RUNAWAY
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO...!
❝ SEASON THREE ❞
"I CAN OPEN MY own door." Penelope huffed, as Morgan opened the door for her and Jennie. It was the blonde's first day back at work since the incident, and Morgan was helping her get settled in. And Jennie─ just wanted to be there too.
"Not on my watch, now will you zip it?" Derek told her, shaking his head, before closing the door behind them.
The blonde's eyes scanned the room, in terror, "What the hell?!"
"What?"
"What happened in here?"
"Oh, the mess? Jennie and I got that." Derek told her.
The teen looked at him with a surprised look, not remembering when she signed up to help clean the mess in her office.
"We do?"
The man picked up the pink trash can in the room, "I guess the guy going through your system─"
"Kevin Lynch."
"I guess he made a little bit of a mess, don't worry about it."
"He changed everything!"
Derek looked around the room, "Changed everything? What are you talking about?"
"He adjusted the─ the─" Penelope trailed off, being left speechless, "Forget it, it'll be─ Go. You need to get to L.A."
"No, listen, I'm going to stick around for a while. Think you might need me."
"Stick around?"
"Yeah." He nodded, "The team can handle one case without me. It'll be fine. Jennie will be here too."
"Mhm." Jennie grinned, before thinking about it for a second, "Oh, except─ I have a hair appointment in an hour, so.."
"Honey─" The blonde placed a hand on Morgan's chest, "I know you love me, but the prospect of you whirling around here trying to fix this actually more frightening than getting shot."
"Dang." Jennie mumbled under her breath, finding a chair to sit in.
"Garcia are you sure─"
"I am completely fine! Look─" Penelope flexed her arms, "Full range of motion! No pain!"
"Stop, stop─" Derek told her.
"Go."
The man sighed, looking at her, "You know I'm just a phone call away."
She smiled, nodding, "Thank you."
As the man walked out, he looked at Jennie, "If anything happens, call me immediately."
Jennie nodded, playfully giving him a salute, as Penelope rolled her eyes, "Go."
The man sighed again, before leaving the room.
───
"IT'S REMARKABLE." It was a new day, when Spencer told both Penelope and Jennie, as they sat near his desk, looking at a printed picture they found, "Something like this makes you question everything you thought you knew."
"Yeah, it's like the monolith in 2001." Penelope added.
"So, there was actually a time when something like this was socially─ right?" Jennie questioned, looking at the picture.
"Oh─" Penelope patted her shoulder, "You're young. The 80s left a lot of people confused. This is, uh, especially sad, though."
Oh, and it was a photo of gothic Emily from when she was in high-school. Big, black hair, black makeup, black everything.
"Alright, very funny, you guys. Very funny." Emily snatched the picture from the group, as they tried stifling their laughter, "What did you do to it? You obviously altered it in photoshop or something. That hair?"
"Oh, no, pussycat. That's all you." Penelope shook her head, "Garfield High, class of '89."
"You really didn't change anything?" Emily questioned, embarrassed.
"I hacked it, as is." Penelope told her, "You're seriously trying to tell me you don't remember rocking that look?"
"I like it, Em." Jennie grinned, peaking over to look at it again, "Gives you─ pizazz."
"Perhaps your lack of recognition stems from a dissociative fugue suffered in adolescence." Spencer told the woman, "Say, at a Siouxsie and the Banshees concert?"
The group laughed, as Emily shook her head, still trying to take in the photo of her.
───
"HELLO, MY NAME is Spencer, and uh─ I don't really know what I am. This is my first meeting. I guess─ I know I had a problem with diluadid, but I stopped. Ten months ago, I stopped. I thought it was over, but, recently I've really been ─ Literature used the term craving. It started like a month ago. A suspect was murdered in front of me. A kid. And, I thought that I could save the kid, but I couldn't, and─ I've seen a lot of that stuff before, but for some reason, that kid's face has really stuck in my brain. You know? Its really─ I can't─ And I want to forget about him. And I just want to escape. I'm sorry. I have to go. I'm sorry."
"Officer Letts shot this just before he was killed."
It was another new day, when JJ presented to the group, who sat in the briefing room. Jennie sat on the couch nearby, reading from her book.
Her eyes shot up when she heard Spencer's footsteps enter the room, "Sorry I'm late."
"I hope she was worth it."
"I hope it was a she."
Jennie tensed slightly at Rossi and Morgan's commentary. Spencer had told her about him going to his first meeting for his issue with dilaudid. The teen was quite surprised when he confided in her, but it wasn't that crazy that he did. She's the only person with no authority and no obligation to tell anyone. And although sometimes it drove her nuts, she could keep a secret.
"I'm sorry, I was at the movies." Spencer told the group.
"Oh really? Why don't you tell us what it was about?" Rossi asked him. With that, Jennie quickly searched something on her phone movies that were showing tonight.
"Well, I had to leave early, so I can't really─"
"Cheetah Girls Two." Jennie spoke abruptly, trying to help the man out, causing heads to turn, "He told me he hasn't watched it, and it was showing, so─ I forced him to go."
Rossi looked at her for an extended moment, spotting her lie from a mile away, "Uh-Huh."
Spencer gave her a small, thankful smile, before Aaron spoke up, "I know it's late, I know we're tired, but we've got two dead cops."
"Alright, the resident, Rod Norris, was DOA." JJ began, "They're still trying to ID the remains of the second victim whom they believe is his 16-year-old daughter, Jordan. From the condition of the remains, she would've had to have been inside the house, close to the source of the blast."
"Clearly, they used the bombing to set the officers up for an ambush." Emily added.
"It's a well established terrorist tactic. First wave takes out civilians. The second wave takes out first responders." Spencer explained to the group.
"The locals are thinking terrorism. In West Texas?" Derek questioned, furrowing his eyebrows.
"Not exactly a tier-one target." JJ sighed, "But DHS did issue a terror alert for the border states yesterday. Just due to the timing and nature of the attack─"
"I've never heard of this place." Derek shook his head, and shrugged, "I mean the militia, okay, that I could see."
"Yeah, well, it is close to the border." Jennie chimed in, now fully focused on her dad's case, causing heads to turn to her again, "It could be traffickers sending a message."
"Whoever it is, they gunned down two cops and blew up a teenage girl." Rossi shook his head, "Until they're stopped, no one in that town is safe."
"We need to be cautious with the locals. They've lost two of their own." Aaron added, "They're anxious, they're scared, and they're going to want revenge."
"Can you blame them?"
As the team began to get their things together for the jet ride, Jennie caught up to Spencer at his desk.
He looked at her, "Hey."
"Hey." She gave him a small smile, "So, uh, how was..."
She trailed off, not knowing if he wanted to talk about it.
"Uh," He cleared his throat, "It was good. Good."
Jennie nodded, as Spencer leaned him closer, lowering his voice, "You, uh, haven't told anyone, right?"
"No." Jennie shook her head, "No. Of course not."
Spencer let out a small chuckle, "Thanks."
Spencer then grabbed his bag, and began to walk away. However, Jennie's voice had made him turn around.
"Hey, Spencer?"
"Yeah?"
"It's just─ with all of this going on, and you not wanting to tell anyone─" Jennie sighed, not knowing what words to say, "Just know you're not alone. And I couldn't be more proud of you."
Spencer let a slightly bigger smile form on his lips, "Thanks, Jennie."
───
AUTHOR'S NOTE. |
this chapter is kinda all over the place but i just wanted a to show some nice moments w/ jennie before we get to next chapter because—
you'll see
𝗐𝗈𝗋𝖽 𝖼𝗈𝗎𝗇𝗍.
1443.