Case File

Chapter Two

"Amelia?" I push open a door to one of the few rooms at the FBI complex.

"Yeah, who are you?" A voice asks.

"I'm Luna," I'm taken aback as to how different this girl is from the picture Rachel showed me. Her hair is now eight inches shorter, styled to hide whatever happened to it. Dark circles consume her eyes and she looks so skinny.

"Why are you here?" She is too tired to even care much about who I was.

"Um, well my Aunt works here and I," I gesture to the seat next to her, she nods and I continue. "Well they never let me really help with cases and I- I just wanted to see if you're okay," As soon as I realize I'm rambling I stop.

"You really care about me?"

"Of course! Why are you so surprised?" I ask, hoping I'm doing this right.

"Well," she mumbles "Nobody's ever really cared much about me. The thought scares me a little,"

My heart breaks a little. Nobody should feel that way. But it begs a question.

"But you looked so happy in that picture," I say.

"What picture?" Oh dear. I screwed up. Now she's scared.

I fumble around in my pocket and pull out a crumpled copy of the picture Rachel showed me.

"Oh" That is all she says. She takes the picture from me and stares at it.

"Is everything all right?" I move to touch her arm and she flinches away. I quickly retract my hand. "Amelia?"

"My brother took this," she says.

"You look very happy," I inform her.

She shifts to face me. "Luna," she says my name cautiously, "Can I tell you something? Something you won't tell your Aunt or anyone on her team?"

"I can't guarantee that, they're trained interrogators," I laugh, trying to lighten the mood. She doesn't think it's funny. I clear my throat. "Yeah of course. What is it?"

Amelia looks to the ground. "Well when I was attacked, the guy didn't just chop off my hair and leave me to die"

I look at her, hoping she'll continue.

She takes a deep breath. "He raped me."

"Oh, Amelia" I want to give her a hug and comfort her but clearly she doesn't want that.

"Well he tried to" she corrects herself.

"Tried to?" I ask.

"I um, well my brother used to teach me karate and self-defense. He was always so worried. I guess he was right."

"You fought him off?" She looks so small sitting here now. It's hard to imagine her fighting off a grown man.

She lets out a little giggle, much to my surprise. "I hit him in the balls with a tree branch"

I can't help but laugh. And soon the two of us are laughing. Really laughing. Not polite social laughter, but middle-of-the-night sleepover laughter.

Once we calm ourselves, Amelia says something I can't hear. I have to ask her to repeat it twice before I understand.

"I said thank you. Everyone else has been so cold and frontal. It was scaring me to be honest. You are the nicest agent I've met." She smiles at me when she says the last part.

"Wait, you think I'm an agent?" I say, then in my head Did I accidentally say I was?

"Well I figured you were. You said they never really let you help. I guess I assumed you were like an intern or a junior agent or something. Are you really not?"

I laugh, "No, my Aunt home schools me from her desk upstairs. I wish I was an agent though."

"You'd be a good agent, Luna" she tells me.

==========

"Am I going to meet Carter now?" I ask Rachel, walking out of Amelia's room. After another twenty minutes talking to her, Rachel came and said Amelia needed to rest.

"No, he isn't doing so well. Maybe tomorrow." She says heading to her office.

I follow, "What's wrong?"

She hesitates and says, "The tetanus in his blood mixed with his infected wounds and head trauma are causing him to be violently sick."

"Oh, that's awful," We reach her office, I follow her in.

"Yes it is. So, how is Amelia?" She folds her hands and stares at me from across her desk.

"She's scared. Of all the agents and the enormity of the place. I think she was glad someone wasn't just interrogating her and actually caring about how she feels. She isn't used to being cared about." I remember her wish not to say anything about being almost raped.

"I'm sure you're being a great friend to her." Rachel rearranges papers and folders on her desk.

"She was almost raped but then she fought the guy off with a tree branch." I blurt, immediately covering my mouth.

"I knew I'd get it out of you," Rachel laughs, no doubt adding it to Amelia's file.

"How did you do that?" I ask. Not even Max will teach me interrogation techniques.

"Acting disinterested. Works every time."

"Ugh," I sigh, "I told Amelia I wouldn't tell anyone!"

"Do you want to be an agent Luna? Because this happens everyday," she clicks a pen closed and heads upstairs.