Luke speaks up then, with a mysterious smile. "Professor Wolfe, pleasantly surprised to bump into you again."
"Agent Alvez," the man drawled, a distinct boston accent peeking slightly. Tara's eyes narrow in suspicion at the tone in his voice.
Tara's just here to do a guest lecture, not accidentally run into her colleague and find out he's married to a professor of the university. at least it's not an ex-husband this time.
tumblr — @ericdelko
here, have another one of these. i don't really like how this kinda came to be but there's some more context behind how ryan and eric/luke came to be.
i'm wrapping up this series soon, just down to spencer and emily — though for emily it's gonna be a big one, i wanna tie a case to it and maybe a little crossover/cameo with the csi: miami crew... stay tune for that.
(/ = time skip)
Another day, another guest speaking lecture.
This time, it's not very far, in D.C. at Georgetown, so that's a plus. Also, no way will she being running into any ex-husbands, though there are some odds that could happen. Spencer could do the math, she thinks as she strides down the hallway, her rolling bag trailing behind her.
"Dr. Tara Lewis, right?" A voice pipes up when she steps onto the stage, ready to set up her laptop and go over her presentation one last time before the event begins.
A man darts between the crowd of people, mostly faculty and volunteers making sure everything is prepared. Tara's eyes scan the man, her profiler mind automatically running an analyze on him as he walks up towards her.
He's much young looking, though the wrinkles around his eyes hint at his true age. Bright emerald eyes framed by tousled dark golden strands falling forward, and muscles tensing underneath a blazer, almost as if on alert.
Tara has a pricking sense running up her spine until the man smiles, something warm and soft and Tara has to sternly remind herself that she's not in the field, there's no need to reach for her gun.
The man leans forward and offers a handshake, Tara takes it as he introduces himself. "Professor Ryan Wolfe, we spoke on the phone a few weeks ago?" A memory worms into her brain and she nods enthusiastically.
"Yes, Professor Wolfe. Sorry, I forgot for a moment, it's hard to be a field agent sometimes, always so busy. You had a student that was specifically interested in my study of the Florida serial killers community?"
"It's quite alright, I understand." He reassures. A flicker of something like understanding flashes through his eyes, though it disappears, too quick for Tara to grasp and dissect what he means.
He continues on, "I know that it's probably a hard spot, considering the news about the murders in it, but my student wanted to do her thesis on it and I was wondering if you could spare her some time to talk about it? She would have been here but she's currently out of town on a family emergency and pleaded if I could ask you?"
Tara opens her mouth to respond to his question when they're interrupted by the sound of a throat clearing and she looks over her shoulder to see a stage hand gesture to his wrist, signaling that it's almost time.
Professor Wolfe looks apologetic, sheepishly smiling. "Continue this afterwards?" he said, and at Tara's nod, he adds. "Find me then, and we'll talk more about it." Then he ducks out, lightly jogging down the stairs, stopping briefly to converse with several students gathered to hear the lecture.
Tara takes a deep breath, mentally steeling her nerves and turns to the podium, stacking flashcards neatly in a pile, just in case she needs it.
She waits for everyone to be seated and for her cue.
"Hello everybody, my name is Dr. Tara Lewis and I am an FBI agent. Today I am here to talk about…"
/
Tara's alternating between shuffling papers into her bag and absently minded listening as people come up to talk to her. Something shifts in the corner of her eye and she blinks in the pointed direction.
At the back of the room stands Professor Wolfe, easily chatting with what looks to be other professors, when he catches her eye. He smiles and nods toward the exit before wrapping up his conversation and slipping out of the auditorium.
After packing up and answering questions from eager students, Tara's making her way out, eyes darting around as she looks for the Professor.
She lands a friendly face and a grin builds on her face. Though it's not the person she's specifically looking for, Tara isn't about to look a gift horse in the face.
She quicks her steps, cutting him off when she lands in his path.
"Tara?" Luke Alvez stands, two cups of coffee in hand, with disbelief written all over his face. He's dressed very casually, blue jeans, a tee shirt, and a leather jacket thrown over his shoulders, though that's mostly his uniform when they're at work. Nothing out of the ordinary that Tara can see that explains his presence at the university.
Her eyes flit at the coffee tightly grasped in his hands and Tara puts two and two together in her mind. with an eyebrow raised and a smirk curving dangerously on her face, Tara asks, "so, where's the girlfriend?"
She lets herself enjoy the moment as she watches Luke's expression change when she asks. First, it's sputtering and she mentally tallies a point watching the usually unflappable agent blink in a daze and then he's rolling his eyes, hard. Glaring at something behind her, he grumbles out. "Of course, you'd find this funny," and Tara finally registers a chuckle from behind them, turning as Professor Wolfe moves towards them.
His green eyes are shining in amusement, as he comes up to stand in front of them. He nods his head towards the extra cup in Luke's hand, "I'm assuming that's for the mysterious girlfriend?" He teases, a smirk gracing his face before it shifts back to neutral when his eyes flicker to Tara.
"Good presentation, Dr. Lewis. It was certainly interesting to hear about the psychology behind serial killers and their motives on their crimes." Professor Wolfe comments warmly, and Tara smiles back.
"Thank you, Professor. It was nice to share my findings to some fresh faces, though I doubt many of them will come out with an urge to join the bureau."
Luke speaks up then, with a mysterious smile. "Professor Wolfe, pleasantly surprised to bump into you again."
"Agent Alvez," the man drawled, a distinct boston accent peeking slightly. Tara's eyes narrow in suspicion at the tone in his voice. Then the man asks, deadpan. "Is that coffee for me?"
Luke breaks first, beaming as he passes the extra cup in his hand towards Professor Wolfe, who grabs at it and takes a generous swing.
Tara blinks, confusion mounting at the friendliness between the two. "Do you…know each other?" She questions, her finger drifting between the two.
Professor Wolfe smiles up at her, mischief clear in his eyes as he brings his cup to his mouth and takes another sip. He shoots a look towards Luke, who scowls, which releases a fury of hand gestures between the two. It's too quick and complex for Tara to understand, followed by an excess of eyebrow raising and nose twitches. Finally, Luke sighs, a combination of frustration and resignation, and turns to Tara.
Rolling his eyes, he rests a hand on the other man's lower back, intimate, Tara's mind whispers in her head. then he says flatly, "Tara, meet my husband, Professor Ryan Wolfe," and Tara's brain explodes with a million questions.
/
Professor Wolfe, Ryan, Luke's husband, shoves them outside, where there's more space for Tara to demand answers, after she was done beating up Luke for not telling her.
Ryan looked on with amusement and respect as Tara switched between punching him ("ow, that hurts tara, look i'm sorry but— oh! let me explain — listen stop beating me, woman") and yelling at him ("We've known each other for years now, you couldn't have just said, 'by the way I'm married to my husband, one day?'). Luke was stuck flailing his arms, trying to defend himself as Tara continued assaulting him, and he just lets her, having resigned himself to his fate.
"First question, when did this happen?" Tara tosses out when she's finished, Luke glaring at Ryan as he rubs his bruised arm in comfort.
"We've been married officially for about five years," Luke manages to answer, albeit slightly out of breath from having to fight off tara's attack. "But it's a little more complicated than that."
Almost as if he can sense where tara's mind is heading, Ryan picks up where luke ends off. "What Luke means is, we were married, for two years, under different circumstances."
"What different circum—" Tara starts to ask but Luke cuts her off with a grim smile. "He means undercover."
Ryan's hand comes up to link with Luke's, tightly squeezing briefly before he shuffles closer to Tara and lowers his voice. "This is classified but," he whispers, eyes sharp with alert, training them on their surroundings. Tara would be somewhat impressive if her head wasn't feeling lightheaded from all this new information. "But luke trusts you," Ryan stated, and Tara swallows back any words, at the unwavering confidence and love lingering underneath.
He shifts back, leaning against Luke and offers a different answer. "We don't really divulge our relationship, unless it's for good reason. It's why you don't see a ring on our fingers," Tara's gaze zero in on the aforementioned hands, free of any wedding bands. "It's for protection and also because of our history."
Tara wants to ask many things, but the one question on the tip of her tongue spills out. "Have you told the team yet?"
Luke flinches unexpectedly, but Ryan reaches out with an arm to steady him. "It's been revealed, on accident, one person at a time. Pretty sure it's just you, Reid, and Prentiss left." Luke admits cautiously and Tara lets out a ragged breath.
Something sharp and dangerous unfurls within, sweeping slightly on the edge when Ryan smiles. But the tone when he speaks doesn't match the facial expression, it's soft, hushed, light and casual. "But that's none of your business why."
The pricking sense she had earlier when she had met Ryan comes back at the sight of that smile. This time, Tara truly understands that Ryan is severely underestimated, hidden depths flaring up in bursts, often pushed down by how charming and sweet he seems. It's somewhat disarming, though it explains the alert and tension in him when he's around people.
So Tara blurts out the first thing that pops in her mind, distracted by the darkness Ryan briefly shows. "Are you an agent or something?"
The laugh that bursts out of Ryan sheds away any lingering tension in the shadows of his face and relief blooms on Luke's face before he shifts back to seriousness.
"No, I'm a professor, though I was a cop a long time ago." Ryan said wistfully after the laughter fades away, Luke's arm somewhat wounding up around Ryan's shoulders.
"Anyways, the short story is we met when Luke was undercover and we don't really disclosed we're married because it's complicated." Ryan summarizes, shrugging as he drinks his coffee.
Tara has so much more to ask, but she knows now is not the time. Both of them are only so willing to offer up any information, and they already said more than enough.
What she does know is despite the stark contrast between them both, they make a good fit, content and happiness glowing around them like a light.
Tara will get the answers she wants, but it will come when it comes. She can wait patiently.