many horses under the hood just for show? That would have been a shame," she replied casually.
"Adrenaline kick. I get it," he said and he sounded rather appreciative.
"A gal has to have her toys," she said back indifferently.
Since when they were talking pastimes with this guy and he was so understanding she didn't know. He was right, though. Quite often she joined Emily at the shooting range but that was only good for concentration and to be honest the kickback of the guns tended to stress the cut muscles of her back. Some nights in winter she visited the pool of the FBI premises, but even in the late hours she tried it, she always ran the risk of running into someone and she didn't want the scars of her back on show - thank heavens for David's pool in the summer. It was the adrenaline she craved mainly and she wasn't getting that much anymore through the job. That's why she started to frequent the racetrack. It didn't require that much body strength or agility that she lacked quite a bit since her injury. The speed, the skill needed, the decision making on the split of the second, even those occasional brawls with some smart heads were a good fix. David wasn't a big fan but he did get why she wanted it. Morgan got rather into it when she said that she was planning to go and he joined her ever since. Good because he deterred those same smart heads from hitting on her. David was calmer, as well, knowing that she was with someone that could have her back.
They reached the Acting Assistant Director's office and Ryland let her in first. Linux was standing at the corner. Agent McClain's handler, SSA William Henderson was in there and of course the owner of the office himself. Dressed in one of those slim and expensive suits, his blond hair well groomed, Acting Assistant Director Steven Lawrence was sitting behind his desk cleaning his thick glasses in the black frame with a silk handkerchief. He always sat when people and mainly agents of the other men's size entered the office and he never stood up. On top of every annoying quality he had, he had a complex with his height. He was at Gloria's height and she was short for a woman.
"Sir," she greeted him in a neutral, down to business tone.
"Glad to see you, Agent Paterson. I hope you are doing alright," Lawrence said, "I didn't know you got injured last afternoon," he noticed the bandage over her eye.
"It's just a scratch. What happened?" she turned towards the undercover agent's handler.
"I received this on the phone I used to use with McClain," he said, pressing something on his phone.
A tapping sound was heard from the device for almost a minute and then the message ended.
"Is that all?" Ryland asked.
"The call couldn't be traced. It was a burner phone that's switched off or without signal," Linux added.
"That can be a mistaken call, completely random. But it sounds like a code. Morse code?" Ryland carried on.
"It is," Gloria spoke.
"Could I have a paper?" she asked, fishing a pen out of her pocket, "Please play it again."
Lawrence gave her some scrap of paper he had lying around.
She started noting dashes for two taps and dots for one. She tried to match the letters but she had difficulty.
"Damn it… The spacing isn't clear. I have to listen to it more slowly and try a few combinations, " Gloria murmured, "McClain doesn't know Morse Code well, does she?" she turned to Henderson.
"It's not part of the training… I had no idea she knew it."
"Morse Code has not been taught for decades in the FBI," Ryland confirmed.
"But you know," Lawrence said, looking at her.
"The advantage of old fashioned ways is that nowadays the majority isn't aware of them and they are too complicated to be understood quickly by anyone around. I managed to inform your people that there was going to be a bomb underneath this very building with a visual improvisation of the same code with one of the perpetrators sitting right next to me two years ago, if you remember," Gloria returned as a matter of fact.
"I remember, Agent," he replied in that tone Gloria didn't know if he sounded impressed or annoyed by her skills.
"So… You have used the code. Do you know if it's in the file?" Henderson asked.
"I would assume so. Why?"
"I guess I should have mentioned it but I didn't want to make the whole situation harder," Henderson started nervously, "McClain had a fascination with your work, Agent Paterson. To put it simply, she admired you."
'Someone has to have a serious chat with this girl about role models,' Gloria thought bitterly.
"Of course, no one has access to your previous missions and you refuse to do seminars or training. So I guess the only way to learn from your techniques was that incident two years ago. She saw you use the code, she may have taught herself."
"But she didn't tell you," she replied.
"Probably because she didn't have the practice to actually use it yet. She was a perfectionist, 'is' I guess…"
"Let's not jump into conclusions, ladies and gentlemen," Lawrence spoke in his smooth tone, staring at her, "Let's not forget that someone is targeting you and Agent Rossi, already sending encrypted messages."
"And let's not turn it into a huge conspiracy," she said, imitating his tone just a bit, "One thing is irrelevant to the other. Whoever is behind the attack last afternoon has no reason to know a secure phone number from a case I never worked on. Also, they have no reason to send a message in amateur Morse Code. Apparently they can use the post office."
"Regardless. With everything else going on with you, you can't work on the McClain case, even more if it changes from recovery to rescue. The case has to return to Agent Henderson and the Organised Crime Unit," he carried on.
Gloria tended to show a bit more patience with the sleazy bureaucrat but with the rest of the events over the past 24 hours she had none. She kept her voice down, but she spoke intensely.
"So we were good to look for a dead body. Now that she is alive, you want to send the case back to the people who lost her in the first place. I saw frictions and gaps on the case files I have spent weeks going through. No offence, Agent Henderson, but I am getting more and more sure that you could neither stay on top of her moves nor communicate efficiently with your undercover."
"Agent Henderson has handled a variety of cases and undercovers," Lawrence answered patronisingly.
"It's not a matter of skill. I could give you a whole analysis on operators and handlers but neither of us have the time. The short version is that some people just don't mix well. McClain is inexperienced but flexible. Henderson is experienced but rigid," she cut him off.
"You have never met her, yourself," Lawrence smiled dismissively.
"The girl is too good for her own good. I am flexible. I have been in her shoes before and I am standing in front of you. At this stage I am probably your best bet," she raised her eyebrows.
Lawrence looked over at the agent's handler, probably expecting some support.
Henderson rubbed anxiously his hand on his forehead, which was getting bigger due to his receding hairline.
A mission depended on an undercover agent as much as it depended on the handler. When the agent was too good the handler had to be able to keep up. But when it was someone's first mission and that someone was far better than the average and too young for their colleagues to evaluate them, keeping up could be hard and close to impossible. She knew it from experience. She had only survived her first missions thanks to her wits and whimsies, sometimes handling the handler. It was no accident that she was later assigned to leaders and handlers that were far better than the average, too: Richard Whelan and Clyde Easter. Trust, communication and rapport were also important. She could swear by that, too. All these with Richard, well…, had come naturally, but even Clyde, despite his hiccups and ego, was open-minded and trustworthy. The fifty-year old Henderson was not incapable but handled very short missions and he was a bit too old and too slow to communicate with a developing twenty-three year old woman who probably also considered him a bit prejudiced and short-sighted. No wonder she hadn't told him that she was adding in her toolkit an old-fashioned technique, even if she wasn't that good at it, yet.
"She is right, Sir…" Henderson spoke quietly, "It cost me a lot when I realised that I lost Amanda. If she is alive and Paterson thinks that she is able to track her and save her, she better keep the lead."
Henderson not only wasn't incapable. He cared, too. This whole thing was just a result of mistakes and miscalculations…
Lawrence shook his head, most possibly not understanding how Lawrence didn't fight for his case, preferring a spot on his career, even if that meant that an agent could actually get killed.
"Agent Ryland? Are you okay with it?" he asked the other man in the room.
Of course, he had to pull one, hadn't he? The leader of the team said they are good to go but he had to ask her subordinate for confirmation.
"Surely, Sir. As Paterson said, we are familiar with everything and up to speed with all the fronts," Ryland answered.
"Alright, then," Lawrence gave up, "Keep investigating, once you decode this… 'tapping'. If something changes on any front, you let me know. I expect regular updates. If you are too busy, Agent Paterson, Agent Ryland can visit me at any time."
"Thanks, Sir," she spat halfway through the door.
Ryland kept up his steps with hers.
"That went well," he said, "You convinced him rather easily. No one can fight off fire."
Gloria threw him a brief frown. Was that a compliment? Since when did this guy give any? An hour ago she had a fight with Dave over a folder that guy left on her desk while knowing better. To be honest, she was running behind a veteran spy of an old era and an eager youngster of the current era at the same time. She had her hands too full to think about Mark Ryland, as well. She probably should but at the moment he was the most useful person while asking the least questions.
"I'll run this code with someone who can figure it out in no time. But in the meantime I need you to check two addresses for me," she said.
"Be in the warehouse."
According to Reid that was the most possible coherent message. The spacing of the letters and the words was a mess. Apparently she was trying to remember the letters and she was making pauses in places she shouldn't. It would have taken Gloria ages to figure it out. For the BAU genius it was a matter of ten minutes. But that was it. No tense, no subject of the sentence. Was she at a warehouse? Would she be there? Was it about someone else?
Gloria had gone over everything she had read but there was no mention of a warehouse. Of course, the gang the agent was working on dealt with warehouses in Baltimore port but of course canvasing all that area was just not plausible, bearing in mind that they still should not make much noise and disturb the case that was already active. The warehouse meant something to the young woman, specifically. The place should have been too important for someone who struggled so much to try to spell such a long word. But Henderson had no clue either. He didn't know any specific warehouses for the gang. 'Any place she would find herself? She is under lots of stress. She may have found a place to escape or regroup?' Gloria had asked. The guy had no clue, again. Of course. She had spoken about communication before. The agent didn't have the confidence to share these things with him while they were the most vital. Clyde had found Gloria in Rome because he knew about the church… She had to talk to her mother but phoning the poor woman at 10 o'clock at night would only result in stressing her out even more. She had to wait.
She looked over at the pinning board she had asked to be brought to Quantico from their premises. The gang members McClain was working on were on it plus, any known connections, who she had met, the information she had passed on and most importantly the steps she had taken. She had never said to Henderson that she felt compromised. But that's probably not correct. If the girl felt in danger and didn't run, she probably found protection from within.
"Hang in there, kiddo…" she whispered into the air of the room realising that she had borrowed that phrase from David.
David…
Later that night, Gloria walked towards Dave's office. She had no reason really. He hadn't gone to the safe house either. Probably not wanting to tell Hayden in person that they had no answers still.
The blinds were open. She could see him asleep on the sofa with a file on his chest. She opened the door. He didn't stir. She found the blanket he kept under the armchair. The weather may be hot but the AC in the building was set quite low, probably to fight off the humidity. She put the file on the coffee table and draped the blanket over him. As she tucked it, she stroked his hair softly and pressed a kiss on his cheek. What she had said to Emily was right. The only reason she didn't want to share certain parts was because she loved him. She couldn't afford having questions arise between them. She had created enough problems in the recent past. She was probably creating more acting like that. She really didn't know. The only thing she knew was that she loved him too damn much…
She left as quietly as she entered. Dave opened his eyes. He was very much awake even before he heard the door opening. He just didn't want to talk, probably ending up in some argument or sending her away. He just craved her presence as the day ended. That's what had brought her there, too. Even when he was on a case the very last thing they did before sleep was phoning each other.
What was so vital to make her fall back to her secretive, unreliable ways, he didn't know. What was so powerful to bring them so quickly to the point of her sneaking in like a thief to give him a kiss and him pretending to be asleep, he couldn't understand. At that moment he regretted letting her leave. He should have just pulled her beside him, not to ask any questions, just to hold her. Whatever it was, it was neither vital, nor powerful. Her brain had made it like that… again. And he couldn't even guess. Well, he hadn't guessed before. It took Joy to state what should have been obvious.
"Something is bothering you, dad, and don't give me another vague answer," Joy said, returning to the patio with two cups of tea in hand after her husband took their son to bed.
She had asked him quite a lot of times if he was okay that day. He had always lied saying yes and he was just tired.
"It's not important," he lied again.
"It is important to have you looking like this all day. We are fine. Your team is fine. The other important person in your life is Gloria. So it should have to do with her. What happened? Did you two have a fight?"
He shook his head to a no.
"That doesn't happen almost at all."
"You should share that trick with me and Roberto," Joy smiled.
"Well, it involves two profilers, one who is extremely adaptable to situations and one with years of hard experience in how to 'not' annoy significant others. Not a match you get very often. And it's not all roses. Trust me on that."
"Anyway," Joy laughed, "What is it? I am a woman, I can probably shed some light."
"I just don't understand what is going on," he paused looking for a last way out of the conversation but Joy's calm and focused stare didn't leave any, "Lately, when I come to visit you she very rarely comes with me. Are you two okay?"
"Sure, we are. And she always phones or texts to apologise. We have no problem."
"That's what I see. "
"Is she distant from you or anything?"
"No. Well…." he trailed off.
"Well?" Joy pressed, something was on her mind.
"Sometimes… She doesn't talk to me as much as she used to, mainly when there is a problem. But it's not like she is distant."
There were times when Gloria was offly silent but at the same time she was in his arms even more often than before. Since day one and even before, David and Gloria had a very affectionate relationship, talking about casual caresses and cuddles and kisses. Funnily enough the hard spy was the most generous and eagerly huggy woman David had ever met. It was one of those traits of hers well hidden behind the tough facade. It was, also, her need to heal from all that violence she had witnessed during her twenty years of undercover work and even before and from the loneliness she had suffered for so long. And David, who more than often had been with women that tended to have ego and not be glued to his side, had marvelled at the fact that Gloria was the complete opposite. Over the last weeks he had felt that her need for reassurance had increased, though.
"She is not distant. She is nothing but, I assume," Joy smiled to the side, "Are you getting the idea that she has gotten insecure?"
David was surprised with his daughter's insightfulness. He finally nodded in admission. He had enough experience with women to tell that. And he was a damn profiler on top.
"I hope you haven't been naughty."
"Never. I have been guilty of the crime in the past but not to Gloria. Never," he replied decisively, "That's why I don't get it…" he dropped his eyes to the floor, "And at the same time she is avoiding you. I don't understand."
"She is not avoiding 'me'. Who else was supposed to be here today and changed her plans?"
"Your mother?" David frowned, "Joy, I have seen Gloria jealous and, trust me, she is nothing but passive. That woman during the last signing of my books could testify to that."
It was his turn to smile to the side. That lady in Chicago had the idea of staying last in the queue and sweet talked to him quite a bit. She worked for the Mayor's office, so he had to remain polite and he had returned some compliments. Gloria, who had stayed in the audience as none of them wanted to attract any attention, appeared playing his assistant informing him that his car was on its way in that husky British accent that every time she put up drove him crazy. The woman dared to suggest they go for dinner as the Mayor had been designing an anti-crime plan and she would love the input. Both of them could tell that she had been lying. His fiancee had returned bluntly that the Mayor being the Mayor and Agent Rossi being Agent Rossi could arrange a meeting at any time, and at the moment David had some other important matters to tend to. The woman got slightly confused by the innocent tone while Gloria's eyes threw practically daggers at her. He excused himself, thanking his assistant for dealing with the efficiency of his time, entertaining the whole scene. 'So? What important matters do I have to tend to?' he had joked once they were left alone. 'Oh, I have actually cleared your schedule. I was planning on thanking you, too, for my new job, Agent Rossi,' she had replied, not dropping the accent or the tone. Needless to say she had blown his mind the moment they had stepped into the hotel room.
That was probably the only similarity between then and those weeks. She wasn't only in his arms more often than before. She was doing everything she knew would drive him crazy in the bedroom, too.
"That woman was random," Joy said, "Technically Gloria is not even avoiding my mother. She is giving you space," she raised her eyebrows looking towards the road in front of the house, "She worries but still she gives you space. She loves you way too much, dad."
Dave turned to his side letting out a breath. He loved her too much, too. If only he could convince her of that…
Gloria walked back towards the temporary office of hers. She knew that David wasn't really sleeping. He always snored softly or not so softly when he was on his back. He had worried before if his snoring annoyed her. The truth was that she found it comforting. Why did he pretend to be sleeping? Did he just want her there and didn't want to get into confrontations? Was he angry? Yes, she was creating more problems…
She reached the room getting a cup of coffee on the way, given the long night ahead. She had two piles on the desk. One was the information on Jason Barnett's agency and its employees, the other some extra data she had insisted on getting and was finally given regarding Agent McClain: full family history, the juvie record she had, how she was recruited, everything. She had already looked at it quickly. Nothing. She went for the other one.
The agency did have a few too many British "creatives" as employees.
A knock came from the door.
"Yeah…" she breathed.
"Paterson?" Ryland appeared.
"Oh the addresses? You could have phoned me, you didn't need to come back." she said.
"No problem. The house address is bogus. The apartment block hasn't been inhabited for 10 years. Some construction fault was identified and the residents left. There were plans to demolish it but the construction company went bust. Asfor the address of the creative agency, it is a small commercial property with some offices. The name of the business is outside but for sure it doesn't look like the photos you showed me."
"Interesting," she murmured. 'Or not,' she thought. It could be just a small company playing it up. But paying for all these Brits' visas?' The bank records she had read before looked legit but something was off. She should be onto something.
"That's a lot of papers. Do you want some help?" he changed the subject.
"It's late, Mark. Go home."
"Nobody is expecting me and you seem like you could use the extra hand."
She needed help. That was for sure if she wanted to stay on top of two things at once.
"Go ahead then," she replied, showing the second pile on the agent. This was their case at the very end, "Please doublecheck if there is any mention of a warehouse in there."
He sat on the chair opposite not asking what she was looking into. In their line of work they both had learned not to ask many questions. It was convenient on so many levels, honestly.
She got back to her stuff. When she reached the visa applications of the British employees she got surprised. The middle numbers of their passports were all the same, 004. What the heck? One could be a coincidence. All eight of them? Including the "creative writer" Jason Barnet? MI6 used to put these numbers when assigning passports to alias' of agents back during the old times. It was easy to scroll through the numbers when looking for one. But they had stopped doing it. That's why she knew it anyway. She never had that level of clearance, of course. She was the undercover that they trained and pushed to Interpol the moment she completed her first mission at 19.
She had made a similar quick thought a while ago, though. That 004? She had seen it recently on a British passport. It wasn't on the MacCain's files she had learned those by heart. She had seen no British person in her work. Where was it? Damn she wished she had slept well and had Reid's eidetic memory.
David didn't bring work files home frequently. But he had brought some recently for the new book. He had started a book over the past month. He was trying a new genre on the side mixing some fiction into real cases. He hadn't shared much and seemed a bit troubled about it. He hadn't really worked on any other book since they got together, so she had respected his privacy. She should have noticed the number in a file open on his desk or something. But since when David was into such historic cases? If that number was from the years of the Cold War it was certainly an alias. When British Intelligence realised that they had foolishly gotten infiltrated by the Russians that's when they changed all their tactics, over the years of cleaning up the mess and regaining trust. But how come she hadn't commented on it? Then she remembered. She hadn't commented because she had other matters in hand…
David had visited Joy that afternoon. He had gone alone. Gloria had to finish off a report and used that as an excuse not to follow. It wasn't the first time over the past month she avoided going with him. When Joy first made her existence known, Gloria had given Dave and her time and space for the father and daughter to get to know each other. She had met Joy during Sergeant Scott's funeral, a couple of months down the line. The initial plan was all of them to go to some lakes but Sergeant Scott died and Gloria had gone with David to LA. Joy had come there, so they met. They got along very well since then. Her sudden avoidance was making David uncomfortable. But Joy was never the problem.
He came back more thoughtful than he left.
"Did you have a good evening?" she asked as he gave her the usual peck on the lips coming in.
"Yes," he simply replied and he lingered like he debated to start a conversation.
Normally he would narrate details about the evening. The games with Kai, how Joy was doing and any discussions he had with Hayden. Gloria would just comment vaguely or not say anything at all during that last part. But that night he didn't say anything more and walked towards his office. Gloria let him be for some time but his problematised look kept bugging her. So she poured them some wine and went to find him.
"Am I interrupting?" she asked from the door.
"Not at all," he replied, looking up from his glasses.
"Is everything okay, darling?" she approached him, giving him the wine.
Gloria hoped her voice didn't already sound too needy. Probably it did, as he pulled her softly on his lap.
"Of course," he said, taking a sip, "Why are you asking?"
David looked like he wasn't asking innocently, more like he was fishing.
"I don't know," she shrugged, drinking a bit, "Normally, you would tell me about the day. Tonight you didn't say anything," she answered, getting the idea that he had probably done it on purpose.
"Nothing was that different from other days. I played with Kai and then had some interesting discussions," he spoke casually.
He wasn't still giving details, he wasn't talking about Hayden. Gloria was too proud and insecure to ask. She couldn't really get her skills of pretending to work with him, either and being with a profiler could be tricky, anyway. But ironically enough she decided to do again what far too many women since the start of humanity had done when feeling as she was.
"Good..." she said, nuzzling her face against his, kissing his cheek.
"Aha…" he brought the glass to his mouth again.
She passed her arm around his neck caressing his hair and nesting even more in his chest. Mysteriously enough David was watching her carefully, even though none of it was any unusual behaviour.
"How was your evening?"he asked.
"Paperwork is always boring. But I was thinking of you..." she husked in his ear, sneakily pressing her lips to his earlobe.
She kissed his mouth, lingering. He raised an eyebrow and she gave him a promising look. She left the glass on his desk. Her eyes fell on the open papers with a couple of passport numbers. Instinctively she registered the 004 numbers but of course it didn't matter at that moment.
She straddled his lap with a sensuous shift and started unbuttoning the loose cotton sport shirt she was wearing. She captured his lips. He responded, after a chuckle she didn't pay that much attention to. Her fingers ran in his hair as her tongue was seducing his. He had left his own glass judging from both of his arms closing around her. She moaned softly, pressing her body against his, she left his mouth and kissed his neck and jaw. His taste, his smell, his warmth took the best of her quickly. His hands had found their way to the skin of her waist but they weren't reciprocating the same passion. He seemed like he was holding back. Why? She couldn't lose him… She needed him, her moves were getting increasingly more and more desperate and eager. She got rid of the shirt, only a thin camisole below it, as she rubbed herself on him. She could feel his desire. Why? Why was he holding back?
"You have no idea what you are doing to me… I need you, David…" she whimpered, confessing her thoughts, "And I love you… I love you so much…"
She finally got a reaction, as he squeezed her against him, bringing her mouth to his fiercely.
"And what do you think I do, eh?" he asked hoarsely but firmly.
His question took her aback. Before she fully processed it, he pulled her lips back to his again, sucking them, her breath and her yelp together as his hand went up and down her side, stroking her curves.
"What has gotten into your head?" he insisted, biting her bottom lip to get her attention, looking into her eyes with a stare full of desire but also daring her not to hide.
She realised that he knew the answer already and he was annoyed by it. He had let her show what was going on in her mind. She had behaved exactly like the textbook, exactly like a woman thinking that she was in danger of losing her man. But he had also let her reach the point when she was raw in his arms so she would have no space to escape it any more. Damn the fact that he knew too well the effect he had on her…
"It's…" she didn't know where to start or what to say.
"It's Hayden. You got jealous. You got insecure. I gathered as much. But I don't think I have given you any reasons."
She shook her head negatively.
"Then why?"
She tried to drop her face embarrassed but he held it up towards him.
"You will talk to me, Gloria. Explain it to me. I deserve it after all this time you had me wandering and you were torturing yourself."
"I… I don't know, David. I just thought… When you started seeing the reasons for what she did, I thought you may want to undo past mistakes…"
"I have to see her reasons, otherwise we won't be able to co-exist for Kai. Not because of anything else," he replied confused.
"I understand. But Hayden is family to you…"
"That doesn't mean I would have tried to re-built with her things that failed thirty years ago, even if I hadn't been with you."
"They didn't really fail, you just left for other reasons, not because you didn't want her or something."
David's face softened and it got that expression of patience realising she missed the experience of three divorces.
"They did fail. The brutal truth is that whatever we had wasn't enough to change my mind or make her try to keep me. I left and she let me go. We had lived together. We had gotten married. She was pregnant. But I just left and she just let me go, rather quickly finding another man to raise our child."
Gloria looked at him surprised. She had never thought of it in that way.
"I am family with her for Joy and Kai. But what do you think you are to me, stella mia?" he carried on, bringing her left hand with the ring to his lips, "And even if you offered space or I don't know what you were doing by leaving me to go alone to Joy's these days, very apparently you are not letting me go," he smiled caressing her side.
She dropped her eyes.
"There is something else," he found them and brought them back to his, "There is, also, something else in that mind of yours. What is it?"
"Nothing…" she tried to go for his lips.
She had the answers she needed. The rest was a constant insecurity.
"It is something," he avoided her, pressing more softly that time.
"I… She… Hayden is an important woman, a diplomat, uncomplicated, highly educated... I thought, you know?… Who am I? I feared that she is a far better match for you than me…" she finally broke under his intense stare.
He brought his fingers to her cheek, pushing her hair behind her ear.
"Stop putting yourself down, Gloria. Don't compare yourself. You are strong, brave, clever and I love 'you'. For once, I suggest you stop thinking, because I am not leaving you either," he replied firmly.
He caught her lips himself that time. She tried to move to return to the pace she had before the discussion but he stopped her.
"You have been driving crazy over the past weeks. It's my turn," he murmured in her ear.
He pulled the camisole over her head leaving her bare to his eyes, drinking her in. He didn't go for the flesh on display. He caught her mouth again, slowly, deeply, caressing her skin tenderly. She lost herself. She never knew how he could achieve it with just kissing but she did. Her body jerked when his fingers finally found the hardened nubs and he started sucking and nibbling on the sensitive spots of her neck going lower. She was moaning into oblivion. Thank God she had managed to open his shirt and she had some skin to touch as her pelvis was gyrating desperately against him. He increased the fierceness of his lips, grazing his teeth on the tender flesh. When she thought she couldn't take any more, he pushed the notes away from the middle of his desk, as he stood up making her lie on it, pulling her pants and underwear away and his tongue delved into her depths like a hungry animal. He had her trembling way before he made them one…
He made love to her that night in that way of his that made her feel like she was the only woman in the whole world. He made love to her beside those papers with those numbers… That night… That night she had a startle in her sleep. David had half-woken up as she was in his arms. She had told him it was nothing, just a twitch of her right shoulder that caused a bit of pain. That's what she had actually thought at the time. It was rare but it happened. He had just tightened his arms around her, rubbing her back and they both had gone back to sleep. He had left for a case the next day. The startles kept happening. She paid attention fearing that the cut nerves of her back had started causing more serious problems, as she was warned and asked about during every health check up. She soon realised the disruptions in her sleep were not relevant to any complications of her past injury. Ten days later she started having one nightmare almost every other night. It had only gotten worse from there...
"Everything alright?" Rynald's voice came from opposite her and she realised she was daydreaming.
"Yeah… I think I am just getting tired. Have you found anything in these?"
"Nothingr."
"Well, then I think we should get some sleep. Another long day is coming."
"Okay," he agreed, leaving the papers in her office and standing up to go.
She stood up. He would assume that she was going to Rossi's but in reality she was just going to have a cigarette.
Who had given David those files?, she thought once outside and alone, taking a drag. Emily. Emily passed him some files a month ago. Gloria took her phone out immediately but then she saw the time. It was well past 1am. Everyone should be asleep in the Hotchner household. So she texted instead to ask Emily for the favour of passing by the BAU the next morning. To her surprise she got an "Okay".
"Ria, are you sure you are thinking straight nowadays?" Emily protested once Gloria had explained why she wanted to talk to her, "You consider the possibility that the material of David's book may have some connection to what has happened and instead of talking to him to check, you are asking me for the files he is using?"
"Emily…" Gloria tried smoothly.
"Don't Emily me. You weren't with Rossi in the morning. Since when do you two spend a night apart and actually during times like these? He has already realised that you are hiding stuff, hasn't he? What the heck is going on?"
Gloria shook her head annoyed. Sometimes she hated being surrounded by profilers… She better started saying some half truths if she wanted people off her back.
"Let's get some things straight," she said unnerved, "I have knowledge of stuff that I cannot be talking about, if it's not a necessity? Are we clear for once?"
"No, we are not. With Rossi and the others in danger you wouldn't be stopped by some formalities. I know you Ria. Whatever you don't want to say is relevant to you and only. You do realise that whatever you think is worth hiding, it's probably meaningless for David. The damage is in the act. Rossi knows so much about you and your life. What do you have to hide, anyway?"
"Knowing a lot doesn't mean he needs to know everything…" Gloria murmured.
"Come again?" Emily frowned, "When did you start thinking like this?"
"He would find our history kinda interesting, don't you think?"
Last Saturday. Last Saturday she had started thinking like that. That bastard had planted poison in her mind, ideas that had never crossed it before… She looked at the floor.
"I don't get it," Emily was getting more and more frustrated not understanding anything any more, "He is looking into a story from the Cold War. What do you even have to do with that era?"
"Where do you think whoever fished me out of the streets comes from? Where do you think Wetherspoon, who phones you, comes from?" the redhead replied sharply.
Emily saw an expression that she had never seen on her friend's face before, a mixture of resentment and fear not towards her, of course, but towards the people she just mentioned. She realised she never knew exactly how Gloria had gotten from a gang to MI6, only that she had refused twice to offer training sessions to new FBI undercover agents. She decided not to push it more, at least not like this. Something was off, very off…
"Okay. I'll give you copies of those files," she complied, "Come with me."
"Thank you…" Gloria replied sincerely.
"Ria…" Emily held her arm, "I am here for you, as well. If you want to talk it through…"
"Is it so wrong not wanting to speak about things that happened twenty five years ago, Em?" she finally asked in a low voice.
"No. But after so long, why do they matter? The most correct question actually is: Do they 'really' matter?"
Gloria opened her mouth to speak but closed it instantly. To be honest she didn't know if they did…
"That's it. That's all," Emily said, printing off pages while her friend was going through the pages, "It's too old and it happened in Europe."
"That's not just an American case. Most of the names are redacted but some… There are French and British names and details here…"
"Ria, that's an odd road to go down, you know that."
"Speaking about odd…" Gloria kept murmuring and ignoring her.
She took her phone out and dialled the number.
"Who are you calling?"
"The least known historic geek of the company…" she put the phone on speaker.
"Hello, Paterson. And I would bet that I get another call from you soon enough," Clyde Easter's voice came from the phone.
She had phoned him the previous night asking for any recent changes in her old cases that may have brought the attack.
"You bet right. I am here with Emily."
"Hello. I hope you received the gift I sent for your daughter's first birthday."
"I did, Clyde. Thank you! It was thoughtful."
"Always a pleasure. Do you have any progress?"
"Well… I need your historic MI6 knowledge. You always say we learn from the past to at least do better screw ups in the future," Gloria spoke.
"Good to know that you listened when I talked and remembered."
"I, also, remember those hefty books you read when I was in the hospital in Italy. So do you know anything about a mission from the late eighties, an international one where they were trying to shut down a Russian spy cell? Apparently they had a serial killer in it that killed outside of his job and compromised them."
"You are talking about the mission 'Aesop's Fables'."
Gloria and Emily exchanged a look.
"And the reason this mission is so fresh on my mind," the man over the phone carried on, "is that Wetherspoon sent two notices to Interpol for two people of interest over this ancient history. After actually phoning me to check what questions you had for me last night. I dug up my notes. I am forwarding them to you."
"Wetherspoon phoned you? To check what information I was asking for?!" Gloria asked in disbelief, "Fucking bitch…" she murmured but it was caught over the microphone of the device.
"You never liked your own trainer," Easter commented.
"I had my reasons. Could you send me those notices, too? And please, don't tell her I am asking about this whole thing, if she tries to fish again," she returned sternly.
"I won't. I don't answer to her, anyway. And let's say, I don't like her myself, either her or the partner she used to have back in the days."
"Nobody ever said you were a bad judge of character, Clyde…" Gloria said quietly but Emily saw the same expression of resentment on her face at the 'partner's' mention, "Thank you…"
"Anytime, Ria," Easter said softly and ended the call.
Gloria stormed into the conference room of the BAU. McClain's mother was to be there at any moment and they had much ground to cover at that end, too.
All of the team was already there still going through piles of cases and possibilities.
"It's the research for your book. The Cold War case you are looking into," she announced, throwing an 'I promised you I would tell if I find anything' look to David.
"What?" he got surprised.
"The operation you are looking into for your book was called 'the Aesop's tales' by the British Intelligence. On Saturday I was followed by a former operator of MI6. The moment I ask his old partner about him she phones everyone to see what I know and she sends those two notices to Interpol," she put the two papers with the faces of two men, "I am trying to retrace the operator and I seem to be bumping on an old section of British spies."
Rossi took one of the papers in his hand.
"I know this guy," he said, "He was with us overseas when we worked on the operation."
"You worked on the Aesop's Tales?" Gloria asked.
"We never called it that. But yes. I did. That's why I decided to write about it…" his sentence trailed off.
Gloria stared at him. 'Now who is saying half-truths?' she thought, because for sure as hell there was something else in that absence of a full stop. He held her stare. She wasn't saying everything. He wouldn't, as well, apparently.
"All this commotion… It's no coincidence," she finished not taking her eyes away from his.
"For an old spy and codebreaker like myself, nothing in the world happens by coincidence." ~ Malcolm Nance
I know it's been a long-long time… But I guess I was a bit uninspired. But I am back now (hopefully…!) Let me know of your thoughts!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!