CHAPTER 2

LET'S DO THIS TOGETHER

"Emily?" Someone said in the dark.

"Emily, are you okay?" She knew that voice.

Emily's head moved slowly against the pillow before she could notice that her phone was not even switched on. Where did that voice come from then?

"Emily, do you need a doctor?"

"What the Hell…" Emily said grumpily, looking around the room to find the source of her inconvenience.

"Your computer!" An indication came and as soon as Emily's eyes laid on the screen and managed to focus on it, she sighed.

"JJ, I swear to God, I will…" That was one of Emily's most iconic lines. One that she used right before she would hurt someone. Or attempt to do so anyway.

"Ah! PG 13 for your favorite P.G., please?" Garcia popped on the screen.

"I feel like I'm starring in a movie and God knows how many of you are watching it. Or why, even?" Emily was clearly not in a good mood.

"It's just us two." JJ made a facial expression, as if to prevent someone else from speaking.

"Actually, it would be more correct to say that it was just the two of you…whoops." A high-pitched male's voice came from behind the other computer.

"Hello, Reid." Emily greeted, because she literally had no idea what else to say.

"Ems, I'm sorry. They made me do it. She did!" Garcia pointed a finger at JJ. "I was forced to hack your computer camera. You see, your phone is off, and we've been trying to call you all morning and we all got worried and JJ, you know how she is, so incredibly stubborn, even more than you, so she…you know, she made me hack you so we can see if you were doing okay." Garcia said in her typical frantic voice.

"Well, I'm glad I wasn't doing something else then." Emily rolled her eyes, pulling on the blankets and imagining another scenario in her head. That would have been awkward. Point taken – never again falling asleep with her computer facing her bed. Or the bathroom. Or the kitchen counter.

…Or the cute little Persian rug right in front of the fake fireplace where she liked to light candles and pretend like she was in a mountain resort while sipping champagne and munching on the last piece of that pizza she got delivered since her attempts to cook usually ended up in a disaster.

"Eww, Prentiss. Definitely not PG 13!" JJ laughed.

"Why were you guys worried? My phone battery must have died last night. I would have returned your calls as soon as I woke up and had my breakfast while charging it a bit. Relax." Emily realized that she was, for once, sleeping fully clothed, so she popped out of bed without the possibility of flashing anyone. Although JJ and Garcia had seen a lot of Emily, back in the changing rooms. But, poor Reid.

"Uhm…" Garcia pursed her lips and clutched on to her unicorn-shaped tea cup.

"It's 3 pm, Emily." JJ broke the news and sent an apologetic smile for that.

"Oh…" There was no way. Emily shot a glance at the wall clock opposite her bed and yes, it showed 3:05. "Crap! Sorry, guys. I don't know what happ…I uh…I'll be there in an hour." Emily shut her computer down, in hopes of not finding the camera on once again when she would hop out of the shower a few minutes later.

When the clock struck 4:02, Emily walked out of the elevator and hurried through the bullpen.

"I'm really sorry." She mumbled while doing some of her "morning" chores around the open space.

"Shall we take a quick de-tour to the changing room?" JJ whisked Emily away almost immediately, before anyone else would notice.

"Do we have a case? Why are you making me change?" Emily protested when she saw JJ hand her another pair of shoes.

"Miss-match is so last year." JJ said sweetly, trying not to offend her superior.

Emily looked down at her feet. The left one was comfortably enwrapped with a black office-style shoe, while the right one was a little funkier, in its coat of Nike runners, in the color of light blue.

"Look, you have had a lot on your plate lately. If you need to take some time off, we understand. We could all use a vacation right now." JJ suggested, personally kneeling down and tying Emily's new pair of shoes on her feet.

Vacation? Emily had no desire, nor money, for that. She still had to break the news to the team.

"Don't worry about me." She rubbed her eyes and that was when JJ noticed the redness and the puffiness of the skin underneath them. Had she cried? Or had she simply not slept for the past couple of weeks? Or both? That case they recently had was affecting Emily and everyone could notice it. Everyone, but her.

"Could you, please, gather everyone in the meeting room? In half an hour. There is something I need to read first. Thank you." With those words Emily excused herself and went to her office, closing the door behind her, which was something she never really did, unless she was working on something confidential.

It took her exactly 25 minutes to read the e-mail attachments that Fowler had sent her the night before, which gave her an extra total of 5 minutes for a bathroom break. She really needed to splash some cold water on her face, but mostly, she needed to get rid of the feeling of being about to pee on herself from all the nerves.

"Hey guys." She walked in the room where everyone was gathered around the table, quietly waiting for her to speak.

"Bad news for the team. I'm sorry, but there is nothing I can do about this." Emily bit her lip and Rossi caught on that. He knew she always did that when she was nervous and needed to calm herself down. Or when she was flirting, which was clearly not the case at that very moment.

"Prentiss, whatever it is, we are a team and we stand together." He said reassuringly and it helped her tremendously. Rossi had always had this cool and collected aura around him and Emily looked up to him in more ways than she could count.

"As of today, our team enters the Bureau program for budget cuts. We need to come up with a written proposal on how to meet their criterias, by the end of the week." She didn't like to sugarcoat things, so she just said it like it was.

"But, didn't they already lower our budget a few years ago, when Hotch was still here?" Rossi raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, by 10%. And that was only temporary. We got a new sponsorship afterwards, remember?" Emily replied, pacing between the two chairs that were being occupied by Reid and JJ.

"Could you, please, maybe sit down? Your pacing is giving me anxiety and study shows that-…" Reid started off, but before he could continue, he felt JJ's hand on his knee, as if to tell him to shut up.

Emily did sit down after that. On top of the table, that is, since chairs did not seem to exist for her. The team would always find her hanging from somewhere, like a monkey – the edge of a table, a staircase, a suitcase, anything but a chair.

"The orders came straight from the source of our financing. We can try and argue, but it won't do us any good." Emily shrugged and looked at Garcia who was sitting on the opposite side of the table.

"Well, we can always offer the same plan as last time. I have it on file somewhere. What was it? Less additional travel expenses; we clean our own guns instead of having them sent to the gun support unit; we drink less coffee, we save the whales. Wohoo, we are 10% down again. We've done it before, we can do it again!" Garcia said triumphantly.

"Yes, but we are talking 45% now." Emily's words echoed in the room and left everyone speechless.

A few minutes later, since nobody had dared to make a suggestion, she continued.

"I've been thinking about it all night and the only big cut that I could think of was something that a lot of you guys are going to be against." Emily bit her lip again and, at that rate, if she bit any harder, blood would start streaking on her blouse.

"Not the jet!" Alvez muttered quietly. He liked motors, jets, planes, pretty much anything that moved.

"No, not the jet. We need that. However, we are going to cut majorly on the additional travel expenses, as Garcia suggested. From now on, anything we need, we swipe our personal credit card. If we don't want to do that, we don't really need to buy the thing. Is everyone with me on this one?" She was the boss, of course everyone nodded.

"Good. That gives us nearly 5%, like last time. Now, the big chunk…" She sighed. "The BAU is not going to accept any internship bids this year."

"What? No!" Rossi, as Emily had suspected, was vocal about his disapproval. "Emily, no! We can't do that. We always welcome an intern from the Academy, it is our tradition since the day I started the BAU. We love teaching the young ones what we know. You said it yourself last year, it is a pleasure having a freshly off the Academy kid spice things up around here and the guy from last year learned so much from all of us. He is now two floors down, in counter terrorism, and he's doing spectacularly well and loving it."

"I know. Trust me, I would not deny anyone the chance to work with us if they want to, but given the circumstances, we are kind of forced to skip on this year's internship program. Unless we would all like to sacrifice a chunk of our salary, in order to welcome a trainee." To those words of hers, nobody dared reply.

"I know that you guys are disappointed in my decision and I get it. I am not ecstatic about it either. But put yourselves in my shoes." Emily delivered a piece of paper to everyone when she stood up. "Read up and I am expecting further suggestions by the end of this week. Not even this cut could meet the 45% request."

Emily left the team with this fresh new information while she, once again, retreated to her office and tried to re-focus her attention on this new problem at hand. For the past two weeks she had been blaming herself and wondering what she could have done differently, so the outcome of a certain case they had, would have been different. The team kept on telling her to stop putting the blame on herself, but she never listened. Suddenly, she had a new problem to worry about.


PSSC - Philadelphia Summer Sports Camp | Pennsylvania

"I'll miss you." Maggie waved at Danielle as she got in her car.

"I'll miss us." Danny replied with a smile.

"Have fun back at college. And thanks for making this camp so freaking fabulous and fun with all your crazy stunts." Maggie blew a kiss in the air and Danny pretended to catch it with her hands before she drove away.

That was the end of three months of intensive work outs, fun, laughter and silliness. It was also the end of Danielle Letcher. It was now time for a new beginning, one that she had been waiting for, so impatiently.

The GPS in her car said she had 3 hours and 25 minutes left until she would reach her final destination. With a cheeky grin she sped up, wanting to get there even faster.

Three hours and six minutes later, she went through a huge gate and a bunch of security checks.

"Name and unit?" The security guard asked in serious tone before he would let her drive inside the premises.

Oh, she had been waiting for the moment to pronounce those words.

"Angela Hunter, FBI Academy." It felt good. All those times she had dreamt of that moment, and there it was. It felt damn good.

She was granted access after the guard verified her credentials and gave her directions where to go. Finally, she parked her car in front of what was going to become her home for the next 21 weeks.

She got off the car and felt every bone in her body becoming overwhelmed with joy. This was what she had been waiting for.

Walking inside the building felt like walking on clouds. She already had a cool girl appearance, but the pep in her step as she strut down the hallways added an extra touch of sassy to her persona.

The air there was something else. She had never felt her nostrils so full of the sweet smell of a cocktail of things that she liked. She felt like a kid in a pastry shop, early in the morning, when all the baked goods were warm and still fresh out of the oven.

She was on point for her call time, the clock hit 3 pm and a loud siren suddenly deafened everyone in the building.

"Attention, please! Everyone report to the gym, immediately!" Some guy's voice was heard on the radio-speaker and she saw how people stopped in place while listening, before a complete chaos took over and people started running and asking for directions to the gym. It felt like the imaginary pastry shop she had been so happy to enter, had now turned into a jungle, a hot mess.

Without fussing about it, she walked to the gym, already knowing where it was situated.

"Welcome everyone. You all come from different backgrounds, different parts of the country, but you have one thing in common – your desire to learn, practice, learn some more and then train until you drop. So, in order to fulfill your dreams and expectations right from the start, we welcome you to the brutal reality that this adventure really is. No, it is nothing like the movies you have seen, and no, you are not going to enjoy a second of it. Only the best of the best will survive until the end. This year we are doing things a bit differently. Are you ready for what would be your own personal Hell for the next 21 weeks? A Hell that, if you survive, is going to lead to one of the best adventures of your lives!" The same man's voice was on loudspeaker, but nobody could figure out where it came from.

She looked around and tried to memorize a few faces. She had seen one of the guys park in the alley next to her, just minutes ago. One of the girls had a cool pair of jeans on and she made it a point to go ask where she got them from.

Suddenly, bundles of clothes were being thrown in every direction. She got her hands on one and, as she unwrapped it, she heard someone laugh from behind her.

"Well, hello there, Miss Cheerleader." It was the guy who had parked near her. "Are you lost? I don't think that cute little pink bow in your hair would go with, well…that." He pointed at the clothes that she had in her hands.

"On the contrary, I think it would accentuate them perfectly!" She said cockily, stripping down to her underwear and tossing her sparkly white dress aside.

A minute later she was sporting the new attire and she quite liked it. The bow was neatly on top of her head, with two strands of ribbon flowing down her perfectly combed hair. Her eye-shadow was the same shade of pink as the bow, while her nails were painted in pearly white, to compliment the dress that she had just tossed to the floor.

"Welcome to the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia!" The male on the loudspeaker announced once everyone had changed. "May the best of you finish this race and may the chosen ones serve with honor and hold the badge with pride!"

Two minutes ago, the gym had been full of colors, individuality, diversity. At that moment, everything was gone and all that was left was dozens of people in plain color uniforms – same trousers and same pale blue shirts for both men and women.

"Dang, khaki pants have never looked so good on anyone." The young guy said, checking her out.

"It's not the pants." She held her head up high. "It's the ass. I got a great one. I practically look good in anything. Or out of it. And now that this is out of the way, please move."

Her hand motioned for him to move to the left, so she could catch a glimpse of the podium where she finally spotted someone holding a microphone. Must have been the man who did all the announcements.

There was something about that girl that made him want to know more.

"In case you don't talk to strangers. I'm Bryan." He extended his hand, only to have it left dangling awkwardly between them as she took a step to the side, to get a better view of the stage.

"Uhm, sorry if I offended you. It's just that you look so…" He trailed off, not knowing how to put this nicely.

"Okay, so I have a bow in my hair, I came in a cute white dress, I smile a lot and I have amazing teeth. Not to mention, I'm nice and bubbly, quite cheerful, unless you rub me the wrong way, and also – I like ice cream. Like, a lot!" She pointed out random stuff that was probably a stereotype that he would have imagined her being like. "I look like a cheerleader and I'm slim and have very good skin. I actually do enjoy long walks on the beach and my favorite drink is probably a fruity cocktail you despise. So what? You think I'm not good enough to be here? Guess what? My recruiter likes to disagree. I am here and I'm going to stay here until the end, and even after. I'm the girl who is probably going to kick your ass in every event, other than pull-ups because, God knows, I suck at those. So, for you to point out that by being cute, I possibly am out of place here, is rude and uncalled for and quite frankly, I do not appreciate it. So now, Bryan, if you don't mind…shut up and let me pretend like I never met you. Thank you." She said calmly, with every next word she made him more and more ashamed of himself and unsure why he had even chosen to tease her. He never meant to offend her, it was just very odd that such a young-looking girly chick was standing there.

"Oh yeah? Are you that girl?" He mirrored the smirk she had plastered on her face, refusing to move aside. Instead, he stood directly in front of her in the most out there way. "And I'm the guy who would make it impossible for you to keep up. You'll be sweating and swearing before I let you win a thing. You'll be begging for my mercy and I still won't let you have it your way, Missy." He was cocky, arrogant, but there was something pleasant about the timber of his voice. It almost felt soothing. For a second, she closed her eyes, imagining what his voice would sound like out there, on the field, if she ever needed someone to talk to her, give her moral support. And that was when she decided she wanted him on her team.

"Missy." She said shortly.

"That's what I just called you." Through the chatter by everyone around them, he felt confused.

"That's my name from now on. There. We're not strangers anymore." A dainty smile appeared on her face and she seemed much more relaxed now. She loved a man who could challenge her, push her into becoming the best, the strongest version of herself. And at that moment she needed such people around her.

"Your first day at the Academy starts right now. Get out there and get dirty!" The man with the microphone announced, pointing at the huge door that lead to the outside area.

"Let's do this!" Bryan cheered and he felt her hand tug on his own.

"Let's do this, together?" She suggested and he nodded in reply.

This was promising to be the start of a fun journey.