CHAPTER 48

II DOESN'T MAKE YOU STAND ANY TALLER

After the class, Angie briefly greeted Bryan before she went to the library.

"Uhm…" Barbara said when she saw Angie.

"Hey girl!" She said cheerfully, but then got invited to sit down and it looked like things were serious.

"Okay, so remember how I told you we were going to pay you with food tickets?" Barbara asked and Angie nodded. "Well, my boss was away for like, a week. And he only just got back this morning. He didn't really like the idea that we have someone around here. He refuses to pay you. So, I guess I'm going to have to let you go. And I'm sorry. I really like you, but it's his decision."

"But…he already paid me, remember? I have a whole block of fifty tickets now." Angie reminded her.

"Yeah, about that. I have no idea how they got here. I just found them on my desk, with your name on it. I figured he had sent them for you, but he was clueless about that when I mentioned it. I had emailed him about you, but I realized he never read that." Barbara shrugged. "I'm really sorry, Angie…"

"It's okay. I understand. I mean, I could give those tickets back…" She suggested.

"No. Keep them. Whoever left them here, they clearly were intended to end up in your hands." Barbara said softly.

"Alright then. Uhm, I guess I should go then…" Angie felt a bit weird. She just got kicked out of a job that she liked so much.

Barbara just looked at the floor, hating to be the messenger.

Angie then grabbed some food to go and she ate it in the dorm, in front of the huge Amanda investigation board. She put in a few more words on the timeline and then looked at it proudly.

"Well one good thing came out of today – Amanda is most definitely alive." She stated proudly.

"Angie, are you here?" Bryan walked in, finding her on the floor, grinning.

"Yup." She nodded.

"What the Hell is this!?" Bryan seemed a bit upset, pointing at something that had been delivered to their dorm after she had entered it, twenty minutes ago.

The courier had knocked, but Angie never heard him, as she had her earphones on, playing music loudly.

She stepped out and clapped her hands happily.

"Yey, it's here!" She eyed the three big carton boxes, signed Amazon Prime.


"So, we're back to square one?" Garcia said with a frown, popping down on a bench in the yard.

"Yes. For now." Emily confirmed, holding her cup of double black espresso. The third one for the day and it was only lunch time.

"The hearing is tomorrow…" Garcia said weakly.

"I know." Emily sighed. "I have a feeling we're looking at it the wrong way…" She added, after a moment of thought.

"If she is playing dirty, can't we do the same?" Garcia's suggestion met disapproval from her boss.

"No. I fight fair. If I take a bitch down, I want her to know she went down because of me, not because of something I orchestrated, like her pathetic false evidence all around our offices. God knows what they have found already." Emily took a sip of her coffee, already feeling her hands shaky.

"JJ is coming back tonight." Garcia changed topic, but it didn't change Emily's mood. "Why did you split the team?"

"Because I want to show the Superiors that, even if they don't assign anything to us, it's not like we are going to hang around and do nothing. We would proudly offer our expertise and extend a helping hand to our fellow Agents from different Units. Because this is what the BAU stands for – hard work. But also – team work. We don't let anyone mess with us. Ever!" Emily said with her head held high, feeling a lot like that Emily Prentiss that Morgan had told her about two nights ago.

"Woman, you are smart. And I love you. And I am so offering drinks this weekend!" Garcia's chuckles got interrupted when Emily gave her a stern look. "Oh, right. I forgot about the whole 'I drugged you by mistake and now you can't drink' thing…"

Emily rolled her eyes. She had considered being a bit harsh with Garcia about that stunt, or at the very least letting her know exactly how much it had screwed her up. But, looking at Garcia's face, she simply could not do it.

Instead, she finished off the last bits of the coffee, desperate for it to give her the strength to come up with a solution in under 24 hours.


Meanwhile, Morgan was spending the day on his own. He needed this, he wanted to walk around and let himself pretend like he still belonged there.

Looking around the campus, he smiled through his pain. It was bittersweet. More bitter, if he had to be honest with himself.

His feet hit places that once felt like home. His eyes laid on things, people, that he once knew. But his mind did not allow him to feel the same way he felt before.

Instead, he felt a certain worry. Angst. Pain in his chest.

Regret…

He had one thing in mind and he would not rest until he achieved it. At the very least – he had to try.

So, during his hours of wandering around, he went to see some old pals.

"I already told you, Derek. It's not something I can do for you. I'm sorry." A guy, visibly older than Morgan, said sternly, at the end of a very short, but very intense conversation.

"Come on, man! After all those years…I ask you one favor. One!" Morgan said dramatically.

"I'm sorry." It was obviously this man's final decision, so Morgan left his office without another word.


Before the afternoon class, Angie gathered a few of the Trainees and started whispering some stuff to them.

"That's a cool idea!" One of the guys said, laughing.

"Yeah, it's a harmless little prank. And it would be so funny. I'm in." One of the female Trainees joined in on the enthusiasm.

"When and where?" Someone asked Angie.

"Tomorrow at 10. Main FBI building, second floor. Room A-15. Don't be late!" Angie smirked. "Oh and come by my dorm later to grab the outfit." She added before their teacher walked in and started preparing for the beginning of their class.

"I thought Prank Week was at the end of the Academy?" Bryan asked quietly, as the class was now starting.

"Yeah, but that limits how many people can do it, since most of them are going to be cut by then." She said, so damn sure that she wouldn't be among the ones cut by the last week.

"Well, this is going to be fun." He smirked, hoping those outfits she mentioned would be nothing like the ones from last night.


"I'm sorry, Morgan. You lost those privileges when you left the Bureau. I want to help you out, but my hands are tied here." Yet another man gave him bad news.

That would not stop him. Morgan had one request and he would turn the building upside down until he found the person who would say Yes to it.

He had spent his whole Wednesday and Thursday on his own, visiting old friends, practically begging them to help him out. All he ever heard was a categorical No.

"Derek Morgan?" A male voice came up from behind him, while he was minding his own business and eating on his own, like the loser that he felt. "What's bringing you here?"

"Old friends." He shrugged, biting his sandwich like it was someone's head getting chopped off.

"Oh, all that anger, boy. Not good for you." The man teased.

It was lunch time. They were now sitting by the entrance of the library wing, where Angie was currently exiting, seemingly pissed off, mumbling at herself and mentally offending the guy who ran the library for firing her from a job that she was good at.

"I guess I'm not the only angry one." Morgan laughed, watching that girl go off, as if someone was next to her, listening.

"Oh, this is nothing." The man waved his hand dismissively.

"What do you mean?" Morgan suddenly felt intrigued.

"She's…I don't know. I haven't figured her out yet. But she's quite the weirdo, honestly. Nothing she does surprises me anymore." The man smirked, looking at Angie almost proudly.

"Trainee, I see." Morgan commented on the obvious, since the girl was wearing her Trainee uniform.

"Not just any Trainee…" The man replied. "My Wild Card."

"Oh, she's this year's Wild Card?" Morgan laughed out loud, shaking his head.

"Hey, don't let the bow fool you, man." The man pointed out. "She's smart, tough and just so damn irritating."

"Dan, I have a feeling you'll have your hands full with this one here." Morgan pointed out, watching as Angie turned the corner and disappeared from their sight.

"You know, you might just be right about that…" Dan started off, having an agenda. "She's been doing pretty well in the Academy so far. But I'm only starting to mess with her. I need someone, a tough man, to put her confidence down. Maybe mess with her head a little. Someone, like, one of the trainers at the Academy. I had a guy in mind, the one who leads their SWAT training, but yeah, he quit on us, so…tomorrow's training is going to be hard without a teacher…"

Morgan smirked. He knew exactly what Dan was doing there. And yet, he let him have his win, since it fit perfectly with what he had been trying to accomplish for the past 48 hours. Maybe Dan would be his Yes answer?

"He quit, huh? Tough luck." Morgan said casually before standing up and walking away.

Dan smirked. He had known Morgan for long enough to know all the right words to say.

And Morgan was not all that mad about it.


Much like the BAU, yet another team was suffering at that same very moment. Well, at least their Unit Chief was.

SSA Jessica Meyers, or as Angie had named her – the brunette with a heart, from the bathroom drama; was now nervously pacing around her office. She had basically been bribed into taking part of the BAU takedown, or her own team would be added to the Section Chief's list for revenge. And SSA Meyers was a smart and very ambitious woman. Driven. She would not let anyone ruin her or her team.

But…so was Emily Prentiss. So, what gave Meyers the right to choose sides? Especially if it were choosing the wrong side of this dispute. Why would it be okay for Emily's team to be ruined? What if someone was doing that to Meyers' team?

All these thoughts were overwhelming. It was midday and she was in desperate need of a drink. She had been a mean girl in high school and those were days that she didn't look back on with joy, much like Bryan and his player dude days.

She sat down on her big, comfortable Unit Chief chair and started rocking, with her eyes closed. It was making her a bit sleepy and in trying to calm her body down, she allowed herself to jump into memories that she actually liked.

Within a second, she saw herself in full uniform, on her graduation day from the FBI Academy. She had been one of the best trainees of the class. The moment she had laid her hands on that badge and gun, she had made a promise to herself: never put people down. She had been lucky enough to have an amazing supporting system through the Academy and all she ever felt was a push, in the right place, at the right time. So, becoming an Agent, Jessica Meyers swore that she would never take someone innocent down.

Suddenly, there was a pain in her chest, bringing her back to the reality of the current day, where this was exactly what she was doing to the woman who had been extremely happy to see another female Unit Chief around. She had been genuine, she had smiled and she had given Jessica quite the awesome, genuine, warm hug – one during which Jessica had no fears or doubts whether Emily would put a knife in her back, kind of like what she was now doing to her.

Yes, she had pulled back from the takedown, which now meant that her own Unit was the next one to be messed with. But it wasn't enough. As afraid she was to speak up against the Section Chief, she also couldn't bring herself to go on, destroying a woman who had been nothing but nice to her. Hell, Emily Prentiss had sent thirty-five donuts to Jessica's house when she made Unit Chief. And she was now going to send Emily Prentiss back home, jobless? Nah.

"Miss Meyers, something just got dropped off for you." Someone called out, standing by the door of her office.

She looked at the box – it seemed to have been packed in a hurry. It was sloppy and she hoped it wouldn't contain a wax figure with her face on it and her neck chopped off. Because, as crazy as the Section Chief was acting, Meyers wouldn't put it past her to do something like that.

Opening the package, she started laughing. It was empty, the whole box was just a box, containing a KitKat bar on the bottom, sitting on a printed piece of paper.

She opened the KitKat first, being a sucker for chocolate, and she took a bite. Jessica had a mind of her own, even if she had recently let herself lose it a little bit. She liked doing things her way. So, she bit the KitKat off sideways – something that infuriated so many people. She usually never had this bar in public, although she had allowed herself to have one in the morning, while talking to Section Chief Fowler. She had intentionally bit a huge piece off, sideways, hoping it would make the other woman upset, since nobody in the world would ever eat a KitKat in such a savage way. It hadn't really made impact on the blonde one, unfortunately.

But it had made impact on someone else.

She put the paper on the table in front of her while, without a care in the world, she took another bite sideways as she started reading the text.

"Did you notice how you just bit that thing? You took a bite off all the sticks, simultaneously, right? You did not chop one off and bite it on its own, eh?"

She raised an eyebrow. Was she being paranoid - had she had just read a metaphor about herself, singling Emily Prentiss' Unit out and biting their heads off, now that they were the targets?

Nah, she was being paranoid.

"Those sticks stand tall, only when glued to one another. They are stronger. More alluring. Harder to bite, aren't they? But you like a challenge. You like proving yourself and you wouldn't let the world pressure you into breaking one stick off before destroying it on its own. No. You are a kick ass woman, who would bite all the sticks, at the same time. Because you don't care what people say about you. And if they have an opinion – they can bite it! Because you stand tall and you know to every stick, there are similar others, ready to stand tall, holding hands, making that unity invincible! You've worked so hard, all your life, to stand tall, to stand with them, not against them. You are that middle stick, surrounded by beautiful, lean other sticks, equals, strong, powerful, holding you up and making sure you won't fall. That's what made you stand out in the Academy. That's what made you Unit Chief. That's what made you such an amazing friend to the people around you. You should be proud of who you are, deep down inside…and never forget that nobody would ever chop your stick off, because you are surrounded by amazing support that would never allow that to happen. All you can do is return the favor, when they need it."

Yes, she was now being full on paranoid. Because all this talk about sticks and support was just hitting all the right buttons.

"You can always tell who the strong women are.

When women support each other, incredible things happen.

Empowered women, empower women.

Be the kind of woman who makes other women want to up their game."

This was the middle part of the letter, a bunch of empowering women quotes. She raised an eyebrow, while her heart skipped a beat.

"Walking over someone else does not make you stand any taller!"

And that was what really hit it for her.

Screw paranoia, this was a life lesson.

She then saw something scribbled on hand, by pen, at the far bottom of the paper, as if someone couldn't help but add it after printing.

"PS: I hope you don't choke on it. I genuinely wanted you to enjoy the sweet treat!"

That made her laugh so hard. All through reading the letter, she had kept biting sideways.

Overwhelmed with a sudden sense of ballsiness, she grabbed her phone and sent a text to a 'stick' that she was recently about to chop off, having caved under pressure.


"Em, your phone." Garcia commented.

They were still outside. Emily could not get enough fresh air. Or maybe she just found it hard to breathe inside that building. Either way, she made it a point to not show her face around the building.

"I doubt it would be something important." Emily sighed, now mentally detailing her new plan of action for the hearing.

"What if Morgan wants to get in touch with you, so you can give him the keys, so he can go have a nap at your house?" She said lamely.

"He has my back-up set of keys, Garcia." Emily stated calmly.

"Oh, he does?" Garcia raised an eyebrow.

"You mean, the extra set of keys that you told me you do not own?" Garcia added, faking being upset.

"Yes, that one." Emily smirked, playing along with Garcia's game.

"The one you refused to give me when I asked to stay over at your house while you were away for that weekend, last month?" Garcia kept on pushing it.

"Yup, the same one." Emily tried too hard not to laugh. Garcia was a mean one when she was upset, or when she has detected a lie. And right at that moment, she was both.

"Oh, you liar!" Garcia then, not giving a crap about their work clothes or even the few people who were randomly walking around at that moment, jumped against Emily, tickling her and tackling her to the ground.

Emily could not help it – she burst into laughter, now rolling against the wet grass, with Garcia, flipping her hair back and forth, on top of her, pretending to be fighting.

"Stop, stop. Oh my God stop. Please!" Emily was now finding it really hard to breathe, for real. If one thing could take her breath away for real, it was being tickled continuously.

"No! You have to suffer!" Garcia stuck her tongue out at her boss and continued mercilessly.

"Garcia, last time you were over, I had to dust pink glitter off my bed for the next month!" Emily continued laughing and rolling around, trying to escape.

"Well, I'm sorry. But I'm not sorry! I'm cute and I like pink and I also like glitter! So, if I had to sleep in your vampire-like crib, the least I could do was to spice it up with my own fluffy pillows." Garcia finally admitted that the glitter was her fault. As if Emily wasn't sure of it.

Finally, Emily got control over the fight and was now on top of Garcia, who was facing the ground, with her hands against her back, as if Emily was about to make an arrest.

Garcia laughed, thinking it took Emily quite a while to overpower her. And then it struck her.

"You let me lead, huh?" She asked shyly.

"The victory would be even sweeter if you thought you stood a chance, BabyGirl!" Emily said with a smirk, imitating the way Morgan usually spoke to Garcia.

"Oh, I've missed him." Garcia squealed, trying to get away from underneath Emily. For a tiny woman, she was heavier than expected.

"Me too." Emily sighed, sitting on top of Garcia. She had done that so many times, after an arrest, that it felt natural to her.

"Sausage about to burst!" Garcia warned, feeling like she was now unable to breathe.

Emily moved to the side, now sitting on the grass.

"Thank you." Emily said silently and Garcia knew it was referred to the fact that she had contacted Morgan.

"Why did I not get assigned a new task until tomorrow?" She changed topic.

"Because…" Emily pointed at herself, now soaking wet, with grass sticking from the pockets of her smart suit and wet mud covering most of her left leg.

"I needed this." She added. "And you, Penelope Garcia, are the only person who can give me this."

Penelope smiled, assuming that by this Emily also meant those silly giggles, the rolling on the ground, that cute smile that was now on her lips. It made her feel good to know that she had, in turn, made Emily feel good.

Emily then grabbed her phone, to check what time it was, but one of her new notifications caught her attention.

"Jessica Meyers? Wow, I haven't heard from her in a while. She's one of the good ones around here." She commented, opening her text message.

"Hi, Emily. Haven't talked to you in a while. Won't ask how you are, because I already know. I'm ashamed to say that I was part of the reason why you feel this way. I let them pressure me into breaking off a stick, when I should have really bit that KitKat sideways, as I always do."

Emily stopped reading for a second. Was that woman drunk? Why would she talk about a KitKat?

"I need to warn you about tomorrow. She's coming after you, hard. And I don't think you have anything to hide, because I've learned so much from you, but the one thing you really taught me was integrity! And I refuse to believe you have lost it, along the way. I see the way your Unit looks at you and I know you are a woman to own up to her mistakes, not bury them. So I'm sure you have nothing to hide."

Emily sighed. That was only partially true.

"But they've messed with your offices. Be careful what you say around there, the whole place is wired. She's waiting for you to admit defeat, so she can use it tomorrow morning. She also planted a gun in one of your colleague's offices. And she's going to bring up something from your past, in order to take you down. That's all I know. I hope it helps you in any way. And just know that I can't believe I let her bribe me into participating, even though all I ever did was nod when asked if I think you are hiding something. I am no longer part of her crew and, if you'll have me, I'll be there tomorrow morning, standing beside you! Like the pieces of KitKat."

Was that woman insane? What was up with all those KitKat references?

"Garcia, read this!" Emily handed her the phone after she finished reading it herself.

"You were right! They have nothing on us. They are just waiting for us to screw up!" Garcia smirked. "Woman, you are a genius and I love you!" She added, once again throwing herself against Emily, but this time for a happy hug.

And Emily had always loved Garcia's hugs.

"Well, this is good news. She doesn't have anything on us now, but she is bringing up my past and, oh, that can get pretty ugly…" Emily shrugged. She had done quite a few questionable things, back in the days.

"Don't worry. You will have amazing support, we will be standing right beside you – like KitKat pieces!" Garcia had appreciated the metaphor and was now going to incorporate it into her dictionary.

"Not you too!" Emily laughed, finally understanding what the metaphor meant.