The Ghost

Reese Juliana Bartlet.

[reese-bartlet]

Resse Juliana Bartlet

Age; 35 Birthday; July 16, 1984 Aliases: Kennedy O’Connor Hometown; Tonopah Falls, NV Neighborhood; Glenn Estates Occupation; Private Investigator Sexuality; Straight

musings. || photos. || full bio. || playlist. || self paras. || chardev || connections.

(TW: death, MS)

Youngest of four daughters, but closest with Rebel.

Growing up she followed her sisters around and always wanted to be a part of everything they did.

Has always had an eye for figuring out the truth.

In high school she was on the debate team, captain of her softball team and lacrosse.

With her fathers help Reese got into West Point - where she not only received an elite education, continued to play softball but also made her father proud.  

The Hudson valley had been a wonderful experience, but with the chapter of college coming to an end Reese knew that it was time for her commitment to the Army to start.

After her five years she decided to go. home to her family and finish her last two years as reserve. At this point her fathers MS was starting to become worse and her family needed more assistance. Reese had known it was a better choice.

Once back in Tonopah she opened a private investigation agency. Police work had never been the route she had wanted to take plus she suspected there could have been some corruption in their local hometown agency.

While she had not been expecting it her little business flourished to the point that even her big DC sister had called asking for her help. A case that would lead her back to Tonopah and deep in trouble.

At thirty, Reese went missing after investigating a case. Her whole family believes she is deceased. Due to the case, Reese went into witness protection which is where she had been for the last five years.

Head-canons:

Doesn’t like winter -- at all.

Prefers her coffee black.

Is anxious about being back in Tonopah, but believes that she made the right decision to come home.

[stillrunningx]

Hearing her comment about his smile, Miles just kept the smile on his face and flicked his brows playfully before he took a sip of his coffee. He took note her soft expression change and he knew she wasn't mad at him. That was good. There was really no telling how she would feel about him just uprooting his whole life in New York and moving back to Tonopah to keep an eye on her. It could have been bad. He nodded his head and chuckled at her comment, "Of course. Secrecy is a specialty of mine, Reese." He told her. It was unfortunately true. Being in WITSEC for so long, lying and secrets was just part of the job, "How is everything? Have I missed anything?"

[reese-bartlet]

"I've been avoiding the gangs as much as I can if thats what you're truly asking." Her voice was hushed as she cast a look around her to ensure that nobody had heard her comment. Reese wasn't jumpy as much anymore, but she was incredibly aware of her surroundings. "We can talk at my office if you want to catch up."

[reese-bartlet]

Do you think you’ll be in a relationship two months from now?

"I can't even see beyond a week from now," She admitted coming up rubbing the callous under her middle finger. "I think the only relationship I'm looking for right now is the the one with my family."

[stillrunningx]

Coming back home to Tonopah was really a win-win for Miles. Firstly, he could be with his family again and that was something that he had desperately missed while living in New York. It was crazy how such a big city could feel so lonely. Secondly, he could keep a close eye on Reese who foolishly left WITSEC. Not that he could really blame her but it was still pretty stupid of her... However, Miles had done something pretty stupid of his own and he failed to tell her that he was following her back to Tonopah...

Grabbing himself a coffee before he headed to the station, Miles was truly minding his own business when he heard the door of the coffee shop swing open behind him after he left and he smiled, knowing exactly who it was. Miles was astute. He had seen Reese in that coffee shop and he knew she had seen him as well. Turning around, Miles smiled, "Good to see you too." He began, "Not stalking. Not dragging you back either." The male tapped his fingers against his cup and he shrugged, "I asked to get transferred here. It's dangerous. And I thought... I could keep an eye on you."

[reese-bartlet]

She laughed dryly, lips pulling into a straight line as her eyes narrowed on him. "Don't you give me that smile, Moss." Her words had said one thing, but suddenly her features softened, a sigh escaping her lips as she silently nodded her head in appreciation for who he was. Somethings you could not change. "We're you smart and kept you knowing about me a secret at least?"

[reese-bartlet]

Reese Juliana Bartlet.

[reese-bartlet]

@milesmossx

The coffee shop was booming with activity and even though the NYE shooting was weeks ago people were still talking about it. Reese was positioned in the corner back booth, fingers dancing over her keyboard but her eyes were on the man a few tables down. She was working and while the conversation beside he was entertaining she had placed an earbud in that ear to ignore them.

"Shit," she spat as the guy started towards the door. Reese quickly threw her things into her backpack and hurried after him. Though as she pulled the door open and stepped out into the warmth of the sun she was stopped in her tracks. "Miles? What are you doing here?" Reese's brow raised as she looked the man over refusing to give him the satisfaction of missing his presence she crossed both arms over her chest. "You come here to stalk me or to attempt to drag me back because both of those things will be a waste of your time."

[tamirkamadcr]

When Reese gripped the back of her chair, rolling her way from the table, Charlie was defeated. Instead of fighting it, she sat still, stank face on level a thousand as her glare once against found the blonde. Reese had a point - despite Charlie's growing annoyance. Pulling the curtain down, locking the door - even the urgency in her voice … if she hadn't been so tired, all of these clues would have been picked up. "Okay, what is it?" Rolling herself close to the laptop, Charlie kept her attention on the screen as the media player flashed and a video began to play. Footage from the New Year's Eve party. Charlie looked to Reese for a moment - a silent question thrown her way. Looking back to the screen, the officer pulled herself closer to the desk, lowering her body to be at eye level with the laptop. Suddenly Charlie realized why this was so urgent. "Wait." She paused the video, rewinding it a few seconds to ensure her lack of sleep wasn't causing her eyesight to malfunction. "Is that?"

[reese-bartlet]

"The assistant district attorney." Reese confirmed as she placed both palms flat against the desk eyes falling on Charlie as the video started to look back through. "I thought I was seeing things at first, but its definitely him and that wasn't a toy gun he was throwing away."

Her voice was laced with sarcasm as she pressed off the desk and paced the floor a hand coming up and pressing against her brow. Her voice was still low as she spoke, but all the questions she had before were now flowing out. "Dante shoots Kate and Shep for what reason? What does he gain by shooting the acting police chief and some pretty blonde. and," Reese turned her attention back to Charlie, "if he didn't physically pull the trigger he knows who did because not for nothing nobody puts their prints on a gun for just anyone. Let alone the prints, the press would eat this shit up if the heard he had attempted to cover this up," She shook her head eyes flashing back to the screen as she reach over and paused it. "Just my opinion, there isn't an ounce of fear in that face. Thats the look of man who thinks he just got away with murder."

[xbloodandstone]

Hearing Reese, his gaze turned towards the man in the wheelchair that she motioned towards and he frowned just a bit. Casey remembered her dad from times in passing. He had certainly declined since the last time he had seen him. A real shame. The frowned remained as she continued to speak and Casey couldn't help but take another swig from his whiskey to help wash down the sadness he felt for her and her family. He nodded softly, "I'm sorry to hear that." He said softly. He really was, "Is he in good spirits?" He asked, looking towards the man for just a moment then back to her, "That's half the battle, isn't it?"

His lip curled up hearing that was enough about her. Casey hated talking about himself. Which was surprising considering how he used to be. Back in the day, Casey loved to talk about his adventures or really anything about himself. He thought he was the bees knees. Now? Not so much. Finishing off his glass, Casey pushed it forward and locked eyes with the bartender, asking for another three fingers, "Pat died." He said simply, pressing lips into a thin line, "Not much to keep me in New York. And..." He sighed and shrugged, "I don't know. I felt like I had some...unfinished business here."

[reese-bartlet]

The question caused her to sigh. She didn't actually know the truth and the way things were going lately, it was hard to tell if she would ever find herself fully immersed with her family again. She hoped and prayed that she would. "Our relationship is complicated." She admitted as she allowed her eyes to fall on her family once more. "I hurt them, and they need time."

While he looked away, Reese could see the pain flash before his eyes, but as quickly as it had come, it was gone. Reese didn't offer him an 'im sorry.' instead, she requested a drink for herself and raised her glass towards him when it arrived. "To pat." She said softly, offering him an encouraging smile before silently nodding at his answer to her question. " I think we can the same things brought us back."

[tamirkamadcr]

Reese's command went ignored. Instead, the woman was met with a snide glare. "Excuse me?" Charlie cooed - a brow arching. The two women hadn't talked since Charlie confronted Reese; truthfully, she wanted it to stay that way. There was still a bit of anger toward the blonde, and with stress and tension heightened, Charlie didn't want to be around anything that would add to it. "I don't have time for this right now, Reese. I have an officer in a coma and a dear friend's sister in the morgue. Plus, Harold is back to Acting Chief, and he's been a pain in everyone's ass the last few days. I haven't slept since 1988. Please come back in two to three weeks unless you have something to help with the investigation." Using her hand to shoo Reese away, Charlie went back into the plethora of manila folders in front of her.

[reese-bartlet]

"Fuck sake," She breathed out a frustrated sigh as she grabbed the back of Charlie's chair not taking no for an answer. She could bitch at her later, but there wasn't a way she was leaving this station without showing her what she had seen. "Clearly thats why I'm here or I wouldn't be being this dramatic." She said waving her hand towards the closed door and pulled blinds. She fished the USB out of her pocket before plugging it into Charlies computer. Fingers quickly navigated the computer when the USB asked for a password.

"I take it back," Reese said as her fingers tapped the mouse pad to hit play. "you're probably gonna want to stay seated."

[tamirkamadcr]

@reese-bartlet location: tonopah precinct

Harold Donovan wasn't messing around when it came to finding the shooter. He'd grumbled incessantly about how they were going to solve all the cases under his watchful eye, and no one was going to go home until every piece of evidence was re-examined, all witness statements were combed through, and all video surveillance collected had been re-watched by at least three sets of eyes. Someone had to have seen something. Charlie was in the same understanding. Sitting in their conference room turned evidence room; the woman worked on reading over witness statements from the first murder. They all had to be connected somehow - at least, she thought. Hearing a knock at the door, her dark and tired eyes peeled away from the form to find Reese at the door. "I'm a little busy." The officer shifted in her seat; attention was pulled to the document once again.

[reese-bartlet]

She had stood beside them, watching as they danced, laughed, and drowned themselves in liquor. All the while, she had taken them all in. She studied them like the artifacts they were; puzzle pieces that could answer questions about some of the cases that keep her up at night. While members of the police department clocked out, Reese was never not at work, even if she wasn't physically in the building. She had been recording the majority of the evening, and after the blown out with her family, she had through herself into reviewing the footage piece by piece. 

Anything was better than paying attention to the ache in her chest that told her that she had made a mistake by coming home. That maybe Miles was right after all, and her coming back would make everything worse. 

Reese pushed the thoughts out of her head as she shifted in the black leather chair, arms folding over her chest as she inhaled a breath. Watching footage could be trivial, and she truly had even known what she was looking for tonight - sometimes work meant proving someone's boyfriend was cheating. A couple of those cases sat on her desk, collecting dust.  

When the next piece of footage clicked up, Reese almost shut it off as her father's arguing had picked up the anger in her voice once more had caused her chills. She had lowered her cellphone and apparently never stopped recording. It wasn't long into the recording before and people started panicking due to the detective and decreased woman being shot. 

"What the fuck," the words left her lips in a whisper. Reese shifted in the chair so that both feet were placed on the floor; her hands moved to the mousepad as her fingertips padded against it to rewind the footage. "What. The. Fuck." 

The words left her lips again as she watched the video play across her screen again. She paused and looked around, knowing full well that she was the only one in the office. Reese's fingers danced across the pad, rewinding one more time to ensure she wasn't going out of her fucking mind. 

Right there on her screen was Tonopah's very own Assistant District Attorney slipping his mask off as he weaved through the crowd of terrified partygoers. He would have gone unnoticed if the quick flash of a gun in the distance hadn't caught her attention. Reese had watched the masked man throw it away before taking a few steps and throwing it away. Nobody noticed him. Nobody paid attention to him at all -- he had been a ghost.  

Until now. 

Slender fingers slammed the laptop shut as the realization that she was once in a terrible position reared its ugly head up. Not again. Reese told herself as she downloaded the information onto two different flash drives. One of which she hid for herself in case she needed some insurance. The second one she clutched tightly in her hand as she headed down to the police department. She hadn't trusted them four years ago -- truthfully, not much had changed since then, but she wasn't going to sit idly by and do nothing -- lives that weren't her own were affected by this. 

Blue eyes darted across the office until she spotted Charlie in her office. Black boots quickly collided with the floor; Reese couldn't tell if the shoes were loud or if she was so anxious that they were just loud in her head. "You're gonna want to talk to me," Reese shook her head at Charlie's comment and let herself into the office anyway. She quickly closed the door behind her and locked it before pulling the blinds closed. She pulled her cell phone out and started playing music, knowing damn well that while she could trust Charlie and Micah, there were not others here, she could trust and that even Charlie's office itself could be bugged. 

"Get up," She nodded towards Charlie. "Let me sit there." 

[reese-bartlet]

@blakesara

the relief had washed over her hadn't been unexpected. Reese had waited on NYE to hear that Blake had made it out safely and was alright. Though she had been wrapped up with work and family drama that hadn't allowed her to do more than speak to her friend on the phone. This afternoon though she had forced herself out to lock the doors behind her and meet Blake for drinks and dinner. They had years of catching up the door the least she could do was close the doors early. It hadn't taken her long to navigate through the downtown streets until she was at Blake's office.

She would have walked passed the secretary, but the ghost white expression on her face had caused her to hesitate for just a moment before deciding she was just adjusting to the dead Bartlett staring at her. Knuckles wrapped against her best friends office door before she popped her head in. A smile pulled at her lips. "You're gonna need to talk to Charlie about filling kidnapping charges because you're coming with me." Reese's hand came up and her thumb jutted back towards the secretary. "She may also need a sick day."

[reese-bartlet]

[lifeinpoetry]

Everyone wants a rock bottom. Some Icarus shit. But the truth is some holes keep going, yawning, heady, one mistake becomes three: there’s always a dark darker than the dark you know.

— Hala Alyan, from “You’re Not a Girl in a Movie,” The Twenty-Ninth Year

[rebel-alley]

@reese-bartlet

Their escape from the party had been delayed as the police started moving through the room taking statements. The only place she wanted to be at this moment was with Madison, keeping an eye on her best friend while she waited on news about Shepherd. Instead… she was here in one of the conference rooms the police had commandeered for questioning, an awkward silence permeating the room. It was a stark contrast to the yelling that had been occurring as the clock struck midnight. As angry as Rebel has been ever since Reese had shown up at her doorstep, she hadn’t imagined this. Their father yelling at her sister in the middle of a party. Rebel swept her eyes around the room at her family, they’d survived so much over the years and they’d always made it to the other side. This time… “What the fuck was that about?” Her voice shattered the silence that had fallen across the room, an angry undertone to the words as she looked at her father. The anger she’d been holding on to was no longer directed at her sister, it had a new target. She pushed off the wall she’d been leaning against, “You want to call her an embarrassment but she’s not the one yelling at her child in the middle of a party.” She brushed off River’s hands as her older sister tried to stop her from stepping closer to their father. “She’s your daughter, you are supposed to be the one telling her everything is going to be okay, not…” she motioned her hand up and down, “Whatever this was.”

[reese-bartlet]

As soon as Reese attempted to snoop around, she was ushered back out of the building and ended up with her family. Now she stood in the corner in silence; eyes fixated on the ground in attempts to avoid any further conversation with her family. It wasn't until Rebel's outburst that her attention was pulled from the crack on the floor that she had fixated her attention on. "Rebel," her voice was hushed. "It's okay. He's allowed to feel how he does."

Her eyes shifted to her father, silently nodding her head towards him. She had always fought for his approval. Everything she had ever done; West Point, the army, coming home -- it had always been to make sure he was proud of the woman she was. At least she had always hoped he would have been; but now, she stood before him, watching as his eyes bore right through her. Governor Bartlet would either find a way to look past her choices or he would hold them in his crawl for the rest of what time he had left on this planet.

"We should just drop this police have enough to worry about they don't need to get involved in any family disputes."

[xbloodandstone]

His brow raised at her comment and he folded his arms over one another as he placed his elbows on the counter, "Something tells me that's not entirely true." If there was one thing Casey had learned, it was that when someone said something was boring, it was typically the opposite. However, he wasn't much for prying (not anymore), so he easily let the subject go. He shrugged at her comment, "I don't mind the monotony. I always know what to expect." Ask him that a few years ago, he might have said something completely different. But Casey now liked it. He yearned for it, really. "Oh, yeah?" He asked, "Everything good?" Casey asked, not necessarily looking for much information. He was just, more or less, making sure she was alright.

[reese-bartlet]

Reese appreciated that while he commented that it was probably not true that he had not pressed the issue further. While he could have easily googled her name and put some dots together himself, Reese was grateful that there was no pressure when talking to him. There had never been; maybe thats why she was so comfortable even now after some time had passed. "Dad's sick," Reese nodded towards the wheelchair-bound former Governor. "The MS is getting worse. He's been wheeling himself around a bit tonight, but you can tell how exhausted it is making him. Based on all the reading I've done and everything I've noticed, he's still navigating the chair himself, but everything else he relies on help with. He seems to be declining quicker lately."

Reese shifted her weight backward as her arms folded over themselves, a heavy sigh leaving her lips. She had come back to spend time with him before he died, but now she wondered how much her arrival had stressed him out, causing an exacerbation of his symptoms. Reese shifted her attention back to Casey. "Enough about me what brings you back to town?"

[penelopebeaumont]

"Haven't aged a day? That's incredibly flattering, but I think I certainly look my age," Penny replied with a laugh. "Though, I guess the dress subtracts a few years." She raised a brow, glancing over towards the table in question, taking in the appearance of the family she'd spent many a night getting to know. "That's okay. I'm sure I'll see them around another time. And you don't have anything to apologize for: sort of comes with the territory of kids, right?" she said with a smile as she looked back to Reese. "I had my own, and she wasn't as much of a rebel as you were, but she had her moments."

[reese-bartlet]

"The dress is stunning." Reese's eyes took in the detail of the dress a bit more, appreciating the sparkle and the simple bow. It was a classic look that many other partygoers had been channeling this evening. "It would have been a lot of fun if they had voted on best dressed this evening; there are a few stunning people here tonight. Is your daughter here?" Reese questioned, wondering if she would have recognized her.

[elaectrahrt]

                    go on.                         UNDERESTIMATE ME.