Something Old, Something New

13

Aithusa had been right. There was a whole group of police officers just a little ways from the outer cave's entrance, so Merlin and Iris were spotted immediately. Aithusa had been made invisible by Merlin, and was still compact in size. She would stay that way, and be as quiet as possible, until she had a chance to fly away.

Upon seeing the figures of Iris and Merlin emerge from the cave, one of the officers called out "Over here!" and three more officers arrived within a minute. It seemed word travelled fast, and using both shouting and their radios, those officers got word to Agent Michael Smith that officers Emrys and Campbell had been found at the entrance to a cave they had not yet explored. The man in question arrived not ten minutes later, looking immaculate in his suit and tie and not at all like he'd just run through the forest.

Despite his naturally cold exterior, SSA Michael Smith was incredibly loyal, and he and Agent Johnson had been partners for years.

Which is why, upon seeing only Merlin and Iris in the woods, leaning on each other, there was the slightest tightening of his jaw, and an almost undetectable quaver in his voice when he asked, "Jacob?" Neither one of them responded, but he was a profiler, and even if he wasn't, anyone could have read the grief-stricken looks on their faces.

"Shit." He hung his head, allowing himself three seconds, and then the mask snapped back into place.

"Alert the forensics team, and tell them we'll need the coroner. Make sure Davidson and Bailey have some help. They're too close to this." That seemed hypocritical but nobody wanted to be the one to say that, so one of the officers got on his radio and relayed the orders. It was obvious that even through his grief, Smith was suspicious of Merlin. Merlin and Iris had expected this, and so hoped that they had thought of everything, although Merlin still had that nagging feeling of forgetting something.

"What happened?" the FBI agent asked. Merlin and Iris weren't sure which part he was referring to, so they told him the whole story, or at least their version of it, while they waited for the forensics team.

They had gotten about to the part where they had found out that Jacob and Emma were related, when the sound of an engine cut into the relative quietness. Merlin had been speaking at the time, and now he broke off as everyone turned to look. A jeep appeared through the trees, carefully avoiding hitting anything. Freya Davidson and William Bailey rode in the front. Someone Merlin didn't recognize was driving, and what seemed like the entire forensics team was shoved into the back, or hanging onto the sides. One of them was practically hanging from the roof.

Freya jumped off before it had fully come to a stop. She looked a mess, and she also looked like she was ready to punch the first person she saw. She made a beeline toward where Iris and Merlin were standing next to each other. Merlin took a step to the side, getting out of the way of the wrath, knowing that it was largely not directed at him. Iris looked at him desperately, but he had already taken that step away from her. A moment later, Freya shoved Iris backwards with all of her might.

"What the hell were you thinking? Where have you been? What happened to you? Do you have any idea how worried I was? How worried we all were? You can't just disappear like that! It's selfish and you're such an idiot and it was thoughtless and ugh!" All throughout this tirade, Freya had taken her pointer finger and was shoving it into Iris' chest with each sentence.

"I'm sorry! It's not like I meant to get kidnapped!" Iris exclaimed. This seemed to remind Freya of something and she turned to Merlin.

"And you! It's your car they found so don't even try to tell me you didn't come here on purpose. What were you thinking? You didn't even call it in! You and Iris could have been killed!" She turned back to Iris.