꘎♡━━━━━♡꘎
after joining the bau, madelyn mortier's hazy past clears--allowing her a fresh start. she endevers in this newfound family but will the demons of her past seep back in to destroy it? can she start anew and put aside her ghosts to focus on...
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╭──╯ . . . . . VIOLENT DELIGHTS ܴೈ
✧.* ONEERTAXEA . . . . . ╰──╮
september 27th, 2009
we shuffled through cabinets, on and off the phone with everyone, each call more critical than the last. my phone rang, and a cough escaped my mouth before i answered it. dr. kimura glanced over at me but turned back to her cabinet, focusing on her search. i slid the green bar and spoke into the phone.
"hello?" i asked, not yet knowing who it was. "how you doing in there, amore mio?" rossi's familiar voice came through. "i've worked better cases." i replied, wiping the sweat dripping from my forehead. "you've got me and garcia." rossi said, the weight of his concern evident.
"hey, maddy." garcia chimed in. i felt a surge of warmth; i hadn't even properly met her this morning before being pulled into this ordeal, yet her kindness felt like a lifeline. a couple of coughs built up in my throat before i could respond. "madelyn, listen, we don't think the partner was a co-worker. can you tell us anything else about him?" rossi asked.
frustration bubbled up inside me. "i told you everything, i've been through everything..." i stammered. "come on, now, i know you're not thinking straight, but the madelyn i know wouldn't stop looking." rossi encouraged, and something clicked in my head.
i jumped over to dr. nichols' desk, rifling through the papers and photographs scattered across the surface. "i see a framed photo of dr. nichols teaching. i see a binder with syllabi and course assignments going back to the eighties." i explained, flipping through the pages. "okay, so he kept a scrapbook of himself as a professor. what does that tell us?" rossi asked.
"that he values himself as an educator—a teacher." i said, jogging across the room, my mind racing. "i saw something earlier, but i didn't make the connection. he has a study on anthrax; it's formatted like a thesis. there are notes in the margins written in red ink, like a teacher grading a paper. nichols wouldn't have just let any regular joe in here, but he may have opened it for educational purposes." i explained, flipping through papers stapled together.
"so the partner would've appealed to him as a student. nichols is helping him with his thesis." rossi concluded. "i can look up local phd students." garcia offered softly. "yeah, check the sciences—biochemistry, microbiology." i instructed. "okay, i'm cross-referencing, and—nothing, my doves." she sighed. "listen to this," i said, my heart racing. "'this country is woefully unprepared. every household should have a two-month supply of cipro. hospitals need biosafety level four decontamination wings.' it's exactly what nichols said on the tape. the partner's adapted nichols's view as his own."
