fault lines | in progress

chapter one

Katherine Guerra wasn't surprised when she was called for a one-on-one meeting with her boss right before her scheduled, or forced, time off. She'd seen the signs. The hushed whispers, the passive-aggressiveness from coworkers, the glances from across headquarters. Frankly, she was shocked it took Richard this long to request the meeting, she'd assumed he would've emailed her right when the order for her PTO came in from the higher-up brass.

"Sir?" Katherine cleared her throat while knocking on the dark brown door of Special Agent in Charge's, Richard O'Malley, office.

"Come in." The voice that wafted through the crack between the door and the frame was stern, but not mean.

Katherine stepped into the office. It was the biggest one in headquarters, fit for the boss. In the past, it was the office Katherine one day hoped to occupy, but not anymore.

"Sit." Richard gestured to one of the two chairs placed in front of the desk he was seated behind. "I'm assuming you know more or less where this conversation is going to lead."

Deciding to open the conversation with that line was a choice, Katherine assessed. It put the tone of the conversation in her hands. Was she going to cut to the chase? Stall with small talk? A deliberate choice by a world class profiler. Katherine decided to skip the small talk.

"I have an idea. Don't think it's about the weather."

Richard let out a short chuckle, "No, no it is definitely not. I'm getting orders from higher up to let you go, you know? Talk you into some sort of extremely early retirement."

"I'm not shocked. I'm also not afraid to take accountability for my actions, and if that's the only option the bureau sees fit, I will follow suit." Katherine gritted through her teeth, trying her best to maintain the decorum she'd so easily lost just a couple days prior.

"Katherine, you verbally berated another agent, while on a case, mind you. And if that wasn't enough, you broke his nose! In front of the local police." Richard let out an exasperated sigh as he leaned back in his chair. "I mean maybe I should let you go. I sure think DeRose would appreciate that."

She scoffed at the mention of DeRose, the mere mention of his name made her hands curl into fists. "So are you?"

"Am I what?"

"Going to fire me?" Katherine asked.

"No." She was shocked, genuinely surprised at the older man's answer. "I'm offering you an out." He pulled out a manila folder from a drawer and handed it to her.

Katherine took the folder. "What is this?"

"Transfer orders." She raised an eyebrow. "To the BAU. I couldn't let the FBI lose one of their best agents just because she doesn't know how to keep her cool."

Another scoff. Katherine had been keeping her cool when it came to DeRose for two weeks before she snapped. She opened the folder carefully, scanning the paperwork. Her start date read as three weeks from today, exactly. Closing the folder, she looked up, "Thank you." And she meant it.

"Hey, don't thank me, thank Aguilar, he came in here and threatened to quit on the spot if I didn't figure out a solution. I don't know if he really would have done it, but I wasn't going to wait around to find that out." That put a smile on Katherine's face, imagining her best friend going to bat for her. "Now get out of here, you better start packing."