Chapter Text
It starts with overwhelm.
Christina’s normally meticulously controlled emotions thrown into a tailspin by a combination of exhaustion, overwhelm and responsibility leading to a blazing argument triggered by a forgotten trash bag.
She doesn’t know why that became a flashpoint, but she remembers the moment the fire erupted.
“I don’t know what it’s like?” Bob scoffed at her in a tone she’d never heard before. “I was just down on earth, right? Down on earth watching my wife thousands of miles away with her commander all over her.”
“What?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know, Christina.” His use of her full name signals danger, the tip of a knife. “Everyone knows. The way he looks at you, the way he constantly touches you. I had to sit down here and watch that. I thought he’d stop when you were back, but no. I had to sit there and watch him put his hand on your neck at that conference, watch him following you like a lovesick puppy right in front of me, as if I’m not even there.”
“It’s not like that.”
“It is like that.” He laughs, throwing her emotions further off balance. “I believe that you didn’t cross any lines. But he did, and you let him. Even when I was stood right there watching. And the worst part is, the whole world knew. You can go online and watch video compilations of it. So don’t tell me ”You don’t know what it’s like” as if you are the only one who’s had a life changing experience.”
An alarm buzzes on his watch as he finishes his sentence.
“Right. That’s it. I’ve got to go to work.” He gathers his things calmly, as if it’s a normal morning.
“You can’t go…” Her voice cracks. “You can’t just leave when we’re like… like this.”
“Why not?” He shrugs his shoulders and it’s like a knife to her stomach. “You’re gone all the time.”
She watches as he turns and leaves without looking back. She doesn’t realise she’s crying until his car is gone from the driveway and a sob shakes her whole body. She tries to stifle it, to pull herself together but she can’t quite get a handle on it like she normally does.
She cries until her phone rings, Victor’s name flashing on the screen. She’s late, she realises. It takes everything she has but she answers the phone and manages to make her voice sound almost normal as she lies about oversleeping and tells him she’ll be there soon.
As she frantically splashes water on her face, tries to sort out her hair and make herself look halfway normal before the drive to work, Bob’s words echo on endless repeat in her head. “Christina. Everyone knows.”
When she arrives at work, she lingers in her car for a few minutes, psyching herself up to go inside and see everyone. See Reid.
“It wasn’t like that.” She repeats it to herself like a mantra as she gets out of the car and walks to the building. “It was a confined space, that’s all.”
“Everyone knows.” She hears it again as she reaches for the handle of the office the crew are working in.
And as she steps through the door and sees the smile on Reid’s face, she realises she knows it too.