NO GOOD DEED || S. REID

2.14

IF KATHARINE'S LIFE WAS A MOVIE, she would have been dead by now.

In her twenty-seven, almost twenty-eight, years of living, she had managed to escape roughly one-hundred and sixty-five near-death or high-risk encounters. And that was only while on the job.

But never had she been in a situation as high-risk as this one. No, in this situation, she had so much more to lose than just her life. In this situation, one wrong move could mean the end of the line for her best friend, Nina Hayes, as well.

Katharine figured the only way for her and Nina to make it out of this was to find out what Erika wanted. Her abilities wouldn't help her here, not when Erika came prepared.

But luckily it didn't take Katharine long to figure out why Erika was doing this.

Erika Manning, twenty-eight years old, had been rejected from the Academy twice. The first time was when she had applied for Operations right out of high school. Most commonly known as the most rigorous and the toughest to get into, eighteen-year-old Erika Manning figured she'd go big or go home.

At the end of the day, she was forced to go home.

The second time she applied was through Communications. It was the easiest way into SHIELD and unlike Operations or SciTech, the prerequisite wasn't as difficult to meet. All you needed was a pass on a psych evaluation and experience in data analysis.

It didn't take Katharine long to figure out that it was the psych eval Erika Manning had failed.

So, Katharine figured, Erika had decided that if SHIELD wouldn't take her in, then she'd have to take their agents out.

"Fourteen pairs," Erika had boasted. "They never even saw me coming and your little agency is still none the wiser."

Katharine felt a wave of anger rush over her. That was twenty-eight retired agents that Erika had managed to track down and kill and if Katharine wasn't careful, she and Nina could become lucky numbers twenty-nine and thirty.

So with her gun trained between Spencer Reid's eyes, she tried her best to keep her cool.

"Erika," she tried, stance unwavering. If she couldn't protect Nina, she could at least stand in between her and Spencer. "If you let my friends go, I'll bring you directly to the director of SHIELD himself."

"You're lying," Erika insisted, "you don't even work for SHIELD anymore! You're lying!"

Katharine heard Nina whimper out in pain from behind her. She did everything in her power not to turn around. Her compliance was the only thing between Nina and a bullet to her head.

"You're right," Katharine said, her voice shaking ever so slightly. "I don't work for SHIELD anymore, at least not officially."

Spencer looked at her in confusion.

Trust me, she mouthed, and he did.

Katharine slowly reached for her back pocket and took out a black leather wallet, similar to the FBI wallet badges that they carried. She flipped it open to reveal a yellow identification card paired with the SHIELD crest. She turned the badge around slowly so that Erika could see.

"SHIELD level blue," Katharine said. "Emergency field operative and specialist. In my pocket, there's a cell phone that I used to call the Director. It's an unsaved number, under Aaron Hotchner's call."

Katharine wished she thought of it sooner, but if Erika wanted to be an agent of SHIELD so badly, there was one other way for her to achieve her goal.