Chasing Miss Conner •NEW VERSION•

XXXI

Thirty One

"when was it over?" (feat. Sam Hunt)

By: Sasha Alex Stone

I gasped and flew back, covering my head with my hands, feeling hot slices of pain cut through my arms. A reverberating pop ripped through the air, shattering my eardrums and I screamed as Officer Beck's heavy body fell on top of me. Three more loud pops came and she jerked.

I whimpered, terrified that she was dead.

"Don't move." She suddenly breathed, shifting a fraction so that she could reach her hip, and I had to bite back the sob of relief that wanted to escape.

The darkness in her blue eyes demanded obedience and I had terrified tears streaming down my face when she pulled her gun from her waist. She peeked around the couch, and I held my breath. After a long moment she turned back to me, a finger to her lips. Her free hand went to her phone, dialing 9-1-1. Shock muted her words as she spoke in a whisper to the operator, something about her badge number and backup resonating with my muddled brain. When she hung up, my hands started to shake, and she shifted further off of me but stayed close. My heart started to accelerate, sending painful bursts throughout my chest. I wheezed.

"Breathe. I'm going to get you out of this." She promised.

Her confident words helped me work through my panic, and my heart started to calm. She put her finger to her lips, and motioned for me to stay put. Glass crunched through the open window and I whimpered, feeling Beck's fingers brush mine. My heart pounded painfully as she lifted her pistol, shifting off the safety. I wanted to beg her not to leave but knew I couldn't be the reason she was shot, or worse, so I bit my lip and forced myself to think of anything else. I held my breath as she crept along the edge of the couch, my ears straining to hear whatever I could. Deafening silence echoed around me, infuriatingly terrifying. Amidst the chaos, my mind went to Juliette, wondering if she was safe.

"Hands up! Drop the weapon!" I jumped as Beck's loud voice rang out, thick with authority. My blood roared as I waited for the person to respond.

"I'm on the job!" A feminine voice responded, so achingly familiar that I almost worried I'd lost my mind.

"Agent Conner, FBI! Do not fire! I am going to reach for my badge and credentials.....do not shoot me, officer."

Her voice was low with authority. I heard the rustling of fabric and then a low grunt as something was pulled free. I could only sit there, numbly after being shot at, and then brutally stomped on. Agent Conner....My vision swam as I struggled to make sense of it. My mind ran rampant, stopping only on the names of the few involved. My heart stopped and I felt sick, turning away.

Genny.

The girl in the hospital.

Me.

She wasn't in love with me. She was fucking investigating me. And Caleb. Cataloguing all our experiences and all the pain we went through so that they could take him down. It all made perfect sense now, why she had been allowed to take so many "sick" days from work to be with me, helping me. She's not my teacher, she's an undercover FBI agent.