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chapter twenty nine, glory and gore!
｡.｡:∞♡* EVERYTHING HAPPENS so fast.
Ryan's sitting in a booth at Daisy's waiting for Penelope, looking around the place; at the walls and the flowers lining the counters, and her eyes find their way to the stage at the front of the room. And she hates to think about how she hasn't been here for weeks and it kind of feels like she's lost a part of herself in Spencer - she doesn't really know where it went, but she doesn't play music like she used to anymore.
She supposes it's normal to get caught up in life. Running a store by yourself isn't easy, she works 45 hour weeks and is exhausted even when she does spend time with her boyfriend. So as much as Ryan feels guilty, like she's almost losing touch with the things she prioritized a year ago, she tries her best not to be too hard on herself.
And then Penelope shows up and they get food and talk about everything that's been happening - the last convention that Pen went to and the show that Ryan might play next month. It always feels so natural when it comes to her; like Ryan's known the woman for her entire life, and each time they catch up it just reminds her of all she's gained since she moved to Washington.
Then Penelope's phone rings and of course she answers it, with the quick, "hey hot stuff, lay it on me," as Ryan looks on from the other side of the table. And she watches as it happens; like a movie being projected onto her face, the woman's face goes from joy and contorts into disbelief, transitioning from that into shock, and she's saying, "I have her with me, we'll be there in twenty."
Before she knows it, Ryan's being dragged out of the cafe and into Penelope's car and they're racing to Quantico, and she's saying, "I don't know but Emily she - she sounded really upset and said I needed to get into the office ASAP and that I needed to call you and I told her I have you with me so she told me to bring you and I don't even know what's going on."
Ryan tries to reason with herself, she does. But her mind goes to a million other places, like maybe it doesn't have to do with Spencer. Maybe the world's about to end and they want her there in the FBI building when it happens; she finds herself nearly chuckling at the idea of Luke and Tara hiding with her under a fold-up table while an asteroid strikes. Because she's trying to distract her mind from the obvious.
The FBI Office was never her favorite place.
It was always too quiet; she can hear her feet drag on accident as she walks across the sleek floor, accompanied by the sharp sounds of Pen's heels, and the receptionist asks to see her ID and Ryan's hands are shaking as she takes it out of her wallet and receives her visitors pass. And she tries not to throw her phone violently into the bucket as they go through security but it's taking so fucking long and she needs to know what happened before her brain implodes.
