Chapter 6

Bass stands to the side of the room, his body one of many in the group of people who are standing close together talking. He looks down at the tar colored liquid in the styrofoam cup and swears it tastes how it looks. He takes a sip anyway.

The room is divided into two groups, the veterans of the FBI, the ones who have served more than ten years and have sacrificed some of the biggest parts of their lives to get where they are. And then there are the rookies the green agents who have been with the bureau less than a year and the trainees fresh out of Quantico, hopeful and eager and a little too cocky.

Bass tries to listen to the story that's being told in front of him but his mind continuously wanders back to Charlie.

Unexpected. That's what she's become to him.

Her briefing was strong, powerful, and breathtaking. She always seems to have an aura of confidence around her, her gaze unwavering as she spoke, her voice bold and her back straight with the eyes of every man in the room on her.

Charlie was unlike anyone he had ever persuade, sure he had dated cops before but Charlie wasn't anything those cops. Those cops were rough and uneasy to relax around him, as though their work personality never left them. The other woman he had dated could never understand the life he led, the late nights, sudden trips halfway across the continent at a moment's notice and more missed dates than he cared to think about.

Charlie was unlike anyone he had ever tried to date and he was already wondering if they could make it.

The other group filled with young men burst into boisterous laughter and Bass listens just in time to hear "-fucking hot piece of ass though."

Bass's fists clench because he knows exactly who they're talking about.

"I would make her ask me before I fucked her. I mean she's a hostage negotiator, I bet she's good at asking."

Bass storms over to their group, grabbing the collar of the man with the big mouth, finding it was the man who asked Charlie how old she was.

"Agent Dawson, you have a big mouth on you don't you?"

The man smirks at him and shrugs, "Special Agent Monroe, I don't know what you think you heard…"

"You want to have seven ways to Sunday, but Agent Greyson is not someone you ever talk about wanting ever again. Agent Greyson has killed for this country, she has sacrificed for this country, and she has watched people die in front of her. Tell me, how much have you done for your country?"

Bass leans in close, "I hear you say anything but how good of an agent Greyson is and I will personally make sure you never see the outside of a cubicle for the tiny length of your unmeasurable career."

Bass pushes him away and stalks out of the room, his feet hitting the tiled floor at a punishing pace as he heads to Steve's office. The elevator door opens and he steps in, his hands running though his hair and he exhales. He's going to have to face Charlie.

He exits the elevator and is about to step into the bullpen when he spots Charlie, her hands gesturing wildly in the air as Steve and her stand in his office with the door closed, Steve looking slightly chagrin and if Bass didn't know what this was about he might find it amusing that the supervising agent was actually getting a scolding from someone twenty years his junior. Unfortunately Bass knows exactly what their arguing about. He's about to turn around and leave, let Charlie sit on the fact that someone is joining her two year investigation and show up tomorrow hoping for less anger than he sees now but Steve spots him and waves him over and as Bass starts to walk Charlie turns around and her eyes lock with his.

She masks it exceptionally well but Bass sees her the anger flare like fire in her eyes even as the smile sit's crookedly on her lips. She looks… welcoming, unruffled, and if Bass hasn't seen her arguing with Steve moments ago he would have thought that she always knew he was coming. But the fire that is burning its way through her blue eyes is something he can't help but feel as a kick to the gut because under the fury he sees what he feared. Betrayal.

"Charlie," Steve runs his hand over his mouth before continuing, "This is Sebastian Monroe, and he's the one that will be assisting you with your case from now on.

Bass lets Charlie make the first move and is surprised when she sticks out her hand and when he sticks his out she shakes it firmly, her hand small and delicate with callouses on the palm of her hand.

"I look forward to it." Charlie says, the smile still on her lips and Bass looks to Steve wondering if he feels as shocked as Bass does but instead Steve is shooting daggers at Charlie with his eyes, his mouth in a thin line of unimpressed.

"Well gentlemen, I have lives to save, paperwork to do, so if there's nothing else I'm going to get back to it."

She doesn't wait for an answer instead leaving Steve's office with the slight slam of the door behind her. Bass watches her leave, her long legs carrying her across the bullpen as she grabs her jacket from the back of her chair, her cellphone now to her ear from wherever she had it before.

Bass takes a seat in one of the leather chairs that sit vacant in Steve's office.

"Well she took that better than I expected."

"One thing you need to know about Charlie," Steve leans back in his oversized chair looking exhausted, "she'll take everything better than you expected, it doesn't mean she's going to leave it alone."

"What do you mean?' Bass asks him and Steve almost looks amused at his dumbfoundment.

"Right now she's calling her friends in Washington, trying to see if they can get you pulled from this case, she won't do anything dirty but she'll call in favors with people if she wants you gone bad enough –which trust me she does. If that doesn't work she's going to continue to work on the case but leave you out of the loop, leave you one step behind her until you give up and ask if you can be reassigned and if that doesn't work she will reach out to anyone and everyone in this city who owes her anything including her CI's and will make sure that she's the only one getting any information."

"So what do I do?" Bass is a grown man but this woman is on a vendetta unlike anything he's ever dealt with and he's already at a loss.

"Talk to her. Let her see that she can trust you. To Charlie it's more than something saying they promise something or they'll be there or they have her back. Charlie started young enough that most tried to take advantage of her at every opportunity they had. Charlie doesn't do trust with many people. Charlie's had her team for almost three years and she still doesn't fully trust them. She won't believe you when you say she can trust you or you'll have her back. She's going to push you away –hard. So push back. Show her you're going to have her back whether she likes it or not."

Bass gets up and leaves Steve's office looking for Charlie as he winds his way through the bullpen down the hallways and twenty two floors down to the lobby, spotting her off to the side showing her badge to the security guard who barely looks at it and smiles at something she says.

"Charlie!" Bass calls her name and watches her shoulder tense as a full watt smile is plastered on her face when she turns around before touching the security guard on the shoulder and leaving through the revolving doors, forcing Bass to sprint after her, shoving his pass in the guards face impatiently before running after her.

"Charlie can I just talk to you for a minute?" His voice is a rasp as he yells at her from behind and she stops without turning around and he can almost see the wheels turning in her head. Finally she turns around, her face impassive as stone as she stares at him.

Bass approaches her like a hunter approaches their prey and he sees he subtly tense up and he exhales harshly.

"Can we please sit?" He gestures to the stone benches lining the walkway of the building and she stares at him for another moment before she walks over to a bench and sits, her arms wrapped around her waist like she's protecting herself.

"I should have told you I was FBI." He feels the knot in his stomach ease slightly from his confession.

"I knew you were FBI the moment I met you."

He sits back shocked and looks at her impassive face, feeling his face turn into stone like hers at her words.

"How did you know?"

She tilts her head and looks at him, the sun turning her eyes glaringly crystal blue.

"It's not obvious if that's what you're worried about. You were scanning the diner when I walked in, looking for perceivable threats. When a car backfired outside you reached for your hip where your gun would be, on the right side because you're right handed. You actually came to that neighborhood which means you're not a local cop because no local cop would dare to step foot in that area off duty. You also took the table that would let you sit with your back to the wall so you could see the entire diner. Now FBI doesn't have jurisdiction in Chicago, but if you were CIA then you would have lied to my face at the beginning because that's what the CIA agents do, they lie. And I can tell when someone is lying to me. So that leaves Homeland Security, DEA and FBI. DEA wouldn't be able to stand this neighborhood, and you didn't seem bothered by the guy snorting coke outside the diner which means you aren't DEA. Homeland doesn't come to Chicago unless it's for high level briefings which I haven't been called to which means you couldn't be Homeland. So FBI."

Bass feels like an open book when she looks at him, impressed by her perception and uncomfortable at the same time.

"And you didn't say anything."

Bass says this with a twinge of anger in his voice and she looks back at him unflinching.

"It's none of my damn business to make you tell me about something you didn't choose to bring up. If you didn't want to bring it up then there was a reason that I chose to leave alone."

Bass sighs and leans back into the bench, feeling the cold stone soak into his clothes.

"I didn't know you were Charlie Greyson."

Charlie is silent, her eyes looking straight ahead and her back straight.

"Well now you do."

Bass touches her arm and feel her tense beneath his fingers. He removes his hand immediately.

"Look I'm not asking you to trust me, you won't even if I do ask. But I hope you believe me when I say I want to catch this guy as much as you do. And I can't even begin to try and help if you shut me out."

Charlie doesn't look at him and he waits, waits for her to give him a response, any response.

"You're in over your head.'

Bass feels frustration coil up inside of him and feels some of it lash out onto her when he speaks.

"This guy hits a new bank every three months in a different country at a different time. He kills all his hostages and has taken almost seventeen million from the banks he's hit. You shutting me out will let him get another score with more innocent people dead."

Charlie head whips around and he sees the fury burn in her eyes.

"New Hampshire, bank robbery with seven dead. Brooklyn, twelve dead. Delaware, six dead. San Diego, nineteen dead. New Jersey, eleven dead. Washington DC, fourteen dead. Manhattan, eight dead. Kansas, five dead.

"Our year report has a hostage negotiators official number of deaths they've had that year, if their death count exceeds a certain number their job is terminated and someone steps in to replace them. Officially my death count is eighteen. My actual death count is seventy two and this case that you were sent here to consult on is unofficial."

"Why?" Bass's voice is hoarse as the number seventy two echoes in his head, seventy two people. Seventy two deaths.

"New Hampshire was the first location they hit. The report says they got away with three million and there were seven hostages and seven deaths which is untrue. There were eight hostages in the bank that day, the eighth one was me. The man who masterminded these heists started to fixate on me, which is the whole reason for these bank robberies. I was called to the first one and from then on, every three months he robs another bank, every three months he kills another round of hostages."

Bass looks at her puzzled, "I've seen the reports on you. You've taken down men with automatics in their hands, men with bombs strapped to their chest and the detonator in their hand, you've taken them down without hesitation, why haven't you done the same thing here?"

"These men robbing the banks weren't the ones who planned it, they weren't even aware of what they were really doing there most of the time. Every time they rob a bank its new men and every time we take them in they have no new information about who hired them.

This case is unofficial because making it official would mean reporting to the public that there is a bank robber out there that we haven't been able to catch, the public would panic and it would only be a matter of time before I was called off cases for the fear that I would compromise the safety of people in any kind of situation."

"I wasn't aware of this. I'm sorry." Bass touches her arm again and she doesn't pull away this time.

"Losing my first hostage was hard, watching them get killed in front of you takes away a piece of you. Seventy two people dead because of me, that's a hell of a lot of pieces he's taken."

"Believe me Charlie," She looks at him and she looks hallow and exhausted, "believe that I will do everything I can to help you stop him. Believe me and I'll prove to you that you can trust me."