CHAPTER 11

I BELIEVE YOU HAVE BEEN BENCHED

Friday morning, 6 am, Dan's voice had just oh-so-kindly woken up the trainees, informing them that they would be having actual lectures today. First up – physical training from 6:30 to 8, followed by 30 minutes of relaxing, shower, change and a light run to the auditorium, since nobody had the super powers to do all that in such a short time.

Angie was ready first, so she let Amanda take her time while she hurried out.

Angela was a night owl. She often referred to herself as a vampire. She loved the darkness, the inability to see clearly around herself, the need to open her eyes a bit wider and to use all of her senses, in order to get oriented in the pitch black that surrounded her. At home, she would never switch a lamp on, the most she ever used were her favorite fairy lights, or a little led lamp in the cases where she was reading until late.

Another thing about her – she really enjoyed books. And no, not the digital format ones that the cool kids read on their Kindle, in the subway. Angie loved actual books, the ones made of paper, and the more yellow it was, the better. It spoke to its authenticity. She found the smell of greasy finger stains on old paper mesmerizing. She also found the idea of being more intelligent than the average human being, in diverse areas of interest, absolutely marvelous. She was not a nerd, not that she would ever admit to being one anyway, but she was pretty close to it.

She did not own too many books, actually, barely any. She preferred to go to the library, maybe meet someone equally as interested in something, while searching the shelves. Often, she would go without a clue what she wanted to read, and she would come out with a huge smile on her face and a bag, full of books, that were often more than half her body weight.

When it came to her interests, there were no limits. She had read a lot about astrology, medicine, pediatrics, architecture, business management, finance, urban and extra urban infrastructure, agriculture, animals, but the one thing she would always prefer, above all of those, was criminology. She was fascinated with it from an early age, to the point where it was disturbingly weird. What other people thought of her, luckily for her, has never bothered her, though.

And yet, she also loved the mornings, those early mornings, especially when the weather was nice. That day gifted her one of these mornings. She stepped outside the dorms and let the faint light hit her face. It was twilight, the sun wouldn't be rising for an hour, so it was the perfect compromise between the night and the day. As if it were a fairy tale, she heard birds chirping and saw a few of them hop from one tree to another. Looking up, she saw a leaf falling down so graciously. It swayed left and right, being pushed by the gentle morning breeze, and it fell slowly, rising up a few times and whirling around, before it finally hit the ground. She smiled, the back-and-forth movements reminded her of the Viennese Waltz and Angie, being somewhat of an old soul, loved ballroom dancing. She loved dancing, period.

"Good morning, FBI." She said to absolutely nobody. She was so deep into her own thoughts, seeing flash-forward scenes of herself in uniform, with the badge and the gun by her side, that she spoke out loud without really knowing she was doing so.

"Hey, weirdo, move!" Some guy yelled at her as he was jogging in her direction and she was now standing in the middle of the little pathway that lead to the forest.

"Can't wait for you to call for back-up someday, so I can be an ignorant bitch to you, too!" She yelled back at him, keeping in mind what that Emily person had said in her speech – they never knew who they would end up working with and whose hands they would have to put their lives in.

"Oops, never mind. That's instant Karma to you. My favorite kind." She smirked, watching the guy tumble on something and nearly face-plant to the ground. He had turned around to yell something smart back at her, when he failed to notice some pebbles on the ground and those had misbalanced him.

She had ten more minutes before she'd have to report to the outdoors training area, so she decided to wander around. Wherever Angie was, she loved exploring. She was a curious creature and she always wanted to know more, about everything.

Walking towards her destination, she looked left and right, spotting a few secluded places. One of those she would definitely have to re-visit, with a book in hand. There was a bench and a small table right in front of it. Both were made out of wood, and clearly very old, as little bits and pieces had literally been chopped off, leaving it all broken, uneven, used, old…and, in Angie's eyes, so damn perfect.

Another place she discovered was a small pond that she only managed to glance at from a far. There were a couple of trees right next to it, making it perfect for those sunny days when one would want to be outside, but still under the shade.

Maybe it was the fact that she had dreamed of the Academy for so long, but she found every single thing there to be extraordinary. Or maybe it was the fact that the world had roughly taught her to appreciate the little things in life.

"Shoot, that's not good." She muttered, checking the time and realizing it was 6:27, which only left her with three minutes to report to where she was asked to be.

"How do you even have the strength to go running before training, at this time of the day?" Bryan teased her when she approached the bunch of familiar faces, a few drops of sweat forming on her forehead.

"Apparently, I don't." She replied, breathlessly.

She had severely miscalculated the time and distance between things. On a map, the FBI property looked quite compact. In reality, however, it was quite a big chunk of territory, with the Academy alone occupying 547 acres, surrounded by fancy walls and fences. It felt so cool, like she was now living in a gated community, along with a whole bunch of other cool people.

"Alright, everyone…" Dan seemed awfully chipper. He must be a morning person. "Those ten Agents by my side are on active duty and they have kindly sacrificed their morning, to be with us and help us get in shape. So, please, make them proud."

There was something about Dan that Angie liked. He had a nice voice, that was a very important quality for Angie. She had a thing where she would not judge people by their appearance, but by their voice. A book she had read when she was twelve years old had taught her about timber, voice specifics and recognition, accents and more. But there was something else that made her feel good when Dan was around and it was definitely not physical attraction – the guy could be her father and Angie's fantasies were not even close to anything like that.

"Come on, guys. We can do this. We're the 6%." Angie smiled while stretching out her legs.

"Huh?" Bryan's roommate Jack said in confusion.

"Every year, only 6 percent of the applicants are accepted for basic training at the FBI Academy." She stated calmly. "I have a good feeling the graduation rate would be even lower this year."

"How could you sound so calm about that?" Bryan raised an eyebrow.

"Because I know for certain that we are going to graduate." Her left hand went up to check if her pony tail was tight enough and if her tiny bow was in place. "That includes little Miss Amanda, too. God knows where she ended up…" She looked around the field, unable to spot her frenemy, and hoping that she hadn't fallen back asleep after Angie left the room.

Jack smiled, finding her optimism quite intriguing. She was, clearly, the youngest trainee this year, and yet the only thing that pointed to her young age was the bow. Apart from that, she acted and spoke like a grown up with major life experience behind their back. She kind of spoke with authority, like she gave the impression that she wasn't going to take anyone's crap. She was ironic, funny even, but her words inevitably hit the right spot and communicated the right message. People often chose against arguing with her, afraid of just how stubborn they'd find her out to be after an actual argument. She had her moments of giggles and banter as well, but for the most part, if someone got to know her, they would know that she was an incredibly smart, hard working and motivated person.

The trainees were divided into groups, each group doing a specific bunch of exercises at the assigned area on the field. Every thirty minutes, groups would swap areas, until two and a half hours later they had rotated them all and the training was finished.

A few lucky ones received personal feedback from their assigned Agent trainer, but when Angie heard nothing about herself, she simply asked for it.

"Excuse me, SA Lear, may I, please, get some feedback as well?" She said politely, approaching her trainer with a small smile.

The Agent looked her up and down and thought for a moment before she replied. "You have great stamina, your breathing is very well balanced through exercise and you are able to push yourself over your limits, without wearing yourself out."

Those words made Angie smile. She hadn't been fishing for compliments, but it surely felt good to receive them anyway.

"However, you lack upper-body strength, particularly in your arms. I saw you hold a perfect vertical for a minute earlier, but that is not enough. Your hands have to be able to support not only your body strength, but also the one of a person much bigger than you." The woman who spoke was taller than Angie and much more well-built. That made her words sound even more intimidating.

"Let me put it this way: you have really good skills, but you have to work on perfecting them and getting even better. Imagine you're out on the field and another Agent gets hurt. Now imagine it is a man, a very big and heavy man. Not only are you left in battle with no back-up, but it is also your duty to get him out of the line of fire and find a secure place for him to wait for further back-up. How are you going to do that if you don't know if you are able to support more than your own body weight? What if you are hurt as well, and yet you have to help him anyway?" It all made perfect sense now.

"I understand, Madam. Thank you for your feedback and I would make sure to work on that. You were very helpful." Angie nodded in appreciation before she went to join her group of friends.

The woman shook her head. That girl was either taking the complete piss out of her with that choice of words, or she was extremely well educated and well-spoken. Plus, she had the courage to go to a superior and ask for something that she had been deprived of. That was admirable.


"How is she?" JJ ran down the hallway, rubbing her eyes as if she had been able to sleep that night.

"Stable. There is nothing to worry about." The doctor exhaled.

He had just started his morning shift and this blonde representation of the energizer bunny was still pacing around the hallway, just like when he had left her ten hours ago when he had clocked out after his previous shift.

"Except for the side effects?" JJ half-asked, half-stated, with a frown.

"Miss Jareau, I can assure you she will be just fine. All she needs is some time to relax, away from the office. Maybe she could take a small vacation, go somewhere, enjoy the sunshine, not worry about work…" He suggested.

"Yup, she's definitely screwed!" JJ couldn't help but say it out loud.

"Prentiss? Is Prentiss okay?" Garcia had just woken up by the sound of a familiar voice.

Attempting to stand up, she realized all of her muscles were tense and aching. She had slept in a plastic, stadium-like roll up chair, and it was giving her a bad case of memory attack from the day she had been forced to go support her step-brother at a five-hour long high-school rally and she had fallen asleep during the game.

"Can we see her?" JJ continued bugging the doctor who was now trying to take a step towards his next patient's room, for his morning check-up rounds. JJ was having none of it. She blocked his every attempt to move.

"No." He replied, taking one more step.

"Why not?" There was no letting go, as far as JJ was concerned. She stood right in front of him.

"Because visiting hours start from twelve." The doctor sighed, getting a bit irritated by this woman.

"But we are Federal Agents!" Garcia took a couple of steps forward, now standing right in his face, with her hands crossed in front of her chest and her FBI badge hanging from the side of her skirt.

"Look, you can't see her. Okay?" He insisted, only to meet two very scary female faces in front of him. He could feel Garcia's breath on his neck and that was probably a bit more weird, than scary.

"Please, have some patience. Go home, take a shower. Come back later, okay?" He tried to reason, extending his hands out as if to show them that he is not the enemy and that he was open to collaborating with them.

It was then that JJ took a deep breath and let it all out.

"Like she said, we are Federal Agents!" She started off. "If we can easily gain access to serial killers, under investigation, in a hospital, then we can surely go see and talk to our Unit Chief when we please. So, move!"

"You're really not going to drop it, are you?" To this question, he received two categorical nods in reply. "Fine, you can go see her. But I'm afraid you cannot talk to her right now."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Garcia stood immobile, trying to make sense of those words, while JJ was already sprinting to the door.

"I thought you said she was okay!?" JJ whined as she walked in and saw Emily.

"She is. She's just not…awake yet." The doctor shrugged a little bit and JJ realized that this must have been the reason why he did not want to let them see her yet.

"This is all my fault." Garcia paced from the door to the bed and back.

"Say that again and I will hide all of your mugs!" JJ's back leaned against the wall, opposite the bed.

"The dose was high. Her body is unable to work it off so quickly, so all we can do is wait for her to wake up naturally. It would be dangerous to try to wake her up, that would only accelerate the side-effects, if any should appear." The doctor explained and he finally found a moment when neither of the women was looking at him, so he left the room.

Their eyes were now fixed on Emily.

"She looks so helpless." Garcia pulled a chair next to the bed and sat down, gently stroking Emily's hand with one finger.

JJ groaned with annoyance when her phone buzzed.

"What is going on?" Rossi's voice said as soon as she picked up.

"Nothing. We had a girl's night out. We'll be a little late to work today. Emily, uhm, had a little too much to drink." JJ was a good liar, but her voice cracked a little and Rossi was already suspicious. Well, a part of her statement was true, so that really helped her conscious.

Rossi knew that there was no way Tara wouldn't have been present at a girls' night out, so, instead of calling JJ out, he did some digging of his own. Half an hour later, the doctor walked in Emily's room, with Rossi by his side.

"Mio Dio!" He exclaimed in Italian.

"It's not as bad as it looks." JJ bit her bottom lip.

Of course Rossi would have been able to track Emily through hospital records. This was the hospital most Agents went to, so it was only a question of a simple phone call and he had found out where Emily was.

"It's my fault." Garcia had never let go of Emily's hand since they walked in the room, while JJ had kept her distance, afraid that if she stood any closer, she would start balling her eyes out.

"Garcia, the mugs!" JJ reminded her threateningly, and it was the best way to shut her up.

"Let me explain…" JJ continued a little more softly, now turning to face Rossi and telling him what had happened.

"Garcia, why would you do that?" Disapproval oozed from Rossi's voice, but when he saw how nervous the poor woman looked, he decided to go easy on her.

"You need to go home and get some rest." JJ pointed a finger at Garcia.

"Oh, because you don't?" She tried to be cocky, but it wasn't working.

"I believe you have been benched." Rossi re-enforced JJ's statement - Garcia had to go.