M Sellars - Miranda

Or so I thought.

He leaned forward in his seat, adopted an even more stony expression, and answered me anyway. “I can assure you, Mister Gant, I am… The bureau…is entirely serious about this.”

Well, at least his answer verified what I already knew, not that it was necessary. Score one for the Witch I guess, even if it was a perceptual gimme.

I shook my head. “Pardon me for saying this, but the bureau hasn’t exactly earned my trust lately, if you know what I mean.”

“I understand. I’ve read your file.”

“Yeah, I can’t say as that I’m surprised by that,” I grumbled. “I mean after all, who hasn’t?”

“This bothers you,” he observed with a slight nod.

I didn’t hold back on the sarcasm. “Whatever gave you that idea?”

“Mister Gant…”

“Sorry,” I said, stopping him with a wave of my hand. I let out a long sigh before going ahead and grimacing slightly at my indiscretion and then added, “I shouldn’t have said it like that. It’s just that it has become a bit of a sore spot recently. I mean, if you’ve done all this reading about me then you should know why I’m not a fan. Hell, just last month Annalise Devereaux escaped on the FBI’s watch, and you know how that turned out.”

“Yes, I do. But you’re mistaken. It wasn’t our watch.”

I shook my head. “Yeah, I’m familiar with the blame game, trust me. But that doesn’t matter. To be honest I think what bothers me most is that I even have a file in the first place.”

His forehead visibly creased for a moment. “With all of the consulting on high profile homicide cases you’ve done, why wouldn’t you? I’m not sure I understand?”

“It’s not that exactly. What I mean is…” I started and then allowed my voice to trail off as I shrugged. With another quick shake of my head I told him, ”Don’t worry about it… I really wouldn’t expect you to understand.”

He paused for a moment and then answered with, “I see.”

“No, you probably don’t,” I replied. “But I’m not really up to explaining it right now. It’s a long story with some pretty unpleasant chapters. But, you said you already know that, so who am I to say?”

“All right,” he conceded with a quick nod. “Then maybe we should return to the question at hand. Am I to take your obvious misgivings about the bureau as a no?”

“I don’t know just yet,” I shrugged as I replied, my tone far from certain. “Besides, to be honest I thought I already was working for you. I mean after all, I have a file and everything.”

Obviously, the attack of sarcasm simply wasn’t willing to go quietly.

He made a point of ignoring my underlying flash of attitude this time and simply replied, “In essence, you are. Or, at least, you have been. Simply not in an official capacity.”

I raised my eyebrows. “And that seems to have been working out just fine, don’t you think?”

“So far.” He agreed, giving me a hesitant nod that framed his guarded words with nondescript ambivalence. “But I’m sure Doctor Jante explained our reasoning.”

“Yes, she did.” I nodded my head and huffed out a breath. “But, I still don’t see why you want to fix something that isn’t broken?”

He cocked an eyebrow himself. “I really wouldn’t expect you to understand.”

“Touche,” I answered. “I suppose I’d have a good laugh at the irony there if I wasn’t feeling just a bit cornered at the moment.”

“That certainly isn’t the intention, Mister Gant, and I apologize if I’ve led you to feel that way. Granted, the bureau would like an answer as soon as possible, and we are certainly hoping for a yes, or we wouldn’t have made the offer, obviously. However, please understand there is no pressure either way.”

“Well, you’ve got an odd way of showing it.”

“Again, I apologize if that is how it appears,” he told me. “However, if you are interested in entertaining our offer, we don’t need to know immediately; in fact, you really should take some time to think about it. Consider all of the ramifications… And, of course, discuss it with your wife.”

“My wife… Uh-huh…” I mumbled, my voice trailing off momentarily before erupting into a half-stifled snort. “Yeah, right. So, I don’t suppose you’d be willing to loan me some body armor before I do that would you?”

The section chief grinned for the first time since we’d started this discussion then let out a soft chuckle.

I was absolutely positive the FBI had a file on Felicity too. I knew it for a fact because I’d seen it. But, based on his jovial reaction, it was plain to me that while he might have studied mine in depth, he hadn’t even opened hers just yet.