Pieces Of Me

Chapter 12

When Leah and Spencer arrived at the bureau and had stepped into Penelope's office, they could see that Penelope was excited, but not in a positive way. Leah looked at her friend inquiring.

"Pen? What did you find out?", Leah asked and let herself sink on a chair next to Penelope. She tried to ignore her wildly pounding heart and that strange feeling in her stomach. Spencer joined the two women after he'd found another chair.

Penelope let out a deep sigh and slowly turned to the screens. She looked like she didn't feel comfortable at the moment. "Come on, let it out", Spencer urged her.

"Okay, okay! Just...give me a second", she murmured and typed away pretty fast. Leah watched Penelope's face while they were waiting. What the hell did the technical analyst find out that she was acting like that?

"Well okay...I've found some things out and...just to warn you in advance, it's nothing nice." Penelope took a deep breath before she continued, looking from Spencer to Leah, who both were staring at her full of expectation.

"Leah, dear...your parents' names were Charlotte and Anthony Monaghan and they lived in Brooklyn, New York."

"'Were'? Why...why are you saying their names 'were' Charlotte and Anthony?", Leah quietly interrupted her friend; a terrible feeling was starting to crawl up her chest. She already kind of knew what Penelope was going to answer.

Penelope's eyes filled with tears as she continued; her voice not more than a whisper: „They were murdered when you were just a few months old. The murderer was never caught and the police couldn't figure out a motive for that terrible act."

"What? They...they found nothing? No murderer, no motive, nothing?", Spencer asked in shock and disbelief. Penelope shook her head and cleared her throat while she turned to the young agent and Leah.

"No, absolutely nothing. The FBI was never involved in that case, I haven't got any idea why", she explained. Her eyes met Leah's. But Leah didn't realize. Her head was empty. She had heard Penelope's words; she had heard that her biological parents had been murdered. And that fact had hit her so hard, Leah started to feel dizzy and a wave of sickness started to rush over her.

Never in a million years had she thought about the possibility that her biological parents weren't alive anymore. She had thought that maybe her parents have had to give her away because they had been poor and not able to look after her. Or something like that. But not that she actually was an orphan and that her parents had been murdered. With shaky knees Leah slowly got up from her chair. Tears had started to stream down her face without her even noticing.

"Leah...", she could hear Spencer's voice but she couldn't look at him, not even when she felt his warm hands on her shoulder and her arm. "You shouldn't get upset that much, think of the baby." He spoke quietly and in a calm way and Leah knew he was worrying about her and the baby. But she didn't care at this point.

With thoughts running wildly through her head, Leah cut loose from Spencer's grip. She needed to get out of that dark, small office. She needed air. And a toilet. The sickness was getting stronger and stronger with every second; the world around her was spinning.

"I need...to...get... out of...here", Leah murmured and when Spencer jumped from his chair to follow her, she gave him a sign that she needed to be alone. Then she rushed out of Penelope's office, leaving Spencer and Penelope exchanging confused and still shocked looks.

My biological parents are dead. They've been murdered. How am I supposed to find out who I really am now? Who my baby is going to be? Oh my god...

That was only one of the many thoughts that were circling around in Leah's mind now as she leaned over the toilet and had to throw up for the second time. Exhausted she finally got up after some minutes, washed out her mouth and then left the toilet again.