CHAPTER 69

ONE OF THEM I LOVE. THE OTHER ONE, I'M IN LOVE WITH

"A neutron star is the collapsed core of a giant star which before collapse had a total mass of between 10 and 29 solar masses. Neutron stars are the smallest and densest stars, excluding black holes, hypothetical white holes, quark stars and strange stars." Reid went on and on about something that none of his colleagues had even asked about.

In fact, none of them even knew how that subject even came up in Reid's mind. They were now queuing for food at the airport Chick-Fill-A and everyone was more focused on the menu anyway.

"In fact, and this is a fun fact, guys…" Reid continued pushing it. "A teaspoonful of neutron star would weigh 6 billion tons."

"Uh-huh." JJ was, by now, very much used to giving him the satisfaction of believing that there was at least one person listening.

"Stop it, Reid. I was mentally trying to make the best combo under 15 dollars." Luke found himself having to start over. Math and numbers were really not his thing.

"It's literally right there, in front of your eyes." Reid pointed at the menu where a huge sign explained the new 14,99 dollar promotion.

It was time for Luke to feel dumber than he ever had. But, surely, that was a given, if Reid was anywhere near him. Or anyone.

"Nobody asked you, Dr. Brain." Luke let out a silent chuckle, cutting the queue and now standing right in front of Reid.

"Ouch, hey! Not cool, dude. I was here first!" Reid was not going to give up his place, but also – he was not going to start a verbal or physical fight with Luke over it. Reid had a brain. Luke had muscles. A lot of them. Everywhere. Reid stood no chance in that fight. So he did the smartest thing he could do – he delegated to JJ.

"JJ, he's being mean to me again!" Reid whined.

"Well, that's because you're being annoying, pointing out you're smarter…again!" Luke protested.

"That's because I am! And literally, a five year old would have seen that huge sign." Reid continued pointing at the new promotion.

"Boys, behave! Or I'll have to ground you both!" JJ was way too hungry to even consider getting in the middle of their little fight.

Those two reminded her of her sons, so she treated them as such when they deserved it.

"You think she's fine?" Rossi asked Emily, cutting in front of Tara who was now discussing a double menu option, to split with Matt.

"With that combo she's getting? Yeah, she's fine!" Emily laughed. But that was not what Rossi was asking.

"She's fine." She then gave up and gave him an actual answer.

"She's very good at hiding her true feelings." Rossi countered, having this overwhelming feeling that JJ was just pretending.

Emily shot her a glance. JJ was smiling and it did not seem overly-happy, which pointed out to it being genuine. Whenever JJ expressed too much emotion, it was usually fake and Emily could always tell.

"I'll talk to her." She reassured Rossi and then they both got distracted for a moment, realizing that JJ, Tara and Matt were now ordering first, while Reid and Luke were still going at it.

"By the way, you did an extraordinary good job today." Rossi added, making it sound super casual, so that it wouldn't be weird.

Emily just nodded.

They had been given a case that nobody else wanted. It had gone by for four long weeks, with four victims involved and no questions answered. It wasn't the hardest case to crack, but nobody was willing to dig deeper into it and to find the truth. Yet. Not until the BAU came along. Not until the Unsub dared put his hands on JJ and a child. Emily was not going to have any of it. Something had rubbed her the wrong way and she had come out of her shell with the bat of an eyelash, cracking the case with ease.

Emily Prentiss would be damned if she let another girl suffer, if she let another child die.

"A cracked egg on land might make a big mess, but 18 meters – that's 60 feet, below the surface of the ocean, the pressure on the egg is 2.8 times atmospheric pressure, and it holds it all together like an invisible egg shell." Reid continued to bother Luke, as they had now just ordered and were waiting for their food to be ready.

"Please, make it stop!" Luke said desperately, not really aiming it at anyone specific. Any person who could shut Reid up would be a person Luke was grateful to. For life.

"Awwh, guys. I wish I could give you good news." Garcia's voice sounded.

Emily had dialed her and had dared put her on loudspeaker from the get go.

"No Go on our flight yet?" Emily sighed.

"Nope. Nada. Zilch!" Garcia could be heard, placing a mug on her work desk. It was a sound that neither of her teammates would ever be able to misidentify.

"Have you tried-…" Emily was going to ask if Garcia had called one of the Superiors, but she got cut off immediately.

"Oh, my sweet darling…I don't think you even want to know the things I have tried, in order to get your fine tush back home. And I mean that in plural. I miss all of you." It took Garcia less than twenty seconds to start getting mellow.

"It's only been two days, G." Emily tried not to laugh, because what she was about to add had to sound somewhat authoritarian. "We will discuss your ways of getting things done, when I get…my uh, my tush back home."

She could not help it. She laughed.

"What's a tush?" Reid asked Rossi who was siting between him and Luke now, making sure they wouldn't poke each other with the plastic forks. Just like in kindergarten.

Rossi's shoulders rose up and he was not partaking in that conversation.

"Wait, what's a tush?" Reid started to feel left out. For a smart guy, a guy who found mistakes on Thesaurus, he sure felt dumb to not know the meaning of that word.

"Do I have a tush?" He suggested, since Garcia said she missed all of their said things.

"Yup. A damn fine one at that." JJ was the only one who sacrificed her sanity, in order to reply to him. And, for some reason, she did not hold her words back.

"Hey, Garcia?" Reid now leaned over the table, hearing how Emily was finishing the phone conversation and she was about to cut the call.

"I miss your fine tush, too." He added, with some newly-found confidence.

He still had no idea what a tush was.

Nobody wanted to change that fact.


Angie and Kevin had resumed their normal class activities for the day, after staying behind with Clara for a few minutes. That evening they had a meeting with the entire IRS, to discuss the case. They had both been instructed to give absolutely no information, to anyone, in the meantime.

That alone, made this day so hard on Angie. She was used to telling Bryan everything and he was a curious guy who kept on asking questions. She managed to dodge them until she was forced to tell him that she was unable to give him any answers. At least, at that point, he finally stopped asking.

Their last class for the day finished at 8 pm and she had to run straight to the main building, if she didn't want to be late.

Yet, she kind of was.

At 8:06 she nearly knocked the door down, sweat dripping from her forehead, as she saw her new temporary team for the first time.

Kevin was already there, since his group in class had been called to do their project presentation first, so he was then allowed to leave ten minutes earlier, so he could be on time for the meeting.

"Hi. I'm so sorry. I am never late, I promise. This won't ever happen again." She said breathlessly. "Well, actually, I can't exactly promise that. It's like…I didn't want to be late now, but here I am and I'm also sorry, but I haven't had a shower since 5:30 this morning and I know how disgusting that is. But it's just life and that's how it is and you just gotta keep rollin' with it."

"That's your choice?" SSA Jack Garrett, The IRS Unit Chief, looked at Clara in disbelief.

"Oh, just wait for it…" Clara shrugged, mumbling her reply to him, as she was not entirely sure what she could expect from the Wild Card.

"Sir, I can be a bit too much to handle, but I promise you one thing. No, two things!" Angie corrected herself quickly. "One - I would work my butt off and I would do anything you guys need. You name it – I'm on it. And two – I would make sure ain't none of ya'll be havin' a miserable time in good ol' Cuba, baby!" She raised her voice enthusiastically with her last statement, but saw only raised eyebrows, staring back at her.

"Ok, fine. I'm Trainee Angela Hunter." She introduced herself briefly and formally, like she had heard so many boring people do. Since those ones did not appreciate her natural enthusiasm, she'd pretend to be boring, like them. Maybe then they'll like her.

"SSA Jack Garrett." He nodded at her politely.

Jack had been through a major trauma just a few years ago. After spending some time in a hospital, he took some time off, in order to heal properly. After that, he was faced with the hard decision – keep his job at the IRS or let go of the team. The latter was not an option. During his healing period, which strangely coincided with Emily Prentiss' healing period in France, when the BAU thought she was dead, Jack's IRS team had been let go of. Matt Simmons had joined the BAU after an in-depth course in criminal profiling. Russ Montgomery, otherwise known as Monty - the IRS' technical analyst, had been assigned to a different team, while SSA Mae Jarvis found herself only working just as a medical examiner, which is what had brought her to the FBI, before she had completed the Academy with Matt Simmons and became a field Agent. It wasn't perfect, but that was how things had gone on for a while.

Clara Seger? Well, she had disappeared for a little bit. Her weird passion for anthropology made it impossible for people to question her alibi – being away from everyone, in order to find herself again. That was the official version, the one she stuck to, each time someone questioned her about those seven months of absence from the Planet Earth.

When Jack had announced his return to the team, things had picked up from where they had left off, but it was weird without Matt on the team. He was the only one who did not return. The IRS never hired a new member. Yes, they had substitutes for a few cases, but nobody really fit in with the team, enough to be invited in, as a regular team member anyway. This was one of the reasons why they needed some help now, with their Cuba case, since there wasn't many of them left. Clara had begged Jack to let her bring Trainees to help out, claiming that it would be a valuable learning experience for them. Jack had been absolutely against that, but he had been forced to cave in at the end. Clara had a way of convincing people.

And yet, seeing this bubbly young ribbon-accessorized thing in front of him at that moment, Jack questioned everything in life, but mostly – Clara's sanity. How could she choose someone who looked like…an airhead. A Barbie doll on steroids. The Energizer Bunny after a few Red Bulls. He had no words to describe Angela.

However, he quite liked Kevin, who was quiet, calm and composed.

Angie shot a glance over to her teacher, Clara, before she looked down at the table, in front of her, pouting. She could tell she was being judged poorly.

"I'm Monty! I saw you at the BAU hearing last week!" Another team member introduced themselves. He had been there to support his long-time friend Penelope Garcia – someone he respected so much.

"Hi." Angie said shortly, not wanting to come off any more weird than she already had.

"Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Mae Jarvis. Just Mae." The girl net to her extended her hand and she was all smiley and sounded quite bubbly. That finally allowed Angie to feel a bit better.

"Hi." Angie tried to be short with her, too, but failed at it. "Gosh, hot pink lipstick would look so damn fine on you, with that skin tone, your hair, your curs, ugh, girl, you'd be a firecracker!"

"Okay, we are now friends for life!" Mae blushed, her handshake turning into a fist-bump, as if to show the sudden shift in their relationship.

Angie chuckled and so did Clara. She had been sure that those two would click well together.

Jack had been in a really nasty mood lately, for whatever reason. Something had been bothering him, maybe in his personal life, so he had been lashing out on anyone and he did not miss the chance to let Angie know he disliked her instantly. He was a nice guy, generally. He was the kind of man who would go out of his way, to make others feel good. However, seeing him be so pessimistic when he met Angie, made Clara suspicious. She could not remember the last time Jack had been rude, not even to an UnSub.

Clara would now make it her life's mission to figure out what Jack's problem was.

He handed a file folder to everyone, sitting by the table. Angie and Kevin could only open it after they heard a confidentiality speech about whatever it was – Angie had zoned out half-way through that speech. She could grasp that it was confidential and it was way above their clearance level, which was beyond zero at the moment, so she knew that she had to keep her mouth shut. It was all she needed to know.


"You miss her, don't you?" Victor asked, despite knowing the answer.

He had just walked in Richard's office, catching him eyeing a framed photo of himself. Half of that photo was missing, it seemed like someone was cut out of it. Victor knew exactly who that was, he had taken the photo himself.

"Yeah…" Richard sighed.

"It's for her own safety. You know it." Victor sat down next to Richard, who was on the large sofa, with his feet up on the table.

"I know. I just…"

"You're not good at letting amazing women slip away?" Victor smirked.

"Something like that."

"You did the right thing, letting this one go. She deserves a shot at the happiness she is looking for. And you couldn't give this to her. You're not what she needed." Victor tried to sound neutral, but if he had to be honest – he missed her too.

"I know…" Richard trailed off, placing the photo frame back on the small stand, next to the couch.

His office sometimes doubled as his bedroom. It sure felt that way. He had a night light, a pull up couch that he seldom slept on, when he couldn't be bothered to drive back home, only to drive to work again, a few hours later. He had a mini fridge, granted, full of nothing but alcohol, but still, it had a homey vibe to it. Then there was the desk, the locked up drawers, full of secrets. And the photos…

Richard's eyes laid on another framed photo, one that sat on his desk. It was the only photo in which he had not cut the other person out. It was of him and his late wife. He had figured – why not? He didn't need to protect her identity anymore. It wasn't like anything worse could happen to her now.

"You have Lauren in your life now." Victor pointed out, sensing how Richard was going down Memory Lane, thinking of his wife.

"Do I?"

"Yes, you do. I mean, no, maybe right now you do not, but give her time. You know how she is. Let her work out her own issues, let her come to you on her own terms. And when she does – I pray to God you'll be smart enough to do the right thing. It's not going to be easy, but you need to be the man she needs you to be. You have to put you aside, for her. You know what I'm getting at, don't you?"

"I do…" Richard nodded.

Victor had a valid point, but Richard knew it would be even harder than it sounded. He knew it would be messy and confusing, he knew that if he made even the tiniest mistake, he'd lose her. Forever this time. And that put an enormous amount of pressure on his shoulders.

"I need to get back out there…"

"Oh, no, no. Not happening. You just had a few thousand bones dislocated a few days ago, your face is still purple and you look like a clown with that busted lip. You're not going back out there. I took care of it, I have people lined up for the job." Victor argued. There was no way he'd let Richard put himself in danger again.

"It's my job, Victor. It's what I do. I need to be out there."

"I said: no! Plus, you have the Charity Gala in a few days. You need to look presentable."

"Can't I just write a check?"

"No. People need to see your face around there. Networking, my friend, it's what keeps you relevant." Victor once again had a point.

"You know, it's weird…For a man whose face shall not be seen, I sure do make a lot of public appearances." Richard laughed. He was a man of mystery.

"That's fine, as long as the media doesn't catch up on it. Then you're screwed."

"Ugh, tell me about it. I already have to deal with people's surprised expressions when I say my name at random places, you know, restaurants, hotels. It's kind of fun, I swear those people fear for their lives when they hear it. Which, clearly, is ironic."

"I'd run for my damn life if I didn't know you and you came up to me and introduced yourself." Victor said honestly.

Richard kind of had an air of mystery, of sophistication, of trouble, surrounding him.

"When did my life become the plot of a movie?" Richard was in a good mood now, he was even laughing now, cracking jokes.

"Dude, if they ever made a movie about you…" Victor slicked his hair back.

"I better not be the dumb ass best friend-slash-right hand man. I have to be someone sexy and irresistible, the brains of the operation, the face on the cover, the guy who drives a Bentley…" Victor added dreamily.

"Well…you do own a Bentley." Richard laughed, pointing out the one and only thing that was legit, from what Victor had requested.

"Damn, you are hurting my ego, man!" Victor dramatized, with a hand on his heart.

Richard looked at him and smiled, but Victor could tell he was not there, mentally. He was thinking of something else, of someone else.

"What?" Victor asked curiously.

"You just reminded me of her…" Richard pointed at the first photo frame, the one next to the sofa.

"Such a drama queen." Richard added with a smile.

"Ah, that she was. Do you think she kept that characteristic? Or you think she's just someone completely different now?"

"Oh, she definitely kept it. It's who she is. She could never tone it down. She's the life of the party." Richard traced his hand against the photo frame. He would give anything up, if he could see her one more time.

"How the Hell can you love two women, at the same time?" Victor asked.

"It's easy. One of them I love. The other one, I'm in love with." Richard smirked. There was really no better way to explain it.