CHAPTER SIX
"I'LL BE HERE, GRADING PAPERS
UNTIL MIDNIGHT."
( PHONE CALL WITH NEW FRIENDS )
THE SHRILL RING OF her phone made Natalie jump, startling her, the red pen in her hand slipping from her grasp and onto the table before it rolled to the ground. She had been so caught up in grading papers and tests and pop quizzes, she totally forgot her phone was on loud. Earlier after school, she had been texting Jennifer Jareau, the two conversing about their day, but the texts stopped quickly once Natalie got home and realized how much stuff actually needed to be graded. So, when she looked down at the caller I.D. to see Jennifer's name, it wasn't that much of a surprise. The loud ringing was, though.
She leaned back in the chair she was sitting in and pushed away the papers towards the middle of the kitchen table before picking up her phone and answering. "Hi, Jennifer."
"Hey, Natalie. I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"
"No. I mean, I was grading some tests and stuff, but I need a break anyway," Natalie told her. "Why are you calling?"
JJ hummed. "No reason. Just that a little genius birdie informed me this morning you two fake planned a fake date to mess with your students."
Natalie let out a tiny laugh and leaned forward. She rested her elbows against the surface of the table and let one hand rest on her forehead. "Oh, boy."
"Mom?"
"Hold on, Jennifer," she said quickly and looked up to the entrance of the kitchen where Holly stood with her backpack thrown over her shoulder once again that day. She moved the phone away from her mouth a bit. "Are you going somewhere, Hol?"
The teen nodded. "Yeah, Sam and I are going to go study for a French test that's on Thursday."
"Okay, just be back by..." Natalie looked at the clock on the stove. It was nearly six. "No later than eleven. Okay?"
"Yes, ma'am. Love you!" Holly's smile was big as she walked backwards, a horn honking a second later. "See you later, Mom."
"See you later, sweetie. Stay safe."
"Always."
And with that, Holly spun on her heel and rushed to the front door, grumbling as Sam honked once again. Natalie smiled to herself and moved her phone back to the position it was before. "Alright, sorry about that, I'm back."
"No, it's fine. Don't worry about it," JJ assured her.
Natalie hummed, and she nodded even though the other woman couldn't see her. "So, where were we?"
"A fake date with Spencer."
"Oh, right. That."
Jennifer laughed. "Now, don't sound too excited, Natalie."
Natalie laughed as well and removed the phone from her ear, putting the call on speaker before gently setting the phone on the table. "Between you, my daughter and her aunt, and some students, I haven't heard the end of it all day," she said and moved the papers back towards her. She then grabbed the pen from the ground and finished grading the paper she had been before as the FBI agent spoke again.
"If it makes you feel any better, we've been messing with Spence all day, too," Jennifer said.
"A little. Not much," Natalie admitted.
"Well, listen, if you two do decide to do something Saturday if the team isn't on a case, I promise I won't call it a date or tease you two. Can't speak for the others, though."
"The others don't have my number."
"Hm, true."
Another voice entered the conversation on Jennifer's side of the call. "Who're you talking to?"
"Natalie Dolan."
"Oh. Hey, Natalie!"
Let out a quiet laugh and shook her head. She recognized his voice; it wasn't hard to, especially not after last week when their team visited the school – and because she trained herself to memorize other's voices easily just to be able to hear which student is saying what when she wasn't looking. "Hello, Agent Derek Morgan."
The man chuckled. "You've already befriend JJ and Reid, no need for formalities between us," he told her. "Speaking of Reid..."
Natalie rolled her eyes and set the paper she finished grading to the side, starting the next one with ease. She was used to talking, listening and grading at the same time; she did it before classes as students walked in and asked her questions, she did it at home with the TV on and Holly ranting about one thing or another; she did it in a restaurant once. She then sighed but didn't say anything, letting the sound of her sigh tell them exactly just how annoying the entire thing already was to her.
"...I'll not bring it up," Derek said.
"Good plan," JJ said.
"But I do have to ask this-"
"Oh, dear," the two women spoke simultaneously, JJ simply shrugging as Derek gave her an offended look.
"Rude. Anyway. I do have to ask why you guys made your students think you're going on a date. It could possibly make them even more interested in your love life."
What a Derek said was true. Her students will get more interested in her love life, but at the time it felt like a fun idea to just mess with them. Natalie stopped grading the paper and leaned back in the chair.
"That's still bringing it up, y'know," Jennifer said.
"It's fine, Jennifer," Natalie said. "To answer your question, Derek, I dunno. Spencer told me to follow his lead and I did. It was funny at the time; a student asked if I was single when he knew I was just to let Spencer know, and- and I guess he noticed that I didn't like the question, so... Yeah."
"Why didn't you like the question?" Jennifer asked, sounding genuinely curious.
Natalie was silent for a second or two as she tried to figure out how to correctly word her thoughts. "It's always made me feel- I dunno, it makes me upset, I don't like hearing it. That I'm single, that is. Not since my fiancé died, because..." She trailed off and stopped talking, not wanting to say anything else to two people she hasn't known for long. But they were profilers, and they figured out the because of it all quite quickly. They pieces certain things together instantly.
"Because you shouldn't be single," JJ said solemnly. "You should be married by now, right?"
The mother nodded, but then at remembering they couldn't see her, she spoke up. "Yeah. I just made this depressing, I'm sorry," she apologized quickly.
"No, don't apologize, it makes sense," Derek said. "I'm sorry I brought it up."
Natalie cracked a smile. "You didn't know, it's fine."
Everything was quiet then, the two agents taking in the information they learned about the teacher, who soon started grading the papers again. It wasn't even a few seconds later when Natalie heard a third voice but the person wasn't close enough to phone for her to hear them. Shuffling was then heard and after that, footsteps and a chair rolling.
"We've got a case, Natalie, we've gotta go," Jennifer informed her, the load back tone in her voice gone and replaced with urgency and seriousness.
"Go catch some big bad serial killer. I'll be here, grading papers until midnight." She intentionally made herself sound bored at the mention of grading papers despite not minding it at all.
Both agents gave a small laugh. "I would say I would rather be doing that, but then I'd be lying," Derek told her. "Bye, Natalie."
"Bye, Nat, I'll talk to you later."
Natalie said a goodbye to them, but quickly cut herself off as Hamburger got on the table, the feline quickly making her way to sit on the papers. "Hamburger, no, I'm grading these!" She then heard the dial tone and she locked her phone while simultaneously trying to get her cat off of the papers.
Back at the BAU, JJ and Morgan looked at one another in mild confusion, wondering who the hell Hamburger was. They shook it off quickly, though and went to the briefing room, neither mentioning to Reid that they had talked to Natalie; they've messed with him enough for today.
(But Morgan did get Natalie's number from JJ, and later put it Reid's phone when he got a chance, the doctor unaware of it.)