Thanks for all the reads, followers and favorites, it means a lot. I hope you'll like this chapter, it's not the best of the best, but some of Kate's past becomes clear.
Kate had been working with the BAU for about three months before her sister started working at the DOJ's Office. Kate wasn't sure what she had to think about her sister's move to the UK. Both of them had always been close and not close at the same time. Back in London her sister and two of her friends had lived together with Kate and her best friend.
They always joked that the house was more of a frat house than a house of grown-ups. But it had seemed to work for them, yes some of them were dating, others had been single. it wasn't that they had a bad income or financial problems far from it.
The idea had sprung up when Kate and her friends had graduated from university and college. They wanted to save money for the future and wanted to go and live in London, instead of their small town.
Kate had been gone for nearly seven years with little time home, so she didn't see the point in buying a place. she and her best friends had always been more off siblings than actual friends. Her grandparent's place had always been open and welcome to their friends and it had become exactly that.
Then when her sister had graduated from Law school she and her two best friends had moved into the place, before one of them decided to go and work in DC.
Elizabeth had now followed her friend's and sister's path and headed into DC. Last time she heard their last friend was also considering the move to DC.
Walking up to her front door, exhausted and sore from sleeping in uncomfortable bed. Sticking the key and turning, she heard the lock turning and pushed it open. She immediately reached for her gun when she noticed light and rustling noises coming from her kitchen. putting her briefcase and go bag down quietly she headed towards the kitchen as quiet as she could. turning the corner towards it, she put out her gun and pointed it at the intruder.
Two voices screamed at the same time. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?" and "HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?" tucking her gun away she let out a small breath as she faced her sister. "You do realise I could have killed you right." Kate pointed out with a shake of her head, walking towards the fridge to pull out a bottle of water.
"No kidding, do you always come home swinging your bloody gun around?" Elizabeth confronted her just above normal voice range.
"no, but I don't normally come home to find the light on in my kitchen either." she told her sister with a raised eyebrow.
"What are you doing here anyway?" Kate asked with a small shake of her head. "I was hoping to talk to you," Elizabeth said, clasping her hand and putting them underneath her chin.
"what about?" Kate questioned, hoping onto her counter top. "I'm reviewing this case but something seems off," Elizabeth noted, turning the DOJ file around and moving it towards Kate.
"What seems off?" Kate asked her sister, picking the file up. for the next two hours, Kate helped her sister to review her case about an Illinois state case.
"I thought the DOJ only persecuted federal case and not state one's," Kate noted, running her hands over her face, before picking up her cup of coffee and getting up to refill it.
"Mostly yes, but I joined the part where we actually review state cases, every state case, still had to report to the DOJ. They're the head of the Justice system in the US." her sister explained, putting her files in her own briefcase.
"Oh," Kate muttered, setting down her sister's cup in front of her, before sipping her own. "How was the case?" her sister questioned having smelt smoke on her sister go bag as she went to the laundry room.
"tough, cases with either fire or children abuse always are." Kate muttered, crossing her arms on the table. "I know, do you still see a therapist here in the US?" Liz asked her sister with an uncertain look on her face.
"I haven't yet, but I got the number of a psychologist here in DC if you want to talk to someone," Kate told her sister as she put her own hand on top of hers. "I don't at the moment, but we both know that a bad day can come at any day," Liz noted with a bothered and pained sigh.
"I know." Kate agreed with her own sigh. "Anyway, I should let you get to bed and shower." her sister noted getting up and gathering her stuff.
"you working tomorrow?" Kate asked her as they walked towards the front door. "yes but only till noon why?" Liz asked, looking back at Kate as she waited between the doorway.
"thought we could meet up for lunch, that is if you want to," Kate suggested, leaning against her door frame, now that she had finished helping her sister, the exhaustion seemed to seep in.
"Sure, why don't you come up to the DOJ at noon, we can leave from there." Liz agreed, starting to walk towards her car. "great, I'll see you there." Kate called after her, before closing her door.
***
Kate was just returning from the files room, looking down at the file in her hands she paused in her step as she looked up.
"What the hell are you guys doing here?" Kate questioned, looking at the person standing in front of her. She was aware that the eyes of her team were on her, but that didn't stop her.
"Is that the welcome I get?" Addy questioned with a tilt of her head.
"Well even three months isn't long enough to overcome having lived with that ugly mug of yours." she uttered in a teasing manner as the smile grew on her face as she put down the files and rushed over to her best friend.
"why didn't you tell me you were coming over?" Kate asked, pulling back from hugging her best friend.
"Well, I had some time off and figured I come over and see how you were doing and I had some business here."
"I'm glad you came," Kate admitted with a huge smile on her face.
"Why don't you introduce us?" Addy asked, looking over Kate's shoulder. Turning around she came face to face with her smiling and seemingly curious team.
"Guys this is my best friend Adelaide or Addy, we've known each other for the last 20 odd years." She informed them, motioning her hand to Addy standing by her side.
"this is Dave Rossi, Aaron Hotchner, Derek Morgan, Jennifer Jarreau or JJ, Spencer Reid and Penelope Garcia." She introduced doing the same as before.
"It's great to meet you, we've heard so much about you," Rossi said, walking forward and starting to greet them. "I have some news." Addy started when the introductions were finished. The two best friends moved a bit to the side, leaning against her desk as her team started huddling together.
"Yea?" Kate questioned, Addy was her best friend and she had missed her a whole lot. yes, they called and text but that wasn't the same as an actual face to face conversation.
"I'm moving here in two weeks time." She whispered, bracing her against her best friend's enthusiasm.
"Really?" Kate shrieked softly turning towards Addy, she had worked at Mi5 at the intelligence department.
"Where will you be working?" Kate asked as she hugged her friend again, excited to have her best friend living there with her. "Well, our unit chief at Mi6 got a question about moving one of us to the states. he suggested I go since you were already here and all, I broke up with Steve, my mother would rather see me killed on the job. It's not like much is keeping me in London, I basically live alone in the old apartment since your sister moved. " Addy explained as she motioned with her hands and Kate could help but be excited about it.
"So you will work here at Quantico?" Kate asked, leaning against her desk in the bullpen.
"Nope, that department is in DC, at the FBI justice department building, I think it's the same building your sister works at. I was hoping you would let me stay with you until I found my own place." Addy grew silent as she asked her friend.
"Addy, we lived together for almost ten years in London, before that we shared a dorm, you might as well move in permanently. There's no reason for you to go and look for another place." Kate immediately said with a small shake of her head.
"when are you moving here?" Kate asked her.
"Well, since I started working here in three weeks time, I already started the move here from MI5 to the FBI. My stuff is packed up, just needs to be flown here and I need to take care of the renting or selling of our old place." Addy told her with a smile. "what do you want to do with it?" Kate asked they had both that house together.
"It's not like we're going back soon, we might as well sell it. If we do decide to go back we can always buy a new place." Addy replied with a small shrug of her shoulders.
"Let's do that." Kate agreed with a nod of her head. "You want me to go back to London, help you arrange the sale and all?" Kate asked her, looking at Addy.
"No, you stay here, you have a job, I'll be in London for a week maybe," Addy assured her and Kate nodded her head.
"Hey Kate, the day's finished we were thinking we should go out for drinks. Get some dirt on you from your friend here." Emily chuckled, walking up to the two women. "Sure, if you're up to it after travelling here?" Kate asked, looking back at Addy.
"sure am." she chuckled, adjusting her handbag over her shoulder.
"She'll be our new colleague in three weeks time," Kate stated, getting the attention of the team again. "I worked at the Intelligence division at Mi6, FBI was asking around for an intelligence agent at Mi5. I took the offer." Addy explained a bit sheepishly, Kate knew she hated being in the spotlight.
"Welcome to the agency." Hotch smiled as they got into to the elevator.
***
They had gathered in the bar not too far from their houses, it was a place they had gone to before. and apparently, her best friend was very happy to share as much dirt on her as possible.
"You know Payback is a bitch, right?" she half stated, half asked looking at her best friend. "bring it on." Addy pointed out as the two teasingly glared at one another, much to her team amusement.
"So you going to the anniversary?" Addy asked her with a questioning look, the attention moved from them for a bit. Addy was aware that the next subject would be incredibly sensitive. Kate hated talking about it, absolutely hated it, it had nearly destroyed her life.
"No." Kate spat out, she wanted to avoid talking about all of this as much as possible, wanting to forget she wanted even more.
"It might do you good to go back there." Addy tried, knowing she wouldn't succeed, but she had to try. Kate was the most stubborn woman Addy had every met. it was a strength and her weakness all at once, her willingness to always help other was another flaw you might say. She had been hurt because of it countless times, she trusted people too easily and was able to open up and talk to everyone.
but this was the no touch zone ever since it had happened.
"I said no," Kate said loud enough to get the attention of her team again, before sliding off her chair and heading into the toilets.
"I said no," Kate said to her in a very loud voice as she got off of her bar stool and went to the bathroom.
"what is it?" the person she thought was Emily asked her. shaking her head softly she closed her eyes. She wanted to help her friend more than anything. Yes, she had talked about it and 'processed' it but wasn't willing to deal with it.
"Why was she so angry?" JJ asked, looking in the direction of where Kate had gone off to in a bad temper.
"she doesn't like to talk about." Addy finally said, looking at the people in front of her. She could see the worriedness their eyes held for them, maybe them knowing wouldn't be so bad after all, she was surprised they didn't already. Kate had gone through enough trauma, it surprised Addy that she hadn't become a serial murderer herself.
She talked about triggers and thing that led up to making people kill others. It was a miracle that Kate still had a good mental health, Addy wasn't sure she would if she were Kate.
"What happened?" Rossi asked questioned with a worried tone as he eyed the toilet room door she had disappeared into.
"You guys don't know?" Addy asked her suspicion confirmed that they didn't know about it, wasn't that supposed to be in her file. All of them were more than surprised when Kate appeared with such a glare in her best friend's direction she would have been incinerated if they were fire.
"If you want a place to live coming to DC, I would keep my mouth shut," she warned her best friend through gritted teeth. "I'm sorry guys, I don't feel up to drinks anymore. I'm going to head home," she told her team, turning to them with an apologetic look on her face.
"It's alright, we'll see you at the office tomorrow," Hotch reassured her, he too wanted to know what had happened and he would be damn sure to find out. It seemed Mi5 had left something out of her file and he wanted to know what it was. Kate was a great addition to their team and a good person, he would hate to have to fire her because of something that had happened in the past.
***
"You had no right to tell them that," Kate told her best friend with a pissed off tone as they got into the car.
"Kate there your team, they deserve to know that you've been diagnosed with PTSD because of what happened," Abby told her, wanting to make her friend see sense that them knowing wasn't a bad thing.
"they don't need to know, I haven't had a panic attack in the last fourteen months. as far as I'm concerned I'm back to myself and don't you think the shrink in London would have put me on the team, thinking I was a danger to them?" Kate stated as she turned into her street.
"How is it that they don't know. Wasn't Mi5 supposed to send your file here?" Abby asked, curious to know why they didn't know. Either it had been kept from the unit chief of her.
"I asked George to black out it out, I convinced him that since the shrink in London didn't see it as a problem, the FBI shouldn't either. We both know Mi5 is even more strict when it comes to all of that." Kate argued, getting out of her car, waiting for Abby to get her luggage out and before locking her car.
"Are you kidding me? George went along with that?" Abby questioned, more than surprised to know that George had left that vital part of her personal file out.
"Yes," Kate told her, slamming the door behind her and she winced slightly when she heard the bang behind her.
"Have you thought about what it might do if you're on a case and you have a panic attack?" Abby told her, she did have her best friends interest at heart. the last thing she wanted was for her to get shot on the job because of what had happened in the past.
"what should I tell them, what happened for eight years when I was a child, or what happened almost four years ago?" Kate questioned, slapping her hand against the granite counter top, her hand tingled from the force behind it.
"Both as far as I'm concerned," Addy told her, she had heard from James that cases she could relate came up, it mostly didn't bode well for the unsub or the process.
"What do you think that team who apparently has come to care about you, discovers you kept this from them?" Abby asked them, she hoped that by trying this road she would come to the right decision. Cause if she didn't tell them by the time she returned from London, she certainly would. Yes, Kate would be furious with her for doing so. but at least she would know that someone was aware and looking out for her.
"I'm not a child that needs checking up," Kate told her, pulling out a bottle of water and taking a big gulp of it.
***
"What do you think that was about?" Morgan questioned, looking between his team members and friends. That had not been the Kate they had come to know in the last few months.
"I don't know but I promise to find out either way," Hotch told them, something had been kept from him and he didn't like it one bit. The last thing he needed was for one person to put the rest of his team in jeopardy because of their past.
"there was nothing in her file?" Rossi questioned, fearing what may have happened to get such a response from the women they had come to care about, had started to see as part of their put together family.
"Garcia?" Hotch asked, turning to her, knowing that if someone could discover something from anyone, it would be her.
"I'll get on it tomorrow sir;" she promised with a nod of her head. The mood of the evening a bit ruined, they decided to head home early and said goodbye to one another.
****
the next day Kate woke up in an even bad mood as the day before, she hadn't slept because of nightmares haunting her. She had to thank her best friend for that and just when she had fallen asleep her phone rung.
"Gainsborough." She answered, groggily, opening her one eye and closing it again. "Kate, it's JJ. we have a kidnapped child in Charleston we're meeting at the jet." JJ informed her and she answered. "where is it?" she asked, getting out of bed and throwing on a pair of jeans and blouse
"Charleston," JJ said as Kate quickly strapped on her gun and went downstairs in a hurry. there was a very little time when a child when missing. she was through the door within ten minutes, brushing her hair in the car and putting up a ponytail she hurried towards Quantico.
she wasn't sure if she wanted to face her team after last night's disaster. Kate and she hadn't exactly solved their problems, they'd both gone to bed incredibly pissed. It wasn't Abby's business what she did with her past.
she arrived at Quantico in a record time of 45 minutes and immediately headed up to the jet and airstrip. she noticed Hotch and Rossi already in the jet through the windows.
With a groan she headed up the steps, she was not looking forward if there was to be an interrogation. turning the corner into the cabin she gave them a small smile and filled a cup of coffee before walking up to them. Sitting down on one of the four seats next to Rossi.
"What do we have?" she asked, the reply was that Hotch handed her the tablet. "Four-year-old Aisha was taken from her home this night, she's been missing for at least four hours. Mother checked on her at one cause she was having a cold." Hotch started informing her and she nodded her head, sliding her finger over her tablet to read the information they had so far.
She was more grateful that they didn't bring up last night, that was the last thing she needed right now on the two hours of sleep she'd gotten.
ten minutes later the rest of the team had arrived and they were on their way to Charleston. "they're divorced, could be a custody kidnapping." Morgan uttered from the couch next to them.
"that's a high possibility. according to the files, there's a custody battle going on." Kate muttered, taking another sip of her third coffee already.
"he disappeared off the grid." Garcia informed them from the screen. "withdrew over 6000 dollars four days ago and hasn't been heard off since, no cell phone use, nothing, it's like disappeared from the earth." Garcia noted as they started going through their theories, by the time they touched down their best bet was the father.
"You know you can tell us everything right," Reid whispered as they drove towards the father's house. "I know," she noted softly as she focused on the road ahead of her. She knew Reid was the most sensitive of the guys on the team and she loved him for it. but this was something she couldn't talk about, not yet at least.
"just know that you can tell us everything," he repeated, his focus on the woman driving the car. giving him a small smile she continued driving towards the house.
Once they got there and entered the house it seemed like a bomb had exploded inside of the house. Whether CSI had done it or the father himself was a mystery.
"How are we going to find anything in here?" Kate muttered with a shake of her head. "I was thinking the same, at least we should try to find something," Reid suggested and Kate nodded her head. "I'll take the upstairs," she told him, starting to go up the stairs.
after searching the daughter's room and the father's room they had only found a sort of diary for the daughter. what she found there it made her blood boil.
"REID!" she yelled, going through the pages, apparently the father was keeping a record of bruises and injuries when she came to him after seeing her mother.
"what is it?" he asked her, storming into the room. "I found this," she told him, getting up and handing him the book. "This is bad, we better get back towards the station," Reid suggested and Kate agreed as they headed down.
***
"That the mother and stepfather?" Kate asked not sure to have any sympathy for them if what they had read was true. One of them had been abusing the little girl if it was and the father had only tried to protect the little girl.
"According to a diary, we found in the father's room he was keeping track of Aisha's injured when she came to stay with him. There are pictures and detailed descriptions." Reid informed the team in front of them.
"I think he was trying to save the little girl after losing the custody battle last week. when he lost the custody he lost it, I'm guessing he only wanted to protect his daughter. The house reflected that everything his daughter would need was there. I don't think he's trying to hurt her, but protect her." Kate told them, looking towards the room she knew the mother and stepfather were staying.
"We heard another story, according to the mother and stepfather it's all him that does the abusing," JJ noted with an accusing look in the direction of the book they'd found.
"We'll only discover what happened when we talk to the girl," Rossi noted, trying to keep the peace, apparently, this case was about to split in two, one side defending the father, the other the mother's side.
"Do we have any lead as to where he could have taken her?" Morgan asked, looking at the bulletin board. "he has a cabin in the Wadmalaw Island." Hotch noted, pointing towards the place on the map.
"let's go and check it out," Hotch ordered and they all went to check the cabin. Kate had a feeling that he wouldn't make it that obvious, but still.
***
"Clear." Kate announced checking the back room, they weren't there. "okay, let's check this place, see if there are any other clue's here." Rossi noted from behind her as she started going through the back room.
"Guys I found something." JJ's voice noted from another room, walking over to her, Kate saw her standing there with a letter in her hands.
"He just inherited a farm from his grandparents six months ago," JJ announced, looking back at the team.
****
Kate had been in deep thought since they had discovered the little girl. Turned out the stepfather was indeed abusing the girl, he'd been arrested for child abuse. The father despite having the right intentions had also been arrested for kidnapping but Kate was willing to defend him at court, put in a good word.
she'd been thinking about her own past and if she should tell. she knew that questions would keep on coming, that they would search and search until they discovered something.
Kate wasn't sure if she wanted them to find out this way, taking a deep breath she turned to her team across from where she was sitting on the couch.
"Guys." she started taking another deep breath. She was not going to like telling them. She didn't like to open up about it, but still, she owed it to them.
"I should probably tell you what Abby was trying to tell you. I owe it to you guys." she started with a deep breath.
"Kate," JJ muttered, tilting her head to the side. "No I have to, Abby was right I can't keep something like this from you. about four years ago I was diagnosed with PTSD after something that happened.
for now, I'm only willing to tell one reason, the other I want to keep for myself a little longer and I hope you understand that." she told them, tilting her head to the side, hoping that they would understand where she was coming from.
"It's okay," Morgan reassured her, his hand squeezing her knee reassuringly.
"It has to do with the question you've all been asking me, why I quite being a tour guide." she continued taking another deep breath.
"As a guide, you see your fair share of things, but I got used to it, part of the job. You talk your ways out of situations, one of those you are responsible for did something wrong and you try to solve it. I was gone a lot more than I am here believe me." she told them with a soft chuckle to her voice.
"I saw about every country in the world and I loved it, loved every minute of it, it had been a dream of mine since I was 12 or 13." she continued with a soft voice.
"then one day I had 12 people with me, I included thirteen, talk about an unlucky number." Kate snorted with a shake of her head.
"it was a 46-day expedition across Africa, started in Cape Town and finished in Nairobi. I had done it once before, no big deal, I loved Africa, had contacts there, still do. on our second to last day there in the Northern borders of Tanzania, it went to hell, literally." Kate muttered, squeezing her hands together, she did not like to talk about this. She hated that day in her life, it was the day that had changed her life and not for the better.
"we had gotten close on the expedition, sharing tents and sleeping under the stars. we were in a small town called Mosquito village, I had put the hour of leaving at six but we were having a great time and I extended it for an hour. That will be the worst decision I have ever made." she finished muttering the last bit under her breath.
"Isn't that the town where British tourists were taken hostage, the guide was tortured," Reid noted, remembering that case, they had actually studied the behaviour of the rebels.
"yeah," Kate confirmed as she swallowed the lump in her throat and dropped her head. "You were the guide." JJ realised in a whisper.
"yes," Kate confirmed under her breath, looking up and facing her team, hoping not to see what she hated to see, her as a victim.
"God." she heard several mutters. "I had managed to smuggle a satellite cell phone in my pants and managed to call my boss, but I didn't know how long it would be for help to get to us.
My sister was there with me and I was responsible for her and 11 other people, I made the decision to put the attention on me in order to protect them. I don't and can't go into details, but I think you all know what happened, it was big news around the world. I got shot in the shoulder and back when I tried to save four children from getting between crossfires. People were burnt alive, shot, tortured, raped and killed, I managed to get the 12 people I was responsible for out of there alive. They wanted to keep the white folk as they put it till the last. that's why I have the St. George's Cross, I wanted to throw it away but it became a reminder." Kate paused with a shake of her head and deep breath.
"a reminder that because of my decision I basically ruined 12 lives, after that it took a while to recover both physically and mentally. I decided to take a course on behaviour, I needed to understand why a person would do something like that. a year passed, I was cleared a few months before but I couldn't go back and continue leading people across the people. " Kate told them in a distant tone, whenever she talked about this she tended to distance her from her own emotion. It was her way of dealing with it, was it the right way? Probably not, but it was the only way she could deal with it.
"I wanted to stop people like that, I wanted to prevent people doing something similar to others. Mi5 noticed my grades during that year I took the course, Addy did a good word for me and I got into Mi5." Kate finished, her voice becoming more and more like herself as she finished telling them.
she actually felt relieved having told them, Addy was right, they deserved to know that she had been through a trauma.
"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Hotch asked her, something like this was huge. Yes, they had looked into the case, but never had he expected Kate to have been the tour guide. she had gone something horrible. He remembered reading and thinking it had been a miracle those tourists hadn't been killed.
the entire team had put it down to the unknown tour guide, who'd wished to remain anonymous. But agreed to let people study this so they could prevent from happening something similar to others.
and the tour guide had made it by sheer luck, having run to protect children that were about to be killed by the leader as the British army had stormed the village.
during the take back she had been shot from behind her in the shoulder and back, missing her heart by an inch.
"It something I hate to talk about, till this day no person of that team is the same as they were before. I hate to talk about it cause it brings me back to that night." Kate admitted, running a hand over her face and clasping her hands in her face, leaning forward.
"It's traumatic," Rossi noted and Kate nodded her head. "I guess, if I could I'd love to just forget, but it's also what led me here. Now I track the sons of bitches and down and try to prevent from someone else suffering at the hands of psychopath." Kate told them, lifting her head and eying her team in front of her.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys. Hotch if you want me to take a psych eval for your piece of mind I will, for all of you guys. I'd hate to lose this job here because of it. Mi5 already evaluated me on a 6 months basis and it's more strict than the FBI." Kate told them with a small shake of her head. If it put their minds at ease she would do it, she loved working with this team, maybe more so than she had liked working at Mi5.
"I'll think about it." Hotch nodded at her and from the look on his face, he wasn't happy that this had been kept from him. Sighing softly, she crossed her legs and leant her head against the side of the plane.
'great, now the team she had come to love had lost their trust in her and it hurt her more than she'd like to admit.'
So that's the chapter, hope you liked it, let me know what you think :)