Memories of shadows haunt me
From the years when I was young
Things that used to terrify me
Are the things, that I've become

~ Yelawolf ( Shadows)

1

She walked down to her car from her rented room. It was a basic hotel, with single bed, a bathroom and a small room probably for induction stove. She had all the essentials with her. Essentials indeed, and those essential included a bottle of Tequila. Not her fault in her defence, the years had been hard since her brother had been charged with drugs and father was on his deathbed. As she walked down to the stairs, she passed the elevator; they stinked. She could still recollect the day.

' Hello Ray, How's things? Still shinin' ? I always knew it.' dad had said. Her day was already full of it. Somehow, she had began to talk to her father more and more, each day. And surprisingly e would respond to her in almost the same fashion as her real father. She had tried to forget it, talking to oneself it was definitely not her type. Even when she had been in her room the night yesterday. Drinking to herself, with only the underclothes on. She could somewhere hear her father's laughter, then she could see his smile. She had blushed when she imagined what would her father think if he ever saw her like this. Then for her surprise even more memories had begun to float like clouds in front of her eyes. She did not want to see them. She simply hated them, because whenever she would remember those memories. A small desire would shape inside her, a small wanting, a small request which would soon grow as big as a bridge and then take over her. Making her do things, things like spending time alone, it made her feel sad all the time. It bugged her a lot. On her job, she had to stay alert which would not at all happen if this desire would start taking shape and to not these desire to take shape, she would keep all her memories locked inside somewhere deep, some place so deep and dark that even if you reach it you can't see it and she would keep it locked inside her. But they were now coming up, the desire could be seen showing a faint glimpse of life. Rachel desperately fought against it.

She reached her car and yet again,

' Wear your seatbelt. And don't you go haywire and drive fast' she thought in her father's voice, This. This kind of immediate flashback and that instant sense of nostalgia bugged her, bugged her a lot. In a way, the desire would tell her to against her father. To drive so fast that flash would die trying to meet her speed. But, again her duties and her job would remind her and then she would grow disappointed because she wanted to be free. Free of this rulemaking world, free and free forever. She desired for that luxury, that life of a celebrity, that way of the animals. Nothing was possible, because it would cost her and her job.

She threw away the thought and began thinking about something else, maybe a good song will do. So, she started humming to herself,

" Oh, oh I'm falling so I'm taking my time on my ride . . . Oh, I'm falling so I'm taking my time on my ride" She hummed

Striking the engine with ignition, she started to drive out of the parking,

' Don't you crash to any other cars' came a thought and then again the desire arose in her, to crash the Ford just behind her and then just letting go the brakes and take off the car in full speed probably then she would crash into the other side or a bus or a truck would knock her from the side and the car would strike home run and she would finally be able to meet her long lost father.

She stopped the car right there and held her head in frustration,

" I don't wanna think about it" she said loudly and then everything seems to be normal. It had something to do with case, something she had been doing or reading or some supernatural power had been controlling her. She couldn't tell and this made her even more frustrated than ever, Why couldn't she tell?!

' It's my freaking body, my mind! then why can't I know?' she thought, but nothing came to her. Not a clue of any sorts, she had begun thinking about it. She decided to take a doctor's appointment today.

' Maybe that'll help' she thought,

' No' the answer to that popped inside her head. She banged her hands on steering,

" Not again!" she said, this had honestly been her worst nightmare as she recollected the day, when her mother had died.

She had been very young. She had seen her mother bleeding from her arm. A feeling of horror settled inside her like a bird sitting on a branch and then it began to sing. Bells and gongs began ringing in her ears as she kept still as she could. Every fiber inside her made her to go and get bandages or dettol or something but she couldn't move, just like her father. She had cried and wailed until she was picked up by her father and they both had left. Leaving her with her brother; 3 years younger than herself. After that she had been talking to her mother, when daddy had told than mommy had gone up to the great heaven. People mocked her, laughed at her but she kept on talking to her mommy until one day she had enough to talk, one day she had forgotten to talk to her mother when her father had brought her a new bicycle and they rode it down all the way to the ark where she had ice-creams and on dinner it was pizza. That day was filled with utmost joy and so much happiness her mother had finally decided to leave her family of 3 in peace]

She opened her eyes and then looked at the watch, Shit. She was late, putting the gears to work she started to drive towards the headquarters.

2

She reached the headquarters, all the people had arrived and had begun their jobs. Rachel walked inside the building parking her car in the basement. She took the lift. With a small noise the lift started.

' Here's my Rachel ' came the thought ringing into her head, she stomped the ground of the lift and inhaled and exhaled to let herself be relaxed and calm. The lift went up and then again with the monotonous sound the doors opened and she stepped out of the lift. Making her way towards her office. She noticed that Margaret was already present.

' That's good ' she thought and went inside her own office. It was neat and tidy, just as she tried to keep it that way. All the papers filed poorly into a file and stuffed inside a cupboard. She picked up her left over files from the sofa and sat on the it. Keeping her bags of file aside, she placed her hands on her eyes. They had begun to pain heavily, she rubbed them,

' Rachel, don't rub your eyes. You'll get spectacles ' said her father inside her head.

" Not You. Not You" she began say as she hit her head with her fists. Now this was something she couldn't ignore. Not at all, she had to get that doc's appointment sooner. But something else was more important. Margaret was more important. Ryan's rescue was more important. Justice was more important.

She stood up and closed her eyes for a moment and just felt to sleep, take a long and restful sleep. She began to feel comfortable in that position, just standing and standing, sleeping while standing just like horses. She was just the same, she had been a Horse for a very long time. She had run herself for very long and now i was time for her to rest.

" Boss" said Andrew as he came inside and found Rachel standing with closed eyes and smiling to herself. Rachel quickly opened her eyes and looked at Andrew, a sudden thought came into her.

' He saw me ' she thought and a fluster of embarrassment came upon her,

" Yes." she said awkwardly, Andrew looked at her,

" You alright?'' he asked,

" Yeah, yeah. Continue" said Rachel trying to maintain a strict face,

" Other people check out, no other person has been in contact with him and most of them are married and have tight alibi's and some of them are dead." he said,

" Well that leaves with only one way, we have to talk to Ryan. That's great, you go and tell others. I'll take the permission from Margaret to fly us to Washington D.C." said Rachel.

Things were clear as water, it had all downed to this new person Henry. They had tried to track him down but he was nowhere to be found. Profile on him had been closed stating that current location is unknown and there was no sign of him being dead. So, if that man came down to America after these many years but he doesn't go to meet her only daughter and hasn't got anything and no person has seen or heard of him. Rachel had called upon Amanda's phone but she didn't pick up. They also needed to locate Amanda too, maybe she was involved with her father or she might be hiding him.

She had asked victor to keep searching for her too, there were so many loose threads to tie. Regardless, she walked towards Margaret's office. She knocked on the door.

" Come in" Margaret replied, Rachel opened the door and stood near the chairs. Margaret saw this and motioned her to sit down. She had be talking with somebody, could it be Henry? Rachel had thought.

" What brings you hear?'' asked Margaret, Rachel sat down and looked at the door and then back to Margaret,

" We have had information that your mother Emma Miller has recently been in contact with Amanda Cooper's father Henry Cooper and yes we also know that he is alive" she said,

" By hacking into the top security files, which were supposed to be not read until permission wa granted" said Margaret with a stern face, Rachel looked at her,

" The team did what I told them, you can give me a suspension but they did nothing. I was the one who ordered it, if that's the way you want it to be" said Rachel, she did care about her team. She did not want their careers to have a stain because of her.

'' Which you shall get. Did you know that it just can be, that I have a strong desire to fire you out of the F.B.I. But I thought a 2 months suspension would be enough, here" she said and gave her a letter. Rachel took it with a tremble,

" Now you may leave" Margaret said, Rachel stood up but did not go,

" Can I ask you? Why did you withheld the information that Henry had visited you?" she asked with a very polite smile. Margaret stood up and looked outside the window,

" That's none of your business" She said, Rachel went towards her smiling, this had all been a play, an act to let her feel that she had the upper hand and now she was caught off-guard.

" I'll inform the team who will be taking the case after me to check your accounts." she said, then came closer to her and said,

" I have read the instructions and I understand that if I withhold, misrepresent, or falsify information on this form, I am subject to the penalties for inaccurate or false statement,per U.S. Criminal Code, Title 18, section 1001, denial or revocation of a security clearance, and/or removal and debarment from Federal service." Margaret turned to her,

" I know that very well" she said,

" Then why did you hide it?'' asked Rachel,

" That rarely matters, because the team will dismiss them since they already have their suspect" said Margaret smartly,

" Well I'll be spending some time alone since you have suspended me, so I think I'll let Nicholson know that Margaret the Iron Hand ruler is keeping secrets from her team and I am sure it won't take time until the director come to know it in a poker game with his people" said Rachel, this was a long shot and this would certainly justify her to take anger management classes but ,

" I'll be moving to another department soon, please don't do this." she said looking into Rachel's eyes,

" Then tell me what happened" asked Rachel,

" I will" said Margaret, there was a look of sadness on her face as she began.

" Henry came to our house, he was old and had that british tint in him of being courteous and mannered, he told his name to me and I was shocked to hear that. My mother had told me when I was teenager that she used to hang around with him and how he loved her. I had thought he was dead but yet he was there. He came inside and my mother was delighted to see him. They talked for hours and hours until my mother had to gone to take her medicines when he came to me and told his real purpose, he said, ' I have come here to meet your mother and also for another purpose', I looked at him and said nothing, but he said, ' I have come to restart what I created, I came back to give them their own medicine'. I was shocked but he said that if I moved now or told anybody of him then he would come back. I had said that I was law enforcement but you know how it is. If I had moved then, my mother would have been dead because we did not know that he was sitting on a Glock in his bottom pocket, so I said nothing. One of his guy always roams around the house waiting for an order. I was trying to find a way until you found it out" said Margaret,

Rachel moved towards her because now she had started crying, Rachel patted on her back,

" I'll solve the case, we have evidence enough to take Ryan out, let me and my team go to Washington and I promise that your mother will not be harmed" said Rachel, Margaret nodded and sat on her desk and began writing.

Very sorry for a delayed publish. I hope you like this Chapter.

Your Truely,
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