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Emily raised a challenging brow as she opened the door and regarded who stood there. It was late, and she really wasn’t in the mood to be disturbed. “And if I said I didn’t want visitors and just wanted –“
“To wallow in self pity?” came the smug interruption.
“Bingo!”
“That’s a shame because I come bearing gifts.” Tara smiled, raising an expensive looking bottle.
“That’s blackmail, Lewis.”
“Is it working?”
“Lucky for you, the only kind of door-to-door salesman I’ll let in is one selling booze.” Emily chuckled.
“This is even better than that because it is free.” Tara cooed.
“I’ll take a crate.” She stepped aside for Tara, closing the door softly and collecting a couple of glasses from the kitchen.
“Double?” Tara asked.
“Treble. Hell – just gimmie the bottle and a straw.” Emily sighed.
Tara laughed softly and poured them each an impressively large serving. She sat back in her seat and watched the older woman. “It was a clean shoot.”
Emily nodded. “Yeah.”
“Doesn’t make it any easier though, does it?” Tara asked with a false air of nonchalance.
“So this is a professional call then?” Emily asked pointedly. “As opposed social?”
“Can’t it be both?”
Emily raised a brow in challenge. “Have I ever told you that I detest it when a question is answered with another question?”
Tara grinned. “Is it really that bad?”
“Do I have to spell it out?”
Tara laughed and raised her hands up in surrender. “Okay. You win. No more question/answers – okay?”
“That last part sounded like a question.” Emily replied in satisfaction.
“Shut up and drink!” Tara laughed.
“Much better.” Emily nodded, taking a deep swig, her eyes closing at the familiar burn. “That is a good drop.”
Tara matched the drink and watched and waited.
“No.” Emily eventually said.
“Hmm?” Tara queried, pretending she had lost track.
“No, it doesn’t make it any easier. Is that what you wanted to hear?”
“Is that another question?”
Emily groaned at being caught out. “You win. One all. Best of three?”
“Question!” Tara exclaimed excitedly.
“How about we take a sip each time one of us asks a question?” Emily dared, taking a drink as demonstration.
“Is that a good idea?” Tara took a drink.
“Does it sound good?” Another drink.
“You want an honest answer?” Drink.
“Is there any other kind?” Drink.
“Are you trying to get me drunk, Agent Prentiss?” Drink.
“Is it working?” Drink.
“Have you shot a suspect before?”
Emily fell silent at Tara’s inserted question. “You broke the rules.”
“We didn’t stipulate rules. Besides, that wasn’t a question. Or an answer.”
“It wasn’t meant to be.”
Tara nodded. “Have you ever shot a suspect before?”
Emily sighed and rolled her eyes. “Of course!”
“Taking a life isn’t easy.”
“It’s part of the job.”
Tara hummed cryptically and waited, patiently, again.
“Not for a long time. And it always sucks.” Emily conceded.
“You didn’t really have a choice.” Tara reminded her. “She was coming at you.”
“If I wanted a therapist, I’d go see my own.”
“Yeah. I can see that happening!” Tara scoffed.
Emily eyed her friend carefully. “Was it Dave that sent you over here?”
“No one ‘sent’ me.”
“So why are you here, then? Shit goes bad sometimes. We’ve all been there too many times to count. So why now, huh? Why after this one?”
“You tell me.” Tara replied coolly.
Emily snorted irritably. “And if I told you to go?”
“Then I’d go. But you won’t do that.”
For a beat, Emily considered doing exactly that, just to spite Tara. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it. “I can usually talk them down.” She sighed, nodding.
“You tried to, but it doesn’t always work. We can’t ever truly predict what these people will do; what they are capable of.” Tara paused. “For the sake of that kid, you couldn’t risk not taking decisive action.”
Emily sighed, her eyes dropping into her glass.
Tara smiled to herself, seeing the ‘answer’ before her eyes. “It wasn’t the shoot that affected you, was it – it was the kid.”
“Can’t we just drop it?”
“This isn’t about ‘we’, Emily. I can drop it, sure, because it didn’t involve me. The question is can you drop it?”
Emily took another sip, draining her glass and pouring another.
“Hey, I thought I was supposed to drink with my questions – not you! It’s against the rules.”
“Rules were made to be broken.”
Tara laughed loudly. “Spoken like a true Federal Agent!” She watched Emily for another beat. “Talk me through it?”
Emily blew out a breath. “There’s nothing to say. The unsub was coming for me and I shot her.”
Tara sat back in her seat, her fingers tracing the rim of her glass. “How long were you in negotiations with her?”
“Long enough.”
Tara just raised a commanding brow.
Emily got the hint. “More than an hour. Her boyfriend was dead before we arrived on scene.”
“The store owner shot him, right?”
Emily nodded. “Yeah.”
“And the woman shot the store owner for revenge and took his daughter as a hostage.”
Emily shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “You already know all of this. What’s the point of going over it again?” She smiled tightly and pointedly took a drink. “Rules.” She added with bite.
“The kid was scared. How old is she?” Tara asked, not allowing the topic to drop.
Emily didn’t miss the subtle change from past tense to present. She knew exactly what Tara was doing. “Six.”
“The unsub – Katie – tell me about her.”
Emily blew out a breath, knowing that Tara was, perhaps, even more stubborn that she. “Standard criminal record – theft; assault; vandalism – preceded by the standard history of domestic violence and sexual abuse.” She shrugged. “I thought she was at a point where we – I – could talk her down.”
“She said she would allow you into the store where she was holed up.” Tara carefully used Katie’s own words to give Emily the push she needed to talk. “But just you – no one else. No other cops.”
Emily nodded, her eyes looking beyond Tara as she let herself go back to that moment…
~
“Okay – just me.” Emily agreed, breathing a silent sigh of relief and gesturing for Luke to cover the store from a different angle.
“Send the other cops away.” Katie warned. “Do it, or I’ll kill the kid.”
Emily nodded. “Okay. Whatever you need.” She ordered the local police to stand down and walked carefully closer, across the forecourt towards the little building. Her boots crunched on the glass that had been blown out of the windows from the earlier shoot out with the police. It sounded deafening in the silence. She trained her eyes on the movement inside; on the child’s soft sobbing that reached her ears.
Katie pressed her gun against the girl’s temple as Emily approached.
“You don’t want to hurt her, Katie.” Emily said gently. “I know you’re upset about your boyfriend…but the girl is innocent. You know that. You know what it was like to be an innocent girl caught up in violence.”
“Shut up!” Katie yelled. “You don’t know shit about me!”
“I do, Katie.” Emily replied evenly. “I know about your father. I know about those boyfriends you had before Carl. I know they hurt you… and I know Carl protected you. He loved you.”
Katie wiped at her eyes with the back of the wrist of the hand that held the gun. “He’s the only one who ever cared! And now he’s GONE!”
Emily raised her hands, making a calming gesture as she stepped deeper into the store, getting her first truly clear look at Katie Field. Jesus – she looked so young. “I’m sorry about that, Katie… but none of this will bring him back. You killed that girl’s father, Katie. You need to stop this now. You need to do the right thing.”
Katie scoffed. “Why should I? No one’s ever done ‘the right thing’ for me!”
“Because I believe there’s a good person inside you. A good person who doesn’t want to see anyone else get hurt.” Emily said, a lilt to her voice. Calming. Soothing. Her eyes flicked to the little girl, who was clearly in severe shock.
Katie raised a brow, tears on her cheeks. “You see that in me, huh?”
“I do.”
“I don’t want to hurt the kid.” Katie accepted with a nod.
Emily allowed herself a second of relief – but it only lasted a second.
In that breath, Katie shoved the kid to the floor. “COPS, however!” she snarled, raising her gun and launching herself towards Emily.
Emily’s reactions were fast. Accurate. Decisive. She targeted and fired. Two shots in quick succession; BANGBANG. No hesitation. No fear. Part of her knew that Katie wasn’t going to kill her – she wanted suicide by cop. But instinct was instinct, and so she fired. She killed her.
Katie dropped to the ground, and the little girl screamed and screamed and screamed – and when Emily ran to her, to pick her up and make her safe, the girl cowered and hid from her, not wanting Emily to touch her. Emily froze to the spot, watching as Luke ran in – and the kid, in turn, ran into the safety of his arms, burying herself against Luke’s shoulder without hesitation as he lifted her into his arms – and when Emily stepped closer, the girl began to scream again.
~
“She was scared of me.” Emily whispered to Tara. “Of me. Not Luke…just me.”
“Yeah, she was.” Tara nodded. “But she wasn’t scared of you, per se, but –“
“She was.” Emily insisted. “I’ve never scared kids before, Tara. Never. They’ve always kinda gravitated towards me.”
“So now you’re an ogre, right?”
Emily scoffed.
“You know I have to go see the girl tomorrow, right, to assess her for interview. Wanna come along?”
Emily raised a brow and shook her head. “She’s had enough trauma already.”
“Her mom will be present too. I think, if nothing else, she’d like to see you.” She paused and took a drink. “Unless you’re chicken.”
Emily rolled her eyes.
“Bawk-buk-buk.” Tara muttered, waggling her elbows like chicken wings.
“Are we in high school now?”
“Bawk-buk-buk.”
“It won’t work.”
“BA-KAAAK-buk-buk.”
“Are you gunna keep this up all night?”
“All week if I have to.”
“So what good will it do the kid to see me?”
“Maybe it isn’t about doing the kid good. Maybe it is about doing you some good?”
“I just can’t see the point.” Emily hedged.
“Why don’t try anyway? I’ll give you a sticker if it’d sway you? Silver star? Unicorn? Smiley? That usually works on difficult children.”
Emily laughed heartily. “Jesus, you should’ve told my mom that forty years ago!”
“Stickers are a therapist’s secret weapon.”
“You know it is a crime to bribe a Federal Agent?”
“Fine. No sticker for you then!”
Emily chuckled. “Okay, I’ll go – but if she freaks out –“
Tara grinned with immense self-satisfaction. “Trust me, Agent Prentiss. I’m a trained professional.”
“You know you’re damn lucky ballistics took my gun.”
“Why do you think I was brave enough to come here tonight?”
*
It was just before lunchtime the following day by the time the correct forms had been signed and authorised to allow Tara and Emily to visit the little girl, and Emily was still somewhat apprehensive about the whole thing – as her ruined nails could attest.
“I can still smell nicotine, y’know.” Tara teased as they made their way to the floor where the girl was waiting.
“Really? Damnit. I’ve had three Goddamn mints.” Emily sighed.
Tara grinned and knocked softly on the door. “Mrs Paxman? I’m Dr Lewis and this is SSA Prentiss. We are terribly sorry for your loss - we’re here to see Claire –“
Emily had barely closed the door behind her when a swift ball of child barrelled into her, staggering her back a step with the impact. She gaped at Tara as firm little arms wrapped tightly around her waist and a little face buried itself into her stomach.
“Claire!” the girl’s mom called. “I’m sorry Agent…?”
“Prentiss.” Emily confirmed.
“That’s her, mommy!” Claire beamed, peeling her face out of Emily’s shirt just far enough to see her mom. “That’s the lady that saved me!”
Tara chuckled and gave Emily a wink.
“Hi.” Emily cooed, freeing herself enough to squat down and look Claire in the eye. “Hi.” She said again, a nervous smile playing at her lips.
Claire gave her a big smile, big enough to reveal her two missing front teeth.
“I’m Emily.”
“I’m Claire!” the girl squeaked.
Emily blushed and glanced up at the mom. “I thought she might be afraid of me, considering...”
“We talked an awful lot about it.” Mrs Paxman nodded. “She still doesn’t understand exactly what has happened… but we talked about you and how the police are always there to help us and put the bad people away.”
Emily smiled softly. “Thanks. And, again, I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Mrs Paxman nodded, fresh tears filling her eyes. “I’m just so grateful to you that my little girl is safe.”
Claire tugged on each of Emily’s fingers as the grown ups talked.
Emily smiled down at her. “Hey Claire – do you want to see my badge?”
“Your police badge?”
“Even better – an FBI badge.”
Claire nodded enthusiastically, and Emily handed her credentials to her as she spoke with the mom.
“I don’t hate that woman.” Mrs Paxman sighed. “I did, at first… but now I just feel sorry for her. To throw your life away at that age…” She sighed and shook her head.
“She was a very unhappy person.” Emily agreed. “But she didn’t want to hurt Claire.”
“It’s all just so pointless.” The mom sighed, smiling sadly at her daughter poring over the badge.
“Look mommy – I’m a police lady!”
*
“Stop it.” Emily said from the passenger seat.
“Stop what?” Tara asked, feigning innocent.
“Stop looking so smug. Okay: you were right.”
Tara breathed deeply. “Smells like… Victory.”
“Are you trying to make me reveal my inner nerd by naming the film?”
“Inner nerd? Honey, you are all nerd.”
“When I get my gun back…” Emily laughed.
“So. Glad you came?”
Emily sighed and nodded, a smile on her lips at the memory. “I really thought she’d hate me.”
“Kids are amazing that way.” Tara smiled. “And I think you’ve got a fan for life.”
Emily chuckled, a blush colouring her cheeks. “Thanks, Tara, for getting me out of that funk.”
“Hangover worth it, then?” Tara chuckled.
“Hangovers are always worth it.” Emily agreed.
“How is your head?”
“Hammering.”
Tara grinned. “Haven’t you got a fiscal debrief with Our Glorious Leader Linda Barnes this afternoon?”
“Oh shit.” Emily groaned, dropping her head in her hands. She fumbled for her phone. “Penelope? Hey, go to the files and grab a case for me.”
“Case? Oh geez – have I missed something? Should we have a case? What case?”
“No, no, Penelope, it doesn’t matter what case. Just go to the files and grab a case. ANY case.”
“Uhhh….oooookay….why…?”
“Because we catch bad guys. And, uh, get the team ready. We’re flying out as soon as I get there.”
“Flying to where?”
Emily grinned. “That depends on the file you choose.”
“Uhhhh….”
“Put that damn thing on speaker!” Tara laughed. “Hey, PG, it’s Tara. Our scaredy cat boss has a meet with Barnes today. So we need to be ‘called away urgently’ if you catch my drift.”
“AHA!” Penelope squealed, catching on immediately. “Well, now I know what’s happening, I can get you a doozey!"
“You’re the best PeeGees.” Tara laughed, ending the call. “Running away from Barnes!” she scoffed.
“Not running. Flying.” Emily shrugged.
“Buk-buk-buk.”