Robbery In Progress

*Emma*

That's it. I've officially spent too much time in hospitals recently. It couldn't be normal to be in one this much. Unless, of course, you worked here. Which is another story. I'm sure there were people who think they've been to a police station or an FBI office too many times to be considered normal as well.

Anyway, at least this time I'm here for a witness and not a family member. Speaking of, Meg texted me earlier to say that she is fine and the doctors expect her to be discharged by the end of the week, which was a relief. The longer she's there the longer I'm reminded of her incident. It feels wrong calling it an accident when I know damn well it wasn't one, incident feels more accurate.

My eyes refocused as the doctor walked up, "she's going to be okay. A bit malnourished and some superficial injuries I suspect are from restraining attempts but it doesn't look like they've been actively abusing her. At least, not physically." Nodding in response, I crossed my arms. "When can I speak with her? I need to get a statement, and I have a small window to find the person who did this."

"She's very weak right now but if she is up for it you can go in. However, you need to call it if she's going too far. I would imagine her mental state is fragile after all this."

Uncrossing my arms, I reached out to shake the doctor's hand, "understood. Thank you, Doctor." Grunting in response, the doctor walked off after shaking my hand, leaving me to it.

Leaning into her room, I lightly wrapped on the door jam to announce my presence. "Mrs. O'Rourke? Do you have a minute to talk?"

She smiled when she saw me, though I could tell it didn't quite reach her eyes. "I've got nothing else to do."

She motioned me in so I stepped over to her bedside and held out my hand, "my name is Emma. Agent Emma Harrison, FBI. I was part of the team that found you earlier."

She shook my hand, "I assume you're looking for a statement? My husband was an agent so I get the procedure."

I smiled at her, genuinely. Though the circumstances were absolutely terrible, it was fun to meet Joe's other half. Nodding in confirmation I elaborated, "I do need a statement, I realize it may be difficult for you to go into that so if you need some time I understand. The thing I can't give you time on, though, is the interview I need on the man that had you taken. We suspect he is planning to leave the country, and possibly going somewhere that doesn't have an extradition treaty. That being said, I'm a bit short on time in that regard." She nodded in understanding so I continued, "can you tell me if he ever mentioned an escape plan? Or if you overheard one?"

"I assume you're talking about, oh what was his name...Jackson? No, Jason. Yes, it was Jason. He was hardly ever around. Or if he was, I wasn't conscious for it. When I did see him though, it was mostly just a, uh...proof of life visit." She paused for a minute and I let her. The tightness in her voice told me more than words would be able to I suspected. "I imagine my Joe would have demanded check-ins to make sure I was alright. He's a good man, you know. Whatever Jason had him doing, he wouldn't have done it on his own volition. They wouldn't have needed me otherwise. Everything he did would have been under duress."

I rested my hand on hers to center her back on me, "Joe and Sarah are safe. They are at the station, helping us with the case. That will really help them when they go in front of the judge. And I will testify on their behalf, I imagine the detectives I'm working with will do the same."

"Wait, I'm sorry. Sarah's in this too? I don't understand, why would they take her? She's a safe tech. She tests safes to make sure they work properly and ensures they can't be easily cracked. What does she have to do with this?" Choosing silence over a response, I allowed her to think it over. "Oh no, what do they need a safe cracker for?"

I gently squeezed the hand I had mine on. She's already been through so much, who knows what that even entails yet, it kills me to put her through this. At least she's been able to spend all this time believing her daughter was safe. And now that she's finding out about it all, she is safe again.

Gotta look on the positive side, right?

"I am so sorry, Samantha. Is it alright if I call you Samantha?" She just nodded so I continued. "Okay, thank you. Jason has been using your husband and your daughter to rob banks. Sarah to crack the safes and Joe to handle the negotiator. Which, in this case, was me."

*Kelsey*

"I know you want to see her, and you will. But not until the morning. This is hard, I get it. Really, I do. But if we want to catch Jason, then Emma needs every minute of visiting hours tonight." Joe and I have been going in circles for a while now about this. The trouble I was having, is that I could completely see where he was coming from.

If my wife was in the hospital after months of being apart, I would be banging on the hospital doors. Thankfully, Joe is a bit more reasonable than me and also technically in custody so he isn't allowed to leave on his own volition. "You're right, and I want you to catch him. But I need to see her, I need to know she's alright."

In an effort to ease him down, I sat and gestured to the chair next to me, "she is safe, she is awake, and she will be seeing you and Sarah as soon as possible tomorrow morning. I understand how difficult this is, and if it wasn't necessary, I wouldn't insist. But it is, so I am. And if I get any sort of update about her, I will let you know. Okay?"

I could see the surrender in his eyes before he even responded, "okay. But I want to talk to Emma when she's done. So she can tell me every tiny little detail."

Trying not to get annoyed by that request, I smiled at him. "I will pass that along, I promise. Try and get some sleep, okay? Knock on the door if you or Sarah need something, there's an officer on the other side."

With that, I left him and went back to the conference room where Matty and Drew were still hoping to track down Jason just in case Samantha was unhelpful for any reason. With all the whiteboards and papers and string all around they were beginning to look like some crazy conspiracy theorists to me.

As I stepped in, Drew looked up from his phone, "hey, Emma will be here soon. She's finished talking with Mrs. O'Rourke. How are they doing?"

"They want to see her but I think they'll make it the night before they do something they'll regret later. What's all this?"

"We are trying to use Jason's financials to track where he might go on this board," Matty gestured at the board to his left, "and on this board we are looking at every international airport that has flights to countries that do not have extradition treaties. Just in case he's already left we are starting the search for planes that flew out yesterday and then out two days from now." That explained the crazy conspiracy theory thing. Were his eyes starting to look a bit crazed? Hmm. "Any luck then?"

"It's a lot. We need something to narrow this down. Hopefully Emma got something from the mom."

"Hey," Emma greeted as she stepped in. "Whoa. What happened in here? You guys throw a party without me or something?"

"That would have been a lot more fun," Matty conceded. "No, we are trying to figure out what flight he could be on outta town. Any luck there?"

"They were pretty tight lipped around her, sadly she didn't have the whole master plan written out for us."

"One of these days, someone will do that. I swear it," Matty quipped back, causing me to smile.

"All she said was that she thought she heard some of them talking about a flight out of an airport recently. She didn't catch the full name but it started with 'Fort"."

"Well that certainly narrows it down." Drew and Matty started attacking their piles of paper which had their flight options on it. While they were occupied I took my opportunity to pass on the information I promised to pass on. "Joe wants to talk to you, about how Samantha is doing."

She nodded, "sure, thanks. Before I do that though, can I speak with you? Privately."

Drew and Matty didn't even pick their heads up which told me we would be the ones moving locations. So I got up from my chair and headed towards the break room with her on my tail.

"What can I do for you, Agent Harrison?" Was that too much snark? Probably. Did I care? No.

"Well, you can start with not calling me 'Agent Harrison'. Seriously, Kelsey. It's still me, please just hear me out." She stepped towards me but I backed up.

"I gave you chances to hear you out. One more chance than you probably deserved too. You are so afraid of ever letting anyone in that you inevitably push them away. You're damn good at it too, I'll give you that. Because you succeeded yet again." My chest burned even as I pushed her away just like I accused her of doing to me. I was so tired of never being enough for anyone else, I was not going to let her sideline me too. "Kelsey--" I cut her off.

"Does it ever get exhausting?" The frustration had to be clear in my eyes.

Her eyes widened in surprise. "Does what ever get exhausting?"

"Running. You run from everything. From everyone. You've gotta be downright exhausted."

This was it, her last chance to say something, anything. To say "Kelsey, I am exhausted. I want to stop running. I want to love you and be loved by you." But did she? Nope. She didn't. She said, "it does. I am," then walked out the door.