AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Hi, beautiful readers :) Three years ago, I posted the very first chapter of this story.
I am so grateful to all of you for your continuous support, nice reviews and private messages!
It's awesome to know that you enjoy reading my little creation and, in turn, it is so much fun for me to read your theories and your thoughts on what the big mystery really is!
Some of your assumptions are pretty wild, maybe true (to an extent!), but you have nooooo idea what the major plotline/backstory is and I hope it hits hard when it gets revealed, hahaha! I don't think anyone is expecting it...nobody so far has ever made a comment about it.
A huge THANK YOU to everyone and I hope you enjoyed your holidays!
There is SO much more to be revealed in this story, so stay tuned for updates.
If you remember the song from this chapter's title, you can tell how long ago I wrote this chapter, in quarantine, lol!
I have sooo many new chapters ready by now and I'm eager to share them with you.
CHAPTER 142
BORED IN THE HOUSE, I'M IN THE HOUSE BORED
As soon as Angie walked out of the Director's office, she saw Ben down the hallway, pretending to be minding his own business, but she knew he had waited, to see her.
She walked off without hesitation. All she needed was a safe place and someone to talk to. Someone who would understand. Someone who knew…
"Pick up, please, pick up…" She murmured, holding her phone to her ear, the second she was in private.
Somehow she had ended up in the wooded area, across from the training Campus. At least she was on her own, surrounded by trees and silence, finally able to breathe, even though that was proving to be nearly impossible at that moment.
She felt like there was something in her throat and she could neither breathe in, nor breathe out. She felt stuck in a situation she had never wanted Angela Hunter to find herself in. She had made damn sure this would never happen. She should have known better…
"Hello, dear." A voice greeted her cheerfully after the second beep.
Upon hearing that timber - one she knew very well, Angie broke down even more.
"He knows! He knows about them! What do I do?" Angie said frantically, sitting on the ground as if to avoid her body from collapsing.
She had managed to walk off, to go find a quiet and secluded place to make this phone call from and she'd looked somewhat okay on the outside. But now, hearing the voice on the other side of the line, knowing what had just happened and only imagining what the consequences of it might later on be, she suddenly felt weak, both physically and mentally. Her knees were giving out on her as she had sprinted so fast, towards a place where she knew nobody would find her.
"Oh my God, Angela? Are you alright? What happened?"
"He knows!" She repeated, panting heavily.
"Wait, hold on. Calm down. Okay? Take a moment to relax and start over…Who is he and who are they?"
"Him, you know…" Angie shrugged.
"The Director!?" The other person said, almost reaching Angie's level of stress, within seconds. "And who are they?"
"Really!? Really!? Like, really!?" Angie had never been so freaked out. The other person had recently only seen her calm, so this was new to them.
"Oh. Oh…Oooh!?" They replied, slowly coming to the realization.
"Yeah. I'm screwed. What do I do? Should I run? I do have a back-up plan, you know…" Angie suggested, even though she would hate having to start over, yet one more time. Not now, not when she had a chance at her dream.
"Nonsense! You never run! You face the obstacles and you do it with dignity, with your head held high! Have I taught you nothing in life?" The other person let out a tiny laugh.
"But…he knows! He showed me documents, all the things…all the names. Well, he barely mentioned a tenth of what they amount to, but still - he knew! Please tell me what to do!" Angie demanded.
"Sweetheart, I cannot tell you what to do. This is entirely up to you. You're a grown up now. What happens next should be your decision. Unless he's already cut you from the Academy…"
"No. On the contrary – he told me to keep going strong. But, why? What for? Wasn't he the one who ripped my dream off from me? Why does he want me to succeed?" Angie recalled the man's words and she was now confused.
"Angela, calm down! You're spiraling. Please, breathe!"
"This is calm! If I get any calmer, Imma be levitating!" Angie said, with that occasional thug-like attitude that she reserved for special moments in life.
"I'm sending you a video request." The other person said gently. "Come on, accept it. I want to see your pretty, pouty face." They added, making Angie chuckle a bit.
"Oh, wow. This is far from pretty." They commented once Angie accepted and let them see her angry face, on camera.
"And it gets worse if you don't tell me what to do!" Angie said, demandingly.
"Like I said - I can't tell you what to do. But you can be damn sure that, whatever you chose to do, I'll back you up 150%."
"And you won't leave, even if things get screwed up and I get kicked out of the Academy?" Angie asked in small voice. It almost sounded like a child had asked the question, someone as young as the eight-year-old cutie from the photo she had been shown earlier.
"I'm never going to leave you, okay?"
"Do you promise?" Angie realized just how clingy and annoying she was being, but she really needed reassurance.
"I already have. Now, this conversation can go one of two ways – we can either discuss what is stressing you out, so the conversation would stress you out even further…or I can do my absolute best to distract you until you turn that frown upside down."
"I'll take option number two." Angie smirked, already feeling much better, now seeing this person's face on her phone, not just hearing their voice.
"Great, now guess where I am?"
So far Angie could only see the person's face on her screen and not much else, around them. But, letting herself listen intently, she got a clue.
"Oh my God! Tu es à la Fontaine des Médicis!" Angie stated in perfect French.
"Oui, that's exactly where I am." The person turned the camera around and let Angie adore the view.
"Ohh, I have so many great memories there!" Angie said longingly, thinking of her past.
"Same goes for me, kiddo."
"I miss you…" Angie said, still frowning.
"You have no idea how much I miss you." They replied.
"I think that, when you come back, we need to talk about…certain things." Angie said, brushing the back of her palm underneath her right eye.
"Oh, sweetheart, are you crying?" The other person's heart just broke a little bit.
They knew that this girl never cried. It was a life promise she had made to herself and there was nothing in the entire world that could ever make her cry, unless she would have to fake it, at work. But real, genuine tears, were not an option.
"No, but I really want to." Angie replied honestly. "It's so hard to keep this whole charade going, I just…I sometimes just want to be me and be vulnerable and not be judged for it."
"Nobody is going to judge you for being yourself or being vulnerable, remember that. Least of all, me. You know you can always be yourself, with me, right?"
"I do. That's why I love you so much. Thank you, for everything." Angie's hand was trembling and the entire time the video was shaky and unfocused, but it didn't bother the other person.
"Can you, maybe repeat that, but add my name to it? You know, just to make sure I know who you're referring to."
"Thank you for everything, Emily." Angie repeated half of it, omitting the love confession part.
"Mhm?" She got urged to keep going.
"Stop being smug and go tell your 'I love you' to French Daddy!" Angie laughed out loud as she spoke.
Apparently, the distraction technique was working.
She also heard a gasp, coming from behind Emily.
"Oh snap! He's there, with you, right now, isn't he?" Angie's eyes widened with curiosity. "Show me, show me! I wanna see if he's hot!"
"Angela, zip it! He can hear you!" Emily was now fully regretting having this conversation on loudspeaker, with Richard behind her.
He was minding his own business, but he had overheard Angela's nickname for him, sadly.
"Oh, please. He's French. He probably barely speaks any English. Don't you two speak in French or something?" Angie teased. "Or, wait…you don't speak at all?" She suggested, raising an eyebrow.
Whenever Emily had given her tiny clues about her new 'love interest', she had seemed so smitten that Angie was now sure that Emily would not be able to keep her hands and lips off of this guy. Words would surely be just an obstacle.
Oh, she was so wrong.
"Goodbye, Angela!" Emily said threateningly.
"Wait! Please show me who has gotten you so smitten! Please? I wanna see him! Please?" Angie begged and, apparently even on video, her puppy eyes were just as irresistible. Well, almost.
"No. Get a boyfriend of your own. Jesus, let me breathe!" Emily said dramatically, clearly just messing with the girl.
"I might just do that, out of spite. Don't complain when I have you meet him, though. I'll make sure he's full of tattoos and piercings and we'll ride to your house on the Harley we'd steal from some Walmart parking lot, right before we get hammered and come eat take away pizza with you." Angie smirked.
"Eww, I'm sure you'll be much more disgusted by him, than I am. I mean, God, I've been there-…" Emily was so comfortable discussing such things with Angie that she completely forgot who was standing behind her until he scoffed.
Richard would be damned if he'd sit there and listen about the tattooed guys Emily had previously been with.
"Shit, busted?" Angie chuckled. "Well, look at it from the bright side…"
"Yeah? What would that be?" Emily asked, a little annoyed by how she had almost spilled something she could never take back.
"Make up sex. Duh!" Angie batted her eyelashes innocently, watching Emily feel extremely awkward.
"I hate you, you Devil child!" Emily hissed at her.
"I have to go now, there's something I need to do." Angie excused herself, so they could cut the call short.
She already felt guilty for taking up so many minutes from Emily's precious time with her French Daddy, so she didn't want to drag this out any longer. She needed to calm down and Emily had successfully helped her do just that. This call had to end now.
"Oh yeah? You need to go to your dorm and drown your sorrows in Pineapple juice and destroy a few dozen KitKat bars?" Emily assumed.
"Oh, I do love Pineapple juice! Sadly, I have none. I have a fermented grape juice bottle, though… And no, come on, you know I prefer Snickers!"
"Wine? Girl, don't you dare get drunk-…"
"I'm 23!" Angie protested.
"Do not interrupt me!" Emily tried really hard to come off harsh. "Don't you dare get drunk without me!" She finally laughed after completing the sentence she had meant to say.
"It's cheap wine. Trust me, you don't want to deal with the hangover from this crap. You're way too fancy for this."
"How about we have a fancy wine night, just the two of us, when I come back. Sounds good?" Emily suggested.
"Sounds amazing! Now go have fun and don't let him spank you too hard." Angie nodded and blew a kiss to the camera.
"Angela!" Emily gasped.
Angie cut the call short before she'd get yelled at by a very pissed off FBI Agent.
Emily stood immobile for a few seconds. She was afraid to turn around and to see just how much space there was between her and Richard, hence, just how much he had been able to overhear.
Then, slowly, she felt a pair of hands on her hips before they made their way to her stomach and pulled her an inch backwards until her body pressed against his.
"Boyfriend?" He whispered in her ear and she tilted her head sideways, so she could get a glimpse of his smirk.
"That's all you grasped?" She wants to sigh, but she also wanted to chuckle.
By telling Angela to 'get a boyfriend of her own', Emily had inadvertently labeled Richard as such.
"That and French Daddy and something about spanking and a someone with a Harley…" He raised an eyebrow, pretending to be jealous.
"Okay, first of all – I never called you that! She has a mind of her own and she just comes up with the damnedest of things! Secondly, it wasn't 'someone'…" Emily trailed off, blushing, as she referred to the Harley part of his statement. "It was multiple 'someones'."
"Daaamn! You've been naughty…" He wasn't sure if he felt comfortable hearing about Emily's intimate past with others - multiple others at that; but it sure felt good to hear her be open and honest about it.
"I might need to spank you." He added, once again referring to something he had heard the girl say to Emily, on the phone.
"Good God, Richard, eavesdropping is a crime!" Emily shook her head, full on blushing.
"Oh, I enjoyed the Hell out of it. I'm ready to face my punishment." He smirked once again, moving his hands away from her stomach and turning her to face him.
Once he was able to see her entire face, he saw a smile on her lips and a sparkle in her eyes.
"You have an amazing relationship with her…" He muttered, as if he was unsure if he wanted Emily to hear those words.
She nodded, still smiling.
"She's gorgeous…" He muttered once again, earning himself a slap against the chest.
"Ouch!" He faked being hurt. One more thing Emily would have to suck up to him for, to make up for. It suited him perfectly.
"She's only 23 years old!" Emily groaned disapprovingly.
"I didn't mean it like that!" He defended himself, stopping her hand from striking his chest once again. Instead, he kissed the palm of her hand and muttered to himself once again. "I so didn't mean it like that!"
"She's…." Emily started off.
It had been so easy for her to be honest with Richard, about everything so far, so she figured what she wanted to tell him now would come out naturally.
It did not.
"I'm…" She tried to word it differently, but nothing was coming out of her mouth.
"We uh…she's…"
Richard just smiled and shut her up with a kiss. Clearly, whatever it was that she wanted to say, was not meant to be said at that moment in time. He was okay with it.
"She worships you." He said against her lips.
"Yeah?" Emily looked up at him.
It was cute that he was taller, she liked being on her tippy toes when they kissed.
"Yeah. From the little I heard, because I was not eavesdropping…" He teased her, rubbing her chin with his thumb.
Emily kept on smiling. She loved it when he did that, it felt like such a loving gesture, yet it was small enough to not freak her out and make her think that he was moving too fast in their new relationship.
"…I can tell that she looks up to you. Come on, she was begging you to handle her problem for her. It was kind of adorable." He finished his sentence.
"Handle?" Emily suddenly remembered something she had promised Angela. "I'm supposed to handle her…and I failed her. Oh crap!" She muttered to herself, but much like when Richard had muttered and she had overheard his words, he was now able to hear hers, loud and clear.
"On the contrary, Emily – you handled the situation the best way you possibly could have. She's 23, she's an adult and she has to learn how to make decisions for herself. You can't keep on holding her hand forever. But then again, you promised to be there for her, whatever she chose. This was the best you could do for her. I mean, didn't you see the change in her mood? She was broken when she called you and she was laughing her ass off when she hung up."
"Hmm, exactly how much of it all did you happen to overhear?" Emily asked curiously.
It sounded like Richard had more than just 'overheard' a few words. She didn't really mind, though. If she did, she would have never made that call in front of him, on loudspeaker.
"She's the one you've been fighting for, isn't she?" He asked, despite the fact that the answer was obvious.
"Yeah. She's all cute and girly, but she's fearless and so damn smart. She deserves to be on my team…" Emily looked away for a moment.
Her eyes drifted upwards, checking the sky. She remembered when she had first gone to that same spot at the park, to patch things up with Richard, she had seen the ten clouds that, according to her imagination, were the BAU's bullpen work desks. The team was currently composed of eight people and she was sure that one of the extra desks was Angela's. That lead her to two questions. How could she give that desk to Angela? And who was the extra desk for?
"You really care about her, don't you?" He asked, still not over the fact that Emily had been absolutely amazing with that girl, in her situation of crisis.
"More than you could imagine." She said weakly.
There was so much going on in her mind at that moment. She didn't want to get oddly emotional again, not with him, so she tried to change the topic.
"I'm regretting only getting one croissant. Is there any chance we can go back for some more, on our way?" She asked innocently, but he wasn't dumb. He knew what she was doing and he respected the fact that she was done talking about the girl.
"I'm so glad you said that! I'm starving!" He said before taking one more glimpse at the fountain.
As a Parisian, he had been there numerous times before he had met Lauren, or rather – Emily. But being there with her made him finally see the real beauty of this place.
After the talk with Emily, Angie was still pretty shaken up. Yes, she had laughed it off, but she didn't want to bother Emily for longer than five minutes, while she was with this guy that she obviously liked a lot.
She stayed outside for as long as she could, sitting by a tree with her eyes closed, imagining all the things the Director must think of her, now that he knew certain things.
It was scary. She had lived her entire life, starting over, again and again, and denying anyone the opportunity to get to know her. So, to have someone as powerful as him know so much now, it terrified her.
At some point she walked to the dorms. She had the option of attending the last class of the day, but what was the point of going there and pushing herself to pretend like she didn't know anything? She was sick and tired of the games and since she was given a day off, she'd happily take it.
After a shower, she tried to get in bed, to relax a little, but she felt like she was literally shaking, as if it was freezing inside the room. She was desperate to feel some warmth and there was only one person she could think of, whom she wanted to be close to.
Since any sort of physical proximity to that person was not an option at that moment, she took second best option.
After stuffing a blanket and a few other things in an oversized bag, Angie left Bryan a note not to worry if he didn't see her come back that night and she made her way to the main building. She waited downstairs, by the parking lot, making sure all seven people from a certain team had left the building for the day, before she made her way to a certain floor, upstairs.
It was the second time she'd walked in there, that day. It felt a bit weird now with the lights off, as everyone had left pretty early that evening. With Emily gone and with no case to work on, they weren't required to stay overtime.
Angie walked around for a second, taking in the smell of this place, since she could barely see a thing, in the dark.
It smelled like a mixture of wood from the desks, paper from all the files and folders, and metal from the chairs and God knows what else. Then there was a faint smell of coffee still lingering in the air, from their afternoon coffee break, right after Ben had urged Angie to keep going during their torture-tour, as Angie liked to call it.
She could also sense the flowery notes of Garcia's perfume and a manly eau de cologne, too. Judging by the heaviness of that last smell she detected, she could tell it must have been Rossi's – it was elegant, kind of posh-smelling, with a hint of old aristocracy to it. She liked that smell, instantly connecting it to the smell of something familiar, like when someone would have a déjà vu and remember a certain person or a memory from their past. It made her smile.
Walking further in, she tripped over something, quickly realizing it was wrapping tape. JJ had mentioned the birthday that weekend, so no doubt someone must have wrapped their present in the office. That made Angie smile as well. It felt like a family place, a place where different people would get together, talk, help each other out, laugh, cry together, wrap presents and tell each other their secrets. At least that was how Angie imagined that place and she had no idea how close to the reality her imagination was, at that very moment.
All she wanted was to belong to a place like that…to be with people, like those.
She heard people speaking loudly in the elevator, going up, and she ducked for cover. All she wanted was to go to the BAU office, yet, now that she was there, she wasn't sure how she'd handle a situation in which someone might bust her there, in the dark, looking like a creep, walking around.
She crawled up the few stairs, because in her vivid imagination she was now a spy whose mission was to breach an office undetected. It was fun to play along, she figured, if her imagination was so wild, why not go with it?
Her right leg sprawled down the stairs, assuming some catwoman-like pose before she climbed the last two stairs and found herself in the small path to the private offices.
"I have eyes on the target. I repeat…I have eyes on the target!" She pretended to be talking to her imaginary team of spies, using an imaginary earpiece.
And that was when it all went wrong. It made her laugh and, as desperate she was for fun, she let herself sink deeper and deeper into this little game.
"I'm going in. Hold the fire. I repeat – hold the fire!" She started to look around, making sure she was on her own.
"Status check?" She called out, but it was not nearly as much fun if she played by herself.
"Snipers ready?" She asked and pretended to have received an 'affirmative' response on the line.
"Standby. I repeat – standby!" She walked backwards, just a few steps, finding herself by the door of Rossi's office.
"In need of ammo! I'm breaking away from the original mission. Plan B activated! I repeat – I need to get ammo for the mission. End." She called it in before she pretended to kick the door down and she entered the room.
Instinctively, her hand reached for a gun, which she realized she obviously did not have stripped to her belt and the fun was nonexistent without a weapon.
Then she remembered she had packed some fruit in her bag, so she grabbed a banana and pointed it left and right, inside Rossi's office, checking for enemies.
"Clear!" She allowed herself to call out, a bit louder than she'd expected.
When Angie got into character, there was no stopping her. She would fully believe she was a pirate, an alien, anything she wanted to believe, and she would give it her absolute best performance.
"I found something of value!" She said, brushing her fingers against the numerous books on one of the bookshelves.
Top, center shelf – it was where Rossi proudly displayed all of his bestsellers. It was, naturally, what had caught Angie's attention instantly.
"I have re-charged my ammo. Ready to continue mission. All units, standby and wait for my command. I repeat – standby!"
She tiptoed to the exit of his office, still waving the banana in all directions.
Once she was sure there was nobody out in the corridor, she let her imaginary team know that she was back on track with her original mission, and she was on her way to the office she had been sent there to breach.
"Woaaaaaah!" She made a sound, like those cliché sounds that kids make when they are pretending to be doing martial arts, just to bring some more dramatic accent to her game while she pretended to kick the door down, but in reality she was painfully careful when opening the door, like a civilized person – using the handle.
"Shit, come on, don't they lock these?" She muttered to herself, breaking character just for a second.
They didn't need to lock their office doors, since the elevator was key card controlled and only a few people had access to the button that would take them to the BAU floor, on that side of the building.
Angie smirked and took something from the pocket of her pants.
"I have the magic stick! Muwahahaha!" She said in the most evil voice she could muster, and then she looked down at her fingers, holding an ID card.
She would have loved it if it were a lightsaber, maybe one of those cool flashing ones, but sadly, it was just a badge.
Still, looking at the photo, knowing whose ID card she had stolen previously that day, gave her so much satisfaction.
So, Ben thought he had the upper hand with her? He should have been a bit more careful, walking close to her down those hallways earlier, with his badge dangling from the side of his jeans.
Thanks to that little piece of plastic, Angie was able to get inside the BAU offices without a problem, scanning it inside the elevator and gaining access instantly.
Initially, she only wanted to get him rattled up about losing his ID card and she was going to have it magically re-appear in the building, the following day. But this – breaking into the BAU at night, was so much more fun.
"Open, Sesame!" She said whimsically, waving the ID around and looking at Emily's drawer, where she kept her mug and the water bottle.
Clearly, it did not open.
"Open…now!" She commanded, but grew impatient quickly, so she opened it herself.
To her surprise, Emily had not bought herself a new mug. Or rather – she had, but her team had played 'Let's pretend we're Prentiss' one day and they had knocked it over and broken it, so now she had no mug. There were a bunch of disposable paper cups inside, along with her FBI water bottle, which was what Angela eventually grabbed.
She hadn't thought too far ahead when she had packed up for the night. Luckily, she had a banana, two apples and a kiwi in her bag - all leftovers from her lunch the previous day; but she had no water at all. Even more luckily, Emily had left her water bottle full, so Angie now didn't need to leave the office to go fetch herself some water from the dispenser downstairs.
"I'm in the red area! I repeat – I have made it inside." She told her imaginary team.
"What now?" She added, realizing the culmination of this whole game was rather disappointing.
"Ugh…"
She plopped down on Emily's chair, just looking around curiously. The little light that came from Angie's small torch, which was surely a spy's best friend and clearly an essential item in her overnight bag, only illuminated a bit of the first shelf of things that were stocked right behind Emily's desk.
Angie eyed the framed photo of Paris, smirking to herself. Then she saw a bunch of random objects which, no doubt, had ended up there just to take up space.
And then she saw a small drawer, cracked open just half an inch, barely visible.
She looked inside curiously, finding a few more things. There was a miniature of the Eiffel Tower, quite like the one Angie owned, sitting on top of a big envelope. It didn't say 'Confidential', so Angie figured it was fair play.
What she found inside made her gasp. There were numerous tickets from different musicals and theater shows, dated years ago, all from Parisian theaters. For each show, there was only one tickets in Emily's possession. She had either gone on her own, or the other person she had been accompanied by might have been just like her – keen on keeping their own ticket, for the memories.
Placing the tickets neatly back inside the envelope, Angie realized there was something else, on the bottom. Turning it upside down, a dainty necklace hit the surface of Emily's desk.
"Infinity…" Angie whispered, barely gracing over the little pendant that was hanging from the thread.
It looked like something from a cheap shop and it also looked very old, but if Emily had kept it, then it must have had much more value to her, than it would have, on the market.
"I have safely secured the mystical treasure of the land of…of…of Wonderlandia!" She said, this time sounding much like a Pirate, although unsure of how the treasure land should be named.
Her eyes scanned the rest of the small objects that she found in that drawer before she left it exactly as she had found it.
Growing a bit tired of playing on her own, she yawned and decided to play some music. This was pretty much all she used her new phone for anyway.
"Bored in the house, I'm in the house bored…" She sang along with the most annoying song she had recently found, trending on the main page of a video sharing website.
"I think I just lost a few thousand brain cells." She cringed after pronouncing a few of the lines of that song. It was brainless, stupid and annoying, but she couldn't deny that it was catchy, too.
"Bleh, twerking was so much more fun with Clara and Mae…" She said silently, thinking back of their celebratory round of drinks when they had finished the case in Cuba.
She continued dancing around like a fool until half an hour later she was thirsty and she reached out for the water bottle. Pressing her lips against it, she could feel the cherry taste of Emily's favorite lipstick. It was also stained in a dark, deep red, so Angie knew that the last time Emily had drank from it, she had been royally pissed – that was the exact lipstick shade Emily used when someone had crossed her.
Normally, Angie would never share a cup or a fork with anyone. Firstly, because of germs. Secondly, she could never be sure just how much personal hygiene that person had. Third, she just found it disgusting. And the list went on…
But since this was Emily, she did not mind. Plus, she was now parched and she refused to go downstairs to get fresh water, in a new cup.
The next step of her attempt of having a fun night was to secure the torch in a position where it barely hit the pages of the book that she had in her hands. If she couldn't make out the words in the semi-darkness, she needn't worry, as she was sure she could quote every single word with the correct punctuation, from David Rossi's book "Deviance".
Just to make sure that was correct, she opened on a random page and read the first line before closing her eyes and continuing the sentence, murmuring the ending of what was a long explanation of some behavioral issue in underage delinquents. Yes, she most certainly knew Rossi's books by heart, but that would not mean she'd ever stop reading them, over and over again.
Twenty minutes later she was bored from reading. It was too dark and it irritated her eyes, having to focus on the pages and the tiny little printed letters.
She placed the book on the floor, in front of the sofa where she had been getting cozy while reading. The next thing on her agenda was dinner, which meant it was time to destroy her weapon. She ate the apples first and decided to skip on the kiwi, because it would surely make a mess and she'd have to clean up after herself, so when she continued being hungry, she reached for the gun, also known as – the banana.
"I am sorry. You have served and protected me during this entire operation. But I am afraid it is now time for us to part ways. So long, my loyal partner! I will never forget how you kept me safe!" She dramatized before ripping the peel open and eating the damn fruit, like a normal person would.
Still hungry, even after sacrificing her gun, she decided to drown the hunger with water. Maybe that would help tame it down.
Wrong.
All it did was to make her need to use the restroom.
"Why am I not a baby? They have it so easy, they'd just pee in their pampers and it's all good!" She groaned in annoyance as she stood up from the comfortable sofa and walked out of the office.
She knew where the bathroom with the toilets, shower and the lockers were, but it was downstairs and that meant she had to crawl back down there once again.
"Ah, screw it!" At this point, she was done and bored with playing the spy, so she walked down the stairs normally.
The flashlight illuminated her way to the bathroom and she found herself fancying the nice fluffy toilet paper that the BAU was using. That was certainly top-notch quality, compared to what the Academy was providing them with. And since Bryan and her had to buy their own, for their bathroom at the dorm, Angie had made it her life mission to steal paper rolls from every toilet she possibly could, sticking them in her bag and bringing them back to the dorm. There was no chance in Hell she'd spend money on something so trivial!
For a second she contemplated whether she should steal a couple of rolls from the BAU toilet, but then she decided against it. It felt wrong, like she would be stealing from her family.
"Damn, scented liquid hand soap!?" She said in surprise after pushing the dispenser, which proved to be working and full.
"Paper tissues to wipe your hands!?" She continued being surprised, grabbing only two small papers, as to not waste too many.
"Dude, no! You've gotta be kidding me! Get out of here…" She gasped loudly, realizing what the next dispenser on the wall was.
"Sanitizing gel!?"
She didn't know this, but it had been installed there when Emily had started her career as Unit Chief. It had been her way of giving back to the team, especially to Reid, with his phobia of germs, which at the time had been hard to control.
"Oh and it smells like oranges. How fancy!" Angie rubbed her hands together before placing them underneath her nose, for the smell test.
"Damn, okay BAU, I see you…I see you…" She said, snapping her fingers in the air like a Diva.
"You fancy-shmancy people, with your soft toilet paper and all your bougie stuff. Your toilet even smells good. It's a freaking toilet! Come on now. Ya'll continue to impress me. I am so freaking jealous right now, it's not even funny. Oh my God, I have lost my mind, I am jealous of a toilet…what is happening to me!?"
Angie walked out, shaking her head. She had the tendency of going overboard, when bored.
"I am sooo boreeed!" She announced, on her way back up to Emily's office.
"It's not even ten yet. How am I so tired?" She checked the time and was amazed to see it was this early. It sure felt like days had gone by since her impromptu meeting with the Director.
And just the thought of him made her freeze in place. She felt cold shivers going through her body as she sat on Emily's couch.
She had opted for spending the night at the BAU, in search of some warmth, but that was far from what she felt at that moment. She felt bored, alone, stressed, busted and most importantly – cold.
"Okay, so…if I'm Emily Prentiss and this is my fancy office where I am a big shot Unit Chief and I have meetings with other big shot lads and gals at…"
Angie started talking, using a British accent and a couple of Brit words, to help get into character.
"Where would I keep my personal stuff? Surely not in the drawers near my desk…that would be too easy for noisy blokes to access…"
"Blimey!" She exclaimed when she pushed the compartment, underneath the sofa.
Apparently, there were two compartments where Emily had surely stashed a few things.
"Bloody Hell, I'm such a wanker!" She hissed out loud, failing to secure a thing on the sofa, which resulted in her finger getting stuck between the drawer and the hard wooden frame.
"Ah, gutted! Ain't that just wicked – it's all shambles in here…bits 'n bobs…meh." She frowned, finding a bunch of things in one of the compartments.
It would be a bit too much if she went through the stuff. She only needed some pieces of clothing and those things did not look like clothes, so she chose to close that compartment and focus on the other one, hoping she'd be luckier this time.
"Wow, this nutter has more clothes here than me, back in the dorms!" She said when, finally, she found clothes in the second compartment.
"Yes!" She grabbed a long sleeve jacket.
"Eww, no. Really? Didn't I have the 'turtleneck talk' with her just recently?" She tossed an item of that kind and continued searching for something else she could use.
"Ha, she's such a toff!" She laughed out loud, finding an elegant blazer underneath a few more shirts.
Surprisingly, it wasn't all crumbled up.
And then a familiar smell filled her nostrils.
She inhaled sharply and exhaled with a smile.
With one hand she brought the blazer up so she could be sure of what she already suspected.
Yes, this had already been worn and yes, it smelled exactly like Emily.
Although the fluffy jacket would surely be more comfortable and warm, Angie opted for the blazer.
There was a bittersweet sensation when she put it on herself. It fit her perfectly and it felt so warm. She already knew she was crazy, having gone around pretending to be a spy just earlier, but her craziness just went up a level or two, now that she was sure she could feel the warmth of Emily's hug, inside the blazer.
Quickly, she tucked some stuff back inside the bag and placed it under the sofa, where it had been. Then she grabbed her own blanket and she finally laid down on the couch. Surprisingly, as standard and boring as it looked on the outside, it was actually quite soft and comfortable to lay on. It was surely better than the hard mattress she had, back in the dorms, or the tile floor she had slept on a few months ago.
"I'm knackered…" She continued with her British undercover identity and after yawning a few times, she turned the small torch off and tucked herself underneath the blanket.
Angie loved accents and she was always curious about slang words and sayings. She had an invidious vocabulary, in multiple languages, although she surely wasn't keen on telling people about it all. Sometimes she'd let slip a few slang words, just because she had been used to saying them at some point in her life, but if asked about it, she'd always say it's some word she'd heard on TV. Anyone who knew her well enough, would call her out on a bluff. That girl never watched TV.
At some point Angie found it hard to fall asleep in the dark. She thrived in the dark, but something about being in Emily's pitch-black office, without her being there, felt creepy.
She opted for switching the torch back on the dimmest option available, and leaving it on the floor, next to the sofa, between Rossi's book and the carefully towered peels from the banana and the cores of the two apples she had consumed for dinner, all of which were, of course, placed on a piece of paper, as to not stain the floor.
Finally, she was able to relax. The flashlight illuminated Emily's name tag on the desk. How fancy – Emily Prentiss BAU Unit Chief. Angie chuckled lightly, wondering just how much work Emily had to have done in order to prove herself worthy of that title.
That tag seemed like the appropriate last thing to see before she closed her eyes, with every intention of falling asleep soon. In her sleepy mind, she was once again someone else, she was someplace else and she was not alone.
As if in some fairy tale, she started hearing the voices of people who had been present in her past.
"Hurry up. We don't want to be late for that Boeuf bourguignon." A male voice urged her, in her memories.
She remembered that day. It had rained and she had taken forever to get ready for a dinner with some pretty cool people.
"You're eleven! How are you wearing make-up already? When did that happen?" The same male voice had asked her when she had finally descended down the stairs, wearing a nice formal dress and some faint lipstick and mascara.
"Relax, I'm a girl, okay? Plus, your sister said I could borrow some of her things. They're Dior, come on, this is so cool!" A young Angela had replied, twirling around, showcasing all of her glory.
"You're growing up so fast." There was a certain melancholy in the male's voice.
"Oui! But I promise I'll always be your little girl!" She had then replied, with stars in her eyes, like each time she'd looked at him.
He had then urged her to hurry up, once again, before they would be very late, which in his culture was not a polite thing, at all.
For a long moment, Angie just laid on the sofa in Emily's office, trying to continue that memory, but nothing else was coming up. She was desperate to see the faces of the people whom she had had dinner with, she wanted to hear their voices again, but it didn't happen.
Instead, a new memory resurfaced. She kept her eyes shut at all times, afraid that if she even blinked, those images, those voices might disappear once again.
"Thirteen! Wow…you're a teenager now! How does it feel?" This time it was a female voice that had spoken to her.
"You know that I already feel like I'm twenty, right?" A young and feisty, barely teenager Angela had replied.
"I know, mon précieux petit bijou." The woman leaned down, placing a kiss on top of Angie's head. She had always loved it when she'd done so and speaking French was just an added bonus. "Is there anything you want for your birthday? Anything at all! No price limits, no geographical limits!"
"Oh, in that case, I want you to buy me my very own baby elephant and to invest in a small portion of a zoo, somewhere in Thailand, so I can keep him there and go visit him whenever I want. Oh yeah, and I want you to buy that apartment here, in Paris, for us to live in." Angela had joked, chuckling happily.
"Elephant? I'd be happy to buy you one, but I don't think your fancy Majesty would enjoy the smell of such an exotic pet, let alone touch it." The woman had laughed genuinely, knowing Angie's affinity to expensive, lavish things that smelled nice. Smells have always been a huge and very important variable in Angela's life.
The woman had not uttered a word about the apartment, though.
"Seriously? This…" Angie had stated, proudly showcasing a piece of paper in her hands. "This is everything I've ever wanted in life. This is more than the perfect gift for my birthday and I am so incredibly grateful to have it…and you…especially you!"
"Who turned you into this incredible young girl?" The woman had asked with tears in her eyes, before holding Angie close for a long moment.
In her state of being half asleep already, Angie shifted on the sofa, adjusting her position until her hands were wrapped around her waist, as if she was hugging herself. She was desperate to feel the warmth of the other person's hug, like she had felt it day after day, when she had been thirteen.
"You. Among others…" Angie had replied to that woman with a devilish smirk that most certainly did not belong to the face of an innocent thirteen-year-old girl.
Then again, Angie had never been an innocent thirteen-year-old girl.
"Well, you are mine now and you will be mine until the day I die." The woman had told her, making Angie's eyes fill up with tears.
"Merci beaucoup! You have no idea how much this means to me!" Angie had replied, fighting the tears, commanding them not to fall.
"You have no idea what you mean to me, baby." The woman had been weaker at that moment. She had been the sucker who had shed hot tears in public, holding the young girl in her arms and trying not to wet the important piece of paper, dangling between them.
Angie whimpered, unable to actually fall asleep on the couch. That memory had ended, too, and it upset her. She could never forget those words, those people, those specific occasions in her life, but each time she had tried to remember them and to see them, it had never been as vivid as now, that night, in Emily's office, on that soft couch.
She figured her memories will flow in order in which things had happened, but was surprised when the third memory hit her hard.
"No…" She didn't realize it, but she had dozed off after the second memory, the one with the woman.
It was no longer just a trip down memory lane. It was a full-blown nightmare, waiting to explode.
"No…"
She continued to mutter the same thing, as she saw herself as a child, in a house she could never forget. It was pitch black and there was a breeze, maybe from the opened window. She was in her room, surrounded by toys and beautiful things, like any girl her age. But she could not care less.
"No…"
She saw a tiny version of herself, tiptoeing to the door and going to another room, full of even more toys and colorful things.
And then she heard a sound, loud and scary.
"NO!"
Even in her dream, little Angela blacked out completely. The next thing she knew, she was being dragged by some woman. Her entire night jammie was soaked with something sticky and people were yelling. It was very confusing, it didn't feel like reality at all.
She looked around and she could not see a thing. There was something thrown over her head, over her entire body maybe, as she was being thrown into some big black car.
"No!" Young Angie yelled desperately, crying harder than she ever had.
"Shh, you'll be fine, sweetie. You'll be fine." Angie remembered that soft, young female voice, very clearly.
It sent shivers down her spine, hearing it once again. She remembered those words. How could she ever forget them?
"Please don't leave me!" A freaked out mini Angie screamed desperately, refusing to let go of the other girl's hand.
"I…I have to…" The reply had sent Angie into another hysterical fit of tears. Out of rage, she had started to kick the doors, to bang against the windows of the car, begging to be let out.
"NO!" Angie had scratched the hand that she had been holding onto, making the other person curse in pain.
"Listen to me…" The young woman had tried to reason with her, but everything in the nightmare was moving way too fast.
Angie could hear sirens, she saw flashes of red and blue lights and she heard people talking loudly about things that her young self could not fully understand. They were using a different kind of language - it was still English, but the words were not the same words she used with her friends, at school. They were big words, like she had heard on TV. She tried to focus and it aggravated her to not be able to understand a thing. At that moment, Angie had made a promise to herself – to grow up and to learn all the possible big words in the dictionary. She had sworn to never be the person who would feel left out of a conversation, because they couldn't understand what it was about.
"Can you hear me?" The young woman kept on asking, but little Angie had been busy, listening to something else – that small voice in her head, making promises for the future.
"You can't be here! Get in! Go! Go, go, go!" Someone yelled from behind the woman and forcefully stuck her inside the car before it drove off into an unknown direction, with her and little Angie in the passenger's seat.
"I'm not prey. I am strong! I am strong and I am not prey!" Angie had kept on muttering, while trying to figure out where she was being taken.
The woman just opened her mouth to say something, but it was sadly the moment when Angie shifted, currently in her sleep, and she lost touch with that messy nightmare.
What did it all mean? Was there any significance to it? Why had this been shown to her, in her state of sleep, after two real pleasant memories?
She rubbed her eyes sleepily, taking in the pleasant scent of Emily's perfume as she laid in her office now, trying to make sense of what she'd just been reminded of, in her dreams.
"FBI, I am coming in, nice and slow. Please, step aside from the door and put down any weapon you may be holding." This time Angie heard a male voice and this dude sounded pissed off.
Was this a dream if it felt like it was happening right then and there, as she even heard footsteps nearing Emily's office door.
"I'm going to open the door and I need you to get down to your knees and put your hands behind your back." He commanded and the voice was getting louder, as if they were walking towards her.
What the Hell was that memory? Or was it just another nonsense nightmare that Angie could not understand the point of?
"Get down on your knees. Now!" It sounded like someone had busted through the door, despite promising to come in nice and easy.
And that was when Angie realized that this was most definitely neither a memory nor a nightmare. It was the reality and she was now wide awake, thanks to this guy's loud voice and the fact that he was holding a gun at her, as she peacefully laid on Emily's office couch.
"Prentiss!?" He said, walking further in and seeing Emily's favorite blazer, poking out from under the covers.
Another few steps forward and he grabbed the blanket, revealing who was underneath it.
"Angela!?" He gasped. This was the last person on Earth he'd expect to see there.
In her half-asleep state, her reaction to someone pulling the covers from shielding her, and holding a gun to her face, had been to grab the banana and to hold it threateningly, still pretending like it was a gun.
Sadly, it was not a banana now, but just the peels of the fruit, which dangled awkwardly as she held them in direction of the guy.
"Future FBI! Uh…shut up and let me sleep!" In her mind, this line was good enough to make him weak.
In reality, the whole situation was entirely too funny for him to handle. He burst out in laughter, holstering his gun and sitting on the edge of the couch, careful not to sit on her feet.
"What the Hell are you doing here?" He asked her.
"I could ask you the same thing! The team left hours ago. I made sure of it. You left with Matt and then Tara and Garcia left after you." Angie rubbed her eyes sleepily, even though that nightmare had made sure she wouldn't be able to close her eyes and doze off one more time that night and she knew it for a fact.
"Well, someone way genius, tripped off the sensors and triggered the silent alarm half an hour ago. And I'm the dumbass that won a trip back to the BAU, to check out what's going on. Don't ask, they all voted on the group chat and Garcia got to vote twice since Emily is not here, so yeah, everyone voted for me to get my ass back here and I hate them all." He complained and it was now Angie's turn to laugh.
"Dude, seriously? Wait, half an hour ago? I was just going to bed, I'd gone downstairs to use the bathroom…"
"Yeah, it's when your movements triggered the silent alarm, like I said." He repeated.
"I've already been here for an hour, at that time." She smirked victoriously, realizing that her catwoman crawling on the floor when she had first waked upstairs had actually proven to be efficient. She had only hit the sensors while walking like a normal person, on her way down to the bathroom, way later in the evening.
He looked around and, being a profiler, saw some obvious signs of distress – the inability to sleep without the torch on, the remains of her food, on the floor, next to a book, out of all things! And then, she was wearing his boss' favorite blazer and had clearly drank from her water bottle as well, as it sat on the floor, opened.
Angie knew she was busted, so she tried to keep going with the fun theme.
"Drop down on your knees?" She repeated the words she had heard him say when he had entered the office. "Wow, Luke…buy me a dinner first!"
It made him laugh, but he brushed it off and didn't comment on that. He was smart enough to know she was defusing.
"You're sweating. Are you feeling okay? You might have fever…" He did something very stupid – instinctively he brought his hand to her forehead, to check for high temperature.
It only resulted in a very swift motion with which she countered his hand and twisted it away from her face.
"Woah…" He narrowed his eyes.
This girl looked all sweet and innocent, but she sure wasn't playing around when it came to her protective instincts.
"I wasn't going to hurt you…" He said lamely.
"I know." She whispered and allowed herself a moment of silence after that.
"You can talk to me, if you want. Just don't ask me for any advice. I give the crappiest advice in the world. But I'm a pretty good listener." He suggested, retrieving his hand and placing it on his own knee, as far away from her as possible.
"I don't wanna talk. That's just it." Her words made no sense to him, but to Angie they were one more confirmation that her choice to keep quiet about certain things was only proving to hurt her even more than what speaking the truth would.
"Prentiss would be pissed if she knew someone had been in her office. Come on, grab your stuff and let's get out of here." He said, giving her the option to do the right thing.
She sat up for a moment, making sure she was wide awake, before she started placing things where she had found them.
Luke took this time to search for something on his phone. Seconds later, a victorious smile appeared on his face and he seemed to carefully pick something on the screen, clicking away as if he was filling out a form of some sort.
"Emily will be pissed either way." She shrugged.
"Not if neither of us tells her." He said, as his attempt of gaining Angie's trust and approval.
"You can't keep this a secret from her. She'd be pissed at you when she finds out. Plus, the entire team knows about the alarm being triggered, so Emily must know it as well. Trust me, you might be cute and all, but you don't have it in you to fool Emily-The-Mighty-Prentiss." She smirked, walking down the stairs, followed by him.
He sighed, finally seeing that side of Angie that everyone had seen already. She was feisty and she was not afraid to speak her mind.
"Well, I guess it's time to go back to that uncomfortable bed at the Academy." She said dramatically. It was the last place she wanted to go to, that night.
"Who said that's where we're going?"
"Luke, don't you smirk at me! I'm not going anywhere with you after you told me to drop to my knees. Twice!"
"That is a standard line, which you would know if you were paying attention in class. And I only said it before I knew I was about to deal with you, out of all the people in the world…" He sighed. "Then again…I should have guessed."
"No, I'm serious. I'm not going anywhere tonight. I have PFT tomorrow at 7:30. I've already skipped today's classes, but I don't have a reason or an excuse to do so tomorrow as well."
"How were you going to keep up with your schedule tomorrow if you were crashing here all night? And what the Hell were you thinking!?" He could still not get over the fact that Angela had broken into the BAU offices.
"I had my alarm set for five. I'd wake up and get out of here before the cleaning staff would make their rounds. I'm not dumb, I plan ahead." She waved her hands in the air, explaining her plan.
"I'm sorry, but did you really hold me at gunpoint…with a banana peel?" He could not keep it in anymore. He was bound to tease her about it and he had no patience to wait for the right moment to do so.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures. It was either that or dropping down on my knees for you. I suppose you understand all the many reasons why I chose the banana peel, right?" She smirked.
There was something flirty about the way she spoke with people. Something borderline naughty, but then as soon as she'd say something, she'd turn it around and she'd throw a knife into someone's heart. Luke had experienced that, several times with her.
"I can make an extremely inappropriate comment right about now, but out of respect for Prentiss, I shall remain silent." He bit his lips, urging himself not to make a parallel between the banana peel and something else.
"Yeah, I don't think it's out of respect for anyone but yourself and your ego. You'd just hate pissing me off to the point where I kick your arse on camera, for your entire team to enjoy watching tomorrow morning!" She smirked until she realized something – she had previously eyed all the cameras in the Bullpen, which meant that the entire space was under surveillance and anyone could rewind the tape and see exactly what she had been up to, that night.
"Arse?" He found it weird that she'd use the British word for 'ass', paired with a barely detectable slip up of a British accent in a couple of words she had uttered afterwards.
"Stop teasing me, Luke…it's not a good moment!" She frowned, her eyes full of sadness.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He offered nicely.
"No!"
"Alright, I thought so." He smirked. She had cut him off like a prissy little girl. "Come on then, pick your stuff up and let's go!"
"Umm, I don't have stuff…" She looked around, throwing the fruit leftovers in the trash and just grabbing her bag with one hand.
Luke let her lead what happened next. She urged him to the door, without bothering to ask where they were going.
That spoke volumes to him – she trusted him, at least enough to follow him without questions. In his book, this was huge progress when it came to dealing with someone with a personality like Angela's.
"Is it something that can be fixed?" He asked casually, on their way down to the parking lot, giving her a second chance to maybe vent a little.
"Not anymore." She shrugged. "But I can certainly control the narrative! I've done so before. I'll be fine…"
Luke gave her a startled look. Somehow, it sounded like something big had happened and she was now trying to give herself a nice little pep talk.
"Angie will be fine…" She repeated, this time substituting 'I' with 'Angie', which struck Luke as quite odd.
"Hey, if there's anything I can help out with…just call…" He barely managed to say before realizing that girl seemed to despise phones and she was never reachable, in any way.
"Or in your case – you're welcome to crash the office whenever needed. I mean, I'd be the one to have to deal with the silent alarm after working hours anyways, so…" He added, making her chuckle.
Poor Luke, did he always get the short end of the stick? Angie could just imagine the joy Garcia had experienced when voting Luke twice, since Emily was not reachable for feedback on who must go back and check out what was going on that night.
"Careful what you wish for…this is all I'm willing to say on the topic." Angie smirked.
If only he knew her history with breaking into places…
"Hop in." Luke urged her to get in his car as he opened and held the passenger's door for her, like a true gentleman.
"Can I drive, instead?" She pleaded with a tiny smile.
"Not if we want to get there alive, no."
"Ughh, Alvarez, you suck!"
"Been told so."
"Well, it's all true."
"Get in the damn car already!" He laughed.
The banter was fun and all, but he checked his watch for the time and that gesture made her realize they had to get moving.
"This little plan of yours better involve either food of fun or I'll be majorly pissed!" She announced grumpily while buckling her seatbelt.
"Ask me and I'll tell you what the plan is." He challenged her. Of course he knew she wouldn't ask and of course he wouldn't tell her about it, even if she asked.
"Nah. Surprise me!" Her head tilted backwards, comfortably laying on the headrest as she closed her eyes.
One more sign that she trusted him – she was now in his territory, in his car; giving him full control of action and feeling comfortable enough to switch off one of her senses in his presence.
"You're profiling me!" He mumbled quietly as soon as he realized what Angela must be doing.
"Mhm!"
"Let's hear it."
"Lets…not!" She said spicily.
"Come on, I'm a big guy, I can hand-…"
"You're controlling." She cut him off, not even bothering to listen to his whole sentence.
"Whoah!" His body took a defensive position, leaning away from her.
"Yup, you are controlling and you like things to happen your way – must stem from your life as a lone soldier in the Military. Dunno, but you got control issues."
Her bluntness was surprising. She'd spoken in such a matter-of-fact way that it sort of bothered him a little bit.
Then again, he could not deny the fact that she was absolutely right about it all.
"You make me sound like a douchebag…" He pouted.
"Not really, no." Angie turned to face him. "It's just that you're a guy who has a clear idea of what he wants and he goes for it. Takes balls to do it, you know!?"
"Hmm…when you put it that way…" He reflected for a second. This turned out to sound like a bit of a compliment, instead.
"I'm listening…" She trailed off expectantly.
"To what?" He played dumb.
He knew exactly what she wanted to hear, but he hoped she'd drop it before he'd have to share his inner thoughts.
"You – profiling me!" She challenged and as if she could read him like an open book, she added some more. "I ain't dropping it, by the way. So, speak!"
"You have trust issues." He shot straight to the point.
Angie's face did not even flinch.
"Must stem from a shaky upbringing, but that does not seem to be entirely your case, though."
"Interesting…" She urged him to continue.
"I feel like your childhood had been divided into different very significant parts. You've spent time with someone you loved, with someone who shaped you into someone you've always been proud of and with someone who let you down more times than you can count, but you love them to the moon and back and they've turned you into this bad ass bitch that you are now and you wouldn't have it any other way."
When Angie did not react, Luke gulped. Did he push it too far? Or was her silence a non-verbal cue for him to continue?
"And those were three different people." He dared say the most important part of the profile.
To this, Angie sucked her breath in. She felt shivers down her spine and there was no denying that her heartrate had quickened rapidly.
"Warm?" He smirked in his usual annoying manner.
Angie just looked down.
Warm!? She felt like the roof was on fire after the bombshell of a profile he'd just delivered.
"I also think you've made the most out of every situation life has thrown you in and that's why you're so fearless and independent right now." He added.
Reflecting back, Angie realized this was all true. And she realized this was not the most horrible thing in the world.
"I admire your strength, you know?" He tried to throw a rhetorical question in there. Maybe this would nudge her a bit, make her finally say something?
"It's not strength if it's driven by survival." She finally spoke, even if it was just mumbles.
"But you survived…didn't you?" Luke's eyebrow rose as he stared at her challengingly.
"Well.." She shrugged.
"Yes or no: did you survive whatever obstacles you've been thrown against? Are you here now – healthy and independent?" He rephrased.
"I mean…yeah…Uh, yeah…right?"
"Don't mumble: yes or no?" He said a bit more sternly this time.
Luke had figured that Angela had respect for a more authoritarian figure, so he acted as if he was one of her Academy coaches.
"Yes."
He smirked, having won, having received the answer he wanted.
"Good. Now can you, please, make your face show any emotion, other than your current 'This dude s kidnapping me, I hate him, he's annoying and I don't want to be here!'. Yeah?" He pleaded jokingly.
Angie chuckled full heartedly. "Sorry. I didn't mean to show how annoyed I am with you right about now."
"Ouch!" Luke dramatically held the imaginary knife that Angie had just thrown as if right in his heart.
"Didn't we need to hurry up?" She reminded him, as they hadn't yet started the car.
"Oh and one more thing about your profile before we get going…" He teased.
"That I am cute?" She squealed, showing him a bright smile.
"No."
"Awh!"
"You like to deflect and you ramble about pointless stuff, just to confuse your conversation partner and make them forget what they were saying."
"Hmm…but that's still cute, right?" Angie flashed him an even wider smile.
"You're deflecting again."
"Diverting. Not deflecting." She pointed out. "Is it working?"
"Nope."
"Awwh!" She pouted. "But I'm still cute, right?"
"Ugh!"
"This is starting to give me a headache. Can we just drive in silence for a bit?" She requested.
Luke knew better than to keep talking, so he granted her that wish. He kept his eyes on the road as they drove, fully ware that Angela's empty gaze out the window meant that she was mentally somewhere else, reliving some other story and making sense of his profile of her.
She let out a tiny sigh at some point, tempted to add something to her own profile. However, considering the many years she'd kept certain secrets, she decided to stay quiet. Yes, Luke seemed like a great guy, but she really didn't know him all that well and trusting someone – anyone really; was not Angela's forte.
She curiously looked around as Luke got off the main road and started driving slower, indicating they were almost at their destination. She did not recognize the place, but then again she didn't know anything about Quantico and its surroundings. She'd managed to spot the shopping mall where Emily had taken her before, but that was five minutes ago, and they were now pulling up to a huge parking lot, in front of what seemed to maybe be another shopping center.
"Vamos!" Luke urged her to get out of the car before her eyes could scan through the multiple flashing signs, in attempts to figure out where they were headed off to.
The fact that he chose to say 'let's go' in Spanish made her smile. She loved that language.
He'd been smart enough to park behind the place they were about to visit, as to keep the mystery for a little longer.
"Eww, no way! If you dragged me all the way out here just to show you how much I do not enjoy being behind the wheel – you'll regret this!" Angie sounded disappointed as they walked by a bunch of go karts, where teenagers were going wild.
"Nope." He smirked at her, urging her to keep walking. They were now almost at the corner of the actual building he was taking her to.
"It's worse!" He said mysteriously, not giving her even a second to enjoy the fact that those mini cars were not what he'd had in mind.
"Oh boy, I'm already regretting not going straight to the damn Academy!" She mumbled.
"Do me a favor…" Luke pleaded. "Wait until the end of the night and then tell me if you have any regrets, okay?"
Oh, he was cheeky as he said those words. Angie almost blushed, now even more intrigued to know his plans.
Luke had kept on checking his phone ever since he'd parked and it struck Angie as odd. Why was he in a hurry? This seemed like a chill place, with no need to have a reservation for the little games out at the parking lot. They'd certainly be in no need of a reservation for the mini golf or the darts or those basketball machines that she really hated. There were a few food trucks that offered hot dogs, pizza slices and some refreshments, but by the looks of it this was not why they were there, either.
Angie sighed as they neared the end of this improvised game park and they were about to turn the corner or some four-story building that she assumed was a shopping center. Wasn't it a bit too late for shopping? Would anything be open at this hour? And then there was this nagging feeling inside of her that she'd have to explain to Luke that she never let anyone pay for her, so they would have ended up driving there so Luke could treat her to a nice gift, if that was even the case, just for Angie to ruin it all.
A bit tensed up, she walked half a step after Luke, praying that whatever it was, she would not make a fool out of herself with the limited cash she carried on her.
"Close your eyes." He asked of her.
"No."
"Come on, it's a surprise."
"No. And I hate surprises."
"Said every girl ever!" He teased.
"I'm not like any other girl."
"Exactly – you can kick my ass right here, right now, if you walk this corner and immediately see where we are. So, for my own protection, I am asking you to close your eyes and let me guide you."
"As tempting as kicking your ass sounds, I am not stupid – there are two cameras just on this angle of the building. And a camera on each two rows of the parking lot. I ain't jeopardizing my chances at the FBI for you."
Luke rolled his eyes before he checked for the cameras. Weirdly, they were placed exactly as Angie had mentioned, which took him by surprise. How could she have known if he never even saw her head tilt upwards, in search of cameras? And what sane 23-year-old girl would be that attentive to such weird details?
"Please?"
"Luke Alvarez, are you scared of me?" Her voice went a pitch higher as she teased him.
"No." He sighed. "I am terrified of you! Now, please, close your eyes, so I can make sure you at least enter the lobby where more cameras are placed and where it's bright enough so that I know my safety is guaranteed."
Angie chuckled, deciding to give him this bit of pleasure.
"You better warn me for stairs! I already trip badly enough with my eyes opened." She warned him.
"Jesus, can you pretend like you trust me enough?"
"Fine." She hissed, closing her eyes and regretting it instantly.
"This better be fun!" She added, making Luke gulp.
Maybe this was not his brightest idea of the year, but it shall serve to make the surprise even sweeter.
Or…would it?
REVIEW REPLIES:
"Guest (from 29 December)" Hi and thanks so much :)! I am definitely continuing the story! I have about 100 chapters already written, hehe. I just need to edit them and post them one by one, so no worries - you will have more of this criminal mess to untangle :P! There is sooo much more to the story that when I read the chapters I am posting now and compare them to what I am currently writing ahead it's...WOW, when did THAT happen!? Hehe!
"Guest (from 15 July)" Hello :)! I suppose you are the same Guest who wrote both reviews on the previous chapter? Hehe. I had JUST updated when you sent it in, requesting a chapter, so that was some good timing! I hope you are enjoying the story and all of it's tense, weird, silly little scenes. Also, thank you very much for taking the time to review, it is very much appreciated :)! Wow, you re-read this entire thing!? That's cool, because as more info comes out, you may be able to explain some of the "weird" things that had happened in the past. Also, when you know something and you re-read the story, you can pinpoint the little hints I've dropped about it :P! I try to make it interesting and VERY mysterious, so it keeps the readers on their toes. Hope you're enjoying it all. If you ever want to drop a line again, feel free to do so :)! I always reply to my reviews and I am super curious to hear the reader's theories and thoughts about it all! Again, thanks for reviewing :)!
"rmpcmfan" Hi :)! Haha, I enjoyed a focused Emily, scolding Richard over "case details", too! I wanted to write so many more details, but I saw how HUGE the chapter had already become, so I ended it as it is now. And lol Richard is busting the young ppl's b#lls, definitely hahaha! Emily found it cute that some "kids" were so keen on beating him at the game lol! Oh you are soooo welcome for the fringe thing hahaha! I thought of you and I made this whole scene up, for you haha - "she looks like that actress who plays a bad ass agent in that cool new criminal show" hahaha...the Criminal Minds reboot, maybe? :P As for Angie...she's definitely Emily's girl, everyone is now aware of this insanely weird new bond between them, but nobody dares question it. Richard only found it sus that she keeps talking about Angela as if she was a young child, rather than a 23 year old. This will be explained/become a little less weird at some point. Also Richard is a VERY smart man...so the fact that he ain't asking questions may be due to him not wanting to push Emily to share too much...or maybe there's more to the story... :P I dunno! Please DO continue to analyze those little comments, lol! It will help you in the future, once things start to unravel. Every little weird thing is important and the more "randomly thrown in" it may seem at this moment, the more relevant it actually is...it is just out of context NOW, but makes perfect sense (I hope hahahaha, I'm tryingggggg hahaha!).
"kjisner" WOW, NEW REVIEWER!? Hello :)! Welcome to the beautiful mess of a CM world that I've created, lol! I'm very thankful that you took some of your time to review, it always makes me smile when new people join our little "discussions"! Readers sometimes give me little requests that I then incorporate in the story, so feel free to voice your opinions, lay out those theories and make a request at any time! If it can work it into what will later happen in the story, I will be writing it in :)! Also wow, a lot of readers say they've been re-reading the story hehe, that's so cool to hear! Now, about reading it again, so you'd get more hints...that's great...but keep in mind that the MAJOR plotline is still fiercely protected, so you won't be able to figure out too much YET :)! And it isn't just Angie who knows about it all...in fact, you'd be surprised to find out just how much do other people know about it, even if nobody is talking :P! As for the "Puzzlemaster" comment - here's a virtual cookie for a reward :)! Thank you so much for being so nice and kind to write those words!
"sweetkid45" I have this whole plan already figured out, for when it comes to Angie's placement. But a lot of things have to happen first, no rush. I also want her to join the BAU (clearly, hehehe!), but it would be boring if she graduated and was given what she wants, just because she wants it. Yes, she's good, but she isn't a magician and she won't just get things for free, on a whim :)! She'll have to sweat a bit. And I am keeping in mind your request about that Emily scene with the NYC BAU office hahaha! It will be placed when the time is right. For now, just focus on the current things and enjoy :)!
"zhangxinna" Welcome baaack! I am so glad you're okay! Been worried about you, with how you disappeared. I'm also glad that you haven't lost interest in the story :)! I know you were a huge RichardEmily supporter and each time you reviewed before I was trying so hard not to spoil it for you that YES, they DO end up together :P! (Keep reading, everything until the end of this page is answer to YOU!)
Wow, you've read 2000 updates!? HOW!? Yay! And don't worry, I have TONS of chapters already written and you ain't got nooo idea the bombshells I'm going to throw at my readers :D! Some of it is connected to Bella and Angela…you just wait, hehe! Also, you got mislead about Monkey, I think. So, she IS a woman in the FBI, that's been confirmed. However, I did not mention she resembles JJ (sorry if at some point it sounded like it, ouch!). Don't look for a petite blondie, so you don't get the wrong ideas ;) Wow, Lilly Lambert!? Girl, you really did your research, that's so cool that you're so invested!
Clara knows a LOT! She may know who Monkey is…she may be Monkey, herself. We shall see. Yes, Angela has traveled a looot, living in multiple places during her upbringing. Same with Clara and Emily, so they can relate when it comes to this, especially Emily (with her military dad/childhood/politics mom, etc.)
Ah Emily is such a be-yaatch, she refuses to say Richard's name to Angela hahaha. She knows how much it annoys Angie that she doesn't know it, so she keeps letting her call him French Daddy…and honesty, I'm unsure if Emily hates that…or enjoys it ey ey eyyyyyyyyyy whoop whooop, hahahaha! And lol yeah, Emily is terrrrriiiified to learn his job title, so she's doing her absolute best to avoid that! Let's just say that…we all want her to open the dang envelope…and there will come a time when she'd wish she'd opened it, herself. Ehmmm. Nuff said here :P
Richard has been married briefly, yes, in his early 30s. Yes, he is widowed now. Bella does NOT know his wife.
Ah Derek! He's just hanging out in there haha. I have a plan to make this come out, but it's too early for that storyline. You bet ya that ONE specific person from the BAU won't be too happy about it, hahaha! It will not be on the Academy campus. Although…a bunch of profilers…hmm, ya really think some of them don't know it already? Might become a bit problematic at some point…I'm just saying… And he can't sign up to supervise Bryan, as he's NOT an active Agent now, just a trainer…so we'll see how that works out for the two guys. We still have to see how Angela's mystery thesis goes, lol!
