What happened after Madison read those files? Was it truly Faith? Was she being framed? Or was there somebody else?
Read to find out. (It can be read as a standalone but if you do, you might get confused with a few details)
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"Today...
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Aisha was late for work. She managed to sleep through her alarm, had to take ibuprofen for her headache and the traffic was not good. Because of this, she was surprised when she saw her boss on top of the stairs looking down at everybody while her colleagues and friends were all looking up to him, paying a lot of attention to every word that came out of his mouth.
Of course, he emitted a lot of confidence, professionalism, asking to be stared at, as he is the person in command of all of these people.
Aisha got there in the most important part of the speech.
"You all may know that Agent Faith had put in her 2 weeks, two weeks ago. Yesterday was her last day working in this station."
"So THIS is what happened!"- Aisha thought to herself.
Madison had kept what happened that day to herself, not wanting to start any kind of rumor.
"She requested that we didn't celebrate her progress in the career in another state, so I decided to make her wish come true and not do one. But, this fact does bring changes to the rest of the remaining teams."
Aisha didn't know what to think of this, she hoped that it wouldn't change her team, since they were all very close, another person coming in might destroy the trust they have built with each other over these years, which can be detrimental for this job.
Especially now, since Aisha felt like Madison had already started to chip away at that trust.
Aisha didn't catch much after that since she was overthinking the rest of the speech but she started to feel scared when she felt eyes on her. She looked around to find out who those eyes belonged to. At the other side of the staring, she found Garrett's eyes that were close to Richard's. Both of them seemed nervous, maybe even scared. Aisha showed them her confusion in the entire situation.
Garrett signalled her to walk with him into a corner close to the bathrooms.
"What the hell just happened?!"- Aisha asked as soon as they were alone.
"You walked in late, huh?"- Garrett wonders with scared laughter.
"Yes, can you elaborate on what just happened?"
"Two weeks ago, when Madison stopped Faith in the morning..."
"I remember that. What happened in here today?"- Aisha rushes Garrett
"Since Faith has quit or transferred or whatever she did, they need to distribute the rest of her team across the floor until they find a replacement."- Garrett explains.
"Okay, are we safe?"
"You really didn't pay at-"
"Cut the crap. Tell me."
Garrett releases another laughter and takes a few seconds, maybe to breathe, maybe to stop himself from throwing up.
"Francis is coming in."
In reality, Aisha and Garrett are truly close, they have known each other from the academy, they never expected to work together in any station since they lived far away from each other.
In the academy, they were close friends, basically best friends. They helped each other train in the different skills, but they also hang out after "school" ended. They were basically together 24/7. When Aisha was assigned to this station, she didn't think she could have a connection to anyone else, mainly because of who she is and how she handles people and how discrete she is when meeting new people, but she did.
She loves being a part of this team, so knowing that a new person is going to join them makes her feel frustrated and mad but also afraid to go back to the timid, scaredly person that she once was.
"We are still a good team. Don't let a new person change your perception of us. He isn't going to change our dynamic." - Garrett tries to bring her back to herself.
Aisha agrees, takes a deep breath and smiles up to Garrett.
"Let's do this. They must be waiting for us."
Garrett goes along with Aisha but stops her once more just to text the group to announce that they shouldn't tell him that they know about Faith. Maybe this way, they have nothing to worry about when they start going over the details of the case.
They start walking towards the office again. When they get there and open the door, they find the team sitting down on their respective 'desks' with their boss and Francis standing in the front of the room waiting for Aisha and Garrett.
The team share a look as if to say that they know exactly what to do and say.
In reality, they are about to wing it and hope the rest of them figure out what they want to say. Relying on that trust.
"I'm sure all of you heard the announcement so I'm not going to extend this very much. I know that most of you are aware of who this is since you know that he was Faith's partner. And this was my train of thought when dividing their team. I know that you will allow him to take some credit where it's deserved. That's all I have to say."
"Francis. Welcome."- Madison speaks sounding a bit sharp while saying his name.
Madison was not happy. Maybe Richard was the only one that fully showed calmness in this situation, but they could read him easily, he wasn't happy about this either.
"Guys. I'm glad to be here and glad that you are so welcoming. It's a pleasure to assist you in whatever way I can. I'm ready to get into any case that you might be working on!"- Francis says.
Aisha can tell that there is a second intention behind his 'happy go lucky' tone, but she couldn't quite grab onto it yet. She was still building his body language baseline, she didn't know how long it would take her to get it fully, but she would die trying.
