Yes, I'm updating twice in one night. I had this whole thing – this and chapter ten – written as one chapter, but didn't want to post the whole thing as one, three thousand words is too much for one chapter for me unless it's a oneshot. So I split them in two and edited separately. A lot happens in this chapter, so read on for the plot developments and don't forget to review! : )
"Hey there," Wylie, looking up as Vega walked in the door. He smiled at her. "How were the patients?"
"Most of them are doing well." She set her bag down. "They have a new one – a Patient Memphis. I guess he or she has some pretty bad head injuries. They're not sure if they'll be able to do anything."
"If anyone can, it's them," he said, the smile slowly fading from his face when he noted her expression seemed preoccupied. He closed his laptop and stood up. "Are you okay?"
"What? Yeah," she said. Taking off her jacket.
He walked around the table and put his fingertips gently on her stomach. "You're not in any pain?"
"No."
"You sure?"
She gave him a smile. "It's been a long day is all." She patted his chest as she strode past him into the kitchen. "What's the scoop at work?"
"No leads," Wylie said, dropping right back into his professional tone of voice. "We're kinda at a standstill. It was probably a good day, all things considered, for you to be gone." He smiled again. "It'll be good to have you back tomorrow, though."
Vega was frowning into the fridge. "We don't eat very well, do we?"
"What?"
"Look at this. No lean meat, no beans, I suppose we're doing okay in the fruit department..." she smirked. "You did so good bringing me strawberries when I was in the hospital, and now? We make enough money for good food."
"Maybe I spent all that money bringing you the good food when you were at the hospital," Wylie quipped. "Seriously, are you okay?"
"I just have a lot on my mind, I guess," she said. "You know, seeing all those people in pain and not being able to do much for them..."
"You do a lot," Wylie assured her. "You know what it means to have someone who cares enough to visit you...unless of course you've been lying to me."
She rolled her eyes, smiling. "You know that you visiting meant the world to me. But that's different. You and I? We knew each other before, we were falling for each other, we..." she shrugged. "We had history. These people? They won't see their families again. Lai, she has a mother back in Cambodia that is going to live the rest of her life believing her daughter is dead. Me visiting them can't mean nearly as much as it meant to me whenever you showed up."
"But they have someone, Michelle. You have no obligation to come see them, but you do. Because you care about them getting better and you want to give back to the place that saved you. You know they are glad you go."
She smiled, downing some water. "I suppose." She raised her eyebrows. "I'm going to hit the hay. You coming?"
"In a little bit. I have some stuff to organize for tomorrow."
Vega entered the bedroom and peeled the rest of her work clothes off. Sliding into bed, she drew the covers up to her chest and folded her hands over her stomach, staring at the ceiling. Wylie, we have so much to talk about.
"We may have a lead."
Four heads turned eagerly from the computer screens to Cho. One head lifted lazily up from the couch.
"What's the scoop?" Vega asked.
"Why do you keep saying it like that?" Wylie said, cocking his head.
"Boss?" Theo prompted when Cho raised an eyebrow in Wylie's direction.
"There's a woman named Alice Baker that works in a hardware store downtown. She believes that her brother received a shipment of weapons last night that he intends to get across the border. Lisbon, you take Vega and Kemper, go interview her and check out the brother. Jane, I need you going over a 911 log from last night. We suspect a call was made to draw police out of the area where the shipment changed hands, and we need you to listen for voice tremors to determine who may have been faking an incident. Wylie-"
"Sit here and wait for further instructions?" Wylie said, with a smile that showed his teeth.
"No, I need you listening in on phone calls from the prison. Baker says her brother may be working with someone currently doing time." Cho surveyed the room. "Understood? Let's go."
"That must be her," Theo said, motioning to a nervous looking woman with bright red hair.
"Looks like it," Lisbon said when the woman caught them looking at her and began to walk toward them, reaching out a hand.
"Hi," she said, "I'm Angela Baker."
"Agent Teresa Lisbon. This is Agent Kemper and Agent Vega."
She nodded. "Thank you for coming to talk to me," she said, glancing over in response to a sound in the next aisle over. "I cannot believe my brother might be-"
There was a flash and a loud noise, and Baker fell to the ground, a bullet hole above her eye. The agents scattered, diving for cover, as more shots rang out.
"Vega!" Lisbon shouted frantically from her space behind a register. "Vega, you got a visual?"
Vega was flat on her back behind shopping carts. "That's a negative!"
"Dammit!" Lisbon jumped to her feet and fired off a few rounds before ducking back under cover.
"There's two of them!" came Theo's voice. "Nine o' clock!"
Vega rolled onto her side, pulling her gun from its place at her hip. She thought she knew where the other shooter was – but the store, while not busy, was open for business, meaning it could be a customer. The last thing they needed was an unnecessary casualty.
"I have this guy," Lisbon called, vaulting over the counter when the first shooter began to run. Vega and Theo jumped up, peering in the senior agent's direction.
"Is he out of bullets?" Theo whispered.
"I don't – oh god," Vega said, jumping back when the man turned toward Lisbon. "LISBON! KNIFE!"
"Come on," Theo said, grabbing Vega's arm as Lisbon fired, hitting the shooter in the throat. "We gotta get the other guy!"
Vega ran faster than Theo, and she was nearly at the location of where she thought the other shooter was when he decided to make a break for it. Sprinting down the main aisle, he turned once to fire off a shot. It missed by a mile.
Vega caught up to him as he was reaching for the glass doors leading to the outdoor area. She had an advantage in terms of balance, but he was easily two hundred pounds heavier than her and she wasn't able to tackle him. Instead, he spun around, flinging her into a rack of garden tools. She hit the ground hard and saw stars.
Theo got close enough to shoot without risking hitting Vega, but she wasn't accurate, the bullet lodging in the man's shoulder. He snarled in anger, reaching for his belt.
Vega jumped to her feet as the man slashed, making contact with Theo's abdomen. Blood splattered, hitting Vega on her front, and she lunged in the air just as the man thrust the knife forward again. Theo fell backward. Thankfully this time, the man was unbalanced enough that Vega's weight knocked him over and the knife skidded across the floor.
Vega felt two hands close on her throat and she couldn't breathe. Panic set in, this couldn't be the way Wylie found out about what she hadn't told him, her hands found her gun again and she held it in front of her. He released her throat to grab for the weapon, but he wasn't fast enough. Her bullet lodged in his forehead, and he was gone.
"Ambulance!" She shrieked at the top of her lungs as she dropped down by Kemper. "Ambulance! God, Theo, talk to me."
"First one wasn't bad," Theo was saying. "Second...he really got me there..."
"Let me see," she said pushing Theo's shirt aside. "So how's your daughter?"
"What?"
"You need to keep talking to me," Vega said, examining the wound. The first one – the slash – it wasn't deep. Sterilization and a bandage would likely fix it. The second one, it was more serious, but seemed too low for any terribly vital organs. The most important thing would be keeping Theo calm so her heart wouldn't race. "How is she doing in school?"
"She's okay. I don't think she'll ever be an A student, but she's getting..she's getting better."
"Good, that's good," Vega said. "Uh uh, don't look at it." She pointed up above Theo's head. "Look up there. You're going to be okay." She looked down the aisle, the way they'd come. Lisbon was running toward them, followed by emergency personnel. "We've got people right here. You're going to be fine. Absolutely fine."
"Agent Kemper will be okay," Cho announced to the team later that afternoon. "She had no organ failure and thanks to Vega, the blood loss was minimal. She'll be out of work for a couple weeks, but the doctors expect a full recovery."
"Oh, thank God," Lisbon said, putting a hand on her heart. Jane had no verbal response, but the tightness in his jaw lessoned slightly.
"Go home, guys," Cho said. "Go home and we'll pick back up in the morning. Try to get some sleep and clear your heads."
Wylie was silent the entire drive home. Vega didn't blame him, but the silence only made her feel more anxious about the fact that she was keeping things from him. She had to tell him, but she didn't want to break the silence that he probably needed to process everything that had happened that day.
She waited until after they slowly and silently ate their dinner of the vegetables she'd gone out and bought that morning before going into work. Then she dropped her fork, cleared her throat, and said, "Wylie, I need to tell you something."
He looked concerned. "A bad thing?"
"No, just..." she picked up her fork again and examined it, knowing that Wylie knew she was using it as an excuse to put off what she needed to say. "Just...okay, look." She dropped the fork again. "When I was at the FWTC, Angela told me she was transferring."
"Whoa."
"That's just the start of it," she said. "She wants me to take over her job."
"Whoa." Wylie frowned at his repeat choice of words, and cleared his throat. "What did you say?"
"Well, obviously that I needed time to think about it," she said. "And talk to you."
"So you didn't say no."
"No," she said after a moment. "I didn't say no. It...it might be a good move. I can be close to the patients all the time, I know I could help them more if I was there every day, I know how much good they do, so I'd definitely take pride in the work, the pay is actually really good, and..." she shrugged. "After today, maybe a slightly safer job would be a good thing. It's still helping people, it's still really good work, it'd just be in a different capacity."
Wylie was nodding. "I definitely understand that. Especially, like you say, after what happened today." He gave her a small smile and reached across the table to put a hand over hers. "I'm glad you told me. I knew something was off with you, this is so much less worrisome than all the scenarios I had going on in my head."
"Oh, Wylie," Vega said. "That's not even all."
Wylie looked at her expectantly. Vega had been rehearsing in her head all day the best way to say it, but when she opened her mouth, her brain opted for simplicity. "I'm pregnant."
