........
I finally retreated back to my desk to try and get some work done when my computer started to ring, a Skype call from JJ.
"Yeah?" I asked, clicking the answer button.
"We're at a dead end and need a fresh set of eyes. Garcia should be sending you everything."
I nodded and clicked open the file that I had just been sent. I looked at all the pictures and noticed slight differences in the way the stitches down the abdomens and the branding were made.
"Did you rule out a team?" I asked.
"What makes you think it could be a team?" Emily asked, popping into the frame.
"Look at the suture line." I said, pointing behind them to the pictures on the board. "The first and third victim had 27 sutures and the second and fourth had 30, and they are slightly to left."
"Plus the brandings look like they were done with different pressure, probably a dominant hand for the deeper branding and a submissive hand for the lighter ones."
"A team." Emily and JJ said at the same time. "Thank yuh Sheppard."
The call hung up and I was all alone again.
........
"You're ready to go Love?" Garcia asked, walking in behind me at the end of the work day, even though I knew that she would still be working the case from home.
"Yeah." I said, standing up and grabbing my crutches, following behind her. "Are you going to let me go back to my own apartment tonight?"
"Absolutely not. What if you fall out of the shower? I'm 39 minutes across town from you." She said, pushing the down button on the elevator, causing my heart to race.
"Pen, I'll be fine." I sighed, hopping into the elevator as it opened. I closed my eyes so that I could pretend that I wasn't on an elevator. It's been helping since Spencer left the other day, he usually takes the elevator with me since he's the only one who knows.
"And besides, it makes it easier to carpool if you're crashing at my place, I don't have to drive all the way across town."
"I could always take a ca-" I started to say but was interrupted.
"Absolutely not." She pressed. "As soon as boy wonder comes back, I will gladly let you go back to your humble abode. That way I know you're being taken care of."
"What exactly do you think is going on between me and Spencer?" I asked, as the elevator opened and I hobbled out.
"Nothing." She said, the pitch of her voice going up at the end of her word.
"Pen, need I remind you what I do for a living?"
"All I'm saying, is that he's been very protective of you since you were shot, and that you two have been awfully close. Having secret conversations in the break room, stealing glances at each other across the bullpen." She pressed on. "And all of it started after you, SHARED A HOTEL ROOM."
"You don't even come out of your bat cave, how would you know that we're stealing glances at each other or not?" I asked, walking through the door that she was holding open for me, also ignoring the last thing she said.
"I have eyes all over this place." She sighed. "And don't think that, just because I'm not a profiler, that I can't tell that you're deflecting the fact of you sharing a hotel room."
"A hotel room in which nothing but the conversion of the case and sleeping happened." I sighed, reaching her car and waiting for her to unlock the doors. I slid my crutches into the back seat and myself into the passenger seat.
"All I'm saying is that you two, are way more than just coworkers."
"Yeah, it's called friendship."
"Friendship my ass."
"Believe what you want, but we're not the ones having sultry phone calls and calling each other pet names."
"What? Me and Derek, it's nothing more than innocent flirtation."
"My point exactly."
"No no, because there is a huge difference in stealing glances at each other across the room and having innocent flirtation to make the day go by quicker."
"I really don't see how." I sighed, laying my head against the window, exhausted from having to walk around all down with crutches.
"Because at the end of the day, Derek and I know where we stand with each other. We know that there's no feelings there. Can you, with absolute certainty, say the same of you and Reid?"
We sat in silence. For the first time in my life, I didn't have the answer to a question that was being asked.
The speed that I'm writing this at is kind of alarming.....
Anyway, I'd love some feedback! Can I maybe get two or three comments before the next chapter?
Penelope
Start from the beginning
