Chapter 2
"Emily Jackson. Nice to meet you ma'am." She said shaking the woman's hand before sitting at the table that was set before them.
"It's nice to meet you. My name is Lily Rhodes but just Lily will suffice." The older woman paused and took a look at Emily before continuing. "So tell me a little bit about yourself."
"Well I am 21 years old and I'm majoring in Economics at NYU."
"Interesting." Lily said cryptically as she read the list of recommendations and the CV that Emily had given to her. "So, what brought you to the attention of 'La Bernadine?'"
"Well, I was actually told about this place by a friend of mine, she loved the restaurant and she knows that I'm a real foodie so she thought that I should check the place out. But then I heard that you guys were hiring and I thought that this would be a great place to work."
After a long silence Lily looked up, her facial expressions were cold and her countenance was one that demanded respect. Emily, ever the observant one, detected this and subconsciously sat up straighter. "I think you are a good candidate, but are you prepared to work the long hours? I can't have any employee that slacks off because they're too busy with school."
"Of course," Emily replied emphatically. "College is never really that much of an issue, my professor likes to record his lectures so needing to catch upon work isn't really the much of a problem." She smiled but quickly stopped when she realised that the smile wasn't being returned.
"Alright then. Are you able to start tonight?"
"Well…um." Emily stuttered while Lily raised her eyebrows expectantly. "I'm sure I can."
"Good. Because this will be your trial session; we have a big party going on tonight and we are a little understaffed. I'll be watching you work and if you can prove to me that you are worth me hiring you then the job is yours. If not then you're fired, is that understood?"
"Yes ma'am." Emily said clearly with a tight lipped smile.
"You!" Lily pointed to a tall woman with light brown skin and dark brown curly hair, she turned around and immediately came over and started waiting for her command. "Take…"
"Emily."
"Right. Take Emily around the restaurant, show her how we do things around here and make sure she's equipped and properly dressed for tonight." She was gone before Emily could even take all of the information in and she was left with the other waitress.
"You'll be lucky if she even knows who you are by the end of six months." The girl quipped with her voice dripping with annoyance. "I'm Aaliyah by the way." She rolled her eyes and then mumbled, "You would have thought it wouldn't be that hard to remember especially since we have name tags on pretty much all of the time."
"I'm guessing she's not boss of the year then." Emily whispered already taking a liking to Aaliyah.
"Not by a long shot." She laughed and then took a breath before continuing. "Come on we've got a lot to do."
1 week before…
Eddie sat at the conference room table, jerking her knee up and down as she did when she was nervous. She looked at the files that she had brought with her to the meeting for the 10th time.
Emily Marie Jackson
21 years old
Economics Major at NYU
Born and Raised in Westchester County
That was just the first page with the main facts, the rest of the files had a whole backstory and 21 years of a life that she'd had to learn within month. Today it was the final test of her knowledge before she adopted this new identity; just yesterday she had to dye her hair and was now a brunette, which, she had to admit, suited her better the she ever would have imagined.
She'd learnt all of the information that was needed, she knew it inside out and back to front which meant that she had no reason to be nervous about this final testing. Despite this, her stomach was still tied up in knots and she was biting her lip so hard that she it was probably bleeding already. Suddenly, her train of thoughts were interrupted by the sudden, sharp buzz of her phone ringing; she looked at the caller ID and sighed.
That was why she was nervous.
Of course, it was none other than her partner Jamie Reagan, who still, valiantly she might add, had't given up calling after her major disappearing act two days ago. She knew that she'd had to make peace with all the people in her life and say a not-so-obvious goodbye to them, but since she had no family that she saw regularly and most of her friends were cops who would eventually figure out why she was supposedly 'missing' the only person she really had to say goodbye to was Jamie. Lord knows it was one of the hardest things that she had ever had to do; it made her realise how much of her daily life revolved around Jamie. Obviously, they had to be on the job together and they also always took extended tours together, off duty they would hang out all the time, even on days that they had no reason to be spending time together, they would convince themselves of reasons that meant it was perfectly okay for them to be hanging out.
At first she tried to convince herself that they were spending a lot of time together because it was convenient and that they would soon grow out of it and slowly start drifting apart a little. But that never happened. Year on year they grew closer and closer, and soon spending time with Jamie became part of her daily routine; she almost felt that she couldn't live without it. Which was why the last couple of weeks had been hard as she's forced herself not to go out with Jamie after tours and limit the amount of time that they generally spent together so that when the time for her to leave did come, it wouldn't be too hard for her to distance herself. Needless to say, it didn't do her much good as every time Jamie called a lump in her throat formed it pained her to ignore the call.
She told herself that it would be better for him this way, as she had no idea how long this op would last and she knew that Jamie had to move on at some point. she, like everyone else knew the saying 'if you love something, set it free.' But why did doing the right thing have to be so damn hard?
Although, if she was being completely honest, it wasn't like she had much of a choice in what she had to do. Detective Ava Martinez and Detective Peter Thompson, the lead detectives of the operation, were very clear about the fact that no one, not even her partner was allowed to know about any detail of the case or even that she was going undercover at all, (although it didn't take a genius to figure it out.)
Her assignment was clear, and all she had to do was reach the secret club called the Red Room that was hidden in the high-end restaurant called 'La Bernadine'. They had to be extremely wary of any leaks or outside sources finding out about the operation as previous, more experienced undercover officers had gone to interview for a job or even tried to get in but the Rhodes were particularly careful and were smart enough to figure out when they were being fooled. That was why, they needed a fresh face who was much younger and less likely to be picked out as an undercover cop, Eddie's limited yet successful experience in the short, yet high-risk world of undercover, had apparently made her a perfect candidate for the role and it was not to her disadvantage that she was 'young and hot' as had been previously mentioned.
From what Martinez and Thompson had described, Eddie knew that the Red Room was a very exclusive room hidden somewhere in the restaurant. The only people allowed in were the people that were on a very exclusive and sought-after guest list and also the employees that were trusted enough to work there. The room, apparently contained millions of dollars worth of illegal drugs and was a hotspot for illegal actions, from prostitution to theft. Eddie shuddered just thinking about what she would have to do to infiltrate the room; a part of her was excited to find out what she could do without Jamie's ever-constant presence and family name following her around everywhere on the job, however, she wasn't stupid and she sure as hell wasn't entering into this op lightly. She knew that this may be one of the hardest and most dangerous things she has ever done in the years that she has been on the job and what's killing her inside, is that she has no one to share her feelings to. And that's the worst part of this.
She clears her mind when Martinez, Thompson and another man (a detective she assumes) comes in. Half an hour later she finishes the intense questioning that she receives and she passes with flying colours. She is finally ready.
At least that's what everyone else assumes.
But the hardest part of the operation is preparing yourself psychologically, because it's not just a name change, or a change in hair colour. It's a new ID, a new apartment in another part of the city. A new persona.
And that's what scares her. The fact that she could go into this operation and become this whole other person, a person that she doesn't want to be; and the fact she may not like the person she's become when this is done. So she needs herself to keep a grasp on her own reality and hang on tight to her own identity before it gets lost forever in the dark depths of the Red Room.
A/N: So it turns out that I do my best work at 1am in the morning when all my family is asleep :) But I had fun writing this chapter anyway. I know I'm a terrible person and I'm supposed to update my other stories (plural - sorry guys) but my muse wouldn't let up and I quite like the way this story is going for me. I will TRY (no promises) to update on the weekends depending on how cruel some of my teachers feel that week, but the schedule may be a bit unpredictable due to my GCSE's etc etc and me trying to actually have a life but we'll see how it goes. Thank you all for reviewing so far, and sorry for the short chapter, I always like to do that to see if people are actually interested in the idea before I actually start writing more. So enough of me rambling, if you've got this far thanks for reading and PLEASE review. Thanks a bunch x -K
P.S I'm supposed to say that I don't own these wonderful characters aren't I? Well now you know that the only ones that I do own are the ones whose names you've probably never heard in the show before. Well now you know. Ciao.