Ask Me Again

One Year Later

"It's been a year, man. I've told you this so many times but I'm going to repeat it again. Moving on-"

"-is a decision. I know. And I have decided to move on, but I don't know, okay. She's still here. She's stuck in my head. I can't get her out. Her whimper and cries have been keeping me up almost every night. As soon as I drift to sleep, her voice comes and triggers my nightmares!"

Agent Faulkerson heavily dropped the bench press weights over his head and got up. His long time Filipino friend since college and current partner, Agent Joe Manalo, stood by his feet, with hands on his waist, shaking his head.

"What?!" He defensively asked. Manalo just raised his hands in defeat and walked over to the pull up bar behind the bench press machines.

They've been through this conversation so many times in the past 6 months since he got approved to go back in service. Everyone thought he'd fail his tests but he passed all of them with flying colors and got paired with his friend. But if it was up to Manalo, he wouldn't be able to come back that soon to give him more time to get over his issues. But the department cleared him and in fairness to him, he had proven he's well fit for work.

Being an FBI agent had always been Agent Faulkerson's dream. He watched all the shows his dad watched about crime investigations, and chasing leads and suspects when he was young. He was a nerd in school and graduated at the top of his class. His first year as FBI agent, he got assigned with a team who handled a high profile fraud case. When they successfully closed the case, it began a string of more high profile cases, all of which he was able to resolve successfully, until the undercover job of being a Sheikh ruined everything for him.

Now, he was back to square one and he vowed to make sure he gets his superiors' trust again, while at the same time start tracking where she could have ended.

He walked up to his partner and apologized.

"Sorry man. I know you mean well, but for the millionth time, I'm okay." He said, while his partner started loudly counting his pull ups.

"One hundred twenty five... " Manalo grunted, then let go of the bars to face him. "Ahhhh... that felt nice. I feel all muscular already." He said, trying to flex his biceps. Faulkerson just laughed at his friend's antics.

After gym, they went to the cafe next door for lunch.

"I just can't believe you still haven't forgotten her. You had her for like what? Two seconds? Tell me, what was it really that made you so crazy about her?" Manalo pressed on before taking a huge bite off of his tuna sandwich.

He hesitated for a second, but the question made him think as well. He chewed the mouthful of spring salad before answering Manalo.

"I don't know either, Joe. When I first saw her, even though I knew I was just going to pretend, I got swallowed by the character I was playing, you know? I didn't expect to fall so hard that fast. To be honest, I don't think I fell in love with her or anything. I guess it's just the guilt, that I brought her there and now I don't even know what happened to her. I'm a fucking FBI agent, and I couldn't even get any damn information on what happened to her. She just disappeared." He picked up his fork again and started poking around his salad.

"I know, RJ. But don't you think six months of going crazy around the world looking for her is enough to make you realize that maybe, just maybe, you're not meant to cross paths with her ever again? You know I was against you coming back so soon after that insane stunt, right? But I guess you could say I'm glad you came back, because I wouldn't know what to do with this assignment we have now." Joe put his sandwich down and sipped from his glass of cucumber lemonade.