Chapter 13, enjoy!

Warnings: None

Unebta AF

Can You Keep A Secret

Chapter 13

It's Yours, Now...

Blue roses, Brittany found herself laying in a patch of blue roses, looking up at the vast darkness, confused. She couldn't remember much, in the last month or so in her life. The only thing she could remember was talking to Agent Jeanne about Vanessa Wilkes and then nothing. Nothing but chaos, her mind being battered with screams, pain, strong, negative emotions that wore her down until all she could do was lay in a ball, in the chaos.

That was, until she felt something, like a jolt, something that shook the chaos out of her head and it woke her up. She thought she would wake up, in her bed or a hospital room, but instead, she had woken up here, in a patch of blue roses. She frowned and wiggled her toes and fingers, making sure she could move them, yes, she could. She wasn't paralyzed, was she awake? Was she dead?

"Hello there…" Brittany turned her head to look to the side, and found herself, looking to a figure of a woman, dressed in some very elegant dress of blue, her hair long, shiny and curly and her eyes an amber colored. Though she was standing before Brittany, she was almost translucent and her movement made no sounds, as she seemed to glide across the patch of roses to kneel before Brittany's form.

"I've heard your voice before," Brittany said, it almost shocked the woman to hear her voice, she hadn't heard it in ages, hadn't used words in ages, hell, she couldn't even mouth them, "Twice…once in the bunker and the other time…I don't remember."

"Unfortunate circumstances forced our meeting, the last times, however, I may sound like the person who saved you twice, I am not," the figure said, tilting their head, "I once was but now, I am here, in your mind."

"What in the hell does that mean?" Brittany sat up in the roses, turning to the figure, "That doesn't make sense."

"I am a part of their magic, but it seems I've found my way into you, now I am your magic to use," The ghost like person said, "You've your own, hidden gifts, lost long ago in your family. It seems the piece of magic that is me has sparked it into life, shall I…give it more life?"

"How?" Brittany whispered, and the figure held her hand out for Brittany to take, "What is this?"

"By becoming one, we can breath full life into it," the spirit said, "I mean no ill will, I swear, I just wish to aid you."

"I have nothing else going on," Brittany said, holding her hand out, "Okay…" she grabbed the hand that shimmered in and out of existence and found, to her amazement, that the hand felt solid and warm, as though she wasn't grabbing on to a ghost hand, "What is this?"

The figure got down beside Brittany's form and then placed both hands on the woman's shoulder. She leaned in, whispering to Brittany, in her ear, "This is now your magic, use it wisely…" Brittany's eyes widened as the woman pulled back and kissed her on the lips, her body pressed tightly against Brittany's frame causing it to tingle pleasantly, to glow a soft grey-ish hue as the ghostly figure faded, melting into Brittany's frame.

Brittany's body went stiff and she let out a groan as she felt something race through her body, making her fall back into the roses, which began to fade from a dark blue color to a silver-grey hue. She arched her back, eyes widening as she seized up and let out a scream of shock as the silver grey hue filled her vision and then-

She sat up, with a start, looking around wildly. She wasn't in patch of roses, no, she was in a hospital room, with an I.V. attached to the back of her hand and a feeding tube lodged in her nose. She winced against the bright sunlight and raised a hand to her face, shakily wiping at it. What a strange dream that was. What had that dream meant?

She turned and found that the only person in the room was Alejandro and he seemed to be sleeping lightly, with some work in his lap. Brittany felt her heart flutter and a shy smiled came to her face as she looked at the man's sleeping form.

'Alejandro..' the name flew in her head and she jumped, startled as the man shot up in the chair, alert.

"Who called my name?" The man asked and then paused, seeing Brittany sitting up in the hospital bed, looking at him, "Brittany," he got up from his seat and walked over to the woman, "Brittany, you're up."

Brittany nodded her head and thought to herself, as she looked to Alejandro, 'Yes, I'm up, why in the hell does he look so shock?'

"I'm shocked because you've been almost comatose for two months." Alejandro responded to Brittany, with relief, "I thought you-" he stopped talking and gave Brittany a look, "You didn't say that out loud."

Brittany tried to talk, but found that her mouth couldn't form words and any noise from her lips was not happening. Yup, she was still that odd mute woman. Brittany frowned and looked to Alejandro, 'I'm still mute, what is wrong with-'

"You are talking to me, with your thoughts," Brittany's eyes widened and she let out a noiseless yelp, covering her mouth, in shock, "Yeah, me too, Brittany," Alejandro looked down at the woman and frowned, "I'm amazed by how you move and act, just after one session of electroconvlusion therapy."

Brittany crinkled her brow and asked the man, in her head, 'What are you talking about, electroconvlusion? How I move? What happened?'

Alejandro looked down at Brittany and said, "You've been in a coma like state for almost two months, I found you in the bathroom, you told me you were a monster and hadn't moved since until now."

'I don't remember that,' Brittany thought and Alejandro looked down at her, "I don't remember anything after Agent Jeanne speaking to me, just…chaos in my mind.'

Brittany gripped the blankets covering her waist tightly, she knew why she didn't remember. Why she had been in the state Alejandro spoke about. She had told Agent Jeanne about her real ordeal in the bunker. The one she wanted to keep secret, but it seemed fate had other plans in the form of Vanessa Wilkes. Yes, those dark thoughts lingered but there was something holding them back now, something with a soft grey hue, in the back of Brittany's mind.

"Hey…" Brittany startled as Alejandro grabbed one of her hands and held it gently, "I want you to know, Brittany, you're not a monster, not at all, you were a victim," he gave the woman a stare down and then grabbed her other hand as well, enveloping both of hers with his, "Nothing you did, you did because you're a monster, survival was your only goal, protecting both you and Stephanie was your goal, it doesn't make you a monster, it makes you're a very strong person and trust me, Brittany, I know, you are strong…"

Brittany looked into Alejandro's warm, brown eyes and her stomach seemed to flip around. She gave him a shy smile but the smile froze as she saw something shifting in her left eye. Her vision was hazy in that eye and so, when Alejandro let go of her hands, she covered her right eye, feigning she was rubbing sleep from it. Her vision bled white for a moment and then she was seeing something.

It was Alejandro and he was sitting on a loveseat, reading a book to someone. A child, it seemed, and they were both smiling, as the child pointed to something to ask him a question, but Brittany couldn't hear what was being asked, it was like a silent movie. Alejandro answered the child's question and looked up, a smile breaking out on his face, as someone walked over to them both, their dark figure blocking Brittany's view and causing her vision to white out until she was looking at Alejandro once again, in the hospital.

What in the hell just happened?! Brittany blinked, watching Alejandro go over to the phone on the wall to call the nurse in. What had she just seen?

(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)

"When you imagine the face of Rangeman, who do you see?" Stephanie asked Carlos as they sat together around the coffee table, with a few sheets of papers scattered on its surface and two mugs, one with green tea and the other with coffee sat on top of some of the papers, "It's a serious question, Carlos, if you want more traffic to your security firm, you'll need someone to be a face, a constant face, people like consistency, routines."

Stephanie's new job as Rangeman's shadow PR manager was actually nice. It wasn't always that someone got to sit down, with the owner of the place they worked at and got to talk to them, to get to know them. She was finding Carlos to be a very savvy businessman. He hired men who society would balk at, either because they were bulky and looked like drugs, or were former gang members. They did their jobs well, some were experts in their area of Rangeman. She found out that Lester was Carlos's number detective, so to speak and that James and his instillation crew, could get a job done in days and not leave a trace behind.

"I didn't think about a face for Rangeman," Carlos said, looking down at the notes Stephanie had written down, "does Rangeman really need a 'face,' we do just fine."

"Yeah, you do just fine, you deal with business and on a few occasions, personal security," Stephanie said as she tapped her pen on her notebook, "Let's say, you have a potential client come in, someone who's experienced something painful, and they're looking for security. I think they would feel at ease, if there was a face to the business. Like…how I felt when you first introduced yourself to Brittany and I."

With the look Carlos gave her, Stephanie coughed gently and said, "When I first heard about you, from Jeanne, I was…scared, a man, going to protect me? After all I've been through? I didn't want men near me. However, you came in, that day, calm, quiet, gave us space, respected our needs," Stephanie smiled, "You eased your way in. The face of your company should be like that. Security isn't just making them safe, it's also making them feel safe. You did that, Carlos, you keep me safe and you make me feel safe."

Stephanie hoped her cheeks weren't too hot, as Carlos looked to her as she fidgeted around, "I-erm-"

"I like what you said, Steph," Carlos said, a small smile on his face, "I like the fact that I make you feel safe."

Stephanie's cheeks were hot for sure! She looked to Carlos and then to her notebook. She didn't mean to sound like that! Carlos was handsome and she did feel extremely safe around him. He was kind, gentl and a solid wall of support. He was smart, funny, it made Stephanie believe, once more, that there were men out there who were worth her time.

"That's who should be the face of Rangeman, someone like a reassuring figure, someone…like you, you should be the face," Stephanie said, suddenly, looking to Carlos, a smile on her, "Carlos! You're perfect to be the face of your own company!"

"I don't think so," Carlos said, looking pained, "I have a lot of enemies, I don't want a target on my back and on the business."

"Okay, so we find someone like you, with your aura, who doesn't have a target on their back," Stephanie suggested as she looked to the man, "What about Alejandro, he fits the boxes extremely well."

"I have a feeling we should look for someone else," Carlos said, with a shrug, "Just a hunch."

"We'll come back to this later," Stephanie mumbled as she picked up her notes, "Now, let's talk about marketing, you want to expand your clients, right? You're in luck, I love talking about these things."

She felt almost normal again, Stephanie thought as she suggested things Carlos could do for his business to expand it. She had missed working, she had miss being busy like this. It seemed as though Carlos was receptive to the ideas and to Stephanie as well. He nodded his head, listening to her ideas and added some input here or there. By the time the two had put the brakes on their work, the sun was setting and Stephanie's stomach was rumbling in protest.

"We've been at it for almost 6 hours," Carlos told Stephanie, standing and grabbing their empty mugs, "Let's stop and fed that beast, you call a stomach."

"Sounds like a plan," Stephanie said, as she closed the work laptop Carlos had given her, "Should we grab something or make something?"

"How about we make something," Carlos said as he looked down at his phone, which he had ignored all this time, "Alejandro and Brittany will be back soon, apparently."

Apparently was now, because Stephanie and Carlos turned, hearing the front door open and Alejandro walked into the living room, with take away bags from a local Chinese spot. Stephanie's eyes widened as Brittany walked in as well, munching on an eggroll, her focus on the snack in her hand.

"Brittany?" Stephanie said to the woman, making her blink and look up, "Y-you're walking around, and eating," she turned to Alejandro who shrugged and set the bags on the table, "How is this possible?"

"I don't know," Alejandro said as Brittany sat and began to rummage through the bags, looking for more eggrolls, "The doctor was miffed as well, told us she didn't need another round, it was like she woke up from a long nap."

"A long nap, to a world with no job and no sense of direction," Brittany's phone chirped as she grabbed another eggroll and her tray of food, "Ridiculous, I ought to sue!"

"I don't think I'll ever scoff at electro therapy ever again," Carlos said to his brother, just as Brittany dodged Stephanie's hand that reached out for the eggroll in her hand, "I don't believe in a higher power, but this is almost biblical how she was able to bounce back."

Stephanie honestly didn't care how or what cured her friend, all that mattered was that she was back to her normal-ish self. She wasn't inhaling food and she was taking jabs at everyone, with that smile of hers.

Her friend was back!

(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)

"I got news for you, Agent Diesel," Jeanne's voice drifted into the receiver of the man's cell phone, "Carlos and his men have cleared you for a visit to the women, Jane Doe A is feeling better than ever and both women have agreed to talk to you."

"Best news I've heard in almost a month," Diesel said as he flipped through that empty leather book, "Glad to hear it, when can I go talk to them?"

"A week from now, in a public setting, the FBI building, 14:00 hours, sharp," Jeanne told the man and Diesel made a noise of agreement.

"I'll be there, Agent Jeanne," Diesel said as Jeanne gave him a quick goodbye and hung up on him, "About damn time."

Diesel had been waiting for almost two months for this news and now, he was sort of nervous. He didn't know what to expect or what he was even looking for! Which was why Diesel had the leather bound book out and was having a conversation with it.

"Okay, Ver, so…about the woman in the crypt, her magic, I felt it outside, I think. I think It was hers, but she's…not dead but dead? Tell me, what in the hell happened that all this came to be, I don't want to go into this blindly."

'I suppose…you are due some answers,' the letters appeared on a blank piece of paper, 'It has taken me five cycles to piece together why it is this is all happening and it goes back to the beginning…'

"Well tell me, already," Diesel said and then he almost dropped the book as it seemed to vibrate with laughter, "What?"

'Why tell you what is going on…" the letters appeared on the page, 'When I can show you my history, boy. Hang on tightly, this won't be a smooth ride.'

"What in the hel-" was all Diesel got out before a flash of light from the book, hit him right square in the forehead and his world went black.

TBC...

More story time! And someone does some digging on Morelli :o