Login

The Witness by Pari



“We caught another bad guy and we officially have the next three days off. Come on ladies it’s salsa night at the Rio. Lets go out and shake what ya momma gave ya.” Morgan said as he lifted his hands above his head, snapped his fingers, and began to shake his hips. Garcia, J.J. and Emily who sat around his desk all giggled, while Reid who was seated across from Morgan, watched him perplexed.

“Sorry sugar, but my momma gave me a bit too much. My shaking might hurt someone.” Garcia said jokingly, Morgan in turn slid closer to her and bumped his hips against hers.

“Hurt me baby,” He said as he threw her a smile and a wink.

“Oh is that an Invitation because I would love to…No,” Garcia’s voice turned from playful to frightful in a split second. “Oh No,” She whined out which caused her friends to look to her in concern, and then to where Garcia’s eyes rested on a man standing near the entrance wearing a white shirt, blue jeans, cowboy hat and boots.

“Baby girl what’s wrong?” Morgan asked as he suspiciously eyed the man who was approaching them. Morgan instinctively placed himself between Garcia and the man who stood before them.

“I know I promised you that we’d never see each other again, Penny. I’m so sorry that I have to break that promise.” The man spoke and Garcia’s face instantly crumbled as she stepped around Morgan and into the awaiting arms of this man who seemed to be very familiar with Garcia. Garcia opening sobbed against the man’s chest. “Shh don’t you cry darling. You know I’m not gonna let anything happen to you, but we’ve gotta move quickly.” The man whispered to Garcia and she sniffed back her remaining tears and moved from his arm. She gave him a nod of understanding as she wiped at her eyes.

“What the hell is going on here, Penelope who is this?” Morgan asked what everyone else was thinking. Before Garcia could reply Hotchner exited his office and made his way down into the bullpen.

“Marshall Boyle, I’m Aaron Hotchner,” Hotchner greeted as he extended his hand, which Boyle shook. “I just got the call this morning telling me to expect you.”

“Thank you for allowing me easy access. Sorry my visit isn’t under more pleasant circumstances.” Boyle said and then turned back to Garcia. “We’ve gotta go Penny.”

“Go? Go where? Garcia?” Morgan spoke but Garcia was at a loss for words. “Hotchner who is this guy and where does he think he’s taking Garcia?”

“Morgan, just stand down, that’s an order.” Hotchner commanded pulling rank even though he knew it wouldn’t stop Morgan.

“Excuse me? You’re just gonna let this chump in here to take Garcia God knows where, without any explanation?”

“It’s classified, on a need to know basis Morgan. Apparently the Bureau doesn’t feel we need to know.” Hotchner replied and it was obvious that he wasn’t pleased with the situation, but knew better than to question it.

“Oh I need to know and she’s not going anywhere until I do.” Morgan ranted.

“Morgan,” Garcia spoke softly as she moved to stand before him. Her voice seemed to calm him, as his rigid stance and hard demeanor instantly relaxed as he looked at her. “I have to go, I don’t want to baby but I have to. Please don’t make this harder for me than it already is. Just give a kiss goodbye, ok?” Her voice hitched and he quickly moved in and captured her lips in a kiss, swallowing her impending sobs. Their kiss deepened and for a brief moment they seemed to forget where they were and that they were in the presences of others. Garcia was the first to reluctantly pull from the kiss. “Wow, if I had known I’d get a send off like that I would have left a long time ago.” She joked and Morgan couldn’t help but smile despite the situation. Before Morgan could question her further Garcia moved from his grasp to where J.J. stood. She quickly embraced her friend and them moved to Prentiss, and finally to Reid.

“We really gotta go now Penny.” Boyle stated as he grasped her hand in his and tugged her to his side.

“Can she call us when you get settled into wherever it is you’re taking her?” J.J. asked.

“No ma’am. Land lines and cells aren’t secure enough, and unfortunately we don’t have the funding for the secure, hack-free untraceable cell like you FBI boys. Besides once we leave here, Penelope Garcia will cease to exist, and it would be best for her sake if you don’t try to make contact with her.”

“How long will you keep her?” Reid asked.

“I honestly can’t answer that. I’ll stay with penny and protect her for as long as it takes, like I’ve been doing since she was 18.”

“Wait, you’re with witness protection?” Morgan asked.

“That’s classified Agent Morgan, I’m sorry. Let’s go Penny.” Boyle then turned to leave and pulled a complying Garcia behind him.

“Wait a minute,” Morgan moved after them and grasped Garcia’s arm. Two more Marshalls who had been waiting near the entrance swiftly pulled their guns and aimed them at Morgan.

“Agent Morgan I don’t think I have to tell you that they can and will shoot you if you don’t let us go.” Boyle warned and Morgan quickly released Garcia and lifted his hands in the air a bit to show he was of no threat to them. Garcia threw him an apologetic glance and then bowed her head as she was lead out of the building. The others stood staring baffled at the place they had last seen Garcia.

“What just happened here?” Prentiss asked.

“I’m not supposed to tell you this, but Garcia was temporarily put into the witness protection program several years back. She hacked into some information that single handedly brought down Manuel Ruiz.”

“Manuel Ruiz, the leader of the biggest drug cartel in Colombia, that Manuel Ruiz?” Morgan asked and Hotchner nodded.

“Garcia came across his name in a file she found during the days she would hack into the pentagon and FBI databases. She decided to play Nancy Drew, so she did some research, hacking into several Colombia freight companies, since she knew that’s how Ruiz smuggled his drugs into the states. She thought she was being clever as she feed all the information she gathered to the DEA. What she didn’t know is that Ruiz had his own hackers that he used to prevent outside agencies from hacking into his organization. Garcia was good at covering her tracks from us, but she never knew about Ruiz’s hacks until he put out a hit that killed her parents, trying to get to her. Luckily we got to her first, placed her into protective custody until we were able to convict Ruiz with all the evidence Garcia had helped us to gather against him. She even testified in open court.”

“So what changed?” Morgan asked.

“Several prisoners escaped from a Maximum Security prison in upstate New York earlier this morning, Ruiz was among them. It was an inside job orchestrated to get Ruiz out.”

“Why risk coming after Garcia, if I were him I’d get the hell out of Dodge.” J.J. stated.

“Revenge, when the DEA did a secret ops maneuver into Colombia to get Ruiz, his entire family was killed. His wife, mother and children were all killed. All he heard during his trial was how he was brought down by some little American girl, and he swore in open court that he’d get her. This is a man who has nothing to live for except exacting his revenge on Garcia.”

“And you expect us to just do nothing?” Morgan asked and Hotchner simply threw him a hard look but didn’t reply. “I can’t do that Hotch. We have to find this guy before he finds Garcia. Once he’s back in prison she can come home.”

“It’s now out of our jurisdiction Morgan.” Hotchner stated. “There nothing that we can do like Marshall Boyle said our interference in this may lead Ruiz right to Garcia. The best thing we can do for her is stay out of it.”

“And like I said I can’t do that, and you know if this was reversed, if it was one of us, Garcia would do everything she could to help. I’m not gonna leave baby girl out there to the wolves.”
“Let it go Morgan,” Hotchner warned.

“I’ve got the next three days off, I’ve even got some vacation time, think I’ll use it too.” Morgan threw out and then turned to head out.

“Yeah so do I,” Prentiss stated as she followed Morgan out.

“Me too,” Reid said and then grabbed his things and rushed behind Morgan and Prentiss leaving just J.J. and Hotchner. Hotchner could tell that J.J. was itching to follow her friends but he also knew that she more than anyone else respected and honored the chain of command.

“You should go with them, make sure they don’t get into trouble.” J.J. simply smiled at him.

“Yes sir,” She said as she hurried out after them.

“And J.J., I’ll make the jet available to you if you need it.” Hotchner threw out.

“Thank you sir,” she said and then rushed out to join her friends.
You must login (register) to review.