Run

One

Three months later

The silence was deafening as Scarlett stood frozen, a million thoughts coursing through her mind so fast that she could not distinguishing any of them. Her brain was jumbled but she knew one thing was for certain and that was that she was ready to come back to work. She stared down the long, narrow hallway that led her to her destination but her feet stood rooted to the linoleum floor as agents upon agents stopped with what they were doing and openly stared. Scarlett knew that once she started walking down the hall she wouldn't feel the stares and the soft whispers would be silenced.

Taking a deep breath, Scarlett finally took a step forward into the hallway, away from the room full of desks and people, away from the stares, sympathetic and glaring alike. Scarlett knew it was unusual to be back at work so soon. Having barely escaped a deadly bomb with bruises and a shattered shoulder and her whole team killed in action, some would say that Scarlet was the luckiest girl ever.

But she didn't see it that way. She didn't see that luck was on her side. All she saw were four dead bodies on her conscious. Her family.

She heard her heeled boots connect with the floor, echoing more and more, louder and louder as she got further into the almost abandoned hallway and closer to her destination, the chief's office. She passed a few frazzled looking I.Ts, almost chuckling to herself as they scurried past her while shuffling through all the papers in their hands. As she got closer to her the Chief's office, Scarlett recognized a young brunette with a hard and angry look in his brown eyes and a set jaw walk out of the Chief's office and letting the door slam open against the wall. His name was Johnson, and next to her he was also one of the youngest in the agency. He was 26, tall and broad shouldered. When she was first recruited she was immediately drawn to him, but a 17 year old girl at the time had no chance with a 24 year old agent. Johnson walked by Scarlett, not even giving her a second glance. She knew something had happened between the Chief and him.

Scarlett knew the Chief was difficult, he was brutal, and he had no mercy but he always held a soft spot for her. The special treatment he gave her was one of the reasons why people in the agency hated her. Besides being one of the youngest and most skilled agents, she was also favored by the Chief and that immediately frowned upon amongst her colleagues. She didn't care, though. Scarlett kept to herself and knew her place, which was much high up on the ladder than many of the agents older than her.

After knocking on the door, she heard a gruff, but soft voice granting her permission to come in. She entered, a small smile on her face and she walked up to the desk at the end of the room. There was always a sense of nostalgia as she walked into his office. She spent more time in here than in her own home, because even though she wasn't recruited until the age of 17, she spent most of her teenage years studying here.

"Hello, Chief," Scarlett smiled, setting her bag on the floor just as she sat down in an overtly large, leather chair, crossing her legs.

"Scarlett, my dear, now tell me, what on earth are you doing here?'' The Chief had voiced a question but his tone was anything but surprised. As Scarlett looked at him, she couldn't help but sigh as she gave him a once over. His full head of hair was graying and slowly receding, the crinkles by the corner of his gray eyes were getting deeper and more prominent every time Scarlett saw him. It was the stress of the job and how much it took a toll on his body.

Scarlett shrugged before answering, letting the answer marinate in her mind before replying. ''I needed to come back to work.'' It was a short reply, but one she hoped she didn't need to elaborate on.

''It's only been three months, your shoulder is not fully recovered. I'm sorry but I can't let you go out on any assignments.''

Scarlett knew Chief would say something like this. In fact, she believed it was too soon to come back knowing she was not fully healed, but she could not stay at home for any longer. It tortured her having to think back to three months ago.