Jackson paused outside the study door. The last time he'd turned this knob, he'd soon after received a quick punch to the neck. It still smarted from the night before and the unpleasant memory made him hesitate. It had been a long time since he'd felt this insecure. It was something he didn't enjoy. Irritated, he forced himself to open the door and face what was on the other side.
"Right on time." The familiar voice stated. Angela sat in a wing-backed chair and motioned him into the room. "Why don't you have a seat?" She pointed to a chair across from herself.
Jackson sat down on the thin arm of the retro style couch. If all practical forms of dissidence were removed, even he could act petty and childish.
Angie just raised the corner of her mouth, the not-quite-smile her only acknowledgement of his impetuous action. "How did you enjoy your first night's stay in my home?" He shot her a look which, when combined with the sudden tilt of his head, told her exactly what he thought of that particular question. She hadn't expected any response from him and was just about to continue when he surprised her.
"Where are the cameras?"
She laughed. It was no more than a quiet puff of air though the nose as she pursed her lips. "There is one in each of the recessed lights, one in the frame of the Goya reproduction and cleverly hidden in a book on the top of the bookcase." She leaned forward. "And every single one of them is disabled."
"I wonder why I don't believe you."
She rolled her eyes and took a few moments to decide exactly how to proceed. She couldn't use the normal vetting tactics in this case. The techniques Jackson had used up to this point on the woman would have made that difficult. Throw in the shared personal and professional history between Jackson and herself and it became impossible. She needed to shake him up. The farther she pushed him away from his comfort zone, the better chance she'd have at really finding out if could keep his little bird acquisition.
She really wished that the company could have had someone else take care of this one. She looked away from him before continuing.
"You and I have a lot of history."
She didn't see his eyes harden but she felt the tension in the room suddenly go up a notch. Obviously he'd expected a witty retort but when she'd raised her head to finally look at him, she saw him looking at her with an air of warning. She ignored it.
"But I wish you'd stop insulting me." She gave him a lop sided smile. "From the moment I saw you step out of that vehicle you've been nothing but completely insulting." Her smile didn't waiver when Jackson interrupted her.
"I've been insulting you?" He asked incredulously.
She didn't miss a beat and continued as if the man sitting across the room from her hadn't made a sound. "Everything about you; the way you've walked, spoken, even breathed has said nothing to me but one thing… that you need to mount some sort of defense against me."
Jackson laughed sarcastically. "And now you're going to convince me that I don't?"
"Again, insulting." Her smile disappeared. "Of the two people in this room, you aren't the one that should be expecting revenge based on our past." He didn't respond. Angie stood up and moved to the large picture window that overlooked her well kept back gardens. "Do you know why I chose Derek?"
"We aren't doing this." He rose and started for the hall door.
This was where she needed to push him but he wasn't going anywhere. "You walk out that door and all your work with Ms. Reisert with have been for nothing." She didn't need to turn around to know he'd stopped dead. "Now sit back down and answer the question Jack."
"It's Jackson."
"It wasn't six years ago."
"Things change."
"You don't, now answer the question." She waited patiently. She could be satisfied with waiting for his response for as long as it took so long as he didn't leave the room. Keeping her back to him, she allowed him that amount of privacy.
"No, I don't know why."
"I've always loved that about you. You've always excelled at simple direct honesty, even if you do need a little prodding to get you there at times." She noted his expression when she finally turned to face him. He was trying for that cold detached look. She knew better. "I'll tell you why. You didn't love me."
He said nothing and to his credit, his expression didn't change a bit.
"No matter how much I could have wished for it, no matter how well you could have pretended, you never would have. You can't. It's as impossible for you to feel love as it is for a blind man perceive a rainbow."
"You have no idea what I felt."
"Don't lie Jack, it doesn't suit you."
Again, he didn't respond.
"In all honesty, it's your inabilities that make you so perfect for your job. It's why you've risen so quickly to the level of team supervisor and why I'll never acquire that distinction. " She paused to allow him to respond but he maintained his silence. "With every job, I feel a modicum of guilt. Not enough to change how I operate but enough for upper management to have made it very clear that I've risen as high as I'm going to rise. It's just classic risk analysis. My skills will forever reside in profiling, mark interrogation and this." She gestured to the room in general but her actual meaning was clear. "But you? They see you as the safe bet every time. You deliver and you don't feel a damn thing."
His practiced calm remained in place. "And your point?"
"My point? Surely you can guess that."
It was his turn to look away. His entire body was tense. He was disgusted with the amount of effort we was putting into remaining calm. "Our past," he started but stumbled for half a second before making a quick recovery, "shouldn't affect what's happening right now at all."
"I couldn't agree with you more." She clarified when his expression actually changed. "That's how you've been insulting me. Between the two of us, you're not the one that should be worried about retribution. I'm not the one that was wronged. I'm not the one that found out I wasn't convincing enough to go through life faking it. So stop being an idiot and thinking I'm going to be anything less than impartial in all of this."
He fell back into silent mode. She knew that his lack of protest meant he had no argument to present and if he didn't have an argument, he didn't disagree. That wasn't the same as agreeing but it was a step in that direction.
"So can we get started or do I need to rehash more of the past?"
He acquiesced, albeit with a sarcastic gesture with his hands but Angela knew she could now proceed with far less prejudice than she could have only five minutes ago. She changed gears without missing a beat.
"Good." Making her way back over to the coffee table where she'd left her notebook she asked, "Do you trust her?" Angie flipped to a pre-designated page and uncapped the montblanc that had never left her hand.
He sighed but didn't take long before answering. "No, not in the least."
"There's that blunt honesty I love."
AN: I haven't got much. No excuses or explanations, just… sorry to keep you waiting for entirely too long. I too hope it doesn't happen again. I probably didn't work on this as much as I should have and I know I'm very rusty with the wring but I wanted to give you something. For what it's worth, I purposely kept it vague without a lot of internal commentary from either Jackson or Angela. I hope to have more for you soon.