This is a Nick Fowler x Reader story.
Reader is a brilliant but shy and awkward CIA employee whose work is often overlooked by her colleagues...she's blended into the background for so long that she doesn't think there's any other way - even if she...
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Warnings: references to sex trafficking
Despite your best efforts to forget it, Nick's warning about Joe was niggling away at you. What did he mean exactly? Had something happened between the two of them? Did Nick know something you didn't? Or was he just basing it all on a hunch he had - or worse - deliberately trying to mess with you to throw you off your game, sabotage you to prove he was right about you?
Would he really do that?
You berated yourself for letting him worm his way back in your headspace. You'd moved on. You'd barely thought about him. You'd been making progress at work. You were on the boss' radar. You were enjoying Joe's company. Don't let him ruin it!
You wouldn't.
*
The next day you were back in the makeshift Project Cotton office with Joe reading some correspondence from the FBI team. Walsh suddenly strolled into the conference room, surprising you both.
"Sir" Joe nodded. "Sorry - I thought our meeting wasn't until this afternoon?"
"Morning both" said Walsh as he ran a finger over the letter opener left on the desk. "No, you're right Palmer. I've actually come to see her" he nodded over to you.
You felt a jolt of anxiety. "Me? Uh...How can I help, Sir?"
"We've had an unexpected tip off from an informant in relation to Project Cotton" he explained. "We have reason to believe that this vehicle has been attending several of the key sites".
He slid a grainy photograph of a sleek truck over to you. You could just about make out the license plate.
"Our informant has managed to get his hands on some CCTV footage which he says catches this truck attending one of the suspected sites on multiple occasions".
"That could be a big breakthrough" you breathed excitedly. "If we can trace the owner...we might finally have a name for someone at the top of this thing."
Walsh nodded. "Indeed. The vehicle is registered to a Mr. Ray Colebrook. He has several priors for assault...racketeering...pandering. The problem is we need more evidence in order to obtain a warrant to seize the truck and take Colebrook in for questioning".
You looked at him pensively. "So you need...proof that he has been spotted at the site? Which could be on the CCTV?"
"Precisely" Walsh nodded. "The difficulty is...the footage is 12 hours long with hundreds of vehicles coming and going. We need someone to review the footage with a fine tooth comb and see if the truck really appears, and how many times if so - with time stamps".
"So...that would be me" you replied, now understanding what he was asking of you.
"Correct. I know you have a lot of experience in this area. You're patient, thorough. If the truck is on there you'll find it. But...we do need it done by the morning, I'm sorry to say. We need to move fast, Colebrook might get spooked now he's been using the same truck, we need that warrant ASAP before he switches it up again".
