Open Case File [COMPLETED]

Something Unexpected

"It's not what you would call romantic really," Carter said. "But it's what was romantic for me. About a year ago, we had been working undercover and our covers were blown. We were taken."

The girls all let out small gasps. Which made Carter pause, wondering if she should go on. Eva nodded and so Carter did.

"We were both strapped to chairs and the boss had a gun pointed at my head.

"The air went still as if everyone had stopped breathing. "And Donovan shouted at the man to kill him instead of me. To take his life, not mine."

Carter stared off, picturing the whole scene in her mind. "There was so much desperation in his voice as if death wasn't the worst thing, but seeing me with a gun to my head. All he wanted was to exchange his life for mine. That was pretty romantic."

When she blinked and looked at the girls, she realized there were staring at her in stunned silence. Carter gave an awkward chuckle. "It seems I should give him some ideas on how to be more romantic. I liked the thing with the beach, that sounded nice."

Ashley smiled but there was a look in her eyes that Carter couldn't quite understand. Clearing her throat, she clapped her hands together.

"Okay, now I want to know about date nights. What do you do and how often do you usually take date night?"

Again Eva and Ali shared stories about what the did, which were all common and normal. Dinner, movie night, clubs, dancing. The most extreme one was when Clint and Eva had done an escape room. Carter almost laughed at that because it was technically close to the last date night Donovan and she had shared.

"What about you, Carter?" Ashley asked. "What was your last date night?"

Carter found herself trapped because their last date night was...something and the ones before that were almost nonexistent. She was seeing a pattern with Donovan and her relationship and decided after today they needed to do something normal.

"It's wasn't a great one," Carter said, not sure if she should share.

"Oh tell us," Eva said. "We're all curious and it can't be worse than Clint's and mine scrabble night."

"Okay then," Carter said. "The last date night we had, we spent it in the trunk of a car."

"You're joking?" Ali asked.

"Nope. We had finished working for forty-two hours without sleep and it impaired our senses and we were jumped, drugged, and stuffed into the back of a trunk."

"How did you get out?" Ashley asked.

"I had a knife sown into the back of my sports bra. We cut the ties and when the men came to get us...well, we handled that."

Carter nodded at the shocked expressions around her. Yeah, she and Donovan needed to do something more normal.

As time progressed, Carter got more comfortable with the girls, but at the same time realized how vastly different they were from her. She had already known this, but somehow talking about their experiences made it glaringly obvious.

When they all decide that they'd had enough of the sauna, they stepped out into the cool air, sweat sliding down their skin. As they went to grab their robes, the girls all stopped, finally able to see Carter. Carter snatched her robe off the hook and quickly put it on, hiding her body. But it didn't matter, they had seen her scars.

"It's crazy that it's all really true," Ashley said, shocked by the evidence.

Carter gripped the sash, wanting to run away. "Yeah, it's all true."

Ali stared at Carter, her hand over her mouth. "How are you not scared to go back out there after what you've faced?"

"Because," Carter said. "There's something more terrifying than what I could face."

"What," Eva said as if she couldn't imagine there was something.

Carter took in a breath and let it out. "Waiting at home."

All three girls exchanged looks, then focused back on Carter, their eyes all showing the same emotion, understanding.

"How do you handle it?" Ashley said, softly. "How do you cope with knowing that he could be in danger and you can't do anything?"

"How do you deal with the worry?" Eva asked.

"How do you not lose yourself in thoughts of 'what ifs'? Ali asked.

Carter looked from each girl and realized that though they were all so different in so many aspects that here was where they were connected: they were all in love with a man who put himself in danger. Right then she didn't feel out of place standing among them.

"You know that he has a reason to make it through safely," Carter said. "Because he's working as hard as he can to come home to you."

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🤦🏽‍♀️🤚 Stop, just give me a minute...

🙄 Okay, I'm going to need more than a minute to come to terms that I've lost all control over what I write for one shots.

I said no so many times, that I was never going to write this...yet HERE WE ARE! 🙈 Just leave me to my misery.

Better yet, comment and make it worse by telling me you actually liked it. 💭💭💬💣😭

*sighs* okay. I did find it interesting how Carter still feels insecure. 🤦🏽‍♀️ But I'm not admitting anything else. I've lost too much today.

Heads up! If you missed the Instagram Live Chat where I talked all about A Secret Service you can still watch it.
I posted it on my IGTV. My Instagram name is: Joymoment

Also for a Kennedy update watch the second video titled My Ramblings minute 3:40.

Vote, comment, follow because I have done what you asked for master. 🙇‍♀️