CHAPTER 67
GOOD GUYS DRESS IN BLACK, REMEMBER THAT
"What's the plan?" Reid asked, waiting by the fence, along with the rest of the team.
Everyone's eyes were now on Prentiss.
The last time she had taken a decision for the team, one extra person had suffered the consequences. Needless to say, Emily Prentiss had to be freaking out now, having to take another decision. Worst of all, it happened when her case assistant had turned into the UnSub's latest victim. Life kind of sucked for Emily Prentiss at the moment.
But…did it, really?
She kept her head held high and thought for a brief moment.
"We are breaching. If the UnSub already completed his fantasy and he now has two more victims on his hands, he no longer needs to wait. He would feel the urge to get rid of them. So, every second we spend out here, means a second less for JJ and that poor child." Emily said, with absolutely no hint of stress in her voice, or on her face.
"On three…" She added, making a sign in the air, for the team to follow her lead.
"I don't know what has gotten into her…" Reid leaned over Rossi's shoulder, whispering. "…But I like this Prentiss. Like, a lot!"
Rossi nodded with a smirk. There had been no doubt in his mind that Emily would step up her game, after last month's case. It took something as stressful as possibly losing someone from the team, for her to wake up and start thinking clearly. And she was killing it.
Rossi kept his eyes on Emily as they slowly made their way to the house. Matt, Tara and Alvez secured the back-door, while the rest of the team got into position on the veranda upfront.
"Yes, be the kick-ass Emily I know you are!" Rossi said in his mind, his unspoken encouraging words directed to a woman he deeply loved and respected for so many years now.
"Carlton Webber?" Emily called out, her first bumping against the front door once she received confirmation that everyone was in position.
"FBI, open up!" Her hand was now on the grip, realizing the door was cracked open. How convenient.
"Mhhhhh." A muffled sound of someone in pain, came from inside the house.
This was their official invite inside, now having a valid suspicion, thus a cause to search the house, and Emily wasted no time in kicking that door down, even if it was open. There was something so satisfying in watching an old rusty door hit the floor with a loud bang. She now understood why Morgan always did that, back in his glory days, when he was still with the team. It was all about dominance, power, being the one in control.
"Blood!" Emily pointed out, as soon as they walked in.
There were blood stains on the floor, as if someone had dragged a bleeding body from the living room to the exit door. They presumed that, given the direction of the stains, those could not have been from neither JJ nor the child.
"Must be from the previous victims." Reid commented.
"Guys…" Emily pointed to the living room, making her way there quickly.
She spotted a shoe, sticking out from behind a big rocking chair.
Last time she had seen this very same shoe, it had been on a mannequin, in quite the fancy shop, and she had been begging JJ to buy it for herself. If Emily Prentiss knew something in life, with certainty, it was shoes.
Now this shoe had blood on it and was abandoned by an old man's chair.
"Mmmmmh!" Another desperate moan came from the living room.
"Carlton, drop the metal bar, step away from the girl and slowly put your hands in the air." Emily commanded, walking in and assessing the situation.
JJ was bound and gagged, glued to a kitchen chair that the man had clearly been kind enough to drag into the living room, only for her.
The child was nowhere to be seen.
JJ's bare foot swung and with her tip toes she pointed in direction of the back-yard.
Emily got that hint and something dawned on her – Tara, Simmons and Alvez had not yet entered the house. They were the ones guarding the back door.
The UnSub had a metal bar in one hand, one of those sticks that people would use for the fireplace. It was held right above JJ's head, threateningly.
The man looked freaked out. Emily could read it on his face that he knew he was busted and he knew everything was over. She had no doubt he knew his end was coming and that he would not mind if that end was a bullet to the head. Therefore, he would be ready and willing to hurt one more person, even if it were a federal agent.
"The girl you are holding hostage, she is from the FBI. Now, Carlton, you don't want to do this…" Rossi started off, his tactics being negotiation.
"It won't work." Emily said out loud completely undermining Rossi's authority. It was not working on the UnSub anyway.
"He doesn't care. Do you, Carlton? To you she is just a number. What is it, nineteen? Twenty, if you have already killed the child? Wasn't that the plan? To kill twenty people, to finish those twenty years of god service at the station? You deserve the reward, the praise, the one that was roughly taken away from you by your boss, don't you?" Emily walked over to him, only after dropping her gun.
"Prentiss, what are you doing?" Reid squeaked from the corner, keeping his gun pointed at the man.
"No? You haven't killed the kid yet? I wonder why…" Emily spoke slowly, but with a very ironic undertone, one that a reporter would definitely catch.
"Maybe because you realized the child is not fair competition, huh? He's too small. It wouldn't give you any satisfaction. So I guess you dumped him somewhere and you're hoping we'd find and kill you, before you'd have to get rid of him, too. Isn't that right?" She said challengingly, now standing closer to him.
Carlton gulped, looking even more psyched out. His eyes were big, as if he had been drinking, his breath reeked of alcohol anyway, and his veins were about to burst, for whatever reason.
"That's right. Because you find a seventeen year old, helpless high-school kid more of a fair opponent. This is how you see yourself – a weak, pathetic man, who can only take on a weak, innocent girl. But the moment you saw this boy, abused by his father, you needed to save him…" Emily kept talking and with her last words she completely lost both Reid and Rossi.
"You heard me. You saw the abuse and you saw yourself in that child. No, you did not kidnap him to kill him. You are not capable of that. Instead, you wanted to save him, the same way you wish someone would have saved you when you were nine years old and your old pops came back from work, drink and messed up. Isn't that right, Carlton?"
Rossi finally caught up with her game. However, Garcia never told them any facts that would suggest this kind of abuse in Carlton's early years. And Emily seemed so damn sure in her words. So what was it? Was she bluffing? Or was she really a damn good profiler?
The UnSub started feeling ill-at-ease. Emily noticed his hand twitch, yet it was still above JJ's head, holding the metal bar.
JJ's foot kept on pointing towards the backyard. Emily could not ignore that fact any longer.
"Reid…" She muttered and he understood the command.
Leaving just Rossi with a gun pointed at the UnSub, Reid walked away, searching for the back door.
"I didn't want to save him." Carton said weakly. "I wanted to save his soul." He added, which freaked Emily out.
She had figured the motive for kidnapping the child was connected to the UnSub's childhood. However, she did not realize that he did not want to put an end to the child's presumed abuse, in a very conventional way.
A loud splash startled everyone. JJ started moving her head left and right, as if she was trying to get rid of the gag, so she could speak.
Carlton swayed the metal bar and Emily, being unarmed, could only do one thing – she jumped at him, tackling him to the floor and disarming him before he could even blink.
"Oh, yes, Emily!" Rossi muttered underneath his breath, loving every second of this fight for dominance.
He stood beside them, but he did not interfere. Emily could do this on her own. She needed to do it on her own.
"Daddy? Where is my daddy?" A young voice was heard, screaming in the back yard.
When Emily placed the handcuffs on the man's hands, she passed him on to Rossi before she let JJ free.
"ChayChay, are you okay?" She whispered, holding her close and feeling her fastened heartbeat.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. He just hit me on the head, that's how he overpowered me. I'll be okay. But the kid, he's in the-…" JJ spoke frantically, still pointing to the back yard.
Instinctively, Emily helped JJ stand up after she released her from the ropes and they walked out to meet the rest of her team.
Luke and Matt were completely soaked in water, and so was the child, who was now sitting on the edge of a small swimming pool, spitting water, coughing and crying his heart out.
Emily noticed Matt and Luke started going around the back yard, searching for something. They came back with a pair of gardening scissors, cutting a rope that was attached to the kid's hands and feet. At the end of the rope, there was a large stone.
"Oh my God!" Emily exclaimed.
It now downed on her what the UnSub meant when he said he wanted to save the child's soul. His plan had been to drawn the poor kid.
The kid was freaking out. He could barely take a breath, but he kept asking for his daddy. Neither Luke nor Matt were able to get closer to him, without him screaming his water-filled lungs out. They were men, and a man had just tried to kill him, he was old enough to understand that. And he wouldn't let another man closer to him now. Emily could relate to this kind of emotional damage. She had suffered it, for years.
"Hey? Hey…" Emily said softly, already standing by the boy's side.
She sat down by the pool and held her hands out. The boy instinctively moved closer and let Emily hold him.
No matter how wet and cold her clothes got instantly, there was a certain feeling she was glad to be feeling at that moment.
Warmth.
The little boy's head rested against Emily's shoulder and he just stood there, in her arms, while crying uncontrollably.
"Shh, it's okay." She whispered, her hands rubbing his back, in desperate attempts to warm him up.
"It's okay, nothing bad is going to happen to you." She added, allowing her chin to now rest on top of his head, as she looked down at the innocent little creature that was in her arms.
His breath smelled like cotton candy and his clothes reeked of chlorine from the swimming pool.
"Why are you scared?" He looked up at her, his question startling her.
"What?" Emily shook her head. "I'm not."
"I can feel your heartbeat." The boy argued.
"It's…" Emily sighed. There was really no way she could explain to a child exactly what was going on underneath the hard outer shell of Emily Prentiss – the Unit Chief.
"Old people business?" The boy suggested, having heard his parents use this phrase whenever he would ask uncomfortable questions.
Emily bit her lip, preventing herself from disliking him, now that he had called her old.
"Exactly." She nodded in agreement.
"Do I remind you of someone?" The boy was not about to give up his passion of asking all the random questions in the world.
Emily assessed the situation. She had been staring at his face since he had looked up. He must have noticed it and therefore, he must have assumed that he reminded her of someone and that was why her heart was beating so fast. Smart boy. He had a future as a profiler.
"Yes…" Emily gulped, suddenly looking away from him, as if she could not take the pain of admitting that fact.
"But you are safe now." She added, stroking his wet hair with one hand and holding him close to her, with the other.
Tara and Matt had gone back inside the house to stay with JJ, who was perfectly able to stand up and walk on her own. She had been unharmed, so far. The blow to the head would give her some migraine, but overall she was okay.
Rossi had taken the UnSub to the car and Reid was now keeping him company, annoying the crap out of the man by talking about quantum physics.
That allowed Rossi to go back for the rest of the team. He had been standing behind Emily, watching the scene unravel, right in front of his eyes. He could hear the boy's words and he could see the side of Emily's face, as she cringed, as she bit her lips, as she masked pain, so she could only show bravery to this little boy. He saw how she responded to his questions and it broke his heart a little bit.
One time, years ago, Prentiss had shared a very personal piece of information with him and her words had stayed with him. To this day, Rossi remembered each word, each breath she took, each time she licked her lips, trying not to break down in front of him, as she had told him a painful memory from her teenage past.
Seeing her now, with the boy, reminded him of that day. He was smart enough to know that pain was not transferrable, and yet, he felt like he could feel each bit of pain, confusion and regret that Emily was feeling at that moment.
As usual, he kept quiet about it. He respected Emily way too much and he would never meddle with her personal life, unless it would be to save her life. Then, he would definitely be getting involved.
"You know what? Your daddy is waiting for you at the police station." Emily tried to stand up, urging the kid to do the same, but he would not move.
"It's okay. We're the good guys." She extended her hand for him to hold, but he was still adamant.
"How do I know that's true?" The kid asked, remembering each time his parents had told him not to trust strangers.
"The good guys dress in black, remember that." Emily smirked and it worked on the kid.
"She did not just win a kid over, quoting Will Smith's Men in Black…did she?" Luke pointed out, somewhat proud of Emily's achievement. He loved that damn song a little bit too much, it was embarrassing.
"She once interviewed an UnSub, using mainly quotes from rap songs. It was hilarious, actually." Reid commented.
If he had to be honest, he only knew these were rap song lyrics because JJ and Garcia had been right by his side, translating everything. And he had never felt so embarrassed to hear such colorful things being said, so quickly and in such a complex way, all coded and just...completely new to him.
The little boy was now walking to the front yard, where the black SUV was parked and waiting for them. His hand was holding on to Emily's and he was looking up at her as they walked, as if to make sure she really was one of the good guys. What if she had cheated? She was, indeed, wearing a dark blue shirt…and that was not black. Was she half-good, half-bad then? That is what the kid's logic pointed to.
JJ walked right behind them, with Reid and Rossi on each side. She was a little shocked, but that was only because she had been scared out of her mind, because of the child. No harm had been done to her, in any kind of way. She had just been thrown on the chair, where she awaited the team to figure it all out. There was no doubt in her mind they would. She knew that Emily would figure it out on her own.
Apparently, as Emily had suspected, the UnSub had been done with his revenge, having completed all four numbers that came up in the comedy sketch. However, the way JJ had undermined him, on TV, had struck a nerve and he had gone there, passing as a reporter, just wanting to confront her. Then, he had seen a father who seemed to be abusive towards his son. The UnSub had no idea that the man had only shushed his son so rudely, because he was interested in hearing all the information, so he could go home and protect the mother of the child from this abductor that JJ was talking about during her press conference.
That was when the UnSub's rage had shifted, from JJ to the father. It had struck a nerve in him, reminding him of his own unfortunate upbringing and his own father who had never been there for him. At some point, the child had let go of his father's hand and he had walked over to the nearby trees, desperately needing to pee. JJ had noticed a child, wandering off to the woods, disappearing in the crowd of angry reporters, and her motherly instincts had kicked in. She had cut her conference short, rushing through her last question before following the child, intending on bringing him back to his father. However, walking to the more secluded area, she had been too focused on finding the child and she had not heard the UnSub, coming from behind her, hitting her in the head. And then she was unconscious. The man then had no other option but to grab both the child and this woman, whom he wasn't really fond of anyway. He figured, this last hit would be double the score for his sick little game. He could save the child's soul and he could get his revenge on the woman who dared undermine him, the same way his boss at the TV station had undermined his twenty years of loyal service.
His van had been parked nearby, giving him the best clean getaway possible. After dragging both of his victims to the van, he had seen the kid's father, going around and yelling for the child to come out of hiding. The UnSub then knew that the father would make a scene and they were surrounded by cops, so his getaway was now compromised, so he had hit the father and left him on the ground, unconscious as well. He was not an important piece to his puzzle anyway. The father had woken up more than half an hour later, before he had entered the police station, asking for help, giving the UnSub enough time to reach his house and put his plan in motion – tying JJ to the chair and then throwing the boy in the pool, just seconds before the BAU team had breached the house.
"You okay?" Emily turned around after helping the kid get in the back seat. She was now facing JJ.
"Mhm, yeah." JJ nodded.
"Where are you going?" The kid asked, watching Emily close the door and walk over to the other car.
The window was cracked open, so Emily could hear every bit of pain in this little boy's voice when he realized that she was walking away.
Without much thinking about it, she tossed her car keys to Rossi, who was now supposed to drive half of the team back to the police station, while Emily sat in the back of the other car, where the child was.
The police arrived at that moment, taking the UnSub into their custody, and the team made its way to the police station, following the officers' cars.
JJ was riding in the passenger's seat of the car where Emily and the kid were. She could not help but shoot a few curious glances over to the back seat while Luke was driving. There was something on her mind.
Emily, in turn, was focused solely on the child, after her brief interaction with JJ. The boy was leaning against her, his head falling heavily against her thigh, in attempts of getting comfortable in a somewhat laying down position. She made a great pillow, even if she was so slim and he could feel her bones, all firm and defined. She reminded him of his mother – also slim, petite, dark hair and a beautiful smile. Each time he looked up, Emily smiled down at him. One of his hands was squeezing her hand the entire ride back to the Police Station, and the thing that comforted him the most was the fact that Emily was squeezing it back. It wasn't a one sided plea for comfort. It was most definitely mutual.
"Abuelita!" A child yelled in Spanish, running down the hospital hallway and ending up in Consuelo's arms.
"Pedro, mi amor!" Consuelo said through tears.
She had just been checked by the doctors and there wasn't even a scratch on her body. She was completely unharmed, apart from the emotional damage the three kidnappers had left her to deal with.
Richard was waiting on his test results and he had insisted on keeping Consuelo company in the hallway, even if he was given a fancy room all to himself. He didn't want to invite her to the room, she must be scared of small rooms and strangers by now. So, they sat in the hallway, waiting for her family and also for the doctors to give her final permission to leave.
His eyes got glued to the child and the sparkles in Consuelo's eyes as she reunited with him just warmed Richard's heart.
"Pedro, this is man who save my life. He is policeman, big and strong!" Consuelo introduced them, so that the child would give her some privacy, to talk to the rest of her family who was waiting to hear the unfiltered truth about Consuelo's nightmare for the past few days. The child did not need to hear those awful things.
Richard took that as a sign to give them some privacy and he acted on it.
"Hi, I'm Richard. And I am most definitely not a cop." He cringed. He had nothing against cops, it was just…something he hated being called.
"I'm Pedro. I've always wanted to be a policeman!" The child said with a grin.
"Oh yeah? What if I told you I had a better offer, huh? How about…" Richard leaned in and whispered something to the kid.
"Shut up! No way. Really? That is so cool!" Pedro almost yelled from the excitement. "Can I try out for that?"
"Tell you what, you're a bit too young to be making that choice for yourself right now. Let a few years go by, maybe ten or so…and then if you still want it, come find me. Okay?" Richard smiled and handed the boy his business card. His real business card.
He looked over to Consuelo who seemed like she was about to cry. Surely she wouldn't want her grandson to see her like this, so Richard nodded at the woman and when she smiled back, it was as if she gave him permission to do what was on his mind.
"You know, Pedro, they have the good candy here. I saw some cool vending machines two floors up from here. Wanna go check them out? Oh and they have the best hot chocolate, too." Richard grabbed the wallet that Victor had been nice enough to leave him before he went back to Richard's place to go grab him some clothes and essentials, for his stay at the hospital. Unfortunately, he'd have to be there for at least 48 hours, because of the physical torture and also, the drugs he had been given.
Pedro asked permission from his mother before leaving with Richard, who whispered to the woman that he would be back with the child in half an hour. He figured it would be enough time for a good family reunion.
They went upstairs and raided the vending machines before Pedro asked to go sit on the terrace, overlooking the hospital parking lot.
It was a bit windy, but it wasn't cold, so Richard agreed to hang out there for a bit. He pushed the door open and let the child walk out on the terrace, while he was juggling four packs of sweets and candy and two medium cups of hot chocolate.
"Sir, you dropped this when you and your son walked out." A man came up to Richard, handing him the wallet that must have slipped off from his back pocket while Richard was struggling with the door, just seconds ago.
"Thanks. He's not uh, not my son…" Richard frowned, feeling the tips of his fingers icy cold as he reached out to get the wallet from this unknown man's hands.
"Sorry, my bad. You just seemed…you seemed like a natural." The man said before excusing himself and walking back in.
"How old are your children?" Pedro sat by Richard's side, on a small chair, and he spoke casually while checking out the many cars, parked underneath them.
"I don't have any…children…of my own…" It was now his heart that felt cold. There was a certain pain that he could not get over.
"Why? You would be an awesome dad. Do you know how proud your kids would be, with a dad like you, with a job like yours? Wow." Pedro was young and so naïve. He liked the idea of Richard's job, however he had no clue what the job actually entailed.
"I never really had the chance to be a real father…" Richard kept trailing off. He only ever did that when he doubted himself or his words and that was practically never, in his life.
"Don't you want kids?" Pedro kept on asking, unable to sense how uncomfortable he was making Richard feel.
"I would actually love to have children…" Once again, he trailed off. His mind was busy, thinking of something in his past.
"Then tell your wife you want kids. That's what my parents did, they keep saying they want to give me a little brother or a sister. They talk about it all the time, actually."
Richard laughed, wondering about all the possible innuendos that Pedro must not have caught on, while his parents discussed that.
"It's complicated. I'm not married…anymore. And I'm not the age of your parents. It's not as easy as you might think." Richard shrugged.
"Well, get married again and then have some children. See? It's very easy." Pedro grinned. Was he already sugar high or was he just a very persistent young boy?
"I wish it was possible…" Richard gulped hard, thinking about the mess his life really was, behind the curtains.
The woman he had feelings for, had no idea who the Hell he was and if she did, she would never look at him again. Then there was also the age factor – by now he could have had a twenty-something year old daughter or son. The possibility of him even being a grandfather, was giving him the chills. Then again, he'd be a very sexy grandfather and he knew it.
And yes, there was also one more fact about him that he tried really hard to ignore. And that fact had a name. He simply could not bring himself to even think about it. This had been years ago and he had been an idiot not to hold on to what he had. Then again, life had different plans for him.
"You know Pedro, you speak French perfectly. Are you bilingual, with Spanish?" Richard changed the subject quickly.
"Yes, we speak Spanish at home and I go to school with French kids. I study English too. I like languages, my teacher says I have a good pronunciation." The child grinned.
Richard could tell he was bright and ambitious. God help him, he reminded him of someone he used to know.
"It's good to know languages. You can travel to many places when you grow up. You can start a business and make it international. Keep on studying, young boy." He messed with his hair a little bit.
Richard was unaware that someone had been watching them from inside the building. They were glued to the window, overlooking the terrace, just observing his interaction with the boy.
"I wish I could take the extra classes in English, but they are expensive and my parents can't afford it. They already pay too much for my school. It's a good school." Pedro frowned.
"Oh yeah? Which school do you go to?" Richard asked, this time switching to English. They had spoken in French so far, but he wanted to test Pedro's English as well.
"I go to Victor Hugo School, situated at 23, Rue de Cronstadt, Sir." Pedro replied, showing good level of English and also, impressive pronunciation.
"Funny, my best friend's name is Victor! I like that name. And I also know where your school is, I've seen it. It's a good school, nice neighborhood, with a park nearby, lots of fun things around the school. Hey, can you promise me something?" Richard chuckled, watching Pedro struggle with one of the candy packages.
He took the package from the boy's hands and opened it for him before letting him take one candy out. Richard figured that Pedro would need both hands, to hold his hot chocolate and to eat his candy, so he didn't want to hand him the entire package to have to juggle with. He knew the pack would end up spilling on the floor in the matter of seconds, so he offered to hold it for him, instead.
Pedro thanked him with a nod before he popped the candy in his mouth.
"What?" He asked curiously. He liked promising things, but only when he knew he could keep his promises.
"If you promise me you will work hard in school, keep your grades up and stay out of trouble as you grow up, I can promise you to give you a chance to apply for your Teen Internship program, at my work. How does that sound? It's like a camp where you learn about the things we do. It's like…career orientation, for teenagers."
As tempting as that sounded, Pedro was not stupid.
"No. By the time I am a teenager, you would have forgotten about me and about your promise." He frowned.
"Oh, trust me when I say this, I never forget about the kids I make promises to. Ever!" Richard said, feeling that sudden pain in his chest once again.
"Ok then, I promise. I really want to know what your job is like. That would be cool!" With those words, Pedro's eyes sparkled, just thinking how amazing that experience could be.
"Good, we have a deal then. Now we should go back in before your family starts to worry." Richard looked at the time and it had been a bit over twenty minutes now.
"A girl or a boy?" Pedro asked when Richard was holding the door for him once again, but this time for him to walk back inside.
"Huh?" He asked, confused.
"If you had a child, would you want a daughter or a son?" Pedro had been curious, he just needed to know. Personally, he wanted a baby brother, so recently he had been going around, asking people about the gender of choice for a hypothetical child or sibling of theirs.
"I would be happy to have a healthy, happy child." Richard replied vaguely, but saw Pedro cross his arms unhappily.
"Okay fine. I have always wanted to have a daughter…" He gave up and just said it out loud.
Anyone who really knew Richard, knew he wanted a daughter. They also knew the reason why.
"What would you name her?" Pedro kept on asking.
Why was Richard dumb enough to believe that if he answered the first question, there won't be others to come?
"I don't know. I've never really thought about it. Like I said, I don't think that having children is possible for me anymore…"
"I bet you would give her an international name. She would be really pretty. My daddy says that boys look like their mothers, so everyone tells me I look like my mom. So then girls must look like their dads, right? Your daughter would be tall like you and smart like you and she will have cool eyes, like yours."
Richard almost passed out. This was not a conversation he'd expect from a kid Pedro's age.
People always commented on Richard's eyes. He kind of hated it, because it was the first thing that women pointed out, when trying to get with him. It was pathetic. He could not help the way he looked. Yes, he could have toned down the work-out sessions and he could have grown a beer belly, like the other men his age, but his eyes were not something he could control. They were just there and they were the way they were.
"Sounds like I'd be the luckiest dad in the world, if I had a daughter like that…" He sighed as they approached Pedro's family down the hallway.
The child forgot all about Richard once he cuddled with his mother. It was then that Richard saw the similarity – Pedro had his dad's darker skin and his dark hair, but he was a copy of his mother in any other way. The figure, the nose, the chin, the eyes…Pedro was identical to his mom.
"No, no. We're not going there again." Victor tapped Richard's shoulder, as if to bring him back to reality from wherever his mind had just taken him to.
He had spied on his interaction with Pedro for a few minutes before he had gone to see how Consuelo was doing and he had waited for Richard and Pedro there, with Pedro's family.
"Thank you, Richard. You strong, beautiful man! I invite you to dinner with my family, you meet my other children there. I will cook some Latino food for you. Bring your beautiful woman, one you told me you in love with. She will love my food. They say, my dessert is an aphrodisiac, eh?" Consuelo added cheekily, making Richard blush profoundly.
He had not expected that.
"Oh, the woman he loves?" Victor smirked. "Yup, she's his very own aphrodisiac after dinner, if I shall say so."
"Shut up, you're a jerk!" Richard whispered to Victor, intending on killing him, the second they'd be on their own.
"You have a girlfriend? See? It's easy to have kids now. Go tell her you want kids!" Pedro jumped at the chance to further humiliate Richard.
It was bad enough that, in a moment of trying to get closure with Consuelo, bound and beaten up, Richard had told her about the woman he liked, but now it was all coming back to bite him in the ass.
"I would love to come, thank you. But I cannot promise she will be there. I hope so, but I don't think it will be possible." Richard smiled, replying to Consuelo. He disregarded Pedro's question, hoping that Victor wouldn't have caught on that.
"I go home now. Thank you. Here I wrote down my number, you call me and you tell me when you can come to dinner, ok?" Consuelo spoke and so far he had learned to not even notice those small errors she made when she spoke French. She was adorable, grammar didn't really make any difference.
"Thank you. I will be giving you a call. Also, Pedro and I now have a deal, so you best believe you will be seeing me again." He waved at everyone and watched them walk towards the elevator.
Just before the elevator door opened, Pedro ran back and surprised Richard, giving him a tight hug.
"Thank you for bringing abuelita back home safely. You are my hero and I want to grow up to be just like you, one day!"
His words almost made Richard cry. He was a big, tough guy. It took a lot to make him cry and yet, such a small human being was able to make him feel emotional, with just a few words.
"Remember our promise, okay? If you still want it, ten years from now I will make sure you get the guidance you need, to get into my profession." He said with a smile.
"And then I can save people's lives, too?" Pedro jumped with joy.
"Oh, this job is about so much more than that. But yes, you can save people's lives, generally speaking." Richard pat the boy's shoulder. Poor thing had no idea what Richard's job actually entailed, but he didn't want to crush his dreams at such a tender age.
"Goodbye Richard. I hope you get to have the daughter you've always wished for." Pedro waved at him once again before he ran back to the elevator and he disappeared quickly.
"…Richard?" Victor said threateningly.
"Okay, okay…Fine. I know. I just…he was asking. I couldn't help it. He's a child, come on. He didn't even understand half the things I said to him." Richard's shoulders rose up a bit.
"Then why did you say those things?" Victor seemed pissed.
"I don't know. I guess, after all those years, I just needed to come out and say it. Okay? No big deal. Can you shut up now?"
"No!" Victor replied sternly. He wouldn't let Richard off the hook so easily.
"He's a child. He's not a mafia guy who would do something with what I told him. would you relax? You don't even know what I said to him…"
"That you've always wanted to have a daughter…that you've always wanted kids…that it was not possible for you anymore?" Victor raised an eyebrow challengingly.
"Wait, Pedro only mentioned the 'daughter' part in front of you…" Suspicion rose in Richard. How did Victor know the rest of it?
"We are trained to read lips, you idiot!"
"You spied on me? On ME? Victor!" Richard whined, feeling like his privacy rights had been violated.
"You best believe I'm going to spy on your ass each time I think you're doing something stupid and going down a rocky path you've walked barefoot before. Now chin up, shut up and show me the way to your room, would you?" Victor knew he had to be stern, if he wanted to get through to Richard.
And Richard knew that Victor was doing it out of love.
"Why is it such an awful thing to mention my-…" Richard started, but Victor did not allow him to end that sentence.
"Because if you want to keep someone alive, you never speak those words out loud. Not in our line of work. Do you understand?" Victor was now raging. He was one step away from beating Richard's ass up.
"But I don't want to live in denial about-…"
"Shut up, Richard!" Victor yelled on top of his words, once again before Richard would be able to finish his sentence.
"You know I'm right and you know the delicacy of this situation. Don't make me yell at you in public. Leave that to the PM, in a couple of days." Victor added, finally breaking the news to Richard.
"Wait, the Prime Minister wants to talk? Damn it, not again!" With one hand on his forehead, Richard groaned in annoyance.
"He personally called to set up the meeting. Two days from now. And that nasty bruise on your cheek better be healed by then, my man, because this dude did not sound happy." Victor was now more calm as he spoke.
They entered the private room that Richard had been given and Victor looked around. If he never had to see the inside of a hospital room again, it would be too soon.
"Yeah, he always acts like he hates me, but then he invites me everywhere and he includes me in those awful golf outings with him and his stuck ass friends from the Government. Ugh, I hate having to attend those." Richard sat on the bed, watching Victor place a bag on the chair, wondering what items he must have grabbed for him, from his apartment. He sure hoped there would be a toothbrush.
"Stop whining, it's the job." Victor rolled his eyes.
Richard was not the typical dude who would be doing this job. He was amazing at it, he just did not like sucking up to the Government. On occasion, he would let them know what was on his mind and, most times, it was raw and unfiltered and it ended in some pretty awkward conversations.
"Fine, let him have his fun, let him yell at me again. I really don't care. He can't fire me and there isn't anyone else above me, on the ladder, who would want me gone. So I'm not afraid. And even if I get fired, maybe it's time…"
"No, you have spent your life wanting this and working your ass off for this. I am not letting you lose the job you deserve. Dude, an entire freaking country wants you to have the job you have, you're the only one whose having second thoughts. Now stop acting like a bitch and tell me what food I should order, because there is no way I am letting you eat hospital food." Victor announced, already checking some delivery options on his phone.
"Do you even have to ask? I'd always want a pizza, you know that. And yeah, I might be having doubts about the job. I mean…"
"Dude, is pizza all you ever eat?" Victor sighed when Richard grinned in reply.
"Also, relax. I'm sure she is smart enough to give you a chance to explain. Stop overthinking it. When the time is right, she'd call." Victor added.
"What if she doesn't?" It was rare for Richard to feel so vulnerable and, in moments like these, he would only ever admit it to Victor and nobody else.
"Then she's giving up on the most amazing man she could ever meet." Victor sat down in front of Richard and he tried to calm him down.
"Look, it's been a while since that week. I think you need to prepare yourself for the possibility of her, never reaching out. Maybe it's time you go out, meet a few new candidates…"
"No. I've done that for years and no one has ever been anything like her. I don't want to meet new people. I want her and I'm not changing my mind." Richard cut him off this time. His mind was set on Lauren.
"You can still go out, play the field. You were in the dating pool before Lauren, right? Who's to say you won't find someone better, if you went back swimming, huh? I'm not saying dive in the deep end, but maybe dip a toe…a few casual dates won't hurt."
"Victor, I don't want to dip anything anywhere unless it is with Lauren!" Richard groaned. He was losing his patience. "And God, that came out so wrong, ugh!"
"And how do you think she would feel about you, wanting children, huh?" Victor raised an eyebrow. It was a low blow, but Richard needed to hear it.
"I guess that's one more problem I need to figure out, before I even see her again."
"Really? Because if you, being you and doing what you do, is not a deal breaker for either one of you, then you wanting children would definitely be a deal breaker for her." Victor then turned his phone around and showed Richard a photo. "Prosciutto, olives and cheddar?"
"I don't care what's on my damned pizza." Richard grunted, even though the photo he just saw seemed super appetizing.
Pizza was not what he was hungry for.
