Chapter Text
Y/N’s second day there starts out as much of the same as the previous day.
Get into the office.
Make tea.
Wait until someone asks her for something.
She’s about to leave for lunch, bag in hand, Aubrey swings the door open and she groans internally.
“L/N, great, I’m so glad I caught you,”
“Dude, I was literally just about to go to lunch.”
He grins, “I thought you’d say that,” He holds up a brown paper bag, “I brought lunch.”
“I guess I can’t really argue now, can I?” She tosses her bag to the corner of the room and flops down on one of the chairs. “What do you need me for?”
He sits across from her, setting the large bag of food down on the table in between them, “There’s a case we’re working on.”
“Is it the one where the body was found in the fracking pit?“
“Yeah, how the hell did you know that?”
“Daisy and I talked yesterday.”
He shakes his head dismissively, “Doesn’t matter, can you profile the killer?”
“It’s not some magic wand I can wave, Aubrey, but I can try,”
He hands over the file and she thumbs through it, “There’s like nothing here, no cause of death, suspects that are all equally likely and unlikely… I can’t help yet, sorry,”
“All good, it’s only day two of the investigation,”
“I can help later on, most likely,”
“Alright, I’ll get out of your hair,” He starts to stand up but she quickly stops him.
“You can stay for lunch. It’s fine. I wouldn’t mind company,”
He almost protests, but he sits back down and opens the bag of food, “I got lunch from The Royal Diner, I didn’t know what you liked so I got a bit of everything,”
“You seriously didn’t have to do this, I can pay you back,”
“No, No,” He quickly denies the help, “It’s my treat, consider it a welcome gift.” He says as he pulls food out of the bag. “So, how was your first day?” He says while chewing a much-to-big-bite of a burger.
“Did your mother never teach you manners?” She rolls her eyes and eats a fry, “First day was fine, if not boring. I finished setting up my office, so that’s good. But I’m just ready to start case work,” She wipes her hand off on a napkin, “These fries are good.”
“They’re the best. And case work will start once you actually introduce yourself to Booth,”
“Yeah? And how should I do that? ‘Hey, Agent Booth, I’m the one replacing your dead friend,’ No. I’m not doing that.” She picks up another fry and pauses before eating it. “Okay, maybe it wouldn’t be that bad, but you get my point.”
“Just be honest with him.”
“Yeah… You’re probably right.”
“He’ll come around. He did with me.”
“But you weren’t replacing someone he practically considered a son, were you?” She looks at Aubrey sadly.
He sighs and looks at her, “No, I wasn’t.”
They continue eating in silence, both waiting for one another to break the silence, while neither of them want to.
The song One Way Or Another starts playing from Aubrey’s phone, he answers it while Y/N looks at him with a look that says something along the lines of “Is that seriously your ringtone?”
The person on the other line says something that Y/N can’t quite make out, “Got it, be right there,” He says into the phone and hangs up.
“That was Booth, the victims wife was just brought in for questioning, I’ve gotta go.” He explains while grabbing some fries.
“Taking those for the road?” Y/N teases him.
“Ha ha, very funny,”
“Good luck with the widow.”
Aubrey leaves the office and makes his way to the fourth floor.
“Hi, Mrs. Brooks, I’m Agent James Aubrey, this is Special Agent Seely Booth, I know this is hard but we’re going to need to ask some questions about your husband.” Aubrey explains to the widow, who nods quietly in return as Aubrey and Booth sit down.
Booth sets the case file down and starts to speak, “Why didn’t you report your husband missing, Mrs. Brooks?”
“I don’t know, I guess I just assumed he was off somewhere creating a puzzle.” She says weakly, “They were like his children… I guess that’s why he never wanted to have kids.”
“You sound a bit bitter about that.” Booth says suspiciously, this early on in a case anything can be considered as a motive.
“Believe me, Agent Booth, I loved Lawrence, but no marriage is perfect, is it?”
Aubrey raises his finger to make a point, “That’s why I’m still single.”
Booth sits up straighter, groans, and glares at Aubrey. Silently communicating for him to shut the fuck up and be professional.
Aubrey clears his throat and gets back on track to the questioning, “So when was the last time you saw him?”
“Right before I went to the grocery store yesterday morning,”
“Okay, and can you think of any reason someone might want to harm your husband?”
“Not harm, I’m sure. But, Alexis Sherman, Lawrence's assistant, was very ambitious, and she resented the fact that he never let her write any puzzles on her own,”
Booth sighs, “Well, unfortunately people have been killed for less,”
“But he promised to make her co-editor, so she knew that was coming eventually,”
Aubrey nods, “Yeah, but some people can get very impatient,”
Booth stand up and shakes Mrs. Brooks hand, “Thank you for your time, we’ll let you know if you need anything else,”
As he exits the office Aubrey looks back at the newly widowed woman, “Mrs. Brooks, if you need anyone to talk to, there’s a psychologist on the second floor, office 2473, Dr. Y/N L/N, if you need anything I’m sure she’d be happy to help,”
“Thank you, Agent Aubrey,”
“And if you think of anything else, here’s my card,” He hands her the small piece of paper and walks out of the room.
Y/N is in her office, putting the rest of the food that she didn’t eat in the mini fridge in the back corner of her office as she hears a knock on the door, “Come in!”
The door opens, behind it stands Mrs. Brooks, “Hi, are you Dr. L/N?”
“Yes, I am.” She says, sitting down in the chair that faces the door.
“I’m Emilia Brooks, Agent Aubrey said I could come talk to you.” She introduces herself.
Y/N files away a note in her brain telling her to thank Aubrey for sending someone her way, “Yes, of course, we can talk for as long as you need,”
Mrs. Brooks smiles weakly, shuts the door, and sits down on the couch.
Y/N and Mrs. Brooks talk for about an hour and a half, she hears about Lawrence, about her family, a little bit of everything. Once she leaves, Y/N is left in silence once again.
Around four, Aubrey walks into her office tossing her a thick file, “Those are all the suspects we’ve spoken to so far, take a look.”
“Hello to you too, glad you’re comfortable enough to just barge in,” She says sarcastically as she opens the file, reading through it quickly, grabbing her notebook off the coffee table along with a pen, and scribbling out unorganized details.
“Ambitious assistant, potential stalker/author, and puzzle-rival.” Y/N mumbles to herself.
“And wife who wanted kids but she’s not technically a suspect yet,”
“Yeah, no shot she did it,” Y/N tells Aubrey without looking up from the files.
“What makes you so sure, Ms. Genius?”
“She came in to talk to me after you and Booth spoke with her, she loved her husband, she wouldn’t have killed him.”
“What about the others, then?”
“I don’t think it was the rival,”
“Why not? He had a good motive. Lawrence was stealing his puzzles and was recognized in the puzzle community as a genius, and he was stuck with his puzzles being but in crappy books that kids could solve.”
“Call it a gut feeling I guess.” She looks over at the clock on the wall, “Do you usually stay this late?”
“During a case, sure,”
Y/N sets the files down on the table and stands up, stretching her arms above her head, “You do you, man, but I’m going home, see you tomorrow.”
She starts to gather her stuff and Aubrey stands up to leave, but Y/N remembers the note she had filed away earlier, “Thank you, by the way.”
“For what?” He feigns ignorance.
She looks up at him, “For telling Mrs. Brooks to come talk to me,”
He smirks, “I have no idea what you’re talking about, I was just doing my job. Goodnight, L/N”
She smiles back, “Goodnight, Aubrey.”