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Even in the dark, Travis looks different.
TRAVISSSSS MY SHAYLA
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For a moment she wishes she had something more fancy than just long-sleeved T-shirts and jeans. But that’s not how she and Travis Bell are with each other: They don’t do fancy. They’re just themselves, and that’s how she likes it.
Seeing her approach, he sits up a little and slides his boots off the couch. “Sorry, I just had to lay down a second–” “Don’t apologize. And don’t move your feet.” Emma collects her beer from the table and plonks herself in the vacant spot. Hauls his boots back up into her lap. “I can sit this way.”
i love them :(
“Remember I told you my sister’s roommate came for Columbus Day and October break?” “Yeah.’ He nods as he works on the peanuts. They’ve been calling each other with more and more frequency over the last five weeks. “Julie…Julia. Something like that.”
“And it could be worse. Your sister could be dating a known juvenile delinquent from San Angelo.” Emma sucks in a breath. “Oh no. Lena or Connie?” “Lena.” “Jesus.” “He has a motorbike.” “Oh my god.” Emma rolls her eyes.
He drifts his hand from Kristin’s breast, up her neck to her temple, into her hair. Brings their faces together. When their pillowed lips meet, the fit is so exact it’s like clouds settling over land.
WHAT THE HELL
“This is nice,” she says finally. She glances over. Her cheeks are pink and she looks happy. “I mean it. This is really nice.” Travis feels it, too. He’s trying to remember the last time he was this content. “Yeah, it is. I’m really glad you’re here.”
“Hold up,” Travis interrupts. He can feel himself being subtly cut out from this conversation and he wants to remedy that. “First of all, Emma and I are partners. We work together.”
“We’re a team. A package deal. You want Emma, you’ve gotta bring me in as well. You need her, right?”
“Jesus Christ.” Part of Travis is thinking how the FBI always underestimates Emma’s intelligence, but the other part of him is just plain outraged.
god i love travis
Emma makes a humorless huff of laughter. “I know I said, when you were in the hospital, that we have to do something about Simon Gutmunsson. But now I kinda wish someone else would do it instead.”
She leans against Travis’s shoulder, looking at the dirt.
She turns her face into his shoulder. “If you get hurt again, I don’t think I could handle it.” “We can stay,” he whispers.
“I’m still not totally sure why you’re doing this. You’re not fully recovered. You don’t have full mobility, and you get sore and tired.” Travis just shrugs and smiles. “I’m here now. You can’t get rid of me.” Emma rolls her eyes. “You know what I mean.” “Package deal, remember?”
She sighs to herself, nods at Carter. “Good hunting.”
“Simon uses Travis to get to me.” She wants to rip her hair out. “That’s why I didn’t want him here. You don’t get it!” “Miss Lewis –” “To hell with this,” she snarls, and starts for the door.
Travis, one arm around her, rubs her shoulder and glares at Carter.
Kirby proffers a plastic bottle of water. “What did Gutmunsson say to you Miss Lewis?” “Back off,” Travis snaps. “Give her a minute to get the blood off before you start interrogating her.”
TRAVIS IS THE STANDARD
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The drive back to Quantico is rapid with the siren. Travis just keeps holding Emma close; she’s shivering, and he puts his jacket around her, cursing that there’s no blanket in the car.
“I’m nowhere near as terrified of Simon Gutmunsson as I am of losing you.” Her chin is quivering. “You hear me, Travis Bell? You scared me so much tonight.” “I’m sorry,” he says, and wraps her up tight in his arms.
“I don’t know. It’ll be tough.” He runs a hand across his mouth, but he has to tell her. “I think she’s sleeping with him.” “What?” Emma looks horrified. “With Simon? With her brother?”
EW
Even without looking at it directly, Emma can sense the building like a presence. “This place makes me anxious. It makes me feel…grimy. It’s where I set Simon free.” Travis makes eye contact. “If you hadn’t done that, Hoyt would have killed you. Then he would have walked up that big hallway and killed me and Kristin.” “I want to start letting all this stuff go,” Emma blurts. “So let’s let it go. Come on.”
their always a team :(
Travis is surprised neither Kirby nor any of the other men come out to meet them when they arrive, even for the promise of hot coffee and cinnamon rolls. But when they get inside, he realizes why. It’s because everyone is dead.
BYE
“I recognize what you’re feeling, Emma,” Audrey says. “But here’s some hard truth – are you ready for it? You can’t be the one to judge what’s in Travis’s best interest. Only he can do that. And sometimes, the people we care about choose a direction that we don’t agree with. We don’t have to like it, and we don’t have to go along with it, but we have to accept it, because it’s not up to us. It’s their life, and their choice.”
“He’s booking my ticket to DC,” Travis says, and he feels his posture loosen. “I’m coming with you. I go where you go.” But Emma’s hand is on his forearm, her eyes searching. “I don’t want to mess you up with the FBI.” “You’re not messing up anything. It’s my call. You let me worry about the FBI – let’s just catch Gutmunsson first.”
There is no why. I did it because I enjoy it. Because it was easy. You made it all so very fun, you see. xxSimon”
bro fuck this guy
She turns to Travis, addressing the obvious. “Okay, so he knows we’re more than partners.”
THATS THAT ALL U TOOK FROM THAT?????
“Apologies for the mess, my ass.” When Travis loses control of his expression, it becomes stormy. “What’s the ‘principessa’ reference?”
OOOOOOO ANGRY TRAVIS
“I know.” She nods. “But we do the due diligence, like Carter said. And I trust your gut.” “My gut just got sewn back together a month and a half ago,” he blurts out. Emma grins. “You’re fine. Just drive.”
Travis wolfs down Wonderbread and bologna,
real
They don’t look very FBI – both of them in jeans
“Are you bothering my sister?” a cold voice says, and Travis looks left, immediately feels the barometer drop.
OH HELL NO
Gutmunsson killed Barton Bell – now, Travis has killed Kristin. Natural justice has been served. He should feel righteous about it. Instead, the memory of Kristin’s body on the hayfork recurs, and he just registers a sense of disgust about it all.
rip kristin ig
“What’s your gut telling you?” “That something is wrong. That I need to be in Guanajuato.” “Okay,” Emma says simply. “Let’s go.”
Emma looks straight at him and says, “There is no way on god’s green earth that you’re going to chase Simon Gutmunsson without me. Package deal, remember?”
She sees his throat bob as he swallows. “Um…How would you feel about having a life with me, once this is all over? No FBI, no crazy serial killers. Just a regular, boring guy who doesn’t know what he’s doing next?” Emma feels her eyes getting damp. Out the windshield, the fuzzy blue-green of Mount Tlaloc reminds her that all things pass away, and that the best moment is the one she’s in here, right now. “I could handle a little boring,” she says, her voice coming out thick and soft.
Travis jogs across the tarmac with Emma, both of them sheltering under his jacket from the drizzle.
“A plan?” Travis considers a moment. “No – there’s no plan. I go in, I get her out. That’s it, that’s all I’ve got.” “Mother of god,” Fernanda says, and crosses herself.
