Figuring it Out || Carleigh [Self-para]
It had been a few weeks since the FBI had shown up at her office, inviting offering her a job. She'd been in disbelief at first, because that couldn't be real, could it? But as it had sunk in, Carleigh had gotten to considering it. She'd focused a lot on researching serial killers throughout undergraduate, med school, and her residency and fellowship. She'd been really interested in exactly what they did, behavioral analysis as it applied to criminals. She'd wound up going towards what she did at the hospital because the FBI, something like that...it hadn't seemed attainable, and she also felt a huge pull to helping teenagers that had suffered like she did.
After the FBI had left, she'd turned to Gwen, and for a moment they'd shared a look. They'd both had to run off then, and didn't get to talk about it until that night, when Gwen told her she should do what she felt she had to. For a few days, she hadn't brought it up to Aimee, and then she had. The more that she thought about it, the more that she talked to people about it, the better it seemed. This was the opportunity of a lifetime. The only thing that was bad was it was across the country, and it involved traveling.
She was sitting in the kitchen at the island, on her second glass of wine when Aimee comes down from her room. Tilting her head, her little sister looks at her, sitting on the stool beside her. "We can go, you know. If you want to take the job. I don't want you to stay here for me and then resent me for it," Aimee says, reaching for Carleigh's glass of wine, taking a sip and then making a face. "Ew."
Laughing a little, she takes it back, sipping it and putting it down. "I'd never resent you, Aims. After everything the past year has held for you, I wouldn't hold it against you for not wanting to go." Aimee's silent for a while. "I like it here," She finally says. "But after mom and dad died, you were willing to give this up to stay in nowheresville Illinois with me, in the town that held awful memories for you. You were willing to change everything for me, Car. You got stuck with your kid sister."
Carleigh shakes her head, "No, Aimee, don't ever feel like that. I did not get stuck with you. You think I was going to let them send you to some foster home or something? This is the only way I would have it, don't ever thing otherwise. It's you and me, always. You know that," She says softly.
"Well we can be you and me in Washington DC too," Aimee says after a while. "or...you and me...and Gwen?"
Carleigh swallows a lump in her throat that forms at the mention of her girlfriend's name. "Maybe?" She says uneasily. "I...I love her, Aimee," Carleigh finally admits out loud for the first time. "I really love her. But I don't know if she feels the same way, and if I mention her moving across the country with me...I don't know. I asked what she thought and she said to do what I wanted."
"Maybe she's scared," Aimee says quietly. "Maybe she feels the same way but isn't sure if you do?"
"It just seems impossible, you know?" Carleigh asks her sister after a moment. "That I could find her, and she'd feel the same way. That doesn't happen to me. Not that, and not a job with the FBI."
"Well I'll make you a deal," Aimee says. "We go to DC, and you work for the FBI...but you have to ask Gwen to come with us."
