Cassidy couldn’t move at first. “The FBI let you book a flight for my mother?”
Alex turned away slightly and started putting some things together. “Cassidy… don’t worry about it.”
The blonde woman slowly made her way to the agent and tugged on her arm until she turned. “You booked those tickets yourself, didn’t you?” The agent shrugged, feeling a bit embarrassed by the woman’s discovery. Cassidy reached up and looked at the blue eyes above her. She thought perhaps she could swim in them they were so blue. There was not one conscious thought passing through her mind as she guided the agent’s lips to her own, only an understanding that this woman before her was sweeping her away. She heard a slight gasp escape from the agent and felt her body tingle at the response. As she pulled away Alex stood looking at her in a way that she was certain no one ever had. The smaller woman smiled. “Thank you,” was all she could seem to summon.
Alex hated hospitals. They reminded her of a time when she had been helpless and that made her extremely uncomfortable. As they approached the lounge Cassidy noticed that the normally composed agent was fidgeting with her phone, her holster, her ponytail; constantly fidgeting. “Are you okay?” Cassidy asked.
“Yeah,” Alex said, realizing that she was displaying her anxiety. “I just hate these places.” Cassidy was curious but this was neither the time nor the place to start that conversation. The lounge came upon them suddenly and the pair caught sight of Dylan sitting on the floor watching the television. Agent Fallon rose from his seat on the small couch when he heard the slight rap on the window. He opened the door and Cassidy looked at Alex. The exchange was unmistakable to the senior agent. He couldn’t imagine how it had happened, but he was certain now that Alex was in love with the congressman’s ex-wife, and judging by the look in Cassidy O’Brien’s eyes; the feeling was mutual.” Go on,” Alex encouraged the smaller woman, feeling Cassidy’s hand slip in and out of her own briefly. The agent made no attempt to censor her emotions in front of her partner as she watched the woman kneel beside her son. She gestured to Fallon to close the door and give them some privacy. “I don’t like this, Fallon,” she said very curtly, still focused on Cassidy.
“I told you, Alex… it was an accident.”
“Doesn’t that seem just a little bit TOO much of a coincidence to you?” Agent Toles answered abruptly.
“Are you sure your personal feelings aren’t clouding your judgment?”
“My personal feelings?”
“Oh, come on, Toles…I saw how you looked at her just now…Christ, you can’t keep your eyes off the woman.”
Alex nodded. “Fallon, what I feel for Cassidy is not the point.” He was stunned at her off handed admission. “It doesn’t make sense.” Before she could continue Cassidy was opening the door.
“He wants to see you,” she said to the female agent with a heartfelt smile. Alex looked over at the boy and then at Fallon. She nodded and headed directly for Dylan, leaving her partner and the woman she had fallen so deeply in love with an unlikely pair of observers.
“Hey there, Speed Racer,” she said. “Whatya’ watchin’?” He didn’t answer her. “Dylan…” she put her hand gently on his shoulder and began to bend down when he threw himself at her physically. Cassidy choked back a tear as she watched the agent gently scoop him up and pull him onto her lap. “Hey… what’s this all about?”
“Daddy’s gonna’ die, Alex.”
“What? Hey… Why would you say that?”
“You and Mom wouldn’t come here if he wasn’t.”
Cassidy stood in the doorway with Fallon watching, both moved by Alex’s response. “Your mom would be anywhere you needed her to be, any time…and I would be there for you and your mom no matter what, Speed Racer. We just didn’t want you to have to be alone playing with Barbie dolls,” she kidded him, encouraging a slight giggle through his young tears. Agent Fallon looked at the woman next to him. A tear was rolling over her cheek and he couldn’t help but smile at the realization that, indeed, Alex had lost her heart.
“Excuse me?” A voice called from behind. “Are you Mrs. O’Brien?’
“Yes.” Cassidy answered as she turned to see a tall man in a white coat.
“I’m Dr. Crenshaw. Your husband is out of surgery. He’s pretty out of it, but he did ask for you. You can see him if you like.” Alex looked over and saw Cassidy’s face. The teacher suddenly appeared very emotional as she followed the doctor away, glancing only briefly at Fallon as she left. It occurred to Alex that this was not her family, this was Cassidy’s and the congressman was an equal part of that. She set Dylan back in front of the television and approached her partner. He reviewed all the details of the accident that he could for Alex and she did her best to listen. She was suddenly feeling insecure about Cassidy. They had only just met and here was her ex-husband, the father of her child, a man she’d been with for 15 years, the person she’d shared her life with until recently fighting for his life. Maybe this was not the agent’s place. At the same, time she feared this had been no accident. Everything inside of her told her there was more to this, and no matter what she needed to figure it out, and quickly.
Cassidy had been gone a while and Alex needed to move. She walked down the hallway of the ICU with her badge on full display. On the right hand side of the hallway something caught her attention. There she was, Cassidy O’Brien. She had her face in her left hand as the congressman grasped her right. Alex thought her heart might have completely broken in that one moment. What else should she expect? Who was she to bring more upheaval into this woman’s life? She was supposed to protect her. She felt a hand on her shoulder. “Toles?” Fallon said gently, noticing the scene in the room. He looked down at the boy that met his hip. “Here you go…right over there.” Dylan looked up at Alex who just smiled at him as best she could.
“Are the original letters at the office?” Agent Toles asked in an extremely professional and direct manner.
“Yeah, but Toles…”
“Can you please get Cassidy and Dylan to the congressman’s apartment? I know there is security there. I need to go look at the letters….send me that accident report too,” she glanced back in the room where Cassidy had stepped closer to the congressman’s head, his hand still holding onto hers. She closed her eyes momentarily and then started to leave.
“Hey,” Agent Fallon grabbed hold of his partner’s shoulder. “Alex… that doesn’t mean…”
Alex just shook her head. “I’ll call you later.”
Alex sat at a long table in the back of the office with all of the letters spread out before her. Her laptop was open with a copy of the accident report visible on its screen. She needed to focus on this case. Her feelings for the congressman’s ex-wife had deterred her and that had been a mistake on many levels she thought now. She sipped her coffee and studied one letter picking it up and holding it against another. She repeated it with two more, and again, and again. One letter kept sticking out to her.
There she is
She’ll be mine
You don’t know
Give it time
She wants me
It’s never you
Now read this
It’s your clue.
“Three words…all three words,” she said to herself. She pulled out another.
This and that
I know you
Can you find me?
Back and Forth
Hide and Seek
I’ll find you
Before you see.
“Three words again… every line but one,” Alex looked at them again. She picked up the letter that had been delivered over the weekend to the congressman’s office.
Every night
You left her
Out of sight
I’ll take mine
She’ll have me
Before you know
What you can’t see
“No… this isn’t right.” She combed through the pile. “The first came
to the house… shit… shit… the first came to the house…three have… all three words.” She picked up the picture with the handwriting scrawled under her face, “I SEE YOU… three words…Oh my God… they’re not the same person.” She reached for the phone.
“Tate,” the voice answered.
“A.D.?”
“Toles? Where are you?”
“There’s two… Tate… two… the letters they are not the same person.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Where are you? Aren’t you at the hospital?”
“Just listen… they are not the same. The first, the fifth, the picture on Cassidy’s door… the same, the same person…all three words… every line, three words. The rest, they sound the same but the pattern changes. It’s not the same person. It started with Cassidy… whoever is stalking her… but the others… they’re only meant to look that way… they are not the same…Tate…”
“What are you saying?” The Assistant Director asked. Alex moved over to her laptop and started scrolling through the accident report. “Toles!”
“Right here. Why would anyone be going 80 down Pennsylvania Avenue, PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE?”
“Toles… What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking you’d better reopen this accident case, Sir… and quick.”
Cassidy walked into the congressman’s apartment and sighed. Fallon had carried Dylan up the stairs for her to his room. Cassidy sat down on the large sofa and put her face in her hands. Her ex-husband’s prognosis was extremely guarded. She was worried about him and she was worried about Dylan. He had told her he was sorry for everything in the visit, struggling to make sound. She wanted to believe that was true, but she also knew that he could never change. Christopher O’Brien was who he was and no accident would change that. Agent Fallon came back into the room and regarded the woman sitting quietly. He cleared his throat a bit and she looked up at him. “Are you all right, Mrs. O’Brien?”
Cassidy struggled to smile. “Yes… and just Cassidy, Agent Fallon…please.” She closed her eyes again and looked toward the ceiling as if attempting to summon some type of answer. Fallon could tell that the day’s events had taken their toll. The woman was exhausted.
“I should let you get some rest,” he began. “Dylan’s asleep and the Secret Service is outside, plus two of our agents. You’ll be more than safe.”
“Agent Fallon,” she called after him.
“Brian,” he offered, “Yes?”
“Where is Alex?” Agent Fallon had spent many years learning how to read people and right now Cassidy O’Brien was an open book. He didn’t know what he should say or how much. What he did know was that he saw a vulnerability in his partner he had never seen before at the hospital. He loved Alex Toles like a sister. She had been there for him through a great deal over the last three years. She had been there for his family when he had been injured. More than any case ever could, his partner’s happiness mattered to him. Cassidy saw the agent was wrestling with something. “Brian, where is Alex?”
He inhaled and nodded his head trying to muster the courage to say what he knew needed to be said. “She went to the office….to look at the letters.”
“Okay…when? She hasn’t called or...”
He sighed nervously still nodding and looking deliberately at the floor beneath his feet, “Alex… you know… she…”
“Just tell me…please,” the woman implored him. “When did she leave?”
“After… well… you know, you were gone a while and we were waiting, and she decided to go…get something….and ….”
Cassidy took a deep breath and released it upward. “Shit.”
He looked up at her as she shook her head at the ceiling above. “She saw me…. with Chris; that’s it, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “But only part of it… I mean she was really worried ….about all of you… and when Alex gets…”
“I know…but that’s not why she hasn’t called…why she’s still not here.”
“No,” he said plainly.
“Have you talked to her?”
“Only for a minute.”
“Do you know where she is?” Cassidy hopped to her feet. She knew exactly what Alex was thinking and she knew how that felt. When she had seen Alex with Agent Brackett she thought she would break in two. They had just made it over one hurdle and now here they were again. “Brian, please, where is she?”
“She’s at her apartment now….but Cassidy…she’s still working… I know her.”
“Yeah… well, so do I…better than I should.”
“What?”
“Brian…can you stay here… just for a bit…please?”
“Cassidy…”
“Where is Alex’s apartment?” Cassidy was growing insistent.
“You can’t go over there alone, Cassidy… let me go get her.”
“You and I both know that will never work,” Cassidy said flatly. She couldn’t believe it but she started up the stairs.
“Where are you going?”
“To get Dylan. If I can’t go by myself than you can take us both.” Agent Fallon scratched his forehead. There was a determination in Cassidy’s voice that told him there was no way he could win this argument. He couldn’t let her go alone and she would never leave a stranger with her son. There was no other choice. And he hated to admit it, but he agreed.
iles were spread across Alex’s coffee table and floor. She knew there was something more here and now she was more worried than before. She was certain that Cassidy had a stalker and she was convinced that someone was leveraging that to make an attempt on the congressman. The only questions still milling in her mind were if the stalker was real or just a diversion, who and most importantly, why? There was little doubt in her mind that someone in the press held the clue, or perhaps someone hiding in the press. She thumbed through profiles and backgrounds looking for any thread.
The agent sat on the old blue couch that sat in the center of her room and threw her head back in frustration. She closed her eyes in an effort to concentrate but all she could see was Cassidy in the congressman’s room. The right thing for her to do was to step back, for so many reasons. She tried to gather herself. Her heart ached for the woman, in so many ways. She missed Cassidy now, and as she returned her attention to the files spread across the room she suddenly felt terrified. It didn’t matter whether she stepped away or not; she loved Cassidy. There was simply no way to avoid that reality. The thought of anyone hurting Cassidy, even Alex herself, was unbearable to the agent. She resumed her task and looked some more, her frustration building. “Who are you?” She yelled at the pile before her. “Dammit!” She threw a file across the room as a knock came at the door. She released her breath in a frustrated huff and headed for the door.
***
Cassidy had managed to milk the whole truth from Agent Fallon in the car. She knew that Alex suspected that the letters came from two places and she knew that Alex was concerned about a lot more than just the case. Agent Fallon found Cassidy engaging. He could understand his partner’s feelings and he did not want to hold back from the woman. He trusted her. He knew Agent Toles did as well. Cassidy grew quiet as the car slowed, approaching Alex’s building. “Listen,” Brian Fallon began, “I know it’s not my place…”
Cassidy forced a smile. “Say what you’re thinking, Agent.”
He pulled in front of the building and looked at her. “I think she loves you.”
Cassidy smiled. “Yeah? You think so?” He nodded. Cassidy smiled as she got out of the car. Fallon opened Dylan’s door as Cassidy threw the backpack over her shoulder. She scooped Dylan up and onto her hip and reached for the handle of the booster seat.
“At least let me help you,” Fallon offered.
The woman smiled and jostled her son upward slightly. “One set of stairs, right?”
“Yeah, 1st door on the left… 210,” he answered. She started to make her way up the front stairs and Fallon ran up behind her. “Cod
e… here,” he pressed the code for the front door and held it open for the fully loaded woman. “Do you want me to wait?”
She smiled sweetly realizing that he was as genuinely kind as Alex had described. “No,” she said. “Just wish me luck.”
The agent reached the door, irritated and expecting Agent Fallon to be behind it with some lecture. “You know…it’s not,” she began to scold him verbally as she opened the door.
“It’s not easy carrying all this is what it’s not,” Cassidy said looking at the agent who was in complete shock. “Well?” Cassidy urged.
Alex grabbed the booster seat and closed the door behind Cassidy. “Cassidy, what are you doing…”
The teacher did not allow the agent to finish. “What am I doing? What are you doing?” She asked looking at the files spread across the room. Alex was suddenly far more nervous than irritated. She tried to avoid Cassidy’s gaze but failed. “We need to talk, Alex.”
The agent felt as though her insides had turned to gelatin. She could not believe that Cassidy was actually here. “Cassidy… how did you?”
“Agent Fallon brought me.” She watched as Alex moved to the window to look for her partner’s car. “Don’t bother. I sent him home.” The agent turned in disbelief to face the teacher.
“You sent him…”
Cassidy interrupted, gesturing to Dylan as she spoke. “Yeah… you’re not running away from me again.” Alex gently scooped the boy from his mother. Cassidy’s words traveled straight through the agent’s heart. It was true. She did it again, just like she did earlier. She ran. Maybe there was work to do, but it could’ve waited until morning. She carried the boy into the spare room and laid him down on the bed. When she didn’t return immediately Cassidy made her way to the doorway. Alex was staring at the boy, her hand lovingly stroking his head. “He asked for you,” Cassidy said. Alex felt her heart sink. Her feelings for this woman and for this child who was so much like his mother were not something she had ever anticipated she could feel. The sound of Cassidy’s voice, the boy before her, the weight of Cassidy’s stare behind her, all of it reminded her of how in love she was with this woman. Slowly the agent turned “Why did you leave?” Cassidy asked.
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