CHAPTER 45
YOU GOT THIS
Morgan had once again spent the night at Emily's, but this time sleeping in her cozy little guest room, on an actual bed. In the morning, she drove with him to the main FBI building and he then informed everyone that he had to take care of something, before he excused himself for the rest of the day.
Emily didn't think much of it. Everyone at the BAU was now working in a different Unit, and they were also under investigation, so Morgan had to entertain himself otherwise. Luckily, he had plenty of friends at the Bureau. He did, indeed, go see a few old pals.
JJ had made a point to let the group chat know how boring and cold Kansas was, but she also said that the case was something big and she had a good feeling for the outcome of it. Also, she asked someone to videotape her brief appearance on the evening news, as she had just gotten out of a press conference. She didn't miss her old liaison days, but she still wanted to see it with her own eyes, see whether she had the same impact on TV as she once did.
The BAU bullpen was empty and Emily did not waste a second in there. She only had two days to prepare for the hearing and she was a bit worried.
Garcia gave her bad news in the morning, since Desmond was currently working on a case and unable to help them out.
Well then, Emily just had to come up with a different idea.
Angie had woken up with the book pressed against her cheek, leaving a mark on it from where the edge had pressed against her skin. She'd wear that proudly for the next fifteen minutes, until her skin would go back to its normal shape.
PFT was a bit more hectic that day. She felt exhausted after that, but she had something on her mind.
After training, she didn't waste any time by going to her room to take a shower. She had a new investigation on her mind.
She spent the forty minutes between PFT and her morning class, doing what she loved doing – snooping around for information.
It had all started when she overheard a conversation between a brunette woman with a soul, and a blonde one, lacking said bodily feature.
She had now managed to put a name and a ranking to both women - Section Chief Meredith Fowler and Unit Chief Jessica Meyers. The first on being blonde, full of herself and quite high up the ladder, as of a bit less than a year ago. The second – a very prominent Agent, in the Bureau for years, with a lot of big cases behind her back. And a heart and soul inside of her.
Angie liked one of them and strongly disliked the other one.
A few days ago Angie had told Barbara that she always stood up for people when their rights or feelings were being hurt. She was big on anti-bullying, so now hearing that a blonde bimbo, Section Chief if she may be, was intending on bringing a whole Unit down, by planting false evidence nonetheless…oh, it rubbed Angie the wrong way.
She would gladly put her Amanda-related investigation aside for the moment. She had a more time-pressing issue at hand – to bring down the blonde bully.
Forty minutes of snooping later, Angie had managed to get some information that might be useful for her. All she needed now was for the sun to set, so she could work her magic. This time, however, she wouldn't bring Bryan along for the ride. This was something she had to do on her own. Also because, if she failed, she'd be packing to go back to wherever she came from.
In the meantime, she had to nail her morning class, go to her lunchtime job, then run back to the food court to grab a quick lunch with a bunch of Trainees and then go to the afternoon class, which presented them with a surprise.
When the class started, she joined her new friends at the auditorium for what was supposed to be their second class on witness testimony and investigation techniques. They all sat down, expecting the elder man to walk through the door.
Instead, walked in a ball of curly hair, sticking everywhere, on top of the shoulders of a slim, tall man, much younger than what their other teacher had been.
"Oh, thank you, Santa!" Angie muttered to herself.
"As if you've been a good girl." Bryan smirked, not really getting her point.
"Hi. Hello. Hi." The man said awkwardly, walking over to the podium and trying to pin the microphone on his shirt.
It fell to the floor, creating the most unpleasant sound in the whole auditorium.
"Sorry. Sorry. I didn't mean to…" The man acted awkwardly.
He kept on touching his hair and it was obvious he was feeling extremely anxious to be standing in front of so many people.
A few people started to laugh when he kept on fiddling with the tiny microphone, which he had now managed to switch off completely.
Angie, being in the front row, and also being someone who hated it when people laughed at someone, stood up and walked to the man, helping him put the mic in place and do a quick sound test first.
"Oh, hi!" The guy said when he finally caught a glimpse of Angie's face.
"You got this!" She whispered, smiling at him before she turned around and went back to her seat.
"Alright. Now we can start. Hello everyone. Hi." He kept on stuttering awkwardly and Angie made an effort to catch his attention.
She smiled at him again and he found that gesture to be so endearing.
"Okay. I am Doctor Spencer Reid. I am here, I mean, I work here, for the BAU. I uh…" He trailed off. He had been asked to introduce himself briefly, but he didn't know what else to say.
"Okay, that's it." He said lamely. "But not for the class. No. The class is starting now."
Angie could hear a few people still chuckling and she turned around, giving them her most fierce icy stare. She just kept on staring at the group of thugs until they stopped being rude.
Then, she turned back to face her new teacher and she grabbed her new tablet, eager to learn so many new things.
"We are going to study some cool things now. Raise your hand if you love quantum physics?" He said enthusiastically and saw about five hands in the air, all from guys and girls who came from forensic science majors at University.
Angie raised her hand as well. She figured she liked it. It was something new, something she had a lot to learn about. And she liked the unknown. Hence, she liked quantum physics, too. Simple logic, really.
Reid wrote some stuff on the whiteboard and asked if anyone knew what it meant. Apart from two hands in the air, the rest of the auditorium was completely silent and immobile.
He asked one of the guys to come over and explain and he did so. Reid was impressed, the guy knew what he was talking about.
"Okay, now I'm going to explain it from the beginning. You see, this letter corresponds to-…" He started off, followed by a long speech about things that most of them had no idea even existed in science.
Ten minutes later, after the full explanation and one more example, he asked if someone wanted to come try with a new formula.
He wrote something down and saw the same five people raise their hands.
Angie did not, because she was not feeling sure she could answer him perfectly.
And then she remembered SSA Clara Seger's words – they were not there to be taught perfection. They were in the Academy to learn how to learn from their mistakes.
"May I?" Angie suddenly put her hand up in the air.
"Don't tell me you're a physics genius too!" Bryan whispered to her.
"Maybe I am. Maybe I just don't know it yet." She chuckled and walked to the whiteboard after the teacher had given her permission.
She took a moment to read the whole formula twice. It was way too long and complicated. And then she thought back on his previous words, the explanations.
Her lips started moving a bit shyly, as she tried to explain what she was seeing. But she felt so intimidated and so judged by the people who were now about to start laughing at her for being a failure. She didn't care what people thought of her, but if they thought she was dumb, it made her upset sometimes.
"You got this!" Reid wrote on a small piece of paper, placing it where she could see it.
He wanted to tell her those words, the same words that had given him courage at the beginning of the class, right before he was about to turn around and run out of there like a scared little girl. But his microphone was on, so he opted for some old school note-passing.
Angie smiled when she noticed his note and she took a deep breath. She then remembered one more thing he had mentioned – it was an exception from the rules. And then she took another good look at the formula.
"Okay, well everything is just fine…" Her hand trailed its way from the beginning of the formula, almost to the end.
"Until here." She stopped, leaving a few letters out. "Because, as the exception from the rule says-…"
She then continued, trying her best to use the words that Reid had used when he had explained the thing earlier.
"Very well." Reid said honestly when she was done talking. "Thank you…?" He added, asking for her name.
"Trainee Angela Hunter. Nice to meet you, Doctor Reid." She said politely before returning to her seat and giving the group of guys who were previously laughing at her, another icy stare. She loved proving people wrong.
The fact that she had just called him Doctor meant three things to him – he liked her; he liked her a lot…and then he liked her some more.
He continued the class, mostly interacting with those five people, out of the whole crowd. He was painfully aware that people were yawning and being bored, but the few ones that actually cared, were giving him quite the satisfaction.
By the end of the class, the ones who were listening and trying to learn something, were actually happy with this last-minute substitute teacher. The rest of them left quietly.
"Hey?" Angie walked over to him as everyone was now gathering their stuff and on their way to lunch break.
"Hello." Reid said awkwardly. He wasn't good around women, especially beautiful ones like this young lady. He always felt uncomfortable around them. Unless it was JJ, because – as stunning as she was, she was his best friend and personal confidant and she always made him feel at ease.
"I really liked this class. I mean, I'm more into chemistry, but I quite enjoyed learning a few new things from you. I like the way you speak – you are so confident in your knowledge and you have a boundless vocabulary, alluring personality and, well, I really like your hair, too." She said with a soft smile. Because it just wouldn't be her if she didn't add something way out of place.
"Also, thank you for encouraging me." She added with a wink. "It sucks that you were a substitute only for today. I would have loved to attend another one of your classes.
"Thank you, actually." He said, now feeling a bit less anxious. "Actually, I will be subbing for one more class, tomorrow. Although, I'm still not sure what to teach."
"Really?" Her whole face lit up when he said he would be teaching again. "Can you, maybe, teach us about geographical profiling?"
He raised an eyebrow, studying her face and that enthusiasm on it. First of all, she was really young. And no young person ever used words like boundless and alluring, unless they were Reid himself. Secondly, who on Earth had interests, as specific as geographical profiling?
"Well, I guess I could. I mean, I'm pretty much used to people sleeping during my classes, but if only just one person is listening, it's good enough for me. And there's this case that my Unit closed last year, I could use that as an example, because that's exactly what helped us solve the case. Hmm, that's actually quite a good idea. Although, I was going to go with something a bit more epistemological…" He trailed off and then remembered the last five times he had used that last word. People had no idea what he meant with it, so he automatically started to explain. "Sorry, that's from epistemology-…"
"Epistemology, the branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge." Angie cut him off and continued that definition with a content smile on her face.
"Exactly." Reid was impressed by her vocabulary. He was intrigued by this girl, on a strictly academic level.
"I have to go now. It was really nice meeting you, Doctor Reid." It was the moment when she would usually extend her hand to someone, for a handshake. But, with Reid, she did not. And he was glad, because as clean and proper as she looked, Reid hated touching people's hands. They were full of germs and he would never back down from that idea, even if he had become extremely good at hiding it lately.
He watched her walk towards the door, while he replied quietly, mostly saying this to himself anyway. "Nice to meet you, again…"
There was something on his mind. Something about this girl gave him the impression that this was not the first time they had met.
"Entrée…" Richard said to whoever it was that was knocking on his office door.
As soon as he saw who it was, he regretted giving them permission to enter.
"Que veux tu?" He said snappily.
He hadn't interacted with Victor for over a day now, ignoring his texts and calls after the escort scene at the restaurant.
"Come on, man. I'm your best friend. I deserve more than an icy cold: What do you want." Victor frowned. He hated it when Richard distanced himself.
"I have tons of work to do, now that Claus…and Marie…" He sighed.
He had already spoken to Claus' family and they had taken the news badly, as it was to be expected.
"What did you tell his wife?" Victor asked hesitantly.
Those situations were always hard to handle, but with what they did, it was even worse. Their lives revolved around lies, betrayal, more lies and fake identities.
"That he fell off a cliff while snapping photos of the landscape." Richard shrugged.
"Oh yeah, that's what he wanted. I remember he wrote that on his Wish letter, just in case." Victor sighed.
Each one of Richard's people was required to write a letter, with a story. If anything ever happened to them, Richard and his team had to make sure their family and friends hear that story and nothing else. It was their last wish, in a way, written in advance.
"Yeah, she told me all about his previous travels and the beautiful photos he has taken all around the world…" Richard could not help but roll his eyes. If only that poor woman knew what her husband was really doing, all around the world.
"Hey, if it gives you any peace of mind, this is what Simon wanted, okay? He'd be okay with it. He chose this for his family. At least his wife thinks he died peacefully, during an accident." Victor sat down across from Richard.
Subconsciously, they had both started calling Claus by his real name – Simon. They figured now that he was dead, it was no longer a threat to his identity. And the man deserved some respect, on a personal level.
"I know. I keep telling myself that, but Simon didn't deserve this end. Any news on the autopsy?" Richard asked, already spotting files in Victor's hands.
Victor placed the papers on his boss' desk and let him read it all on his own terms.
"Oh my God!" Richard gasped.
He had seen brutality, but the cause of death for this man was something else.
"Yeah…" Victor looked away. The bad news did not stop there.
"I just hope that Marie is somewhere safe, in hiding. But she hasn't reached out to any of us, and it has been over 24 hours now." Richard had checked with his team and nobody had gotten a word from Marie since she said her last goodbyes before she left.
"Uhm, about Marie…" Victor was relieved that Richard had brought her into the conversation. It gave him a smooth transition to what he had to break to him next.
"They found her…" He added hesitantly.
"Found her? God, please don't tell me she's dead as well?" If Richard didn't have enough on his mind, he was now freaking out over this, as well.
"No, no. She was alive. That's the problem…"
"How is that a problem?" Richard raised an eyebrow.
Victor had butted heads with Marie lately, but he had nothing against the woman. So, to say something like this now was unexpected and borderline rude.
"Okay, promise not to freak out?" He started off, but Richard made no such promise. "Fine. Well, she tried to cross the border and she got stopped by the border police for a routine check. In the trunk of her car, which was stolen by the way, they found the drugs…"
"What!?" Richard did indeed freak out. "My drugs!? Please tell me she didn't do this to me? Please tell me she wasn't dumb enough to go against me, out of all people? After everything I've done for her!"
Victor shrugged, because it seemed like she had done exactly that.
"Oh, no, no, no…" Richard held his head with his hands, shaking it lightly, in disbelief.
"But, those were my drugs. Our drugs. It was our big bust. She knew the stakes were extremely high. She was going to get a huge reward for this whole thing. Why on Earth would she go against us and steal our merchandise? She ruined everything. God, did she negotiate with the sellers, too? Did she pay with my money? Why would she do that? I trusted her. God, I'm never trusting a goddamn woman again, ever in my freaking life!"
"You kind of already don't, so…" Victor instantly regretted his smart comment, regarding Richard's last few words. It was out of place.
"God, Marie. Why!?" With that, Richard's fist bumped against the table so hard that it made the paper folders levitate for a second before they hit the surface again.
"Oh, no, man. No, no, no. Calm down. You can't have another fit. Not at work. You know what happened last time…" Victor tried to knock some sense into his best friend.
He failed at it.
Richard got up from his seat and grabbed Victor by the collar. Two seconds later, Victor was with his back against the wall, and Richard was right in front of him, looking at him fiercely, like he was going to hurt him.
"Don't remind me of that!" He yelled at him.
"Richard, calm down, damn it!" Victor yelled back, because in a moment like this, yelling was the only way to get through to Richard.
"I can't calm down. We've been working on this for months! And Marie ruined everything. Do you know the blow I'm going to take now? Huh? Do you know what this would do to my reputation? This and the fact that the other guy on the job is dead. Goddamn it, Victor!"
"Shh. Keep your voice down. Please, I'm begging you!" Victor put his hand over Richard's mouth, trying to muffle down those screams. "I don't want you to lose your job because of this. Come on, don't be stupid."
"Oh, what do I know? Maybe you'll turn out to be a traitor, just like Simon and Marie. Maybe you want me to lose my job. Or, were you in on their little scheme? For all I know, you could have ordered the hit against Simon!"
"Richard, you are making no sense. Please, stop talking!" Victor was offended, but more than that – he was scared for Richard. He had seen him go down and get himself into trouble and he'd be damned if he allowed it to happen to him one more time.
"Get out of here, Victor!" Richard finally let go of his collar, now all crumbled.
"Dude, come on…" Victor tried to argue, but he knew he'd never win. Not with Richard. Not when he was like this again.
"GET OUT OF MY DAMN OFFICE, VICTOR!" Richard yelled at him and at that point Victor decided that the only way for Richard to shut up and stop yelling was if he really just left him alone in there.
"Give me your gun?" Victor asked, on his way out.
"I'm not going to kill myself." Richard argued.
"Give me the damn gun!" Victor walked over to his desk and got it himself, before he walked out, shaking his head.
He would be damned if he let his best friend vulnerable, in the presence of a firearm one more time.
