Tellings of the Time: Complete series

27. Epilogue

Worthless. Next. Laughable. Next. Promising, but ruined by being trained by the wrong people for too long. Nameless faces who could potentially become the faces of people whose names I should learn appear on my screen. I’ve been commanded to find new trainees for the hacker department of FIX Foundation.

Since we’ve expanded and doubled the operation, I need more people. Or so I’ve been told. Apparently I’m not allowed to pull all-nighters three times a week just to keep up with the workload. Abby ordered me to hire at least three new full timers, and ever since Remy knows about this, he guards me at night, making sure I sleep and don’t work.

He guards me.

Like I’m a dog.

The few times I’ve tried to sneak out of bed and get some extra work in, he caught me, and I started barking at him. He wasn’t impressed and laid down on top of me until I drifted off again.

Motherfucker is lucky I love him so much.

A photo of a young woman shows on my screen. She looks familiar. This is odd because the only woman I notice is Abby. Which must mean she’s caught my interest once before while doing my job. But where?

Having the perfect memory and not being able to remember something is fucking annoying. Is this how average people feel every day?

I check her resume and it actually looks kind of promising. There isn’t anything to set me off anyway. I dig a little further, checking if what she’s telling holds up. She’s new to America, having just moved here from Croatia. She has a work visa but needs to have a job in order to stay here. I’m not too sure why anybody would want to move here nowadays, because if you ask me, the American Dream has become one big nightmare. Guess it’s all in the eye of the beholder.

Everything seems to check out.

This little voice in the back of my head still nags me that I know her. Running some checks on her email address leads me to finding some internet nicknames, and before I know it I’m up to my ears in her personal life. Until finally I remember.

The chick who annoyed me months back was the one whose house I hacked and let her lights go off on Christmas songs at all hours of the day.

I smirk.

That was a good time.

She’s hired.

It’s only added bonus that she’ll annoy the fucking crap out of Beckett. He’s part of FIX Foundation now. Well, sort of. Abby struck a deal with the FBI, getting them to permanently help us out. It’s the whole reason I’m going through files in order to find new people actually. Having a permanent agent based on our team means we get to take on more cases.

Abby hired two new members for her tac team. Both women. They’re terrifying, but they seem to be doing their jobs well.

Beckett has transferred to BAU 3, meaning he can now work on everything related to crimes against kids, which helps us. He says he’s okay with no longer traveling around all over the country chasing serial killers and he gets just as much satisfaction saving kids, but I think it’s him being content in general that keeps him satisfied the most.

I open another resume and turn up my music when ‘Everlong’ by the Foo Fighters comes on. The riff of the guitar is so loud I get goosebumps and I can see the notes in my mind’s eye in color. The song is deep purple, with green accents set to a black background.

From the corner of my eye I see movement. It’s Remy who steps into my office and he starts talking to me. I have no clue what he’s saying, but I can see his mouth moving. He seems to be angry with me, going off on his hand gestures.

I lock my computer, get up, and give him a kiss on his cheek before I turn down my music.

“I get the feeling you’re trying to tell me something.”

“We have to go! We’re late!” he yells.

“No need to speak so loud. I can hear you perfectly clear.”

“You need to change before we go.”

I look down, wondering what the hell is wrong with my Metallica shirt and my favorite jeans. This one is less baggy than the rest of my pants, but this one’s soft. It has numerous holes, making it look like fashionable pants, but it didn’t look like this when I bought them.

“I put on a suit when I testified because you all convinced me that the trial”s outcome depended on how reliable I looked. I’m not putting on a suit for the sentencing, which I have absolutely no influence on whatsoever.”

Remy cocks his head.

“It’s showing respect to the judge to dress accordingly.”

“It’s showing a big fat fuck you to Esther to let her see that her brainwashing didn’t work. That she couldn’t mold me into the perfect little copy of my father.”

He sighs and shakes his head. Stalking past him, I make my way to the kitchen, where I hear pots and pans stumbling. Abby has been stress cooking all day, and as soon as I enter the kitchen, a freshly baked danish gets shoved into my face.

“Eat it,” she orders. Her voice has a sharp edge, and her eyes look hard. She doesn’t look anywhere near as exhausted as she did when Wayne was still on the loose, but the dark circles are showing their face again today. It doesn’t make her any less gorgeous.

I grab the danish and take a bite. “You ready?” I ask, not even bothering to empty my mouth before I speak.

“I am,” she says, eyeing my clothes, “you’re not. You need to change.”

“I already won this discussion when I had it with Remy. Let’s not waste everyone’s time by having it again.”

Abby looks professional enough for both of us. Dressed in a cream shirt and a navy suit, she could pass for a lawyer anytime. Or a really pricey escort. Either way, she looks way too good for what we’re doing today.

“He didn’t play fair,” Remy says when he enters the kitchen and puts on a blazer. “He used arguments playing onto my emotions.”

Abby points at me, squinting her eyes. “That’s not playing fair.”

“All is fair in love and war.”

“Don’t you Sun Tzu me!” she yells.

I catch myself spinning my thumb ring and force myself to stop at once. No one needs to know that Esther’s sentencing is making me nervous, especially not me.

“Are we the love or the war in this equation?” Remy asks, looking lost in thought. He looks really pretty when he brings those dark eyebrows together. To be honest, he always looks good.

“Yes,” I answer.

Both of them laugh, and we make our way to the front door. Beckett is already there, leaning against the wall with one foot up against it. Looking professional as always in a black suit, he holds his phone up in front of his face. There’s no trace left of Agent Pain-in-the-Ass. He’s cooing at the phone, talking to Winny’s and Caroline’s baby. The tiny worm is four months old and Beckett is her godfather. I wouldn’t want anything to do with it, because it’s tiny and freaks me out, but they named her Moira Elaine in honor of Elaine, and now I can’t distance myself from the kid even if I wanted to.

Beckett has turned into a bonafide kid whisperer. Since he won’t be having any kids of his own, he’s taking his role as the godfather very seriously.

“We’re going,” I interrupt him.

“Bye Moira. Be a good girl and go take your nap. Talk to you soon, baby girl.”

“You’d think he wants to speak to me every now and then…” I hear Winny say in the background before he ends the call. I smile. While Beckett is smitten with Moira, I miss Winny. She left Portland to go back home to her wife as soon as all the paperwork with Wayne was finished, with no intention of coming back. When she returns to work, she’s going into research, no longer going out in the field. She deserves the dullness of sitting behind a computer all day, and science can use bright minds like hers.

“Aren’t you gonna change?” Beckett asks when he sees what I’m wearing.

I inwardly sigh and roll my eyes. Nobody has time to discuss the same thing three times. Grabbing my keys from the little bowl near the door, I walk towards Beckett’s car and sit behind the wheel. The others all get in.

“We’re taking Beckett’s car?” Remy asks from the backseat.

“Yeah, let the FBI pay for gas.”

“You’re filthy rich nowadays. Surely you can pay for gas,” Beckett mumbles.

“Do you know how rich people stay rich?” I ask. I don’t wait for his answer before I answer my own question. “They stay rich by not spending their money. Let Uncle Sam pay for this trip.”

“Only bureau-approved people can drive this vehicle.”

I roll my eyes.

“You have a fake driver’s license. I’m fairly sure that means the Bureau won’t approve of you driving this car.”

“Becky, I think I found your stick again!” I yell, turning up the volume of the radio and starting the car.

“Does he ever get any better?” Beckett asks Abby.

She looks at me, her eyes full of love, giving me a crooked smile. “No,” she says. “He’s already perfect the way he is.”

I turn around to face Beckett, giving him the widest smile known to man. My woman thinks I’m perfect.

“Perfectly annoying,” she adds.

Even that addition can’t bother me. I bring the pedal down, speeding towards the streets of Portland. Everything is about to change again. The woman who has ruined my childhood and has formed who I am as a person, is about to get sent to prison for what she did to me. My parents are neatly locked up. We found the dirty fed and made the bureau a little safer. I’ve not only found one person who makes my life better, but I’ve found two.

Sometimes three, if you count the times Beckett doesn’t get on my nerves.

It’s like everything in life is looking up. I almost start spinning my ring. When everything seems to be going this well, everything is bound to go to shit, right? My money is on a worldwide pandemic because some idiot in a secret lab forgot to put some virus back into storage. Or some unseen asteroid hitting the Earth, Armageddon style.

A warm hand falls on my knee. It’s a small hand, but it’s attached to the strongest person I know.

“Stop worrying,” she says.

I take a deep breath.

“Today is going to be a good day,” Remy adds.

“The best,” Beckett says.

And you know what? For once, I just fucking believe them.