Stood there, looking at each other, Katherine had longed for this moment. She always had so many questions, insults, and screams to latch out.
She always thought seeing her again might make things better, fix her somehow.
But confronted by reality, she was paralyzed.
Nothing to say, nothing came to mind, only her body spoke.
The adrenaline pumping through her veins prepared her to run away. Mouth slightly opened, she breathed silently.
She didn't know if she was having a stroke or if everyone had gone quiet.
Seconds felt like minutes, hours.
Katherine thought about everything, about her, them 5 years ago, her skin, her smell, her kindness...
"You must resent me so much" she said to Katherine. Her face revealed pain and sorrow. She seemed to know what she had done to this young woman, regretting it, now trying to make amends.
Katherine's lips quivered for a second.
"What are you doing here?" She asked with difficulty
The woman came closer as Katherine's natural instinct pushed her back. Like an opposite magnet she was pushed away by her energy.
The woman sighed. "I had to go through my Head of Chief to bypass my Sector Chief. I-I needed to see you. I heard what you did to try and get to me. I thought that, maybe...I should try and make it up to you." She said as she tried to move closer.
And again, she moved away.
Noticed by the others, Katherine wasn't crazy, the room had gone mostly silent.
Katherine was still processing as the others approches them.
"I'm sorry, Agent. Reid here is allergic to Violets, why don't we get rid of those?" JJ intercepted as she came up with an excuse.
Reid, next to her seemed content with her fast thinking.
"Yes, actually several flowers could make me fall into anaphylactic shock, I could die in seconds" he added.
"Here" Morgan said as he took the flowers from Elizabeth's hands willing to give them to Garcia
Thought the gesture was sweet. For the first time, Garcia had to force a smile as he handed them to her. She did love flowers and they would go great in her office but those, she would throw away.
"Oh, I'm sorry" the woman apologized
Her eye attracted to the sudden group forming, Emily scanned for Katherine but she only saw her back, facing towards someone she didn't know.
With a simple bat of her eyes, Emily than recognized the woman.
Elizabeth
She stopped talking and was analyzing the situation. Her team members were body blocking for Katherine who seemed tense.
Her distracted face disturbed the conversation as the others turned around to see what was going on. As he saw her, Agent. Veck's face grew red of anger.
In a flash both Chief walked towards the pack to speak to their respective agent.
"Agent. Preston, A word" the CSIS Agent said as he walked passed her towards another corridor.
She still gave them a smile, to the team members, to Katherine, before leaving and meeting with her boss.
Katherine watched as the woman was being scolded in whispers and tried to argument back to her boss. Explaining herself and trying to advocate for her place to stay, leaning on the agreement of the HC of the unit.
"Are you okay?"
Emily had stepped into her sight of view. Clearly anxious of her answer. Had she said anything?
Katherine didn't know if she could ask this question, but she deserved the answer.
"What aren't you telling me about this morning?"
Katherine had smelled the scent of Violets as she walked out of Emily's house this morning.
Thinking she had imagined it and her mind was tricking her into believing absurdities and make her panic. But now that Elizabeth had stood there in front of her, with the same scent. She knew, that Emily was hiding something.
It wasn't a coincidence.
Confronted, Emily had to speak to truth.
"I-" she sighed. "I received a flower ..., a Violet, it came with a note."
Katherine's eyes closed as she took a deep breath. Emily just wanted to protect her, help her.
"What did the note say?"
"I didn't have time to read it" Emily answered honestly.
Katherine had to trust Emily. If not, what would be their relationship.
If only Emily had read it and told her, warn her.
"Okay"
"Okay fair enough" they heard.
Agent. Veck was growling at his agent defying his orders. Thought he seemed more out of control then Elizabeth who was calm and composed. She had the permission of her boss's boss. Nothing he said would change that.
It actually seemed like she was the dominant one in their relationship.
After all, his feelings for her were had been revealed and it seemed that even after all this time, it was still affecting him.
He regained his composure as Elizabeth walked towards the group again. He watched with disappointment as he walked away.
"I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Agent. Prester, Elizabeth. You must be Emily" She handed out her hand to Emily.
Everyone watched as Emily's face was neutral to this proposed act of greeting.
Thought they all knew, that mentally, she was spitting on the floor in disrespect.
She gave a quick smile and shook her hand, 2 firm seconds, 1 too much for her taste.
She replied in with a tint of passive aggressiveness.
"Yes but don't worry, we" she gestured towards her team "already know much about you" she gave a nod and a fake smile
"I see,.... you must have lots of opinions about me then. But, I don't curse you for doing so, we all have regrets and obligations, haven't we? " she asked Emily as she remained unphased by her comment.
Emily didn't know if she meant to refer to her past. She actually didn't even know how Elizabeth knew her.
"Of course, we all do" she simply replied. Her hand on Katherine's shoulder, she could feel her hand squeezing unto her.
Elizabeth looked back at Katherine who was still silent but dared to stare, she couldn't look away.
Maybe she thought this was a dream. A nightmare
Elizabeth wasn't stupid, she could read the room. Especially Katherine, she had done that for several years.
"I see my letter this morning didn't arrive on time for you, you obviously weren't expecting me..." she glanced back at Emily but clearly spoke to Katherine.
"It must have gotten lost" Emily tried to remained calm.
Was Elizabeth expecting for Emily to tell her team, especially to Katherine she was coming?
Or
Did she expect her to tell her this morning because she knew they were together at her place?
"I'm sorry, if you don't mind me asking... why did you come here?" JJ asked.
How did she even convinced her HC to go over her Section Chief?
For a second, Elizabeth seemed hesitant, maybe the question was wrongly put.
She smiled as she looked at the floor for a second, thinking.
"Well.." she took a deep breath. "Since you all know about me,...Im here to talk, apologize....for everything" she looked at Katherine.
Hoping for a response, everyone watched and stayed silent.
Katherine had been listening since the beginning. Every words she said was meticulously analyzed by Katherine.
But even in knowing she wanted to apologized, make things right, it still bothered her.
"You knew...after all this time. You knew. That I" Katherine was heart broken. She took a pause to stop herself from crying. "That I knew you were alive, out there, somewhere, after,...being with me for 4 years... and you decided now?" She looked at her with sadness. "After 5 years?"
She held her tears well, but not that well as one slipped away.
"What's wrong with you?" She asked.
But she didn't want an answer.
Now Elizabeth knew what she had done.
Killing Katherine when she killed Laura.
What's left of them?
As Elizabeth tried to speak, Katherine was already walking away.
Anywhere would be fine. Just away from her.
The others let her slip away as they knew she needed to cool down.
Elizabeth tried to take her by the arm but Katherine didn't allow her to touch her.
"Don't"
She walked outside the office, looking around at the hallway wondering where she could go and avoid punching someone.
-
On the roof, Katherine stayed silent. She felt the warmth of the sun and the gentle breeze caress her skin and through her hair. Her eyes felt cold, the tears had dried and her vision was clear.
For what felt like minutes were mere seconds.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH" she screamed out of the blue. Something had to come out. Violently.
It felt good
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH"
She screamed again.
She looked at the cars below, the passing pedestrians having a normal day and minding their own business. Why couldn't she be one of them?
She tried to relax as she closed her eyes and took deep breath. Meditating. Maybe she would be better.
She stood still for a few minutes as her mind wondered in the depth of nothingness
But her senses were heighten.
She heard footsteps behind her.
Without thinking she took out her gun, aiming straight on at the person sneaking behind her.
"Wow! Easy there" Morgan said as he stopped approaching her.
His hands up in the air he continued to approach her just like he would an armed unsub,
carefully.
But Katherine wasn't a killer.
She put her gun away as Morgan went to stand next to her, watching the sky and the normal life's of an average person below.
Minutes passed without words
After a while, Morgan spoke.
"When Emily left us to go hunt down Ian Doyle, I thought she had betrayed me, my trust. I felt wronged for not knowing what she had done before and leaving us out of it. I was even mad at her when she came back, even when I thought she had almost died in my arms" he paused
"But she had to...for her safety, and Hotch, our last boss and JJ were legally bound to WITSEC to not tell us. Even if we are family, sometimes we can't control that."
Morgan is a nice guy. Katherine knew that.
Advice is his way to help people.
"But I'm not a terrorist, I wouldn't of hurt her"
Katherine replied.
Sure, Elizabeth could've been legally bounded by a confidential contract. But everything was to much.
Her fake death was to much for this simple job
5 years of silence knowing each other was alive was to much.
Coming back suddenly out of the blue was to much.
"I know,..but what I'm saying is,.. maybe she had her reasons, you've just got to let her explain, it's not like you owe her that, but you might want to know for yourself." He suggested.
Katherine knew Morgan wanted to help her.
After all, Katherine did have so many questions.
Since the story she shared with Elizabeth was still so clouded by the unknown.
"So what should I do?"
-
Her foot tapping, nervously, continuously.
Emily watched from her office window the other woman sitting in the bullpen. She watched her like a hawk as Elizabeth was patiently waiting for Katherine's return. Sitting, quietly.
The woman was isolated. After all, the others didn't want to entertain a conversation with her. They were all to busy working to chat. Surprisingly.
She watched her for a while, minutes, almost an hour before the subject decided to stand up and leave.
Hopefully, Emily thought she maybe could've left.
But after finally starting to write and push the thought of her away, she saw a shadow in the corner of her eye.
She was back with two cups in hand.
Emily didn't even have time to thing about Elizabeth's action as she was distracted by Katherine coming out of the elevator.
She watched her as well as the Agent walked towards her desk.
She was interrupted in her path as the older woman stopped her to give her one of the cups she had prepared in the kitchen room.
Emily watched as Katherine hesitated but took the cup in her hand, giving her the chance to thank her, and end the conversation Elizabeth desperately wanted to start. She watched as they exchanged few words and Elizabeth left Katherine alone, leaving.
Katherine sat at her desk, she put the cup on the corner of her desk, maybe hoping to trow it away later.
With that.
It was a small victory.
Emily smirked as she mocked Elizabeth.
How stupid was she to prepare Katherine some coffee?
She doesn't even know what Katherine liked
But when Elizabeth left, Katherine looked around to see if she was truly gone. She took the cup in her hands to feel the warmth.
Emily's smirk began to fade as she watched Katherine smell the aroma of the coffee but couldn't help but make a simple smile.
A natural one.
Emily felt fear
Scared
How did Elizabeth manage to do that so easily?
*
"What is it?" Katherine asked
"Please, give me time to talk to you" Elizabeth asked her
"I-No, Not now, not today, I'm-"
"Then tomorrow"
Katherine looked at Elizabeth with a hesitant frown but gave in.
"Fine"
Elizabeth smiled as she handed one of the cups she had
"What's this?" Katherine asked as she felt forced to take the cup
"Your favorite"
*
When Katherine smelled her cup, she knew it wouldn't be coffee.
Hot chocolate was her favorite, Elizabeth did remember.
But the smell made her smile not because of the fact that Elizabeth had gotten it right.
But because it made her think of something else that she was glad to associate it with now.
It made her think of her morning with Emily.