Drabble: Beyond the Monitors (Criminal Minds)
I'm posting this first because it's the first one on the list so it was the easiest to get to!
Title: Beyond the Monitors
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Character: Penelope Garcia
Prompt: 01. Blind
Word Count: 421
“Where did everyone go? Is someone going to answer me?” There was no response from Garcia’s earpiece. The silence was giving her vertigo, killing her by seconds as she waited for a member of her team to respond to her increasingly panicked pleas. They had all been talking and then… nothing. Not even static or white noise. Absolute and total black out.
After some steady typing on the main computer, she could pinpoint the location of the last response. From there, given the average speed of a person on foot, she calculated the radius of possibilities. Even while working on this screen, she was scanning the other monitors for signs of anything she might have missed. Through all this, she kept up a running questioning so that the radio silence wouldn’t haunt her.
“I’m going to find you. Don’t give up on me. Do you hear me, Rossi? Derek? I’m going to get the radios back online and then… and then…” Tears dripped down her nose but she didn’t dare stop to wipe them away for fear that she’d miss something vital. Her glasses started to fog up but she just slid them down and kept going. “Reid? Talk to me, sugar. Tell me something interesting. Something you don’t think I’ll know. Anything.”
A sob tried to escape but she stiffled it down where it wouldn’t make itself known to the team if they were still picking up her ramblings. More furious clicking of the keyboard followed until she saw something that hadn't been there before. For an instant, joy filled her heart. They were still there.
She was the one that was lost.
With a definitive click, every light in the room shut off. Blind without her computers, Garcia fought off a new panic. The team was safe. No matter what happened, she had to remind herself that they were okay.
“Penelope... have you figured it out yet?”
A shiver ran down her spine but still she stayed ramrod stiff. “Yes,” she whispered. “They were a diversion.”
“You were who I really wanted all along. They were lost. I wonder how long they’ll figure out you’re the one who isn’t online any longer.”
“They’ll get you, jackass.”
“Most likely. They do always get their target. But that won’t help you, will it?”
Slowly taking off the headset that had always linked her to the team, Garcia sat it down on the keyboard that had been her connection to the rest of the world. She wasn’t going down without a fight.
Title: Beyond the Monitors
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Character: Penelope Garcia
Prompt: 01. Blind
Word Count: 421
“Where did everyone go? Is someone going to answer me?” There was no response from Garcia’s earpiece. The silence was giving her vertigo, killing her by seconds as she waited for a member of her team to respond to her increasingly panicked pleas. They had all been talking and then… nothing. Not even static or white noise. Absolute and total black out.
After some steady typing on the main computer, she could pinpoint the location of the last response. From there, given the average speed of a person on foot, she calculated the radius of possibilities. Even while working on this screen, she was scanning the other monitors for signs of anything she might have missed. Through all this, she kept up a running questioning so that the radio silence wouldn’t haunt her.
“I’m going to find you. Don’t give up on me. Do you hear me, Rossi? Derek? I’m going to get the radios back online and then… and then…” Tears dripped down her nose but she didn’t dare stop to wipe them away for fear that she’d miss something vital. Her glasses started to fog up but she just slid them down and kept going. “Reid? Talk to me, sugar. Tell me something interesting. Something you don’t think I’ll know. Anything.”
A sob tried to escape but she stiffled it down where it wouldn’t make itself known to the team if they were still picking up her ramblings. More furious clicking of the keyboard followed until she saw something that hadn't been there before. For an instant, joy filled her heart. They were still there.
She was the one that was lost.
With a definitive click, every light in the room shut off. Blind without her computers, Garcia fought off a new panic. The team was safe. No matter what happened, she had to remind herself that they were okay.
“Penelope... have you figured it out yet?”
A shiver ran down her spine but still she stayed ramrod stiff. “Yes,” she whispered. “They were a diversion.”
“You were who I really wanted all along. They were lost. I wonder how long they’ll figure out you’re the one who isn’t online any longer.”
“They’ll get you, jackass.”
“Most likely. They do always get their target. But that won’t help you, will it?”
Slowly taking off the headset that had always linked her to the team, Garcia sat it down on the keyboard that had been her connection to the rest of the world. She wasn’t going down without a fight.