Chapter VI
"The best way out is always through." ~ Robert Frost
"Have a look at what was sent to every newspaper of Washington.", JJ carried on giving Hotch the piece of paper that she had in her hands.
Morgan and Emily stepped at his side to have a look at the paper, while he was reading it quickly.
"This is an open threat to every law enforcement in the city.", Morgan said.
"They don't ask for anything in exchange and don't mention any specific target.", Hotch continued.
"They call themselves 'Powerful Disorder'. That's not where the terror alert came from. Is it a known group?", Emily asked.
"No. Garcia is looking if she can find anything, anywhere.", JJ answered, "And Reid is looking for language patterns."
"We have to talk to Strauss. If it's linked with your matters and Black Cross we can stay ahead of this.", Hotch said to Emily and they went towards Strauss' office.
But Hotch had already said it and it was already in his mind. 'If it was linked.' They had no evidence pointing to that direction and that was Strauss' opinion.
"I can't authorise any investigation on the firm. We have no evidence to link them with the threats and Peters or Hathaway is not marked as a person of danger or terrorist.", Strauss stated.
"If we investigate them indirectly?", Emily asked, she knew that wouldn't be able to avoid what she had thought from the start.
"Whatever you can do that's going to bring any evidence before the lawyers' parade is acceptable. Aaron, the BAU should focus mainly on the threats. That's the priority, right now.", Erin finished sternly.
Hotch and Emily got out of the Section Chief's office and Hotch watched her as she disappeared in an auxiliary room to make some phone calls. He was getting worried about what she was planning, even if he could already guess it.
They found nothing on the 'Powerful Disorder' group. They had sent the threat letter to every newspaper, no specific interest, no mention of a target, no requests, just a bland threat that every law enforcement agent in the city had found a deadly enemy. As much as the team hated to admit it, the only thing that they could do was to warn everyone and wait for the first hit. And it was better to have a rest before that happened.
Hotch found Emily in the same room. It was almost eight o'clock. She was just finishing a phone call.
"OK, Clyde. Thanks.", she hang up.
Aaron was officially out of working hours so he could just be her boyfriend and not the liaising agent.
"Hey...", he said, his hands going on her shoulders.
"I'm almost finished.", she replied, leaning her head on his right hand. "Clyde is gonna be in the US tomorrow. Eager to see him?", she joked.
"Not at all.", Hotch smiled to the side.
He massaged slightly her back. She was far too tense like during all those days.
"Are you planning an undercover operation?", he dared to ask after a while.
Emily turned her up and looked into his eyes. He always knew what she had in her mind.
"We'll see."
She saw the pass of scare from his eyes. To her from all of the people he was always an open book, even when she pretended that he wasn't. He sat on the chair beside her.
"Aaron, we don't know if we are going to do it and we are going to bring someone to do it, nevertheless.", she reassured him holding one of his hands that had just left her back.
The truth was that she had no idea who she could bring. Normal operations take too long and if they had to find answers fast, they should use an expert, which narrowed it down to very few people in the Agency, two of them were there, but one was unable to do it and the other one hadn't used those skills for far too long and to be honest she preferred to have forgotten them.
"Has Gloria agreed to this?", he asked, thinking that if Emily was planning something like this, her friend had all the experience to be there but she wasn't.
"She will, if we have to."
All the previous were the reasons that Gloria wasn't there. She would have brought all of them out one by one. She would have said that Emily was panicking due to the conditions around and it was better to follow every other lead till they had no other option. And she would have been right to some extent. That's why she had left her analyse all the other leads, instead of being there. If the threats weren't linked, they would have some time, but Emily had to be ready for a plan b. And Clyde's invitation served also another purpose. It was a way to investigate the whole situation around.
"Emily...", Hotch sounded not too convinced by her answers, Emily's name and the word undercover in the same sentence always brought him a bad feeling.
"Aaron, I'm going to be fine.", she smiled, covering the space and putting a short kiss on his lips.
He held her head close, when she moved back, and looked deep into her eyes.
"I lost you two times, Emily, I can't afford a third one.", he said quietly and he kissed her passionately but roughly, the kiss that he knew could express whatever he felt for her.
"You won't.", she replied shivering, at the end of it, "Come on. Let's go home.", she carried on gathering her things.
At home she would show him that, regardless of whatever was going to happen, she loved him enough not to let anything happen to her, she probably had more reasons than one for this actually.
Gloria was walking through the parking lot with the aim to get out and catch a taxi to her flat. It was early night and she had spent hours and hours going through everything. Paradise Demons was a gang, highly organised and international but a gang. How the hell the new version of them that was working even more in the underground was cooperating with such a firm?
She remembered that she hadn't checked her phone all afternoon and evening. Not that someone was going to look for her but anyway. She found a text from Emily. Nice... A text. Not even a phone call or a face to face heads-up.
"Be sure to get some rest. I phoned Clyde and he is coming here tomorrow afternoon. We're going to need his info about the active undercover operations in gun trafficking and NPD. Sorry for this."
She should have worried about what exactly Emily wanted learning live information about undercover operations but instead that 'sorry', that apparently was referring to Clyde's invitation, in combination with this bad situation between them and the case brought her back at the start of 2004.
She was walking towards the Interpol bullpen when she found Emily in her coat waiting for the lift.
"Hey, Em!"
"Hey...", Emily greeted back but not like she was happy to see her and Gloria was aware that she just wanted to avoid her, for one more time.
"Doyle is behind bars and we are closing on the heads of Paradise Demons. Hell of a year, isn't it? We deserve some vacations this summer.", Gloria said stretching her back.
"Absolutely…"
"Are you OK?"
"Of course, I'm OK.", she replied abruptly.
"Up for a drink?"
"Sorry I can't tonight."
"Emily, we haven't talked for a while.", she said worried, her friend hadn't come back the same person after the op for Doyle.
"I don't need a shrink, Ria!", she dismissed her harshly.
"Thank God, because I'm the least appropriate.", Gloria smiled deciding not to react to Emily's harsh tone.
The lift came at that moment. Emily gave her a short smile avoiding her investigative eyes. Gloria watched her as she walked in but lost her patience finally and she jumped in through the closing doors. They were on the top floor. They had time to talk.
"You know, that's enough!", she burst, "I was thinking that it's because of the aftermath of what you did for that bastard. But it looks like I'm the only one that's getting the attitude! What's going on?"
"Ria...", Emily tried to talk but Gloria could recognise that guilty look on her face.
"It's true, isn't it? What Richard heard is true. You are leaving Interpol.", she softened a bit.
"My FBI application came through.", she admitted.
"OK. You want to move on.", she calmed down, probably Emily was just finding difficult to say goodbye, "I just hope it's not because of this political crap lying around."
"I hate politics, eventually...", she murmured.
"Welcome to the club.", Gloria smiled to the side, but it was a genuine smile.
"I'm leaving at the end of the week. And I'm taking the rest of my leave starting tomorrow.", she revealed, before her friend had the chance to ask for details.
"What?! So soon? From what are you running away, Emily?", she asked shocked again and the bell from the lift warned her that they ran out of time. "And this is your last day here?", the rest of the information was sinking in. "And you didn't tell me? What the hell? Were you gonna just disappear? What have I done for God's sake?", Gloria held her arm, as she tried to get out.
"Ria, you haven't done anything. Just be careful. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry.", she said looking into her friend's eyes and she had tears in hers.
Gloria was getting the idea that she wasn't sorry only for her odd behaviour or for not telling her, but for something else, something bigger. Emily slipped out of her grip and stepped out of the lift, leaving a confused Gloria behind. That was the last time she had seen her till the day she walked into the London Interpol office, a year ago, and the last time she had talked to her till the day they saved each other's life, ten days after.
"Gloria! Gloria...", Dave's concerned voice from behind her brought her back to reality.
She turned to meet his worried gaze. He had found her in the middle of the parking lot staring into space. She was so deep in her reverie that it took him three times to call her.
"Dave... Sorry, I guess I was thinking too hard."
"I realised that.", he smiled, "You were planning to get a taxi. Let me drive you home."
She nodded. He put his hand on her back to guide her to his car, noticing that she leaned into his touch.
He didn't ask what she was thinking. That was Rossi, never asking, never violating her privacy, just showing that he was there. Probably that's why she was talking to him, because he wasn't asking to know. Or because of that warmth that, as she got closer, she could feel radiating from his chest, that warmth that had enveloped her before?
"I like you in this shirt.", she commented on the red shirt that Dave was wearing, trying just to distract herself.
'Seriously? Is that a flirting or wifely comment?', her mind hissed. It was supposed to be nothing from the two. Since when had she become so gauche?
Dave looked at her a bit surprised. They had some casual comments between them, not some, a lot actually. Some intimacy came with their past. But they were avoiding 'these particular casual mentions'. To be honest, she was the one avoiding them. But he saw the slight red on her cheeks. It was one of those times that he was looking at her and he wasn't seeing a hard spy that had done what she had, but just a confused woman.
"Do you?", he smiled to comfort her embarrassment.
She smiled back shortly, not finding words to cover her awkward situation. Thank God, they were reaching the car, so it was a good reason to get away from his touch. But his hand that had slipped to her waist held her by his side.
Dave had noticed the weird atmosphere between her and Emily. She had told him something vague before she left for Britain, too. He knew that for a woman that was starting over in a new place, among new people and given that she was actually starting over in her real identity, as well, she needed stability and, with whatever was going on with her friend, she could get unstable and this was dangerous with the current cases. Her off and on behaviour towards him was a sign. She was hot and cold with him but going from avoiding his hand in the morning to making an even clumsy, flirty comment and leaning into him in the evening was more than the usual.
"I'm OK, Dave.", she protested.
"I wasn't going to ask that. But you know, when someone has something in their head and they say it, then the other person answers back, saying what's in their own head. That's called discussion.", he said smoothly, smiling a bit as he was explaining the obvious.
She dropped her eyes; she knew what he was meaning.
"Sharing is a learnt skill, stella mia. Hotch wasn't a good learner, so I start from the basics with you. You have to kick this similarity. Believe me two of these heavily guarded faces were too much in that room.", he joked, as his smile widened.
She laughed a bit. He had his way of saying something serious and then making it lighter, so as not for her to feel in any way cornered.
"The thing is who has to start that discussion.", she replied.
"Does it matter?"
"The past messes things up, Dave.", she said, her mind going to that memory from some minutes ago.
Dave, who had started enjoying the feel of her body beside him, stuck to the phrase. 'Every past?', he wanted to ask but he shook himself, 'Take your head out of the gutter, old man.'
"What is past is past. The present is different. People change, conditions change.", he said, as a matter of fact.
"I know... Probably I'm just paranoid and selfish.", she admitted and let a breath, putting instinctively her hand on his chest thankfully.
He was right. It was just that Emily being off was connected in her head with something bad, really bad... Even if it wasn't connected in reality... Anyway. The two women had changed. Things had changed. The whole situation was different.
Rossi smiled. 'He had worked his magic' again. Sometimes he was getting the idea that it didn't matter what he said, but that it was him that said it. That woman was a stubborn rebel. To everybody else was arguing back. A smooth talk, a joke and a touch from him always worked, though.
"You are just overreacting.", his hand went to hers on his shirt.
They were too occupied to hear the heels walking towards them. A dry cough from behind them made them turn only to see Strauss walking towards them. Gloria withdrew to the side instantly, folding her hands. Nice... Some hours ago she was playing the secretive, 'great source of information' and now it looked like she was hitting on the older – and rich, by the way – profiler.
"I see you haven't left yet.", Strauss commented, looking up and down the Interpol agent.
Whatever was going on between these two was more than friendship. Erin wasn't a profiler and an expert in body language, but she was a woman and she could definitely recognise 'this' body language. These women with the looks and less years of age, Strauss was thinking as she stopped by them. Rossi wouldn't be the first to buy it. Her ex-husband had bought it, as well. That's how they ended up on the divorce. He had found interest in a girl with half of his age. This one wasn't that young and she had a brain as well, but she had that particular 'air' of a... anyway it was better not to specify because it wouldn't be totally objective... What did her husband tell her to justify his infidelity? Oh yeah that the girl wasn't cold. Probably that was, also, the reason that Rossi had a shift of interest since that 'mysterious friend' came from Britain.
"We are about to, Erin.", Dave replied in his normal tone, not showing any surprise or discomfort that he was caught with the other woman in his hands.
The truth was that he was feeling guilty, but he was the cool Rossi. However, he was more guilty for the 'be careful' Hotch's guide, than for the actual fact of Erin catching them.
"Good. We have tough days to come. We need some rest and to stay focused.", she said with meaning, looking at him.
"Sure, Chief Strauss.", Gloria answered in her usual tone reaching the passenger's door to open it.
She had to bite her tongue not to say her 'Ma'am'. But it was better not to feed the 'slut theory' that could see written all over the other woman's face.
"Have a good ni...", Strauss started to say but she was cut off.
She was cut off by a loud thunder, the thunder of an explosion.
"It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake." ~ Frederick Douglass
Talking about things heating up and going explosive…!
Rather long chapter but I wanted to carry the case forward a bit, explain some things and have a little bit of interaction between Hotch and Emily (I had left them in business mode for a while) and show a little bit of the relationship that is formed between Rossi and Gloria. (On this, actually I have to explain something because I have never put the translation in this story. 'Stella mia', that Dave uses very frequent with his 'friend', means 'my star' and it's an Italian term of endearment. The reason he uses that specific one is gonna be explained later. And please, don't say that Strauss thinks like an old, grumpy lady. All of us we are thinking the same things in similar situations and at the end of the previous story, let's admit that Gloria played it a little too hard.)
And since the story is titled "what you DID in the dark", I decided to put some flashbacks around to uncover any background story or to parallelise the current situation with the past. Probably you that have read the 'Through the streets of London' can guess what Emily was sorry for when she left Interpol, by the way.
Spoiler: Let's just say that Hotch isn't too wrong in his speculations and concerns about many things.
Always happy to read your views!