Though spoken almost warmly, the words landed like cold water.Behind her, Torres shifted uncomfortably, but said nothing.The silence pressed.
Winters set the drawer back on the desk.“I’m going to give you a choice, Kate.You can return to the Portland field office, where there’s a case in need of experienced analysis — something involving forged colonial manuscripts.Or,” she added, “you can take the leave you’re owed.Effective immediately.”
Kate’s jaw clenched.“You’re pulling me off the Brennan case.”
“I’m saving you from it,” Winters corrected.“And saving the Bureau from what happens when this killer decides to turn his little morality play into a vendetta.It’s plain that Cox wants to pull you into his orbit again.We’re not going to oblige him.”
Kate felt the world tilt, just slightly.“With respect, ma’am, it’s not as simple as pulling me into his orbit.I wish it was.That piece of evidence there… he wants me to believe that he knows everything about me. And if I pull out, he’s going to think I fell for it.”
Winters’s eyes hardened again.“You seem to think this is a negotiation.”
A pause stretched between them — brittle, electric.
“That is a risk,” Winters conceded.“But Cox might equally feel you ‘fell for it’, as you say, if you continue to pursue the case.One option keeps you safe.The other option keeps you in danger.So there is no contest.Sorry.”
Kate exhaled slowly, forcing the tension from her shoulders.“Then I’ll take a few days,” she said.“And when I’ve cleared my head, I’ll report back to the field office.”
Winters gave a single approving nod.“That’s wise.Get some rest, Kate.You look like you need it.”
O’Hare was in the doorway by this point, hovering.Winters turned to him, smiling again.“Jack, it’s always a pleasure.Would you walk me out?”
They left in a breeze of expensive perfume and old authority.The sound of their voices echoed down the corridor, light and careless.
For a long moment, nobody spoke.
Kate stared at the desk.The drawer.Her hands were trembling, and that made her furious.
Finally, Marcus said quietly, “I’m sorry.”
Kate looked up.His face was pale, guilty.“For what?”
“She just… walked in,” he said.“O’Hare was showing her around.She saw the evidence board, then spotted the drawer sitting out.Before I could move, she was reading it aloud, then asked me to explain the significance.I wasn’t quick enough to… y’know.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to lie for me, Marcus.Besides, you couldn’t know she’d react that way.”
“Have you got a history of going off the reservation?”Torres asked.
“No,” Kate said.Marcus said “Yes” at exactly the same moment.
“It’s happened,” Kate admitted.
"Three written warnings, one reprimand," Marcus added, sternly."All concerning her sketchy regard for protocol in the pursuit of Cox."
“Well not this time,” Kate replied.
“Kate, I’m sorry—"
“Marcus.”Kate’s tone was even, deliberate.“It’s fine.”
“It’s not.I should’ve—”
“I said it’s fine.”She gave a thin smile.“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
But something in his eyes — the quiet relief that flickered there — made her chest tighten.Because she realized, with sudden clarity, that part of him agreed with Winters.Part of him thought this was for the best.
When he spoke again, that suspicion became fact.“Maybe she’s right,” he said softly.“You’ve been running on fumes, Kate.You’re too close to this.We both know what Cox can do to you.”
Her hand clenched around the coffee cup.“You think I don’t know that?”
