The Cookie Lady [Complete]

66

After ensuring Veronica was gone, Mike got up to close the door. Fatima instantly got tensed watching him do it, her hand reaching for the remote to call for the nurse. "Don't do it." He spoke looking dead at her, she removed her hand from the remote slowly. "It's about time we talk, don't you think?"

Her body stiffened up, "Talk about what?" She eyed him as he moved the seat from the corner closer to her bedside, Fatima discreetly scooted to the opposite side of the bed. "I'm sure you have questions, go ahead and ask me. Especially after what happened back at the house." 

She took a second, she had a million questions but she couldn't decipher which one was most important. Starting with the most basic and obvious question, "How did you know I was in danger?" He sighed looking at her, "I have been watching you." He admitted as they shared intensive stares. The silence was so intense that you could hear a pen drop. 

Fatima shifted uncomfortably, that feeling in her stomach was erupting inside of her. "Uh....okay." She didn't even have a good enough response, but if someone plainly admits that, you would be lost for words. "And how did you know where Junior and I were, that house is gigantic, you just happened to think I was in the closet?" She asked him. "I didn't know, I was gonna check his room and your room. I knew you would be in either one of the rooms because it was night time, his room just so happened to be before the master." 

His responses weren't enough for her, she was starting to get more irritated and less scared. "Just tell me start to finish everything you know." She wasn't gonna play 21 questions with him, because that entails him only answering said question and she honestly doesn't even know what to ask to begin with. If he runs his mouth and slips up, she can go from there rather than look for a need in a haystack. 

He looked down at his phone reading the time. "There's no easy way to say this but...I worked alongside your mother in the CIA almost 15 years ago" Fatima's mouth dropped, she was not expecting any of this, which is leaving her even more confused. "Wai- actually continue." She spoke.

He nodded his head. "I was a rookie then and she had been there for quite a while, made a name for herself, in the academy leading up to that, all the recruiters used her achievements as a mark for us. Your mother ran a mile in 8 minutes, you know how fucking fast that is? For reference, I served in the military and even did a tour, the requirements for the military is strict, but the CIA is stricter." He spoke with a sense of eager behind his voice. "She didn't really like me, she hated the idea of watching over me or protecting me if you will, she felt like she worked better as a lone wolf- that may be true but we will never know." 

Brushing those thoughts to the back of his head, "Moving forward, several years later, almost 3 years later, I was apart of a task force alongside your mother who helped take down a man who had done some not so pretty things. Your mother had to go undercover and I was her unofficial handler-" 

"Why would you be her handler if she was a higher rank? Wouldn't it make sense to have it be you go undercover and she be the handler?" Fatima uttered unintentionally cutting him off, but she found that strange, why have someone who only been in the 'system' for a few years when you can have someone who been there in double that and has the experience of such. 

He chuckled at her eagerness for questions, "I can't really exactly explain why, but it worked in our favor at first. The person was apprehended and sentenced to jail time, after that things went down hill for me." 

"What happened?" Huffing at the mere thought of unpacking decades of pent emotions, "You remember yesterday, you asked me about my family photo?" She nodded her head slowly trying to see what that had to do with anything. "I lost my family after the case and then a short while later, I lost your mother." Her face scrunched up, "Lost like they left you or lost like they were killed?"