𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙥𝙞𝙩𝙮, 𝗌𝗉𝖾𝗇𝖼𝖾𝗋 𝗋𝖾𝗂𝖽 ¹

𝐱𝐯

PROMISES

It was nearing four in the morning when Odessa was startled awake by Spencer's frantic and scattered packing process. She could see he was too focused to notice that she was awake and watching him with tired and confused eyes.

      "What's going on?" she slurred, tossing the knot blanket aside and standing on shaky legs.

      She could hear him curse under his breath before he turned around with a half-stuffed duffel bag. He looked defeated and remorseful. "I didn't mean to wake you, I'm sorry."

      Odessa squinted. Maybe she was tired and overthinking, but it felt as if he was holding something back.

      "What are you doing?" She pointed at the duffel bag. He looked like he was running away, and she was starting to wish she hadn't woken up to see him like this. Something about it was sad.

      "Oh!—Um, we've—I've got another case."

       That was fast. But it made sense, the world doesn't stop when just one criminal is caught.

      Odessa swallowed, processing with as much logic as she could at four in the morning. "Where?"

      "South Carolina—"

      There was a sudden and harsh knock on the door that made the two of them jump. Odessa hadn't realized how quiet the apartment got; so easily disrupted by someone's urgent fist.

      "He's early." Spencer answered the door rather quickly, first setting his bag on the linoleum counter. "Hi, come in," she could hear him say.

      Another man returned with Spencer. He was shorter, with a round and somewhat forgettable face. He was wearing a suit, looking as if he was just about to head off to work.

      "Odessa, this is Special Agent Anderson," Spencer informed.

      She could remember his name from stories that Spencer had told her, but she never saw the man much around the bureau. Odessa recalled seeing him on the elevator once or twice, never anything to raise an immediate sense of awareness.

      She smiled, feeling her eyes remain half shut. Between the fog in her brain from waking up and the random man standing beside her sleeping quarters, Odessa was more than confused.

      Silence fell between the three of them. Spencer was waiting for Odessa to ask a question; Odessa was waiting for Spencer to explain what exactly was going on; Anderson was waiting for someone to break the awkward silence—he didn't care who.

      "So... you were saying?" Odessa finally spat out, raising her eyebrows at Spencer and crossing her arms. She wasn't usually irritable in the mornings, but on this particular one she was.

      In the way they he always did once he's pulled out of a distracted gaze, he jolted to life. It was like you could see the train in his brain switch tracks. "Right!—Um, the team and I have to go to South Carolina for a case and Anderson will be... overseeing you while I'm—we're—gone," he stuttered, uncomfortable with the concept of Odessa staying with someone she doesn't know. Oh, the irony.

      Anderson awkwardly waved. "Hi."

      Odessa tried to hide a grimace, but she could tell by the way Anderson's hand fell to his side that she didn't do a good job. "So what you're saying is that instead of you," she pointed to Spencer, "Anderson will be my babysitter?"

      Anderson laughed, it was surprising how tolerant he was of Odessa's bluntness.

      With a sigh, Spencer headed back to his room. "Don't think of it like that, Dessa." Maybe it wasn't the smartest move for him to use a nickname for a criminal in front of another profiler. He ignored it; maybe Anderson would think that they've simply become friends? It wouldn't be too unlikely anyway.