CHAPTER 8
IT'S NOT HER NAME, BUT CALL HER LAYLA
"Put your thumb here…" A short, elder guy pointed to a surface. "Good, now roll."
Angie obeyed. She found it annoying how the guy felt the urge to describe every single thing he was doing. Everyone has seen enough criminal shows to know how the process of taking someone's fingerprints goes.
"Ouch." Angie shifted uncomfortably when she felt someone poking at her free hand, while she was busy controlling the fingerprinting process that was currently happening as well.
"Don't worry. We'll clean up the skin." A woman in a white apron spoke to her softly, thinking Angie might have been concerned about getting an infection.
"Why do you need my blood?" She said, a bit frantically.
"It's standard procedures. Fingerprints, blood, DNA, polygraph - those are some of the things each trainee has to go through before we even print an AT badge for you." The woman explained further.
Angie winced, not from the pain, but from what those words entailed. She had known it all along, but now, having to actually do those things, she started to get nervous.
"You're ready to go." The elderly man said when he finished taking her fingerprints.
She left the laboratory quite quickly and very willingly.
"Are we ready to call it a day?" Bryan asked once their group of four reunited in the court outside the building. After the speech they had their photos taken and then finished the rest of the things they were required to do. The only thing that was left was the lie detector.
"Heck, yeah." Angie appeared to be in a much less cheerful mood than earlier.
They started walking towards the dorms when they heard another announcement on the loudspeaker.
"All trainees report to the swimming pool in 10!" Dan's voice was both cool and annoying. Everyone had to get used to it. They would be hearing lots of it.
"Agent Prentiss?" A familiar voice came from the other side of Emily's office door.
It made her roll her eyes.
"I cannot seem to find your budget cut proposal on my desk." The woman made her way inside the office without waiting for an invite. She was, after all, Emily's superior.
"I am working on it, Ma'am." In life Emily had learned two things – to fight for her life and to lie out her ass, when she needed to.
"Good. Because the deadline is Sunday morning. It is Wednesday evening now." The woman observed Emily's facial expressions, waiting for a sign of weakness, which Emily never showed. That was one more thing she had to learn in life and she had learned it the hard way.
"Otherwise, I'll have to proceed and cut your funding in whichever area I might find fitting. The BAU jet is the first one to go, if I had to choose." The woman added with a smirk.
"You, cocky little piece of-…" Emily thought to herself, while on the outside she remained awfully calm and collected. Oh, she would be drinking later that night. For sure.
"Would be delivered by Sunday morning, Ma'am." She almost sounded genuine.
The woman left, having achieved what she came for – she had put even more pressure on Emily's shoulders.
As Emily busied herself by pushing papers out of her way and making space for a blank piece of paper, which represented her budget cut proposal so far, she was oblivious to the fact that Chief Fowler had nearly knocked JJ out, on her way out of the office.
Jennifer was the quiet one, but she was nosier than the rest of the team, all together. Even Garcia, the Gossip Queen, had to give it to JJ - her ways were way sneakier than Garcia's.
The Chief disappeared into the elevator, leaving a very confused JJ, standing on the other side of a door that lead to an equally as confused Emily.
"The jet, my ass!" JJ muttered to herself, starting to pace up and down the hallway. "Not if I can help it. Pff!"
It wasn't just a whim. JJ loved the jet and she would always bug people to let her have a window seat, but that was not the reason why she was so protective of it.
That jet had taken them to so many locations, where they had been able to save so many lives. The jet was not a means of transport for the BAU, it was a way of bringing people back to life - to the normal life they had before they got kidnapped and tortured. The jet was, metaphorically, transforming the team into the flying Angels that travel across the country and save lives.
A young JJ would have never imagined she would even end up flying on a jet one day. Small town girl, grown up in the woods, the jet life was not even something she was familiar with. For a 10 year old JJ, the definition of glamorous would have been a picnic in the field with her elder sister. At 11 years old, that changed, along with many other ways that JJ saw the world and imagined her life to turn out to be, as a grown up.
So, the jet was staying.
After having given it some thought, JJ decided it was best to do as she always did – plot with the team. She went downstairs and grouped everyone up. Matt had to leave, as he wanted to be able to kiss his kids goodnight and it was getting pretty late, but everyone else stayed.
JJ made a speech about helping Emily with the proposal, so that she could only focus on her paper work. They were not getting any new cases for two weeks now, so they had a lot of time on their hands. Emily, however, had none.
"Now, go home, relax and we will brainstorm tomorrow at lunch. Emily already informed us that she won't be joining us. She has something else to do tomorrow. So, make sure you come up with ideas." JJ ended off, waving goodbye and leaving the building, so she could kiss her own kids goodnight as well.
"Damn, she's good at this." Angie pointed at Amanda, who was following their couch's instructions and killing it.
Arriving at the swimming pool, they had been given rules for a team-based game to be played in the water. None of them had to play in a team, or even in a match together, so everyone could watch and cheer for each other. First up was Amanda who was in a team with 3 guys, against a team of two guys and two girls. She moved so smoothly under water, it felt like it came natural to her.
Once her match was over and her team won, Angie couldn't help but compliment her.
"Thanks. I grew up around water. I guess I learned how to swim before I even knew how to walk." She brushed it off, but in reality, she had won numerous competitions. She seemed to be trying this new thing where she wouldn't be a bitch to people and she also wouldn't point out how good she was at doing whatever thing.
Then came Bryan's turn to play and his team also won the game. His roommate's team, however, was up next and they lost by two points.
Angie jumped in the water when it was her turn. She liked her team a lot. There was a guy who seemed like he could be her very own Dr. Reid in the future. He was smart and very well behaved, a little quiet, but she could tell he was a nice person. She had sat near him for that Welcome speech and she had kept an eye on him. Another person on her team was a guy she saw parking his motorbike outside the restaurant where she and Bryan ate at the day before. It was a cool bike, one of the fancy retro models of Harley and she was digging it. The other person was a girl whom she knew nothing about, but was willing to find out more.
Her team won by three points, which was good enough, for the moment. The games were quick-paced and did not last longer than ten minutes. However, as soon as she got out of the pool, she felt her heart beating fast.
"Well, that was a work-out." She stated, grabbing a bottle of water and taking a sip.
A few more rounds of the game and it was already half past two at night. Dan finally told everyone they could go and five seconds later he was all alone by the pool. Everyone was drenched out of energy and had left in a hurry.
A lot of the trainees had athletic backgrounds, but given that the Academy started at the end of the Summer, many people came relaxed and chill. Some had, however, worked their ass off all Summer long, so they could get into the Academy in a great shape. Angie was one of those.
The next morning, as the clock hit 7 am, Dan's voice startled everyone in their sleep.
"Trainees, report to the auditorium at 7:30." He announced cheerfully. Of course he would be all refreshed and happy-sounding - he didn't even have to put a finger under water the night before. All he ever did was bark out orders and that was, doubtfully, an energy-sucking activity.
"I will find that loudspeaker and I will smash it!" Amanda roared from under the covers.
"Man, you really are not a morning person." Angie chuckled and hopped out of bed. Being so quick to wake up in the morning had its advantages – she had the whole bathroom to herself until Amanda would finally get out of bed and kick her out of there.
"Guys, I know I said we'll do this at lunch, but plans have changed. Emily is now coming to lunch with us, so we need to do this now." JJ announced the moment she walked in the bullpen, making sure Emily's office door was shut closed, so she wouldn't be able to overhear anything from upstairs.
"Now? I haven't had time to think about it, JJ." Garcia whined.
"Brainstorming is proven 74,5% more effective when done under time pressure." Reid announced, in typical Reid fashion.
"Please, be my guest then." Luke said teasingly, making everyone look at Reid curiously.
"Fine. All I could think about was the jet. It would meet the budget requirements. There. I said it." Reid rolled his eyes and shifted uncomfortably.
He would hate to say goodbye to the jet, where a very special friend of his, SSA Derek Morgan, had created a hidden book-shelf underneath Reid's favorite seat, in the back of the plane. It gave him the perfect excuse to retreat and relax on his own, before or after a case. He loved his little piece of Heaven like JJ loved her window seat.
"I hate to admit it, but he's not completely wrong." Rossi threw his hands in the air in mock surrender. Everyone knew how much the jet meant to him. He had personally sponsored its acquisition with money he had earned from one of his bestselling books on criminal profiling.
"No way, Rossi!" JJ was about to agree with what Reid said, until she took Rossi's perspective into consideration. "We all know how you paid the remaining bit of the price, so we can get an amazing jet like that, rather than a small rusty airplane. The Bureau has failed us when it came to financing our jet, so now there is no way we are going to sacrifice the jet that you fought so hard for, in order to meet their new budget requirements. We are people, too. We won't budge in under pressure. We'll have to find another way."
"She's right." Garcia chewed the top of her new unicorn pen until the horn of the poor animal snapped in two. It made her feel even more upset. "And I'm most definitely not being partial, since I barely ever get on the plane. So, it would make sense for me to say that I want it gone, but I don't, because I know how much it means to you, guys."
Luke's hand touched Garcia's shoulder very lightly, stopping her from going into another one of her huge emotional rants.
"What if we cut costs in accommodation?" Tara suggested. She had previous experience working at a travel agency while in college, so she had a few tricks up her sleeve when it came to travelling on a budget.
"Yeah, we don't really need to have single rooms with poolside view, do we?" Matt added to Tara's suggestion.
"I'm not sleeping with either one of you." Reid said grumpily, his finger pointing at everyone, one at a time.
"That's okay, Spence." JJ smiled at him. "Emily, Tara and I wouldn't mind sharing a room. Garcia included, whenever she travels with us. Actually, Emily should probably have her single room, since she's the Unit Chief."
"Nah, she's a flock bird. She'll adapt." Rossi said confidently.
"Luke and I have shared a room many times before. We don't mind. Rossi is welcome to join, if he wants. So is Reid, but he doesn't want to." Matt suggested.
"I appreciate my own space, but I would be willing to try sharing it with a bunch of muscular young guys, if that would help Emily in any way." Rossi was playing hard to get, but in reality he wouldn't mind spending more quality time with the boys. In some ways, they reminded him of himself, when he was a young Agent.
"Oh, goodie. Lots of cheese platters 'bout to happen. Yay!" Garcia said enthusiastically.
Wine and cheese platters were the girls' thing. Maybe hop in the hot tub, get a little tipsy, talk about boys, just about anything that would help them relax after a long day on the job. The guys had never been invited and they would never admit how much that fact bothered them.
"That's good so far, but it wouldn't be enough." JJ cringed. In her short time of being Unit Chief when Hotch was temporarily out of duty, she has had to deal with accommodations and she knew the costs. Making a mental calculation, she realized the cut they had just agreed on was not even amounting to a third of what they had to reach.
"I guess…" Garcia's voice changed into a bit more preoccupied one. "I guess I could come up with something to cut costs from my gadgets. I mean, I really don't need all of them. I like them. But I don't need them. I think. I mean, yeah, some of them I do need, because they are my hacky-packy best pals in the cybercrime fighting world, but I can surely think of something to leave behind so I can cost the team less money."
"This is really sweet of you, Garcia." JJ squeezed Garcia's hand gently. She knew how attached Garcia was to her toys and her electronic gadgets, so this was a huge sacrifice for her to make.
After a long moment of silence, everyone came to the conclusion that, despite their good suggestions, this was still not even a half of what they were expected to cut and they had about two days to figure it out.
"Maybe we can do this again tomorrow morning, huh? Fresh new day, fresh new ideas." Tara suggested and, to her surprise, an unexpected voice replied to her.
"Do what?" Emily appeared from her office, now looking down at the whispering circle that they had formed up.
The team was caught off guard and everyone did something odd.
Reid started whistling quietly, which was his tell for whenever he was telling a lie; Rossi pretended to be looking for something on top of Luke's desk and everyone knew how neat and organized Rossi was, he always knew exactly here he had placed an object; Tara sat down and started rocking on a chair without realizing it wasn't actually supposed to move that way, it was just broken.
"Uh, we were talking about your improvised party yesterday. It was fun. We should do it more often." JJ smiled, but Emily was not buying it. Luckily for them, she had no time to care enough about finding out the truth.
The team then continued their morning, revising old cases and re-organizing their file cabinets and storage room, for the lack of anything more fulfilling to do.
Emily looked at the time on the right side corner of her phone and she hurried to the elevator.
"Good morning, trainees." Dan walked in the auditorium at 7:30 sharp. "By now you must have already learned something about each other, but now it is time for us to learn more about you. I hope you're ready, because your polygraphs are starting right now. We have five noise-isolated cabins down the hallway, so we will call for five of you at a time. The rest of you are staying in the auditorium and, for your entertainment, we have a series of aptitude tests for you to take on your own. No group work allowed. My good friend Ramona is going to keep you company, and by that I mean that she would keep an eye out for any cheating going on during the tests. Enjoy!"
Five names appeared on the screen behind the desk where Ramona, a brunette in her 40's, was sitting.
None of the four friends' names turned up in the first bunch.
Angie shivered nervously in her seat.
"Relax. It won't hurt." Bryan reassured her, sensing how tense she was.
"I'm not afraid of the test." She failed to ooze her usual confidence.
After about half an hour, the second batch of names turned up on the screen. One of those was Angie's.
She inhaled sharply and Bryan could swear he saw her face turn white for a split second.
Somehow, she successfully reached the room down the hall without stumbling. The whole point of taking the test was to be calm enough to pass it, but she was, for some reason, quite nervous.
"Angela Hunter, Please, take a seat." She heard a warm, soft, female voice from inside one of the cabins.
Angie took a few steps in and exhaled. She didn't realize how long she had been keeping the air in her lungs. It felt good to breathe out and take a fresh new breath.
Suddenly, her worries went away and she was left with a heart that was beating way too fast.
"I advise you to stay still while he preps you for the test." The female said softly while a guy walked towards them.
"Relax and think of something soothing." She kept on talking since, for once in her life, Angie was completely mute.
"Maybe Paris. How about Paris? Have you ever been there?" The woman smiled as she saw Angie comply and even close her eyes, to facilitate the relaxing process. God know she needed to calm down.
Angie inhaled and exhaled sharply, but her heartbeat was slowly starting to go back to normal.
A random guy cornered Angie, grabbing her hand and fixing some gadget on her finger, prepping her for the test that would determine if she was going to stay in the Academy or not.
"Think about Paris…" The woman said, as soon as she felt Angie was getting tense again, at the presence of a third person.
"Imagine a beautiful sunny day in May. It's about 17 degrees outside and you're wearing a pair of black jeans and a white crop top with a leather jacket on top. A red foulard hangs around your neck and your matching red Chanel lipstick could not make you look any more Parisian." The woman continued. "You are happy, because you are meeting someone. You take a bus and get off at Les Écoles, so you can walk the extra distance and grab yourself your favorite coffee and a croissant. You walk down the street and catch a glimpse of yourself in one of the beauty shops' mirrors. You are smiling. Relaxed. Happy. Excited. Soon, you arrive where you need to be. You are at a very familiar place. Look up…"
Angie's head tilted upwards and she didn't even realize it. The softness of the voice who narrated this story was too soothing, it had almost hypnotized her, transferring her into that imaginary scene.
The woman smirked. "What do you see?"
"La Fontaine Médicis." Angie said with an impressive French accent.
"Look down." The woman said. "Now, take a few steps forward and look around. What do you see?"
Angie gulped, but did not reply.
"What you see, is it making you feel anxious? Happy? Mad?" The woman sat back in her chair.
"Everything…" Angie's reply made no sense even after she elaborated on it. "It makes me feel everything. And nothing. But mostly everything."
The woman had to work very hard at suppressing a laugh.
"The thing you see, is it an object? A person? An animal?" She asked.
"Object, no." Angie bit her bottom lip. "Person, yes. Animal, oh definitely!" A bit of aggression came out in her voice with her last statement.
"Does this half person half animal make you feel secure?" To a normal person this whole conversation would look completely dumb, but to someone who had spent years training to get under people's skin and to understand their minds, it was a strategy. And it worked.
"Yes." Angie smiled, her eyes still shut. "Always has. Always will."
"Good." The woman nodded and she smiled as well.
"We're good to go, SSA Prentiss." The guy who was prepping Angie for the test, announced, looking at the female sitting across Angie.
Emily took a moment to get her own self back to calm mode before she continued.
"Now, I need you to open your eyes and work with me here." She said and Angie complied immediately. "Keep that mystic creature in mind. Think about it. Give it a name if you want to."
"Layla." Angie did not even have to think about her answer. "It's not her name, but call her Layla."
Emily bit her lip, hearing that name. "Okay. Now, let's start. You know how this goes. All I need you to do is to be calm and to reply honestly. If you're having a hard time replying to any of my questions with a simple Yes or No, just let me know and I will paraphrase it."
Angie nodded.
"Is your name Angela Hunter?"
"Yes."
Emily checked the screen where Angie's replies would register either at the Truth or the Lie section. This one hit Truth and Emily smiled.
"Are you at least 23 years old?"
This was a question every trainee had to answer, since the FBI did not allow people under the age of 23 to join the Academy.
"As of two days ago, uh-huh. I've checked the FBI guidelines before applying. It is perfectly fine to apply before the age of 23, since the selection process takes ages, as long as you are 23 when you start the Academy and, luckily for me, I am!"
"Yes or No answers only." Emily reminded her.
"Oh, sorry." Angie shrugged and felt a little stupid. She knew the rules. "Yes."
This hit right in the Truth section, as well.
"Have you ever been involved in any kind of government organization?"
"No." Angie said very calmly and the monitor showed it to be the truth.
"Do you have any criminal history?"
Angie shivered unwillingly.
"Layla…" Emily moved forward and whispered almost inaudibly.
At her words, Angie regained her groove.
"No." She said, sitting straight up and showing a sudden boost of confidence.
"Have you ever had a dependence on alcohol or any legal or illegal substances?"
"No."
"Have you ever killed someone?"
That question was definitely not something Angie had read about when she was getting ready to apply to the FBI.
"No…" She replied, her voice sounding confused.
Emily touched something on the screen and when she looked at the results, they hit the center of the Truth section.
A few more dull questions in and Angie was a pro. She replied quickly and with confidence. Most of those questions she already knew about, she had done extensive research before joining the FBI. Very extensive research.
"Last question." Emily announced. "Are you willing to do whatever it takes to join the FBI and to serve this country with integrity?"
"Absolutely!" Angie's face was full of hope. That tiny bow in her hair made her look so innocent, but the fire in her eyes and the drive in her heart showed how determined she was and, to Emily, that was inspiring.
"Sorry! I meant to say YES!" She corrected herself once she realized the machine hadn't taken into consideration her previous reply.
"Good. We're done here. Congratulations, you have passed with flying colors. Not a single lie detected." Emily smirked.
"Thank you, SSA Hotness." The words just rolled out of her tongue before she could realize what she was saying. Damn Bryan had used that nickname one too many times and it got stuck in Angie's head.
"Well, I should be the one thanking you, beautiful young lady." Emily brushed her hand through her hair in a very feminine and coquette way, taking that as a compliment.
Angie nearly waltzed back to the auditorium, trying not to start singing along, in rhythm with her dance-like footsteps.
