CHAPTER 7
IT'S A COVENANT YOU'RE STILL NOT PART OF
"How could you not get emotional?" Bryan walked after Angie, on their way to the photography unit.
After Emily's speech, they had been informed by Dan that it was time to fill in a few documents and to go get their photos for their AT badges. For the first couple of days they had been provided with temporary ones – a code, printed on a piece of paper that they had to bring everywhere with them to gain access to rooms, lockers or laboratories. Now, it was time for the real thing.
"I'm not a crybaby." She replied, not altering her pace. She could not wait to get her hands on that piece of plastic – the real badge, even if it would be as limited as the paper one she already had.
"But that was so inspirational!" Bryan argued. Apart from the fact that he found Emily to be extremely attractive, he also liked the way she spoke and her words had inspired him.
"Enough kids shed tears in that room. I had to balance things out." Angie stopped by the door of the photo lab. A few people had beat them to it and now they had to wait in line. She hated queues. Out of all the characteristics she had, patience was absent.
"You sound just like Amanda." Bryan knew this would get on Angie's nerves.
"Shut up and hold my mirror." She handed him a tiny pocket mirror and started picking things out of the little bag that she carried with her.
"Holy crap! What are you, Aladdin or something?" His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, watching her continuously reach inside the bag and pull things out.
A mascara, eyeliner, eye shadow palette, brushes, lipstick, lip-gloss, brow pen, blush, highlighter. They were all travel-sized, but still, to a guy that looked absolutely astonishing. When she also pulled a little hair brush out of the bag, he lost it.
"I like to think of myself as a modern day, new and improved, much sexier version of Mary Poppins!" She said while applying some mascara.
"Can you, please, hold still? Ugh, you'll be terrible at sniper training." She giggled, grabbing his shaking hand and steadying it until she could focus on her own reflection in the mirror once more.
"What else is in there?" Curiosity was eating him up inside.
"A gun, if you don't shut up and stay still!" She smirked and checked out how many people were still in queue before them. Five. That meant she had to prioritize. She tossed the brow stuff aside, she never really liked doing anything to her brows anyway, and she focused on eye shadow, blush and lipstick after she was done applying her mascara.
"You always put your mascara on first?" Amanda popped by and asked the question any girl would be curious to hear the answer to. Mascara was always the last thing to be applied, everyone knew that, yet somehow Angie preferred to put it on first.
"You always cut queues, pretending to have friends ahead?" Angie bit back.
"Look, I'm sorry I was a bitch earlier." It was unexpected of Amanda to say those words. Both Angie and Bryan listened carefully. "I never said we were not friends, it's just that I want this Academy experience so badly and I don't know how to juggle it with anything else."
"Well, you heard that there are FBI agents with families and four kids. They found a way to juggle it all. You seem like a smart girl. Why don't you believe in yourself and try to find a way, too?" Angie said calmly this time.
"Yeah, actually, it was that woman's speech that made me want to try and patch things up with you. Like she said, you never know who might save your ass out there, some day." Amanda smiled uncomfortably.
"See? I told you Agent Hotness was inspiring." Bryan smirked.
"Prentiss!" Angie corrected him. "And ugh, you pervert."
"So, can we maybe start over?" Amanda's hands swayed to her sides, she looked like a nervous school girl who had just approached the cool kids.
"Of course. And just so you know, I would not only save your ass out there, someday…" Angie tried to sound serious, but ended off laughing like an idiot. "But I would hold your hair back, any time, Amanda!"
"You called me by my name!" Amanda nearly squealed. This was a victory, in her book.
"Don't get used to it, Girl." Angie teased.
"NEXT!" Dan called out and she noticed it was her turn to go in for her photo.
With one swift motion she applied a layer of faint pink lipstick and she was ready to go.
Once inside the laboratory, she was indicated to take one of the ten seats that had been put there, in order to make the photo taking process go faster. She saw flashes from the other people's photos and that made her smile. She liked taking photos, although she rarely did so. She found it quite fun to be the protagonist of something, to have all lights on her. It was thrilling, it gave her so much satisfaction.
"Miss, can you, please, stop smiling?" One of the lab guys tried to get her attention.
Apparently, Angie had lost herself in her thoughts while the poor guy had been attempting to take a decent photo of her.
"Me? Oops. Sorry." She apologized, standing straight and fixing her hair, so that she would look good.
"I need you to take the bow off your hair." Those words pissed her off.
"I'm sorry, could you remind me again, why do we need to have a photo on our badges?" She came off as innocent, it seemed like a random dumb question.
"A photo represents your identity." The guy replied, unenthusiastically.
"So does my bow. It stays!" She stated very calmly and her confidence startled the man to the point where he didn't dare to argue about it anymore.
A few seconds later she realized she had been posing, but no flash was being directed to her.
"You're still smiling." The man justified the fact that he hadn't yet taken a photo.
"And I will be smiling until the day I die." Something about her made it obvious that she would do as she pleased. And yet, it didn't come off rude, or childish. It was more like a girl who was not afraid to speak her mind and to stand up for what she wanted.
The guy finally snapped a few shots of her, thinking that it wouldn't really be his problem if, while printing the badges, the personnel found her photos to be inadmissible.
With the corner of her eye Angie saw both Bryan and Amanda walk in the lab and sit on each side of her.
"Hey, look at that. We're doing this, together." She said cheerfully.
"It's a covenant you're still not part of." Angie added when she saw confusion on Amanda's face.
Bryan just laughed. He never really understood women.
Amanda was about five years older than Angie, yet he had to think twice before he could remember the meaning of the word covenant. It was not a word young people ever used, or knew, anyway.
BAU Bullpen
Emily walked in and there were more applauses. She had been forced to stay in the auditorium a little longer, until Dan was finished giving orders, before she could go back to her office. By that time, there was a whole celebration organized in her honor. However, the second coffee that JJ held in her hands during the speech, the one she intended on giving to Emily, was now cold.
"Guys, please…" Emily blushed once more.
"Not a word, Prentiss." JJ announced, handing plastic cups to everyone.
There were some very last-minute party essentials on the desks – Emily's favorite pretzels, a cheese platter from the bar downstairs; some olives that Tara had bought to bring home after work that day, but she had sacrificed the whole jar for this party; a half pack of mini marshmallows that Garcia had kept on the side of her desk for almost a week now, with the excuse that she would make a hot chocolate one day, but really, she just nibbled on the tiny delights when she was nervous; Rossi had offered to contribute with some authentic Cuban cigars, but none of his colleagues was old enough to give value to his offer, so it got squashed; while Reid's donation was to whip out his favorite chess board, a special birthday present he had received from his mentor, his closest confidante for his first few years at the BAU, after having graduated the Academy; the guy also known as their previous Unit Chief Jason Gideon.
"JJ!" Emily exclaimed scoldingly, checking out the plastic cups that were now being distributed to everyone.
"Ah!" Garcia's cheeky smile appeared. "Don't worry. We have the nonalcoholic version."
She pulled out two bottles of Virgin Piña Colada. Emily had bought three of those, as part of a joke, a few months ago and after tasting the first one, they had been abandoned in the back of the storage room at the BAU, since literally nobody enjoyed them.
"Good to know I contributed my own disgusting drinks to my own last-minute party." Emily laughed and this time it was full-heartedly.
She had been faking smiles and laughter for the past sixteen days and it bothered her as much as it did the rest of the team. This time, however, it came from the heart. Maybe she got inspired by her own speech.
"Cheers to the most amazing Unit Chief and best friend one could ever wish for!" JJ was not one to go into long emotional speeches. That was typical of Emily. JJ was more of a straight-shooter – a few words, but the right words. Her FBI liaison training had installed that in her.
"Aww, I love you, guys." Emily felt her chin quiver.
Through the rough times lately, she had not allowed herself to feel the love that people were showing her. It felt good to open the doors and let them in once again. But, would it last for long?
