Red Star

Before The Fire Part 1

She turns around and walks out of Douglas' office just as she hears Castano thanking Douglas profusely for this opportunity. She's nauseated just by the sound of his voice.

He runs down the hallway to catch up with her.

"Hey, Emil- I mean Rosa, I-"

"Call me Waters, like all the others do." The firmness of her voice startles him slightly.

Following her all the way back to her office - their office now-, Castano is still talking.

"...and I suppose your name isn't Emily, and mine isn't Roger! Isn't it funny that we both made up names? Like we where meant to-"

"Please stop talking."

"Oh! Okay."

"I'll make someone from downstairs to get you a desk. For now, you should just go and work in the common room on the top floor or something." Rosa was already sat at her own desk, typing away, writing a quick email to Insufferable Penelope to sort out the desk problem, and then another to Brandon, telling him to come upstairs immediately so she could vent at him.

"Uh...Waters?"

She simply hums in response.

"Are we gonna speak about...um..." Castano was nothing like the rumours from Chicago had alluded to. She'd heard about an exceptional fighter with flawless deduction skills and that he had a better aim than her. Unlikely. This guy was a puddle of nerves and looked like he completely lacked a spine.

"There's nothing to talk about." She didn't even look up from her desperate email to Brandon.

"You didn't stay for pancakes."

Her head snaps up quicker than a whip. Her eyes narrow.

"Fine. Let me spell this out for you. As far as I am concerned, a girl called Emily met a man called Roger last night and the spent the night together. Nothing else. I don't know how you work, Castano, but here, no one dates. It's too dangerous. I'm sure in Chicago it was more relaxed and la-di-da so a few dates every month or so were harmless, but here any one of us could be shot and killed at any given moment while on a case. You're at head office now of the fucking FBI, Castano, and you need to remember that. It's hardcore here, and you need to learn that quick. Some people are here one day, and gone the next," looking up at him, Rosa notices that Castano doesn't look as nervous anymore...more defiant. She admires that just a little bit, and wonders if she may be able to tolerate him after all. Not a lot of people can take a slaying from Rosa Waters without falling into a puddle of tears. "It hurts you, and the people around you a whole lot less if you just keep your distance."

"What about Douglas?"

"What about him?"

"He has a wife."

"Wow, I guess they were wrong about your poor deduction skills. What was it? The ring on his finger?"

"Wow, I guess they were wrong about your sarcasm that drips from each work that you speak."

Touché.

"If you look, really look, you'd see that he might as well not be married at all. You saw the photos of his wife and him on his desk, right?...Well, I rest my case." She looks back down and continues her email, but not before she deletes the bit about Castano being weaker and more nervous than a child before they sing in their school play. Castano's gone up in her estimations (only about three inches) since then. She's interrupted by another email, from Douglas, with the details of where they need to go. She smirks.

"What? What about the photo!?" Castano tries to catch her eye, to find some sort of clue, but fails.

"Okay, if you can figure it out, you can stay. Until then, however, you need to get a tuxedo because we're going to a ball."

Three hours later, Rosalynn is knocking at the same door she all but kicked down the night before. She curses herself for remembering where Castano lives.

Opening the door, she also curses Castano for widening his eyes when he sees her. Curses him for the slight lift of the left corner of his mouth. Curses him for saying 'You look...uh...okay'. She also curses him (just for good measure) for not looking awful himself.

"Could it have killed you to style your hair?" She laments and Castano just laughs. His hair, tight hazelnut curls that fall to just where his jaw is, looks generally like a mess every single she has seen it so far (it looked like a mess last night, this morning, this afternoon and this evening). It almost even looks like he had just rolled down a particularly bumpy hill. All he's missing is a few stray twigs. And leaves, maybe a squirrel or two.

"The taxi is coming in five. Do you want to come in and talk over the plan?"

"I want to talk the plan through. I don't want to come in."

At least she's honest.

"Oh, okay, let's just wait outside of my building for the taxi then...so are we.."

"I'm going to go in alone and strike up a conversation with a group. You come by as my cousin who I haven't seen in years. You ask for a dance and we talk then about if I have seen the guy we're after. If not, I go to the bar, you go to another group and we regroup again and discuss who we've seen. When we've found our guy, we corner him and arrest him," she looks left towards him, and notices that the brisk air has turned his nose pinker. "Any questions?"

"Yeah! What happen if it gets sticky?"

"I have a gun in my purse, three knives attached to my thigh and a bottle of arsenic in my bra." He's silent for a moment as his cheeks grow slightly pinker and she smirks slightly.

"I have a gun in my blazer and one in my trousers. You got handcuffs with you?"

The taxi drives up and he holds open the door for her as she picks up her blood red dress off of the floor, stepping into the car.

"No, I usually just put 'em to the floor and wait for the local cops to take 'em away."

"Right."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah. Douglas has his photos of him and his wife on his desk, but facing away from him so that people think he cares for his marriage, and also so that he doesn't have to look at the photos at all. Also, he twists his wedding ring a lot and it looked pretty loose, so I assume he's also having an affair. He's a wealthy man, so it wouldn't be money keeping him in the marriage, so perhaps his 'lover' is a girl that people wouldn't approve if he dropped everything for her."

She's beyond impressed, except for the biggest detail he's missed.

"No, let me correct that. His 'lover' is a guy that people wouldn't approve of if he dropped everything for him."

"I've suspected the man in question to be my best friend Brandon since before Douglas even got married. I've never confronted either of them and you shouldn't either," she looks across at him again, watching the street lights dancing across his eyes. She smirks at his triumphant face. "I think you can stay."

"Thanks, Waters," He beams at her. "Can I call you Rosa now?"

"I prefer Ros."

~~~

AN: Hello! Now that I've done a chapter for each timeline, I thought I'd show myself! I hope you really enjoyed this chapter and thank you so much for reading.

If you haven't guessed already, this story will be told in three parts - After the Fire, Now, and Before the Fire, in that order. The separate timelines will go through their own story, each time revealing more of the whole story, so eventually, it will be three full stories all in order that will all lead on to the next at the end, so please don't worry if it's all a bit confusing now. It will all make sense soon!

Also, every time we get to another After the Fire chapter, the perspective will change, however, for the first couple of times, we might stick with Rosa just as we establish the story and the characters.

Thank you so much again, and please don't hesitate to message me with any questions, suggestions etc. and I would love to hear what you think in the comments too!

Until next time!

The song of the chapter is 'Marks To Prove It' by The Maccabees.