CHAPTER 3

CALL ME 'BOSS' AGAIN AND YOU'RE FIRED

"Crap, crap, crap!" Bryan cringed while running. "You said this was going to be fun!"

"Oh, who's the whiny girl now, huh?" Angie came up from behind, pushing his lower back, as if to urge him to straighten his posture and keep running.

"I thought the first day there would be a huge, sappy speech about the amazing opportunities that the Bureau gives new trainees. And that sweet government salary, oh man!" Bryan took a moment to steady himself before he picked up the pace again.

"Didn't you hear? The training division's budget got cut. I guess they no longer have money, not even for a sappy speech." She laughed and kept looking behind her shoulder, making sure Bryan wasn't too far behind.

"Watch out!" He yelled, but it was too late. One of the times when Angie had looked back, she had failed to notice a small puddle of mud right in front of her, so now she was laying on top of it.

"Oops! Guess them pants ain't khaki no more, huh?" She laughed, grabbing the helping hand that he had extended to her and hopping back on her feet. Dirt dripped from her, the cute pink ribbon in her hair now looked like it had been chewed on and spit out by a pig and she smelled awfully similar to one, too.

"Hurdle!" She yelled at him warningly as they kept on running.

Their first task as Agent Trainees, or ATs, as they would be referred to from that point on, was to do an obstacle run which went through a forest that was within the government owned property barriers. Usually trainees would not do this before the third week of training, but as promised, this year everything would be quite different.

FBI agents with motorbikes were following the path where ATs were sweating and struggling with all kinds of obstacles. The agents yelled and urged them to go faster, do better, jump higher.

"Freaking Hell, I'm an athlete, but this right here is killing me." Bryan said, short out of breath, as soon as there was a moment where things seemed to move slower, which didn't happen until they reached the rope climbing obstacle. Slowing down the pace of the run and all the jumping, he could feel his heartbeat all the way down to the sole of his shoe, which by the way, had come undone and he was praying to God not to trip on it and make a fool out of himself by the end of the race.

"Come on, man. I thought you were going to make me sweat and swear and pray to be able to keep up with you." Angie was getting confident, but that only meant one thing: she was about to have a rude awakening.

Her knee twitched right when she was gripping the rope and trying to get higher, resulting in her dropping down a couple of meters. Considering that she had to climb up 5 meters of rope, that was half a fail already.

From beneath her she felt something that helped her steady herself, regain control over the rope and get a better grip before she continued on her way to the top. Quite literally.

An hour into the race and the finish line was right there, in front of them. The first half an hour had been Hell. Yes, everyone was expected to come to the Academy in tip-top shape and ready to go, but no, nobody actually spent their Summer getting ready for the hardest race of their lives. Nobody, except for one.

"How are you not dead by now?" Bryan asked breathlessly.

Angie cringed. Those were words she did not like hearing, even if they were meant as a joke.

"If you would only quit whining, you'd realize that you and I, my friend, are the first ones to cross that line." She pointed out and that made him turn around and notice the next couple of trainees were about 20 steps behind them.

"Go, you deserve this." He pointed towards the red line.

If he had to be honest with himself, all through the race she had slowed down and tried to help him out, even if only with words of encouragement. He could never take the first place away from her, not after all that.

"Remember what we promised each other?" There was something very cheeky about the way that girl grinned. Her whole face would light up and her mouth would go sideways a very tiny little bit, almost unnoticeable, while her eyes seemed full of life and joy.

She took a deep breath and, as Bryan slowed his pace, she grabbed his hand and practically dragged him through the finish line at the same time.

"We're doing this, together!" She stated, as if she wasn't already extraordinarily cool and as if she needed a banging powerful statement like this one to make her look even cooler in his eyes.


BAU Headquarters

As the day went on, Emily's chores only seemed to be piling up. During the day, as soon as she touched something and started to work on it, someone decided to call or to pop by the office or to give her additional crappy news. Sometimes it sucked being the Unit Chief, although she had never felt this bad about her position before. It felt like she did not have enough time to do all the things she was supposed to do. And Emily Prentiss was a freak. A workaholic. A perfectionist.

"Hey, may I come in?" JJ knocked twice and her head appeared in the crack of the door.

"Sure, why not? It's not like I was about to do something productive anyway." Emily sighed. It was highly unlikely for her to reply to anyone in that manner, let alone to JJ, whom she adored.

It did not take Emily long to realize that she was being a bitch to the one person who had constantly been by her side, through literal Hell. "I'm sorry, JJ. Come in. Grab a coffee."

"Wow, uhm, how many coffees did you make?" JJ cringed as she walked by the table. The stench of caffeine was too much, even for a coffee lover like herself. On the desk, in front of Emily, there were four mugs, all full of pure black coffee. Emily never liked pure black coffee. She liked it sweetened, with milk, maybe add a little foam on top when she was feeling fancy. She only ever overdosed on black coffee when she had to.

"I try to eliminate all excuses that can get me out of this chair." She murmured in reply.

"I can see that." JJ sighed, her curious hands grabbing a tissue from the lunch bar where they had ordered their food from, four days ago. "Mind if I throw this away? And that? And this, too?" In her head, this was her way of urging Emily to clean up after herself.

"Seriously? This, coming from the person whose desk cannot be seen behind the wall of papers and who-knows-what?" She did have a point. Everyone knew that JJ was a bit messy at her work space.

"Yup, touché." JJ laughed, making Emily smile instantly. She just had that effect on her boss. Plus, JJ's laughter was contagious.

"But Em, you really need to take care of yourself. Please?" JJ saw how Emily pretended to be busy and ignored what was being said to her. It took her a second to lean over the table and to grab Emily's chin, forcing her face to look directly at her as she repeated slowly. "You need to take care of yourself, Emily Prentiss!"

This time it worked. Emily gulped and looked down, as if an inferior was shy to look her superior in the eyes. But roles-reversed.

"You are not eating well. You barely get any sleep. You missed out on half a day of work because you were so exhausted that you crashed last night and it took hacking your computer to find out if you were okay. Or if you were even alive!" As JJ added her last words, Emily winced. She hated it when people said those words, oh so much.

"I get your point, JJ. But I'm under strict deadlines and you know people have been on my ass since that case. All we do is paper work now, unless you haven't noticed the lack of cases assigned to the BAU? Huh? We have none."

"Are we…" This time it was JJ who bit her lips. "…under investigation?"

"No! At least to my knowledge." Emily said confidently. "But we are under microscope and if I so much as sneeze at the wrong moment, the BAU is screwed. Everybody hates me right now and, unfortunately, that means that everybody hates all of you, guys, as well."

"Aww." JJ stood up and walked over to Emily, patting her shoulder, urging her to stand up too. "We're doing this, together! Do you hear me? None of us is ever going to leave your side. We are not afraid of the superiors hating us. Let them hate. We can show them that we are strong and that we'll always stand by your side, Boss!" JJ's pony tail swayed left and right as she spoke enthusiastically.

"You sound like any pep talk from a bad teen chick flick." Emily laughed, once again, because of JJ. "Also, call me Boss again and you're fired!" She added with her hand swinging in the air threateningly, making JJ wonder for the hundredth time why was it that Emily hated being referred to as their boss.

It was not until the moment Emily felt JJ's hands wrap around her that she finally let herself relax. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

"Thanks, JJ. It is a miracle I even know you, guys. I'm lucky to have you all on my side." Now that Emily seemed more Emily-like, JJ decided to leave and let her get back to work.

While JJ joined Reid and Alvez at the bullpen, Emily actually gave some thought to what she had been told. Ever since that one specific case two weeks prior, she had knocked herself down and she was of no good use anymore. She did, indeed, lack sleep and good nutrition, plus, she needed to take care of her mental health before she could call herself a Unit Chief again and believe her own words.

"JJ, do you want to play chess with me?" Reid was bored out of his mind. He had read five books in five different languages, and he had solved about a dozen cryptograms, all of that after lunch.

"Reid, we should be worried about our next move with the superiors, not on the chess board." Worry oozed out of JJ's voice.

As soon as she spoke, the sound of a door opening made her divert her attention to the upper floor area, where Emily's office was. A miracle was happening - Emily was leaving the premises during office hours. JJ smiled a little bit, wondering if it had been her words to make Emily even move a muscle for anything other than the papers on her desk.

Without a word, Emily disappeared behind the elevator doors. Her original plan had been to go take a walk and to cool off a bit. However, noises and yelling caught her attention. She neared the other side of the campus, where the FBI Academy was situated, and she realized that it was the first day of Academy when she saw a huge number of trainees running in their AT uniforms.

The next thing she saw was a girl, covered in mud, dragging a guy through the finish line.

"Oh, God!" Emily exclaimed loudly.

It wasn't every day that a trainee intentionally helped someone else succeed. This must be quite an extraordinary girl then.