Chapter 8
It took the team another ten hours, but they solved the case. I was right, it was a Duo. Their plane should be landing in about four hours and then I won't be so lonely anymore.
"Hey Pen, do you want to go half in on a pizza?" I asked, running into Penelope in the break room after being overwhelmingly disappointed with the lack of food.
"Sure," she said. "After you answer my question."
I sighed and looked at her in the eyes.
"I can't, because I don't know the answer." I admitted to more of myself than her.
"Well, do you have feelings for him or not?"
"No. I don't know, maybe."
"And does he have feelings for you?"
"I'm a profiler, not a psychic Pen." I said, grabbing my phone so I could order the pizza. "And besides, Spence isn't the easiest to read."
"Ok, idea!" She said, clapping her hands together. "Invite him over and cook him dinner."
"Why?" I asked, typing in the pizza places website and starting an order.
"Wine and dine. Get the boy talking about something other than work, see if you click outside of the BAU. It's a sure way to figure out if a, you have feelings for him and b, if he has feelings for you." She explained.
"Maybe. Look, do you want pizza or not?"
"Yes, vegetarian please." She nodded.
I sighed, and ordered a half veggie and half Hawaiian pizza. "it'll be here in 15, can you go down and get it?"
........
I was alone in the bullpen, again, no surprise. After Garcia took her half of the pizza, she retreated back to her bat cave and left me out here alone with my half of the pizza.
I finished the last pile of paperwork that I had and reclined back in my chair, and closed my eyes. I took a deep breath in and sighed. Only eleven more days until I'm off desk duty. 264 hours. 15,840 minutes. 950,400 seconds. And yes, I was counting down.
My phone started ringing and I picked it up off the desk, answering it without looking at who it was first.
"Sheppard."
"Oh Eliza, sorry, did I bother you?" My mom, the only one who calls me that. "Are you on a case?"
I also forgot to mention to her that I was shot, that's not something she needed to know. She would just freak out and then uproot her schedule to come take care of me. It was just better if she didn't know.
"No, we just got back." I lied. "What's up?"
"Don't freak out." She started and I sat up, feeling concerned. "I have a tumor in my uterus."
"A tumor? A tumor? You have a t-tumor in your uterus and you're tell-telling me not to freak out?" I said, my voice slightly louder than the appropriate volume for an office. "Well is it benign or malignant?"
She was silent, that was all the answer I needed.
"What stage?" I said, leaning forward on my desk. I was praying that she wouldn't say three or four, those are practically a death sentence.
"Stage three c for right now. They're wanting to do exploratory surgery next week to see if it's spread."
"That doesn't make sense. Why would they do surgery to see if it's spread, an x-ray would be just as effective." I said, and then realizing. "Oh, they already did the x-ray, and it was inconclusive."
